I am starting to play in my first Forces & Destiny campaign. I have played a bit of EotE, especially the beginner box and some premise characters. I’m not very fluent with advancing characters and F&D specifically though.

I was thinking of playing a soldier/bodyguard type character that can use the Force to predict danger and avoid getting hit, kind of like a Spidey-sense. He will develop more Force abilities later. I’m not familiar with the specific options though, to know what will be available later. I want to start off wearing heavier armor, like Boba Fett or the ARC troopers, and use a blaster. Will starting off like this hamstring me later on? Is there a way to be a Force user in armor with a blaster, or is lightsaber just that much better?

First, Sense will most likely be your force power. It will give you the ability to increase the difficulty of attack rolls made against you.. Kind of like a Spidey-Sense if you will.

One of the best specs to improve the usefulness of armor is the Gaurdian Armorer spec. If you want to start with blasters, look into the Seeker career, these specs will give you good options for that. Then eventually if you want to use a lightsaber pick up the Ataru Striker class, which will let you use Agility for lightsaber checks. Which will help you be good with both of those weapon options..

Hope this helps!

Armored already grants Lightsaber along with Falling Avalanche, so using a lightsaber as a beat stick (with Brawn) is already covered.

Like I said, this is my first time making a Star Wars character and planning out a progression. I thought you could only have one career, but it looks like you have a couple suggested? And are classes a thing? I need to reread the character creation chapter. It seems I'm having trouble figuring out the flow of this one as quickly.

I think the only class-based with open leveling game that I have played before is PP's IKRPG and HordesRPG. Is this similar?

5 minutes ago, LankyOgre said:

Like I said, this is my first time making a Star Wars character and planning out a progression. I thought you could only have one career, but it looks like you have a couple suggested? And are classes a thing? I need to reread the character creation chapter. It seems I'm having trouble figuring out the flow of this one as quickly.

I think the only class-based with open leveling game that I have played before is PP's IKRPG and HordesRPG. Is this similar?

I'm not familiar with the systems you mentioned, but yes FFG Star Wars only gives the illusion of being class based. Your "career" is the least important major aspect of your character - it grants a handful of skill points and career skill status. The F&D ones grant Force Rating 1 (and one fewer skill point than EotE or AoR careers). It determines what specs are 10 XP cheaper. If your GM allows the splatbooks, it determines what Signature Abilities you can access (500+ XP territory for those).

... and that's about it.

It's important to differentiate between career and specialization. You get a free specialization at the start, but with infinite XP, you can theoretically buy every specialization in the game.

8 hours ago, sarg01 said:

It's important to differentiate between career and specialization. You get a free specialization at the start, but with infinite XP, you can theoretically buy every specialization in the game.

This.

If you have the xp you can get any Specialization from the books. Some GM's may rule that you'll need a sort of rite of passage or it would need to narratively make sense for the "multi-spec" if you will.. Some not.

It really just depends on how many that you have for what the xp cost will be and if they are within your Career.

For example: a Starfighter Ace wanted to become more skilled with their Lightsaber skill. They may be in the Warrior Career, but they have been spending a lot of time training with their ally who is a Soresu Defender. This would be the 2nd Specialization acquired. It would cost 20 xp plus 10 xp due to being outside of the chosen Career.

12 hours ago, sarg01 said:

It's important to differentiate between career and specialization. You get a free specialization at the start, but with infinite XP, you can theoretically buy every specialization in the game.

That's only true if your character is a human male.

Ah yes, for instance.. A droid could not be a Niman Disciple or any Force sensitive Career/Specialization. I think that is the only species with a restriction like that.

The clone trooper universal spec is restricted to Clones only...

3 hours ago, Quigonjinnandjuice said:

Ah yes, for instance.. A droid could not be a Niman Disciple or any Force sensitive Career/Specialization. I think that is the only species with a restriction like that.

Technically, a Droid PC could take a F&D career/specialization to start with. They just wouldn't get the Force Rating 1 that comes with taking a F&D career, and they wouldn't be able to take advantage of any Force talents because they can't ever have a Force Rating.

For instance, a friend of mine has been hankering for a chance to play a Droid Warrior/Shii-Cho Knight, which works pretty well as that spec doesn't have much in the way of talents that require a Force Rating that you can't just purchase your way around (Sarlacc Sweep is the one exception, and that only if you want to get Dedication and that very last rank of Parry).

Good to know @Donovan Morningfire I'll have to let the droid in my group know this.

Colossus is very attractive for battle droids. There are only two Force talents, and both are tucked away in a corner that can be easily avoided.

2 hours ago, Decorus said:

The clone trooper universal spec is restricted to Clones only...

Specifically, human males, even if other batches of clones were to exist. I'm sure the Kaminoans had to have had other clients and products, probably including smaller lines of combat clones for other parties. They likely had accelerated training too, even if it wasn't Jango-based.

I played with another gamer, who had a similar concept. He created a Merc Soldier (hired gun career) and Force Sensitive Exile (universal- counts as in-career), with the Foresee force power. For your concept, I personally would go Vanguard, FSE.