Arafelis/SteelDevilStyle

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Steel Devil Style
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Pre-requisites: Two Shafts of Sunlight Technique, Ready in Eight Directions Stance

Description: Wrapped in hazy contrails of red-gold Essence, a character activating this Charm takes on the aspect of a vengeful spirit. Her posture is one of lethal grace and she seems to react almost before a blow strikes to lash out with a counterattack.

Effect: The character may make a number of counterattacks per turn up to her permanent Essence, as per Solar Counterattack with one exception. If the character also parries the attack she is countering, any successes beyond those needed to reduce the attacker's roll to zero are added to the counter-attack roll. Besides the counterattack effect, the character also reduces the penalty incurred by taking multiple actions by her Essence (but not beyond 0). This stacks with Dual Slaying Stance if that is also used. Characters may not use any Extra Action-type or counterattack Charms while they benefit from Steel Devil Style. Also, characters must have one weapon in either hand to use this Charm, and its effects are suspended in any turn this is not the case; however, even if they wield only one weapon, they must terminate Steel Devil Style themselves (a reflexive action) in order to activate an Extra Action or counterattack Charm.

Comments

I almost want to make this count as a Form-type Charm, as well. - Arafelis

I'm not terribly sure I like this. It's essentially committing 5 motes and a willpower for 3 or so counterattacks. Given the cost of Solar Counterattack, I think you're probably better off unleashing that a couple of times per round and stunting the Essence back than expending power on this sucker. Yeah, I know it reduces multiple action penalties (but only by three, which isn't that hot) but it also eliminates your ability to use extra action charms while you're at it. It seems markedly weaker than the published charm, although with a much lower cost. Suffice to say I liked the original Essence 5 Solar Melee Monster trick, and am much less fond of the Essence 3 Solar Nifty ability. -Oberndorf

The original has been eratta'd. You are of course free to use it as you will, but it now properly reads (as per the changes in the Exalted Player's Guide), "A character may not counterattack through the use of this Charm more times per turn than their permanent Essence." The original also forbid extra action Charms. This version no longer grants a free automatic parry, but the character is assumed to already have much of the Melee defensive tree. Note that "Character's permanent Essence" is a variable- you're not limited to three, that is simply the bare minimum you will benefit from with this Charm. - Arafelis notes that as Solar Counterattack costs 3 motes per counter, meaning two counterattacks over the course of twenty minutes will cost more in motes than Steel Devil Style- a persistant reflexive.

On re-reading your note, I'm a little confused- Do you realize this is a reflexive persistant? One will reap up to Essence counterattacks per turn, not Essence per 5 motes spent. - Arafelis

Oh, I certainly realize that it's a reflexive persistant. I'm just noting that you're spending a (fairly critical) willpower and five motes to get 3+ counterattacks per turn. Moreover, to then stack a persistant defence (FFBS, for example) costs another five motes and a will. That's already three counterattacks and two willpower, all of which are committed for the scene. Meanwhile, using Solar Counterattack, if I'm clever I can get at least 2 motes back per counterattack, possibly more, and none of my counterattacking motes are committed.

My real objection is that you've taken a charm that required one power-up turn to gain defense and counterattack and replaced it with a charm that takes the same power up turn to grant only the persistant counter, and another turn to lay down the defense. I feel that this reduces the power of the charm rather dramatically, as well as forces me to buy an extra charm to gain the same effect. Since the Solar charmset was already starting to feel a little outdated, I think cutting one of their best defensive effects down to size isn't particularly helpful. Also, I checked on the charm and since original SDS only had an Essence 4 prerequisite, I think this is an ever harsher reduction in power. My two cents, of course. - Oberndorf

I'm sorry, but I don't follow; how are you gaining Essence back without Comboing Solar Counterattack with another Charm? If you're suggesting performing a stunt with every single Solar Counter, even if your ST conceedes and grants a 1-die bonus to every counterattack stunt, you'll still be losing 1 mote per counter and be unable to use any other Charms every turn (unless you Combo and spend much more of your fairly critical willpower). -Further, as a reflexive, this doesn't take a power up turn in the same fashion as it used to... you get a 'free' action or reduced penalties on more and your counterattacks the same turn this comes into effect. If one wished, one could Combo this Charm with FFBS, paying 10 motes and 3 willpower (2 of which are comitted) to have your free autoparry, autocounter, cheap split, AND still take your actions that turn. Finally... FFBS notes that it is explicitly capable of blocking any attack with a physical component, even normally unparriable attacks. SDS, as written in the Castebook, does not grant such explicit protection (and without explicit exceptions, one should assume the standard rules cover). All in all, it is better, defensively speaking, to use FFBS and also (a reflexive) SDS.

Note that I'm not unwilling to change the Charm. I am reluctant to do so without a good case for increasing its power, however... or adding yet another Simple power-up to the (as noted) 'increasingly outdated' Solar Charm Tree. I've seen too many cases of the Solar power-up dance. - Arafelis contemplates an Ess 4 9m1w Reflexive

Actually, if you used Solar Counterattack three times in a turn, you've spent 9 motes. Even if you muster a three-die stunt for that, you've lost 3 motes. While stunt dice apply to every action in the stunt, the Essence reward doesn't function as a discount, it's a simple 2, 4, or 6 mote reward given once per stunt. Also, Arafelis, you couldn't Combo SDS with 5FBS - both are non-instant. Oberndorf, the Willpower cost isn't as steep as you might think - remember that two- and three-die stunts can recover Willpower rather than Essence, and that the Willpower cost of a Charm isn't committed, unless the Charm explicitly states otherwise. - David.

I'd actually thought that stunting each counterattack (assuming a one-die stunt every time) would get you two motes back per counter. You can't keep stunts like that up for long, but it should cut into the expenditures long enough to grind down people who are poking at you.

As far as the willpower committment goes, I'd simply misread the rule. Sorry about that. Still, my ability to toss off stunts pretty well runs dry at the one-die level, keeping willpower an expensive option. Combined with the need to drop two willpower charms instead of one, that makes this modification particularly expensive. Especially since I'd seen SDS as a fairly good way of shutting down spam attacks. Taking two charms to do that cuts down on the effectiveness of the technique.

Also, I'd entirely forgotten about the unusual properties of FFBS-given parries. I'd gone through the charms and simply thought the phrase in FFBS was another example of the "can even parry arrows too" phenomenon that came up in a couple of the charms in the book, as noted in the official errata. That's what I get for reading too quickly. - Oberndorf (rewriting my reply for clarity)

You can't stunt every counterattack, though. You could stunt every turn, but that's just 2, 4, or 6 motes per turn, so using multiple Solar Counterattacks can lead you to hemmorage motes. This version of SDS is less powerful than the one that appears in Castebook: Night, yes. It's also a little less potent than the revised SDS from the Player's Guide. However, the Essence requirement is lower. I don't know where it falls in Arafelis's revised tree to know how in compares in number of prerequisite Charms, though. - David.

Following the top link toArafelis/SteelDevilStyleRevision will take you to the tree. You're completely correct about the no-Comboing thing... forgot about that. Heeh. All Charms in the tree are intended to be cooperative rather than competitive (a Charm that negates the need for or is incompatible with its predecessors is a 'competitive' Charm tree). - Arafelis