I want to include an option for Conan-style "loincloth and longsword" adventuring in my swords and sorcery setting. I've been mulling it for a while, and here's what I have so far:

Unarmoured Hero
Tier: 2
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
When wearing no armour, and not encumbered, your character gains +1 Soak and has a melee and ranged defense of 1. Your character must also be conscious and able to act freely.

Unarmoured Hero (Improved)
Tier: 3
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
Your character must have purchased the Unarmoured Hero talent to benefit from this talent. When wearing no armour, and not encumbered, your character gains +1 Soak and has a melee and ranged defense of 1. Your character must also be conscious and able to act freely. This is cumulative with Unarmoured Hero.

Does that seem about right?

I would simulate the Barbarian feeling giving extra Strain to use Dodge, Defensive Stance or Side Step as long as the character is unarmored...

You're combining two tier 4 talents into one tier 2 talent. That's way too powerful. If you want to be an unarmed combatant, there are plenty of existing talents you can use: defensive stance and sidestep are both tier 2. Parry is tier 1. Defensive and enduring, as mentioned, are tier 4. Dodge is tier 3. And as @Solkar77 mentioned, grit and toughened, as tier 1, increase your survivability. Couple that with desperate recovery and second wind (also tier 1) you can recover a lot of strain.

But if you want to make a new talent, I'd look at what there currently is and build from there. You want to be a nimble character, so reskin the barrel roll talent. Suffer 3 strain as an out-of-turn incidental to reduce the damage taken by your ranks in Coordination.

12 hours ago, c__beck said:

You're combining two tier 4 talents into one tier 2 talent. That's way too powerful.

I'm assuming you're referring to Defensive and Enduring, yes? Those are T4 because they increase your defense and soak, stacking with armor. The proposed talent doesn't stack with armor. The defensive bonus is basically what Elves get, which according to the Archetype creation guide should be on par with a T1 talent. The soak part might be a bit more questionable, but, again, most warriors will have soak from their armor.

12 hours ago, c__beck said:

You're combining two tier 4 talents into one tier 2 talent. That's way too powerful. If you want to be an unarmed combatant, there are plenty of existing talents you can use: defensive stance and sidestep are both tier 2. Parry is tier 1. Defensive and enduring, as mentioned, are tier 4. Dodge is tier 3. And as @Solkar77 mentioned, grit and toughened, as tier 1, increase your survivability. Couple that with desperate recovery and second wind (also tier 1) you can recover a lot of strain.

But if you want to make a new talent, I'd look at what there currently is and build from there. You want to be a nimble character, so reskin the barrel roll talent. Suffer 3 strain as an out-of-turn incidental to reduce the damage taken by your ranks in Coordination.

Unconditionally, yes, it would be too powerful. But with the stipulations attached (must be unarmoured, not encumbered, conscious, unimpeded), it doesn't seem that huge. Mechanically, one rank of Unarmoured Hero is no different from wearing leather armour and carrying a shield (or just being an elf wearing leather armour). These talents are essentially buying conditional "armour" with experience. I get what you're saying about the talents, but that is a lot of investment, and stuff a fighter character will probably take anyway.

I still think that even with the stipulations it's too powerful for a tier 2. I can see it being tier 3. Or have it grant soak only as a tier 2, then defence only as a tier 3 Unarmoured (Improved) and top it off with a tier 4 Unarmoured (Supreme) that does something cool.

I am necro-ing this topic to get feedback on my latest revision of these talents (in bold ):

Tier 2

*Unarmoured Hero – As a maneuver, you may spend one Story Poin t to gain +1 Soak and 1 ranged and melee Defense for the duration of an encounter , when wearing no armour and not encumbered. Must be conscious and able to act freely.

Tier 3

*Unarmoured Hero (Improved) – Your character must have purchased the Unarmoured Hero talent to benefit from this talent. When you activate Unarmoured Hero, increase your Soak, ranged, and melee Defense by one additional point. All the conditions for Unarmoured Hero apply.

I feel like this is all going nowhere, cuz nobody in my group is going to take this, but I still want to find a way to make it work.

In the Star Wars book Disciples of Harmony there where a couple of talents that require a character to be carrying 2 or less Encumbrance of equipment. Although 2 would be a bit harsh for a loin cloth clad barbarian you could take inspiration:

Tier 2

*Unarmoured Hero – You gain +1 Soak and 1 ranged and melee Defense, when wearing no armour and carrying 4 or less encumbrance of items. Must be conscious and able to act freely.

This could actually be stacked with a Shield as it currently stands, since Shields are actually Weapons.

I'm OK with them using a shield with this, I wrote it that way on purpose.

I have a question for you all, since it's a related idea. How would you handle the concept of a Monk type character? Basically, I'm thinking there SHOULD he a Tier 1 Talent for such unarmored combatants to allow them to be just as viable as the more typical Armored warriors... and not something that trades Strain for being harder to hit.

Tier 1 Talents should not replace significantly expensive and hindering equipment. I agree that a Monk should be harder to hit, and ultimately take more to kill, but tier 1 isn’t the right place to increase Soak.

Coordinated Dodge is a really decent option from Star Wars, so is the Enduring Talent later on as well as the Defensive Talent.

Parry and the ability to do it unarmed really put the cherry on the cake, all combined the Monk style character should be very hard to hit, and punish you if you do hit them

Yeah, I wouldn't put +Soak or +Defense on Tier 1. If I was working on a martial arts/wuxia type setting, I might bake in some stuff to make it doable, but it would look a lot like what I wrote above.

A monk-type character could already start off with a solid defense, with robes and a staff or spear you'd have 2 melee Defense, with a pair of sai you'd have 3 melee Defense. Just like blocking, dodging, and taking a punch takes time to learn in actual martial arts, there should be some significant Talent investment to be as effective as an armoured warrior without wearing any armour.

The other option is to flavour certain magic spells as "Chi", and go that route. Augment and Barrier can readily become the foundation of any number of mystical martial arts forms.

25 minutes ago, Direach said:

Yeah, I wouldn't put +Soak or +Defense on Tier 1. If I was working on a martial arts/wuxia type setting, I might bake in some stuff to make it doable, but it would look a lot like what I wrote above.

A monk-type character could already start off with a solid defense, with robes and a staff or spear you'd have 2 melee Defense, with a pair of sai you'd have 3 melee Defense. Just like blocking, dodging, and taking a punch takes time to learn in actual martial arts, there should be some significant Talent investment to be as effective as an armoured warrior without wearing any armour.

The other option is to flavour certain magic spells as "Chi", and go that route. Augment and Barrier can readily become the foundation of any number of mystical martial arts forms.

As can Attack and even Heal. It’s almost the Divine Skill, but instead of believing in otherworldly gods you believe in yourself.

17 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:

As can Attack and even Heal. It’s almost the Divine Skill, but instead of believing in otherworldly gods you believe in yourself.

For a Monk I'll create a new magic skill called "Chi" and related it to Brawn, as you have to channel and focus your own internal energy to explode the "Chi".