A Foundation for Talents and Specializations

Talents (and specializations) in AGE need some work. They do not have a discernable formula between requirements and ranks (novice, expert, master, etc) and each benefit value. Starting off from start-of-new-action-model-for-age definition of actions and TN design, we can build a pattern for talents and specializations.

Talents, Target Numbers, and Requirements

A talent will generally be a new action or a bonus to an existing action. For a talent with a bonus we propose that the bonus is based on stat-equivalencies and that these raise the TN of the base action.

  • The amount of equivalent TN the bonus adds is the requirement.
  • If a talent does not add a bonus and instead just another action then no bonus is required nor a requirement.
  • The requirement can use an ability score or a focus or both. Use the total as the TN bonus being applied to the talent. One ability and one focus would equal a bonus TN of 3

Talent Advancement

Talents have at least three tiers or ranks (more in other AGE versions). You can improve from novice to expert to master. The feeling is that each rank should probably be more powerful than the previous however that isn't done in practice with existing talents. Talent ranks are taken in order and we can use that to define an advancement structure. Given a choice we can either get a +1 from an ability or choose a talent. Therefore the second rank should have additional value because we are forced to take the pre-requisite. Here is what I could propose for advancement.

  • Novice
    • +1 additional talent bonus
  • Expert
    • +2 additional talent bonus
  • Master
    • +3 additional talent bonus

If a talent has no requirements that means:

  • novice rank is equivalent a regular TN 11 major action, or TN 9 minor action.
  • expert tank is TN 12 major action etc...
  • master rank is a TN 13 major action etc...

Specializations

Specializations do not need to be treated any differently. They most likely will have a higher requirements, with many having at least 2 from 2 ability scores. This would confer a based TN bonus of +4. This would mean a novice specialization could have a +8 damage bonus, expert have +10 damage bonus, and master a +12 damage bonus. This seems a bit extreme but it is built on the requirements, so you could tone that down to a +2 requirement and reign in the value. I think that is the easiest thing to do if rebalancing existing specialization, just reduce requirements to match the benefits.

Balancing Existing Talents and Specializations

I would figure out the TN on each of the ranks, then given the rank bonus find the rank that requires the highest base TN and use that to set the requirement. For example, let's look at the "Chirurgy" talent.

  • Novice - reduces major to minor action, which is a 2 TN value
    • this would be +1 (since novice), and +2 value with 2 TN total value
    • needs a +1 TN requirement
  • Expert - value is increase 1d6 on average (2 X 1d6, from 1 X 1d6), a 2 TN value
    • this would be +2, and +2 value, with a 4 TN total value
    • needs a +2 TN requirement
  • Master - value is increase again by 1d6, another 2 TN value
    • this would be +3 (since master), and a +2 value, for a total of +6 overall value
    • needs a +3 TN requirement
Given that the original requirement is the Healing (Intelligence) focus we would have a baseline bonus of +2. This is more then enough for the novice which only needs a +1 base but also just enough for the expert which needs a +2 base. The master however still needs a base of +3 which means we do need to increase the requirements for this talent. INT 1 and Healing focus would be just right.

Classes

Class requirements are boring and I personally remove them and thus do not provide any benefit.

Future Work

This is just a start. Most of the bonuses found in talents can be found in the equivalency guide and balanced around. The biggest missing piece is passive effects that don't use actions. I think this is a similar case to spells with duration. For durations I double the value, so this would mean a +1 passive bonus to TN would be +2 value overall. As an example the novice bonus for single weapon style is a +1 defense passive for the encounter, which I would value at +2 TN for pricing. I do plan on expanding the equivalent list with other bonuses to be complete, however I think most are easily matched to a TN or SP or HP.

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