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Bird of Vanileth Style

This is a celestial martial arts style for Alchemicals, but usesable by anyone who can learn celestial MA. It's signature weapon is the crossbow. An attack with a crossbow counts as an unarmed MA attack for any charm in this style. Armor can be worn freely while using this style provided it has a mobility penalty of zero, either naturally or through the use of this style. Unarmed attacks made by practioners of this style usually take the form of flat handed strikes using the tips of the fingers. This causes wounds that look similar to the ones made by crossbow bolts.

2. Launch from the Origin Point</b> - szilard

<b>Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Varies
Type: Special
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: None

The Martial Artist enacts this Charm as he prepares to attack, committing the essence until his strike is launched. By using this Charm, the Martial Artist may reflexively let loose the unarmed martial arts attack she has prepared. This may be used before the Martial Artist's initiative or any point within the first round of a combat prior to the Martial Artist's first normal attack. Using this Charm does not count as a character's action: when the Charm is enacted, it is supplemental with respect to the preparation of an attack, and when the strike is let loose, it is done so reflexively. This Charm may only be used once per combat and may only be enacted before that combat begins. The Martial Artist may enact this Charm, committing Essence to it while she prepares an attack, up to twice her Essence in rounds before a combat. If the Charm is not used before that time is over, the Essence committed to the Charm is released.

3. Adamant Wing Technique</b> - szilard

<b>Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: None

The martial artist may, by enacting this Charm, add his Essence in dice to a single unarmed Martial Arts parry, which may be used to parry lethal attacks. This Charm may be used in conjunction with a launched crossbow bolt.

4. Occular Implants of the Adamant Hawk</b> - BrilliantRain

<b>Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Launch from the Origin Point

Using this charm, the exalt suffuses his body and mind with essence, thus tuning his vision to the currents of essence that flow from everything, highening his mental faculties, and causing himself to be almost supernaturally aware of the position of his own body. These highened faculties make is possible to discover and compensate for any enviromental penalty that would keep the crossbow bolt from striking true. This charm causes the eyes of the exalt to glow red while the shot is being taken, giving rise to the name.

The ranged martial arts attack supplimented by this charm suffers no enviromental penalties of any kind. However, the exalt must know approxomately where the target is. The multiple action penalty is not an enviromental penalty.

6. Shedding Aluminum Feathers</b> - Sparrowhawk

<b>Cost: 2 motes

Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs: None

When facing a crossbow-using opponent, many just wait until the warrior must reload to strike at them. Adepts of the Bird of Vanileth can suprise their foes by reloading without changing the flow of combat. The martial artist can use this charm to instantly reload a crossbow-type weapon without using up their action this turn. Opponents attacking her gain no special bonuses, as she can coordinate her movements well enough to avoid attacks while reloading.

5. Bird of Vanileth Form</b> - szilard

<b>Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs: Adamant Wing Technique, Ocular Implants of the Adamant Hawk, Shedding Aluminum Feathers

The Exalt who enacts this Charm emulates a Bird of Vanileth, able to dart in and out of combat, with his motions becoming strong and regular as if powered by machines. The user of this Charm may ignore one die of penalty due to multiple actions on each action, provided that he takes no more actions in a round than his Martial Arts score. In addition, the character adds his Essence to his Initiative rating, movement rate, and to his Athletics for the purposes of balancing and determining jumping distances while this Charm is in effect. Due to their darting speed, users of this style are more difficult to be hit with ranged attacks, and their Essence in dice is subtracted from such attacks.

1. Battle-Born Mollification Pattern</b> - Wohksworth

<b>Cost: 3+ motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Bird of Vanileth Form

Battles very rarely abate long enough to migrate to more conducive conditions; given this constant, the duty falls on individual combatants to bear the burden of combat in obfuscated tunnels, or offensively disadvantageous armor. By activating this Charm, the character tauts her sinews with Essence, making each infused movement lead her to find a more optimized shot from between gouts of steam, restricting armor, or even the dead dark of the Reaches.

The Exalt may negate penalties of the environment or from armor, up to a total of her Essence, at a cost of two motes, plus one more for each -1 penalty negated. These may be purchased beyond any existing penalties, if the character feels she may be further obscured as combat progresses; failing that, repeated activations stack, again to a maximum reducation of her Permanent Essence. If she is wearing armor, it becomes compatible with Charms of this Style if its mobility penalty is wholly negated by this Charm.

8. Legion-Slaying Alloy Beak</b> - BerserkSeraph

<b>Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs: Battle-Born Mollification Pattern

Noting the constraints and limitations of armor is the first step towards capitalizing on them, and, when paired with precise consideration and no small amount of skill, the practitioners of this style can fire elaborate 'trick shots' that leap from opponent to opponent, passing through points of least resistance to fire through targets or bouncing off of a foe's armor to come around in a new strike on a new target.

The Exalt may activate this Charm upon striking with a Martial Arts attack (unarmed or crossbow) and dealing damage. If they do so, they may select a new target within range and launch a Martial Arts attack at them. For the purposes of unarmed combat, 'range' is generally the character's reach, but a crossbow can hit targets out to its maximum range (with normal penalties for going beyond it). Direction isn't an issue - the bolt can perfom turns of almost any angle, but counts each turn as ten meters of distance (for range).

The character may activate this charm a number of times per turn up to his Martial Arts rating, but cannot overcome the limitations of his weapon's range (without other Charms) or target the same opponent with more than one strike (this includes the initial target, before any activations of this Charm). This Charm does not allow the Exalt to hit targets he cannot sense/see. (So without some other Charm or stunt you can't fire it up a spiral staircase or similar)

Ranged Example: The Exalt from the previous example fires on a group of soldiers, marching in columns. The columns are four men deep, so he selects a column and attacks the lead soldier. After damaging that soldier, he activates this Charm (first activation) to hit the one behind him. Damaging that one, the arrow leaps into the third (second activation), and pierces that one to hit the fourth (third activation). He activates the charm a fourth (and final) time, and the bolt turns a full ninety degrees to hit the solder next to the last target.

9. Blessing of Vanileth</b> - szilard

<b>Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs: Battle-Born Mollification Pattern

Attacks made by practitioners of the Bird of Vanileth style can be imbued with the force of Essence, increasing their strength and speed as they rocket toward their target. Use of this Charm increases the difficulty of parrying or dodging the user's unarmed martial arts attacks by the user's Essence. If those attacks are made with a crossbow, it also eliminates range penalties. All of the martial arts attacks made by an Exalt while this Charm is active are armor-piercing.

7. Airborne Wrath of Autocthon</b> - TedPro

<b>Cost: 4 motes per extra attack
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 3
Prereqs: Battle-Born Mollification Pattern (Seraph suggests: Legion Slaying Alloy Beak + one other)

Loading many bolts into the crossbow at once, and twisting the weapon in perfect coordination while firing, the Martial Artist launches multiple attacks with incredible force, each with its own complex, intricate spin. These bolts wind about the user, threatening many enemies, and those that miss spin toward a primary target.

Each opponent can only be declared the target of a single attack. However, the user of this Charm also declares a primary target. Any shot which misses (or is Dodged) becomes a Spinning Shot, and will continue its calculated curving path, automatically hitting the primary target with a single success. No Charm, stunt or effect can raise the number of successes past one for Spinning Shots. All attacks can be Dodged, or Parried with a stunt or Charm that allows Parrying the attack. If an attack is Parried successfully, it does not become a Spinng Shot.

This Charm can also be used unarmed - the Martial Artist then launches attacks at those within arm's reach, and any attacks that miss become Spinning Shots, moving toward the primary target with a single success.

Comments

As I don't want to be responsible for forcing a style idea that no-one likes, if no-one likes this style post your suggestions and I'll pick the one that I like best or gets the most positive feedback.
--BrilliantRain

So, I think that ranged MA is pretty cool; we don't see that much of it. But, I ask, how attached are you to the 'precise knowledge of physics' angle? It seems like Paradox Style hit that conceptual space just two themes ago. - willows

Do you have your heart set on its being an Alchemical martial art? Since we're in the home stretch towards the Alchemical book, it seems untimely to write something that might be obsolete when the book is released -- either way, I'd like to be able to use this for Creation-born crossbow-bearing Exalted as well. Additionally, it's worth saying I like the example effects, and think they should stay about the same, even if the "precise knowledge of physics" angle changes. _Wohksworth

It's more Geometry than Physics involved in Crossbow use. I think it might be a fun style to do, but i agree with Wohksworth it should be a "normal" celestial MA - IssaruThinks the relay has been focused on more than enough esoteric arts

Well I thought somthing math based would be fun, and this seemed like an interesting way to do it, and the alchemicals seemed like the logical choice for it, as they are pretty much the only crossbow users, but how ever you guys want to do it. I was thinking that it would be a normal celestial ma anyway just one created by the Alchemicals. It should be a ranged martial art that focuses on precise targeting and possibly exessive rebounding, in any case.
--BrilliantRain

Run with it Dude!!! I mean it was your call. Don't mind us (fellow Wikizens) we just happen to be very vocal (lack of a better word) about....everything. - IssaruLoves playing with numbers too.

I do want to make it clear that this is supposed to be a normal celestial MA based on the MA ability. I intended that it should be created by the Alchemicals, because they still have crossbows. It is possible right? After all can't Lunars create Martial Arts charms?
--BrilliantRain

Heh, crossbows are scary. I was going to write a piercing attack Charm, before I remembered crossbows already do piercing damage. On a more serious note, how many pre-/post-form Charms, and do you want to allow any armor? (As a corollary, I can imagine a scene-length Charm immediately before the Form that'd let you purchase away environment/aiming penalties on a X-for-1 basis, which would incidentally let you use any armor you completely removed the movement penalty for.) _Wohksworth

In fact, there we go. I don't really like starting from the middle of trees, but it's probably better to contribute Charms rather than just suggest them. If BrilliantRain has a different armor requirement in mind, I'll adjust the Charm to cover other penalties instead. _JW

Eh. On armor: pretty much ALL martial arts allow armor. As far as I can recall, with the exception of Celestial Monkey Style (which is weird armor and weapon-wise), the only armor restrictions in any published MA are in specific charms (usually the form) - szilard

The rule of recent Styles has been to ban or allow armor outright when using Charms in a Style -- note that Endings Style, Jade Mountain Style, and every Style in the Players Guide have a little box specifying weapon and armor rules. I suspect that's the general rule now, and the mixing and matching in the older forms has been ousted; it was more trouble to keep track of than it was worth. _JW

Question: will the charms of this style work with unarmed attacks, or just with crossbows? The way I would do it would be to make this a pretty normal MA style, but with crossbows as the signiture weapon, and perhaps a few charms that only work on ranged attacks. I notice that Battle-Born Mollification Pattern makes no exceptions in this regard, so I assume that it does work for unarmed attacks as well as ranged. Am I right? - Sparrowhawk

I suggest a minimum of 3 pre-form charms and 5 post form charms, but if anyone wants to do more than that, I'm fine with it. As far as armor goes, I hadn't had any thoughts on the subject, but given the already existant charm, I'm for allowing it. The only signature weapon of the style is crossbows, so no attacks that cannot be ranged, but I could see it having attacks that aren't required to be ranged, although there shouldn't be that many of them.
--BrilliantRain

Just to note, the Charm implies armor with a mobility penalty higher than 0 are incompatible with the Style, unless they're brought to 0 through the use of Charms, ostensibly this one. This way overpowers Moonsilver armor, though; if anyone has any better suggestions for determining compatibility, I'd like to elimate that favoritism. _Wohksworth

I'm frustrated. This theme seems... I don't know. "Crossbows" are weapons. "Physics and vectors" may be relevant to their use. We need a theme to make this a real Martial Art, though, rather than a focused Archery tree. Perhaps we could go with Dragonfly Style, maybe? -szilard

Ah. I was wondering why people were not contributing. I was about to come achive it. Hmmmm... Alchemicals probably wouldn't use Animal names. How about somthing like "Vectored Shot Style?"
--BrilliantRain

Perhaps you should go with something more general but still applicable to crossbows, such as Precalculated Attack Vector Style?
-- Darloth

I dunno. To me, at least, vectors aren't particularly evocative. There really aren't that many connotations to them that can be exploited in interesting ways by Charms. A natural animal name may not be appropriate to Alchemicals, true... what about Bird of Vanileth Style (named after the mechanical bird servants of the God of Artificial Flight)? -szilard

I like that. - willows

Could work. We really dunno enough about the mechanical fauna of Autocthon to find an appropreate mechanical creature they would definitly know, so, yeah, sounds good. Better than "Crossbow-Fu" anyway. I'll change it later on if there are no objections.
-- BrilliantRain

Re: Strike at Origin Point should probably be more explicit that it can only be used in the first round of combat--assuming I'm even reading it correctly. It'd probably be more mechanically sound if it were a Simple Charm of Duration "Until released"; it sidesteps the "once per turn" clause demanded by being Reflexive, and makes its usage a bit more tactical, since the X motes fueling the Charm are committed until combat begins. I like the concept, though. _Wohksworth (Mental note for me: "Rescission Actualizing Ricochet".)

Made things more explicit and changed a bit (including the name to make more sense with the potential style name). I explicitly don't want to make this a Simple Charm, though. It shouldn't require an action. -szilard

I see this Relay is averaging one Charm per week. How many Charms were planned for this style, again? ;) ~ G, full of snark but bereft of inspiration

Added a new charm. Added the name for this style, although once alchemicals comes out it might get renamed to somthing slightly more approprate. If there aren't anymore charms added by monday, I'm going to archive this tree and throw it open for another subject.
--BrilliantRain

notes on OIotAH - (1) While this style is, presumably, for use by Alchemicals, I'd been going under the impression that it was a normal Celestial Style and, thus, didn't need implantyness. I've also been more-or-less under the assumption that the charms weren't created by Alchemicals since they are ability based rather than attribute based, but that's not wholly relevant (though it could justify the name). (2) I'd suggest using the "unarmed martial arts attack" language, rather than "crossbow attack" - since that seems standard for MA. Crossbow attacks just count as unarmed MA attacks for this style.(3) Would this Charm ever be used once a character has BBMP?

Responces - (1) Nowhere in the charm did I specify a need for optic implants. This Martial Art was created by alchemicals, who associate red eyes with optic implants (or at least that seems reasonable to me.) (2) Changed it to ranged Martial Arts attack, which is the languaged used with air dragon style, I think. (3) It looks like BBMP can only negate enviromental penalties up to the users essence and if you use it for that then you can't wear armor, while OIotAH negates all the enviromental penalties for one shot. BBMP does last for the secne though so the main use for OIotAH at that point is for people who want to wear armor or have massive enviromental penalties.-- BrilliantRain (who misread the charm)

It still sounds silly. Change it to "Eyes" instead of "Occular Implants?" ~ G

I'll think about it. Eyes of the Adamant Hawk sounds too boring though -- BrilliantRain

Hey! I'll deal out the idle criticism here! ~ G

Notes on the Form charm: Athletics doesn't determine movement speed, though it does determine jumping distances. I reworded the charm so that it does what it's supposed to do. Also, fixed a couple of minor errors in formatting. -- Sparrowhawk also added a charm, and would like to see this style continued.

Thanks. I didn't have my book handy and just went on the often-faulty memory there. We now have four pre-form charms. This is more than enough. Can we move post-form? -szilard

I didn't know that approval was required. go ahead.
-- BrilliantRain

It isn't. It was more of a suggestion than a question, really. szilard

Simplified the mechanics in the Form charm. -szilard

Isn't this also a nerf to the Form charm, though? Previously, if you took fewer actions than your MA score, you could abate more of the penalty on each action as long as you tried to keep the penalties relatively even, I think. -Ben-San

hmmm... you're right. I'll give it some thought and probably end up changing it back. I just wasn't satisfied with the whole "relatively even" thing. -szilard

I added an additional defensive benefit instead. With SAF, the multiple-action booster wasn't as good anyway. This capitalizes on the fact that practitioners of this style will try to keep their distance and snipe. szilard

Added a Charm. Maybe it should be the pinnacle Charm; I think it's fairly burly. -TedPro

Pinnacle would perhaps be appropriate, also... shouldn't it need a willpower, if it's a perfect attack charm? Finally, I would say that parries probably break the calculated trajectories, but that's just a rules-flavour interaction problem. It would nerf the charm a bit if you wanted it lower down though, or not to cost the willpower... maybe...
-- Darloth

Suggestion: allow parries (but not dodges) to knock the bolts to the ground or whatever, and it will be fine where it is. Also, are spinning shots dodgeable/parryable? You don't say they aren't, explicitly. My suggestion: make them parryable, but not dodgeable (remembering that you can't normally parry ranged attacks without charms or stunts). Last quibble: is there any reason this can't be used with unarmed attacks? - szilard wishing that the charms were all usable with unarmed attacks, since this is supposed to be a martial art...

"remembering that you can't normally parry ranged attacks without charms or stunts" - This isn't true, ranged attacks can be parried just like regular attacks, unless there's a rules revision I overlooked in the PG. - David.

Szilard, those are great suggestions. I explicitly said that attacks could be dodged or parried, and that a parry stops an attack from becoming a Spinning Shot. I also included an unarmed mechanic. Thanks for the advice. -TedPro

Hey, how many Charms are in this style? - willows

Seven, so far. Seeing as it's been about a week, in order to sate Grandmasta's average time frame, I've added a Charm. The Charm Tree to Date can be seen here - http://daikamen.kaitoukage.net/BirdTree.PNG , including my tender suggestion of the form of the final Charms, rather than ending in a long column of charms. It'll make it a short (9) tree, but users of the style will almost certainly be flavoring it with stuff from the Archery trees, so that seems okay. That diagram also notes, with a dot, charms that have no application in unarmed combat, in case we want to ensure that all the charms are equally applicable.

I'm assuming the numbers before charm names mean 'order of addition' and not something else (I dunno *what* else. 'Ranks in Generation Background', 'Number of arrests to date', whatever.)

I'd like to see this note or a similar one added to the lead-in, to better note that the style is a mix of ranged and unarmed attacks - Practitioners of this style prefer the use of flat-handed strikes, but rather than striking with the side or palm of the hand, they use precisely-calculated measures of force to make body-piercing attacks with the tips of their fingers, leaving wounds often resemblant of the crossbow bolts they favor. ~BerserkSeraph

There. This tree needed a solid offense-booster. I tried to give it one. I think the tree is a little weak on defense (the Form offers some, but that's about it) - but it is explicitly compatible with armor and is optimized to be used at range, so I think it is okay. Are we done? -szilard

Looks pretty good. I'll give a day for additional comments/additional charms then I'll pretty it up a bit and archive it. What is the concensus on BerserkSeraph's suggestion that unarmed MA attacks by practioners of the style be concidered Piercing? szilard you should start think about what theme you want to give.
-- BrilliantRain

I took that to be a flavor-text suggestion rather than a mechanics one. If you want to archive this, I have a couple theme ideas. I'll pick one and post it. - szilard

Next Theme: Songs to the Glory of the Unconquered Sun. This is a Terrestrial-level style practiced by the Dragon Kings. It has nine Charms: three before the form and five after. These Charms are arranged like so: http://szilard.freeshell.org/exalted/DKMAtree.PNG. -szilard