First of all, sorry for my bad english, It is not my maternal language.
Taoist Blade Question
Yes.
No. It's written a bit confusingly, but the target you pick on activation is only for the Burst effect. The target in the description of the Enhancement effect is the target of your later Attack checks.
It stays active. It only needs the right stance for activation.
What do you mean? The Taoist Blade is one of the leanest, meanest killing machines in a skirmish, if you build it that way. That's not necessarily how they should be played, flavour-wise. However, the lack of shūji hurts badly. Both in social situations and in fights, shūji give you some very powerful and versatile tools, that the Taoist Blade lacks.
Also, don't worry, your English is fine. Worst case, we'll ask if we don't understand something.
Edited by Myrion12 minutes ago, Myrion said:Also, don't worry, your English is fine. Worst case, we'll ask if we don't understand something.
And, if you don't mind, are willing to offer feedback.
I don't want to point out improvements unsolicited but will do so if you ask.
Thank you all for the answers, and @Tonbo Karasu , please, I'm willing to write properly, so I am open to any feedback you can give me
The biggest problem with English is that there are so many different words that mean the same thing, compared to most other languages. Caveat, I'm Scottish, so this is British English not American English, with a Scottish slant.
So, "maternal language" means exactly what you wanted to explain, but no-one would say that. We'd say "mother tongue". Generally, "maternal" and "paternal" and related words refer to actual blood relatives (eg maternal grandfather, or paternal love), whereas "mother" and "father" can be used more figuratively (father land, mother tongue). I'm not completely sure why but that can be said about many ways we speak.
At school, I was always told to prefer 'active voice' over 'passive voice' when writing. This means that you want to try to have a subject of a phrase doing something rather than merely an object being acted upon. Thus, "I can convince my GM." instead of "GM gets convinced.", again this isn't wrong it's just more likely to be heard.
Finally, "Which" and "What" sound like they mean the same thing, but in practice "Which" is used when you are also presenting examples to choose from but "What" is used to give a more open range of answers: "Which superhero film do you like?", "What is your favourite film?", "Which of the conflicts is a Taoist weakest at?", "What are the Taoist's flaws?"
I hope that's been helpful.
Edited by Tonbo Karasu10 hours ago, Myrion said:Yes.
No. It's written a bit confusingly, but the target you pick on activation is only for the Burst effect. The target in the description of the Enhancement effect is the target of your later Attack checks.
It stays active. It only needs the right stance for activation.
What do you mean? The Taoist Blade is one of the leanest, meanest killing machines in a skirmish, if you build it that way. That's not necessarily how they should be played, flavour-wise. However, the lack of shūji hurts badly. Both in social situations and in fights, shūji give you some very powerful and versatile tools, that the Taoist Blade lacks.
Don't overlook the benefit of some of their kiho for social situations though. Earth Needs No Eyes can increase vigilance, when I was playing a taoist blade in a campaign I'd always joke that it was my best shuji...because suddenly I have vigilance 6...
The Great Silence seems super useful in making sure you're not interrupted when giving a speech, or just bringing a loud boisterous room to quiet for a moment. Beyond that Touch the Void Dragon letting you spend opportunity from any ring while in void gives you some versatility, and Still the Elements could be used fairly defensively too in social situations. So while you may not have all the tools that Shuji provide, you shouldn't overlook the tools you DO have, and how you can use them in places and situations that maybe you didn't realize they could be used in. Admittedly, a lot of those are in the later ranks, and while we've not gotten new kiho in splats yet like we've gotten new shuji, there's bound to be some eventually...
Then there's also the fact that titles tend to give shuji out like candy...so while you won't start with any shuji, there are tons of titles that'll give a couple shuji, or even access to specific rings of multiple ranks of shuji too. Most titles tend to stick to kata and shuji for things, so its honestly a lot easier to go from a taoist blade and branch into a title for shuji, than for a bushi/courtier to dip into Kiho...
Oh, thanks :), when I don't know how to say some expression in English, I translate word by word from Spanish (lengua materna).
Well, thank you for your time. I'll come back if or, to be honest, when we discuss for another rule without arriving to an agreement.
7 minutes ago, Arganas said:Don't overlook the benefit of some of their kiho for social situations though. Earth Needs No Eyes can increase vigilance, when I was playing a taoist blade in a campaign I'd always joke that it was my best shuji...because suddenly I have vigilance 6...
The Great Silence seems super useful in making sure you're not interrupted when giving a speech, or just bringing a loud boisterous room to quiet for a moment. Beyond that Touch the Void Dragon letting you spend opportunity from any ring while in void gives you some versatility, and Still the Elements could be used fairly defensively too in social situations. So while you may not have all the tools that Shuji provide, you shouldn't overlook the tools you DO have, and how you can use them in places and situations that maybe you didn't realize they could be used in. Admittedly, a lot of those are in the later ranks, and while we've not gotten new kiho in splats yet like we've gotten new shuji, there's bound to be some eventually...
Then there's also the fact that titles tend to give shuji out like candy...so while you won't start with any shuji, there are tons of titles that'll give a couple shuji, or even access to specific rings of multiple ranks of shuji too. Most titles tend to stick to kata and shuji for things, so its honestly a lot easier to go from a taoist blade and branch into a title for shuji, than for a bushi/courtier to dip into Kiho...
Yeah, I read about that joke when I was researching looking for the specific answer to my questions, to be honest, and after reading your post about how "easy" is to get shuji with a title... Taoist Blade is OP as ****....
Eh, what is OP? They're the best at getting strong crits, but that's not the only thing that matters.
Yes, Arganas, you're right, there are a bunch of useful kihō for social situations. Some of those should definitely come with social sanctions, like The Great Silence. Magically forcing everyone to shut up is majorly rude. ENNE is great for making yourself unassailable in Intrigues, but it won't come up too often. After all, that would mostly be relevant if you're the target and trying to convince your character isn't gonna be the usual case. Discrediting your character will definitely be hard, though.
I'm not sure if you are asking me what do I mean with OP, but just in case I was meaning "Overpowered", @Myrion , could you give me please some examples of Shuji used in fights so I can say them to my partners, 'cause they don't agree that the lack of shuji is a bad thing, and perhaps that's because we haven't played 5th edition yet, but if someone can give me examples about that we'll understand why Shuji is useful.
Thank you so much
2 hours ago, Myrion said:Eh, what is OP? They're the best at getting strong crits, but that's not the only thing that matters.
Indeed. It depends entirely on the situation - duel vs skirmish, for example, and whether in a skirmish you're facing minions or adversaries.
For the sake of an example, a Kiho-enhanced sword is deadly as all heck, but you don't activate the Kiho for free.
So in a duel, you need a prepare action to draw the sword, then an action to activate the Kiho, then an action to thwock someone with it.
Even if it's not going to be challenged as cheating - and it might in some settings - wasting an action in a duel just standing there communing with the elements is risky. Because whilst a kiho-enhanced sword is scary, you know what's scarier? A double-handed finishing blow from a totally mundane weapon. The fact that both mirumoto schools make you use the sword one-handed instantly reduces its deadliness from 7 to 5, and the abilities take this into account.
Don't get me wrong, the Taoist blade is a really, really strong combat school. But in a duel rather than a skirmish, the family's other swordsmanship school (the Niten master) has probably got the edge by some margin.
You also start with limited access to Shuji - which you can work around by titles if your GM awards you them - which can be an issue in formal situations - and a slightly lower Honour than the Niten Master (48 vs 50). The difference isn't huge, but it does mean an Honour rank of 4 instead of 5, which could hurt a starting character as techniques like Warrior's Resolve (which lets you recover fatigue based on your honour rank) will be less effective.
Finally, you gain Void and Water rings from your school. That's not 'bad' per se - but most Bushi schools give you a bonus to Earth for a reason, as it's the one ring which contributes to both Composure and Endurance, and allows you to fight in a stance where you are immune to dirty tricks and critical strikes, and characters with a low Earth ring tend to be a bit fragile for that reason.
Shuji are very useful in intrigues. Essentially they're the 'social' equivalent of Kata/Kiho, and if you're trying to 'beat' someone at court then turning up their family secrets (ancestry unearthed), starting nasty rumours about them (whispers of court) and so on can make a big difference. It's also worth noting that a lot of 'leadership' techniques where you can enhance either the rest of your party or even a mass battle army are also shuji (Rallying Cry is a good example). Courtiers Resolve, the strife-healing analogue to Warrior's Resolve, is also a shuji, and is very useful in any situation where strife is a big deal.
Edited by Magnus GrendelA big question is "what sort of campaign are you planning to play?" - if you're going to be playing L5R as a combat-heavy D&D-esque 'dungeon crawl', then perceptions on what's good, bad, and broken will be very different to a Game of Thrones style 'political drama with occasional duels and assassinations'.
Edited by Magnus Grendel5 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:The biggest problem with English is that there are so many different words that mean the same thing, compared to most other languages. Caveat, I'm Scottish, so this is British English not American English, with a Scottish slant.
So, "maternal language" means exactly what you wanted to explain, but no-one would say that. We'd say "mother tongue". Generally, "maternal" and "paternal" and related words refer to actual blood relatives (eg maternal grandfather, or paternal love), whereas "mother" and "father" can be used more figuratively (father land, mother tongue). I'm not completely sure why but that can be said about many ways we speak.
I'm 99% sure he speaks a latin language (spanish, french or portuguese, etc...) because that's how you'd say in those languages.
4 hours ago, Slink90 said:Oh, thanks :), when I don't know how to say some expression in English, I translate word by word from Spanish (lengua materna).
And I got my confirmation
Edited by Diogo Salazarnative language confirmation
On 8/13/2020 at 2:52 AM, Myrion said:Eh, what is OP? They're the best at getting strong crits, but that's not the only thing that matters.
Yes, Arganas, you're right, there are a bunch of useful kihō for social situations. Some of those should definitely come with social sanctions, like The Great Silence. Magically forcing everyone to shut up is majorly rude. ENNE is great for making yourself unassailable in Intrigues, but it won't come up too often. After all, that would mostly be relevant if you're the target and trying to convince your character isn't gonna be the usual case. Discrediting your character will definitely be hard, though.
Not saying they're perfect solutions to all situations or anything, just that the system contains a surprising amount of overlap in "where you can use things", and its just a question of being creative in where things apply. Shuji that are useful in combat, Kata that are useful for social situations, kiho that are too. "All arts are one" as one particular shuji says...
It's one of the things that I enjoy about the system.