The reason why we have some characteristics at 1 is, we use the ready-to-go chars which were included in the starter box. Anyway, thank you for your answeres. It seems to me we definitely need the core rulebook. :-)

Greeting's

Ben

I understand the OP.

I know that the lower trait for a given skill (attribute vs skill rank) determine how many yellow dice you roll but it is a 100 times more dificult to raise attributes with the current system than it is with skills.

With the current system one needs to spend most of his starting XP to get attributes as high as possible at the start of the game instead of focusing on skills. That on itself is a Min-Max situation because it forces a player that wish to have a good dice pool at the start of the game to focus on attributes.

Just my two cents.

Rise! Rise from the grave!

There have been numerous threads on buying attributes both during character creation and after. The book tells you that your only time to buy them using XP is at creation. After that it is only through the buying of the Dedication talent. You will also see that there are many people that are on both sides of the fence on how necessary it is to up your attributes at character creation. Personally I've seen both ways used and neither strikes me as being largely better than the other. Both ways have yielded enjoyment in the game.

I have just see that thread on a google search list on the matter and I though of give my two cents on the matter.

As an aside to this discussion I have not experienced players running for the dedication talent thusfar... And I have been GMing this game for a while now.

Also, I think Dedication is a great talent but in almost all the talent-trees there are 'better' -for lack of a better word- options available.

There has been a lot of thread necromancy of late. I'm thinking that's a good sign for the product with a lot of new players coming on board.

I do think people get caught up in the mix/max stat trap thing. The game should be played as a nice slow long term thing. It scales so nicely it's a crime to rush it with a min/max PC.

In addition I tend to default towards maybe a 66-75% initial xp split. You end up tending to use a few skills, so going hog wild on a single stat or solely stats isn't necessary to me. Some of the Talent trees have some really nice low hanging fruit that are good to begin play with I think.

I tend to play a human, but it really would go for any race anymore, I go for a trio of 3s to start, and then grab either some skill ranks, some attractive talents, or buy straight into another spec tree to acquire some skills as career skills off the bat. Just depends on concept and type really. Doesn't make for an OP PC, but it does allow a level of competence I tend to like.

Rise! Rise from the grave!

Correct! To my knowledge, you could get it once per specialization tree!

That means that, with an infinite amount of experience post character creation, you could raise your attributes by a combination of 19 points!

(6 careers with 3 specializations, each with one Dedication, PLUS the Force Sensitive tree, which also has Dedication.)

This also lets you get your score to 6 instead of 5, which is the character creation max. I really like that addition as well. It is harder to raise stats after character creation, but it can be more rewarding.

I feel like Yoda would of been at that point at the end lol...

BUT!

One of the other most common threads is the "high level characters are too powerful" thread. My group played it by the book and 1000+ xp later, we didn't have that problem.

I hear that spending starting xp on attributes described as minmaxing often enough but the book actually says that this is probably the choice to make so it's designed to be this way while still giving you the choice to do it differently. In a short, one night game, spending points on skills might be better, for instance, and the rules support it.

Mouthy merc said the right thing, though. If your group is having fun, then whatever you do is right... unless you disallow ewoks and gungans. Then Stormtroopers will come to your house and disappear you.

I will allow Gungans, but not Ewoks or Jawas. Who can I expect to visit?

I will allow Gungans, but not Ewoks or Jawas. Who can I expect to visit?

Storm-woks infected with the Death Trooper plague.

I will allow Gungans, but not Ewoks or Jawas. Who can I expect to visit?

Storm-woks infected with the Death Trooper plague.

And they're hungry! "YUM YUM!"

.

I will allow Gungans, but not Ewoks or Jawas. Who can I expect to visit?

Jeez, I dunno. The loony bin?

"The main clarification i need is, if i have astrogation at rank 1 and the related characteristic at 1 too, does it make sense too spend xp in order too increase the rank to 2 or will this be a waste of XP?"

Your total dice pool will only ever a 5 (6 with Cybernetics).

So if you start with an Astrogation Skill of 1 and a Related Skill (Intellect ?) of 1, your starting Die Pool would be 1 Y

When you raise your Skill it will progress as follows:

Rank 2: YG

Rank 3: YGG

Rank 4: YGGG

Rank 5: YGGGG

You will be more likely to get successes at a Skill rank 2 then you would with just a Yellow alone. As you raise your Intellect, you would be upgrading 1 Green to a Yellow each time you did so.

I would never consider increasing a dice pool to be a "waste of XP." Unless it's for a pool that is literally never utilized in your group, or you're already so awesome at it and now you're just being silly*. If it makes a character more capable at anything, go for it.

*The rating of silly is highly subjective and mostly an opinion anyway.

Hmm. So that's how a double post happens. My bad.

"The main clarification i need is, if i have astrogation at rank 1 and the related characteristic at 1 too, does it make sense too spend xp in order too increase the rank to 2 or will this be a waste of XP?"

Your total dice pool will only ever a 5 (6 with Cybernetics).

So if you start with an Astrogation Skill of 1 and a Related Skill (Intellect ?) of 1, your starting Die Pool would be 1 Y

When you raise your Skill it will progress as follows:

Rank 2: YG

Rank 3: YGG

Rank 4: YGGG

Rank 5: YGGGG

You will be more likely to get successes at a Skill rank 2 then you would with just a Yellow alone. As you raise your Intellect, you would be upgrading 1 Green to a Yellow each time you did so.

In order to succeed at a check roughly 2/3 or 3/4 of the time, your dice pool should exceed the difficulty pool (before boost/setbacks) by 2 dice.

Once your ranks have exceeded the relevant stat, XP spent becomes much more valuable -for that skill only-. The reason is every additional rank results in an additional die.

That said, I find ranks 4 and 5 in a skill to be very hard to justify. There are almost always better things on which to spend 20 and 25 XP than the final 2 ranks in a skill (again, IMHO).

That said, I find ranks 4 and 5 in a skill to be very hard to justify. There are almost always better things on which to spend 20 and 25 XP than the final 2 ranks in a skill (again, IMHO).

The Enforcer player in my game would disagree. He's quite thrilled with YYYY, and the occasional YYYYG when he uses Enhance on his Brawn

That said, I find ranks 4 and 5 in a skill to be very hard to justify. There are almost always better things on which to spend 20 and 25 XP than the final 2 ranks in a skill (again, IMHO).

The Enforcer player in my game would disagree. He's quite thrilled with YYYY, and the occasional YYYYG when he uses Enhance on his Brawn

A Gambler loves those Yellows on Double or Nothing. The more the merrier....

That said, I find ranks 4 and 5 in a skill to be very hard to justify. There are almost always better things on which to spend 20 and 25 XP than the final 2 ranks in a skill (again, IMHO).

The Enforcer player in my game would disagree. He's quite thrilled with YYYY, and the occasional YYYYG when he uses Enhance on his Brawn

I think what he's getting at, and I tend to agree, is that a PC generally gets more benefit from 2-3 skills at 3 Ranks than one skill at 4-5. This doesn't mean that a PC shouldn't have a 4-5 Ranked Skill, just that you're better off getting more Skills up to 3 Ranks for most of the PC's career then focus on a few when your opposition becomes enough of a threat that it's necessary.

I think what he's getting at, and I tend to agree, is that a PC generally gets more benefit from 2-3 skills at 3 Ranks than one skill at 4-5.

Ah, agreed.

That said, I find ranks 4 and 5 in a skill to be very hard to justify. There are almost always better things on which to spend 20 and 25 XP than the final 2 ranks in a skill (again, IMHO).

The Enforcer player in my game would disagree. He's quite thrilled with YYYY, and the occasional YYYYG when he uses Enhance on his Brawn

Yup... my Barbarian 'Heavy' in our Conan re-skin absolutely loves YYYY or YYYYG (also an Enhance Brawn user)... although he's hopeless in most social situations, which our GM loves to abuse me with.

But that's what Barbarians are for.

Having said that, while I'm in agreement that a PC is 'better off', especially in Star Wars, with more skills at 2-3 Ranks, than with fewer skills at 4-5... a certain level of focus is important. Not only does the character get to shine in their field, but it absolutely requires that other characters get their moment in the spotlight. If everyone is competent at most things, then no one gets to shine... which just isn't as much fun.

And lets be real. It's a game... it's supposed to be fun.

So, theoretically, could you raise an attribute to 7 with a couple ranks in Dedication and cybernetics? I know the Dedication description says that "this cannot be used to raise an attribute above 6", but cybernetics have no such limit, as far as I understand it.

Cybernetics lets you raise a characteristic to 7, which is the hard cap.