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22 Talent Trees $2.88
Average Rating:3.8 / 5
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22 Talent Trees
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Jason C. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/10/2011 19:08:21

Talents were and are one of the most interesting parts of the d20 Modern approach to classes. By using classes based off the attributes, characters could be customized to a high degree through mixing the base classes as you developed. Talents, by contrast, rewarded you for sticking with a class long enough to develop special effects in that class. 22 Talent Trees is exactly what it sounds like. The art is minimal (which tickles this reviewer's cold dead heart), but the talents themselves are solid, most having to do with expanded specialization rather than new effects. (The few exceptions to this are often less balanced than the others.)

For those doing medical dramas with d20 Modern, there's also an expanded Treat Injury system for transplants. Much like the Surgery feat itself, I never quite saw the point of that level of detail in a system that modeled injury with hit points. No harm no foul, though, if you used Surgery in your game, you are likely to enjoy this small bolt-on.

With a sub-$3 price, there's no reason to pass up 22 Talent Trees if, like me, you still enjoy d20 Modern for its potential for character customization.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Daniel D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/28/2009 14:44:20

I really like the variants in this PDF. A great way to expand on a character and grow them into a more realistic style character. Easy to read and quick to implement in any fantasy campaign.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Megan R. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/31/2007 16:20:05

An RPG Resource Review:

Put simply, this is a collection of feats for D20 Modern organised into hierarchical groups. While they are presented according to the character type they are most suitable for - Strong, Fast, etc. - they can be taken by anyone who fancies those particular abilities.

It's a wide-ranging collection, which should help you tailor your character according to your vision. For example, a Smart hero might be a Fast Learner, or a Quick Thinker or be good at Tactics. A Dedicated hero can specialise in Animal Friendship, be an Oracle or Selfless (being able to give others moral, financial or even life support), or be Virtuous. And so on...

Well worth a look if you want to be able to customise your character according to a concept that isn't adequately catered for in the core rules. The idea of the hierarchical sequence is good, as you can see your character develop along your chosen path, gaining greater abilities in whatever it is that they specialise in.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Kevin L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/05/2007 00:00:00

Not bad for the price. Look into adding this to your collection.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Michael D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/27/2007 00:00:00

A mixed bag, really. Some talents seem like sensible additions to the canon list of talent trees, like the Mighty tree for Strong Heroes and the Need for Speed tre for Fast Heroes. Others seem a little questionable to me, like the Fast Hero's Finesse talent tree and the Smart Hero's Tactical tree, which give you the Weapon Finesse and Improved Critical feats as talents, resepectively. Still others seem utterly out of line for a Modern setting, namely the Dedicated Hero's Animal Friendship tree, which is flat-out importing the animal companion and animal summoning abilities of D&D druids and rangers; or the Fast Hero's Quicker Than The Eye tree that basically allows superhuman speed. And I'm not sure what to make of the Charismatic Hero's Efficacious tree, which simply reprints the official Charm tree and monkeys with it, altering the wording to tweak some things up.

I don't know that I'd incorporate all these talents into any of my campaigns as standard options open to all player characters, but some might be useful for making a unique villain. Also, with its focus on melee combat for many classes, I get the feeling that if you want to run a D&D-style low-tech high-magic fantasy setting with the D20 Modern rules set, then this product would be of more use to you.

<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Nicolas K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/10/2007 00:00:00

The book gets better as you progress. While some of the options for the Strong hero are either too simple or too focused on brutality (gaining strong saves because you have high strength), and I have some problems with the play balance of a couple of things in Fast and Tough hero, by this part of the book I realize I have already gathered a list of talents to use (the toxin resistance's first talent, for example, fits perfectly for inhabitants of slums etc). And this is very important, as even a couple of more talents added to the basic classes affect all your d20 modern games in a significant way, something a couple PrCs (that would take all these pages to be described) would never achieve. The smart hero shines with better play balance and inspiration. Almost every talent there is cool and useful (talents that add bonuses equal to a base save, though, scale badly at high levels). The dedicated then comes with support for animals, "hunches", virtuous characters and more, really giving to this class the talents it so much needed. The options for the charismatic hero are a bit more average (I have trouble thinking why a talent would work only on people who dislike you or how you gain a stunning beauty on level 3 or 5, while this could be mostly something you're born with).<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Great value for money - it will affect all your d20 modern games. Just pick what you like.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not enough flavour and there are a couple of things that scream "I scale badly", like adding base saves to rolls or gaining SR 20+your level in a class.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/22/2006 00:00:00

This 13 page PDF(18 with cover, credits, OGL declaration & 3 pages of advertisements) provides 22 new talent trees for use in D20 Modern games, and a new use for Treat Injury, transplant surgery, and a new feat, Transplant Surgery.

In the D20 Modern system, not only do characters have Feats as in the D&D3.x/D20 system, but they also have Talents. Talents are extraordinary abilities a character can acquire. Each basic D20 Modern class, Strong, Fast, Tough, Smart, Dedicated, & Charismatic has a number of talent trees available to it, receiving a talent each even numbered level. Talents provide character?s with unusual bonuses to various actions, or enhanced abilities or new actions, such as the Strong Hero?s Damage Reduction Talent, which provides points of damage reduction at various levels, or the Smart Hero?s Exploit Weakness Talent, which lets him substitute his INT modifier for his DEX or STR modifier on an attack, from the Strategy Talent Tree. The talent trees are specific to a character class, unlike most Feats, and offers abilities that tie into the basic class? ability based theme. However, the selection of talent trees provided in the SRD is fairly anemic, with the Smart Hero class only having two talent trees available to it, most other classes having 3 or 4.

The 22 talents trees mentioned in the title break down into five talent trees for the Strong Hero class, consisting of 17 different talents. There are four talent trees for the Fast Hero class, made up of 16 different talents. There are only 2 talent trees for the Tough Hero class, consisting of just 7 talents between them. There are three talent trees for the Smart Hero class, dividing 13 talents between them. There are four talent trees provided for the Dedicated Hero, splitting 19 talents between them. Finally, there are four talent trees provided for the Charismatic Hero, divvying up 14 talents between them.

The talent trees are fairly solid, most offering significant enhanced abilities instead of just modifiers to a few skill checks. Some of the standouts are the Mighty talent tree for the Strong Hero, letting him add his Strength modifier to various saving throws, allowing the character to draw on his Herculean physique to give him the extra oomph to resist the effect. The most interesting Talent tree available to the Fast Hero is the Quicker than the Eye tree, the Talents of which, with the expenditure of an action point, let him move so fast as to seem a blur to other character?s, granting the character a concealment based miss chance against foes. The standout talent tree available to the Tough hero is the FX resistance tree, which provides him bonus to resist FX abilities, achieving a hefty bonus of 20 plus his Tough Hero class level with the Maximum FX Resistance capstone talent. The Tactical talent tree is the most interesting available to the Smart Hero, from this tree, the Outsmart Talent, with the expenditure of an action point and a successful check, allows the character to avoid all attacks from a particular character for a number of rounds, and the Keen Attacks talents let him, with the expenditure of an action point, increase the critical range of his attacks. All of the 3 talent trees provided for the Dedicated Hero class seem desirable, I found the Virtuous talent tree most interesting, as it allows the character?s single-minded dedication to an ideal or ethos to provide him with bonuses on skill uses, for the base Virtuous talent, and, with the expenditure of an action point, even inspire his friends & allies, or discomfit his enemies, using the (Greater) Aura of Virtue, and Aura of Righteousness talents, respectively. The Charismatic Hero has the Intimidating talent tree available as a standout, giving character?s a chance to get in touch with their ?Inner Batman?. Honorable mention goes to the pulchritudinous talent tree, for using the Gygaxian pulchritudinous in its title.

Finally, the new use for the Treat Injury skill, only available for use by those character with Treat Injury and the Surgery feat, lets a character, on a successful DC 25 skill check, transfer hit points between characters, healing them by transplanting organs, skin grafts, or blood transfusion. If the character doesn?t have the new Transplant Surgery feat provided in this product, they suffer a -4 penalty to the skill check, and can only transfer one hit points to the transplant recipient for every 2 points provided by the donor. The Transplant surgery feat removes the -4 penalty, and allows a 1 to 1 transfer. Additionally, the Life Support talent from the Dedicated Hero?s Selfless talent tree, allows this to work on a 2 for 1 basis, if the surgeon posses the Transplant Surgery feat, otherwise it is on a 1 to 1 basis.

The PDF itself is a passable affair laid out in two columns, with easy to read fonts and tables. The cover illustration is ok, a brown-red textured background with a stylized illustration of a trench-coat clad individual weathering some kind of blast from ominous looking figures emerging from a row of cars in the background, and the title text. However, you will likely want to skip printing it to save ink. There are six pieces of interior artwork, most of which are merely passable line art, including a repeat of the cover art. The illustration in the Charismatic Hero talent tree section is a standout, being of higher quality than the other pieces, and an ?h4wt chixx0r? to boot. There are also 3 pages of ads tacked onto the end of the product, another ink waster.

Overall, this is a solid product, filling in the rather limited selection of talent trees provided in the D20 Modern SRD. I recommend it to both D20 Modern players and GMs looking to expand their character creation options.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Lots of substantial ability based talents, instead of +2 to skill talents<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Why 3 pages of ads?<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Peter M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/08/2005 00:00:00

Some really cool material here. Some of the highlights: The Quicker Than The Eye tree forfast heroes that lets you move like one of the Agents in The Matrix, the Heavy Load Talent Tree for Strong Heroes that lets them hump all that extra gear without penalty, The Intimidating Talent Tree for Charismatic Heroes, and the Selfless Talent Tree for Dedicated heroes are also pretty cool. Some of it seems a little overpowered, some of it seems a little underpowered, but the vast majority of it seems about right. To be frank, there's no reasonable excuse for some of this material NOT having been in the d20 modern basic game. (For instance, the driving tree for fast heroes, the intimidating one for charismatics, and the heavy load one for strong heroes)<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Between this product and its companion product, Another 22 Talent Trees, we get a lot of the cooler class features from D&D to play with in d20 modern. What little art did make it in here is of surprisingly good quality.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I mention this in my review of the other one too, but my only true gripe with these products is that the layout isn't as accessable as I wish it was. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Todd F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/30/2005 00:00:00

Some of these talents are a lil "out there". Gives a nice base for expanding yuor d20 Modern setting though.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: New skill uses. Good idea source.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some talents replicate current talents and/or feats. Not laid out in a print to book format.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Geoff S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/03/2004 00:00:00

The layout and appearance is a little lacking, but the content is pretty decent but not earth-shattering. However, if you are looking to give your PC's or NPC's more options when choosing talent trees, this is a great resource.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Christopher H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/19/2004 00:00:00

A neat little thing to inject some extra "pow" into a modern era game, without it becoming a full on fantasy. More like borderline sci fi, in fact.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Mark M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/29/2004 00:00:00

Some good stuff but some of the charismatic talent trees seem to be a reprint of the ones in the modern core rulebook. For the price it's worth it.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Robert O. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/11/2004 00:00:00

A lot of good, some bad.

Its not a big deal. You add the ones you want and don't add the ones you dislike. Worth the money overall.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Peter P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/11/2004 00:00:00

Nice addition for those GMs looking for a little spice. One of the more useful producte I've bought so far. I am very happy with it.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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22 Talent Trees
Publisher: Bloodstone Press
by Caleb B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/09/2004 00:00:00

It's pretty much what it claims to be: 22 talent trees. There's some creative content, and much of it is reasonably balanced. However, this book, much like the D20 Modern core rules, provides very little of interest for Tough Heroes.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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