>From: "Rob" <robert_m_davis_at_...>
> > I suspect in most cases it's better used as an augment.
>
>I agree with you David. Thats how it will be then IMG.
I think that this is mostly an artifact of the tendency for characters with combat magic to have the relevant combat ability at a higher level than that of their magic. That is, with Sureshot, if I have Archery 5W, and Sureshot 1W, it's more effective to use Archery as the base, and Sureshot as an augment. If the situation were reversed, then I'm certain that Sureshot would get augmented with Archery. The thing is that it would seem that starting characters can more easily raise mundane abilities, meaning that the combat primary version is more typically seen.
What then happens is that the player never adds to Sureshot, knowing that it's always going to be divided by ten, and instead just adds to Archery where the added levels will apply one for one - so the situation never changes (and this analysis first gets done in chargen I think). This is a problem for all abilites that have narrow applications in terms of what they can augment. For instance, if I have Strong Like Bull 4W, and Lift Heavy Objects 1W, it's hard to imagine a contest where the latter would apply that the former would not. So I'd never raise the latter. Magic abilities being very narrow, this happens a lot with them. Looking to "stack", the player has a mundane ability that's superior, and the magic ability is only ever used to augment it (and so it never gets raised).
Now, it's tempting to allow Sureshot to fire against a 14 here. For certain foes reducing he resistance to 14 would be more important than the smaller difference in ability levels between the augmenting and augmented abilities. But I agree that for the most part this would be relegated to shooting at rocks and trees or the like depending on your interpretation of the "14 Rule".
One can also "insist" that the normally augmenting ability be the primary ability for a contest by using an Improv Modifier on the augmented ability making it lower than the agumenting ability. But I think that this will rarely be seen as "fair". That is, if a Hero is lifting a rock, I can require them to use their Lift Heavy Objects or take a penalty for Strong Like Bull. But then I have to be very consistent about this - if someone else has Powerful Muscles I'll probably have to give them the same modifier. At that point the hairsplitting that's going on may seem to exist just to favor the player with the Lift Heavy Objects ability. That is, if the character didn't have LHO, and both of the characters had just their strength related abilities, would you really put in the improv mod? Is this consistent with other rulings? That is, would there also be some places where nothing but Sureshot would work without modifier? How about Make Speech - would you improv mod it if the speech were being given to a huge crowd? The theoretical Convince Huge Crowd ability being absent?
I think that this is sorta dangerous stuff, and for the most part, I don't do Improv Mods unless the player is really reaching with an ability. Meaning that I don't see this as much of a solution to the problem.
So, my question is, is there a problem here? That is, is it OK to have some abilities that just end up being used for augments, and never get increased because of that (no matter how cool it would be otherwise to raise that ability)? If there is a problem, does anyone have any good solutions to this?
Put another way, an ability like Shrewd isn't often the primary ability in a contest (though it could be). So I see players add to these things all the time based on the notion that they'll get included in a lot of contests even if just as augments. So there's a distinct difference in the breadth values of these things. Is that OK, or something that needs to be looked at?
Mike
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