SilverMasks/Insight

From Exalted - Unofficial Wiki
Revision as of 04:26, 12 May 2007 by GoldenCat (talk)
Jump to: navigation, search

Insight

World Sensing

Observed Prey Instinct
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Perception: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Primal Perception
Using this Charm, the Lunar know can instantly know wether he is being observed, either by normal means or magic. It activates automatically as soon as the Lunar comes upon sustained observation - a casual glance or a flirtatious look are not enough to trigger it. The Charm guides his perception to gather further information, allowing a Perception+Awareness roll. One success merely confirms the Lunar is being observed, while additional successes reveal the number and direction and location of observers(one per success). A Lunar observed by magical means will know the viewpoint from which he is being watched but not the actual location of the observer. This Charm is a Rage and may be activated in tandem with Relentless Lunatic Fury for the cost of 2 motes, making the Lunar perfectly aware of observers for the duration.

Harmony with Gaia
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Perception: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Ascendant Perception, Primal Perception
Lunars are connected to life in the world, the world they protect, the life of Gaia. Drawing upon this connection, they can perceive minute shifts on the world, perceive it around them like all manners of animals at once... by drawing breath, the Lunar takes the world around them and makes a Perception+Awareness roll. This Charm can be purchased up to a number of times equal the Lunar's Perception, each time allowing the Lunar to learn one of many things about the world, such as...

  • ... the weather, learning about it in a radius of his Essence in miles, or a week in advance, for each success.
  • ... the species of animals in an area equal 10 miles per success, knowing which are those with one success, and receiving details of which are dangerous and which are good food with at least three successes, and their exact habits, locations and habitats with five successes.
  • ... the presence of Magical Materials Deposits in an area of one mile per success. One can sense Moonsilver perfectly, and what shape it is in, but only gets a vague idea on other materials, unless the Lunar curtains his successes in this roll for range, and uses others to get a good picture of the Magical Material, knowing its general concentration with one success, differentiating between deposits and raw veils and worked artifacts with three successes, and knowing the exact type of artifacts they are forged in with five successes.

Seeking Ears Method
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Perception: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Harmony with Gaia
The Lunar reworkis the entire inner structure of his hearing to better receive sounds. When using this Charm, the Lunar can hear clearly from up to a mile away in a clear day(without rain, great winds or overly loud noises, such as a festival or a battle) and receives +2 dice on all his hearing attempts. He can try to locate any voice he knows with a Perception+Investigation roll in this radius(each success revealing one voice he knows and its distance and location; This receives a difficulty of 2 in windy or rainy days, 3 for storms and festivals, and 4 for large-scale battles) and follow it to its source, or simply listen to it, as if he was listening to someone talking specifically to him. The Lunar may continue to do so while doing any other actions.

Seeing Without Looking
Cost: 10 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Perception: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Harmony with Gaia
With this Charm, the Lunar sharpens his hearing to inhuman degrees! A Lunar can use his enhanced hearing to keep track of others in his vicinity, or to build a picture of the world around him using the air currents, sound, or echoes of sounds sent by the Lunar himself. With this Charm, the Lunar may become aware of everything in an area equal to his Perception x 100 yards. To become aware of it, any time after this Charm is activated the Lunar may make a Perception+Awareness dice action. Success is automatic in quiet wilderness or a small village, raises to 2 on a city, 3 for the proximity to a waterfall or in the middle of a large-scale battle or riot and even more if greater noises are used specifically to hinder the Lunar.

One success allows the Lunar to draw a basic picture of his surroundings on his mind, and has a basic picture of the people around him, but it does not differentiate details. Three successes gives him details of all those in the area, identifying the materials of objects and the details of people. Five or more successes allow the Lunar to notice others perfectly, knowing their heights and builds and overall physical abilities, exactly what they are carrying, how fast they move, and their exact activities. With five or more successes, even individuals cloaked by Charms are revealed. The picture remains on his mind, but he must take another dice action to update it. Enemies using mundane stealth are instantly revealed, but supernatural stealth adds its successes or difficulty bonuses directly to the difficulty of the Lunar’s roll.

Ever-Wary Fox Technique
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Wits: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Ascendant Wits
Lunars can react like quicksilver to the slightest shifts on the world around them. and as such, very difficult to ambush. With this Charm, the Lunar will not be ambushed by any foe his senses can perceive. As the ambush occurs, the Lunar reflexively spends 3 motes to be aware of his enemies in advance, able to defend and act normally, no matter how well the enemy has rolled, or even what magics he uses. He will not be aware of immaterial beings or such unless his normal senses would provide him the ability to perceive them.

Lodestone Reckoning Manner
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum Wits: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Ascendant Wits
Similar to a swallow flying south, the Lunar knows his way. With this Charm active, the character can never become lost. He has an absolute direction sense, and he can perfectly retrace the path he trod in the last 24 hours. For this Charm to function, the Lunar must have checked his position against the Moon sometime in the last 24 hours. Otherwise, the Charm cannot be activated or ends.

Mist-Walking Prana
Cost: 10 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Simple
Type: Instant
Minimum Wits: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Lodestone Reckoning Manner
There are holes in the Wyld, tunnels that connect two far places but that rarely exist for long. This Charm gives the character the preternatural acumen to slip through those gaps in the space when they form in the chaos before they move on. The Lunar rolls Wits+Occult at a difficulty of 1 for Pure Chaos, 2 for Deep Wyld, 3 for Middlemarches and 5 for Bordermarches. Basic success allows the character to exploit those distortions of the Wyld and travel one mile away. Extra successes may add one zero to the number of miles traveled, or increase to the number of people the Lunar can take with him, in the following progression, of 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1,000. The Lunar may not use more successes on either than he has dots of Permanent Essence. Traveling this way requires five minutes, and if the Lunar fails, he is sent somewhere at random, lost anywhere from a thousand miles of his original location.

Empathy

Blood-Kin Sense
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Perception: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Ascendant Perception.
Everyone carries traces from the people they care about, and the Lunars can detect them. Blood-Kin Sense allows the Lunar to detect the most important social tie the target has to another person. This is from the target’s perspective, which can change with time, and even with mood. The Lunar’s player rolls Perception+Investigation with a difficulty equal to the higher of Manipulation or Socialize of the target. Success on this roll reveals the information.

One success reveals a blood relative or spouse, three successes reveal a longtime friend or lover, and with five successes for a recent friend or bussiness assossiate, priest, commanding officer or other important person in the target’s life. The Lunar will instinctively know who the kin is if she is present, but otherwise, this Charm does not reveal names or descriptions of those important for the target, just that the connection is there. The Lunar can also, with five successes, simply name an individual, and know the named individual’s relation with his target, and the importance thereof. Tasting the target’s blood adds one success to this roll.

Emotion-Revealing Scent
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Perception: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Blood-Kin Sense
Lunar Exalted have an incredible insight into the souls of others. Simply breathing in, a Lunar can learn much about those in front of her. The Lunar rolls Intelligence or Perception+Investigation at a difficulty equal to half his target’s Manipulation+Socialize, rounde down. On a success, the Lunar learns one of the following about the target, chosen by the character:

  • Nature
  • Primary Virtue
  • A current intent, desire or emotion, including intent to attack someone.

The information reaches the Lunar instantly, and there is no evidence for the target that the Lunar is using any magic upon her.

Truth-Scenting Method
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Perception: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Emotion-Revealing Scent.
By oberving a target's responses, the Lunar may determine if a person is telling the Truth. The Lunar may observe a number of people in such a manner at once equal to his Perception. This Charm does not detect evasions of the truth, or statements the subject does not realise are not true. Only overt falsehoods can be unearthed with this Charm. To do so, a Lunar rolls his Intelligence or Perception+Investigation against the subject's Manipulation+Socialize or Performance whenever they try to tell a lie. If the Lunar is successful, he discovers what the subject is lying about.

Sensing the Hidden Remains
Cost: 4 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Perception: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Blood-Kin Sense
The Lunar focuses his senses on an area, and picks the scents of all who had been on the area before him. He may sense impressions of up to his Perception days past. Those might be obscured, however(by rain or heavy usage of heavy-scented substances in the area), increasing the difficulty. The Lunar rolls Perception+Investigation, with one success meaning he recognizes any scent he knows on the area, three allowing him to perceive emotions and vague happenings, and five allowing the Lunar to draw an accurate picture of at least partly violent scenes that happened on the area, due to minute changes brought by actions and scent brought by emotions. The Lunar can target items or people with this technique, and know who has touched them, or used them, before.

Bloodhound's Unfailingly Memory
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Perception: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Sensing the Hidden Remains
Many hunters do not forget a scent, ever. And the scents they know, they are able to track anytime, anywhere. Using this Charm, the Lunar always commits the scent of a creature's or substance's to memory - thereafter, any time he has to roll to track or recognize the creature or substance, he receives a +3 specialty. Those do not count as Charm dice. There is no limit to how many scents a Lunar may commit to his memory.

Instinctual Canine Recall
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Perception: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Bloodhound's Unfailingly Memory.
One who tries to trick the hound may find that his very scent sells him away. This Charm instantly activates reflexively, with a cost of 1 mote, any time the Lunar meets a person or substance he can recognize as per Bloodhound's Unfailing Memory, but does not know he is before the creature or substance in question. One may try to disguise it by changing his scent(any Lunar with Shaping the Ideal Form can do so) or masking it, using perfumes or mixing a substance with others. This calls for a Perception+Awareness roll by the Lunar, with a difficulty set by the Storyteller(Usually the number of successes in the Larceny roll to conceal it).

This Charm also activates any time the Lunar tries to track things by scent, to tell the Lunar of vestigial impressions - the Lunar may find out by accident that one of his allies has met with an enemy, while trying to hunt another, for example.

Focus

Counting the Elephant’s Wrinkles
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Intelligence: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
Lunars have excellent memories for the past. This Charm allows the character to recall anything she has learned or experienced with perfect clarity. Using this Charm usually calls for a Intelligence+Lore roll, although other abilities may be required depending on what the Lunar wishes to recall. Even a single success calls the memory in question in flawless and true detail. There is no need for a roll when recalling something told by Tale-Spinning Mastery.

Cat and Owl Riddle
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Intelligence 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Counting the Elephant's Wrinkles
Lunars can recall so much that their amassed knowledge can be frightening when exposed to those of lesser insight! The Lunar utters a riddle, one laced with essence of trickery and mysteries, and simply hearing it throws one in deep thought, leads one through danger, or even through hallucinations that personify the riddle itself. Either one discovers the way to solve the riddle that places him in such predicament, or is left entirely at the Lunar's mercy. The Lunar utters the riddle, directed at a single target, and rolls Intelligence+Lore. The opponent must try to decipher this riddle to survive! The target gets a reflexive Intelligence+Lore roll against the Lunar, but if she has less successes, she is rendered confused by the riddle, receiving a penalty equal to the Lunar's Intelligence on all non-virtue rolls, including her initiative. Every turn, the target may spend a dice action to roll her Intelligence+Lore, and when she accumulates as many successes as the Lunar first had, she understands the riddle, and it ceases to have any power upon her.

Shifting Brilliance Meditation
Cost: 1 mote per dot
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Intelligence: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Ascendant Intelligence
Lunars are masters at changing their shape, and with the right acumen, they can even shift their more ephemeral traits, changing the way their bodies work, how their minds interact with their bodies, the inner workings of their skull... increasing the speed of their thoughts, the clarity of their minds, their perception of the world or its ability to inspire it… at the cost of another of these abilities. Using this Charm, the Lunar can shift dots of Charisma, Intelligence, Perception or Wits around, from one to the other. He may not shift more dots than he has points of Essence, and Wits requires two dots to be enhanced by one dot(but provides two dots to the other attributes per dot of shifted out of Wits). Those count as dice added by Charms as usual, but can more than double an Attribute. This Charm is a Gift and may be activated in when the Lunar shifts into a Hybrid Form. The Lunar may commit his Essence in motes to shift the Attribute Dots as long as he remains in Hybrid Form.

Eagle-Fish Transition Prophecy
Cost: 12 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Intelligence: 5
Minimum Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Inevitable Genius Insight
Lunars use any means nessessary to protect their chosen wards, including the Wyld itself. Some Lunars learn to read its tides of chaos and narrative nature as a way to predict future events. Lunars use this to reduce the uncertainty of Thaumathurgical Astrology. Eagle-Fish Transition Prophecy requires one scene to be completed. It resembles vision-questing in the Wyld, wandering into the chaos, usually consuming hallucinogens beforehand, to find a relevant scene, but this Charm aids the Lunar's understanding and draws the proper clues to him. The player poses a specific question about the future, and questions that are more specific pose higher difficulties to the Intelligence+Occult roll made for this Charm to function, as do questions with answers that are more complicated. The simplest yes/no questions are difficulty 1, while very specific questions with potentially lenghty answers can have a difficulty as high as 5 or 6, such as...

  • Difficulty 1 "Will my culture flourish?" "Will the Arczecki attack Nexus before I can gather my pack?"
  • Difficulty 3 "Where do I find the secret of the Empress' defeat?" "Will a civil war break out in the Realm before the 15th of Ascending Wood?"
  • Difficulty 5+ "How can I destroy the Deathlords?" "Where am I in exactly 236 days?"

Results play out in a scene the Lunar observers and experiences. Straightfoward questions usually receive straightfoward answers: The image of a culture flourishing or the city untouched by war is enough to communicate clearly. Questions that are more difficult present scenes that are more complicated, which the character must interact with to find the answer. Some questions have no 'simple' solutions, and the scenes they reveal may be improbable, incomprehensible, or far from immediatly clear or useful. To fall this roll produces a flawed scene the Lunar does not realise is incorrect, while a botch gives the Lunar a vision of what he fears the most.

Memory

Lessons in the Blood
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Intelligence: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: None
Within a Lunar's Essence lie all those she has taken form of. A crimson pond within her soul, where the form, the knowledge, the understanding of what makes her fallen foe exist can be turned into their form. From this pond, there are many things the Lunar can draw, besides their shape, when she learns how. This Charm draws upon the memory of their skills, and creates a ‘floating’ ability dot which the Lunar can allocate to any ability one of the forms in his Blood Library possessed and he does not possess even a single dot of. The ‘floating’ ability dot may not be raised through training, but it does count as having a tutor for the Lunar to purchase his first dot in this ability. The Lunar may assign the floating dot to a different ability at the beginning of each scene.

This Charm may be bought more than once; The second time it is purchased, the Lunar receives two floating ability dots, which work in the same way as above, and may not be put both in the same ability(however, Linguistics and Craft are exceptions; They can give the Lunar two languages or two new crafts). The third time it is purchased, the Lunar becomes able to pay 1 willpower to draw upon the full rating of the prey’s ability, but it burns the knowledge out in the process; The Lunar loses this ability, and may never call upon it again with any iteration of Lessons in Blood. Every time this Charm is purchased, its requirements increase by one.

Red Memory Mirror
Cost: 3 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Intelligence: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Lessons in Blood
With Red Memory Mirror, the Lunar is able to draw more from the pond than simple glimpses of learning… they are able to draw what the prey’s body was best suited to, their specialized knowledge. With Red Memory Mirror, the Lunar is able to draw upon the Specialties of the forms within his Heart's Blood forms. He can never use more than one at a time in a single task, but can drawn on many by activating this Charm more than once, and those specialties can be used with normal specialties, not counting against the usual specialty limit, or against the limit of dice that can be added by Charms.

A Fair Folk's Surpassing Excellence and an Animal's Excellence Mutations do count for the purposes of this Charm. Moreover, some specialties on beasts are silent, but can be rescued with this Charm. Such as an Spider's ability to weave, or a Lioness' ability to hunt in a pack, usually too subtle for the Heart's Blood, but able to be used with this Charm. Those are always specialties at the +2, and the Lunar may rescue them by paying 1 experience point per such specialty he learns from a form he has the Heart's Blood of. He will instantly receive this specialty when in the Heart's Blood form as well, without needing to pay for this Charm then.

Memories Not Our Own
Cost: 8 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Intelligence: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Lessons in Blood
Walking deeper into the pond within his soul, the Lunar can see reflections of a life not her own. Secrets, names, memories, desires... there is much the Lunar can draw from this. Walking within, the Lunar pays for this Charm and rolls her Wits+Investigation, with a difficulty equal to the Essence score of the being she seeks to get the reflections from, and getting more information depending on her margin of success. One Success allow the Lunar to remember everyday names and facts from his prey's life. Three successes allow the Lunar to remember important desires, names and all important moments and facts of his prey's life. Five successes allow the Lunar access to most of his secrets and countless menial details of his prey's life. Ten or more successes unlock repressed memories even the prey may not be aware of, and even gives hints of stolen memories.

A botch makes the prey's personality take over the Lunar for a Scene. The Lunar may make roll a virtue whenever the prey does something that the Lunar's virtues are contrary against (Conviction if the prey tries to dissolve his accomplishments or kill the Lunar, Compassion if the prey tries to hurt his loved ones, Temperance if the prey gives in to horrible vices, and Valor if the prey is staining his reputation), and manages to wrestle control when he accumulates as many successes as his prey's Essence.


Pattern

Leaf-Falling Scrutinity
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Intelligence: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Ascendant Intelligence
The Lunar sizes an opponent, knowing his strengths and weaknesses with a glance; From his posture, scent, movements and the essence flows in his body, the Lunar is able to draw incredible conclusions. To do so, the Lunar must designate a single target and roll Intelligence or Perception+Investigation with a difficulty equal to the target’s Permanent Essence, plus an active roll in his part if he is trying to conceal them. On a success the Lunar can learn...

  • ... the target’s rating on a single Physical Ability.
  • ... the target’s rating on a single Attribute
  • ... how many times the target has taken Ox-Body Technique, or other Permanent Charms the Lunar knows about.
  • ... a Martial Style the Lunar knows that the target is proficient in(knows the Form of).

The Lunar can use this Charm multiple times to discover multiple things. The Lunar may also designate a single ability and roll Perception or Intelligence + this Ability when looking at a crowd, with the usual difficulty. The Lunar automatically knows all those in the crowd with a rating in the ability of 3 or higher, and tend to use this function of this Charm to select crews or soldiers for their endeavors.

Crystal Strike
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Intelligence: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Lunar stops to concentrate, and his mind becomes clear as a crystal, and just as perfect. His thoughts become light passing through its facets, and he knows exactly how to accomplish any task. By spending a dice action in contemplation before taking a physical action, the Lunar may add one specialty dice to his action that does not count against dice-adding limits, and may freely exchange his Intelligence for the physical attribute involved in the action.

Weakness-Exploiting Strike
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Intelligence: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Leaf-Falling Scrutinity, Crystal Strike
Taking advantage of all the Lunar has learned with Foe-Studying Meditation, the Lunar lands a strike that exploits all of the foe's weaknesses! The Lunar attacks a foe against whom he used Leaf-Falling Scrutinity and got at least one success, and activates this Charm - the Lunar converts a number of attack and damage dice into automatic successes equal to his Intelligence.

Pattern-Exploiting Rush
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Intelligence: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Foe-Studying Meditation
Taking advantage of all the Lunar has learned with Foe-Studying Meditation, the Lunar exploits his attack patterns to gain a fast tactical advantage! The Lunar who uses this Charm instantly wins initiative against a foe against whom he used Foe-Studying Meditation and got at least one success. If two characters use auto-win initiative effects, they roll for initiative normally.

Moon-Blessed Nemesis
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Intelligence: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Weakness-Exploiting Strike, Pattern-Exploiting Rush
This Charm enhances Leaf-Falling Scrutinity. When the Lunar uses that Charm on a character for as many turns as that character has dots of permanent essence, she may opt to commit 1 mote with this Charm to commit the opponent's patterns to memory.

Thereafter, the enemy has a penalty to all defenses against the Lunar’s attacks equal to half her Intelligence(rounded up), and the Lunar receives her Intelligence in bonus dice to the total of her defenses against every single attack by the enemy with those patterns, which may create a pool from nothing with the Lunar’s Intelligence in dice, of either Dodge or Parry - defending against the learned patterns becomes so easy it requires no thought. The Lunar may also use his Intelligence in place of the designated Attribute for all actions taken against this enemy. This bonus is lost if the opponent increases or decreases his base traits, thus changing his combat dynamics.

Retrieved from "http://exalted.xi.co.nz/w/index.php?title=SilverMasks/Insight&oldid=37922"