SolarMiscellaneous/Ambisinister

Exemplar of (Ability)</b>

<b>Cost:  none
Duration: Permenant
Type: Permenant
Minimum (Ability): 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms:: Any four charms from (Ability)

The chosen of the Sun are known for their drive towards perfection. By conditioning their essence like a mortal would his muscles a Solar exalted is capable of expanding his capabilities in a given field to superhuman levels. Instead of three, an exalt is permitted to have 3+1/2 his permenant essence (rounded up) in specialties for the chosen ability. An exalt is still only able to benefit from a maximum of three dice from applicapable specialties on any dice roll. Only caste or favored abilities may be selected with this charm. This charm may only be purchased once for any given ability.

Perfected (Ability)</b>

<b>Cost:  none
Duration: Permenant
Type: Permenant
Minimum (Ability): 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms:: Exemplar of (Ability)

By tempering their excellence with dedication, a Solar is capable of amazing feats in the areas he chooses to specialize in. His skill is so great that unless actively challenged, either by himself or another, he is incapable of failure. Whenever the exalt would apply specialty dice to a roll, one those dice is converted into an automatic success. As an added benefit, whenever the exalt expends a willpower point to either add a successes or channel a virtue, all remaining specialty dice for that action are also converted to automatic successes. This charm may only be purchased once for any given ability.

Unconquered in (Ability)</b>

<b>Cost:  none
Duration: Permenant
Type: Permenant
Minimum (Ability): 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms:: Perfected (Ability)

The exalt who masters this charm has elevated his proficiency to legendary levels. The exalt adds one to the rating of the chosen ability raising the cap of that ability by one. This can raise the cap above 5. In additon, an exalt may now benefit from up to four dice from specialties on any given roll. This charm may only be purchased once for any given ability.

Comments

I'm thinking the first and third charm (the 'no more 3 specialty limit, though only 3 can apply', and the 'up your normal maximum') are good, and useful, but the second charm ('4 specialties can apply') seems like a real speedbump. You get, with a full charm purchase, an extra die. Sometimes. And you had to pay XP for that die. Ouch, sucka. Perhaps some other way of helping out as a speedbump? My initial (and possibly unbalanced) guess is to perhaps allow one specialty die to auto-convert to an auto-success whenever it's used? After all, that's your specialty. ("Oh Darling, didn't you know? High speed chases are my specialty!") It'd be a lot more permanent, and encourage people to buy up specialties a lot more. Because it's permanent, and doesn't require charm activation, it's useful in a wide range of situations as well. Just a thought. - GregLink

I felt Perfected (Ability) was the weakest of the set. I'm thinking of keeping the "add another specialty die" effect and adding the additional effect "Whenever the exalt spends a willpower to add a success, he has the option to instead convert all his specialty dice into successes."-Ambisinister

Ooh, that's a fun effect. I'm thinking of taking that one step farther, however, and allowing them to convert specialties into auto-successes whenever Willpower or a Virtue is channeled. - GregLink

Are you thinking 'instead of' or 'in addition to'?- Ambisinister, who likes where GregLink is going with this

Well, I tend to write very powerful Solars. If the writing staff are going to continually make more and more interesting non-Solars, the Solar schtick must take over. After all "Solar is strongest one there is!". As such, in my head, when Sidereals showed up, and looked cool, Solars just got that much better. While we have seen the wonders created by the Autocthonians, we must remember that the creations of the Solars are, of course better. Having said that, I think allowing a Solar to have specialties that they're superbly good at makes sense to me. If you've got a specialty in "Dueling", why, you're really dangerous to duel with - after all, you're guaranteed an auto-success to hit in a duel. If they don't dodge or parry, you will hit. Similarly, if your craft specialty is "Armor", well, you simply never botch. You're so intimately familiar with the crafting of armor that all possible failures are known to you, and carefully avoided. Given then, that "Solar is strongest of them all!", I'd say in addition to. Anytime the Solar really needs it, represented by the WP or Virtue channeling, they get the autos. This also makes virtue channeling a very powerful effect in certain situations, as now you've got some serious incentive to channel virtues, opening up fun stunting and role playing opportunities. - GregLink

It's very hard to play Devil's Advocate against myself. Plus you make a very persuasive argument. I have amended Perfected (Ability) to reflect our brainstorm. I also moved the "benefit from four dice intsead of 3" bonus up to Unconquered in (Ability) -Ambisinister