MartialArts/BeastDragonStyle
Beast Dragon Style
By Shakenzerite
Background
Beast Dragon Style was created in emulation of the “earthly dragons” of Creation – the great scaled beasts that inhabit rivers, marshes, the various depths of the great oceans of the west, and in the forests and mountains as well. All those great reptilian animals are taken as an ideal for the indomitable strength of one over all, great predators that can keep all in line with their equally great appetites. Followers of Beast Dragon Style are the warriors that take on troops of enemy soldiers and walk all over them, as well as the ones that can creatively apply their abundant brute force in a surprisingly creative variety of ways. Thus, while the practitioners of this style may be blunt, they are actually rather versatile.
Equipment Usage
Beast Dragon Style utilizes no particular set of martial arts weapons. This style's Charms may be performed in armor.
Charms
Ominous Behemoth Presence</b>
<b>Cost: 3 motes Type: Simple Duration: One Scene Min. Martial Arts: 3 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: None
Falling into a fearsome-looking, looming stance, the martial artist also limbers up and becomes better able to resist the attentions of a large group of combatants. For the remainder of the scene, he needn’t worry about combat penalties due to being surrounded or for fighting multiple opponents.
Sliding Predator Charge</b>
<b>Cost:3 motes+ 1 mote/die Type: Supplemental Duration: Instant Min. Martial Arts: 3 Min. Essence: 2 Prereqs: Ominous Behemoth Presence
Many are the flesh-borne earthly dragons that slide towards prey. Those of the sea, marsh, river and even the rare gliding ice dragon of the north literally do so, gliding towards their hapless prey as a giant, reptilian otter, while those of the forest free-fall and pounce like wolverine, and those of the mountain can cause rockslides as they speed toward prey. The martial artist trains in emulating all of these, making an unrestrained charging attack. The kata of the charge is enhanced by Essence such that it allows the martial artist to move his entire allowance (at least half), ignore happenstances of movement in the attack that would foul it, and strike as accurately as a dragon plucking prey off the water’s edge. Environmental and movement penalties are negated, and the player may roll one extra die in the martial artist’s attack for every extra mote spent in the attack. This allows the martial artist to fall any distance from a tree or high ledge and come out unscathed, but only if sizing up the pounce and attacking a living being in the process.
Beast Dragon Form</b>
<b>Cost:6 motes Type: Simple Duration: One Scene Min. Martial Arts: 4 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs: Sliding Predator Charge
Adopting the fearsome guise of the great reptiles of Creation, the martial artist becomes as deadly as a massive beast with an inner drive to match his great and majestic size and strength. This drastically increases the strength of his hand strikes and general brute force, as the martial artist’s Strength is increased by his Essence rating. He also gains Hardness equal to his Martial Arts rating; if he already had hardness from soem other source, it explicitly stacks with Hardness gained from this Charm. This is a form-type Charm, and cannot be used with other form-type Charms.
Crashing Monster Impact</b>
<b>Cost:5 motes, 1 Willpower Type: Simple Duration: Instant Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs: Beast Dragon Form
Drawing back and concentrating on his strike, the martial artist may hit with the power of a many-ton predator, focusing Essence into the blow so that it can blast back and ruin anything that the Exalt hits. This allows the Exalt’s damage to be doubled before soak, or tripled, if striking a man-made object.
Drawing Vacuum Breath-Trap</b>
<b>Cost:5 motes, 1 Willpower Type: Extra Actions Duration: Martial Arts turns Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs: Beast Dragon Form
Mimicking the action by which some of the aquatic and marine dragons open their maws to draw prey in, the Exalt may draw back and expect his enemies to come to him – whether they wish to or not, if the martial artist has a powerful enough command of Essence to pull his foes off their feet. Drawing into an open stance with lightning speed, all those within an area equal to a corridor the martial artist’s (Strength + Essence) yards long and (Essence) yards wide are drawn forward unless they can make a successful opposed test of their Strength + Athletics versus the Martial Artist’s Strength + Martial Arts (with a number of automatic successes equal to his Essence rating). Those that do not successfully beat the Martial Artist’s successes are drawn forward into his grasp, where he may attack them. Those that make their roll may stand their ground. The martial artist may gain no more attacks than 5 plus his Essence rating.
Snapping Mayhem Attack</b>
<b>Cost:5 motes, 1 Willpower Type: Extra Actions Duration: Instant Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min. Essence: 4 Prerequisite Charms: Crashing Monster Impact, Drawing Vacuum Breath-Trap
Drawing upon the mob-ruining might of titanic predators, the martial artist may scythe down groups of opponents with all speed, much as how a many-ton River Dragon is quite capable of fitting an entire fang of soldiers down its gullet. The martial artist makes an attack against a target as normal, but this attack is also made against all those within the martial artist’s Essence in yards, treating the first target as the center point where a huge reptilian beat would have crunched down on a group of prey. One attack roll is made and applied to all those who have at least an arm in the effect sphere. Defense rolls are made independently for all the characters so attacked – those that succeed do not suffer the attack, while those that do not are mauled as appropriate. This Charm allows a martial artist to deal lethal damage with bare hands.
Pain-Ignoring Discipline</b>
<b>Cost:6 motes Type: Reflexive Duration: One Scene Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs: Beast Dragon Form
With the cold fortitude of a thick-skinned reptilian predator, the martial artist may, as he fights on, ignore the impediments of injury. This allows him to ignore not only wound penalties, but also numbing effects such as the solar Medicine Charm Touch of Blissful Release, as well as Charms such as Snake Style’s Crippling Pressure Point Strike and Ebon Shadow Style’s Paralyzing Touch Attack.
Malady-Overcoming Assault Method</b>
<b>Cost:6 motes, 1 Willpower Type: Supplemental Duration: One Scene Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min. Essence: 3 Prereqs Charms: Beast Dragon Form
While the world may attempt to bring down the mighty with subtle poisonings and cunning envenomations, or with the specter of disease, martial artists trained in the ways of the Beast Dragon are not so vulnerable as the rest of the world, and may fight the contaminations that afflict them as easily as if they were foes to be devoured, striking against the afflictions as they strike against the enemy himself. For the duration of the scene in which he implements this Charm, the martial artist may apply the result of a Martial Arts attack against the virulence or morbidity of a disease or the resistance difficulty of a poison as if it were the Stamina + Resistance or Endurance roll to avoid the effects or stay alive and recover. Against Third Circle spiritual illnesses of the Citrine Poxes of Contagion, the successes are halved, but may still be applied. The attack from which the successes derive hits and damages the opponent as normal.
Tough as the Sea Meditation</b>
<b>Cost:6 motes, 1 Willpower Type: Simple Duration: One Scene Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min. Essence: 4 Prereqs: Pain-Ignoring Discipline, Malady-Overcoming Assault Method
Attacks that pass through the ocean are weakened and fall, more or less impotently, on the hide of the great beasts that live there. Invoking a stance that calls the currents of air and water to whip and flow around the martial artist, he may stand against even that which can produce great injury and emerge unscathed from the cloud of the strike. For the scene in which this stance is kept, all attacks against the martial artist invoking the Tough as the Sea Meditation have a number of health levels equal to the martial artist’s Essence rating subtracted from their rolled value after soak. If reduced to 0 health levels, then the attack is completely nullified.
Supping on the World Technique</b>
<b>Cost:10 motes, 1 Willpower Type: Reflexive Duration: Instant Min. Martial Arts: 5 Min. Essence: 5 Prereqs: Snapping Mayhem Attack, Tough as the Sea Meditation
The dragons born of the world as all other creatures are have a well-deserved reputation for keeping other forms of life in check… with their appetite. Concentrating upon this trait of the hungry beast dragons, the martial artist may “devour” the Essence of an opponent or Charm, or even spell as it is being cast, and gain it as his own. This is made as a standard attack – made against Charms, it has a difficulty equal to the Minimum Essence of that Charm, while spells have a difficulty of 3 + the circle of the spell being cast, and if the martial artist waits until the Essence is shaped, then he suffers the effects as he gains the Essence, assuming he channels the energies properly. Against other living or undead beings, Supping on the World Technique provides one mote of Essence for each health level inflicted. This Charm also does Aggravated damage when used against such beings, and can permanently put down spirits, who are justifiably wary of masters of Beast Dragon Style.
Comments
This Style is *very* cool, major props. But Drawing Vacuum is overpowered. If I'm reading it correctly, anyone in that range who fails their roll is subject to an attack provided by the Charm. This could easily allow you to get a huge number of attacks. While it's very cool and very thematic, I suggest moving it up the tree a bit. And you probably want to tweak your Form to give soak instead of hardness. Small hardness values aren't that useful. - Telgar
Tweaks: reminded the user of the style that armor is usable, reduced range of DVBT and put cap on how many attacks could be gained (number is based off of the amount of people that could normally surround someone, with adjusting for the power of the Exalt in question) - Shakenzerite
