Pressure Point Fix

By Swordbreaker, in Game Masters

For those who don't follow, the recently released Realms of Terrinoth for the Genesys system has a new version of the infamous Pressure Point talent.

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When your character makes an unarmed Brawl check targeting a living opponent, they may use this talent to deal strain damage instead of wound damage, and inflict additional strain damage equal to their ranks in Medicine.

The writing is a little wonky (you can deal strain damage with Brawl checks without the need of a talent), the intent is clear and I like this version more.

Here's the talent tree text from Edge of the Empire:

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When making a Brawl check against an opponent, instead of dealing damage, may deal equivalent strain plus additional strain equal to ranks in Medicine (ignoring soak).

I don't have a book handy to check the full talent description. Is the "ignoring soak" bit the only change?

Edited by rogue_09

Pretty much. That could get obscene with the right build (Marauder + Doctor). Ignoring soak is no laughing matter at all, particularly as minions and rivals don't take strain.

Makes sense. Pretty powerful especially as a 15xp talent. Oddly, I have a Doctor in my game, but he didn't buy into any of that branch of the tree.

What tier is Pressure Point? Maybe you could add a tier four or five "Improved Pressure Point" to add back the bypass soak option. Sinking that much XP balances it more.

Tier 3. I'd throw in a stipulation, like once per encounter or destiny/story point cost if you go for the ignore soak option. Otherwise, for GMs who don't like it as is in Star Wars, here's a simple change they can add without leaping through hoops when trying to address it.

My Pressure Point fix is as follows:

Pressure Point
Ranked: No.
Specializations: Doctor.
Your unarmed attacks gain the Stun quality, with a rank equal to your ranks in the Medicine skill.

This makes it so that you can still add extra damage equal to your Medicine, and you can even do it when inflicting wounds, but you need to actively use the ability by spending 2 Advantage. The stun quality ignores soak, so that's still in there, and you can use the ability on any successful unarmed attack, even if the target's soak eliminated all of your base damage, as long as you get those 2 Advantage.