Turning Skills into Talents

Discussion on playing Earthdawn. Experiences, stories, and questions related to being a player.
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stormcave
Posts:1
Joined:Wed Aug 04, 2021 8:26 pm
Turning Skills into Talents

Post by stormcave » Wed Aug 04, 2021 8:31 pm

Relatively new to the game. I set my character up with a skill or two that might be better suited as talents (along with talents be relatively easier to increase in rank, applying karma to it, etc.). So I was wondering if this is possible? Taking a skill and making it a talent instead? What Legend Points are required and such? I'm not finding anything in the rulebook about this.

Or is it easier to just get the talent and have both... even though that seems redundant?

Thanks!

Panda
Posts:172
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 5:30 am

Re: Turning Skills into Talents

Post by Panda » Wed Aug 04, 2021 9:51 pm

Greetings,

Skills and talents are separate abilities, even if they share a name for the sake of simplicity. Skills cannot become talents. Allowing that is in the realm of house rules.

Bonhumm
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Joined:Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:43 pm
Location:Right behind you

Re: Turning Skills into Talents

Post by Bonhumm » Fri Aug 06, 2021 10:52 pm

stormcave wrote:
Wed Aug 04, 2021 8:31 pm
Relatively new to the game. I set my character up with a skill or two that might be better suited as talents (along with talents be relatively easier to increase in rank, applying karma to it, etc.). So I was wondering if this is possible? Taking a skill and making it a talent instead? What Legend Points are required and such? I'm not finding anything in the rulebook about this.

Or is it easier to just get the talent and have both... even though that seems redundant?

Thanks!
As Panda (who is one Earthdawn's developers) said, skills and talents are two completely different things even tho many skills also exist as talents and vice-versa. This is, in fact, the core thing that defines Adepts:

Adepts can have talents and skills.
Non-Adepts can only have skills.

Adepts are the 'mechanic' that Earthdawn use to 'explain' why some people are 'better' than others; its not, like for example in D&D, that this guy picked a sword one day and began swinging it and, years later, become good at swinging swords. PRACTICING something (swinging swords, climbing, picking pockets, whatever else) is how WE do things in real life: practice, practice and more practice. So, in real life, what we learn are SKILLS.

Adepts, however, can use talents. And talents, if they existed in real life, would be called 'cheating' because, basically, they need no practice whatsoever. You want to learn to speak a new language? Well, as a talent, you only need to meditate for 8 hours and then voila: you speak troll!

This is why the EXPERIENCE you got learning a skill does not translate into the LEGEND you spent to learn a talent, even if they basically do the same thing. This has disadvantages, like 'wasting' Legend Points into learning a skill that you'll get as a talent later but it also, sometimes, have advantages, especially in the case of Speak Language and Read-and-Write Language where, at some point, its cheaper Legend Point-wise to increase your skills instead of your talent. Also, if you have a very evil GM, learning something as a skill has the advantage that it will keep on working whenever you end up in an area where an Horror is using the Suppress Magic power; no magic = no talents, your Adept just don't know how to swing that sword anymore... unless he also learned how to do so the old way (i.e. skill).

So, basically, there is no rule to 'turn' a skill into a talent because that's not part of the game mechanic. You/your GM are, of course, free to house-rule it.

DunKalar
Posts:10
Joined:Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:32 pm

Re: Turning Skills into Talents

Post by DunKalar » Tue Aug 10, 2021 9:19 pm

To give you an impression, on how / why these things differ:

As an Adept, you get Talents granted by following the Path of our Discipline. If you read the novels, Talents are described as an ability that the Adept "knows by instinct". E.g. a Scout who is climbing a mountain instinctively knows where he has to grab to find a stable position. A Warrior dodging an attack instinctively knows how to move to avoid being hit.

If you learn a skill, you learn it "the long way" - following practical knowledge. If you learn climbing, you learn movement-theory, you learn spotting texture in stone and bark to judge if the position will be stable. If you want to dodge attacks, you learn movement-theory and how fighters move efficiently to maximize damage. Based on that you learn to anticipate movement and move yourself based on visible movements by your opponents and memorized movements from training.

Your character is able to explain skills to others so that they might learn it. Adepts cannot explain their talents, because they "just know".

I hope this gives you an understanding of how this works.

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