Veteran Talent

[Shadekeep]

Had this idea recently for a house-ruled talent to add. Don't know if similar has been suggested before, apology if it covers ground that's already been traversed.

This talent is most useful in situations where the GM conceals the attributes of enemies from the players. I assume that this is the dominant scenario, but have learned that my assumptions are often not accurate. Anyway, in those cases where attributes are hidden, it makes sense that an experienced fighter should be able to gauge the abilities of their opponent. To that end I offer this new talent.

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Veteran Talent
IQ 13 (2)
no prerequisites, but the GM may wish to require some kind of advanced martial talent, such as Tactics/Strategist, Weapon Mastery, Master Fencer, or UC III.

This talent is found among seasoned combatants. It allows them to use their extensive experience to gauge the abilities of their opponents. In practical terms, anyone with the Veteran talent gets a chance to learn one of their opponent's attribute values. They can make attempts to gauge a foe's strength, dexterity, or intelligence. Against familiar enemies (humans, orcs, common beasts, etc) this is a 3/IQ roll, for unusual enemies (dragons, octopi, etc) it's a 4/IQ roll, and for enemies that have never been encountered before or magical foes with a large attribute range (zombies and elementals can have almost any ST, for example) it's a 5/IQ roll. The GM may state that some enemies are so alien to the veteran that they have no chance of guessing the foe's attributes.

The gauging roll should be made by the GM in secret, and the accuracy of the analysis is based on how well (or poorly) the roll goes. A successful roll should give the veteran the exact attribute value sought or a close approximation, whereas a failed roll under- or over-estimates the attribute. Critical success might reveal more than one attribute, whereas critical failure would give such an inaccurate guess that the veteran is completely mislead about the attribute examined.

A potential further wrinkle of this talent is that a veteran may be able to determine a combat skill of an enemy, instead of an attribute. They could use their above roll to determine if an enemy is using a weapon in a skilled or unskilled way, or if they have some unusual talent like Two Weapons.

The assessment roll does not count as the veteran's only action during their phase. In can be used alongside other normal turn actions, including combat. In fact it is actually during combat that a veteran is able to most accurately gauge a foe's strengths and weaknesses. One roll at most may be made per turn, and that against one specific foe. There are no limits to the total number of rolls a veteran may make against a given foe over time, however.