The way things are done now, you know it’s almost pointless levelling up an attacking/defending skill when a merc with no talent for it chances to get a 3, since probably most of the rolls will be just 1 or 2, and then you’ll wish you’d levelled up other things for which there was more talent. Conversely, if there’s a 2- or 3-star talent for an attacking/defending skill, you know exactly or almost exactly what you’ll get each time, and then you almost have to level-up those traits every time and keep neglecting all the other traits, so that you end up with unrealistically unbalanced characters, whose shortcomings have to be compensated by other, equally unbalanced characters. I don’t want to level-up the same traits every time for any character, but currently you’re almost forced to do so when there are three strong talents.
Why not do it thus:
No talent = 1-3 or 1-4 or 1-5 (from 1 to one less than the absolute max)
1-star = 2-3 or 2-4 or 2-5 (from 2 to one less than the absolute max)
2-stars = 2-4 or 3-5 or 4-6 (maybe the absolute max or maybe one or two lower)
3-stars = 3-4 or 4-5 or 5-6 (either the absolute max or one lower)