Re: Strength of the Bull

From: Mikael Raaterova <ginijji_at_...>
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000 13:05:24 +0100

> > You avoid the crux of the problem, which is that being so very
>> literal in interpreting feats doesn't rhyme well with the official
>> posture on feats, namely that they are merely guidelines, and that
>> affinity-relevant feats can be improvised freely, with the wording
>of
>> your choice.
>
>To my interpretation, Feats are precise, but not all should be
>interpreted with the same rules. 'Leap over Trees' lets you leap over
>trees, resistance 14. Anything other than trees gets an Improv Mod.
>Deadly Javelin Throw, however, does NOT let you kill a target with
>only resistance 14, it uses the usual resistance for the usual damage.

Yes. This is entirely in line with the distinction between active and passive resistance. However, Roderick has said on several occasions that the feats are merely guidelines. So, either the god have those precise powers with that very wording, or the wording is merely a guideline.

And if not all feats use the same rules, then there should be guidelines to various ways of interpreting feats and how to handle them.

>Improvisation does NOT let you change the wording of existing Feats,
>but an improvisation lets you create and cement a new Feat with
>appropriate, and suitable precise to taste, wording.

And i said what that contradicted that?

>In other words,
>Feats are precise, any variation IS perfectly permissable, but is
>Improvisation, and suffers the penalty therefore. Both in Target
>number (Leap over Trees used to leap over a house would be -10 or
>so), and in possible resistance (the house resists with it's normal
>height resistance).

If the house is to resist the leap with its height, you assume that the house is somehow able to actively resist or that the the improvised feat is no longer magical? Or are you working from "narrator decides"?

I'll try to put the problem in more succinct terms:

An Odaylan (Bear affinity at 10w2) tries to lift a human-sized marble statue.

According to you/Greg, the Odaylan gets a magical strength of 8w, the strength of a bear, when he uses the feat "Bear's strength" (which he presumably has to obtain in a simple contest where he pits his affinity rating against the 14 of the universe, considering that you said the getting the "strength of the bull" was against a 14).

This 8w is what he uses against the 14 of the universe, trying to lift the statue.

Reasoning that Bears are strong, the Odaylan improvises the feat "Lift heavy things". Unless he gets more than a 21-point improv penalty, he will be stronger when improvising a strength feat than when using the printed strength feat. This is especially true for initiates, who get improv mods for any feat-use.

This doesn't seem reasonable to me, but since i'm just complaining anyway, who cares?

-- 
-
Mikael Raaterova        [.sig omitted on legal advice]