1. Under no circumstances can you pass when it's your turn to raise. You can raise or you can give. Also, you can't ever join or rejoin a conflict already underway.

In the game we played in IRC last night, this situation came up.  Brother Enoch is taking the role of an older, more experienced Dog who's travelling with two brand-new Dogs.

In a "just talking" conflict from last night, he took small raises and forced the other dogs to see, rather than the townsfolk who were being interrogated.  They were able to "turn the blow" of course, and their dice weren't actually drained by his tactic.