STEP VI: INVEST EXPERIENCE POINTS

Experience is the primary means by which players customize their characters. Each Player Character starts with a beginning pool of experience points which can be used to improve aspects of the character. As they progress in Force and Destiny, PCs receive additional experience which also can be spent to improve themselves.

STARTING XP

Characters begin with a budget of experience points based on their species. The experience points used during character creation are the same as experience points received during play. If a player chooses to spend fewer experience points during character creation than their budget, those points carry over into the game, and the Player Character starts with more experience points to spend once the adventures begin.

Players may spend experience points in the following ways to improve their characters. These are also detailed in the table below, or on page 102 of the Force and Destiny Core Rulebook.

IMPROVING CHARACTERISTICS

During character creation, raising a characteristic to the next highest rating costs ten times the value it is being raised to. For example, raising a character's Brawn from 3 to 4 would require 40 experience points.

Each improvement must be purchased sequentially. This means that raising a character's Brawn from 3 to 5 would cost 90 experience points: 40 for raising it from 3 to 4, then 50 more for raising it from 4 to 5.

During character creation, no characteristic can be increased to higher than 5. During the course of play, no characteristic can be increased above 6. Characteristics may only be purchased with experience points during character creation, not at any later time. (During gameplay, however, characteristics can be increased by purchasing specific talents.)

SKILL TRAINING

Each skill has five ranks of training available. A character may have already acquired one or more ranks of skill training from a starting career and specialization for free. Characters may train additional skills and gain additional ranks during character creation. However, it is important to note that regardless of any species or career bonuses, no skill can be raised higher than rank 2 during character creation unless specifically stated otherwise.

The cost for training skills falls into one of two categories: career skills and non-career skills. The character should have check marks next to a number of skills based on starting career and specialization.

Training a career skill to the next highest rank costs five times the rank to which it is being raised. For example, training a career skill from rank 0 (untrained) to rank 1 requires 5 experience points. Improving a rank 1 career skill to rank 2 requires 10 experience points. Each rank must be purchased sequentially. This means that acquiring a rank 2 career skill during creation costs 15 experience points (5 for raising it from zero to rank 1, then 10 more for raising it from rank 1 to rank 2).

A character can also purchase ranks in non-career skills. Each rank of a non-career skill costs five times the rank it is being raised to, plus 5 additional experience points. For example, training a non-career skill from rank 0 (untrained) to rank 1 requires 10 experience points. Improving a rank 1 non-career skill to rank 2 requires 15 experience points. Each rank must be purchased sequentially. This means that acquiring a rank 2 non-career skill during creation costs 25 experience points (10 for raising it from zero to rank 1, then 15 more for raising it from rank 1 to rank 2).

Characters may purchase ranks in skills during character creation or later during gameplay.

ACQUIRING TALENTS

Talents are acquired from characters' available talent trees, which are generally provided by their career. Talent trees provide a unique format for purchasing talents that comes with several rules and restrictions.

Each specialization talent tree has four columns and five rows. This means each talent tree has a total of twenty talents that players may purchase. The cost of each talent depends on the row it occupies. The talents in the topmost row are the cheapest, costing 5 experience points each. The next row's choices cost 10 experience points each; the third row costs 15; the fourth row costs 20; and the fifth and final row's choices cost 25 experience points each.

Note that the choices on each tree are connected by a series of lines that link some talent choices with others. Characters may only purchase talents for which they are eligible. Characters are eligible to select any talents in the topmost row, plus any talents that are connected via one of the aforementioned links to a talent the character has already acquired.

When selecting talents on a talent tree, remember that each selection on the tree may only be purchased once. In the case of ranked talents (talents that may be purchased multiple times and have effects that stack the more times they are purchased), the only way to purchase them multiple times is if there are multiple selections of the same talent on the available talent trees. In some cases, a character may have already acquired a talent in one specialization, but needs to purchase it again in another specialization in order to reach further into the tree. If it is a ranked talent, the character must purchase it again (gaining another rank in the talent). If it is not a ranked talent, they count as already having purchased it, and they may continue to proceed through the second talent tree.

Characters may purchase talents during character creation or later during gameplay.

BUYING FORCE POWERS

Force powers - as distinct from Force talents - are described more thoroughly in Chapter VIII: The Force, starting on page 282 of the Force and Destiny Core Rulebook. Characters do not begin with any Force Powers, but they may purchase them using experience points during character creation or later in gameplay.

ACQUIRING NEW SPECIALIZATIONS

Each character starts with a single specialization with in their chosen career. However, the player may purchase access to additional specializations.

Purchasing a specialization means basically that the player may buy the ability to purchase talents within that specialization. Also, each specialization has four additional career skills. These skills now count as career skills for the character (although the PC does not gain free advances in rank in them, as with a first specialization). Characters may purchase any specialization in any career.

Purchasing an additional specialization within a character's career costs ten times the total number of specializations they would possess with this new specialization. So, a character with one specialization could purchase a second career specialization for 20 experience points. If they wished to purchase a third career specialization, it would cost another 30 XP.

Characters may also purchase additional specializations outside of their careers. Purchasing non-career specializations costs ten times the total number of specializations the character would possess with this new specialization, plus an additional 10 XP. So, a character with one specialization could purchase a second non-career specialization for 30 experience. If the PC has two specializations already, a third specialization that is also a non-career specialization would cost another 40 experience.