TonyC/InvincibleSwordPrincess

Technically speaking, an ISP is someone with a persistent dodge and parry, great dexterity, and good strength, and a kickass grand daiklave, enabling her to cut down an army of extras in no time. Well, this one too, but Lion is no extra. You put up a 35 dice stacked defense, and he'll just cut through like it's not there. No, you need perfects against Lion. As such, I won't bother using or even listing the persistents. Just assume that it's there, ready to be activated when the situation is appropriate. That's what the extra XP pool is for. What I can promise though, is that there'll be a storm of blades.

Name: Invincible Sword Princess
Caste: Zenith
Concept: Invincible Sword Princess, what else?
Nature: Leader
Anima: A falling star
Quote: I am the Invincible Sword Princess! Surrender now or taste my blade!

Invincible Sword Princess as starting character

Invincible Sword Princess started life as a Dynast before her Exaltation. That's how she got her haughty demeanor (hint: she's a Mnemon). Her House has no idea what went wrong that such a promising child exalted as an Anathema instead of a proper Dragonblooded. They just don't talk about "the little incident" anymore. Today Invincible Sword Princess adopt the guise of a humble traveling sword-dancer. She's not very good at it. The humble part, that is.

Attributes

Physical: Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 2
Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 4
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 2

Abilities

Dawn: Archery 0, *Brawl 1, *Martial Arts 1 (against the Underworld +2), *Melee 5, Thrown 0
Zenith: Endurance 2, Performance 5, Presence 5, Resistance 2, Survival 0
Twilight: Craft 0, Investigation 0, Lore 1, Medicine 1, Occult 0
Night: Athletics 3, Awareness 2, *Dodge 5, Larceny 0, Stealth 0
Eclipse: Bureaucracy 0, Linguistics 1, *Ride 1, Sail 0, Socialize 1
Note: * = Favored skill.

Languages spoken: Low Realm & High Realm

Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 3, Temperance 2, Valor 3
Backgrounds: Artifact 3, Allies 2, Resources 2
Willpower: 8, Essence: 2, Essence Pool: 14 personal+ 31 peripheral
Virtue Flaw: Heart of Flint (Conviction)

Charms

• Respect Commanding Attitude
• Masterful Performance Exercise
• Graceful Crane Stance
• Increasing Strength Exercise
• Body Mending Meditation
• Sensory Acuity Prana
• Reed in The Wind
• Shadow Over Water
• Golden Essence Block
• Dipping Swallow Defense

HL: -0, -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, Incapacitated.

Artifact: Ghost-Seeing Blindfold.

Invincible Sword Princess at 500 XP

Total XP: 425. The rest of the XP should be spent on Zenith things. Like Presence and Performance. Maybe put some XP in Ride too, because an Invincible Sword Princess must be an accomplished rider.

Physical: Strength 5, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3
Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 4
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 2

Abilities

Dawn: Archery 0, *Brawl 3, *Martial Arts 5 (against the Underworld +3), *Melee 5, Thrown 0
Zenith: Endurance 3, Performance 5, Presence 5, Resistance 5, Survival 0
Twilight: Craft 0, Investigation 0, Lore 1, Medicine 1, Occult 0
Night: Athletics 3, Awareness 3, *Dodge 5, Larceny 0, Stealth 0
Eclipse: Bureaucracy 0, Linguistics 1, *Ride 1, Sail 0, Socialize 1
Note: * = Favored skill.

Languages spoken: Low Realm & High Realm

Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 2, Valor 3
Backgrounds: No longer applicable. Just assume she got lotsa in play. But her artifacts are the moonsilver daiklave Flying Silver Dream from CB: Zenith (4 dots) and Ghost-Seeing Blindfold (3 dots), and her hearthstone is Stone of Revolutionary Dog (3 dots.)
Willpower: 8, Essence: 5, Essence Pool: 23 personal + 53 peripheral
Virtue Flaw: Heart of Flint (Conviction)
Note: Invincible Sword Princess has committed 5 motes to attune to Flying Silver Dream, reducing his available peripheral pool to 48 motes.

Charms

• Brawl: Ferocious Jab, Thunderclap Rush Attack, Irrepressible Bravery Tactic, Dancing With Strife Technique.
• Martial Arts: Violet Bier of Sorrows Style: Secrets of Future Strife, Blade of The Battle Maiden. Charcoal March of Spiders Style: Rain of Unseen Threads. Five Dragon Style: Five Dragon Claws, Five-Dragon Force Blow. Hungry Ghost Style: Essence-Discerning Glance, Shrouded Claw Attack, Hungry Ghost Form, Power-Reaping Prana. Celestial Monkey Style: Monkey Tail Distraction Strike, Flowing Mirror of Opposition Technique.
• Melee: Golden Essence Block, Dipping Swallow Defense, Bulwark Stance, Heavenly Guardian Defense, Solar Counter Attack, Retrieve The Fallen Weapon, Call The Blade, Summoning The Loyal Steel.
• Endurance: Ox-Body Technique (-1, -2, -2) x 3, Essence Gathering Temper, Willpower-Enhancing Spirit.
• Performance: Respect Commanding Attitude, Masterful Performance Exercise.
• Resistance: Durability of Oak Meditation, Iron Skin Concentration.
• Medicine: Body Mending Meditation.
• Athletics: Graceful Crane Stance, Increasing Strength Exercise.
• Awareness: Sensory Acuity Prana, Surprise Anticipation Method.
• Dodge: Reed in The Wind, Shadow Over Water, Seven-Shadow Evasion, Leaping Dodge Method.

HL: -0 | -1 (x5) | -2 (x8) | -4 | Incapacitated.

Combos:
Impermanence of Cherry Blossoms: Thunderclap Rush Attack, Flowing Mirror of Opposition, Sensory Acuity Prana, Rain of Unseen Threads, Five-Dragon Force Blow, Heavenly Guardian Defense, Seven Shadow Evasion, Leaping Dodge Method, Iron Skin Concentration, Dancing With Strife Technique, Essence Gathering Temper, Willpower-Enhancing Spirit, Solar Counter Attack, Summoning The Loyal Steel, Power Reaping Prana. (cost: 49 XP)

--- How the combo works --- Okay, say the set-up's done. Turn 1, we roll init. Princess immediately activates the combo and use Thunderclap Rush Attack and Flowing Mirror of Opposition. This forces Lion to also activate his combo. Lion also have a "I go first" charm too, so he'll win the roll-off, but Flowing Mirror negates a weapon's accuracy. This is -4 dice to every single attack Lion makes and Lion makes a lot of attacks. Let's say Lion goes after Princess and uses his uber-attack. Princess Solar Counterattacks him, commands Flying Silver Dream to go after him, MA Counterattack him barehanded, activates Power Reaping Prana and on average trades 1 WP for 11 motes. She then activates Dancing With Strife and trades 3 motes for 1 WP and gets an extra WP due to hearthstone. She then perfect dodges the attack. If the attack is undodgeable, recalling Flying Silver Dream is reflexive and then she uses HGD. If Lion wants to keep dancing, she'll happily accept. Anyway, now it's her turn. Flying Silver Dream is hovering, attacking Lion independently, meaning that she's unarmed. Meaning she can use her MA extra action and simple charms. She gets 5 MA attacks (at 23 dice minimum) doing double base damage and can't be counterattacked. This cost 18 motes, but Princess is not worried, because between stunts, hearthstone, and the essence/wp regaining charms, starting next turn she'll be breaking even.

What scares me is that Lion could replicate this easily by discarding Varan's Ruin and going unarmed, but if he does that, he loses his HGDs and hopefully the other solars can exploit this somehow. ---

Things That Needs Clarification

• What are the new Power Combat stats for Flying Silver Dream? There are two versions in the wiki. Friv, which one to use or do you want to make a new version?

We'll take Version II, it seems to work. - FrivYeti

• If Rain of Unseen Threads picks up a weapon lying on the ground and uses it to attack, does Five-Dragon Force Blow still affects it? What if the weapon is a grand daiklave, which is a style weapon for Five-Dragon Force Blow but not for Charcoal March of Spiders?

Um. I'd have to reread the Charm. I would say that Five-Dragon Force Blow would still apply generally; does Rain of Unseen Threads require weapons picked up to be in-form? If so, no combining with a grand daiklave.

• Reading the text, I think sending Flying Silver Dream and calling it back are reflexive actions and take no time. Right?

I believe so, yes. - FrivYeti

• Power Reaping Prana requires the user to have Essence Discerning Glance up to be able to perceive the flow of Essence. I've substituted Ghost-Seeing Blindfold, which gives the effect of All-Encompassing Sorcerer Sight. Is this okay?

Yeah, I'd give it to you. :) Any Essence-sight seems valid. - FrivYeti

• The combination of Dancing With Strife, Power Reaping Prana, and Stone of Revolutionary Dog seems broken. Which is exactly why I'm using it. If I got this right, then whenever Lion attacks, I use Power Reaping Prana (multiple times, if necessary) and convert WP to motes, use the motes to power a perfect defense and counterattacks, and then use Dancing With Strife to convert the remaining motes back to WP, gaining an extra WP thanks to Stone of Revolutionary Dog. Now, there's several ways Lion can get around this perpetual motion machine. One, don't attack Princess, or two, don't use essence around her. Still.... is there some canon rule that prevents this?

Sadly, no. That is a perfectly valid and truly obscene combo. Congrats. - FrivYeti

• Friv, I've deliberately left the social-fu charms empty. Since this is supposed to be the "direct combat" version, how about a gentleman's agreement not to use social-fu? Because if not, I have this great visual of Student with 20 Performance autosuccesses pulling a Memory Reweaving, or, if I feel like it, Divine Performance Style plus Hypnotic Tongue (stunting a caress as part of a dance would be so easy).

Yeah, that makes sense. Otherwise we end up in a social-fu race: Can Student get the Memory Reweave up before the Lion activates Elegant Tyrant's Majesty and unleashes 31-die Soul-Flaying Gazes. (Actually, that would be a pretty devastating counter. Hey, Student, you lose ten Willpower and have to obey me. Grah!) ;) - FrivYeti, who just realized that Irrestible Succubus Style would make the Lion become Appearance 10 and make people roll Temperance or love him. Yikes.

Actually, that does benefit you guys - I forgot that there's an anti-social Fu Charm in the Abyssal book (Scathing Cynic Attitude). Regardless, we'll keep it in the realm of direct effects. :) - FrivYeti

And... done.

This is it. Done. Final version. Unless Friv tells me "No, that doesn't work that way" (see Things That Needs Clarification section), I'm going to stop fiddling with her and move on to Burning Mandala, Student, and Five Realms Diplomat. - TonyC

Comments

From one Power-Combatant/twinker to Another Very Nicely Done =), Thank you and Friv for this Cool little Project.

A few comments if i may -

May i Suggest getting Surprise Anticipation method to avoid getting hit by Flowing Evasion Assault without being able to use HGD ? you seem to have some xp to spare =).

Regarding Flying Silver Dream, yes the sending/recalling is reflexive but there are a few things you should consider - FSD acts on your own initiative which means you can't send her to defend/attack for you ahead of time, it has a movement limit so if the lion wishes to open some distance you might not be able to recall her all the way to you for HGD, The Lion can knock FSD from the air, forcing you to grab the sword again if you want to command it. Adding Summoning the Loyal Steel Charm to the Combo helps fixing most of the problems.

Note you need princess to be in close range if you're using Flowing Mirror of Opposition - not sure if your strategy involves keeping distance or not.

I'd approve Power reaping prana usage with Ghost Seeing Blindfold in my games but that's Friv Call here.

I might have misread you're combo but it seems as u're using two counterattacks against one attack which is like Dual dodging or parrying one attack (though i believe the fact Flying silver can't fly before your initiative. settles this anyway).

Regarding Social Fu - It would be safe to assume the Lion is immune to that or it would be silly. After all i'd say Standing in the middle of a shadowland, Hearing the Voices of the Malfeans and suffering from Endless Torment is all the Evidance one needs to shake off the Illusion, Memory Reweaving or not =). And Friv Soul Flaying Gaze is as broken as Dancing with Strife combo is to me though there are ways around both - Go blind for Soul Flaying gaze for example. the Combo is problematic but Given the Perfect Nature of the Lion's attacks he can go with "probing" attacks scoring no more than 4 Undodgable/unblockable Success to avoid Dancing with strife Usage - It's ugly though. - Hugh

The issue of applying counterattacks from multiple sources to a single attack is still rather fuzzy. It's not explicitly outlawed by the rules, and it seems that a fair number of Exalted players or Storytellers think it's alright - probably because it's not an insignificant investment to get access to multiple counterattack sources (at least, ones that aren't mutually exclusive - Steel Devil Style, IIRC, forbids the character from using other counterattacks while benefitting from it). - David.

Rather than giving FrivYeti more headache, I've decided to remove the Snake MA charms and avoid the issue. Besides, that one counterattack per attack sounds reasonable, actually. Anyway, I added in Surprise Anticipation Method in, since while Flowing Evasion Assault isn't a problem (exalts can defend against attacks from behind using charms), Blow Concealing Gesture (Ebon Shadow) is. - TonyC

Why not multiple counterattacks per attack? There's a Sidereal MA Charm at Ess 6 which on its own gives multiple counterattacks versus a single attack. It seems valid that you could use multiple lower-level counterattack Charms to do the same thing, since "one counterattack per attack" is a statement clearly contradicted in the canon material. -TheMyriadOfShades

/InvincibleSwordPrincessOldComments