The Riddle of Steel: why not using all dices to attack ?

[BlacKnight]

Hope Oscar did not mention the reason he's trying to get the book. Otherwise captain's Conscience could fire up

He tried to point out he was the one that found the book, and started an argument that the captain took it only to get the merit of the finding.
Not really a great argument, but well... we don't want things to be resolved peacefully here

A promise "I shall become a great soldier!" would be an oath.
Oscar's main goal = Drive
Passions are irrational - meaning they are feelings. Love for his father, his country, friendships or family ties can be Passions, but if they are specific goals, they go into Drive.

Also: Drive is internalized (I want...), while Oath is given to someone else (I promised...).

Passions are feelings. They are not goals.

So Oscar should have: drive (to be forgiven by his father) and oath (to become a great soldier like he promised to his friend).
Assuming that he accomplishes his goal the drive will disappear and he won't feel anything too strong towards his father, so a passion is not adequate.
If instead he always wanted to get his father approvation, independently from the specific situation, it would be a passion.

Captain's schiavona swings around as she tries to counter the attack - the blades hit each other, as she catches Oscar's attack, but Oscar's skill with blade proves to be superior. He manages to avoid her parry and transfer the cut to a quick slash from above, hitting captain right above her eyes, drawing first blood.

She winces, giving him a precious moment of advantage.

OOC:
Roll: 10, 1, 9, 10, 8, 5, 9, 8, 1, 1, 9, 2, 2, 9
DTN 6, 8 successes. Extremely lucky roll.
Zone: V (overhead swing)
Hit location: 3 (upper head)

Damage: ST 5 + 0 (cut & thrust) + 1 net success = 6
Resist damage: TO 5
Damage level 1

Blood Loss 3
Shock 3
Pain 4-WP

Scalp cut. After 2 exchanges (roll of 1d6), blood seeps into eyes, CP reduced by 1/3 until wiped away (giving another full exchange).

Captain has no dice left this exchange, will start at disadvantage next round.

Second exchange: you have initiative. Choose your maneuver and allocate dice.

Oscar is shocked by the sight of blood on the captain's face. He wishes to break out of range and try to talk again, but at the same time he's afraid of the captain's reaction. He swings at her arm, while stepping back.
It's an Evasive Attack with 4 dices, plus 3 dices used to raise her TN. 2 of the dices used come from the aggressive stance, so Oscar spends only 5 dices. Hit location is zone 7, the arm.

See? Going in blind is a different animal. And if you do this at table, live, remember my advice. Show, don't tell. Show them how you attack, swing/thrust. Stand up, gain energy.

Players will react.

Yep, it's a very different sensation. My only grief is that I'm probably going to be the master of the campaign, so it won't be the same.

Still: had you stayed with the original attack, she would have at best 10 dice to work with. Still a winnable thing, considering her ATN 7.

It was mostly an instinctive decision. "I can't lose, use everything I've got"

What I meant by "Preservers can cast more spells on average" was that Preservers, if we use BoIT magic system, will most probably balance containment with spellcasting which will allow them to cast more spells, but less powerful (like 50% less powerful).

For Defilers it would be possible to use the original mechanic for removing Taint using rituals - usually you have to use Faith + appropriate ritual, burn incense, sacrifice something... in line with this, Defilers could "unload" Taint to environment using a ritual. They will get clean, but the environment will get corrupted.

The important thing is to leave defilers more powerful than preservers, as that is the whole point of defiling.
Using the ritual to remove taint is a good start, but I think it should be made instantaneous for this case.
Ritual magic and D&D are quite in antithesis.

BoIT has a "Power" stat IIRC. You could use that one and model the psionic talents as proficiencies. I was playing with an idea for elven magic in the past and came up with something that could be adapted:

You have a "Mana" pool (or psionic points), which you refill via meditation or resting. This consists of Power attribute and "Psionic Power" (I used "Kaa") proficiency. You then have psionic powers, which have their own proficiency each. You do not buy specific powers, but either roll randomly or improve the one you already have.

You have to spend Mana to cast a spell (if you fail, you lose 1/2 the mana). You gain d10 per mana burned + your proficiency in the psionic discipline, roll against base TN.

Example: you have the "Disintegrate" proficiency at 1 (wild talent). Your Power is 5, your "Kaa" is also 1. This means you have 6 mana points.

You decide to explode someone's arm with sword. You burn all 6 mana points, get +1 for your proficiency. Roll 7d10 against TN of 7; if you overcome opponents' roll, their hand is history.

It's a good idea that makes psionic powers different from magic.
Thinking about it, in AD&D there was a whole system dedicated to mental combat between psionicists.
RoS combat could probably be edited to make a better combat system than the original one. It shouldn't be hard to convert the various original maneuvers to RoS.