Techniques - half penalty vs full?

adam1234 · 04-06-2021, 11:18 AM

My understanding for techniques is (to paraphrase a chapter) "when there's a way to use a skill with a penalty, you can build a technique to buy off that penalty".

Traps has setting traps at -2, so you can buy a Set Traps technique to remove that penalty. Lockpicking by touch is -5, so you can buy that technique to remove the -5. Same for off-hand attacks, dual weapon attacks, etc. (All from Basic section on Techniques.)

But then there is Targeted Attacks (MA68) which has a limit of buying off half of the penalty for strikes.

Is Hit Location the only special limit there? I have not seen other limits of that sort ("limited to buying off half the penalty").

I am not asking whether it would be balanced with one design method or another. I would like to know if there is a general rule for "in THESE cases, buying off a penalty is limited to half the penalty"?

04-06-2021, 11:18 AM	#1
adam1234 Join Date: May 2020	Techniques - half penalty vs full? My understanding for techniques is (to paraphrase a chapter) "when there's a way to use a skill with a penalty, you can build a technique to buy off that penalty". Traps has setting traps at -2, so you can buy a Set Traps technique to remove that penalty. Lockpicking by touch is -5, so you can buy that technique to remove the -5. Same for off-hand attacks, dual weapon attacks, etc. (All from Basic section on Techniques.) But then there is Targeted Attacks (MA68) which has a limit of buying off half of the penalty for strikes. Is Hit Location the only special limit there? I have not seen other limits of that sort ("limited to buying off half the penalty"). I am not asking whether it would be balanced with one design method or another. I would like to know if there is a general rule for "in THESE cases, buying off a penalty is limited to half the penalty"?