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Talent Options becoming Free Talents

Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2019 5:56 pm
by JetBlackJoe
I’ve got most of the Multi-Discipline rules down and understood, but there’s one scenario where I’m uncertain: What happens when a Talent Option from the primary Discipline becomes a Free Talent for the secondary?

For example, a Fifth Circle Warrior has selected Danger Sense as a Talent Option and raised it to Rank 5. He then becomes a First Circle Thief. What happens to Danger Sense?

Re: Talent Options becoming Free Talents

Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2019 12:00 am
by ChrisDDickey
The rules don't cover every edge case. In fact the rules sometimes don't cover every common occurrence! Sometimes the GM just needs to make a judgement call.

I would not just reduce the Talent to rank 1. There is no need to.
The two possibilities I would give the most consideration to is to just keep the Rank at 5, unable to advance, until the character advances to a 6th circle thief.
The other possibility is that I would look at the rules on page 435 of the companion about increasing free talent ranks, and think about how that might reflect upon the situation. I personally would not refund the LP. And third option listed is pretty much the same as keeping it at 5 until the character advances to 6th. Maybe something could be done with option 2 if the player wants to keep investing in having Danger Sense a rank or two ahead of what they get for free.

Re: Talent Options becoming Free Talents

Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2019 10:23 am
by Bonhumm
Personally, I'd treat it the same way it happens with skills; the character gets 'both' talents and gets to choose how to use them.

- If the 'Free Version' is already equal or higher than the 'Normal Version' then its not even a question; the character will use the Free one and never spend another LP on the Talent Option.
- If the 'Normal Version' is higher than the Free One, then the character gets to use the highest one until the Free Version catches up.
- If the character so desire, he could keep investing LP in the 'Normal Version'. After all, there might be such a high difference between the Circle of the First and Second Discipline that the time/LP needed for for the Second Discipline to level up to the First would make investing in the 'Normal' talent worth it; basically just like skills.

One way or another, again just like skills, I would not 'refund' the LP that was spent in the talent.

I know this goes counter of the rule that states that Talents don't get duplicated (except for Matrices) but like Chris said, the rules can't cover everything.
I am, however, surprised that I never thought of this issue before.

Re: Talent Options becoming Free Talents

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 7:04 am
by JetBlackJoe
Thank you both for your answers. The most meaningful and, in my opinion, fair option, would be to do as you both suggested and simply keep the Talent Rank at status quo until the secondary Discipline advances beyond the original Rank.

I asked because I couldn't find it in the rules and wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something.