[TSOY] Supportting or Supplemental Action Question / Issue

[Reido]

In my current game there have been some problems with supplemental or supporting actions in and out of bringing down the pain.  I have treid to search the rule book and the internet but both with negative results, so I turn to the forums

One of the characters in this current game has the "Enhancement Magic" skill,  this skill is largly used to support other rolls... one example is that the player chooses to enhance his sword to add bonus die to his attacking skill, in this case it is "Infantry".  the player has a base 3 of 4 in Infantry currently.  The player's "Enhancement Magic" is at 2 of 4.  Now using this skill as a supporting roll for "Infantry" the player has the potential to add 5 total bonus die to his roll.  There is also the potential that this number can increase as the player advances  My question to the forums is:  Does this in any way violate a rule of either normal play or bringing down the pain?  (Excluding an over-rule by the GM)

Let me just say that I think the player has created a interesting idea to makehimself quite powerful and I am all for it since he is having fun.  But for the sake of the other players I would like to see if this falls under the catagory of misusing the support roll system per the standard rule system that is set in place.

A note of clarification on the "Enhancement Magic" is that any enhancement made is active for 1 hour of in game time.  This means that the player only needs to roll once before combat starts to have the effects of the enhancement roll last through out a specific conflict or a BDTP.

I would like to thank everyone in advance for taking the time to read this!
Any and all feedback is welcomed!

[oliof]

I don't see a rules violation here. The 3 corner magic has a lot of potential for twisting numbers, though.

Usually, supplemental rolls take one volley in BDTP where the character doing the supplemental action cannot defend against opponents. On the other hand, a volley in BDTP is of indeterminate length; so a solution to this 'problem' would be bending time a bit and forwarding time as a consequence of an oppoonent's action so that the enhancement runs out. If this happened all the time though, I would consider it as a rude way to deprotagonize the magic-using PC.

Also, a couple of opponents with various secrets can nicely set off this advantage (secret of synergy, secret of knock-back, secret of disarm, secret of the sudden knife). But it all depends on your group and their opponents.

[Reido]

thank you very much for the quick feedback, I will bring this up at the next session!

[Lord_Steelhand]

I don't see a rules violation here. The 3 corner magic has a lot of potential for twisting numbers, though.

I also see no issue with the tactic, but if you want the opposing force to be able to maintain challenge against such tactics the best idea is to split resources and pour on some actions in the BDTP to counter his magic.  With stringing actions in BDTP, don't forget the penalties.  This is the whole reason the Secret of Synergy (worth its weight in gold) exists.  The intial enhancement spell can have perpendicular actions thrown against it just like any other. Some soldiers who rush and/or harrass a spellcaster to keep them from concentrating, casting, etc can justify a counter roll to mimimize or negate the spellcasting. 

If the opponent has a magic user in his group, then countermagic or buffing to the opposition will negate any huge advantage it gives the PC.  Make sure that the effect of the enhancement is there as well.  Is the enhancment to the swords' blows because of poison or energy, etc?  Whatever it is, it may be apparent, giving the opposition a chance to count by enchanting armor against such energy, etc.

The important thing, I think, is to make sure the opposition actions to counter the PC do not smack of deprotagging them, as Oliof mentioned, and that they make the story of the conflict better.  Sometimes it can be as simple as the leader of the opposing forces seeing the magic being done and whipping his or her forces into a frenzy by calling it out. "There is witchery afoot!  Cast them back, hold the lines.  Suffer not the witch to live!" and the like.

[colin roald]

A note of clarification on the "Enhancement Magic" is that any enhancement made is active for 1 hour of in game time.  This means that the player only needs to roll once before combat starts to have the effects of the enhancement roll last through out a specific conflict or a BDTP.

I'm not sure where that clarification came from, but the Enhancement ability in the rules just says "can give bonus dice to any other character's ability check."  I'd interpret that as bonus dice for *one* ability check, expiring after use, same as a normal supporting ability check.  If it's active for one hour, then I would think that means you have one hour to get around to making the primary check, not that you can use it over and over for an hour.

Is that clarification your house interpretation, or is there an update somewhere I haven't seen?

[oliof]

I'm not aware of a clarification that puts enhancement into the one-hour duration camp, either.

The rules of three corner magic state:

"A magical effect, except Destruction, is either instantaneous or lasts one hour. (Destruction is instantaneous, but the damage remains.)"

The argument for the one hour duration is that the effct of enhancement cannot be instantaneous, or it would be over before the recipient of the enhancement effect starts doing his thing.

I see no problem with either way, to be honest. But if I get an enhancement effect for a conflict that leads into BDTP, I can see that some discussion might come up if the enhancement effect is still valid for rolls of the same ability during BDTP. Regardless of the one hour/instantaneous issue, I would possibly keep the enhancement effect in effect for the scope of the initial intent and ability used; i.e. it does not help for other abilities and wears of if you change intent.