For seeing through illusions, I think the best approach may be to decide who can identify illusions, and that will help you decide how they do it.

My first thoughts are that anyone could conceivably identify an illusion, but it requires a special effect to see through an illusion. Let's see if I can explain that a bit better.

A Soshi shugenja creates a compartment in the wall of his bedroom, hiding blackmail material in it. They then cast an illusion over it, to make it seem like a completely untouched wall. When a particularly astute magistrate comes to search the room, for whatever reason, they might be able to identify that there's something weird about that wall. To see exactly what's behind it would require either a spell, a spirit or maybe the abilities of a Technique (Kitsuki, I'm looking at you).

Gut instinct, taking enough raises on your Investigation roll to search an area would let you identify an illusion.

I definitely think that anybody should be able to make an Investigation / Perception roll to notice wrong details or incongruities, which might clue them in that what they're seeing *is* an illusion, even if they can't see through it. The latter should almost certainly require magic/a kiho, or *possibly* a technique (maybe an alternate path for the Kitsuki?).

Yeah, I was reading about Chinese alchemy on Wikipedia before I went to bed last night (I know, I know -- but it was the only resource readily available to me), and the internal/external alchemy thing sparked an idea for me. I think what I'm going to do is say that the Tamori school is external alchemy (they'll make potions which can be used to create five specific buff effects, rather than sticking any old spell into a potion), the Agasha school is internal alchemy (Ring manipulation for effects, with more of a yin-yang feel rather than just straight buffs, though I'll have to look at the Henshin to make sure I don't step on their toes), and if you're running your campaign pre-defection, you can just say the Dragon have both schools. If I want to do an object-related thing, I'll probably make that a Tamori path. Then the Isawa will have metamagic, and that just leaves me with deciding whether bender stuff should be a basic school for the Isawa (because why shouldn't they have two?), or how the Elemental Guard works.

As for Ring Manipulation, you might consider linking two rings (bring the higher down to the lower of the two? raise the lower up to the higher?). This would tie into their multi-element research fluff.

The Asahina posed a surprising challenge. Pretty much all of the social buff-type spells are ML 3 or lower, and furthermore, a lot of them are of the blunt-instrument type: it's "here's a numerical bonus to all your social skills at once," rather than breaking it up in a more granular fashion or looking for non-numerical approaches. I really have no idea what mechanics I'll attach to these, but here's a generalized stab at a more nuanced approach.

ASAHINA SHUGENJA

Rank One - The peaceful ways of the Asahina are a good complement to the efforts of their Doji brethren in court. Boost to Awareness-based social rolls. {~Benten's Touch, maybe scaled down a little)

Rank Two - Asahina shugenja are trained to preserve their serenity in the face of provocation. Boost to Etiquette (Composure) / Willpower. {~Soul of Stone, without the penalty}

Rank Three - The blessings of the Asahina can aid the less fortunate. {~Touch of Air's Grace, possibly modified; I could see it having broader application}

Rank Four - Experienced Asahina can commune with the air kami, sensing which individuals may be sympathetic to their social goals. Divinatory-type effect, ID'ing possible allies.

Rank Five - Masters of the Asahina school can enforce peace, though they would never use so harsh a word to describe it. Warding effect that penalizes all hostile actions, with bigger penalty for physical hostility. {~Blessed Wind of Lady Sun, but majorly scaled up}

Two alternate path possibilities already on the table: one would basically be Flight of Doves, as a bit of synergy with the Kakita Artisans, and then the other would be based on a suggestion my husband gave me, where they can use the air kami to gather rumors.

Yogo Wardmaster! Since I intend for warding to be a thing shugenja can do more generally, I decided the thing that distinguishes Wardmasters from the rest of the pack and gives them their name is, they can ward against ordinary living creatures, which other shugenja cannot do.

This one comes with a bit more descriptive text, since it's easier to say once how all the wards work than to repeat it with each tech.

***

YOGO WARDMASTER

A Wardmaster’s techniques can affect an area with a radius equal to their School Rank x 10’ (though they may choose to make the area smaller). In order for an area to be warded, the Wardmaster must create five ofuda (small strips of paper, inscribed with a special prayer) with a Calligraphy / Ring roll at TN XX, then place them in locations around the perimeter. By calling X Raises on this roll, the Wardmaster may specify individuals who are exempt from the ward’s effects; by calling Y Raises, they may instead tune the ward to only trigger for certain individuals. When a person crosses the perimeter of the ward, they must make a roll to avoid triggering it; if they succeed at this roll, the ward stays in effect. A ward must be replaced after it has been triggered, and a Wardmaster may only have active wards equal to twice their School Rank.

Identifying which kind of ward the ofuda were written for requires a Theology / Intelligence roll at TN XX. If one of the ofuda is destroyed before being triggered — for example, by piercing it with an arrow or a knife, or burning it — then the ward ceases to have any effect. (For this reason, Wardmasters often conceal their ofuda.)

Rank One (Air) -- contested Earth vs. shugenja's Air. Failure means the ward makes noise, functioning as an alarm. (Inspired by nightingale floors, for those who are curious.)

Rank Two (Earth) -- contested Air vs. shugenja's Earth. Failure means Stun for Earth rounds, with normal chance to recover sooner. {~Symbol of Earth, but toned down}

Rank Three (Water) -- contested Fire vs. shugenja's Water. Failure means the shugenja sees a clairvoyant vision of the warded area for Water rounds.

Rank Four (Fire) -- contested Water vs. shugenja's Fire. Failure sets off an explosion centered on the person who triggered it, dealing a number of kept dice in damage equal to the shugenja's Fire Ring, and Dazing those caught in the blast. {~Symbol of Fire, with minor adjustments}

Rank Five (Void) -- this ward operates differently from the other five, in that it provides a continual rather than a triggered effect. Anyone wishing to cross the perimeter must make a contested Void roll against the shugenja; failure means they cannot enter the warded space.

I figure they'll have an alternate path for the Kuroban, which will give them a special anti-Taint ward a la Ward of Purity (which is now a Kuni technique, so they'd need a variant).

Nice work, as always Not totally sure that I agree with everything, but you have at least put something on the table. For the Asahina paths, I think I'd like to see Tsangusuri represented, and possibly the Mappers of the Heart as well (as a slight variant of your husband's suggestion, possibly?). On the one hand, I like like that the Asahina are no longer the single most useful shugenja to have in a fight, as that always seemed more than a little perverse... on the other, there is a part of me that would like to see their commitment to pacifism reflected in some way before IR5. The Yogo, I neither know nor care about enough to have a sensible opinion on.

The Asahina Fetishist path was a total oversight on my part; I meant to list it among the intended possibilities. Mappers of the Heart I hadn't thought of -- I'd probably swap that in for the rumor thing, since the latter isn't quite clicking for me, but I'd need to think of what the mechanical effect should be. (I do *not* want it to be straight-up mind-reading, since that ought to be a wildly dishonorable act, and the Asahina would not go for that kind of thing.)

I might also give them an alternate path that's some kind of damage-transference thing. Initially I was looking at some of the ATN-boosting spells as possible fodder . . . but I ran into the exact issue you raise, which is that it's totally perverse to have a shugenja school which supposedly avoids war like the plague stocked with magic that's great in a fight. I figure they promote the cause of pacifism in the courts and temples, more than on the field; the latter would be path territory, not main technique.

I had another random thought, this time about the casting roll.

As has been pointed out, spellcasting makes use of a very unusual pool: Ring + Mastery Level. Some people have expressed a desire to move this to a normal skill check, but the question arose of what should the skill be rolled with (and don't say a handful of d10 )?

How about 'It depends'? To elaborate, some spells/prayers are designated Physical and others are designated Mental. You use the appropriate attribute of the relevant ring. While it does mean that shugenja have a bit of an incentive to balance their rings, it's not quite as bad as now.

Re: Mappers of the Heart- I agree that mind-reading is a very un-Asahina thing to do. I think I would focus on this passage from their 4e write-up:

At a minimum, Mappers of the Heart should get a bonus to contesting Deceit rolls, and they should have some capacity to gauge people's general inclinations towards a given person/faction (as with the RAW Kakita Artisan techs, that works better with NPCs than PCs, but it should still be possible to make something work).

Tangentially, the Mappers write-up (pp. 85-87, Book of Air) is also one of the relatively few places that explicitly states that calling on the kami in court is seen as a breach of etiquette. You seem to have made the decision to ignore that, which is a perfectly defensible position, but it is a thing to consider at least.

Re: Asahina pacifism- I think the current School Tech can be made a lot more flavourfully appropriate (not perfect, but better) if the damage reduction applies to all damage, regardless of source or target. It's still useful, especially for the shugenja themselves (and is, of course, abusable, as it can be circumvented by simply making more rolls than your opponent... which is one of the reasons it's still not ideal), but is no longer the single best combat-shugenja technique in the game. Perhaps something along those lines, which penalises friend as well as foe?

Karasu -- I'm contemplating several different possibilities for how to build the dice pools; haven't made any decisions yet. But stay tuned for a chance to chew on this in detail! :-)

At a minimum, Mappers of the Heart should get a bonus to contesting Deceit rolls, and they should have some capacity to gauge people's general inclinations towards a given person/faction (as with the RAW Kakita Artisan techs, that works better with NPCs than PCs, but it should still be possible to make something work).

Both of those seem quite appropriate to me.

Tangentially, the Mappers write-up (pp. 85-87, Book of Air) is also one of the relatively few places that explicitly states that calling on the kami in court is seen as a breach of etiquette. You seem to have made the decision to ignore that, which is a perfectly defensible position, but it is a thing to consider at least.

I wouldn't characterize it as "a decision to ignore" when we're talking about one brief mention in a series of seventeen books. :-) The actual explanation is that I don't have the books memorized and haven't read that section since The Book of Air came out in May 2012. But I had asked several times for actual quotes to support the idea that magic is verboten in court, and you provided one, so: thank you. You're the first one to give me a citation.

For those who don't have the book on hand, btw, the specific line is this:

One of the principle concerns the Mappers must face is that most courts of Rokugan frown on the open use of magic. Consequently, all Mappers are thoroughly versed in proper etiquette and protocol, ensuring they can avoid giving offense as they practice their magical studies.

(It goes on to remind people that the testimony of kami is not admissible evidence in a court of law, which is a thing I *do* remember being established quite clearly in this edition.)

I stand by my earlier objections to that concept, the way it runs counter to the presented mechanics, and the fact that it isn't made clear to the player right out of the gate -- but yes, that is a fair citation in support of "no magic in court" as a canonical idea.

Re: Asahina pacifism- I think the current School Tech can be made a lot more flavourfully appropriate (not perfect, but better) if the damage reduction applies to all damage, regardless of source or target. It's still useful, especially for the shugenja themselves (and is, of course, abusable, as it can be circumvented by simply making more rolls than your opponent... which is one of the reasons it's still not ideal), but is no longer the single best combat-shugenja technique in the game. Perhaps something along those lines, which penalises friend as well as foe?

I had actually been thinking of it as a tech that would let them transfer the damage to a willing target, but if it were a sufficiently high-level path, something more like the canonical tech could work. And you're right that expanding it to cover *all* damage is far more suited to Asahina beliefs than cherrypicking would be.

Okay, here's a crack at the Yoritomo, running with the idea that their big schtick is weather control.

***

YORITOMO SHUGENJA

Rank One -- something like their current R1 technique, letting them alter the overall weather, but toned down a bit in terms of how far they can push it in a single go.

Rank Two -- you shroud the area in fog. {~Summon Fog, probably with less of a visibility reduction, but the ability to make the fog denser with Raises}

Rank Three -- the winds you summon interfere with combat. {~Strking the Storm/Summoning the Gale -- need to find a balance point between those two in terms of who they affect and what types of attack are affected}

Rank Four -- you call upon Osano-Wo to smite your enemy with lightning. {~Fist of Osano-Wo, plus the deafening effect from Fury of Osano-Wo}

Rank Five -- at your command, the winds whip a body of water into a maelstrom. {~Whirlpool}

***

Not *entirely* positive on that R5, since it shifts the focus from the sky to the ocean. I might make that an alternate path, if I can find a good replacement to use as the core tech. Not Hurricane -- I'm going to keep that for the Storm Riders advanced school.

Normally I would wait to post another school, but -- well. I was sitting here thinking, okay, the Iuchi next, and then I have to deal with the 'problem children' of the Isawa, the Tamori, and the Agasha, who I'm still having problems with. Ugh, and the Horiuchi and the Moto. Wait, no, I was just going to make the meishodo thing an alternate path of the Iuchi school, though I'm not sure what the exact mechanics for it will be. So that just leaves me with the Moto, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with --

***

MOTO DEATH PRIEST

Rank One -- the fundamental lesson of the priests of the Shi-Tien Yen-Wang is to maintain harmony even in the face of death. So long as you maintain your rapport with your deities, you cannot become Spiritually Defiled.

Rank Two -- the nearness of death can drag at the body and spirit, slowing the process of healing. Those affected by this technique heal only half the usual amount from any source, including rest, magical healing, and kiho.

Rank Three -- for followers of the Shi-Tien Yen-Wang, death is a gift to be shared. You may deliver a spiritual coup de grace to those in the Out Wound Rank, instantly killing whichever target within the area of effect has the fewest Wounds remaining. By calling Raises, you may lay more than one target to rest at a time. You do not need to know how many targets within range are ready for this gift; the Lords of Death will judge.

Rank Four -- the depredations of old age are a harbinger of death to come. You may temporarily inflict one of the following Disadvantages on your target: Bad Eyesight, Lame, or Missing Limb (arm only).

Rank Five -- for those who have not made their peace with death, the thought of its inevitable approach destroys all equanimity. {~beefier version of their normal R1 tech}

I will probably also give them an alternate path that's about smiting the undead, who surely must be an abomination in the eyes of the Lords of Death. I might base this on the Doomseeker path, but I can't check that one right now because our Second City box is buried behind a pile of other crap. :-P (I think it's only about detecting spirits, though, so maybe not.)

***

I really didn't expect these guys to fall into place so easily, but no sooner did I start thinking about them than poof, five techniques! Six, if you count the alternate path. So that's the Moto sorted; now back to the Iuchi and the problem children. :-P

I've been on a design roll these last twenty-four hours, so instead of spacing these out, I'm just going to keep posting what I have. But please do feel free to comment on anything from earlier in the thread!

***

ISAWA SHUGENJA

Theme is metamagic. I may also design a second school for them later, but not right now.

Rank One - the Shiba learned how to affect magic from the Isawa. You can raise or lower the TN of any spell targeting the subject of this technique.

Rank Two - you may transfer the effects of a spell between targets. {~Sympathetic Energies}

Rank Three - you may hang a spell for later use. {~Silent Waters}

Rank Four - by entreating the kami, you may raise or lower the TNs of all spells within the area of effect.

Rank Five - the Isawa interact with the kami as easily as breathing. Once per day, you may cast a memorized spell as a Free Action.

I initially expected the Iuchi to be easy because, well, there are quite a few spells about changing your movement in combat. Then I stalled out because once I started looking at it, "combat movement" is a really narrow and boring theme for a whole school -- especially when many of the spells are just better versions of lower-level ones (e.g. Ebb and Flow of Battle is just The Rushing Wave scaled up to affect multiple targets). So I had to look around more broadly. I'm not 100% satisfied with this, but it's at least something?

***

IUCHI SHUGENJA

Rank One -- sense the direction to a known location or individual (must have a name), and distance on the level of more or less than a day's travel.

Rank Two -- those blessed by this technique move as if their Water is 1 higher. {~Wave-Borne Speed, with a lower bonus, but can affect more targets than just the caster}

Rank Three -- targets may travel 50% further in a day without fatigue.

Rank Four -- lower opponent's Strength by 2; Water also considered 2 lower than usual for purposes of movement.

Rank Five -- While students of this school can find their way to what they know, Iuchi masters can find their way to what they *don't* know. Meditate upon some problem, trance-walk to a person or object that can be of use. {For anybody who knows Changeling, this is kind of me ripping off the eshu Birthright.}

Path options so far are Master of the Rolling River (spell that gives a movement/Strength boost to a group and a bonus for Mass Battle), Steed of the Ebbing Tides (because although conjuring a magic water horse out of nowhere is kind of bizarre, it also amuses me), and meishodo.

***

I have the Tamori done -- one version of them, anyway; I've been ricocheting between several different possibilities -- but I'm holding off on posting that until I can pair it with the Agasha, because I want to talk about the relationship between the two. Unfortunately, the relationship between the two means that I really want the Agasha techs to be about Ring/Trait manipulation within the shugenja's own spirit, and it turns out the number of things you can do with that is really limited, unless you let higher-level techs be better versions of lower ones, or start arbitrarily assigning manipulating your Earth to Rank Two while manipulating Fire is Rank Four or whatever. >_<

I've been on a design roll these last twenty-four hours, so instead of spacing these out, I'm just going to keep posting what I have. But please do feel free to comment on anything from earlier in the thread!

***

ISAWA SHUGENJA

Theme is metamagic. I may also design a second school for them later, but not right now.

Rank One - the Shiba learned how to affect magic from the Isawa. You can raise or lower the TN of any spell targeting the subject of this technique.

Rank Two - you may transfer the effects of a spell between targets. {~Sympathetic Energies}

Rank Three - you may hang a spell for later use. {~Silent Waters}

Rank Four - by entreating the kami, you may raise or lower the TNs of all spells within the area of effect.

Rank Five - the Isawa interact with the kami as easily as breathing. Once per day, you may cast a memorized spell as a Free Action.

Ok, that rank 5 is heinous when combined with the current spell list, and the cost to memorize spells. I'll have to wait to see what your spell lists will be like before passing final judgement on it.

Ok, that rank 5 is heinous when combined with the current spell list, and the cost to memorize spells. I'll have to wait to see what your spell lists will be like before passing final judgement on it.

That's why this process will be iterative. :-) You're right that I can't actually judge that tech (or a number of the others) until I have more of the pieces in place. I know that I intend to remove about 99% of the direct damage options from the current spell list -- no more "shugenja nuke the battlefield while the bushi twiddle their thumbs" -- but whether there will be any ticking time bombs among the non-damaging spells, I'll have to see when I get there.

A thing that just occurred to me: I don't think I'll need ML6 spells in this setup. I'm strongly leaning toward eliminating Affinities and Deficiencies, since the techniques do a stronger job of providing school flavor than those did; ergo, there would be no way to get to ML6 other than by going into an advanced school -- and at that point, your super-honkin'-awesome effects should be coming from the school itself.

That's actually useful, in terms of designing spells. (And it would eliminate a *lot* of player confusion over which spells they can cast with how many dice.)

Finally have drafts of the Tamori and the Agasha. These two will require some explanation. :-)

After chewing on a bunch of different possibilities, I finally decided to say "screw it" and go with a mechanical approach that seemed cool, without worrying too much about whether I was accurately modeling canon. See, looking up Chinese alchemy, I was caught by the notion of "internal alchemy" (where you try to perfect yourself through meditative movements) and "external alchemy" (where you try to perfect yourself through elixirs). The latter sounded a lot like the Tamori, so why not build the Agasha around the former? The way I imagine it, the Dragon have both schools (probably under different names) until the Agasha skip off to join the Phoenix; after that they only have the one.

On the Tamori side of things, the big hurdle was figuring out what to do with the elixirs if they aren't potions-in-a-bottle. I decided to go Element by Element and, in keeping with their reputation as a very martial tradition, make the elixirs be combat buffs.

***

TAMORI SHUGENJA

The alchemists of the Tamori school focus on the crafting of elixirs which bring benefit to the person who drinks them. Crafting an elixir requires a roll of Spellcraft (Elements)* / Intelligence at TN X, and takes a number of Rokugani hours equal to the School Rank of the technique involved. Because these elixirs draw on the energy of the alchemist, a shugenja may only craft up to twice their School Rank at any given time; to make more, they must arrange for existing potions to be consumed or destroyed. (For this reason, they are extremely cautious about who they gift their elixirs to.) They also may not craft more of a single type than their Ring Rank in the appropriate element.

Drinking an elixir requires a Simple Action, and its effects last for a number of rounds equal to the alchemist’s relevant Ring. Identifying an unlabeled elixir without drinking it requires a roll of Spellcraft (Elements) / Perception at TN 30.

*Long story short, I got rid of "Lore: Elements" and made it an emphasis of Spellcraft instead. If you want the full logic behind that, just ask, but my default assumption is that nobody really cares. :-P

Rank One: Elixir of Earth
The mountain home of the Tamori gives them a natural understanding of Earth and its resilience. This elixir bestows Reduction equal to X.

Rank Two: Elixir of Air
The Tamori learn from the winds that howl between the mountain peaks. This elixir bestows an Initiative boost equal to X during the Reactions stage of each round.

Rank Three: Elixir of Water
As water rushes down the slope, so the Tamori and their allies move. This elixir increases your Move Actions by five feet (with a corresponding increase in your maximum Move distance).

Rank Four: Elixir of Fire
Fire dwells deep beneath the earth in the lands of the Dragon. This elixir grants the ability to make Agility-based attacks as a Simple Action; if the user already has that ability for the type of attack they are making, they instead gain a Free Raise toward the Extra Attack maneuver.

Rank Five: Unity of the Elements
Masters of the Tamori school are capable of crafting more powerful elixirs which bestow more than one blessing at a time. For each Element beyond the first, the TN to create the elixir increases by 10, and the creation time is equal to the sum of the individual techniques. The resulting elixir binds more of the alchemist’s energy as well; it counts as one per Element, plus an additional slot for the unifying principle. Crafting an elixir which bestows the effects of all four previous techniques therefore requires ten Rokugani hours (an entire long day), with a TN of [X+30], and each resulting potion counts as five. You may only have one Unity of the Elements elixir in existence at a time.

Apart from the necessity of fiddling with the exact scale of the buffs, my big issue with this approach is that putting in an alternate path breaks up the nice Elemental progression. Oh well? They should have a "make hanabi" path at a minimum.

***

I got hung up for a long time on the Agasha because I initially thought of the internal alchemy thing purely in terms of Trait and Ring manipulation. But I didn't want it to be focused solely on physical effects (or for that matter, social/mental ones), which meant the techs either had to be arranged in an arbitrary series of "you boost your Earth / you boost your Water / etc," or they had to be agnostic to which Ring was involved -- and as it turns out, if you go that latter approach, you can't get five techs, because pretty much the only effect a player would actually want is to increase a Trait or a Ring. (And I am *strongly* against techs where your R4 renders your R2 useless because the R4 is a complete upgrade.) This didn't come together until I stopped thinking in terms of the stats and asked myself what the benefits of perfecting your own Elemental balance would be, whereupon I got:

***

Rank One: Communion of Elements
The Agasha are unequaled in their understanding of how the five Rings manifest within an individual. You may roll Meditation / Void at TN X to sense the strength of one of your target’s Rings, learning the Rank of both Traits which compose that Ring. (In the case of Void, you sense their Void Rank instead.) For each Raise you call on this roll, you may sense an additional Ring. If you fail this roll, you may try again, but if you succeed, any subsequent attempt will only return the same information — you may not use this technique repeatedly on different Rings to learn them one by one. (The GM may choose to allow a second use if enough time has passed that the target has changed substantially in the interim.)

Rank Two: Equilibrium of the Body
By diligent practice of meditative movements, the Agasha create internal harmony which strengthens them against ill effects. You gain XkX to resist poison or disease. You may choose to go without food, water, or sleep for a number of days equal to your School Rank. When this period ends, you must eat, drink, and sleep normally for the same number of days before you may use this technique again.

Rank Three: ?
The meditative practices of the Agasha progress beyond merely creating balance within their bodies. You may increase a both Traits of Ring (or your Void Ring) by one rank; this requires a roll of Meditation / Ring at TN XX, using the Ring you have chosen to affect. Alternatively, you may choose to raise a single Trait by 2, but you must decrease the other Trait by 1 at the same time, but you cannot affect your Void Ring this way. This technique lasts [some period of time].

Rank Four:
More experienced Agasha understand that the differences between the Rings are an illusion, and may be set aside when necessary. By spending a Void Point and making a Meditation / Void roll at TN XX, you may temporarily swap both Traits of one Ring with the Traits of another Ring. By default the replacement Ring is the opposing Element (Earth/Air, Water/Fire), but if you call [two] Raises on this roll, you may choose which Ring to swap with. You may not affect your Void Ring with this technique.

Rank Five: The Eternal Body
Although no member of the Agasha family has yet attained immortality through their training, masters of the school develop a wondrous ability to shrug off the ills of the world. While this technique is active, you are immune to the Blinded, Dazed, Fatigued, and Stunned conditions, as well as disease and poison, and you ignore Wound Penalties equal to [X]. [Activation, duration TBD.]

***

Obviously there's some resemblance between the Agasha and the first two ranks of the Henshin, but I think that's okay; it actually kind of makes sense that the Agasha are stumbling toward what the Henshin already know. And it would make for some interesting story when they join the Phoenix . . . .

<checks spreadsheet> I think that's it for Great Clan shugenja schools! I do intend to do the Minors and other oddballs as well, and preliminary fiddling has convinced me to leave them with five techniques, rather than dropping them to three. (A choice I will regret when I have to deal with the ones that don't fall into line as easily as the Kitsune and Moshi have done.) In the meanwhile, I've also begun working on the basic spell list, which is coming along quite nicely. I'm aiming to, at a minimum, have 25-30 spells per Element, which shouldn't be too hard; actually, I have them all in that range already, and will probably overshoot. Right now the hard part is deciding on mastery levels, since a lot of them are the kind of thing where the benefit can be scaled to suit a wide range of power levels -- and, as per my comment about the Agasha, I really don't like game designs where a higher-level mechanic operates as a total replacement for a lower-level one. (Yes, theoretically there might be a time when you aren't sure you can pull off the TN or casting time of the better spell, and therefore must use its weaker cousin. But in my experience, that doesn't happen often enough to make players feel like it's worth spending their limited spell selection on both versions.) Right now I'm getting around that by making a very small number of "tiered" spells, which level up automatically as you increase your School Rank; if you're a R5 shugenja with the "improve Armor TN" spell, you can choose to cast it as a ML5 spell with a high TN and casting time but much better effects, or as a ML3 spell with a medium TN and casting time and medium effects, or as a ML1 spell with a low TN and casting time and weak effects. Players will be extremely limited in how many tiered spells they can have, but the ones they have will give them flexibility over time, which I think might work out well.

Right, that's it for tonight. As always, thoughts are appreciated!

I'd point out that Agasha rank 2 is mostly the Fasting emphasis of Meditation?

With Stamina / Meditation you can go for days without water, with a TN = 15 + 5 * days. Maybe it would be better to give a boost to that existing mechanic rather than a new rule?

Only one part of it is related to fasting; the tech also gives a bonus against poison and disease, and lets you go without sleep (though now that I type that, it occurs to me that I should think about whether the Agasha have a way to recover spell slots through meditation -- though of course I can't decide that until I make up my mind about whether "spell slots" is a concept I'm going to keep, and if so, whether regaining them through meditation should be a thing everybody can do).

As for the food and water . . . this is a very minor quibble, since most games will never care about this, but it bugs me quite a lot that the game lumps water in with food in those rules. According to the system, my Earth 4 bushi (who is pretty solid health-wise, but no Hida Kisada) can go four days without water, no problem, no matter what else is going on during that time. After that, assuming she has no Meditation and has no chance at that roll, it will take approximately eight more days for her to die (at 2k1 Wounds per day) -- so, twelve days without water. I am totally happy to grant that Magic Samurai can use spiritual techniques to sustain themselves in the face of biology, but this is a character with no spiritual techniques at all, when in reality the lack of water will kill you in 3-5 days. ( Maybe a week, if you're a terminally ill patient lying immobile in a climate-controlled room. Maybe.) The numbers work just fine for lack of food, but not water.

But anyway, even with that aside, this is School Rank days where the character doesn't even have to make those rolls; the usual fasting clock doesn't start until that period ends. The "you must eat, drink, and sleep normally" part is just to reset the clock on using the technique, not that they must immediately feed themselves or drop dead on the spot. :-) Plus, as I said, there are other benefits to the technique.

Re: the issue with Paths breaking up the Elemental progression of the Tamori school- surely the easiest way to get around that is to make sure each Path is itself associated with a given Element, and having it replace the appropriate Rank? eg, Hanabi are clearly associated with Fire, so make the Hanabi path replace the Fire rank (this may require reshuffling the Ranks of the School itself, since I doubt you'd want the Hanabi path at R4, but that seems a reasonably small price to pay); if Water Hammer smiths are a thing, have their Path replace the Water-related Rank. And so on and so forth.

Otherwise, the techs seem good. I'm a little uneasy about the Agasha school being entirely internal - it seems much more appropriate for a monk school than a shugenja school - but since that seems to be what you were aiming for in the first place, I guess that's more a problem with conception than with implementation, and I don't know what exactly I'd do with them myself, so whatever.

Going back a couple of steps, a part of me wants to see the Unicorn shugenja, or at least the Death Priests, be more like C. Asian shaman, in both flavour and role - in which case they would end up looking quite similar to the Kitsu, albeit from an entirely different angle - but that's mostly just my own personal field of interest speaking. All in all, great work!

Yeah, they did end up kind of monk-ish, didn't they? When I was thinking about them entirely in terms of Trait and Ring manipulation, it seemed necessary for balance: if the Tamori can buff initiative and the Agasha can buff your Reflexes, then the Agasha are just better , because their technique improves not just initiative but ATN and archery, not to mention they could buff any other Trait just as easily -- unless the Tamori can buff other people, and the Agasha can only buff themselves. (Or else you have to control it through things like duration, but that gets messy, especially when you're talking about combat stats.) I'm not sure I'll keep them that way, though, especially now that I've stepped away from making it just about Traits and Rings.

I dunno. They're a pain in the neck. >_<

Eh, I'll take another look once I have more pieces in place. As for the Moto, I think I'd have trouble making them more Central Asian shamanic in style without also constructing a cosmology to underpin it and a different mechanical approach to reflect that cosmology. (Really, it's one of the fundamental issues with doing anything other than Rokugani humans, whether that's Nezumi shamans or the Senpet or whatever.) But I'll admit I didn't have a lot to work with there other than "death priests" -- the 4e books don't say much about them. So I just took what I had and ran with it.

In the meanwhile, here's the Kitsune; they were the easiest by far of the Minors to do, given that there are already a couple of Kitsune-specific spells in the books.

***

KITSUNE SHUGENJA

Rank One - talk to animals {~Nature's Touch}

Rank Two - turn animal friendly {~Taming the Beast}

Rank Three - reveal tracks {~Whispers of the Land}

Rank Four - create false trail {~Seeking the Way}

Rank Five - change into animal shape {~Ever-Changing Waves}

Seppun! This one is a mix of existing spells reallocated as techniques, and techs that don't have terribly unique effects -- the latter, I think, would be calibrated as relatively strong for their level, to compensate for the fact that they're limited in scope. That's the R1, R3, and R5, and all of them would have a rider regarding targets: by default they can benefit the Emperor or a member of his immediate family, or extended to any member of the imperial families or high imperial appointee with Raises.

***

SEPPUN SHUGENJA

Rank One -- Reduction

Rank Two -- encrypt text {~Elemental Cipher}

Rank Three -- ATN boost for anyone defending the target, or attacking those who threaten the target

Rank Four -- end spell effects/techs in a duel {~Essence of Fire}

Rank Five -- anyone attacking target inflicts half damage on target, half on self

I'm baaaaaack . . . .

My apologies to everyone for, uh, vanishing off the face of the planet. 2016 has been kind of heinous so far -- partially in good ways (we bought a house!), but mostly just in stressful ways. To the point that I actually put my campaign on hiatus for a couple of months, though we're playing again now (so it really was a hiatus, not the "hiatus" so many games go on and never come back from). Anyway, I'll be trying to keep up with this board again, and if I missed anything you think I would be especially interested in, do let me know!

And for my triumphant return, I'm going to repost the Asahina, because I wasn't very happy with the version of them I put up before. Here's a new one, that I think is more satisfying:

ASAHINA SHUGENJA

Skills: Calligraphy (Cipher), Etiquette, Medicine, Meditation, Theology, any one Artisan skill, any one Scholarly skill

Rank One: Quiet Guidance
For centuries the Asahina have cultivated the friendship of the Air kami, with the result that the kami will frequently offer advice. Once per day, you gain a free reroll on any Artisan or Awareness-based social skill roll. You may gain additional rerolls by expending an Air spell slot for each, up to a limit of your ranks in the Asahina Shugenja school, but you may never use more than one reroll from this technique on the same action.

Rank Two: Reading the Air
This technique, which is a mainstay of the group known as the Mappers of the Heart, calls upon the Air kami to give Asahina a sense of the target’s emotional state. It does not read thoughts; it only gives a brief description of their strongest current feelings (such as “angry,” “afraid but hopeful,” or “reluctantly willing”). The insight provided by the kami also gives you +[[XkX]] to detect lies [[from that target only for a limited time, or a much smaller bonus that is constantly active?]]. Using this technique requires a Complex Action and a Mediation / Air roll, contested by the target’s Etiquette (Composure) / Willpower at TN [[X]]; the shugenja gains a bonus of [[X]] to this roll. You may use this technique any number of times, but only once per day against any given target.

Rank Three: Whispers on the Wind
The Air kami love nothing more than to carry tales, and the Asahina have developed a method of persuading them to do so in a more directed fashion. With this technique, you may gather gossip from court without having to speak with anyone directly. It requires one minute spent in meditation, followed by a roll of Meditation / Air at TN [[X]]. Success means you learn all the rumours circulating about a particular individual; you may expand this to a small faction (such as a family or organization) for [[X]] Raises, or an entire clan for [[Y]] Raises. You must be physically present in the milieu from which you are gathering gossip for this technique to work. The Air kami will only bring you information that might conceivably be gathered with a roll of Politics (Gossip), not anything that is actively being kept secret; for example, you might hear rumours that Bayushi Sanjuro hopes to disgrace his rival at court, but not the details of Sanjuro’s scheme to frame his rival for infidelity. You may use this technique a number of times per day equal to your Air Ring.

Rank Four: Clarify the Heart
As a deeply spiritual and pacifistic family, the Asahina often seek to help others find peace and harmony within themselves. At this rank, you may temporarily negate a target’s Social or Mental Disadvantage. This requires you to touch the target with a recognizable hand gesture and utter a brief prayer, then roll Meditation / Void at a TN equal to 10 plus five times the point value of the Disadvantage. You may negate more than one Disadvantage at a time, but must spend a Void Point for each additional Disadvantage, and roll against the one with the highest value. [[duration, frequency]] If the target is unwilling, you must also make a Contested Void Roll against them to use this technique.

Rank Five: Ward of Peace
The Asahina are among the most peaceful samurai in Rokugan, and the masters of their school can ensure that peace holds. Creating a Ward of Peace requires an hour of preparation and the crafting of five ofuda, with a Calligraphy (Ward) / Air roll at TN [[X]]. By placing these ofuda in a ring, you can ward an area with a radius in feet equal to your [[X]]. The effect lasts for a number of days equal to your Air Ring, or until the ofuda are destroyed or removed. Within the ward, all hostile physical actions suffer a penalty of -[[XkY]], and all hostile social actions (e.g. Etiquette (Insult) or Influence (Intimidation)) suffer -[[ZkQ]]. [[Resistance?]] You may only have one Ward of Peace in existence at a time.

As you can see, I still haven't gotten very far in nailing down specific mechanics. But I'm leaning heavily toward having shugenja techs *not* use spell slots in their default form -- the R1 there is an experimental thought -- but instead limit their frequency of use by some other metric, much in the same way as many courtier techs.

I'm also not entirely happy with the Iuchi as I posted them, plus there are Minor Clans etc I haven't dealt with yet. But I am back on this wagon, and hope to ride it through to the end!

Good to have you back.