I did not paid to much attention to The Treasure Hunter School from Path of Waves before, but recently it occurred to me that it could be a good fit for a Minor Clan concept I have. But before I get too excited I will like to understand better it’s mechanics.

1. Besides improving the character’s initiative and avoiding being surprised. Is there another benefit of the school ability that will make the character better courtier, duelist or skirmisher?

2. Besides Iaijutsu Cut: Rising Blade is there any other kata technique that can be impacted by the school ability? I know there’s plenty of Shūji that do, but I check the katas and could not find any other...

Thanks in advance.

Iaijutsu Cut: Reverse Draw.
Laughing Fox Style
Rushing Ox Style
Wheeling Sweep
Eyeless Sight Shot
Falling Heavens Shot
Swirling Viper Shot

If there’s one school ability that I find completely broken is the treasure hunter. Having vigilance 6-7 by Rank 3 is extremely broken.

Thanks Diogo, that was really fast.

No problem, I mean, that is really the one school that I beliece needs to have its school ability and mastery errataed ASAP is the Treasure Hunter

I see what you say... It’s reaaaaaaally strong.

For what it's worth, the Errata and FAQ has an optional alternate school ability for the Treasure Hunter on the last page.

Honestly makes it sound like they wanted the "Risky Checks" rule in PoW but the SACRED PAGE COUNT . I don't see why you wouldn't entail the option at least to enable basically some checks to get bonus shortfall/success, especially if you would actually use the Treasure Hunter.

6 minutes ago, MonCalamariAgainstDrunkDriving said:

For what it's worth, the Errata and FAQ has an optional alternate school ability for the Treasure Hunter on the last page.

That’s still kind of lame if one the ways to recover VP is actually failing a roll where your disadvantage applies. Then again, it is optional. I don’t know, I really dislike the idea of the whole school because it feels too dungeon crawly to me.

Alternatively, if you are creating your own minor clan school, you can just steal the ability but edit it to bump your Vigilance/Focus for Initiative and certain scenes (for treasure hunter I'd say Narrative for basically "exploration scenes" but you could work with other stuff), which was my preferred home-rule if a player just absolutely had to be a Treasure Hunter before the FAQ.

Thanks guys I will go back to the drawing board and brainstorm a little more my concept and come back.

On 10/13/2020 at 3:19 AM, Diogo Salazar said:

That’s still kind of lame if one the ways to recover VP is actually failing a roll where your disadvantage applies.

Thing is, that kind of means you'll be trying it a lot, so - hopefully - you'll be succeeding every so often and getting the bonus successes.

I kind of like the risky checks mechanic. It's not especially samurai but risky checks give you extra successes and being a treasure hunter gives you extra extra successes, which gives you a big motivation for fighting and negotiating in a sort of Jack Sparrow esque " If I wasn't crazy, this'd probably never work " fashion, leaping onto enemies from high places, swinging from balconies hanging onto banners, and generally behaving like you've escaped from a Jackie Chan or Errol Flynn movie.

I do like the fact it doesn't help you succeed, it just gives you even more bonus successes when you do.

I'm still not a massive fan of the school, but a school ability which deliberately courts actions which either succeed superbly or go horrendously badly wrong at least has decent potential as a narrative engine for the party....

On 10/13/2020 at 3:19 AM, Diogo Salazar said:

I don’t know, I really dislike the idea of the whole school because it feels too dungeon crawly to me.

I can see it working outside a dungeon crawl - but I agree I'm not wild about the name.

On 10/13/2020 at 2:36 AM, Diogo Salazar said:

If there’s one school ability that I find completely broken is the treasure hunter

Whilst it's not exactly a normal school, and should be limited in access to it, Champion of Days Gone Tradition is probably close; turning a PC into basically Rokugani Hawkeye.

• You get preferential access to Pelting Hail style at rank 1, and can trigger it automatically with every shot.
• At rank 2, you can instead land a critical strike with every single successful bow-shot. And this from a school which starts with a bunch of flesh-ripper arrows in its standard gear.

Yeah

I saw that school in the extra material for Celestial Realms. You are right, another broken school in a completely different way.