Move Through

[Ndreare]

First: Is it legal to buy skill penelty levels for the move through/move-by penalties or would you have to buy CSL's with them?

This has come up with a speedster player in a group I am playing in and one of the other players believes PSL's are to cheep for the benifit of the move by-move through. So I agreed to go with a second rulling. (As the GM it has not upset game balance as the player told me durring creation this was his planned primary attack form and followed my DC/OCV limits.)

Second: Should PSL's be counted when giving a maximum OCV level for a game? (I have not been counting them.)

[Steve Long]

1. As a default rule, no, characters cannot buy PSLs to counteract the OCV penalties inherent in a specific Combat Maneuver. The point of PSLs is to reduce “specific types of negative modifier[s] for making particular types of attacks” — things like the Range Modifier or the Hit Location modifier. The OCV penalties inherent in a Maneuver aren’t really “general” enough for PSLs — to cancel them out, buy Combat Skill Levels. However, as always, the GM can allow it if he thinks it fits the character conception and doesn’t unbalance the game.

2. That’s up to each GM to decide. Since there are no official rules for the maximum OCV in a campaign (even the info on 5E 15 is just a suggested range/guideline), anyone who wants to set an OCV ceiling for his campaign has to decide for himself what factors into it.