MartialArts/CelestialDefenseStyle
Celestial Defense Style
By Hadrian
Backgrounds
This charm tree is designed to supplement other marital arts forms. It is completely compatible with all Celestial marital arts styles. The main reason behind this charm tree is that it seems to be more in the style of Exalted martial arts to have characters use marital arts rather than melee charms for parrying.
Charms
Iron Hand Blocking Technique</b>
<b>Cost: 1 mote Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Min. Martial Arts: 1 Min. Essence: 1 Prereqs: None
The martial artist can actually do what was thought to be impossible: to block cold, hard steel with her bare hands without injury.
System: The martial artist may parry weapons with her bare hands or with martial arts weapons (e.g. tiger claws) that cannot normally be used to parry attacks. Note: later charms in this tree that enhance parrying may be used 1. if legally comboed with this charm, or 2. if the character is using other charms that allow lethal damage to be done with their bare hands (e.g. tiger form, essence fangs and scales, etc.).
The Predator Becomes The Prey</b>
<b>Cost:3 base + 1 mote per 2 dice Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Min. Martial Arts: 3 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: Iron Hand Blocking Technique
After successfully blocking an attack with her hand or weapon, the martial artist rips her opponent's weapon from his grasp.
System: After successfully parrying an attack, the martial artist may reflexively make an attempt to disarm their opponent. The base dice pool for the disarming attempt is the character's essence + weapon modifiers. Additional dice may be bought at a cost of 1 mote per 2 dice up to a maximum of twice the characters martial arts score. See the Exalted core book for the rules on how to resolve a disarming attempt.
Harmonious Weapon Turning Defense</b>
<b>Cost:1 mote/die Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Martial Arts: 3 Min. Essence: 1 Prereqs: Iron Hand Blocking Technique
Guided by essence, the martial artist's hand or weapon glides effortlessly to meet the oncoming attack.
System: The marital artist may spend 1 mote/die to parry an attack with either his hand or a martial arts weapon. If the character is using his hand then he needs to have some sort of charm in effect that would let him block lethal attacks. The martial artist must be aware of the attack in order to use this charm. The maximum number of dice available for Solars to buy with this charm is their unmodified dex + martial arts pool (i.e. without specialties or weapon bonuses).
Snowflake Catching Meditation</b>
<b>Cost:3 motes, 1 willpower Duration: One scene Type: Simple Min. Martial Arts: 4 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: Harmonious Weapon Turning Defense, Iron Hand Blocking Technique
By entering in a meditative trance the martial artist can reflexively block multiple attacks. While learning this technique most practitioners will hone their skills by standing in the middle of a snowstorm catching snowflakes, blindfolded.
System: The martial artist may reflexively block all oncoming attacks she is aware of for the rest of the scene with her martial arts + essence + appropriate specialties and/or weapon bonuses. Like all other charms in this tree the martial artist must be able to legally block lethal attacks to use this charm. Note, since this is a scene based charms, it cannot be legally comboed with any other charms.
[Writer's note: On the surface this charm may appear to be "unbalanced" because it has fewer minimum requirements than the charm: Flow Like Blood. This has been addressed in that it 1. Like Flow Like Blood it cannot be comboed with any other charms, 2. if an unarmed martial artist wants to benefit from this charm they must spend at least one previous turn activating a scene based charm that will let them block lethal attacks (e.g. Essence Fangs and Scales).]
