Hi there,

First time on this forum, and first time playing this game so looking for some advice on character creation.

I want to know which people generally find to be more important when choosing specializations, the class skills or the talent trees?

I have this concept I want to play of a Sniper/charming smuggler, and I'm torn between Bounty Hunter (assassin)/Scoundrel and Smuggler (Charmer) /Sharpshooter (by dipping into AoR specs which our GM is allowing).

The assassin/Scoundrel has all the skills I want, but I'm not wowed by the talent trees at all tbh. By contrast, the Charmer/Sharpshooter talent trees look great, but I lose access to Stealth, Athletics, Brawl, and Melee (at least in terms of skills I care about losing for the concept).

Now these skills are secondary but still things I want. I know I can't have it all, but I'm trying to decide which would be better. Any thoughts/input would be greatly appreciated!

I'd generally say that the talent trees are more important, but with the caveat that you have to have the skills to make them count.

Here are a couple options: Go Scoundrel/Assassin to get the skills you want, and just deal with inferior trees, or Charmer/Sharpshooter to get the trees, and then pay the extra 5XP to get ranks in the other skills.

If it were me, I would probably go with Charmer/Sharpshooter.

Part of it has to do with what species you pick. If you pick Human, you can get one rank each in two non-career general skills, or you can go with Klatooinian that gets 1 rank in Ranged (Light), Ranged (Heavy), or Melee, And also gets one rank in a non-career general skill.

Aside from those, picking one that gets a free rank in a particular skill might also be helpful.

2 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

I'd generally say that the talent trees are more important, but with the caveat that you have to have the skills to make them count.

Here are a couple options: Go Scoundrel/Assassin to get the skills you want, and just deal with inferior trees, or Charmer/Sharpshooter to get the trees, and then pay the extra 5XP to get ranks in the other skills.

If it were me, I would probably go with Charmer/Sharpshooter.

Part of it has to do with what species you pick. If you pick Human, you can get one rank each in two non-career general skills, or you can go with Klatooinian that gets 1 rank in Ranged (Light), Ranged (Heavy), or Melee, And also gets one rank in a non-career general skill.

Aside from those, picking one that gets a free rank in a particular skill might also be helpful.

ummm that isnt how it works. You choose a career based on what the first Spec you want. The carreer skills that come with the spec dont change. But the career skills that come with the career do.

So it would be either bounty hunter or smuggler as your career. Then depending on which you went with your first spec would be either assassin or Charmer as your first spec.

Another thing to consider are the signature abilities that come with the career.

2 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

ummm that isnt how it works. You choose a career based on what the first Spec you want. The carreer skills that come with the spec dont change. But the career skills that come with the career do.

So it would be either bounty hunter or smuggler as your career. Then depending on which you went with your first spec would be either assassin or Charmer as your first spec.

Huh? What exactly did I say that was wrong?

Just now, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Huh? What exactly did I say that was wrong?

there are 3 tiers to consider. YOur career, your spec, your out of career spec. Your career decides your first spec.

3 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

there are 3 tiers to consider. YOur career, your spec, your out of career spec. Your career decides your first spec.

Yeah, so what? I wasn't referring to the order to get specs in, I was just listing them.

On 1/19/2020 at 9:21 PM, Satori9001 said:

I want to know which people generally find to be more important when choosing specializations, the class skills or the talent trees?

rel has all the skills I want, but I'm not wowed by the talent trees at all tbh. By contrast, the Charmer/Sharpshooter talent trees look great, but I lose access to Stealth, Athletics, Brawl, and Melee (at least in terms of skills I care about losing for the concept).

First, the type of game and GM determine my character, skill, and talent selection. If you game regularly and XP is plentiful, then go for it. Plenty of time to buy both skills and careers. For me, though, in a shorter campaign where you might not game as frequently, go for skills and put ranks in them. I actually went through and made a list of "good" Careers that had undesirable talents, but great skill choice, for such a situation (Like Doctor. Terrible Talents, great skills!)

For your example, if the Talents don't suit you, then so what? Lots of talents are conditional or only come into play some of the time. Sure, a few 5-10pt talents don't hurt. But getting up to 2-3 ranks quickly in skills is very good! You roll your skills A LOT. They're the basis for the game. Consider also that spending a Destiny Point Upgrade's the check further. One Yellow is about 8% chance for a Triumph. Two yellows is 15%. THREE is 21% chance for a Triumph! That's just one option.

Thank you! This is precisely the kind of feedback I was hoping for.

I don't know how long the game will be, but I'm we're hoping it'll get extended out for a while, so I think I'll try for the better talents. The more I'm looking at it, the less I think I care about the skills I'm missing, and the talents are really sexy for Charmer/Sharpshooter.

Thanks all! Wish me luck!

Skill ranks are most important for skills where your ability score is low. If you're rolling four or five green you don't need skills to get a good roll, though it's still worth buying one or two ranks for the triumphs.