Right. They don't count as a daiklave. Straight out. If you're a ronin Sidereal, as you appear to be, then they may be freely used with your own self-developed martial arts style (favoured weapons - flowers and feathers) but these are not a sanctioned weapon of the Violet Bier of Sorrows. No material bonus, and the feathers together require a mote's committed Essence. But - I'll let you have the plumes for Artifact 2, and those stats are fine. We can talk about their origin off-wiki. Email me once the MA style's finished, and stuff. --Requiem
OK. Not being a daiklaive is a bit annoying, since at character creation she probably won't know more than one or two charms of the secret Style ( or maybe none at all since most secret styles seem to need at least Essence 4 to even start to learn ). She doesn't believe in man-made weapons so she will never use a daiklaive; I was thinking of the feather as basically being a daiklaive, but with a different flavor and slightly different stats. Maybe it could count as one, but need to be attuned to like one ( i.e rather than to allow you to carry it, you have to attune to avoid cutting your own hands in half. It has no handle. ) -- Xarak
The other alternative would be to make a whole new basic style...which would then lead into a secret style. That would mean more work but would be more original... -- Xarak
A new basic style would be good. I'm trying to decide if my character should have a new basic style or survive with Snake Style (which is a bit pants really). I'm also trying to decide if "Vasily" is a reasonable name for a Dynast. -- Senji
Working on a basic style now. Probably called "Autumn Butterfly Style". Name wise...not sure about Vasily...how about Vasile ( Vase-eel )? -- Xarak
ChessyPig and Inquisitor seemed to think it reasonable, if a loan-name from the Threshold. He'll probably end up being refered to by some people as Vasje, or would if I knew how to pronounce it.
Requiem assumes that this would be pronounced 'VAS-ya', or possibly with the second 'a' replaced by a schwa.
Whilst we're at it, we can replace the first one with a Shiggity-Shiggity. --Vitenka
Oh dear! Another rare SOJTMN moment. I knew there must be a reason why I read the Exalted pages. --AlexChurchill
Requiem says: It is a style developed independently by Amyra or taught to her by wood spirits. Amyra does not have access to Sidereal tutelage. Amyra would be the first practitioner ever of Autumn of Life Form and would have to design it herself.
Mmm. Yes, Indigo Butterfly will be taught to her by her distant reliatives, some Wood spirits. It's probably an ancient style which has almost "gone extinct". Autumn of Life, self developed, yes. That will explain it's idiosyncricies :) -- Xarak
Requiem suggests it also be compatible with all flowers, butterflies and feathers not made of 'man-made' materials, regardless of whether or not they are sharp. This makes charms easier to make for it. Amyra will be the only known practitioner of this form in Creation. Look at starting around base Ess 2, MA 3 charms and going up to Ess 3 or 4, MA 5 charms.
Does that include butterflies made out of Obsidian and Blue Jade? -- Senji
No. They're carved by the hand of man. You can't use rocks anyway, because they're inert and non-living. Essentially, you can use anything that once was part of some non-intelligent living creature but now isn't. Leaves, flowers, thorns, dead butterflies, dead spiders, feathers, etc. Amyra will never harm any living creature to get access to such things, they have to be "freely offered" i.e fallen leaves, already dead butterflies, etc. They don't have to be magically enhanced to use but if you want a permanent weapon that you can re-use, it will have to be an artifact. Sharp bladed weapons basically means "no blunt instruments", no bone clubs or flogging people with dead sheep, because that's just not cool. -- Xarak
The point was, Obsidian Butterflies as created by the Terrestrial Circle's signature spell *are* sharp bladed weapons. They aren't carved by the hand of man, they're summoned directly by an exalted sorceror. And no, they don't go away after the spell is cast. Obsidian butterflies were occasionally used as an edged weapon in Raven; I think it's reasonable that they could be used here. --SF
Well, maybe you could use them, but Amyra wouldn't, for ideological and aesthetic reasons. She only uses natural objects as defined above... -- Xarak
Well, I think we need at least one silly 'Does this [insert random object here] work with this style?' person - cf. 'While Going Really Really Fast' or 'turn your hand into a tool'. So - maaaaybe. --Requiem
Personally, I figured that in an Exalted kind of world, butterflies, petals and feathers would always be viable weapons. Flavour-wise give everything fantastically silly names, but rules-wise why does anything need to change? --Vitenka
No, sure. But without a Charm you're going to need MA 5 to throw a flower at someone and hurt them with it. Butterflies, petals and feathers aren't generally 'sharp bladed weapons', and I don't want arguments about jade artifacts or Wood-aspected wooden daiklaves. --Requiem
Wood-aspected daiklaves are jade like everyone elses surely? -- Senji
Yeah, green jade. Although if Amyra ever did use a man made artifact, it would probably be green jade...she won't. -- Xarak
Oh well, Exalted obviously isn't quite the flavour that I thought it was, then. To RulesLawyer? for a moment, there must be a middling cost way to have every such item that comes near you become a viable weapon. I dunno the rules for continually active magic, so I'll butt out here, but it's possibly the easiest way to acheiev the desired effect. --Vitenka
Well there are throwing charms that let you use anything as a lethal weapon. Without them, I'm assuming it would be a fairly legendary stunt to kill someone with a flying biscuit :) I'm sure you could make up a low-level artifact that would let you always do it, though. There's much more to the form than just throwing random objects at people like interesting-looking shuriken, though. One of the charms will probably involve throwing a daisy. If it penetrates the target's skin, it then explodes inside them : the petals fly out at high speed in a circle of little white razor blades. Great for decapitations... -- Xarak
Jamie I know you have probably put a lot of work and thought into this style already but I have come up with a complete charm tree for it (I just couldn't help myself). Would you like to see it? It contains 9 charms including a form type and a 4 rather cool utility charms. However the whole style is based on flowers and feathers but I didn't put in any butterfies.-- King DJ
Wow, excellent! I havn't really got much concrete work done on the charm tree, although I have been conceptualising. So yeah, please either mail it to me or put it up here, and then we can discuss it. -- Xarak
Simple addition of butterflies would be to use them anywhere a petal is used. Though I'm not quite sure how you could have enough of them handy. --Vitenka
Amyra collects such things. But hey, this is Exalted. In D&D you'd worry about running out of ammo, but just like the money system, there's no need to keep count of exactly how much of such things you're carrying... -- Xarak
Martial Arts 3 Essence 2 Type: reflexive Prerequisites: None Duration: 1 Scene Cost: 1 mote
1 feather, butterfly wing, flower petal etc. thrown or wielded by the character (and the character only) become hard and will do lethal damage equal to the mundane weapon they most resemble. If the weapon is small enough it may be thrown using either dex+thrown or dex+martial arts. Will have stats of Acc 0, Damage 2, Rate 3, Range 20.
Feather in the Wind
Martial Arts 3 Essence 2 Type: supplemental Prerequisites: None Duration: 1 action Cost: 2 motes Suggest 3 motes; MA Charms are less efficient than Athletics Charms. Ok fine -- King DJ
The character is picked up, apparently by a gust of wind called by the charm, and lifted high into the air. This effectively triples her jumping distance.
Feather Falling Technique
Martial Arts 3 Essence 2 Type: reflexive Prerequisites: Feather in the wind technique Duration: 1 Scene Cost: 2 motes
The character falls slowly and safely any distance for a scene, though strong winds may blow her around during decent.
Okay so I nicked the idea from air aspect powers, this is basically a speed bump for the charm below
This is in flavour, but not really good enough for a Charm at this level. Consider switching it for Graveside Bouquet. --Requiem
Indigo Butterfly Form (I was going to call it Spring Bloom form)
Martial Arts 4 Essence 2 Type: Simple Prerequisites: Feather Falling Technique, Essence hardening technique Duration: 1 Scene Cost: 5
The character may add her appearance to all dodge rolls made throughout the scene. All feathers etc. which the character wields are affected as though by Essence Hardening Technique. This does not allow her to make a dodge where none would otherwise be allowed.
Not very good on its own but with defence of shining joy or feather fight technique it is good. Willpower cost keeps it balanced though (and in style with Sidereals)
I'm not sure of this one. It's similar to Fire Immaculate Form, and definitely balanced with respect to it. I'd probably like it better at 5 motes no WP, like the other Form-type Charms. --Requiem
Consider it changed. I haven't seen said charm and so cannot possibly comment. Designed to create the legendary sidereal glass ninja effect (at least until they get the soak charm and that requires essence).
Graveside Bouquet style
Martial Arts 4 Essence 2 Type: Extra Action Prerequisites: Essence Hardening Technique Duration: 1 action Cost: 3 motes per extra attack
The character may throw up to [Essence] weapons created using Essence Hardening Technique at a single target. All these attacks must be at a single target and the character may not split her dice pool in the same turn this charm is used.
This only works with thrown attacks, not with melee attacks.
A finishing move charm really
Bit weak for a finishing move - against most things this is doing 4 dice of damage. But just right for an Extra-Action.
Kiss from of the Scarlet or more appropriately Violet Rose
Martial Arts 5 Essence 3--has to be essence 4 really -- King DJ Type: supplemental Prerequisites: Graveside Bouquet Style
(This charm is in the ranged part of the tree, it makes no logical sense to require the other charms before it. I think that dealing agg. is not that powerful unless you can combo it with an attack that ignores armour because every enemy exalt we have ever met has magic armour or a ridiculous dodge pool and how stupid are you going to look when you miss or deal ping with this charm. This charm is actually pretty useless without a combo with fang strike or some kind of a dice adder (neither exists in this style) and comboing it with the extra action charm would require you to spend many health levels. Increasing required essence to 4 means you will find the player going after other more broken and more shiny, shinys elsewhere.
I personally would never even take this charm!-- King DJ
Duration: Instant Cost: 5 motes 1 WP 1 HL
You charge up a suitable weapon with essence and imbue it with the power of the Maiden of Endings. An attack made with a thrown weapon penetrates the target on a successful attack and explodes violently, dealing normal damage plus essence damage, all of which is aggravated. If the target is killed it explodes spetacularly as it is ripped apart from the inside. The weapon is destroyed by the attack.
Ummmmm...... She no longer has a flower....... big deal...... I guess it means you can't use artifacts with it but that was the orginal intention anyway --King DJ
The speed bump Requiem suggested -- King DJ Unexpected Gust Distraction
Type: reflexive Prerequisites: Feather in the wind technique, indigo violet form Duration: instant Cost: 2 motes
Buys one dodge attempt against a ranged attack.
Feather Flight Technique
Martial Arts 5 Essence 4-- We should reduce it to 3 now as it isn't actually that good any more from a combat point of view-- King DJ Type: Simple Prerequisites: Unexpected Gust Distraction Duration: 1 Scene Cost: 5 motes 1 WP
The character is carried aloft by a wind and held there by swirling currents. The character can fly at a great speed however the motion is random and fliting and never amounts to more than her normal movement in a straight line. The character cannot remain motionless unless she has something to hold on to.
This is a very good charm and is perhaps in need of balancing
If it exists, it's a prayer strip Charm and and costs at least 10 Essence and a health level. See comments.--Requiem
A new prayer-strip would, of course, be a-canonical. I might be tempted to price it at X ess, 1 WP, 1 HL, for some value of X. -- Senji
OK due to the hail of protest no longer a persistant defence -- King DJ
Stalk Bending in the Breeze Attitude
Martial Arts 5 Essence 3 Type: reflexive
Prerequisites: Indigo Butterfly Form Duration: 1 action Cost: 3 motes
The character may roll martial arts after she is hit but before damage is rolled. The damage dealt to her is reduced by her number of succeses.
This is a typical just-short-of-pinnacle charm. But see my comment at the end.
Tulip in Winter Stratagem
Martial Arts 5 Essence 4 Type: reflexive Prerequisites: Stalk Bending in the Breeze Attitude Duration: At least 1 scene up to martial arts+stamina hours. Cost: 5 motes 1 WP
When a she is hit in combat the character may choose to pretend the enemy has struck a killing blow. The character rolls martial arts and subtracts her successes from the damage done. Then she appears to all observers to be dead. Her skin grows cold and her lips turn blue. It is impossible to determine that she is not dead unless you have higher essence than her, and even then a medicine roll of perception+medicine of difficulty 3 is required.
In this state she does not regain essence or health levels. She is also immune to poison, drowning, hunger or thirst or freezing (but not burning) and any time she takes lethal damage she may reflexively reduce damage taken by martial arts as for Stalk Bending in the Breeze Attitude.
The character hears and feels nothing for the remander of the scene after the charm is activated and may not awaken herself during this time. From this moment on she may listen in at a -4 dice pool penalty on perception+awareness and may reawaken herself. The character always knows instinctively if it is safe in the immediate future to reawaken herself.
Great idea! This may have to be part of the Sidereal style, but it's definately going to be part of the character in some form or another. Only one problem, Amyra is deaf...so she won't be able to listen to anything. Perhaps the form could grant its user dreamlike visions of her surroundings, so she knows ( hopefully ) when it's safe to awaken. -- Xarak
This charm fails after stamina+martial arts hours have elapsed.
Review as follows. The style is top-heavy. Two Charms is not enough before the Form; I'd prefer four. The first two Charms and the Form are balanced, as is Graveside Bouquet. Then we come to the others. Kiss of the Scarlet Rose is slightly more powerful than the Snake-style pinnacle Charm, based as it is on a thrown attack; however, it destroys the weapon you use with it, which makes it balanced as a pinnacle Charm (top charm of the style). Feather Falling Technique is a good base-level Charm with no prerequisites. But Feather Flight Technique ranks with the Form Charms of most of the Sidereal MA. No *way* are you getting to use that *and* Indigo Butterfly Form; it would be utterly, utterly broken. Martial Arts has no persistent defences. This is for reasons of game balance. Stalk Bending in the Breeze Attitude is very powerful, and ranks next to, say, Armour-Penetrating Fang Strike. Hence it's fine for its position in the tree. Tulip in Winter Stratagem - this is the best Charm in the whole style. It's flavourful, it's great, position in the Charm tree is just right.
Then we come to flavour and, well, balance. The style amounts to: jump anywhere you want, if you fall off it you don't get hurt, you can throw natural things, you dodge EVERYTHING, you reduce the damage you do take to only 1 or 2 levels, you fly around, and on the very slim chance you actually get badly injured, you can play dead till they go away. In other words, it's a bit overpowered and the flavour isn't consistent. Try to stick with 'fly and dodge and throw stuff'. Lose the persistent defence from Feather Flight or rocks will fall on your head. I'd say - you may buy dodges for some cost (say 2 motes a time) as a separate Charm between Indigo Butterfly Form and Feather Flight Technique. This still makes the style very powerful, probably not on a par with Violet Bier of Sorrows, but its scope is wider and its non-combat applications absolutely massive. --Requiem
Quick comment, more to come : My general idea about the flavor and concept of the style was : "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" with the emphasis on the sting. Motion-based charms are good, but most of the charms will be attack based. Non combat applications will be limited. It's designed to cause heavy damage to a single opponent; it's an assasain's/executioner's form. It will have a number of high essence cost charms as well as a persistent attack, but will have no charms to enhance combat against multiple enemys, and few defence charms. The defence charms will be focused exclusivly on not being hit; no damage reducing charms. With this in mind Jack's ideas are in many ways just what I had in mind. Others arn't, but are great ideas anyway. However, I definately think the Form charm itself has to enhance your attack abilitys. I was thinking something along the lines of cost 10 motes + 1 WP ( high cost ), gives a bonus equal to your Essence to Dexterity ( helps both attack and defence ), and extra successes count twice for the purposes of determining damage. Sound reasonable? Jack's suggestion for the form type is good though, it could become part of Autumn of Life as one of the starting charms, with a little souping-up. -- Xarak
Right. Suggest we do this by email; this page is getting a bit silly. --Requiem
I didn't think that adding MA requirements was nessicary as he is GOING to take MA 5.
I have noticed that in general sidereal charm trees lack some of the blattent speed bumps before the decent charms expecially compated to solar ones. The form type charm is on its own on a par with snake form but it doesn't increase as much with essence. It certainly isn't as good as snake form+ essence fangs and scales.
MA trees are slightly different, because anyone can take them (at Celestial level, anyway). -- Senji
I agree that the flight charm is overpowered but there are other persistant defences in existance before it. I think I will re write it just to give flight and add suggested speed bump charm.
Bending in the Beeze Attitude can only be used if you have tried and failed to dodge the attack and haven't used a charm on it. It effectively allows you to add for the purposes of one attack MA to soak (a low powered DB charm), if you want to combo it with a dodge charm go ahead. You might as well have spent the essence and willpower on a perfect defence.
This style has no initiative adder, no persistant soak booster, no damage increaser, one inaccessible agg. dealer, no dice adder, no counter attack............
I do not agree the style has no favour. It is a good defensive, glass ninja style which allows for lots of jumping around and throwing things as its 3 strengths. This is basicaly inspired by the story. Its weeknesses are that it is ineffective against armour and is useless if somebody gets the drop on you as it is persistant heavy and as it contains no very powerful attack charms or initiative charms it is not much use from ambush either.
Please note that the lack of an artifact thrown weapon that can be used with this style greatly reduces the power of all the thrown parts of it.
We'll talk about this. I think bits need reworking, because glass ninja is quite difficult to do. I suspect (given Jamie's comment, EditConflicting? me) that his idea for the form is a bit more psychotic than the above. Let's do this by email, cause this page is getting very very convoluted. --Requiem
Good idea. I'll e-mail both of you late tonight with comments + stuff. Then I'll clear up this page and move the current debate to an old stuff page. Other people feel free to keep adding comments here, though. -- Xarak
What you describe is pretty much the solar thrown tree anyway. I don't know but the Sideral thrown tree offers some interestng options as well. Perhaps if you only took essence hardening technique and ignored the style completely you could build a throwing artist around that. -- King DJ
Sidereal throwing tree weird. Much more Mercury-flavoured. You have to be aware of Ability, College and Maiden when looking at Sid charms. But yeah - suggest page be DeFactored?. --Requiem
Please note that the lack of an artifact thrown weapon that can be used with this style greatly reduces the power of all the thrown parts of it.
Lets continue this by e-mail I agree the page is too cluttered. I like the style now. Shame no-one will ever use it.
Relic of Nature's Aid Cost: 1 mote MA: 2 Ess: 2 Type: Reflexive Duration: Instant Prerequisites: None
The character imbues Essence into a single natural, formerly-living object, no heavier than her fist, which must have an 'edge' of some kind. For the rest of the scene, she may wield it as a weapon equivalent to a throwing dagger.
Erm, this is rather a lot stronger than Generalized Ammunition Technique for the same cost. GAT is supplemental, meaning you have to fire the arrow in the same round you create it. 2 motes is probably a better cost, especially if this is allowed as a Reflexive. --SF
Throwing knives are weaker than powerbow-launched arrows, and this can only be used on a narrow range of objects. Plus, it's her signiature charm :) -- Xarak
See Ivory Spine Attack for the Abyssal Thrown Charm inspiring the costs and mechanics for both this and White and Crimson Circle. It costs 1. --Requiem
White and Crimson Circle Cost: 3 motes Duration: Instant Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 3 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: Relic of Nature's Aid
The character throws a daisy, or other such circular flower, at her enemy. This counts as an attack with Relic of Nature's Aid. However, if this attack does at least one point of damage, the flower has penetrated the target's skin. If the flower enters the target's body it then explodes, the petals flying outwards at high speed in circle of tiny, vicous blades. This causes additional levels of Aggrevated damage equal to the character's Essence, however the victim can roll Stamina and each success subtracts one level from the damage taken.
Aggravated damage is not dealt below the Form of MA. We discussed this. --Requiem
I'm sure it's true, but what kind of insane system defines the word 'aggravated' to be less than 'lethal' ? --Vitenka
I think you're misunderstanding. Agg is the 'worst' sort of damage, Lethal is your 'bladed weapon' level and Bashing is 'you got hit by something'. -- Senji
No, I understand that this is the meaning WhiteWolf use. It just doesn't mesh very well at all with the everyday meaning of the words. --Vitenka
Lethal damage appropriately means "damage that could kill". Any lethal damage at all would be sufficient to kill a mortal unless they get medical aid.
Aggravated damage is damage that is worse than that (you might call it "Aggravated Lethal damage" if you wanted to be picky.
Perhaps I just think differently, but it seemed reasonable to me. "Bashing" isn't a term I like, but... -- Senji
It's not great but I can't think of a better naming system. -- Xarak
I think it's just you've been so converted by the WhiteWolf usage of Aggravated ;) Common, (nil), grievous, aggravated, lethal seems to be the more usual ordering of prefixes. --Vitenka (Stun damage, perhaps?)
It could be "Stun", "Lethal" and "Grievous" damage, I suppose. But I don't think that Lethal damage has to be the highest type. -- Xarak
Lethal does need to be at the top of the tree! I mean, barring something totally OverTheTop? like UniverseDestroying?. Grievous and Aggravated mean, basicaly 'bad' and 'made worse' - lethal means 'dead'. Dead is worse than bad! --Vitenka (This is all stemming from adding 'lethal' to 'damage' - it used to be just 'damage' and 'aggravated damage' which made sense.)
Lethal damage can kill you. It doesn't always if you don't take enough of it. In normal speech if we say someone took lethal injuries, that generally means they did die of them, so it should be potentially lethal, but that's too long. Think of it this way, a knife is a lethal weapon, but you can survive a stab wound. Although that said, a spoon is a potentially lethal weapon so...meh -- Xarak
I'd have said that 'aggravated damage' is short for 'aggravated lethal damage', which is pretty much how the game treats it. It's lethal damage that has been 'made worse' by being difficult to heal. Not that this countermands your point, Vitenka. --Requiem
As it stands, ping ought to be able to cause this damage. This Charm is now fine. --Requiem
Hmm, the way I interpret ping damage it's sort of 'side-effect' damage, rather than actual direct damage -- so that the flower wouldn't have entered the body, but... -- Senji
Me too. OK, this does 3 damage, I have a soak of 10, but it (entirely, otherwise this charm doesn't work) enters my body? Seems more likely to be trauma from Newton's Third Law and my armor. --SF
On the other hand, if we're treating the flower as a small penetrating attack (like an armour penetrating shell) then it works, sort of. -- Senji
No, because it's a flower. OK, so it has a hardened edge, but it's still flower-shaped. Armour-piercing shells contain a shaped-charge warhead (and, erm, are made of depleted uranium or similar high-density high-strength material) and have their geometry specifically designed to direct the full force of the explosion against the armor they struck. Flowers are "designed" by evolution to open in such a way that they allow the greatest possible access to the wind/small insects to them to scatter pollen; unsurprisingly, this leads to a geometry somewhat inverted from that of an armor-piercing shell. --MatSciSF
If it's thrown with a spin, could you get a similar effect from a buzz-saw like thingy? -- Senji
I don't have any problem w/the tip of the flower penetrating. I want to know how he's getting all these petals into the character through their armor.... --SF
Oh, it's Exalted. Stuff like this happens all the time. Your Materials Science is no match for Essence! Although, given the amount of controversy over this charm, I may have to rewrite it again... -- Xarak
The flower strikes a join or other weak spot and goes through. This is modelled on the Abyssal Charm, Ivory Spine Attack. (And out of sheer pedantry - there are many ways to make an armour piercing shell. Shaped charge is one, DU or tungsten kinetic penetrator is an entirely separate one. The flower could quite easily be a kinetic penetrator in the style of the misnamed 'sabot' round.) --Requiem
Actually it wasn't modelled on it, it was a coincidencee that it's similar -- Xarak
Well, I've been modelling the Charms' effects and costs on other Charms from random other trees. --Requiem
Well, if it's done enough damage to register in Exalted, it must have done, is the way I see it. You just don't get hurt by a flying flower unless it cuts into you. -- Xarak
Yeah, I guess flowers aren't exactly your average weapon... -- Senji
This charm is really weak for the essence cost.-- King DJ
How about making the damage Aggrevated? Since it bypasses traditional soak anyway, this wouldn't be a major benefit, but it would make the damage harder to heal, good against Lunars! -- Xarak
Reduced cost by a further mote - Ivory Spine attack costs 1 and is reflexive. [takes large red 'Approved' stamp] Charm approved. :stamp: --Requiem
Death Flies on Butterfly Wings Cost: 5 motes MA: 4 Ess: 2 Type: Simple Duration: Instant Prerequisites: White and Crimson Circle
The character takes out a dead butterfly, kisses it, and sends it flying towards her target, animating it with the power of essence. This counts as an attack with Relic of Nature's Aid. However, the butterfly seeks out its target's anima, swirling and fluttering around any defence. The enemy must subtract a number of successes from any defence roll equal to their own Essence, as the more Essence they wield, the more skillfully the butterfly attacks. The enemy's soak is also reduced by their Essence when trying to absorb this attack.
The character has mastered the art of appearing reassuringly innocent and harmless, even when innocence is the last thing on her mind. She may double her initiative on the first round of combat, because her opponents do not suspect her of such ferocity. This may, depending on circumstances, also have an effect in social or larcenous situations.
Striking at crucial essence chakras on her target's body, the character closes the victim's mind to the outside world like a flower closes as dusk falls. A target struck by the Folding Orchid Tecqnique loses their ability to sense their surroundings : they lose their vision first, but more powerful character's may be able to relieve their targets of their hearing or sense of touch and pain.
If this attack does damage, it does not cause the loss of health levels. Instead, it removes the opponent's sensory abilities. They gain a dice pool penalty equal to the character's Essence on all rolls which require sensory abilities, unless they can avoid this by making a Wits + Essence roll at a difficulty equal to the character's Essence. This lasts for a number of rounds equal to the number of damage successes. Repeated applications of this charm cause the duration to stack. Extras hit by this charm are automatically rendered helpless for a scene.
The flavour here is ridiculous. To achieve this effect would require a Dragon-Blooded to use three charms, costing together 9m 3W. Now, Celestial charms are stronger than Terrestrial ones. They are not, however, this much stronger. The effect is probably OK though. Oh, and wtf is a chakra? --SF
It's an energy flow center, according to Chinese medicine. I'm not 100% sure this charm fits the tree myself, but I think it's balanced. -- Xarak
You are talking about the DB Awarness charms? They don't require you to hit your target, plus the in order to achieve the same effect in combat you would only need to use 2 of the charms as in combat destroying the targets sense of smell and taste seems a little pointless to me. -- King DJ
The idea is that it doesn't entirely rob them of the relevant sense.--Requiem
Indigo Butterfly Form Cost: 6 motes MA: 4 Ess: 2 Type: Simple Duration: Scene-length Prerequisites: White and Crimson Circle, Folding Orchid Tecqnique
Weaving a complex kata, the character begins to move as gracefully as a butterfly, limbs and weapons slicing through air and flesh like steel wings as her anima begins to gently flow in a fluttering pattern behind her. She attacks from unexpected angles, leaping around defence and striking at vulnerable positions before dancing back out of range.
For the duration of the scene, the character may add her Martial Arts in dice to all attack and damage rolls, and applicable 'natural' objects touched by her are under the effects of Relic of Nature's Aid. A character can only use one Martial Art form type charm at one time.
Adding dice to damage rolls is a little unusual (read: unheard of) as a persistant effect. Then again she's going to need the help against most likely opponents in the Realm, who will be wearing shiny (not-woven)Jade armor. --SF
There are many scene-length Strength adders, and they're effectively damage adders. This just doesn't rely on brute strength. Plus, it fits the flavor of the form really well, I think. -- Xarak
How about making it a TN reducer instead? Fits Sidereal stuff better... -- Senji
Could do but I'd prefer not to, especially since this wasn't originally a Sidereal-only form, and Amyra's ability to manipulate fate is sloppy as she's a Ronin. -- Xarak
No! No you couldn't! TN reducers, perfect attacks and perfect defences do not come under the purview of martial arts.
Mmm, Woven Jade... -- Kira
Feather In The Wind Technique Cost: 5 motes MA: 4 Ess: 2 Type: Reflexive Duration: Instant Prerequisites: Indigo Butterfly Form
The character leaps up into the air and is swept away as if by a strong wind. This effectively doubles her jumping distance horizontally, and four times as high vertically. The charm remains active as long as the character is in the air, and allows her to fall up to several hundred yards without the risk of damage. In addition, this can be used to augment a dodge : add the character's Martial Arts to the dodge roll.
Tulip-in-Winter Stratagem Cost: 7 motes Martial Arts: 5 Essence: 3 Type: Reflexive Duration: Special Prerequisites: Feather In The Wind Teqnicque
When she is succesfully hit in combat, the character may choose to pretend the enemy has struck a killing blow. The character rolls her Martial Arts and subtracts the successes from the damage done by the attack, although her wounds appear to be serious. She falls to the floor and appears to all observers to be dead. Her skin grows cold and her lips turn blue. If an attempt is made to determine if she is dead or alive, a Perception + Medicine roll of difficulty 4 is required to find out the truth.
In this dormant state, the character does not regain essence or health levels. Her metabolism has reduced to a tiny trickle; she is immune to poison, drowning, hunger, thirst or exposure. Her Bashing and Lethal soak is increased by her Martial Arts.
The character hears and feels nothing for the remander of the scene after the charm is activated and may not awaken during this time. From the end of the scene, she becomes vaguely, instinctivly aware of her surroundings although none of her senses are active. She can detect any presences nearby or imminent danger. She may remain dormant for up to her Martial Arts + Endurance + Essence hours, at which point she awakens quietly.
Yes, this charm still rocks. Although it should be Tulip-In-Winter Stratagem, to fit canonical naming practices.
I see some interesting in-party stuff resulting from this charm, the first time it's used... -- Senji
Cost: 4 motes Duration: Scene-length Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: Indigo Butterfly Charm
Gathering her lavender Essence around her in a completely new and unexpected way, the practitioner of Indigo Butterfly Style empowers herself with some new and fascinating ability for a scene. During that time, she does something original and interesting, without being more powerful than Essence Fangs and Scales or Crippling Pressure-Point Strike. This is not a perfect effect.
--Requiem
This has to be the best charm on the page. The applications are endless! -- King DJ
Agreed. MartialArts? Stuff. Don't change a thing! --Vitenka (Semi-seriously, every school of martial arts needs a signature 'cool' move that looks impressive but is functionally useless except to identify the practicioner as such. Except, of course, that everyone seeing the move refuses to believe that it is useless - which ends fights quite quickly)
How about "Drawing Down Attitude": by demonstrating the perfection and allure of the end of all things the target feels like there is no point in going on and instead is resigned to their fate, as the battle turns against them they accept the inevitable. The wound penalties suffered by the target are doubled for one scene unless they can succeed a conviction roll at difficulty 2. -- King DJ
lol, eh...so does this mean she can make up a new effect every time she uses it, or just when she learns it? -- Xarak
No no - it's always the same effect, it's description is simply "some new and fascinating ability". --Vitenka
Leaping high into the air, the character draws her essence around her body before plunging towards her enemy, energy blazing around her foot or weapon as she falls in a lethal violet arc. This attack sacrifices accuracy, as the character's descent gives the enemy more time to avoid the attack, but woe to any who fail to get out of the way...
When the character declares this attack she decides how many motes to spend on it. There is no limit on this number. For every 2 motes spent, she loses 1 success on her attack roll but the base damage of the attack is increased by 3, if she hits. This attack can only be used with bare-handed or melee weapon based attacks, not ranged attacks. It requires at least 1 yard of headroom per mote spent upon it, so may be unsuitable for use in cramped locations. It negates any possible "perfect attack" effects; if the character gets 0 successes on her attack roll with this charm, she always misses.
If the character bodges this attack, she takes one level of unsoakable bashing damage, as she slams her hand or foot into the ground very very hard.
In the moment of ending, all things are perfect, as they finally reach the moment they existed so long to meet. By imbueing a once-living object with a kiss of Essence, a character can cause it to become, for a second, perfection realised, greater than it ever was in life. This charm is typically used with Relic of Nature's Aid or its related teqniques, although it could be used in other situations, such as a Performance. It causes a dead leaf, flower or other such object to suddenly become a glowing ( typically purple or deep blue ), ethereal icon of its former living self, breathtakingly and tragically beautiful. After just a few seconds under the influence of this charm, the target object is totally subsumed back into the essence flow of the world and gone forever
This charm can always be used with Relic of Nature's Aid and related charms, without the use of a combo. It cannot be used with bare-handed attacks, and will destroy any weapon it is used with. This charm adds dice to the attack roll equal to the number of additional motes spent upon it. In addition, up to [half the number of motes spent] extra successes count twice for determining the damage of the attack. The maximum number of additional motes that can be spent on this charm is the character's [Dextery + Martial Arts].
This is a bit much. MA dice adders are less efficient than Melee ones, not more so. Remove the cap, as there's already a canonical cap on it at (Att + Abil). At the new cost, it is similar to Spine-Shattering Bite from Tiger-style MA. --Requiem
It's as efficient, but has a lower cap, at least until you get to massive Essence levels. It's a cap of 6 ( or 4 even ) for a starting character, as opposed to 10 for a starting melee munchkin. I'll change the cost, but keep my cap for the moment. It makes more sense given what the charm actually does. -- Xarak
I have to agree with Requiem. Sidereals don't do dice adders (and neither does martial arts very much). If you combine this with your scene length dice and damage adder the result is really really sick. Perhaps the charm could add damage dice or convert a few to perfect sucesses (say up to essence). -- King DJ
OK. Would you be happier with : Cost 2+ motes. For each 2 motes spent, one attack dice rolled is an automatic success, up to [Essence] dice. In additon, up to this many extra successes count twice for the purposes of determining damage. -- Xarak
That's a Lunar Strength charm. The problem with using new and different mechanics is that they have usually been used by someone else first. I don't like autosuccess buyers outside of Lunar Charms. As it stands, this is fine. The Dex + MA cap is because that's what MA diceadders cap at. And King_DJ - this is not a Sidereal Charm tree. It's a Martial Arts one. Thus, it has to balance vs. Solar charms not Sidereal ones. The Charm, at 3 motes and 1 per additional dice, is just right. --Requiem
Violet Autumn Storm Style Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 Lethal health level Duration: Scene-length Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min. Essence: 4 Prereqs: Perfect Ending, Tulip in Winter Stratagem
Moving with the violence and grace of a feather spiralling in a tornado, the character is surrounded by a roiling purple and red radiance aura filled with circling violet butterflys, which whips around her opponent as she assails them with endless fury like a relentless storm.
As long as the character spends all the actions on attacking one individual, she may split her dice pool into two attacks at -0/-0, three at -1/-1/-1, etc. up to a maximum equal to her (Essence x 2) attacks. Each of these attacks may be used to perform a Relic of Nature's Aid, White and Crimson Circle or Death Flies on Butterfly Wings attack without requiring the use of a Combo, although the full cost of these charms must be paid, and all the attacks must be of the same type if this is done.
In addition, the storm automatically causes [the character's Essence] - [her opponents Essence] + 1 health levels of Lethal damage to her chosen opponent at the end of each round. This effect has a range of 10 yards.
Hmm, actually I'm wondering if, for an Essence 4, 2 WP charm, this isn';t a little on the weak side...? -- Xarak
Hmm... I might be tempted to exchange one of the WP for a health-level, in line with Conclusion Pursuing Approach (and other high-level Sidereal charms), both because it fits the style better, and because WP is quite a limited commodity. On the other hand, I think the limit to "Essence or Martial Arts attacks" is low, since a character who's taking this charm will probably be able to split her pool 8 or 9 ways in the traditional manner. -- Senji
I wondered the same thing. Maybe give you Dragon-Blooded anima damage? Fits w/the description --SF
Seeing as your character will probably kill or be killed very quickly due to the nature of the style and the fact that the charm doesn't really give you much of a bonus when you split your dice pool I think it is too expensive. Perhaps some kind of anima damage or a scene length get one free martial attacks attack a round at full dice pool so long as all actions for the round involve attacking that one opponent. -- King DJ
OK. I've added another effect and changed the cost a bit. See what you think. -- Xarak
"Storm" - like effects deal damage to everyone within a certain radius. It's not a bolt attack; it does damage indiscriminately. For reference - Stuart is suggesting one dice of lethal a round to all within [Essence] yards. --Requiem
Mmm, but this style is meant to to be used to assail a single opponent. "Storm" is perhaps a little inappropriate, it's an aura which surrounds the character and a single opponent. -- Xarak
Well, your call. I reckon increase the cap to (Essence x 2) and decrease the penalties by one, now that it's the pinnacle Charm and quite so expensive. I think that the HL vs. WP thing is up to you. They are about equivalent seeing the amount of WP that people at Ess 4 have to use on their top Charms. --Requiem
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