Revision as of 08:07, 5 April 2010

Seven Leaping Dragon Style

By demontongue

Background

Based around the philosophies and combative techniques of the most powerful dragons: the five Elemental Dragons, the Ebon Dragon, and the dreaming Dragon beyond the world.

The rudiments of the the style are, surprisingly, most easily grasped from a foundation in Five Dragon Martial Arts or Snake Style (through knowing all charms of either tree); the mightiest art from the humblest beginnings. From here, an initiate may begin the "wheel" at any point. If the student has studied any Immaculate tree past the form charm, he must begin at that dragon's technique (after mastering the Immaculate tree)

Charms

Earth Dragon's Blissful Ignorance</b>

<b>Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Until next action, or one turn
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 6
Min. Essence: 6
Prereqs: None

The Exalt adopts the unmoving mountain stance of the earth dragon and allows the torrent of blows to beat meaninglessly against her. This is a "perfect Soak effect" that nullifies even the most aggravated damage. Mortal weapons shatter, and magical weapons often do (reflexively roll attacker's strength against difficulty 5 to see if a weapon shatters). The mightiest sorceries beat impotently against the Exalt's hide. This Charm may not be used to soak damage associated with Charm costs

<b>Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 6
Min. Essence: 6
Prereqs: None

All who attack the Exalt are fools who would grab the fiery dragon's tail. It is akin to grabbing an open flame: they are left empty handed and burned. The attack is perfectly dodges, and the attacker's attack is turned back on him. In addition, the Exalt makes a free counterattack. These effects may be used on ranged attacks, as well.

<b>Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 6
Min. Essence: 6
Prereqs: None

The Exalt's senses percieve the flows of Essence through his opponent, and his blow will connect, as surely as the sun rises. This is a perfect attack, which can be neither blocked or dodged, and all successes are counted twice for damage, and tens double that.

<b>Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Until next action
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 6
Min. Essence: 6
Prereqs: None

The Exalt moves around an area up to Essence*10 yards in radius, and interposes himself. The arcane patterns of his movements create channels of windy Essence, that howl and whip. All those chosen by the Exalt within the area are completely protected, as either the Exalt or his tail wind deflect the blows of his enemies. This is a perfect defense. ----Thousand Wave Cascade of the Water Dragon</b>

<b>Cost: 2 motes, 2 Willpower, 1 Health Level, +3 motes per attack
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Min. Martial Arts: 6
Min. Essence: 6
Prereqs: None

Land was first raised from the bottom of the sea, and someday it will return. Using this principle, the Exalt can annihilate whole landscapes in the blink of an eye, as well as wash away armies like ants in a flood. The Exalt may attack a conceptually defined area with a physical component he can see, and could conceivably attack. He may target an army, a city, or a mountain range; he may not target sadness, or pain, or other such things; while he might attack "the ocean" he probably won't kill all the fish or "punch the water to death." He rolls his Martial Arts as normal, but the attack is applied to all things in that area. Further, he may pay 3 motes per additional attack, until the thing is annihilated, or he runs out of Essence. Damage against inanimate things is doubled, and not rolled.

<b>Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 Health Level
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 7
Min. Essence: 7
Prereqs: Earth Dragon's Blissful Ignorance, Fire Dragon's Coils Singe Those That Test Them, Infallible Sight of the Dragon Who Sees Life, Air Dragon's Bellow Frightens the Wicked Away, Thousand Wave Cascade of the Water Dragon

Drawing on the endless hunger of this primordial being, the Exalt may draw out the Essence of Creation found in all things. This can target dematerialized spirits. The attack causes aggravated damage, and for every level of damage soaked (by armor, Charms, et cetera) the Exalt draws his Essence in motes out of the target. This comes first from artifacts (deattuning them), then from active charms (undoing them), then from the target itself. For every mote not paid, the target takes one unsoakable level of aggravated damage. Sadly, this essence is simply cast into the ether, and not drawn into the Exalt.

<b>Cost: 15 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 Health Level
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 7
Min. Essence: 7
Prereqs: Earth Dragon's Blissful Ignorance, Fire Dragon's Coils Singe Those That Test Them, Infallible Sight of the Dragon Who Sees Life

The exalt learns to idealize himself and manifests his anima as either itself, if animate, or a hybrid, if not. He meditates for 10 rounds, and puts himself in a trance to manifest his dream self. This dream self has all of the Exalt's stats and skills rated by his Essence, and his Charms may be activated for half their standard cost, rounded up. The form stands approximately 20 feet tall, and automatically has the effects of all his active charms, hearthstones, and artifacts. It has 10 -0 health levels. While it fights, he is in a trance-like state, and can do nothing unless he has some type of persistent effect, such as Fivefold Bulwark Stance or Flow Like Blood, which function normally.

<b>Cost: 20 motes, 2 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 8
Min. Essence: 8
Prereqs: Insatiable Maw of the Ebon Dragon, Perfection of the Dreaming Dragons Fantasy

Having mastered each of the techniques associated with the mightiest of dragons, the Exalt can fuse them into a deadly hybrid effect. He gains his Essence in extra Bashing soak, uses bashing to soak lethal and aggravated, and ignores all attacks that do less raw damage than his total bashing soak. This effect does not stack with armor, but does with other charms. His attack, parry, and dodge dice always come up as successes, and his Essence in dice come up tens. He may full dodge (taking die penalties as normal), but tens are last to be lost, and he may counterattack at his full pool. All the character's attacks do aggravated damage, and tens double. He can make his Essence in attacks each round, and his movement is multiplied by his Essence. Only one martial art form may be activated at any given instant.

Comments

I have serious problems with this style. Every Charm except for Perfection of the Dreaming Dragon's Fantasy is overpowered, and that one is poorly defined (the phrasing is confusing). The biggest issues are the perfect effects, as there are no perfect effects in any of the canon styles. The closest thing to it is Cannibalistic Heritage Technique's defense, which is in and of itself far from perfect. Thousand Wave Cascade's mass targetting effect is too broad and would allow the user to choose a target such as 'Creation', 'The Underworld', 'Yu-Shan', and the such. While this wouldn't destroy any of them outright, a surprise attack against EVERYTHING in Creation would wipe the majority of the population out in an instant. - m4dn3zz

Hey, m4dn3zz, generally it's considered good practice on the Wiki to discuss specific problems you have with things rather than simply saying you have problems with them: "I think that X Charm should have a Willpower cost," "Charm Y's prerequisites are too low, think about raising the Essence req," and "Charm Z has a prefect effect, but I'm not sure that those really belong in MartialArts," are all examples of good comments. "Every Charm is overpowered," on the other hand, isn't constructive; it's just insulting.

So, you've piqued my interest. Why, precisely, do you think all these Charms are overpowered? - willows

I appologize for my method of oversimplifying. My friend Jon rubbed off on me a bit much, I suppose.

To answer your question, it varies Charm by Charm. The most prominent complaint I have are the perfect effects. As I stated above, there are no perfect effects in any of the canon styles. While it's entirely possible that this is purely circumstance, it doesn't appear to be so. With as many official martial arts styles as there are, it seems to be by design.

The other complaint is that one Charm, Thousand Wave Cascade..., is too broad in its ability to target. It essentially functions as a less defined Grandmother Spider Mastry that only hits once, but with lower requirements and fewer prerequisites. As I noted above, it could be used to hit literally everything in Creation or any other such defined place, and such an attack would be a surprise to all but those who actually saw the action.

I also have doubts on the power level of the actual form-type Charm. Simply put, it makes the character nearly invulnerable. Minimum 9 hardness and soak across the board, short teleportation movement, automatic counterattacks that always turn up as better than perfect successes...it just seems like turning on god mode. Chejop Kejak, with his 3000-5000 years of life would die very quickly at the hands of anyone using this form. I could prehaps see it at Essence 10, maybe even Essence 9 (though I have severe doubts), but at 8, even with the costs to activate, there's no downside and it's quick and easy to attain.

Substituting semi-perfect effects for the perfect effects listed would resolve a lot of the issues. Narrowing the targetting capabilities of the Thousand Wave Cascade... would resolve still more. I don't know what could be done to kill the über-cheese of the form, but it can surely be fixed. Also, reading the entirety of my comment before responding would add a bit of credence to your complaint. Thank you. - m4dn3zz

1. In general, it may be a good idea to make Snake Style and the corresponding Immaculate Dragon paths prerequisites for each of the first five charms of this style. That would mitigate their horrendous power, and negate many of my suggestions.
   1. As a side note, Righteous Devil Style</b> has a perfect attack, "Azure Abacus Meditation." The shot auto-hits and is un-dodgeable, and the target must make a Willpower roll difficulty 2 to even try to parry it. And it's an insubstantial attack, so at least Bulwark Stance or the equivalent is needed to try that. Therefore, I have no problem with perfect effects in martial arts.
2. I do have specific concerns with each charm, however.
   1. Earth Dragon - This is okay... I think the duration should only be Instant, though. (Ignore this if you put in the prerequisites)
   2. Fire Dragon - Redirect and counterattack both, along with a perfect dodge? I recommend choosing two of those. (Ignore if prerequisites used)
   3. Wood Dragon - Word this more clearly. Do you mean that attack successes are counted twice for what they add to damage, as per Hungry Tiger Technique, or that any successes rolled for damage are counted twice (and tens on the damage roll counted a total of four times)?
   4. Air Dragon - I am strongly reminded of the Terrestrial spell Impenetrable Frost Barrier, and thus I find this charm to have more of a sorcerous feel than one of martial arts. I recommend avoiding effects that are so large-scale in your martial arts, as that is more properly the purview of Sorcery.
   5. Water Dragon - Again, this effect is too large-scale for martial arts. This is a Sorcery-type effect. I would have no problem with an effect which allowed the martial artist to buy as many attacks as he wished, but one that does that against "any conceptual physical target smaller than Creation" is not a martial arts charm. I recommend limiting it to, "each attack may target any definable conceptual group of targets within line-of-sight."
   6. Ebon Dragon - This charm is splendiferous and excellent. I would make no changes whatsoever.
   7. Dreaming Dragon - Yet again, this is a Sorcery charm. Infusing the martial artist with his or her anima would be acceptable, but not manifesting it externally. Adding health levels and the dice bonuses and such to the Exalt him or her self would be better.
   8. Seven Leaping Dragons - The wording on this charm is somewhat confusing. I believe that you mean to state that the person gets automatic successes equal to their dice pool whenever rolling attack, dodge, and parry, and that they get extra automatic successes equal to their Essence, which are treated as if that number of dice from the pool had come up "10" when assessing dice penalties. The dice considered to have come up "10" are lost last. Other than that confusion, I think that this form should not allow soaking of Aggravated Damage, unless the prerequisites I suggested earlier are implemented.
3. Normally, styles proceed further beyond their form charm. Is this style incomplete?

<b>Commentary by</b> - IanPrice