SolarArchery/Jabberwocky
Jabberwocky's Firewand Charms
As most things I do, these were inspired by a character of mine who carried a firewand, to little effect. Likewise with most things I do, said character never actually put the Charms to use.
The tree's intent is to parallel the Brawl tree like Archery could be said to parallel Melee; as such, the emphasis is on high damage, and a wide berth of effects, which branch off in two seperate directions. The tree may ramble slightly further than it may need to, but there is, nevertheless, fairly little crossover between the mechanics of Charms, which are designed to be comboable to horrifying effect.
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http://webpages.charter.net/Wocky/exalted/solarfirewand.gif
Firewand Acclimation Prana</b>
<b>Cost: 3 motes Duration: One day Type: Simple Min. Archery: 1 Min. Essence: 1 Prereqs: None
The Exalt handles her firewand and powder, ensuring that they are in working order. While she does this, Essence inlays itself with the critical workings of her equipment, ensuring that it will function regardless of later treatment. The firewand and any powder the Exalt carries with her are protected from the elements for the next day; general moisture, torrential downpours, or even an extended swim will not inhibit the firewand's functionality, though the device still requires some air in order to combust; neither will firedust be inadvertently detonated or inhibited. Both the firewand and powder can still be lost or destroyed by gross physical damage, but will otherwise always function when necessary. The firewand must be in working order before this Charm may be activated.
Intuitive Reload Technique</b>
<b>Cost:2 motes Duration: Instant Type: Simple Min. Archery: 2 Min. Essence: 1 Prereqs: Firewand Acclimation Prana
A preternatural motion readies a firedust volley and looses it in the blink of an eye. When using this Charm, the Exalt reloads intuitively before firing, rather than needing to spend a turn preparing. This Charm may be comboed as though it were of the Reflexive type, allowing it to compliment additional Charms.
Swift Fingers Shot</b>
<b>Cost:1 Willpower, +2 motes per volley Duration: Instant Type: Extra Action Min. Archery: 3 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: Intuitive Reload Technique
Essence dances on the fingers of the Exalt, whose motions blur in the moments between firey blasts. The character may purchase attacks up to her Wits to be used in the turn of activation, at the cost of 2 motes for each attack.
Charge-Repelling Retribution</b>
<b>Cost:4 motes Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Min. Archery: 3 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: Intuitive Reload Technique
In a ready position, a character uses the range of his weapon to counter a blow before it strikes. This counterattack is activated before an opponent's attack roll is resolved. The enemy's may abort to parry or dodge as normal, but if he chooses to continue the attack, any minuses accrued from damage from the blast are taken into account; if the damage incapacitates the opponent, the attack does not occur. This Charm is named due to its usefulness in inhibiting calvary charges. Oftentimes, the noise and heat of the blast are enough to test the training of charging horses past their breaking points. The firewand must be loaded (or loaded immediately prior by a comboed ammo-loading Charm) for Charge-Repelling Retribution to function, and this Charm may not be used in response to another counterattack.
Arrow-Consuming Cover Shot</b>
<b>Cost:5 motes, 1 Willpower Duration: One turn Type: Simple Min. Archery: 5 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs: Charge-Repelling Retribution
The firewand is shot into the air, where firedust infused with Essence lingers and burns away at any projectiles that pass through it. Arrows and other distance weapons aimed at a region within Archery yards of the character are buckled from their course, or burnt away completely, subtracting Essence successes to hit anyone within the Charm's range.
Blinding Flare Method</b>
<b>Cost:4 motes Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Archery: 4 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs: Charge-Repelling Retribution
The flare of a firedust attack augmented by this Charm is particularly startling and disorienting to the target. Mechanically, an opponent targeted by a supplemented attack is at a dice pool penalty of the attacker's Essence for the remainder of the round, and twice that is subtracted from their initiative the following round. If an opponent is reduced to zero initiative, they may only take defensive actions, as the lingering aftereffects of the blast subside. A shot using this Charm counts as the character's Essence in automatic successes towards disrupting the use of Sorcery (Exalted, p. 217).
Brilliant Solar Shot</b>
<b>Cost:3 motes Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Archery: 5 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs: Blinding Flare Method, Swift Fingers Shot
The Exalt's mastery of firewands is now such that she may load pure Essence into her weapon. The character may activate this Charm up to her Essence times per round, enabling her to fire a brilliant white volley of flames without needing to load firedust. This attack does a base damge of 10 + the character's Essence, and is highly effective against servants of darkness, doing aggravated damage to the undead and Abyssal Exalted.
Twisting Gouts of Fire Technique</b>
<b>Cost:1 mote per 3 dice exchanged Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Archery: 2 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: Firewand Acclimation Prana
Flames seem to snake unnaturally slowly between targets, and reach for their intended targets with licking, malevolent fingers. The character may exchange damage dice for accuracy, investing 1 mote for every 3 dice exchanged (-3 damage, +3 accuracy for this particular attack). She may trade in her entire damage pool, if she so chooses, creating menacing gouts of flame which might prod at joints in armor or seep between cracks in floorboards, but strike almost cool to the touch. The character may only gain accuracy dice when an equal amount of damage dice are sacrificed. A portion of the dice traded from a mote may be withheld, if the character chooses, but a full mote must still be paid (ie A character might only with to gain +4 accuracy, but she must still spend 2 motes to do so.).
This Charm also allows the user to explicitly select targets; if any allies are within the range of the blast, they can be excluded from the damage, as the gout twists around them to find its intended targets.
Fiery Knockback Attack</b>
<b>Cost:2 motes Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Archery: 3 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: Twisting Gouts of Fire Technique
Following an attack, the burst of a firewand sends an opponent hurling backwards, flames licking across their body. If an opponent susceptible to knockback is hit with an attack supplemented by this Charm, they are knocked back a number of yards equal to Essence + the successes-to-hit following any attempted defense. If they encounter a solid object in mid-flight which inhibits their journey, they take bashing damage equal to the remaining yards that they would have traveled.
Barricade Decimation Assault</b>
<b>Cost:4 motes Duration: Instant Type: Simple Min. Archery: 3 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs: Fiery Knockback Attack
The character fires her weapon a short distance from a solid object, the force of its fire shaking the very foundations of the target. This Charm must be used against inanimate structures, and triples the damage the character does, calculated after successes-to-hit are added, but before the object's soak is applied. If a reasonably-sized structure takes damage exceeding the Dexterity + Athletics of anyone standing atop it, those characters must roll their Dexterity + Athletics at a difficulty equal to the number of points of damage that exceed their Dexterity + Athletics pool size, or suffer knockdown. What constitutes a reasonably-sized structure remains in the hands of the Storyteller, but should be an issue of common sense: if a castle wall buckles underneath the blast, those on top of the wall should be forced to roll, but those in the dining hall on the other side of the courtyard should likely be exempted. Likewise, one cannot aim her firewand at the earth and attempt to knock down everyone in Creation (although passing Creation's soak may prove a large enough deterent to prevent that!).
Flesh-Searing Shot</b>
<b>Cost:1 mote per 2 dice Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Archery: 3 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: Twisting Gouts of Fire Technique
The firewand's volley burns white-hot, as Essence suffuses it to horrorific conflagration. Every mote invested adds 2 damage to the attack. The character may invest up to her Archery in motes to power Flesh-Searing Shot.
Unrepentant Flames Attack</b>
<b>Cost:4 motes, 1 Willpower Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Archery: 5 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs: Flesh-Searing Shot
Flames grow hungry, and stick to the flesh of a target, burning deeper until they are finally extinguished. Dice of damage from attacks supplemented with Unrepentant Flames Attack are applied again each round at the same initiative they were inflicted, as fire lingers until forcibly snuffed. A character afflicted recieves an extended reflexive Dexterity + Resistance roll each turn on their initiative to smother the flames, and may also elect to dedicate their action for the same purpose; each success on these rolls reduces the damage reinflicted each round, until the inferno is reduced to nothing.
Unbearable Scorching Strike</b>
<b>Cost:2 motes per 1 damage Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Min. Archery: 4 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs: Flesh-Searing Shot
The searing pain of a character's successful attack is assured when augmented by this Charm. Each mote spent powering this Charm removes one die from the final rolled damage pool, and counts it as an automatic success; these may still be lost to soak, but the rolled pool is removed before automatic successes are subtracted. The character may spend up to her Essence in motes powering this Charm.
Dawn’s Scourging Might</b>
<b>Cost:6 motes, 1 Willpower Duration: One scene Type: Supplemental Min. Archery: 5 Min. Essence: 4 Prereqs: Unbearable Scorching Strike
Some amount of Essence-enhanced fire will always pass through an opponent's armor, leaving deep burns on less-defended portions of their body. For the remainder of the scene, any attack that hits an opponent will always have at least the character's Essence in damage rolled. The touch of the Sun in such volleys makes it a bane to those of the Underworld; against the undead and Abyssal Exalted, this minimum damage is instead automatically inflicted.
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Comments:
Unrepentant Flames Attack - Is that damage dice or levels which are repeated every turn?
-- Darloth
- Ah, dice. Quick hack to correct that. I think these are the first Charms I ever wrote, and they're clearly not the quality I'd like them to be. They should and eventually will be rewritten from the ground up. Also I should standardize my moniker, but that can wait. _Wohksworth
