Kiero said:
So what does a shooter need? Are there multiple variations on styles of shooter? Is Dexterity the only thing a shooter really needs?
There's the pistol gunslinger, the tack-driving sniper, and the ZOMG oversized heavy weapons guy. A good sniper build tends towards knocking the target as far down the condition track as possible with a single shot from cover (dastardly strike, devastating attack, hunter's mark, and the gunslinger talent plus a lot of damage can drop three or four steps with an aimed shot, which should also get significant bonuses from careful shot and the like), and the HWG tends to focus on clearing clumps of mooks with autofire or AoE.
NB, heavy weapons skills translate directly to vehicle and ship-mounted weapons, and most of the non-weapon specific gun abilities do the same. That is, the HWG with the addition of the (small) number of things necessary to become a good pilot can be turned into a real fighter ace. Burst fire, rapid shot, multiattack proficiency (heavy), probably penetrating attack if one is aimed towards ships or vehicles.
What about a melee combatant? Are lightsaber-swingers a variant all of their own? Is anything more important than Strength?
Force-sensitive melee is very different from not. Unarmed builds revolve around the Master of Teras Kasi tree in Threats of the Galaxy, and thus require lots of Elite Trooper levels. Extra dice on attacks, ignore DR if you would overcome it, full unarmed attack as a standard action, and the like. Infiltrators also get up to +3 dice when stunning unarmed, and the combination is powerful. Late-blooming, though.
Running around with a power hammer or arg'garok also works fine (gladiator + elite trooper will help. To make full attacks, Pin the target first). If one is focused on strength, taking a number of the soldier armored talents will keep one alive longer. Think Powerful Charge + Juggernaut and possibly a jetpack. Dex builds can work fine, although that is another feat. OTOH, the guy that chops strength for dex is a lot better off with a blaster pistol than the other way around, and the general uses for strength (carrying things, skill bonuses) can largely be avoided with the use of fairly cheap gear. A labor droid can carry everything you need, as can the repulsorlift stretcher that comes in every medical kit. Jump or Climb? Unless you need it quiet, jetpack. If you do, small repulsorlifts are canonically almost silent.
Or a Force-user? Are there some Feats/Talents that are must-haves? Are some powers/Talent trees useless? Is Wisdom or Charisma more important?
Force Point Recovery is very sweet (and errataed to only be chooseable once). Mind Trick is just handy, as is Move Object. Having powers that strike all of the defenses is pretty important, although there's a lot less disparity between them than in D&D.
Is armour worthwhile for anyone? Or is it only valuable at low level?
Hilariously, armored defense (the talent) largely comes into use only after one can take improved armored defense. That is, by the time your level surpasses the armor bonus of reasonable armor, you could easily have taken IAD and gotten level + 1/2 armor instead. The fort save bonus can come in handy. If one isn't focused particularly on mobility, medium or heavy armor can work fine, especially armor modified with stuff out of Scum & Villainy. That can give all sorts of nifty bonuses. If you can get your Ref defense cranked out, the ability to draw fire will help keep your team alive.
What does the party-buffing/inspiring character need?
This...IDK. Obviously Noble and Officer, but eh? Some soldier talents work okay as well.
What are the essentials for a pilot?
Skill Focus: Pilot (or Skill Focus: Use The Force and Force Pilot), Vehicular Combat, and possibly a few Starship Tactics feats. If flying in a squadron, Harm's Way will allow you to draw a heavy hit onto yourself and Vehicular Combat can dissipate it. The NPC squadron members will eat the weaker fire, but, hey, shields. If you're flying a light freighter, *always* take Combat Thrusters. That -20 penalty on capital ship attacks will save your bacon, and if you're reasonably equipped you should be able to soak the downside of being dogfightable. Again, heavy weapons proficiency (or, say, Spacehound) is critical, as all ship weapons are in the heavy class. You can't use normal autofire, but you can burst fire/rapid shot.
What about a mechanic/tech character?
Aside from focus in the appropriate skills...some races get some very nice bonuses. Free skill focus, though, is not as useful as a skill reroll. Tech Specialist, Superior Tech, and Starship Designer if you really come into money are all handy. They are huge moneysinks, but as money doesn't really buy level-appropriate effectiveness like in D&D, it's not as big a deal.
Or a medic/healer?
A 2-1B? Slight joke, but really. Healing is powerful and fast compared to RL, but it's not compared to D&D. "Healer" is not a role, it's a shtick. Be capable of doing other stuff. Skill focus: Treat Injury, Surgical Expertise, a medical kit...and I'm not sure what else you need. The skill DC for surgery is only 20, and as one can take 10, a 2-1B will autosucceed (it has a +13). Alien races may help Bith, for example, get to take a natural 20 once per encounter with an Int-based skill...like Treat Injury, or Mechanics, Computer Use, Knowledge: Kumquats...
And so on and so forth. Anything you can think of that's relevant.[/QUOTE]
Generally, a splash of Scout for Evasion (and, if level 1, the most skills) is pretty schway. It's the equivalent of D&D improved evasion, and unlike in D20 modern where area attacks are rare, autofire is one of the key ways mooks can crunch real characters. An E-Web that's autohitting, even if for half damage, can really hurt. And its aim can be assisted by the stormie squad accompanying it (or they can all autofire on you individually, whatever). Most relevant abilities will carry over without much adaptation to starship combat (demand surrender works over a comm, for example). It will be hard going if nobody has Mechanics or Use Computer (especially the latter, IME). For cheap skill coverage, basic droids work fine.
Here are some examples, although some are a bit outdated (the errata guys were clearly watching that thread, and some of the builds were singled out for nerfing as perhaps they needed to be).
![[SWSE] The essentials of optimal character building | Dungeons & Dragons / Fantasy D20 Spotlight (2024)](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8/h8AAvMB+NzmkbcAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)