AbyssalResistance/Reyemile

Shattered Mind's Resilience

 Cost: 2 motes per die
 Duration: Instant
 Type: Reflexive
 Minimum Resistance: 3
 Minimum Essence: 3
 Prerequisite: Whispers 1 or a derangement

Every Abyssal has felt the caress of oblivion in the back of his mind. Some survive it unscathed, but many remain... touched. But, those whose minds are altered can use this change as a means of defense, as their void-tainted soul resist manipulation.

An Abyssal with this charm may spend two motes per die, up to a number of dice equal to her Essence, to add to her willpower roll to resist any charm, arcanoi, or other power that affects or reads her mind. This cannot create a defense where none exists, however. Further, if the effect is question is an Abyssal charm, necromantic effect, or otherwise draws it's power from the twisted dreams of the Malfeans, the Exalt may add an additional number of dice to her roll equal to her Whispers background. She still must actually buy at least one die; she cannot activate the charm for zero to get free dice.

Shattered Mind's Rage

 Cost: 6 motes, 1 willpower
 Duration: Instant
 Type: Reflexive
 Minimum Resistance: 5
 Minimum Essence: 3
 Prerequisite Charms: Shattered Mind's Resilience.

When the twisted and broken mind of a void-blessed Abyssal comes under desperate assault, it can shut down, leaving control of the body in the hands of the lower soul until the threat is gone.

Activating this charm automatically makes any social or mental charm that directly manipulates the Deathknight's mind fail. This is a perfect effect. The attack must actually alter his mind directly; charms that add large numbers of dice to social pools don't count, nor do charms like Motive Discerning Technique which only read motives.

However, the perfection of the defense comes with a price. The Abyssal's higher soul is temporarily disabled, giving him the benefits and drawbacks of the berserk rage of the Blodthirsty Sword-Dance Spirit (See the Exalted core book) until the being or object that affected him is destroyed or out of sight (though not longer than a scene, for indestructible or highly evasive targets.) Afterwards, the Deathknight must make a stamina + resistance roll, difficaulty of the essence requirement of the charm defended against, or pass out once the rage passes.

Author's Notes

Shattered Mind Resilience fills an improtant niche, since otherwise Social monkeys are at each other's mercy, with huge die pools for manipulation and significantly smaller ones to resist. That being said, I'm not sure if it needs a prereq or not-- I really didn't want to make it come off of Spirit Hardened Frame, though, since the charms have nothing to do with each other. Another thought is to only make it for mind affecting, not mind reading, just to ratchet the power down a little bit.

Shattered Mind Rage is an idea I've had for a while. One thought that occured to me was removing the willpower cost on the charm, and make it involuntary and automatic, a completely instinctual response. I'm not sure if that gimps the charm too much, however, since it makes it way to easy to accidentally force a PC to try and murder his Deathlord.

Both of these charms do require some GM interpretation, but I think that's unavoidable. Does Heartstopping Mein affect YOU by requiring a Valor roll, or affect the user by enhancing his fearsomeness? Is Imprecation of Ill Manners affecting the mind of the target? Unfortunately, I can't think of any real guidelines aside from "GMs, please don't be stupid." Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Finally, there is of course the issue of what skill these charms should be under. Resistance makes the most sense to me, since you're resisting, but I could see a case made for putting them under presence, or possibly lore or even occult.

--Reyemile

Comments

Nice stuff. I personally went with Lore and Investigation for my mental or illusory defense stuff, but that's because I went for mindreading with Investigation and Memory Palaces with Lore (and for Solars anyway). However, I have a few questions-- First, why is SM Resillience limited to the Abyssal's Essence, rather than their willpower? They are top dogs in the power arena, after all. Second, how do they deal with mind-hitting attacks that rely on something other than Willpower? Third, in SM Rage, do they get the full benefit of BTSDS, or just the mental restrictions? --IsawaBrian

The reason the first charm has the limited die bonus is, in large part, because there isn't a single effect in the game that boost willpower (as far as I know.) Now, I don't think this means that it's supossed to be impossible, but if the designers wanted will-boosting to be easy, they would have shown us some examples.

On the other hand, I'm just about to have my Abyssal character build a combo of Haunting Inflection Trick and Compelling Whispers Technique, which combined with specialties will give him 21 dice to implant a suggestion, opposed by willpower. And defense in Exalted should be stronger than Offense.

The reason I did't have it affect virtues is because I thought that being able to boost a one die virtue by three dice seemed excessive, although once again, limitting it to the stat would fix that. I just might change it around, though I think I want to sleep on it.

Finally, I clarified SM rage. You get the benefits and the down sides when you activate the charm.

-- Reyemile