MartialArts/BurningScytheStyle

Burning Scythe Style

By Nephilpal

Background

Initially designed as a close-combat adjunct to Righteous Devil Style, this fearsome Celestial art employs razor-edged bayonets to cruel and deadly effect. A few of the style's techniques also work in conjunction with unarmed knife-hand strikes, though seldom as effectively. Owing to the design of this art, practitioners treat both firewands and bayonets as style weapons and may use their Martial Arts Ability for both modes of attack, but only when wielding a blade and gun integrated into a single weapon. Firewands lacking a blade may not be used, nor may any blades not affixed to a firewand. Burning Scythe Style is compatible with armor.

This style can also be located here.

Charms

Throat-Ripping Grace</b>

<b>Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None

Guided by Essence and cold fury, the Exalt’s bayonet slices a deft arc toward the target’s vulnerable areas. Use of this Charm adds the character’s Essence to the accuracy of her weapon, provided she strikes unarmed with her hands or wields a bayonet. Because Throat-Ripping Grace enhances the weapon rather than the character’s action, the accuracy increase is not considered a Charm bonus and does not count against any dice limits that usually apply (such as Attribute + Ability for Solars and Abyssals or Attribute for Lunars).

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Dragon's Searing Bite

Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Throat-Ripping Grace

The Exalt stabs with his blade, then discharges a blast of flame into the wound at point-blank range. The magic of the Charm keeps any of the fire from spilling back to harm the attacker or anything he carries. Characters may only activate Dragon’s Searing Bite when striking with a bayonet, although they may wait until the strike is completely resolved before deciding to activate the Charm. Regardless of whether the first strike hits, the Exalt may immediately follow it up with a shot from his firewand against the same target using his full dice pool. If the bayonet strike actually penetrates all defenses and hits (although it need not inflict damage), the victim cannot dodge or parry the firewand blast without the use of a Charm or other magic. Even with a defensive Charm, the victim adds the Martial Artist’s Essence to the difficulty of all defense rolls.

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Burning Scythe Form

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Dragon's Searing Bite

The Exalt lowers her arms and bows her head, eyes closed in serene reverence. In this moment of contemplation, her face is a mask of expressionless calm. When she opens her eyes moments later, every muscle pulls taught with carefully controlled fury. She moves as a clockwork killer, cold and horrifyingly precise in every slash and burst of flame that devastates her enemies. While employing this Charm, the martial artist’s attacks with a firewand or bayonet prove especially painful. Any being who suffers actual levels of lethal or aggravated damage from such an attack has a minimum wound penalty of the Exalt’s Essence for as long as any of these wounds remain unhealed or until the end of the scene (whichever comes first). Any magic or other powers that negate wound penalties still function normally for victims of this Charm.

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Symmetry of Razor and Flame

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Burning Scythe Form

By attuning her mind and Essence to principles of destructive balance, the Exalt ignores the offhand penalty when wielding a firewand in both hands for the rest of the scene. This benefit also applies to use of the offhand firewand's bayonet, but not to unarmed strikes with the offhand.

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Gut Scissor Onslaught

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Symmetry of Razor and Flame

Armed with a bayonet in each hand, the Exalt lunges and sweeps her arms together, crossing his blades in a shearing blow. The savage attack rips gaping wounds in the target that bleed profusely. In some cases, the Charm actually disembowels victims, leaving them to clutch helplessly at their spilled entrails as they collapse and die. When using Gut Scissor Onslaught, the Exalt’s player makes a single attack roll that incorporates both bayonets (without concern for offhand penalties). The raw damage of the attack is doubled after applying all bonuses, but before applying the victim’s soak or other damage reductions (such as from starmetal armor).

If an attack augmented by this Charm inflicts any actual levels of damage, the wounds fountain gore. Until the cuts are stanched or healed (Exalted, p. 233), the victim suffers one level of unsoakable bashing damage for every full turn of bleeding. Even Exalted and similarly durable beings find such injuries hard to close with force of will alone, increasing the difficulty of the Stamina roll to 2 or requiring half the usual number of successes needed on a Wits + Medicine roll to treat the injury by conventional means (rounded down). Even if victims suffer repeated attacks with this Charm, they do not hemorrhage any faster.

Characters wielding a single bayonet may still use Gut Scissor Onslaught, but cannot perform the maneuver correctly. As such, they gain the advantage of rapidly bleeding wounds, but do not double the damage of the attack.

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Dragon's Darting Kiss

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Burning Scythe Form

The martial artist strikes faster than the eye can see, his blade transfigured to a nimble blur of pain. When activated in a turn, this Charm adds the Exalt's permanent Essence to his initiative. For the rest of the turn, the character's quickened movements aid all unarmed knife hand strikes and all attacks with a bayonet. Opponents cannot even see his blows coming, adding 2 to the difficulty of any and all defense rolls. Characters may only use this Charm once per turn.

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Sheathed Beyond the World

Cost: 2 motes per weapon
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Dragon's Darting Kiss

Tendrils of glowing smoke emerge from the barrel of the Exalt’s firewand, coiling back to obscure it in a haze of burning light. The cloud parts and dissipates in the span of a heartbeat, banishing the weapon Elsewhere. The Exalt may summon the weapon back to the same hand by reactivating Sheathed Beyond the World, but the character must have her hand free to receive the weapon as it appears in a flash of smoking Essence. Should the Exalt perish with any weapons banished, they are lost forever. Sheathed Beyond the World may simultaneously banish and recall two firewands if the Exalt is so armed, but no character can have more than two weapons stored Elsewhere with this Charm or sheathe any weapons not permitted by Burning Scythe Style.

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Retribution of Supernal Imminence

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Burning Scythe Form

When faced with a quicker opponent, the Exalt meditates on the precious span between breaths. Through the lens of this Charm, her perception of time dilates so that the world appears to move in slow motion. Everything except her attacker appears jagged and caricaturized, a haze of meaningless colors receding from her attention. The aggressor remains painfully clear, every line and curve of his form noted with emotionless detachment. Within this surreal distortion, the Exalt's own movements feel painfully sluggish. She raises her weapon to intercept him as she must, and by the barest fractions, she moves faster. From the perspective of her attacker and the world, she preempts his movements with impossible speed.

Exalted may only activate this Charm when they perceive an attack declared against them, and only if the aggressor is within range of their weapon. Furthermore, the Exalt must not have attacked earlier in the turn, whether through an standard action or by means of this Charm. Finally, she must have a valid weapon for Burning Scythe Style in her hand. If she does not have a weapon in hand, she may summon one through a Combo with Sheathed Beyond the World to satisfy the requirement. If the Exalt meets all these conditions, she strikes the attacker with her bayonet or shoots him with her firewand as desired. Her player uses her full dice pool in either case, resolving the attack normally (augmented by any valid Charms incorporated into a Combo). If the martial artist reduces her aggressor to Incapacitated or below, his attack automatically misses without a roll. Even if he remains standing to finish his strike, he suffers a dice penalty to his attack roll equal to the number of actual health levels of damage inflicted. This penalty stacks with any wound penalties as appropriate. Storytellers should note that this Charm does not actually count as a dice action, and therefore does not inhibit a character's defensive actions or options. Also, Retribution of Supernal Imminence counts as a form of counterattack. As such, characters may not deploy any other counterattacks in response to this Charm.

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Twice-Forged Blade of Conflagration

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Retribution of Supernal Imminence

With almost reckless imprecision, the Exalt points his firewand in the general direction of an opponent and shoots. In place of the usual torrent, the flames condense into a white-hot corona around the weapon's bayonet. This aura lasts until the end of the turn and does not damage any part of the weapon. If the martial artist strikes with the bayonet, he adds dice equal to the firewand's base damage to the raw damage of the blade. This enchantment ablates with use, cumulatively losing two dice of bonus damage with every strike that hits a target. Characters may only use this Charm on the same weapon once per turn.

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Inexorable Holocaust Fury

Cost: 12 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Gut Scissor Onslaught, Sheathed Beyond the World, Twice-Forged Blade of Conflagration

At the culmination of Burning Scythe Style, an Exalt reaps the implacable devastation and horrid elegance of her technique. With Burning Scythe Form active, she darts into a mass of enemies and unleashes the full might of her wrath. The effect of this Charm extends through a circle whose radius equals the Exalt's permanent Essence in yards, centered on the location where she activated the Charm. Within that circle, she strikes a vicious cascade of slashes with her bayonet, one to every possible target in gory succession. By default, she strikes every animate target within range whether hostile or friendly, but she may spend 1 additional mote beyond the base 10 for every target she wishes to exclude. The martial artist's player should make one attack roll, applying the result to every target separately. Stunt dice may benefit this roll and apply to each target as do dice or Virtue-channeling successes obtained through Willpower expenditure. Each victim may parry and/or dodge as normal, but the results of such defenses only subtract from the attack successes levied against that character.

If necessary, the Exalt's player delineates the exact sequence of the attack in order to apply effects such as Twice-Forged Blade of Conflagration. Martial artists can explicitly place Inexorable Holocaust Fury in a Combo with Dragon's Searing Bite despite the fact that both Charms share the Extra Action type. In such a case, the Exalt delivers the fiery coups de grâce to the last victim in the cascade only.

Comments

My only firewand weilder is mounted, so this makes less sense for him than Righteous Devil style, but... damn. I like it. I'll need to contemplate its power level, but I like it. -Seraph

It suffers from the same problem as Righteous Devil Style in that it is less a style about a specific concept than it is about Killin' Thangs. Killin' Thangs generally being the purview of Melee, Brawl, Archery and Thrown. But then, I figure if RDS gets to be a Martial Art, so can this. ~ Grandmasta

I made a style like that, once. It was called Lantern-in-the-Darkness Style (not on the wiki yet), and it was basically about whacking people with a lantern. There were charms for whacking people with a lantern, whacking them harder, whacking them so they got set on fire, whacking them so they got knocked back, whacking everyone with a lantern, and so on... it was fun, if simplistic. Someone once told me styles like that should be Terrestrial, as opposed to Celestial. Now, I know Sidereal styles should be crazy-powerful and highly symbolic and Terrestrial styles should be very simplistic, occasionally cooperative, and generaly low-powered, but I've never been clear on Celestial styles. What about a relatively simplistic style that is really too powerful to be Terrestrial? -Seraph

As I see it, in the world of Exalted MA, power is a function of understanding. Celestial styles lie between the simple Terrestrial and the almost wholly abstracted Sidereal styles, and are based around an abstraction that relates logically and thematically to the style. The animal styles are apply the principles of those animals, the 5GDPs apply the powers and character of the elements, etc. In other words, the theme dictates the level (Terrestrial, Celestial, or Sidereal) which in turn dictates the power of the Charms. Anyway, it works for me as an internally consistent system. End rant. ^_^ ~ WaiyaddoNoDan

Based on just powerlevel feel, I'd say this is Celestial. IIRC, there only are two Terrestrial styles(and they both involve the number 5 :hmmm: ). And I'd hate to see a DB with Dragon's Darting Kiss. In this case, many of the charms are quite good. Retribution of Supernal Imminence is probalby almost too good, for 3 motes it not only takes effect before the attacker, but works against ranged attacks. (IIRC, Solar Counterattack is simult and of course does not affect ranged attacks, but the same cost).YMMV --FlowsLikeBits

There are three Terrestrial-level MAs in print. Five-Dragon, Crimson Pentacle Blade, and Jade Mountain. Anyway, I'm holding back any desire I might have to comment on Burning Scythe. I don't like it, but that's solely because it conflicts with my personal style. - David.