Okay, so you've got the Sum Djem talent, which lets you spend a triumph (or a couple of advantage) to disarm an opponent. and you have Spending Triumph and Advantage in Combat where you can spend a triumph (or three advantage) you can cause an opponent to drop his weapon.

So for 25 points you can disarm someone for one advantage less. . . .

Yippie?

I get two Advantage on a combat check a lot more often than I get three, so it's certainly useful. That said, it does seem too expensive for the effect.

The standard 3 Advantage is for making them just drop the weapon. Sum Djem let's the player knock it out of the opponent's hands anywhere in short range the player chooses, for instance short range to where the cliff suddenly ends and there's nothing but a 100 foot drop. Only thing with Sum Djem is the GM has to approve it being used first, and even if you can't essentially make the weapon vanish forever, it can still be knocked over to a player/ally, or at worst, just make the opponent spend an extra maneuver by having to go over to the actual weapon to pick it up (or switch tactics and use another one they have on hand) since it won't just drop down next to them in engaged range.

There's similar talents in the game already, such as Knockdown, that mimic the sort of things that PCs can do without needing the talent (though for Knockdown, it's mostly Brawl attacks that have that quality by default were most Melee weapons don't).

As for Sum Djem, Lathrop's pretty much got the right of it, especially if the PC spent a Triumph to activate the talent. It's not just "oops, target dropped their weapon at their feet" (which is pretty much what the 3 Advantage option does) but could very well be "weapon is sent flying several meters away, forcing the target to Disengage from you, and then spend another maneuver to go over to where it landed and then pick it up," which depending on the GM might actually require three maneuvers (personally I'd leave it at two, but compared to some GMs on these forums I'm fairly lenient on that sort of thing).

Or if they have Move, to burn their action on that power to reclaim their weapon, much as Luke did when Vader disarmed him him during the first part of their Cloud City duel, when they were still in the freezing chamber.

Or if the player not only rolled the 2 Advantage to trigger the talent and had a Triumph, I'd let them spend the Triumph to have the weapon land in their waiting hand, much as Anakin did to Count Dooku at the climax of their duel in RotS.

With the regular disarm option, the most you're doing is preventing the target from spending their free maneuver to aim before attacking, or perhaps using the guarded stance maneuver so that they can scoop up their weapon. Which if they're involved in a 'saber duel and want to make use of the Parry talent to improve their odds of survivability, they'd want to.

Okay, with the "can slide the weapon under the couch" or "be awesome and snatch it out of the air" provision, it's better than the "it lands at your feet" version. I didn't catch that important difference when I first read through it. Still seems a touch expensive at the 25 point tier - it might be a while before I get around to picking it up - but it doesn't seem as bad a

Well, it's only 25 for the Makashi Duelist, while the Niman Disciple and Shii-Cho Knight have it for 20 XP.

I suspect the designers priced it so high since it would allow a PC to very effectively deprive an opponent of their weapon for the rest of the fight, and could particularly bad if the opponent was relying on their weapon as their prime means of defense against the rest of the party. For instance, you take away a Fallen Master's lightsaber and he's no longer able to use Reflect against the PCs that are using blaster rifles or other high-damage ranged weapons.

They probably also didn't want PCs in those specs to be doing the "super disarm" too often, or at least not right away, since the talent says all you need to do is make an attack roll, not that you have to hit the target. So you could make your lightsaber attack, generate zero net successes, but spend two of your Advantage to knock the target's weapon away.

IMO, it's not too expensive. It's a permanent ability that gives you a much better chance of being able to disarm a foe. 25 XP is more than the other specializations, but consider (for example) Soresu Defender: 25 XP for Improved Reflect, when Makashi Duelist has Improved Parry for only 20 XP. Talents gotta go somewhere, I guess, and better to have Sun Djem for 25 XP than not at all

Seer has Toughened for 25XP. Hunter has Toughened for 5XP.

Also, with a Superior weapon all you really need is 1 net Advantage to activate it (even on a miss). Which means disarming using this talent would happen A LOT.

Also an individual Talent within a Tree may be more expensive because of it's placement as a prerequisite for another Talent further up the Tree not because it in and of itself is worth every EXP.

Seer has Toughened for 25XP. Hunter has Toughened for 5XP.

Also, with a Superior weapon all you really need is 1 net Advantage to activate it (even on a miss). Which means disarming using this talent would happen A LOT.

You've also got the curved-hilt attachment, which in a one-on-one fight gives you a free Advantage. Combine the two of them (as Count Dooku may have done) and that's two free Advantage added to each combat check you make in a classic 'saber duel. Only reason Dooku wasn't disarming Anakin or Obi-Wan like crazy was his free Advantages kept getting chewed up by Threat results or him needing to spend those Advantage to recover strain spent to fuel his Parry talent.

Seer has Toughened for 25XP. Hunter has Toughened for 5XP.

Also, with a Superior weapon all you really need is 1 net Advantage to activate it (even on a miss). Which means disarming using this talent would happen A LOT.

You've also got the curved-hilt attachment, which in a one-on-one fight gives you a free Advantage. Combine the two of them (as Count Dooku may have done) and that's two free Advantage added to each combat check you make in a classic 'saber duel. Only reason Dooku wasn't disarming Anakin or Obi-Wan like crazy was his free Advantages kept getting chewed up by Threat results or him needing to spend those Advantage to recover strain spent to fuel his Parry talent.

I'm going to go out on a limb here but I think why Dooku didn't disarm them wasn't a Talent or weapon Mod but, ummm... plot.

Just teasing

You can derive RPG rules from a film but you really can't reliably attribute rules to a film post facto.