Beast Rider

Of the 8 Career Skills, choose 4 to get a free rank. Of the 4 Specialization Skills, choose 2 to get a free rank.

Ace Career Skills: Astrogation, Cool, Gunnery, Mechanics, Perception, Piloting (Planetary), Piloting (Space) and Ranged (Light)

Beast Rider Specialization Skills: Athletics, Knowledge (Xenology), Perception and Survival

Many worlds in the galaxy are too backward, too poor, or have environments too extreme to support modern vehicles. Sometimes, instead of spending credits to adapt a speeder to the cold or create a filter that can keep sand out of a repulsordrive, it is simply easier to use a native mount that has evolved and adapted to local conditions for untold millennia.

While most any being can ride a trained mount, it is the Beast Rider who can break in wild mounts and train them. Once he has trained a mount, the skilled Beast Rider can coax his mount to perform incredible feats, even in the heat of battle. The Beast Rider is also something of an outdoorsman, and is a valuable member of a team with or without his creature companion.

Beast Riders might be expert riders on a single type of mount or experienced creature wranglers who have spent time with all manner of riding creatures. Most cultures and militaries, despite the broader reliance on modern machinery, still rely heavily on mounts. The Imperials ride lizard-like dewbacks on desert worlds like Tatooine, while the Rebels famously saddled up tauntauns on Hoth. Indigenous cultures throughout the galaxy depend on Beast Riders, including the bantha-obsessed Tusken Raiders of Tatooine and the ruping riders of Onderon.

Unlike their fellow Aces, the Beast Rider is at home outdoors, where he can feel the wind on his face. He fits in just as well with the soldiers and scouts of the Rebel Army as with his fellow Aces in starfighters and speeders.

The Rebellion often assigns Beast Riders as scouts at Rebel bases and outposts, conducting patrols and setting up advance defenses and other contingency measures to prepare for potential Imperial discovery. When an Imperial or one of his allies spots creature tracks, he might think it belongs to a wild creature—whereas, if he sees vehicle tracks, he is very likely to investigate. In battle, mounted cavalry might not be quite as fast, agile, or heavily armed and armored as its mechanized counterparts, but it has several advantages. Creature mounts have better camouflage, more mobility in close quarters, and in battle, Imperial vehicles often ignore them outright.

Most groups can benefit from a Beast Rider in their ranks. The Beast Rider is second only to the Spy career's Scout specialization in matters of wilderness survival and guerrilla warfare. His ability to traverse difficult terrain, capture and train indigenous mounts, and locate food and shelter are critical to a number of Rebel mission profiles. Further, should a team member crash land, or otherwise become stranded, a Beast Rider might be critical to their very survival.

Potential Backgrounds

  • Entertainer: Beast Riders come from the world of rodeos and derbies, where mounted riders compete in a variety of challenges that have their origins in ranching. A Beast Rider with an entertainment background might have flown in Bespin's Sky Rodeo, or taken the galactic cup at the Chandrila Equinoid Derby. Beast Riders pressed into military service are valued members of mounted cavalry units. Their ability to bond with mounts uniquely suited to some of the galaxy's more extreme environments is a critical component of defensive patrols and hunting parties on worlds where traditional vehicles are unavailable or impractical.
  • Prototype Tester: Beast Riders are rough-and-tumble outdoorsmen that prefer a living, breathing mount to a high performance vehicle. Beast Riders with a tester background often represent experienced ranchers who specialize in breaking in wild beasts to train them as mounts for less experienced riders.
  • Bush Pilot: Beast Riders rule on worlds full of farmers too poor or primitive to have access to modern vehicles. Instead of vehicles, these riders spend their days with pack animals, mounts, and other creatures domesticated and trained as beasts of burden. Beast Riders from the bush might spend long trips daydreaming about riding their brave mount into combat, targeting rocks and trees as they race by as if they were lethal enemies.
  • Clone Wars Veteran: Beast Riders were instrumental in turning the tide of war on many contested planets during the Clone Wars, notably Onderon and Utapau. Mounted cavalry proved time and again throughout the conflict that given the right environments, a living, breathing mount can keep pace with modern technology. This fact proved instrumental during the Clone Wars Battle of Ryloth, where Cham Syndulla and his freedom fighters augmented Republic mechanized cavalry with Twi'lek warriors mounted on blurrgs. Together they liberated Ryloth from Wat Tambor and the Techno Union.
  • Imperial Defector: Beast Riders with academy training are often troopers trained as mounted cavalry. These specialized troops ride various types of mounts throughout their training, so that they can take the reins of any mount, be it the ray-like thranta, the reptilian dewback, or an insectoid lava flea. For the most part, mounted cavalry is reserved for planets with native creatures already well-suited to that world's extreme environments. In these specific climates, the local mounts frequently outperform mechanized vehicles.
  • Criminal: Beast Riders with a history of crime were usually marauders and raiders on primitive worlds. However, con artists might also prefer a live mount to a vehicle. Their marks are far more likely to underestimate them as ignorant nerf herders if they show up riding an eopie instead of a polished speeder bike.