Alternate5MMEffect/TheOneTrueFrancois

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The One True Francois' thoughts about what the harmonization effect for various 5MM should be, based on what the various Exalted are supposed to feel like.

Hearthstone Bracers
Orichalcum: +2 damage dice. (Increases the raw power of the attack.)
Moonsilver: +3 initiative. (Allows the wearer to flow more naturally, and react more quickly to a changing situation.)
"Jade": + 1 to attack, defense and initiative. (Versatile. Generally good at everything.)
Starmetal: +2 soak (They're.. uh.. lucky... and stuff. Shut up!)
Soulsteel: Turns one damage die into an automatic success. (Focuses energies of death and technobabble through attack.)

Melee Weapons
Orichalcum: +2 damage dice.
Moonsilver: +3 speed
"Jade": +1 speed, accuracy, defense
Starmetal: +2 accuracy
Soulsteel: +1 accuracy, and if it causes at least one health level of damage drains a number of essence points from the victim equal to wielder's permanent essence. (Bites into the very soul of the victim)

Powerbows
Orichalcum: +2 damage dice.
Moonsilver: +1 rate, +50m range
"Jade": +1 accuracy, +1 damage, +50 yards
Starmetal: +2 accuracy
Soulsteel: +1 accuracy, +100 yards (Seeks out victims.)

Armour
Orichalcum: +2 soak (Just better than normal armour)
Moonsilver: No mobility penalty (Flows naturally with wearer's movement)
"Jade": No fatigue value (Lighter than other materials? Damnit, they're line troops- it's what they need.)
Starmetal: Attacks versus wearer are at +1 difficulty.
Soulsteel: Subtract one damage from attacks against wearer. (Death energy allows wearer to ignore physical injury. Or something.)

Thundershields
Orichalcum: +2 soak (Absorbs some of the impact that gets past it.)
Moonsilver: +1 cover: 3 total (Shifts to block incoming attacks.)
"Jade": 3 motes attunement (1 mote if the appropriate flavour of jade for the wielder.)
Starmetal: +1 cover: 3 total.
Soulsteel: Subtract one damage from attacks against wearer

Comments

The idea behind the Abyssals getting anti-pips is that the Deathknights are the best ones to have a 'wade through an army' type of motif going and reducing damage after roll by 1 or 2 points does that nicely as they proceed to ignore all those normal human's 1-die pips -- JadeSerpent

Not sure I like these, and I'll explain why:
Weapons: Solars are the generalists. They really are. Orichalcum should improve accross the board. This is doubly true because the +1 in three areas really is better than +2 in one area. By contrast, dragon-bloods absolutely, positively, need speed in order to win. They have very few reflexive defenses, and those they have are almost always full of restrictions. Lunars don't need initiative; in fact, some of their Charms suffer for it. However, they do wonderfully with larger die-pools. Sidereals, meanwhile... boosting damage helps increase the all-or-nothing nature of Sidereal combat. I could see flipping the Moonsilver and Starmetal bonuses, but I don't accept or like the reasoning between swapping around the others. (Also, editing-wise, corrected Moonsilver).

Armor/Bracers: My comments regarding moonsilver and jade stand for the bracers, and their armour is the same. It helps Lunars to have strange ways of gaining soak, and more speed is always good for Terrestrials. I like your Starmetal armor and your Soulsteel and Starmetal bracers, though. Good ideas. (I've always felt that the ping reducer for Starmetal was too strong, especially pre-Power Combat).

Thunderbolt Shields: I get the feeling that you were running out of ideas for here. Sadly, so were the writers of the Thunderbolt Shield. I accept the reasoning behind the moonsilver and the jade, but I'm not a big fan of the others.

Mainly, it's the weapons that I'm twitching on. Good thoughts on the rest. - FrivYeti

The idea with Soulsteel in all cases was that as champions of Death, they should be enhanced by their artifacts in a manner that increases their ability to literally wade through an army of mortals unflinchingly. Being able to knock two damage off all successful attacks means that if a deathknight does try to wade through an army, they will! Cosmetically they still get hurt - it's just that the artifacts allow them to ignore the feeble attempts to fight off Death-Given-Form. TheOneTrueFrancois was aware of the weakness of his starmetal hearthstone bracer decision, everything that I'd transcribed here was literally in his draft of what he'd do to the 5MM. Except turning Jade into Brass. I personally do not think that Brass works as a magical material, even if 'Jade Alloy' is inherently impossible -- what with Jade being a non-metal. As for Starmetal and Moonsilver, in general they were given bonuses that are fluff-wise appropriate, not what is most efficient for their style of charm-use. My personal opinion of Jade are transcribed in a separate alternate 5MM page just beside this one. -- JadeSerpent