Quote:
Originally Posted by CarrionPeacock
That's helpful to make long falls survivable, but how often does that come up? If it's uncommon, the thief wasted 10 points on it. If it's common, the other characters that didn't get it is in deep trouble. If the GM puts only the thief in a situation it would be useful then picking the advantage only served to bring trouble.
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These arguments apply to almost any advantage that will save or protect someone from some kind of ill-fortune. If only one person has Danger Sense then sooner or later putting the party in situations where it's worthwhile will get the others who don't have it killed because they're surprised. The same applies to Combat Reflexes, for that matter, and the reason we don't generally worry about this is that combat is common and expected in a lot of games.
The real question is whether 10 points of Catfall is worthwhile in a game where falling is reasonably common compared to 10 points spent in other ways that can also mitigate falling damage. It can buy DX+1 in Acrobatics with 2 points spare, which might be better given acrobatics' other uses. It can buy half of a basic Gliding ability (and both are exotic, so availability should be about the same). It can buy DR5 (Tough Skin), which helps with falls (though not as much as Catfall) and with all sorts of other mishaps as well. It can go towards Luck or Serendipity, which also work on a great many other problems (but may not be available when you fall, so aren't a perfect solution).
Looking at all those other ways of spending points that also help against falls, Catfall is probably overpriced. Not because what it does isn't strong - only the Gliding is clearly as good vs falls, but because Catfall is
only effective vs falls.