SolarResistance/Moxiane

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Moxiane's Solar Resistance

Shield Augmentation

Arm Calls the Shield

Cost: 3 motes
Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Min. Resistance: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prerequisites: None

The bond between the character and his shield grows, and reaches the point where the Exalted can call upon his shield no matter where it might be, as it flashes through the strange realm of Elsewhere to appear, already bound and strapped, on the character’s arm. The character may also banish the shield he is currently wearing into that emptiness, there to remain until called, for the same cost. Much as with Buckler-Summoning Gesture, the shield must be unquestionably the character’s shield, this Charm will not work on one just salvaged from a battlefield.

Glorious Solar Aegis

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Type: Simple
Duration: 1 scene
Min. Resistance: 4
Min. Essence: 2
Prerequisites: Arm Calls the Shield

By calling upon the power of the Unconquered Sun the character can forge a shield of pure Essence, created to be the character’s ideal shield, and usually incorporating the sign of Sol Invictus in its design. This shield is quite potent, providing increasing the difficulty of attacks (ranged and close) against the character by 2, while only having a mobility penalty of -1.

Escutcheon-Bolstering Prana

Cost: 4 motes / +1 difficulty
Type: Simple
Duration: 1 scene
Min. Resistance: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prerequisites: None

The character focuses protective Essence onto his shield, causing blows that would normally slide past the defence to impact solidly into it, guarding the Exalted from harm. For every four motes of Essence the character expends on this Charm raise the defensive bonus of his shield by 1 against both ranged and close attacks, up to a maximum increase of his permanent Essence. The character must be using a shield at the time that this Charm is used, and should the character be parted from the shield before the end of the scene the Charm’s effects end.

Invincible Deflection Technique

Cost: 4 motes
Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Min. Resistance: 4
Min. Essence: 3
Prerequisites: Escutcheon-Bolstering Prana

Essence floods into the character’s shield which almost of its own volition moves into the path of an incoming attack, becoming capable of withstanding almost any attack for the instant of its strike. Upon being attacked the character activates this Charm which instantly reduces the number of successes of the attack to zero – this is a cover bonus, and as such works against attacks that cannot be dodged and/or parried. Attacks which ignore cover, however, are immune to the effects of this Charm, as are attacks that will still strike with 0 successes. The character must be using a shield and the attack must be one that the shield could normally be affect for this Charm to be used.

Terrible Wrath of the Defender

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Min. Resistance: 5
Min. Essence: 4
Prerequisites: Invincible Deflection Technique

The character who learns this Charm builds upon his knowledge of the Invincible Deflection Technique, and rather than merely being able to deflect all but the most puissant attacks it can now strike back at the attacker, in direct proportion to the assault. This Charm is functionally identical to Invincible Deflection Technique except when used against a close combat attack – in this case the Charm inflicts dice of damage (the type matches that of the attacker’s weapon) upon the attacker equal to the number of successes he scored prior to the use of this Charm, as well as knocking the attacker back a number of yards equal to half this amount (rounded down). This damage can be soaked normally.

Any-Direction Shield Method

Cost: 1 mote
Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Min. Resistance: 3
Min. Essence: 1
Prerequisites: None

The protection that a shield provides is potent, but limited – an attack from behind the shield-bearer can bypass it, rendering its defensive capacity moot. An Exalted with this Charm can ignore this limitation, he twists and moves quickly enough to interpose his shield between any attack against him, provided that he is aware of its source. The Exalted must be using a shield in order to be able to activate this Charm.

All-Directions Shield Technique

 Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
 Type: Simple
 Duration: 1 scene
 Min. Resistance: 4
 Min. Essence: 2
 Prerequisites: Any-Direction Shield Method, Escutcheon-Bolstering Prana

Extending the protection granted the Any-Direction Shield Method, the Exalted can now use his shield in ways that seem to make a mockery of normal human anatomy, bending and twisting to place his shield in the path of almost any attack against him. This Charm extends the effects of Any-Direction Shield Method, allowing the character to use the protection granted by his shield against any attack that he is aware of for the remainder of the scene. The character must be using a shield for this Charm to have any effect and should he be parted from his shield before the end of the scene then the effects of this Charm are ended.

Shield-as-Weapon Technique

Cost: 2 motes
Type: Supplemental
Duration: Instant
Min. Resistance: 3
Min. Essence: 3
Prerequisites: None

A shield can be far more than a hunk of wood and metal for the Exalted to hide behind, and with this Charm some of that potential is realised. The character can now use his shield as either a melee or throwing weapon, the magic of the Shield-as-Weapon Technique ensuring making it far more potent in either role than would normally be the case, as well as negating any off-hand penalty (if applicable). A shield used as a melee weapon has the following profile under this Charm: Speed +0, Accuracy +1, Damage +3L, Defence +2 – the cover bonus it provides to the character is not compromised as a result of this usage. A thrown shield has the profile: Accuracy +1, Damage +2L, Rate 2, Range 20 – the shield does not return to the character. This Charm can explicitly be placed in a Combo with Melee or Thrown Charms.

Glorious Solar Plate Enhancement

Transcendant Adamant Hauberk</b>

 <b>Cost: None
 Type: Special
 Duration: Permanent
 Min. Resistance: 5
 Min. Essence: 4
 Prerequisites: Glorious Solar Plate

The armour created by Glorious Solar Plate is a powerful protection for one of the Solar Exalted. However, there are many threats in Creation some of which can defeat even its mighty plates. It was with this in mind that this Charm was created, each purchase of which improves or adds powers to the Essence-armour created by the preceding Charm. Every time that the Exalted purchases this Charm he can choose one of the options below, of which only Enhanced can be taken more than once.

Ablative

The character can choose to take no damage from any single attack in return for reducing the Lethal and Bashing soaks of the Charm-created armour by 2 for the remainder of the scene. If the attack does Piercing damage then the reduce the soak of the armour by 3, and if the attack ignores armour soak entirely it can be negated by reducing the soak by 4.

Certitude

Add the character’s temporary Willpower to the Bashing and Lethal soaks of the armour.

Celerity

Reduce the mobility penalty of the armour by 1 and add 4 to the character’s Dexterity for the purpose of running distances and to his Strength for the purposes of jumping distances.

Enhanced

Add 2 to the Bashing and Lethal soaks of the armour and 1 to its Hardness.

Sense-Protection

The Charm-created armour gives enhances and protects the character’s senses as well as his body, giving him a +2 dice-pool bonus to all Awareness checks and to all rolls to resist illusions and mind-affecting Charms, glamours, etc…

Unison

If Glorious Solar Plate is activated while the character is wearing a suit of mortal armour then it merges with that armour, giving the Charm-created plate a bonus to its Lethal and Bashing soaks equal to half (round down) of those of the merged-with armour. However, the Essence plate also gains half (round up) of the mobility penalty and fatigue value of the mortal suit. At the end of the scene, the mortal armour is utterly destroyed, consumed by the Charm. If the character is wearing artefact armour Glorious Solar Plate will not activate.

This Charm may not be purchased more times than the character has dots of Resistance.

Toughness Bosters

Unbroken Mountain Technique

 Cost: 15 motes, 2 Willpower
 Type: Simple
 Duration: 1 scene
 Min. Resistance: 5
 Min. Essence: 3
 Prerequisites: Adamant Skin Technique

The Solar becomes like unto the Mountain, unbreakable in almost every aspect, shrugging off blows that would fell a bull, and only becoming more determined and unmoveable the great the punishment inflicted upon him. For the duration of the Charm the Solar reduces the successes of all damage rolls against him by his current wound penalty.

Comments

Buckler-Summoning Gesture feels even more speedbumpish here than it does in Melee, and shields are far less useful than weapons. I'd nix it.
Arm Calls the Shield should, likewise, be only 1 mote to summon or banish, bringing it in line with Summoning the Loyal Steel.
Glorious Solar Aegis makes a Super Shield, which is a little out of line with the power level Glorious Solar Saber and Glorious Solar Plate have shown- both of which are inferior to Artifact items. I'd recommend that, instead, the character's shield provides a cover bonus against melee and non-melee (total) equal to his Resistance, and the Melee bonus can't be higher than the Ranged bonus. Thus, with Resistance 4, the normal shield would provide a +2 against Melee and a +2 against Ranged. That seems more in line.
Escutcheon-Bolstering Prana should be renamed, cause I've got no clue how to pronounce Escutcheon ;) Otherwise, it's a cool Charm- although I'd recommend that, instead of a bonus cap, make the cap equal to the shield's Cover bonus. So, a Thunderbolt Shield can't ever provide a +7 difficulty to hit ;)
Invincible Deflection Technique is cool, although I don't grok the additional weaknesses you gave itl. Com'on, a SHIELD should certainly be better at blocking an attack than a SWORD. Just go full HGD on it :)
Any-Direction Shield Method and All-Directions Shield Technique - I wasn't aware that I lost my shield bonus when attacked by multiple people.

Overall- neat idea for a tree- just needs a bit of boosting :) DS

Escutcheon: es-kuch'-yun (i'm pretty sure) - SMK

Buckler-Summoning Gesture & Arm Calls the Shield - yeah, I was going by my memory of the Melee trees for these, given that I was at work at the time. I'll probably ditch BSG and drop the cost of ACtS down to 2m - I personally believe that a shield is far more useful than a weapon.

Escutcheon-Bolstering Prana (was fishing around at thesaurus.com for another word for shield, and that one was just obscure enough to be cool) - this is meant to be able to make it damn difficult to hit the target. I'm more inclined to increase the cost than to drop the cap down to the shield's. Mostly because that would mean a normal shield would never give more than a +2 cover bonus, which isn't worth a Charm really. :)
Invincible Deflection Technique - I wanted something different to HGD, and that stayed in line with the way that shields work in Exalted. Accuracy Without Distance will go past it, and Knowing the Arrow's Path bypasses it, which is what I wanted. 3m + 1W might be too expensive for it, though, but I'm still working on that.
Any-Direction Shield Method & All-Directions Shield Technique - if you get attacked from the rear you can't normally use your shield against the attack (MRB p.238 plus the description of Ricochet Weapon Technique CB: Dawn p.74-5). Since a normal-sized human can be attacked by up to five people at once, I would guess that one or two of those are attacking from behind and so can get around the target's shield. If you've got a second rank with spears, or just Wyld mutants with long arms, it can get nastier. This is the situation they were made to address. - Moxiane

The only thing that makes me nervous about EBP is it's another Persistant Defense. Functionally, a Solar can easily have three 'levels' of Persistant Defense vs only 2 levels of a single attack- making anything but Perfect attacks deeply ineffective.

Just imagine an Essence 3 Solar with EBP, 5FBS and FLB. They're getting attacked by someone with a maxed out Melee, ES combo. The defender has, on average, 15ish (defense bonus, mobility penelty and Shield dependent) successes, while the attacker has 12ish (Accuracy bonus dependent). That's enough of a swing that Melee combat grinds to a halt; two Exalts that both possess these Charms can't hit one another. DS

True. On the other hand, those two Exalts could flail away at each other for several hours, then one of them says, "Bugger this for a lark. Wanna go for a pint?" :)

Defence is stronger than offence in Exalted, and I have no issues with that. It just means you need to think of new ways around, is all. New defensive methods spawn new offensive ideas - how about a Melee Charm that, for 2m/die, negates cover penalties? Or a Brawl Charm that renders anything less than total cover useless because it punches through? Don't be limited to what already exists.

On other notes: I have reduced the protection given by Glorious Solar Aegis to a +2 cover bonus with a -1 mobility penalty (thus making it slightly less effective than a standard Thunderbolt Shield), and reduced the cost to 5m+1W. Buckler-Summoning Gesture is no more (way too much of a speedbump), and Arm Calls the Shield's cost is reduced to 2m. I'm not too sure about Invincible Deflection Technique - it's meant to provide an infinite cover bonus, but I'm not sure that it should cost 1W as well... - Moxiane

Fair enough. I just ride the brake at times. :) And if Invincible Deflection Technique is just meant to provide an infinite cover bonus (but not a Perfect or Always Applicible one), I'd think that 4m would probally be better. That's on par with the Siddie parry charm (can't recal it's name at the moment...) All around, looks good :) DS

I tend to (not wholly correctly) think of an escutcheon as being more of a coat of arms than an actual shield. Which makes me think that you should take a page from Athena's shield, Aegis, and make some kind of Terrifying Escutcheon of the Sun effect which causes really bad things to happen to anyone who attacks the shieldbearer. Aegis had a medusa's head on it; I'm not sure I'd condone a Charm which turned attackers into stone, but some kind of really-difficult-to-resist fear or blindness effect might not be out of place.

I feel that Glorious Solar Aegis should grant a shield bonus equal to the user's permanent Essence, instead of a flat bonus.

You might also consider some kind of shield-bash -- I envision a perfect defense which not only blocks out blows, but also hurls attackers away from you (or just knocks them down). Like Heaven Thunder Hammer crossed with HGD, sort of.
_Ikselam

Was thinking of putting in a combat-shield Charm, but haven't worked out the bugs in it yet. It'd be a dual-purpose one, so you could do a Captain America with your shield, or just bash people onna head with it. It'd also be explicitly Combo-able with Melee and Thrown Charms. But the bugs are playing havoc with my head - should it be two Charms, or one? What kinda damage would a thrown shield do? Stuff like that.

Oh, the version of GSA that I had before wikifying it did give the user his permanent Essence as a cover bonus, but then I looked at the combination of that and Escutcheon-Bolstering Prana and shuddered. :) - Moxiane

Shield-as-Weapon Technique is a definitely a work-in-progress at present - comments & suggestions gratefully received. Terrible Wrath of the Defender needs a better name, but otherwise I am largely happy with it, although I'm not sure if it reduces Invincible Deflection Technique (which has been reduced in cost to 4m) to a speedbump (which I don't want it to do). - Moxiane

Transcendent Admant Hauberk is an extremely nice and well thought out charm, with the exception of the certitude gift. It's currently almost -always- better than Enhanced, so I'd suggest either halving the bonus (round down) or making each point of temp willpower giving +1B and +0.5L (also round down). Either would probably make it workable, depending on the power level you wanted... I'm erring towards the first, myself. Great charms here though!
-- Darloth

It's supposed to be (mostly) better. It is also, however, uncertain. Simply by using GSP you drop your soaks by 1, and every Charm with a Willpower cost from there-on also reduces it (not to mention WP-damage effects). Also, as a side-note, Enhanced grants extra Hardness, which Certitude does not. This Charm, together with the GSS-enhancer I have, are of the kind that provide hard choices for the player - every time you pick this Charm you reduce your potential pool of effects by one. - Moxiane

Just pointing out that right now it's almost always a LOT better. Assuming 7 willpower... you get +6/+6 from certitude, and +2/+2 from enhanced. I was simply suggesting that having it only start out at +3/+3 and then dropping less quickly seemed better than starting high and dropping to... well... about the same, really. Still, if thats the effect you want.
-- Darloth