I'm playing an Ork Frebooter, and have en ever increasing entourage of semi-useless Grots.

They're a lot of fun, but as we scale up the power-level of the game, the grots are "left behind".

I'm discussing the following Talent as an Elite advance with my GM:

Skilled Grotz (Talent)

As you grow in skill and power, so do your slaves. Each of your Grots may choose one Skill, Talent or Trait from the list below. This talent may be taken multiple times, for each additional level of this talent, your grots may choose another skill or Talent, or increase the level of expertise of an existing skill by one.

Gretchin: Tech-Use, Medicae, Demolition, Drive, Security, Tracking, Wrangling, Rapid Reload

Attack-Squigs: Berserk Charge, Brutal-Charge (Trait), Crushing Blow, Frenzy

What do you think? Somewhat balanced? How much should something like this cost?

Perhaps add an option to take a +5 advance to a stat as an alternative? Other suggestions?

I like it. Don't have my books in front of me at this moment, but IMO the cost of the Elite Advance should be about the same as obtaining the minion. Maybe +50 XP more.

Another option is asking your GM if you can combine the multiple "Minion" Talents (like I said, don't have my book in front of me) into just one Grot/Ork/Orkiod species. For example, you can combine 3 "Minion" Talents to get an Average Ork. Combine 6 "Minion" Talents to get a Ork NOB or a Hulking Squig that you can ride, combine 8 to get 1 Weird Boy or Mekanic, etc etc. Or, just combining them nets you half of their skills/traits to change to what you and the GM agree upon. Say the Average Grot has 4 skills, and maybe 2 Talents (none Orkiod talents). You combine an additional "Minion" Talent into one Grot, and you get 2 additional skills and 1 Talent (at GM's discretion) to upgrade that one Grot. Just an idea. Might save you some XP this way too.

To be clear, if you have 4-5 Grots already, then this talent will effectively grant you 4-5 skills. Having a couple of assistants that Assist with Tech-use tests can be very powerful. However, this was apparently the intention of Mr. N0-1_H3r3 :

One thing I never got around to putting in the rules for Runtz was a little advice for their use, and the option to give Grots a single skill or talent. Generally speaking, they were never really meant for direct conflict, but rather for utility - a Mekboy's Grots could, for example, be given Tech-Use, and thus assist their boss in fixing things, while a Grot with Rapid Reload could be used to carry around ammunition and reload guns while its master carries on fighting. Three grots with a staple-gun and the Medicae skill are a convenient first aid kit for an Ork (Int 33 by themselves, +20 for two of them assisting the other, +20 for their patient being an Ork).

Of course, being weedy little runts, they can be used for anything they can be coerced into doing, but it's worth considering these other uses.

I agree that 300-400 XP is about right here

Anything for the snots? Perhaps for every level of this talent you get another snot so with two levels of the talent you end up with four snots per point of runtz.

Of course that doesn't really make them useful unless you're a wierdboy and need something to transfer a headbang into but still.

Haha, I like it. Can snotlings do anything at all? Reload guns? Work a wrench? Carry a stapler and patch their master up when he comes apart?

Yea, all I remember about Snotlings is that they are great "Cannon Fodder." Hehe. Anyhoot, other than useful RP shenanigans, they have very limited skill and combat wise uses. Suicidal tactics / traps are useful in certain circumstances. Say if you give one a grenade and tell him to pull the pin if anyone comes around the corner, or give a handful of them grenades, send them in the air ducts of a the ships plasma core / life sustainer you just raided, and enjoy the mayhem. Totally just imaged this happening, you then capture the ship, and a week or two later you are sitting down for dinner with your command staff and a Snotling drops from the celling with a grenade with no pin, shrieking gleefully. A final thought runs through your head "I didn't tell them when to drop from the ducts. Dang...."

I don't think they could reload any weapons though, unless it takes shells. Then one of them might accidently try to fit into the empty chamber hoping to be shot out like a guy in a cannon. And offering them to carry something is asking for it to get used in some crazy fashion you never would of thought of, unless you immediately need it right back. Like a missile being used a pole-vault, or a shotgun being used as a diving board. Other than making a weapon stationary and using them as a distraction (hoping they might hit something on the first shot before recoil throws their aim off), they aren't very useful for combat. Carrying your wrench for you could work. Heck, if your a Mekboy and can't reach into a shuttle's guts to clasp two wires together before you crash and die, you could probably convince one of your snotlings to grab both wires to complete the connection. The little guy might get fried, but hey, you lived to tell about it.

Snotlings are best compared to untrained puppies. If you work hard you can make them learn how to do a single task and you can 'trick' them into doing something useful (like carrying grenades as mentioned) but their real value is in their nstinctive behaviour.

Snotlings will instinctively tend to fungus and squigs so if your Ork wanted to actually cultivate some fungus (perhaps to get stink bombs) or obtain specalist squigs then snotlings would help with that.

The other option is that if you get enough of them you can train them to mob up and use them like a mob in the Kronos Beastery.