DragonBloodedWar/FatR
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DragonBlooded War Charms by FatR
Living Wall Method
Cost: 3m Mins: War 3,Essence 2 Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-OK Duration: One Scene Prerequisite Charms: Enfolded in the Dragon’s Wings
This Charm is very popular among more calculating and strategic Earth-aspected commanders as a way to compensate their relative weakness in single combat. It is not as popular among their soldiers, though. Living Wall Method improves cohesion between the Dragon-Blood and his underlings and allows the character to avoid attacks more easily by using distractions provided by their swings and lunges, or - if the Exalt is callous enough - using them as cover.
The character must have at least 5 soldiers fighting under his direct command at his immediate proximity (within the radius of 5 yards or less) to gain any benefits from this Charm. Other Exalted may be included in this number only if they are character's subordinates, not friends or allies. As long as this condition is fulfilled and the Charm remains active, the Dragon-Blood gains +1 to both DVs against close combat attacks. If he actually uses the soldiers as meat shields to interpose between himself and danger, he instead gains +2 to both DVs against all attacks, however, every attack that misses him hits one of the soldiers within Charm's radius with its remaining successes applying as bonus successes to damage - if too much soldiers are dead, incapaciated or panicked, Living Wall Method will cease to work.
Unstoppable Rockslide Assault
Cost: 3m Mins: War 4,Essence 3 Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Living Wall Method, Tireless Footfalls Cadence
Teamwork and ability to use their superior numbers with maximum efficiency are the greatest strength of the Dragon-Blooded. A single rock will shatter when struck by the crushing fist of Anathema, but an avalanche will bury even the strongest monster without leaving a trace - so say practitioners of this Charm. And their uncanny knack at coordinating anothers' actions helps this saying to come true.
Whenever this Charm supplements an attempt to coordinate attacks of multiple characters, the charater adds his permanent Essence in automatic successes to (Charisma + War) roll required for this miscellaneous combat action.
Stalwart Earthen Host
Cost: 2m per soldier,1wp Mins: War 5,Essence 3 Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-OK,Obvious Duration: One Scene Prerequisite Charms: Ramparts of Obedient Earth
There is horrors in Creation that can freeze blood in the veins of even the bravest mortals with their mere sight. Worse still, there is beings whose deceptive beauty and poisoned words easily bend mortals, no matter how faithful, to their will. But Dragon-Blooded commanders can bring an army with them even to the places, where the human bravery falters and human will fails - an army made of Essence and living earth. It is said that Immaculate Pasiap himself invented Stalwart Earthen Host as a mean to combat Anathema who was able to enslave any mortal and nearly any Terrestrial with a single glance, and this Charm gained widespread popularity among Earth Aspects since then.
The Dragon-Blood touches the ground with his palms, and for every two motes spent on this Charm, one clay-like figure of an armed and armored soldier rises from the earth. Earthen soldiers have the base statistics of elite troops (Exalted p.280), except that they are far more resilient, soaking lethal damage with their full Stamina, and have no will of their own, obeying all orders of their creator unquestioningly. They also have no fear - even supernatural powers that invoke dread or undermine courage, such as the Dawn caste anima are useless against them. They never fail Valor rolls and never make any other Virtue rolls. Experienced users of this Charm can customise equipment of their creations. The Dragon-Blood must raise Essence to 4 and pay additional 2 experience points to gain this ability. If he does so, he can create earthen soldiers with any mundane weapons and armor of standart quality, but all soldiers created by a single invokation of this Charm must be armed and equipped similarly. This Charm cannot be invoked, if this user doesn't have access to large amounts of earth or clay. If one of the earthen soldiers is destroyed before duration of the Charm ends, the Essence committed to creation of this particular soldier becomes free.
All created soldiers automatically have benefits of Enfolded in the Dragon’s Wings Charm, as if it was used on them by their creator.
Invincible (Element) Dragon Army
Cost: 8m per scale (25 men) of soldiers Mins: War 4,Essence 3 Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-OK,Elemental,Obvious,Stackable Duration: One Scene Prerequisite Charms: Blazing Courageous Swordsmen Inspiration,Tireless Footfalls Cadence
Princes of the Earth can bestow upon their mortal servants many blessings and some among them are more powerful than this Charm - but few are more visually imrpessive. When invoking this Charm, the character makes a wide gesture, and a stream of coruscating elemental Essence rushes from him to envelop the intended subjects. The effects vary, depending on the Dragon-Blood's elemental Aspect:
- Air swirls around the soldiers, lightening the load of their armor and weapons. For the duration of the Charm, fatigue value and mobility penalties of their armor are reduced to 0.
- Earth covers the Dragon-Blood soldiers like second skin made of thin sand, providing each of them with lethal and bashing soak equal to half of the Exalt's permanent Essence, rounded up.
- Fire sets ablaze any melee weapon currently used by any of the subjects. Flames produces by this Charm are hot enough to ignite flammable objects (and bright enough to turn the weapon into an equivalent of a torch) but are harmless to the weapons and their wielders. Damage of a flaming weapon is increased by half of the Exalt's permanent Essence, rounded up.
- Water flows unders soldiers' feet and supports them, allowing subjects to walk across water or mud as easily as if it was dry land.
- Wood infuses subjects themselves. Their skins take on noticeable greenish tint - and their flesh assume supernatural resilience, like that of the Chosen. For the duration of the Charm they can soak lethal damage with half of their Stamina, rounded down, and gain Exalted-like resistance to bleeding, infection, and other sources of physical harm. However, they still do not regenerate crippling wounds, like Exalted do. Yet, relatvely few of them die or become permanently maimed due to wounds that didn't kill them outright, and units that were protected by this Charm during combate recover much faster as a result. Reduce the time necessary for such units to "heal" combat damage (see Exalted Ed2 p.169) by half, rounding down (to a minimum of one day). Also, the Storyteller should allow such units to rally for numbers during the battle at least once, unless the Magnitude loss was caused by very powerful (sufficient to kill an average soldier in a single hit) attacks.
The nature of this Charm precludes it from affecting Essence-users. A Dragon-Blood can only use it on mortals - other Exalts cannot be protected by it. At the moment of the Charm's activation, all subjects must be within the character's line of sight.
Invincible (Element) Dragon Army can be used cooperatively. Normally, the Dragon-Blood must pay eight motes of Essence per each scale of mortal soldiers to be imbued with elemental power. However, multiple Terrestrials of different aspects activate different versions of this Charm copperatively, they can provide the targer unit with multiple elemental blessings while paying less Essence for this. When they do, Essence cost of this Charm is reduced by 1 mote per scale for each Aspect presented among the participants, to the minimum of 3 motes per scale of soldiers, if this Charm is used by a perfect brotherhood. Use highest permanent Essence among participants to determine variable effects of this Charm
Regardless of the specific elemental version learned, this Charm is always considered to be an Earth-aspected Charm for purposes of determining whether the one-mote surcharge for out-of-aspect Charms applies, and Dragon-Blooded can only learn the version associated with their aspects.
Cutting the Brilliant Underling
Cost:10m,1wp Mins:War 5,Essence 3 Type:Simple Keywords:Combo-OK Duration:One Month Prerequisite Charms:Blazing Courageous Swordsmen Inspiration,Tireless Footfalls Cadence
All things in existence, from immovable mountains to something as immaterial as human spirit, assume and hold their shapes according to the laws of the Earth Dragon, and by children of the Earth Dragon these shapes can be changed. An experienced Dragon-Blood can manipulate the Essence of Earth present in other beings with mere words, and make them shine in the area of his choice, as they never did before, like a jeweller faceting a diamond into a brilliant. Cutting the Brilliant Underling is exceptionally useful both for training purposes and for indoctrination. The Terrestrial can train up to (his Essence rating x 10) beings at once with this Charm, but he must dedicate all of his time to supervising their training. All subjects must be willing to train under him and must have lesser permanent Essence than the Exalt. As long, as this Charm is in effect, its subjects remain vigorous and full of energy. Three or four hours of sleep per day are sufficient for them. Also, their mind becomes more focused, allowing them to concentrate solely on their training. If used to train heroic characters, Cutting the Brilliant Underling reduces their training times by half, but if they want to learn Abilities or Charms, its user must be able to teach them normally. If used on the mass of mortal extras, Cutting the Brilliant Underling can turn them from worthless trash into competent professionals (at least one Ability and one Attribute at 3, all other relevant Abilities at 2, at least one specialty) in any given general area of expertise (fighting, sailing, construction working, etc) within a month. (If the character wishes to train them further, he must hand-pick the promising apprentices, i.e. heroic mortals, to work with - even the best craftsmen can do only so much, when the raw material is poor.)
This Charm grants its user some insight into the trainees' spirits, and as a result, makes any attempt at indoctrination or brainwashing easier. While it lasts, its user automatically adds his Essence in additional successes to all Social rolls directed at his pupils. Also, if he works with extras, he can reallocate one of their Virtue dots from one Virtue of his choice to another at the end of the training period, if he desires so.
Comments
On the last charm: it seems that the Fire and Earth variants of this charm are less potent than the others, and the Wood variant has unclear benefits in the mass combat rules (the soak bonus is obvious, but what effect on morale would the resilience to other things provide?). The Air and Water effects are incredibly potent, though I don't think too much so. I suggest increasing the effect of the Earth and Fire aspects to Essence (so, Essence to bashing, half that round down to lethal for Earth, and Essence bonus to damage for Fire), and adding some kind of bonus against rout for the Wood aspect (perhaps eliminating any Magnitude penalty to the rout check). - IanPrice
- Thanks for the advice. After some thought, I decided to make Fire and Earth version scaling up, if not so powerful as you propose. Granting the Wood some impact on the mass combat is a good idea, but I think that the recovery bonus, now outlined above, is more thematically appropriate. - FatR
