Craft
Charms
Flawless Handiwork
Method
Cost: 3 motes per success
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Craft: 1
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
The character channels Essence through his hands
and tools, enhancing his efforts and making the final produce of his work far
more impressive than the fruits of any mortal craftsman’s labor. To use this
Charm, the player first makes a regular Intelligence or Stamina + Craft roll
for the character. Then, the player may “buy” additional successes, up to the
character’s Essence rating + the number of successes rolled on the Craft roll.
Each success bought in this fashion costs 3 motes of Essence. Storytellers
should consider strongly granting special bonuses to objects that are made from
good or exceptional materials to start and that have astonishing numbers of
successes.
Note that Flawless Handiwork Method’s
effects do not occur instantly — the character must still take the regular
amount of time necessary to construct an object of that type, though he need
take no longer. An Exalted craftsman can knock together in a morning items that
would take a mortal craftsman months or years to produce.
Object-Strengthening
Touch
Cost: 6 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Craft: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Flawless Handiwork
Method
This Charm strengthens objects, allowing
them to endure far more damage than normal. Very fragile objects such as those
made of paper or glass cannot be damaged without the full exertion of a Strength at least equal to the Essence rating of the
character who used the Object-Strengthening Touch Charm on them. Objects that
are not so fragile take roughly twice as much force as normal to harm.
Object-Strengthening Touch does not just protect against breakage —
strengthened objects are also resistant to fire, acid, freezing and other forms
of damage. The character using Object-Strengthening Touch must touch the object
in order to cause this Charm to take effect. Characters can strengthen any
object, not just objects that are at the focus of the character’s Craft
Ability. This Charm does not work on animals or sentient beings.
Durability-Enhancing
Technique
Cost: 10 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Craft: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Object-Strengthening
Touch
Objects subjected to this Charm do not have
the immense durability of objects subjected to Object-Strengthening Touch, but
the enhancement is permanent. While objects treated with Durability-Enhancing
Technique are not completely immune to the ravages of time and nature, they are
very resistant, enduring at least 10 times as long as untreated objects.
Objects treated with Durability-Enhancing Technique add twice the Exalted’s score in the Crafts Ability to the Strength +
Athletics dice pool required to break them. Items such as swords and axes that
have been treated with Durability-Enhancing Technique hold their edges longer,
even if used to hack through doors or otherwise mistreated.
Chaos-Resistance
Preparation
Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Craft: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Object-Strengthening
Touch
The ravages of the Wyld
can twist objects, as well as men. For every object that is made better suited
to its task, 100 are ruined by the energies of unbounded change. This Charm
makes an object far more resistant to the twisting effects of Wyld energy. Chaos-Resistance Preparation is not as
complete as the Lore Charms that stabilize persons, causing an object protected
by this Charm to take only take 10 times as long to change as it would
normally. However, the effects of Chaos-Resistance Preparation are permanent.
Objects treated with this Charm lend no protective qualities to their bearers —
a suit of Chaos-Resistant armor will not protect the character wearing it from Wyld-induced mutation.
Crack-Mending
Technique
Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower,
1 health level
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Craft: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Craftsman Needs No
Tools, Durability-Enhancing Technique
A character using the Crack-Mending
Technique can fix any broken object, no matter how severely damaged, so long as
it was not totally unmade (for example, by powerful sorcery, digestion in a
Behemoth’s gullet or immersion in molten rock). The character must spend a
number of hours working on the object equal to 10 - her Essence, slowly piecing
it back together and coaxing the fragments to bind to one another.
This Charm can even remake extremely
damaged things such as shattered crystal and burnt paper, but it cannot remake
metaphorical or conceptual things — it cannot mend broken hearts, oaths or
promises, for example, nor can it remake shattered dreams or smashed hopes.
Also, it cannot remake an object more yards in radius than the character’s
Essence rating. Crack-Mending Technique can restore damaged items of First Age
manufacture but can do nothing to repair those whose magic has fled or been
exhausted.
Shattering Grasp
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Craft: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Object-Strengthening
Touch
Someone who works with a material for a
long time learns its strengths and weaknesses. A character who knows this Charm
can channel Essence to intensify this knowledge and can rend stone and metal
with his bare hands and tear apart wooden doors with his fingers. A character
using the Shattering Grasp Charm multiplies his Strength + Athletics by 2 for
the purposes of breaking or damaging the basic material he works with for the
focus of his Craft skill — typically metal, stone or wood. If the character is
making an attack against such an object, double his damage successes. Tanners
and leathercrafters do not gain the ability to do
extra damage in hand-to-hand combat with this Charm.
Craftsman Needs No
Tools
Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Craft: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Shattering Grasp
The greatest burden of a craftsman is the pressing
need for tools and a workshop. For an Exalted who has mastered this Charm, that
is no problem at all. A character who knows this Charm can work directly with
her chosen material, shaping it with hands and voice, laboring without any need
for tools. Characters using this Charm slowly croon and purr to their work as
they shape and form the material with their fingertips — the effect is the same
as working in a well-stocked workshop, and in many cases, better. Characters
using this Charm can accomplish a full day’s work in a single scene. Projects
requiring multiple days work require multiple scenes of use.
Impurity-Hammering Blow
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One
scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Craft: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Flawless Handiwork Method
With this Charm,
an Exalted can purify base metal or other raw substances of natural taints and flaws, working badly tanned raw leather into butter-soft
suede, cheap marble into smooth stone worthy of the palace of the Empress and
flawed jewels into pure specimens of their kind. Characters cannot use this
Charm to convert raw materials into any of the Five Magical Materials ―
for example, turning gold into orichalcum. That must
be done by the usual long, slow process of extraction. However, the Exalt can
greatly improve the quality of raw materials by invoking this Charm as he
creates an item. The character may purify the materials for an object in an
equal number of Dexterity or Stamina + Craft successes as required to create
the item. Players may roll for their characters once per scene of work. For the
purposes of this Charm, each scene is normally a day of work, though it can be
less (for example, if the Solar is using the Charm Craftsman Needs No Tools, a
scene is probably about an hour).
Body-Forging Travail
Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One
scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Craft: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Object-Strengthening Touch
This Charm allows
an Exalt to confer physical integrity upon a living being, human or animal,
just as he might instill strength into an object. The Solar places his hands
upon the subject of this Charm and uses his powers to force the subject’s
living body to conform to principles of stability and good construction,
enhancing its ability to receive blows or other damage. For the remainder of
the scene, the subject of the Charm takes half damage after soak (but before
damage is rolled, to a minimum of one die) from all blows struck by beings with
a Craft Ability equal to or less than that of the Exalted who
invoked the Charm. The character also has some degree of protection from
forces such as cold, fire, lightning or acid and soaks two additional levels of
lethal damage from such attacks until the end of the scene. A sorcerer can use
this Charm on himself.
Edifice-Smashing Strike
Cost: 7 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Craft: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Shattering Grasp
This Charm enables
an Exalted to shake the foundations of buildings and pound down walls with his
bare fists due to his understanding of the nature of craftsmanship and the
principles of workmanship. When attempting to destroy or break any nonliving
crafted material of any substance, add his Essence + Craft to his Strength +
Athletics to determine if he can break something or to the amount of damage he
does in an attack against an object. A character can use this Charm against any
sort of material, regardless of the material she crafts. The only requirement
is that the subject of his strikes, be it a wall, a door, a weapon or a
building’s foundation, be in some way worked or shaped by intelligent beings.
This Charm is explicitly permitted to be part of a Combo with Charms of other
Abilities. This Charm cannot be used to attack worn or carried gear.
Stability-Conferring Establishment
Cost: 1 mote, 1 Willpower, 1 health level
Duration: One year
Type: Simple
Minimum Craft: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Chaos-Resistance Preparation
With this Charm,
an Exalted can create objects that are not only resistant to the effects of the
Wyld, but also protect those who wear them. Infusing
a part of his own life into the item ― which can
be anything from a ring to a full suit of armor ― the Solar instills a
natural aura of order and stability into it, causing it to remain safe from
changes for a full year. As long as the object endures unchanged, preserved by
the Charm, its wearer will also be protected from the Wyld’s
ravages. Remember that the mote invested remains committed for the duration of
the Charm or until the magic is canceled by the Exalt.