I've been head-building a character and I'm not sure how to build him in-game.

He's the son of a passed legendary smuggler, and was one of Luke's students before Ben Solo razed the temple. Luke thinks he's dead, but in reality he survived, and was able to save a few Jedi holocrons (but so far has only been able to unlock one.)

Kylo knows he lived, so he's been lying low, using his father's YT-2400 to do smuggling jobs near the Outer Rim. With the unlocked holocron, a regular training routine and memories of Luke's training, he's been able to maintain his ability with a saber and maintain his connection to the Force. He so far hasn't had to use his saber (which is little more than a training model anyway) and is capable with a blaster pistol.

All he wants is to avenge his father and his love, both of whom were killed in Kylo's rampage.

So how do I build this character? I want someone who will eventually be a Joyu Warrior, but isn't right now. What good characteristics should I start him off with?

Well, having such a good concept is the first step, and you nailed it. Now, you need to decide on a species, if you haven’t done so already. This will result in specific adjustments to your character’s Ability scores, and grant you certain special abilities. As for career and starting spec, you have a couple of options that might fit better than others, but any caree or spec is fine. My suggestion would be going with either Warrior/ Aggressor, Warrior/ Starfighter Ace, Sentinel/Racer, or Sentinel/Sentry. Starfighter Ace and Racer both provide Piloting (Space) as caree skills, as well as several talents devoted to piloting. Aggressor and Sentry, however, are more aligned with your “revenge “ theme. However, as I said, really, any career/spec combo will work.

1 hour ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Well, having such a good concept is the first step, and you nailed it. Now, you need to decide on a species, if you haven’t done so already. This will result in specific adjustments to your character’s Ability scores, and grant you certain special abilities. As for career and starting spec, you have a couple of options that might fit better than others, but any caree or spec is fine. My suggestion would be going with either Warrior/ Aggressor, Warrior/ Starfighter Ace, Sentinel/Racer, or Sentinel/Sentry. Starfighter Ace and Racer both provide Piloting (Space) as caree skills, as well as several talents devoted to piloting. Aggressor and Sentry, however, are more aligned with your “revenge “ theme. However, as I said, really, any career/spec combo will work.

Awesome, thanks.

He's definitely human (last name of Rendar), and I'm pretty sure I'm taking Juyo, but couldn't decide on Gunslinger or Pilot for the other spec.

Any advice on how to spend the starting EXP and human bonuses?

12 minutes ago, StriderZessei said:

Awesome, thanks.

He's definitely human (last name of Rendar), and I'm pretty sure I'm taking Juyo, but couldn't decide on Gunslinger or Pilot of the other spec.

Any advice on how to spend the starting EXP and human bonuses?

It is important to note that if you do not start with a Force career, you will need to buy into one of the universal force-sensitive trees (20xp for 2nd spec) before you will be able to pick up Juyo (40xp for 3rd out-of-career spec)...

Tramp's probably got the best advice. Go Agressor or Starfighter Ace, then Juyo, which is in the same career.

6 minutes ago, StriderZessei said:

Awesome, thanks.

He's definitely human (last name of Rendar), and I'm pretty sure I'm taking Juyo, but couldn't decide on Gunslinger or Pilot of the other spec.

Any advice on how to spend the starting EXP and human bonuses?

It’s considered best to put most of your starting XP into your Ability Scores, rather than skills, talents, etc. The reason for this is that after character creation is over, and the game begins, you can no longer raise Ability Scores through direct XP expenditure. You can only raise them through the Dedication talent. Also, remember that your starting Morality can affect your starting XP. You have a choice of raising (or lowering) your starting Morality by 21 points, or starting with an additional 10 XP or 2500 credits, or you can start with an additional 5 XP and 1000 credits.

9 minutes ago, Edgehawk said:

It is important to note that if you do not start with a Force career, you will need to buy into one of the universal force-sensitive trees (20xp for 2nd spec) before you will be able to pick up Juyo (40xp for 3rd out-of-career spec)...

Tramp's probably got the best advice. Go Agressor or Starfighter Ace, then Juyo, which is in the same career.

While this character sounds like a Force-sensitive, there is no need in general to have a Force Rating to take Juyo Berserker and there are actually very few talents in the spec that require a Force Rating to use.

You may want to consider Shadow. It's a great spec for "Lying low", plus you get Well-Rounded which will help round out your skills.

Great concept!

On 6/29/2018 at 8:08 PM, StriderZessei said:

Awesome, thanks.

He's definitely human (last name of Rendar), and I'm pretty sure I'm taking Juyo, but couldn't decide on Gunslinger or Pilot for the other spec.

Any advice on how to spend the starting EXP and human bonuses?

As others have said, it's usually strongly encouraged, to spend as much of your starting XP as possible on Characteristics. Since creation is the only time you can just directly spend XP to raise them up. After gameplay starts, you can only raise them via purchasing the Dedication talent, at the bottom of most spec trees. Which means you will have to spend a not-insignificant amount of XP to boost that Cunning from 3 to 4 for example, way more than if you just bought it up at creation.

Now, that being said, doing this (and I strongly encouarge it), does mean it's hard to have any XP to actually flesh out your character concept. Things like "having connection with the Force", and "being ok with his training saber", will be hard to purchase given your low XP amount, if any at all. So you might have to "grow into" the full concept. Or you can just accept the lower starting characteristics you will have, and spend the XP on the various talents and Force powers, that will allow you to play the concept from day 1. Your call.

27 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

As others have said, it's usually strongly encouraged, to spend as much of your starting XP as possible on Characteristics. Since creation is the only time you can just directly spend XP to raise them up. After gameplay starts, you can only raise them via purchasing the Dedication talent, at the bottom of most spec trees. Which means you will have to spend a not-insignificant amount of XP to boost that Cunning from 3 to 4 for example, way more than if you just bought it up at creation.

Now, that being said, doing this (and I strongly encouarge it), does mean it's hard to have any XP to actually flesh out your character concept. Things like "having connection with the Force", and "being ok with his training saber", will be hard to purchase given your low XP amount, if any at all. So you might have to "grow into" the full concept. Or you can just accept the lower starting characteristics you will have, and spend the XP on the various talents and Force powers, that will allow you to play the concept from day 1. Your call.

Yeah, I've decided we're going to do Knight-level play, and just start out in Juyo.

On 7/2/2018 at 12:47 PM, StriderZessei said:

Yeah, I've decided we're going to do Knight-level play, and just start out in Juyo.

Sounds cool

Follow KungFuFerret's advice on Characteristics and remember that you still build your PC first using the creation rules then you add the additional EXP (you can't use that additional EXP to raise Characteristics in character creation). Also check and see if you will be starting with a Lightsabre or not. If not you should consider spending those Knight Level EXP on non-saber based Skills and Force Powers and wait on your Lightsaber Skill/Talents until you get your weapon. This will help you be more effective in the beginning of the game. Also don't waste EXP on Force Power Upgrades that you won't be able to use reliably until you acquire a second Force Rating, you can always buy them later (Any Force Ability that requires 2 Force Points to activate will be harder to use as you are only rolling one Force Die so keep that in mind when spending those EXP. Don't bother with any upgrade requiring 3 or more because you won't be able to use them). Last bit of advice, don't forget your Skills, as cool as Force Powers and Talents are you will likely be using your Skills most of the time so get some ranks in them sooner than later.

Have fun

4 hours ago, FuriousGreg said:

Sounds cool

Follow KungFuFerret's advice on Characteristics and remember that you still build your PC first using the creation rules then you add the additional EXP (you can't use that additional EXP to raise Characteristics in character creation). Also check and see if you will be starting with a Lightsabre or not. If not you should consider spending those Knight Level EXP on non-saber based Skills and Force Powers and wait on your Lightsaber Skill/Talents until you get your weapon. This will help you be more effective in the beginning of the game. Also don't waste EXP on Force Power Upgrades that you won't be able to use reliably until you acquire a second Force Rating, you can always buy them later (Any Force Ability that requires 2 Force Points to activate will be harder to use as you are only rolling one Force Die so keep that in mind when spending those EXP. Don't bother with any upgrade requiring 3 or more because you won't be able to use them). Last bit of advice, don't forget your Skills, as cool as Force Powers and Talents are you will likely be using your Skills most of the time so get some ranks in them sooner than later.

Have fun

Thanks! I'm starting with a lightsaber, so that decision was easy.

Which power would you say is better for the role of a crazy dps: Enhance or Move?

Secondly, what would be a good second spec after I finish the Juyo tree?

11 hours ago, StriderZessei said:

Which power would you say is better for the role of a crazy dps: Enhance or Move?

Something tells me that you might be missing the point of this system , build what you think is right for your character narratively, the only important thing that, even at that, is a still just a recommendation, is to use rhe majority of your starting xp to buy characteristics, Ive went against this in the past and it still work but you definitely want to have 3's in the characteristics that are important to you and 4 if you can manage without being a detriment to other important stats for you, be aware of starting with a 1 in any stat as any linked skills will be hard to pull off until you get 2 or 3 ranks in them.

Well, I wouldn't worry too much about DPS yet, a Lightsabre with it's Breach Quality pretty bada$$ already and your PC's Damage is going to be more about Skill (ie. how many Successes and Advantages you generate in your Attack rolls) so if you wan't more DPS up your Skill. Because the LS is such a good weapon it gives you the opportunity in the early part of character development to spend a good amount of EXP on supporting abilities that will help you outside of Combat. When your opponents start to get more dangerous is when you really want to start beefing up your combat abilities.

Powers advice:
Sense with the Upgrade that allows you to Upgrade your Defense is going to be really useful when you do encounter more powerful enemies.
More is super useful but until you get that second Force Rating throwing people around reliably will be hard so keep that in mind.
Enhance is also useful for dealing with physical obstacles but so is adding to your Athletics and Coordination Skills.
Depending on your campaign other Powers will come in handy, I recommend Misdirect for when you need to get past something you don't want to fight yet.

I'm not familiar with the Juyo Talent Tree so I can't advise anything except if there is Reflect take that.

Second spec? Well, honestly that depends on your campaign and what role you want to fill or what you want to be able to do. Also you don't have to finish a Tree to get a second spec.

29 minutes ago, syrath said:

Something tells me that you might be missing the point of this system , build what you think is right for your character narratively, the only important thing that, even at that, is a still just a recommendation, is to use rhe majority of your starting xp to buy characteristics, Ive went against this in the past and it still work but you definitely want to have 3's in the characteristics that are important to you and 4 if you can manage without being a detriment to other important stats for you, be aware of starting with a 1 in any stat as any linked skills will be hard to pull off until you get 2 or 3 ranks in them.

We're doing Knight-level play, so my human character will have 170 exp to work with after raising his stats. Thanks though.

19 hours ago, StriderZessei said:

Thanks! I'm starting with a lightsaber, so that decision was easy.

Which power would you say is better for the role of a crazy dps: Enhance or Move?

Secondly, what would be a good second spec after I finish the Juyo tree?

Enhance probably offers more that is consistent with your background (piloting boosts). And it has a "commit force die for +1 Brawn" that will add an extra die to all your Juyo Lightsaber checks. Only trouble is they're in two different branches of the Enhance tree. Enhance is (outside of Force Leap) unquestionably an easy Force ability to hide from the outside world, as well.

Move obviously has fantastic utility and is unquestionably useful. It would also help to give you some tricks that can be used outside a combat situation.

Juyo is arguably the most linear tree in the whole game with its best stuff all the way down at the end, so once you start down that path forever will it dominate your ... err, sorry about that. Just make certain you're sure that's what you want your character to be about. It'll be all you do for a while.

49 minutes ago, sarg01 said:

Juyo is arguably the most linear tree in the whole game with its best stuff all the way down at the end, so once you start down that path forever will it dominate your ... err, sorry about that. Just make certain you're sure that's what you want your character to be about. It'll be all you do for a while.

I take you up on arguing that. Embrace Your Hate is the key to Juyo, as it allows you to do massive damage even if some fool tries to Parry, and it's pretty easy to get to the first rank early on, while the second rank is only halfway through the tree. Lethal Blows is another nifty bit, and is about as deep in as Embrace Your Hate.

Now, if you're talking about the Vaapad stuff... Well, that variant of Juyo is unimpressive to me. Of course, I feel that if you're going to take Juyo you might as well accept that dark meat is more juicy and eat your fill of it.

Your latter assumption is exactly my point. One should commit to either being a dark-sider, or pushing through to Inner Peace in order to effectively use the tree. But the first rank of Inner Peace is 170 XP into the tree.

The dark side has a much shorter tree XP-wise, so whereas Vaapad light-sider would just be getting Inner Peace at 170 XP with another 45 XP to go, the dark sider hits his capstone only 5 XP later. My comment was meant as a warning, to seriously consider what you want to get out of Juyo Berserker before committing to it.

It wasn't my intention to suggest the power level of the tree was inferior. At least, not once you've spent your way to the end.

12 hours ago, sarg01 said:

Your latter assumption is exactly my point. One should commit to either being a dark-sider, or pushing through to Inner Peace in order to effectively use the tree. But the first rank of Inner Peace is 170 XP into the tree.

The dark side has a much shorter tree XP-wise, so whereas Vaapad light-sider would just be getting Inner Peace at 170 XP with another 45 XP to go, the dark sider hits his capstone only 5 XP later. My comment was meant as a warning, to seriously consider what you want to get out of Juyo Berserker before committing to it.

This is good advice ^. The question though, especially when I read about/meet a new player who's main concern seems to be DPS, is how well is his character going to fit into his group/game if they go for those juicy Dark Side Talents and plays dark. If all of the PCs and the campaign is on the darker side morally and combat heavy then I don't see any issues. On the other hand if the rest of the Players and the campaign in general are heroic, light side leaning there is a lot of opportunity for conflict, and I don't mean the morality system but at the table. You've got to play the game/group you're in and not be the douchebag that always drags the rest of the group into combats they'd rather avoid just so you can show off your character's killing power. Depending on your group that **** can get old fast.