Simple request for rules clarification. The Anatomist talent from the Healing talent tree adds 1CD and Vicious to any Melee or Threaten attack. I notice other entries adding Vicious to an attack mention something along the lines of “If the attack already has the Vicious quality, the rating of the quality improves by 1.” I also notice this language is absent from Anatomist.
Would you rule that a character with this talent wielding a Vicious 1 weapon increases it to Vicious 2? My gut tells me no, since the writers would have specifically stated if that was the case, although I can’t see any good reason beyond game balance why this would be the case, and I’m hoping someone can tell me this talent is better than it seems.
Yes, of course. Usually, if you have weapon qualities with different ranks (like Vicious X or Unforgiving X), anything that adds that quality on top of an existing rank only adds to the rank.
So if you have a weapon with Vicious 1 and the Anatomist Talent, then that weapon would have the quality of Vicious 2.
since the writers would have specifically stated if that was the case
I wouldn’t count on that, as there are too many occasions where the Conan rules are very unclearly stated and even very similiar things are slightly differently described, although the same mechanical element was described. Maybe it is due to different authors, or due to copy&paste from MC3 or Infinity, or simply oversight. It happens - sadly, a lot regarding the 2d20-based products.