My character is a Fringer/Scout, and I'm considering buying down the righthand column of the Fringer tree to get Dodge. The problem is, it's REALLY expensive, and I was wondering whether others have found it to be worth the cost. After never listening to the recent "Isn't That Special" segments on the Order 66 podcast, where they question whether certain 10 and 15 XP talents are worth their cost sometimes, I'm starting to second guess how I'm valuing talents.

I've got Toughened already, so it'll be a 60 XP journey for just the first rank in Dodge (85 for the second). Durable was something I would pick up anyways, so no problems there, but Knockdown is an absolutely pointless talent (you can already knock enemies prone for 3 advantage according to the table, and besides that I have 2 Brawn and no ranks in Melee or Brawl). That's 20 XP just to unlock the Dodge ranks since it's something I'll never use. And 25 XP is already pretty expensive for Dodge.

Is it something that's worth sucking up because it's the only way to get Dodge, or is that XP better spent elsewhere?

I can use that XP to bring FOUR skills from rank 2 to 3 (more likely 3 career skills and Ranged Light). Or even substitute one of those for a 2nd rank in Streetwise + Street Smarts.

Combat is not my primary focus, but last fight we were in I got one-shot by a group of 2 stormtrooper minions from behind cover, and it'd be nice if THAT didn't happen as often. It just seems like most characters should pick up at least 1 or 2 defensive talents sooner or later...

Explorers have interesting build concepts and it really depends on what your build is. If you're going for more of a combat based role in your group, the I'd suggest getting dodge, or else the 1-Shots are going to happen more. IF your character isn't really built for combat, you may want to stay back and in cover, only supporting your group. If that's the case, dodge isn't necessary.

Your GM shouldn't be constantly picking on non-combatant characters and the one-shots shouldn't be happening often, or else that's just not good GMing.

You could buy Assassin specialization and get one leve lof Dodge. It will cost you 30 to ge the tree, but you'd already have to burn 20 just to get to Dodge anyway. You could also get another rank of Grit if you wanted.

It would also give you access to a few other skills that you might find useful.

You could also get Merc Soldier and take Side Step and Second Wind. Again, that'd toughen you up and open some other skills if you wanted to diversify.

Definitely good suggestions if you want to make your PC more into a combat oriented role in your party. Let me ask alien270, what is your 'role' within your group and what are your career skills?

My Assassin (with a thiefly bent) loves her dodge. I"m working my way down the tree to get a second rank in it.

Definitely good suggestions if you want to make your PC more into a combat oriented role in your party. Let me ask alien270, what is your 'role' within your group and what are your career skills?

Assassin would be good if you wanted to get combat oriented, but I think the Merc would be good either way. It has a swath of Leadership talents that can be a boon to party members. You'd pick up Discipline, Gunnery, Leadership, and Ranged Heavy. Discipline and Leadership are great skills for a Scout to have. I might seek GM approval to take Ranged Light>Heavy so that I could make use of a holdout pistol if push came to shove. Gunnery is kind of loss, but nothing's perfect. Might be worth dropping 5XP for a rank in it if the group sees a fair amount of space combat, I don't know.

Ok, so a few more details. It would actually cost me 40 XP to buy into Assassin, because I've already taken a second specialization (Scout). Considering that I would be taking Durable eventually anyways, the XP expenditure for gaining Dodge in my own talent tree (45 XP) is exactly the same. Granted a 5 XP Grit is pretty tempted, but I already have 2 ranks in it, and considering my 2 ranks in Rapid Recovery + 3 ranks in the Cool skill, I'm pretty much set as far as Strain is concerned. There are a couple of other nice low XP Assassin talents, but the big disadvantage is that it's easier to get a SECOND rank in Dodge via the Fringer tree.

As for my role in the party...well, Fringers are supposed to be jacks of all trades, right?

In all seriousness, I find I have to cover a lot of different bases. I'm PRIMARILY a Pilot (space AND planetary)/Astrogator (sucked up that entire sub-tree in Fringer as fast as possible), as well as the most socially-focused PC in the group (primarily Cool and Negotiation, but with 3 Cunning and a single rank making me the go-to for Streetwise and Deception). I also dip into Knowledge skills when I have some spare XP, as a 3 Intellect gives me a pretty solid base and I have a lot of them as career skills.

The rest of the party is pretty specialized. We've got a Droid Mercenary Soldier who has bought pretty much the whole "shoots things" side of the talent tree, and recently got Dedication. He really can't do much else, and is a little bit of a glass cannon. The Wookiee is a Mechanic/Slicer, and he's spent most of his XP on talents, and pumping up Mechanics and Computers, ignoring most everything else. He has no ranks in combat skills save for his free racial rank in Brawl, and he doesn't even carry a gun (he has a few times, but every time he picks one up it either gets confiscated, stolen, or lost; bad luck, mostly). He's great in the engine room, though. Finally, there's a Marauder/FS Exile who has spent a lot of XP on just getting all of the force powers, including some of the upgrades in both Influence and Sense. He's got Coercion covered, but the group mostly lets me do the talking.

In ship combat, we're pretty well-balanced. In personal combat, the Droid dominates, with the FS Exile being pretty good as well (he can certainly take the most punishment). The Wookiee is pretty good at choking things, but strain is his achilles heel with a low threshold and low Discipline and Cool, so he can't take as many extra maneuvers and a lot of his Advantage are spoken for (reducing strain).

For my part, my Fringer's fine offensively (considering the non-combat focus). I can use two maneuvers almost every turn since I'm awesome at managing my strain economy, I carry both a blaster pistol and a light blaster pistol (though I rarely opt to dual wield them), and I like to keep some stun grenades on hand for when things get desperate. Just 1 rank in ranged light, but I can usually aim even after ducking under cover. Best case scenario, my swoop bike or another unattended ground vehicle is in reach and I run people over.

Defensively, another problem is that if I take a critical injury nobody's very good with Medicine, and my Resilience is a whopping 2 green dice. So we end up spending credits on medical care. It's not even that we get into fights all that often. We try to avoid combat when possible. But when it happens, anything that can challenge the Droid (and the FS Exile, to a lesser extent), is pretty deadly for me.

I'm a little confused. Are you trying to build a combat character or a pilot?

Because trying so hard to figure out dodge makes me think you want to be a combat character.

Where as instead of doing assassin tree (more combat) you could go Pilot in Smuggler tree which would be far more useful for what you want to do then debating on how to spend the least amount of xp to get a generally worthless dodge for combat you're not going to be in the thick of anyway.

Ask your GM to replace knockdown with something else. Talent makes absolute no sense to a fringer.

If I was GM I'd probably give you something that increases the effectiveness of cover. As a Fringer you have often seen and are aware when **** is about to hit the fan. Call it 'Bad Feeling' or 'Duck n Cover'.

I'm a little confused. Are you trying to build a combat character or a pilot?

That's a fair question for the entire Explorer Career.

I'm a little confused. Are you trying to build a combat character or a pilot?

That's a fair question for the entire Explorer Career.

Explorers can realistically be anything. They provide a sound starting point, but what they excel in is definitely Athletics and movement (Astrogen as well). They typically aren't combatants, but can be. They combat moves deal more with evasion and crowd controlling over proficiencies in damage dealing. They can scale to high places easily and use makeshift objects quite well

I'm a little confused. Are you trying to build a combat character or a pilot?

Because trying so hard to figure out dodge makes me think you want to be a combat character.

Where as instead of doing assassin tree (more combat) you could go Pilot in Smuggler tree which would be far more useful for what you want to do then debating on how to spend the least amount of xp to get a generally worthless dodge for combat you're not going to be in the thick of anyway.

Well, I guess trying to figure out whether or not Dodge is worth it represents me trying to build a character who, while combat isn't a primary focus, isn't a liability in combat either. To put it another way, I haven't seen Dodge in action as none of the other PCs in my group has it. Is it effective enough to be worth so much XP?

Believe me, I already debated long and hard about buying into the Pilot Specialization. In short, the reason I decided against it was because it's not exactly a space-focused campaign, either. We'll go 2-3 sessions without seeing space combat, and with the entire piloting sub-tree plus Shortcut from the Scout tree I'm pretty good already. I'd love Natural Pilot, and another rank in Defensive Driving and Skilled Jockey, but I can shore up the lack of those talents simply by buying more ranks into the Piloting skills, without having to spend 40 XP just to buy the Pilot specialization, plus go further down into its talent tree.

With Master Starhopper and Galaxy Mapper Fringers are also arguably the best Astrogators in EotE, and Astrogation generally gets used more in our campaign that actual Piloting rolls. I spent a lot of XP early on to get pretty good in the cockpit, and given how heavily specialized the rest of the party is I could stand to diversify a little. Besides, I actually PREFER playing diverse characters to specialized ones, so I'd like to be able to do more than just fly the ship.

Dodge is one avenue I could pursue. Otherwise, I will probably buff the social and knowledge skills a little more.

If your Wookiee has good Intelligence (and I'd hope 3-4 for a mechanic/slicer) just get him a full med kit, that should help with that at least a little.