Essentially, there is a bad side to almost every Talent. (if the GM is clever enough).
Blessed by War God -- What makes you think you are the only one? What makes you think that the others won't come hunting for you. After all, there can be only one. (i.e.the War God blesses a bunch of people and then let's them battle it out in their own little war to see who is the most worthy).
Armored Skin (at whatever level) -- Your skin doesn't look normal. If you have AT 4, your skin is going to look tough and leathery.
It's even more easy, since this is already ingrained in the system. When you select a talent, the system let's you pay less for your ability by selecting a flaw. This way, choosing Rivals with Blessed by War God and Unique Looks with Armored Skin will do the job!
If you impose some flaws to your player because you don't like the talents they selected, I think this kind of goes against the system. Flaws shouldn't be drawbacks of talents too powerful for your game, since players are supposed to get points back by selecting them. They should be chosen normally, but with the logic you demonstrated in your example, Rasyr.
I think talents are a GREAT way to take your character somewhere else, to play someone
very special. Something rich in terms of roleplaying opportunities and dramatic storytelling. But it shouldn't be used as a checklist for optimization. This is just bad "playership" (it's not even a word, but you get my meaning... you know, like sportsmanship
). If one of my players were trying to pull this kind of character optimization, I would redirect him to his initial concept. And if it is faithful to his concept, I would ask myself "Why, oh why, have I let some player be the best warrior in the world at 1st level?". Take your time... You'll get there. I would allow him to "boost" his fighting abilities if it were according to a great initial character concept, but not otherwise.
One could also "houserule" that no talents or flaws may be higher than minor at character creation. This should rule out the most powerful abilities.
And please please, include in the rules that this Talent cannot be taken by (insert specific profession/race). EG: Power which gives you Y ranks for spells choosen within your own base, open and closed realm. But nothing (in the rules) prevents an thief from learning a few spells this way. I know you cant get any base lists because as a thief you dont have any, but you can get open/closed spelllists.
This is a great example. Does he have a concept reflecting this choice? If not, it's settled. If your player can come up with something great in his background to justify his knowledge of magic, than it should be interesting to see how, dramatically speaking, it will unfold in your campaign.
