Chi FAQ

[NMI]

#1: Chi FAQ Author: Guest, Posted: 18 Feb 2005 13:24
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Question: Can Chi attacks as discussed in N&S harm or even kill Vampires? There is nothing in any book dealing with this.
Answer: Vampires are undead, and most or all undead are creatures of Negative Chi. As such, they are completely immune to Negative Chi Attacks and to Negative Chi Mastery powers, but can be harmed by certain Chi Spells and Martial Art Powers that that employ Positive Chi.
For example, the Spirit Burst Zenjoriki will destroy a certain amount of the undead's Negative Chi each melee that the creature is in range, and a weapon used with the Chi Sword Technique will inflict double damage to undead.
It is however unclear to me just what happens when an undead creature is stripped of all its Negative Chi. They could be rendered inert, destroyed, or have supernatural powers like regeneration nullified, at GM's discretion.

Question: Would the Spirit Burst, with enough positive Chi put behind it, destroy a vampire the same as exposing it to the sun?
Answer: Spirit Burst does not cost any Chi to use, and cannot have any Chi "put behind it" as you say. The Spirit Burst inflicts a specific amount of Chi damage based on its polarity each melee, no more and no less. Otherwise, yes, it's pretty much the same as exposing a vampire to the sun.

Last edited by Guest on 10 Mar 2005 23:54; edited 1 time in total
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#2: Author: Guest, Posted: 10 Mar 2005 23:22
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Question: Do you get additional chi per level, sort of like you get additional hit points per level? If so, how much?
Answer: No, you do not get chi increases by gaining levels like you do with hit points. Some classes and martial art styles do provide Chi increases for level advancement bonuses however.

Question: Can characters who have had their chi disrupted use Chi Mastery Abilities (i.e. if they have Positive/Negative Chi Mastery Abilities and, as a result of Chi Combat, have been reduced to negative chi, can they use those abilities)? My gut instict would be no, since their chi has been disrupted, preventing them from being able to focus on a chi mastery ability in order to use it.
Answer(by Erick Wujcik): Correct. Those who have had their Chi disrupted cannot use Chi Mastery Abilities... at least until their Chi is restored.

Question: Since both N&S and Mystic China aren't clear, what are the cures for Negative Chi Infection?
Answer: The only possible cures for Negative Chi Infection are Someone Else using Chi Healing on the character, Discorporate, Mending Chi Kata, Someone Else casting Disperse Chi Spell on the character and Someone Else using Cure Negative Chi Disease as a Celsetial Calligraphy. If one wants the Mudra of Evocation of Healing Energy to work properly, change the Chi Cost to read "Four Positive Chi to heal damage, zero Chi to fill with Positive Chi."

Question: 1) What effect would a positively chi charged sword have on vampires or other forms of undead. Since it is storing positive life energy I would think it would at least damage them, but the amount of damage is the question. Would it be the same the sword normally does?
2) Using the same chi charged sword, would it be considered a magically charged weapon in regards to werebeasts?
3) What Atemi abilities, if any, would work against the undead. Right now I'm thinking none, but I am interested in alternate opinions.
4) What martial arts techniques would work against the undead? I am specifically referring to Tamashiwara ( the "Art of Breaking") and Kiaijutsu.
Answer: 1) It would do double damage against vampires and other forms of undead.
2) Yes.
3) Dim Mak and Long Distance Dim Mak both work normally. Grasping Hand Atemi, the sonic wave of Open Hand Atemi, and Chi Block Atemi all work as normal. No other Atemi powers can be used on undead.
4) Tamashiwara would not work on undead who are immune to those attacks (i.e. a vampire, with its specific weaknesses, would not be affected by Tamashiwara). Kiaijutsu will not work on non-corporeal undead (spirits and entities), and most undead will be unaffected by the stun and shock yell. The force yell will still knock undead back who fail their saving throw. Death yell works as normal.

Question: What about chi switching from positive to negative, how long does it take? how long could one be negative? and how does one gain chi?
Answer: 1) Two melees (30 seconds); one to flush, one to fill.
2) Without having the ability or spell of Live on Negative Chi, the character can have Negative Chi for as long as their Hit Points aren't wiped out--check the section on surviving zero chi (revised N&S, page 16) for the effects of Negative chi.
3) There are a variety of ways to gain chi; level advancement bonuses, tapping Dragon Chi or Dark Chi, Ley Lines, certain items that have been filled with chi, etc.

Question: I never touched chi in the martial art form because it sound too complex for most of them. Well, Body Chi (I do know you could make you PS 141 if you have enough CHI), but the majority of the negative chi powers don't sound that good.
Answer: Further explanation of the powers of Negative Chi are found in Mystic China.

Question: Chi Gung Body Hardening does not work against bullets & such. Does the Chi Mastery power of Hardened Chi have similar limitations?
Answer: No.

Question: Chi Awareness, how does this work, is like on command, or it just comes on any time?
Answer: Chi Awareness has to be activated, think of it like See Aura. Note: All Chi abilities have to be focused before being used, in combat this takes one action, but it can be done any time.

Question: Chi Relaxation, What is this Resistance?
Answer: Chi Relaxation functions similar to the psionic power of Summon Inner Strength. What it does is allow the character to relax when they otherwise wouldn't be able to. It also allows the character to regain lost or used chi by meditating for an hour. What it does for resisting the effects of insanity and drug addiction isn't quite clear.

Question: Defend against Chi Attacks, does this include Offensive? Sorry the "Example of Chi Combat" is very bad.
Answer: No, this is not an offensive skill. What it does is allow you to actively block Negative Chi Attacks directed at your character. Note: There is no need to block Positive Chi Attacks, such as they are, since there are few Positive Chi Offensive abilities (though there undoubtedly should be) and someone charged (not infected--I'll discuss this difference in a bit) Negative Chi is immune to Negative Chi Attacks.

Question: Chi-Healing, I don't understand...
Answer: Think of it as a form of mystic first aid. It restores hit points and S.D.C. but also has a much more important use, fighting off negative chi infection so that a character can be healed again.

Question: Dragon Chi, I think I get it, its about gaining chi for the area, and not using yours, does that sound right?
Answer: You can still (and probably will if involved in chi combat) use your chi, what Dragon Chi (and its opposite, Chakuri-Chi) does is it gives you a means of tapping the natural world to gain extra Chi with which to power your abilities. It is similar to how a mage can use the energy from a ley line or nexus.

Question: Body Chi, In Rifter 3 it seems that there is no limit, is that true?
Answer: The only limit on what you can pump your attributes up to is how much chi your character has. However, with the advent of a more structured difference between Normal, Extraordinary, Superhuman, and Supernatural attributes (most notably P.S.), it is unclear how this should now work. Assume it works as a Normal attribute.

Question: Hardened Chi, I don't understand...
Answer: Think of it as an added bit of force which can be added to your strike or used as a 'force field.'

Question: Soft Chi, could this be similar to body chi?
Answer: Not quite, what this does is provide a bit of extra force which is used to change the direction of your opponent's attack. What it does in essence is add a bit of extra boost to flips and throws, as well as parries, increasing your effectiveness using those abilities.

Question: Negative Chi Control, Why is there not a positive chi control?
Answer: There is no need for one...Contrary to what some people believe, there is nothing inherently good or evil about Chi, so there's no reason why someone who isn't an evil chi-wielding demon couldn't use Negative Chi abilities.

Question: Negative Chi Attacks, I don't understand...
Answer: Its just a method of projecting your chi at an opponent to drain them of Positive Chi so you can inflict all kinds of nasty effects on them, or even kill them. EW has given the range of this ability at 40 feet. Its fairly unimpressive if you don't have the other Negative Chi Mastery Abilities from Mystic China (though draining someone of their Positive Chi so they can no longer heal damage is a pretty useful effect).

Question: One Finger Chi/Negative empty chi, I don't understand
Answer: Like many of the Negative Chi attacks (a more general term, as opposed to the Chi Mastery ability Negative Chi Attacks above) it is a ranged method of doing damage to your enemy, in this case its simply a telekinetic-like attack that lets you strike your opponent from a distance.

Question: Fist Gesture, is it the same as one finger chi, but a death blow?
Answer: Exactly.

Question: Dark Chi, is it similar to Dragon Chi?
Answer: Same thing, different Chi.

Question: What is the difference between Negative Chi Infection vs being Charged with Negative Chi?
Answer: By using the Negative Chi Mastery ability of Negative Chi Control, a character can remove all the Positive Chi from their body and replace it with Negative Chi, allowing them to use Negative Chi Mastery abilities, as well as become immune to damage from attacks by those abilities. While they still suffer the effects of not having Positive Chi (they cannot heal damage), they do not suffer any other effects (and the spell Live on Negative Chi removes the problem with healing as well).
Being Infected with Negative Chi is another story entirely. Negative Chi Infection occurs when a character has had their Chi 'disrupted' (N&S, page 16, under Recovery of Chi) by losing all their Positive Chi (and subsequently having it replaced by Negative Chi) as a result of Chi Combat. In addition to the problem of not being able to heal (Live on Negative Chi will NOT help with this problem), they cannot regain their positive chi without the use of certain martial art powers (namely Chi Healing and Negative Chi Control, but also the Chi Kata, Mending Chi Kata, and the Zenjorike power Discorporate...see Mystic China for more information on the last two). Characters with a Negative Chi Infection also cannot use Chi Mastery Abilities to regain their chi and are very susceptible to Negative Chi attacks.

Question: Since Chi Mastery is a slightly different case and characters can not use Chi with any martial art that does not allow Chi Mastery. What about chi related abilities like Chi Gung and Zanshin?
Answer (by Erick Wujcik): Chi Gung, like all Body Hardening, can be used with any of the character's martial arts. Same for Zanshin...

Question: So a style that gains Chi Mastery at some point after first level can still use Chi Mastery at first level when it's learned through another style?
Answer (by Erick Wujcik): Yup. Every martial art that has Chi Mastery takes that into account with all their various Katas and Forms. In fact that's part of the training, to use the introductory movements as a way of getting the student in tune with their Chi.

Question: Is there a limit to the amount of points of chi that can be used on a single action?
Answer: No there isn't, though you can use the optional rules for limiting chi spent as presented in Rifter #3.

Question: OK. I get double Chi then double Chi, what does it equal? It SAYS you cannot have two multipliers for one character, but in Tai Chi alone it says "Double Chi" Five Times!
Answer: A character can only receive one Chi multiplier when creating a character. If the character has more than one Martial Art (or whatever) that grants Chi multipliers, they'll just have to select one. As for 'level up' Chi multipliers, you can only get one for each level advancement.
Example: Martial Art 'A' gives you a *3 to start and *2 at 3rd and 6th levels, while Martial Art 'B' gives you a *2 to start and *2 at 6th and 9th levels. You could get the *3 when the character starts, and a *2 at 3rd, 6th and 9th levels.

Question: The Dragon Chi ability says you can recover Chi every melee round... umm... but does not say how much?
Answer: Dragon Chi allows you to tap up to 9 points of chi per melee round. The amount of chi you can tap is defined in the second to the last paragraph of the description of Dragon Chi.

Question: A recent question brought to my attention a little known ability with Dragon Chi/Fu Zhensong. The description states that this Chi Mastery Ability allows one to "borrow" chi from another person. Aside from the restrictions on what the person attempting to "borrow" the chi has (i.e. must be touching and the target's chi must be donated freely), there are no restrictions on this portion of the ability. My question is, is there a limit to the amount of chi that can be drawn in this method (i.e. similar to the P.P.E. tap of mages)?
Answer (by Erick Wujcik): Nope, I don't think there should be any limit. If the 'donor' is willing, then the Chi can flow freely...

Question: 1) In N&S it states that, "Negative Chi is used by those trained in the Snake Style or Tien Hsueh." Does this mean that only those two styles can select Negative Chi Mastery skills and abilities?
2) If negative chi is not necessarily evil, why does the book state the abilities only be selected by evil alignments?
Answer: 1) Any style which can select Chi Mastery Abilities can select Negative Chi Mastery.
2) Failure to carry through with a conceptual idea, delete it.

Question: Has anyone else noted that it seems to be impossible to make a "combat mage" using Chi magic?
Answer: With the right planning, a character with Chi Magic can do a buttload of damage to an enemy, especially with those Clouds of Living Chi. Of course, with some of those Negative Chi infections and spells, you can seriously jack up an enemy, maybe they won't die immediately, but they will croak. However, that being said, I do think there's room for more combat type chi spells.

Question: In Rifts, PPE and ISP can be a one-time assignment or given an amount per level. What about Chi?
I've seen Chi that gets x2 at Level such and such or +10 for the same, but are there any examples anywhere where a PC would get 1D6 (or whatever) every single level?
Answer: In Mystic China, the Open Hand Martial Artist OCC, Antiquarian OCC, Fox Spirit RCC, Blind Mystic PCC, and Chi Arcanist PCC receive Chi in 1D6 or 2D6 increments with level advancement, but only at certain levels. I've not seen any classes that gain Chi at every level.

Question: Q #1 Where do i find the rifts conversion rules for Mystic china
Q #2 If your inside an accelerating vehicle and you Discorporate do you end up outside the vehicle when you come back from being one with the universe?
Q #3 Can Heal Mind chi power remove a Crazys insanitys?
Q #4 Can a Psi stalker use his sense SN to find a chi master?
Q #5 Where would i find information on how the coalition feels about chi masters?
Answer: 1) Rifter #3
2) If the GM wants it to, then yes.
3) Only Temporarily. Healing Induced Maddness/Insanity and Healing Mental Manipulation/Damage do NOT work against insanities produced by crazy implants.
4) No.
5) Probably Rifter #3

Question: does Cybernetics/Bionics degrade Chi like they do with PPE/ISP in Rifts? obviously borgs are really part of the setting but can a Martial Artist with a few mods function virtually the same as a "regular" PC ?
Answer: No in most cases, if you still have a P.E. attribute, you still have Chi.

Question: the ability to detect Chi in others, the quantity or lack thereof is described in N&SS. what range or what restraints are on this ?
I don't think someone looking thru a security cam could tell, but what about a two-way mirror looking into the next room ? do the parties have to be within physical proximity with no barriers between them ?
Answer: 1) 40 feet when using Chi Awareness. Your current zanshin circle size when applicable. The Blind Mystic (Mystic China) has a very indepth and detailed look at exactly what ranges they can do various aspects of this.
2) No, physical proximity is not a problem, nor are barriers. You can also check out the Blind Mystic if you want to make things more complex.

Question: if items are permanently filled with chi, what threshold do you use for damage before the chi is lost ? I'm thinking a dagger that has it's grip replaced is fine, but the blade breaks, then it's lost. Or a silk robe with a few moth holes, or tears is ok, but cut seriously or burned, then the chi is gone.
the Kime Kata is a special kata, and doesn't seem to specify that it can only be used in hand-to-hand combat or melee weapons. would you allow it to be used with a firearm?
Answer: 1) If the item is destroyed, the chi would be lost.
2) Only if the character attempting to use it with the firearm had a Weapon Kata with that firearm.

Question: While looking through the Negative Chi section in MC, I noticed what looks to be an oversight. For Control Negative Chi (Adv Ability), there is no time limit for how long the subsections of Enslave/Control through Negative Chi and Inflict Temporary Insanity through Negative Chi last. I know the obvious answer is probably "until the body is refilled with Positive Chi", but I need a more concrete answer.
The problem is that we have two Reformed Demons. Now while one has hit sufficient advancement to handle being filled with Positive Chi, the other hasn't.
The GM has ruled that the demons are fair game for the other Negative Chi abilities, so this would probably apply. And I really don't want to bring a potential problem to him without a suggestion for solving it.
Any ideas for time limits/countering abilities?
Answer: 1) Until the victim has had their Chi Healed, they die, or the attacker let's them go.
2) Mystic China, page 155, top paragraph of the left column. Any character that has at least one Negative Chi Mastery Ability can automatically dodge or parry any Control Negative Chi attack.
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#3: Author: Guest, Posted: 29 Mar 2005 05:55
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Question: When attacking some one with negative chi, is it correct that you remove there positive chi then fill them with negative up to there positive chi number? After that do you proceed to give there SDC damage? Thanks guys.
Answer: There's no limit on filling a person up with Negative Chi when you're attacking them with Negative Chi. So no, you do not proceed on to SDC damage.
However, once they've been infected with Negative Chi, there's a whole host of things you can do them (unfortunately they're found in Mystic China).
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#4: Author: Guest, Posted: 4 Feb 2006 19:08
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Question: I was thinking about a HU2 charactere and thought that bringing in a Psi-stalker into a HU2 game might be fun...but as you guys probably know there exists a severe lack of PPE and ISP in HU2, and I was wondering...can a Psi-stalker feed on chi?
Answer: No.
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#5: Author: Guest, Posted: 6 Apr 2007 18:19
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Question: Can someone using the Chi Ball Kata (Chi Kata, Mystic China pg157- insert a "gathered" chi ball into herself? If so, would it lose any chi in the process?
Answer: No.