GregLink/DiscussionAboutWSAV

On roughly June 2005, I had some questions about the Sidereal Craft Charm "World-Shaping Artistic Vision". It's incredibly powerful, and can be tweaked. See discussion below.

So here's my big question, relating to both Power Kombat style duels, as well as the applicability of the Eclipse Caste power. Can an Eclipse learn the Sidereal Charm "World-Shaping Artistic Vision"? It has no prerequisites, low ability requirements, and no special mention of being Siddy-only. Second, suppose a character (possibly Siddy, just for sake of argument) has the charm, taken three times. The text mentions that the bonus is roughly equivalent to a specialty. So, for example, suppose I take the specialty "Daiklaves". Obviously, that should help melee rolls, such as attack and parry. Should it affect my ability to Craft Daiklaves? Identify them via Lore? Dodge them? What about awareness rolls to avoid being ambushed by one? Theoretically, if I had a specialty in Crafts of "Daiklaves", it'd totally, and obviously, apply to craft them. Given that, what about the 'specialty' of "While Dueling"? It seems fairly appropriate for a specialty. If not, what about "One on one"? There are a plethora of such specialty-scoped color-phrases that can be exploited to allow World-Shaping Artistic Vision to apply to not only a large number of situations, but also to a large number of abilities. ("Without Allies" and "Fighting Exalted" also come to mind).

What's the proper way to deal with such things in your game? It just seems that for such a small XP amount, a Siddy or Eclipse can gain a /huge/ advantage in terms of statistics, in a large percentage of situations. - GregLink

Yes, an Eclipse or Moonshadow can learn WSAV. And the Sidereal Essence-gainers. Sidereal Charms are probably the only Exalted Charms its worth learning at double-cost and double-XP considering their abundance of low-req, low-cost and permanent Charms.
As for a WSAV in "Daiklaves" I wouldn't allow it. WSAV is a situation, not a thing. "When dealing with Daiklaves", sure. Same thing effectivly. All WSAVs are powerful and nasty, its a badass Charm. The ST has to regulate what is an is not an appropriate WSAV range for their game. That's what it comes down to. If you let them, your twinky player will take "While breathing" or "While alive", "While inside Creation." "While my brain is inside my skull." and so on. Don't let them. - Telgar

Yep. While RSB says it better here, I concur with Telgar. And like any other eclipse charm, I'd give them the same Vision as the Sidereal had. - Scrollreader