Saga Edition new player help

[RavensLand]

Does anyone have some general tips for new players to this system? If like to play a tanky party buffer (probably soldier/noble) but j haven't been able to settle in a race or anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Nerd-o-rama]

EDIT: the below got kind of advanced and specific. If you're looking for more general advice...

1) Use cover
2) There are a lot of different ways to accomplish any given goal in Star Wars Saga, so don't let the glut of options overwhelm you. Pick something that sounds like it synergizes well with your mechanical goals, then pick something that sounds like it synergizes well with that, etc.
3) Defenses scale faster than attack bonuses, especially at early levels with armor and late levels with prestige classes, but they start out lower than skill bonuses that often make rolls against your Will Defense. If you need to choose between buffing your Will Defense and buffing your Reflex Defense, the former is probably the better option unless you're just fighting waves of battle droids or stormtroopers.
4) If you're fighting an enemy Force User, either bring your own Force User or a buttload of grenades.

Soldier/Noble is probably your best bet if you want to absorb fire and help people, yes, or potentially straight Soldier if you focus on Commando talents. It's not something that lends itself to a particular species, although Zygerrians (Galaxy at War 17) are good for minmaxing both Constitution and Charisma. Officer is your obvious choice of Prestige class, so make sure to pick up training in Knowledge: Tactics and either use one of your Soldier talents on a Commando talent or one of your Noble talents on a Leadership talent. Starting Soldier gets you armor proficiencies and 12 more HP, but starting Noble gets you three more skills (including all the social ones being in-class), so consider whether you want to go armored (requires an investment of at least two Soldier talents to be effective) or if you want to be more of a face. Noble has some nice Talents that run off of Persuasion.

For a tanky build I might suggest, for the first seven (pre-Prestige Class) levels:

Zygerrian Noble 1/Soldier 6
Noble 1: Linguist, Weapon Proficiency (Simple, Pistols), Martial Arts IBonus, Point-blank Shot, Born Leader.
Soldier 1: Armor Proficiency (Light), Harm's Way
Soldier 2: Precise Shot, Stand Tall (Galaxy of Intrigue 29)
Soldier 3: Armored Defense
Soldier 4: Skill Focus: Persuasion
Soldier 5: Open Feat, Improved Armored Defense
Soldier 6: Open Feat

Inspire Confidence is technically better than Born Leader, but Born Leader synergizes with several Officer talents. You can swap the first Soldier and Noble levels for 12 HP, Armor Proficiency: Medium and Weapon Proficiency: Rifles at the cost of 3 trained skills (and needing to take Skill Training: Persuasion as one of your bonus feats, or from boosting Intelligence to an even number at level 4 if you're ever going to use Harm's Way). The choice is yours, and yours alone.

Use the two open feats depending on what your situation is. Fighting a lot of Force Users? Unstoppable Force and Improved Defenses. Need to deal more damage? Rapid Shot and Weapon Focus: Pistols or Weapon Proficiency: Rifles. Want even more Ref and Fort Def? Armor Proficiency: Medium and Heavy (wear a jetpack to fix your mobility issues in that case). Feel like talking people into submission? Silver Tongue and Intimidator.

This build overall is designed with a general theme of drawing enemy fire, causing most of it to miss thanks to your Ref Def scaling much faster than enemy attack bonuses, and thanks to Stand Tall, giving your whole team a potential free attack whenever someone does hit you.

From here you can mix Officer (group buffs) and Elite Trooper (tanking) to your hearts content.

[Mando Knight]

If you're starting with Noble, you could also take Draw Fire, since you'll have the chance to train in Persuasion and Will is usually the lowest defense for non-Force-Using combatants.

[RavensLand]

Thanks fr both of the replies. I'm still weighing the con bonus vs a bonus feat if I go human, but I have a better idea of how I want to build my character now. I'm going to take that first level in noble for the better skill options and bonus to drawing fire once I take a soldier level. However one of the talents I had been looking at as noble was bolster ally because it seemed like a nice boon for when people are hurting. Is it something that doesn't come up often?

[Nerd-o-rama]

If you're starting with Noble, you could also take Draw Fire, since you'll have the chance to train in Persuasion and Will is usually the lowest defense for non-Force-Using combatants.

I actually meant to say Draw Fire. Always get that and Harm's Way confused. Harm's Way is good if you start Soldier and don't train or Focus Persuasion, though.

Bolster Ally is good as a pinch-healing ability since it's one of the few ways to move someone else up the Condition Track in battle. I prefer Inspire Confidence or Born Leader because they're useful every single combat, and +1 Attack is very important in SAGA, but Bolster Ally will come in handy too. The main reason I suggested Born Leader specifically, though, is that it synergizes with Deployment Tactics, a prerequisite for most of the good Officer talents that is itself pretty mediocre. Then again, that synergy is really just "this stacks with Born Leader even though it's the same kind of bonus", but whatever, there's plenty of good Noble Talents so pick what you like.

[RavensLand]

If anyone cares I've worked out what will likely be my final build for level one.
Zabrak noble
Str 8 dex 12 con 14 int 13 wis 12 cha 14

Born leader talent and improved defense feat

The build took a bit of a turn towards a kind of combat medic so I've invested in a medical kit and medpacs. Level two will still be soldier but I might go back for two more noble levels for bolster ally or inspire confidence depending on how the game goes.

[Nerd-o-rama]

That's not a bad basis for a combat medic, although I notice that's only a 19 point-buy on abilities. Please don't tell me your GM is making you roll stats for Star Wars in the Year of Our Common Era 2016.

While you're taking Soldier levels (I don't recommend bodyguard talents as a combat healer, but armor could prove very useful), make sure to pick up the Battlefield Remedy talent (Galaxy at War 21), since that lets you restore HP and Condition with one First Aid check. And of course, you'll obviously want to seriously consider the Medic prestige class (Force Unleashed 54) if you're serious about healing and not just doing it as a sideline to shooting.

[RavensLand]

That was a 25 point buy out of the core rulebook. Up to 14 is 1 point for 1 stat.

And I'll have to look around for those other books, they seem to be buried in different places.

[Mando Knight]

That's not a bad basis for a combat medic, although I notice that's only a 19 point-buy on abilities.

It's 25, I double-checked his math.

[MeeposFire]

Never mind math does not work out.

[Philistine]

Another very nice Talent for a combat medic, especially early on, is the Noble's Exceptional Skill (Galaxy of Intrigue p21). This greatly improves your odds of success on Treat Injury checks, which is something you will desperately want in the early levels.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Maybe I forgot how to use a calculator...anything's possible with me lately.

[RavensLand]

Another very nice Talent for a combat medic, especially early on, is the Noble's Exceptional Skill (Galaxy of Intrigue p21). This greatly improves your odds of success on Treat Injury checks, which is something you will desperately want in the early levels.

So with that talent, if I took skill focus (first aid) I'd have about a +13 to my check and would pass essentially every check so long as I didn't nat 1, or are there some differences from dnd that make it harder in saga?