The Books of Air and earth had a section about the themes of Mechanics for their corresponding Ring.
At the time, someone posted a similar thing to the AEG forums for the other 3 Rings, but I didn't save that info. Does anyone have it saved by any chance?
I once did something like this for combat. Here is the offensive/defensive description of each Ring in context of melee combat that I just conjured:
FIRE
Fire's most obvious offensive application is enabling you to participate in melee based conflicts (and Throwing. Throwing is great, never forget about it). No Fire, No Dice. And majority of combat is supposed to happen in melee engagements, so...
Fire Ring (more specifically, Agility) not only gives you ability to target and hit opponents, but it's pretty easy to "overshoot" ATN of enemies by investing into it. This gives you ability to safely Raise, and thus expands your options. If you want to Knockdown someone, Feint them, Disarm them, or do any other thing demanding Raises, you can't really do it without Agility. Two Manuevers that stand out the most for Pure-Fire build are Extra Attack and, most importantly, Feint.
Feint allows you to weaponize your high attack roll and translate it into damage. You rarely will want to Raise more than twice in a single attack; Feint makes sure that anything above that never gets wasted. There are three reliable sources of damage: weapons with good kept dice value, Feinting and multiple attacks. Good Fire "unlocks" the latter two for you. Almost never waste your time with Increased Damage Manuever.
Defensively, "the overshoot pool" allows you to reliably keep hitting your opponents and pass checks even when facing Wound Penalties. This allows you to function effectively longer. It can be crucial in one on one fights where both parties get hit in the first round - you need to be able to keep up with your opponents. And because of how ATN works, scenario of "both get hit" is a pretty standard one. Second non-obvious benefit of Fire is the fact that it makes Heavy Armor usable. Heavy Armor puts a penalty of 5 on your attacks. That's effectively +5 ATN for your opponents, or another Raise for you to call. And because most warriors need 2 Raises to make their attacks truly effective, you need ability to safely call 3 Raises in order to don Heavy Armor and still be dangerously efficient. Third unobvious defensive benefit is ability to use dual wielding effectively. Similarly to Heavy Armor, dual wielding penalizes your attacks; this is probably weakest Fire-Defense method.
Fire synergizes with EVERY SINGLE OTHER RING as far as melee combat is concerned. It's the enabler that allows you to use Ring-Specific tactics. The "boring basics".
One of most important things to understand about combat is also role and power of Fire Stance - The Full Attack Stance. It can be used both as a way to help medicore Agility, or as a power multiplier of high one. Many of builds and styles that deemphasize Fire in order to get other Elements high rely on tactical usage of Fire Stance; as a Fire-First bushi you can function perfectly fine in Attack Stance, and you can use Full Attack either to do something incredible (like Extra Attack or a MASSIVE Feint), or to still keep Raising even when nearing death.
AIR
Air is the ring of Initiative, ATN and Archery.
Offensively, you get the power of Initiative Manipulation. Having higher Initiative than your opponents is much more than simply acting first. Air is about control and tempo. There are two basic ways to use this power - to act first, which synergizes very well with Water (let's call it Lightning Style), and to act last, which synergizes very well with both Water and Earth (though for different reasons).
Defensively, your Defense and Full Defence stances get enhanced, and your always-on ATN is better. But remember! ATN isn't here to make you unhittable; without help of Full Defence, it will be rarely a case. ATN in general is there to soften the hits of your opponents. Un-Raised attacks are generally pretty safe and not that dangerous (well, every attack is potentially dangerous due to exploding dice); attacks that can turn the tides of battle are usually Raised at least twice. Two Raises is +10 ATN. Your goal with Air-based Defence is to make these Raises as unrealistic as possible. You might be bad at opposing Knockdown attempts, so your best bet is punish your opponents by making Knockdown attacks simply miss. Extra ATN makes Feint much weaker, and high ATN makes Extra Attack a distant dream. Though you still need an ability to *survive* the basic, un-Raised hits. This is why even a lightning fast Kakita should wear armor in anything that isn't a first-strike-only iaijutsu contest. Also, while this is very counterintuitive, Defense and Full Defence Stances are more of an offensive tool, than a truly defensive one. Sounds weird? Well, check the Air Offence!
Acting first generally relies on crippling your opponent before they get chance to act. Offensively, this allows you to act at your peak performance and thus Raise freely to put in motion your victory plan. Defensively, acting first counts on your attacks putting your opponents at disadvantage, especially if you didn't have to Full Attack. Having to face good ATN combined with Wound Penalties might make your opponent second guess themselves.
"The Lightning Style" takes these aspects to the extreme, trying to cripple your opponents in the first strike. Crippling doesn't necessarily means dealing tons of damage; properly timed Disarm or Knockdown can basically deny your opponent a turn. This is why this style needs good Water (and Fire, obviously) - best manuevers for that are Water-based. Good ATN might help you soften enemy attacks, but a good manuever will simply make these attacks not happen. More about that in the Water section, though.
"Patient Mountain" style of Air-Earth combat relies mostly on delaying your Initiative. Good innate ATN, combined with stance-based defence allows you to relatively safely survive the turn; Full Defence is actually one of rare situations where you can count on not being hit, if your Defence Skill is up to the challenge. Normally, though, this is just a stalling tactic, often inneficient, as you are basically skipping your turn hoping your opponent won't hurt you. Without some other way of progressing your victory, you are just delaying the inevitable. Ability to control initiative changes that! As you pick your stance when starting to take your actions, Initiative manipulation gives you unique opportunity to turtle up in Full Defence, and when enemy attacks are over, pop out of the shell and go into Full Attack stance. As all of your opponents took their actions, no one can punish your lowered ATN. And because your Initiative is bigger than your targets, you can revert back to another Stance before they get a chance to act. Sometimes, you might want to go back into Full Defence; sometimes, you might want to finish the deal and Full Attack hoping to end the fight here and now. Or if you think you can't do that, you could just go into Attack stance, Knockdown them, and move out of their attack range.
However, note that both of these Offensive Styles - Lightning Style and Patient Mountain Style - rely on you having higher Initiative than your opponents. And because Initiative rolls are fickle, this might not be the case. In that case, you need a backup plan; spending Void to increase your Initative, "Quick" Advantage, or different strategy. In order to increase your Air-based strategies, though, it's a good idea to invest into Battle Skill - +5 Initiative is nothing to sneeze at. Kakita Bushi with Iaijutsu 5 and Battle 5 will sport a +15 Initiative bonus before rolling anything, making them one of best users of this style. While Bayushi Bushi is strictly worse at actually getting the Initiative lead (+1k1 is good, but +Flat Number is much better), they are still good and while they are in the Initiative lead, they gain a very nice +5 ATN bonus. Hida Bushi are seriously amazing Patient Mountains - ability to ignore armor penalties help them focus on Earth and Air while leaving Agility at 3, and their innate Reduction combined with Striking as Earth Kata (even more reduction in Full Defence Stance!) makes them incredibly durable. If you want a lone warrior methodically thinning out a crowd of enemies, pick a Hida. "Mobs" usually won't be even able to scratch their souped-up ATN, and if they will, even better; seeing damage rolls get reduced to 0 is really awesome for the Hida player.
Air, overall, is fickle. It can be tremendously powerful, but it tends to be very binary in offence department; you either roll good and get to enjoy all these tactics, or you roll poorly and you don't. There are measures to prevent that, but even then, you might have to wait a round or two before they kick in - which means your stalling tactics must be top-notch, and you need to be able to take a hit. Defensively, while much less spectacular, Air is very solid, though it won't protect you against random burst of damage or unrealistic attack roll (though, you could say that any attack you prevented by virtue of ATN is a potentially random burst damage; we play using a dice rolling program that rolls damage at the same time as you attack, so suddenly you can see all of these 90 damage rolls that got stopped by extra 5 atn; eye-opening experience); however, it will save you many many Wounds during your entire career.
EARTH
Earth is relatively simple. It gives you HP.
Defensive benefits of HP are pretty obvious. You die after 3 hits instead of 2. Or you die after 10 hits instead of 2. Earth, in a weird thematic turn of events, really synergizes well with Air, as ATN helps you protect your HP, while having a lot of HP protects you from hits that get past the ATN. I guess Hida should start investing into Warrior-Poets! Still, having big Wound Ranks allows you to survive longer, better, and while "3 hits instead of 2" doesn't sound like much, it actually allows you to function 50% time longer! That's a lot of potential for extra impact. To synergize with your good Earth, pick up any source of Reduction you can (this is mostly armor) and ATN (this is mostly...armor).
Offensively, big Earth makes your Wound Ranks bigger. Bigger Wound Ranks mean that you need to be damaged more in order to get penalized, and when you get penalized, you get penalized for less than you would be otherwise. How is this a offensive benefit? Well, it can save you from falling from -5 to -10. In comparison to "the other you" - the one who indeed has fallen into -10 instead of staying at -5 - you are at +5 attack advantage. And because pretty much anyone who intends on engaging in combat will get hit, you will get penalized. This means that good Earth will save you from penalties, allowing you to keep being effective. Obviously, this won't work if you are inaccurate to begin with, but...remember Fire being the foundation of everything else? Yeah. Good Earth will keep you kicking. Strength of the Earth synergizes brilliantly with high Earth, making each of your Wound Ranks even more valuable; Earth has also surprisingly amazing Katas. One of them decreases your Initiative in exchange for ATN (great if you aren't going first anyway), and another one decreases your ATN in exchange for Damage. Flat Damage! And of course, there is also a Kata that reduces your Wound Penalties by Earth Ring. With Strength of the Earth and that Kata, you are basically ignoring all Wound Penalties until Hurt, which will be just -3 instead of standard -10.
There isn't much more to say about Earth - it's incredibly important. Getting it to 3 is pretty much required for any Bushi, or rather, pretty much anyone willing to go near the combat. Kind of like anyone wanting to swing a sword should get Agility 3.
WATER
Water is weird. It's importance is very polarized, based on your table. At some, it's The King. At some, it's so unimportant that you can safely leave it at 2 and never feel it. Why?
Well, Water is the ring of Movement. Many tables marginalize movement distances, and movement is main function of this Ring. Without it, it's a really dysfunctional Ring; if so, it would be a good idea to raise it importance somewhat.
Water Ring determines how far you move with your Free and Simple Move Actions, and it also puts a hard limit on how far you can move during single turn. These differences are pretty big - 5 feet per Ring for Free Action, and 10 feet for Simple Action. This means that a person with Water Ring of 3 moves 50% further than a person with Water Ring of 2 (15 vs 10). Understanding movement is the key to using Water Ring offensively and defensively.
Let's start with defensive usages of Water Ring. How does it work? Basically, by using smart movement, you may control your opponent. In order to attack you, they need to fulfill two conditions: be in range to strike, and have a proper action accessible. Most characters will attack using Complex Action, while high rank Bushi and some monsters will attack using Simple Actions. This means that Complex Action Attackers can't attack you at all if they can't get into range using Free Action, and Simple Action Attackers need to have you in at least Simple+Free Action movement range. This means that if you can position yourself outside of that range, you are effectively negating your opponent an attack. In order to ensure that 1 ring difference isn't enough to make such character un-catchable, Fire Stance provides you with ability to add +5 feet to one move. This is usually enough to put yourself just in reach to hit them.
If Simple Action Attacker can't catch up to you with a Free Action, you are forcing them to catch up with Simple Action; this denies them one attack. It's kinda like having 9999999999 ATN vs one attack, really. One of most potent usages of this tactic is in conjuction with Striking as Water Kata or Athletics 7 Mastery (or both), which increase one movement action by 5 ft. So a Water 4 Bushi would would normally move 20 ft using a Free Action. Water 3 Bushi would move 15 ft, or 20 in Full Attack Stance, which is enough to close the distance. However, when Striking As Water, Water 4 Bushi moves 25 ft...which forces his opponent to burn a Simple Action to move. With proper tactics and positioning, you get to attack them twice, while they get to attack you once. Awesome mitigation that is potentially effective against multiple attackers, too. Defensive usages of Water are greatly enhanced by Athletics skill, which allows you to ignore progressively harder terrain, thus opening up more tactical options for you by taking paths that slow down less Athletic opponents to a crawl. Additionally, Water helps you protect yourself from Grapple and other debilitating manuevers.
Of course, you can use Movement offensively. Opponents forced to catch up with you using Full Attack Stance are suffering from -10 to ATN. That's like 2 extra raises for you, opening up interesting possibilities of Extra Attacks, devastating Feints or Knockdowns. Knockdowns are probably the most powerful tool in the Water Bushi arsenal. By forcing a Contested Roll of Strength, you may make your opponent prone; this penalizes their ATN, restricts their options, and in order to get up, they need to spend a Simple Action. Unless you stand right next to them, they will need to get up in order to catch up with you; this will burn their Simple Action, denying either their ability to attack at all (for Complex Attackers), or cutting their Attacks in half (for Simple Attackers). By doing a Knockdown and then moving out, you can possibly deny your opponent any opportunity to attack at all! Similarly, Disarm manuever also operates on Strength. Third devastting option for Water Bushi is Grappling, which can shutdown anyone who isn't good at Jiujitsu and Strength (to the point where it feels wrong and should probably be balanced). Weirdly enough, unless you are using an Ono, Water doesn't really increase your damage by much - good Fire and Feinting is much better for that. Water Ring is all about options and unfair, asymmetrical warfare. Bully Ring, really. My favorite!
Usagi Bushi make fantastic Water Based bushi. Their increased movement and emphasis on Athletics means that pretty naturally, you will end up with Athletics 7, Striking As Water, and effective Water of 5, making you faster than horses. Akodo Bushi also are exceptional Water Bushi - less because of movement, and more because of Contested Strength rolls. Their +Honor to One Roll thing makes you a Knockdown machine, allowing you to potentially challenge opponents 1 or 2 Strength stronger than you. Lion Paragon alternate path makes them even better at Water-Tactics. Tsuruchi with good Water and Simple Action Bow Attacks are dumb to the point where they break the combat, as nothing can catch them unless they literally run into a dead end.
VOID
Void is the wildcard Ring. It gives you options that tilt the combat into your favor. Using your Void Points can change outcome of the fight, and how you spend them will often define what "kind" of Bushi you are as much as your Trait and Skill choices. Offensively, you get +10 ATN option, which allows you to use Fire Stance while ignoring it's drawback of -10 ATN; this, in many cases, is superior choice to just using a +1k1 to Attack roll. You can also use your Void Point to increase one Katana damage roll, increase your Initiative by 10, or boost your Contested Roll by 1k1. These options need to be evaluated in light of your build and current situation; if you are a Bully Water Bushi, Void Pointing your Knockdown Roll might give you overpowering advantage of 2 kept and rolled dice against weaker enemy. If you are Air-based character, extra Initiative could be critical to make your thing work.
Defensively, see previous options and add reducing damage from a hit by 10. Generally, ATN is better than reducing a single damage roll, unless you can ensure that you are going to face one damage roll at best.
Out of all options, probably the most overlooked one is the ability to increase your initiative. Remember that it doesn't go away! It lasts until the fight is over. Sometimes you might find yourself running around from an enemy and spending your whole Void on Initiative, just to get that window of time where you get to act first and turn the tables on them.
Shiba are interesting, because their first technique makes you think they would spend in on attack rolls. In general, it's not a very good idea; if you want to Void Dump in combat, going Water Style and knocking enemies down is much better choice. Void-Dumping the attack roll and feinting can be effective, but it's a gambit, often a bad one. In general, you are better spending your Void on "certain" things, like Initiative or Damage.
Edited by WHW