I have in mind a Zabrak melee/saber specialist that uses Ebb/Flow to do what Imwe does in Rogue 1, later branching out into Enhance and Suppress. Zabrak have a racial preferred weapon that isn't stated out in the F&D book but basically sounds like a double bladed lightsaber, without the plasma beams. I like the flavor of the acrobatic "monk" with a quarterstaff that is very in-tune with how the force is guiding them. My end goal for the character is a "vengeance paladin" type that works towards mastering their anger (becoming a proficient Juyo user) and a "temple guardian" type tank complete with a Temple Guard Double Bladed Lightsaber Pike from Keeping the Peace.

I want to be able to use a toned down "Double Bladed Vibrosword" from Knights of Fate as my starting weapon. From an xp efficiency perspective I would like to take Ancient Sword, remove Defensive 1 and give it Linked 1 with Unwieldy 3. However, I can understand a GM having issue with me taking a melee weapon that uses Lightsaber as a skill to start. This would be the character's go-to weapon before getting a double bladed saber, and would stick around for those times when my party's PR department tells me it's a bad idea to pull out a plasma blade (fun haters...)

I don't want this character to be a combat only character because that is boring, my plan is to have decent Willpower to use Coercion/Discipline/Vigilance (lean heavily on the "Proud Warrior" archetype by taking Justice/Bravery Strengths and Anger/Reckless Weaknesses). Many Warrior trees include Intimidating and other Coercion talents which helps with this (looking at you Juyo Berzerker and Aggressor). I look forward to using Ebb with Coercion to be "very convincing"

I will need Agility 3 for Unwieldy; Brawn is my main stat, so probably 4 there; and Willpower at 3 is probably good enough. Zabrak gives me the 3 Willpower, then it's all my XP to get Agility 3 and Brawn 4. My bonus from Morality will probably have to go towards credits to afford whatever the GM and I come up with for the Zhaboka (Zabrak bladed quarterstaff). It taps me out of XP and I start with no Force Powers, Talents or additional Skill Ranks. Which is fine, this is a starting character after all. I lean towards Juyo Berzerker as my starting spec because it gives access to Intimidating, Parry and some other talents that you can use without a lightsaber pretty early on. I plan on taking Embrace your Hate and Inner Peace pretty quick to narrative-ly start working through the struggle with their "righteous anger" while adding some real combat choices besides "I hit it with my stick again". From there I would like some advice on how to branch out.

Steel Hand Adept has obvious appeal for it's very Monk feel. However, then I am not only mixing Lightsaber/Melee (if Zhaboka runs off Melee) but adding Brawl into the mix for skills and that makes XP an even bigger issue. Shii-Cho Knight doesn't really have anything for me after taking Juyo besides Second Wind that I can't get elsewhere with better extras (Ebb is what I plan on using for most of my Strain recovery, advantages for Linked most of the time). Since there isn't Reflect in any of the Warrior trees, I would need to cross class to a different spec like Soressu Defender to pick those up. Soressu has the added advantage of improved parry/reflect and supreme parry for when you just want to stand and tank those inquisitor's brutal Hawkbat Swoop/Saber Swarm. There is a pretty big problem with being a straight Warrior, only 2 trees give Force Rating increases; Aggressor and Steel Hand Adept (Starfighter Ace isn't what I am going for with this build and IMO serves little purpose besides remaking Anakin).

With this background on the character and my thinking of it's eventual development, what would others in the community do to it mechanically to keep with (or slightly tweak) what is stated above?

Thanks in advance for all the awesome help!

First ask your gm if they'll use the genesys rules for mixed dual wielding check. Otherwise its not worth it.

12 minutes ago, holymauler said:

From an xp efficiency perspective I would like to take Ancient Sword, remove Defensive 1 and give it Linked 1 with Unwieldy 3. However, I can understand a GM having issue with me taking a melee weapon that uses Lightsaber as a skill to start.

For reference a "Heavy Staff" is essentially a combat knife, just with Crit 4 and 2-handed.

It's only in the Force Awakens Beginner game, but if the GM decides he's not comfortable developing a new weapon for you, there's an alternative that's RAW and can be taken pretty much anywhere with no questions.

18 minutes ago, holymauler said:

Steel Hand Adept has obvious appeal for it's very Monk feel. However, then I am not only mixing Lightsaber/Melee (if Zhaboka runs off Melee) but adding Brawl into the mix for skills and that makes XP an even bigger issue. Shii-Cho Knight doesn't really have anything for me after taking Juyo besides Second Wind that I can't get elsewhere with better extras (Ebb is what I plan on using for most of my Strain recovery, advantages for Linked most of the time). Since there isn't Reflect in any of the Warrior trees, I would need to cross class to a different spec like Soressu Defender to pick those up. Soressu has the added advantage of improved parry/reflect and supreme parry for when you just want to stand and tank those inquisitor's brutal Hawkbat Swoop/Saber Swarm. There is a pretty big problem with being a straight Warrior, only 2 trees give Force Rating increases; Aggressor and Steel Ha  nd Adept (Starfighter Ace isn't what I am going for with this build and IMO serves little purpose besides remaking Anakin).

Common newbie trap. Find the one Spec that's closest to your plan and start there. Make an advancement plan and stick to it. One of the things this system does, especially with force users, is give you so many options that you want to spend so much XP on things like Specs, you never get around to getting skills.

Find your Core, Find your Force powers, evaluate. What FR do you really truly need? Not what do you want, but what do you need? What Spec is the closest to your goal? Even if it doesn't have a name that matches, does the abilities, talents, ect?

The trick to building Force guys is the same for both the Player as it is for the character. Be focused, disciplined, and efficient. If you try and go bananas, you're going to end up with a mess of talents/powers that may never pay off.

45 minutes ago, TheShard said:

First ask your gm if they'll use the genesys rules for mixed dual wielding check. Otherwise its not worth it.

What are the mixed dual wielding check? I see normal Two-Weapon Combat on page 108 that looks like it is handled much like the Star Wars system. Does Genesys give alternative options elsewhere?

34 minutes ago, Ghostofman said:

For reference a "Heavy Staff" is essentially a combat knife, just with Crit 4 and 2-handed.

It's only in the Force Awakens Beginner game, but if the GM decides he's not comfortable developing a new weapon for you, there's an alternative that's RAW and can be taken pretty much anywhere with no questions.

That works, but I was hoping to mimic the "Linked" ability of the Double Bladed Lightsaber. Discussion with the GM will obviously have to hash this out. Thanks for the insight, it never hurts to know more

34 minutes ago, Ghostofman said:

Find your Core, Find your Force powers, evaluate. What FR do you really truly need? Not what do you want, but what do you need? What Spec is the closest to your goal? Even if it doesn't have a name that matches, does the abilities, talents, ect? 

My Core is "swooshing" my quarterstaff (plasma, metal or wood) around in combat while "feeling" the force with Ebb/Flow. I think FR2 is about the level of flow I would like to have when I look at the power. Enough to get consistent LSP results and leverage the lower control talents. Get the base power to start and wait on most of the upgrades until I get FR2 for a larger FP pool. I eventually want the two control levels for advantage/threat and success/failure to increase my tankiness, but it isn't critical to get them early. Range sitting in the way of those Control upgrades is a real bummer IMO.

34 minutes ago, Ghostofman said:

The trick to building Force guys is the same for both the Player as it is for the character. Be focused, disciplined, and efficient. If you try and go bananas, you're going to end up with a mess of talents/powers that may never pay off.

I like to think I am a VERY efficient player in most games, my team mates/competitors seem to agree most of the time. My issue with this build is that I don't have a good feel for what is possible and what I need in order to get the affect I want. I don't plan on blitzing down Sage to get two points of FR when nothing else in the tree interests me

With the melee focus and Ebb/Flow, I can make a combined check every round to leverage the XP spend on Ebb/Flow. I have already checked with the GM and we have some agreement on how it will work in social encounters as well as combat.

What strikes me wrong footed is a few things; general lack of FR and Reflect within Warrior. Both are pretty "essential" to being an effective "Warrior" to a certain degree. I'm not deluded into thinking that there should be a Warrior spec with 2 FR talents along with Supreme Parry and Supreme Reflect, Warrior seems to have fallen a little harder on the "famine" side of the other classes in regards to what I want this character to be.

After you get some experience, put some points in Enhance or other talents that let you move around easily on the battlefield. When you have engaged the melee targets and their friends start firing at you from a distance, disengage from the melee guys and engage the range guys. Taking the fight to them and putting them at the disadvantage rather than you.

In my most recent game, I had one player who tended to stay back in the field and use Move just to disarm the people with blasters while his allies disabled them

1 minute ago, Varlie said:

In my most recent game, I had one player who tended to stay back in the field and use Move just to disarm the people with blasters while his allies disabled them

I have another concept like this, Kel Dor Ascetic that specializes in Move. Also a fun character, but I was last to the party and this group doesn't have anyone who can stand up to a stiff breeze as they have explained to me.

If you use two weapons with different skills say melee and lightsaber to make an attack, in grnesys you just increase the difficulty by one and use the worst of the two skills.

Swrpg you increase the difficulty once for two weapons then increase again for 2 different skills and you have yo use the worse of the two skills.

@TheShard

I am not looking to DW both a Melee and Lightsaber, both of the weapons I am looking at do not function in the DW rules. They use Linked to "simulate" double ended weapons. I make one check without increasing difficulty and I can spend advantage to activate Linked up to the value of Linked on my weapon (Double Bladed Lightsaber is Linked 1). It's similar to Autofire, but not exactly the same thing. You are correct that the DW rules for this system are... less than stellar IMO.

Linked: You make a normal check (no increased difficulty) and can activate "Linked" to gain extra hits a number of times equal to the "Linked X" value, provided you have enough advantage. You can only hit your original target with these extra attacks.

Autofire: You increase the difficulty of the check by one, but you have no limit on the extra hits you can score as long as you have enough advantage. You can hit whoever you want in range with these attacks (provided you told everyone before you rolled what you planned on doing, and you targeted the hardest to hit target).

My apologies i misunderstood the post.

Go ataru and there is a talent where gain ranks in linked equal to fr

@TheShard

I'm not looking to make an Ataru Striker, I like the concept of my character who goes down Juyo Berzerker. I plan on really bringing out the "control your anger" part in RP and combat. Ataru is mechanically superior as a "I hit it with my plasma blade and deal damage" I understand from other discussions. That just isn't what I am going for on this character.

What I am mostly trying to figure out is what to do after I get what I want from Juyo Berzerker. I listed out some options and my thoughts on them, but everyone seems to be going down tangents. This is the internet after all

Does anyone have thoughts on complimentary specs? I see the big holes in my current build being ranged defense and how to get another point of FR. There are not Reflect ranks in Warrior currently, someone had mentioned using Enhance as a way to close the gap with ranged opponents and I could go either way. For FR, only Aggressor (which I don't think fits since I am trying to control my anger, not unleash it) and Steel Hand (which blends in Brawl, leading to more XP bleed to make use of it's talents) have FR increases that I want to power Ebb/Flow.

I am open to other class specs and taking the xp penalty if there is a good reason. Over lunch I looked at taking "Niman Specialist" which, for a Consular tree, works pretty well mechanically I think. The most efficient path to FR +1 (and takinig the top tier Reflect/Parry) costs 140 xp and also giving Parry 1, Reflect 2, Nobody's Fool 1, Sense Emotions, Defensive Training 1 and Center of Being/Improved. All of that is fairly useful to this build (not sure about center of being). If I spend another 50 xp I also get Parry 2, Reflect 1, Grit 1, Toughness 1.

I realize this all is not talking about skills. I plan on taking mostly Lightsaber, Coercion, Discipline with a dash of Athletics and Survival. I am trying to focus on doing a few things really well in combat and social instead of putting a little in everything.

4 hours ago, Ghostofman said:

Common newbie trap. Find the one Spec that's closest to your plan and start there. Make an advancement plan and stick to it. One of the things this system does, especially with force users, is give you so many options that you want to spend so much XP on things like Specs, you never get around to getting skills.

I generally find that almost every concept requires 2-3 specs to realize fully, but I also tend to grant 300-450 XP at the start for experienced characters (I think the 150 XP for Knight Level is insufficient). Because such characters start off the game more fleshed-out, I don't tend to advocate the "make an advancement plan and stick to it" bit as they are now freed up a bit to grow according to the needs of play.

11 hours ago, TheShard said:

@HappyDaze Do you have any suggestions of specs to look at in order to "round out" this concept?

3 hours ago, holymauler said:

@HappyDaze Do you have any suggestions of specs to look at in order to "round out" this concept?

Not really. I know it makes me the odd duck in the pond, but characters centered around lightsabers bore the crap out of me.

You aren't the only duck who would prefer a non-saber character, but this is the role I have accepted for the group and I am determined to make the most of it!

The main reason I am taking Juyo Berzerker is because of the RP potential in it with Ebb/Flow and balancing my morality on a knifes edge. That will add a lot of engagement into the character for me personally, which is where I am concerned I might get burned out on "I hit it with my plasma sword".

Much of my non-combat plans will be using the "Ebb and Flow" of the force to aid my allies in combined skill checks. But this is where others in the party are specialized and they need their time to shine too

If you haven't already taken a look at Force Adherent, check it out.

1 hour ago, Edgehawk said:

If you haven't already taken a look at Force Adherent, check it out.

What book is that in?

It's a universal specialization from the Dawn of Rebellion sourcebook.

Yeah, start with the Ancient Sword: double the price, remove Defensive 1, add Linked 1 & Unwieldy 3. Also increase the encumbrance by 1, and probably remove the hard point. That's what I'd do if a player wanted to do Force-sensitive Zabrak zhaboka fighter.

Edit: on second thought, keep the hardpoint. With that crappy damage output you're gonna need it

1 hour ago, awayputurwpn said:

Yeah, start with the Ancient Sword: double the price, remove Defensive 1, add Linked 1 & Unwieldy 3. Also increase the encumbrance by 1, and probably remove the hard point. That's what I'd do if a player wanted to do Force-sensitive Zabrak zhaboka fighter.

Edit: on second thought, keep the hardpoint. With that crappy damage output you're gonna need it

Thanks for the reminder on the encumbrance, wouldn't want to cheat on my carriage weight!

Side note, how do you think a double bladed sword would be carried around "sheathed"? I thought about over the shoulder on a sling, but I wouldn't want those double blades just waggling around in the wind. Especially with something like monomolecular edge as a mod... *Fails Coordination Check* Well I guess I decapitate myself

12 minutes ago, holymauler said:

Thanks for the reminder on the encumbrance, wouldn't want to cheat on my carriage weight!

Side note, how do you think a double bladed sword would be carried around "sheathed"? I thought about over the shoulder on a sling, but I wouldn't want those double blades just waggling around in the wind. Especially with something like monomolecular edge as a mod... *Fails Coordination Check* Well I guess I decapitate myself

Why not have it fold in half for ease of carrying.

Lol, probably something kind of secure strap on your back. I can imagine some kind of simple "mag-lock" device on a tightly fastened bandolier or strap, or on a piece of rigid armor, that just locks the weapon in place until you reach for it.

If you're going for something primitive, you could have a sheath that it goes into, or two long leather straps wound around it that you could wrap around your torso as a 4-point harness sort of holder. Simple pull-string to detach, and then takes half a minute to reattach it to your back.

Steel Hand and Force Adherant will give you 1 unarmed parry, 4 improved dodge. Maybe take Niman later for 2 defensive training giving you 3 melee defense and 1 ranged, 3 more parry, 3 Reflect; not sure if only works with lightsabers or not? You’d end up with 3 force rating.