Character Skills and You!
The Importance of Skills in Character Development
Skills are the backbone of a character’s effectiveness in *Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game*. They directly influence how well your character can perform a wide variety of tasks, from flying starfighters and negotiating peace agreements to surviving in wilderness environments. When spending experience points (XP) to level up these skills, it’s important to think carefully about your character’s role within the party and the challenges you expect to face.
Investing XP too broadly may result in a character that is a jack of all trades, but a master of none, whereas specializing in a select few skills can make your character highly effective in certain scenarios, but vulnerable in others. Balancing your choices between combat skills, social interactions, and practical proficiencies ensures that your character can not only contribute meaningfully to the group but also fits into the overall narrative you wish to explore. Each skill advancement brings your character closer to their full potential, and choosing skills that align with your character's background, story, and future goals can provide both mechanical benefits and rich roleplaying opportunities.
How to Spend XP on Skills
When spending XP on skills in *Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game*, players need to follow a few key steps and understand the associated costs. Each skill is rated from Rank 0 (untrained) to Rank 5 (expert), and when you upgrade a skill during character creation or gameplay, the cost to increase it depends on two factors: whether the skill is a career skill for your character, and the rank you are upgrading to. For career skills, advancing to the next rank costs (5 × the new rank) in experience points (XP). For example, if you are raising a career skill from Rank 1 to Rank 2, it costs 10 XP (5 × 2). For non-career skills, the cost is (5 × the new rank) + 5. So, raising a non-career skill from Rank 1 to Rank 2 would cost 15 XP (10 + 5).
It's essential to note that XP costs scale as skills increase in rank, making it more expensive to specialize deeply. For example, to go from Rank 4 to Rank 5 in a career skill would cost 25 XP. As a result, it’s often wise to diversify at lower levels, but also keep in mind which high-level skills you may want to invest heavily into later. You also can’t increase any skill to Rank 6 or higher—Rank 5 is the maximum.
As a final consideration, skills are tied to your characteristics (like Brawn, Agility, or Intellect), and effective skill use benefits greatly from a high characteristic value. For example, having a high Agility will make your points spent in Agility-based skills (e.g., Ranged (Light)) more impactful, as more base dice will be upgraded to positive dice when rolling. This dynamic between characteristics and skills makes XP-spending decisions crucial, and balancing when to increase characteristics versus skills is an important part of building a well-rounded, effective character.
Table for Leveling Up Skills
Step
Action
1. Start
Decide which skill you want to level up.
2. Career Skill?
Determine whether the skill is a Career Skill.
3a. If Yes
Calculate the cost to increase the skill: Cost = 5 × (New Rank).
3b. If No
Calculate the cost to increase the skill: Cost = (5 × New Rank) + 5.
4. XP Check
Check if you have enough XP to afford the upgrade.
5a. If Yes
Spend the XP, and increase the skill rank by 1.
5b. If No
You don’t have enough XP, so save your XP until you’ve accumulated enough to upgrade.
6. Skill Upgraded
If successful, congrats! Your character’s skill has been upgraded to the next rank.
7. End
The process is complete. You can repeat as needed for other skills or wait until you're ready to level up again.
Complete List of Skills w/ Description
Standard Skills
| Skill | Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Astrogation | Intellect | Used to plot hyperspace routes safely and efficiently. |
| Athletics | Brawn | Governs physical tasks such as running, climbing, jumping, or swimming. |
| Charm | Presence | Used for persuasion, flattery, or winning people over with warmth. |
| Coercion | Willpower | Skill of intimidating or threatening others. |
| Computers | Intellect | Governs the use of computer systems, slicing, programming, and hacking. |
| Cool | Presence | Ability to stay calm under pressure. Used for prepared initiative and emotional control. |
| Coordination | Agility | Dexterity and acrobatic movements, such as balancing or dodging obstacles. |
| Deception | Cunning | Used for lying, bluffing, and misleading others. |
| Discipline | Willpower | Mental resolve, emotional strength, and resistance to fear or coercion. |
| Leadership | Presence | Ability to lead and inspire others in group or battle situations. |
| Mechanics | Intellect | Used for repairing and modifying mechanical systems, vehicles, droids, and starships. |
| Medicine | Intellect | Skill of treating wounds, illnesses, and performing surgeries. |
| Negotiation | Presence | Used for bartering, haggling, and reaching compromises in agreements. |
| Perception | Cunning | A character’s awareness of their environment, used to detect hidden elements or threats. |
| Piloting (Planetary) | Agility | Ability to pilot vehicles used on planetary surfaces, such as speeders, swoops, or walkers. |
| Piloting (Space) | Agility | Governs space vehicle operation, including starfighters and freighters. |
| Resilience | Brawn | Endurance and resistance to fatigue, poisons, and harmful environmental effects. |
| Skulduggery | Cunning | Skill of thievery, sabotage, and engaging in underhanded activities such as lock-picking. |
| Stealth | Agility | Ability to move undetected or avoid attention while sneaking. |
| Streetwise | Cunning | Knowledge of the criminal underworld and ability to gather information from the streets. |
| Survival | Cunning | Skill of living off the land, finding food, shelter, and enduring the wilderness. |
| Vigilance | Willpower | Alertness and readiness, used for unprepared initiative or noticing immediate dangers. |
Combat Skills
| Skill | Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Brawl | Brawn | Melee combat using fists or natural weapons. |
| Gunnery | Agility | Firing ship-mounted or vehicle-based weapons, such as laser turrets or missiles. |
| Lightsaber | Brawn (varies) | Wielding a lightsaber in combat. May use other characteristics based on specialization. |
| Melee | Brawn | Close-combat skill for handheld weapons such as vibroblades or axes. |
| Ranged (Light) | Agility | Firing small, one-handed ranged weapons such as pistols and blasters. |
| Ranged (Heavy) | Agility | Firing larger, two-handed ranged weapons like blaster rifles and sniper rifles. |
Knowledge Skills
| Skill | Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge (Core Worlds) | Intellect | Knowledge of the Core Worlds, their history, cultures, systems, and politics. |
| Knowledge (Education) | Intellect | General academic knowledge outside specialized fields, including science and arts. |
| Knowledge (Lore) | Intellect | Historic and mythological knowledge, including ancient civilizations or the Force. |
| Knowledge (Outer Rim) | Intellect | Understanding planets, systems, and factions on the Outer Rim of the galaxy. |
| Knowledge (Underworld) | Intellect | Knowledge about the galaxy's criminal organizations and black markets. |
| Knowledge (Warfare) | Intellect | Military history, battlefield tactics, and understanding of large-scale warfare. |
| Knowledge (Xenology) | Intellect | Understanding of alien species, their biology, cultures, and ecosystems. |
Force Skills
| Skill | Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Force Power Skills | Varies | Skills tied to Force usage such as Move, Influence, Sense, and Heal, from Force and Destiny. |
Career Skills vs. Non-Career Skills: Choose Wisely!
In Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, characters belong to specific careers and specializations that reflect their core competencies. Career skills are those that a character has proficiency in based on their chosen career and specialization. Non-career skills, on the other hand, are skills that lie outside the character’s primary area of expertise.
- Career Skills: These are skills tied to your character's background, profession, or role. - XP Cost for Career Skills:It costs 5 XP × (New Rank) to upgrade career skills.
- Non-Career Skills: These fall outside the scope of your character’s main abilities. - XP Cost for Non-Career Skills: It costs (5 XP × New Rank) + 5 XP to upgrade non-career skills—making them more expensive to improve.
Importance of Choosing Wisely
Focusing your experience points (XP) on career skills is both cost-efficient and strategically important. You can level up career skills at a much lower cost compared to non-career skills, which means you’ll be able to gain higher proficiency in the areas your character should excel in. While spending XP on non-career skills is sometimes necessary, doing so frequently can result in an inefficient build that doesn’t allow your character to specialize effectively.
If you over-invest in non-career skills, you might find yourself spread too thin, lacking proficiency in the key areas where your character should ideally shine.
Example 1: The Smuggler Pilot (Career - Smuggler, Specialization - Pilot)
A Smuggler specializing as a Pilot from Edge of the Empire might have the following career skills: - Piloting (Space) - Piloting (Planetary) - Charm - Cool - Stealth - Streetwise - Skulduggery
Skills like Piloting (Space) and Skulduggery are directly related to the Smuggler's profession and are key to excelling in their role. Since these are career skills, raising them from Rank 0 to Rank 1 costs just 5 XP. For example, increasing Piloting (Space) from Rank 1 to Rank 2 would cost 10 XP—a cost-effective way to continue honing key skills. However, if the Smuggler decides to become proficient in Medicine (which isn’t part of their core skillset), And since Medicine is a non-career skill. Each rank increase is more costly: - Raising Medicine from Rank 0 to Rank 1 would cost 10 XP, and - Moving from Rank 1 to Rank 2 would cost 15 XP.
Key Takeaway for the Smuggler:
Prioritizing career skills such as Piloting (Space) and Cool allows the Smuggler to improve quickly where it matters most, helping them perform better in their smuggling and piloting duties. Spending too much XP on non-career skills like Medicine could weaken their specialization and delay their progression in key areas of expertise.
Example 2: The Soldier Commando (Career - Soldier, Specialization - Commando)
A Soldier specializing as a Commando from Age of Rebellion has different focuses. Some of their career skills might be: - Ranged (Heavy) - Melee - Survival - Discipline - Athletics - Leadership For a Soldier Commando, skills like Ranged (Heavy) and Survival are vital because they allow the Soldier to survive in tough environments and fight effectively. Increasing those skills from Rank 0 to Rank 1 costs only 5 XP, making it faster for this character to become a formidable warrior.
However, if the Soldier needs to learn Computers (used for hacking or slicing), which is not a core strength, increasing Computers will be costlier because it’s a non-career skill. Going from Rank 0 to Rank 1 in Computers would cost 10 XP, and each additional rank would cost progressively more.
Key Takeaway for the Soldier:
By focusing primarily on career skills like Ranged (Heavy) and Discipline, the Soldier Commando can solidify their role as a combat expert, quickly becoming proficient in what they do best. Excessive investment in non-career skills like Computers will slow down their combat and leadership development.
The Role of Career Skills in the Party
Making effective use of career skills helps reinforce your character's intended role within the party: - Smuggler Pilot: Expected to be the expert on ship-to-ship combat, evasive piloting, and dealing with underworld contacts through skills like Piloting (Space) and Skulduggery. - Soldier Commando: Relied upon in battle, the Soldier leads from the front, employing Ranged (Heavy) and Melee to defeat enemies while using Leadership to guide their companions through difficult missions. By maximizing career skills, you ensure your character fulfills their role effectively, allowing for smoother interactions and greater contributions to the party.
Conclusion: Choose Your Skills Wisely!
When creating or advancing your character, it’s important to prioritize your career skills: - Career Skills: Cheaper to improve and critical to the character’s specialization. - Non-Career Skills: More expensive, and should only be leveled when essential to the ongoing narrative or survival of the party. By focusing primarily on career skills, you ensure that your character becomes efficient and powerful in their chosen area of expertise, giving them the edge they need to survive (and thrive) in the galaxy. Spend XP wisely, and your character will grow stronger in a way that aligns with their narrative arc and engages the group.