step 3: school ability

Developing a school ability is perhaps the most critical element of a school’s design. A school ability needs to feel balanced and fun, while also embodying the flavor of the school. A key component of a school ability is that it must scale with school rank. This means that the ability must take into account a character’s school rank and improve in effectiveness as the character advances.

Templates for generic school abilities can be found in Table 2–4: Generic School Ability Templates on page 78. A school ability can be based on a template or on an entirely new idea, though starting with a template is certainly easier.

Additionally, each school ability needs a name, which should be decided after creating the ability. A good name should evoke the flavor of the ability, helping everyone to understand how the character’s experience in the story translates into the ability’s mechanical bonuses.

Table 2–4: Generic School Abilities

ROLE | ABILITY TEMPLATE

Any

Choose one skill group when you create this school ability. When you perform a check using a skill from that group, you may treat your ranks in the skill as being equal to your school rank. If your ranks in that skill are equal to or higher than your school rank, or if you have 5 ranks in the skill, you may add one kept set to an result instead.

Any

Choose one skill when you create this school ability. Once per scene, when you make a check using this skill, you may add a number of kept set to results equal to your school rank.

Artisan

Choose one Artisan skill when you create this school ability. Before you make a check using that skill, you may receive strife up to your school rank to reduce the TN by that amount.

Bushi

Choose one weapon type or unarmed when you create this school ability. When you make a skill check using this weapon type, if you succeed, you may receive fatigue up to your school rank to add that many bonus successes.

Courtier | Choose one Scholar or Social skill when you create this school ability. When you make a check using that skill, you may negate a number of symbols up to your school rank.

Monk

Choose an action type (Attack, Movement, Scheme, or Support) when you create this school ability. When you make a check to perform an action of this type, before rolling, you may exchange a number of up to your school rank for . When you provide assistance on an action of this type, the character you assist may exchange one for an .

Sage

Choose one Artisan or Scholar skill when you create this school ability. You may use this skill for invocations, and you cannot channel invocations (see pages 189–190 of the core rulebook). Once per scene, when you succeed on a check to use an invocation technique, you may receive a number of strife up to your school rank to add that many bonus successes.

Shinobi

Choose one Social or Trade skill when you create this school ability. Once per scene when you make a check using that skill, you may choose a number of dropped dice up to your school rank and reserve them. Until the end of the scene, when you make a check using a different skill, you may add one of the reserved dice to the check as a kept die, set to the result it had when it was reserved. This expends that reserved die.

Shugenja

Choose an effect keyword (Augment, Bind, Curse, Mend, Purify, Scry, Smite, Summon, etc.; see pages 192 and 225 of the core rulebook) when you create this school ability. When you make a check for an action that uses that keyword, you may choose a number of your rolled dice up to your school rank containing symbols and reroll them.