Revision as of 04:58, 1 December 2005

Dawn Fist (0.9)

by BrigandRansom

Developed by Dan Tai, the Fist of Dawn, Dawn Fist Style focuses on Clinches, dominating opponents, and lightning-fast strategy. Visually the style is very similar to Muay Thai Boxing. Dawn Fist Style treats Roped Fists and other Clinch Aids as unarmed. Considering Dan Tai's experience as a Temple acolyte and is Training in the Sequestered Tabernacle, the Style is very appropriate for the Defense of Temples and other Holy Places

The First Light of Dawn

Cost: 1 Mote per Die
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. martial Arts: 2
Min Essence: 1
Prereqs: None

The acolyte's first lesson is Quick thought and response. This charm allows the practitoner to buy additional damage dice for a successful unarmed strike up to a maximum of the practitioner's MA rating. This applies to unarmed strikes only (punches, kicks, knees, elbows, headbutt), not clinches or throws. These dice are added after the strike is resolved, but before armor and soak.

Embrace of the Unconquered Sun

Cost: 2 per Success
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 2
Min Essence: 1
Prereqs: None

The second most effective method for stopping an attacker is to ensure that they can't move. The strength of the Unconquered Sun flows through the Anima of the Dawn Fist Practitioner, and the Light of the sun itself strengthens their holds. The exalt may spend an essence to add a success to their clinch attempts, up to her Martial Arts rating.

Unconquered Rainment

Cost: 3 Motes
Duration: Scenelong
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 2
Min Essence: 1
Prereqs: None

The Exalt focuses her essence into her Anima, bringing the presence of the Unconcuered Sun into their immediate vicinity. Whether or not the Anima Banner is visible, the Exalt may add their Martial Arts rating to any Presence Checks (including presence checks for other charms) for the rest of the scene

Cock's Crow Wakefulness

Cost: 1 Per Point
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 2
Min Essence: 1
Prereqs: None

The duties of Acolytes begin long before the Sun comes up. This charm represents the presence of Mind that comes with waking early and having completed several nessesary tasks before others have even rubbed the sleep from their eyes. The Exalt with this charm may purchase additional initiative tics up to their Martial Arts Rating.

Enter the Temple with Open Hands

Cost: 4
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min Essence: 2
Prereqs: The First Light of Dawn, Unconquered Rainment

The Temple is a place of peace, and all must lay down their arms before entering. This charm may be activated after a successful parry, and allows the Exalt an immediate Disarm attempt at their full dice pool.

Sunlight Quickens the Blood

Cost: 4 Motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min Essence: 2
Prereqs: Cock's Crow Wakefulness, Embrace of the Unconquered Sun

With a Burst of Light, the Dawn Fist Practitioner charges toward invaders, grabs them and makes towards the nearest exit. This charm is activated before initiative, and give the practitioner 1st action. If anyone else uses other charms that give top initiative, such as thunderclap rush, the 2 charm users roll initiative as normal, with the loser going second and everyone else going on normal init. The practitioner adds his essence to his movement in yards, and may make a clinch attempt at any time during his move. Once the clinch is made, the practitoner may continue to move in any direction they like.

Dawn Fist Form

Cost: 5, 1wp
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min Essence: 3
Prereqs: Sunlight Quickens the Blood, Enter the Temple with Open Hands

The Dawn Fist practitioner points both fists forward and puts her weight on her leading leg, adopting a stance that lends itself well to Quick Response and excellent timing. Upon activating this charm, the Practitioner gains the ability to parry Lethal Attacks without a stunt, and her unarmed strikes become Lethal. Martial Arts is added to her initiative and The practitioner using this Form may Withhold her actions up to MA+Essence initiative ticks without the normal withhold penalty. Note that if you withhold your actions beyond this the normal penalties apply. If the Practitioner knows both this Form and Pounding Heat, they may pay 3 motes at the beginning of a round to switch to the other stance.

Pounding Heat

Cost: 5, 1wp
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min Essence: 3
Prereqs: Dawn Fist Form

A slightly modified version of the Dawn Fist Form, Pounding Heat focuses more on wrestling and clinches. Wrestling throws made by the Practitioner are made with Dex + MA + Essence and the Practitoner's essence rating adds to the throw distance in yards. The essence rating also adds to the number of successes required to land gracefully, and each die extra on the throw adds a point of damage (as opposed to 2 dice adding 1 damage as normal). If the Practitioner knows both this Form and Dawn Fist Form, they may pay 3 motes at the beginning of any round to switch to the other Form.

Twice Blinded

Cost: 5
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min Essence: 3
Prereqs: Dawn Fist Form

The dawn fist practitioner gains incredible insight into close combat from the Unconquered Sun, and can strike an opponent twice, like the sun can blind you when reflecting off of a puddle. This charm may be activated after an opponent has successfully blocked the Practitioner's unarmed strike. The practitioner rebounds away from the block and quickly adjusts to grapple the blocking limb. The practitoner may immediately make a clinch attempt after an opponent has successfully dodged, blocked or parried an unarmed strike. This grapple is at full dice pool, and adds essence in automatic sucesses.

Supplication of First Light's Prayer

Cost: 6, 1WP
Duration: See Desc.
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min Essence: 3
Prereqs: Dawn Fist Form

Those who speak out of Turn while the Illuminated are making their Sermons speak out against the Unconquered Sun itself, and the Unconquered Sun demands reverence. Dawn Fist teaches that the best way to win a combat is to make your opponent not want to fight anymore. The Practitioner raises her foot high in the air and brings it down on the target's head, forcing them to kiss the ground in respect for the Sun. Attack as normal, ignoring Armor. If the damage (Pre-soak) is greater than the Target's essence they are immediately knocked prone and no damage is done. The Practitioner and the target Roll contested Conviction, adding their Essence in automatic successes. If the target can't beat the Practitioner on this roll they are unable to act against the Practitioner for the rest of the scene without spending a Willpower Point (1 wp per round).

Unrelenting Ray

Cost: 6 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: Dawn Fist Form

To cross the Unconquered Sun is a Fatal Mistake, and those who make this mistake learn quickly what it means to incur it's wrath. If the practitioner makes a successful parry against an Unarmed foe, they may immediately activate this charm to clinch the opponent. No dice are rolled for the clinch attempt, it's automatic. Note that charms such as "Flow Like Blood" will force the roll, but perfect defenses such as Seven Shadow Evasion are still perfect dodges and will negate this effect

Life Cycle Harvest

Cost: 1wp, 3 motes per action
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: Supplication of First Light's Prayer, Unrelenting Ray

The Final level of Mastery in this form teaches Perfect Fluidity, and the Exalt using this charm flows through attacks the way morning flows into evening. The Practitioner activates this charm upon successfully clinching an opponent, and may immediately make a number of additional unarmed attacks up to her essence rating against the clinched opponent at full dice pools without breaking the clinch. These attacks are limited to Knees, Kicks, Headbutts and Throws.

Well, that about sums this one up, at least until I get some Input. Special Thanx to Janana and the entire Exalted Wiki community for the HUGE amounts of help he provided. Any questions, comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated

BrigandRansom

Comments

{Note: Old comments have been archived}

Well. Still need to clean up the flavor text and descriptions, but I think this one is done. I was thinking of another charm at the very top, but I just may end up making a few more charm for this Style in the MA 6-8 and Essence 5-7 range. Many thanks go to Janana, GregLink, Ambisinister, Grimshear and all the others who have commented and helped to make this style what it is.

Well. Any ambiguities in the wording?

I've increased the mote cost for Supplication, and added a WP point to it. The mechanic is still a bit clunky, but the move is slightly better powerbalanced now. Also a minor edit to Unrelenting Ray ~ BrigandRansom

People have made comments to me about "Supplication of First Light's Prayer" being... wonky. So I'm kicking around a few ideas to make it a little less... broken.

As I see it at the moment, it's far more overpowered than it looks. For instance, say I use "Duel Domination Attitude", a Combo containing Supplication, Lightning Speed, and Thunderclap Rush. I activate this before init, and if I hit and succeed it basically becomes a countdown towards the opponent reaching willpower 0. I'm thinking that this charm might be less effective on Exalts, possibly only having to spend a single willpower to overcome the effect instead of having to spend one per round (or this occurs if their essence is higher than the Dawn Fist Practitioner's, or a combination of the two). I would balance this out as having it being an automatic success on mortals, with the option of spending xp to purchase the Followers background to make it (semi) permanent on mortals.

Semi-related, is it too beefy having Supplication ignore armor entirely? I could see this being used on a Warstrider, though the practitoner would have to make an athletics roll to launch himself high enough into the air to kick the helmet downwards towards the ground.

Also, I'm wondering if "Unrelenting Ray" and "Twice Blinded" are redundant. One is usable from attacking, the other from defending, but they both have basically the same effect. I did say I was going for strategy with this charm but... hmm. I personally like it, but I still wonder if this is too much for a single style. ~ BrigandRansom , being his own worst critic

Detwinked Life Cycle Harvest ~ BrigandRansom, making sure all of his ducks are in a row before the fight starts

Considering that it will generally do no damage at all (Essence maxes out at 10, damage is usually higher than that before soak), I hardly see how it matters whether or not Supplication ignores armor. The charm should stand as it is. It's no more broken than some of the Abyssal OMFG poison charms, for example. Secondary effects of attacks are yummy.

I have a slight problem with Twice Blinded, though. It needs to be some other charm type. Supplemental, Simple, or even Extra Action like it really ought to be. It gives you two attacks, admittedly with strong limitations. Anyway, I think Supplemental would be fine, since it's enhancing your unarmed attack. If Archery can get multiple attacks on one person with a Supplemental charm, then by gum...

Furthermore, Unrelenting Ray would have to be used with a dice action parry if you leave it as a Supplemental charm. Reflexive would probably be better for it. - IanPrice

Another question on Unrelenting Ray. You say Flow Like Blood will force the roll, "but" Seven Shadow Evasion will negate the effects. Did you mean to say that Flow Like Blood will not force the roll?

I recommend taking out that cumbersome wording, and instead stealing the perfectly functional wording from Accuracy Without Distance: "The player rolls to attack as normal, but if he rolls insufficient successes for his character to hit the target, he still hits it, doing the [clinch]'s base damage." Clinch is in brackets since the original wording says "arrow" there. This wording has been ruled to mean that any rolled defense can't make it miss, though any perfect defense will work against it. Which seems to be what you want. - IanPrice