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Second Edition Excellencies

Lunar Exalted in Second Edition follow the Excellencies; however, they have slightly different Excellencies than the Solar Exalted. In addition the three basic Excellencies that all characters possess, Lunars have two special Excellencies, much as Solars have Infinite (Ability) Mastery and Essence (Ability) Flow. They are as follows:

Fourth Attribute Excellency: Essence Enduring

Cost: 3 motes per dot Mins: (Attribute) 2, Essence 1 Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Hybrid, Obvious, Stackable
Duration: Indefinate
Prerequisite Charms: None

The most basic form of mastery of the Hybrid Form, Essence Enduring simply allows a Lunar to increase her Attributes to incredible levels. This Charm allows the character to increase her relevant Attribute by 1 for every three motes spent, up to a maximum of her Essence score. However, unlike most Charms, this increase is considered natural for the purposes of Charms. A Lunar with an active (Attribute) Enduring continues to use her original Attribute score for the purpose of Charm maximums, but does not count these bonus dots for such maximums. Note: This Charm is only Obvious if it raises the character's Attributes above 5, or if someone witnesses the character both with increased Attributes and without them.

Fifth Attribute Excellency: Essence Unsurpassing

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower Mins: (Attribute) 4, Essence 4 Type: Supplemental (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Any (Attribute) Excellency

The raw might of the Lunar Exalted is above that of any to oppose it. When this Charm is activated, convert all of the character's Attribute dice to automatic successes on their die roll. In the case of static values, double the character's Attribute. This Charm stacks normally with Excellencies, but does not stack with Charms that provide die conversion to successes.

The Hybrid Charm Tag

Hybrid: This Charm tag applies to all Hybrid Charms of the Lunar Exalted. It does not exist for any other Exalt type. Eclipse Caste and Moonshadow Caste Exalts may not learn Hybrid Charms.

Hybrid Charms are always both reflexive and of indefinate duration, and are usually also Obvious. When these Charms are activated, they provide their advantages until the Essence committed to them is withdrawn. They cannot be cancelled or redirected with Charms that affect Charm activation under any circumstances. Physical Hybrid Charms provide direct physical shapeshifting effects, Social Hybrid Charms provide Virtue-altering and socializing effects, and Mental Hybrid Charms improve senses, the ability to sense the spiritual world, and raw intellect. A character need not activate a prerequisite Hybrid Charm to activate a Charm further up a given Charm tree.

However, the true power of Hybrid Charms lies in comboes. Hybrid Charms may be comboed freely with each other, but may not be comboed at all with other Charms. When a Hybrid Form is created, if there are any Charms in it that allow a variable degree of activation, that degree must be fixed. However, Hybrid Forms are easy to activate and exceptionally powerful. The total cost of activating a Hybrid Form is only three-quarters of what the normal cost would be (rounding up), plus one Willpower. Even better, only one-quarter of what the normal cost would be (still rounding up) is committed. However, all of the Charms in the Combo must remain active; if the character turns one Charm off, all must be turned off at once. While a character is in a Hybrid Form, she may activate other Hybrid Charms as though she were not in a Hybrid Form. However, activating another Hybrid Form cancels the first.

If a character later wishes to alter a hybrid, she may do so with a small amount of difficulty. For the cost of 1 XP, the character may alter the amount of motes and the activation style of any Charm in the Hybrid Form, as well as adding any Charms she wishes (at normal XP cost). She may not dissolve the Hybrid Combo entirely, however.

Hybrids and the Tell

There is a cost to the Hybrid Form, however. While the versatility of many forms appeals to some Lunars, these patchwork shapes are straining on them. To ground itself against undue changes, the Lunar's Essence Shard creates a Tell, a physical feature or social tic that is noticeable to onlookers. This Tell may be concealed, with some difficulty.

In game terms, count each Hybrid Form that a character has access to as one purchase of Deadly Beastman Form for determining the Tell. If a character attempts to hide a Tell through mundane means, make a Larceny roll for disguise as usual; each two successes increases the difficulty to spot the Tell by one.

Comments

Hope you don't mind a comments section(But it seemed more apropriate here. -- Kill it if you want to.)

• I would point out that the Tell Increase is almost pointless if it's +1 per hybrid. Not sure how much of a problem that is, since I can't see people having THAT many hybrid forms.

• I'd be carefull, as Second Edtion seems to have gone away from persistent effects a bit, so everything is more instant based. One thought would be a bunch of stuff that cost some motes, but doesn't count as charm activation. Basicly, the system seems to try to avoid really high levels of scene length effectivness. I don't think this a problem yet, but it's something to worry about.

• I worry about making Essence Enduring count as natural. In 2E it seems there isn't a way to do that. Increasing Strength Exercise got fixed, and even the STC, which is pretty broken, doesn't have it's hybrid form count as natural. I can see a charm like Sustained Augmentation of Foo, but that's about it. At Essence 3+, you beating Solars. Assuming you have 5 attribute and ability, a Solar has a max pool of 20, while a Lunar would have (5+3) * 2 + 5 = 21 at Essence 3. It's worse if the attributes/ability pools are lower.

• I would also make the commit cost for the hybrid forms relate to the motes spent, rather than the number of charms. This seems to stack stuff in favor of charms with variable costs, as the commit doesn't change. Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be much reason not to just get every version of Essence Enduring, combo them together and walk around with every attribute at 5. This wouldn't even be obvious This would cost you 18 xp and 9 commited motes in the worst case(and probably less, as you only need Essence enduring for attributes you don't have at 5). Especially given your rules for modifying the hybrid combo's. I'd suggest a commit cost of 1/4, rounded up. In most cases that's the about the same as 1/charm. Also it makes the "do nifty stuff" charms a bit more attractive, which is nice, rather than encouraging combo's of a few expensive charms.

Pretty nice other than that. I put a few comments on the specific pages. -FlowsLikeBits

Alright, answers in order.

1) Tell increase might not be a big deal, true. But the Tell maxes at 3 DBTs anyway, and I can see someone having two or three of these, if they want a bit of variety. I'd have to see it in action to be sure.

2) I haven't really noticed that, much. Solars seem to have almost as many persistants as they used to, at least...

3) *looks over* Hmmm, you're right. Was true in 1e, admittedly, but not really my goal. Righto, will change it so that Attribute bonuses don't count towards Charm maximums, but don't increase them either.

4) Ooh, another good call. I was thinking of simplicity, but that's a better plan. - FrivYeti

Um, page 49 of the STC, first column, second paragraph under "Shapechanging" - "The hybrid form is also several feet larger than her human form, is quite frightening to typical humans and has Attributes increased beyond those of her true human form. When in this form, the increased Attributes are treated as natural for calculating dice limits." A similar line appears in Magnificant Jaguar's writeup in the core under his Charm notes.

This may, of course, change in the hardsplat itself, but at the moment, Hybrid Form bonuses are still considered natural, just like in 1st Ed. - Hapushet

Looking over, that is true. I can see where it'll cause problems in this system, though; very easy to dump lots into every Attribute with a few Charms. I think I'll leave it as-is for now; it should be okay for die pools. - FrivYeti