DarkheartOne/RakshaCombat

RAKSHA FIGHT!

They are beasts of madness and fantasy. They are often far above and beyond the physical, mental and social capabilities of even the Chosen. They seem to almost evoke an aura of deadliness and suchlike nastiness.

They are Raksha, and they are not as massively good at actual fighting as they would seem.

CHAPTER 1: The Good, The Bad, and The Fair-y

Boiling down the good and the bad of raksha capabilities is pretty simple. Allow me to demonstrate.

• GOOD: The Raksha (at least Nobles) start with pretty sick Attributes.

If you're aiming to make a fighty-type, you will always need a base of Physical-primary. And here you go! Three dots to start in each, 10 to spend, none higher than 7. Scary stuff at first glance, yes. And second. And third. And so on. Anyway, I habitually choose 6 Strength, 7 Dex, 6 Stam... because DEXTERITY IS EVERYTHING. Anyway.

• GOOD: The Raksha (again, Nobles) start with sexy Abilities, too...

... but only to an extent. You don't have *alot* of dots to work with, but you can easily work up a Favored skill to 7 without really trying too, too hard. For doomfaerie, you want your prime combat stat and Dodge HERE, fived-out. If allowed by your GM, you can sneak in a couple buys of the Prodigy Merit to make two more Abilities Favored at chargen because... shit. Free dots! Can't beat that!

• MOSTLY GOOD: The Raksha have access to some damn fine 'normal' armor.

Gossamer armor is a thing of beauty. No mobility and fatigue penalty means that there's a very good incentive to invest in Gossamer 4 or 5 just to get some superheavy^H^H^H^H^Hlight (tm Rebecca Borgstrom) gear.

• GOOD: Mutations are your Wyld-spawned friend.

Raksha can work mutations however the hell they want in themselves (to some extent, as far as I can tell), so you can turn normally ugly-making mutations into works of art while keeping their awesomeness. Mutations are a quick-and-dirty way to acquiring some quick boosts, and one mutation in particular is veeeery nice to have; the Tough affliction. Say hello to a physical stat-boost and full-Stamina lethal soak!

• GOOD: The Style background.

Giving yourself stunt dice Just Because is nice. Even if it's one die in Creation, it can make all the difference when it comes to quick-and-nasty mote recovery after you've blown your shaping action for the scene doing something else awesome.

• SEMI-GOOD: Behemoths and Adjurations are also your friends, buuuut...

GOD, do they have costs. Behemoths have some hefty mote-commit costs, and Adjurations take motes as well as drop mutation points. You can have someone handle your Behemoth for you, but then it relies on their stats, which might not work out how you've planned. Still, an extra badass monster, especially 3+ Behemoths.

As for Oaths, they're neat. You really can't avoid the costs, but if you manage to work your way to a 5-dot (through acceptance, theft or unshaped-fuxxoring) they're rather nice to take along, what with the mutation-cost compression.

• GOOD: Bastion of the Self (Sword)

If they can't stunt or use charms, they cannot touch you with killing bits. If they can use charms or stunt, there's still a +2 diff roadblock in the way. Useful, perhaps even as a mutation.

• AWESOME: Grace of the Infintely Revolving Spheres.

It takes two Sword charms (which are okay in their own right, but are nothing special) to get to it, its requirements are surprisingly low, and it allows you to basically split your NORMAL actions five times with no penalty.

I imagine you can see why this is an impressive little trick. It's no reflexively perfect parry, but it can save you metaphysical bacon if you play your cards right. Really worth it as a mutation.

• GOOD: Dirty Invocation tricks.

Got some tough servants you made on a whim? A behemoth without an Assumption effect? Have this really cool castle that you wanna drop on your opponent? A storm of razored ice-crows? Invocation is the way! It lets you summon a possession that could normally not withstand Creation and use it as you see fit for a story. This can lead to all sorts of direct options, as well as use for tipping a battle in your favor. The cost can add up if you draw down multiple things, but they at least remain for a while.

• FUN: Environmental penalties, and nickle-and-dime dice penalties in general.

Raksha have a fair number of tricks that can drop enviro-penalties (and general dice penalties) on... and it should be noted that these things, in generally, are not glamour and generally can't be avoided. Again, it can be costly, but inflicting a enviro-penalty equal to your Essence on one disapproved action can make a difference for high-Essence raksha. You can only improve normal actions up to your highest feeding Virtue, but only Power Combat rules dictates dice removal.

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• BAD: HOT SHIT COLD IRON WHAT THE FUCK.

Not common, no. But if one manages to anger someone who knows you're raksha and is experienced enough, they will try to bring the iron. Unless you're the smart sort that decides to PARRY LIKE A BITCH, there's a fair chance that iron will make you dead.

• BAD: "... what do you mean I don't have any reflexive defenses?"

Another killer, even though you do have one. Unless you bother to try for Martial Arts (an undertaking in itself), you're in a bit of a bind. Even if you can parry like mad without charms, essence ping becomes a problem. Throw in iron, and suddenly you habe a major issue. Defining the Parameters of Battle is there, buried in the Sword Combat charms, but it has the old glamour limitations, and has to be fueled by gossamer, which can be a problem if you're a bit dream-poor.

• RATHER BAD: The Essence Problem

Raksha have an essence pool of perma-Essence times 10.

That's it. (Barring custom charms.)

Pretty much all the useful combat abilities (Imposition of Law, Bastion (Sword), some Ox-Body and what not) cost both motes, gossamer and occasionally Willpower. Making some of these mutations fixes the problem, but gives you a new one to the tune of the Mutation + Essence cap. Any sane person building a fighty-raksha will give them Willpower 10 ASAP, but you nonetheless have a Mut+Ess cap at 14, so you have to juggle a bigger Essence pool with gossamer-and-WP thriftiness. Not a fun juggle, no.

The only immediate (and free) way to handle this is to stunt and Style like a motherfucker and pray your succeed. This helps nicely in Power Combat, and can help alleviate the mote lackage.

• BAD: "... and no normal action dice-adders?! COME ON!"

Yep! No blatant ones, anyway. And even if you did have them, you can't add any more than your highest feeding Virtue. So, basically, on the level of the DB limitations... assuming you HAD dice-adders.

CHAPTER 2: Builds, Builds, Builds

• Bruce Lee with Long Ears and Tye-Dye Clothes (MA-freak)
• A Tornado With A Weapon Attached (Melee and Grace of the Infinitely Revolving Spheres)
• Ask Ketchum, Pokemon Master (Behemoth[s]!)

Yelling, Screaming, and Virtue-Eating Goes Here

Yep. Comments. -Raksha Boy

You can build some Raksha who can do some really obscene things, and it's really easy to make a starting build which will eat mortals for breakfast on a vast scale. It seemed like most Exalted would end up eatign them for breakfast, though. --JohnBiles

Actual usuable combat charms make all the difference in the world. I'm monkeying around with an MA raksha, and while she's not amazingly deadly, she'd tear open alotta low-level Exalts, if not essence-bled or jabbed to death with iron. MA is the only real route you can go for persistants and reflexive defenses, until someone with some real skill homebrews up a cool thing. --DarkheartOne

There is one reflexive defense, but unfortuately it requires a gossamer for each parry, which isn't going to be useful in the long term, negating its use as a persistent. -Talion

Yep! Even then, Defining the Parameters of Battle has that DAMNED, DAMNED glamour catch. Unless you build a Stamina-monster, it's not going to work against a tough, wily and experienced Exalt... or even an awakened mortal. Otherwise, it's a sexy trick if you have the gossamer to spare. --DarkheartOne

You haven't mentioned the dodgiest mutation of all, essence channeler. Can a fair folk take it to increase their essence pool? Can it be used to enhance artifacts? Is it worth it? All these questions and more await the dedicated mutation twink. Also while I'm on the subject, have you considered the powerbow and its advantages with a high level Behemoth. -Talion

No one can take Essence Channeler. It doesn't really exist. You were just seeing things. Move along now, move along... Dasmen

Also on reflection, I don't see any mention of the mighty dice penalty effects which a raksha can stack up against their foe. Combined with something like Ebon Shadow Form or Snake Form the penalties can really stack up. -Talion

You do indeed have a point! Well, this thing's due for an update soon anyway, now that I have my faerie mojo back in force. Thanks for the suggestion! -DarkheartOne

When you update it, I suggest posting it to the FairFolk page because it's quite useful to read over, and should probably be linked there, even if you don't want to relocate it to a communual project.
-- Darloth

Don't forget Invocations; they allow immediate access to anything you have stored, including fun stuff like random created beasties and hazards. The cost is pretty steep (10 motes! Arrgh!), but the effects can be widereaching and not everyone has easy access to effects that stop environmental damage. -LeSquide

And 1 gossamer. But yes. One of my players asked a couple of days ago if (theoretically) you could use that to summon an entire forest of glass trees above a city and then just drop them. Probably not, but I'm sure you could if you had a rain of glass spikes to hand, or anything else equally unpleasant.
-- Darloth

Invocation allows for very dirty tricks, yes. Or, hell, if your ST allows it (the rules of using normal possession-summong are a tad contradictory, so I'm not 100% sure about this; anyone can clarify?) you can make a shaping effect, trap it with Dream Sheating Technology, and summon it normally into even Creation, as it's a 'real' thing, even if it only adds enviro-penalties. I'd allow raksha to summon and banish gossamer-made things in Creation, fyi. -DarkheartOne

I have always found the Air Dragon Path to be a supremely usefull ma for rakshasa, not in part due to the signature weapon that they can take singularily good advantage of. -Batorn

I'm running mine with Celestial Monkey, mainly for the persistant defense and the pinnacle, but I've found that I've got an awesome combo-weapon in Tiger and Bear Unity. Nothing says loving like letting some fool blow his charm uses for the turn, then whacking him with seven guaranteed successes. :D -DarkheartOne

One thing that would be nice to see here: when forced into normal combat, how do Raksha make best use of their one shaping action? - Wordman

Huh! You have a point there! I'll ponder that and see about whipping up sme option, as there's alot you can do, depending on what your needs are. -DarkheartOne

In the mean time, I'll mention a few. First obviously the shaping action can be split, which helps, although you have to be careful.

• Invocation: Assuming you can afford it, use something like elemental invocation to summon some possesions. Invocation is an instant, supplemental so you can happily split your action to summon all kinds of things in one go. Also I should point out that none of the invoked items will go away until the end of the story. Somtimes not such a good thing in the case of the first item.
  • Some land. You can get them in 30 mile diameter portions. Nothing says go away like summoning it between you and your foe.
  • Two-dot hazards or dice penalty inducing effects. The Glittering Desert for example (E:FF p39).
  • Creatures. Who says Tyrant Lizards don't fall from the sky in creation?
  • Mutated creatures. Shaped-Forged battle summon.
  • Vehicles. According to Principle of Worlds at least (probably not warstriders).
  • Enchanted possessions. Why just summon a creature when you can summon a mutated creature with a persistent shaping effect on it?
  • Wyld Artifacts. The Artifact Waypoint is the only relevant one in the book.
  • Behemoths. Tyrant Lizards are just mook clearing weapons after all.
• One of the many charms that target the creation-born. For example Undetectable Lie and Beguilement (both instant, supplemental for those with gossamer to burn). Alternatively why not blow your action on Forging The Sword Grace and make a weapon out of your foe.
• Transient Work of Flesh and Bone can create level 1 artifact behemoths you know (or 500 extras). Mainly for use against extras though (Wits+Essence vs Valor is not a good bet).
• Defining the Paramenters of Battle. If your going down that route anyway, how much difference will one more gossamer make?
• A mutation charm. You've got to activate them at some point right?

That is pretty much all the ones that I can think of. -Talion

In the book, there seems to be a distinction drawn between shaping actions taken for narrative purposes (to, say, alter the environment) and shaping attacks. There are two different sets of rules for how these kinds of actions affect creatures from creation. The shaping combat section is pretty clear on how shaping combat is resolved when used against creation-born. Other parts of the book (namely "Effects of Reality Shaping" on pg. 134) suggest that there are other ways to shape than shaping combat, and that this type of "narrative" shaping primarily works on creation-born by subjecting them to evironmental penalties. These rules are not the most clear, particularly in regards to how charms that protect from the Wyld work (or not) against them, how normal and shaping combat interact in this context and how such actions differ when used in the Wyld vs. in creation. (I play it this way.) The point I'm getting at here is that I believe that raksha can use their shaping action to, essentially, force creation-born to conform to a fantasy environment or take environmental penalties (and probably spend Willpower). - Wordman

First of all the I should point out that I was focusing on a Raksha fighting in Creation. As normal shaping doesn't work inside Creation (see p134 "Shaping In Creation"), their options are more limited. In the Wyld, they can happily use shaping actions against those not properly protected. In order to understand how wyld protection works, the important thing is to understand what counts as a permanent glamour. This is a little unclear, but if you look up Translucent Dream Sheathing Technology (p182) you'll notice that it allows the creation of permanent glamours. As far as I can tell at least this doesn't entirely prevent narrative effects though. A raksha couldn't turn a protected character to stone, because that would involve warping reality inside their bubble of protection. They could make a spear 5 miles long and have it pierce a protected character though. This wouldn't need to result in the character escaping local reality to continue acting though. They could instead simply perform a stunt to escape. This is because stunts, Charms and shaping actions all warp reality. By stunting the character is accepting that the 5 mile spear is real, but telling reality how they got out the way or were too tough to be stopped by it.

To illustrate what I mean I'll use an example. Let us say that an essence 2 Solar is wondering in the Bordermarches with Integrity-Protecting Prana active. An essence 3 raksha decides to attack. He splits his shaping action into two, the first action he descides to use elemental invocation to summon a real tyrant lizard 3 yards away from the solar (if he had tried within 2 yards he would have failed). Secondly he uses on a shaping action describing how it begins to rain tyrant lizards, their weight crushing everything not a tyrant lizard in their path, including the Solar. In order to do this he needs to make an invocation roll at difficulty 3 with a -2 multiple action penalty and a shaping roll at difficulty 3 with a -3 multiple action penalty. Now lets say the tyrant lizard gets to act first. It rushes over and attacks, forcing the Solar to abort to some kind of defense. Now we have the matter of the shaping action. The raksha gets to choose when it takes affect, so he could wait a few turns and wait for the right moment, but as it happens the Solar doesn't have an action free so this is a good time to use it. Now the Solar has a choice, if he has a reflexive charm that can deal with the problem (a dodge charm say), then no problem, he can simply activate it and he avoided being crushed by tyrant lizards. If not his only option is to ignore reality. He needs to make an easy perception+awareness roll (although if he failed he would have to play dead while the real tyrant lizard ate his soon to be corpse) and then spend a willpower as this is the first violation of local reality but after that he can happily continue his battle, although with a -3 penalty to all his actions. If he had had an action free on the other hand he could simply describe how he took a deep breath and blew all the tyrant lizards away (except for the real one of course) to stunt away the problem.

Hopefully that is accurate. - Talion