Having read the mystic magic rules again, I see some
problems. Right now, the martial artist rules feel rather
boring, but I wouldn't be surprised if I have misunderstood
things.
- Defending against magic with your disciplines. This is
not of much use, at least initially. With the -20 penalty
the default defense at 14 is better until you reach 15w
and then you are still better off using other appropriate
abilities if they are higher than discipline-20.
- You don't get any magic until you have reached 1w2 in all
three disciplines. And then you can't leave the school
until you reached 1w in one power. That means that the
narrator has to bend things a lot in order to include a
martial artist character in a mixed campaign. If the
campaign revolves around a dojo, it's fine, you can play
the struggle to reach that point, but a lone starting
character in a mixed group is a problem.
- Once you do get access to the powers, you can have many,
but just one counter, which means you can know many strikes.
That seems odd. Given the nature of strikes I could easier
see that only one strike is allowed.
- The strike mechanic also has some oddities. The special
effect only happens if you drive the opponent below 0 AP.
But at 0 AP the opponent is already out of the contest
which makes the special effect less important and less
dramatically interesting.
- Other magics are vaguely described and can thus be used in
many ways. The few mystic powers are described are quite
specific in their effects.
All this and the heavy cost in hero points in using the
chancy strikes make it feel like martial artists are NPCs
only.
Finally, the examples in the descriptive text "transform
hands to eagle talons" and "ride a thunderbolt into battle"
don't sound like either counters or strikes. How do you fit
them into the concept?
Nils Weinander
The world is a beautiful place and it's worth fighting for
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