Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by Phaelen Bleux

The ones that worry me the most are the ones that give +1 to a skill (like Weapon Bond, for example). It high skill levels, the PC gets another pip on the dice for just 1 point when it should have cost significantly more to raise the skill level.

Although Weapon Bond has some draw backs. IE it is Weapon Specific cant switch it to the pizzer sword you just found/scraped up the cash for. It is just for the Fine (VF mebbe) sword you started with. If people wait til later in character development when they get what they expect to be their "uber weapon"...read the perk. By definition Id rule that it take a while to acquire...YMMV but the language on it is more or less explicit (that kind of Bond doesnt develop overnight.)

So it takes time

and/or you may have a few older Weapon Bond points that are now effectively wastage.

[Kromm]

All I'll say on Weapon Bond is that "+1 to skill with one weapon in the whole universe" is self-evidently less useful than "+1 to skill with every weapon ever made in one broad class," and in fact represents the most severe possible limitation on the latter case. That's canonically -80%, so Weapon Bond is worth 0.8 point; thus, 1 point a bit of a ***, not a bargain. Weapon Bond is only a bargain in campaigns where the PCs never lose or willingly replace their weapons, and where they can get away with using one weapon for everything from campaign start to campaign finish. In more sensible campaigns, it's entirely balanced.

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by Kromm

All I'll say on Weapon Bond is that "+1 to skill with one weapon in the whole universe" is self-evidently less useful than "+1 to skill with every weapon ever made in one broad class," and in fact represents the most severe possible limitation on the latter case. That's canonically -80%, so Weapon Bond is worth 0.8 point; thus, 1 point a bit of a ***, not a bargain. Weapon Bond is only a bargain in campaigns where the PCs never lose or willingly replace their weapons, and where they can get away with using one weapon for everything from campaign start to campaign finish. In more sensible campaigns, it's entirely balanced.

FREX the only time I have used weapon bond was for a priest. I wrote him up under 1st ed and when he started the party had a weapons locker, in it were 6 broadswords. I didnt have one. I worshipped the God of Mercinary Warriors in effect. I laid the 6 of them out on the deck and prayed over them for 1-2 hours asking Upuaut (GOD) to "pick me a good one."

I got up and I had a new sword (Fine +1 dam).

I carried that sword every two weeks from 1988 to 1997. I had a million chances to replace it and at times the ransom of small kingdoms to do it with.
However if you have asked your god to pick you a winner how do you gracefully disagree with him later?

When MA came out with weapon bond my GM used be as the EXAMPLE of how he thought it would work. Needless to say I took it although I didnt really need the difference between 20 and 21 that much. (High Defense types are great fodder for Ex Fireball).

[Phaelen Bleux]

Originally Posted by Kromm

All I'll say on Weapon Bond is that "+1 to skill with one weapon in the whole universe" is self-evidently less useful than "+1 to skill with every weapon ever made in one broad class," and in fact represents the most severe possible limitation on the latter case. That's canonically -80%, so Weapon Bond is worth 0.8 point; thus, 1 point a bit of a ***, not a bargain. Weapon Bond is only a bargain in campaigns where the PCs never lose or willingly replace their weapons, and where they can get away with using one weapon for everything from campaign start to campaign finish. In more sensible campaigns, it's entirely balanced.

Well, I can't argue with the math. My initial hesitation in using Perks was more of a min-maxing vs. rounded character design notion. I feel that too many Perks on a character sheet steals from more creative (and by that I mean storytelling, not ingenious ways to not get dead) character building to making the character just a bunch of "one-ups."

[mrgoldenbrown]

I saw a few magic related perks mentioned that i had never heard of - mana compensation, wizardly dabbler and spell bond for example. I don't recall seeing these in Magic or Power Ups: Perks. Are they in Thaumatology maybe?

[Ulzgoroth]

Thaumatology: Magical Styles would be the source.

[Trachmyr]

Personally I'm a big fan of Perks... especialy for racial templates. I think they are a great boon for 4e, allowing characters to be more fully realized than ever before.

Can they be abused... well, everything in Gurps can be abused, if that's the player's goal and the GM is unattentive or inexperienced. But it's kind of like Personal Liberty vs. Big Brother... I'll always choose the "system" that grants me liberty... if a couple of munchkins get through... well that's the price we have to pay, but the alternative is unthinkable.

In otherwords, I'm all for character options... and Perks is a great option IMO... The GM will just have to pay attention to character design... but that's not new at all.

[mrgoldenbrown]

If anyone at SJ is wondering whether the bandwidth costs of these forums are worth it, let it be known that this post pretty much forced me to part with $8 to buy a supplement i hadn't even heard of 30 minutes ago. Thanks Ulz!

[Phaelen Bleux]

Originally Posted by mrgoldenbrown

If anyone at SJ is wondering whether the bandwidth costs of these forums are worth it, let it be known that this post pretty much forced me to part with $8 to buy a supplement i hadn't even heard of 30 minutes ago. Thanks Ulz!

Yeah, I have to admit that all in all Perks are pretty cool, and they are a 4e mechanic I have adopted into my 3e universe. . .

[Kaldrin]

Originally Posted by Kromm

All I'll say on Weapon Bond is that "+1 to skill with one weapon in the whole universe" is self-evidently less useful than "+1 to skill with every weapon ever made in one broad class," and in fact represents the most severe possible limitation on the latter case. That's canonically -80%, so Weapon Bond is worth 0.8 point; thus, 1 point a bit of a ***, not a bargain. Weapon Bond is only a bargain in campaigns where the PCs never lose or willingly replace their weapons, and where they can get away with using one weapon for everything from campaign start to campaign finish. In more sensible campaigns, it's entirely balanced.

And my dual pistol wielding gunslinger had to purchase it twice... one for each pistol.

I find perks in general let you create a very specific niche character flavour without really creating any kind of realistic imbalance. Several perks are actually incredibly limited versions of lower-priced advantages.