I'm looking to have the following techniques before the end of Rank 1:

• An Iai-kata. It doesn't matter which one.
• Crescent Moon Style
• Iron Forest Style

Daidoji Iron Warriors can get me 2 of three. Can any school get me all 3?

I know I can do this with the use of a title, but is there a school to do this?

Qamarist Shieldbearer Tradition.

28 minutes ago, DSalazar said:

Qamarist Shieldbearer Tradition.

... those are just silly!

They'll work, yeah. anything rokugani?

No, sorry. But you did ask:

1 hour ago, Tenebrae said:

I know I can do this with the use of a title, but is there a school to do this?

You didn’t specify a great clan (or minor clan, for that matter) school. 😄

24 minutes ago, DSalazar said:

You didn’t specify a great clan (or minor clan, for that matter) school. 😄

I realize this, now. My apologies.

And it is technically impossible, sole example provided the exception. Because every school begins with a technique rank 2 and has access to ONE rank 2 technique in their rank 1 curriculum. So best you get is 2 of 3, like the Daidoji.

11 hours ago, DSalazar said:

And it is technically impossible, sole example provided the exception. Because every school begins with a technique rank 2 and has access to ONE rank 2 technique in their rank 1 curriculum. So best you get is 2 of 3, like the Daidoji.

That was my impression, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a half-baked badly written school somewhere that made it possible. 😕

And I mean, if any player would want to play as a QSB I would just tell them that rank 1 curriculum just gives access to rank 1 kata. They can totally purchase rank 2 kata when they reach rank 2, it will just contribute 2 xp to rank advancement instead of 3.

5 minutes ago, DSalazar said:

And I mean, if any player would want to play as a QSB I would just tell them that rank 1 curriculum just gives access to rank 1 kata. They can totally purchase rank 2 kata when they reach rank 2, it will just contribute 2 xp to rank advancement instead of 3.

I probably would do that.

I must admit, some of the schools in the Path of Waves are ... somewhat problematic.

36 minutes ago, Tenebrae said:

I probably would do that.

I must admit, some of the schools in the Path of Waves are ... somewhat problematic.

Let’s not mince words, they are problematic, not somewhat problematic.

8 minutes ago, DSalazar said:

Let’s not mince words, they are problematic, not somewhat problematic.

Yes. Enough that I probably would not allow the use of anything from that book at my table.

Possibly specific single elements (ie single techniques etc) but nothing in a general acceptance.

The techniques are fine. The problems are the schools.

And I find this deliciously ironically, as there are some seriously broken schools in the same book with rules (extremely underpowered, by the way) on how to create custom schools.

Granted, there are several schools from the CR who are also problematic (Asahina and Doji, I'm looking at you).

QSB, Treasure Hunter, Voice of the Wild whose school ability can be extremely powerful in the right situations, the Qamarist Alchemist, ditto. The IK Blade Dancer that can pretty much transform any skirimish from a tough one to a breeze.

Let's see:

• The Wandering Blade: Roll an extra skill die with a specific weapon category. For attack or performance. So specifically not for guard etc. May change results to opportunities. Powerful but perhaps not stupidly so. +1 to any ring is nice, but not game breaking.
• Student of the Talon: Why exactly you can make ranged critical against yourself less sever makes no sense to me. Looks more powerful than the Kakita Duelist school to me. I know there are restrictions, but they feel fairly minor to me.
• Treasure Hunter: As discussed elsewhere, very powerful. Looks like it was written by someone who hadn't read the whole rules.
• School of Leaves: Looks odd to me. If you need the school tech, you've already screwed up. Badly. Can't tell if it's powerful or not, because it depends on how easy Obscuring Terrain is available in your campaign.
• Voice of the Wilds: In D&D/PF terms, this is a prepared caster to everyone else being sorcerors. You may not have a ton of Invocations available, but if you have time to prepare, you are extremely powerful.
• Artisan of the Roads: Not exactly powerful, but feels self-defeating. With this school, you will never be a starving artist for long. Personally, I'm not a fan of mechanics like this. It feels like a character designed to have a specific type of problems, and then a easy fix for that specific problem.
• Mystic of the Mountain: You get to lower TN and remove strife (from the dice). I don't like the mechanics, but they probably aren't game breaking. Probably. Still a neat trick though.
• Ujik Diviner: Sage. Not a Shugenja, a Sage . With not just access to Earth and Water Invocations, but early access to entire elements of Invocations . And that's not even the school technique! Nope. Not at my table you won't.
• Qamarist Shield Bearer: Already mentioned above. Early access to all kata at rank 1? And then to entire categories of techniques, that you'd basically have access to if your techniques weren't artifically limited. And then you get a weird extra attack/damage -thingie. Which appears to be unable to fail because it doesn't require a roll? Starts strong, continues... eh?
• Qamarist Alchemist: No idea. Potentially powerful I suspect.
• Ivory Kingdoms Sage: Kata+Kiho. No access to Shuji. This is a Sage, not a monk? I have questions, but I don't think it's trivially game breaking.
• Ivory Kingdoms Dancing Blades: Seriously? No! Just... no. Didn't a second person have to read this before it was published? Never mind play testing (like a serious game), but just read through?

Now, as a rule, you'll want these peripheral schools to be less powerful than your core school, not more. They understood this in the 1st edition but apparently such insight has been lost.

*Sigh*

I am wary of every school that allows extra kept dice to opps equal to your rank when doing x.

I mean, let us assume for instance, that Razor Edge was: you can use OPPS to increase or decrease the deadliness of this weapon.

Now imagine the Kakita Duelist kept extra dice set to OPPS when striking one handed with a razor-edge weapon. Can you see how broken the KD would be? Because now you can still pretty much do what the KD could do before but more, because it's not like the KD will only use its school ability to toy around Razor Edge, they could use it to feed all other kind of kata.

So, I don't think the Alchemist is broken NOW, but let's see what rituals show up down the road.

Indeed.

Cool as I think it is, Champion of Days Gone from Deathly Turns is terrifyingly powerful, especially with Pelting Hail Style in their curriculum at rank 1 and Fleshcutter arrows in their starting kit.

2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Cool as I think it is, Champion of Days Gone from Deathly Turns is terrifyingly powerful, especially with Pelting Hail Style in their curriculum at rank 1 and Fleshcutter arrows in their starting kit.

Pelting Hail Style is ... nasty enough that I'm thinking of targeting the party archer specifically.