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What happened was that after lvl 0 and lvl 1 development he had invested just 1 rank of BD and just 2 ranks of weapons skills. Mathematically his max possible hits would have been 12.
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One player mentioned that he needed Duping to be maxed because he might need to talk his way out of some situation. I agree that its a useful skill, but I pointed out that if you're a Noble Warrior who develops Duping at the expense of weapons skills what happens if you fail your Duping attempt and now you have to fight your way out?
When you compare the systems skill development you see that in RM more is more and in D&D you can get by with less in most cases.
It's OK for the Barbarian to max out Seduction and the Noble Warrior to max out Duping... however, those PCs should also have a primary weapon maxed out, and Body Dev maxed out as their primary means of survival are front line fighters absorbing a good hit or two while dealing out damage. This is something they'll learn after playing several sessions and perhaps losing a PC to a crit and rolling up a new one.
Even with a very low amount of DP (30-31 DP), there are plenty of DP to max out those three skills, plus points towards Maneuver in Armour, Sense Ambush, Stunned Maneuver. As Duping and/or Seduction aren't my primary means of survival, I'd probably invest only 1 rank per level in those secondary skills as they are, well... secondary.
You hit the nail on the head with D&D/Pathfinder vs. RM. There is a difference between buying a talent that allows you to "do this now" vs. developing and practicing and training in a skill to get better at it. RM is more like "learning a skill and bettering yourself" where D&D/Pathfinder just unlocks a talent you can now use as succeed/fail vs. target #.
My players are starting to come around more and more each session we do. The biggest challenge for you is keeping them engaged and feeling like they are accomplishing goals with the low stats they have so far. Gradually let the PCs realize they need to buy more ranks in their primary skills to really succeed and that the secondary skills add the seasoning to the stew. Keep the NPC's with similar stats to their PC counterparts for now. When they realize that it's taking 5, 6, 7, rounds to kill two level 1 rats, they'll invest a little more into primary weapon skill before taking on the level 5 skeleton or buying more Seduction. LOL.
There is a background option from the core rules that allows a player to have x# of ranks in a secondary skill or one chosen by the GM to reflect the player's background. (That's close to the exact wording, I'll look for it when I get home tonight.) That's something you could offer to the player. 5 free ranks in Seduction, or +10 to Duping, something like that would help the players. They could use the background option without sacrificing precious DP on secondary skills.
* - just popped into my head... The Dancer profession could very easily be played as a Barbarian. The description is that of a Martial Artist or fighter and not solely "a dancing parson." The cost for Seduction is obviously going to be very low, but the primary weapon category is decent and the Martial Arts skills are also decent. If you allow the optional skills of Tackling or Wrestling (cost as Martial Arts), the player wouldn't feel hemmed into punch/punch/kick. My daughter rolled up a dancer a couple of weeks ago and has done a few sessions and did really well in combat and still had the Seduction, Dancing, Tale Telling skills well developed.