House Rules
General
Hsien in Combat
Shinma can be deadly in combat with the right magics in place and a fierce Wani form assumed. But they are far from invulnerable, particularly without those potent elemental spells. For details on how and what hsien can soak as far as damage goes, please refer here:
Combat 2nd edition
Also, all hsien have a special weakness to specially prepared jade. The jade must be pure (but it need not be True Jade, and in fact this would be a waste of such potent material). The most common method is then to grind the jade to dust. The powder is then blessed by a common household prayer anyone with common superstitious knowledge (* Occult) would know. However, specific knowledge that this blessing affects hsien demands **** Occult (with a specialty in hsien) or ** Hsien Lore or better; most superstitious mortals invoke this "ward against evil spirits" as a matter of course. Although the words and gestures may vary across the Middle Kingdom, it involves a religious invocation to Heaven and must be done by an unAwakened human mortal. Shen cannot bless jade powder to invoke this classic hsien flaw (though a shen may acquire the blessed jade powder afterwards). The blessing does have a duration: one year and one day. During that time, it may affect a hsien through one of the following ways:
- placed in a locket or pouch and used as a ward against hsien spells, thereby subtracting one success from every hsien spell cast directly upon the bearer of the protective ward
- slipped into a hsien's food or drink (or otherwise ingested) as poison, resulting in an allergic reaction that inflicts a -2 dicepool penalty to the hsien for one Chinese week (10 days); the hsien will also break out in hives and breathing fits common to severe allergic reactions
At no time is blessed, powdered jade fatal to hsien. It does not even inflict damage.
On the other hand, a weapon of pure jade so blessed inflicts aggravated damage to hsien. Jade, however, is lousy as a weapon material and bound to break. The Storyteller should only permit one or two successful attacks from a jade weapon before it cracks from the stress. A botch always destroys the weapon.
"Voile"
The hsien do not have chimerical "voile" as the fae do. Voile includes all the garb that a faerie's Dreaming form wears. It is typically starkly different than the fae's mortal form's clothing. The Wani forms of the hsien do in fact have a standardized appearance.
Some hsien appear clothed, some are partially clothed, and some are not at all. The stately kamuii are almost always garbed in the finest dress of Oriental nobility. Hirayanu tend to prefer much less in way of clothing, to afford their animal-like bodies greater movement. It is not uncommon to see these hsien wearing little more than a loincloth, robe, or scarf over their animal-like Wani forms. Either way, a hsien's Wani form's appearance does not change in appearance without a change in Legacy (therefore, almost never).
When a hsien sheds his hotei (human) form for Wani, his human clothing tends to drop away -- sometimes tearing in the process (especially in the case of many hirayanu who tend to grow out as well as up). The loss of clothing is rarely painful, since few hsien actually gain much in way of physical bulk (as do the hengeyokai). However, reassuming hotei can be embarrassing if no decent clothing is about. The "voile" of Wani will not stay with the hsien back in hotei!
There is one, however, one way that the hsien have discovered that they may keep their dignity when changing forms. Silk is not torn or dropped away when changing forms; it simply vanishes, reappearing on the hsien's hotei form when he changes back. This all applies also when a hirayanu assumes his animal form and returns to hotei.
This also all applies whenever a hsien casts a spell that alters his physical form, particularly through the Level 3 I Chih (e.g., traveling through the elements or changing's one body into an elemental form). Traveling along dragon lines (by way of the Level 2 I Chih) does not affect a hotei's physical persona.
