CrownedSun/AnimaFlares

Anima Flares

I've long looked at the various rules for the Anima Powers of the Solar Exalted and other types, and thought that they could use a bit of tweaking and playing with in some ways. Most of them are fine, mind you, but I'm never entirely happy with something until I've made my mark on it. So, thus, my own versions of the Anima Banners.

Key to this effect is the idea that Animas have a few basic effects. Solars and Abyssals have the most effects, while Lunars and Sidereals come in next. Dragon-Blooded have the weakest animas, befitting their nature as the weakest of the Exalted. The Solars possess three basic types of animas; Bright Flares (expensive powers), Dim Flares (cheap powers), and Glows (free abilities common to the caste; the Solar/Abyssal Exclusive type).

Anima Flares are ALWAYS visible, even if personal essence was spent. However, they are typically not as long-lasting and obvious as a full blown anima banner or castemark. They have no effect on charm-use per turn.

The Solar Animas

• Dawn Caste
  • Awesome Presence costs 10 motes, and is the ability listed in the core book. The victims roll valor, but the resistance roll varies between extras and normal characters. If the extra fails the valor roll, he surrenders or flees or otherwises gives up totally. If he succeeds, he still suffers from a -2 to his rolls. A normal character has no effect on a success, except to be intimidated (roleplay it), suffers the -2 on a failure, and only runs away on a botch.
  • Unassailable Aura costs 1 mote per opponent, the Dawn's full martial rapport is aligned against the foes that he is facing and he can better defend himself against them. He gains a single die to any defensive action against these opponents. This die cannot be used reflexively; it can only add to an already extent defensive roll. This die can add to any roll whose purpose is essentially defensive, protecting the character from the actions of one of the marked individuals.
    • Warriors of the Sun can learn combat combos cheaper than others. For every 5xp that the combo costs, subtract 1xp. The Dawn always saves one xp minimum on any combat combo.

• Zenith Caste
  • Heaven's Wrath costs 5 motes per target, and allows the Zenith to smite a single creature of darkness. The targeted creature takes a number of unsoakable dice of damage equal to the Zenith's Essence score; Deathlords and Abyssals can soak this damage, but are otherwise affected by it normally. If the Zenith spends 10 or more motes, his anima functions as the Awesome Presence flare of the Dawn Caste -- except only against creatures of darkness.
  • Consume the Fallen costs 1 mote per corpse, and allows the Zenith to burn the bodies of the dead as described in the corebook. This power does not require touch, but all bodies must be fairly close to the Zenith.
    • Priest of the Sun reduces the difficulty of all Divine Intervention rolls by 1, on top of any other modifiers from Sacrifices or abilities. In addition, Zeniths recieve infrequent advice and lore from the Unconquered Sun.

• Twilight Caste
  • Shield of Light costs 5 motes, and allows the Twilight to absorb some of the damage of an attack. The Exalt rolls his Essence score, and each success he achieves cancels out one inflicted level of damage. The Twilight can use this power even after the damage dice have been rolled, if he chooses to do so.
  • Torchbearer costs 1 mote per student, and makes the Twilight Caste among the best in passing along lore and information. When this power is in use, the Twilight gains a number of extra dice to any roll to pass along knowledge, lore or learning. In addition, he suffers no ill effects from a botch in such a roll and can try again as necessary with no penality on a failure. If a Twilight has the time to devote to the task, he can teach someone to do something!
    • Scholar of the Sun gives the Twilight an extra success on any roll involving his memory, provided that the Twilight rolls at least one natural success (this will not prevent him from failing). The minds of the Twilight caste are sanctified and empowered by the Unconquered Sun.

• Night Caste
  • Veil of Shadows is the '+1 difficulty to see, track, etc the Night' from the Corebook. The base cost for this power is 5 motes, which is doubled to 10 if the character uses Periphereal Essence to pay for it. You CANNOT use this ability and have your anima flare, so if you use Periphereal Essence you have to pay ten motes.
  • Muted Anima is the 'pay double for periphereal essence' power from the Corebook.
    • Eyes of the Sun can ignore one botched or failed roll per story, rerolling the dice in question. The Unconquered Sun empowers them with utmost care and caution. This roll has to be of some importance to the Night's survival.

• Eclipse Caste
  • Oath of Heaven costs 10 motes, and a willpower to seal an oath. The Eclipse can seal a verbal oath with an Essence roll (difficulty 1) if he pays 5 additional motes, which does not require the touch of his hand. Oaths are not given lightly around the Eclipse Caste, though this power will not allow him to 'sanctify' completely frivolous oaths that are only mentioned in jest.
  • Ancient Pacts costs 1 mote per member of circle, envoloping them in the same Ancient Pacts that protect you and calling on the Dead, the Fair Folk, the Gods, and the denizens of Malfaes to honor their ancient oaths with the Solar Exalted. So long as those protected do not cause any difficulty, they are protected. This power only works on the Exalted; anyone else in the Eclipses' company is unprotected. The Circle can 'take revenge' on any harm done to unprotected parties in their protection without breaking the oath, however. The Eclipse has to spend at least one mote to activate this power to protect herself; this power can be used reflexively, at any time.
    • Heralds of the Sun gives the Eclipse caste flexibility, allowing them to learn the charms of other Exalted. The XP cost of the charms is doubled, and the Eclipse pays double the mote cost of any charm when using it. Other costs of the charm are unaffected. Some charms, such as Lunar Shapeshifting, are off-limits even with this ability.

Lunar Animas

• Full Moon
  • Body Attunement costs 5 motes, and is identical to the anima power in the Lunar book.
  • Lunas' Passion and Fury costs one mote per subject, giving the Full Moon a number of extra dice on all Presence rolls to inspire emotion or intmidating equal to his Essence rating. It also prevents the negative effects of a botch, when it is activated, provided at least one mote has been spent; this power cannot be used /after/ a botch, to negate it.

• Changing Moon
  • Veil of Illusion costs 10 motes, and is identical to the anima power in the Lunar book.
  • Luna, the Shifting Lady allows the Lunar to more casually change his form, allowing him to assume the shape of any animal in his library as a reflexive action rather than a simple one. This doubles the cost, from 3 motes to 6 motes.

• No Moon
  • Moon Sorcerer gives the Lunar an innate connection to the energy of sorcerer, making her one of the most efficient and casual users of magic in the world. Some lunars theorize that this power comes from their gods' close association with Gaia.
    • (Sorcery); the cost of this power is variable, equal to at most Essence x2 most. This is the anima power from the Lunar book.
    • (Thaumaturgy); this is a thaumaturgy boost, but has no system as of yet because I can't think of one.
  • Luna Hides Her Face costs one mote per subject, giving the No Moon a number of extra dice on all Stealth rolls equal to her Essence rating against those people whom she hides herself from. It also prevents the negative effects of a botch, when it is activated, provided at least one mote has been spent; this power cannot be used /after/ a botch, to negate it.

Sidereal Animas

• Chosen of Journeys
• Chosen of Serenity
• Chosen of Battles
• Chosen of Secrets
• Chosen of Endings

Comments

I assume that you want comments. I've been looking for something like this for the solars. I've made my own, but you have also included the fluffy stuff, and beautiful names to them. I like this very much. However, I have some questions about some powers. The Unassailable Aura, does it apply for dodge as well despite it being a Night Caste skill? I'd consider restricting this to apply only on the Dawn caste skills. The same goes for the Eyes of the Sun. It really is applicable in Willpower and Essence rolls as well? When I saw the title, I thought it was mainly for awareness rolls..Is it possible to use this on damage rolls? Plausibly, dealing enough damage could be a prerequisite for survival in many situations.

Also, I'd make one change though, which is completely of personal opinion. I don't like the fact that Eclipses have such superior anima powers compared to the rest. Some say that this is a justification for the poor caste skills. This is rubbish in my mind. Storytellers should have games that really make use of Eclipse skills. Also, I find it funny that the Twilights do not know how to learn the others' charms. I'd swop the Heralds and the Scholar powers. Alternatively, I'd let the Eclipses learn spirit only, whereas the Twilights can learn them all. -Clebo

Do you intend to extend these for Sidereals and Alchemicals? I'd like to see your thoughts on Dim Flares for Sidereals...I suppose that Alchemicals already have a Dim Flare mechanic in their Attribute-juicing ability. - willows

Good stuff! I may consider integrating these rules into my current campaign. BTW, the Torchbearer flare doesn't specify how many dice it adds, and I have no idea under what circumstances you need to roll to teach someone something - is that in the corebook somewhere? - Quendalon

Once I have a little inspiration, I'll think about doing Sidereal flares. Good point about Torchbearer, I've not been very happy with that one for a bit but it works. I think the dice are basically just a 'better at training people in general' effect, but I'm not entirely sure. A more concrete answer would be good, but I'm not sure I want just an xp break or anything like that. Maybe some kind of training-time thing? I went and changed the Zenith power to be correct, though -- it said 'dice' instead of 'corpse'. --CrownedSun

Should Moon Sorceror provide a bonus to thaumaturgy? - Quendalon

This is certainly possible, but how would this bonus work? The bonus given for sorcery certainly doesn't work, after all, and I'm not immediately thinking up of a good bonus. I haven't completely absorbed all of the Thaumaturgy material, however, so maybe someone who is more familiar with it could give me a few ideas. *sets a placeholder for the other ability*

An idea that struck me while reading these is to have the powers that are not listed in the books have prerequisites. For example, perhaps Unassailable Aura only become available to Dawn Caste solars with a Presence of three or more. Such prerequisites could be used to increase the number of available anima flares possible for characters, without giving them to all characters of that caste. It also provides a way to balance the flares, giving the more powerful effects higher requirements. This could also be used to provide additional perminant abilities to the caste as they improve. For example, perhaps Twilights with an Essence of four or more have their training times reduced by 25%. Wordman