Talent Synergies
 

Along the same lines as my Combo Spells post, what kind of enhanced effects from combined talents have others created in their games?

Re: Talent Synergies
 

For example, what if a character w/ both UC V and Physicker could use their 'nerve blow' ability to temporarily paralyze their opponent?

Re: Talent Synergies
 

This sounds like a neat idea, did you ever do anything with it?

Re: Talent Synergies
 

I've been focused on some other gameplay elements for my campaign, but TBH, my intent is really to let my players come up with these during their adventures. It's an aspect of creative problem solving that I like to encourage... if they can make a convincing case for a particular combination, I will usually allow it (and reward it).

Re: Talent Synergies
 

Please keep a record and share! :D

Re: Talent Synergies
 

One of my players came up with a good one... Streetwise + Mathematician = advantage at gambling. The character will be better at predicting the odds and perhaps 'counting cards' in order to sway the odds in his favor (for example, since most games of chance favor the 'house', I typically resolve them using a 4 or 5 die roll against IQ or maybe DX, but I would reduce by 1 die if the player uses this combo).

Other talents that would provide an advantage in gambling would be Business Sense and Detect Lies.

Re: Talent Synergies
 

Those make sense, though I would probably add an actual gambling talent, or at least mini-knowledge details about which games a characters knows (and how well), and in which games and situations Business Sense or Detect Lies would be relevant or not... IF gambling situations were going to get focus in the game.

I had a player who took Animal Handling and Thief and tried training a Slinker to pick locks and pockets.

Re: Talent Synergies
 

I'm running a city-based campaign where organized crime is a common element... hence the need for some abstracted gambling mechanics. I also considered adding a new talent to cover gambling, but reasoned that both Carousing and Streetwise would provide some baseline knowledge of various games of chance. The proposed combo with Mathematician was unexpected, but I like the creative synergy. I'm generally reticent to create new talents w/o a strong use case.


That's a good one too. I'll have to add it to my list.

Re: Talent Synergies
 

Creating dragonskin armor (assuming you can get access to the materials) would require a combination of Master Armorer, Expert Naturalist and possibly Alchemy. The same talents could also apply to working with the hide or other parts of various fanciful creatures.

Re: Talent Synergies
 

How about Tanner and Leatherworker? Those (and Masters in them) and Armorer/Master Armorer were the talents I listed when making a table of various types and qualities of dragon hide armor. I didn't think of Alchemist.

Re: Talent Synergies
 

How much of the process is pipelined:
Woodsman gathers hide
Alchemist preserves hide
Armourer fashions to fit the end user

And how much is intertwined like the goldsmith armourer?

Re: Talent Synergies
 

Yeah, that's a very good question. It seems to me that while it could be pipelined, it might be best if one master craftsman knew as many of the needed talents, and at master level, compared to a team of separate people.

I would think they would at least need to all explain to each other what their needs and limits were in order to get the best results. i.e. The Master Tanner might be able to do what the Master Leatherworker and/or Master Armorer want and need to make the finest dragonhide armor types, but unless they tell the Master Tanner what they want, he might do something else cool from the Tanner's perspective, that isn't ideal for fine armor.

Re: Talent Synergies
 

I'd love to see the details behind your 'advanced' talents. When you have chance, please post some under the Cidri's got Talent! thread.

Re: Talent Synergies
 

So far, the details are only in my dragon hide armor types and what it takes to make them.

The Master Tanner and Master Leatherworker are in Legacy ITL, though, under Mundane talents, though they have no descriptions other than the English word meanings, and it's not even clear to me if a Master mundane talent is supposed to be 3 points total, or 3 points on top of whatever the base talent costs (I assume the latter, since that makes most sense to me).

Re: Talent Synergies
 

ITL 36
Seems to me to be just three points for mastery.

I've already got an adventure setting in the works for Master Beekeeper, so how about the rest?

Which could be used with Shipbuilder or Architect/Builder?

Re: Talent Synergies
 

It could be that. But other talents are in the pattern of a base talent for one cost, and then a Master version of the talent with its own cost, that requires the first talent as a prerequisite.

Re: Talent Synergies
 

Where does it say prerequisite?

Re: Talent Synergies
 

It doesn't say it for the mundane talent. That's why it's unclear. But the other talents that have Master versions all have prereqs of the non-master talent, e.g.: "Master Armourer [...] Prerequisite: Armourer."

So while it's not crystal clear, and doesn't explicitly say so for sure, I think it's unlikely that the intent is:

Tanner (1)
Master Tanner (3) - no prerequisite

But I guess the new cheapened costs of most Legacy talents might tend to imply it's more like:


Tanner (1)
Master Tanner (2) - prerequisite: Tanner


and so Leatherworker and other 2-point mundane talents would ALL be like

Leatherworker (2)
Master Leatherworker (1) - prerequisite: Leatherworker


That just seems a bit dull, since the only interesting distinction in such talents is whether they cost 1 or 2 points, and having Master for ALL of them always cost 3 seems ... less detailed/interesting/accurate to me.

Also, since the IQ requirement for ALL of them seems to be 8 for some reason (I expect the reason is mainly so they can be listed all in one place in the rules, NOT because it makes sense), the master requirements all seem to be IQ 8 too... and if it's just a matter of 1 or two more points in a trade talent, it starts to feel like it implies to me that most crafters would/should be masters or else they're chumps, at least as far as the technical game requirements go.

But when I was making new armor types and thinking of making Master Leatherworking an important requirement, I wasn't thinking it would be a particularly easy or common level of talent.


I guess it's up to all GMs to figure out how they want to handle them, if/when it comes up, as is so often the case.