Harness Spirit
Grasshopper, you have studied the ambient spiritual energy circling throughout the cosmos: ki; the very life force inherent all things. You recognize the precious balance of the positive and negative forms of ki. Through your studies, you have special insight into channeling it, controlling it, and using it to your benefit. You may use and add to the Spirit Points (SP) stat (based initially on your SFC score), and can buy ki-related trumps.
It costs 3 AP to Harness one Spirit Point. You may then expend the Spirit Point to receive a +2 bonus on your next check. You may Harness your Spirit Points as many times as you like, consecutively, and apply that bonus on your next check. For instance, if Leiwyn spends 6 AP in a round Harnessing her Spirit, she expends 2 SP and receives a +4 bonus on her next check. If she were to continue Harnessing on her next turn, she could spend 3 or 4 SP and receive a +6 or +8, respectively.
This bonus may be used to improve Skill checks as the spirit energy has temporarily improved your mental, physical, social, or spiritual faculties. It can also be used for the Attack Roll as the spirit energy has temporarily improved your aim. If the Harness is done at the end of a character's turn and the character must make any kind of defensive roll before his next turn (such as a Evasion Roll, a Guard Roll, or a save against a spell), the bonus can optionally be used for defending as the spirit energy can temporarily improve speed, endurance, or resistance to the arcane. The only roll that cannot benefit from this Trump is the Casting Roll — mana and ki are two separate things.
Any character that takes physical damage while Harnessing Spirit must make a Mind Control check at a DL of 10 + any damage dealt. Failure means broken concentration and all Spirit Points harnessed are lost.
Harnessing Spirit can represent many historical martial art concepts including Iaijutsu, Iron Shirt, and Iron Palm.