Revision as of 09:34, 11 July 2007

Arcadian Charms

Assumptions

• Small, cumulative effects that impede foes
• No perfects. Perhaps semi-perfects?
• Mitigate personal penalties
• Adapt to environment, exacerbate inconvenience to enemies
• Control pace of fight
• Control shape of conflict
• Take advantage of conditions
• Interface with weather control trickery

The Grandiose Morass of the Mechanics

Arcadian Excellencies
Arcadians practice the First and Second Excellencies common to most Exalt types; their cap for the First Excellency is (Ability + relevant Calling). They may apply half of that amount to the Second Excellency. Their Third Excellency allows rerolls as normal, but cannot be used for Ability rolls relevant to weather control; there are Ability-related Charms that fulfill that function.

On Relevance
The Arcadian Excellencies – and some of their Charm mechanics – rely on keeping track of which Calling is being channeled with a given action or Charm. For the most part this is a matter of discretion, with some of the assumptions given in the outlining of Callings above. Some Charms always refer to specific Callings, as noted in New Keywords below. As a rule of thumb, defense effects fall under Birth and offensive effects under Burial. Charm-breaking or confusion-creating effects are under Alignment, stealth and motion effects under Sowing, and theft effects under Harvest. When in doubt, refer to the primary tie of the relevant Ability. Players should be allowed to be creative with relevance but exploitation – ‘being clever’ – should be considered counter to the intent of the project. “I am defending the glorious revolutionary ideal by fighting these guards; it is an act of Sowing” is good! “I am defending the glorious revolution’s favored son by escaping over this wall; it is an act of Sowing” is probably not.

Arcadian Charm Technology
Arcadian Charms were wired by the mother into the natural functions of Creation, and as such bear some resemblance to the seasonal and biological processes that they mirror. This is reflected by a fashion in which Arcadians can increase the efficiency and overall value of their Charms by mirroring the motion of Creation through the Wheel of Seasons, each Charm beating a trail for the next to follow. This benefit is referred to as Twining; this term is for the benefit of mechanics and may not be present in the vocabulary of the Arcadians themselves.

Twining
By following a natural procession of energies through the path of being enmeshed in all of Creation, Arcadians can avoid squandering mystical resources on their Charms. There are two forms of ‘Twining’ – either by way of the progress of the Callings, or by way of the Wheel of Seasons.

The progress of Callings is: Birth, Sowing, Harvest, Burial, Alignment, Birth…

The Wheel of Seasons is: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Calibration, Spring…

When an Arcadian activates a Charm that is relevant to a Calling or drawn from a Season, he may make note of the motes expended on that Charm. If he uses a Charm on his next action and it follows one or both of the above paths, he may take a discount on that Charm equal to ½, rounded down, of the motes expended on the first Charm. Should a Charm be activated multiple times in a single action, only the greatest expense is noted and tracked. A character can benefit from one or the other Twining, never both; use the greatest applicable Twining to determine the benefits. At least 1m must always be spent on a Charm. Charms of indefinite duration cannot be used in Twining, and Charms of scene-long duration can be used as part of Twining but do not benefit from the discount themselves.
Should a character continue to Twine, the benefits are cumulative – he gains the cost reduction due to the first Charm, the second Charm, and so forth, until he reaches the present. Should a character fail to use a Charm or fail to continue the cycle, he loses all extant benefits from the type of Twining he was using.

Ex: Maga Fifth Son is tending his garden in his apartments on the Blessed Isle when ninjas, predictably, attack. He begins combat by using Hundred Cacophonous Tongues, an Alignment Linguistics Charm, to prevent the ninjas from understanding one another, curtailing their tactical effectiveness. He expends 8m on this Charm. On his next action, he uses Curling Strangle Sleeves from his martial arts style – a Summer Charm! As Spring (Linguistics) precedes Summer (Martial Arts), he can gain the benefits of Twining along the Wheel of Seasons, reducing the cost of his Charm by (8/2) 4 motes, to 2 motes. On his next action, however, he has to use Masked Revelry, a Performance Charm, to get himself out of a tight space by switching all of the combatants’ positions. As a Spring Charm, he no longer benefits from season Twining, but Masked Revelry is an Alignment charm, a natural follower to his Burial Charm (Most attacks fall under Burial unless circumstances are odd) – he reduces the cost of Revelry by (2/2) 1m, to 5m. Should his next action be a Charm of Birth, he will reduce its cost by (2/2 + 5/2) 3m, while a Summer Charm will benefit only from the preceding Spring Charm, (5/2) 2m.

It is generally advisable to keep track of the Calling and Season of a given Charm during combat, to prevent confusion when attempting to determine the presence and effect of Twining.

New Charm keywords:

Linked Mystery (Text): This Charm is part of a greater body of similar mystical lore; comprehending one such Charm gives the lion’s share of the foundation for any other such Charm. If a character has one or more Charms with this keyword, when purchasing any other such Charm the xp cost is reduced by 2, and the training time is reduced by a day. Apply this reduction once, not once for every Linked charm. If purchased during character creation, this instead reduces the cost by 1 bonus point, or, if purchased with a charm slot, grants the character an additional bonus point for use.

Ex: The Archery Charm Hunter for All Seasons is the same essential principle applied to the Survival Charm Garb for All Seasons – they both have the keyword Linked Mystery (…For All Seasons), so an Arcadian with one such Charm can get the other with reduced cost.

Static (Calling): This Charm is tied invariably to the tenets of a single Calling; it always counts as channeling that Calling for dice adder caps or Twining purposes.

What This All Means

The more fields an Arcadian aspires to, the better off he is; his power increases as a function of exponents rather than lines. By dallying in all five Callings and Seasons, he can increase the amount of Twining discounts he can build, drastically increasing his ability to participate in wars of attrition; by purchasing Linked Mysteries he can gain more Charms for less cost, and by planning ahead to use Twining, Gestation, and Combos to maximum effect he can create truly frightening shows of power. As Lunars were portrayed as benefiting most from a singular focus, Arcadians do well to dabble and use their powers in a synergistic fashion. An Arcadian who builds up his Melee and Burial to become a Terrible Sword Prince of Deep Winter will find himself lacking the efficiency of his companion who has mastered multiple forms of conflict.
At higher amounts of Experience, Arcadians will begin to dabble uniformly in the Occult Charm set, which is their ‘metacharm’ body of skills; it will permit them to change the restrictions on their Twining abilities to a great extent – high level Solar combat is Combo-reliant, while high-level Arcadian combat should focus primarily on creating one’s own Twining while damaging the opponent’s ability to control the pace of the fight. Arcadian power is reliant on foresight and patience, but quickly gains momentum.

Birth in Spring – The Doctrine of Courtship (Performance)

• Masked Revel
  • Used in Combat
  • Performance vs. Essence, swap positions of all combatants within 10 yards randomly
  • Can expend 2wp to avoid reposition

Sowing in Spring – The Doctrine of the Nest (Crafts)

• Floral Sentiment Infusion Method
  • 'Imbeds' a Presence roll in a crafted item
  • As long as motes applied, first view of item triggers social attack
• Abundant Mother Storehouse Style
  • Allows the character to Craft from local living plants
  • Short-term creation
  • Int + Craft vs. resources
  • No Res. Higher than Essence
  • No items larger than blah
• Soul-Steering Enlightened Craftsmanship
  • Larger scale imbedded guide
  • Floor pattern, floral arrangements, tile structure
  • Steers motion, pace, etc.
  • Compulsion, blah.
• Verdant Blooming Battlefield Shaping
  • Shapes Essence x10 yards
  • Creates cover
  • Needs ambient living plant material
• Resonant Heaven Construction Method
  • Prepares a Craft-based weather control ahead of time
  • Can have up to Essence pre-prepared at any time
  • Simple action to activate
  • Some limits?
• Wares for All Seasons
  • Supplemental
  • Item proof against all natural weather conditions
  • Item resists unnatural conditions as if it were proto-5mm?

Harvest in Spring – The Doctrine of Calls (Linguistics)

• Sundered Calls Shattered Words
  • Target suffers –Ess internal penalty to social rolls requiring speech
  • Intelligence + Linguistics + Align vs. MDV
• Hundred Cacophonous Tongues
  • Effects Essence x 2 individuals
  • Intelligence + Linguistics + Align vs. MDV
  • If successful, targets cannot understand each other’s words, gestures, etc.
• Sure Heart Steady Tongue
  • Target gets +Ess dice for specific social rolls requiring speech
  • Must declare intent of speech before activation
• World-Walker Fluid Tongue
  • Grants seamless mastery of any language relevant to the character’s Backgrounds
  • Can only speak or read in contact with that group
• All Words All Hearts
  • Complete, total, permanent mastery of all human tongues and scripts
  • Essence 4?

Burial in Spring – The Doctrine of Spread Flowers (Thrown)

• Vital Breath Infusion Style
  • Indefinite
  • 1m sufficient to 'awaken' (Essence x 3) weapons
  • 'Awakened' weapons can be sensed with anima homing
  • 'Awakened' weapons count as living for some Charms
• Savage Knife Suckles Teat
  • Permanent
  • Increases difficulty to remove an awakened blade
• Blood Nourished Birth of Arsenal
  • Birth always
  • Creates one new awakened weapon for each HL of damage dealt
• Poison Blossom Sowing of Agony
  • Sowing always
  • Creates pain penalty to rolls with poison
• Unfurling Petals Harvest of Misery
  • Harvest always
  • 'Awakened' weapon deals damage again
• Withering Bloom Burial of Will
  • Burial always
  • Subject loses Willpower
• Curdled Nectar Alignment of Chakra
  • Alignment always
  • Subject loses Essence
• All Children Return Home
  • Returns all awakened weapons within (Essence x 4) yards to user
• Hundred Birds Take to Flight
  • Thrown attack unblockable on all subjects within Essence x 4 yards
  • Removes all carried 'awakened' weapons.
• Casting Breath blah blah
  • Single-shot weapon formed of users' breath
• Catching Breath Arsenal of Birth
  • Can harness breath of living as weapon
  • Breath is automatically awakened

Alignment in Spring – The Doctrine of Display (Presence)

• Wise Aunt Practices
  • Old Matron Eye – reads intimacies of romance
  • Bitter Crone Eye – reads intimacies of hate
  • Stoic Matriarch Eye – reads intimacies of duty
  • Ancient Spinster Eye – reads intimacies of desires for freedom
• Trust-Winning Beauty Scent
  • Characters with less Sta + Res than character’s Pre + Ess have immediate intimacy
  • Exalts can, if aware, roll 1 succ sta+ Res to negate.
• Wilting Heart Wonder Fragrance
  • Curse!
  • Subject erodes others' intimacy with him/her
  • Just seeing, one scene – other will avoid subject
  • Forced interaction, another scene of erosion.
• Shifting Hearts Sorting Lives
  • Shifts intimacies between subjects
  • Difficulty high
  • Cost high
• Thousand Ships Wonder Fragrance
  • Ess 4?
  • All mortals with less MDV than character’s Pre + Ess have immediate Motivation
  • Can roll Sta + Res if aware, opposed, to avoid. Can try once per day.
  • Can expend 1wp per scene to ignore?
  • Obvious

Birth in Summer - The Doctrine of Vigor (Survival)

Sowing in Summer - The Doctrine of Migration (Ride)

Harvest in Summer - The Doctrine of the Conqueror (War)

Burial in Summer - The Doctrine of Teeth and Claws (Martial Arts)

Alignment in Summer - The Doctrine of Occupied Shadows (Awareness)

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