I am just reading the latest edition of Rolemaster, called Rolemaster Unified and its really cool, copyright 2022. There are concerns however about one new inclusion, called 'Talents' overpowering a key new inclusion about a major diversity of humanoid races.
Background There are refinements to the existing RM second edition system, but the big inclusion is a multitude of humanoid races as PCs and NPCs. These are mostly humanoid chimeras with lions, dogs, wolves, birds, frogs, and reptiles (two types), which each have powerful innate abilities. Each race has a specific name, which at present I haven't memorized.
New section: Talents The second major new section are 'Talents' which allow the purchase of some of the key innate abilities of a given race regardless of the race of the PC buying them, an example is given below. Talents totally change levelling up.
Example An example of what I mean by 'overpowered' is the innate ability 'frenzy' which permits what was the old Berserka activity: +1 on size, giving 1.5 hits, +1 criticals, never goes unconscious until dead, capably of attacking foe and party. Its not expensive (20 dp with 60dp per level). This is also the innate ability of wolf-human hybrid race, except they have difficulty controlling it, i.e. the idea is there is always a hidden cost/disadvantage.
Essentially a human could purchase 'frenzy' (base dp 50) be left with 30 dp and use it without the penalty of the wolf-human hybrid: this race, like many races in RM Unified, has low self discipline and thus has difficulty controlling 'frenzy'. Basically the manic wolf-human can start attacking the party ... at which point the party has to make a choice do they really want a wolf-human hybrid in their group? How are they going to move forward? A frenzied human in contrast is a less of a danger, because they've a better chance of snapping out of it. In other words, whats the point in becoming a wolf-human? If there isn't any point in a PC becoming this race, then the rich humanoid diversity drops out of the game.
There are other overpowered issues, e.g. ambidextrous is an innate ability of a given subgroup of orcs, its also a 'Talent' that can be bought and would be really powerful with two weapon-combo (combination) because there's no penalty.
Is this a shared concern and how is the DM/GM dealing with overpowered 'Talents' in general?
dp = development points obtained initially and on levelling up.
To answer the question below what is overpowered.
Overpowered is the extreme ease of any race (such as humans) to easily acquire an innate ability from a completely different (mostly) humanoid race via a new feature called 'Talents', e.g. at level 1. In particular, the ability to 'buy the strengths' and 'avoid the associated weaknesses'. So one race (particularly humans) can end up being more powerful then the race for which that ability is innate.
Assumption I assume a key facet of the revised game is the diversity and contribution of a large range of humanoids to the new world that I would like to be reflected in the party.
Does Rolemaster Unified promote a diverse range of humanoids and value their innate abilities, rather than having them 'bought out' at little cost?
