Revisiting Talents for Combat

[Ragitsu]

Originally Posted by SimonAce

I don't care much for Weapon Talents myself. They probably aren't that bad game balance wise but they don't seem realistic to me.

I take it, then, you only use realistic Advantages?

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by SimonAce

The set of things you need to be good with a sword or an axe basically are parts of Dex. Getting better at parrying and evading and all that will necessarily make you better at other physical skills.

I'm not so sure. Some people are great at the distance and timing aspects of hand-to-hand fighting that don't necessarily translate to other physical activities.

[SimonAce]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

I take it, then, you only use realistic Advantages?

depends on the campaign. Its just a gut feel that I don't care for them I guess.

[SimonAce]

Originally Posted by aesir23

I'm not so sure. Some people are great at the distance and timing aspects of hand-to-hand fighting that don't necessarily translate to other physical activities.

Well there is some truth to that. I've surprised the heck out of my martial arts teachers but I am poor at several other tasks. I don't know, I guess if someone wanted one....

[nanoboy]

Originally Posted by SimonAce

The set of things you need to be good with a sword or an axe basically are parts of Dex. Getting better at parrying and evading and all that will necessarily make you better at other physical skills.

I don't think that's quite right. On some level, learning how to fight is all the same. That is, the skills for understanding where to attack, when to defend, and so on are very similar from weapon to weapon. If someone has trained heavily with one melee weapon and has to pick up a completely unrelated melee weapon, he should be better at it than an identical person who never trained in any melee weapons. Also, these are things not represented by Combat Reflexes either.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by nanoboy

I don't think that's quite right. On some level, learning how to fight is all the same. That is, the skills for understanding where to attack, when to defend, and so on are very similar from weapon to weapon. If someone has trained heavily with one melee weapon and has to pick up a completely unrelated melee weapon, he should be better at it than an identical person who never trained in any melee weapons. Also, these are things not represented by Combat Reflexes either.

I regularly go through and update NPCs and PCs when they get 15+ points in DX or IQ skills which would work better in stats, it'd probably be better if that warrior with 8 points in each of broadsword, spear, shield and lance had a melee talent for me to boost, instead of me boosting their skill in Filch when I update their DX...

[Phantasm]

As I understand it, specialized combat talents (such as my own Natural Swordsman and Perfect Throw talents over in the New Talents thread) aren't frowned upon. It's the talents that give bonuses to every DX-based combat skill that are actively discouraged.

An Unbalanced Weapon Talent geared towards the Axe/Mace, Flail, Polearm, Two-Handed Axe/Mace, and Two-Handed Flail skills is a tight enough fit for a lot of people to agree that it probably is balanced enough for use in a campaign. As always, it depends on what the GM allows.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

Ninja: You are a damn ninja! Acrobatics, Acting, Axe/Mace, Camouflage, Disguise, Garrote, Holdout, Judo, Karate, Knife, Lockpicking, Poisons, Savoir-Faire, Shadowing, Shortsword, Staff, Stealth, Tactics, Tonfa, and Traps.. Reaction bonus: other assassins or thieves. 15 points/level

There is a slight mitigator here: if you were a real ninja, you'd never use the reaction bonus, because no one would ever see you.

[Ragitsu]

Also, she's forgetting the Reaction bonus with internet fanboys.

[nanoboy]

So, I thought I'd next make a few weapons talents and see what you thought was broken, and what you thought was reasonable. They're all built with the standard rules, except that the no combat skills for talents rule is broken. Also, you can guess who would give a reaction bonus.

Fencing Talent [10/Level]: Main-Gauche, Rapier, Saber, Shield (Buckler), Shield (Cloak), and Smallsword

Unbalanced Weapon Talent [10/Level]: Axe/Mace, Flail, Polearm, Two-Handed Axe/Mace, Thrown Weapon (Axe/Mace), Two-Handed Flail

Blade Talent [10/Level]: Broadsword, Knife, Main-Gauche, Rapier, Saber, Shortsword, Smallsword, Thrown Weapon (Knife), Two-Handed Sword

Flexible Weapon Talent [5/Level]: Flail, Garrote, Kusari, Two-Handed Flail, Whip

Poky Weapon Talent [10/Level]: Lance, Polearm, Spear, Spear Thrower, Thrown Weapon (Spear), Thrown Weapon (Dart)

Unarmed Talent [10/Level]: Boxing, Brawling, Judo, Karate, Sumo Wrestling, Wrestling

Throwing Talent [10/Level]: Net, Throwing, Throwing Art, Thrown Weapon (Any)

Primitive Projector Weapon Talent [5/Level]: Bow, Blowgun, Crossbow, Sling, Spear Thrower

Shooting Talent [15/Level]: Beam Weapons (Any), Gunner (Any), Guns (Any)