[Basic] Skill of the week: Body Sense

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Otaku

Hmm...

I really am trying to understand, which given my track record may sound like an impossible feat. >_< One of the things buried in my earlier comments (I think >.>) was the question about whether Body Sense was pricey because it was supposed to be that difficult a skill to learn/contain a significant body of knowledge... purely from a game balance perspective.

If it is about its "game breaking potential", is that something that should be reflected in this skill or should it be in the underlying Advantage?

The underlying advantage contains both combat teleporters and people for whom Warp or Jumper is just a way to get where they are going so it can't really reflect that difference. You'd have to create two separate advantages. Note however that Body Sense reflects the pricing of other exotic and highly specialized skills like Power Blow or many spells..

[Kromm]

Back in the early days, Body Sense was developed specifically to go with the Teleport spell. It was intended as a way to keep high-IQ wizards from dominating combat without a DX investment. Thus, it's incorrect to think of Body Sense in terms of advantage costs . . . it was originally a foil to IQ-based spells, and still is to some extent.

As for the "depth of knowledge" issue, well, it's functionally a special variety of Acrobatics – like Aerobatics or Aquabatics, but for instantaneous travel rather than for land, air, or water travel. By that standard, it's fairly a DX/Hard skill. Its inherently supernatural character might make Immovable Stance or Light Walk a better comparison, but all of this stuff is DX/Hard. There might not be many separate tricks to learn, but the ones that are there may well be hard to master.