Last night I was running a duel between a Togashi monk and a ronin. During the duel a rules dispute came up regarding "Way of the Earthquake," a Rank 2 kiho. The player of the monk believed that the enhancement effect of Way of the Earthquake ought to immediately trigger due to activation of the kiho since Way of the Earthquake is itself is an Attack and Support action and its enhancement effect is triggered by taking an Attack or Support action.

My ruling was that, since Way of the Earthquake is not active while you're rolling to activate it, then it follows that the enhancement effect does not trigger regardless of whether or not the kiho is an Attack and Support action. As noted on page 174 of the core rules techniques are resolved using the same steps as actions, and as noted on page 252 of the core rules the actual rolling of a check for a given action is resolved during Step 2: Make Check, any effects of that action are resolved during Step 3: Resolve Effects, and any "after a character performs an action" effects of that action are resolved during Step 4: End Action.

Since each Step must logically end before the next Step begins, I believe it's impossible to apply Way of the Earthquake's enhancement effect to it activation roll.

Am I wrong about this? Is there any way to point me toward an official answer?

Quote

Activation: As an Attack and Support action, you may make a TN 2 Martial Arts [Unarmed] (Earth) check to control the earth around you.

Enhancement Effect: If you succeed, this kihō activates. While this kihō is active, after you perform an Attack or Support action, or defend against damage, you may choose one other character at range 0–2 who must resist with a TN 4 Fitness check (Air 2, Water 5) or suffer physical damage equal to your Earth Ring and the Prone condition.

1 hour ago, JonahHex said:

As noted on page 174 of the core rules techniques are resolved using the same steps as actions, and as noted on page 252 of the core rules the check for an action is rolled during Step 2, any effects of that action are resolved during Step 3, and "after a character performs an action" effects of that action are resolved during Step 4

Step 3: Resolve Effects

If an effect begins with “If you succeed,” resolve it only if the character succeeded on the check

Step 4: End Action

Any effects that occur “after a character performs an action” resolve.

If you succeed, the Kiho activates during step 3.

The Kiho's enhancement effect triggers during step 4

During that step, that round, the Kiho's enhancement effect is active and it is"after you have performed an attack or support action" so I don't see why it wouldn't trigger that turn.

Purely narratively, if you don't trigger the enhancement effect off the kiho's own action, you use the effect, which is narratively described as punching the ground to cause an earthquake...and do......nothing till next turn. I get a one turn delay in Earthen Fist, where you spend the turn drawing strength, then punching someone, but this technique is described as being used by the action which triggers it.

i think the enhancement is active immediately, BUT, you don't get to trigger its effect as part of the check you made to activate the kiho.

that is what "burst effect" are for.

in the case of "way of the earthquake" it still works if somebody attacks you after your turn. plus it will work during your next turn.

Edit.

ignore me, misread something.

2 hours ago, Avatar111 said:

i think the enhancement is active immediately, BUT, you don't get to trigger its effect as part of the check you made to activate the kiho.

that is what "burst effect" are for.

in the case of "way of the earthquake" it still works if somebody attacks you after your turn. plus it will work during your next turn.

That's what I figured. Also good eye; it still works if somebody attacks you after your turn. Which means if I'm wrong about this whole thing you're looking at using one action to deal damage equal to Earth Ring x3 + bonus successes on a TN 2 check as long as you pass said TN 2 check and your opponent fails a TN 4 (Air 2, Earth 5) Fitness check and then tries to attack you back. That's above and beyond the damage output of even Rank 5 invocations and maho, with an easier initial check to boot.

It's also worth noting that, if I'm wrong, the kiho's enhancement effect still doesn't resolve until Step 4: End Action, whereas the burst effect resolves at Step 3: Resolve Effects, meaning the enhancement effect would be unable to render a character prone before the burst effect is able to deal "+ bonus successes" damage to prone characters. This was a point of contention among the group last night, as some players believed that the burst effect of Way of the Earthquake specifically mentions extra damage to prone characters because the enhancement effect has a chance of knocking characters prone.

In other words they believed that it would look like this; first, resolve the rolling of the check; then resolve enhancement effect i.e. Earth Ring damage and prone; then resolve burst effect i.e. Earth Ring damage again and if character is prone "+ bonus successes" and immobilized. Yet as the steps taken to resolve an action on page 252 of the core rules indicate, there is no reading of the rules where the effects would resolve in that order. Instead it would look like this EVEN IF I WERE WRONG about the enhancement effect being triggered by the activation roll on the same turn; first, resolve the rolling of the check; then resolve burst effect i.e. Earth Ring damage and if character is prone "+ bonus successes" damage and immobilized; then resolve enhancement effect i.e. Earth Ring damage and prone.

(This of course would create a whole new conflict of interests; is an immobilized target rendered prone no longer immobilized? If we were to consider a character both both prone and immobilized does that mean this character gains the ability to stand up as described under the prone condition, or would that be superseded by the immobilized condition? If the immobilized condition supersedes prone, then what effect does prone have at all? Why bother tracking both? If you read their descriptions there is virtually no reason to, which is why as written Way of the Earthquake specifies that prone targets become immobilized "instead." Immobilized is simply a more severe version of prone.

Note that this is all just hypothetically assuming I'm wrong about the enhancement effect triggering the with activation roll. Which is yet another reason why I do not believe the activation roll of Way of the Earthquake triggers its enhancement effect on the same turn. The enhancement effect becomes READIED at Step 3: Resolve Effects of taking the action onward into the future until the monk changes kihos or decides to end the effect, but it doesn't retroactively add its effects to a die roll that was resolved at Step 2: Make Check.)

TL;DR: If I'm right about everything then Way of the Earthquake falls in line with other Rank 2 techniques in terms of damage output and effects. If I'm wrong then Way of the Earthquake officially has the highest potential damage output of any technique.