Flower of Battle – Questions

For Patience of the Lynx, it says if your opponent rolls no Successes, gain a bonus. Is this ‘base’ successes (meaning your opponent rolled some 7’s or higher) or ‘excess successes’ which bypass your Defense and would become damage?

John

Conversely, it’s pretty rare to not roll any successes. An enemy with an attack pool of 3 and no Attack Focus will get at least one success about 80% of the time. Most enemies have somewhere between 5-7 dice unless they’re minions, who have their own way to get larger pools.

I think the intent probably is a complete whiff; it’s just not a talent that’s very often useful. I’d take any of the other Flower of Battle Basic Talents before I’d take Patience of the Lynx.

Ack! A whole post disappeared.

A couple of points:

As is, Lynx will work great against minions.
It makes a great finishing move, since it negates the wager penalty for a lot of weapon tricks.
It’s a passive ability. You don’t have to be doing anything special to get it. You don’t have to be in a particular stance or sacrifice a quick action. When it applies, it applies.
The circumstances are so specific, I would argue the bonus should stack with a bonus from another style utilized in the same tradition.

But if you still feel its too weak, try this in your home game:
That +2d bonus applies to damage as well as your attack.
That +2d bonus applies whenever Complications (more 1’s than successes) arise, too.

Tom

You bring up fair and valid points. It’s not as bad as it initially seemed. My character is going for the bonus to Unarmed DM first most likely and then possibly either of the other two depending how things in the campaign look.

Thanks,
John