Wood Skin

[Jason]

I would like to hear thoughts/discussion or even official clarification on this talent. As I explain below, I think there is a loophole in the RAW with clarification.

I was pondering on wood skin along with its clarification and it seems possible that there is a loophole that makes it a 'better' then Fire Blood replacement. I noticed under duration for talent, there was nothing about willfully ending the effect of a talent early. And baring the end effect of Wood Skin clarification, I couldn't find any talents where it would really matter.

So right now when using wood skin you are effectively healed what you are rolled, because of the end effect. Wood Skin therefore is effective at healing you as Fire Blood. The limitation would come to using it more then once during its duration. This is where the the question of being able to willfully end a talent early comes into play. If you can't, Wood Skin is limited in frequency based on your rank (no two uses can be closer then rank hours to each other) and could at least be used to expedite healing out of combat. If you can, the type of action/time to cancel would determine how close to Fire Blood in effect it is. Simple - as fast, Standard - questionable combat use, longer - no combat use, but still could be used to expedite healing.

Relevant parts of Wood Skin and clarification.

Spend recovery test & make Wood Skin test, add result to health ratings for Wood Skin rank in hours.
Clarification: When Wood Skin’s effect wears off, it takes damage equal to the result with it. For example, if Elmod’s Health Ratings are increased by 13 due to Wood Skin, up to 13 damage is removed when it wears off.
The talent remains in effect for the full duration, even if the adept falls unconscious.

I don't think that this is the Rules As Intended. I saw someone doing it this way (which was also what I was thinking was a good solution to this issue):

Spend recovery test & make Wood Skin test, gain a temporary hit-point pool equal to the test for Wood Skin rank in hours.
Hit-point pool can be healed in the same way that normal hit-points can during the duration of the effect.
Damage will still cause wounds as normal, even if the hit-point damage is taken fully or party from the hit-point pool

Basically a hit-point buffer pool that doesn't impact getting wounded. Eliminates the end effect of healing (and all the oddness above).

[Jason]

I would like to add this question also:

So if woodskin is dispelled, does it take damage away as it is being dispelled?

It was asked of me when I was discussing this question via another channel.

The clarification states

When Wood Skin’s effect wears off, it takes damage equal to the result with it.

but I am not sure how to interpret that regarding being dispelled.

[The Undying]

1) Really, I'd recommend against trying to parse words too carefully, it rarely turns out productive. Unless I've missed it somewhere, the system makes no distinction about how something ends, just that it ends. Expired duration ends an effect just like Dispel ends an effect. That should come into play when we read the text (including errata). Therefore, it's far more likely that "wears off" is just a pleasant way to say "ends" and is not an explicit note of "ends because of duration expiration."

2) Is there anything in the system or text that suggestions you should be able to end an effect by will prior to duration? Again, I think this is another area where trying to parse things too hard is generally unproductive. Things have a duration, and without an explicitly statement saying an effect can be dismissed before duration expires, it's more likely that effects last the duration and then end rather than having an off switch that can be flicked. Dispel is the only thing in system (that I can recall) which can end a Talent effect prior to duration expiration. Personally, I'm not against the idea of allowing effects to end by choice when it furthers the story; for example, if you get accosted in the streets on your way to a meeting and use Wood Skin, would be nice to end it before going into the meet rather than walking in looking like a shrub. HOWEVER, I don't think I'd allow it in order to exploit loop holes that appear with premature effect ends, which brings us to...

3) At a certain point, GM discretion and judgement really needs to take precedence over potential wording pitfalls. Do you think it is the intent of the designers or the system for the process you've identified to exist? Knowing the scarcity of healing, knowing that Fireblood exists, and given the observations above, do you think it is the intent of designers or the system for people to flick Wood Skin on for a second and then off in order to heal Wood Skin Step damage? I would say no. At most, the errata is likely best interpreted as "Wood Skin creates a temporary Health Rating pool that is expended first when Damage is received," so the intent is more likely "if I receive Damage with Wood Skin up, it hits the Wood Skin pool first until it is expended" rather than "when I use Wood Skin, any existing Damage transfers to the new Wood Skin pool." However, tracking whether Damage goes against temporary Health Rating or not is too fiddly / too much bookkeeping, something which the designers aren't keen on, so the blanket statement that it ferries away Damage (even, sadly, if it happens to exist prior) on effect end is the easy answer.

Hope that helps.