Val Bloodline talent errata

Not sure how you guys do this, (Snipping the text But, hear is what I said.
If that is the only reason they took that Val’Bloodline, then they have to play for years before they get the benefit of it.

Here is what Coby said
What you seem to be saying here is that someone should be allowed to take a Tier V power at Tier I

Nowhere did I say that you should be allowed to take a tier 5 talent at tier 1.
All I said was that if the only reason you wanted to be a Val was for their Tier 5 talent, then you would be playing that Val character for many many years before you became tier 5 and were able to choose that Bloodline power.

I can say fairly clearly that there are no plans that I have been informed of to produce additional bloodline talents for already detailed families. As it stands, all canon families have 7 Bloodline powers available (2 T1, 2 T2, 1 each T3, T4, T5).

…there are no plans that I have been informed of to produce additional bloodline talents for already detailed families.
See, this is why no one plays vals anymore.

I think that Henry’s vision needs to set the rules here; If bloodline is essentially just magic that you can choose to learn or not as takes your fancy then having options makes sense. If it is a divine mandate that manifests itself then having it follow a set progression makes more sense.

So storywise…do the Val from a single family all manifest the same powers given time? Are there some that have no low level powers but only the big payoff? Do they need training to develop or do they just happen?

The big bonus of Vals IMHO is that you are getting access to special abilities that cannot be replicated by other choices. Anyone can choose particular skills or have access to magic but only the Val can do what they do. It makes them special snowflakes and gives them options that no one else has access to. In any RPG it is having options that make things interesting long term and makes solving challenges easier.

Remember this: Every Val has the CAPACITY to become psionic, but only a relative few have the mental discipline to pull it off.

Speaking as a fan(boy) and general scholar of this fictional work (I can only theorize as, alas, I do not have any special knowledge of the master plan), I always viewed Bloodline powers to be much the same thing. Here, every val manifests at least some of the ‘lower level’ powers, like val’Ossan growing gills or val’Assante’ being able to produce balls of light. The BL powers which are physical in nature (like the gills) might manifest in birth, while other BL talents (like the Assante’ lightshow) probably require at least some training to master even if TECHNICALLY the power is in them all along, and likely would begin to manifest in childhood (I see a lot of these more ‘learned’ powers being similar to Harry Potter removing the glass from the snake enclosure: he can do it, but doesn’t know how or why he can do it it).

Further Bloodline powers beyond these very basic powers require discipline and the plumbing of ones own soul through meditation, practice, or spontaneous generation. Going back to the Harry Potter analogy, at age 10 Harry had the CAPACITY to cast Avada Kadavra, but lacked the magical training or the conviction to actually CAST the spell. He needed to master (like any apprentice) the basic skills, and then he had to power it with his hate, conviction, and force of will. Alternatively, you could have powers manifest more X-men style, surfacing only after your personality/personal faith/power/traumatic event/etc has reached a certain level (more akin to the concept of the Spontaneously Awakened Psion).

In this game, this ‘growth’ of character is represented by the Tier system. The overwhelming majority of people in the world of Arcanis are Tier I minions: They are not trained in combat, and don’t have the stamina or pain tolerance to take more than a single hit in combat before tapping out. Most people lack the mental focus to train to become more than their basic selves, and will remain Tier I creatures until their death. How many people that you know who show no ambition in their lives beyond surviving or pursuing only trivial matter and not caring about ‘wider’ issues? In our society, we tend to label such people as ‘shallow’ or ‘lazy’ (rightfully or wrongly), and in terms of Vals, these are the ones who don’t care about delving deep into their souls because they (for whatever reason) do not see the need or have the ability to be introspective and disciplined. Those who show ambition in the world are those that tend to be ‘higher tiered’ in the world of Arcanis: Those who seek education, those who seek to master a craft such as weaponsmithing, those who delve the greater mysteries of the arcanum or the gods, those who seek to become great warriors, ambitions politicians, thieves of renown (instead of simple cut-purses), etc. These are the people who seek to, if not better themselves seek to become more than they are.

Well said Cody

There is also something to say about the training opportunities available as a scion of Scipio val’Assante’ compared to Billy-Joe Bob val’Assante’, commoner farmer in the hinterlands of the Empire. Even if they have the same potential (which, as you suggest, can probably be. . . curated through selective breeding), the son of the Emperor will get more attention from the family than a random farmer in the sticks.