Talents & Martial Arts

[Infornific]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

So a character, such as the aforementioned Barristan Selmy, who has a reputation (which he can back up) as being one heck of a swordsman (and not too shabby at other weapons) has his best weapon skill at DX+2? What DX stat would you give him? 12? 16?

At a minimum, DX 12 and skills in the 16-18 range. Selmy upon being retired from the King's Guard declares he could cut down all the men facing him if he wanted - boasting but there was a sense he could back it up. I'd use High Medieval Knightly Combat as his main Martial Art with Quarterstaff added in. You're looking at easily a ten point Talent which sounds about right. A high DX would be the most efficient way to buy appropriate skills if you don't use Talents - DX 16 would be appropriate there. But the sense in the books is that Selmy is highly skilled with many arms because he trained a lot.

As a side note, for GoT, I would use the Guard template from DF: Henchmen to represent combat skills of merely competent knights, the Squire template from DF: Henchmen for skilled knights and start with the Knight template from DF: Adventurers for the top knights of Westeros. This is before counting in various Social Advantages.