Talents & Martial Arts

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Infornific

First, the idea that a small Talent with combat skills was ok but a large Talent with combat skills was unbalancing. That strikes me as a little odd - a big Talent isn't a whole lot cheaper than DX so a 15 point Talent with all melee combat skills doesn't seem too unbalancing in practice.

I haven't tried them, yet, but I agree - I don't think a big weapon talent is a problem. I used to, but I came around to thinking it's fine.

Originally Posted by Infornific

So it occurred to me you could create a quasi-Talent for a martial art.

It's not a bad idea at all.

Originally Posted by Infornific

Cosmic (can be learned) (+50%)
Limitation: Character must be trained in the martial arts style. (-10%)
Limitation: Signature - fighting style is more easily identified (-10%)
Limitation: Only applies to Techniques and subskills used in the relevant martial art (-10%)

I don't have my books handy, but . . .

I'm not sure you need Cosmic. A learnable talent doesn't have to cost more IMO.

I'd probably just straight-up make it a talent, without sticking the limitations you listed on it. Make it 5/level for any one martial art, maybe 10/level for 2-3 martial arts styles, 15/level for all martial arts. Applies only if you have the right Style Familiarity. Applies to all primary and optional skills, and therefore to any techniques built off of them. At first glance, that doesn't seem unbalanced. Reaction bonus is to fellow stylists, no alternate benefit. It would make styles more attractive, too.