Talents & Martial Arts

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by johndallman

It is for making perception rolls, but combat penalties for low light take no account of perception, and come straight off combat skill.

That's odd, but a nice compromise. That isn't in Basic, right, just Tactical Shooting?

[Infornific]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Just a technical note but she probably shouldn't. Neither Bio-tech nor Tactical Shooting allow a normal human to buy that many levels. 2 levels maybe.

True, but I'd say the same about Corwin's Toughness. 1 point isn't outrageous but 2 points of DR seems pretty cinematic. I was trying for as literal a translation as possible which meant in some cases pretty exotic abilities. Dropping Night Vision to 3 and Speed to 6.0 would put you right at 150 and if I tried to recreate Robyn as a 4e character I'd go with that.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That's odd, but a nice compromise. That isn't in Basic, right, just Tactical Shooting?

Basic 71: 'allows you to ignore -1 in combat or vision penalties due to darkness'.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That's odd, but a nice compromise. That isn't in Basic, right, just Tactical Shooting?

No, it's in Basic. Pages 547 and 548 have the modifiers for melee and ranged combat, both of which include visibility penalties. Tactical Shooting adds a bit more detail.

[Flyndaran]

Weird that in previous threads on night vision and perception, no one ever corrected me.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Weird that in previous threads on night vision and perception, no one ever corrected me.

I have no idea why; maybe they didn't understand what you trying to say?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I have no idea why; maybe they didn't understand what you trying to say?

My sig is what it is for a reason.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Indeed!

The merituous approach might be to move one's attention away from the game mechanics, and look instead at the character as envisioned and described and defined by the person (author, GM or player) who created the character, and decide whether that character is appropriate or munchkinny.

It's probably the case that the GoT character in question is not suitable for a standard GURPS campaign, standard being RAW-defined as 150 CP, but would be perfectly legit in a higher-powered campaign.

He'd be legit in my Ärth setting, of course, a place for gifted heroes with great or broad competences. It's just that if all he can do is fighty fighty, he's likely to be boring or end up bored. But perfectly legit (assuming the players don't vote for a low or moderate point level) and - I have reason to believe - also perfectly creatable.

The character's not munchkinny, there being nothing munchkinny about somebody who is skilled in the fairly broad area in which he or she's experienced and trained, but not just in one or two skills within that area, or in all DX-based skills. Talents exist precisely to allow for competence in that middle ground without the expenditure of beaucoup points out of order with the utility to the character of being good with, in this example, all knightly weapons rather than just one or two. So, coming up with a Talent to fit, rather than spend dozens of points on each skill, is no more a munchkin thing to do than to buy up DX for a character who is, according to the source material, in fact graceful and accomplished with all physical skills.

[Infornific]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

The character's not munchkinny, there being nothing munchkinny about somebody who is skilled in the fairly broad area in which he or she's experienced and trained, but not just in one or two skills within that area, or in all DX-based skills. Talents exist precisely to allow for competence in that middle ground without the expenditure of beaucoup points out of order with the utility to the character of being good with, in this example, all knightly weapons rather than just one or two. So, coming up with a Talent to fit, rather than spend dozens of points on each skill, is no more a munchkin thing to do than to buy up DX for a character who is, according to the source material, in fact graceful and accomplished with all physical skills.

Selmy's personality actually works well for this kind of specialization - he's inclined to hang back and let others take the lead when there's no fighting. He'll shine when there's battle but I don't see a problem with taking turns in the spot light.

I also like the idea of distinguishing in game terms between a Conan type, who is a capable fighter because of his overall natural athleticism and a fighter who is the product of long training at combat. The former will have a higher DX and broader competency while the latter will be better at stand up fighting.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Infornific

I also like the idea of distinguishing in game terms between a Conan type, who is a capable fighter because of his overall natural athleticism and a fighter who is the product of long training at combat. The former will have a higher DX and broader competency while the latter will be better at stand up fighting.

Conan never met that fellow. Probably because he was built on more pts than anyone else in the setting. With maxed or near max levels of ST, DX and HT and a boatload of Advantages he'd have to be.