Editing Mnemon Explains Solar Combat (section)

====Using the scenery====

This is one of the best defences available to you - not only can it make your enemies' life very difficult, but it's almost impossible to use without getting a +2 stunt!

The key to using the scenery to your advantage is the charm Graceful Crane Stance. Other Athletics charms are good (particularly Spider Foot Style and Monkey Leap), but no matter how good your Athletics is, you don't want to have to make balance rolls - that's for the enemy.

You want two things - height, and instability. Height means your enemies have penalties to their attacks AND defences against you - from -1 for a gentle slope to -3 for anything requiring hands to climb. The fun really starts when they scramble up to meet you, however, if you've got yourself somewhere nice and unstable, like a thin ledge, a bamboo branch, a shard of broken glass, a chandelier, a boat mast etc.

If your opponent is forced to make a balance roll, then it's an action, and they must split their pool if they want to do anything else. This means that they can't Full Dodge or use a Simple or Extra Action charm. For horribly evil fun, if you know Ebon Shadow Style, use Distracting Finger Gesture on them, which prevents them from splitting their action...meaning their sole choice is to balance or fall.

If you're particularly skilled, you might be able to get into a place where melee attackers simply cannot reach you, in which case you can range attack with impunity.

Obviously ranged attackers don't suffer these problems...in which case you go for cover!