Optional Specialization (Mental Maneuvers) by Eric Smith

The rules for Optional Skill Specialization on p. B43 are, in my opinion, broken. It is quite obvious that these rules were written before the Maneuvers rules were created. In this article I have attempted to provide a simple solution to the problems with the Optional Specialization rules.

The first step is to look at what a Specialization costs (character point wise) and gives according to the rules in the Basic Set. As it stands now if you specialize in a particular subject you get -1 to your base skill and +5 to your Specialized field, or to put it another way for the cost of buying one level of skill you get an effective +6 bonus to the Specialized field of the skill. For M/E, M/A, or M/H skills this costs 2 pts. and for M/VH skills 4 pts. Most physical skills don't have an Optional Specialization, and those that do should follow the progression for Average and Hard Maneuvers (p. CI164).

As you can see, this is an incredible jump in capabilities, and there is no way to get a mid-level specialization. My answer to this problem was to have players buy Specializations just like they would other Maneuvers. Unfortunately, the cost for the standard Maneuvers is too high to be effectively applied to Mental skills, so I created two new difficulty levels for Maneuvers that follows the Mental skill progression much more closely. I've called them "Very Easy" and "Easy", to keep their names in line with the Average and Hard Maneuvers from Compendium I and Martial Arts.

Generally, you may not buy a Mental Maneuver at more than Default+6 without GM approval. There's only so much one can learn in a very specialized field without having to learn more in the general field.

M/E, M/A, and M/H skill specializations should be considered "Very Easy" Maneuvers and M/VH skill specializations should be "Easy" Maneuvers, though there can be some exceptions to this. Specializations usually default to the base skill level, but the GM may make exceptions to this too.

**Maneuver Cost Table**
Level	Very Easy	Easy
Default	0 pt.	0 pt.
Default+1	--	0.5 pt.
Default+2	0.5 pt.	1 pt.
Default+3	1 pt.	2 pts.
Default+4	1.5 pts.	3 pts.
Each additional+1	+0.5 pt./level	+1 pt./level

If the GM wants to do the extra bookkeeping he can allow the PC's to buy a "Very Easy" Maneuver at Default+1 for 1/4 pt.

Example: Joe has Armoury/TL3 at skill 14 (with his IQ of 12 it costs 6 pts., see p. B44 & 53). Since Armoury is a M/A skill all it's specializations are "Very Easy" Maneuvers. He gets the optional specialization "Bows & Arrows" at skill level 16 (Default+2). This will cost him 1/2 pt. He also gets the Specialization "Hand Weapons" at skill level 19 (Default+5) for 2 pts.

These rules can be applied to many different skills, ranging from Armoury (at TL 5-), Surgery (specifying certain body areas), most Animal skills (specifying a type of animal), and many Scientific skills. These rules can also be applied to Alchemical Elixirs (there is further discussion of this below).

Another suggestion that was mentioned by someone on the GURPSnet Mailing list (and which the official rules keeper, Sean Punch (a.k.a. Dr. Kromm), seemed to like allot) was that a character may not spend more points on Maneuvers than he spends on his base skill. The reason for this is simple, half the time spent learning a maneuver should be applied toward the base skill making it impossible to have more points in Maneuvers than in the base skill.

One of the biggest problems with the Alchemy skill now is that the number of potions you are "expert" in is based on your Skill level, not how long you've studied/used the skill (see p. M87-91 & CI148). The best cure for this is to use Maneuvers for each potion, however if you don't lower the difficulty of learning the Alchemy skill this seriously deflates the value of Alchemy. If using these alternate rules Alchemy should be treated as a M/H skill. There are several other changes that must be made to the Alchemy skill to attempt to keep it balanced with the current rules.

1)An Alchemist does NOT get to be "expert" with any Elixirs, instead each Alchemical Elixir must be bought as a separate "Easy" Maneuver (see above).

2) All Elixir Maneuvers default to Alchemy-2 (apply any additional modifiers given in the Elixir description, see below for a complete chart of Elixirs including defaults).

3) Half of the total points spent on the Alchemy skill and Elixir Maneuvers MUST be applied to the Alchemy skill and half MUST be spent on the Elixir Maneuvers. This is mostly for play balance, otherwise you will find that your players will pump up the (now cheaper) Alchemy skill and put relatively few points in the Elixir Maneuvers.

4) Unlike normal Maneuvers/Specializations, Elixirs are NOT limited to the usual skill level cap of Default+6.

5)When using the rules for "Studying on the job" (p. B82-83) half the time spent making an Elixir goes toward the base Alchemy skill, half of the time goes toward the Elixir Maneuver that is being made.

The net effect of these changes is that the average Alchemist will have the same base skill level for the points he puts into Alchemy, but he will probably know fewer Elixirs until he has put quite a few points into Alchemy and Elixirs (which is, in my opinion, realistic). If you want to make it easier for Alchemists to pick up many different Elixirs you can make the Elixir Maneuvers "Very Easy" instead of "Easy", though this tends to make buying obscenely high skill levels in one Elixir relatively easy.

Example: Jane, an IQ 12 Alchemist has a total of 12 points on Alchemy & Elixirs. Half of those points must be spent on the Alchemy skill, so she gets it at skill 13 (IQ+1 for 6 pts., remember Alchemy is now M/H). She has spent allot of time making the Chiron potion (2 pts. worth), so she gets it at Default+3. The default for Chiron is the standard Alchemy-2, so her final Skill Level is 14 (13-2+3=14). She has spent some time working on both Ares & Heracles, both default to Alchemy-3. She has 1 point in each; this gives her a skill of 12 in each (default+2 in both cases). She also has 1/2 point each in Agni, Antaeus, Marsyas, and Melampus. Since all four default to Alchemy-2, and 1/2 point gets a skill of Default+1, she gets them each as skill 12.