Re: [DF] Talents for the Standard Templates
 

I'm not entirely sure you realise what "optimise" means. Yes four levels of a talent will likely get you the most bang for your buck, but that doesn't mean its optimised. If you only need one or two skills in the talent raised, whilst the others in the talent are just flavourful extras, infrequently used or simply don't require excessive skill level, then you're buying extra levels of that talent needlessly.

If you want to have a talent which has everything under the suggest wildcard skills, and focus towards maximising that talent before improving base stats and buying up skill levels... well then why are you not just using wildcard skills instead? What you're effectively doing is maintaining a very flat level of competency across all skills that are 'core' to your class, which wildcard skills handle easily.

Of cause I find that kind of play very bland, as distinguishing between characters becomes that much harder when all members of a profession perform identically in every task that profession could excel at. Although if your goal is that of an MMO styled class based system then perhaps this ensures your players don't mess up buying skills and can predict their foes capabilities once they've discerned their profession.

Re: [DF] Talents for the Standard Templates
 

Couldn't you buy some skills that fall under your talent for 1 point and other skills at DX or DX+1, DX +2 and so on? That way you could customize your PC and not all of the skill would be the same level like with the wildcard skill.

Re: [DF] Talents for the Standard Templates
 

Because Talents aren't just banch of skills which one likes to be together. They are consistent advantages with benefits being provided by their description as natural ability to some naturally close activities, not activities in one artificial field like Animal Handling (Equines), Lance and Tactics. This is the field of Wildcards which are the other side of Talents.

Re: [DF] Talents for the Standard Templates
 

But talents could represent training in a particular class. A ranger may learn hunting, tracking, bow, sword, silence etc. because he has undergone training as a ranger.

Re: [DF] Talents for the Standard Templates
 

There's nothing forbidding you to do so in your own game. But on the other hand GURPS is more than just DF, even if you do find DF awesome, so the name if the Talent needs to be somewhat generic.

Re: [DF] Talents for the Standard Templates
 

Here is how I would fix Magery. I would say that the Wizard talent adds to spell skill levels and Thaumatology and Alchemy. This can be bought up to 4 levels just like other talents. Magery is just the power level for spells like fireball and lightning bolt and each level adds to the damage a wizard can do. But when Wizard talent is capped at 4 levels then even a wizard with high levels of Magery only can have a 4 point edge to skills due to talent. This makes it more fair fot thieves who also have a cap on their talent and that means a wizard with Lockmaster will not overshadow the thiefs Lockpicking skill. And the thief would be better because he can pick locks in a no mana zone .

Re: [DF] Talents for the Standard Templates
 

Honestly, if I did these, I'd make them really deliberate, but very tight, point crocks, based more on lenses than anything else.

So the Ranger gets his bonuses to Tracking, Stealth, Survival, Bow, and Camouflage while a Sharpshooter talent gives bonuses to Stealth, Bow, Fast-Draw, and Armoury (Bows). Just for example.

Then I'd restrict you to one of these talents. No Ranger/Sharpshooters or Cat Burglar/Assassins. Or say they don't add to each other, so you only get to best bonus from your various talents - like the idea on Power Ups 3 pg. 14 in the box.

That would mean you could get more specialization of the "classes" if you like that kind of thing. It doesn't matter if it's especially balanced if it further encourages niche specialization and makes characters a bit different. IMO.

Re: [DF] Talents for the Standard Templates
 

I agree with you on this. I think that the idea of classes gives you an edge on the skill set you were trained with while other skills you learn just like a person without a class. Having a very specific skill set is also useful because your PC fits well into the concept you want. Rangers and sharpshoters are almost the same but aperson choosi g one or the other gets exactly what he wants.

Re: [DF] Talents for the Standard Templates
 

Another thing having something like this could help would be with specialization of wizard types. A demonologist might instead have demonologist talent that he could learn up to 4 levels. So the demonologist would have IQ 15 and could have demonologist talent to boost his skill to 19 for casting demonologist spells. But maybe he could learn other spells based on his IQ 15. He woulld be less powerful with other magic but he could learn a few other spells. This way he specializes in certain spells which he can learn at a higher skill level because of his training but he could also learn a few other spells as well. In my experience there are alwayss players who want to learn a spell that is not on the list and with this concept he can do so but with no skill bonus.

The same could be true of other specialist wizards, that way they are focused on what they are trained in but still can learn a few general spells.

Re: [DF] Talents for the Standard Templates
 

You could even have racial talents. Say Dwarf talent might include some skill bonus to direction under ground, axe/pick combat, fighting goblin-kin, metalurgy, armory, etc. This way the dwarf might be it's own class just like in the old school days. These abilities woud be the result of the training they recieve in their dwarven culture.