Specify hard reference for BP Class

I have realized my gear vr app hitches on loading a particle system, maybe because is does not specify either a hard or soft reference to the particle system component upon viewing that BP class’s in the reference viewer. Pehaps I can make a class that extends pawn and add a UPROPERTY pointer field for mandating a particles system component and make this derived class the base class for my pawn BP? Perhaps there is another way to specify hard references for a BP class?