Looking at the Intuitive Improvements talent, I have some questions.

It seems to be like the Tinker talent, in that it permanently increases an item's hardpoints, by one or two hardpoints.

It says the item may only be improved this way once. Does that mean that if the item is improved but the roll generates less than 4 Force Points so that the item gains 0 or 1 hard points the improvement cannot be attempted a second time? Or does it mean that this talent can allow an item to have a maximum increase of 2 hard points, no matter how many times it is applied?

Can only one item be upgraded? Intuitive Improvements is not ranked, unlike Tinker, so it seems like the answer is either "One Item" or "All Items". "All Items" seems a bit extreme.

Can the Item be traded to another player and retain its increased hardpoints? This did not seem to be the case with Tinkerer (though now I'm not certain - I may have misinterpreted the lose clause).

My read is that you only get one shot, so if you don't generate 4 Force Points, then you've lost your chance to add two hard points to the item. As for what happens if you fail to generate at least 2 Force Points, my thought is that since the item wasn't improved, you can try again the next time you repair it, since it's not been improved.

However, unlike Tinkerer which is limited to a single item per rank (though anybody can use that item), you can use Intuitive Improvements on multiple items, and since it doesn't restrict the item to the person who modified it meaning that an Artisan with a Force Rating of 2 could potentially add 2 hard points to his allies' gear, be it weapons or armor. There's probably a bunch of Bounty Hunters, Hired Guns, and Soldiers just salivating at the idea of getting a free hard point or to on their weapons and armor, particularly if said armor didn't have any hard points to begin with.

It seems powerful, but remember two things: First, it's a Row 5 talent, and those are generally potent, especially if they're not a ranked talent, and secondly that it's not always a sure thing. After all, even with Force Rating 2, you could roll 2 dark side pips each time you try, meaning that unless you suffer some strain/Conflict to convert them, you failed to modify the item.

I agree with everything you have written, but I'm still not sure if it isn't too powerful.

Of course, it's currently only available in one tree, and like you said, takes 95 or 100 XP to get. Not every team will have an Artisan, and this isn't powerful to the point that every group feels that they need an Artisan just for this one talent.

Does this include Starship hardpoints?

Does this include Starship hardpoints?

No, for that you'll probably want to check out fly casual.

Once again, Dono helps me explain something to a player. Thanks in advance.

I'm having a bit of an argument with one of my players over this exact issue. He somehow got it into his head that you can just re-roll the force until you get the light side (instead of force WITH the repair / create roll all at once). He's a bit of a min/maxer, unfortunately, and I'm having a hard time breaking him of the D&D/Shadowrun mentality at times. I personally think that +3 additional hard points is a little much, but for the XP cost and the chance of failure, I guess it's balanced.

I've toyed with the idea of throwing a penalty on items with too many attachments. Like a light pistol with a ton of stuff is just too heavy to fire accurately (add inacurate 1 or 2), or armor laden with too many gizmos is more cumbersome (cumbersome +1 or increase encumbrance value). I'm unsure of this, as I know he's going to whine about me making his spent xp "useless"... again. From a story and mechanics standpoint, it makes sense to me, though.

Yeah, it's definately a "Only attempt once, if you wiff it, you cannot improve the item."

Which is a good reason for a character to actively improve their force ratiing as apposed to simply rerolling at force rating 2 until they get a pair of doubles. When I modified weapons using this talent, I litrally told those people involved whehter they wanted 1 or two hard points. If they wanted two I would leave that modification until I reached a poitn where I could it consistantly.

As said Xivier your right: He can only do it once and if he doesn't do it right, he can never attempt it on the same weapon again. Even if he rolls blanks. However I would allow the spendage of destiny points for turning Dark to light; after all it's another resource to tax the party on.