Hi everyone,

I really love the politics and all the discourse in the sequel trilogy and want to play a force sensitive politician as a social character in our new party.

What builds would you suggest?

I would either go Consular: Sage, or Mystic: Advisor, as they are the most social oriented of the F&D specs. There is some similarity in their talents, only with a little variation. One is better at knowledge checks, and the other gives you more oomph in the Charm/Deception/Negotiation route.

Since they both use Smooth Talker, it's really if you want to be hyper focused on the social, or have good social ability, as well as some good Knowledge ability.

Arbiter springs to mind. They're very focused on Charm and Negotiation, and they have access to an extra force rating so you can get into powers like Sense and Influence. I'd be tempted to plan an early multiclass into Politico too; partly because it's thematic, but also because it not only boosts your charming political skills, it's also a **** of a support tree for your group. They also synergise really well (and Supreme ranks Inspiring Rhetoric and Scathing Tirade are amazing).

Another option is to go with Leadership based trees, if you want more of a "hands on" politician (do they exist?). Either way, all the Presence and Cunning forever.

Force-sensitive politicians benefit hugely from a high Force rating, because of the Influence power upgrade that adds your Force dice to all your social skills. (That power is a must, obviously.) So a tree like Sage or Seer is good. Sage has some social talents, although not very good ones.

The only tree without a Force rating that I might consider taking is Politico, for the reasons NakedDex suggests. Rhetoric + Tirade + Influence is a slam-bang combination. You will be dealing and healing mass quantities of strain with just a maneuver.

Edit: If you want to combine Influence with Scathing Tirade or Inspiring Rhetoric, though, make sure to double-check that your GM is sane enough to disregard the self-contradictory dev ruling about how adding Force dice to skills using a Force power always requires an action.

I would probably take the advisor tree from the mystic career. I like the mythic tree better because of you want to be able to handle yourself in some rough situations you can take the makashi duelist tree. As stated before having a high force rating will benefit you a lot.

You might also want to think about how you're actually using the Force. Mind-tricking people "for the common good" may not ping too much dark side, but if it gets out, your career may well be jeopardized - who wants to negotiate with someone who can just mind-control them into compliance?

2 hours ago, Siuolis said:

I would probably take the advisor tree from the mystic career. I like the mythic tree better because of you want to be able to handle yourself in some rough situations you can take the makashi duelist tree. As stated before having a high force rating will benefit you a lot.

While not a politician, my character started as a Makashi as she's angled toward talk first, fight last. In concert with the Arbiter tree and Sense, she's pretty nifty in pretty much any social check. Makashi doesn't really give you any bonuses to social check, but it does at least allow you to bump that Presence stat right at the start, and still hold your own in any early... hostile negotiations, should it come to that.

Makashi's biggest failing as a starting career for this kind of character, though, is a lack of force rating upgrade. I don't expect many social checks in a clearly combat orientated tree, but the force rating really hurts.

9 hours ago, NakedDex said:

While not a politician, my character started as a Makashi as she's angled toward talk first, fight last. In concert with the Arbiter tree and Sense, she's pretty nifty in pretty much any social check. Makashi doesn't really give you any bonuses to social check, but it does at least allow you to bump that Presence stat right at the start, and still hold your own in any early... hostile negotiations, should it come to that.

Makashi's biggest failing as a starting career for this kind of character, though, is a lack of force rating upgrade. I don't expect many social checks in a clearly combat orientated tree, but the force rating really hurts.

Yeah that's true you really need a decent force rating.

4 hours ago, Siuolis said:

Yeah that's true you really need a decent force rating.

Which is why the Sage tree from Consular would be, in my opinion, ideal. It gives you the social related talents, as well as an additional Force Rating talent, letting you get to FR 3 in that tree alone.

Just spend as much of your XP on presence, get the influence power and yell "I am the senate" and you're set.

Politicians have to be dark side users. Sorry.