TheSagaContinues

Long story short: in Italy (and in Argentina too actually) the upcoming Episode 7 will premiere on the 5th of January 2016, one month later than in the rest of the Known World where it'll be in cinemas from the 18th of December 2015.

As for me, I'm quite lucky. I've got Italian friends in London and I can just pay a visit and watch it there with them, although my English listening isn't perfect and I could use at least English subtitles especially if there is any peculiar accent.

Here in Italy we dub movies, but that's not the reason for the delay. As we discovered some days after the announcement the distributor of the new Checco Zalone's Christmas Movie (more on this later) had already booked a huge amount of slots in cinemas, Disney Italy didn't want to clash with it probably fearing low viewership and pushed the release.

Some context information, feel free to skip: long are gone the days of good Italian movies, nowadays the highest-grossing films here are the Italian made trash-comic Christmas movies (cinepanettoni). Checco Zalone is slightly better than what we had years ago, but still falls in that category and his last film broke a few grossing records. Also here movie distribution works by everyone piling onto the same film and follows arbitrary rules like "no one goes to the cinema in certain periods of the year" and that's why we get delays like with Guardians of the Galaxy for example.

An online petition has been created to try to persuade Disney Italy to align the date with the rest of the world or at least, like someone suggested, let the fans have the English version in cinemas for a premiere just on the 18th, to not hurt viewership when it will get finally released a month later.

You're thinking of Desperate Gambit from S&V p.21 that once per turn lets you reroll a miss at the cost of -2 to Ref or -5 in case of a natural 1.

I think the best bet would be a light armor, whoever wants a medium version could just enlarge it and get more upgrades (probably what the hw expert is going to do)
When I did something similar for my DoD group I used the (rad)stormtrooper stats (+6 Ref / +(4)2 Fort / +3 maxdex) which I find very powerful, added some standard equip that most of them were going to have anyway (we already saw a trend in the presented build on what people are going to get) and then leave one upgrade slot for customization.

I'm gathering info on the setting at the moment, but will probably need some help with specific things in an eventual background.

I'll post a first draft of the Mission Specialist.

Spoiler (hover to show)

Medium near-Human scout 1/soldier 5/scoundrel 1/gunslinger 1/officer 1/vanguard 1
Init +13; Senses Perception +12
Languages Basic, Bocce, Military Sign

Defenses Ref 31 (flat-footed 28), Fort 32, Will 31; Evasion
hp 104; second wind +26/52, 2 per day; Threshold 32

Speed 6 squares
Melee +14 (2d6+10)
Ranged +15 (4d8+7)/ +16 (4d8+8) with Point Blank Shot
Base Atk +10; Grp +13
Atk Options Assured Attack, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Trigger Work
Special Actions Indomitable, Personalized Modifications, Quick Draw, Shake it Off, Tough as Nails

Abilities Str 16, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 10
Talents Armored Defense, Deep-Space Gambit, Evasion, Improved Armor Defense, Indomitable, Personalized Modifications, Tough as Nails, Trigger Work
Feats Armor Proficiency (light), Assured Attack, Galactic Alliance Military Training, Grand Army of the Republic Training, Improved Defenses, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Rapid Shot, Shake it Off, Weapon Focus (pistols), Weapon Proficiency (advanced melee, heavy weapons, pistols, rifles, simple weapons)
Primary Skills Athletics +13, Endurance +13, Initiative +13, Knowledge (tactics) +12, Mechanics +12, Perception +12, Pilot +13, Stealth +18

As a weapon, inspired by sienn_sconn, I devised the following:

Spoiler: All Purpose Gauntlet (APG offensive) (hover to show)

Start Merr Sonn 434
Strip stun setting and miniaturize to use as integrated equipment
Normal  (1 slot) = dual gear vibroblade
Tech Spec (1 slot) = Improved Energy Cell

As armor in the stats I'm wearing a Radtrooper Armor with shadowskin and integrated equipment, I'd like to use the rest of the integrated equipment like an APG (utility) to have in the other hand with stuff like liquid cable and glowrod for example.

I'll get into final formatting and calculation once the build is definitive and generally approved.

Some explanations: the build is quite durable and trained in heavy weapons to fill in for hw specialist, has Mechanics that requires training to be used to fill in for the C. Eng., is a good non CT shooter with Personalized Modifications to fill in for the sniper and has Knowledge (tactics) and levels in Officer to fill in for the Intell Off.

As I said I avoided ET Exotic Weapon Mastery to not become a walking arsenal and differentiate from the hw spec. (btt I can rework the build to get it if required so). I got Vanguard so it can become a scout and Gunslinger so it can become the non sniper shooter MA was talking about.

Couple of questions: I still have to choose a Near Human trait to replace a trained skill, any suggestion? (I still have the option to get some Exotic prof with that like flamethrower) I picked Personal Modification to be a good shooter with different weapons, but I was tempted to get Fool's Luck or Knack. Are you ruling that P. M. has to be used at the start of each encounter or is it something you can do in your spare time? Are you using the daily or the encounter version of Knack?

One last thing, regarding equipment: I liked the idea of the APG to have hands free to use any specific mission equipment, but I really liked MA idea of giving everyone a standardized armor. In that case the character could just use a rifle.
 

Now I think I understand better what you meant.

I was thinking about using pistols anyway with the Mission Specialist. Stealth is a nice concept, but it kinda doubles with the sniper and to be honest I find quite difficult to build a character with the stealth resources in Saga. The generic garrote user would be probably the best solution, but I don't personally like it's concept and it might end up being quite overpowered in the end.

I'll try to post something later.

For me it was just that the Melee Specialist was down on the preference list just above the CE/Slicer.

I'll have some questions later to see if I can wrap up a Mission Specialist build.

I was talking about adding further effects to already very rare circumstances, like a B1 blowing a couple of Mace Windu's fingers when hitting him or Yoda dropping his lightsaber when missing a protocol droid (something that alone has already an extreme low chance of happening).

Just one quick question about rules, does the full BAB extend to prestige classes that have obvious Scoundrel/Scout prerequisites like Infiltrator?
(poor Soldiers)