SagaciousAscendingHero/HouseRules2

Keep in mind that the stuff I put here is what I felt needed changing to suit my games, not necessarily what I felt should have been changed in the core book. Also a number of things here are simply rules clarifications and official errata that I wanted to have on hand for my games.

Basic Rules

• Die Pool Caps Clarification - All charms are limited by the caps, not just the excellencies.

• Successes & Charm Caps Clarification - Only for the Second Excellency, or when adding to a static value do Successes count towards the die adder cap.

• Overwhelming & High Essence Scores - If a being's Essence score equals or exceeds the minimum damage granted by an Overwhelming weapon, they may add +1 to their Essence when determining ping damage.

• Specialty Costs - Buying a specialty in a Caste, Aspect, or Favored ability costs 2 xp, not 3. Having Occult as either a Caste, Aspect, or Favored Ability grants a similar reduction in cost when purchasing Thaumaturgy.

• Speed Limit - No effect or combination of effect may reduce the Speed of an action below 3 unless it explicitly states that it does so.

Combat

• Ping Damage & Flurries - Reduce ping damage by one for each attack after the first in a given flurry, to a minimum of 1. Extra action charms do not suffer this penalty.

• Grappling - On the same turn you successfully grapple an opponent, you may immediately either Crush, Pin, or Throw the victim. On the attackers action, he only needs to make a roll to take one of the above actions and suffers no risk of losing control. On the defender's action, he may attempt to break the hold. If successful, he may take control of the grapple or move up to his speed away from his opponent. Defensive charms that eliminate penalties (such as FLB & FfBS) do not affect grapples.

Weapons, Artifacts & Hearthstones

• Mundane & Artifact Weapons - Use the stats from the "Armorium" supplement for mundane weapons, artifact versions have the same stats, except for Magic Material bonuses and the benefit of being unbreakable.
  • Artifact weapons cost the a number of dots in Artifact based on their size. Small weapons, such as a knife, cost •; large two handed ones, or complex ones, such as firearms, cost •••; everything else costs ••.
  • Essence commitment costs are twice the dot rating.

• Artifact Armors - Use the same stats as mundane armors, except for Magic Material bonuses and the benefit of being unbreakable.
  • Artifact Armors cost the a number of dots in Artifact based on their size. Light armors cost •, medium armors cost ••, and heavy armors cost •••.
  • Essence commitment costs are three times the dot rating.

• Shields - These grant bonuses to parry only, but may be stacked with the defense bonus of a wielder's primary weapon.

• Jade Weapons - Use the new Magic Material Bonuses from BoS, Vol. 3: Oadenol's Codex.

• Jade Armor Magic Material Bonus - Grants +1B/+1L as well as removing the fatigue penalty.

• Removed Items - Certain items have been disallowed and removed from my games; Hearthstone bracers, unique armors & weapons that grant random powers, any artifact that grants a charm-like benefit, or any artifacts that affect sorcery/necromancy/protocols. Any artifact that has weapon traits must be ok'd by me before taking and only those that are not covered by the "Armorium" will be considered.

• Power Armors - Armors such as Celestial Battle Armor, Armor of the Immaculate Dragons, and Warstriders are considered Artifact N/A unless I am specifically running a campaign around them, such as a unit of Warstrider pilots. Discreet Essence Armor is an exemption to this rule.

• Hearthstones - Rather than granting a power, these give out twice the normal mote regeneration.

Charms

• Charm Use - Charms are limited to 1 per tick rather than 1 per action.

• Third Excellency - Instead of rerolling the whole die pool, only reroll any dice that did not come up successes.

• Terrestrial Circle Sorcery, Celestial Circle Sorcery, Solar Circle Sorcery - Each of these grants knowledge of one spell of that circle, free with the cost of the base charm. Same goes for equivalent charms for Necromancy, Infernal Sorcery, & Protocols.

Solars

• Twilight Caste Ability - Ignore normal rules for when this activate and instead you only benefit from it when taking a Shape Sorcery action or a Cast Sorcery action. This applies to similar Daybreak & Defiler Caste abilities.

• Phantom Arrow Technique - Can produce ammo for firewands for a 2 motes cost.

• Fivefold Bulwark Stance - The reduction in DV penalties due to actions applies to each action in a flurry.

• Foe-Vaulting Method - This allows for an immediate roll to regain surprise, no extra cover is needed. Simply by moving fast and getting behind his opponent, the solar may ambush the foe from behind his own back.

• Flow Like Blood - Has the same effect as FfBS as well as ignoring coordinating attack penalties.

Dragon-Blooded

• Out of Aspect Surcharge - Ignore this rule. I find that it just causes a lot of book-keeping headaches.

• Immaculate Martial Arts Favored Weapon Bonus - The practitioner must either be the same elemental aspect as the Style, or must have mastered at least the Form charm to gain the benefits of the Favored Weapon Bonus.

Lunars

• Character Generation - Characters start with 2 Knacks & 8 Charms. Also the xp cost for Knacks is reduced to 8.

• Shapeshifting & Health Levels - A lunar keeps the same number of health levels regardless of form.

• Shapeshifting Traits - When taking new forms, the following traits are changed: Strength, Stamina, Appearance, natural attacks, natural armor, and special modes of transportation (flight, swim, etc). Everything else remains constant.

• Casteless Anima Abilities - Casteless Lunars gain access to all five anima abilities over the course of a month, not just the current three. The order is as follows; No Moon - 3 days, Waxing Moon - 4 days, Half Moon - 3 days, Waxing Moon - 4 days, Full Moon - 3 days, Waning Moon - 4 days, Half Moon - 3 days, Waning Moon - 4 days... repeat.

• Mountainous Spirit Expression - Apply the Large mutation to the spirit form, granting +1 Strength, +1 Stamina, and an additional -0 health level.

• Deadly Beastman Transformation & Devastating Ogre Enhancement - You may re-arrange the attribute boost array. The options would be +1 Str/+1 Dex/+1 Sta, +2/+0/+2, +3/+0/+1, or +1/+0/+3. When taking DOE, any selection of two of the same +3 options is disallowed. In other words, you may not take both Knacks and gain a +6/+0/+2 or +2/+0/+6. Combinations of +5/+0/+3 or +3/+0/+5 are fine.

Alchemicals

• Charm Installment Costs - Ignore these rules.

• Charm Slots - You may have no more charm slots than equal to your maximum Personal Essence Pool. Charms that may be taken multiple times are counted only once. Charms that are specifically described as being an upgrade to a prerequisite also do not count toward charm slots.

• Artifact Background - The rating of artifacts purchased with this background are limited by the number of dots the character has in it. So you must have 3 dots in Artifact before purchasing a 3 dot item.

• Elemental Cores - Like hearthstones, these do not grant powers, but double the usual mote regeneration.

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