Warden

Of the 6 Career Skills, choose 3 to get a free rank. Of the 4 Specialization Skills, choose 2 to get a free rank.

Guardian Career Skills: Brawl, Cool, Discipline, Melee, Resilience and Vigilance

Warden Specialization Skills: Brawl, Coercion, Discipline and Knowledge (Underworld)

The Guardian begins play with a Force rating of 1

hether they wield the power of the Force consciously or not, Wardens know that they have been gifted with power. But more importantly, they know that they must wield this might to perform a necessary duty, subduing those who would abuse that same power to harm the Warden’s friends and allies. While Guardians of all stripes might be driven by a desire to create a fairer world, the concept of justice is especially important to Wardens. The job of punishing the wicked is frequently a thankless one, especially in the era of the Empire, when the ruling regime is so deeply corrupt. Many Wardens see this burden as inevitable; after all, it is their role to make sure that evil is stripped of the means to threaten their chosen allies, not to be loved for these efforts.

The Warden is unique among Guardian specializations in being focused specifically on weakening enemies rather than just bolstering allies. In some ways, this specialization is the mirror image of the Aggressor. Both wield fear as a weapon, but the Warden uses dread to weaken foes’ strikes rather than make them more vulnerable to attacks, and relies on counterattacking instead of striking first. What a Warden lacks in raw toughness as compared to a Protector or Armorer, this unique Guardian makes up for with the ability to control foes options by restricting their movement, inflicting strain upon them, and intimidating them into submission.

Wardens are suited to taking major roles on and off the battlefield, thanks to their specialization’s focus on Coercion. While using intimidation as a primary social tool can have consequences for a character’s Morality, many unnecessary fights can be avoided if potential foes are too afraid to draw their weapons against a Warden. In battle, Wardens shine in close quarters, where foes must approach to attack and thus suffer the consequences of engaging such frightening enemies. Wardens do what is needed to give their allies the best chance of survival in a harsh galaxy, and if this includes some unsavory tasks, so be it.

Potential Backgrounds

  • Ancient Order: Perhaps more than any other kind of Guardian, a Warden is often the manifestation of a code of conduct—not just its prime enforcer, but also a living testament to its power. If a Warden is an inheritor of a set of laws, the character might feel the need to apply them to the whole galaxy, dispensing justice upon any who violate the code. Of course, such a character can easily cross the line separating a protector of peace and order from a figure of dread and oppression. Those Wardens who wield their own absolute view of the law as a weapon are often drawn to the power of the dark side, and must ever be vigilant about slipping into tyranny.
  • Battlefield Leader: Wars take many forms, from vast naval conflicts that decide the fate of star systems to skirmishes between cartels and criminal syndicates over individual neighborhoods. A Warden might have been a leadership figure in a gang or criminal syndicate, the sort of dangerous figure whom others follow out of a mix of admiration and fear. A character with this background might need to learn to live as part of civil society or might turn these skills to an insurgency against the Empire.
  • Outlaw Agent: A Warden might have been a bounty hunter or an enforcer charged with a similar set of tasks. In the name of earning a living, the character may have captured a veritable rogue’s gallery of outlaws, insurgents, and enemy leaders. Naturally, crime bosses often want targets taken alive in order to send a message, so the character might have developed experience with methods of non-lethal capture. The character might have adhered closely to the bounty hunter’s code in pursuits, or might have operated outside of the accepted rules of the chase—and made enemies because of these transgressions.
  • Wayfarer: Even teams of itinerant smugglers, mercenaries, and scav￾engers need someone to keep their members in line, and a Warden is well-suited to that task. The character may have discovered an emergent sensitivity to the Force in the fear others display around the Warden, or through an extremely sharp ability to discern lies. A character of this sort kept the company of rough-and-tumble allies, and might be very suspicious of others, even after leaving that life behind. The Warden might need to learn the value of trust and opening up to others.