the snake schtick "shed skin" states that it requires 8 chi to use over an 8 hour time period.
This transformed animal package offers no boost to chi, and as such, a starting played has only 7 chi. does this mean that the player must first up his chi through xp gain to use the schtick? or does the fact that chi regenerates every sequence make it a moot point, and a character who sheds his skin is assumed to be using the chi over the eight hours, with it regenerating all the while?
any aid you can give me would be great. I'm just starting this episode off, and I'm still giving my players the option of going back on character creation decisions.
I've always assumed that they had to buy up their Chi first. After all, if they don't regenerate for 12 hours then you can't use the sequence regeneration to replenish them. Otherwise the Chi cost would be irrelevant as long as it was non-zero. It strikes me as the sort of ability that would be inconvenient for the GM if a starting character had it.
If the character really wants to be able to change their appearance or mimic foes they either have to spend a minimum of 30XP (for the Chi increase and a sixth schtick) or have schticks they can't use until they've spent 16 XP.
If it came up during a game, where the a TA Snake had taken this schtick and hadn't had a chance to raise their Chi/Fu yet... if it was really important to the story that the Snake sheds their skin (such as, escape from prison, rescue a friend from certain death, trick a super-villain into a final confrontation), then I'd probably bend the rules a bit to allow it to happen.
For example, I might tell the snake:
"Your great-grandfather once mentioned a rumor about an ancient ritual, secretly passed down among certain members of the Snake clan, that might allow a young Snake to boost his Chi temporarily, but it was very dangerous and should only be used in an emergency..."
I'd make the ritual difficult to get or difficult to perform... essentially, it only works if the plot needs it to. But that should work as a stop-gap until the snake gets enough XP to increase is attributes.
Or here's another idea:
Potion of the Viper's Kiss
The imbiber of this potion must make a Con roll with a Difficulty of 10. If the roll fails, then he takes double the amount he missed by in Wounds (ignoring Toughness). Regardless of whether the roll succeeds or fails, his Chi attribute increases by 1 and he gains the Friend of Darkness schtick for the next 24 hours.
If a Snake gets into a nasty spot, a Pledged operative might be able to slip them a vial of this, or an Old Master might "conveniently remember" that he picked up this strange bottle in the Mad Scientists' Lab, or it's found on a body after a "closet full of ninja assassins" attack.
It's not a general rule, but mentioned in the Shed Skin schtick. I guess it was more intended to give a period of vulnerability after using it, but it also helps clarify that the long process doesn't allow you to regenerate chi during it.
As it's not listed as a secondary attribute, I'd say no. Transformed animals already have access to really powerful schticks and being able to increase their Chi as cheaply as martial artists can increase Fu would probably be unbalancing.
However, Transformed Animals CAN increase their Fu attribute, and use that instead of Chi to power their schticks. This isn't clear in the rules or FAQ, but I'm pretty sure either Robin or one of the other designers said this was possible.