[DF] Talents for the Standard Templates

[PK]

(Quote trimmed heavily.)

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

Regarding the Martial Artist's Chi Talent, I don't think it's as good a deal as it's being put forward here.

For one thing, the starting Martial Artist only gets seven chi skills to start with, and each one only has two points spent on it. You could put two more points into each of those and get the same thing for about the same cost (fourteen versus fifteen points).

Also, the skills themselves aren't each equally useful.

So, while it is significantly less costly to purchase Chi Mastery than to get an equivalent increase in skill levels to those skills from some other means, it's not as effective as it could be if you only want six or fewer or twelve or fewer of those skills. Compare it to Ninja Talent, or the Strong Chi talent from Power-Ups 3. The Martial Artist doesn't have an option for raising a small number of skills like that. It's all or nothing, but I don't think anyone values all seventeen of those Chi skills equally.

I have to admit, you make a good point. When I was doing my Deadlands-to-GURPS/4e conversion, I original stole Chi Mastery wholesale as the Talent for cinematic martial artists. But I admit I didn't really enjoy how they were coming together. So I stole a little inspiration* from Bill Stoddard's upcoming GURPS Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers and came up with five cheap Talents instead of one expensive one -- and I must admit, it's been a big improvement.

So, that lesson learned, here's how I'd suggest doing the same for Dungeon Fantasy, with a few tweaks for balance:

You have access to the following Talents; each costs 5 points/level. The reaction bonuses (from other martial artists) do not stack; use that of your highest Talent. If you have Chi abilities, you get a bonus equal to (your total levels of Chi Talents)/3, rounded normally, to use them. Skills with a * appear in Martial Arts (pp. 61‑62).

• Chi of Earth: Body Control, Breath Control, Esoteric Medicine, Kiai, Pressure Points, Pressure Secrets.
• Chi of Fire: Autohypnosis, Flying Leap, Jumping, Meditation, Power Blow, Zen Archery.
• Chi of Metal: Breaking Blow, Immovable Stance, Mental Strength, Mind Block, Parry Missile Weapons, Precognitive Parry*.
• Chi of Water: Blind Fighting, Hypnotic Hands*, Hypnotism, Invisibility Art, Push, Sensitivity*.
• Chi of Wood: Acrobatics, Climbing, Light Walk, Lizard Climb*, Stealth, Throwing Art.

* Note I said "inspiration," not "drawn directly from." In fact, Bill's lists are notably different from mine, because I admit I focused more on grouping prerequisites together for convenient character building while he focused on the actual meanings of the elements. That said, I was glad to have his list to use as my jumping-off point!