Resplendence/LunarsRevised

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• See also FixTheLunars

Attributes

All Attributes can be increased with Attribute Points in Beast Form. Charisma, Manipulation and Intelligence cost two points per dot. Perception and Wits cost one point per dot. Appearance costs one point for two dots, but starts at zero in Beast Form.

Non-physical attributes can be raised no more than the Lunar’s Essence rating, while physical attributes can be raised by at most twice the Essence rating.

Attribute bonuses cannot be changed once bought.

Gifts

Lunars receive two Gifts for every level of Deadly Beastman Transformation acquired.

Instead of a number of set Gifts, the Lunar picks Charms that become Gifts in her Beastman form. They must be part of the Lunar’s Charm repertoire, although any Charm eligible for Beastman form the Lunar possesses can be selected - the selection doesn’t have to follow prerequisite chains. They do have to obey Charm limitations, however.

Once made part of her Beastman form, Gifts can only be changed by spending experience points equal to the new replacement Charm’s minimum Attribute rating. This requires the same training time as learning a new Charm does.

Gifts become a physical part of the Beastman form, if the Charm itself is visible. A Lunar with Fish Eye Technique selected as a Gift will always bear the signs of this Charm on her face in Beastman form.

Cost & Activation

The Essence cost of Gifts is considered to be part of the cost for Beastman form, and the Lunar only has to pay any eventual non-Essence cost for them.

Gifts do not count as Charms in use for the purpose of activating other Charms. The Lunar can freely use all non-Simple Gifts during a turn, as well as Charms as per the normal rules.

Instant reflexive Gifts can only be activated once per turn for free. Any more activations must be done through the Charm as usual.

For Charms with a variable cost the Beastman Charm only incorporates the cheapest activation of that Charm. The Charm counts as always active, which can prohibit further use of the Charm, or count towards Charm limits for dice pools and such for further activations. Variable cost Charms can only be picked once as Gifts, unless specifically stated.

For example, Predator Grace Method costs one mote per two dice. Making it a Beastman Charm always converts two dice to automatic successes, as per the normal Charm use. The Charm can be used normally on top of this to gain more successes, but the Beastman Charm counts toward the maximum number of successes.

Duration & Type

Non-instant Beastman Charms are always activated and count as having a duration as long as the Beastman form is kept up. Instant Charms are still instant, but can be applied as often as the Charm allows them to be. The only exception to these rules is if the Lunar can’t pay the non-Essence costs for the Gift.

Allowed Charms

Generally, Charms that affect the Lunar herself through shapechanging och through her Lunar nature are allowed. Those that affect others, such as Mother’s Touch, or require tools, such as armed combat Charms, are not allowed to be Gifts. Very powerful Charms that are limited by a duration and would become overly powerful when lasting longer are not allowed either.

Body Enhancement: All Charms that aren’t about basic shapeshifting.

Unarmed Combat: All Charms.

Armed Combat: None.

Ranged Combat: None.

Defensive: All Charms.

Survival & Healing: All Charms except Luna’s Fortitude and Mother’s Touch.

Perception: All Charms except Sense-Borrowing Method, Harmony With Reality Technique, Ritual of Lunar Stability.

Stealth: All Charms except Object-Concealing Method, Ally-Concealing Method, Track-Sweeping Essence.

Interaction & Knowledge: Imposing Presence Attitude, Fearful Lunar Form, Animal Magnetism.

Spirit: Spirit-Scenting Technique, Pulse of the Invisible.

Sorcery: None.

New Charms

Resilience of Nature

Cost: 6 motes

Duration: One day

Type: Simple

Min. Stamina: 2

Min. Essence: 1

Prerequisite Charms: None

The Lunar heals quickly – 1B per turn and 1L per hour.

Wound-Knitting Power

Cost: 12 motes

Duration: One scene

Type: Simple

Min. Stamina: 4

Min. Essence: 3

Prerequisite Charms: Resilience of Nature

All bashing damage is healed at the start of each turn. Lethal damage is healed by one health level per turn.

Beguiling Mien (shamelessly stolen from CrownedSun)

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: One scene

Type: Simple

Min. Appearance: 3

Min. Essence: 2

A Lunar with this gift is imbued with mysterious, changing energies, touching her with the divine and even a touch of the Wyld – untouchable and unspeakably entrancing. Indeed, many have mistaken this illusion-wreathed form for a Fair Folk noble.

If an attacker’s Temperance is lower than the Lunar's Appearance, he subtracts a number of dice equal to difference for attacks and otherwise directly going against the Lunar. Beings of higher Essence than the Lunar and those that would not be affected by her appearance (the Fair Folk, automatons, mindless undead, demons, etc) are immune to this effect. In addition, the Lunar adds three dice to all dice pools involving her appearance.

Examples

Carmine Fang-Smile is a Fox trickster and mystic. Her three Beast Form levels grant her +3 Dexterity, +4 Appearance, +2 Perception and +1 Wits. Her six Gifts are Predator Grace Method, Dance of the Living Blade, Bending Before the Storm, Ever-Wary Fox Method, Stealthy Fox Method and Spirit-Scenting Technique. In her Beast Form, Carmine Fang-Smile can reflexively convert 2 Athletics dice to successes per turn, she can get an Extra Action attack per turn (for one Willpower), she converts one Dodge die to a success each turn, she adds Perception dice to rolls to avoid ambushes, she adds a die to all Stealth rolls, and percieves spirits at all times.

Comments

The idea is to diversify Lunars and skip the system with specific Gifts. The loss of automatic Gifts with each bought level of DBT is meant to be balanced by the ability to pick a wide range of Charms for Gifts. To keep my Lunar player happy, I've lowered the XP cost for Lunar Charms to 9 for favored and 11 for the rest.

I also intend to have replacements for all Gifts as Charms. Some are already covered, some (like the healing ones) need to be made into Charms.

Anyway, what do you think? This hasn't been tested, and I realize you can twink your Gifts to some pretty horrible combinations of combat Charms that make Lunars even more lethal killing machines. Maybe I need some limitation on this... Resplendence

Pretty cool. Kinda reminds me of Fair Folk buying mutations. Why make it harder to increase non-physical attributes, and why the Appearance thing(I'd just let App work normally)? Also, I'd only give Str and Sta a cap of 2xEssence and leave it at Essence for the rest. -FlowsLikeBits

Yes, mutations were an inspiration. The Attributes is what I deemed was useful and appropriate, but it's not tested or anything. i might go with your suggestion. Appearance is really quite pointless for Lunars in DBT form. The only use I've found for it if you go for a mystical or alluring beast form, but all the rest are rather... bestial. Maybe I should let it start at one and let it be one for for point though... Resplendence

I dunnon, it seems like it's possible to make a "normal", looking DBT under these guidelines, especially if you picked a bunch of charms without obvious effects. Personally, I'd probably let apperance default ot you normal rating like everything else. I mean, Exalted has an App 8 GIANT MANTIS and really beautiful (App 6) Demon bugs! I'm not really objecting, it just seemed like a weird thing to me. -FlowsLikeBits

It's true that there's some pretty hawt demon bugs, but I just didn't want Beast Form Lunars to be pretty by default. Resplendence