Specialization Issues

[Camero]

Hi All

When a character specializes in 3 skills at character creation (at the cost of 1d) the get 1d on each of those skills, but do you count that as one placed skill dice towards the additional dice max per skill at creation (you know, no more than 2d can be added to any one skill at creation)? I mean if Lothar of the Hill People has a dex of 3d and specializes in Club under melee combat he has 4d on Club. Can that player then put 2 more dice or just one more dice under Lothars club skill? And if there is not tried and true rule what are you feelings on the subject?

Another specialization question - if an alien species has a bonus where 1d=2d for certain skills at creation will that apply to specializations in that skill as well? Like how Gamorreans have 1d=2d for Melee Combat at character creation, so if the Gamorrean specializes in Vibro Axe do they get the 1d=2d bonus applied to that as well or only to the generic skill? Is there are rule? What do you all think.
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"What a wonderful smell you've discovered"

[masque]

I allow specializations to exceed the 2D limit, but only once, i.e., they can boost a skill 2D and then add 1D of specialization. I don't allow 2 pips of a specialization die for a skill, in other words.

As for species bonuses, I have the character add those first, before figuring skills, and then they distribute points as necessary. In the melee combat example, I suppose that would add to the vibro-ax speciality, but I have no problem with that.
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Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[garhkal]

Yup. It would go, Skill +2d max, then apply the +1d for specialty.

As to the races with 2d for 1d placed in skills, i would only put those for the actual skill itself, not the specialty.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[DoubtBreak]

Not sure if this helps, but if you look at the rules for Duros characters:

[Gry Sarth]

I would allow the 1=2 for specializations as well. It's clearly intended to reflect how natural that skill is to that species, so why wouldn't that skill's specialization be natural as well?
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Camero]

I would hesitat to apply the Duros special ability description to the Gamorreans since the difference in description could have been intentional - maybe to make up for the Gamorrean only having 11D for attributes.

I guess another important thing is to watch for game balance too. A Gamorrean who specializes in Vibro Axe could have 9D on that skill at character creation so I would have to weight how well that would fly with the rest of the group. Then again, hand to hand combat really high isn't quite the same as insanely high blaster skills - you can't punch or hack 10 different people in a round without generally having to run between them and acquiring all kinds of multiple action penalties for the the running back and forth on top of the multiple actions. So maybe it won't be so bad...
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"What a wonderful smell you've discovered"