I’m looking to create a crew person to play in a Discovery-era game, who specializes in creating and modifying weaponry from phasers to demolitions to torpedos. My first thought is that they would be a Security character, but then I started thinking maybe Engineering, or even Science. Am I overthinking this?
Sounds like either someone with specialism in Security (maybe 4) and high in Engineering (3-4).
I’d be fine with them in either department.
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I’d say Engineering as best Discipline, Security second. - The main tasks would be around creating and modifying weapon systems, which is engineering.
Focus on Weapon Systems, or maybe more finely grained on Phasers, Torpedos, or similar fields should be a given.
And maybe some Talents that support this kind of engineering/modifying of weapon systems.
I’d say say the science behind this is rather light or common. But engineering and security are both justifiable for the character and you should have at least 4 in both disciplines.
If the character ends up as security or engineering depends entirely on the backstory. Tuvok for example was chief of security, but he designed unimatrix shielding. B’Elanna Torres was an engineer, but she modified the Dreadnought weapon. Arguably Voyager’s and the Maquis’s situations were a little different, but both engineering and security should work well.
Reminds me of Malcolm Reed. He created and modified early iterations of offensive and defensive technologies that would become ubiquitous throughout Starfleet. Sometimes he’d be assisted by Tucker, but not always. So, from looking at Reed’s stat block, I’d agree with @Sirok. I think a 4 in Security and then a 3 or a 4 in Engineering depending on what you want the other strengths and weaknesses of your character to be. If your ship is set up as a Technical Test-Bed then it might make narrative sense to go for a 4 in Engineering, but it’s up to you.
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I concur with @northrider – I also thought about Malcom Reed first, after reading the original post. He was in the Security Department. Since the character seems to focus on weapons technology (only?), I’d go for Security. If they could tinker with anything, but just ended up tinkering with weapons, I’d go for Engineering, instead.
Finally, I think @Shran is right: probably not a Science Department character. 
Thanks everyone!
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Late to the party but to my mind it’s really a matter of where his primary focus is.
Science would be coming up with the theoretical ideas to develop a weapons “well, quantun stated partical packets provide the most efficant way to deliver a burst of energy for this, so if we could develop a gun to shoot them we’d be able to deal the most damage”
Engineering would be taking this theoretical data and working with it in a practical way “well if we take this dohicky, add that thingamajob, and reverse the flow, we’re shooting quantum stated partical packets”
security would be using this weapon in the field “so… I shot it… it drifts left”
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