Burning Shaolin Redux/ Wing of the Crane

Burning Shaolin Redux is fun!

I noticed today that one of the good guys, Chung Fu Tui, has Wing of the Crane and Beak of the Crane. Neither of these are in the FS2 rules. I found Beak of the Crane in the conversion codex under Lui Man Wai, but Wing of the Crane isn't to be found. What's the conversion for Wing of the Crane?

I don't know that there is an official one, and at first glance, it's a little tricky. In FS1, Wing of the Crane allows you to substitute your default Chi rating (not deducting any spent points) for Strength in "any tests that require it, including Damage determinations." It costs 2 Chi and 1 shot, and lasts "until the end of turn" (presumably until your next action).

Now, enemies (whether Featured Foes or Bosses) don't have Chi scores in FS2, so the Chi cost and the Chi for Strength substitution don't work. It looks like Chung's unarmed attack has been given a Damage rating of 10 (as opposed to the default 7), which suggests his base Damage has been buffed to reflect his WotC schtick. In that case, you could represent it as "add 3 to your MA Damage." So if he took up a sword during the fight, it would have a Damage value of 13. Alternately, you could say that WotC gives something over and above the elevated default Damage. For instance, if Chung spends an extra shot on his attack, he gets +2 (maybe even +3) to Damage. This would make him considerably more potent (unarmed base Damage 10, w/ WotC 12 or 13; sword damage 13, w/ WotC 15 or 16).

If I were trying to make Wing of the Crane a regular schtick for GMCs, I would think carefully about how to balance it. But as a one-off, I think you could play it in either of the ways mentioned above. If you have a lot of PCs or they have all picked more combat-capable archetypes, I'd probably just leave it as-is (+3 Damage on MA attacks). If there are fewer or you have some less combat-focused characters mixed in, the more powerful version might help. Obviously, if Chung is knocked out at the beginning of the fight (as prescribed in the adventure), this is all moot. But if you think the PCs could use the reinforcement, maybe make Chung's incapacitation contingent on a successful roll by Wu Wang.

Thanks @dsprag86 . Your reply is well-reasoned. Wing of the Crane sense no make with FS2.

+3 Damage on MA attacks sounded great, all the way up to the point where the PCs failed to disable Wu Wang. Wu took out Chung in one blow, and the fight was on. The PCs won and attuned the site by repairing it from the battle, then they Awesomed Up.

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