Revision as of 15:05, 10 March 2006

Golden Swordsman Style

This style is rather experimental, and is the only celestial style to demand virtue prereqs.
I've made it to be the only "true" solar style, made for the perfect solar, the embodiment of heroism and virtue.
This is also, if approved, the most powerful celestial style (except perhaps Air dragon) and one of the only ones to require ess 5 to complete.
These requirements come to balance this style's extreme potency.

Name: Golden Swordsman Style
Level: Celestial, only solars can learn this style
Armor: All armors that have 0 mobility penalty are allowed with this style
Weapons: Slashing swords and Reaper Daiklaves

A Celestial style based on the principles of speed, precision and honor in combat, as well as profound emotional control. The Golden Swordsman will not Hesitate to risk his life in order to bring the fight to it’s favorable conclusion.
This style cannot be practiced without a sword unless the practitioner have mastered the Sword-Hand Understanding (See below).
This style has further demands on the practitioner than just essence manipulation and Martial arts prowess – Each charm has a virtue Prerequisite, and a practitioner must adhere to those ratings in order to learn a charm.

The Celestial Monkey style is the antithesis style to this one, when facing a Celestial Monkey practitioner, a Virtuous Swordsman may channel conviction every turn.

Courageous Swordsman Approach

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 2
Min. Essence: 1
Min. Valor: 2
Prereqs: None

A Virtuous Swordsman enters combat without hesitation, her heart and mind set to a single course of action that ends when her opponent is defeated.
Add the character’s Valor + Essence to her initiative total.
This charm can only be activated in the first turn of combat.

Temperant Swordsman stance

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Min. Temperance: 2
Prereqs: None

A virtuous Swordsman has perfect control over her emotions, even in the face of danger.
While in this stance, the swordsman’s blade is sheathed, her hands ready to draw at the perfect moment. After every attack or parry, the swordsman resheathes her weapon. This reduces the weapon’s speed to zero, but increases Damage and Defense by Temperance/2, round down, each. Sheathing, drawing and resheathing the blade are reflexive actions while in this stance.

Compassionate Swordsman Prana

Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min. Essence: 1
Min. Compassion: 2
Prereqs: None

A Virtuous Swordsman knows the value of life, and will not needlessly waste it.
When activating this charm, the swordsman may pull the blow to bashing damage without Penalty.

Convicted Swordsman’s Persistence

Cost: 2 motes per die
Duration: Scene
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Min. Conviction: 2
Prereqs: None

A virtuous Swordsman is Persistent in his chase of victory, and his passion fuels his swordskill.
For each mote the swordsman spends, he will receive 1 dice to all attacks and parries for the duration of the scene.
The character may not spend more motes on this charm than twice her Conviction.

Virtuous Swordsman Form

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Courageous Swordsman Approach, Temperant Swordsman Stance, Compassionate Swordsman Prana, Convicted Swordsman Persistence

Practitioners of this style strive to achieve a perfection of emotional control and manipulation, and to embody the sense of honor and heroism, This form enhances this Pursuit.
For the duration of the scene, all bonus dice granted by channeling virtues are doubled, moreover, the character adopts the Temperant Swordsman Prana permanently, and enjoys it’s benefits, only in the form, there is no Penalty on the weapon’s speed. The character can freely choose to inflict bashing or Lethal damage with his blade. Characters cannot use more than one form charm at a time. Using a form-type charm ends the effects of any other Form Type charm the character was utilizing.

Precision Cutting Blade

Cost: 4 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Min. Temperance: 3
Prereqs: Virtuous Swordsman Form

The character fixes his attention on his foe, noting the gaps in his armor and waiting for the perfect moment to arrive, then he draws and slashes, quick as a lightning strike, through those gaps.
Ignore all armor soaks when using this charm.

Mercy Killing Strike

Cost: 3 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 3
Min. Compassion: 3
Prereqs: Precision Cutting Blade

The Swordsman is always Merciful, even to his foes. Should the swordsman know the fight can only end in death, he will seek to end it swiftly and without pain.
The character activating this charm doubles his damage dice after soak is applied.

Opponent-Freezing Gaze

Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Min. Conviction: 3
Prereqs: Virtuous Swordsman Form

The Swordsman learns to channel essence through his soul, amplifying his personality and causing enemies to freeze in panic.
Upon activating this charm, the Swordsman engages in an Essence + Conviction roll (In this roll Conviction is not doubled as per the Form’s effects) against his opponent’s Willpower roll.
Should the Swordsman achieve equal or less successes than his opponent, his opponent is free from his influence. However, if the Swordsman achieves more successes than his quary, his foe will freeze in panic, and will be unable to move more than his Dexterity/2 in yards per turn or act.
Every turn, the opponent will roll Valor with a starting difficulty of the swordsmans Extra successes, decreasing by 2 each turn to a minimum of 1, only when he succeeds in the roll will he be free of the charm’s effect.
Example: Goral, a solar Virtuous Swordsman, faces Silver Fangs of the Hunter, a full moon lunar. Knowing he cannot match him in pure strength or speed, Goral activates Opponent Freezing Gaze, trying to win the contest with his strong soul instead of his blade. Goral Rolls his Essence + Conviction and achieves 5 successes, Silver Fangs rolls his Willpower and achieves two successes. Silver Fangs freezes in fear, trying to shy away from the warrior, but to no avail, Goral slammed two powerful bashing strikes to his head, rendering him unconscious.

Glorious Swordsman Spirit

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 4
Min. Temperance: 4
Min. Valor: 3
Prereqs: Opponent-Freezing Gaze

The swordsman further perfects his channeling of virtues to the level in which his virtuous Soul radiates from him, making it hard for foes to attack him and strengthening his allies.
For the rest of the scene, add the character’s Essence to the difficulty of all attacks made against him, and add half his essence (round up) to all his allies attack rolls.

Relentless Warrior Method

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra-Actions
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Min. Conviction: 3
Prereqs: Virtuous Swordsman Form

The swordsman concentrates on his goal, his soul’s inexorableness enabling him to repeatedly charge against his foe.
Roll the character’s Conviction trait (This virtue roll is not doubled as per the Form’s effects), Every success on this roll grants the character an extra attack against the same opponent to a maximum of the character’s Conviction.

Untouchable Golden Swordsman Technique

Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 4
Min. Temperance: 4
Prereqs: Relentless Warrior Method

A Swordsman’s calmness allows him to Perceive the world as it is, without fear or pressure, and essence boosts his muscles to react to those threats he recognizes.
For the duration of the scene, the character Reflexively parries all incoming attacks he can Perceive, whether ranged or H2H. The character cannot parry attacks that he doesn’t know of, but he gets his Temperance added in dice to his Ambush detecting rolls.

Sword-Hand Understanding

Cost: N/A
Duration: Permanent 
Type: Special
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 4
Min. Conviction: 4
Min. Valor: 4
Prereqs: Mercy Killing Strike, Untouchable Swordsman Technique, Glorious Swordsman Spirit

As the Swordsman reaches this high level of the style, he realizes his body may serve him as good as a sword, and may use his palms to parry lethal attacks and to inflict lethal damage.
The Temperant Swordsman Stance is still valid for those unarmed attacks, as are all of the charms in the cascade.

Perfect Golden Sword-master Avatar

Cost: 5 Motes + Varies, 1 Willpower, 1 Health Level
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 5
Min. Conviction: 5
Min. Valor: 5
Min. Temperance: 5
Min. Compassion: 4
Prereqs: Sword Hand Understanding

Only those with the Paragon nature may learn this charm.
At the peak of the style, the Swordmaster is so complete and perfect in every sense that he can transform into an avatar of virtue, the character can boost his attributes for the scene in a ratio of 2 motes per dot of Strength or Stamina and 4 motes per dot of Dexterity.
Moreover, he is now able to make two full actions in a turn, those actions can be Split normally, each can be used to abort to a full parry or dodge.
In a combo, the character may activate one Extra Action charm on each action, but never more than one simple charm.
The attribute boosting is specifically cumulative and separate from the other charm induced extra dice, and therefore increases the maximum number of extra dice on a roll.
When the charm reaches his conclusion, the swordmaster must take one level of automatic Lethal damage, and roll his Conviction, failure in this roll will cause a melancholy that will last for a day and reduce all his dice pools by 4 dice. A botch will result in a limit-break like effect, similar to the Overindulgance Limit Break.

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