Topic: Question about Talent/Flaw Cost Chart, RMSS pg 255

[providence13]

A Lesser Talent with no Flaw costs 2 BO. In the footnotes, you can spend 1 BO instead.

Has anyone progressed this down the list? 1, 2, 3, 4, respectively.

I'm thinking about allowing it for a new Character, but not sure if it's worth the cost.
BO are pretty powerful imho.

[Ecthelion]

The footnotes say that the Lesser Talent may cost 1 BO if it matches the characters background. The potential for abuse is quite limited, given the influence most of the Lesser Talents may have on the game. But it offers some potential for abuse IMHO if you offer this cost reduction for also the more powerful Talents. From my experience players can be very creative when it comes to finding some justification why something matches their character or they build a character in a way so that he finally matches a given Talent.

Just my 2 cents

[providence13]

Thanks for the response, Ecthelion.

I don't use the Talent Point system, just BO. So unless they're playing a Common Man, most of my players use BO for starting items (I'm stingy with magic weapons after char gen), or a bonus to skills.
I guess worth would be up to the individual.

[providence13]

I have a player who wants to use TL.
Paladin with Blessed by a War God.

I told him if he uses TL, then he uses it all the way.
"You start off Very Poor, with no Items of Quality, no Magic Weapons, no Status except Serf..."
I've read most everything I could find here about it. There's lots of good advice for not letting it get out of hand.
He's rethinking the decision.

[Marc R]

I'd have taken that deal.

[pastaav]

Saying that he can take Blessed By Wargod, but then must be poor, without cool starting equipment etc is a bit like saying that you get to play a Jedi, but then you will be limited to start only with lightsaber. Blessed by Wargod is easily the talent to take if you want to create a superhero in RM.

[Arioch]

Saying that he can take Blessed By Wargod, but then must be poor, without cool starting equipment etc is a bit like saying that you get to play a Jedi, but then you will be limited to start only with lightsaber. Blessed by Wargod is easily the talent to take if you want to create a superhero in RM.

I agree, BbWG is probably the most unbalanced Talent ever conceived, after Eloquence.

[rdanhenry]

Saying that he can take Blessed By Wargod, but then must be poor, without cool starting equipment etc is a bit like saying that you get to play a Jedi, but then you will be limited to start only with lightsaber. Blessed by Wargod is easily the talent to take if you want to create a superhero in RM.

I agree, BbWG is probably the most unbalanced Talent ever conceived, after Eloquence.

I don't know. Precision is the key to the one-hit, one-kill character. Blessed by a War God is at least quite expensive and if you make the quests difficult/troublesome enough, it has some built-in balance. I'm not saying it is balanced, but you can get Precision and Assassin Training without taking any Flaws with most races. With a common man, you'd still have points left over to boost your OB.

[DangerMan]

[I don't know. Precision is the key to the one-hit, one-kill character. Blessed by a War God is at least quite expensive and if you make the quests difficult/troublesome enough, it has some built-in balance. I'm not saying it is balanced, but you can get Precision and Assassin Training without taking any Flaws with most races. With a common man, you'd still have points left over to boost your OB.

Indeed! My first GM experience was with a character who had precision, assassin training, directed weapons master and a high adrenal speed skill level. We had a "anything goes" approach to that (very short) campaign. Needless to say, I will never go down that road again.

We've had endless discussions on whats sort of constelations of talents and flaws are okay and not - but we've yet to come up with any rules, except "the GM decides", which usually works out fine in the end. The only problem is when a power player sees some advantage from a set of traits, which the GM did not forsee.

[Arioch]

Yeah, Precision in the third part of the Unholy Talent Triad 

[providence13]

I agree, BbWG is probably the most unbalanced Talent ever conceived, after Eloquence.
I agree guys. But it seems that you have to buy everything (Wealth, Status, Items..) with your starting points, 55 for Common Urban Man, right?

So he's going to have to take some pretty serious Flaws to regain those points.
Most everything in that book is totally skewed compared to everything else.

Power...?
50 Spell Ranks (no more than 10 in a single List). An entire lifetime of work for what is essentially 3 BO..?

I'm guessing that he will not choose to use that Talent. I told him that I'm not even convinced that I will use it in the campaign, but write up the background and we'll see.

[yammahoper]

BbWG doesnt have to be a war god.

Blessed by a Nature God would still give four stats a +10 mod, but not St Ag Co and Qu.  In fact, a war god doesnt HAVE to increase those stats either (the unbalnace being those are all primary combat stats).

Why not +St, +Sd, +Co and +In for a war god.  These stat mods stress combat, concentration skills, body dev and athletics and perception (in addition to providing a few innate pp to use the spell list provided by the god, which doesnt have to be the paladins best combat list either).

I have found that no two characters should look exactly the same when using the BbWG talent. 

In addition, certain flaws should automatically follow, like duty or destiny sense bane or enemy.

BbWG is a fun talent, certainly one of the most powerful.

[markc]

 You can also as Yammahoper said have the bonuses only apply when the PC is on a "War God" quest or action. Or when they really need it during a campaign.


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