SolarOccult/Szilard

Essence-Gathering Meditation</b>

<b>Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Occult: 2
Min Essence: 2
Prereqs: None

The character enters into a deep meditative state, during which she focuses solely upon the flow of Essence through her body. This trance lasts approximately twenty minutes, and while in it, the Exalt is oblivious to her surroundings. When the trance ends, the character may roll her Manipulation + Occult and, for each success rolled, regain her Permanent Essence in motes of Essence. The Exalt's anima flares in response to this influx of power as if the Exalt had just spent a number of motes equal to those gained. The motes gained through the use of this Charm may exceed the Exalt's normal maximum, but any that do so are treated as additional motes of peripheral Essence and, if unused, are lost at the end of a scene.

---

Essence-Refining Breath</b>

<b>Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Min. Occult: 3
Min Essence: 3
Prereqs: Essence-Gathering Meditation

Through a series of meditative exercises and breathing techniques, Exalts are capable of becoming significantly more efficient users of Essence. When a character learns this Charm, he always regains a number of motes of Essence per hour that are at least equal to his permanent Essence. The Exalt regains this additional Essence even when undergoing strenuous activities, but this is merely a minimum rate of Essence recovery and does not add to his normal Essence recovery rate.

---

comments

I revised Essence-Refining Breath to make it a bit less of a must-have. -s

I like the concept of the charms, but hate to see them listed as Occult. Occult gets, by far and away, too much attributed to it. Do these things really relate to the character's skill at mystic symbols? Their ability to restore essence in these ways seems Lore-ish, Endurance-ish, and even Survival-ish, but not really Occult, so much. Perhaps if you ate lesser gods, or even relied on the natural essence flows of the region, diverting from places that aren't really manses or demenses. Just my thougts, as someone who thinks Occult gets any charm that the creator can't (or doesn't want to) think of a more appropriate slot. - GregLink

I've written elswhere that I think Exalted would actually be a better game if Occult wasn't a discrete ability, but - as the ability is defined - it includes the science of Essence flows. Where Lore gets these Essence manipulation Charms has never made sense to me, but it already has some. ::shrug:: Endurance has Essence Gathering Temper (and I wrote an additional custom Charm for it). I'm all for additional Charms based in different abilities that allow you to regain Essence in different ways. My attitude is that Solars should have methods of regaining Essence through a variety of abilities, just as Sidereals do. Could a Solar design an Occult Charm for regaining Essence? Yes. Would a Solar do so? Almost certainly - sorcerers (who might not have Endurance favored, but usually favor Occult) clearly have a need for this sort of thing. - szilard

Agree here. Personally, these seem to be ok to me(both a bit weak actually). I can see there being some overlap, where a one ability the expressed something most purely would have a general version, while other abilties could have a more specialized version. (Like I can see a Lore bolt charm that was somewhat equivilent to the Melee range attack charms. And possibly Craft charms that allow you to fabriate stuff out of pure Essence). -FlowsLikeBits