Quote:
Originally Posted by swarmyard
So far, I feel like he is a bit extraneous and I could make him more efficient. I am open to suggestions.
|
Well, right off the bat, you've got enough points in IQ-based skills that you could take a level out of all of the ones that you have more than 1 point in, and sink those points back into IQ. By my count, you've also got at least
close to enough in DX-based skills to do the same with that. I think if you take two levels out of Flail, instead of just one, you would end up with enough points, so I'd recommend doing that. In both cases, you'd end up with the same level in all the skills (except Flail), and have one higher level in the attribute, giving you better defaults and whatnot.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by swarmyard
I'm not sure how I feel about the custom talents I made. They seem unbalanced (within the rules of talents and the Power-ups talents book).
|
Personally, I don't think either are unbalanced. They seem like logical groups of skills that someone could believably have a native gift for, and neither break the rules for Talent pricing. Further, they're both very heavy on the IQ-based skills, which actually makes them weaker than average. Take Haedra's Legacy, for example. It's 10 points per level, and all but one of the skills involved is IQ-based. That means, when building a character, someone needs to choose between spending 20 points to get two levels of skill in 9 skills, or buying a level in IQ, and getting +1 to
all the skills IQ covers, which is a
lot more than just 9.
Personally, I feel Talents are actually quite reasonably balanced, and, in fact, could often use a bit of a power increase or point discount, if the large majority of their skills are covered by a single attribute.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by swarmyard
He has far too many skill points and I would like to whittle those down to a reasonable number for his age.
|
I wouldn't say he has too many skills, personally - I've definitely had GURPS characters with lots more skills than that. They tend to pick them up! And remember, in 4e, there's no "reasonable number of skills for his age" - points in skills don't need to necessarily be linked to time training or anything. They can represent things like natural talent or skills a character just learned
really easily, too.
All that said, if you really want to cut down on the number of skills, and you're willing to go more cinematic, you could look at wildcard skills. These (Basic, p. 175, and Power-Ups 7: Wildcard Skills, the whole book) essentially compress a bunch of skills into a single Very Hard skill that costs 3 times the normal amount, and serves to represent cinematic breadth of expertise.
For example, you've got a fair bit of points sunk into various skills covered by the Occult! wildcard skill (Power-Ups 7, p. 34). If you took the points you had in Alchemy, Current Affairs (Supernatural), Esoteric Medicine, Herb Lore, Hidden Lore (Faerie Lore), Literature, Occultism, Research, and Thaumatology, you'd have 21 points. That's enough to buy Occult! at Attribute+0 level, and have 9 points left over, mostly likely enough to do as I mentioned above and reduce the rest of your IQ-based skills by 1 and buy IQ up overall. Basically, you'd have most of the skills at the same level you do now, with only a couple one level lower. And you'd simplify your skill list a lot.