SolarMelee/FluffySquirrel
Melee Charms
Melee Styles
I wanted to make special styles of melee charms, the same way certain martial arts styles are created. Basically, a path of charms that are all related to some concept or other, such as the serpent MA path. I wanted to make interesting and potentially powerful charms, but also ones which would be limiting to use, in that once you decide to use a style for a scene, you can’t easily get out of it.
All melee styles have a certain number of prerequisite charms that are required before the style can be learnt. To use a style in battle requires the exalt to fully focus his will on maintaining the style, and cannot be broken off without considerable willpower. To this extent, the rules of these styles are as follows:
Only one melee style (MS) can be used per scene, although it doesn’t have to be activated straight away. Indeed, it would be a foolhardy exalt who limited himself to a style without fully knowing the enemies strengths and weaknesses.
Once an MS is activated (a matter of expending 1 willpower as similar to activating a combo), the exalt cannot use any other combat related charms from any of the dawn caste abilities, thrown, martial arts, brawl, archery, or melee. The only charms that can be used are the ones from within the style (this makes styles a risky proposition for novices).
An MS can be deactivated before the end of the scene should the exalt have the desperate need to, but this also costs 1 willpower, backing out of an MS is not to be taken lightly either.
When an MS is activated, any scene long charms already in use are dampened, their effects nulled while the style is in use. Should the solar deactivate the style, these nullified charms will once more give their effects.
Charms from within an MS cannot be used without activating the style and cannot be part of a combo with other charms of other trees.
Styles are effectively scene long combos to a certain extent. While the MS is in effect, the exalt can freely use up to three charms from within the style per turn. This also means that no other combo’s can be used while a style is still activated. The three charms must be selected when the character first acts, be it her standard action or a reflexive action. You cannot use one charm and leave the rest undecided ‘just in case’. FluffySquirrel
Credit to Clebo whose MeleePaths gave me the confidence to try making something similar for myself.
Comment
These are very interesting, but just a point on prerequisites - you don't need to list all of them, just the highest-tier ones. If a Melee Style requires Iron Whirlwind Attack it is a very safe assumption that they have the preceding Charms as well. That should keep the Style prerequisite list down to non-insane levels. - Moxiane
Hehe, yeah, I know .. .. but it looks cool and impressive that way ;) You're probably right though.. I might have a go at slimming them a bit when I have a bit of free time :) - FluffySquirrel
Hi there! I haven't read it all. However, it seems like this idea is very close to the Melee paths that I created a while ago. I'll read more later. http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?MeleePaths - Clebo
Yeah, I read yours, and they seemed kinda interesting. I wanted to create entirely new charms as part of the style though, essentially whole new trees. Yours merge in with the existing charms in a nice way, and yeah, it is a little similar.. which I why I made mine more like martial arts forms, in that you can only use the one at a time(and scene) .. as I wanted to really narrow down the range of things they could do.. but yeah, I probably should've mentioned your melee paths, cause they gave me the push to try make my own.. thanks :) FluffySquirrel
In the why bother department, what exactly - style-wise, not system-wise - is the difference between a melee style and a martial arts style that allows for a weapon or set of related weapons. I'm asking this because this seems in danger of stepping on other people's schtick, which is, in my opinion, the greatest sin in the world of Exalted (the Dragon-Blooded aren't bad because they're evil, or lousy rulers, or murderers... it's because they stepped on the Solars' schtick, if one member of your circle steps on your schtick, you've got serious problems with your game, and so on). The entire idea of tightly related charm trees for combat is done, pretty well, by martial arts. Your swordsmen are cool enough, don't let them step on the martial artists without becoming martial artists themselves... - Seraph
.. .. hmm, you might be right really :) I did kinda want to mimic the martial arts styles in a way, but then, I was also trying to make them more melee'y .. .. possibly failed ;o) In truth, I just wanted to give em a try and see how they came out, most people seem to think they're a bit iffy .. .. me included ;o) FluffySquirrel
All is not lost! Celestial styles can be partially abstract! Just make some martial arts trees that use swords and you're set... in fact, a tree of slightly underpowered melee/martial arts charms with the special power "can be comboed with melee charms" could be pretty cool... -Seraph
- Hey i've done that before!! (sighs) Now My poor schtick is being stepped on...arg..lol. I agree with Seraph tho. I liked them (your melee trees) a lot though. If you wanna see how mine turned out, here's the link: MartialArts/StrikingCobraSwordStyle. Take a look, and tell me what you think. -Issaru
Hehe.. but then I'd be just adding another martial art to the ever growing list ;) .. in fact, despite my huge urges to do so, I'm still trying to keep my dawn caste swordsman from learning any martial arts... simply because he's more of a brawl type if anything .. .. but gah, keep getting tempted :P And I thought your style was nice Issaru, the form charm looked very fun :) FluffySquirrel
- Thanx!! Glad you liked it. I had the same problem, my swordsman is not a HtH fighter at all really. Thats why she designed so that Striking Corbra doesn't combo with non-sword MA charms and does combo with Solar melee charms. - Issaru
While I realise that Exalted can and often -is- played as a fu-heavy combat epic where everyone and their dog knows martial arts (and in some extreme cases have formed entire Protocols with said dog), I think other solutions are also valuable, because sometimes people don't want to have to take martial arts. I support all the various melee style/path/wossname ideas, simply because MA is used for [b]everything[/b]. In my opinion, if you want to fight with a sword, you need melee, and being able to do amazingly cool style based thingies -without- having to take martial arts is always good. I do however approve of people who take both and do both, and so I'm fine with blade-based martial arts and similar, but don't deny melee the chance to do cool stuff too!
-- Darloth
