TALENTS
Many Talents resemble Skills in some ways (albeit in an improved form), or interact directly with Skills on a regular basis. For example, Bump Of Direction is similar to some applications of Navigation, but gener- ally has no chance to fail; Double-Jointed provides a specific modifier for Contortionist rolls; having Perfect Pitch makes it easier to use music-related Skills.
A Talent might reflect a character’s high degree of competence with a particular Skill. For example, a character who’s especially skilled at balancing on narrow objects and ledges might have the Supreme
Balance form of Environmental Movement in addi-
tion to the Breakfall Skill.
Here are several new Talents that relate to Skills and Skill use:
COMBAT-READY
A character with this Talent is particularly adept at using a Skill in combat or crisis conditions — he can focus past the distraction and the danger and get the job done. He suffers no penalty for combat or crisis conditions (see page 33). The character chooses which Skill this Talent applies to when he buys the Talent, and cannot change it thereafter.
At the GM’s option, characters can use Combat- Ready as a model for designing more Talents to coun- teract other common Skill Modifiers. For example, a
Grace Under Pressure Talent might reduce or elimi-
nate the penalty for time/deadline stress.
■ Combat-Ready Cost: 2 Character Points
(bought as +3 with a specific Skill with the Limi- tation Only To Counteract Combat/Crisis Condi-
tion Penalties (-2)).
EXPERTISE
The character is such an expert at using a cer- tain Skill that conditions which hinder or hamper most characters don’t affect him, or affect him to a lesser degree. In game terms, this Talent functions as a +1, +2, or +3 bonus the character can only use to counteract or negate Skill Roll penalties; the amount of the bonus depends on how many points the character pays for the Talent.
The character chooses which Skill this Talent applies to when he buys the Talent, and cannot change it thereafter.
■ Expertise Cost: 1, 2, or 3 Character Points (bought
as +1 to +3 with a specific Skill with the Limitation
Only To Counteract Skill Roll Penalties (-1))
SKILL MASTER
The character has developed a high level of proficiency with a single Characteristic-Based Skill, such as Climbing, Deduction, Navigation, or Stealth. He chooses one Skill when he buys this Talent, and receives a +3 bonus for all uses of that Skill.
Some characters have even greater mastery of Skills. They can apply the same +3 bonus to all Skills based on a single Characteristic.
■ Skill Master Cost: 6 Character Points (bought as
+3 with one Skill) or 15 Character Points (bought as +3 with all Skills based on DEX, INT, or PRE [choose one])
POWERS
In some campaigns, characters who are par- ticularly skilled at some sort of task or ability buy a Limited Power to represent that instead of a Skill. These abilities are usually known as “Super- Skills” or “Heroic Talents.” They’re similar in many respects to Talents, and you can find dozens of them written up in genre books like Dark Champi-
ons and Pulp Hero. Additionally, most of the Skill
descriptions in Chapter Two include a section that discusses how that Skill interacts with Powers, and in some cases what Powers characters might use as a “substitute” for that Skill.
ADJUSTMENT POWERS
As stated on page 105 of The HERO System 5th
Edition, Revised, characters can only use Adjust-
ment Powers to affect Skills with the GM’s permis- sion. Because Skills are so inexpensive (compared to Powers), Adjustment Powers could easily be unbalancingly effective when used on or against them. An average roll on just two to three dice of Drain would be enough to wipe out even a costly Skill, whereas a similar Aid would provide a +5 bonus to a Characteristic-Based Skill! If the GM wants to leave open the possibility of Adjusting Skills, he should consider treating them as if they were Defense Powers: Adjustment Powers only have half effect on them.
MENTAL POWERS
If the campaign uses the rules for Negative Skill Levels, characters can buy Negative Skill Levels to apply to a victim’s chance of making a Breakout Roll. A character may use an Overall Level, or any other Skill Level that can apply to EGO Rolls, to improve his chances of making a Breakout Roll.
CHANGE ENVIRONMENT
Change Environment provides a convenient way for a character to impose a Skill Roll penalty on another character. Per the Combat Effects Table on page 136 of The HERO System 5th Edition,
Revised, the cost for a -1 penalty on a specific Skill’s
roll (including the ability to force the victim to make a Skill Roll, if appropriate) costs 3 Character Points for each additional -1 beyond the initial “free” combat effect. At the GM’s option, characters can buy a -1 penalty to all Skills of a given category (Agility Skills, Intellect Skills, Interaction Skills, Knowledge Skills, Professional Skills, or Science Skills) for 5 Character Points. For this purpose the rolls needed to perform “stunts” with a Transport Familiarity count as an Agility Skill.
DISPEL
The rules about using Adjustment Powers on Skills also apply to Dispel.
ENHANCED SENSES
Enhanced Perception is a Power, not a Skill. Therefore characters may put Limitations on any type of Enhanced Perception bonus; the rule forbidding characters to Limit 2-point Skill Levels does not apply.
A character cannot use Transmit by itself to transmit “false signals,” misleading information, or the like — any more than an untrained person can use his voice to precisely make the sound of a car engine. To transmit false or misleading information a character needs either (a) a properly-constructed Images power that affects the appropriate Sense Groups, or (b) a relevant Skill based on the Sense Groups involved (such as Mimicry, Ventriloquism, Systems Operation, or perhaps Power). At the GM’s option, any character can try to Transmit false or misleading information at any time. However, any attempt to see through the subterfuge gets a +3 or greater PER Roll bonus. If the character uses a relevant Skill (as described above) and fails the roll, the same rule applies — but if he makes the roll, the PER Roll gets no bonus and must win a Skill Versus Skill Contest against the Skill Roll.
LEAPING
A character can buy Penalty Skill Levels to offset the Range Modifier as it applies to Leaping unless the GM rules otherwise.
MIND CONTROL
Characters can often use Mind Control to make Interaction Skills more likely to succeed. For each level of Mind Control achieved (greater than EGO, EGO +10, and so on) a character usually receives a +2 (or greater) bonus to his Interaction Skill Roll. However, he usually also has to achieve the +10 “target will remember actions and think they were natural” modifier, or the eventual suc- cess of a Breakout Roll may also ruin the effect he wanted to achieve with the Skill.
MIND SCAN
The rules for Mind Scan specify that bonuses to the ECV Attack Roll can be bought as an Adder. How- ever, that does not prevent a character from buying ordinary Combat Skill Levels, either with Mind Scan alone or all Mental Powers, to improve his ECV with Mind Scan. Either or both ways of improving ECV can be applied to the same Mind Scan power.
MISSILE DEFLECTION AND REFLECTION
Sometimes the situation arises where a charac- ter buys Missile Deflection through a Focus (such as a sword), and he has 3-point or more expensive Combat Skill Levels with that Focus. Generally speaking, he cannot apply those CSLs to improve his Missile Deflection roll — a character should buy CSLs specifically for Missile Deflection if he wants to improve his roll, as described under the power. However, the GM can allow some broader Levels (and of course any Overall Levels) to apply to the roll as he sees fit.
With the GM’s permission a character can buy 3-point Combat Skill Levels that apply to improve OCV with both Missile Deflection and Reflection. With the GM’s permission, a character can buy Penalty Skill Levels to counteract the Missile Deflec- tion penalty for multiple deflections. However, the PSLs can only cancel successive Deflection penalties; otherwise the character should buy straightforward OCV bonuses as prescribed for the Power.
SKILLS
As discussed elsewhere in this book, including the expanded Skill descriptions in Chapter Two, there are many intriguing abilities characters can create by applying Limitations (and sometimes Advantages) to Skills. Among other things, this is
a good way to “specialize” a Skill — buy bonuses to the Skill Roll that only apply in certain situations.
TELEPATHY
If a character uses a Skill when a person with Telepathy tries to read his mind, the knowledge imparted by the Skill counts as a “surface thought.” If the character’s not using a Skill, the knowledge it imparts counts as a “deep, hidden thought” (or pos- sibly as a “memory” if the character hasn’t used that aspect of the Skill for a long time). In some cases, a Skill that hasn’t been used for a long time (such as one that’s suffering atrophy, as described on page 29) would qualify as a “memory.”
TELEPORTATION
The Attack Roll to appear in a specific hex is an ordinary Attack Roll in Ranged Combat and can be modified by any sort of appropriate Combat Skill Level (such as 2-point CSLs with Teleporta- tion or 5-point CSLs with Ranged Combat).
TRANSFORM
Using a Mental Transform to remove a Skill from a character requires a Major Transform. So does giving a person a Skill (the rules for adding abilities to characters with Transform apply).