My character started as a Pilot (Gunner) and now, 200xp in, I have most of the tree filled out.

We recently acquired a light freighter and since we are quite bad at following orders the High Command decided to make us independent agents. We owe some kind of crime lord a lot of money for the ship and we have no operational budget at all. So the game is turning into some sort of EotE/AoR hybrid, where we have to finance ourselves and help the rebellion at the same time. Our first scheme will, apparently, involve robbing a casino...

With the military missions of shooting rebels behind our back we realized we are very good at killing stuff... and very bad at actually talking to people. My character is the only one who has a presence of 3, so I was assigned captain. The question is quick specialization should i pick or should i pick one at all. Considering that off-career specs are 30xp i can just use that to buy 6 ranks in cross-class social skills, which might just be enough.

Buying a second spec will unlock a bunch of talents, but I also need to spend the XP on the social skills first, so I will be a long way from being able to buy the talents in the first place.

Since you're character was voted captain, why not look into some of the Leader skill trees? They'll give you some boosts in leadership. If you're worried about social skills, perhaps some skills in Diplomat as well. My group has a pilot, mechanic, leader, and a diplomat. They're good at killing things too, but with the diplomat, he's been able to talk them out of some tough situations, and has even managed to buy or acquire three ships that the party has sold off or given for information in return.

A single out-of-career skill will cost 25xp for just 2 ranks, 45xp for 3... I would recommend a suitable spec.

I'd recommend Advocate or Agitator (Diplomat Specs), maybe Figurehead if you're mostly interested in Leadership.

Just for a note, you only have one career, this would be a subsequent spec. I'd go squadron leader. It gets you some great leadership, along with some awesome (I think 2 ranks in Defensive Driving) piloting talents.

The Squadron Leaders spec would not provide any new career skills.

Does buying into an out-of-career spec gain access to all of the career skills associated with that career, or only the bonus career skills from that particular spec?

You get only your original career skills plus all the skills of your specializations.

The issue is that I am not the main pilot. We have an Agi 5 Int 4 Mechanic/Pilot who will be the main pilot. I will be co-pilot and will take over on turns in which he has to repair the ship. Any pure piloting talents and specs are wasted on me.

I looked up Trader, Quartermaster, Advocate and Charmer. Out of those Advocate has some very suspicious talents (in our sessions we are only one to roll the social skills 99% of the time, not the NPCs) and Trader's tree is horrendous. The quartermaster is serviceable, but I think I like Charmer the most.

Thanks for Figurehead. I will take a look on it, even if the spec name is not very inspiring

You might want to take a look at Politico from the EotE core book. Not only is it a good face spec, you also gain the ability to give/take strain as it is the only spec with both Scathing Tirade and Inspiring Presence (I might have that second name wrong; away from book right now).

Inspiring Tirade is definitely nice, I saw it in Charmer. But what the deal with Scathing Tirade?

Wouldn't switching your blaster to stun setting be much easier way to apply strain?

And out of combat I don't think anyone will ever take enough verbal abuse to fall unconscious...

Scathing Tirade is based off Coercion and saps Strain from nearby enemies. They don't fall unconscious, but for the purposes of the narrative system you can brow-beat them into giving up, fleeing, etc. You render them combat ineffective, and can do so to a group of people at once. This is especially interesting with minions or rivals, as their wounds and strain are from one lump category. They also do not get to apply soak to this, as they would in the case of a blaster on stun. It is a devastating power when used effectively.

The improved version also adds a Setback to all checks affected targets make, and against minions with a low threshold, Scathing Tirade can be pretty devastating, especially with the Supreme upgrade which makes it a maneuver.

You might want to look at quartermaster from the aor book, it's a great all around spec that should help with money problems and face stuff. Alternatively you could look at commodore or skiptracer (no.disintegrations), the analyst seems like a blast to play too

You really need to ask yourself what you want to do with him/her. Do you want to be a leader? A face? A merchant? There are a lot of great careers out there.

I've always liked gambler as a great general career but it is expensive to make the most of it.

Depending on how you want him to grow you may want to consider 2 or more specializations. Just because you were voted captain doesn't mean you have to go with a pure leadership career.

If you looked at quartermaster you might like entrepreneur or trader... It sounds like your group may be needing that type of guidance if you aren't getting support from high command anymore.

Of course the biggest question is what are your teams skills and how does the rest of your group want to grow their characters too. If you all branch out and take something different to round out your group more that is what is most important.

I actually decided on charmer. The talents are absolutely amazing. I love "Just Kidding". It's both hilarious and useful.

On 8/31/2017 at 10:15 AM, Azmodael said:

Inspiring Tirade is definitely nice, I saw it in Charmer. But what the deal with Scathing Tirade?

Wouldn't switching your blaster to stun setting be much easier way to apply strain?

And out of combat I don't think anyone will ever take enough verbal abuse to fall unconscious...

Also, as long as they don't gag you, they can't take scathing tirade away. I have been hoping to run a negotiation where a PC might have scathing tirade to wear down the opponent, but not in such a hostile way as to start fights. Think Khrushchev beating the desk with his shoe at the UN.