I am reposting this in the right thread.

P34 Way of the Crab (School Ability): You are trained in using your school’s signature heavy armor, and you trust it to be your shield, allowing you to plow forward into your foes without hesitation. You ignore the Cumbersome quality of armor you wear. Once per scene, before making a check to resist a critical strike, you may reduce the severity of the critical strike by the physical resistance of your armor plus your school rank (to a minimum of 0).
Starting Outfit: Lacquered armor

Shouldn't the lacquered armor have the Cumbersome quality ?

Something that i find odd is how is it possible for a Traveling Clothes to protect as much as a Concealed Armor. There 99% of time is no point to have a Concealed armor then.
My Solution: Traveling clothes shold have 1 armor but you must have 3 opportunity to critical hit some one

A Katana as base damage of 4 and a lacquered armor a resistance of 4 , if you dont critical hit someone wearing a lacquered armor you will only inflict 0-3 dommage per attack (this seems off) and you will offen damaged your Katana by doing this (p147 razor edge) and if the katana is damaged, his damages is decreased by 2 and you will never kill him.
A character as a average Resilience of 8-12, you must hit him 4 to 10 times to wear him down if he is in earth stance (to negate crit with opportunitty) and i am not even talking if the kata striking as Earth is used.
My Solution: The 2 handed grip should also boost the damaged by 2

Think concealed armor should be 3. just this would fix it i think. And yeah against heavy armor you need extra sucess to do a bit of damage and no i dont think that lacquered armor should have the cumbersome "quality". Otherwise everyone would prefer Plate. Since the only drawback of heavy armor right now is the Cumbersome tag.

And yes saying that the combat is not as lethal as before is a understatement. Some characters may be able to take more punishment than a D&D Barbarian in a turn by turn comparison.

The Crab's signature armor is Plated Armor not Lacquered Armor.

Concealed Armor is supposed to be improved Common Clothes not Traveling Clothes.

The Striking as Fire Kata is used to bust through armor.

Armor also make the Katana and Wakazashi side arms instead of primary weapons in battle.

I think we need more Kata which require Razor-Edge Weapons to make the Katana and Wakizashi better. And more Kata which key off of Snaring for the Hook Swords (!!!!!!!!!!) (Ahem, sorry, but I am LOVING the inclusion of Dao, Hook Swords, and non-Katana Japanese blades into the base game).

I do like the fact that a Yari does more damage than a Katana, base, but is less deadly than a Katana. The balance of Damage vs Deadliness is an interesting system.

1 hour ago, Ultimatecalibur said:

The Striking as Fire Kata is used to bust through armor

Earth Stance : When other characters make Attack action checks and Scheme action checks that target you, they cannot spend opportunties to inflict critical strikes, conditions, or persistent effects on you.
so it doesnt works or only after getting to minus hit points

1 hour ago, Ultimatecalibur said:

The Crab's signature armor is Plated Armor not Lacquered Armor.

Hida Defender School [Bushi] Starting Outfit: Lacquered armor (P 34)
Akodo Commander School [Bushi] Starting Outfit: Ashigaru armor (P 36)

Otherwise everyone would prefer Plate. Since the only drawback of heavy armor right now is the Cumbersome tag

You can make a Cumbersome 1 for lacquered and Cumbersome 2 for plated and way of crabe give cumbersome -1

2 hours ago, Kakita Renju said:

Earth Stance : When other characters make Attack action checks and Scheme action checks that target you, they cannot spend opportunties to inflict critical strikes, conditions, or persistent effects on you.
so it doesnt works or only after getting to minus hit points

Woops.

2 hours ago, Kakita Renju said:

Hida Defender School [Bushi] Starting Outfit: Lacquered armor (P 34)
Akodo Commander School [Bushi] Starting Outfit: Ashigaru armor (P 36)

Starting outfits are not signature gear. Just the base gear player characters start with.

Also it is important to remember that Katanas are not Wargear. If you are facing someone in Lacquered Armor the appropriate weapons are Wargear weapons like Yari, Naginata, Tetsubo, Otsuchi, Crossbows and Zanbato.

Kantanas should be compared to Concealed Armor and Traveling Clothes rather than Ashigaru, Lacquered and Plated Armor.

I think additional levels of cumbersome would be too cumbersome. I think that base mechanic makes a lot of sense and is intuitive. I was confused as to why Hida gets a bonus to an item they don't start with.

I think they might be trying to encourage the difference of walking around in your armor all the time versus not. One shouldn't show up to court in full armor ready for battle unless you want everyone thinking you are there to start a fight.

Wargear is technically donned only during war or if your in a position where you need to wear it, like a guard or the Wall.

On ‎06‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 3:03 AM, Kakita Renju said:

A Katana as base damage of 4 and a lacquered armor a resistance of 4 , if you dont critical hit someone wearing a lacquered armor you will only inflict 0-3 dommage per attack (this seems off) and you will offen damaged your Katana by doing this (p147 razor edge) and if the katana is damaged, his damages is decreased by 2 and you will never kill him.

Also note that an iaijutsu strike with a Katana does 5 damage, not 4 (because it's the deadliness, not base damage).

Equally, finishing blows go straight to criticals, not damage, and completely ignore armour, so a Katana is still the weapon of choice in a duel, even against a dude in plate.

Finally, note that a critical, even if reduced to severity 0, still damages a target's armour.