So I'm having an issue creating a droid character. My hang up comes under the "Special Abilities" section where it states that the character may train 1 rank in 6 of the 8 career skills (instead of 4) and that upon selecting their specialization the character may train 1 rank in three of their 4 specialization skills.

What exactly does this mean because its really not that clear. Does it mean that I can spend XP on 6 of their class skills, because I haven't read anywhere in the book there there is that restriction on any other character. And with the second part, do you get 1 free rank in 3 of the specialization skills or how does this work?

I also took a look at the free character CH-1 on the website and tried to reverse build the character, but xp in it is disproportionate to what a starting droid character would have (175xp). In Characteristics alone it looks like its got 220xp, so I can't trust the character build to help me.

Any help would be appreciated.

All races except droids get 4 career skills and 2 bonus specialization skills during creation, a free rank in what you select. Droids get 6 and 3 respectively, so they get more. You don't spend xp on it at creation, those skills you just select.

I see, that makes sense, so its just free ranks, then you spend XP.

Thanks for the help

You are correct sir and you are welcome.

On a related note: Droids start with more Xp but have lower stats. So from a build efficiency stand point they seem to work best for characters that are built around a single good Stat. They get more skills, that doesn't seem to be able to be very diverse because you have to pay so many points to just get your stats back to even 2. Add that to the fact that it can be very difficult to raise stats after the game starts, Droids seem to be a little underpowered unless you want to totally go the other way and power game them.

On the flip side, obtaining cybernetic upgrades just cuz they're cool is no big moral/story leap at all with droids like it can be for organics, so for the price and effort you can add +1 to Brawn, Agility, and Intellect, which takes away some of the sting of limited attribute upgrade possibilities.