Here's a few unusual things I expect to come up in my home game with this particular Thief character whom I suspect will buy into Doctor later. I wanted some advice on it, as there's precious little in the core book about it.

Throwing Knives/Darts: There's precisely nothing in the Core Book on the subject of thrown weapons that are not grenades. How would you guys rule someone throwing a knife or a dart filled with poison or other actual weapon?

Injecting someone against their will in combat: Same poison dart, but this time jabbed into an enemy's leg/arm/etc by hand in mid combat. Standard Melee check? Improvised Weapon?

Can you guys think of any more unusual combat tricks that are not covered or are covered in too little detail by the book?

Throwing items uses Ranged (Light). If they are exceptionally large items, I might consider having them use Athletics instead, since chucking a giant boulder or a door at someone has come up in my games more than you'd imagine it would.

Generally, if you are using something to hit someone with, it uses Melee. If you are using something that augments punching someone, or hitting them with some kind of natural attack or natural attack augmentor (like punching daggers, katars, claws, etc) use brawl. But most things, like beer bottles, needles, and chairs, uses Melee.

If one of my players wanted to throw a knife, I'd use the Combat Knife base stats, say it had short range and use the Ranged (light) skill.

Stabbing an enemy with a poison delivery system... if it was a poison-coated knife, use the Melee skill and knife stats. Anything not made to be a weapon, like a syringe or an auto-injector would count as an improvised melee weapon.

Throwing items uses Ranged (Light). If they are exceptionally large items, I might consider having them use Athletics instead, since chucking a giant boulder or a door at someone has come up in my games more than you'd imagine it would.

You've got a Wookiee player don't you my friend? And it's the same guy that plays the barbarian in your D&D games too, isn't it?

Off topic for a second, I think some day I'm going to make a Wookiee, and when the theif can't get the door open I'm going to offer to use a "Wookiee lockpick" and proceed to bash the door open.

Injecting someone against their will in combat: Same poison dart, but this time jabbed into an enemy's leg/arm/etc by hand in mid combat. Standard Melee check? Improvised Weapon?

I would rule this as an improvised weapon (no extra damage) with a "Poison coated" quality. The quality can be activated by using 2 advantages. The quality itself could be treated as Burn (but with a Resilience check to get rid of) or Stun (if the poison is paralytic).

I've been considering this too, as my doctor did express an interest in using poison or anesthetic in combat. He's not particularly Melee proficient. Is there any validity to allowing a Medicine or Knowledge check, with the same difficulty as a combat check, to represent him knowing where exactly to stick a needle into someone?

I've been considering this too, as my doctor did express an interest in using poison or anesthetic in combat. He's not particularly Melee proficient. Is there any validity to allowing a Medicine or Knowledge check, with the same difficulty as a combat check, to represent him knowing where exactly to stick a needle into someone?

I don't see it helping, in fact it could make it even more difficult as it implies that if there are good places to stick said needle then there are bad places as well, probably more bad places than good ones. Regardless you still would have to not only hit those places but be able to inject the poison...

Also keep in mind that a needle isn't a knife, you don't have a useful edge so only a solid puncture of a couple cm is going to be effective (you have to get it deep enough into muscle to get it into the bloodstream). And if it is a knife then you still have to get enough of the poison off the blade into the target, which also means a solid cut. But this is all a bit "realistic", and different types of poisons/drugs will requite different.... blah blah blah...

Yeah, kinda what I was thinking too. Between that and the prohibitive cost (Anesthetic is the cheapest at 35cr a pop, I think) he'll just have to settle for a blaster. Maybe if a poison dart weapon is introduced down the road we'll look into that as an option.

Use the rules for the tracker dart?

I've been considering this too, as my doctor did express an interest in using poison or anesthetic in combat. He's not particularly Melee proficient. Is there any validity to allowing a Medicine or Knowledge check, with the same difficulty as a combat check, to represent him knowing where exactly to stick a needle into someone?

I don't see it helping, in fact it could make it even more difficult as it implies that if there are good places to stick said needle then there are bad places as well, probably more bad places than good ones. Regardless you still would have to not only hit those places but be able to inject the poison...

Also keep in mind that a needle isn't a knife, you don't have a useful edge so only a solid puncture of a couple cm is going to be effective (you have to get it deep enough into muscle to get it into the bloodstream). And if it is a knife then you still have to get enough of the poison off the blade into the target, which also means a solid cut. But this is all a bit "realistic", and different types of poisons/drugs will requite different.... blah blah blah...

I'm with FuriousGreg, though for partially different reasons. There are Talents in the Doctor's tree (Pressure Point, and Anatomy Lessons) which grant combat bonuses due to medical knowledge. Both of those still require a successful attack roll to use.