Topic: the Blessed by War God talent

[EltonJ]

Every time I look at this talent, I roll my eyes.  I can see where it works, but I can also see where it can be a hindrance.  If the Player taking it doesn't have at least one rival, or one enemy, this can be overpowered.  Plus, there's the quest thing.  Anyone have any ideas on what to do?

Vetoing the talent is possible (to keep balance), but I am firm in the belief that a player should be able to play the kind of character he wants. No one has taken the talent, yet.  So this is pre-emptive. Since my home campaign is set in Greyhawk (the Flanaess), the War Deity choices include: Heironeous (LG), Hextor (LE), Erythnul (CE), Corellon Larethian (CG), Gruumsh (LE), and possibly Kord (CG).

[Majyk]

Yup.

Don’t allow certain entries in the list as pickable.  Random roll only.

[Cory Magel]

Don’t allow certain entries in the list as pickable.  Random roll only.

Or just make them regret it (but in a fun way!)

I've picked a greater flaw that was an enemy hunting me down. As with any major NPC, he had his own Fate Points (close to how we wrote them in the Channeling Companion) and he had a crossbow that did slaying crits to my character.  I actually had him (a Rogue) develop two ranks in Mind's Door specifically to counter that item.

[Sable Wyvern]

Either you are happy to balance it by having the character's god/patron taking a regular, active interest in what they are doing, or you ban it, or you just shrug and let them have their OP character.

The biggest problem with solution one is that not only do you have to be personally willing to interject and disrupt well laid plans with holy quests, the other players also need to be OK with it. This is the main reason I'm not a fan of this kind of balancing process -- it only really works if everyone agrees, "This campaign will be about the hijinks caused by this particular PC's special circumstances" ... at which point it pretty much ceases to be a penalty in any case.

Vetoing the talent is possible (to keep balance), but I am firm in the belief that a player should be able to play the kind of character he wants.

Take that to its logical conclusion, and you might as well just let players note down whatever stat and skill values they want, across the board. Which is a perfectly valid way of going about things. But, if you're going to lay down some restrictions, then restricting or outright banning certain talents is also entirely reasonable.

[EltonJ]

Don’t allow certain entries in the list as pickable.  Random roll only.

Or just make them regret it (but in a fun way!)

I've picked a greater flaw that was an enemy hunting me down. As with any major NPC, he had his own Fate Points (close to how we wrote them in the Channeling Companion) and he had a crossbow that did slaying crits to my character.  I actually had him (a Rogue) develop two ranks in Mind's Door specifically to counter that item.

That sounded fun.  (Shadowrun has a negative enemy quality that works the same way.)