We are toying with the idea to disallow stacking between the specialisations. One could choose which specialisations’ tree one uses for the talent. Example: either Doctor or Marauder, but they do not stack.
One could even cross out those talents and enable faster advancement in those trees. Maybe that would be to fast, not sure…
So, let’s theorise a bit…
For the why:
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no more Wookie Doctor Marauders and their kind
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it seems that the talents in one tree are more than enough to be heroic
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it encourages to buy specialisations more for what they are, and not for the talent
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most “crazy stuff” comes from stacking talents
Disadvantages:
I am interested in the opinions of my fellow gamers. What do you think, how will such a rule effect the game?
Based on the Discord discussion it is not a bad idea.
It is at odds with the game’s fundamental design, and adds some cumbersomeness to the game.
I take it the idea is if you want to use a talent, you can only combine it with stuff on the same tree? So if you have Parry 2 from one tree and Parry 1 from another, you can only use Parry 2, but if the tree with Parry 1 has Improved Parry, you’d have to use Parry 1 in order to Improved Parry? What if you have Feral Strength from one tree, and Knockdown from another?
I think it’s wonky and unnecessary. Are there some broken combos? Yes. But the trees are designed with the expectation that you’ll be stacking trees to get good builds, and at high levels of EXP, eliminating talent-stacking puts a pretty hard cap on a character’s build.
One major effect it will have is causing players to invest a lot of XP into their skills.
It’s not something I would use or recommend, and I would probably not play in a game that disallowed talent combos across specs, but if you want to play that way, go ahead.
Thank you for your detailed answer!
I do not think it is at odds. Good point with Parry, but you could use Improved Parry with Parry 2, as Improved Parry is a different talent. Same with Feral Strength and Knockdown, different talents. The idea is that you can use anything from anywhere as in RAW, but the same talents do not stack from different trees. Basically you coud use the higher of the two. In my experience it even simplifies things, or keeps the same length at the table.
I am not sure they were designed with stacking in mind. If they was it was a bit of a careless design. But that is my hypothesis.
I think people will spend a bit more on skills which is not a bad thing. The effect will be much more limited, if I understand your described implications correctly. It will just keep talents around 3 and not raise them to the 5+ range.
Stacking like that is pretty standard in RPGs, and based on the quantity of talents you need to make some things effective (e.g., Parry, Reflect), stacking is clearly intended behavior if it’s to represent the power scaling they intend. Same thing with Toughened/Grit. Can it get out of hand at very high XP tiers? Yes, but those are also games at extremely high EXP, and the people in those games knew what they were getting into.
(For Toughened/Grit, compare to leveling in D&D-like RPGs, where HP scales with XP/levels)
The combo of Doctor/Marauder you mention in your first post is to make use of Pressure Point. If the only problem with stacking is multiple iterations of the same talent from different trees, that would not address the Doctor/Marauder brokenness. The two trees share one talent, Toughened, and it isn’t even part of that combo.
I agree spending more on skills isn’t a bad thing (in moderation), but it also has a lower XP ceiling and has a more totalizing effect on the game. While talents allow players to do cool things or make the things they do more effective, more skills increase their likelihood of success without expanding their options. This turns situations that could be high-risk/high-reward into low-risk/mid-reward, which is less interesting. Remember, the more dice you have, the greater influence the law of averages has. The more your dice rolls average out, the less variance there is in the consequences of your actions.
Speaking as a GM, I would rather my players stack talents than max out skills. Either can be taken to an extreme and each has different consequences.