Talents & Martial Arts

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Why would we use a Talent? Sounds to me like a character who has lots and lots of points in the actual skills.

Sure, he does.

But the marginal utility of raising weapon skill #2, #3, #4, #5, etc. is nowhere near the same as that of the primary weapon skill.

Rather than enforce that all characters have only one high weapon skill, I'd rather have the option of being good at more than one available at a more reasonable character point cost.

The Job Training trait is meant to address a similar concern. One way of modelling a knight like Ser Barristan Selmy is to give him decent Attributes, high Talent for the things that make him remarkable in-universe, Job Training for his job skills and a solid level of skill bought with points as well.

After all, he's presented as far above the elite who are themselves a cut or two above the 'ordinary' knight, which in-setting means a man of superior educational and nutritional opportunities, born and bred to a certain profession and trained since he was five years old.