For an upcoming sandbox game I'm going to be running, one of my players originally was looking at being a Squib Droid Tech, but after a spurt of inspiration yesterday, got the inspiration for a pirate lord of sorts.

Now, I'm not apposed to this idea, even if it drastically changes the campaign from its original course to pull it off. I did encourage her to talk to the rest of the party to see if they would be down with her doing that, but the actual build is somewhat tricky to pull off from whats out there currently.

Ideal end goal: felinoid with decent ranged skill, strong ability to lead and coerce targets, and Force sensitivity with some lightsaber skill. (A lot, I know, but work with me)

Build so far: Starting with Farghul in the Guardian career with the Warleader specialization, followed by the Ship Captain and Pirate Specialization, ending with the Force Sensitive Outcast. None of this is set in stone, but from what she told me and the trees that I know of, this is the best we could come up with.

Anyone have any suggestions or feedbacks to help this become a reality?

Do you really need the Warleader? Just MHO, but I find most of the F&D specs lacklustre. I think you could get more out of an Agitator or even Instructor (which has some cool ally-boosting abilities, despite the Bodyguard stuff). I like the FSO, seems like a well-rounded fit. Pirate seems obvious, but I've become wary of attaching too much meaning to the names. For example, unless this pirate is going to fly their own ship, Ship's Captain doesn't seem that useful.

I'd probably start with Commander: Commodore or Squadron Leader, with FSO, Pirate, and Separatist Commander (with that sweet Scathing Tirade, plus there is a Talent allowing Coercion to replace Leadership for Mass Combat checks), and maybe even round it out with Republic Officer. That's a lot, but if you're already considering 4 specs, it sounds like a long-running campaign anyway. Plus there is a bit of Talent duplication which means they can jump slots in some of the trees.

Then just make sure Willpower and Presence are high. Anybody can get "decent ranged skill" with enough skill ranks, same with lightsaber. And between Sense and Enhance, they can be pretty physically capable.

33 minutes ago, whafrog said:

Do you really need the Warleader? Just MHO, but I find most of the F&D specs lacklustre. I think you could get more out of an Agitator or even Instructor (which has some cool ally-boosting abilities, despite the Bodyguard stuff). I like the FSO, seems like a well-rounded fit. Pirate seems obvious, but I've become wary of attaching too much meaning to the names. For example, unless this pirate is going to fly their own ship, Ship's Captain doesn't seem that useful.

The thought process of the Warleader was for two things.
A) Starting out with Force sensitivity that would thematically lead into the Force Sensitive Outcast
B) It offers a lot of similar skills that would benefit a pirate when starting from the bottom of the barrel
C) Allows decent direct and indirect combat buffs that would prove useful in scenarios like raids, defenses against raids, and boarding actions
This is because there is a want to "lead from the front" idea, and this fulfills that to a degree.

The purpose of the Ship Captain is for the Leadership buffs and Pride and Joy talent, as well as the Space - Piloting in a worst case scenario. "If you want it done right, do it yourself" kinda thing.
Pirate is nice for all the social skills that come with being an outlaw/rogue of the galaxy, as well as the very unique Prepare to be Boarded talent.

53 minutes ago, whafrog said:

Separatist Commander (with that sweet Scathing Tirade, plus there is a Talent allowing Coercion to replace Leadership for Mass Combat checks), and maybe even round it out with Republic Officer.

Should the campaign go long enough where another spec in involved, the Commodore/Squadron Leader may come more into use, perhaps Republic Navy Officer/ Separatist Commander depending on the direction she builds up her faction to be. The downside to the Sep spec is its heavy reliance on droids, which they may or may not do. Some very insightful directions to suggest to my player, so thank you for that.

8 hours ago, GameboyAK said:

heavy reliance on droids, which they may or may not do.

You can actually circumvent almost all of the droid talents. The grid from B1-D3 (with the exception of B3) is inaccessible without picking up a droid talent, but the only non-droid talents it has are Field Commander, Improved Field Commander, and a single rank of Toughened that doesn't lead anywhere. If you were to start all the way over on the right, you could go straight down and across without encountering any droid talents, then pick up the top row and Cruel Commander (B3) for 175XP total.

If you take that path, you get 2 ranks of Intimidating, Supreme Scathing Tirade, Lead from the Back/Front, and Dedication. Then the miscellaneous ones from the top row. Looks pretty good for a pirate to me.

12 hours ago, GameboyAK said:

A) Starting out with Force sensitivity that would thematically lead into the Force Sensitive Outcast

Just saying, but you do not have to take the Outcast spec to be an outcast.

I'm not sure what you'd even get from it if you already are Force-sensitive that you couldn't get better versions of in other specs. It's one of the four specs non-force-users normally take to become Force-sensitive in the first place.

2 hours ago, micheldebruyn said:

I'm not sure what you'd even get from it if you already are Force-sensitive that you couldn't get better versions of in other specs.

It has some useful talents across the board for what she is wanting. End goal is wanting a lightsaber that she is competent at using, but is a low Brawn build. The only Presence related form is Makashi, which is only good for direct melee combat.

FSO allows her to have Presence as her primary characteristic while still getting some well rounded ranks in Parry and a rank in Reflect without having to have the additional XP costs of an out of career specialization, while also having some talents that fit the overall theme.

7 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

If you take that path, you get 2 ranks of Intimidating, Supreme Scathing Tirade, Lead from the Back/Front, and Dedication. Then the miscellaneous ones from the top row. Looks pretty good for a pirate to me.

Something to consider then. I'll run it by my player to see if it gives her some interest.

1 hour ago, GameboyAK said:

FSO allows her to have Presence as her primary characteristic while still getting some well rounded ranks in Parry and a rank in Reflect without having to have the additional XP costs of an out of career specialization, while also having some talents that fit the overall theme.

I wouldn't think that's a big deal. She's not going to receive the same kind of training that would allow her to cherry-pick her favourite stat anyway. And if you did make some kind of mentor available in the story, just let her swap a 20XP Talent from some other tree.

Besides (and this is just a personal opinion worth little...) I think characters who don't have access to proper training (which means a mentor, a dojo, and LOTS of time) shouldn't have the ability to swap attributes...it's a bit silly to me that the game allows any such character to be almost as good as Yoda with a minimum of effort. If she really wants to be good with a lightsaber, spend the XP and get those 5 ranks...that's nothing to sneeze at, even with low Brawn, and then it will actually feel like she earned it rather than relying on a stat that makes her great right out of the box.

3 hours ago, whafrog said:

I wouldn't think that's a big deal. She's not going to receive the same kind of training that would allow her to cherry-pick her favourite stat anyway. And if you did make some kind of mentor available in the story, just let her swap a 20XP Talent from some other tree.

I have to disagree with that. For one, there will be the opportunities to learn about the Force and lightsabers throughout the campaign. Yes, she won't receive the same formal training as a traditional Force user, but that's all the more reason this particular tree makes sense. Every lightsaber tree is hyper dedicated to combat with a lightsaber with that particular characteristic, whether it be Brawn, Agility, Willpower etc. So by going with any of those, it would give her access to abilities that... nobody has really taught her. Not to mention, any tree that isn't universal is already going to suck an extra 10XP for being out of career, whereas this tree is universal.

3 hours ago, whafrog said:

Besides (and this is just a personal opinion worth little...) I think characters who don't have access to proper training (which means a mentor, a dojo, and LOTS of time) shouldn't have the ability to swap attributes...it's a bit silly to me that the game allows any such character to be almost as good as Yoda with a minimum of effort.

Again, this tree has bare bones lightsaber abilities. 2 ranks of Parry, 1 rank of Reflect, no improved versions. Even the flavor text of the Outcast designates this as someone outside the realm of formal training. As for changing stat to suddenly be as good as Yoda, that I suppose really depends on your point of view of achieving this. We have decided this to be the last spec of her core build for a reason, as it will take a long time for her to build up to this sort of skill. Not to mention, stat wise, she is still nowhere near Yoda's skill since none of her trees offer any sort of difficulty upgrade/melee defense bonuses or unique lightsaber skills. I do agree that spending the XP on the skill wouldn't be a bad alternative, but having it stuck on Brawn for literally no reason at all doesn't sit well, especially when someone of smaller stature and not physically strong can obviously tell focusing on powerful strikes would not be their best way to learn sword fighting. That's why the separate forms have their own trees in the first place.

If she wants to get dedicated training before or after this spec, that's her choice, but this order seems the most efficient to try and achieve her end goal.