One of my players want's to specialize in Coordination (Dodge) and Weapon Skill (Parry) and has suggested that due to the specializations when he performs those actions he adds one to the attacker's dice pool. This seems powerful to me, but I can understand the trade off of one [W] for one . I'm just worried about the power of this.

Thoughts?

We add a black die to the attackers roll. The Attacks are vs targets defence thus active defence adds a black die due to the action itself, one if the relevant skill is trained, and one aditional if you have the corresponding specialization. In the skills section of the rulebook block, parry and dodge are part of the suggested specializations and since you don't roll for active defences it makes sense that the specialization adds a black die to the attackers dice pool. In our group it works just fine, and we don't feel it is unbalanced.

From the FAQ:

Specialisation: Active Defences

Several skills indicate specialisations most commonly associated with the Dodge, Parry, and Block active defences. These specialisations do not affect the use of the active defence cards.

However, if the GM asks the player to make a skill check based on dodging, parrying, or blocking something (such as in a case outside of a direct incoming attack directed against the character) the extra fortune die would be added to the dice pool.

These specialisations are noted in the skill descriptions because a particular specialisation may be a pre-requisite for certain action cards in the future.

Oh, I've missed that in the FAQ. Still to add to the attackers pool works well for our group, and makes those specific specializations worthwhile.

It may not feel unbalanced currently, but as this is likely to be a pre-requisite for some kind of advanced parry/dodge action card in the martial set, once that card is available it might well become unbalanced.

At that point, specializing would add a black die (but your house rule) and allow extra dice to be added (probably some purples) by way of the super advanced dodge/parry action card.

If and when that card comes out, I'd reassess your house rule, If I were you...