The Commando Specialization has a lot of the Blooded Talent, and I have to admit I'm a little bit puzzled by three occurences.

From the feel of the talent tree and the flavor text describing it, I get that this guy is supposed to survive combat and pretty much anything thrown at him. And that, he has in plenty. WIth the Durable, Unstoppable, Armor Master, and Blooded talents he certainly is one tough nut to crack.

It also says that he's supposed to be a deadly instrument to get in and out without being seen. However, looking at the talent tree, it doesn't really seem that much like a versatile "surgical instrument" and all that deadly with guns. Sure he's good with hand to hand, and he's got Strong Arm (which is super cool). But the only talent improving his gunning is the one Point Blank talent.

Also, he doesn't really seam all that sneaky (first off lacking stealth as a class skill). It says in his description that Commando's are good at sneaking past enemy guards and listening posts.

I think it might fit better with the description/idea of the specialization to replace one (or more) of the blooded occurence(s) with deadly accuracy to give him more stopping power, or stalker to represent his sneakiness.

Other folks thoughts?

I think the "deadly instrument" aspect is more of a nod to the Commando's bonus career skills than anything to do directly with his talents. Besides, ranged badassery for the Soldier is already covered by the Sharpshooter spec, so the designers probably wanted to ensure the two specs had some degree of difference since they're both under the same career.

I do agree about lack of Stealth as a career skill; perhaps drop either Brawl or Survival from the bonus career skills and put Stealth in that skill's place? This is a combat-centric career, so Stealth-based talents really aren't needed for this one,.

I would agree with dropping survival as a bonus skill and picking up stealth. The commando is supposed to be more CQB oriented so I would keep Brawl in the mix.

I think both brawl and survival makes sense for a commando, the way I understand the concept for this game (I'm still waiting for my book so I'm going by your statements and the info you provide). While stealth would definitely also makes sense I think the ability to survive anywhere (survival) is more important than them having stealth. They can get attachments for their armour to improve stealth, and arguably survival can be used to find a more secluded path and entry point, thereby avoiding guards and sentries. I also think there would be more focus on combat and survival without support during training, than sneaking past guards. I'd, for now, let things stay the same when it comes to skills.

I cannot say much about the talents, although exchanging one of the blooded for a stalker talent could make sense, no?

I cannot say much about the talents, although exchanging one of the blooded for a stalker talent could make sense, no?

I could see that. Perhaps replace the Row 1 instance of Blooded with Stalker, which itself would provide an edge on Stealth checks for the Commando.

Perhaps the worry is that many Commando characters are likely to take other Specializations that grant Stalker and they don't want to make it too easy to stack up a lot of levels of the Talent.

True. I don't know how many instances of that talent there are in AoR. I still think its a viable tweak to ensure some bonus, since skill increases will be more expensive since its not a career skill - which I think makes sort of sense, at least with one instance of the stalker talent.

Also, there is the armour attachment that improves stealth. I think that this is also a part of the equation, which commando with laminate or battle armour (or something similar) would not get that attachment?

Also, there is the armour attachment that improves stealth. I think that this is also a part of the equation, which commando with laminate or battle armour (or something similar) would not get that attachment?

Well, the Edge book says that the attachment (camouflage system) doesn't work so well on laminate and battle armor. It doesn't explicitly disallow it, which is weird, but it highly suggests not allowing it.

True, but if I'm not mistaken it require 2 HP to add, and no other armour than those two have enough HPs to add it.

True, but if I'm not mistaken it require 2 HP to add, and no other armour than those two have enough HPs to add it.

Tinkerer and Armored Clothing?

Of course, but not everyone is going to have Tinkerer - unless Tinkerer appears on the Commando talent tree, then of course that is one obvious way to go.

I personally think that one rank of bloodied should be swapped out for stalker. If they don't have stealth as a class skill, maybe there training allows them an edge in it. I knew and know a few different spec-ops guys from different branches and, aside from the fact that they did tough things in bad places, they always had to do it quietly and preferably completely unnoticed.. I'm a little puzzled by the lack of stealth here. Maybe a new talent that combines Resilience and Stealth. That makes a touch more sense to me because those guys are always tough, mentally and physically.