the "outrageous attribute" problem

[Chris Goodwin]

One possibility, and this was a direction I was leaning toward with Warrior & Wizard, was that there were warrior talents, and wizard talents, and everyone else talents. Warrior talents (usually the weapons, but also things like Tactics) would cost 1 point for a warrior. Wizard talents, spells included, would cost 1 point for a wizard. Everything that was on your talent list cost 1, everything else cost a minimum of 2. That led me to a third character type -- "wanderer" for whom the "everything else" talents cost 1, and both the fighting and magical talents cost 2 or more. Some talents might be on all of the character types' lists.

A logical way to go would be to have fighters' talent points derive from ST and wizards' talent points derive from IQ. The wanderer's talents might derive from DX.

Another logical way might be to change the way stat minima work for talents in general. Fighter oriented talents wouldn't have an IQ minimum; they'd have a ST minimum instead, or maybe a DX minimum for the ones where DX should govern. Brainy talents would have an IQ minimum. Agility type talents would have a DX minimum. Those would hold regardless of which pool of points you were using to buy them.

This way lies down a rabbit hole, though.

Edit to add: Another idea. Add a "pseudo-attribute": Talent. It starts at 8, along with all of the others, and you get an additional 2 points to spend. Starting characters are now 40 points. The points you have to spend on talents are based on the new stat. If you want to add talents with experience, you'd spend XP on Talent just like any other attribute. Talents would otherwise be unchanged, or would be changed to whatever extent the GM (or author) wishes (i.e. some might have ST minima, some IQ, some DX).

Edit edit: Talent would start at a flat 10. Characters otherwise start at 8 in the other stats, and have 8 points to spend (so 32 points, like normal). You can spend XP on Talent the same way you would any attribute. At start, it costs 125 EP to increase Talent by 1. Talent is exceptional in two ways: it never counts against your attribute total for advancement purposes, and once you reach the 37-40 total attribute level the costs to increase Talent are one level less. (So: 125 EP to increase Talent up to 40 total; 250 at 41-45; 1000 at 46-50; and so on.) The only way to add additional talents, spells, etc., is to increase your Talent attribute; when you do, you have those additional points to spend on them. All the other rules still stand for buying new talents, including in regards to minimum IQ (or other stat), prerequisites, and so on.