Revision as of 08:08, 5 April 2010

Solar Craft Charms

by haren

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<b>Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Min. Craft: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Shattering Grasp

At a certain level of mastery of one's craft, the craftsman stops seeing the differences in materials and starts seeing the similarities in how they may be worked. In effect, the Exalted gains a general skill of Craft (Other) that is equal to the number of times this Charm is taken (up to their primary Craft). This ability lets the Exalt craft almost anything (ST Choice, but esoteric crafts like fate, soulforging, or necrosurgery are unlikely without some experience with them). The Exalt can use any Charms with this ability that it fulfills the requirements for.

Comments

For a 5/3 Charm, I'd at least expect to allow the Solar to use her full Craft score for all Crafts, without any subtraction. I'd probably even allow that for, say, a 3/2 Charm; it's not that powerful or unbalancing an ability. Good Charm idea though, unless of course one uses house rules regarding expanding the range of Crafting foci. - Quendalon

Well, didn't want to make it too strong. I thought about making it a much lower down Charm. But there are alot of types of Craft you could get with this if you assume only the three mentioned aren't included. You can make almost anything since you can buy successes. But, I have lowered the requirements. - haren

What's wrong with being able to make almost anything? You can use Wyld-Shaping Technique to make a whole lot more: castles full of magical automatons, assembly lines manufacturing thousands of artifact weapons, whatever you like. Being able to make a perfect basket or chair as well as a perfect sword really pales by comparison, doesn't it? - Quendalon

Hmm, well, I'm pretty tired, but I'll think about it. I might allow it to be at -1. The one thing I do want to mention that makes this powerful is the fact that you could buy a careful specialization to affect a number of skills, all under the heading of (other). - haren

Sorry, but I have to disagree. I play a Solar Craftsman, and would absolutely love this charm, but not if secondary skill are at -1. That's too powerful. My character has four crafts skills, one at 3, one at 4 and two at 5. This charm would make three of them pointless. IF it gave an effective rating of Main craft -3 then that would still be a craft rating of 2 in every single craft, meaning you get 4 more dice than normal, but if you want to be even better you can be for a little xp. If this charm works as it is currently written, there is no reason at all to buy more than one craft, which i feel would take something away from the game. Of course, that's just my opinion, and my ST has already approved it at -3, which is how I intend to use it - CorlanDashiva

As a possible compromise, how about One Master, Many Journeymen functions kind of like an Ox-Body Technique. It can be purchased up to your Crafts times. You can either roll your Crafts or the total number of OM,MJ you have.

- DariusSolluman

I like the Darius solution.

As for your issue, Corlan, I think that's a problem with the Craft skill system. - FourWillowsWeeping

Wow, this is a cool Charm. And I'm with Darius' solution. I might ask my ST about this Charm, as I'm currently playing a Twilight artificer. Would be fun. - Blaque

CorlanDashiva, what makes you think that there's currently any reason to buy more than one craft? Once you're crafting artifacts at the Solar level, you can make anything out of anything. Let's say you have Craft (Metalworking). Want to make a boat? Build it out of feathersteel with moonsilver filigree and enchant it to float. Want some finely tailored garments? Hammer out sheets of gold and orichalcum and enchant them to be as light and soft as silk.

If you can't make it with Craft (Metalworking) or Craft (Jadeworking), it probably has no game mechanical effect anyway, or else it can be subsumed under some other ability, like Craft (Herbalism) becomes Medicine, or Craft (Poetry) becomes Performance or Linguistics. In which case, why bust the player's balls and make them pay masses of XP to boost subsidiary Craft scores? - Quendalon

Yeah, but the question isn't about making artifacts, it's about wanting, say, a master blacksmith who can also make bows and arrows, or somesuch. As it stands, the way to do Crafts is just to pick the most generic, broadly applicable Craft you can think of (Metalworking instead of Armorer, or somesuch), because it helps keep you from hemorrhaging xp buying up the crafts your character might have for roleplaying reasons (Craft can really be an xp sink). I like the DS solution for this Charm though, I think. - SMK

My point is, if you're going to be getting crafts solely for roleplaying reasons, why should you have to spend any XP on them at all? I see no reason why a master blacksmith Exalt should have to pay wads of XP in order to be a good fletcher, especially in a game where a master actor is by definition a master singer, orator, musician (every single instrument) and dancer, and a master kayaker is by definition a master sailor, rower, and airship pilot. - Quendalon

Oh, so Craft as a universal ability! I've always had a soft spot for this solution, myself. - SMK