DBSInfernalExalted/Melee

Melee Charms

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Lead the Dance

• Cost: 3 motes per die
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Supplemental
• Minimum Melee: 2
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: None

Swinging her weapon in arcs as beautiful as they are deadly, the Infernal draws her opponent into a beguiling and beautiful dance - one that she leads. As her opponent's strokes become designed to ease rather than block her own movements, the Exalt may steal die from her opponent's Melee pool to add to her own. She may not steal more dice than her unaugmented Dexterity+Melee pool.

Arm for a Hand Technique

• Cost: 1 mote, 1+ Lethal health levels
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Supplemental
• Minimum Melee: 3
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Lead The Dance

Slashing her free wrist with her weapon, the Infernal blesses her blade with her own sufferance and malice, the gore smoking away in an irridescant crimson. Should the attack hit, the Infernal's strength is multiplied by (1 + health levels spent) for the purposes of determining damage. An Exalt may not spend more than their Essence in health levels this way.

Icon-Toppling Attitude

• Cost: 3 motes per die
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Supplemental
• Minimum Melee: 3
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Arm for a Hand Technique

The Infernal focuses her disdain of greatness about her weapon, charging it that even the mightiest foes might feel her pain. If the blow is successful, every 3 motes of Essence spent by the character adds one to the minimum dice rolled after soak (normally one or zero, depending on whether her foe has hardness). The character cannot purchase more minimum dice than her permanent Essence.

Deja Fu Incantation

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Extra Action
• Minimum Melee: 3
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Lead the Dance

The whistling of the Infernal's weapon through the air and wind through her lips becomes a jarring chord, and the Exalt's attack splits into two before joining once more in her foe's flesh. Make two attacks against the same opponent, and each may be defended against normally. Only roll damage once, however; the total net successes of both attacks are added to determine the damage for this. This means that unless both attacks are reduced to 0 net successes, the attack will hit.

Unfurling Karmic Strike

• Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Extra Action
• Minimum Melee: 5
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Deja Fu Incantation

The Infernal shouts, her voice splitting into a thousand different notes as she blossoms outward into many replicas, each bringing their weapons to bear in a different arc. The Exalt makes attacks at her full pool equal to her Essence, each against the same opponent. Total the net successes of each attack and use this number to calculate damage with.

Chimes In The Wind

• Cost: 2 motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Reflexive
• Minimum Melee: 3
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Lead The Dance

With this Charm, the Infernal can turn a foe's defences against him. As her opponent brings forth a parry, she lets her own blade be stopped - but with a twist on causality and a ring like two chimes meeting, her opponent's weapon flies back at him with the same momentum. Activated immediately after a parry is declared, Chimes In The Wind reduces the basic pool for the parry (before Charms) to 0. This has no effect on perfect parries, as they do not need to roll. This Charm cannot be activated more than once for each parry attempt.

Tolling Bell Reflection

• Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Reflexive
• Minimum Melee: 3
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Chimes In The Wind

As her foe bring her weapon up in defence, the Infernal meets it, the two ringing together with a low rumble. The momentum of her blow is not stopped - her foe's weapon shakes heavily, and in a moment the ringing passes to her opponent's arm, stripping away flesh in the process. This Charm negates any parry before it is rolled. Perfect parries are unaffected.

Turning Hatred's Gaze

• Cost: 2 motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Reflexive
• Minimum Melee: 3
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Lead The Dance

As the foe's weapon is thrown from his own, the Infernal imbues it with a fragment of his spite. This Charm may be activated after the Infernal has fully parried an attack; that attack is then redirected onto a new target, with attack successes equal to the extra successes on the parry. Otherwise, the redirected attack is identical to the original attack, including raw damage, supplemental Charms and other such effects. This Charm cannot redirect a character's blow upon themselves.

Malice Weaving Deflection

• Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Reflexive
• Minimum Melee: 3
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Turning Hatred's Gaze

The Infernal's weapon rips through the air, harnessing the vigour and hatred behind the initial blow to propel it inexorably onward. This Charm functions as Turning Hatred's Gaze, save that the redirected attack retains all its original successes (the Infernal's own parry successes are not added to this total), and this Charm may be used to redirect an attacker's blow upon himself.

Fulcrum Of Agony Stance

• Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Reflexive
• Minimum Melee: 4
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Malice Weaving Deflection

Slicing into the fabric of fate itself, the Infernal cuts a furrow through which all wrath must follow. This Charm perfectly redirects any attack, even those normally impossible to parry, toward another target within its initial range. This target may be the attacker themselves. The attack must be a deliberate assault, and not simply an environmental hazard; this Charm requires harmful intent to function.

Expendable Weapon Approach

• Cost: 1 mote
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Melee: 2
• Minimum Essence: 1
• Prerequisite Charms: None

Should her weapon fall out of her grasp, the Infernal need only make a sigil of spite and the weapon will melt away into metallic ichor. The pool of liquid metal flows along the ground, up any available surface and to the Exalt's hand, at which point a new, identical weapon is formed from the flowing substance. Whilst the reduced weapon can flow across all surfaces and traverse walls and ceilings, it cannot escape line of sight or travel across gulfs.

Bronze Lotus Desecration

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Supplemental
• Minimum Melee: 5
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Expendable Weapon Approach

The character utters a prayer to the Yozis, and her weapon becomes a blasphemy against the forces of heaven. It deals aggravated damage against gods, elementals, celestial Exalted and other such creatures of heaven. If it reduces them below Incapacitated they are destroyed utterly, their inner Essence curdling into destructive energy until nothing but fine bronze dust and noxious green vapour remains.

Rip The Nails

• Cost: (Weapon's Damage + 3) motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Melee: 3
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Expendable Weapon Approach

With a disdainful gesture, the Infernal causes blossoms of verdigris to appear across any weapon in line of sight. The character makes a Dexterity + Melee check at difficulty 3. If successful, the weapon moulders away to green rot and blobs of molten metal, irreparable. This Charm cannot be used against weapons made of the Five Magical Materials, or against ones made of Essence.

Sever The Wrist

• Cost: (Weapon's damage + 3) motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Melee: 5
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Rip The Nails

Inciting runes of decay with a flick of the wrist, the Infernal can attempt to cause the Essence around a weapon to betray its owner. The tainted energy clouds and becomes visible as a oily miasma before dissipating away, and the weapon is deattuned (if made of one of the Five Magical Materials) or destroyed (if made of Essence). The target can counter this effect by reflexively spending the Essence required to attune or create the weapon, respectively, to bind it once more.

Gaping Hand Concealment

• Cost: 1 mote
• Duration: Indefinite
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Melee: 3
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Expendable Weapon Approach

The Infernal opens up her palm to reveal an intricate pattern of deepest green. If one of her weapons is touched to the sigil, it corrodes away and sluices through the pattern-portal into Elsewhere. When the character reflexively ends the charm, the slag pours out of the rift and reforms once more into the weapon. This Charm can only banish a single weapon at a time.

Birthing Wrath's Child

• Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 Lethal health level
• Duration: One Scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Melee: 4
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Gaping Hand Concealment

The Infernal plunges her hand deep within her belly, withdrawing it clasped about a warped weapon forged of hateful Essence, smeared with blood and bodily fluid, slowly curling and flickering in her grasp. It is her ideal weapon - upon purchasing the Charm, she chooses the appearance of it and may divide points equal to three times her Essence between the weapon's Speed, Damage, Accuracy and Defence statistics. She may avoid taking the health level by having another creature birth the weapon, who must be either willing, unconscious or restrained (a character in a clinch or hold is considered restrained for the purposes of this Charm). This stand-in takes the health level instead.

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Feedback

Ditto on the supplemental use/extra cost of the Birthing Wrath's Child charm (see archery, Gut-Strung bow) - I liked the -other- method of passing a perfect defense, but I really dislike your parry-negator. It shouldn't work on perfect parries... the debate about 'over-perfection' has been done before... and making it reflexive is a little weird as well. Surely it's supplemental? You can always state it can be activated just after a parry... Perhaps it does something else when hit with a perfect defense, such as negates it -unless- the target pays Melee + Essence motes... or something like that. The flavour text suggests it might do damage anyway... The cost is right, but a perfect-negator is never a good thing in my opinion. Perfect defenses should stay that way... You're creative, find another way of getting around it, like the archery one! (Which was great)
-- Darloth

• Arm for a Hand Technique: This practically guarantees incapacitation on any foe with sub-Orichalcum Sheathing Stance soak, for the nominal cost of about 3HL and an attack dice-adder. I think this is too strong. (Consider that the Combo with the previous Charm can easily guarantee a ten-success attack that ignores a parry...this is probably better than a Combo of three Essence 3 Solar Archery Charms.)
• For Whom: This thing you have about defeating perfect defences...no. Bad.

- w

Ditto solution on BWC (attack option removed), and the FWTBT Charm has lost its ability to negate perfect parries. The AfaHT was mechanically inspired by an earlier Infernal rules set, although the name and description has been changed - now, there's an Essence cap on the health levels lost to balance things out. I was not aware of the ix-nay on erfectattacks-pay, but have implemented all the changes required to accomodate this. Thanks for the feedback, but please be polite...DeathBySurfeit

Perfect Attacks are fine in and of themselves, no problems. However, it's game breaking to have Attacks that Trump Defense. No Perfect Attack in the game can do that, and the developer has spoken that Defense is designed to be stronger than Offense. So, a Perfect Defense is to be left as Perfect. Of course, it's your game and you may deviate from the norm in any ways you wish. I love the flavour of your Charms even if I don't

Is that supposed to be Deja Vu Incarnation or is the title really as amusing as I think it is? :p ~ G

Is there something wrong with Deja Fu Incantation? -Suzume

Touche. ~ G

Deja Fu Incantation is deliberate, yes...DeathBySurfeit

- Put the charmtree image in for you. - trithne

While I like the style of the charms, especially the flavour txt, I think a number of them, mainly those noted above, are much to powerful.

Arm for a Hand - Nothing more to say than has already been said, you need to rework this. Hungry Tiger was quite powerful enough without the upgrade.

Chime in the Wind - Compare this with Five Shadow Feint (abs. p167) That costs 1m per dice reduction, and has an additional disaddvantage when being used with the dice boosting charm. Your equivalent here totally eliminates the pool for only 2m and has the same prerequistits.

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Better with the added willpower cost, but still does a little too much. Maybe it should reduce the dice pool to the targets essence.

Bronze Lotus Desecration - Should be costed closer to Ghost Eating Tech @ 5m.

- On another note, where as the total destruction of an essence should be possible where ghosts/gods/deamons are concerned, it should not be possible to totally destroy the essence of an exalted, purely for thematic reasons, if it where possible the Sidereals would have ended the Solar essences perminantly. Maybe the essence could be corrupted instead?

Birthing Wrath's Child - Hello people? Why are there any complaints about this charm? Its thematically, dramatically and mechanically brilliant. If anything I think its a little under powered, I'd change the restrained restriction to, "requires an attack roll", but maybe that would be moving into brawl a little? I can just see one of my ST infernals (apparently unarmed) reaching into the guts of a PC's beloved/mentor/father as they charge up the steps to the alter/monastry/ancestrial home! Shining Mongoose

Thanks for the feedback. On second consideration, I've found a way to rebalance AFAH to my satisfaction; hopefully it is to yours also - see above. With regards CITW and FWTBT, defence-negation is a major Infernal schtick, one that they've sacrificed fully perfect defences and parry Charms for. These Charms are their compensation. Concerning BLD, I'd taken the persistence of the Exalt-shards themselves as a given, but will clarify accordingly. Glad you liked BWC; I do too. But why require an attack roll when the subject is already willing or restrained?...DeathBySurfeit

So you can use it against unwilling, unrestrained targets. Like, say, in battle. -- Will

Hmm. I'll have to think on that one...DeathBySurfeit, who miscontrued the tone and thus intent of Will's post at first

BWC is born from things such as X. Consider that, in X, there's a scene where the antagonist who'se name I forget grabs one of the characters, holds her and proceeds to extract his sword from her gut, That might be his intention. I think that perhaps, should "restrained" be considered to include someone who has been held in a clinch by the infernal herself? - Trithne, who is going to make that charmtree image smaller.

Sounds good to me. Clarificated! ...DeathBySurfeit

I'd kind of like to see an Infernal suddenly dodge an attack, jab his hand into his opponent's gut, and rip out a blade... ~ Manu

Have you considered giving BWC weapons bonuses based on who they're drawn from? Perhaps +1 damage if drawn from someone close to target, +1 acc if drawn from target themselves, little things, like that. Or maybe Essence-score based. But anyway, just a minor suggestion ^_^
-- Darloth