StarJaunter/NWODCharmBasics

Basic Guide to Using Charms

Every Exalted gains benefits of their Essence score and their Animas but to get the most
use out of the Motes of Essence they all carry around with them they need to learn and
use Charms.

At its most basic one charm may be used per turn, but that same charm may be used multiple
times in that turn if appropriate and. In order to activate multiple charms in the same
turn an Exalt must create a Combo including all Charms they want to activate and spend a
willpower point when the first charm is activated. Then they may use as many charms as they
can afford to pay the essence cost. See below for more on Comboes.

Cost

Charms, unless permanent, cost a least one mote to activate. Some may take multiple motes
and others add a Willpower cost. Rarely a charm will have a health level or experience
point cost. For charms with a duration longer than an instant, the mote cost is committed
until duration ends or the exalt chooses to end it. This means the Mote is spent and
cannot be regained by any means until the commitment ends.

Minimums

Charms must have a minimum of essence and usually some other statistic before they can be
purchased. Solars, Abyssals, and Dragonblooded use Abilities, Lunars use Attributes, Sidereals
use merits.

Types

Simple: Charms of this type replace a character's action. During combat turn they may
move at their speed and use their defense or abandon their defense and move at double speed,
but may not perform other actions.

Supplemental: Charms of this type enhance a character's action. They can only be used
when an action in the same attribute or ability is being used unless specifically indicated.

Reflexive: Charms of this type aren't part of a character's action. They occur instantly
and with no true effort on the Exalts part. Still only one type may be used per turn without a
Combo.

Extra Action: Extra actions allow an Exalt to perform an extra action as part of their
turn. Extra actions can simulate having extra turns before another reacts but only in limited
ways, such as being able to attack again, but not use speed or defense again. Extra action
charms rarely allow merits to be used to effect the extra actions, but they can effect the
normal action in the same turn an extra action is used. In a Combo only one charm with the
Extra Action type may exist.

Permanent: Permanent Charms permanently enhance a characters capabilities. Some enhance
previous charms, but others create permanent unending enhancements to the character or give
them a mote expending power without counting as a charm use.

Keywords

Combo-OK: Only charms with this keyword may be included in Comboes.

Counter-Attack: The charm is a counter-attack and may only be used with the exalt has
been attacked. Using a counter-attack causes defense to decrease by one for the rest of the
turn, this is in addition to the decrease the attack itself probably caused.

Compulsion: This charm produces a compulsion which may be resisted by certain charms or
ignored for one turn per willpower point spent.

Crippling: This charm produces a crippling effect. This usually takes the form of extra
dice penalties added to a target's rolls from extra pain or non-functioning limbs. Some crippling
leads to permanent harm in Mortals. Some charms resist crippling effects.

Emotion: This charm can effect or create a target's emotional state. Once effected the
emotion acts as a real one would for the subject. Some charms resist Emotion effects.

Illusion: This charm causes a illusion or false belief in the target. Some charms resist
the effects of illusion but otherwise target must spend a willpower point per turn to resist.

Holy: This charm has a special effect on a creature of darkness, ie dead, demons, and the fae.

Knockback: This charm will cause an effect that pushes the target back, some effects will
mitigate knockback effects.

Obvious: The charm is obvious in its use, and most witness can even make an educated guess
as to the effect the charm will have.

Perfect: This charm is a perfect effect, it will contradict any attempt to resist it unless
the attempt also possesses the Perfect keyword, in which case the keywords cancel each other out
and the charms will have their written effects.Offensive perfects usually add a success to a roll
\ regardless of the rolls outcome, defensive ones ignore all successes, so will always win.

Poison: The charm causes or acts like a poison or drug and can be resisted as the same.

Servitude: This charm causes an individual to serve the Exalt in some fashion.

Shaping: This charm is considered a shaping effect and may be resisted as one.

Sickness: This charm causes or acts like a disease and can be resisted as one.

Stackable: This charm can have stacked effects by being activated multiple times or in
some cases being purchased multiple times.

Supernatural: The effects this charm creates or supplements cannot be overcome without
the use of a superhuman effort. This can take the form of Charms, but stunts, other supernatural
abilities, naturally gifted animals or beings, even spending a willpower point negate the
immunity.

Touch: Target must be touched to be effected by this charm, this can require dexterity
plus brawling rolls against resistant targets.

Training: Targets are trained by the exalt with this charm. Targets may spend experience
to learn the trained abilities otherwise they will expire with the charms duration. Training
charms count as the training time needed though, no additional time is needed to buy the traits,
just the experience.

Solar Only

Administration: This charm allows a Solar to administer a large group of people for greater
effect overall than a Solar acting alone can achieve. Normally a solar may administer as many
people as their ability score squared, this frequently involves a number of sub-commanders equal
to the Solar's ability score, who pass commands onto the rest for the Solar. A Solar must spend
at least 8 hours a day working the organization to keep the charms benefit.

Delegation: This charm allows a Solar to delegate others to perform a task in their stead.
This charm will grant the delegates benefits related to the ability but primarily allows the Solar
to use their own dice pool and to activate excellency and a few other charms to benefit any rolls
the delegates undertake. The group usually must have at least as many people as the Solar's
relevant ability, if short the rolls take a die penalty equal to missing people as the Solar cannot
channel themselves properly though. Commonly a group of delegates can act as the head for an
Administration charm if appropriate. The delegates bonuses end when the motes are uncommitted.

Duration

This is the length of time the charm lasts as long as the motes of essence remain committed.
This duration can usually be shortened by dropping the commitment but the duration is the
longest the Exalt can keep the charm active before it needs to be renewed.

Prerequisites

Some charms are very simple and an exalt can learn them on their own, but many charms are more
complex and must build on the mastery an Exalt has gained with previous Charms. You cannot
purchase a charm without having already learned its prerequisites.