Lother_Storm said:

That part of your life is over, and you have fallen out of practice. It happens all the time in real life. It's not like you learn something and then can do it forever; you have to keep your skills up to date.

As far as the game is concerned, your skills and abilities may not fall behind, but the little tricks and advantages you get from focusing your time on something are lost until you get back on track (get a career where you can use them).

Hey Lother - good question.

Most of the time, the talent is something that we slot on the party sheet. It is of course possible to have a non-tactic-talent bearing sheet but in general that's what happens, and you don't stop doing it.

Also - soldier->initiate isn't a very common path. If you read the Tome of Blessings (from core) it talks about the fact that most priests join young (they can be left as orphans, adopted, or otherwise sent away as 3rd children of noblement etc) since the dooming and quickening indicate that most people are adults by 12-13. Becoming an initiate not only takes a few years of menial labor, learning to read and memorizing prayers by rote, but also being tested and learning how to channel the power of your god. A soldier turning initiate may be out of game a while (a couple years) even though mechanically that change can happen pretty quickly.

Overall I agree with your point(s). Ultimately in my group we just plan our progression in a fashion so that this doesn't happen. If you KNOW that you're going from soldier to initiate, and your party sheet won't have a talent slot, then don't waster your advance buying 'charge' pick up a reputation that attaches to the party sheet instead.