Jurojin's Blessed
Formed by a Shugenja who has attracted the attention of Jurojin, the Fortune of Longevity, this group has learned to harness a hidden reserve, and to be able to heal people at a distance.

Jurojin's Blessed [shugenja]
Technique Rank: 4
Replaces: Iuchi Shugenja 4
Requirements: Medicine 3, Water 3, Void 3

Technique:
Health is my Arrow - You may use a complex action of Spellcraft/Void TN20 check to bestow a blessing upon a willing creature that will last for a number of hours equal to your void ring. You may have a number of blessings equal to your water ring active at any one time. Once during the duration, you may cast a spell with the healing keyword at a target as long as it is within line of sight.
In addition, you may spend a Void point to imbue an arrow with the power of your healing, and have it heal an amount of Wounds equal to the damage it would have caused to the target.

If you're posting more of these, can you maybe group them up a bit? Like maybe a thread for spells, a thread for techniques, etc. Whatever org makes sense.

If you're posting more of these, can you maybe group them up a bit? Like maybe a thread for spells, a thread for techniques, etc. Whatever org makes sense.

This would be nice.

Anyway, ranged healing is pretty darn good stuff. The Void Point cost only balances out its potential healing power. The School should be Rank 4. The other effect is ok.

I don't mind making threads, but I find that some things can get lost and not get reviews in such a way. maybe after they have been tweaked enough i would collect them in one thread.

What makes it a Rank 4?

What makes it a Rank 4?

Being tied to a bow. Having the range and the damage-as-healing are just two things, but also doing this as a single Complex Action is kinda broken. The Technique works as intended tho, so simply putting it up to Rank 4 would fix the Path for good.

Agree with the above about rank. My question: what makes this a unicorn path? If the answer is "cause my unicorn player wants it" than that's fine, but it feels to me like this should be for the asahina. It's all about damage prevention and aiding allies, and does it in a very air way.

Really I find this is more of a tonal or thematic clash than being bad mechanically, but that is just my opinion.

Why should it be specific to the Iuchi school?

Agree with the above about rank. My question: what makes this a unicorn path?

Being Water-themed and tied to bow usage I would say it does fit the Unicorn a lot.

It is Water-Themed, and the bow is one of Unicorn weapons, and it was created by a player who was a Iuchi Shugenja.

Could it work for some other clan? Sure. And in your game you are certainly free to change it, but in my game it was created by a Unicorn Shugenja.

Agree with the above about rank. My question: what makes this a unicorn path?

Being Water-themed and tied to bow usage I would say it does fit the Unicorn a lot.

Water alone doesn't make it unicorn themed, and as for the bow being a unicorn iconic weapon.... eh?

But it's something a unicorn player wants to be able to do, and mechanically the tech is s pretty solid at rank 4.

Personally (and that means what follows is opinion) I find healing to be absolutely boring, but I really like the "attach spell to an arrow" thing going on here and would consider ditching the rest of it and making this into a path for a yogo ward master (being able to put wards on arrows and shooting them at people? Hell yeah!

But that's just me. And I'm against anything thematically that makes shugenja more clericy. But as I said, I think it's mechanically sound as a rank 4 path. Anything that alters how spells work (which have certain limitations as the very few things even trying to make them balanced) is touchy

To add: I think a really good question to ask when designing things for L5R specifically, is what do you consider techniques to be, in game? If they are 'cool things I can do' than things like mood and thematics and fluffy stuff like that don't matter as much. But if they are discreet, concrete things in setting (as they are for me) than you have to be a little more.... picky about what makes it through. First, I have to ask, is this a path that this character wants to create themselves? If so, Great! we can probably worry less about the setting impact of such a thing because only one person will really have it. But creating a single technique/ alternate path is the result of a LIFETIME of work, research, and practice. It took multiple generations of samurai working together and compounding their knowledge to create the schools as they are seen today, and to create an entirely new step that is significant enough to warrant this kind of mechanical representation should be the capstone of this characters career (in which case I'd say it replaces their rank 5 whatever, but may than teach it to others at the appropriate rank). This is the kind of thing that gets you put at the head of a major Dojo for your clan.

If, however, we assume that this technique already exists in setting and you are just picking it up like anyone else could.. than we consider knock on effects that this carries. At this point the Unicorn have, hands down far and away, the most effective healing technique in the game. ONE of these shugenja can likely keep a single squad of bushi alive indefinitely in a skirmish, and a small unit (3-4) can guarantee that the Clan can take decisive objectives in a battle without worry of casualty. This absolutely changes the setting. The Unicorn are now the undisputed most powerful military power in the game. The Crab and Lion have nothing that can counter the ability to regenerate the best of your warriors at what amounts to an unlimited distance (because of course these shugenja are going to be on a hill with the rest of the commanders overlooking the battlefield. EVERYONE is within line of sight.) to full health. Plus, since this is an alternate path at a higher rank, these Shugenja ALSO have the movement shenanigans of the normal Iuchi school.

BUT! If you think techniques are just "cool things I can do" than none of this really matters.

Alive Indefinitely?! Hell no. Once you giver the blessing, you can use ONE healing spell on each of them while the blessing lasts.

As for the shooting an arrow and healing them? Is it COOL? hell yeah. But you have a limited number of Void Points, and for a shugenja you are not likely to be able to deal a lot of damage, unless you get a really incredible roll on the damage roll. which is the amount you heal. My shugenja used this technique once with the Void point, and healed a stunning 8 Wounds. on a 3k1. Was it helpful? YES. but it was far from overwhelming.

I get that schools are a lifetime of work, and not something hashed together. And techniques are not created willy-nilly, either. This was a culmination of a story wherein they helped Jorujin and got his blessing, and the character was a shugenja archer with a deep desire to heal. He even founded a clinic of healing that helped anyone, from samurai to peasant.

Aghhhhhhhhh. You're right about the spell thing, I misread "once during the duration" as "during the duration." My, what a difference a single word makes, eh?

So. Ahem. I seem to have been incorrect about something. This doesn't happen often (it happens all the time) time to seppuku.

I forgive you. I wasn't foolish enough to let him heal his friends at line of sight with no limit. :-)

Can this be more powerful if someone somehow gets a tech that regains Void fast and/or a technique that improves his damage with a bow? sure. But how many such characters who are also Iuchi Shugenja 4 will you meet? Especially when a Shugenja cannot enter a Bushi school, and vice versa, as per RAW.