TrithneArtifacts/WraithBloodChains

The Wraith-Blood Chains

Soulsteel Chain Wrappings

Artifact • • • •

Attunement cost: 4 motes, 1 Lethal HL.

Forged from alloys of Soulsteel and only the purest black jade, imbued with Ghostflame and finally possesed by the spirits of Hungry Ghosts, The Wraith-Blood Chains are over 20 feet in length, and spiked barbs can be found on every link. They are wrapped around their user's body, the spikes piercing the skin and soaking up the blood, energising the ghosts within. Often wearers of the Chains bear other, more mundane chains to supplement the horrifying appearance of them.

Once attuned to, The Wraith-Blood Chains writhe with a life of their own, charged with defending the life or unlife of their bearer, in return for the blood upon which they susbist. The Chains will come to life to deflect blows aimed at their bearer, and they will lash out and seek to entangle enemies within range, to hold at their mercy. They provide +2 to both the bearer's Dodge and Parry DVs, but only against attacks that can be parried. Unparriable attacks and the like will negate this bonus, even if being used to boost Dodge DV. The chains can also act on the bearer's initiative to try and clinch enemies, as an Indenpendant Action.

Profile for clinches:
Speed 5, Accuracy 0, Damage 2L, Defense 0, Rate 1. If they succeed at holding the enemy, they will only ever seek to hold him in place and continue to cause damage.

Comments

While visually interesting (and reminiscent of various comic-book character's chains), I'm concerned that at Artifact 3, you can easily pick up a +5 to both DV's. The visual description of the chains seems to add to only the PDV, so the DDV bonus just seems tacked on. Even so, the +5 DV is a really large bonus. That's akin to adding 10 dice to all parries, all the time. Doubling a masterfully-skilled pool, really. That, and they add a form of extra action, which, while not as powerful in 2E as in 1E, is still a big deal, as they can successfully attack even when you're doing something else, such as using sorcery, or activating a form-type charm. If the DV bonus was reduced to something more often seen, such as +2 or +3 (and even then maybe only to one of the two DV's), I can see this as an artifact 4 item. Reasonably artifact 5 otherwise. I also note that there are often 'two scales' for artifacts. On the "Daiklaves are 2, and powerbows of any utility are 3" scale, things are as I note above. At the same time, automata, flying machines, and other true wonders are really incomparable in many ways. If the game these are used in has such high technology artifacts, I can see the full power of these at Artifact 4. But 3 just seems too low. -- GreenLantern

Hmm. I think you're probably right there GL, after writing I thought 3 was probably too low, but I left it to the wiki to consider for a bit, get some opinions. 4 or 5... Well, +5 is quite a large bonus, I agree, reduced to +2. My reasoning for it boosting DDV is that even as you dodge it still works to deflect blows away from you. I've pushed the artifact rating to 4, and increased the committed Essence cost also. - Trithne

Trinthne - One thing to consider regarding the DDV vs. PDV thing is that if in fact, they're still helping your dodges a bit, they're really only able to help against things that are parriable. Perhaps a note that the +DDV only applies to attacks that can be parried? That way, unparriable attacks (or even the dreaded anti-parriable attack) is still handled correctly? -- GreenLantern

Smart thinking 99. - Trithne

Alternately, if it works by bouncing things away from you without your paying attention, it sounds like it would give an external penalty to hitting you, as per shields or cover. That way, you could potentially also increase the bonus somewhat, because there are so many charms that punch through those. - TheHoverpope

Under consideration, levitating papacy. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the shield effects, mostly because they involve horrible things like percentages and mathematics mid-battle slowing things down, and because I don't feel Exalted should ever get bogged down in the gritty of 'how much cover a shield provides', unless said shield is say, The Light Over First Harvest, an Orichalcum tower shield borne in the First Age by the Solar Lord Twelfth Oxen's Pride, which he used to defend a township against the depredations of the Fair Folk, their gossamer lies breaking like waves against the might of his bulwark. - Trithne