I'm a bit confused by the various wording for adding Force dice to a Talent. Is it always assumed that if you've committed Force dice elsewhere (say, for Sense) that this reduces the number you can apply to a Talent? For example, Talents like "Against all Odds" (p97) say "...rolling a number of Force dice equal to his Force rating..." Is that irrespective of any other commitments? Is it assumed you will always do the max?

Animal Empathy (p97) is a bit different: "...may add a number of Force dice no greater than his Force rating..." Again, are prior commitments factored in? Is there any reason to roll less than max here? If not, why does one Talent say "equal to" and another say "no greater than"? The programmer in me would treat these differently, but if the devs meant them to be the same then they should be more consistent in their wording.

I have no idea.

Personally I think it's different devs using different terminology, at least it has that feel to me...

But then it might just be meant to operate differently, as in the "equal to" always gets the full Force Rating but "no greater than" getting whatever isn't otherwise committed.

Page 196 answers the question. Committing Force dice reduces the characters Force Rating, so you can only add what you haven't commit.

I'm going to say there's a few reasons for why it's maybe "equal to" instead of "no greater than". One could just be word space; "Against All Odds" is just a big bunch of text in the talent description, and "no greater than" might just barely push the description into the next column.

Another is that by trying to standardize "no greater than" it gives players an option. I don't see any talent or Force Power in FaD that might benefit from less dice being rolled, but I can think of "Overwhelm Emotions" from Force Sensitive Exile. Basically with this power, you roll and get a Success for every Lightside Point for Charm, Success for every Darkside Point for Coercion and Deception, and every two points of the opposite gives a Failure. This talent is one of the "equal to Force Rating" ones, so at higher Force Ratings it can be more of a liability depending on what you're trying to do. But with "no greater than" a player can just use one force die and try and grab an extra success.

Could also be since "Against All Odds" can be used only while incapacitated, that would drop any commitments.

Eh. Who knows.

Page 196 answers the question. Committing Force dice reduces the characters Force Rating, so you can only add what you haven't commit.

It's still a weird way to write it.

Perhaps it's to avoid some sort of unbalancing interaction with the Knowledge if Power talent?

Still, it seems odd yes.

I haven't reviewed all the Talents that involve Force dice, but from the ones I've checked that allow you to apply multiple dice, they all seem to be the same. I think they need more consistent wording, such as "...adding Force dice no greater than current Force rating..." (adds the word "current"). Also on page 97 in the Talent Descriptions intro they could make a reference to "...current Force Rating, as described on page 196..."

Knowledge is Power lets you treat your force rating equal to ranks in Know (Lore) for one force (power) check per session. Pretty beard.