Latest revision as of 01:17, 6 April 2010

Harmonious Forest Style

by SilverMeerKat

Background

This used to be "under construction". Now, experience has triumphed over hope, and I understand that I will never actually write a background for this style. C'est la vie.

Weapons

This style is compatible with three MA weapons: the jo, the bo, and paired light clubs. No Charms in this tree are compatible with armor.

      Speed Accuracy Damage Defense Resources Minimums
Jo    +0    +0       +2L    +2      •         S•,  D••, MA••
Bo    +0    +0       +3L    +1      •         S••, D••, MA••
Clubs +1    +1       +1L    +1      •         S•,  D••, MA••

Charms

Protecting the Heartwood</b>

<b>Cost: 4 Motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Resistance: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prereqs: None

The character fills her skin with resilient essence, imitating a forest giant's layers of bark and wood surrounding the heartwood. After soak is applied, but before damage is rolled, roll the character's Essence. Every success on the Essence roll removes one die of post-soak damage. This can reduce the damage pool to zero.

Missing the Forest</b>

<b>Cost: 3 Motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Resistance: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prereqs: Protecting the Heartwood

This Charm's tongue-in-cheek name comes from the expression "missing the forest for the trees." In this case, the "trees" are the character's (hardened) limbs, with which he parries things. This is not a normal parry, though - trees don't do that. The character simply holds a limb in front of an oncoming attack and trusts that he is stronger. Roll the Character's Strength + Resistance. Except for the Attribute and Ability used, this is a normal parry, and counts as such (including applicability), though it may be used against attacks that deal Lethal damage even if the character is unarmed. However, it is an all-or-nothing attempt. Either the magic protects the character, stopping the blade and holding his limb immobile, or he's simply stuck his arm in the way of an oncoming nasty thing. This Charm's effects are always applied after any other applicable defensive rolls. If the character also has Bark of the Ancient Walnut active, both Charms occur simultaneously - add their total successes together into a single all-or-nothing attempt. This Charm has no effect on attacks that deal Aggravated damage, unless the character can somehow soak that damage with his Lethal or Bashing soak.

Harmonious Forest Form</b>

<b>Cost: 6 Motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Resistance: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prereqs: Missing the Forest

The martial artist adopts a serene pose, weight shifted back, arms loose and ready. He emulates the great trees of the forest, becoming as durable as the oaks and as mighty as the pines, who crack boulders casually in their quests for water. Add the character's Essence to his Strength and Stamina, and his Martial Arts to his Bashing and Lethal soaks. These Attribute additions count as bonus dice and not natural Attributes for the purposes of Charms (like Resistance Charms), but are normal for all other purposes. The character may parry Lethal attacks unarmed, and is immune to knockback and knockdown. This Charm is a Martial Arts form-type Charm, and is incompatible with armor.

Bark of the Ancient Walnut</b>

<b>Cost: 5 Motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Resistance: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prereqs: Harmonious Forest Form

The Exalt hardens his skin into a durable bark, and attacks slide from his body like rain. His Bashing and Lethal soaks are increased by his permanent Essence. Further, for the rest of the scene, whenever the Exalt is successfully attacked (that is, after all other defenses have been resolved, but before soak), he may roll his unmodified Resistance score. This is an all-or-nothing attempt. If he scores more successes than the remaining attack successes, the attack does no damage, glancing off his bark-like skin. Note that the attack still technically hits the Exalt, since it has to bounce off his skin. This is a perfect defense. The Exalt may not use these dice against attacks that deal Aggravated damage, unless he can somehow soak that damage with his Lethal or Bashing soak.

Eternal Perfection of the Sequoia</b>

<b>Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Resistance: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prereqs: Bark of the Ancient Walnut

The martial artist has now attained the haughty imperturbability of the most ancient of trees, who need not worry about being cut down by the largest army of mortals - the mortals will surely die of old age before they manage to harm the forest giants. If an attack would deal raw Bashing or Lethal damage equal to or less than either (the character's un</b>modified natural Stamina + Essence) or (the applicable soak total), whichever is lower, that attack rolls no damage dice. This is a form of perfect defense, but may not be used to soak damage from poisons, diseases or other internal sources of damage.

<b>Cost: 5 Motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Presence: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prereqs: Harmonious Forest Form

In a pine forest, one tree tends to look like another, and the unwary traveller finds herself lost in a sea of identical, mocking trunks. The martial artist draws on this confusion, turning his enemies around and making all the combatants seem almost to blur together. For every two combatants within the character's Martial Arts in yards (including himself and rounding down), the character gains an automatic success on all defensive roll, up to his permanent Essence in successes. Note that Bark of the Ancient Walnut does count as a defensive roll. If the character also has Sweet Harmony of the Aspen Grove active, these effects extend to the entire group.

Sweet Harmony of the Aspen Grove</b>

<b>Cost: 5+ Motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Presence: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prereqs: Silent Guidance of the Pines

The aspen grows massive groves from a single root system. Just so, the character learns to link himself symbiotically with his fellow combatants. The character spends five motes for each person besides himself to be linked, and one Willpower. All the linked individuals, including the character, receive a bonus to their initiative scores and combat dice pools equal to the Essence of the Exalt using this Charm. The individuals may communicate nonverbally at will and may parry attacks against each other as if they were directed at themselves. Finally, the groups gains a taste of the endurance of the grove. Each member of the group gains Bashing and Lethal soak equal to the Exalt's Essence. This soak is incompatible with armor, and appears as spectral vines and leaves of a color appropriate to the Exalt's type growing over the individual's body. These effects persist for each member of the group so long as he remains within (the Exalt's Martial Arts in yards) of the Exalt. The character may link a number of individuals, not counting himself, equal to his Essence rating. If the character is the only group member left, the Charm ends. Generally, this Charm may only be used to link individuals who know each other at least moderately well, and no one may benefit from more than one application at once (use the highest bonuses and ignore the rest).

Forest Overgrows the Clearing</b>

<b>Cost: 5 Motes
Duration: Five Turns
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Medicine: 2
Minimum Essence: 3
Prereqs: Harmonious Forest Form

A forest will reclaim any new clearing with amazing speed. The martial artists learns to likewise smooth over the minor injuries sustained from day to day. When the character activates this Charm, she settles into a serene, meditative state. This consumes her action for the turn, and counts as Simple Charm use, until the duration of the Charm has expired. Roll her unmodified Martial Arts score. For each success she gains on this roll, she heals one level of Bashing damage after the duration of this Charm expires. If she takes damage before the duration expires, she gains no benefits from the Charm and the motes are lost. The character may channel Temperance, but no other Virtue, to aid this roll.

Forest Topples the Ruins</b>

<b>Cost: 10 Motes
Duration: Varies
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Medicine: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prereqs: Forest Overgrows the Clearing

Even the grandest ruins will eventually succumb to a persistenc, eternal forest. The character learns to emulate this ability to heal over larger, more glaring wounds. The character must be asleep to activate this Charm. Roll her unmodified Martial Arts score. For each success she gains on this roll, she heals one level of Lethal damage when she wakes up. If she takes damage before she wakes, she gains no benefit from this Charm and the motes are lost. The character may channel Temperance, but no other Virtue, to aid this roll.

Spring in the Forest</b>

<b>Cost: 10 Motes, 1 Willpower, 1 Health Level
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Resistance: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prereqs: Eternal Perfection of the Sequoia, Sweet Harmony of the Aspen Grove, Forest Topples the Ruins

In the spring, new life fills the woods. The newly sprouted trees feed on the forest's body, hoping to grow into its protectors. Likewise, the Exalt learns to sacrifice some of his life force to propagate a new forest of allies. When this Charm is used, the character's anima erupts into full iconic glory and remains in that state for the entire scene. The character's body burns with the holy brilliance of his Exaltation, and seems to be made of light during the turn in which this Charm is activated. From this body of light steps an identical body. At the end of the turn, the light filling the duplicate fades, and it is revealed to be a perfect doppleganger of the martial artist, seemingly made of living wood, covered with moss or other plant life instead of hair, unarmored and unarmed. The duplicate has the exact statistics of the martial artist, except that it has no essence pool and no Charms, and its unarmed attacks deal Strength + 4L damage due to its wickedly barbed hands and feet (which make it unable to wield weapons; it will refuse to wear armor). It has a number of -0 health levels equal to the total maximum health levels of the Exalt, and is considered to be permanently under the effects of Harmonious Forest Form and Sweet Harmony of the Aspen Grove (in a group with the martial artist and all other duplicates). If slain, or at the end of the scene, the duplicate dissipates in a brilliant flash of light and the smell of burning wood, and the motes used to power this Charm are no longer committed. A character can make as many duplicates during any one scene as she has points of permanent Essence.

Comments

No, you don't understand, I LOVE this Style.\\ I assume it's Celestial, yes?\\ I'm so making... some, fucking, character with this Style. Something. I dunno what yet, but I am.\\ Now to be productive. Eternal Perfection of the Sequoia: Why the lowest of the two abilities? And why the either/or? Regardless of what the user's Stamina is, unmodified natural Soak is based on Stamina which gets Essence added to it on top of everything, so the value you'll consistently end up using for that charm is Soak if you use the lower of the two. Maybe a hybrid of Soak+Essence? Or just soak, but switch its place with Bark of the Ancient Walnut?\\ Cheers, yo'.\\ ~*~Braydz~*~

This is a really awesome idea. I'm so impressed. (I'm also impressed by how little copyediting it needs. <grin> Props, yo.)\\ ~ Shataina

Wow <giant grin>.\\ Regarding Eternal Perfection of the Sequoia, I went with the lower of the two because, with the form up, the character has perfect soak equal to his (Stam + Essence)B/(Stam + Essence / 2)L. If you throw in more (Resistance) Charms, you can get your Lethal soak up to (Stam + Essence) perfect and (whatever's left) on top of that. However, if you're just standing there, it's only a super-weak attack that won't roll anything. Actually, this Charm originally just made whatever soak you had at a given moment perfect, but LorienFeanturi thought it was hideously overpowered that way, so I capped it. I'm really open to convincing on this one. What I originally intended for it to do was eliminate the possibility of ping damage from extras, and severely slow the rate of ping damage from most opponents. If someone has a good idea about how to do that with a 5/3 permanent 5th-tier Charm, please, let me know.\\ Regarding the general praisiness, SWEET!! And thanks for commenting!\\ -SilverMeerKat

PS- yeah, it's Celestial.

You're already preventing uber-soak bullshit with stating that it's unmodified natural soak. I see that and I think, "No Resistance charms, no artifacts, not even other charms from this tree." With that in mind, for being a 5th tier 5/3 charm, it could stand to be the higher of the two (which, again, just b/c of the way the math works out, is Stamina+Essence). I really like the idea of Soak+Essence, though. Seems like it's a better mechanical reflection of what you're trying to do.\\ That's just my thoughts.\\ Dude, I miss you. Call me or somethin'.\\ ~*~Braydz~*~

Oh, no, it's the unmodified Stam + Essence or the final applicable soak total, whichever is lower. So a character with 4 Stam, 5 MA and 3 Essence would always have a perfect soak of at least 2L (base natural soak, less than Stam + Essence). With Harmonious Forest Form active, he'd have a total Lethal soak of 8, and if an attack had a final damage pool of 7 or lower (Stam + Essence), it would roll no damage dice at all. Of course, you can get around this with something that adds enough damage dice to overcome the soak (Knockout Blow from CB:D comes to mind), but no damage roll means no damage roll, so Charms that change the minimum post-soak damage dice of an attack won't get a chance, since they don't have a roll to begin with.\\ I miss you too. I swear I'll be up for July. <huggles>. And I will call you =)\\ -SilverMeerKat

Oh shit, I was reading it unmodified Soak for some reason.\\ No that's alright the way it is then, I think. Though I also think Soak+Essence would still be a better mechanical representation of what you want, but that's really just me.\\ ~*~Braydz~*~