FrivYeti/WitsHybrid

Back to The Lunars of Second Edition

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Wits Hybrid Charms

Wits Hybrid Charms let the Lunar shape the way that she sees and reacts to the world. Through these Charms, Lunars can not only react quickly and respond as necessary to changing situations, they can also find connections that others fail to notice, through mystical and natural means. These Charms may or may not be Obvious.

Physical Reactions

Second Mind Understanding</b>

<b>Cost: 3 motes Mins: Wits 2, Essence 1 Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Hybrid
Duration: Indefinate
Prerequisites: Wits Enduring

The character's mind seperates from itself, able to function fully without distractions while the Lunar focuses on other matters. This has two benefits. First, the character may take one mental or social action in a flurry without penalty; it does not count as part of the flurry for anything except determining Speed. Secondly, the character takes no penalties due to pain or distraction to Mental Attribute-based rolls.

Bestial Response Method</b>

<b>Cost: 5 motes Mins: Wits 3, Essence 3 Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Hybrid, Obvious
Duration: Indefinate
Prerequisites: Second Mind Understanding

The character's body warps around her actions, responding and recovering faster than humanly possible. Reduce the Speed of all actions that the character takes by 1 (to a minimum of 1), and add one automatic success to all Join Battle rolls.

Shark Frenzy Technique</b>

<b>Cost: 6 motes Mins: Wits 4, Essence 3 Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Hybrid, Obvious
Duration: Indefinate
Prerequisites: Bestial Response Method

The character becomes a whirlwind of motion, acting with vicious speed and power. The character may, on each of her actions, choose to take one Attack or Miscellaneous action without it counting as part of a Flurry or applying its DV penalty. If she chooses not to take the action, she may instead refresh her DV against a single attack that occurs before her next action. This Charm may not enhance movement or be used for reflexive actions.

Mental Connections

Cat-Balanced Mind</b>

<b>Cost: 2 motes Mins: Wits 2, Essence 1 Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Hybrid
Duration: Indefinate
Prerequisites: Wits Enduring

The character twists and shifts, recovering easily from the worst mistakes. The character cannot naturally botch while this Charm is active; treat all botches as failures instead. If a Charm or effect would cause him to botch, the Charm's user must roll Willpower + Essence at a difficulty of the Lunar's Essence. Note that this does not apply to 'perfect' botch effects such as the Eclipse or Moonshadow Caste anima powers, that channel a force greater than the Exalt using it. Only Charms that cause botches directly can be potentially prevented.

Owl's Wisdom Spoken</b>

<b>Cost: 3 motes Mins: Wits 3, Essence 2 Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Hybrid, Obvious
Duration: Indefinate
Prerequisites: Cat-Balanced Mind

The character begins to see shapes and patterns that she did not formerly recognize. Her newly-acquired insights can prove dangerous, but just as often prove useful or interesting. The player of the Lunar may use this Charm a number of times per scene equal to her Essence score. Each time it activates, the character speaks one true fact about the situation that she did not already know. If the fact is mystically concealed, the Storyteller should secretly roll Wits + Essence against a difficulty equal to the Essence of the concealer. If there is nothing to be discovered, the Charm is still used. The player must activate this Charm at least once per day while it is active; if she cancels the Charm before it has been used, its effects linger and activate at an awkward or inappropriate time later in the day; this can be embarassing, or even dangerous, to the Lunar in question. This Charm is Obvious only while the character is speaking the truth in question.

Scenting the Soul</b>

<b>Cost: 4 motes Mins: Wits 4, Essence 3 Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Hybrid
Duration: Indefinate
Prerequisites: Owl's Wisdom Spoken

The character can, with some effort, find the connections between herself and others. As long as this Charm is active, the character knows the exact distance and direction of any other character for whom she has an Intimacy, or for whom she has purchased one of the following Backgrounds, Merits, or Flaws: Allies, Followers, Henchmen, True Love, Enemy/Rival, or Eternal Vow. If the target does not wish to be found, the Lunar may only sense her if she is within (Essence x100) yards, and even then may only sense her presence, not her distance or direction.

Nature's Beauty, Man's Design</b>

<b>Cost: 4 motes Mins: Wits 4, Essence 3 Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Hybrid, Obvious
Duration: Indefinate
Prerequisites: Wits Enduring

The character's mind expands, becoming a font of understanding and beauty. Every word spoken brims with meaning, and everything that her hand touches is lovely. This Charm adds a number of successes equal to the character's Essence to all rolls made to create something original - Crafts rolls to design artifacts or to paint a masterpiece, Occult rolls to design sorcery, Linguistics rolls to write a beautiful letter, and so on. These bonus successes each count as a single die for the purpose of die-adder caps. If the character is merely reproducing or enacting something, the dice are not added.

Comments

Okay, so I have no idea what to put here. What the hell should Wits Hybrid Charms do?? - FrivYeti

Well, I dunno. So I'll muse for a bit. What is wits? Truly. Well, it's quickness of thought. Ability to handle the unanticipated. The ability to think 'outside' the box. So I'm leaning towards the supposedly 'quick' animals, rather than the standard owl-types. Things that give you near-Sidereal level anticipatory and reactory powers. Things that allow you to change your action after you've declared. (If 1st Ed) or even reduce the number of ticks till your next action (if 2nd). I'm picturing ways of augmenting your creative processes, giving you alternatives to problems that you wouldn't otherwise see. I'm thinking perhaps even investigation-style ability to induce or deduce things. Just some thoughts, possibly helpful, possibly not. -- GreenLantern, trying to be a good wiki-friend

Good thoughts. My only problems so far are that anticipatory stuff got stuck in the Perception tree, and physical reactions are currently over in Dexterity. May have to play with my Charm trees a touch. Investigation is a good thought, though. Thanks for the help! - FrivYeti

Wits I think would tend to have weird stuff. Join battle increases would be one thing. Charms that allow additional mental actions? I can see a tree that allows one to shape the Wyld like a Fair Folk. Possibly stuff that allows some sort of hearts blood effect for ghosts and spirits? Possible one that makes you dematerialized. One that makes you automatically remember Sidereals?(Joking). It's hard to think of stuff that makes sense in hybrid froms. -FlowsLikeBits

Neat ideas, although Wyld Shaping is actually very easy for Lunars; they just need to get a Grace opened, and the Heart's Blood will be popping up somewhere else. *evil grin* - FrivYeti

It seems to me that this could somehow be a place for 'trickster-myth' enabling charms. Perhaps enabling Brer Rabbit to do strange things (stealing tails comes to mind, though how that's a charm I'm not sure) by sheer cleverness, eventually leading perhaps to theft of words and the like? Hmmm indeed. ~WillCoon

Hmm, intriguing... I think those may have to be in the ordinary charmset, though. - FrivYeti

(The following was originally on the Dexterity Hybrid page, but as it regards Bestial Response, it has been moved. - FrivYeti)

Well, Bestial Response I would limit to attacks, etc. Personally, I put a hard speed limit at 3, but that applies to everything. This allows you to get speed 1 attacks with a Jade weapon and Jade Braces. Speed 1 is just wrong<i>. -FlowsLikeBits

Of course, a Lunar with jade bracers and a jade Reaper daiklave is commiting 18 motes to the effect, plus the 4 for Bestial Response, and others can get similar effects with those two artifacts plus a Charm (Solars with Thunderclap Rush and a jade Smashfist, normal Lunars with the Instant Action Charm, and Sidereals with Flight of Mercury.) I would say that if you're putting a Speed houserule into effect across the board, apply it to this effect; otherwise, it seems unfair to limit only the Lunars because of the effects of low Speed. - FrivYeti

I do apply it to everyone.(You can't do it with Thunder Clap Rush attack, as it it's a charm, not an attack.) Wonders of the Lost Age has a 1 dot artifact called a Fivefold Harmonic Resonator that you slap on artifacts and it allows you get MM bonuses, but not double attunement. Go for it if your not having a problem, but don't be surprised when Solars what speed reducing charms.(...I call this charm "c" ) -FlowsLikeBits

As a minor update to this, what I do is. Decreasing the speed of an attack below 3 instead increases rate by 1. This keeps it usefull, but not gamebreaking. -FLB

It might be wise to note that not all botches are treated as failures. Only naturally occuring ones, I'd wager. After all, if this allows you to escape the mandate of Heaven, induced by an Eclipse, well, that's a whole new Realm of game-breaking. -- GreenLantern

ooooh. Good point. I didn't even think of that. *slaps forehead*. Revised to apply partially to any wierd Charms that might pop up (variations on Malediction, say, or some odd Abyssal Charms), but not to protect against Heaven's wrath. ;) - FrivYeti

Owls Spoken Wisdom: Shouldn't the be: A number of times per DAY equal to Essence, rather than scene? It just seems like it could blow mysteries away entirely to easily. Or maybe it should have a per activation Essence cost?

Cobra Strikes Back: Wow. This seems rather nasty, as it removes the need to boost your join battle roll. You just use it, defend against the speed freaks and strike back on tick 1. I'd just make it add Essence in success to join battle or something. FlowsLikeBits

You know what, actually? The more I look at Cobra Strikes Back, the more I think it needs to be an Instant-duration Charm over in the normal Lunar set, rather than a dedicated Hybrid Charm. I think I'll take your advice on Owl's Spoken Wisdom; it was designed so that the ST chooses the revealed secret, making it useful but not disasterous, but I see your point. - FrivYeti

Scenting the Soul seems like a good place to use Intimacies, to keep it reasonable. - Hapushet

True, but I was also thinking of powerful Backgrounds or rivals. I think I'm going to modify the Charm to both strengthen and weaken it. - FrivYeti