There's a lot of talk about how the original 18 specializations can be underwhelming sometimes, compared to later specializations. It seems as the game progresses, the developers got more comfortable with making fancier talents, leaving the originals in the dust, so to speak. You can see the design mentality of the originals relied a lot on mostly passive, supportive talents and few active talents other than rerolls or the like.
With each career book for Edge of the Empire released, 4/6 career books for each Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny released, Dawn of Rebellion released, and the Genesys core rulebook released, here's a spec-by-spec of my thoughts on each of the original 18 and how they could be tweaked for better performance.
- Assassin : Overall, not actually that bad, as it does its work well enough. I kind of think having both Targeted Blow and Anatomy Lessons is redundant, but I can't think what to put in either of their places.
- Gadgeteer : Good as is, I think.
- Survivalist : Only 3 active incidental talents, which leaves 17 passive talents. Biggest changes I would make are to incorporate Trailblazer's Cunning Snare into it; you could probably drop the third rank of Expert Tracker. Ambush wouldn't be out of place either thematically, but Stealth is not a career skill for Bounty Hunter or Survivalist.
- Doctor : The only thing missing is perhaps Medic's It's Not That Bad talent and Healer's Physician, but perfectly functional as is.
- Politico : Good as is.
- Scholar : Adding Researcher (Improved), Thorough Assessment, and/or Valuable Facts would be a good start; maybe not all three though. The lone rank of Codebreaker and Confidence both feel like filler to me, so dropping those for two of the above is a good place to start.
- Fringer : Sort of a grab bag of talents with very little focus, other than Astrogation which is an underutilized and often confusing skill. I would look at theming the spec around the Operating skill from Genesys. Other than Astrogation, Ship Captain and Pirate both cover what Fringer wants to be, but better. In other words: where to even start?
- Scout : Not terrible but underwhelming. Stalker feels the most out of place here, which I would switch with either Outdoorsman or Planet Mapper.
- Trader : Good as is.
- Bodyguard : Body Guard (Improved) and (Supreme) would be a good place to start. As a 'tank,' the only thing I'd like to see is a provocation talent of some sort.
- Marauder : I'd like to see it have Berserk (from Genesys) and maybe Force Adherent's Push Aside, but that kind of gives a solid specialization more tools than it already needs.
- Mercenary Soldier : Good as is.
- Pilot : Barrel Roll from Genesys. I'd merge the Dead to Rights talents into one (seems like filler to me) and place Barrel Roll where Dead to Rights (Improved) is now.
- Scoundrel : Seems like an odd halfway point between Charmer and Gunslinger. I feel like Advocate's Blackmail is the best tool you could give Scoundrel, and cut Hidden Storage entirely.
- Thief : More Stalker, less Hidden Storage and Shortcut. Maybe Pirate's Knows the Ropes.
- Mechanic : Overall good. Contraption feels out of place, so I'd swap it with Outlaw Tech's Known Schematic.
- Outlaw Tech : Swap Known Schematic with Mechanic's Contraption. The lone rank of Solid Repairs feels like filler, so maybe Eye for Detail?
- Slicer : On the one hand, good at what it does. On the other hand, it really doesn't do much else. Not really sure how one would improve it.