I'm playing an njo game and I'm looking at 3 spec combos as anyone who visits the f&d forum might know already...

I've narrowed my list of candidates yo these contenders. I'd like the communities input as my own brain keeps going in circles!

So I start out with sage/ascetic/s.defender

My reasoning is it has both improved parry and reflect a bunch of nice defense talents. Go forsee and ebb/flow for great sabering/strain recovery and threat generation... Plus i got mind bleed from ascetic is very cool... Sage because its in career and had a few nice talents but mostly eh personally. Since this is about rebuilding the order being able to have lore is great.

Then i think that's a lot of fr, I'm not doing move so why not downgrade fr by a bit still have a respectable fr 4 have both improved parry/reflect AND some nice talents +more reflect and parry by going seer ataru sentry. I get impossible fall, constant vigilance and all the nasty high damage from ataru plus 6 ranks in dodge! With fr 4 I should still recover good strain and generate threat by going ebb/flow.

Then i say but that's no so lore-y why not go soresu/armorer, be a good combatant the old fashion way with toughness and armor, add either seer or padawan survivor for an fr boost or better lore v talents plus add ranks of lore to damage (However it might be a moot point with the add brawn to dmg talent of armorer hmm...)

What do you think oh great community? End my needless suffering and mental torment by helping me select a winner!

You seem to be mostly looking at combat, with stuff like Lore being a nice extra. Which is fine, not judging you, but you’re going to keep running around in circles if you just look at the mechanics. There’s always some other shiny possibility that looks good.

What kind of character are you looking for? What kind of fighter, to start with just that part? Aggressive, defensive, balanced? Is your lightsaber supposed to be the go to tool in combat, or will you want to (be able to) use something else on occasion - Force powers, a blaster, your fists? Narrow it down conceptually, because mechanically there are many valid options.

Classic Samurai jedi... No move... Ebb/flow and forsee.

Somone warned through a vision of impending doom. Perhaps a wanderer.

I tend to prefer defensive but I'd be happy with a balance.

No other weapons but a saber.

What makes a samurai to you?

personally I think they need good martial training, a skill at negotiating, and a Knowledge of their order. You will likely disagree, but my pick would be starting with Shi Cho Knight for the solid grounding in combat. I would add Arbiter for further combat skill as well as a knack for social capabilities. Finally I would add Escaped Jedi Padwan for further martial skill but also a deeper knowledge of the Jedi Order.

If you want a more learned character from the beginning then start with Arbiter, taking Shi Cho later. Either way you end with a Force Rating of 3, which should be plenty for the things you mentioned. Replacing Arbiter with Seer is also a possibility if foresight and knowledge is more important than social skill.

Of your actual suggestions I think Armourer Soresu is the most interesting, possibly adding Seer or Arbiter later on for more diversity.

Arbiter ascetic sores in any order.

@TheShard: What secondary abilities are you interested in? Do you just want a pure combat monster? Do you want a negotiator/charmer type? An ascetic monk sort? A sneaky ambush warrior?

Try Shi-Cho/Aggressor/Warden, set Brawn highest and Willpower next. Not a lot of obvious defensive abilities, but being able to force a 5-purple fear check on anyone who gets into engaged range with you is... fun. Add in parry/deflect and other battlefield control options and you've got a very capable fighter who also isn't worthless outside of a fight.

Alternatively, go Shadow/Ataru Striker/Racer, with high Agility and cunning next. You can hide super easily, shrug off ongoing force powers, and get wherever you're going. You also have multiple ranks of dodge and can put out huge damage very, very quickly with Ataru.

I like Shadow-Sentry-Infiltrator for the ninja factor. Come out of nowhere, strike hard, and fade away like you were never there.

Armourer/Soresu/Sentry/Shien/Martial Artist.

Hunter/Executioner/Gunslinger/Martial Artist

I ended up as ascetic/defender/ padawan.

Went for the whole wandering ronin/philosopher

Warden/Enforcer with a pumped up Coercion /Brawl and Streetwise.

Here are the reasons

Brawl

Enhance Brawl for boosting Brawl

Talk the Talk - spend a DP to add Streetwise ranks to Brawl check

Grapple - 2 manoeuvers to break from engaged

Precision Strike - allows you to spend a critical to recover a DP (needed for all the DP abilities) , stagger an opponent if you prefer that to whatever you roll

Overbalance - Spend 3 Threat or Despair to cause a stagger , Links with Baleful Gaze/ Fearsome/ Sense Advantage, For force powers the following add the potential for threat and/or despair - Sense Defensive control upgrade, Misdirect combat control upgrade, Ebb/flow Threat and Strength Upgrades, amongst any others that add setback or upgrade checks

Sense Advantage - Add2 setback to a roll, links to Overbalance as it increases Threat

Coercion

Scathing Tirade - Leverage Coercion for AoE strain Damage links with -

No Escape - links with Grapple to allow you to stop people from using a free maneuver , meaning it will often cost 4 strain to Disengage. which links back to Scathing Tirade and Fearsome

Baleful Gaze - Leverage Coercion for Defense which links back to Overbalance, with Sense Advantage throws lot of potential threat on a roll.

Loom - Add coercion ranks to allies Social rolls as advantage to a successful check links with Bad Copp

Bad Cop - upgrade your allies Social check twice from 2 advantage from Coercion/Deception checkk

Streetwise

Walk The Walk- Boosts brawl

Talk the Talk - Leverage Streetwise for a DP spend to make a Knowledge check.

Street Smarts - remove 2 Setback from Streetwise

Now I only mention 2 specs , but AoR has Cyphers coming out with a Coercion focused spec that also has some Brawl boosting talents (Pressure Point) , this could well be spec no 3.

The amount of synergy these 2 specs alone have(also have 4 ranks of intimidating, and 5 ranks of fearsome), and they allow you to leverage so much utility out of just 2 skills.

Aggressor seems a natural 3rd

20 minutes ago, TheShard said:

Aggressor seems a natural 3rd

Yes I'd agree , however I'd like to see the Interrogator Spec first, the above is the build In playing and while I've got Coercion 4 /Brawl 3 /Streetwise 2, and most Warden talents, I ve only got the tier 1 Enforcer talents along with Loom and Talk the Talk. It's a blast even at that. I'd go aggressor , except a fellow player started as Aggressor so didn't want to crossover. Also an additional problem that I tried to find out from FFG is now to deal with Fearsome 8, RAW it's an 8 purple fear check. (They have clarified before that Tractor 6 weapons are 6 purple checks, so it figures this would work the same), I did ask , but the only official response was that you can buy round the fearsomes (which btw if buy enforcer last you actually can't)