I haven't seen much talk about these as a whole so here's a thread about my thoughts on them(sadly just in theory rather than playtested). Second opinions welcomed.

Way of the Crab:

Being able to wear plated Armour while carrying a heavy weapon without penalty is nice (although depending on the campaign the penalty might only come up very rarely. I feel like the effect of reducing severity is rather narrow though and the fact that it's once per scene is a further burden. I don't think this is very strong.

Gaze into Shadows:

I don't like how ultra specialized this is, especially given that there are other abilities that effectively outright negate strife results. Also it's really weird that you can't turn ring dice to sides with opportunity.

Speaking in Silence:

I like this, social encounters have more use for opportunities than for successes and its broad enough to be applicable every session but not every scene.

Way of the Crane:

The way criticals work in this I don't think that this is very useful until high ranks and even then its still more narrow than a lot of abilities. Also it's for duelists and the most effective use for it is killing people when you'd otherwise just hurt them which seems counter-intuitive.

Kitsuki's Method:

I like that this kind of acts as a substitute for an investigation skill (which is still something that I think the game lacks). I dislike that it discourages increasing skill ranks.

Blood of the Kami:

This scales in breadth rather than effectiveness and I don't think that the breadth scales as well as the effectiveness of most other similar abilities.

Way of the Lion:

I think that this is bonkers. It has double scaling since for each rank you get a removed strife and a bonus success and the way checks work means that you can spend strife you just earned for the effect (so duplicating the fire stance effect except you can get rid of the strife (and you can cross this with strife you already had)) so you don't need to have as much strife stacked up prior. At high levels it lets you consistently one-shot pretty much any human if you're using an otsuchi. The restriction to skirmishes and mass battles doesn't really make it more fair since a lot of other (less powerful) effects will nearly always only be applicable in those.

Heart of the Lion:

Like way of the Lion the second half of this double scales (as long as giving your target strife is useful) but inflicting strife is less powerful than the bonus successes so it's more useful. If you're not using it to double scale and are instead having it transfer strain around a group I think it's good.

One with the Elements:

This is very simple but I think it's fine.

Way of the Phoenix:

This is very simple but I think it's fine.

Weakness is my Strength:

Given that this needs a) a known disadvantage on a target, b) a scheme action, c) gm discretion and d) a void point I think that this should do more than re-roll dice. If it gave something more substantial I think it would be perfect.

The Path of Shadows:

This is another ability that double scales but I imagine that the trigger condition is less common than the others and often you'll only get leverage out of one of the two scaling forms.

The Way of Names:

This is perfect imo.

Born in the Saddle:

This is extremely gm discretion dependent but I like the flavor. The issue is that, unless TN can be negative, the scaling will often be capped.

8 hours ago, Norgrath said:

Kitsuki's Method:

I like that this kind of acts as a substitute for an investigation skill (which is still something that I think the game lacks). I dislike that it discourages increasing skill ranks.

Not really. Because investigation can require a whole passel of skills depending on what you're investigating*, I agree giving the Kitsuki a blanket skill rank 1 in everything is good.

I disagree that it doesn't encourage increasing skill ranks, though. Kitsuki's method becomes really, really powerful when you get to use the second half of the ability - an extra kept die which is automatically an opportunity is really powerful - it's probably equivalent to an extra ring plus an extra skill (because you'd need 2 dice to reliably generate an opportunity and one would have to be a ring to let you keep it) rather than just an extra skill.

Add that to the "Yes, Sherlock-San!" options for opportunities which seem tailor-made for investigations and will be guaranteed to be available to a Kitsuki with an appropriately high skill level in the field they're investigating:

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Air : Observe an interesting detail about a character in the scene. At the GM’s discretion, you may use this to add a detail that did not previously exist to an NPC in the scene (such as an advantage or disadvantage).

Earth : You suddenly recall an important piece of information not directly related to your check. At the GM’s discretion, you may use this to reveal a small preparatory action you took earlier, such as bringing along a common item useful to your current task.

Fire : You notice something conspicuously missing or out of place in the vicinity that is not directly related to your check. At the GM’s discretion, you may use this to add an absence to the scene (such as a missing pair of shoes that indicate that the occupant is not home).

Water : You spot an interesting physical detail present in your environment not directly related to your check. At the GM’s discretion, you may use this to add a (previously unnoticed) piece of terrain or a mundane object to your environment.

* This is different to most RPGs I've seen, but I get the logic of connecting it to actual skills rather than an abstract 'good at spotting things'-ness.

Having scrutiny+20 (in 40k RPG terms) is all well and good, but however observant I am, how am I supposed to notice that (for example) an individual's clan mon is wrong if I don't know what family the clan is supposed to belong to?

8 hours ago, Norgrath said:

I feel like the effect of reducing severity is rather narrow though and the fact that it's once per scene is a further burden. I don't think this is very strong.

I dunno. Generally a single critical is fight-ending, and because it reduces by armour protection plus school rank, not just school rank, you can reliably zero out pretty much any non-finishing-blow critical. Add in the fact that it doesn't bar you from making a fitness check, and the fact that A Crab Hida Defender will have a realistic minimum of Fitness 2, and it's even better; you have a 'fallback' in case you screw up your fitness check, and a realistic potential to survive even a finishing blow (protection 4 + rank 1 + success makes even a fatal critical nothing more than 'injured body part'.

8 hours ago, Norgrath said:

Gaze into Shadows:

I don't like how ultra specialized this is, especially given that there are other abilities that effectively outright negate strife results. Also it's really weird that you can't turn ring dice to sides with opportunity.

Any face showing a [success] result includes faces showing [success][opportunity]; it does not specify a face showing only a [success]. It is ludicrously specialized in that it only works on someone targeting shadowlands taint, but it's freaking awesome in that case; pretty much guaranteeing at least one [success][opportunity] on every roll; invocation, interrogation, cleansing, stab-them-with-a-sword, whatever.

9 hours ago, Norgrath said:

Way of the Crane:

The way criticals work in this I don't think that this is very useful until high ranks and even then its still more narrow than a lot of abilities. Also it's for duelists and the most effective use for it is killing people when you'd otherwise just hurt them which seems counter-intuitive.

It's also useful for delivering maiming criticals. It is purely combat-specific, but delivering a critical during a skirmish isn't unlikely. A severity 6-7 critical (sword, naginata, etc) is likely to be just a Staggering Strike post fitness check - Way of the Crane puts it back up to the longer-lasting injured body part.

9 hours ago, Norgrath said:

Blood of the Kami:

This scales in breadth rather than effectiveness and I don't think that the breadth scales as well as the effectiveness of most other similar abilities.

I'll grant you this one. It's not as powerful as it first looks because it's a rolled dice, not a kept one (like the better version of Kitsuki's method). It does apply to every use of the skill, not just investigation uses, though. I'm not conversant enough with the Kiho to know how important opportunities are to monk combat styles - it's nasty with Kata, though.

9 hours ago, Norgrath said:

Way of the Lion:

I think that this is bonkers. It has double scaling since for each rank you get a removed strife and a bonus success and the way checks work means that you can spend strife you just earned for the effect (so duplicating the fire stance effect except you can get rid of the strife (and you can cross this with strife you already had)) so you don't need to have as much strife stacked up prior. At high levels it lets you consistently one-shot pretty much any human if you're using an otsuchi. The restriction to skirmishes and mass battles doesn't really make it more fair since a lot of other (less powerful) effects will nearly always only be applicable in those.

It is really powerful - and for that matter I'm not convinced, as written, that it doesn't stack with fire stance.

Weaknesses - it's only skirmish and mass battle - so specifically not duels , but also only attack and support - not movement (like charges) or scheme, and only if you would already have passed (the big one restriction!). At high levels, a skill-4, ring-4, school rank 6 lion in fire stance can easily deliver enough damage to one-hit pretty much any opponent if he can actually hit , but against an opponent using something like Crescent Moon Style, that's not actually the problem.

9 hours ago, Norgrath said:

Heart of the Lion:

Like way of the Lion the second half of this double scales (as long as giving your target strife is useful) but inflicting strife is less powerful than the bonus successes so it's more useful. If you're not using it to double scale and are instead having it transfer strain around a group I think it's good.

It depends what you're trying to do. The Matsu are probably the best internet trolls in Rogukan, and excel at a Discredit objective in an intrigue. Transferring strife around a group is good, but it obviously requires you to be targeting the other group members, limiting possibly the group's best diplomat to support actions at best.

9 hours ago, Norgrath said:

One with the Elements:

This is very simple but I think it's fine.

Indeed. It's extremely powerful (making any magic easier once per scene) but specific to invocations. There are few non-combat invocations and it's only once per fight, so I've no issue with this.

9 hours ago, Norgrath said:

Way of the Phoenix:

This is very simple but I think it's fine.

This looked a bit naff compared to Heart Of The Lion until I realised it happens instantly. Working on any check at any time, pass or fail, is good, but it's real gem application is when paired with a shujenga (the school, after all, principally trains shujenga's bodyguards) - because a shujenga getting three strife on an invocation gets a magical backlash effect which can really hurt .

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The Path of Shadows:

This is another ability that double scales but I imagine that the trigger condition is less common than the others and often you'll only get leverage out of one of the two scaling forms.

Obviously it's mostly meant to be "aha! sleeping target!" [shiv], but it does make shosura great at delivering finishing blows. The biggest benefit is hitting an incapacitated target that's likely to un-incapacticate itself (warriors resolve springs to mind), but it's not going to come up too often. If the triggers included unaware targets, or conditions like dazed or disoriented, I could see it getting more use.

9 hours ago, Norgrath said:

The Way of Names:

This is perfect imo.

It's a pretty accurate reflection of meishōdō, certainly.

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Born in the Saddle:

This is extremely gm discretion dependent but I like the flavor. The issue is that, unless TN can be negative, the scaling will often be capped.

It will. But even dropping something by 1-2 TN can be very powerful and there are few limits on what it could be used for. Certainly it makes Shinjo utter **** to face in mounted combat; combine the TN drop with on a charge action with the 4 (I still think that's too many) bonus successes from a warhorse and a charging shinjo currently needs only a single success and two opportunity to deliver a sword hit on someone who started the turn in air stance, benefiting from a guard action, at range 6.

4 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I disagree that it doesn't encourage increasing skill ranks, though. Kitsuki's method becomes really, really powerful when you get to use the second half of the ability - an extra kept die which is automatically an opportunity is really powerful - it's probably equivalent to an extra ring plus an extra skill (because you'd need 2 dice to reliably generate an opportunity and one would have to be a ring to let you keep it) rather than just an extra skill.

This will automatically fall off once you hit rank 6 at which point a rank 5 skill is as useful for investigation as a rank 0 one. (And even before then skill X-1 doesn't give any value for investigation).

5 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Any face showing a [success] result includes faces showing [success][opportunity]; it does not specify a face showing only a [success]. It is ludicrously specialized in that it only works on someone targeting shadowlands taint, but it's freaking awesome in that case; pretty much guaranteeing at least one [success][opportunity] on every roll; invocation, interrogation, cleansing, stab-them-with-a-sword, whatever.

My point was that there's no such face on ring dice.

12 hours ago, Norgrath said:

This will automatically fall off once you hit rank 6 at which point a rank 5 skill is as useful for investigation as a rank 0 one. (And even before then skill X-1 doesn't give any value for investigation).

Granted.

But then at rank 6 you've then got Eyes That Betray - a mechanic to parlay that flat Rank 6 skill in investigating anything into doing anything else (by reserving dice rolls), which means that a Rank 6 Kitsuki then becomes good at not just investigating but in doing things about what he finds , which is where you'll need those rank 4 and 5 skills.

I agree the school ability is a wierd one, but then the fact that investigation could theoretically require any skill on the sheet (which is an existing but not mandated requirement) means that making a dedicated investigator needs a weird compromise of some sort.

12 hours ago, Norgrath said:

My point was that there's no such face on ring dice.

True. But it's not restricted to ring dice, so gives a clear distinction in effectiveness between using the ability on skilled and unskilled tasks; which feels right.

4 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Granted.

But then at rank 6 you've then got Eyes That Betray - a mechanic to parlay that flat Rank 6 skill in investigating anything into doing anything else (by reserving dice rolls), which means that a Rank 6 Kitsuki then becomes good at not just investigating but in doing things about what he finds , which is where you'll need those rank 4 and 5 skills.

You're still getting less leverage for skill ranks when compared to other schools. (And Eyes that Betray doesn't help until you actually get rank 6 while the problem is very real prior to then).

8 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

True. But it's not restricted to ring dice, so gives a clear distinction in effectiveness between using the ability on skilled and unskilled tasks; which feels right.

Ring dice have twice as many proportional faces with strife as skill dice. And limiting an already extremely narrow ability further feels entirely wrong to me.

That the Kuni technique is specialized does not bother me in the least. After all, they have ONE job!! And they do tend to feel maniacally obsessed with it

I tested it in play, and when you start rolling 6k3 at rank 2+, it really piles up successes and opportunities at an amazing rate! That it works on all dice types is really a boon. Do it on an invocation and channel for a turn and it just goes through the roof, while helping you avoid the 3 Strife backlash.

So yeah... one-trick pony, but what a trick!

We discovered that best use of Way of the Crab is to soften the Critical you get from Incapacitated, and then either remove the Inc with Warriors Resolve in Water Stance, or be in Void Stance when Critted and use 1 Void Opportunity to ignore Incapacitated and soldier on for next 10 damage received.

Isawa Elementalist is an absolute beast.

Ikoma dominates social encounters easily.

Way of the Phoenix, on the other hand, feels extremely impotent and forgettable.