Latest revision as of 23:27, 8 June 2010

Crimson Panoply of Victory Style

This Style is an amalgamation of Charms by willows assembled together by David. - it's basically a kitbash of House of Battles Style and Crimson Panoply of Victory Style by willows and Fivefold Way of Battles Style by David..

The Crimson Panoply of Victory teaches this style to its bannerbearers, champions, and generals: those who will be remembered for carrying its name. Its form weapons are the spear and fighting gauntlet. Shields with no mobility penalty do not inhibit the Style, but heavier shields are incompatible.

A note on attack ranges: willows, from his original CPoV Style: "For [certain Charms], I had to explicitly define attack ranges, which are implicit in the Core, and supposedly abstracted out in Powercombat though really they're not. They are important for many of this Style's functions."

Normally, unarmed Exalted can attack targets within one yard, and those bearing mortal spears can attack at a range of two yards. Unusual users of the Style, such as very large or small gods, may have different basic attack ranges.

Charms

In The Midst of Things</b> (David.)

<b>Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prereq Charms: None

Always among you, the adept of Battles moves quickly, interposing himself wherever he is most needed, ever at the heart of the battle! For the duration of the scene, any time the Exalt attempts an attack or parry, and the relevant roll does not fail or botch, the Exalt may choose to spend two motes of Essence and reflexively move up to her Martial Arts + Essence in yards. This movement may only be used to move towards the center of a battle, or towards a foe more powerful than the last adversary who attacked or was attacked by the martial artist.

Edge & Haft Discipline</b> (willows)

<b>Cost: 3+ motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental (Reflexive)
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Prereq Charms: Survival is Flexibility

With this Charm, the Sidereal becomes an undisputed master-at-arms by manipulating his weapon naïvely, so that its subtle properties are most apparent; he doubles the Accuracy, Defence, and Damage ratings of a weapon as he wraps it in red-flowering Essence vines, which crash against the warrior's arm like a flood. This causes the weapon's advantages to become staggering and its weaknesses crippling!

This Charm is invoked Supplementally to augment an attack, and Reflexively to augment a parry. Enhancing Artifact weapons adds their dot rating to the mote cost of this Charm. Finally, spending two extra motes makes the action this Charm enhances not count against a weapon's Rate. This Charm only functions on the signature weapons of the style.

Abatis of Speculation</b> (willows)

<b>Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Prereq Charms: Survival is Flexibility

Embedded in the body of every soldier is a body of self-doubt, hidden deep in his bones where it cannot obstruct his duty! Striking at a soldier's corpse, the Exalt can make these bones of worry into a barrier against unfriendly troops. The bones shatter and their sharp fragments litter the ground in a radius of (successes on a Strength + Martial Arts roll) yards, creating a ring of abatis (Exalted pp236-7). The Exalt's unit are unhindered by this barrier.

Chariot Splinter Cloud</b> (willows)

<b>Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Prereq Charms: Survival is Flexibility

The master of battles will brook no cowardice on his field! When someone within his attack range attempts to flee, he instantly becomes aware, and may activate this Charm in order to launch an immediate hamstring or trip attack in order to halt his escape. This is a standard Martial Arts attack, and after the attack is resolved, if it is not completely dodged, the victim must succeed at a reflexive Dexterity+Athletics roll at Difficulty 2 or be knocked down and lose all further movement this turn; he cannot cross any distance without the aid of movement-enhancing Charms.

When attacking vehicles with this Charm, there is no roll to escape being knocked down; if the attack lands, then the vehicle is stopped automatically, barring the use of Charms to reenable its movement.

This Charm is a type of counterattack, though the action it interrupts is not an attack action. It cannot be counterattacked.

Crimson Panoply of Victory Form</b> (David.)

<b>Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Prereq Charms: Edge & Haft Discipline, Chariot Splinter Cloud, Abatis of Speculation

Siezing hold of the strands of fate that compose a field of battle, the Exalt assumes the Battles Form. To strive against him is to fail! Through his mastery of arms, the Exalt multiplies his attack range by his Essence score.

This mastery of space lends the Exalt great control over her immediate surroundings, causing all foes within the Exalt's attack range to suffer dice pool penalties equal to the Exalt's Essence rating on all combat actions.

This is a Celestial-level Martial Arts Form-type Charm.

Stirring the Calm</b> (willows)

<b>Cost: 4 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Prereq Charms: Crimson Panoply of Victory Form

The warrior's unshakeable confidence inspires dark and upsetting understandings in others. His steady gaze awakens a premonition in his opponent, a vision of defeat at the master's hand! The martial artist rolls Awareness + Martial Arts; he may add half, rounding up, of the Damage bonus of his fighting gauntlet, as well as a gauntlet Specialty if he has any, to this roll. The target may reflexively resist with his Conviction + Valor. If he fails, then the vision is only vaguely unsettling, and the victim loses 1 Willpower. If he succeeds, then the vision cuts away at the victim's belief in himself, imposing a 1-die penalty per net success on all actions against the martial artist. This penalty persists for as many turns as the user's permanent Essence.

Yawning Canyon Collapse</b> (willows)

<b>Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 4
Prereq Charms: Stirring the Calm

Sometimes the foundations of belief will crumble beneath a person's feet, and his confidence collapses to rubble. Sometimes the earth opens like a hungry mouth and devours anyone standing upon it, without reason or warning. With this Charm, the adept can make a victim's world crumble on false premises!

After he performs an attack and before soak is applied, the adept may choose a new target for the attack. If the original target had attempted to defend against this attack and had any success in doing so, then the new target may not use that type of defence against it.

The first time someone experiences this technique, it is shocking and baffling; once per scene per target, the adept can ambush the target with this Charm.

Thousand-Echelon Phalanx Drill</b> (David.)

<b>Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Prereq Charms: Crimson Panoply of Victory Form

As a charge breaks against the spear-line of a formation of soldiers, so too break attacks against the Exalt! A martial artist unarmed or wielding a lance or spear may invoke this Charm after an attack against the martial artist is declared but no later than after the first defense the Exalt would use is rolled. The difficulty of the attack against the martial artist is increased by the Accuracy of the martial artist's weapon.

The Fastest With The Mostest</b> (willows)

<b>Cost: 9 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Actions
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 4
Prereq Charms: Thousand-Echelon Phalanx Drill

Every student of war knows well the claim by a famous general when asked how she attained victory - "I got there the fastest with the mostest!" The Exalt may take a number of extra actions equal to her initiative total divided by four. These actions may be attacks, parries, or movement, but no more actions than the character's Essence rating can be used for movement. This Charm can be placed in a Combo with Melee or Brawl Charms.

Spear Becomes All</b> (willows)

<b>Cost: 8 motes, 1 willpower (+1 health level)
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 5
Prereq Charms: Yawning Canyon Collapse, The Fastest With The Mostest

The battlemaster is lost in a maze of awareness; he sees the battle around him as a pattern of motion, a system of interconnected forces. The only thing between him and the world is his spear! He adds his permanent Essence to the dicepool of all combative actions using his spear. This is a bonus derived from Charms, and cumulative with other bonuses, can no more than double the warrior's Dexterity + Martial Arts pool. Though the Crimson Panoply of Victory Style can be used bare-handed and with fighting gauntlets, this effect of the Charm functions on the spear alone.

Additionally, the Exalt's understanding of the Sixteen Efficacious Extensions of Space gives him unparalleled command over all within reach of his spear! All combatants within the martial artist's attack range must bow to his superiority, suffering a difficulty penalty equal to the martial artist's permanent Essence rating on all combat actions. Characters may choose to ignore this difficulty penalty, but at great cost! The post-soak damage dice of attacks against these disobedient targets is increased by the target's Willpower score.

While using this Charm, the adept is completely incapable of communicating with others; he cannot distinguish friend from foe, nor can he give or recieve orders.

Sidereal Exalted can enhance this Charm with a prayer strip bearing the scripture of the Maiden on the Shelf. The Exalt cuts his hand with the prayer strip, staining it with his own blood, then affixes the prayer strip to his spear, like a banner, and it burns brilliant red as it swirls and coils around the weapon with a mind of its own. Each time the character successfully strikes an enemy, or parries an attack, he regains one mote of Essence.

Comments

Upon a test run pitting this Martial Art against VBoS, I stumbled upon some rather glaring flaws. Further consideration revealed one particularly massive oversight. Reach is a primary function of the Style, so much so that I feel that it's really a foundation of the style. While the idea of placing a Style's core "trick" in the Form is charming, when that trick is something that many of the Style's Charms hinge upon, it's detrimental to place it in the Form - multistyle MA is kind of the point, right? And this being a Style written with Sidereals in mind, it's a reasonable assumption that it will be used as a stepping stone towards SMA. This Style hinging so heavily on its Form is a flaw, then, since that means that characters who would prefer to use a Sidereal-level Form are significantly hampering their Celestial-level Charms, and I think it's silly to have SMA completely invalidate CMA. The two should compliment one another. Accordingly, this Style will be reworked and posted on a seperate page (not on this one, since this revision of the Style is currently in use.) - David.