Ascendent Mastery Style

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Ascendent Mastery Style Sketch

Overview

Major Themes: Skill, Perfection, Prediction
Minor Themes: Compounding, Cleanliness, Minimal Movement
Armament: Staff (+1 Rate, +1 Defense), Other
Armor: None
Scope: Eccentric Celestial, Common Second Style

The Ascendent Mastery Style is a style of true masters, be they wizened old martial artists, child prodigies or practiced assassins. The surpassing skill of practitioners of the Ascendent Mastery Style allows them to transcend the limits of their body, easily making up for more their lack in the crude physical attributes. The Ascendent Mastery style is highly flexible, personal to each student; it teaches the importance of skill, knowledge and perfection rather than the superiority of any one weapon.

4 Disciple Charms

Accustomed Amament Aptitude - Choose a unique weapon or Quarterstaff and deal/parry lethal damage with it.
- Presumptuous Prescience Prana - Cannot be ambushed
- Summit Seeking Strike - Reroll attack and take higher.
- Presence Allaying Step - Reflexively use MA to dodge without seeming to move

1 Form Charm

Ascendent Mastery Form
- Choose Ability for primary combat (Ie Performance+MA, Survival+MA, etc.)
- Choose Ability for damage instead of Strength
- Extra Defense Successes become initiative bonus on next turn-- may be saved.
- Automatically succeed Athletics, stand on anything
- Add essence to MA

6 Master Charms

Economy of Motion - Gain an extra action on any turn the character does not move.
- Infallible Placement Prana - Instant preparation results in extra actions
Capacity-Slaying Abeyance - Counterattack deals one damage and inflicts round-long penalties
- Penetrating Form Massacre - Knocks martial artists out of their Form
Inertia Exterminating Gesture - Eliminate momentum in objects or self
- Twofold Obstruction Elusion - Dodge and Parry a single attack using two actions or 1wp

1 Ultimate Master Charm

Blinding Superiority Method - Attack multiple opponents instantly

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Ascendent Mastery Style Tree


 Accustomed Armament Aptitude --->    AAA
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 Presumptuous Prescience Prana -->  PPP|SSS  <-- Summit Seeking Strike
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 Presence Allaying Step --------->   |PAS|
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 Ascendent Mastery Form --------->   _AMF_
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 Capacity-Slaying Abeyance ------>  CSA|IEG  <-- Inertia Eliminating Gesture
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 Economy of Motion -------------->   |EOM|
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 Penetrating Form Massacre ------>  PFM|TOE  <-- Twofold Obstruction Elusion
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 Infallible Placement Prana ----->   |IPP|
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                                     |_|_|
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 Blinding Superiority Method ---->    BSM

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Ascendent Mastery Style Charm Details

Disciple Charms

Accustomed Amament Aptitude

Cost :: 4 motes Duration :: One Scene Type :: Reflexive Min. Martial Arts :: 1 Min. Essence :: 2 Prerequisite Charms :: None

When purchasing this charm, the stylist chooses a Style Weapon. The Style Weapon is an object not normally suited for combat, which the martial artist trains with to perfection. Using this charm, Ascendent Mastery stylists extend their essence into their Style Weapon, hardening, weighting or sharpening it into a tool of combat. The Style Weapon becomes able to deal and parry lethal damage without a stunt. This charm may be purchased repeatedly, granting the martial artist a new Style Weapon each time. Ascendent Mastery Stylists may only posess a number of Style Weapons equal to her permanent Essence rating, additional purchases beyond this limit must be made at the sacrifice of a previous Style Weapon. Increasing Essence does not recover lost Style Weapons.

Style Weapons are typically unassuming items such as canes, umbrellas, roses, paper, et cetera-- but may also be any generic Martial Arts weapons such as Seven-Sectioned Staves or Wind-Fire Wheels. Martial Arts weapons chosen as Style Weapons gain nothing from the activation of this charm unless they deal bashing damage by default or the stylist wishes to mimick them with lesser materials. They must however be purchased as Style Weapons with this charm in order for the stylist to use them in conjunction with other charms of the Ascendent Mastery Style. Melee, Brawl, Archery and Thrown weapons may not be chosen as Style Weapons, though they may be mimicked (Throwing pages of a book like knives, for instance).

Accustomed Armament Aptitude may explicitly make weapons out of the normally insubstantial. Shards of shadows may be thrown like knives in broad daylight and parried by another stylist with Wind-Fire Wheels made of real fire. Such weapons are mechanically identical to more mundane items, but players are encouraged to push those boundaries in stunts and roleplay. Accustomed Armament Aptitude does not create anything-- it merely converts objects into applicable weapons. A stylist who wishes to have the Wind-Fire Wheels mentioned would need to pull them from a torch, fireplace, or the active anima banner of a Fire-Aspect Dragon Blooded, for instance.

What is acceptable as a Style Weapon and the stats of unique items should be decided between the player and Storyteller prior to play, with the Storyteller as always having final say as to what is acceptable. If a Style Weapon is replaced over the course of the scene as might be the case with roses or paper the stylist throws, this charm applies to each object as they are readied for combat and for a number of minutes afterwards equal to the stylist's permanent Essence rating. Accustomed Armament Aptitude may effect any number of objects over the course of the scene.

All Ascendent Mastery Stylists begin their training bare handed and then with the Quarterstaff before learning Accustomed Armament Aptitude and therefore recieve them as Style Weapons for free. The Quarterstaff explicitly counts against the stylist's Style Weapon limit and may be replaced as normal with additional charm purchases if the stylist wishes, while fists do not and may not.

Presumptuous Prescience Prana

Cost :: 1 mote Duration :: Instant Type :: Reflexive Min. Martial Arts :: 2 Min. Essence :: 2 Prerequisite Charms :: Accustomed Amament Aptitude

Ascendent Mastery stylists fight calmly, relying on their control of the situation-- they also like to have a chance to assume their Form. With this charm, the Stylist reacts subconsciously to the disruptive essence of those who mean her harm, thus making ambush impossible. If the stylist is caught unawares she may reflexively spend 1 mote to act normally during the first turn of combat. This ability warns the stylist of any creature of at least Essence 1, but will not prevent her from walking into the path of a landslide or falling into a pit. Presumptuous Prescience Prana may not be placed in a combo of any type and does not count as charm use for consideration of other Ascendent Mastery Style charms. Charms of other types may not be used on the same turn as Presumptuous Prescience Prana unless the stylist is Dragon Blooded as per the regular Dragon Blooded rules for reflexive charms.

Summit Seeking Strike

Cost :: 3 motes Duration :: Instant Type :: Supplemental Min. Martial Arts :: 3 Min. Essence :: 2 Prerequisite Charms :: Accustomed Amament Aptitude

Ascendent Mastery stylists strive for perfection of form unlike any other. After the attack but before defense is rolled, the stylist may choose to reroll their attack and use whichever result they wish.

Presence Allaying Step

Cost :: 4 motes Duration :: Instant Type :: Reflexive Min. Martial Arts :: 3 Min. Essence :: 2 Prerequisite Charms :: Accustomed Armament Aptitude

There is nothing in combat the Ascendent Mastery stylist cannot predict. Using this charm, she divines the exact path of attack and moves only enough to avoid it by a hair, in fact, seeming to not move at all. The stylist may reflexively dodge any attack she can percieve with her Martial Arts rating.

Form Charm

Ascendent Mastery Form

Cost :: 6 motes Duration :: One Scene Type :: Simple Min. Martial Arts :: 3 Min. Essence :: 3 Prerequisite Charms :: Presumptuous Prescience Prana, Summit Seeking Strike, Presence Allaying Step

With a series of light stretches, the stylist settles into the Ascendent Mastery Form, confident, self-assured and calm. Ascendent Mastery stylists focus on training and skill, and using this form transcend the limits of their body, guide the pace of battle and fine-tune their movement to perfection.

As the Ascendent Mastery stylist stands in wait for her opponent she controlls the pace of battle with her defensive movements. Whenever the stylist rolls extra successes on a defense they are placed in a pool. Each success thus stored-- each small advantage the stylist steals later becomes a point of initiative she may draw on as a reflexive action.

Calm and sure of every movement she makes as the world rushes around her, stylists in this form are supernaturally light and nimble, automatically succeeding any Athletics rolls related to poise or balance and able to light upon things normally too thin or fragile for her weight (but don't tell her that). The highest boughs of a tree, a canvas tent, or even flat of a recently swung daiklaive are all solid as ground to her.

Lastly, while this form is active the Ascendant Mastery stylist makes combat rolls as Ability+Martial Arts instead of Dexterity+Martial Arts, calculates damage with a second ability instead of Strength, and adds her Essence to all martial arts rolls. The new primary ability and Damage Ability are chosen when the Stylist purchases this charm.

Additional purchases of this charm allow the stylist to learn a single new ability set which will apply to one or more of her Style Weapons. A stylist with three Style Weapons who wants to use Larceny+Martial Arts with Athletics for damage for all of them only needs purchase this charm once. Stylists do not gain a free ability selection for the quarterstaff, but may freely use Brawl+Martial Arts for unnarmed attacks if they wish.

The primary weapon ability and damage ability may never overlap: A stylist who attacks with Martial Arts + Athletics may not use Athletics to calculate damage, and does not automatically succeed those rollls. The Storyteller's sanity is the limit to what may and may not be used for each roll.

/AscendentMasteryExamples

Master Charms

Economy of Motion

Cost :: None Duration :: Permanent Type :: Special Min. Martial Arts :: 4 Min. Essence :: 3 Prerequisite Charms :: Ascendent Mastery Form

Ascendant Mastery stylists regard excessive movement as a waste and in some ways, defeat. With this charm, they learn to do as much as possible in stoic stillness, such that they need not get too worked up over the battle, directing it instead as a detatched Ascendent Master. On any turn the stylist does not move, she may take an extra die action outside the scope of her normal actions. This action may not be split, but is otherwise separate from her other actions. Aborting to a full parry denies her this extra action, but choosing to full parry on one's own turn does not. For purposes of this charm, all dodges save those made with Presence Allaying Step or similar stunts and charms are considered to be movement.

Infallible Placement Prana

Cost :: 4 motes per action Duration :: Instant Type :: Extra Action Min. Martial Arts :: 4 Min. Essence :: 4 Prerequisite Charms :: Economy of Motion

The Ascendent Mastery stylist understands battle to such a degree that she can predict its flow and be there to meet it. If a parry needs to be made, her weapon is already there, if an opponent's next attack will leave him open, he is already hit. Ascendent Mastery stylists with this charm may purchase extra actions for the cost of four motes each.

Capacity-Slaying Abeyance

Cost :: 5 motes, 1 willpower Duration :: Instant Type :: Reflexive Min. Martial Arts :: 4 Min. Essence :: 3 Prerequisite Charms :: Ascendent Mastery Form

The Ascendent Mastery stylist sees through an attack and strikes instantly to put an end to it. The stylist rolls her attack before her foe, who may dodge but not parry the counterattack unless weilding two weapons. If the counterattack deals more than one level of damage, all levels past the first are translated into points of wound penalties which last until the end of the scene or the health level is healed. The stylist may not dodge or parry an attack countered in this manner unless Capacity-Slaying Abeyance is placed in a combo along with defensive charms.

Penetrating Form Massacre

Cost :: 6 motes Duration :: Instant Type :: Simple Min. Martial Arts :: 4 Min. Essence :: 4 Prerequisite Charms :: Capacity-Slaying Abeyance

The Ascendent Mastery stylist studies her opponent's form and with a single blow, shatters it. The stylist makes a regular attack which is resolved normally. If the attack rolls at least one die of damage the essence of any active form charms splinters and collapses, utterly destroyed. Similar to countermagic-- Terrestrial Forms destroyed by this charm are utterly destroyed in a snuff of essence, while Celestial Form Charms result in a spectacular display of dying essence. If this charm is used against a Sidreal Form Charm, the Ascendent Mastery stylist must roll Martial Arts+Essence against a difficulty of the opponent's Essence, the resultant effects of which are up to the Storyteller to determine. Opponents may reassume their form charm during the next turn as normal, however if they must roll to do so, they roll at +1 difficulty. This difficulty is cumulative over the course of a scene.

This charm has no effect on non-martial artists, or martial artists who have not assumed a form.

Inertia Eliminating Gesture

Cost :: 1 or 2 dice per mote Duration :: Instant Type :: Reflexive Min. Martial Arts :: 3 Min. Essence :: 4 Prerequisite Charms :: Ascendent Mastery Form

Ascendent Mastery stylists watch the world from afar, they are not a part of it. This charm allows them to command this quality in the world around them. With this charm, the Ascendent Mastery stylist may disannul all momentum from an object-- a charging bull becomes no more dangerous than a sleeping cow, and she may soften a fall from any height so long as she activates this charm upon landing, paying 1 mote per 100 yards fallen.

In combat, Inertia Eliminating Gesture allows the stylist to purchase parry dice at a rate of 1 mote per die which may be applied to an existing parry or create one of its own. Inertia Eliminating Gesture may parry ranged attacks, and if used to do so grants two die per mote. Inertia Eliminating Gesture may no more than double the stylist's unmodified die pool. Attacks blocked completely with this charm simply stop harmlessly against the stylist.

Twofold Obstruction Elusion

Cost :: 3 motes or 6+ motes, 1 willpower Duration :: Instant or One Turn Type :: Supplemental or Reflexive Min. Martial Arts :: 5 Min. Essence :: 4 Prerequisite Charms :: Inertia Eliminating Gesture

To dodge or to parry? Ascendent Mastery stylists with this charm need not choose, they merge the two facets of defense into a single complete maneuver. The stylist rolls the two entire defenses against a single attack. This charm may be used either supplementally or reflexively, and confers different costs for each. If this charm is used suplementally, it requires the stylist have two actions available and spend 3 motes of essence. In this supplemental form, this charm is explicitly compatable with full dodges and full parries. If used reflexively, the stylist pays 1 willpower, and for the rest of the turn may spend 6 motes to reflexively dodge and parry any percieved attack.

Ultimate Master Charm

Blinding Superiority Method

Cost :: 10 motes, 1 willpower Duration :: Instant Type :: Extra Action Min. Martial Arts :: 5 Min. Essence :: 4 Prerequisite Charms :: Infallible Placement Prana, Penerating Form Massacre, Twofold Obstruction Elusion

Dissapearing in a sudden flash, the Ascendent Mastery stylist reappears instantly on the other side of the battlefield, scores of opponents falling simultaneously in the wake of her superiority. Using this charm, the Ascendent Mastery stylist travels her essence x 3 yards, making a single attack against as many enemies as she can reach in that distance. The character makes one attack roll, applying the result to each defender separately.

All defenders must roll Perception+Awareness against a difficulty of the stylist's permanent essence, those who fail this roll may only dodge or parry Blinding Superiority Method with stunts or charms, those who botch may not defend at all. This charm may not be used on any turn during which the stylist has moved, may not be placed in a combo along with charms which generate movement, and does not count as movement for the purpose of Economy of Motion.

Notes

I still need to double check the costs against existing charms. I'm sure there are probably a few that need tweaking.

Comments?

Hi! Colapso asked us in #wod to glance over this Style... I think you have a pretty good thing here, but with some minor issues. It turns out that I have a lot of questions about these effects, reading over my comments. Hmm.

AAA: I really like that this Charm allows you to use insubstantial weaponry. I am not sure what benefit the Charm confers to quarterstaves, however, as they are already lethal weaponry. Have I missed something there?
Finally, I do think that this Charm could benefit from a specific rule about weapons stats; maybe use the point distribution method of Glorious Solar Sabre, but with only (Martial Arts) points, since this Charm is cheaper, easier to use, and has fewer requisites.
PPP: I am not sure what the last sentence of this Charm text means. Is it intended as a clarification of the effect above it, or as some independent property? Both interpretations appear to be possible, but they would have significantly different effects. Why did you choose to make this unComboable?
PAS: I take it that this Charm means, "You can roll your Martial Arts rating as a dodge pool." This is a complicated situation! At 4 motes, this is a very expensive defence that provides a small dice pool, but it also excuses you from buying Dodge, which leads to this Style actually improving the efficiency of XP, which strikes me as dangerous.
My suggestion would be to leave the fluff as-is, but have the Charm grant a normal Dexterity + Dodge pool.
The Form: There are a lot of cool effects in here. I particularly like the defence > initiative thing; it's very creative. It seems to be pretty cheap for its effects, though; on top of the initiative thing it has an improvement on Graceful Crane Stance and that whole change in the efficiency of XP thing, and a persistent dice-adding effect that applies to both attack and parry. I'd, like, toss that dice-adding thing and probably think carefully about the Attribute > Ability substitution.
EoM: I would probably make this a scenelong effect that requires mote commitment; the Style does not really encourage you to run around, so you are probably going to get to take advantage of it a lot; I'm not sure that it isn't a 'something for nothing' situation.
IPP: Does this have a maximum number of actions that can be purchased? This is a general feature of MA.
CSA: ? I don't understand what this Charm is doing, with specific relation to the "only if being Drizzt" parry restriction; why is this there? Have you compared the cost of this to other Charms that inflict scenelong wound penalties? I'm not familiar with them, but it seems like, given the extremely high damage of staves, this Charm is very cheap for its effects, particularly in its interaction with the dice-adding capability of the Form.
PFM: This should probably require a Willpower cost, and I would be more rigourous in describing the interaction with SMA. Forcing your opponent to take a full turn reconstructing his combat strategy is not something that should be this cheap.
TOE: It would probably be clearer to describe the two different effects of this Charm in separate paragraphs.

The rest of the Charms look solid. - willows

I guess it shows that this is my first MA! Here are some clarifications and I'll look to adding them to the text soon.

AAA: I had neglected the point distribution system because I thought the charm was getting complex enough, I can definitely see the need for some solid rules though. As for quarterstaves, the core book lists Staves as Lethal and identical to clubs, while the Player's Guide (which I use by default) lists them with rather inflated stats and bashing damage. Am I mistaken in this?

PPP: Yes, I meant it as just a clarification of the effect before it. I suppose I should look up the wording the books use for such things ("...for the purpose of charm use per turn..." is it?) I thought being uncomboable was a good exchange for being able to use other style charms in the same turn, most notably the Form charm (Which, being Scene Long, cannot normally be comboed)

PAS: I didn't think of the fact that it allows dodges without points in dodge, I simply intended the charm to grant a number of dice for a reflexive dodge equal to the character's MA score (which becomes more useful after the Form charm). I will consider this though, and likely take your advice.

The Form: I had originally thought the Attribute/Ability swap was minor, which is why the form contains so many other things. I can see though that I underestimated it. It is my favorite effect though, along with the defense->initiative trade. I will likely drop the Graceful Crane Stance effect, though I should say I had originally intended it to be functionally identical to the charm, any improvements are accidental. Do you think this would put the form somewhat closer to normal? Also, would the persistent effect be better as a bonus to dodge and parry pools? I would then have to consider how it interacts with TOE, as that would be a bonus to a charm which already grants a hearty stack of dice.

EoM: Consider it done. I believe the permanence of this was a carry-over from when the charm was a pre-form version of the defense->initiative trade off. Indeed, the fact that this allows a character performing a full parry is signifigant enough to warrant this be a scene-long charm.

IPP: I feel rather silly about this, yes, I'll add a limit of unmodified MA to it, as it should be.

CSA: The two-weapon limit on this seemed merely common sense as a counterattack charm. Solar Counterattack is rather vague on the options of the defending member. Being that the charm is both much higher on the tree and involves a willpower cost, I thought this minor clarification would add some flavor to the charm. As for the cost in relation to scene long penalties, I have not checked the cost and will make sure I do so before making corrections to the tree, perhaps 8m1w will work better?

PFM: I will (re)add the willpower cost-- costs are one thing I am always unsure about, as I'm sure is obvious.

TOE: Will do.

"The rest of the Charms look solid. - willows": All three of them? Eheh ^^:

Thank you for your comments, willows! As you can see, I need all the help I can get ^^: - SlipNine

AAA: Aha, you're quite right. Makes sense now.
PPP: *nod*
PAS: I see! It probably does work as a charm that works as you just described it. If it's not actually bypassing Dodge, then you can probably drop the most cost down some amount as well.
The Form: The Attribute > Ability thing is definitely a really interesting mechanic, and probably means more when larger dice pools are involved (it's a lot easier to get Melee 7 than Dexterity 7)...do you think that there is a way to preserve it in spirit, if not in details? Maybe it can allow the Specialties of another Ability to apply to rolls, which does also do a bit of the discounting thing, but (in my own, idiosyncratic opinion) in a way that expresses the interesting things about a character in more detail, and less frighteningly^_^
I might be misremembering GCS's effect, as it happens; it's not a big thing (I think that Charm is a little more expensive than Solars need it to be, but I always play Athletics monkeys, so...)
The persistent dice-adding thing is sticky. The change from attack and parry to dodge and parry is a nice way to reinforce the defensive vibe of the Style (I notice that its really nasty Charms are mostly defences and counters), which is cool. The reason that I brought it up is that offensive, non-instant dice-adders are worth about 2 motes per die, if Blade of the Battle Maiden's cost is correct.
CSA: I'm a little shaky on costing myself, so I'm going to suggest that you compromise with yourself and go for like 6 or 7^^; the two-weapon effect just seemed a little out-of-the blue for this Style rather than imbalanced or anything, as there aren't any other effects that are particularly interested in what weapons the opponent is using.

I'm glad to be of whatever service you find in these comments! I feel like it's been a long time since I've sat down and did one of these things, and forgotten how fun it is to talk Charm design. - willows

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