House Rules
I Chih
Affecting Attributes
One of the most powerful advantages of Wu Tan is the ability to monumentally increase any Attributes so long as the right I Chih are known. This section helps clear up the very vague systematic approach that White Wolf's supplement provided for increasing or decreasing Attributes. The basics:
1. Increasing Attributes is always a Yang effect and decreasing Attributes is always a Yin effect.
2. An increased Attribute adds all effective dice and game effects to the character's actions and further rolls (including an increased dicepool for casting I Chih with that Attribute).
3. A character's appearance, physique, and/or behavior will alter when Attributes are affected. A smarter character will behave more calculating, a faster character will demonstrate sharper movements, a stronger character will have better defined musculature, and so on.
4. When Attributes are increased superhumanly, these characteristics become much more evident. The character boasts "superhero" bulging muscles or walks so fast no one can keep up with him. His skull may physically increase in size to encompass a larger brain and a super-charismatic person will find it very difficult to act in a way that turns people away ("Ack! I can't stop smiling!"). Though hsien magics are inhuman, their bodies are still human.
5. A character whose Attribute is reduced to 0 is all but paralyzed in that field. With 0 Intelligence, a person is a drooling idiot, while Stamina 0 means the character is frail and sickly and barely able to get out of bed.
6. Affecting someone's Attributes other than one's own is not easy. All I Chih must have a set parameter before rolling the dice and failing to meet the success threshold means failure, not partial success. A character can "guesstimate" another's Attribute score by rolling Perception+Alertness (for Physical Attributes) or Perception+Empathy (for Social and Mental Attributes) at difficulty 7: at least 3 successes are needed for a precise score. Storytellers are encouraged to keep the hsien guessing (then it is wise to "round up" and go for a success threshold a bit higher than suspected is necessary).
Increasing Attributes
1. This sort of I Chih involves the following modifiers usually: Continuance, Magnitude of Change; sometimes Circumstance, Domain, and Abundance. Continuance defines how long the spell lasts, of course.
2. Magnitude of Change is the modifier employed; however, the standard levels given in the book do not apply. Instead, use the following:
a. For every point of an Attribute a character wishes to increase, 2 modifier levels are required.
b. The 2 modifier levels rule applies to raising one's Attribute to 5. Taking the Trait above 5 thereafter demands 3 modifier levels per dot.
For example, if a character wishes to use Lin Tan to raise her Strength from 2 to 5 for one scene, she needs to take 1 modifier level for Continuance and 6 modifier levels for the Magnitude of Change. If she wanted to go to Strength 6, she'd need a total of 9 modifier levels.
Decreasing Attributes
1. This sort of I Chih involves the following modifiers usually: Continuance, Magnitude of Change; sometimes Circumstance, Domain, and Abundance. Continuance defines how long the spell lasts, of course.
2. Magnitude of Change is the modifier employed; however, the standard levels given in the book do not apply. Instead, use the following:
a. For every point of an Attribute a character wishes to decrease (typically as a curse placed on another person), 2 modifier levels are required.
b. Reducing someone's Attribute to 0 requires an additional 3 modifiers.
For example, if a character wished to use Lin Tan to briefly mar an arrogant Sidhe's beauty and take it down from 5 to 1, she would need to take 1 modifier level for Continuance and 8 modifier levels for the Magnitude of Change. If she wanted the coup de grace and went to reduce the Sidhe to Appearance 0, she would need 11 Magnitude of Change modifiers instead.
Cohort or non-Cohort I Chih are not useful short-cuts to affect multiple Attributes at once! This is because each Attribute would still have to be accounted for individually in the calculation of modifier levels.
Elemental Souls & Kuei-jin
This will not be explained. This is just a reminder. Please refer to Vampire: The Dark Ages: Blood & Silk, page 144, for details. Note that Cathayans can have their elemental Attributes scores reduced or increased with no unusual consequences.
