Hidden Talent / Wild Talent - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Hidden Talent / Wild Talent

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Sysane
Jun 02, 2004 12:46:45 Just curious. Has anyone used the hidden talent option form the xph for their DS campaign?

I used it with my current group and found that giving them a choice of a first level power was a big mistake. Most of the party picked force screen (6 out of the 8 players).

I found that a bit unsettling. Do people think it would be better to use a random generated power akin to 2e DS?

Thoughts, comments, insults?

--Sysane, The Terror of Urik
#2
xlorepdarkhelm_dup
Jun 02, 2004 13:37:51 I use it. I have *everyone* on Athas start as a Wild Talent, then they all have an extra feat at first level which can be Hidden Talent, Talented, or one of my background feats: Freeman (ie: don't start as a slave) or Noble (Noble requires the Freeman feat as well, thus uses 2 feats, but the character starts with more money). Hidden Talent basically gives Wild Talent the same effective useability that the old Wild Talent feat did.

Now - if they use Force Screen, IIRC - that is the same AC modifier that a Shield provides, and thus cannot stack with shields, or the Shield spell. Now, it costs them a power point to manifest it, and they only have 2 power points unless they are a psionic class. So, how unbalancing is this for them all to have it? Not much.

I personally can't stand making the players roll randomly for something as important as the power they get for choosing that feat. It's their choice to take the feat, it should be their choice what the power is that it uses. But, to each their won. I'd say let the player's choose - forcing a roll would require making a table for something that really isn't all that important - it's too much work for too little gain, and almost seems like a micromanaging effort for the DM to take away the customization of a character too much.
#3
Sysane
Jun 02, 2004 13:43:05 In my campaign I just give the players the bonus feat of hidden talent.

I'm just more irked with the fact that they all pretty much picked the same power which is sort of lame.

I play with a bunch of power min/maxers.

--Sysane, The Terror of Urik
#4
xlorepdarkhelm_dup
Jun 02, 2004 13:50:28 USe it against them... Have them run into a ton of encounters that deal with creatures who use touch attacks (and thus, ignore the shield AC bonus), and into situations where any of the other powers could have been useful, again and again. That's how I punish min/maxers, and like to beat them senseless with clue-by-fours.
#5
zombiegleemax
Jun 02, 2004 19:08:45 I agree, kick their butts until they realize that anything they can think of, you can get around. Our DM for a lame ass FR campaign whined so often about how our group complemented each other so well, that everything we encountered we killed within 3 rounds. That was until he realized that the big flaw with his encounters is that we were ALWAYS together. Once we got separated, either by choice or not, we were sitting ducks to things that the other PC's normally helped with. Our wizard for example couldn't get out of a grapple if his life depended on it, which it occasionally did

I am using that exact feat in my game, and I gave it to all my PC's as a bonus feat just like you did, but I randomly determined it. I now have an aarakocra cleric with inertial armor (good one for him), a half-elf psychic warrior with posthypnotic suggestion, and a mul gladiator with attraction, hahaha.

"Come here little elf....yeah....you want this cookie don't you....yeah.....that's it.....WHAM!" heartpick to the skull!
#6
xlorepdarkhelm_dup
Jun 02, 2004 23:04:52 We did a Shadowrun campaign, where the GM was sooooo frustrated over this, with 2 of the players absolutely min-maxing their characters (one was a physical adept with a special magical-metal arm that replaced the one he lost earlier in the campaign), the other was a street samurai who kept cramming all of the latest technology, including begging and pleading for his "new" tech to be added, both made very 2-dimentional characters), and the total lack of roleplaying they were doing, that basically he used it against them. We encountered an AI that implanted some cybertech into both that they weren't aware of. The cyborg, who was a 2-dimentional vampire hunter, started seeing everyone as a vampire, and actually ended up killing 2 other players in the group (nearly killing my own character in the process), while the other one ended up killing an entire precinct of police officers in the Seattle area before both fled, and then after that happened, they were finally made aware that what they saw was not real, but what they did was very real. The game died shortly after as people got VERY upset that the GM would pull a nasty trick like that, but.... one of the two then shaped up and actually worked on roleplaying in later campaigns. The other one seems to have a knack for getting more and more NPC's and organizations against him in any campaign...
#7
zombiegleemax
Jun 28, 2004 21:24:19 for my new campaign i gave wild talent for a bonus feat. i did this because i felt that although everyone is psionic (ie. power points), not everyone has a power.

but i could be wrong...

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Sysane Jun 02, 2004 12:46:45	Just curious. Has anyone used the hidden talent option form the xph for their DS campaign? I used it with my current group and found that giving them a choice of a first level power was a big mistake. Most of the party picked force screen (6 out of the 8 players). I found that a bit unsettling. Do people think it would be better to use a random generated power akin to 2e DS? Thoughts, comments, insults? --Sysane, The Terror of Urik
#2 xlorepdarkhelm_dup Jun 02, 2004 13:37:51	I use it. I have everyone on Athas start as a Wild Talent, then they all have an extra feat at first level which can be Hidden Talent, Talented, or one of my background feats: Freeman (ie: don't start as a slave) or Noble (Noble requires the Freeman feat as well, thus uses 2 feats, but the character starts with more money). Hidden Talent basically gives Wild Talent the same effective useability that the old Wild Talent feat did. Now - if they use Force Screen, IIRC - that is the same AC modifier that a Shield provides, and thus cannot stack with shields, or the Shield spell. Now, it costs them a power point to manifest it, and they only have 2 power points unless they are a psionic class. So, how unbalancing is this for them all to have it? Not much. I personally can't stand making the players roll randomly for something as important as the power they get for choosing that feat. It's their choice to take the feat, it should be their choice what the power is that it uses. But, to each their won. I'd say let the player's choose - forcing a roll would require making a table for something that really isn't all that important - it's too much work for too little gain, and almost seems like a micromanaging effort for the DM to take away the customization of a character too much.
#3 Sysane Jun 02, 2004 13:43:05	In my campaign I just give the players the bonus feat of hidden talent. I'm just more irked with the fact that they all pretty much picked the same power which is sort of lame. I play with a bunch of power min/maxers. --Sysane, The Terror of Urik
#4 xlorepdarkhelm_dup Jun 02, 2004 13:50:28	USe it against them... Have them run into a ton of encounters that deal with creatures who use touch attacks (and thus, ignore the shield AC bonus), and into situations where any of the other powers could have been useful, again and again. That's how I punish min/maxers, and like to beat them senseless with clue-by-fours.
#5 zombiegleemax Jun 02, 2004 19:08:45	I agree, kick their butts until they realize that anything they can think of, you can get around. Our DM for a lame ass FR campaign whined so often about how our group complemented each other so well, that everything we encountered we killed within 3 rounds. That was until he realized that the big flaw with his encounters is that we were ALWAYS together. Once we got separated, either by choice or not, we were sitting ducks to things that the other PC's normally helped with. Our wizard for example couldn't get out of a grapple if his life depended on it, which it occasionally did I am using that exact feat in my game, and I gave it to all my PC's as a bonus feat just like you did, but I randomly determined it. I now have an aarakocra cleric with inertial armor (good one for him), a half-elf psychic warrior with posthypnotic suggestion, and a mul gladiator with attraction, hahaha. "Come here little elf....yeah....you want this cookie don't you....yeah.....that's it.....WHAM!" heartpick to the skull!
#6 xlorepdarkhelm_dup Jun 02, 2004 23:04:52	We did a Shadowrun campaign, where the GM was sooooo frustrated over this, with 2 of the players absolutely min-maxing their characters (one was a physical adept with a special magical-metal arm that replaced the one he lost earlier in the campaign), the other was a street samurai who kept cramming all of the latest technology, including begging and pleading for his "new" tech to be added, both made very 2-dimentional characters), and the total lack of roleplaying they were doing, that basically he used it against them. We encountered an AI that implanted some cybertech into both that they weren't aware of. The cyborg, who was a 2-dimentional vampire hunter, started seeing everyone as a vampire, and actually ended up killing 2 other players in the group (nearly killing my own character in the process), while the other one ended up killing an entire precinct of police officers in the Seattle area before both fled, and then after that happened, they were finally made aware that what they saw was not real, but what they did was very real. The game died shortly after as people got VERY upset that the GM would pull a nasty trick like that, but.... one of the two then shaped up and actually worked on roleplaying in later campaigns. The other one seems to have a knack for getting more and more NPC's and organizations against him in any campaign...
#7 zombiegleemax Jun 28, 2004 21:24:19	for my new campaign i gave wild talent for a bonus feat. i did this because i felt that although everyone is psionic (ie. power points), not everyone has a power. but i could be wrong...