It's not out yet but I'm pretty sure that you want to play an engineer:sapper

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/5/17/go-boom/

You get ranged light from engineer and strong arm, and a bunch of explosive stuff. Given it's forthcoming release I'd avise your first spec to be engineer saboteur if you can't wait for aapper.

3 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

It's not out yet but I'm pretty sure that you want to play an engineer:sapper

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/5/17/go-boom/

You get ranged light from engineer and strong arm, and a bunch of explosive stuff. Given it's forthcoming release I'd avise your first spec to be engineer saboteur if you can't wait for aapper.

FINALLY! I've been waiting for the Bith to come out for ages. Also, the Engineer is shaping up to be everything I wanted out of a grenade-toting lunatic. I'm torn between making this character a (more) schizophrenic Thakwaash, or making them a Devaronian a heaping pile of familial obligation.

To make a grenade toting maniac, I'd probably suggest starting with the Hired Gun: Demolitionist. They get access to some of those nice Blast improving talents pretty early on, and selective detonation would essentially let you run up almost on top of them to throw a grenade, and still avoid taking the blast damage with selective detonation. A second spec depends on if you want to be throwing the grenades yourself, or using a grenade launcher. I'm somewhat torn between taking Hired Gun: Mercenary Soldier as the second spec, or the previously misidentified Engineer: Saboteur spec tree.

Saboteur has a lot of the same ranked talents as demolitionist, allowing you to get up to 5 ranks in Powerful Blast, thus increasing the Blast rating of any of your explosives by 5, which often means the blast will deal more damage than the direct target damage, which is a little weird. Master Grenadier is unfortunately unranked, and while a part of me wants to reduce the Adv cost of activating blast by 2 to a minimum of 1, that would be absurd to activate blast, on a miss, for only 1 advantage, especially if due to other talents the blast damage is higher than the direct target damage...

Mercenary soldier has one grenade-only talent that is worthwhile, but has a lot of other benefits that would help a grenadier. Strong Arm is useful in that it allows you to throw grenades out to medium range, without needing a grenade launcher, which is pretty nice. You also get some side step, so you are less likely to get gunned down while charging the enemy fort with explosives. Point Blank is handy for increasing the direct target damage of grenades, and other weapons, at short or engaged range. and with selective detonation you could be at engaged and not blow yourself up. Natural Marksmen is a far bigger boon than you might realize, for a grenadier. Let's say you are going to throw a thermal detonator at the BBEG who has adversary 3. Well, at medium range or short range, thats still going to be at least 2 red dice, and a despair means that thermal detonator goes off in your hand. Natural Marksmen would allow you to reroll that pool and hopefully not blow yourself (and anyone else remotely near you) to smithereens. It's only once per session, but its a good safety for when you decide to use some of the riskier explosives. 2 Ranks of True Aim is useful for anyone that makes ranged attacks, and Deadly Accuracy for Ranged light would further boost the Direct damage of a grenade, while also making it so that any Pistol or other side arm you had as a back up, hits a lot harder as well.

As for the signature abilities, I lean towards the Hired Gun's Last One Standing. Seems kind of perfect for the grenade lobbing madman. You spend the 1-2 Destiny points, and then narrate it as you maniacally laughing, tossing grenades every which way blasting the minions to smithereens as he hums Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Feels a lot more dramatic and cinematic than up to 4 extra attacks from the Bounty Hunter one, especially as those can miss. Be great in a moment where your party walks out of a building, and is just surrounded by squads of stormtrooper minions, an impossible situation. Cue maniacal laughter and explosions.

In addition, I suggest taking a look at some of the explosives in Dangerous Covenant. They have a section with 4 or 5 explosives that are more the kind you carefully place rather than throw, but they can be handy tools to carry around. My flame projector toting Saboteur I'm currently playing usually has 2-3 Proton Grenades, which have a somewhat misleading name. They are more like, magnetic charges you use to breach some place, or booby trap a location. But they can be devastatingly effective, in addition to being a handy tool. Who needs to shoot our way through a guarded doorway, when we can just make our own doorway.

So in summation, I'd recommend Starting as a Hired Gun: Demolitionist, with Mercenary Soldier as a second spec, and then probably Saboteur further down the line to further enhance the effectiveness of your explosives, maybe swapping in Sapper instead, depending on what the talent tree looks like when the book finally lands. Stat's wise, you'll want decent Agility so you can deliver the explosives to the target, and if you decide to include the planted explosives in your repetoire of BOOM, you will want a pretty decent Intellect/Mechanics, which also fits in nicely with the Demolitionist's Improvised Detonation, which essentially lets you MacGyver an explosive out of whatever is lying around. Brawn is somewhat helpful in terms of having more wounds, and soak, but is probably third after Agility and Intellect. There's plenty of gear that would make up for Low Encumbrance. I can't recommend any particular Species, thats kind of up to you and what feels right for your character.

...

Dang, now I really want to make this character...