Charms/AlecAustinStormDragonStyle
Storm Dragon Style
By AlecAustin
Background
This is the first half of a Martial Arts style that my Lunar in an upcoming game will be either learning or developing on his own. Either way, it was designed by a former member of a Dynastic House who was Exalted by Luna, and blends elements of the elemental kung fu taught to mortals in the Realm with abilities more useful and appropriate to Lunars, such as taking zillions of actions each round.
The "Principle of <element>" bit at the beginning of each of the first five charms indicates which element each charm is "aligned" with in the Dynastic manner of thinking about Martial Arts, and ties in with both the name of the charm and its effects. I haven't really gotten around to doing much flavor text for them.
Storm Dragon Style treats characters using spears and seven section staves as unarmed for the purposes of charms. None of the charms of Storm Dragon Style are compatible with armor that has an inherent mobility penalty before magical material bonuses are applied.
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Charms
Spark the Hurricane</b> (Principle of Fire)
<b>Cost: 1 mote\\ Duration: Instant\\ Type: Reflexive\\ Min. Martial Arts: 3\\ Min Essence: 2 \\ Prereqs: None
The first time the character is attacked in a particular combat, they may activate this charm to launch an unarmed counterattack w/ their Dex + Martial Arts. This counterattack cannot be parried or evaded without the aid of charms.
Rage of the Tempest</b> (Principle of Water)
<b>Cost:5 motes, 1 willpower\\ Duration: Instant\\ Type: Extra Action\\ Min. Martial Arts: 4\\ Min Essence: 3\\ Prereqs: Spark the Hurricane
The character lashes out at those around her as she explodes into motion, making a number of unarmed attacks equal to her Martial Arts at nearby targets. The character may not parry on the same turn they use Rage of the Tempest, and must attack the characters closest to her when she activates the charm in order of proximity, regardless of whether they are friend or foe.
The Mountain Endures</b> (Principle of Earth)
<b>Cost:2 motes\\ Duration: Instant\\ Type: Reflexive\\ Min. Martial Arts: 3\\ Min Essence: 2\\ Prereqs: None
The character adds their Martial Arts to their lethal and bashing soak against a single attack which they did not attempt to dodge or parry. This soak explicitly applies to aggravated damage.
Willow Bends in the Wind</b> (Principle of Wood)
<b>Cost:3 motes\\ Duration: Instant\\ Type: Reflexive\\ Min. Martial Arts: 4\\ Min Essence: 3\\ Prereqs: The Mountain Endures
The character may make a Dex + Martial Arts roll to dodge a single incoming attack they are aware of.
Storm Dragon Form</b> (Principle of Air)
<b>Cost:8 motes \\ Duration: One Scene \\ Type: Simple\\ Min. Martial Arts: 5\\ Min Essence: 4\\ Prereqs: Rage of the Tempest, Willow Bends in the Wind
By taking on the aspect of the Storm Dragon, the character vastly increases their speed and coordination, almost seeming to walk on air. They add their Martial Arts to their initiative, triple their movement and jumping distances, and take no damage from falls.
In addition, they suffer only half the normal dice penalties for splitting actions (apply any modifiers, such as those from Gift of Hands and Arm-Array, before halving) and may buy additional fully independent actions at the cost of 5 motes each. (See Charcoal March of the Spiders Form, on page 187 of the Sidereals book, for details on fully independent actions.) A character using Storm Dragon Form may take no more fully independent actions in a turn than half their Essence score rounded down, and their natural dice action counts against this limit.
Storm Dragon Form cannot normally be used with other Form-type charms, and is incompatible with armor that is prohibited by Storm Dragon Style.
Claw of Heaven</b>
<b>Cost:4 motes \\ Duration: Instant \\ Type: Simple\\ Min. Martial Arts: 5\\ Min Essence: 4\\ Prereqs: Storm Dragon Form
By focusing the power of the Storm Dragon around their fist, the character charges their next attack with lightning. In addition to its normal effects, the next unarmed strike they make which connects with an opponent deals their Martial Arts in unsoakable dice of damage, which may only be avoided through effects that reduce damage but are not a form of soak, such as the Twilight Caste's Anima ability and the material bonus of Starmetal armor. Claw of Heaven is not discharged until the character either connects with an attack or the scene ends, and multiple uses of it cannot affect the same attack.
Crashing Thunder Assault</b>
<b>Cost:5 motes, 1 willpower \\ Duration: Instant \\ Type: Simple\\ Min. Martial Arts: 5\\ Min Essence: 5\\ Prereqs: Claw of Heaven
Striking with the speed of lightning and the force of thunder, the character's blows shatters mortal steel and blasts enchanted weapons aside. An unarmed attack enhanced by this charm cannot be parried by any means short of a perfect defense, and destroys any non-magical weapons placed in its path. Any extra successes on the attack roll are added to the difficulty of the Stamina + Resistance roll to avoid knockback from this attack, and if the roll fails, the defender is flung back 10 yards for each success by which they failed the roll. Regardless of whether they are knocked backwards, the defender must also make two more Stamina + Resistance rolls against the same difficulty as the first roll, the first to avoid being deafened for the rest of the scene, and the second to avoid being totally unaware of their surroundings and unable to take actions of any sort until a full turn has passed.
The attack enhanced by this charm explicitly cannot kill one of the Exalted; if it would reduce them below Incapacitated, reduce the number of damage successes until they are left at Incapacitated.
Scales of the Maelstrom</b>
<b>Cost:5 + 1 mote per turn, 1 willpower \\ Duration: Variable \\ Type: Simple\\ Min. Martial Arts: 5\\ Min Essence: 4\\ Prereqs: Storm Dragon Form
By enshrouding themselves in a whirlwind of Essence, the character renders themselves all but invulnerable to attack by foes they cannot engage. Any attack by someone beyond the reach of the character's unarmed attacks which is not a perfect effect automatically misses them, buffeted aside by a swirling gust of wind. This is a semi-perfect effect and ends immediately if the character casts a spell or makes a ranged attack of any kind. The 1 mote maintainance cost on this charm is paid as a reflexive action, and does not count as the character's charm for the turn.
Gale-Force Breath</b>
<b>Cost:15 motes, 1 willpower, 1 aggravated health level\\ Duration: Instant \\ Type: Simple\\ Min. Martial Arts: 5\\ Min Essence: 5\\ Prereqs: Scales of the Maelstrom
The character inhales deeply, and then releases their stored breath in a swirling cyclone that flings everything in the area that is not fixed to the ground into the sky. Everything and everyone within a radius of (Essence x 10) yards of the Exalt is subject to this charm's effects save those who are within three yards of the Exalt himself. To avoid being sucked into the sky and then flung back down to earth, characters must make reflexive Wits + Athletics rolls against a difficulty equal to the Exalt's Essence to grab onto a stable structure or outcropping. Extras automatically fail this roll.
Those who fail to remain fixed to the earth face an ignominious death. For every success they failed the roll by, a character is flung 30 feet into the air, and faces 6 dice of falling damage. Those who have some means of aerial locomotion may either move out of the area affected by Gale-Force Breath before they are flung to earth, or roll Strength + Athletics against a difficulty of the character's Essence to avoid being hurled to their doom, but those who do not are likely to be broken upon the unyielding ground if they are not battered to death by trees or flayed by swirling sand before their landing.
Perfect defenses defend against this attack as normal.
Storm Serpent Fury</b>
<b>Cost:12 motes, 1 willpower\\ Duration: Martial Arts in turns \\ Type: Reflexive\\ Min. Martial Arts: 5\\ Min Essence: 6\\ Prereqs: Crashing Thunder Assault, Gale-Force Breath
A character who has mastered this charm is the equal of a true Storm Serpent in might and furious wrath. For the charm's duration, the character has a number of fully independent actions each turn equal to their Essence. This explicitly supercedes the restriction on the number of fully independent actions that can be taken in a turn imposed by Storm Dragon Form. This charm may only be used once per scene.
Comments
hplovescats's comment when I showed him the charms (he's the storyteller on the prospective game) was that he'd have to think about Willow Bends in the Wind. Personally, I'm of the opinion that it's a Martial Arts 4, Essence 3 charm, and as such deserves to be about on par with Shadow over Water, except more expensive. The only type of Celestial Exalts without a better or cheaper alternative to it of some kind are the Lunars, and since a Lunar is the one designing the tree, I figured that they would probably jump at the opportunity to fill that gap.
Comments are always welcome, though.
Looks good, I may have to pinch several of the ideas for my Lunar. Works very well as a style developed by Solars or Sidereals (possibly a little too powerful for DB to develop) btu for Lunars I'd do the following:I'd change ability requirements to attribute requirements and tweak the charms so that instead of adding MA to soak (for example) it'd add the appropriate attribute (stamina for saok, dex for initiative, and so on) and charms like willow bends in the wind would only give dex dice. This would be more in keeping with how I see Lunar charms working. Also, it'd make it an unarmed combat tree instead of an MA tree (for lunars) meaning those using Brawl can learn it (I do not like the way Brawl is so horribly inferior to MA in Lunars) - CorlanDashiva
I finished the trees. Any more thoughts? I'm sticking with it being MA, because that was more or less the point of making up the tree in the first place...
Crashing thunder assault: Why on earth cannot it kill exalted? it is a normal attack, no death effect, that has some nasty side effects.... but was it developed as a way to capture an opponent, or were you trying to limit the charm's power? Also, on Gale force breath, it should be that they are thrown into the air (Essence x 10) feet, and take falling damage as normal )(which is 1 die per 5 feet). Basically, it'd be 10 damager per amount you missed by, but would scale with the exalts power level. mabye essence x5... 10 damage per sux missed is pretty nasty...
Crashing Thunder Assault can't kill Exalted for both those reasons; it's meant primarily as a means of counting coup, though if you're in Storm Dragon Form, chasing after your stunned enemy and finishing them off while they're stunned is always an option.
Re: Gale Force Breath, I knew that that was the damage amount, but I've decided to tone it down a bit after checking over the falling rules and realizing that falling damage is only soakable by Stamina. 30-36 dice of bashing damage is still vicious, but most characters, even heroic mortals, aren't going to come up with 0 successes on their free roll to mitigate the charm's damage, and many Exalted will be able to walk away without being hit at all.
