Creating Effective Characters

NOTE: When investing points into Attributes, try to end up with even values - when an attribute's modifier is being determined, the formula rounds the value down (ex. Wisdom 16 or 17 both give a Wisdom modifier of +3).

Also, when creating your character, it is good to invest at least 2 points into each attribute (making all five of them 10), then invest the rest however you like. This avoids any negative modifiers based on attribute values.

Strength

• Adds modifiers to melee damage and your chance of hitting (this is called "Attack") a target with close-combat weapons (anything from a stun baton to a lightsaber)
  
• Decreases chance of an enemy passing their Fortitude save when hit by Critical Strike (resulting in more reliable stunning capability for the player character - although, critical chance of a weapon is just as important to stunning enemies)
  
• This attribute is important for Guardians

Dexterity

• Increases your Attack for ranged weapons and grenades
  
• Increases your defence, making it more difficult for enemies to hit you
  
• Heavier armours will have a "Max Dexterity Bonus" which, as the name suggests, cap your effective Dex bonus to a very small number (heavier armours tend to give great defence, but if you are a running a high Dexterity build and wear heavy armour, you will find that ranged attacks don't hit as well and your Reflex save will not be as high)
  
• Your Dexterity modifier adds to your Stealth skill value
  
• This attribute is important to many builds (ranged, stealthy, tanks), but is not recommended for close-combat melee builds
  
• The Finesse feat can be taken to use your character's Dexterity modifier for the attack bonus - The dex mod will only take effect if it is higher than your strength modifier.
  
• The Finesse feat can be taken for melee weapons and lightsabers (two seperate feats)

Constitution

• Increases health (note: player class also determines how many vitality points are earned per level)
  
• Increases fortitude save
  
• Important for tanky builds
  
• Determines what level of Implants a character can equip
  
• Good to invest in early on (if you are new to this game, it would be recommended to start the game off with 12 or 14 Constitution)

Intelligence

• A high intelligence increases the amount of skill points you recieve during character creation and how many skill points you recieve per level
  
• The intelligence modifier adds to Computer Use, Demolitions, and Repair
  
• Modifies reliability of a stun when using Sniper Shot (in the same way Strength is used in Critical strike)
  
• different classes will recieve different amounts of skills upon level up (Sentinels and Scoundrels recieving the highest, while Soldiers and Guardians recieve the least - higher values of intelligence will not modify this by much)

Wisdom

• Increases how many force points you gain per level (the same way constitution increases health)
  
• Wisdom modifier improves Awareness, Security, Treat Injury, and your character's Will save
  
• A high wisdom makes your force powers more difficult for a target to resist
  
• Recommended for characters whose tactics are based on force use

Charisma

• Charisma modifer improves the Persuade skill
  
• Having a high charisma reduces the cost of using force powers from the allignment opposite to yours (ex. a light side character using Lightning would cost a lot of force points unless they had a high Charisma)
  
• A high charisma value will gain your more Influence when talking to followers
  
• Increases companions' chances to hit with their attacks

NOTE: the force power Force Valor boosts attribute values for your whole team - I highly recommend it for any build. As it is a light side power, dark side characters may find it very costly to use; however a high Charisma value will lessen the cost.

High Ranged Damage
This build focuses on a character who has crazy damage output, but doesn't really focus on much else. Bring a party member who is force based to focus on healing and using buffs like Force Valor.

• Class/Prestige: Guardian, Weapon Master
  
• Attributes: Dexterity, Intelligence
  
• Skills: Treat Injury, Persuade
  
• Feats: Sniper Shot (aim for highest level asap), Close Combat for blasters, Blaster Pistol Specialization, Two Weapon Fighting (all ranks, even into Weapon Master prestige)
  
• Amour: Robes/Armoured Robes/Light Armours (you want your Dex bonus to be very high, wearing heavier armours will lessen your bonus), Regen Health upgrade - this is good for all builds
  
• Weapons: Two blasters: 1) your main-hand one being your most powerful blaster you can attain at your point in the game (be sure to throw all the good mods into this one); 2) your off-hand blaster can be a copy of your main (but that can be expensive to acquire), but it is good to keep blasters suited to special enemies in your inventory and swap them out when needed (like Ion blasters)
  
• Other: Modify your blasters to give them the "Keen" or find ones that have a good critical threat range (ex. 20-20 is the lowest, whereas 16-20 is great). This combined with Sniper shot will could give you a critical threat range of 11-20 (effectively a 50% chance to stun), then the Fortitude save the target will have to make will be difficult thanks to the high Intelligence modifier. Enjoy steam-rolling enemies!

Good Ranged Damage / Tank
A variation on the build above, better recommended if you enjoy soloing or are playing on higher difficulties.

• Class/Prestige: Guardian, Weapon Master or Watchman (your choice)
  
• Attributes: Constitution, Dexterity
  
• Skills: Treat Injury, Persuade
  
• Feats: Rapid Shot, Toughness, Two Weapon Fighting, Blaster Pistol or Rifle Specialization (your choice)
  
• Amour: Medium or Heavy, upgraded to increase Max Dexterity Bonus
  
• Weapons: Any type of ranged weapon you want, just remember to stay versatile.
  
• Other: Thanks to your high Constitution, you can get some sweet implants that boost your dexterity

^ ^ These two builds can substitute ranged weapons and ranged proficiencies for melee equivalents easily (blasters replaced by swords, dexterity replaced by strength, etc.)

Force-Nuker
Sneaky and can eliminate whole groups quickly. This is a late-game build, as it requires the Watchman/Assassin prestige to do absurd damage.

• Class/Prestige: Consular, Watchman/Assassin (your choice)
  
• Attributes: Charisma, Wisdom
  
• Skills: Stealth
  
• Feats: Toughness, any feat related to force powers. The Watchman/Assassin's Sneak Attack (you will get this just by selecting either prestige)
  
• Amour: Robes
  
• Powers: Insanity, Storm, Valor, Plague, Kill
  
• Other: Activate Valor, Stealth, walk up to a fight, target an enemy with Storm, then Insanity, then Storm again. Not all situations allow you to cloak, but cloaking is just icing on the cake for this build. Plague and Kill are for wrecking bosses once the minions are dealt with.

Solo Build
The focus here is to roll a character who can fight well, and is good with skills.

• Class/Prestige: Sentinel (IMO best starting class - see section below on class comparisons), Weapon master/Marauder (late game combat capabilities)
  
• Attributes: Primary: Wisdom, Constitution. Secondary: Strength or Dex, Charisma
  
• Skills: Treat Injury (you gonna be healing lots), Stealth (to walk past unnecessary fights), Demolitions (gather enemy mines and sell, use money to buy Medpacs), and whatever you cannot live without (I personnaly don't use Awareness much at all, but Computer Use would be handy to eliminate some fights / make fights easier)
  
• Feats: Avoid feats that boost skills and make skills class skills (they are not priority), but select ones that boost your survivability (Conditioning, Toughness, Armour Proficiencies (the one place where being a sentinel does not help)) and combat prowess (feats that boost ranged stuff or melee stuff depending on whether you went str or dex)
  
• Armour: Heavy all the way. That defence is pretty important. Although, reanged builds will have trouble due to the low max dex bonus. Considering that, I recommend going melee for this build (plus range only gets really good late game - melee is always just good)
  
• Powers: Area of effect powers (scream, lightning) to kill off little guys en masse, Plauge and Kill for the big guys, and most importantly, Force Valour and Heal.
  
• Other: Use Adsrenals, you'll need that boost. Also, this is going to be an expensive build to maintain (buying grenades (USE THESE OFTEN), meds, adrenals, shields, etc), but you can make good money buy making basic energy shields at a work bench for 1 component and sell them for 16 creds each (this is the most efficient cost per return crafting option in the game and can be done very early on).

Class comparisons:

Guardian:
10 Vitality / Level
1 skill point / level
4 force points / level
Class Skills:
Awareness
Demolitions
Persuade
Treat Injury
11 Feats by level 20

Sentinel:
8 Vitality / Level
3 skill points / level
6 force points / level
Class Skills:
Awareness
Computer Use
Persuade
Security
Stealth
Treat Injury
10 Feats by level 20

Consular:
6 Vitality / Level
2 skill points / level
8 force points / level
Class Skills:
Awareness
Persuade
Repair
Treat Injury
7 Feats by level 20

Weapon Master / Marauder:
10 Vitality / Level
1 skill point / level
6 force points / level
Class Skills:
Awareness
Demolitions
Persuade
Treat Injury
9 Feats by level 15
16 Powers by level 15

Watchman / Assassin:
8 Vitality / Level
3 skill points / level
8 force points / level
Class Skills:
Awareness
Computer Use
Persuade
Security
Stealth
Treat Injury
7 Feats by level 15
16 Powers by level 15

Master / Lord:
6 Vitality / Level
2 skill points / level
10 force points / level
Class Skills:
Awareness
Persuade
Repair
Treat Injury
6 Feats by level 15
21 Powers by level 15

Be sure to check out the comments, others have posted good tips!