Difference between revisions of "Wordman/AbilityRedesign"

Revision as of 09:06, 3 April 2010

Exalted's skill system works fairly well for a high-combat, occult kung-fu, demigods-looking-cool style game. My /AbilityExpansionSystem provides general mechanisms for tweaking the cost and scope of skills to tailor them to any campaign. The rules that follow use my ability expansion system to radically overhaul Exalted skills. The result is not intended for general consumption (though certain pieces of it might be useful to people), but instead work well for those desiring a more "gritty", detailed skill system. This system might work well, for example, in a purely mortal game, where lack of charms would make a slower and more varied skill progression desirable. Those wanting more realism and less stylization might find it useful as well.

The basic design idea is to tweak all skills until each one covers essentially the same "breadth" of knowledge or training for the same cost. Thus, some of the abilities that are intrinsically more broad, such as Lore, become effectively more expensive. More narrow abilities, such as Dodge, become either effectively cheaper, or are merged into broader skills. In canon Exalted, there are usually game mechanical reasons treating skills like Dodge and Lore as equivalent expenditures: in a high-combat game, it makes sense to cut the combat skills finely and allow non-combat skills to cover an extremely wide area. By breaking this sensibility and adjusting all skills to be equivalent in terms of breadth rather than cost, other changes were needed to maintain some semblance of game balance. Even so, balance under these rules is much less combat-centric than canon, and is the main reason these rules will only be useful for a small set of games.

Overview

While each change in this system is described in greater detail below, the broad changes in this system are:

• Significant increase in the use of Arts. How arts are used is ability specific (see "Using Arts", below), but arts are used variously in this system to avoid penalties, allow charm use, allow combo use or access particular charm trees.
• Extending the Second Edition merger of Brawl and Martial Arts, Martial Arts and Melee are merged further into the Fight ability, with a slew of new arts representing various fighting styles (and charm trees).
• Thrown and Dodge are merged into Athletics.
• Archery becomes Ranged, and covers all man-portable ranged weapons including firewands, the smaller essence cannon, etc., but not heavy weapons.
• A new ability, Dominion, subsumes and expands Ride.
• A new ability, Ordinance, governs use of warstriders and heavy weapons.
• A new ability, Instruction, covers teaching others, pulling functionality from a number of other abilities (mostly War and Lore), and becomes more important when learning new things.
• Sail is replaced by Profession (inspired by FrivYeti/Profession), with Sail becoming one of Profession's arts.
• A new ability, Politics, is to social combat what War is to unit combat, pulling functionality from a number of other abilities (mostly Bureaucracy, Socialize and Awareness). It is not about governance, but skill in understanding and manipulating large groups socially at both a tactical and strategic level.
• The difference between Occult and Lore is made more specific, with a few rules changes.
• Addition of Sciences to more than just Occult. For the most part, this one done by recasting certain existing rules as sciences. For example, Genesis and Necrosurgery are both Craft sciences under these rules.

Caste/Aspect Abilities

As you might expect from the above, changes in this system require re-juggling the Caste and Aspect abilities. Under these rules, caste/aspect abilities are as follows (with deviations from canon in bold):

• Dawn - Dominion, Fight, Ordinance, Ranged, War
• Zenith - Integrity, Performance, Presence, Resistance, Survival
• Twilight - Craft, Investigation, Lore, Medicine, Occult
• Night - Athletics, Awareness, Larceny, Lingusitics, Stealth
• Eclipse - Bureaucracy, Instruction, Politics, Profession, Socialize
• Air - Instruction, Linguistics, Lore, Occult, Stealth
• Earth - Awareness, Craft, Integrity, Resistance, War
• Fire - Athletics, Ordinance, Politics, Presence, Socialize
• Water - Bureaucracy, Fight, Investigation, Larceny, Profession
• Wood - Dominion, Medicine, Performance, Ranged, Survival
• Journeys - Dominion, Integrity, Ranged, Profession, Survival
• Serenity - Athletics, Craft, Linguistics, Performance, Socialize
• Battles - Fight, Ordinance, Presence, Resistance, War
• Secrets - Investigation, Larceny, Lore, Occult, Stealth
• Endings - Awareness, Bureaucracy, Instruction, Medicine, Politics

Using Arts

The primary changes under these rules involve the addition of arts to many abilities and a "gimping" of what can be done with general skills. Use of arts acts as a key method of tweaking how much a given ability costs.

Free Arts

One way this is done is through controlling how many arts are provided for free. All abilities provide arts under one of the following schemes:

• Arts are not used. Some abilities are already in the "sweet spot" for how much they cover, so don't need tweaking with arts. Usually, one can imagine how arts might work for these abilities, but the ability doesn't really need to be made more or less broad, so it is not worth the added complexity. The abilities are: Awareness, Dominion, Instruction, Integrity, Investigation, Politics, Presence, Resistance, Socialize, Stealth, War.
• One free art per dot: Each time a dot of this kind of ability is learned, the character gains an art for free. Abilities of this kind tend to have a large number of possible arts and, for most players, allow the ability to be used exactly as they used it under the canonical rules. Only those that used a skill extremely broadly (or wanted to but couldn't) should be impacted by this. The best example of this kind of ability is Linguistics, where arts (aspects, actually) are used for each language. The ends up working the same as canon, except for the character who wants to learn 10 languages and can now do so just by purchasing additional arts. Abilities that use arts like this are: Fight, Linguistics, Lore, Ordinance.
• One free art per two full dots: For every two full dots of ability learned, the character gains an art for free. This tends to be used for the same reasons as the previous scheme, but when there are fewer available arts. Abilities like this are: Ranged.
• One free art upon leaning the first dot: When learning the first dot of an ability, the character gains an art for free, but must buy additional arts. Abilities of this kind tend to have only a handful of arts, each of which covers a fairly broad cross section of the ability. Abilities that work like this do so either because it closely mirrors how canon rules worked (e.g. Craft) or to make an overly broad skill less all encompassing (e.g. Bureaucracy). Abilities of this type are: Athletics, Bureaucracy, Craft, Performance, Profession, Survival.
• No free arts: The ability uses arts, but none are learned for free. This type of abilities tend to be those in which arts act as extensions to the skill, rather than subsets of it. In many cases, abilities in this category used to include the capabilities covered by the art in canon, but require the art to use that capability under this system. Or, the ability may gain capabilities under these rules that do not exist canonically. Such abilities are: Larceny, Medicine, Occult.

Artless Penalties

Abilities that use arts now have an "artless penalty", which defines what happens when you try to use a skill without knowing a related art. Specific to each ability, the artless penalty colors how important arts are to the skill and, therefore, acts as the other primary mechanism for tweaking ability costs and capabilities. While each ability's artless penalty is different, mechanically a given ability will work in one of the following ways:

• No penalty to use the general skill without an art, but some charm trees only available to those with specific arts. Abilities like this have a solid core use, but can also apply "advanced training" (i.e. arts) in more specialized situations or special techniques. Essentially, abilities like these work mostly as the do canonically, but with extra cost to apply more advanced techniques. Abilities that work like this are: Athletics
• No penalty to use the general skill, but knowing arts provides bonuses. Abilities in this category allow any who know them to perform the same tasks, but those who put in extra study elevate the practice into art. Such abilities are: Larceny, Medicine, Occult.
• Penalty to use the general skill without an art. Arts for these broad abilities act as subsets of knowledge, essentially making the skill cost more to learn broadly. These are: Linguistics, Lore.
• Penalty to use general skill without an art, and charms cost extra for those that do not know an art. These abilities are very broad, and the arts cover large subsets of the main ability. These are: Bureaucracy, Survival
• Penalty to use general skill without an art, and charms cannot be used in situations where a known art does not apply. These abilities are extremely broad, with arts generally defining a large subset of the ability. Such abilities are: Craft, Performance
• Penalty to use general skill without an art, and arts allow access to particular charm trees. Abilities like this tend to have a large number of separate charm trees. These are: Fight, Ordinance, Ranged.

Summary

|| ||||||Castes||||Artless||||Art Use|| || ||Solar / Abyssal||Sidereal||Terrestrial||Penalty||Charms||Free||Benefit|| || Athletics || Night / Day || Serenity || Fire || -0 || no Dodge or Thrown || one || access to additional charms || || Awareness || Night / Day || Endings || Earth ||||||||arts not used|| || Bureaucracy || Eclipse / Moonshadow || Endings || Water || -3 || cost double || one || standard charm cost|| || Craft || Twilight / Dawn || Serenity || Earth || -2 || none allowed || one || standard charm use|| || Dominion || Dawn / Dusk || Journeys || Wood ||||||||arts not used|| || Fight || Dawn / Dusk || Battles || Water || -2 || none allowed || per dot || charm use within style|| || Instruction || Eclipse / Moonshadow || Endings || Air ||||||||arts not used|| || Integrity || Zenith / Midnight || Journeys || Earth ||||||||arts not used|| || Investigation || Twilight / Dawn || Secrets || Water ||||||||arts not used|| || Larceny || Night / Day || Secrets || Water || -0 || any || none || lowers difficulty|| || Linguistics || Night / Day || Serenity || Air || -4, +3 diff || any || per dot || fluency|| || Lore || Twilight / Dawn || Secrets || Air || -4 || any || per dot || eliminates penalty|| || Medicine || Twilight / Dawn || Endings || Wood || -0 || any || none || reducing difficulty|| || Occult || Twilight / Dawn || Secrets || Air || -0 || any || none || +2 dice|| || Ordinance || Dawn / Dusk || Battles || Fire || -2 || none allowed || per dot || charm use within style, with warstriders|| || Performance || Zenith / Midnight || Serenity || Wood || -2 || none allowed || one || standard charm use|| || Politics || Eclipse / Moonshadow || Endings || Fire ||||||||arts not used|| || Presence || Zenith / Midnight || Battles || Fire ||||||||arts not used|| || Profession || Eclipse / Moonshadow || Journeys || Water || -2 || none allowed || one || standard charm use, additional trees|| || Ranged || Dawn / Dusk || Journeys || Wood || -2 || none allowed || per 2 dots || charm use within style|| || Resistance || Zenith / Midnight || Battles || Earth ||||||||arts not used|| || Socialize || Eclipse / Moonshadow || Serenity || Fire ||||||||arts not used|| || Stealth || Night / Day || Secrets || Air ||||||||arts not used|| || Survival || Zenith / Midnight || Journeys || Wood || -3 || double cost || one || standard cost|| || War || Dawn / Dusk || Battles || Earth ||||||||arts not used||

Abilities

As mentioned above, different abilities have different uses for arts and sciences. Many have none. The skills break down like so:

Athletics

Athletics allows a character control over her own movement, coordination, balance and application of physical strength. It governs leaping, climbing, acrobatics, sport and reflexes. Athletics also now incorporates the canon skills of Dodge and Thrown as arts, treating the charm trees for those skills almost like martial arts styles. Any canon martial arts styles based on thrown weapons are now governed by Athletics.

Caste Ability For: Night, Fire, Serenity

Used For: Physical actions (Ex2 126-7), combat with thrown weapons, dodging. Under these rules, Athletics is used for calculating your dodge defense value (Ex2, 146).

Specialties: Climbing, Leaping, Running, Lifting, Uneven Terrain, In Alpine Environments, etc.

Artless Penalty: Anyone with Athletics may make any Athletics test (or a test that, under canon rules, would roll Dodge or Thrown) at no penalty; however, Thrown and Dodge charm trees require individual arts to use, as do martial arts styles based on thrown weapons. Cross art charms cannot be combed without the science of Martial Synergy (unless, of course, the charm specifically allows this).

Arts: Athletics-based arts represent specific schools of movement, usually containing associated charm trees. Athletics arts include:

• Abyssal Dodge: Gives abyssals access to the abyssal Dodge charm tree.
• Abyssal Thrown: Gives abyssals access to the abyssal Thrown charm tree.
• Sidereal Dodge: Gives sidereals access to the sidereal Dodge charm tree.
• Sidereal Thrown: Gives sidereals access to the sidereal Thrown charm tree.
• Solar Dodge: Gives solars access to the solar Dodge charm tree.
• Solar Thrown: Gives solars access to the solar Thrown charm tree.
• Terrestrial Dodge: Gives Dragon-Blooded access to the terrestrial Dodge charm tree.
• Terrestrial Thrown: Gives Dragon-Blooded access to the terrestrial Thrown charm tree.

Some martial arts styles, like Air Dragon, may be a mix of unarmed and thrown combat. To use an ability with styles like this, an art must be learned for each ability. Learning the Athletics-related Air Dragon art, for example, allows use of known Air Dragon charms with chakram, but not unarmed. Likewise, learning the Fight-related Air Dragon art allows use of known Air Dragon charms while unarmed, but not with a chakram. Such styles always use Athletics for thrown attacks and Fight for unarmed attacks.

There may also be arts that require extreme physical training or dedication, without actually having associated charms. For example, Yoga might be an art, or the physical techniques one must master to be an escape artist.

Buying your first dot in Athletics does provides one art for free.

Aspects: Aspects for athletics based arts would be based on specific maneuvers or situations. Dodge aspects include Multiple Opponents, Leaping Dodges, Multiple Opponents, Dodging Ranged Weapons and so on. Thrown aspects include While Running, At Long Range, Ricochets, etc.

Focus: A typical focus for thrown based arts would be a specific thrown weapon. A dodge focus would usually be avoiding attacks from a specific kind of opponent, such as animals or undead.

Sciences: Athletics has no sciences of its own; however, it may benefit from the Fight sciences to, for example, create combos using multiple Athletics arts, or even a mix of Athletics and Fight arts. This does not change charm definitions, however. A charm that specifically enhances ranged attacks cannot be "forced" to combo with a charm specifically for unarmed attacks.

Awareness

Awareness works just as in canon rules.

Caste Ability For: Night, Earth, Endings

Used For: Noticing details, vision (Ex2 135), detecting stealth (Ex2 131), penetrating disguises, resisting theft (Ex2 128), joining battle (Ex2 141), noticing unexpected attacks (Ex2 155), resisting surprise (Ex2 156)

Specialties: Visual, auditory, olfactory, sensing ambushes, keeping watch

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Sciences: None.

Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy works just as in canon rules.

Caste Ability For: Eclipse, Water, Endings

Used For: evaluating goods (Ex2 135)

Specialties: Foot-Dragging, expediting, bribery, concealment, bending rules

Artless Penalty: Dealing with a bureaucracy for which you do not know the art carries a -3 external penalty and charms cost twice the usual number of motes.

Arts: There are a number of spheres of existence, and each one has bureaucratic possibilities and practices nearly alien to the others. An art exists, therefore, for each of the major spheres: Creation, Yu-Shan, the Wyld, Underworld, Malfeas and Autochthonia. Knowing one of these arts prevents the penalty in, and increased mote cost of charms for, dealing with bureaucracies in that sphere.

Buying the first dot in Bureaucracy provides one art for free.

Aspects: Aspects cover broad areas of existence that tends to manifest bureaucracy, such as Law, Commerce, Military, Government and Education.

Focus: Focus in bureaucracy tends to be either regional, such as the Blessed Isle, the Scavenger Lands, Nexus, the Labyrinth, etc. or within a large organization, such as the Guild or the All-Seeing Eye.

Sciences: None.

Craft

Craft is assumed to be a general measure of creativity and self-expression through creation of objects.

Caste Ability For: Twilight, Earth, Serenity

Used For: Item creation, manse building (Ex2, pg 133), understanding how something was made (Ex2, pg 132),

Specialties: Working in haste, improvised materials, style over substance, in groups

Artless Penalty: Using craft without a relevant art or science imposes a -2 penalty. Worse, no charms of any kind may be used in areas of Craft for which the exalt does not have an applicable art, aspect, focus or science.

Arts: Knowing an art allows Craft charm use for tasks within the domain of the art. Five standard arts cover all possible creative crafts available to mortals. These are the five defined in the core book (pg. 107), with some additions:

• Air: calligraphy, jewelry-making, creating precision instruments, glassblowing (making small, decorative or high-precision items). Air also covers drawing, drafting and the creation (but not performance) of new instrumental pieces (filling silence with sound, communicating emotion musically). Tying lyrics to new instrumentals requires the Linguistic art of Poetry.
• Earth: masonry, stone cutting, creating earthworks (creating buildings and large objects with stone or earth). Carving sculpture out of stone is also covered by Earth.
• Fire: blacksmithing, making ceramics (forging and casting large metal objects and creating objects using fire). Pottery and creation of bronze statues or other metallic sculpture is also covered by Fire.
• Wood: carpentry, weaving, paper-making, flower arranging (carving, weaving and manipulating natural materials). Wood also covers painting, sculpting from clay and most textile work.
• Water: cooking, brewing, leather working, pharmacy and poison-making (boiling and cooking plants, chemicals and animal materials).

A number of esoteric arts are also available, usually limited to certain character types. Often these arts have their own systems and/or require skills or costs to use (e.g. Colleges, gossamer, etc.), but learning the art works as outlined in these rules. Feats made possible with esoteric craft arts are not generally possible without knowing them. Esoteric arts include:

• Fate (Sidereals 104)
• Glamour (Fair Folk 104)
• Jadecrafting (Abyssals 232-234)
• Soulforging (Abyssals 232-234)
• Moliation (Abyssals 232-234)
• Pandemonium (Abyssals 232-234)

When a character buys their first dot in Craft, they gain a general art of their choice for free.

Aspects: Aspects generally cover broad areas of expertise within an art. The Wood art, for example might have aspects like cooking, brewing and leather working. Aspects might also take the form of broad regional styles, such as "northern cultural design" or "first age visual style".

Focus: Focus in craft is a deep understanding of a very limited medium and style, such as "western stone engraving".

Sciences: The universal Craft penalty is waved for tests involving a science that the character knows even one dot of. Characters may also buy specialties in sciences as if they were arts. Known sciences include:

• Magitech: Described in Wonders of the Lost Age, knowing the science of magitech allows use of Craft skill on magical devices. Anywhere rules call for a Craft (Magictech) roll, use plain Craft ability (plus any magitech specialties) as the pool. The rating in this science acts as a limit: characters can only use the magitech science on artifacts, manses or devices with a rating equal to their magitech science rating or less. This science requires the Air and Fire arts and cannot be higher than the character's Lore rating.
• Genesis: Also described in Wonders of the Lost Age, this science works just like magictech does, but replacing Craft (Genesis). This science requires the Wood art and cannot be higher than the lowest of the character's Lore, Medicine or Occult ratings.
• Necrosurgery: Introduced in Abyssals and expanded in the Book of Bone and Ebony, necrosurgery is the science of assembling and animating dead flesh and harnessing necrotic energy. Anywhere rules called for Craft (Necrosurgery), use plain Craft ability (plus any necrosurgery specialties) as the pool. The rating in this science sets an upper limit on the size class (BoBE 97) or artifact rating of an item created using this science. Necrosurgery does not require knowledge of a craft art, but its rating may not exceed the lowest of the character's Lore, Medicine or Occult ratings.
• Perfection: This science deals with creating exceptional weapons and other creations and represents the dedicated knowledge of metallurgy, heat and other minutia that are need to forge exceptional weapons, armor and other items. It requires an art for creating such equipment (usually Fire). The first dot of this science allows objects to be made up to the level of "Exceptional" (Ex2 365). The second allows creation of "Perfect" items (Ex2 366). Generally learning this science beyond this is pointless. The magitech science may also be used for the creation of exceptional items, so this science is rare among exalts; however, the requirements for this science are less stringent, so mortals (and some exalts) may prefer this path.
• Permanence: This lost science contains the secrets to making self-sustaining items (WotLA 7). No one knows it any more but, in theory, it's rating would define a limit on what level of artifacts could be made permanent.

Dominion

Dominion subsumes Ride, expanding it in ways already used occasionally in canon. It measures a character's ability to use a subservient entity or device as an extension of herself, manipulating it as a conduit of her own will. The most typical use of this ability is to control a mount or personal vehicle. As with the canon Ride skill, combat abilities while so mounted cannot exceed the character's Dominion rating. Dominion is also used when possessing a creature or animating objects, to which the same combat skill limit applies. It may also come into play for interactions with a familiar. More esoterically, Dominion may cover cases where a character is commanding creatures with no will, such as zombies or the soul eaten, that they have previously dominated in some way. Note that Dominion does not usually play a part in in the initial domination of mounts (which would be done with Survival) or thralls (which would be done with social combat or some kind of magic). Dominion is also not used for commanding those with free will, as this is the purview of Presence (or, in some cases, Performance).

Dominion also applies to the piloting of warstriders, with Dominion limiting combat skills used controlling one. As with controlling a mount, actual Dominion rolls are needed only in the most complicated of maneuvers.

Caste Ability For: Dawn, Wood, Journeys

Used For: Fighting on horseback (Ex2 110, 154), riding, possession.

Specialties: Specific mount, small First Age vehicles, in combat, in rough terrain

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Sciences: None.

Other Rule Changes: Attuning to artifacts (Ex2 381) becomes a Wits + Dominion (1) test, where each success decreases the time needed to attune by one minute. Attuning to items of the wrong material (Ex2 382) uses a similar test, but at difficulty 3.

Fight

Fight allows a character to engage in personal close combat, with or without weapons, but not in warstriders (see Ordinance). It combines Melee and Martial Arts (and, in the case of First Edition, Brawl) into a single ability, with a number of arts covering various styles of fighting.

Caste Ability For: Dawn, Water, Battles

Used For: Combat

Specialties: Specialties cover situational aspects of fighting such as Multiple Opponents, Single Combat, In Formation, While Blind, Under Water, Mounted

Artless Penalty: Fighting without knowing a related Art carries a -2 internal penalty. Fight charms provide no benefit in situations where no related art is known. Even with arts, without the science of Martial Synergy (see below), charms from different arts may not be comboed.

Arts: Each fight-based art defines a particular fighting style, eliminating the penalty and allowing charm use (if any) with the weapons and techniques of that style. Learning the Snake Style art, for example, allows use of known Snake Style charms would eliminate the -2 internal penalty when making attacks in the snake style while unarmed or using the style's form weapons.

In addition to existing martial arts styles, the canonical Melee trees are each turned into "styles", from which, four distinct fighting arts are derived. While the charms need be learned only once, an art is required to "unlock" the uses of these charms for different styles of weapon. Such styles may or may not have forms. For solar melee, Fivefold Bulwark Stance might work as a decent form. Terrestrial melee might use Refining the Inner Blade as a form. Other trees, like lunar armed combat may have no form at all. All allow armor. Mortal versions of these general arts also exist, but of course do not have associated charm trees. The styles are:

• (Exalted type) Blade: style weapons include all bladed weapons, such as swords and daggers.
• (Exalted type) Impact: style weapons include all impact weapons, such as hammers and axes.
• (Exalted type) Polearm: style weapons include all polearms, such as spears and lances.
• (Exalted type) Martial Arts: style weapons include all martial arts weapons, such as sai and seven-section chains.

Some martial arts styles, like Air Dragon, may be a mix of unarmed and other combat. To use an ability with styles like this, an art must be learned for each ability. Learning the Fight-related Air Dragon art, for example, allows use of known Air Dragon charms and would eliminate the -2 internal penalty when making unarmed Fight attacks, but not with Athletics tests using the chakram. Likewise, learning the Athletics-related Air Dragon art, for example, allows use of known Air Dragon charms and would eliminate the -2 internal penalty when making Athletics attacks using the chakram, but not unarmed Fight attacks.

For each dot of Fight purchased, a character may learn one Fight art for free. A solar with Fight 4, for example, might learn Solar Blade, Solar Impact, Snake Style and Solar Hero. A mortal with Fight 4, who does not care about charms but wants to avoid the artless penalty, might learn Unarmed, Blades, Impact and Polarms as arts.

Aspects: A typical aspect to a fighting art include various maneuvers or techniques used within a style, such as clinching, parries, attack, maiming, disarming, pulling blows, dual-weilding, etc.

Focus: A typical focus to a fighting art is a particular weapon. For example, someone with the Lunar Polearms art might choose a focus of Short Spear.

Sciences: Those who learn Fight sciences dedicate a large part of their lives to understanding every aspect of combat. They are often reclusive masters or famous sifu, or both. Often, they will have written philosophical texts on combat. There are two known Fight sciences are, both of which may also be be used with fighting style based Ranged and Athletics arts:

• Martial Synergy: Those who dedicate time to this science study the flows of essence and underlying meaning of fighting styles. Their deep knowledge of the Perfected Lotus allows them to combine magic from different fighting styles. The rating of this science acts as a limit to the number of additional styles that may be added to Fight combos the character creates. So, a character with a rating of two in this science would allow the character to build combos containing charms from up to three fighting styles. Each such combo could contain a different combination of styles, but no more than three per combo. Note that this science allows much more combo flexibility than canon rules but costs significantly more for a feature that was canonically free. It allows, for example, combination of canon Melee and Martial Arts charms, but you pay for the privilege.
• Expanding the Lotus: Only those who truly and deeply study the Perfected Lotus and its relation to the universe are qualified to add to it. Those who know this science have incorporated this knowledge into themselves so thoroughly, that they may create new martial arts styles. The first level of this science allows creation of mortal and terrestrial styles. The second allows creation of celestial styles and the third allows creation of sidereal styles. Sidereal characters reduce the cost (in bonus points or xp) to learn this science by three.

Other Rule Changes: Martial art styles that allowed both ranged and close attacks to use the Martial Arts ability no longer do so, instead using the ability appropriate to the type of attack (see Athletics and Ranged).

Instruction

Instruction allows a character to more quickly and easily teach what they know to others.

Caste Ability For: Eclipse, Water, Endings

Used For: Training others

Specialties: Specific ability, specific attribute, specific martial arts style, teaching groups, training individuals

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Sciences: None.

Other Rule Changes: Instruction comes into play most often while training other people, with the instructor reducing the amount of time training requires. Base training time now always begins as if no trainer was available, that is, double the values listed on page 274. If using a tutor, the tutor makes a Manipulation + Instruction test as a dramatic action, every two full successes on this roll cut the training time in half. If the instructor has a higher rating in what he is teaching than the student, he adds a number of dice equal to the difference in ratings to the teaching roll. The tutor must have an Instruction rating at least as high as the rating of the trait he is teaching or, if teaching a charm, to its minimum Essence requirement. It is possible for a tutor to help a student learn a trait the tutor does not have, but this is extremely difficult, both subtracting dice equal to the difference in ratings and requiring five full successes for each halving of the time. For example, a tutor with Dexterity 2 would be able to teach a student Dexterity 5 as long as the tutor also had Instruction 5, doing so at a 3 die penalty and needing five successes for each time reduction.

Existing charms for teaching are scattered all over the charm trees, canonically. These are pulled out of these trees and unified into an instruction tree. For example, the solar Instruction tree would include Instruction excellencies, Tiger Warrior Training Technique, Harmonious Academic Methodology and Legendary Scholar Curriculum.

Integrity

Integrity works just as in canon rules.

Caste Ability For: Zenith, Earth, Journeys

Used For: Mental defense (Ex2 172)

Specialties: Charms of a particular exalt type, spirit charms, the fair folk, persuasion, torture

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Sciences: None.

Investigation

Investigation works just as in canon rules.

Caste Ability For: Twilight, Water, Secrets

Used For: Reading motivation, lie detection (Ex2 131), examining scene, concealing evidence (Ex2 132), countering surprise social attacks (Ex2 169), attacking and parrying in social combat (Ex2 172).

Specialties: Library research, conducting interviews, finding concealed objects, reconstructing events

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Sciences: None.

Larceny

Caste Ability For: Night, Water, Secrets

Used For: Disguise, picking locks, picking pockets, shoplifting, slight of hand (Ex2 128).

Specialties: Lock picking, con games, a specific city, cheating at dice, fencing stolen goods, scoring drugs, a certain type of mark, organized crime

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: Much like occult, anyone trained in larceny may perform larcenous tasks at no penalty; however, some train specially in certain disciplines of larceny, elevating them to art. The benefit of knowing a larceny art is that it lowers the difficulty to perform related tasks by 1 (min 1) and increases the difficulty of the results from being detected by one. The three larceny arts are: Disguise, Forgery and Prestidigitation.

Aspects: Aspects in the larcenous arts deal with the various methods of any art. Disguise aspects would be Self, Others, Specific People, Generic People, etc.. Forgery aspects would be different media, such as Documents, Artwork, Signatures. Prestidigitation aspects are Palming, Shell Games, Trick Sets, etc.

Focus: To focus on a larcenous art is to build knowledge of as specific use for an art, such as specific types of disguises (e.g. Immaculate Priests, leprosy victims, etc.), styles of forgery (e.g. the style of a particular artist, the documents of a certain city, etc.) or a particular style of trick (e.g. coin tricks, forcing cards, cup and balls, three-card monte, making elephants disappear, etc.)

Sciences: None.

Linguistics

Caste Ability For: Night, Air, Serenity

Used For: Knowing languages, social attacks (Ex2 172), written attacks (Ex2 175),

Specialties:

Artless Penalty: Linguistics tests using a language the character does not know imposes a -4 die penalty and increase their difficulty by three.

Arts: While anyone who knows a language can communicate, it takes a master to elevate language into artwork. Linguistic arts do just this, conveying more information than the words alone:

• Calligraphy: Characters with Calligraphy may use Linguistics skill instead of Craft (Air) for tests of penmanship.
• Cryptography: Those well versed in codes and code-breaking reduce the difficulty of deciphering a code by one and gain two dice to write in cypher or otherwise conceal the meaning of their writing.
• Poetry: Poets gain two dice on any linguistics test in which they use poetry in a venue where it might be relevant (for example social attacks within a culture that admires poetry) or to compose lyrics to songs.
• Prose: Beyond simple written communication, masters of prose gain two dice to compose stories, convey emotion or give multiple layers of meaning to their writing.
• Theater: Those who master writing words for others to perform reduce the difficulty of the Performance tests of those performing their plays or speeches.

Aspects: Individual languages are purchased as Linguistics aspects or foci. With each dot of Linguistics, the character gains a language or dialect for free. Different styles of poetry may also be taken as aspects.

Focus: A regional dialect would be represented as a focus. Those with such a regional focus may be able to communicate in local idiom so fluently that even those who know the base language cannot understand their meaning. It is likely that rural mortals will know only a focus in their native language more often than they know the aspect. A character could also focus on the written or oral use of a particular language. Specific subject matter can also be taken as a focus of Poetry.

Sciences: None

Lore

Lore covers how much the character knows about the world around him. Lore tends to be a passive skill, representing knowledge of fact rather than an ability to do something. It includes magical knowledge, which often confuses the line between Lore and Occult. In general, Occult is used for actually manipulating magical energies or patterns (i.e. things you do with magic), while Lore represents knowledge or how knowledge is applied (i.e. things you know about magic).

Caste Ability For: Twilight, Air, Secrets

Used For: Conventional academic knowledge (Ex2 132), manse design, artifact creation (Ex2 133), operate technology/artifacts (Ex2 136), Mystical knowledge (Ex2 132).

Specialties: Arts are used instead of specialties for Lore.

Artless Penalty: Characters without a corresponding art suffer a -4 penalty to Lore tests. This penalty may be reduced to (usually to -2) if the character, while lacking the proper art, knows a different art that might reasonably provide insight into the test. For example, a character with the History art may get a reduced penalty to figure out how a magical device of historical import functions, even though he lacks the Enchanted Devices art. Likewise, knowledge of other abilities may be able to reduce an artless penalty as well. Each of the Lore arts can generally be considered a "book knowledge" version of the practical experience of other abilities. For example, a high War ability might reduce the artless penalty for a Lore test involving military history if the character didn't know the Military Lore art.

Arts: As Lore represents the broad expanse of all knowledge, arts represent slightly less broad subsets of this knowledge. For each dot of Lore purchased, one art is learned for free. Though a general art normally encompasses all aspects in its purview, there is an exception in the case of Lore arts: general Lore arts do not contain anything more than a vague knowledge of the First Age or prior. To know such knowledge, the character must by a First Age aspect for each art to fill in the gaps. This additional cost represents both the difficulty in learning about in the First Age and the vast additional knowledge the First Age represents. Many Lore arts are possible, including:

• Literacy: The character can read and write in all the languages she knows.
• History: The character has mastered a broad range of historical facts. Those lacking this art may reduce penalties on historical Lore tests with Politics.
• Geography: The character knows the features of the land. This includes knowledge of mana lines and other geomantic information, as well as information about the weather. In some cases, those with Survival skill can reduce penalties for not knowing this art.
• Culture: The character knows much about a wide array of cultural customs. The penalty for lacking this art may be reduced by those with Socialize or, in some cases, Linguistics.
• Military: The character knows how various armies are organized, military customs, heraldry, what various rank insignia and award ribbons mean, and so on. War ability may reduce the penalty for not knowing this art.
• Architecture: The character knows how to design buildings for strength, beauty and magical potential. This art covers most aspects of manse design. Those with the Craft art of Earth or some Craft sciences may reduce the penalty for not knowing this art.
• Philosophy: The character knows about philosophical and religious matters of all kinds, including the moral arguments, religious dogma, texts and organization of various religions.
• Biology: The character knows about living things and how they interact. This includes knowledge of various plant and animal species and their behavior. Depending on the test, Medicine, Ride or Survival may reduce an artless penalty in this field.
• Economics: The character understands monetary theory, banking, markets and other economic principles, as well as the major forces acting within his world. Characters with commerce-based Bureaucracy arts may reduce the penalty for not knowing this art.
• Theoretical Magic: The character knows about how magic works in an abstract sense, as well as what its capabilities and limitations are. It covers general knowledge of essence, spirits, ghosts, fair folk, Wyld energy, sorcery, charms, artifacts and so on. Occult ability can usually reduce penalties for not knowing this art.
• Applied Magic: The character knows about how magic has been and can be used to solve problems. In particular, this art covers how magical items are constructed and how they operate. It also covers knowledge of specific artifacts, spells, charms, spirits, ghosts, and so on. For example, knowledge of a certain spell's existence, what it can do and for how long, its strengths and weaknesses, perhaps even the location of a copy of the spell, but not the know-how to actually cast it. Those lacking this art may, in some cases, reduce penalties on related Lore tests with Occult or the Magitech science.

Aspects: An aspect is generally a wide subset of the body of knowledge in an art. This might be, for example, the knowledge intersection of two arts, such as, Military Culture or Religious History. Arts can also be divided regionally, such as Realm History, Nexus Architecture, Underworld Economics, Wyld Biology or Scavenger Lands Military. Aspects may also be temporal limits on an art, covering certain periods of time, such as Shogunate History, Recent Philosophy, or Third Century Economics. As mentioned above, knowledge of the first age requires an aspect for each art, such as First Age History, First Age Culture, etc.

Focus: A focus generally dives deeply into an art rather than broadly, giving detailed knowledge of an art, but limited in two ways, such as Realm Religious History, or else limited to a very specific subject, such as Frog Biology. A character also might focus on a specific organization, such as the Immaculate Order. Characters who wish to be literate only in certain languages can take those languages as foci of Literacy without learning Literacy itself.

Sciences: Lore science generally cover the creation of knowledge, or recreation of knowledge that has been lost. Lore sciences are:

• Architectonics: This science covers the detailed, multi-disciplinary knowledge and skill needed to design manses. In order to use the canon methods of manse design, a character must have a rating in this science equal to the rating of the manse being designed.
• Charmcraft: Under canon rules, all exalts can teach themselves most charms. Under this system, learning more powerful charms on your own requires detailed knowledge of charm magic, represented by the Charmcraft science. Rating in this science is compared to the minimum Essence requirement of charms (referred to here as ME). Characters can learn an existing charm without a tutor only if they have a Charmcraft rating equal to or greater than the charm's ME minus three. (This means that any exalt can teach themselves Essence 3 charms or lower without Charmcraft.) Characters with charmcraft can also invent brand new charms; however in this case, the science's rating is compared to ME minus two.
• Spellcraft: Under these rules, creation of new spells (Ex2 251) cannot be accomplished without knowledge of the science of spellcraft. Rating 1 in spellcraft allows the creation of emerald circle spells and requires the ability to cast terrestrial circle sorcery. Rating two allows invention of sapphire spells, requiring the ability to cast celestial circle sorcery. Rating of three allows the invention of adamant circle spells and requires the ability to cast solar circle sorcery. Creating spells now always uses Lore instead of Occult.
• Necromantia: The science of necromantia works exactly as spellcraft, but for necromancy instead of sorcery.

Other Rule Changes: Any Occult test in the rules to determine something the character knows about magic (as opposed to using magic to do something) is rolled under these rules as a Lore test, using either the Theoretical Magic or Applied Magic art. Any canonical Lore test to determine if the character succeeds in manipulating or otherwise doing something with magic is rolled under these rules as an Occult test instead. In particular, the knowledge of how to attune to a manse is under the purview of Lore, but the test to actually do so is an Occult test.

Medicine

Caste Ability For: Twlight, Wood, Endings

Used For: Treating illness (Ex2 129), knowledge of the body in health, sickness and trauma and remedies for disease and injury (Ex2 132), diagnosis, treating wounds (Ex2 137), emergency surgery, stopping bleeding, treating infection (Ex2 151), healing crippling wounds (Ex2 152)

Specialties: Infection, specific diseases, broken bones

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: While anyone trained in Medicine can use the ability without penalty, some learn more depth into certain fields, represented as arts. These arts are:

• Acupuncture: A healing technique based on treating the flow of Essence within the body, using needles, pressure, heat or other modification to parts of the body that block that flow, acupuncture's primary game effect is to speed healing. While resting under the care of an acupuncturist, a character's heals each health level as if its wound penalty is a category less for purposes of determining healing time.
• Herbalism: Less concerned with brewing potions (see the Occult science of Alchemy), herbalists hold a vast knowledge of plants and their effect on the body and reduce the difficulty of identifying plants with medical purposes and diagnosing those under the effects of plant or animal toxins by 2.
• Surgery: Those skilled in the surgical arts reduce the difficulty of any surgical test on a living patient by 2.

Aspects: Acupuncture aspects are based on the type of wound (mental, puncture, slashes, bites, etc.) or a specific kind of essence flow in the patient (mortal, dragon-blooded, solar, etc.). Herbal aspects deal with either plants with a specific purpose (antidotes, poisons, pain-killers, etc.) or plants from a certain region. A surgical aspect will either concentrate on a specific surgical purpose (e.g. treating disabling wounds), a certain part of the body (e.g. internal organs, limbs) or a certain type of wound (e.g. puncture, bludgeoning, etc.).

Focus: Acupuncture foci are usually combinations a specific wound type and essence flow (e.g. "bites made on mortals"). An herbal focus is generally in plants with both a specific purpose and a specific region (e.g. disease fighting plants from the Scavenger Lands) or plants focused on a very specific ailment (e.g. plants that treat leprosy). A surgical focus is usually a combination of two aspects (e.g. "emergency treatment of puncture wounds").

Sciences: None.

Occult

Under these rules, the portion of canon Occult covering magical knowledge is moved to Lore, and Occult is entirely represented by the ability to use magic in any way, including working rituals, manipulating and channeling essence, or produce a magic potion. If you are trying to do something with magic, you need Occult. If you want to know or learn something about magic, you need Lore.

Caste Ability For: Twilight, Air, Secrets

Used For: Sorcery, building manses, creating artifacts (Ex2 133), thaumaturgy (Ex2 137)

Specialties: Supernatural etiquette, exotic cults, ghosts, spirits, the Wyld, undead.

Artless Penalty: None. Anyone with Occult skill can practice thaumaturgy without knowing arts.

Arts: The primary effect of knowing an occult art is to provide +2 dice to tests that use it. (Note that this means that, since the most general art, aspect or focus provides the default art benefit, someone with only an aspect, for example, would get +2 dice.) Occult arts are based on those in the Player's Guide (pp. 126-136) and include:

• Astrology
• Exorcism
• Summoning
• Warding

Aspects: Summoning aspects are based on target type: ghosts, beasts, spirits, elementals, man. Similarly, warding aspects are based on what is being kept away: ghosts, demons, elementals, gods, exalts, animals, mortals, the wyld, fair folk, divination, bad magic. Exorcism is based on what is being banished: ghosts, fair folk, demons, spirits. Astrology aspects are based on whose future is being read: exalted, mortals, the stars of the dead, gods.

Focus: Occult foci tend to act as further refinements to an aspect, containing both a conceptual and geographical limiter, such as Southern Fair Folk.

Sciences: Occult sciences are largely spelled out in the Player's Guide (pp. 136-148); however, these sciences cost far to much for what they provide, compared to other sciences in these rules. Instead of these sciences having five levels, each only has three. Ratings in the science limit what can be created or altered with the science. Occult sciences are:

• Alchemy: The level of the science acts as a limit to the power of the potion that may be produced. A rating of 1 in the science allows the creation of 1- and 2-dot recipes from the Player's Guide. An alchemy rating of 2 allows production of 3- and 4-dot recipes, while a Alchemy rating of 3 allows production of 5-dot recipes and beyond.
• Enchantment: Enchantment 1 allows production of 1- or 2 dot enchantments. A rating of 2 in the science allows production of 3- or 4-dot enchantments and Enchantment 3 allows production of 5-dot enchantments and higher.
• Geomancy: Ratings in geomancy allow for the production of geomantic effects using the three possible levels in the science the same way the levels of Enchantment are used.
• Weather Working: Ratings in Weather Working allow creation of weather effects, using its three possible levels the same way as Enchantment rating is used.

Other Rule Changes: Any Occult test in the rules to determine something the character knows about magic (as opposed to using magic to do something) is rolled under these rules as a Lore test, using either the Theoretical Magic or Applied Magic art. Any canonical Lore test to determine if the character succeeds in manipulating or otherwise doing something with magic is rolled under these rules as an Occult test instead. In particular, the knowledge of how to attune to a manse is under the purview of Lore, but the test to actually do so is an Occult test.

Ordinance

Ordinance allows the character to use all manner of heavy weapons both in combat and in other areas, such as design or field assembly. Weapons covered by Ordinance are generally those too large for a man to carry, including mundane siege weapons like catapults, mounted direct energy weapons and magically powered weapons of mass destruction. Ordinance also covers implements of warfare of any size that are not, strictly speaking, weapons, such as mines or other explosives, Wall Eaters (WotLA 130) and Essence Battlements (WotLA 133).

Ordinance is also used in place of the Fight, Ranged and Athletics abilities for tests made while piloting warstriders.

Caste Ability For: Dawn, Fire, Battles

Used For: Attack with heavy weapons, combat engineering, fighting with warstriders.

Specialties: Specialties cover situational aspects of fighting such as Blind, On a Ship, etc.

Artless Penalty: Fighting without knowing a related Art carries a -2 internal penalty. Ordinance charms provide no benefit in situations where no related art is known. In addition, warstrider pilots cannot use Athletics, Fight or Ranged charms without certain Ordinance arts, nor can Resistance charms related to armor. Even with arts, without the Fight science of Martial Synergy, charms from different arts may not be comboed.

Arts: Ordinance works much like Fight, with each ordinance-based art defining a particular fighting style, eliminating the penalty and allowing charm use (if any) with the weapons and techniques of that style. Each type of exalt has a single set of Ordinance charms, consisting of a modified version of their canon Archery tree. These trees use Ordinance for their minimum requirements instead of Archery. In addition, any charms that deal with personal weaponry are stripped out of the trees, and those that deal with ammunition are either eliminated or altered. For example, the solar Ordinance tree does not include Summoning the Loyal Bow and charms such as Phantom Arrow Technique are altered to be ineffective with heavy weapons requiring essence to fire. As with the Fight ability, different arts must be learned to use certain types of weapons with these charms, but the charm itself only need be learned once. The basic Ordinance arts are:

• (Exalt Type) Mechanical Weapon: style weapons include any heavy weapon that harnesses mechanical energy, such as catapults and ballista.
• (Exalt Type) Ignition Weapon: style weapons include any heavy weapons based on chemical or alchemical reactions of some kind, such as conventional or firedust cannon. This includes such weapons when mounted on warstriders.
• (Exalt Type) Essence Weapon: style weapons include any heavy weapons based on magical projectiles or effects, such as implosion bows and essence cannon. This includes such weapons when mounted on warstriders.

Other arts might consist of martial arts-like styles based around particular heavy weapons. For example, there may be a Righteous Devil-like style based around using the Ordinance ability with firedust cannon.

There are also a number of arts that must be mastered to become proficient in warstrider combat. These arts not only eliminate the artless penalty for a certain style of warstrider combat, they also allow charms from other abilities to be used with the Ordinance ability when piloting a warstrider. These arts are:

• Warstrider Agility: allows Athletics charms to be used while piloting a warstrider.
• Warstrider Fighting: allows Fight charms to be used with warstrider close combat weapons while piloting a warstrider.
• Warstrider Accuracy: allows Ranged charms to be used with warstrider bows or other mechanical ranged weapons while piloting a warstrider.
• Warstrider Defense: allows Resistance charms related to armor to be used while piloting a warstrider.

For every dot of Ordinance purchased, a character may learn one Ordinance art for free. A Eclipse solar with Ordinance 2, for example, might learn Solar Mechanical Weapons and Terrestrial Mechanical Weapons. A Dawn caste master of Solar Blade style with Ordinance 2, and interested in piloting warstriders might choose Warstrider Fighting and Solar Essence Weapons (to be able to use Ordinance charms with an essence cannon built into the warstrider) and might also buy Warstrider Defense (to use armor-related charms while piloting). A mortal with Ordinance 2, who does not care about charms but wants to avoid the artless penalty, might learn Mechanical Weapons and Ignition Weapons as arts.

Aspects: A typical aspect to an ordinance art include various maneuvers or techniques used within a style, such as indirect fire, self-powering, attacking fortifications, etc.

Focus: A typical focus to an ordinance art is a particular weapon (e.g. Large Implosion Bow).

Sciences: Ordinance has no sciences of its own; however, it may benefit from the Fight sciences to, for example, create combos using multiple Ordinance arts, or even a mix of Ordinance and Fight arts.

Performance

Performance allows the character to express themselves artistically to an audience. It covers giving speeches, but not creation of artistic works, even those intended to be performed, which requires Craft and/or Lingistics instead.

Caste Ability For: Zenith, Wood, Serenity

Used For: Prayer (Ex2 132), rallying troops (Ex2 165), social combat (Ex2 172).

Specialties: Performance specialties tend to be situational, relating to the type of audience or venue, such as In a Particular Nation, To Members of a Particular Social Class, In Pubs, etc.

Artless Penalty: Using craft without a relevant art or science imposes a -2 penalty. Worse, no charms of any kind may be used in areas of Performance for which the exalt does not have an applicable art, aspect or focus.

Arts: Knowing a Performance art Knowing an art eliminates the penalty and allows Performance charm use for tasks within the domain of the art. When a character buys their first dot in Performance, they gain a general art of their choice for free. Performance arts include: Acting, Dance, Instrumental, Oratory and Song. Other arts may exist that cover a slightly more abstract conception of performance. For example, the art of Staging covers things like special effects, faking assassinations, lighting for emotional effect, and so on.

Aspects: Performance aspects represent sub fields within a performance art. This might be divided by genre (e.g. Comedy, Tragedy, Opera, Storytelling, Folk Music, Motivational Speeches, Religious Rites, Debate, Southern Dances, etc.). It may also divide an art by method, such as Improvisational Speech, One-Man Shows, Ensemble Acting, Stringed Instruments, Choral Singing and so on.

Focus: A focus is a deep understanding of a very narrow field of music. This might mix two aspect-like restrictions together, such as Improvisational Comic Acting. It might also add style to something that would otherwise be an aspect, such as Motivational Military Speeches or specific style of opera. A focus might also represent proficiency in a very specific instrument, plays by a specific author or a specific regional dance.

Sciences: None.

Politics

Politics gives a clear understanding of governance or other social maneuvers needed to influence nations or populations. While Bureaucracy covers the actual day-to-day running of a government, Politics deals with tactical and strategic interactions between organizations. While Socialize governs interactions at a personal level, Politics sometimes rules the purpose of such socializing, the maneuvering within it and the meaning of its outcome. An innate sense of the likely reactions, opinions and emotional state of populations also falls under the domain of Politics. The relationship of Politics to other social skills is akin to the relationship War has to more personal combat skills.

Caste Ability For: Eclipse, Fire, Endings

Used For: Reading motivation (Ex2 131) for large groups or organizations, academic knowledge of politics (Ex2 132), coordinating social attacks (Ex2 172), social unit combat (Ex2 175), Mandate of Heaven (SC2 pg 130-155).

Specialties: Tactics, strategy, small groups, a specific nation, a specific empire, a specific organization.

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Sciences: None.

Other Rule Changes: In social unit combat, pools are now limited by and coordinated with Politics instead of Socialize. Similarly, in Mandate of Heaven games, players use the lower of an applicable ability score and Politics.

Most of the charms of Socialize tree are moved to Politics (all except Mastery of Small Manners and Gathering the Congregation). Storytellers may wish to make versions of various charms from other abilities, reworked to act at a population level (e.g. a version of Sagacious Reading of Intent that works on social units).

Presence

Presence covers leadership and long-term persuasion. In its passive role, it measures one's social impact. In its active role, it represents ability in converting others to your cause, but this is not the short-term inspiration of political oration or battlefield speeches (which is covered by Performance), but the ability to build one-on-one long-term loyalty and wear down such loyalty to others.

Caste Ability For: Zenith, Fire, Battles

Used For: Checking for loyalty (Ex2 110), appearing more dangerous than you are (Ex2 157), intimate personality based social attacks (Ex2 172), forceful counterargument (Ex2 172), swaying a specific social unit (Ex2 173), compelling behavior in others (Ex2 174), written attacks on specific people (Ex2 175).

Specialties: Persuasion, Intimidation, Interrogation, Religious Conversion, Brainwashing, Defying the Established Social Order

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Sciences: None.

Profession

Profession subsumes and expands Sail, and encompasses any occupational aptitude and training that isn't covered by another ability. Profession is similar in some ways to Craft but, while Craft covers things you make, Profession is more about things you do. Farming, for example, falls under the purview of Profession, as does sailing. Note that not all professions are covered by Profession, only those which do not fit into other abilities, such as: merchant (Bureaucracy), politician (Politics), artist (Craft), scholar (Lore), and so on.

Caste Ability For: Eclipse, Water, Journeys

Used For: Piloting large vessels, growing crops, clearing a jungle, securing something with rope, cleaning an object, increasing the efficiency of a mining operation, giving another physical pleasure. Generally, if it doesn't seem to apply to anything else, it's a Profession roll.

Specialties: Working in haste, in groups

Artless Penalty: Using Profession without a relevant art or science imposes a -2 penalty. No charms of any kind may be used in areas of Profession for which the exalt does not have an applicable art, aspect or focus. In addition, units containing soldiers without the Soldiery art (see below) cannot have Drill ratings higher than zero.

Arts: Knowing a Profession art allows the use of generic Profession charms (such as excellencies) for tasks applicable to the profession covered by the art. In addiction, the art may allow the learning of special Profession charms specific to that art. Profession arts include:

• Domesticity: The domestic arts involve cleaning, gardening and other household tasks. This art often goes hand in hand with Craft(Water,Wood).
• Farming: An agricultural profession dedicated to production of predominantly plant-based food. Farming includes planting and harvesting crops, field management, clearing land, raising and breeding domesticated animals on a small scale, planning irrigation, etc. Farmers often also know Craft(Wood,Water,Fire).
• Mining: Mining covers the location and safe extraction of minerals from their natural state as well as the running of operations that do so. Miners often also know Craft(Earth).
• Ranching: An agricultural profession dedicated to production of predominantly animal-based foods and resources. Ranching includes controlling and directing large herds of domesticated animals, raising and breeding animals on a large scale, managing grazing land. Ranchers often also know Survival, Medicine and Craft(Water).
• Pleasure: The art of bringing physical, usually sexual, pleasure to another. Professional pleasure workers often also know Performance and Socialize.
• Sailing: Sailing covers the ability to pilot and/or crew large vessels of all kinds. It includes the mechanical acts steering, tying knots, rigging sails and so on. The art of sailing provides access to canon Sail charms. Note that some aspects previously covered by the canon Sail ability are now covered only by Survival. Sailors, therefore, tend to also know Survival and usually Athletics.
• Soldiery: While War covers tactics, strategy and managing troops, there is more to a professional solider. War skill leads, but it takes Profession to follow. This art covers following combat orders quickly and efficiently, setting up well-ordered military camps, working in units and all the day-to-day tasks of a solider. If all of the soldiers in a unit know this art, the Drill rating the unit may not exceed the Profession rating of any of its members.

When a character buys their first dot in Profession, they gain a general art of their choice for free.

Aspects: Aspects generally cover broad areas of expertise within an art. Sail aspects, for example, might be open ocean sailing, merchant ships, flying vehicles and so on. Farming aspects include specific climates, terrain or types of crops, such as grains or fruit.

Focus: Focus in a Profession is a deep understanding of a very limited subject. Farming aspects might be certain crops, such as wine grapes. Sail aspects might cover a specific body of water or class of vessel.

Sciences: None.

Ranged

Ranged ability governs the use of personal devices that launch projectiles, either through strength, chemical reaction or magic. Ranged does not cover weapons that are thrown by hand (which is now covered by Athletics) or large ranged siege weapons like catapults (which is now covered by Ordinance).

Caste Ability For: Dawn, Wood, Journeys

Used For:

Specialties: Specialties cover situational aspects of using ranged weapons, such as From Horseback, Indoors, While Flying, In Formation, etc.

Artless Penalty: Fighting without knowing a related Art carries a -2 internal penalty. Ranged charms provide no benefit in situations where no related art is known. Even with arts, without the Fight science of Martial Synergy, charms from different arts may not be comboed.

Arts: Ranged works much like Fight, with each ranged-based art defines a particular fighting style, eliminating the penalty and allowing charm use (if any) with the weapons and techniques of that style. In addition to existing martial arts styles based on ranged weapons, a number of style arts are derived from the canonical Archery trees (see below).

Some martial arts styles, like Wood Dragon, may be a mix of unarmed and ranged combat. To use an ability with styles like this, an art must be learned for each ability. Learning the Ranged-related Wood Dragon art, for example, allows use of known Wood Dragon charms and would eliminate the -2 internal penalty when making attacks in the wood dragon style with a bow, but not unarmed. Likewise, learning the Fight-related Wood Dragon art, for example, allows use of known Wood Dragon charms and would eliminate the -2 internal penalty when making attacks in the wood dragon style while unarmed, but not with a bow.

For every two full dots of Ranged purchased, a character may learn one Ranged art for free. A Eclipse solar with Ranged 4, for example, might learn Solar Bow and Terrestrial Bow. A mortal with Ranged 4, who does not care about charms but wants to avoid the artless penalty, might learn Bow and a mortal martial arts style based around flame weapons as arts.

Aspects: A typical aspect to a fighting art include various maneuvers or techniques used within a style, such as trick shots, rope-cutting, indirect fire, hunting, etc.

Focus: A typical focus to a fighting art is a particular weapon or ammunition. For example, someone with the Sidereal Bow art might choose a focus of Short Bow or Frog-Crotch Arrows.

Sciences: Ranged has no sciences of its own; however, it may benefit from the Fight sciences to, for example, create combos using multiple Ranged arts, or even a mix of Ranged and Fight arts. This does not change charm definitions, however. A charm that specifically enhances ranged attacks cannot be "forced" to combo with a charm specifically for unarmed attacks.

Other Rule Changes: For each canon Archery charm tree, three distinct fighting arts are derived. Different only in their style weapon, each style contains the same charms (organized as the standard Archery tree) and charms learned for one of these style arts can be used in the others. Such styles may have forms, but usually don't. All allow armor. Mortal versions of these general arts also exist, but of course do not have associated charm trees. The styles are:

• (Exalted type) Bow: Style weapons include all bows. Thus, knowing this art allows use of canon Archery charms with all bow weapons, including crossbows.
• (Exalted type) Ignition Weapons: Style weapons include any personal weapon based on a chemical or alchemical reaction of some kind, including firewands and other personal firearms.
• (Exalted type) Essence Weapons: Style weapons include any personal weapon based on magical projectiles, such as those from man-portable implosion bows. Artifacts that duplicated effects like Crypt Bolt or Elemental Bolt Attack would also fall into this category.

Of existing martial arts styles, Righteous Devil styles is now considered a solely Range-based style, while Wood Dragon is both Ranged and Fight.

Resistance

Resistance works as per canon rules.

Caste Ability For: Zenith, Earth, Battles

Used For: Long distance running and swimming (Ex2 126), fighting disease (Ex2 129, 152), enduring hardship (Ex2 129), holding breath (Ex2 130), strenuous activity (Ex2 130), withstanding poisons/environmental damage (Ex2 130), stopping bleeding (Ex2 151), avoiding knockdown (Ex2 153), single unit Endurance in mass combat (Ex2 160)

Specialties: Holding breath, enduring pain, resisting poison, resisting disease, going without sleep, moving while encumbered, in combat, extreme temperatures

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Sciences: None.

Socialize

With Politics taking over the group-based machinations covered by this ability canonically, Socialize now covers social interactions at a mostly individual level. While a Politics test might give insight into why you might want to convince someone of something, Socialize governs the ability to actually do so. Socialize might be used sway the opinion of a group if used as a dramatic action representing a night of individual conversations at a party, but otherwise interacting with larger groups is the domain of Performance and Politics. Socialize is both more active and more general than Presence, but without its leadership component and dealing more with etiquette, negotiation, blackmail and deception. Socialize is also more of a two-way street, understanding and noticing the motives of others.

Caste Ability For: Socialize, Fire, Serenity

Used For: Talking someone into helping (Ex2 110), reading motivation (Ex2 131), concealing intent (Ex2 169, 172), charm-backed social attacks (Ex2 238).

Specialties: Discern motivation, lying, a particular culture or class, with spirits, with ghosts, flattery, stalling, blackmail.

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Sciences: None.

Other Rule Changes: In social unit combat, pools are now limited by and coordinated with Politics instead of Socialize.

Charms in the canon Socialize tree that have "no effect on individuals" are altered to only affect individuals (with the social unit version of such charms being moved to Politics).

Stealth

Stealth works as per canon rules.

Caste Ability For: Night, Air, Secrets

Used For: Sneaking/hiding (Ex2 131), making unexpected attacks (Ex2 155), hiding in combat (Ex2 156), concealing a unit (Ex2 163)/

Specialties: specific environments (wilderness, urban, etc.), ambush, camouflage, moving silently, hiding

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Sciences: None.

Survival

Survival skill provides safety and comfort in the wilderness, allowing the character to find water and food and find of make shelter. It covers setting traps, predicting the weather, tracking and domesticating animals.

Caste Ability For: Zenith, Wood, Journeys

Used For: Locating herbs (Ex2 129, 152), predicting weather (Ex2 134), enduring hostile environments (Ex2 139), tracking or evading tracking (Ex2 140).

Specialties: Finding Shelter, Tracking, Training Animals, Finding Water, Setting Traps, Covering Your Trail.

Artless Penalty: Dealing with a sphere of existence for which you do not know the art carries a -3 external penalty and charms cost twice the usual number of motes.

Arts: There are a number of spheres of existence, each hosting a landscape and environment nearly alien to the others. An art exists, therefore, for survival each of the major spheres: Creation, Yu-Shan, the Wyld, Underworld, Malfeas and Autochthonia. Knowing one of these arts prevents the penalty in, and increased mote cost of charms for, dealing with Survival checks in that sphere.

Buying the first dot in Survival provides one art for free.

Aspects: Aspects come in two flavors. One covers broad "biomes" within a sphere. The Creation Survival art, for example, has aspects like Urban, Arctic, Jungle, Ocean, Desert, and so on. In Autochthonia, aspects might be City, Reaches, and various Far Reaches aspects like Smoke, Steam, Lightning, etc. The second flavor contains aspects based on making use of a subset of survival techniques, such those based on flora, fauna, weather, terrain, etc.

Focus: Focus in survival tends to be either regional, such as the Blessed Isle, the Scavenger Lands, Nexus, the Labyrinth, etc. or a combination of two aspects, such as jungle flora or ocean fauna.

Sciences: None.

War

War works as per canon rules.

Caste Ability For: Dawn, Earth, Battles

Used For: Knowledge of strategies, tools or war, formations (Ex2 132), coordinating attackers (Ex2 144), limits combat skills in mass combat (Ex2 162), joining wars (Ex2 163), unit dashing (Ex2 164), unit combat actions (Ex2 164-165), avoiding unit exhaustion (Ex2 168), Mandate of Heaven (STComp 130-155).

Specialties: Tactics, strategy, small units, large armies, naval battles, military scouting.

Artless Penalty: None.

Arts: None.

Comments

This is astonishing, and I'll have to comment more comprehensively when I have time to read through in the detail it deserves. At first glance, though, it seems very, very nice. As a minor note, the new Craft arts seem somewhat superfluous - musical composition is listed already under Air, sculpture could be readily considered a component to Earth, and painting, drawing and drafting are all so thematically similar to calligraphy I'd personally bundle them in there. Well picked up, though; I'm surprised WW didn't notice the need for them...DeathBySurfeit

Me too. Since I never liked the feel of the additional Craft arts, I've spread them around the various "elemental" arts. There is definitely more than one way to do so (which is why I initially made them separate), so season to taste. - Wordman