Custom Talent for NPC

Hey guys.
Made this talent that I need feedback for.
No Matter the Cost
Once per session, make a No Matter the Cost action, with a upgraded once Hard (Red, Purple, Purple) Deception Check Targeting one person. For each uncanceled success, add 1 Failure to the targets next check. For each uncanceled advantage add 1 threat to the targets check. For each uncanceled Triumph add 1 Despair to the targets next check

The NPC using this talent is an ISB agent that does anything he can to do his job.

A couple of things that are on my mind for this ability are:

  • The difficulty may need to go up
  • Negative symbols grant positive symbols on the targets check

Thanks in advance,
Grapes

(You can write over the “list item” text, that just tells you what the formatting does.)

The talent is fairly sound, and a neat concept. However, I think that it may do a bit too much, so I’d look at tweaking it. Here’s how I’d rewrite it:

(Bit of a wall of text, this paragraph is the most important section:)
Once per session, the character may take the No Matter the Cost action. He chooses a single target within Medium range and makes a Hard Deception check, upgrading the difficulty once. On success, he adds 1 Failure to the target’s next check, plus one Failure for every two additional net success. Each Advantage extends the effects to an additional target within Medium range, and he may spend a Triumph to add three Threat to the affected targets’ next check.

Changes:

  • Two net success to increase Failure added. This brings it more in-line with RAW talents and actions like Fire Discipline, and keeps it from getting too out of hand. For example, on a hot roll he might skew and get 4 Success without too much difficulty. That would be 4 Failure on the target’s next check, which is about the average of rolling 8 difficulty dice (you average 0.5 Failure per difficulty die rolled). With this change, now 4 Success would only add 2 Failure.
  • Rather than Advantage directly adding Threat, it extends the number of people he can affect with his sneakiness. So a less-potent effect spread over potentially more people, signifying his careful preparation and planning (I picture it like a Batman vs. the Justice League sort of thing, where the well-prepared gadgetman takes down a bunch of super-powered, pajama-clad weirdos).
  • Rather than adding Despair, Triumph instead adds Threat. The reason for this is that it makes the effect cancelable and gives the player a chance.
  • Added a range limitation. No big deal, but it’s in-line with stuff like Inspiring Rhetoric or Scathing Tirade.

A philosophical note underpinning my suggested changes: As a player, if I know I’m going to get an automatic 3 Failure, 2 Threat, and Despair on my check, I’m going to make sure the check I fail spectacularly isn’t going to have serious ramifications. For example, I’m not going to fire my tricked-out heavy blaster pistol that could explode on a Despair, and I’m not going to spend any DPs or Strain or other bonuses that could give me an edge if I don’t think I’m going to get anything for it. BUT!

If it’s only going to be 2 Failure and 3 Threat, AND two of my allies are hit with it too, I’ll take the shot. We can’t afford to skip three turns (“skip” as in use ineffectual actions or not go all-out in order to avoid penalties), so I’ll pop those effects and hope I get lucky.

Miscellaneous suggestions:
Backfiring: As for the drawbacks you mentioned, I wouldn’t. You could end up shooting yourself in the foot more often than not. Instead, I’d use the Threat or Despair to penalize the character directly. He takes some Strain, or maybe a couple Wounds for pushing himself too hard, or his gambit didn’t quite come off like he hoped, or maybe the remote control setup he was using worked, but shorted out and zapped him.
So I’d spend them narratively or use the combat chart, rather than codifying specific options into an already-lengthy talent description.

Difficulty: The difficulty is fine as-is. If anything, I’d cut the upgrade. Without anything special for the Despair baked into the talent, and with prescribed upgraded checks being quite unusual (if not unheard of) for talents, I would suggest removing it. Remember, the PCs can flip a DP to upgrade his check, and you may want to remind them of this the next time their teeth start chattering as the corner of his mouth turns up in a smirk…

Other talents: You could make this more like Scathing Tirade or Inspiring Rhetoric by making it so each Success applies a base effect (1 Failure) to each character, and 1 Advantage may be spent to add 1 Threat to an affected character (may not choose the same character twice). And maybe say a Triumph adds a Setback to each affected character. However, that is not as potent or likely to seriously tip a check.

Opposition: A final way to set the difficulty would be to make it an Opposed check, Deception against probably Vigilance in this case, although Discipline is the default for opposing Deception Social checks, though this is somewhat different in nature (though the talent wouldn’t have to be, as it works perfectly well for Social checks).


Finally, I want to complement you again on the concept. This is an excellent idea, and fits the narrative quite well.

2 Likes

Whoops didn’t realize it did that.

I really like what you did to change the talent. The range cap makes sense, as you can only influence those in front of you (most of the time, but more on this later)

Makes sense. No notes.

I can honestly say that making it an opposed check never entered my mind, but it also makes a little less sense then your other suggestions. Say the NPC activates his ability against a player (using an opposed check) succeeds, and it effects the players party members. The fellow party members didn’t really contribute to the difficulty (not including DP’s) so either they shouldn’t be effected or the opposed check doesn’t really work.

Now, the new idea I just came up with. You mentioned the range cap. If the NPC is using his ability, I’m thinking he would be able to influence those via hologram/commlinks because he is really just manipulating people to do what he wants. Make sense?

Thanks for your help P-47

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I agree. I didn’t expound upon it because I preferred the alternatives, but the way to handle it would be like Auto-Fire. Either the initial target must be the strongest, or the common houserule of subsequent targets must be of equal or lesser difficulty. But I prefer the flat difficulty, as the players’ skills still come into effect for overcoming his machinations on their subsequent checks.

Yes, with a caveat. Yes, because it’s often ruled that abilities such as Scathing Tirade and Inspiring Rhetoric can be applied over comms and the like.
The caveat is the question of the nature of the talent: Is it more careful planning, sabotage, and tricks, or is it more in the nature of verbal and psychological trickery? But this talent is flexible, and could be applied to many different circumstances.
You, as the GM, have much flexibility here as you can choose when to use and when not to use, thus you can ensure that it happens under the proper narrative circumstances.

However, it could often be the case that when it is over communication devices, the nature of his ability would be of the social variety, whereas if he is in person it would often be of the physical variety.

The final matter is the name of the talent: No Matter the Cost is a good name for *a* talent, but would tend to suggest a personal penalty or sorts for the talent’s use, and this talent does not bear that out.

I would suggest changing the name to something more fitting, such as “Impeccable Planning” or something. That is an incredibly half-baked suggestion, but at the moment I lack the time to think of anything more suitable.

The NPC has worked through treasonous ways to achieve power so I’m thinking it would be more trickery and manipulation.

I’ll give it a couple thinks.

Finalized draft of the talent (unless there are some major flaws I need to fix that arise during gameplay).

Talent: Controlling Words
Ranked: No
Activation: Active (Action)

Once per session, the character may take the Controlling Words action. He chooses a single target within Medium range and makes a Hard Deception check, upgrading the difficulty once. On success, he adds 1 Failure to the target’s next check, plus one Failure for every two additional net successes. Each Advantage extends the effects to an additional target within Medium range, and he may spend a Triumph to add three Threat to the affected targets’ next check. Each Threat inflicts 1 strain upon the character. Despair adds 2 Success on the targets’ next checks.

(@P-47Thunderbolt, sorry if it feels like I just stole your idea, added a couple of things, and renamed it, I just really liked the changes you made)

The Despair may or may not be changed depending on how it affects gameplay, as it pretty much gives a player or two an auto-succeed unless they roll horribly.

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Three things:

  1. That’s totally fine! I’m glad you liked my suggestions and that they helped you.
  2. I’d suggest changing “…Threat to the affected targets’ next check.” to “…Threat to an affected target’s next check.”
    Otherwise you could end up with the character rolling 1s2a1T and adding a total of 3 Failure and 9 Threat. It just stacks too quickly, and is a bit out of sync with how it’s usually handled.
  3. I don’t advise adding that option for Despair, as again it has the same problem as the Triumph expenditure and in addition to that can turn a successful check into a net negative result.
    As a footnote, That Threat expenditure doesn’t mean a whole lot since Threat can usually be used to inflict Strain on the character, and it also hamstrings the PCs if they have a clever alternative idea for how to spend the Threat.

Alright, cool thanks man. You’re a big help to us noobs :slight_smile:

That makes sense. I’ll get on that.

I suppose I’m not fully understanding this.

1 Success, 1 Despair:
You add 1 Failure to one target, but add 2 Success. That means you net +1 Success. So a successful check had a net negative result.
As for the comparison to the Triumph suggestion, If you have 1 Success, 3 Advantage, and 1 Despair, now not only have you not managed to accomplish your goal, but you’ve given THREE enemies +1 Success.

Ok, so, I’ve been tinkering a little more and this is what I’ve got.

Controlling Words

Once per session, the character may take the Controlling Words action. He chooses a single target within Medium range and makes a Hard Deception check, upgrading the difficulty once. On success, he adds 1 Failure to the target’s next check, plus one Failure for every two additional net successes. Each Advantage extends the effects to an additional target within Medium range, and he may spend a Triumph to add three Threat to the affected targets’ next check. Each Threat inflicts 1 strain upon the character.

There is one symbol that remains undecided.
Despair.
The only thing I can think of is affecting fewer targets, giving the enemy success (which may not be as good an idea as I originally thought as P-47 pointed out above), or lowering the range that the NPC can choose targets from.

I’m leaning towards the range one more than the others, but I cant picture it narrativly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Since it’s a social check, I would leave Despair flexible. It can be used in any number of ways, like prejudicing an NPC against the ISB agent, causing him to let some of his intentions slip or drop a piece of the truth, etc. Any mechanical effect could be underwhelming compared to the narrative of the check.

I’ve been meaning to reply with how the talent worked out for a while, I just couldn’t find the thread until now.

It worked like a charm, extremely balanced thanks to your assistance P-47. It made my players really fear my ISB agent and they don’t look forward to his inevitable return in the campaign. The one time I got to use it the Talent gave all my players a single failure symbol. Looking back at my original idea for the talent, it would’ve given a lot more scary results if it hadn’t been tweaked.

Once again, I thank you for your help @P-47Thunderbolt

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No problem! Glad my assistance payed off.

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