|
I'm including both a restatement/clarification of the book's rules, and adding further comments on this common use of the Wu Tan. I'm going to reiterate some of the book rules, first, then go on to my own rulings. It should be understood that the standard 2 successes for 1 "dot" is a specific application of Magnitude of Change [hereafter "MoC"].
To drop an opponent to a 0 in an Attribute via the second rank of a Wu Tan, you need to increase the MoC by 3, above and beyond the base. Thus, reducing a Strength of 3 to 0 requires ( [3*2] + 3 = 9 MoC successes, plus one for the base, and usually one for Continuance (to make it last for the Scene), for a total of 11 successes. Now, you don't always know the attributes of your opponents, so the way you tell this to the ST in a scene is: "One success for the base, one for Continuance to last for a Scene, and 9 for MagChange 9. MoC 9 will reduce a 3 or less to 0, a 4 to a 1, and a 5+ by 4 dots." See? MoC 9 is actually one more than you would need to reduce any attribute by 4, but without the additional +3, you can only reduce a 4 itself down to 1, not 0. Anything over 4 gets the full effect allowed by an MoC of 9: -4 ranks. Okay, those are the by-the-book rules. Here's some further comments/rulings for the LAST and CoIA games: Going over 5, or raising an Attribute that is already over 5, requires the same +3 to the MoC that reducing it to 0 does. So to shift from Dex 5 to Dex 6 requires MoC 5, not 2. Likewise, shifting your Crinos-form Bastet ally from Dex 7 to Dex 9 requires MoC 7. The MoC requirement of a "restricted" increase or decrease of an Attribute is cut in half (round up). For instance, Yan Pangtian typically raises his Perception with regard to hearing only. This means that to go from 4 to 6 (normal MoC of {[2*2] + 3 =} 7) would be MoC 4. Similarly, reducing a target's Stamina to soak a certain variety of attacks would be equally cost-conscious. When raising/reducing multiple attributes with the same I Chih, you must purchase a different MoC for each targetted Attribute. So to raise both Perception and Dexterity by two with one Tieh Tan effect, you have to have an MoC of 4 for Per and another MoC of 4 for Dex. Now, this next ruling is likely to be the most controversial for you folks: A character can only be subject to one Attribute-affecting I Chih of each type (raising and lowering) at one time. If a second I Chih is cast, raising a different Attribute or set of Attributes, the one with the highest MoC "wins". This only applies to "broad" effects; those which only affect a specific application of an Attribute (such as Yan's hearing boost) are not subject to this restriction. This means that the most common increases/decreases are going to be effects from the same Element. For instance, Yan Pangtian has Tieh Tan 4. He can use that to reduce both a target's Per and Dex at the same time, an effect he might call "Stilling the Ringing of the Temple Bell" (Yan likes to be a bit pompous in such things). This would require an MoC for each Attribute, as noted above. Thus, to raise or lower Attributes that are not part of the same element, you must use a multiple-element I Chih. The rules for these are clarified here. Look back up and procede with your walk along Ten Do. Go back to the Entrance Plaza. Decide that today is inauspicious for a visit to Ten Do and return to Little Asia |
©1999 White Wolf Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved
Get your own Free Home Page