PassengerPigeon/SolarCharms
Sidereal Martial Arts Initiations
Story at the Heart of the Lotus
- Cost: 10m 1wp 1xp
- Duration: One day
- Type: Simple
- Min. M.A.: 5
- Min. Ess.: 5
- Prerequisites: one complete Celestial Martial Art, being a Solar
A martial art is a tale told with the fist. Like any tale, it has a moral, and knowing the moral allows you to appreciate the tale in a new way. Sidereals call these morals sutras, and have a peculiar mastery over their symbolic cadences. However, no mastery is beyond the servants of the Sun.
Using this charm, a Solar adept may spend one day in meditation to permanently learn to transcribe and use one of the sutras associated with a Martial Art. This requires a successful Perception + Martial Arts roll at a difficulty of the Essence requirement of the charm acting as a prerequisite for the sutra, and the expenditure of 1 xp. A sutra written by a Solar cannot be used by a Sidereal, nor vice versa.
This charm is a Sidereal Martial Arts initiation. It is considered SMA for all purposes. A Solar who learns two SMA initiation charms need no longer pay the normal surcharge to learn SMA charms.
Blossoms Unfolding in Glory
- Cost: 5m 1wp
- Duration: Indefinite
- Type: Simple
- Min. M.A.: 5
- Min. Ess.: 5
- Prerequisites: one complete Celestial Martial Art, being a Solar
Using this charm requires one hour of meditation. Once this charm is activated, the Solar is permeated with glory. At any time, he may reflexively make a single Martial Arts action he is about to perform a perfect effect. He may only do this once for each activation. A character may only have a single iteration of Blossoms Unfolding in Glory active at any one time. Perfect attacks do not fail as a result of having no successes after defenses. Perfect defenses cause attacks to which they are applicable, including perfect attacks, to automatically fail.
This charm is a Sidereal Martial Arts initiation. It is considered SMA for all purposes. A Solar who learns two SMA initiation charms need no longer pay the normal surcharge to learn SMA charms.
Comments
I gotta say, I really like these. More than I thought I would - a sign of an excellent charm, imho. -- GregLink
I don't like these charms because I don't see the Solar, Abyssal, Alchemical and (depending on your views of EPG) Lunar costs for SMA being a "penalty", rather I see the Sidereal Cost being an innate benefit of being a Sidereal. Everyone else doesn't pay MORE, Sid's pay LESS. And even Solars shouldn't have Charms that let them get another splat's special benefits or else they're not special anymore. - Telgar
Since Sidereals themselves pay a surcharge to learn SMA, I basically think that doesn't make any sense. This is actually an ability even Sids don't have access to! I'm not real happy with the sutra-learning charm myself, but I am having trouble coming up with another uniquely Solar approach to MA. My primary concern in designing these charms is that Solar martial artists be able to remain at least somewhat on par with their counterparts in other combat abilities. The SMA surcharge straightforwardly prevents that for no good reason that I can see, so.... -- PassengerPigeon
They don't pay a surcharge, what are you talking about? They pay more for SMA then they do for their native charms, that's what you mean? Well, um, duh? SMA is stronger then their native Charms. SMA, like all MA, is non-native. No one has native access to it. The normal cost for learning it is what Solars and Abyssals pay: 13/15. Sidereals get a bit of a break on costs because part of their signature thematic and style is being kung-fu masters. So they pay a bit less then anyone else. But yes, still more then they do for Sidereal Charms.
Dragon-Blooded are the only ones that pay *extra* to learn a specific sort of Charm. Sid's just get to pay *less* to learn one type of Charm. Somewhat like No Moons can pay less to learn Terrestrial Circle Spells. It's part of their gig, so they get a discount. The *normal* price is 13/15.
I'll step on a limb here and assume you're one of the people who thinks SMA isn't part of the Sidereal gig and that Solars should have full access to it on the same level Sids do just because they're Solars and Solars should be the best. But if it makes sense or no, SMA IS part of the Sidereal gig according to the writers of the Corebook and E:tS. And Solars don't get to be quite as good at SMA as Sids do because Solars are NEVER as good at someone else's gig as that someone else is. Solars, instead, get to be better then everyone else at things that aren't fate-seeing, far-out kung-fu, elementalism, shapeshifting and animalism or doombringing killing. Because there's an Exalted type for each of those things. - Telgar
