Latest revision as of 20:26, 8 June 2010

Autumn Wind Song Style

It was noted in Havoc's bio that he once mastered something called Autumn Wind Song Style, so I figured I should probably come up with it at some point. This is a First Age style, emphasising chaos and graceful movement: the wind is fleeting and fickle, and no man may stop it from going where it pleases. It is a Celestial style, treating war fans as form weapons, and it explicitly does not allow the use of armor. This style is aligned to the element of Air, and therefore any martial artist who is not an Air-aspected Dragon-Blooded must pay a single mote surcharge once per Charm per turn.

Tranquil Breeze

Cost: 1 mote per die

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Martial Arts: 2

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: None

The character allows her actions to be guided by the gentle flow of the wind, and becomes a point of calm amidst calamity. For each mote she spends on this Charm, she is allowed to buy back dice lost via multiple-action penalties on a 1:1 basis. For example, a character taking two actions in a turn could activate this Charm twice, spending two motes on her first action and three on her second, to grant herself two actions at her full dice pool. This Charm may explicitly be used in conjunction with any unarmed attacks or defenses, Dodge actions, or Athletics actions.

Playful Wind

Cost: 2 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 3

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: Tranquil Breeze

The Exalt embraces the basic fundament of the wind: forever in motion, never stopping. When activated, this Charm allows the user to move at double his normal speed, free of any environmental hindrances such as foliage, weather, or people. This Charm explicitly does not alter jumping distances, but does allow the Exalt to treat even the most minimal footing - a head, a leaf, even a cloud - as sufficient to run or leap from.

Unforeseen Bluster

Cost: 3 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 2

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: None

No one can predict when the wind may blow and when not, and so it follows with the practitioner of Autumn Wind Song Style. Activating this charm allows the character to increase his initiative score by his Martial Arts rating for the turn. This Charm may be activated at any point prior to the first action taken in the turn.

Carefree Wind

Cost: 10 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 3

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: Unforeseen Bluster

The character chooses in a moment of stress or impending consequence to emulate the carefree wind, and frees himself of the restraints of honor and commitment. He rolls Charisma + Martial Arts versus his own Temperance or Valor, whichever is higher. Success on this roll reduces an opponent's successes on a single offensive roll against the character to zero. The roll need not be physical; the martial artist may use the Charm to escape arguments or weddings as easily as battles. This is not a perfect effect. In any turn in which Carefree Wind is used, the martial artist must use his full action for movement, and use it to attempt to escape the conflict as best he can. He may not make an attack for any reason, including counterattack Charms or effects of hearthstones. If the character has used all or part of his dice action or made an attack, he may not activate Carefree Wind until the next turn.

Autumn Wind Song Form

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: One Scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 4

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: Carefree Wind, Playful Wind

The Exalt supports himself on one leg, tracing graceful patterns through the air with his hands and allowing the Essence of the autumn wind to lighten his step and guide his movements. A breeze immediately begins to flow through the surrounding area, enough to rustle leaves or whistle amid the long grass of a field. For the duration of the scene, the user adds his Essence to the difficulty to hit him, and adds his Martial Arts rating to all Athletics rolls and to his Athletics rating for the purposes of jumping.

Impetuous Breeze

Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Instant

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 4

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: Autumn Wind Song Form

Pausing for a moment in reflection upon the unpredictability of a mere descending leaf, the Exalt chooses to embrace it and dissipates into a cloud of natural aerial debris -- autumn leaves, sakura blossoms, dust, etc. -- reappearing immediately in a similar cloud anywhere within her line of sight in any direction.

Cutting Gale

Cost: 4 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisite Charms: Impetuous Breeze

Those who dwell in the North know that wind can cut as sharply as any sword, and armor provides no defense against it. The martial artist releases her Essence almost invisibly into the air and twists the very air currents into a sleet-filled whirlwind that batters the opponent mercilessly even while sapping his energy.
Attacks supplemented by this Charm are unarmed attacks that may only be soaked with the target's natural soak, ignoring armor, and cannot be blocked, only dodged. The Essence of this Charm is wild, and unsuitable for an attack beyond hand-to-hand range without additional Charms.

Violent Gust

Cost: 2 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Martial Arts: 4

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: Autumn Wind Song Form

This Charm is a show of raw elemental power, plain and simple. The martial artist links her Essence to the trace elemental Essence lying dormant in the air around her attack, jarring it into rapidly building bluster. If the attack hits, the links are transferred to the target. The effect of the exchange is that the victim of the attack is suddenly blasted with hurricane-force winds.
On a successful unarmed attack, the difficulty of the opponent's Stamina + Resistance roll to resist knockback or knockdown is doubled. Any attack supplemented by this Violent Gust will always inflict knockback instead of knockdown, unless the victim has an effect that specifically prevents knockback. This Charm may be activated after damage is rolled and still affect both possible rolls, a technique that practitioners sometimes refer to as "the Calm Before the Storm."

Caressing Breeze

Cost: 3 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisite Charms: Violent Gust

As the martial artist nears mastery of the style, he learns to treat the air itself as an extension of his body. His attack appears to the untrained eye to be a dance, or perhaps a kata. In truth, he is delicately creating currents and eddies in the air that build upon one another and focus at a place of his choosing. The result can be as dramatic as a blow to the face, or as deadly as a blade.
The martial artist makes an unarmed martial arts attack as normal at a range of (Essence x 5) yards. He may choose to cause lethal or bashing damage. The air used in the attack lacks the cohesion to wield even the smallest knife or shuriken, but may be used in stunts to move very lightweight objects (feathers, pieces of paper, a piece of straw, the king's toupee).

Calamitous Hurricane

Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Instant

Type: Extra Action

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisite Charms: Cutting Gale, Caressing Breeze

The Autumn Wind Song is a melody of beauty and elegance, but it is one underscored by the sheer power of the element of Air. This Charm applies all the finesse the character has developed to spin the air around him into his own personal tornado, devastating everything and everyone around him.
The character using Calamitous Hurricane makes one unarmed attack against every potential target within the martial artist's Essence in yards, be they friend, foe, or inanimate object. When placed in a Combo with Caressing Breeze, the range increases to (Essence x 5) yards, but only for attacks specifically augmented with Caressing Breeze. This is an exception to the rule that a supplemental Charm must be activated for each action in the turn when in a Combo, and is specific to the interaction between Caressing Breeze and Calamitous Hurricane. Any other supplemental Charm in a Combo with Calamitous Hurricane must be activated once for every attack granted by this Charm, including attacks affected by Caressing Breeze.

Comments

Still needs some flavor text, but let the comments roll in! ~ Grandmasta

Looks good at brief perusal. Don't forget to update the Martial Arts by Weapon lists. - nikink

On reflection, more Charms should probably refer to an "unarmed martial arts attack" for purposes of clarification. This is mostly directed at Caressing Breeze's damning "hand-to-hand attack," which could be deliberately misconstrued as applying to any brawl, MA, or melee attack. Not that anyone in MY games would do that. ^_^ ~ WaiyaddoNoDan

Noted and revised. ~ G

I added a bit more crunch to Calamitous Hurricane... maybe a little too much. ^_^() I also tweaked Violent Gust a little, to doubling the sta + resist difficulty on both rolls instead of the more messy sort-of-success-doubling. Made Cutting Gale unblockable, rather than immaterial, since that seemed less ... strange. You may disagree with any or all of these. Added flavor text to the flavorless Charms. Mayham suggested making the pinnacle Essence 5, which I may agree with. Unsure. The penultimate Charms should probably require MA 5. Might lower the prereqs for some pre-Form Charms, especially Playful Wind. Maybe lower the first two Charms to MA 2 / Ess 2 and change Playful Wind to MA 3 / Ess 2?
In case anyone is wondering, I'm the G-man's ST/friend/partner in crime, and am not generally so brash when editing other people's Charms. ^_^ ~ WaiyaddoNoDan

I am going to upgrade this shit to second edition. ~ G

I lied. ~ G