Hello,
I'm a little confused on how to tell which side of the force a talent requires since the talent tree's all use the half white/ half dark symbol. Take heal/harm for example which has the same force symbol next to each of them. In my head heal is light and harm is dark but the book doesn't specifically state that. How do you know which side of the force the talent takes?
The answer is usually 'either'
The half and half symbol means either. By default, the white icons give you 1 Force Point each, and you can flip a destiny point to use however many Dark Side pips you rolled at the additional cost of 1 strain and 1 Conflict for each one that you use.
There is no power or Talent that I know of that requires you to use a Dark Side pip. Some may have additional or alternate effects if you do use one, which will be noted in the description in that case.
On 2/14/2017 at 11:12 AM, Youngling said:Hello,
I'm a little confused on how to tell which side of the force a talent requires since the talent tree's all use the half white/ half dark symbol. Take heal/harm for example which has the same force symbol next to each of them. In my head heal is light and harm is dark but the book doesn't specifically state that. How do you know which side of the force the talent takes?
By default, you can use either dark or light side to generate Force points and thus activate Force powers.
Where it matters is where your character sits on the light/dark side spectrum. By default your character uses the white pips to generate Force points, unless your character has gone below 30 on their Morality, at which point they're a dark sider and default to using the black pips. You can still use the other color pips, but you have to flip a Destiny Point and suffer strain in order to do so.
That being said, some powers and upgrades may have differing effects depending on what color pips you used to generate Force points. For instance, if you used even a single black pip on your Force dice to activate the Bind power, then the target suffers wounds.
Influence is probably the closest that exists to a Force power that 'requires' you to spend Force points of one type or another, and that's more to do with what sort of emotional state you're trying to invoke in the target. Positive emotions (peace, friendship) require you to use white pips, negative emotions (fear, anger) require you to use black pips, and neutral emotions (confusion) can use either one.
And as far as Talents go (not powers) only those talents specifically marked with the Sith symbol :
automatically earn you Conflict at the beginning of a session simply for knowing them.
As others have stated, Light Side and Dark Side points can both be used to generate Force Points. That symbol you're confused by represents Force Points, at that point down the process of using the Force, they are neutral.
Not much* in this game specifies Light or Dark. Most effects are simply fueled by Force Points, and are open to users of any Morality. Furthermore, generating Force Points from either side of the Force is open to you regardless of Morality (so long as you're willing to use Destiny Points to access "the other side"). The rub is that using Dark Side points generates Conflict, which opens you up to lowering your Morality. Even then, the only guaranteed way to lower your Morality is to get 11 Conflict in a session - otherwise, there's an (increasingly small) chance to roll high enough on a d10 to stay where you are or even increase Morality.
The asterisk is there of course, because things do require or specify Light or Dark points and, rarely, even your Morality. There are a few uses of a few powers (the only one that jumps to mind is Heal) that are limited if you are the wrong Morality (specifically, you can't use Heal on... others? I think others, if you're Dark Side oriented). Some Powers (like Harm) don't require Dark Side Morality or Dark Side pips to use, but cause Conflict; there are also talents that do this. These are "Dark Side", but their only affect on Light Side users is to slowly corrupt them. More commonly, things have affects that open up or are mandatory if you use Dark Side pips to generate Force Points. For example, Bind begins to do damage - whether you want it to or not - if you used any Dark Side pips to get Force Points for it, which may open you up to even more Conflict depending on use/GM.
I'm sure you're sick of hearing all that, though. 
Wanted to leave my two cents, so there you have it.
10 minutes ago, Kestin said:As others have stated, Light Side and Dark Side points can both be used to generate Force Points. That symbol you're confused by represents Force Points, at that point down the process of using the Force, they are neutral.
Not much* in this game specifies Light or Dark. Most effects are simply fueled by Force Points, and are open to users of any Morality. Furthermore, generating Force Points from either side of the Force is open to you regardless of Morality (so long as you're willing to use Destiny Points to access "the other side"). The rub is that using Dark Side points generates Conflict, which opens you up to lowering your Morality. Even then, the only guaranteed way to lower your Morality is to get 11 Conflict in a session - otherwise, there's an (increasingly small) chance to roll high enough on a d10 to stay where you are or even increase Morality.
The asterisk is there of course, because things do require or specify Light or Dark points and, rarely, even your Morality. There are a few uses of a few powers (the only one that jumps to mind is Heal) that are limited if you are the wrong Morality (specifically, you can't use Heal on... others? I think others, if you're Dark Side oriented). Some Powers (like Harm) don't require Dark Side Morality or Dark Side pips to use, but cause Conflict; there are also talents that do this. These are "Dark Side", but their only affect on Light Side users is to slowly corrupt them. More commonly, things have affects that open up or are mandatory if you use Dark Side pips to generate Force Points. For example, Bind begins to do damage - whether you want it to or not - if you used any Dark Side pips to get Force Points for it, which may open you up to even more Conflict depending on use/GM.
I'm sure you're sick of hearing all that, though.
You can't use Heal at all if you're Dark Side oriented, only Harm. Thus, if a Dark Side force user wants to heal himself or another, he must use Harm to suck the energy out of someone else to do it. Protect, is the one where he can only use it on himself not others.
1 minute ago, Tramp Graphics said:You can't use Heal at all if you're Dark Side oriented, only Harm. Thus, if a Dark Side force user wants to heal himself or another, he must use Harm to suck the energy out of someone else to do it. Protect, is the one where he can only use it on himself not others.
Ah, thanks!
thank you everybody, those answers were very helpful