sure why not, its better than half a dozen of them at random, and probably how my tables will end up going down anyway

How about "You may target anyone who has been afflicted by a Limiting Condition which grants effects other than (or in addition to) strain, recovery, or push. Additionally, all Light Conditions less than Shadowy (ie: Darkness) count as being Blinded for this talent if the target cannot see in those conditions."

ie:

Blinded, Deafened, Frightened, Helpless, Immobilized, Prone, Shaken, Terrified, and arguably Stunned (as it says you cannot perform Free Strikes), in addition to the Darkness Lighting Condition.

because i fundamentally hate that list

and i think the talent is just fine not requiring any limiting factor

So much for simple

John

i may be to literatal here and missing something but why would someone need to set up this shot. the name of the talent is Murderous Precision, not snipper shot or snippers eye, all of which would require setting up a powerful devestating shot. to me the intent of the talent was to place one singualr well placed attack at a vital area. so its more like murderous accuracy, seeing as accuracy and precision are two total different aspects of an attack, again may be to literal with that point. but again why would someone need to "set up" a shot/attack to be able to accurately take some one out. i am of the mind set of just leaving at it is, one very well and very deadly placed shot

now if ppl insist on having to "set up" the shot, then just make it so, that this once per scene talent can only be used when you can waylay an oppunent. since waylay is a prereq and states when it can be used

that's what I was thinking

Ok... keeping it simple.. if we see it still being to powerful we will restrict it some more.

Rewording for clarity:

Tier I: Once per scene, you may declare you are using a Murderous Precision attack against a humanoid target which is granting you Tactical Edge. If the attack is successful and the target is a minion or common threat, you instantly vanquish or slay that humanoid despite its armor rating, remaining Wounds, or Stamina. If the attack is successful and the target is not a minion or common threat, you deal additional damage equal to your Passive Insight. If the attack misses, you expend the use of this talent for the remainder of the scene.

John

Ok, I think I have an insight.
Murderous Precision isn't Murderous Precision's problem.

Let's take as true that a volley of early combat MP's knocks a lot of the difficulty off a fight, given it has an "average" spread of Minons, Commons, and better. The Heroes then move in and mob the rest, focusing fire with much more efficiency with just a Mastermind to aggressively engage. But that's how the fight would have ended anyway.

In my experience 95% of all combats conclude with no critical expenditure of material. Unless someone takes a Wound the most that's usually expended is a few shots of blastpowder and a few Fate Points. Fundamentally the Heroes have finished a combat in much the same state statistically as they started.

So what did Murderous Precision contribute?

Not much. It accelerated the expected and likely outcome of the battle. That Murderous Prowess might be overpowered is part of a perception that's an artifact of the system; LoA fights are, imho, very all-or-nothing. Prolonged fights like Battle Interactive scenarios start to stretch out party expendables, but otherwise that's how it works out.

What helps in measuring the balance of something is how it comes to comparably accessible resources, but in this system there aren't any others really. Murderous Precision doesn't cost anything besides the investment cost, but neither does anything else. No spell levels, no PSP's, no potions, no wand charges, etc etc etc. If MP saved the expenditure of tangible materials that would raise definite questions of it's balance. But, it doesn't because nothing does.

I don't think a group that doesn't take multiple uses of Murderous Precision is compromising itself. Odds are the fight would have ended in exactly the same way without it.

That is, in a way, kind of a blessing. For most of a group's outcomes whether they are highly efficient or tremendously silly won't greatly affect their long-term outcomes. The Silly Nannies should probably step carefully during BI's, but otherwise they're probably fine. That's not such a bad thing at all -I love low-stakes fluff investment, I think it's just more fun.

Yet I wonder if that doesn't make cases like Murderous Precision seem unfairly effective.

Although I agree that this bar is kind of low, it is still higher than no bar at all. And in the name of simplicity, I will vote for it.

@ZCaslar: That's a topic for another thread. Regardless of what the expected outcome of a combat is, the presence of absence of a single talent should not have the ability to so drastically impact the combat as often as this one does. Sure, every oncce-in-a-while you have just the right trick in your bag and can simplify a combat. This trick works far too often. That means that its out of balance with the others.

Scott