There's no question that the game needs more Talents, there are just way too few. Mages in particular have very few talents worth taking. Keep in mind that there's a difference between "I would never take this Talent" and "This talent is worthless and should be removed from the game."
Comeback Kid - I think this one is okay. It's not spectacular, but it's functional.
Courageous - This one is pretty lousy, certainly, especially since there are INVULNERABLE enemies, and if you get into combat, that forces a reload or a death.
Elemental Affinity - yeah I am gonna set myself on fire...
This one is mediocre, certainly, for that reason. If resistance and immunity spells/potions lasted longer, then standing in dangerous surfaces to get the benefit could work.Elemental Ranger -
Yeah I want to stand in poison... - That is NOT how Elemental Ranger works. It applies to ENEMIES standing in a surface, the Ranger does not.
Five Star Diner -
food is broken. - Agreed.
Morning Person -
you gonna make a habit of dying a lot? Maybe you should be a farmer? - Eh... considering that when you normally resurrect, it's only to 20%, which puts you into "instantly one-shot killed again" range, I think this Talent is worth keeping in the game.
My Precious - Agreed, this is worthless, even for Rogues who come the closest to needing it. If durability for everything except daggers went down a lot faster, then it might be more worthwhile... but that would annoy players with blatant busywork.
Packmule - Agreed.
Voluable Mage -
nothing in game uses mute anyway. - Agreed.
Weatherproof -
2 areas in the whole game neither of which needs a talent to cope with. Agreed, but not for the same reason. It's four areas of the game, actually, but this Talent requires Geomancer 5, and you probably won't have it by the time you're done with all the areas anyway. This should not be Rank 5 at all, that kills it completely. Even with that, it badly needs a buff.
Next, the ones that if they were tweaked would be worthwhile...
All skilled up -
should be 3 points. - Even with that change, it's questionable. Once you unlock the demon, you can trade it in for 10 points.
Back Stabber -
should be free and automatic to starting Rogues-they need some love. That's an good idea. It basically acts as a Talent point tax just for being a Rogue, and that's not needed. Daggers are basically worthless UNLESS backstabbing. I think this is a holdover from when they deleted Way of the Rogue, with its bonuses per rank of the ability, and moved all of that into Talents instead.
Bigger and Better -
1 stat point AND 1 skill point. Also questionable, as again, the Demon can take some of these in trade, and 1 Talent point can get you 2 attribute points.
Bully -
should also affect stunned, frozen, weakened, diseased, blinded, Drunk. - I think thematically it should affect Weakened, but changing it to affect all of those would make it too powerful.
Opportunist -
should work better, higher chance to actually attack since it rarely does. - I can agree with this, as enemies always have a 100% chance to perform an AoO.
Anaconda -
change title to Brute, and make it any Melee weapon and a Ranged equivalent called Sniper or Deadeye same benefit but for Bows or Crossbows. - I suppose that would work. Part of the reason for it was because different weapon types do different damage. Crushing weapons do much less damage than slashing ones.
Iceking, Demon, Lightning rod, instead of it affecting someone who hits you make it something you can afflict others with by striking them, and give a 20% resistance bonus vs that element.
Lightning Rod makes you immune to Stun. It does not act at all like Ice King or Demon. I've got my own suggestions for Ice King and Demon.
Ice King (Stabbey): Water in this game is associated with healing, so what if Ice King gives you a 25% chance to completely neuter a water-elemental attack, taking 0 damage, and then you heal for 50% of the damage it would have dealt. That fits the theme.
Demon (Stabbey): Maximum (NOT CURRENT) Fire Resistance is increased by 40% (new cap is 120%). Air, Water, Earth Resistances are capped at 40% (down from 80%). Fire Resistance can no longer be boosted past 120% even with potions or buffs. This will allow you to build a character who can take healing from fire damage, but other resistances will be limited.
Heck all I know is Talents really need attention, I find myself choosing the least lousy ones from the available, rather than choosing the best one that helps my character...because few are all that good. Yes some of the suggestions may be ( definatley are) Mary Sue but hey I am open to suggestions, hopefully Larian is too.
Why is Politician not on your list? It is feces incarnate. Walk it Off is also mediocre because it makes buff spells useless. Walk It Off should NOT have ANY downside at all, and then it might be worth using.
There just aren't enough Talents available to choose from. Here is a selection of Talent ideas I've thought up:
NEW TALENT IDEASSlippery Eel - This talent was mentioned long ago as something that let you evade attacks of opportunity. That seemed like a really useful one. Why isn't it in the game? It should require a base of Speed 8-9 to take, but no Ability requirements.
Scavenger - Crafting Rank 4-5 lets you take this Talent. It gives you a 33 percent chance to receive an extra drop from the crafting materials table upon a kill by someone with the perk, or upon opening a container. When it goes off you get an "Item Scavenged!" message like the "Lucky Find" one.
Scavenger Table:
75 percent chance to get a common crafting item.
15 percent chance to get a slightly less common and useful item
8 percent chance to get a rarer item.
2 percent chance to get a very rare and expensive crafting item.
Convection -
"Heat into energy." Requires Pyromaniac 3 or 5 (maybe it's that powerful).
If you are Warm or Burning at the start of your turn, all currently active cooldowns are decreased by one turn. This includes skills which only have a one-turn cooldown, meaning that you can cast that skill repeatedly for as long as you have AP.
Storm Surge -
"Channel the fury of the Storm."Requires Aerothurge 5.
When Wet, air-elemental damage is increased by 33%. This is possibly incompatible with Lightning Rod. [/quote]
Bloodlust If you do damage equivalent to 40% of YOUR maximum health in one turn, gain 1-2 recovery AP on your next turn only.
Requires: Man-At-Arms 3
FrenzyUpon getting a kill, your Movement is doubled
for the remainder of your current turn. (If you use the last of your AP to get the kill, ending your turn, this does nothing.)
Hypothermic+15% Fire Resistance
+25% to saving throws versus Burning.
-15% Water Resistance
-25% to saving throws versus Frozen.
Hyperthermic+15% Water Resistance
+25% to saving throws versus Frozen.
-15% Fire Resistance
-25% to saving throws versus Burning.
Carrot-eaterIncreases your sight range (and therefore extends your radius of a chance to hit with ranged attacks) by 33%.
Requires: Maybe this optionally requires Expert Marksman 3+?
Herbalist You know how to get the most efficient use out of your ingredients.20 percent chance that plants/fungi will not be consumed when crafting an item.
Drunken Master +15% Damage and +15% Chance to hit for normal attacks made while under the 'Drunk' status. -15% Damage and -10% chance to hit for normal attacks made while NOT drunk. -50% to your saving throws for Drunk. Bodybuilding no longer affects your chance of getting drunk.
Appraiser - Grants you an extra point into Barter, and one into Loremaster (similar to Scientist.)
Bloodthirst - (Credit: Mr. C) While standing in blood you get a +5% bonus to damage or +3-5% Critical hit chance. Incompatible with Leech and Elemental Affinity.
Medic - Your healing (and possibly buffs) are now 25% more effective (and/or last an extra turn). However, your offensive magic and damage are 25% less effective.
Summoner's Friend - Your summons gain a 25% boost to their health, and their chance to hit is increased by 15%
Trained Ears - When in sneak mode, you can see the outlines of enemies in your hearing range which aren't in your line of sight. This lets you know which way they're facing to let you sneak around.
Requirements: Sneak 1, Perception 8
10) Talents that grant Special SkillsLarian has very thoughtfully made an ninth category of Skills that don't fit anything else: Special. A simple-but-effective idea is for Talents that grant some Special Skills if you have a base of X in a skill. So all of these will require you to take their respective Talents.
Blacksmithing Rank 3 lets you take a Talent that grants you the Special skill "Armour Break". When cast on an enemy, this reduces their armour protection by 50 percent for 3 turns.
Armour Specialist Rank 4 lets you take a Talent that grants you the Special skill "Armourers Insight". When cast on an ally, this increases their armour protection by 40 percent for three turns.
Telekinesis Rank 3 lets you take a Talent that grants you the Special skill "Crush Windpipe", which does crushing damage with a chance to mute for 3 turns.
Telekinesis 5 lets you take a Talent that grants you the Special skill "Aneurysm", which does a large amount of crushing damage and sets Bleeding status. Anything without a brain, like Undead, mechanisms, and elementals are immune and take no damage. Admittedly that sounds like it could be a pain to code. It's just an example.
Loremaster Rank 5 lets you take a Talent that grants you the Special skill "Bore", an AoE sleep spell. (Sleep status just means the target misses a turn. Willpower saves.)