Topic: New Skill: Chi Balance

[Bruce]

This is the descriptive for a new skill I have implemented into my games.
I have always enjoyed the fantasy martial arts movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and a few others. I have always wanted a way for the monks (or martial artists) in my games to be able to perform the amazing feats like they did in movies like that. But I wanted to be able to do it in HARP and not some other "oriental" focused game.

So I created the Chi Balance skill.
This is still a preliminary description but what do you all think?

Chi Balance is used to heighten ones sense of balance to beyond perfection. This skill allows one to achieve a sense of balance that allows an individual to perform superhuman or mythical feats. Use of this skill allows one the ability to shift their weight in ways that would seem “unnatural” to others. With this skill one can improve their stability and also make “lighter” thereby eventually being able to perform feats like jumping on leaves, walking on water, or even walking on air. Please note in the possibility of walking on air the character will still need something to launch him self or herself off of like a leaf or something similar. This skill does not allow one to fly, glide, or float.
A character may use Chi balance to attempt to his center of gravity through the focusing of his internal balance. Doing so allows the character to maintain better footing and balance in situations where footing may be tricky or dangerous. The character will roll on the maneuver table using the bonus column to offset the negative modifier for unsure footing. Situations where this may be helpful are: On a ship underway in rough seas, on ice or snow or on uneven ground like the side of a mountain or amongst rubble.  The unsure footing modifier is used as a negative modifier to the die roll when attempting this skill. This is a onetime roll and success indicates the character receives the bonus for the duration of the encounter or combat. A GM may rule that the character needs to make a passive Chi Balance roll each round to ensure maintained focus during intense encounters.

By shifting their center of balance a character is also able to shift her or his weight so as to seem heavier or lighter and even weightless. The character will roll on the maneuver table using the bonus column to adjust their weight by the percentage indicated in the column. One can make themselves heavier or lighter using this skill. Using this method one can actually achieve a lighter than air result which could result in the character walking on air! Please note that using this part of the skill requires the character to be constantly moving. The effect of this skill is basically a sleight of hand of the body. Using this ability follows the normal rules for using and maintaining chi skills for each round.
(Concentration – SD/Ag – Bonus)

Let me know!

Bruce

[Thom @ ICE]

Conceptually I like the idea....
The weaknesses with it that I see (having not playtested it at all) are:
* Descriptions speak to the extreme uses of it - which in my opinion should require huge penalties so that only the absolute masters are able to execute them.  Add descriptions which describe it more like parkour at low levels, and provide for the ability to reach those extreme levels. 
* 1 roll covering the entire encounter/combat - no way in my book. See Sustaining Chi Skills on page 39.


Otherwise I like it.

[Bruce]

Like I said, this is still just a preliminary description. I still need to edit and add things. This could be a long description. Shifting the center of balance is a basic use of this skill. At lower levels you can only reduce or increase your weight by small percentages as you need to achieve higher than a 100  to get any kind of adjustment. Actually I just realized I goofed anyway. The max bonus you can achieve on the MM table is 80 and to achieve that you need to get a 300 plus! So one could only achieve 80% weight differentiation. With that in mind one could not at all achieve any of the actions like those from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I may switch that to using the RR column to get the weight adjustments with a base -100 modifier.
The one roll for the encounter is only for the first use of the skill, keeping your footing in an unsure footing environment. It makes sense to me and does not seem unbalancing in the least. The second part of the skill (balance) uses the rules for continuous use of the Chi skills. Though to be honest any use of the skill after the second round is pretty much impossible.

What makes one a master in a skill? Even at 20 ranks (minimum level  6) the base bonus is only a 70 without stats. After that you only get a +1 per rank. With huge penalties success is based entirely on the die roll, which to me doesn't speak of mastery but of luck. Odds are someone with a low skill could also achieve the same ability as both parties have need of rolling open ended. As it is now even with mastery in a skill it is almost impossible to do some of the things mentioned unless you roll open ended.


FYI, Parkour is more an acrobatics skill than anything Chi related. There is a rogue in my game that has used his acrobatics skill to do parkour moves sometimes to great effect, sometimes not so great....lol.