VALOR CHARMS
VALOR
Ox Body (Crusader Only)
Cost: N/A
Mins: Conviction 2, Resistance 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
A Champion can except to get a lot of abuse. Her path is a path of hardship and woe. In order to survive one must toughen ones hide and allow the blessings of their patron to flow through them.
Ox Body grants the Champion extra health levels so that she may fight another day.
When a Crusader takes this charm they gain three -4 levels.
Righteous Rebuke
Cost: 4m
Mins: Valor 3, Craft 3, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Touch, Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Those that dare attack a Champion must be prepared for the Consequences. This charm works like the Solar Counterattack charm by striking with her full dice pool the attacker as the attacker strikes the Champion.
Hardening Braveries Heart Practice
Cost: 1m per 2 points of Hardness
Mins: Valor 3 , Craft 3, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Touch, Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
A champion needs strong equipment to accomplish his goals. Sometimes he does not have access to quality materials. This charm channels the Champion’s valor through the least god of a chosen item and hardens it for one moment so it may deflect a blow that would otherwise break it.
The Champion can raise the hardness of an object by two points per point of essence he spends. This charm does not work on magical materials. The amount is limited by the characters dice cap.
Heart of Stone Practice
Cost: 1m per 2 points of Hardness
Mins: Valor 3 , Craft 3, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Touch, Combo-Ok
Duration: 1 action per point of essence
Prerequisite Charms: Hardening Braveries Heart Practice
As the champion awakens the valor of the tiny god inside an object he also awakens its defiance. It will not allow it self to be damaged. The small god chooses to fight for as long as it can to keep the attacking offenders from destroying its creation mandated purpose.
This charm works just like its prerequisite charm but on last’s one action per point of essence. This charm does not work on magical materials. The amount is limited by the characters dice cap.
Cat’s Grace
Cost: 2m
Mins: Essence 1, Valor 2, Athletics 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Duration: 1 Action
Prerequisite Charms: None
This charm imbues a Champion with the uncanny ability to remain on his feet despite treacherous terrain or an enemy’s best attempts to knock him down. For instance, a character with this charm never suffers knockdown (see p. 198) from an attack. The player need not even roll. The character still suffers the damage, but he remains on his feet. Furthermore, a character with this charm ignores all difficulty penalties based on unstable footing and treacherous terrain. He still suffers speed penalties for moving through ankle- to knee deep water or mud, but his dice pools for actions taken on such terrain suffer no penalties.
Champions Uplifting Might
Cost: 2m
Mins: Essence 1, Valor 2, Athletics 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Ok
Duration: Special
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Champion can lift and hold tremendous loads that would stagger even other Champions with Champion Strength. After checking the character’s lift capacity on the “Feats of Strength” table then adjusting that capacity based on the character’s Champion Strength, this charm (and the expenditure of one point of Essence) doubles that lift capacity. This charm doesn’t affect a character’s ability to break or throw an object. This charm stays active as long as the Champion maintains the lift and keeps the required essence invested in the charm.
Singular Defense Maneuver
Cost: 2m
Mins: Essence 1, Valor 2, Athletics 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
When an unexpected attack targets the character with this charm but the character’s player fails to get enough successes on the (Wits + Awareness) roll to notice the attack coming, the Champion instinctively defends herself with double her highest applicable DV. The character cannot preemptively attack her attacker or even shout out a warning to her comrades, as she’s reacting to an attack that’s already taking place, but she is much more likely to dodge or parry that attack. Nonetheless, the character cannot actually join battle herself until everyone else does after the unexpected attack is resolved.
Terrestrial Monkey Climber
Cost: 2m
Mins: Essence 1, Valor 2, Athletics 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Ok
Duration: 1 action
Prerequisite Charms: Cats Grace
As long as she has sufficient hand- and footholds, the Champion scuttles up vertical surfaces with cavalier ease. Where a normal climber can cover only half the distance she could cover in a normal Move action on a successful climbing roll (, a Champion with this charm suffers no such restriction. Furthermore, as long as the Champion has at least one hand (or both of her feet) on the surface she’s climbing, she can take a second action at the same time (per the multiple action) while still moving along the climbing surface. The Champion cannot “Dash” while climbing, but the bonus to her movement granted by her Exalted Dexterity still applies.
Discarding the Enemy Technique
Cost: 2m
Mins: Essence 1, Valor 2, Combat Skill 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Champion is able to perform an attack that inflicts no damage whatsoever but sends his enemies flying back. On a successful attack, the Champion can choose for the attack to inflict damage and knockback normally, or he can choose for the attack to inflict no harm but to impose one yard of knockback per threshold success above the defender’s DV instead. (Doing so costs one Willpower point.) Hardness can still cancel out this effect if it is greater than the attack’s raw damage.
Celestial Monkey Climber
Cost: 6m
Mins: Essence 3, Valor 3, Athletics 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite charm: Terrestrial Monkey Climber
In addition to the benefits of the Monkey Climber charm, the Champion can now climb a vertical surface with sufficient hand- and footholds as quickly as she can dash—taking into account her increased movement rate from Exalted Dexterity. Her player doesn’t even have to roll to keep her from falling unless she takes a second action while she’s climbing. What’s more, the demigod can now scale sheer surfaces with no hand holds, such as the slick glass face of a skyscraper, and climb upside down across the bottom of horizontal surfaces at her normal Move rate. She cannot take Dash actions on such surfaces, but her Exalted Dexterity bonuses apply to her Move rate as usual. She’s still subject to gravity, though, so she has to make it a point to hang on while she’s climbing thus. Therefore, she cannot take multiple actions while climbing such surfaces.
Crushing Coils of Wrath
Cost: 4m
Mins: Essence 2, Valor 3, Martial Arts 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite charm: None
A Champion needs no weapons to inflict serious damage in combat, but a Champion with this charm is even more fearsome. The prerequisite charm enables him to inflict lethal damage during a clinch that he controls, and this charm builds on that to awful effect. If the Champion spends a point of Essence during a clinch, he can make a single attack inflict aggravated damage instead of lethal. What’s more, his normal unarmed combat attacks now inflict lethal damage instead of bashing damage. Keep in mind that that lethal damage is now the standard damage he inflicts unarmed, regardless of whether he spends the point of Essence to make a single clinch’s damage aggravated. The Champion can pull his punches and inflict only bashing damage if he wants to.
Leap of the Champion Method
Cost: 2m
Mins: Essence 2, Valor 3, Athletics 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Obvious, Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Champions Uplifting Might
Only characters whose Gifts include the Sky Purview have more freedom to flaunt the laws of physics. Simply having this charm enables a Champion to perform prodigious leaps that leave mortals standing slack-jawed with wonder. For example, if a Champion has Strength 5, Athletics 3 and Essence 3, she can jump 12 yards straight up or 24 yards forward. This charm, however, doubles a Champions vertical and horizontal jumping distances. With it, the aforementioned character could leap an amazing 24 yards straight up (from the ground to a seventh-story balcony, for instance) or 48 yards forward in a single bound.
Serpent’s Gaze Technique
Cost: 4m
Mins: Essence 2, Valor 3, Presence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Compulsion
Duration: Special
Prerequisite Charms: None
When the Champion spends a point of Essence, the person whom she’s trying to affect locks eyes with her and is unable to look away. For combat purposes, the victim is rendered for one tic per net point of Valor. The Champion can still act, but she must take a second action in order to do so, maintaining eye contact as a miscellaneous action. (As a result, she suffers a -2 penalty for any other action she takes.) This charm works equally well whether the Champion’s Exalted Appearance involves beauty or its opposite. This charm lasts until the Champion breaks eye contact or till the end of the scene which ever happens first.
Extras are defenseless against this. Characters of lesser MDV + Essence are unable to break the Champion’s gaze on their own unless the spend two willpower, but those with an equal or greater MDV+Essence are not so vulnerable. After the Champion using the charm takes one full action, the equal- or higher-Essence victim may spend a point of Willpower to negate the effect. In so doing, he remains immune to the effect from the same Champion for the rest of the scene.
Instant Assessment Approach
Cost: 4m
Mins: Essence 2, Valor 3, Awareness 2, Melee or M.A. 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
With a quick glance, and the activation of this charm, the Champion can size up a foe with whom he intends to join battle. This assessment comes across in terms of how the foe’s combat abilities compare to the Champion’s own. He gets a sense of whether the foe has more or fewer dots of Physical Attributes (Champion and otherwise) than he does. The same goes for their relative number of dots in Brawl, Marksmanship, Melee and Thrown, as well as their relative Join Battle dice pools and their soak totals. Also, if some power or special quality renders the foe especially vulnerable or completely invulnerable to something to which the Champion has ready access, the Champion gets a sense of that as well. What the Champion decides to do with this information is up to him. This information occurs reflexively to the Champion who uses the charm, and he may assess as many foes automatically as he spends points of Essence.
Stone and Steel PracticeCost: 4m
Mins: Valor 2, Essence 2, Will 4Type: ReflexiveKeywords: Emotion, Como-OKDuration: SpecialPrerequisite Charms: NoneFear has no hold on the Hero of Valor. He can look a demon in the eye and make it doubt itself. With this charm she is cann add her valor in to her MDV against all fear or intimidation effects natural or magical for (Valor) tics.
Mongoose Strikes the Cobra Technique
Cost: 6m
Mins: Essence 3, Valor 3, Awareness 2, Melee, M.A. Or Archery 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Counterattack, Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Instant Assessment Approach
The character is so quick on the draw that even a surprise attacker is not safe from him. If someone attacks him from surprise but the character’s player fails to get enough successes on the (Wits + Awareness) roll to notice the attack coming, the Champion may still attack his attacker back at the same time. This counterattack is so lightning quick that it catches the attacker off guard as if he were also being caught by an unexpected attack. The Champion himself might not realize he’s taken the attack action until the ambusher’s attack has already hurt him.
Broken Heart MethodCost: 6m
Mins: Valor 3, Essence 3,Will 5Type: SupplementalKeywords: Combo-OkDuration: ScenePrerequisite Charms: Stone and Steel Practice, Instant Assessment Approach
The Hero of Valor spends 2 motes and he can sense the fear of any creature with in 10 yards per point of Valor. A perception + presence or performance roll with at least one success can gauge the level of fear that is felt by the target(s). If the roll yields 4 or more successes the Exalted One can ascertain the cause of the fear.
Lightning Sprinter Focus
Cost: 6m
Mins: Essence 3, Valor 4, Athletics 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious, Combo-Ok
Duration: 1 Action
Prerequisite Charms: Leap of the Champion Method
The Champion is a lightning bolt on two legs, zooming past in a blur, trailing leaves or grit or loose debris from the ground he’s already covered. This charm doubles the amount of distance he can cover in a Dash action, after calculating the new Dash distance based on his Exalted Dexterity. What’s more, it negates the movement penalties a character should accrue for dashing through water or mud that is from between ankle- to shoulder height in depth as long as A.) the character began his Dash action on terrain with no such penalty, and B.) the character continues to perform consecutive Dash actions. As long as he keeps dashing, his feet skim the surface of the water or muck like a skipping stone. If he should slow down or stop, however, he sinks into the sucking terrain to suffer the normal penalties. Activating this charm costs one point of Essence.
Inspirational Figure Approach
Cost: 6m
Mins: Essence 3, Valor 4, Performance 3
Type: Simple
Keywords:
Duration: Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Broken Heart Method
The Champion’s well-chosen words can play on humankind’s social mentality, giving hope and courage to not just one listener, but a group. The Champion gives a speech to gathered listeners—whether he’s calling upon them for help, raising their spirits after a local disaster or strengthening the bonds of community among them. The player of the Champion rolls his Charisma + Performance. If he gets at least one success and as long as his words are intended to inspire them in some way, every person who can hear him listens spellbound and receives a point of Willpower from the Champion at the speech’s end. The willpower point is transferred from the Champion to the effected targets. Thus he loses one and they gain one.
The only limit is that the listeners must be able to hear him clearly without him using the aid of any amplifying or broadcasting equipment.
This charm inspires mortals only but it doesn’t inspire essence users. Nonetheless, the enlightened are compelled to at least let him finish his speech before carrying out whatever they’re up to.
Execution of Righteous Judgment TechniqueCost: 6m
Mins: Valor 3, Essence 3,Will 5Type: SimpleKeywords: Combo-OkDuration: 1 Action per Point of ValorPrerequisite Charms: NoneThe wrath of a Hero of Valor is intimidating to say the least. The poor soul that has earned her ire will be subjected to most severe punishment. No one knows this better than a demon.When a demon is damaged while inside the radius of the Hero’s anima banner the attacker adds the Hero’s valor in damage levels to the presoak damage.
Divine Rampage Method
Cost: 6m
Mins: Essence 3, Valor 4, Melee or M.A. 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Duration: 1 action per Essence
Prerequisite charm: Discarding the Enemy Technique
When a demigod with this charm wants to break something, that thing is not long for this world. Like Holy Rampage, this charm aids in the character’s attempt to destroy an inanimate object. If the target object is not under his control—such as a weapon or armor that someone else happens to be using—its Hardness and soak is considered to be halved when the Champion attempts to break it. If the target object is freestanding or under the Champion’s control, the object’s Hardness and soak is considered to be 0 against the Champion’s attack..
Hurl to the Horizon Maneuver
Cost: 6m
Mins: Essence 3, Valor 4, Throw 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Leap of the Champion Method
Cannon Balls, Small Carts, beer kegs and other thrown objects become tiny specks in the distance when the Champion throws them. Having this charm doubles the distance she can throw something as a feat of strength. It also doubles the Range of a normal thrown item after calculating the standard increase in Range granted for having Champion Strength.
Hurl to the Horizon intensifies the damage such an object can cause. Thrown weapons or other thrown items that would normally cause bashing damage (a coconut, for example) inflict lethal damage and take on the Piercing quality instead when the Champion uses Mighty Heave. Items that would normally cause lethal damage still cause only lethal damage, but they ignore armor when the Champion uses Mighty Heave.
Holy Rampage Form
Cost: 8m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 4, Valor 4, Melee or Martial Arts 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Duration: 1 action per Essence
Prerequisite charm: Divine Rampage Method
The Champion is especially good at breaking inanimate objects. When he spends a point of Essence and applies his full might to breaking something—whether he’s punching it, kicking it or throwing his shoulder against it—the item’s Hardness is halved against the attack. This bonus applies only when the character attempts to break an inanimate object that is either freestanding or under his control. If someone else has control of the object in question, the Champion must take it from him first.
Last Man Standing ManeuverCost: 5m, 1wp
Mins: Valor 4, Essence 3, Resistance: 4 Type: Simple Keywords: ObviousDuration: scene Prerequisite Charms: Execution of Righteous Judgment Technique, Inspirational Figure Approach The life of a Hero of Valor is wrought with danger. Sometimes extraordinary effort is needed to rise above to the days challenge. If a blow gets through the exalted ones defense’s his surge of valor allows him to temporarily hold off the damage until after the danger he faces abates. For each success on a valor roll one level of damage is delayed. Heroes of Valor are advised to be wary of the use of this charm. Once the combat scene is over all the damage that was kept at bay take its toll. If one is not careful one can defeat their opponent only to fall apart like a shattered statue after.
Crashing Wave of HeroismCost: 8m, 1wp
Mins: Valor 4, Essence 4, Performance 4Type: Simple Keywords: ObviousDuration: Scene Prerequisite Charms: Broken Heart Method, Last Man Standing ManeuverThe Champion gives a rallying speech that fills his companions with pride and bravery. On a successful Charisma + Performance plus Valor roll (diff. highest M.D.V.) the charm adds one die to all combat actions to all that can hear him for the scene.
Mighty Heave Techinque
Cost: 8m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 4, Valor 4, Throw 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Ok
Duration: 1 Action per point of Essence
Prerequisite charm: Hurl to the Horizon
This charm automatically increase the distance a demigod Champion can throw a heavy object as a feat of strength as per Hurl to Horizon this time it lasts essence actions.
Blessing of the Celestial Lions
Cost: 8m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 4, Valor 4, Athletics 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisite charm: Celestial Monkey Climber
In addition to the benefits of Cat’s Grace, the Champion can now balance on surfaces that shouldn't even be able to support his weight. He’s as light on his feet or his hands as a gentle breeze. He could run across a drooping clothesline between two tenement buildings without knocking the clothespins off. He could leap onto the haft of a zombie warrior’s out-thrust spear and punt the brute’s rotting head off. He could even carry on an epee duel atop a lake of poisonous water, stepping on nothing but the bobbing backs of the dead men floating in it. (He could not, however, step on the water’s surface without sinking.)
Rebuke of the Earth Dragon
Cost: 10m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 5, Valor 5, Melee or M.A. 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Mighty Heave Techinque, Holy Rampage Form
The Champion is so strong that he can direct his incredible power through the ground or floor to affect enemies at range. Doing so takes two separate forms. First, the character can stomp or strike the ground with his fists or a weapon, which sends a shock wave outward from him along the ground across an area with a radius equal to his Champion Strength in yards. Striking the ground thus to send out the shock wave requires a Strength roll, which receives the benefit of his Champion Strength. Potential victims—friend and foe alike—compare their Dodge DV to the results of this roll. If their DV overcomes the Champion’s successes, they manage to jump and let the shock wave pass beneath them. If their DV isn’t high enough, they immediately suffer knockdown as well as an amount of bashing damage equal to however many of the Champion’s successes their DV couldn't' cancel out. (If his allies know the Champion is about to use this charm—if his using it is part of a coordinated assault, for instance—they can jump out of the way preemptive without having to rely on their DVs.) This attack inflicts no damage on the floor or the ground the Champion strikes.
All the energy is expended into the shock wave. The second form this power takes is more selective and deliberate. As with the first form, the Champion strikes the ground and sends a shock wave along the surface out to a distance equal to his Champion Strength in yards. This time, though, his player makes a standard Dexterity-based attack roll and targets a single opponent. If that opponent’s Dodge DV isn’t high enough to get him out of the way of the attack, the Champion’s player then makes a Strength roll, modified by his Champion Strength but not modified by his extra successes on the attack roll. The damage this attack inflicts is bashing, but it has one other effect that renders the victim almost helpless for a moment afterward. Any successes on the Strength roll that exceed the victim’s soak not only inflict damage but also hurl the victim straight up in the air (one yard per unsoaked success). The victim’s rise and fall takes six ticks, during which his DVs are considered to be halved. He can make ranged attacks at a -5 penalty, but he can’t move or jump or do much of anything until he lands again. In fact, if the Champion’s attack sends him high enough in the air, the victim might take damage from crashing back down from so great a height.
Entrancing Words of the Champion
Cost: 10m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 5, Valor 5, Performance 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite charm: Inspirational Figure Approach, Crashing Wave of Heroism
When a demigod has a willing audience, he can inspire every member with an uplifting, well-intentioned speech or sermon. This charm works exactly as its prerequisite, and functions under the same limitations, but it is more effective. The champion rolls his Charisma + Performance and all those who hear it are so inspired that they recover one Willpower point. or every three success past the first success rolled those listening to the Champion gain additional willpower point.
Call of ReckoningCost: 10m, 1wp
Mins: Valor 5, Essence 5, Will 8Type: Simple (Speed 3)Keywords: Compulsion, ObviousDuration: ScenePrerequisite Charms: Last Man Standing Maneuver, Crashing Wave of HeroismCreation itself seems to hold its breath when the Hero cloaks himself in the majestic and terrible stillness of the Call of Reckoning. He exerts an inescapable gravity and a withering unease that sends the innocent scurrying away and calls the unjust to reap the consequences of their deeds. When a Hero of Valor activates this Charm, all extras that lay eyes on him move swiftly for cover, pulling other innocent bystanders along with them and bolting doors or windows behind them.
At the same time, the Hero of Valor can compel any one who has wronged him or any of his allies to confront him. The compulsion has a radius equal to (the Hero of Valor Essence x 10) yards and is an unnatural mental influence. Even spending Willpower points won’t hold it at bay for long. The Hero’s target must spend 1 willpower each action to resist the Hero of Valor’s dreadful gravity. Otherwise, the target must walk out and confront the Hero of Valor face to face. The Exalted One can designate as many opponents as he has dots of Essence as “targets” for this Charm’s purposes, but he must do so the moment he activates the Charm. The effect ends once the target(s) or the Hero of Valor is killed, yields or is defeated in some way.
Valorous Defiance TechniqueCost: 10m, 1 wp
Mins: Valor 5, Essence 5, Melee/Martial Arts 5Type: SimpleKeywords: ObviousDuration: One ActionPrerequisite Charms: Call of Reckoning, Rebuke of the Earth DragonThe Champion focuses his bravery into one clear moment. He releases his essence into that moment and breaks the attacks of his foes like water upon rocks. Then whenever the Hero is attacked he rolls his Valor and if he gains more successes than the opponent’s essence the attack is parried. This defense can be applied to any type of attack including social and magical.
Perfected Valorous Defiance Technique
Cost: 5m
Mins: Temp 5, Essence 5, Melee/Martial Arts: 5,
Type: ReflexiveKeywords: Combo-OKDuration: InstantPrerequisite Charms: Valorous Defiance Technique
This attack is similar toValorous Defiance Technique in that it parries an attack. This greater version of the charm is a perfect parry and is subjected to the rules and restrictions of perfect actions.
