>
>What if I have an ability "Orlanth's Strength 5W" once used legendarily to
>move a boulder, and on another occasion to defeat an opponent in arm
>wrestling? Generally makes the character stronger for certain kinds of
>heroic feats. Now, your character has Stong Like Bull 5W2. We each take
>turns trying to move a boulder that's got a mundane resistance of 4W5. You
>roll against 14, and move it easily. Then I roll against it's mundane
>resistance and fail to budge it.
>
>Now, we move on to armwrestling. Now it's my 5W2 vs. your 5W right? So I win
>handily.
>
I think we need a better example. The mythical use of the strength
does not mean that the resistance to the task should be 14 - because
the magic is about being strong, not about moving boulders. If it
was a specific boulder-moving magic THEN 14 would be appropriate
(Barntar's "Move Stones" feat comes to mind).
Now I am not saying that there is no problem but it seems to me that
the majority of cases can be solved by either:
- Holding two contests - e.g. both characters roll against the
boulder's resistance.
- Saying that people - like magical entities - can and do resist
with their own abilities. e.g. the wrestling contest suggested above.
Can anyone think of an example where neither of these will do ?
--
--
"The T'ang emperors were strong believers in the pills of
immortality. More emperors died of poisoning from ingesting minerals
in the T'ang than in any other dynasty" - Eva Wong _The Shambhala
Guide to Taoism_
Paul K.