The Path Less Traveled is a semi-regular series in which I’ll be examining a single specialization from the Star Wars Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion/Force and Destiny lines of games. The purpose and hope is to take a look at a specialization that perhaps many players might overlook, or ones that are somewhat new to the game lines. We will look at strengths and weaknesses, synergies with other species and specializations, roles in a party, how to incorporate them into a campaign, and perhaps some uses which are not always obvious at first glance.
Sometimes during Fantasy Flight Games’s time of distributing new specialization books, I’ve been surprised by a few of the choices. Occasionally a specialization is revealed that isn’t quite clear as to how one might use the spec in a typical campaign. For me, one of those was definitely the Hermit. Now it’s easy to think of the most famous hermit in Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi. But beyond that a hermit, in a game where players can be anything they want as they blaze a trail across the galaxy, might not seem like the most fun option to play for a character.
But as usual FFG knows what they’re doing and they have laid out a fantastic specialization that, at second glance, makes for a great PC concept, has good synergy with many other specializations, and gives advantages no other spec can give you. So without further ado… the Hermit!
Species
Several species make themselves great Hermit builds. As Survival and Discipline are likely the go-to skills for a Hermit, Cunning and Willpower become smart things to focus on when choosing a good species that fits. Arconas, Bardottans, Caamasi, Dressellians, the Gand, and Ithorians make for characters strong in Discipline, among several others. Bothans, Chevin, Devaronians, the Gossam, the Gran, and the Shistavanen are species with high Cunning, making Survival a natural fit. Making sure there is a three and a two between Cunning and Willpower will give you a solid foundation.
Talents and Skills
The Hermit is found on pages 26-27 of Savage Spirits. It’s a Force and Destiny specialization from the Seeker career, which gives the PC a Force Rating of one to begin things. Because the Hermit is a Seeker, he can begin with career skills in Knowledge (Xenology), Piloting (Planetary), Piloting (Space), Ranged (Heavy), Survival, and Vigilance. As a Hermit he adds Discipline and Stealth and can take a second free rank in Survival and Knowledge (Xenology).
For the Hermit, Survival is a key skill, as some of his talents will key off of it. As far as the rest, Discipline is a good Force-user skill to have ranks in, and other than that it can really be geared towards what type of player you want to be. The Piloting and Ranged (Heavy) skills can make for synergy with a great pilot character, and one that can handle themselves in a fight just fine. They can sneak around with the best of them, and can catch folks sneaking up on them. So on top of these skills what types of talents does a Hermit have? You might be surprised when you look.
Animal companions were a large part of the Seeker book, and the Hermit takes advantage of this, with talents like Soothing Tone, Menace, Harass, and Animal Bond to help them not go it alone, having an animal friend go along with them. They have talents like Conditioned, Enduring, and four ranks of Grit to help them survive by themselves out in the wild. They have a couple ranks of Conditioned on the tree to assist them in Athletics and Coordination as well. But the real power in the talent tree is seen in some very specific talents.
First, Survival of the Fittest allows a person to use his ranks in Survival as his Force Rating, once per session. So imagine all you need is three Survival ranks, and you get Force Rating three when you need it. That’s a lot cheaper than diving for the Force Rating talents. Force Connection lets the PC use Force Points to add successes or advantage to any Survival or Knowledge (Xenology) check. But the real gem of the talent tree in my opinion, is the fact it has two instances of Force Rating +1 in the tree. The second one takes a bit to get to, as it’s on the third row and you have to come back up the first column. But once you reach the bottom row, within a few sessions you can have a Force Rating for three without diving into another specialization tree! And last, Shroud… a talent that lets a character be undetectable via Force Powers combined with Stealth and you have got a nasty infiltrator on your hands.
Specialization Synergy
Hermits have an extremely surprising amount of synergy with other specializations and character concepts. Several could round out any number of character concepts. All one need do is work in any part of their backstory where they lived alone for a while or needed to stay away and travel alone to explain the specialization. First, just about any Force and Destiny character looking to become extremely proficient in the Force should consider the Hermit. The two ranks of Force Rating almost make it worth it by itself. With a single specialization of the Hermit, you can be at Force Rating 3 if you fill out the talents. The 2nd rank of Force Rating is harder to get to but it’s still much less XP than buying a new specialization and heading for Force Rating. This, plus the narrative aspects of the Hermit would match up with just about any Force Sensitive that had a connection to the living Force, the outdoors, or the natural life around them.
A Force Sensitive Emergent and Exile could easily supplement their character builds with the Hermit talent tree. This could allow a Trailblazer, Big Game Hunter, or Beast Rider from the Age of Rebellion line a fun supplement, especially if one is an Emergent or Exile. Any of the outdoors-related Edge of the Empire character concepts can easily work supplemented with the Hermit.
But as mentioned above the real synergy with other specs lies in the Force and Destiny line. The entire Seeker line of specializations is an obvious choice. The Hunter, Pathfinder, and Navigator all fall in line quite easily. But if you’re looking for some creative pairings, you need not look that far. The Shadow from the Sentinel career specializes in Stealth, something the Hermit does quite well, especially with Shroud at his disposal. Perhaps combined with a Healer from the Consular career could create a powerful Force Sensitive medic for the team, and one that can easily get the party in and out of treacherous climates and outdoors areas. A Mystic Seer could easily create a Jedi type character that has learned in his solitude how to use the Force to see into the future, predict events, and stay in the shadows.
The Hermit is a specialization that every PC I’ve had so far has overlooked. I hadn’t completely taken a deep dive into the spec until prepping for this article after some requests from readers. So hopefully this has made you think twice about picking this unique specialization. Do any of you have some great Hermit builds or know of any? Do you have a character concept in mind you’d like to try the Hermit out on?
Scott Alden
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