My player who has the talent "Finesse" asked if the talent allows him to use Agility for damage instead of Brawn. The talent does not specifically state that damage is changed to Agility, but states its used for the "check" to hit. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

It does exactly what it says, and that is " [w]hen making a Brawl or Melee (Light) check, your character may use Agility instead of Brawn. " Since it says nothing about modifying damage it doesn't modify damage.

I haven't got the book in front of my but from memory isn't damage based on the weapon's damage plus the number of successes you get, thus the number of successes you get using agility with finesse would affect your damage?

Maybe I am not remembering it correctly or have misunderstood the question.....

3 hours ago, Suneisha said:

I haven't got the book in front of my but from memory isn't damage based on the weapon's damage plus the number of successes you get, thus the number of successes you get using agility with finesse would affect your damage?

Maybe I am not remembering it correctly or have misunderstood the question.....

This is correct. So your damage would be brawn+weapon+successes. You are more likely to get more successes with agility so you will do more damage. but all melee weapons are going to be based on strength at their core.

That's the bit I didn't realise. I thought it was successes plus weapon damage, didn't realise you get brawn damage on top.

40 minutes ago, Suneisha said:

That's the bit I didn't realise. I thought it was successes plus weapon damage, didn't realise you get brawn damage on top.

Only with Melee & Brawl weapon’s do you add Brawn to the damage (hence the +X damage notation instead of a flat X).

Thanks just noticed that. I was having a bit of a duh moment. ?

So in that case my answer agrees with the answers above. RAW you still use brawn for damage with finesse, however don't forget you can make a house rule if using finesse their skills and dexterity means they can inflict more skilful shots and use these to cause damage instead of brute force.

Thanks so much all!

They did create a Tier 4 talent called Finesse (Improved) in the Genesys Talents Expanded document that requires the Finesse talent to have been purchased and will allow you to swap out Agility for Brawn when calculating damage. Seems like a reasonable talent to me that I would allow in my games for sure.

Z

I would judge it does calculate damage from the new characteristic used.