BurgerSlave/BearStyle

Bear Style Martial Arts

Bear Style Martial Arts is a Celestial-level martial arts style. By emulating the bear for which it is named, a Bear stylist is able to borrow all the great strength and stamina of the most stately and untameable bruin. Developed by a young Sidereal, this Martial Arts style has shown great popularity among the Lunar Exalted of the North and East, where bears are common. A few Solars have begun to study this style as well. Those Dragon-Blooded initated to Celestial martial arts tend to eschew this style for less heretical forms.

Bear Style Martial Arts has no signature weapon, and does not permit the use of armor.

Indomitable Ursus Stance
Cost: 1 mote per level
Duration: Five Turns
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None

When a bear stands on its hind legs, it is often to compensate for its poor eyesight. It is also just as often to frighten onlookers with a show of its strength. A character using this Charm is able to trade speed for strength. For every mote of Essence spent, the character reduces his initiative by one and adds one point to either his Strength or his bashing soak. If this reduces his initiative to 0 or below, the character forfeits his actions for the duration of the Charm (but may still add to his Strength or soak). He may not spend more motes on this Charm than his Martial Arts + Essence.

Bear Claw Swat
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One turn
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Indomitable Ursus Stance

By chanelling Essence through his fingers, the character is able to emulate a bear's long, thick claws. For the remainder of the turn, his unarmed attacks do lethal damage, and he is able to parry lethal attacks without a stunt. He is even able to parry ranged attacks in this manner, batting arrows, chakrams, and the like aside like a bear swatting away a cloud of angry bees. Furthermore, an opponent struck with this attack halves their Stamina + Resistance dice when resisting knockdown and knockback.

Embracing Bear Kata
Cost: 5 motes + 2 motes per turn
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Bear Claw Swat

Anyone watching a bear on the hunt knows the crushing power of a bear hug. With this Charm, a character is able to execute a similarly devastating hold. When initiating a clinch or a hold attack, the character automatically wins initiative over his opponent. Additionally, the character adds his Essence to the difficulty for his opponent to break out of the clinch once it is initiated. While maintaining the clinch, the character may choose to inflict lethal damage, at his option. If the Exalt chooses to maintain the clinch, he must pay 2 motes to keep Embracing Bear Kata active. If he chooses not to pay this cost, then the Charm ends and normal rules for clinches and holds apply. This Charm cannot be Comboed with Extra Action-type Charms or Charms that enhance a character's initiative.

Fearsome Bear Bellow
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Bear Claw Swat

With a deep inhale and a thunderous kiai, the Exalt is able to channel Essence into his lungs, lending his shout the fearsome aspect of the bear. Add the character's Martial Arts score in dice to any Performance or Presence action specifically for the purposes of intimidation or overbearing. Dice from this Charm may be added over and on top of any other dice from other Charms without counting against the Exalt's usual dice limitations. This Charm is explicitly permitted to be placed in a Combo with Presence Charms.

Bear Form
Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Embracing Bear Kata, Fearsome Bear Bellow

The character assumes the stance of an angry bear, ready to strike at a moment's notice. While the Charm is active, he is at -2 initiative but is immune to knockdown and knockback. Furthermore, he may substitute his Strength for Dexterity when making a Martial Arts attack and adds his Martial Arts score to his Stamina for the purposes of soaking damage. Lastly, the Exalt soaks lethal damage with his bashing soak and may soak aggravated damage with his Essence. A character may only have one Form-type Charm active at a time.

Sleepy Wintertime Practice
Cost: 2 motes per day
Duration: Varies
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Bear Form

By carefully regulating his Essence, a Bear stylist is able to place himself into a kind of hibernation. Once this Charm is activated, the Bear stylist does not need food or water, and is able to preserve himself in this hibernation as long as he has motes of Essence to spend. While in hibernation, the character does not regain Essence, and motes spent on this Charm remain committed until the character voluntarily ends it. This Charm does not protect against the elements, so finding a warm and comfortable den is recommended. A character remains only subliminaly aware of his surroundings while in hibernation. A Wits + Awareness roll against difficulty 3 is required to respond instantly to danger. If the character fails this roll, he is sluggish and slow to respond. All his dice pools are no higher than his Essence for three full rounds while he rubs the sleep out of his eyes. On a botch, he fails to notice danger, and will blissfully sleep through his own evisceration. Warning Charms such as Surprise Anticipation Method function normally, and negate the need for the Awareness roll to awaken. Once this Charm ends, the character will be ravenous, and must eat immediately or begin to suffer from starvation: -1 to a Physical Attribute per hour until the character eats. If any Attribute reaches 0, the character dies. Lost Attribute points return at a rate of 1 per hour once the character has eaten.

Inescapable Bear Hug
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Bear Form

By this level of mastery, the Bear stylist is able to clutch his opponent in a mighty bear hug before the target even realizes what is happening. As with Embracing Bear Kata, the character automatically wins initiative over any opponent he initiates a clinch or hold with. However, all clinches and holds automatically succeed without need for a roll, nor does he require to spend an action to initiate such a maneuver--thus, a character using Inescapable Bear Hug may initiate a clinch and do damage in the same turn. The character retains the option of doing lethal or bashing damage with clinches or holds. Anyone attempting to escape from an Inescapable Bear Hug halves their Strength for the purposes of escaping, and their difficulty is raised by the character's Essence. This Charm cannot be placed in a Combo with Extra Action-type Charms or Charms that enhance a character's initiative, nor can it be in a Combo that requires the character to move, such as Leaping Tiger Attack or Thunderbolt Attack Prana.

Terrifying Ursus Claws
Cost: 6 motes + 3 per level
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Inescapable Bear Hug

This Charm calls upon the horrifying strength and savage claws of the bear to provide a Bear stylist with powerful weapons. By wrapping Essence around his fists, the Exalt adds his Essence as damage dice to all Martial Arts attacks, and his unarmed attacks are lethal. He may also parry lethal attacks with his bare hands without a stunt. Also, while this Charm is active, he is able to 'supercharge' a single attack. He may not split his dice pool in the same round as this supercharge feature is activated. When supercharged, the character is able to buy automatic levels of damage for a single successful Martial Arts attack. This is a reflexive action that may be used after soak is applied. The cost is three motes per level bought, up to the character's Martial Arts score. This Charm may not be Comboed with Extra Action-type Charms or Charms that enhance a character's initiative.

Gentle Touch of Ursus
Cost: 2 or 3 motes per health level, 1 health level
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Bear Form

The bear is looked upon as a powerful healing totem among the tribal peoples of the North. By gently embracing his target and exhaling soothing Essence, the character is able to soothe pains and, to some degree, heal injuries. The target's wound penalties are reduced by the character's Essence. Also, the character is able to speed the healing of injuries. For bashing damage, the character may spend 2 motes per lost health level to reduce the healing time to one hour per level for Exalts or three hours for mortals. For lethal damage, the character may spend 3 motes per lost health level to divide the required healing time by his Martial Arts score. This soothing treatment prevents infection and blood loss. This Charm cannot affect aggravated wounds, although the character may still spend the health level to reduce the wound penalty from such injuries. Once administered, the wounds will heal at the accelerated rate without need for further supervision from the character. However, every new injury requires a separate application of this Charm in order for them to heal at the accelerated rate. The character may not use this Charm on himself. This Charm is explicity permitted to be placed in a Combo with Medicine Charms that have beneficial effects.

Cub Protecting Prana
Cost: 4 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One turn
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Sleepy Wintertime Practice, Gentle Touch of Ursus

Like a mother bear defending her cubs, the character becomes fixated on protecting his Circlemates. The Exalt may designate one target within his Essence x 10 yards. For the remainder of the turn, the target's unarmored lethal and bashing soaks are replaced by the character's. Any damage the target sustains is transferred to the character using Cub Protecting Prana, but is suffered as unsoakable bashing, regardless of the source. If the character's soak is augmented through Charms such as Iron Skin Concentration, then the target of Cub Protecting Prana enjoys the benefit of those Charms as well. This Charm is explicitly permitted to be placed in a Combo with Charms that enhance a character's soak, but only if those Charms are incompatible with the use of armor.

Frenzied Bear Focus
Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 health level
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Cub Protecting Prana, Terrifying Ursus Claws

The ultimate mastery of Bear Style martial arts allows the Bear stylist to harness the shocking power of an enraged bear. Chanelling his Essence into his anger, the character gains a number of benefits. First of all, he is immune to wound penalties for the duration of the charm. Secondly, he adds his Martial Arts to his Strength for the purposes of determining damage and his Stamina for determining his soak. He also soaks lethal damage with his full Stamina. Thirdly, the character's unarmed attacks do lethal damage, and automatically cause knockback as he hews through his opponents. Finally, the character adds his Essence as automatic levels of damage.

However, while the character is under the effects of Frenzied Bear Focus, he becomes almost incapable of rational thought. He must make a Wits + Awareness roll against a difficulty 3 in order to differentiate friend from foe. Also, at least one of the character's actions must be dedicated to a Martial Arts attack against the closest enemy. If there are no enemies (or if he fails the Awareness roll), the character will begin attacking his friends. If he is completely alone, he will tear into the surrounding landscape until his rage is spent.

This Charm has more insidious effects as well. Solar and Lunar Exalted add one to their Limit when using Frenzied Bear Focus. Abyssal Exalted will bind anyone killed with this Charm to himself as a rage-maddened hungry ghost. Sidereal Exalted who use this Charm frighten the pattern spiders, rendering them incapable of using astrology for a number of days equal to their Valor. Terrestrial Exalted immediately become siezed by their Curse, and become unable to regain Essence or Willpower until they immerse themselves in their Aspect's element for a scene.

Commentary?

By all means, use what you like. I included the healing and hibernation Charms as examples of using Martial Arts discipline to channel and manipulate Essence. I mean, look at Wood Dragon Martial Arts. And yes, I realized my boo-boo with the Terrestrials as well. 'tis fixed. ^_^v --BurgerSlave

Some of these Charms are really great Burger. Do you mind if I go through and convert a few of them unto Lunar Unarmed charms? I do agree with the WW Forum that the healing and hibernation Charms are out of place in a Martial Art. - Telgar Oh, and Terrestrials do not have Limit. - Telgar

This style has an amazingly powerful Form. Strength instead of Dex for attacks is quite something, especially when you consider twink-happy Solars (and Lunars... ESPECIALLY Lunars...now pure Strength builds can mow even Solars down with ease) can easily get around... 18 Strength (Increasing Strength Exercise, Unbreakable Bones of Stone from your friendly Twilight, and Crown of Thunders). Essentially, this means that your Strength stat pulls double duty, serving for both attack and defense. For this, the -2 initiative penalty doesn't seem amazingly bad, and when combined with Perfect Earth Body/Deadly Starmetal Offensive and Five Jade Fury it makes a truly horrific combat monster.

Of course, that's just my inner twink speaking...

- Damarus