Hi folks,

I need you help again.

One of my players wants to continue to play the beginning character box Dragon Tattooed monk Yoshi.

We checked the rulebook on P. 69 for the advancements.

Some questions came up:

Way of the Earthquake is a rank 2 kiho (P: 183), it is listed on P. 69 as Rank 1, what is right?

Also has the small rectangular symbol in front of WotE a meaning?

I am not sure if I read Blood of the Kami right. Let’s say he wants to link Earthen Fist to a nice Lizard tattoo (Earth), is it right that whenever he activates that Kiho in the future he will have one more successs? When becoming Rank 2 he adds 2 success?

“When you make a check to activate a kihō linked to one of your mystical tattoos, if you succeed, add additional bonus successes equal to your school rank.“

1st tattoo: Let’s also assume that he wants to add Earth needs no eyes with a Bat tattoo, he pays no XP and simply adds it?

Any advice welcome, thanks already!

Way of the Earthquake is a rank 2 kiho, it's just that the Tattooed Monk can buy it at rank 1 - that's exactly what the little symbol in front of it is for, to denote you have "privileged access" and can buy it even though you don't meet the prerequisites.

You read it... sort of right? Bonus successes aren't the same as successes, as they don't help you succeed at a task. If you need to hit a TN2 and only keep one success in the dice, the bonus successes from Blood of the Kami (or anywhere else, for that matter) don't let you hit that TN2. In fact, you don't even HAVE bonus successes in that case, because you can only have bonus successes if you succeed.

That's how the tattoos work, yeah - basically, the Tattooed Monk gets a bunch of bonus kiho (and he's better at them) for free.

Thanks! Helps a lot!

It's the same as with Fire Stance; Fire Stance lets you treat kept as bonus successes in conflict scenes.

That doesn't mean you succeed any easier - if you roll , , for a check you still have no actual successes and fail - but it does count towards stuff where how well you passed matters (like the damage inflicted by a strike action, where bonus successes add to the weapon damage).

Of course, for Kiho, bonus successes are good, because kiho use bonus successes for the burst effect. most of them are two, so at school rank two, you basically guarantee the burst effect of any kiho who's tattoo you have.

That said, our group still found that lacking. woo, free kiho with bonuses. not nearly as cool as tattoos used to be. So we are working some of the old rules in. our Dragon has a wolf tattoo that is tied to a kiho, but also acts a bit like the old one, enhancing his sense when active. (and the wolf comes alive, and any prey animals basically go, **** WOLF! Which was great when he activated it while our scorpion was rummaging around in a chicken coop.

I'm personally betting classic Dragon tattoos will return in the Dragon book, probably with an XP cost similar to Signature Scrolls and Item Patterns.