MartialArts/PrimordialTigerStyle

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Background

Primordial Tiger Style
This Style is not applicable with armor. Treat attacks with Tiger Claws as unarmed attacks for the purposes of charms in this style.

History
Practiced by Elder Solar and Lunar Exalted in the First Age, who favored the ferocious and deadly movements of the Tiger, but had outgrown the original Tiger Style. The idea for this style was originally developed by Thinker but later rewritten for balance and flavor. A few of Thinker’s original charms are still present but reworked. The only known practitioner in the Second age is the Night Caste, Nadia, known for her viciousness and ability to move unnoticed it is debatable whether she gains her reputation from the style or the style from her. She is however an exemplar of the basic tenets of the Tiger Style in almost all ways: straight forward, impatient, casually cruel and fiercely confidant of victory.

Style

The Tread in the Wake of Predation</b>

<b>Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Tiger Form

Such is the force and strength of the Martial Artist's Blows that they reverberate in the essence of creation. Each hit holds so much power that when struck it radiates out from the point of impact in waves of concussive force, like dust from the impact of a great paw. As such on a successful strike the Martial Artist’s strength is applied as bashing dice to everyone in 10 feet. This damage ignores armor.

Celestial Beast Claws</b>

<b>Cost: 20 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Tiger Form

Focusing the power of their Essence through their hands in soul shattering levels of power the Solar Exalted changes the base damage of any unarmed Martial Arts attack. For the remainder of the scene each of the exalts successful unarmed attacks also does aggravated damage equal to her MA score. This damage is soaked separately.

Feline Hero Swipe</b>

<b>Cost: 10 motes
Duration: One Action
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Ok
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Celestial Beast Claws, The Tread in the Wake of Predation

Pouring crushing amounts of Essence through their hands, the character enhances each and every unarmed attack they make during the turn that it is activated in. Attacks made enhanced by this Charm are so fast a vicious that against them an opponent cannot apply dodge or parry DVs. An opponent’s DV can be raised again with an appropriate charm to add DV or Dice.

Joyful Animal Abandon</b>

<b>Cost: 1 willpower, 1 health level
Duration: One Scene
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Tiger Form

Nothing is crueler than a cat at play, or more innocent. There is a lighthearted viciousness in the inevitable blood splatter. The madness twinkling behind instinctual eyes delights in gore, warm blood, the eventual kill, and playful carnage these are the things that wake a predatory god. While active the Martial Artist gains Essence from bloody carnage, for each health level that the stylist inflicts they regain Essence motes up to Essence*2. In such a state blood droplets fly from the Martial Artist after quick movements, dried blood cakes their nails, their eyes slit, a feral snarl touches their lips, teeth sharpen, and their habits take on a decidedly instinctual bent.

Invulnerable Tiger Hide</b>

<b>Cost: 10 motes
Duration: Essence Actions
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Obvious
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Tiger Form

The character takes on the aspect of the great beasts that roamed creation at the dawn of all things and hardens their skin to immensely strong proportions, making her Bashing Hardness equal to her Bashing soak and converting any Lethal damage to Bashing after soak, unless the attack could damage one of the magical materials.

Crouching Defensive Stance</b>

<b>Cost: 10 motes
Duration: Essence Actions
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Invulnerable Tiger Hide, Joyful Animal Abandon

The Exalt drops into a defensive stance, and activates this Charm. It lasts up to the Exalts Essence in turns as long as they take a full dice action each turn to maintain it. This only counts as Charm usage in the turn that it is activated and other Charms may be used to take actions, so long as the Character uses a full action each turn maintaining the stance. Maintaining the stance is a Martial Arts action. As long as the stance is maintained they are well nigh invulnerable, as if they had activated Ironskin Concentration against each and every attack made against them. Instead of Stamina + Resistance the defender rolls Stamina + Martial Arts.

Primordial Tiger Form</b>

<b>Cost: -
Duration: N/a
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Crouching Defensive Stance, Feline Hero Swipe, Angry Predator Frenzy Style (All of Tiger Style)

Allows an additional 10 motes and 1 willpower to be spent when activating Tiger Form. In which case the practitioner gains the following benefits as well.

Adopting the pose and attitude of the Primordial predecessors to the lesser creatures that man calls Tigers in the Age of Sorrows they become nearly invulnerable to damage, and capable of nearly unlimited amounts of death-dealing. The Character under the effects of this Charm may add PE to their natural Aggravated soak, and gains the benefits of Invulnerable Tiger Hide and Feline Hero Swipe each turn. Primordial Tiger Form is an extension and modification of Tiger Form.

Characters may only use a Single Martial Arts Form Charm at a time. If another such Charm is activated while the Primordial Tiger Form is active then it is immediately canceled and replaced by the new Charm.

Lustful Rage Incarna</b>

<b>Cost: -
Duration: N/a
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Primordial Tiger Form

This charm is a permanent modification to the charm Angry Predator Frenzy Style, once purchased the extra actions from that charm are converted to independent actions. The animalistic fury and rage boiling forth from the practitioner finally overflows, such an individual takes on the mien of a Lustful Rage Incarna. Their eyes glint with a chaotic madness, full of bloodlust and vicious joy, lips up-turn in a self-assured smile and partial snarl, muscles flex and tense anticipating slaughter. Then the blood storms, flesh shreds and through it all she laughs at the eye drinking it in, in vicious and gory glory.

Terror Stalking Beast</b>

<b>Cost: 10 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Primordial Tiger Form

A quiet and dreaded presence on the periphery of awareness, the stylist is like unto a dark hunting cat of old, those which stalked their titanic prey over land, wind, and sea; always harrying, always just far enough away so as to not be anywhere. Terror, fear, sweat, blood and satisfaction follow in the wake and as forethought to the every movement of the practitioner. While this charm is active the Martial Artist may make an unarmed Martial Arts attack against anyone within Essence*5 yards. Such an attack adds the Martial Artist’s Martial Arts score to its raw damage.

Tiger to Prey Approach</b>

<b>Cost: 10 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Ok, War
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Primordial Tiger Form

Like the great beast playing with its prey, chafe falls before the stylist’s blows, casual and bloody carnage radiate out from them. Such is the awesome power of each movement, each terrible gesture that a strike from a stylist utilizing this charm causes the primary target to be driven back. Everything within a 45 degree arc behind the target takes half the original raw for Essence in yards, the next Essence yards takes half the previous raw. This continues out until the damage halves down to 1 raw damage. While halving damage round down. Subsidiary damage is lethal or bashing depending on the original source, never aggravated.

When utilized in a mass combat situation this charm triples rolled damage.

Guise of the Great Beast Within(Guise of Man)</b>

<b>Cost: 10 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping or None
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min. Essence: 5
Prerequisite Charms: Lustful Rage Incarna, Terror Stalking Beast, Tiger to Prey Approach

Those rare few practitioners who have mastered the Primordial Tiger Style learn to internalize the Ancient power and instinct of the great beasts. Fewer still, those true exemplars of the style would refer to the pinnacle technique as the Guise of Man, for they were in truth no longer men hiding as or passing for beasts, but beasts passing for men in only the loosest sense. Masters of the Primordial Tiger Style may allow their rage to externalize itself or to internalize itself. When externalized the practitioner takes on the form of their instinct, a great tiger coloured mostly of the practitioner’s magical material and stripped in the colours of the user’s anima. This is usually referred to as the Guise of the Great Beast Within. When this power is internalized the technique is referred to as the Guise of Man. The practitioner maintains her human form but the stress of millennia of constrained instinct takes its toll and it is in this form that masters are the most bestial. The two forms can be switched between but it takes a simple action to do so. When purchased the Martial Artists get the common effects from the charm and may choose 3 more of the 6 possibilities. The drawbacks are associated with the given effect and for the most part only come into play when utilizing the charm as Guise of Man.

||Common Effects||Guise of Man Drawbacks|| ||+1 strength, +2 dexterity, +1 stamina
*Crimson Leaping Cat becomes a non-charm action.
*Claws can be absorbed into the body and drawn reflexively, this effect is permanent.
*Negates the commitment on claws, while charm is active.
*If one doesn’t have MM claws, one’s claws or hands add the MM bonus for the exalt type and do lethal.
*Natural Animals treat the user as the largest predator in the area.||Roll temperance at a difficulty of 1 after 1 day. This difficulty goes up 1 each day to a maximum of 3. This is rolled whenever Guise of Man is used for 2 or more scenes or hours in a given day. If the roll fails the user must hunt and kill a person nearby. || ||Choose 3 of the following 6|||| ||*Extra successes count double for determining damage.||The Practitioner can’t channel compassion or temperance.|| ||*Add Essence points to Physicals, these points are divided up with strength and stamina costing 1 and dexterity costing 2. These are set once purchased.||The Practitioner must eat some of whatever they kill.|| ||*May spend 1 mote to add Essence successes to hit after comparing DV.||Claws extend, Fangs develop and lengthen, and eyes slit whenever the Practitioner becomes agitated.|| ||*Instinctual Awareness- may reflexively roll Perception + Awareness at a difficult of 6 to be aware of everything within Perception yards.||The Practitioner loses rule of 10s on intelligence based rolls.|| ||*Charms of the Tiger and Primordial Tiger style of longer than instant duration have a 2 mote reduction in cost.||The Martial Artist must hunt her own food or she can’t regain willpower.|| ||*Martial Arts + Survival points divided between the practitioner’s soak values. This must be decided upon purchasing the charm.||The longer Guise of Man is maintained the more instinctual and feline the Practitioner becomes.||

Comments

Overall, awesome. I particularly love the pinnacle. However, a question and a concern about Celestial Beast Claws:

• Question: What is this "Cherry Blossom Cinders" charm? It's not part of Tiger Style.
• Concern: 20m1w and all it does is lethal to most, agg to CoD? Way overcosted. I suggest 5m and no wp cost.

- IanPrice

Awesome, thanks for the comment...was concerned about the reception of the pinnacle charm, but really liked the way it turned out. As for Celestial beast claws I'll fix that when I get back to my computer...I was copy pasting the formating and apparently forgot to switch that one from the phoenix charm raising phoenix strike. -Orphen

Quick question on The Tread In The Wake Of Predation - are these dice applied automatically, without defences? I know it's finickety, but it might be more effective against stronger foes to just hit the ground instead and so ignore their DVs. This isn't a Charm flaw but it did strike me as odd...DeathBySurfeit

Wow lots of comments, yeah I had intended that. Its similar to the water dragon charm rippling water strike. The water dragon charm can do a lot more damage that way though. The damage can be perfected against but otherwise it is automatically applied against the targets soak. -Orphen