Rules Clarification (for the future)

[Faily]

Clarification on Force Powers, Talents, and Force Talents

First to clarify, a Force Power is the individual Talents purchased from the Force Power-tree (Influence, Move, Enhance, Seek, etc), where as Force Talents are Talents on specialization trees with the Force Talent-descriptor.

Each Force power focuses on a particular task that can be performed through the manipulation of the Force. Force powers might require Force power checks to activate temporary effects, or they could require users to commit Force dice to activate ongoing effects. Some might be able to do both. Using Force Powers, unless the power's description specifically states otherwise, requires one action in structured time (pg. 282 Force and Destiny).

This means that if a Force Talent says "The character may take a [Force Talent name] action, making a [insert Skill]/[insert Characteristic] check", the player may not combine the Talent with a Force Power that would enhance the dicepool (in the way that Enhance or Influence: Skills might).

This is because in the case of Force Powers like Enhance and Influence (Skills), activating those abilities makes it into a Force power check, which becomes its own action when used.

Thus when a Force Talent calls for [Force Talent name] action, you cannot change the action.

This also applies to other Talents that say "The character may take a [Talent name] action, making a [insert Skill]/[insert Characteristic] check". Talents with unique actions are unique and cannot be modified unless other Talents specifically do not change the action. Various Talents that state that you may always add various bonus dice (such as Keen Eyes, Stalker, Enhanced Leader, and others) apply as normal, as they do not change the nature of the action.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Examples

Shadow wishes to use the Force Talent "Now You See Me". The Talent says:

"Once per session, the character may take the Now You See Me action, making a Hard Deception check If successful, a number of NPCs equal to his Cunning within medium range forget any interactions they had with the character during the last thirty minutes."

The action is "Now You See Me". Shadow also have the Influence Force Power, with the Upgrade: Control (Skills), which would normally allow for Shadow to add their Force Rating as a die to the dicepool. However, the text for the Control upgrade states:

"When making a Coercion, Charm, Deception, Leadership, or Negotiation check, the user may roll an Influence power check as part of the pool."

This would change the action from a "Now You See Me" action to a "Force Power check" action, and thus is not possible to combine the two - you may only perform one action per round and Talents are unique.

-----

Peacekeeper wishes to use the Talent "Field Commander". The Talent says:

"The character may take a Field Commander action. By successfully passing an Average Leadership check, a number of allies equal to his Presence may immediately suffer 1 strain to perform one maneuver."

Like with the example above, Peacekeeper can't use the Influence Force Power with the Upgrade: Control (Skills).

However, what Peacekeeper can do is to use "Field Commander" in conjunction with the Force Talent "Enhanced Leader", which does the following:

"When making a Leadership check, the character may add (Force die) no greater than Force rating to the check."

That is because "Enhanced Leader" does make the action into a Force power check. The Talent simply states that they may always benefit from it on all Leadership roles. This also means that Enhanced Leader is not affected by Range or Magnitude like Influence normally is, simply because the Talent states that it is always a part of the check.