Teflonshugenja/ESFHouserule
Why nerf Ebon Shadow Form?
A couple of reasons. But first, a little theory.
Martial Arts Forms are strange beasts, but when you look at them they tend to follow similar patterns. Most Celestial Forms require between two and five Charms to get to and typically require Ability minimums of 4-5 and Essence minimums of 2-3. They tend to have two effects: one primary and another secondary. Those effects tend to be complementary. Most of the other Charms in the Style are designed to benefit from being used in conjunction with the Form, but are not (and should not be) dependent on it in order to function. Last, the Form tends to set the tone for the Style, and therefore, is often the Charm that most closely reflects the principles around which the Style is constructed.
As written, Ebon Shadow Form meets most of these measures. But not all of them. Most notably, it has three mechanical effects (technically four, since when you die your body vanishes, but since dying tends to be the last thing any character does it's not a great help). It improves your initiative (in 2e, your Join Battle roll), it improves your Stealth pool, and it dramatically improves your Defense Value. This is more than most other Form Charms do, but if they were minor that might be all right. However, they are not. Each is quite strong, and it seems obvious that all taken together, the Form is overperforming. The question, then, is what to remove?
Looking at the other Charms in the Style we have the following: a feign-death effect, a mobility effect, a Join Battle penalty, a soak-reducer (effectively a damage boost), two immobilization Charms, a Dodge-booster, a Charm that makes an attack unexpected, a Stealth bonus, and a short-range teleport. Though several of the Charms do affect combat (it is, after all, a Martial Art), the main theme of the Style appears to be stealth, mobility advantage, and assassination rather than pitched combat. The Form, then, should reflect this.
Of the three benefits the Form offers, the Stealth and Join Battle bonuses are the most in keeping with the sort of tactics that Ebon Shadow appears to encourage: in order to successfully perform an assassination, the target must be unaware and the assassin must strike first. The DV bonus, ideally, will never come into effect because the purpose of this style is stealth and evasion before the fact. The obvious counterargument is that of the three benefits offered by Ebon Shadow Form, the DV bonus is the most potent - so much so that it makes the Charm attractive even without considering the other things it offers, since with the DV bonus active it can be argued that stealth and subtlety are unnecessary - why hide when they can't hit you anyway? In my opinion, however, that simply emphasizes the fact that the DV bonus is not only too strong, but actually discourages the types of tactics ESS is supposed to employ.
