FASA Games, Inc.

As someone fairly new to ED, i was wondering what the advantage of Momentum Attack is? For MA you need a Good on your initial attack, and then you test MA vs the defender Physical Defence. SA is just test vs PD.

They both cost 1 strain. SA does require Karma, but this is not an absolute requirement if it is a Discipline Talent, which it normally will be.

There isn't really an advantage when directly compared as far as I'm aware. Not all talents are equally good and I believe that's intentional (e.g. Down Strike vs Crushing Blow). Which talent is more appropriate for a character often depends on the flavour/ focus of his Discipline. However, one advantage of having it as a seperate talent other than this is that you can use it in addition to Second Attack.

Right, Momentum Attack is 'triggered' as an option whenever you get that first Good hit. If you already have more than one attack per round, that doubles, etc, your chances of triggering it (that's why it has a once per round limit).

So you could also trigger it off of Swift Kick, Second Weapon, etc. It's supposed to complement all of your existing attacks or options. For examlpe, a high circle Sky Raider could even use a successful Momentum Attack to roll a Shield Charge Damage roll. Which means you're probably on the ground for his buddies to pound on.

Breaking from a Sky Raider (or mutli-disciplined Sky Raider .... SR + Swordsmaster *shiver*) you also have the Momentum Attack Skill (it still has 1 strain, whereas the other "2nd" skills usually costy 2 strain).

You find Momentum Attack skill (+complementary skills) on elite guards and heavy fighters... it kind of helps them take on adepts... kind of...

monentum attack is only trigger on your "initial close combat attack" it wont trigger on any other attacks

That's not how I read it, I guess I interpret 'initial' differently, and goes against the "This talent can only be used once per round" language.

Any clarification from the devs?

"initial" is synonym for the aforementioned "first" attack.
All the talk of first and second (or whatever you may call it) simply serves to explain you got to make the Momentum Attack directly following the attack that allowed it.
For example, you CAN'T:
1. Melee Weapons with Good Result.
2. Second Weapon with Average Result.
3. Momentum Attack allowed by Melee Weapons Result.

Cheers for that. Looking through the book, you can see there are "better" talents than other, for a given value of better of course!

I have never been overly worried about absolute balance in games, so not a major problem