I'm currently AFB but from what i remember it seemed like presence was the least useful of the characteristics. It is used for some of the social skills but even several of those use other characteristics like deceit (which i believe uses cunning). Am i missing something?

Presence has the most social skills attached to it, namely charm, leadership and negotiation.

it also has a very valuable skill called Cool linked to it. If you don't wan't to get the jump on combat, or don't like a good chance at recovering strain at the end of the session, by all means skip taking presence.

For the Politico, I'd say Presence is all-important. Just take a gander through that talent tree to see how they can put it (and the skills attached to it) to use.

Yes very much so.

Well if your GMs campaigns our your play-style is ´kick in the door, kill everything that moves and ask questions to the dead' i d say it is a redundant attribute. However i hope you find the way to a uber-social character in the future, theres nothing more rewarding than to manipulate npcs around you with quick wits and a winning charisma

Well if your GMs campaigns our your play-style is ´kick in the door, kill everything that moves and ask questions to the dead' i d say it is a redundant attribute. However i hope you find the way to a uber-social character in the future, theres nothing more rewarding than to manipulate npcs around you with quick wits and a winning charisma

and don't forget the ladies.

Depends on the type of campaign your GM is running.

if it's primarily a series of combats with little social interplay, then Presence isn't all that useful, since the social skills (Charm and Negotiation) aren't that useful. Leadership might be useful in such a campaign, but you're likely better off just increasing the skill than increasing Presence itself. But for a campaign that's light on combat but heavy of social interaction, then Presence is incredibly useful, with Cunning being a close second.

For most campaigns (featuring a solid mix of the two), I'd say you really wouldn't need more than one person to focus on Presence and social skills. Having one person be the "face" of the party is good, though a second character that's also got some ranks in a few social skills isn't bad to have as a back-up in case the party splits or the party face is otherwise not available at a given scene.

Oddly enough, not one of my four core players has a Presence under 3.

Even the wookiee, who sees himself as a leader type. The smuggler is a scoundrel, the FSEx is a Politico, and the droid is a former protocol model.

Guess they remember how brutally I punish players who use Charisma as a dump stat in D&D

Presence/leadership/command(rank 2/field commander/improved field commander). With 5 presence and 5 skill in leadership

Allows you to make a 5 proficiency dice roll with 2 bonus rolls against 2 difficulty to give 10 people the ability to get 2 (3 if you use strain) maneuvers each and every round, a triumph upgrades this to an extra action. If you take the first slot this coild be used to give , for example, a free aim maneuver or an extra attack before most of your opponents can act. This could give melee characters time to get up close, fragile characters time to get out of range, etc.medics can move about the combat area and still use other maneuvers or use a stim pack.

Edit: Even at lower levels of skill 4 presence and 2 leadership is enough to give 8 people the same benefit, 2 in 12 chance of a triumph to get an extra action, not bad for a character that you can start with.(a bit one trick pony, but you could start with 3 presence to use 40 xp elsewhere, or even drop improved as well to leave 60 xp)

Is shooting a diplomat useful during a negotiation?

Imperial?

Supreme Inspiring Rhetoric is Presence: Leadership based. If you haven't read about, might be a good time to check out the Politico tree and see this amazing talent. (Not as amazing in 2-3 player groups probably, but we have 5 and it's awesome)

Supreme Inspiring Rhetoric is Presence: Leadership based. If you haven't read about, might be a good time to check out the Politico tree and see this amazing talent. (Not as amazing in 2-3 player groups probably, but we have 5 and it's awesome)

Our Politico character has this talent and when he pulls off a good roll, it is pretty amazing. I have a hired gun: merc soldier, but I went more selfish with my talent choices so far...point blank, side step, natural marksman, sniper, etc. I'm gunning for the dedication talent (which I will likely use to upgrade Presence!), and then I can go back and take the command/field commander track...