Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin
He's going to want his best combat skills at DX+2 or more. Just one pt in other DX-based skills might well be enough. If that's still too much use Dabbler.
As to why custom Talents are bad it's not so much that they're "bad" as they are _whiny_. "I want a character who's good at a lot of DX-based Skills without having a high DX and I want it to be cheap too! So change the rules until I can get what I want!" irritates me.
There's usually a better, simpler answer elsewhere in the rules.
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Talents are in the rules. Technically, we're not talking about custom Talents, we're talking about Talents linked to established Martial Arts styles. And frankly official Talents include some fairly munchkiny examples.
In this case we're talking 5 points for a narrow range of (mostly combat skills) - a focused style. A broad range like knightly combat or such will be more like 10 points. A very broad one will be 15, as much as DX! and about as valuable. Remember, combat skills like a lot of GURPS abilities get less valuable as they become more redundant. So the costs seem fair.
This is not "I want a character whose good at DX based skills without buying DX" - it's "I want a character really good at a particular fighting system without being really good at all other DX related skills." Yes you can build William Marshal using the normal rules but no one would ever build a player character that way.
Realistically, knights and many other warriors trained from an early age. They should have high levels for their combat skills without necessarily a high DX that allows them to become quickly competent at other physical skills. Talents can be a useful game mechanic to represent this. There's plenty of fictional and even real world precedent for people highly competent at just about everything (high DX and IQ.) But there should be a way to build characters with a more narrow focus.