SolarMelee/IanPriceSupplenessComments
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Hmm. You've got the beginnings of some interesting ideas here, but it needs a bit of work. First, the mechanics are unclear. I'm not sure exactly what "the Solar makes two attack rolls, and applies them as one attack, with double damage before soak" means. Also, be aware that it is not possible to split actions or use an extra action Charm within a Simple charm, rather, one must pay the cost for a simple action charm for each action in an extra action charm. That said, it seems like you are trying some sort of combination of Cascade of Cutting Terror, Blow-Concealing Gesture Technique, and Hunger Tiger Technique, and possibly Thunderbolt Attack Prana. Your charms need to reflect the costs and prerequisites of these charms. Depending on what way you end up clarifying the mechanics, I would suggest around 8 motes, 1 willpower, Melee 5, and Essence 3. Also, study the mechanics of Blow-Concealing Gesture Technique to see if you can make use of them. It is my personal belief that one HGD should still be able to parry this charm. Ultimately, what you want may best be found in a custom supplemental Stealth charm that allows itself to be comboed with charms of any ability. - Madwand
Sunspot Feint is intended to be a slightly different version of Cascade of Cutting Terror for Melee; it doubles your full pool by making two attacks strike as one. But if the opponent can tell that they're two attacks instead of one, they can defend against them as two seperate attacks. The other one takes this idea further, allowing more than two attacks to strike as one. By itself, this lets the Solar take advantage of splitting actions to make a huge dice pool for one attack. In a Combo with Extra Action charms, it turns the extra actions into dice-pool additions.
These charms were inspired by Ranma of Ranma 1/2, and his Kachuu Tenshin Amiguriken technique. Also by Kuchiki Byakuya of Bleach, who likes to attack many times quickly from behind using Flash Step, so fast that nobody can even see him attack. Not to mention Kenshin Himura of Rurouni Kenshin, and his Kuzu Ryuu Sen. Or Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki, for that matter, which nobody realized contained two attacks until the last time we see it used in the story arc it came from.
I justify requiring multiple Perfect defenses because this really is multiple attacks, Perfectly concealed. I don't know Blow Concealing Gesture, because I only have the core book, Player's Guide, and Fair Folk with me right now (if it's in there, I can't find it), but you're right, it sounds related; so I've made it a prerequisite. The interaction with soak for this set of charms is a bit weird, so I've decided to just let it be its own kind of weird, and let perfect soak effects deal with the attacks as they are perceived to be by the character. Justification on this is that the duration of "Instant" in actual time is kind of fuzzy, so the perfect soak effect lasts as long as the character thinks a single damage effect is coming in.
I've increased the requirements for each, since I realized you were certainly right about that, as well as the costs. I did know about the normal rules for paying for Simple charms in Extra Action Combos, but I'd forgotten about the no-split rule. The second charm is intended to be an explicit exception to the normal payment rules, because it affects the whole process instead of individual attacks. New wording is also in place, so see how that strikes you. - IanPrice
Hmm. Ok. First, Blow Concealing Gesture Technique is a Martial Arts charm from CB: Night. It's part of Ebon Shadow MA, and probably doesn't make an appropriate prerequisite. Second, I have to admit it's giving me something of a headache trying to figure out how Blinding Sunspot Feint actually works. You're trying to combine two attacks in one while still keeping them as two attacks. This is an inherent contradiction that is preventing the charm's mechanics from working, so I'm going to rewrite this charm from the ground up in a way that hopefully captures what you wanted without any contradictions. This is just an idea and will need some rewriting:
Reflexive charm. This charm may be activated after any attack, before soak is calculated. The character makes a new Melee attack, so quickly that it requires a successful Perception+Awareness roll at a difficulty equal to the characters Essence in order to successfully defend. If successful, the damage of this attack is added to the damage of the previous attack before applying soak. Note that the damage of the privous attack may even be zero if it was successfully parried or dodged. This Charm may only be used once per attack, and may not be used in response to itself.
A higher-tier version of this charm might allow it to be applied to an attack up to Essence times.
There. Simple, short, sweet, follows the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. I think it does everything you are looking for. - Madwand
- What I want is perfection in the effect. If a difficulty of Essence were sufficient, I could've just made a Combo with Monkey Tail Distraction Strike. I have edited for simplicity. - IanPrice
Wow. Good job. I really like these charms now. I would really think about buying these charms for a character now, and I don't get a headache anymore trying to figure out how they might work :-) Some comments to clarify: "...without the use of an applicable perfect Awareness effect" The only one of these I am aware of is Eye of the Unconquered Sun from CB: Night, an Essence 6 charm. If this wasn't what you meant, you may want to provide a bit more detail on what allows a defender to notice the second attack. For Encompassing Rays Method, I would like to know a little more about what "...until an attack succeeds and does damage." means. It sounds like Iron Skin Concentration ends the attacks, but Adamant Skin still causes them to continue, because damage hasn't been done yet. Is this correct? Anyway, nice job. - Madwand
- I put the list of perfect Awareness effects back in. I consider the Keen and Unsurpasses Sense charms, as well as Surprise Anticipation Method, to be perfect effects, because they achieve their effects without rolling and there's no way to trump them without being "more perfect." As to your question about the two soak charms, yes, ISC will end the attack, but only if some damage is rolled off of that minimum damage. Basically, unless all the possible attacks can be defended against, Encompassing Rays Method ensures at least one health level of damage. Edited slightly for clarity on that. Thanks for the kudos. ^_^ - IanPrice
More clarification on what exactly Blinding Sunspot Feint does would be appreciated... I don't really want to look up another charm to tell what it does, just on principle, and OWtB isn't exactly the clearest charm to begin with... What if they fail the roll? Can't defend against the second attack? What if they succeed? Have they automatically defended against the second attack? (since OWtB applies any defense against both attacks).
These are all wonderful though. I especially like Gentle Streaming Sunlight, which is what I expect from a melee 5 essence 3 charm costing that much ^_^. One minor thing is that with the Dex + Essence limit, Encompassing Rays seems a little weaker, at least if a target doesn't have awareness effects active. Since you're paying per-attack (and if comboed, quite a lot per attack) you're spending just as much essence, yet for less actual effect. Your opponent can still parry and dodge normally, even without awareness effects, and if they have a double-stacked persistant defense, probably will. I think there are two areas where the charm falls down... Either make the cost cheaper, to 1m per attack (maybe even increasing the number of attacks to Dex + Melee + Essence) or remove the stipulation that the charm stops when it causes damage. 3m per attack is the same cost as other, lower essence charms in which every attack can cause damage, after all (the abyssal multi-attack melee charm, forgotten the name). I personally would prefer more attacks at 1m per attack, myself. That way, statistics (hopefully) takes care of the multiple defense issue, and lets you scare the heck out of someone by just not stopping, rather than running out of essence pool very quick. Remember. Essence 4.
-- Darloth is grinning.
- Clarification provided. Also, you're right on ER. I chickened out at the last minute and put a limit in. I'd rather not reduce the cost, because now I'm going back to my original intention that the cost and the limit of one damaging attack are enough. Other than the limitation that only one strike can do damage, any number of attacks can be made with Encompassing Rays now, until one succeeds. - IanPrice
Gentle Streaming Sunlight's Awareness requirement seems a bit too much, as you appear to be explicitly denying Charms that say they function against attacks of which the defender is unaware (Reflex Sidestep Technique, Flow Like Blood, etc.). I'm not sure that establishing a super-duper-unawareness precedent is wise. - Hapushet who otherwise thinks these are pretty awesome
- Perhaps replacing "without the use of an applicable perfect Awareness effect" with "that cannot defend against attacks the character is aware of" would remedy this? ...DeathBySurfeit, also applauding
Oops. I intended to add the same clause to GSS that I did to BSF. My bad. Have done so now. - IanPrice
