Multi-Discipline Durability cap?

[Semanar]

Starting the game at 1st Circle, a character can have the maximum talent rank of 3, which is 2 higher than his current Circle. Does this cap apply throughout the whole career, i.e. no talent can be higher than character's Circle+2?

And how is the limit calculated in the case of multi-discipline Durability with the Realigning Durability option? E.g. character reaches 5th Circle in his first Discipline and has the Durability talent at 5th rank. Then he switches to another Discipline. So far, so good. Then he advances to its 2nd Circle and then decides to buy the "new" Durability talent (Gamesmaster allows the Realigning optional mechanism). LP costs aside, what about the upper limit of the new Durability rank? Can the character raise Durability from e.g. 5/1 to 5/4 while still staying at Circles 5/2? Should he just total his Circles (7) and base his maximum total Durability ranks on this?

S.

[EDChronicler]

The simple answer to your first question is: Character Creation Limits. These are only applied for balance purposes, creating a Warrior with a Rank 8 starting Melee Weapons Talent is a very unbalancing factor.

* Lets use a simple format to explain:
Talent Choices:
Talent A @ Rank 3
Talent B @ Rank 3
Talent C @ Rank 2
( 8 Free Ranks - total value 1500 Legend)

Talent A @ Rank 8
( 8 Free Ranks - total value 8700 Legend)

A starting character being allowed to go that far above would be unbalancing in both Discipline Balance and Game Balance.

----------------

Player's Guide - Chapter Fifteen: Building Your Legend (Pg. 236)
----- * On page 237 the section Improving Talent Ranks covers all restrictions and limitations on improving talents.
----- * Page 243 has a small "parchment" section on Realigning Durability. From about 1/2 way through the main paragraph on the optional rule covers your questions.

In an attempt to help:

Character A has Durability at Rank 5 for Discipline A and gains Discipline B at Circle 2.

First, increase the durability to Rank 6 at the cost of Discipline B. So for tracking purposes, Durability now looks like this: Discipline B (Durability Rank 6 -- (Discipline A * 5)/(Discipline A * 5) + (Discipline B * 1)/(Discipline B * 1)) with each increase of Durability up to the standard Talent maximum of 15 you just add 1 to the Discipline B numbers.) So at Rank 10 the Durability would look like this: Discipline B (Durability Rank 10 -- (Discipline A * 5)/(Discipline A * 5) + (Discipline B * 5)/(Discipline B * 5))

EDC

[Semanar]

OK, thanks A LOT. For both clarifications.

S.

[slayride]

The starting talent, skill, and spell restriction (Circle +2) is an extension of FASA's original design to generate the Creating Advanced Characters rules. The amount of build points allows characters to be created with 2 talents above their Circle in rank (or 1 with 2 above their Circle) and all the other talents at Circle = Rank. However, without this restriction they could generate a character like this at Second Circle
Warrior 18 Build Points
Avoid Blow 2
Karma Ritual 2
Melee Weapons 2
Unarmed Combat 2
Wood Skin 2
Anticipate Blow 1
Durability 7
By ignoring the first pool talent choice and allocating the additional talent ranks to durability
The intention of the system is a balanced character such as:
Avoid Blow 2
Karma Ritual 2
Melee Weapons 2
Unarmed Combat 2
Wood Skin 2
Anticipate Blow 2
Pool Talent (Air Dance commonly) 2
Durability 2
Leaving 2 build points, 1 usually applied to improve an attribute by one if allowed by the Game Master, and the other can improve a skill rank or be added to a talent. The max caps help insure this design with some leeway to the player in how they wish to allocate their ranks.

And some crazy multi-discipline combinations are possible even at Second Circle in character creation. For example a Second Circle Beastmaster/First Circle Cavalryman by ignoring First Circle talent options
Beastmaster
Animal Bond 2
Claw Shape 2
Creature Analysis 2
Karma Ritual 2
Unarmed Combat 2
Dominate Beast 1
Durability 1
Cavalryman
Charge 1 (2 build points)
Melee Weapons 1 (2 build points)
Trick Riding 1 (2 build points)

Once a character is created, there are no caps to their talent ranks. A character could literally stay at First Circle and just develop his 6-7 starting talents for example all the way to Rank 15 if he so chooses. But in game this does not happen, because players want to go up in Circles, so as to get new talents and spells, so most savvy players tend to remember this cap even in game, as it allows them to advance at a decent pace, maybe improving important talents like melee weapons, threadweaving, durability, and spellcasting a bit over their current Circle(1-2 ranks), but each time they do this they put off advancing in their Discipline incrementally.

A character with two Disciplines and has used the optional aligning Durability rule does indeed look as ED Chronicler has described. A character that has the Durability talent as above has no restrictions on advancing it as far as legend points available allow.