Revision as of 20:01, 17 June 2005

Blade Style

By Shantak

Background

This Martial Arts style differs from [most of] the previous styles published. First of all, it uses weapons. Second, it uses only weapons – the techniques cannot be used unarmed. Also, this style is not seeking to emulate any animal. No, this is seeking to unify man (or woman) with his blade. According to the rules, a sword is not a Martial Arts weapon, but hook swords are. That's fine, this style cannot be used with Daiklaves or Chopping Swords. It uses smaller blades and knifes, similar to Japanese Wakizashi and Tanto. Of course, such things do not exist in the world of Exalted. Instead we have knives and slashing swords. Well, the weapons used here are fine, slightly curved blades (and hook swords and other sword-like Martial Arts weapons), not ordinary daggers and sabers.

Charms

Lightning Strikes</b>

<b>Cost: 3 motes 
Duration: Instant 
Type: Reflexive 
Min. Martial Arts: 1 
Min. Essence: 1 
Prereqs:

The character makes Essence flow around his blade, allowing it to slash faster than the eye can see and more accurately than the hand could guide it. The blade can be back in its sheath before the target notices he's been hit. During the turn when this Charm is activated, the character adds his Essence to his initiative and to the accuracy of the first strike he makes.

<b>Cost: 3 motes 
Duration: Instant 
Type: Supplemental 
Min. Martial Arts: 2 
Min. Essence: 1 
Prereqs: Lightning Strikes 

The character charges his weapon with Essence, allowing it to cut deeper and guiding it towards vital organs. He adds his Martial Arts score to the total damage of the attack.

<b>Cost: 5 motes 
Duration: One scene 
Type: Simple 
Min. Martial Arts: 3 
Min. Essence: 2 
Prereqs: Soul Sharpens the Edge 

The character adopts a defensive fighting posture, holding his weapon(s) ready to parry upcoming attacks and to strike precise blows when the time is right. The Exalted adds a number of dice equal to his Essence to all attacks and parries he makes. Additionally, the character can use each turn his full Dexterity + Martial Arts dice pool to parry any one incoming hand-to-hand attack that he is aware of. He does not get the Essence bonus to this automatic parry. Characters cannot use more than one Martial Arts Form-type charms at a time.

<b>Cost: 5 motes, 1 willpower 
Duration: Instant 
Type: Supplemental 
Min. Martial Arts: 4 
Min. Essence: 2 
Prereqs: Blade Form 

The Exalted focuses his Essence into the tip of his blade, making it harder than diamonds and sharper than a razor. The blade will cut through armor, tearing its way right into the soft flesh. The character's attack ignores amount of soak equal to his Martial Arts score. This includes the soak coming from both armor and Stamina. If the armor opponent is using is artificial but non-magical, it loses 2 points of its Lethal Soak for each successful attack.

<b>Cost: 6 
Duration: Instant 
Type: Simple 
Min. Martial Arts: 5 
Min. Essence: 3 
Prereqs: Armor-Shredding Cleaver Slash 

Infusing his anima with Essence, the character makes a single-minded attack on a single opponent, trying to penetrate all of his defenses. The character doubles his Martial Arts pool for the purposes of the attack, making it very difficult to defend against.

<b>Cost: 4 motes 
Duration: Instant 
Type: Reflexive 
Min. Martial Arts: 4 
Min. Essence: 2 
Prereqs: Blade Form 

Combining the use of Essence and pure skill, the character can turn his blocks into counterattacks. By using this charm before parrying an attack, the Exalt has the possibility of wounding his opponent right after her attack has been parried. If the parry is successful, all the extra successes the character gained are automatically turned into successes in a reflexive attack against the opponent.

Thousand Slash Strike</b>

<b>Cost: 5m, 1 willpower 
Duration: Instant 
Type: Extra Action 
Min. Martial Arts: 5 
Min. Essence: 3 
Prereqs: Steel Seeks Retribution 

The Exalted surrounds himself with a nimbus of Essence, and he becomes able to do a swarm of fast strikes and thrusts. The player rolls the character's Dexterity + Martial Arts, and for every success, he may make an extra strike, using only his Martial Arts score for the attack roll.

<b>Cost: 6m 
Duration: One scene 
Type: Simple 
Min. Martial Arts: 4 
Min. Essence: 2 
Prereqs: Blade Form 

When this charm is activated, Essence surrounds the blades the character is using, allowing the Exalted to try disarming his opponent each time he parries her blows. Each time the Exalted parries successfully, count the number of additional successes he scored. This is the difficulty his opponent must overcome with a reflexive Wits + combat Ability roll if she wishes to keep her weapon in her hand.

<b>Cost: 6m, 1 willpower 
Duration: One scene 
Type: Reflexive 
Min. Martial Arts: 5 
Min. Essence: 3 
Prereqs: Blade Strikes Blade 

When using this charm, the Exalted starts a reflexive series of movements that consists of numerous dodges, feints, spins and parries. Each time he is attacked his opponent gets a difficulty modifier equal to the character's Dexterity score to her attack roll.

While the charm is activated, the character can still act normally; his evasive movement is completely reflexive (though it will raise suspicions in most non-combat situations). The character can choose to end this power any time – he loses the difficulty modifier when he stops the dancing movement.

<b>Cost: 10 motes, 1 health level, 1 willpower 
Duration: Six hours 
Type: Supplemental 
Min. Martial Arts: 5 
Min. Essence: 3 
Prereqs: Wind Blade Dance, Thousand Slash Strike, Fortress Penetration Kata 

The Exalted charges both his body and his blade with Essence, completely unifying the two. He then uses this union to create the perfect strike.

The body performs a flawless attack, which cannot be blocked. The character rolls normally to hit his target, and the target can dodge or parry normally, but even if the opponent completely succeeds in his defensive action, the attack still hits, without any extra successes for damage. Only the most powerful defensive charms can evade the attack.

The blade then causes automatic damage equal to the Essence of the character. Even if the soak absorbs all the damage dice, the attack still causes damage equal to the Essence, despite all armor!

Comments

Trueform - This charm is to powerfull. It is both autohit and autodamage and at a very low essense cost. And it does not follow logically by the rest of the path. The Min essence should be 4 or 5 and the attack ignores armor but can be soaked by stamina and charms.

I gotta agree that the last charm is a bit much. Perfects are rare in MA so I'd ramp up the requirements a bit. Also, what effect does it have in Power Combat where everyone does Essence ping anyway? - Voidstate

I think that turning your essence into automatic damage is not to powerful, however, the essence requirement should be upped to an Essense 4 with duration being Instant and type being simple. No perfect attack should last for more than one action in my humble opinion - Savare

Interesting style. I'm kinda with void here. More specificly.

• Lightning Strikes: This seems kinda cheap for what it does. Usually both those effects cost 2-3 motes each. I'd give it a cost of 5
• Blade Strikes Blade: Ouch. Very nasty. Not sure about it. It does allow you gain a large advantage from a lucky roll though.
• Wind Blade Dance: A difficulty modifier equal to dex is probably a bit much. Maybe a penalty equal to dex? Even then it's quite powerful, as it stacks with defences.
• One with the Blade Attack:I'm not sure what the duration means. If you gotta keep the essence commited for 6 hours, no-matter when you make the attack, I'm ok with it. It also can't be combo'ed(good, good)</i>
• -FlowsLikeBits