2016 Spell Questions - Spirit of the Bear

[Zydana]

Spirit of the Bear – 4 Essence; 1 Minute Charge; Talisman (3)
This Talisman grants the "Press" skill until removed or Disenchanted. If you already possess the "Press" skill you may now "Press" aggressively twice for 1 Life Point, but you still only get 1 Defensive Press per Life Point

More of a request rather than a question...

Aggressively?

Please remove that word from the description. No other press skill has that word. We don't want to suggest that our players do anything in combat "aggressively."

[Kaylan Chargeender]

what about robustly????

[Ark]

wow, finalhaven has now introduced offensive and defensive restrictions of the same skill, that whole concept should disappear before it causes problems. remember how many other "soft" rules like that have already been removed from the game, like requiring crit strike to hit the back, or various damage steroids have a pre selected target before you could charge and use it. they were removed because depending on who you fight a persons back can be very large or surprisingly tiny. . .and it could be the same person, it just depends on what they are getting hit with and if they want to take it or not. and whether or not you selected a specific npc to hit with impale before hand could not be proven.

please remove "aggressively" "defensively" in fact I would say they need to finish what they started and remove the rest of the front/back/specific target variables out of skills and balance them accordingly. in a video game or table top where you have specific squares of movement and measurement or where an unbiased machine handles coded actions it can work fine. but this is LARP so room for argument and debate in skill use or action result (especially when it takes place in combat) needs to be kept as low as possible, otherwise scenes breakdown into rule debates or arguments on skill cheesing. (I have seen it before and I'm sure many others have as well. I remember a whole cave plot got abandoned because of PC's and NPC's fighting over the rules.)

[Kaylan Chargeender]

no need for all that unneeded removal of this and that...since it works like press has worked for YEARS:

from the rule book:

Press
There is no physical contact allowed in combat but at times you will need to get someone out of your way. This is simulated by using the “Press” skill. Those whose Essence Boons and/or Disciplines allow may make or defend against one Press per Life Point spent. If a character has the “Press” skill from more than one source (i.e. one from an Essence Boon and one from a Discipline skill) they may perform two consecutive Presses per Life Point but still may only resist one Press per Life Point. To deliver a Press, hit any part of the target's body, weapon, or shield with your weapon and call "Press (direction)." The character you are pressing can counter your Press by using his or her Press skill. If a person chooses not to or is unable to counter then they must take two or more steps in the direction you designate and let you pass. They cannot jump back in front of you before you pass as long as you maintain forward momentum.

The spell description is just paraphrasing what the press description has said for some time...if you have the skill twice...or one and this spell is active on you/your PC twice...you get TWO presses for ONE life point if your using them to press a PC or NPS....but still only ONE press(resist) for ONE life point if defending against press skill used against you.

[Ark]

hmmmm, I think this may spawn from the fact that both the skill and the call "press" is used as both an action call, and as a resist.

because it does not matter where you get the ability to resist press from be it press or another source that gives you the ability to resist press would it not be a better option and/or wording to simply add a "resist" into the call instead of saying "press" to resist press?

it removes offensive / defensive, cleans up wording, and clarifies what the skill and stacking does a bit better.

plus instead of:

"press, press, press, press, press, press"

we get:

"press, resist, press, resist, press, resist."

the latter of which we are all a bit more familiar with and is easy for players unfamiliar or new to the rules to get what is going on, if they hear "resist" its clear what happened, if their press is countered with press they might not understand what is going on, did their press work? are they getting pressed back? etc.

I'm still for removing soft targeting mechanics out of skills however.


BTW the "robustly" thing reminded me of an old sword fighting manual that had said "end him rightly" in relation to some ridiculous idea of unscrewing the pommel of your sword and throwing it at the opponent. . .yeah. (Gladiatoria MS KK5013)

[Kaylan Chargeender]

are they getting pressed back? etc.

yes...as it has always been, although many simply say resist these days.