SolarMelee/Hapushet

Back to Hapushet
Back to SolarCharms
Back to SolarMelee

Solar Melee Charms

The Wrath of Anaba</b>

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Hungry Tiger Technique

It is said that, in the First Age, the Solar Exalt who bore the shard now carried by Anaba of Lookshy killed as many men with her anger as with her spear. This Charm, a legacy of that lifetime, exemplifies the power of her fury. By spending three motes, the Solar may count 10s rolled on her melee damage rolls as two successes for the remainder of the scene.

Comments

Looks good, basic but useful. - Telgar

Given that damage is often in the range of 10 dice, this adds roughly 1 damage successes per use. The prerequisite, Hungry Tiger Technique, also does almost the exact same thing, adding 0.5 'successes' per die converted, at (if I recall, and I may not) 1 m per conversion. Thus, in my head, HTT seems almost as efficient, more scalable, and much more useful in combos, as you can just make the combo, and not worry about the heroic damage charm at all, as HTT (a prerequisite) kindof is just plain more useful. Is there anything you can do to make this stand out as generally more useful, in at least one situation? -- GregLink

The way I look at it is this: statistically, this Charm gives you an additional HL of damage for every 10 dice of damage rolled. Obviously, the amount of damage getting rolled will vary greatly by situation and character, but since this is a trivial inclusion into any combo that already has HTT in it, I thought the tradeoff was worth it. Moreover, I designed it to go along with the desires of the player, and obviously those were paramount here. - Hapushet

HTT is actually the Charm that counts all your successes twice for damage. Fire and Stones is the converter. HTT is generally going to give you more damage then this Charm, but this one gets more milage out of your damage. I think it's fine, though maybe it could come off Excellent Strike and be the same tier as HTT. - Telgar

That is an excellent idea. Done! - Hapushet

I'm not really convinced that, as an instant charm, this is particularly useful, forcing you to hemorrhage Willpower to get any effect out of it. I'd consider a substantially longer duration. The heroic damage mechanic is a good one, though. - willows

While I could easily have seen a slightly-higher-in-the-tree scene-length (or maybe a 5 turn length?) version for around 3m, or even a generic Athletics or Brawl version that would affect any hand-to-hand damage, I'm equally happy with the version I have here for what I and my player are looking for. I encourage the development of alternatives, however! - Hapushet

Well, see, the thing is that it hardly justifies a Solar Charm slot. For the same XP cost, I can have HTT, or an Extra Actions effect, or start in on defence... why would I want a Charm that's so similar to HTT and straight-up half as mote-efficient? - w

Well, if your player is aware that this Charm is basically ONLY useful inside a combo and happy with that, right on and junk. Because it IS underpowered, prettymuch. It's far less powerful then its same-tier partner, HTT. Now, if you moved it back to coming of HTT and made it scene duration for, maybe, 4 motes, I think you'd be alright. Or even made it turn-long but comboable and kept it at 1-2 motes. That would mean it'd still be in the combo but instead of paying 5 motes to get it for 5 attacks, you'd just pay the 1 or 2. That'd made it somewhat more balanced with HTT, which just grants silly levels of damage. - Telgar

...I just took a look at the Charm with a fresh pair of eyes, and I realized something: this is the best Dragon-Blooded Charm I've ever written.

I'll be back. - Hapushet

Eh. Maybe. Like a 1 mote charm coming off the dice-adder with a 3/2 requirement...yeah. I know basic dice-play is good for low-level DB Charms...but it just feels so dirty :( - Telgar

Okay, I gotta ask - dirty? - Hapushet

Honestly, if this were just somehow "better", I could see it. Perhaps something as simple as also automatically one unsuccessful die of damage to a success, after damage is rolled? Thus, it would become great in combos, bringing damage on heavy soakers up over time, which can be quite useful. That, combined with the ability to exceed dice in damage already offered by the doubling of 10's, and you have a charm that's exceedingly good against heavy soakers, allowing you to much more easily cleave away their HLs. -- GregLink

That seems like it's a bit too close to Fire and Stones Strike, which is already quite solid (especially in Power Combat) at beat up soak monsters. I'd rather have this Charm maintain a sense of uniqueness, rather than just being FaSS v2.0... As such, I'm going to take Telgar's suggestion (though I think 3m is plenty) and make it a scenelong version of itself. - Hapushet

Sounds great. Just wanted to give you more to work with. Glad to help! -- GregLink