FrivYeti/PCECMA

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Celestial Martial Arts

Bulwark of the mighty Celestial Exalted, these martial arts are practiced by hundreds of Celestial Exalts, as well as by many Dragon-Blooded (although the Five Glorious Dragon Paths are the most common of those). Many Celestial Styles are lost, with only ancient manuals to help would-be students remember them, and any practitioner of most styles will be known by their mentors and sifus.

Who Can Learn It

• Terrestrial Exalts: The Dragon-Blooded may learn Celestial Martial Arts only if they study initiation Charms first. These Charms have the same cost as normal Celestial Martial Arts (that is, 12 XP if Favored and 15 XP otherwise).
• Celestial Exalts: Solars, Lunars, Sidereals and Abyssals learn Celestial Martial Arts normally.
• Gods: The Celestial Martial Arts require an adaptation to Creation that gods are not easily capable of. Gods of Essence 5 or less may only learn Celestial Martial Arts whose natures are wholly in alignment with their own domains. Gods of Essence 6 or higher may learn Celestial Martial Arts normally, but rarely bother.
• Demons: Demons function in reverse to other beings of Creation; as they grow in power, their ability to align their natures to aspects of Creation diminishes in favour of their own potent capabilities. Demons of the Second and Third Circles may only learn Infernally-aspect Celestial Martial Arts. First Circle Demons cannot learn Celestial Martial Arts without highly rare and specialized initiation Charms; in such cases, they treat all Charms in these styles as having an Essence requirement one dot higher than usual, at a cost of 15 XP per Charm.
• Elementals: Elementals are naturally able to grow and change. They may learn Terrestrial initiation Charms, and from there Celestial Martial Arts. Most elementals do not do this, simply because they find it somewhat difficult. Elementals pay 15 XP per Charm for these styles.
• Fair Folk: There are rumours that initiation Charms exist to allow Fair Folk to learn these Martial Arts. If they do, they would learn them as Dragon-Bloods.
• Dragon Kings: In the First Age, special initiation Charms were designed to help Dragon Kings learn Celestial Martial Arts. In the Second Age, such Charms are long since lost.

Specific Martial Arts Revisions

Snake Style

• Serpentine Evasion: This Charm has a duration of One Action.
• Essence Fangs And Scales Technique: When combined with a weapon that deals Piercing, the character increases her damage by her Essence.
• Armor-Penetrating Fang Strike: This Charm does not require Willpower.
• Uncoiling Serpent Prana: This Charm costs only 2 motes, and has a range of (Martial Arts x2) yards.

Celestial Monkey Style

• Flowing Mirror of Opposition: This Charm can be activated in response to an attack. It negates the attack's Accuracy bonus. Flowing Mirror of Opposition has no other effects.
• Body of War Meditation: This is simply a Simple Charm, and does not require twenty minutes of preparation.
• Withering Paw Strike: This Charm does not require Willpower.
• Walking in the Footsteps of Ten Thousand Things: This Charm does not require experience points, and has a Duration of Instant and the keyword Combo-Basic. It requires the character to observe her target for (target's Essence) actions, at the end of which time she makes her Perception + Martial Arts roll as listed. The character must leave her ten motes committed for as long as she wishes to benefit; she may pay 1 xp to keep the benefits of this Charm after releasing the motes.
• Four Halo Golden Monkey Palm: This Charm does not increase its difficulty to hit. The damage increase is in post-soak levels.
• Four Halo Golden Monkey Realignment: The character's Parry DV is not boosted; instead, the character's actions do not reduce her DV, and any penalties to her DV due to physical restraint (including most external penalties and wound penalties) are ignored.

Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style

• Lethal Paper Fan Attack: If Speed is boosted, the character reduces her Speed by half her Essence (rounding up). Speed can still be reduced to a minimum of 1.
• Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form: Add the character's Essence to her Socialize and Presence, not her Martial Arts.
• Flurry of August Leaves Concentration: This Charm has the Extra Actions type.
• Fragrant Petal Fascination: This Charm allows the character to roll (Charisma + Martial Arts + Essence). Affected victims can resist at a cost of one Willpower per action, and recover completely after spending (user's Essence) Willpower. Resisting or recovered targets still suffer the listed penalty to their actions.
• Seven Storms Escape Prana: This Charm costs only 5 motes. It allows the character to teleport up to (Martial Arts x4) yards.

Ebon Shadow Style

• Image of Death Technique: The difficulty of the roll to see if the user is alive is equal to her Martial Arts score.
• Distracting Finger-Gesture Attack: This Charm has the Illusion and Combo-OK keywords, and costs 3 motes. It may be reflexively activated whenever another character's action begins. That character cannot flurry this action, and the Speed of her action is increased by 1.
• Seven Points of Weakness Strike: This is a 2 mote Charm which makes a single unarmed attack Piercing. If used as part of a Piercing attack, it divides the target's armor soak by 4 (rounding the result up).
• Paralyzing Touch Attack: This Charm has the Combo-Basic keyword.
• Elusive Flicker Evasion: This Charm has the Combo-OK keyword.
• Blow-Concealing Gesture: If the targets succeeds on her Awareness roll, she must build her DVs from a base of 0 with Charms. Charms that remove all penalties from DVs allow her to use her full DV as usual.
• Shadow-Body Style: This Charm has the Combo-Basic keyword.
• Shadow-Stepping Motion: This Charm has the Combo-Basic keyword.

Laughing Wounds Style

• Laughing Wounds Form: This style does not increase damage. The vast wound bonuses are sufficient.
• Insatiable Slave Stamina: If the character's wound track is filled, and she takes four or more Bashing damage from a single attack, one of her Bashing levels of damage becomes lethal. This can reduce her to Incapacitated (only if all of her Bashing wraps around to Lethal).
• Grovelling Penitence Prana: This Charm must be activated before an attack is made.

Mantis Style

• Leaping Mantis Technique: This Charm costs 2 motes.
• Grasping Mantis Defense: This Charm may be activated in response to any attack, not only a successful one. Extra successes (all of them if the initial attack fails to overcome DV) become a clinch attempt against the attacker, which must hold them until the character's action.
• Joint-Disabling Attack: The penalties for this Charm are for every die of post-soak damage dealt.
• Unfolding Retribution Stance: This Charm has a duration of (Martial Arts) actions.

Righteous Devil Style

• Cloud of Ebon Devils: This Charm has a cost of None and a type of Permanent. It allows the character to reflexively spend 1 mote after making an attack to reload her firewand with no roll or action required, suffering the normal -1 DV penalty. The effect remains Obvious.
• Righteous Devil Form: This Form costs 4 motes. Targets who engage the Righteous Devil must succeed at a Willpower roll with a difficulty of the Righteous Devil's Essence in order to flee or to move back into hiding. The Righteous Devil does not need to know the exact location or name of the people she is calling out, only that they are present.
• Azure Abacus Meditation: This Charm has the Combo-Basic keyword.
• Caress of One Thousand Hells: This Charm has the Combo-Basic keyword.

Tiger Style

• Raging Tiger Pounce: This Charm has a duration of Instant.
• Spine-Shattering Bite: This Charm costs 3 motes. If the attack hits, the character cannot deal fewer than (Essence) levels of damage after it is rolled.

Air Dragon Style

• Thunderclap Kata: Success on the Stamina + Resistance roll only applies the martial artist's Essence as a die pool penalty to physical actions. Failure applies the penalty, deals damage, and causes deafness as written.
• Lightning Strike Style: The character's attacks increase their range by (Essence x2) yards instead of the listed value.
• Hurricane Combat Method: The extra attacks provided by this Charm may not be combined with a flurry containing more than one attack, or with Extra Actions Charms.

Earth Dragon Style

• Weapon-Breaking Defense Technique: If used against artifact weapons that do not require maintenance, Weapon-Breaking Defense only breaks the weapon's attunement, at which point the weapon's user will need to spend twenty minutes focusing as usual to restore it.
• Stillness of Stone: This Charm turns a target to stone, protecting but restricting them. A successful strike against a target deals no damage. Instead, the target gains +3B/+2L/+2A soak (to a maximum of +15B/+10L/+10A), gains one success on Resistance rolls (to a maximum of 5 bonus successes), loses a dot of Dexterity, and has minimum damage against her reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 0 dice). If the target is reduced to Dexterity 0, she becomes temporarily stone. She is rendered Inactive, increases her soak and Resistance bonuses to the maximums allowed by this Charm, and minimum damage against her is reduced to 0. A character who has been turned to stone is also immune to Poison and Sickness effects for the duration. The effect lasts for one of the user's actions per success rolled over the target's DVs; however, the character may spend a point of Willpower upon turning a target to stone to increase the duration to One Scene.
• Perfection of Earth Body: This Charm is compatible with armor, but only the greater of the character's armor soak or Charm-granted soak applies to her soak total.

Fire Dragon Style

• Flame-Flicker Stance: This Charm costs 2 motes per point. It applies an external penalty to attacks against the character instead of boosting DVs.
• Fire Dragon Form: This Charm has a cost of 4 motes and a Speed of 3. The character's unarmed attacks also deal +1 die of damage.
• Consuming Might of the Fire Dragon: This Charm has a duration of (Martial Arts) actions.

Water Dragon Style

• Rippling Water Strike: This Charm costs 4 motes of Essence. It affects everyone within (Essence) yards.
• Essence-Dousing Wave: This Charm adds the Shaping keyword.