Melee
Charms
Excellent Strike
Cost: 1 mote per die
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Melee: 1
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
The Exalted fills her weapon with crackling
Essence, making her swing hard and true. For each mote of Essence spent on this
Charm, the player may add one die to a single attack but can no more than
double her character’s regular Dexterity + Melee dice pool.
Hungry Tiger
Technique
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Melee: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Excellent Strike
To activate the Hungry Tiger Technique, the
Exalted charges her body and weapon with Essence,
unifying the two and making her attack as if the weapon were an extension of
her being. If the attack is successful, the player counts the extra successes
twice for the purposes of determining damage. The Essence to power this Charm
must be spent prior to making the attack roll.
Fire And Stones Strike
Cost: 1 mote per health level
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Melee: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Hungry Tiger Technique
The character focuses her Essence into her
weapon and swings a terrible blow against her opponent. If the blow is
successful, the character’s attack does an additional die of damage against her
opponent for every mote of Essence she spent activating the Charm. Characters
cannot spend more Essence activating Fire and Stones Strike than they have dots
of Strength. Note that the Essence cost of Fire and Stones Strike must be spent
before the attack roll. If a nonorichalcum weapon is
used to do more automatic damage successes than its damage
rating, it will probably break.
One Weapon, Two
Blows
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Minimum Melee: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Excellent Strike
The Exalted charges her weapon arm with
Essence, and it becomes as fast as a striking snake. The character may attack a
target twice in one turn. The attacks both occur on the character’s initiative,
but each is rolled separately. If the defender attempts to dodge or parry, one
roll is made and the results are applied to both attacks.
Peony Blossom
Attack
Cost: Varies
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Minimum Melee: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: One Weapon, Two Blows
The Exalted surrounds herself with a nimbus
of Essence, and her movements become as rapid and smooth as ice on hot metal.
The character may make multiple attacks, either against multiple targets or a
single opponent. The character may attack as many times as she likes, so long
as she has sufficient Essence to fuel the Charm. Each attack costs motes of
Essence equal to the twice the total number of attacks the character has made
that turn, including his normal attack. A character making 5 attacks would pay
28 (4 + 6 + 8 + 10) motes of Essence to activate the Peony Blossom Attack.
The player must declare how many attacks
the character will make this turn before the character takes her first action.
The character cannot split her Melee dice pool and use this Charm in the same
turn, so a Combo with some sort of defensive Charm is recommended. Defenders
must dodge or parry each attack separately.
Iron Whirlwind
Attack
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Action
Minimum Melee: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Peony Blossom Attack
The character permeates his body with raw
Essence, so much that it wraps around him in a gauzy corona and leaves trailing
streaks behind his lightning-fast strikes and thrusts. On the turn he uses this
Charm, the character may make a total number of attacks equal to his Dexterity.
The character cannot split his Melee dice
pool and use this Charm in the same turn, so a Combo with some sort of
defensive Charm is recommended.
Retrieve The Fallen Weapon
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Melee: 1
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
The Exalted may use the bonds that form
between a weapon and its wielder to call his chosen implement of battle to his
hand. This Charm can overcome friction and gravity to carry the weapon through
the air to the character but cannot defeat doors, chains and other such
substantial hindrances. The character must have his weapon hand empty and must
be able to see the weapon in order to call it to himself.
The character must have used the weapon and be familiar with it to use this
Charm on it — it must be his weapon.
Call The Blade
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Melee: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Retrieve the Fallen
Weapon
The character may call her weapon back to her
hand, even if she cannot see it. The weapon does not traverse the space between
its location and the character’s hand, it simply flashes into her grasp. The
call of this Charm reaches only (10 x the character’s Essence) yards, if the
weapon is farther than that, the Charm will fail. As with Retrieve the Fallen
Weapon, the character cannot use this power to steal weapons, only to call her
own weapon to her.
Summoning The Loyal Steel
Cost: 1 mote to summon or banish
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Call the Blade
The character simply gestures, and his
weapon flashes to his hand, appearing instantly in his grasp regardless of its
previous location. A character who is holding his weapon can also banish it,
spending a mote of Essence to place it Elsewhere.
Weapons that have been placed Elsewhere are gone from
the world and can only be reached by their Exalted owner through the use of
Summoning the Loyal Steel. The Exalted must have an extremely close relationship
with a single weapon to use Summoning the Loyal Steel on it and cannot know
more than one weapon at a time well enough to place it Elsewhere.
Glorious Solar
Saber
Cost: 5 motes + 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Melee: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Call the Blade
The character can now never be disarmed.
She can concentrate Essence in her hand, forming a glittering golden blade of
pure magical energy that does a base lethal damage equal to the character’s
Strength plus her Essence score. The blade glows brightly enough to light an
area three or four yards across. Each Exalted’s blade
is different, perfectly matching her personality and fighting style.
Iron Raptor
Technique
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Melee: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Retrieve the Fallen
Weapon
This Charm allows the character to use his
weapon to attack up to Dexterity x 5 yards away. The weapon whirls through the
air to its strike its target, like a bloodthirsty, metal bird of prey, and then
spins obediently back to the wielder’s hand. The character attacks with his
Melee pool, as usual, and the damage is determined using his Strength as if it
was a normal Melee attack. Iron Raptor attacks can be blocked like normal Melee
attacks. Botched Iron Raptor attacks can result in stuck or lost weapons or
injury to the Exalted using the Charm.
Sandstorm-Wind
Attack
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Melee: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Iron Raptor Technique
The character charges his weapon with
Essence and strikes a blow at a distant target. A slashing edge of concentrated
force leaps from the weapon and races toward the target. The character attacks
with his Dexterity + Melee dice pool and does a base lethal damage of his
Strength + his Essence. The Sandstorm-Wind Attack is blocked as a ranged
attack, not as a Melee attack. Sandstorm-Wind Attack can strike characters up
to (10 x the character’s Essence) yards away.
Edge Of Morning Sunlight
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Melee: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Iron Raptor Technique
The character concentrates on manifesting
his Essence through the medium of his weapon. The weapon becomes invested with Solar power and is highly effective against creatures of
darkness, the undead and the Abyssal Exalted. The weapon adds the character’s
Essence to its regular damage when used against such creatures.
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Melee: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Edge of Morning
Sunlight
The character channels Essence through her
body, using her weapon as an aggressive focus. Her flesh coruscates with flickering
Solar energy, and attacks against her by undead,
creatures of the night and Abyssal Exalted are at +1 difficulty. In addition,
if such creatures strike her without using a weapon, they must soak aggravated
damage equal to the character’s Essence. While Corona of Radiance is active,
the Exalted’s attacks against such creatures do
aggravated damage and have a damage bonus equal to the character’s Essence.
Blazing Solar Bolt
Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Melee: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms:
The character channels pure Solar Essence
though herself, focusing it with her will and through the medium of her weapon.
A powerful lance of energy leaps between the Solar’s
Caste Mark, her weapon and the target. The character makes an attack with her Dexterit + Melee dice pool, which cannot be blocked or
dodged without the use of Charms. The attack does lethal damage and has a base
damage of the Exalted’s Strength + her Willpower.
Against inhabitants of Malfeas and the Underworld,
Blazing Solar Bolt inflicts aggravated damage.
Golden Essence
Block
Cost: 1 mote per 2 dice
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 1
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
Through this Charm, the character uses
Essence to guide her weapon on the defense, allowing her to parry the attacks
of many foes at once. The character may trade Essence for dice to block any
hand-to-hand attack that she is aware of, at the cost of 1 mote per 2 dice. The
player cannot use more dice to parry any single attack than her Melee dice
pool. If there are an odd number of dice in her Melee pool, then the fractional
mote left over after buying the last die is lost.
Dipping Swallow
Defense
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Golden Essence Block
The character has achieved further mastery
of defensive Essence flows and can now more smoothly block attacks. Dipping Swallow
Defense allows the character to use his full Dexterity + Melee dice pool to
parry any one incoming hand-to-hand attack that he is aware of.
Bulwark Stance
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Until next action
Type: Simple
Minimum Melee: 3
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Dipping Swallow
Defense
The character now has the ability to use
defensive Essence flows to gain perfect form and poise. Until her next action,
the character may use her full Dexterity + Melee dice pool to parry any attack
she is aware of, so long as the attack has a physical component and is not
specifically noted as being impossible to block.
Heavenly Guardian
Defense
Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Bulwark Stance
The character may block, without his player
rolling, any one attack against him that he is aware of, even if the attack is
not normally blockable, such as that from an arrow, a
bolt of acid or a hurtling boulder. Blocking the tremendously powerful attacks
of beings such as godlings and demon princes will
almost certainly cause non-magical weapons to perish, but the attack will be
stopped at no harm to the Exalted.
Fivefold Bulwark
Stance
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Bulwark Stance
For the rest of the scene, the character is
surrounded by glowing Essence arcs, outlining his ideal protective moves and
guiding his weapon in defense. The character may use his full Dexterity + Melee
dice pool to parry any attacks against him of which he is aware, even missile
weapons and magical attacks that possess a physical component.
Solar
Counterattack
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 4
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Dipping Swallow
Defense
Essence guides the character’s tempo,
allowing her to strike when her enemy extends for an attack. The character may
immediately make an attack at her full Dexterity + Melee dice pool against anyone
executing a hand-to-hand attack against her. This attack is made after the roll
to hit the counterattacking Exalted but before damage is determined.
The Solar Counterattack is not an action
and does not subtract from the character’s dice pools or affect her action for
the turn. A character can make as many Solar Counterattacks in a turn as she
can afford to pay for, but a character cannot use Solar Counterattack in
response to Solar Counterattack or any other counterattack Charm.
Ready In Eight
Directions Stance
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One turn
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Solar Counterattack
The character now rides the impulses of
Essence with supple perfection. To attack him is to invite a lethal counterstroke.
Until the character’s next action, he may respond to all incoming hand-to-hand
attacks with an immediate counterattack at his full Dexterity + Melee dice
pool. As with Solar Counterattack, Ready in Eight Directions Stance comes after
the opponent’s attack roll but before damage effects are applied. Ready in
Eight Directions Stance in no way mitigates the attack’s effects. A character
cannot use Ready in Eight Directions Stance in response to Solar Counterattack
or any other counterattack Charm.
Whirlwind Of Searing Blows
Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One
scene
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Melee: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Fire and Stones Strike
The character
increases her mastery of her power and learns to charge her weapon with Essence
for an entire battle. Filled with devastating might, the weapon can deliver
punishing blows to all opponents. Add the character’s permanent Essence to the
weapon’s damage for the rest of the scene. Any weapon save one of exceptional
quality will fall to pieces at the end of this scene, and only weapons made of
the Five Magical Materials can stand up to repeated use of this Charm. A
character can benefit from the effects of only one application of this Charm at
a time.
Protection Of Celestial Bliss
Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Special
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 5
Minimum Essence: 6
Prerequisite
Charms: Heavenly Guardian Defense, Fivefold Bulwark Stance
The character may
block, without rolling, a number of attacks against him that he is aware of
equal to his Melee Ability, even if the attack is not normally blockable (like a bolt of acid or a hurtling boulder).
Blocking even a single strong attack by a powerful spirit or a Yozi will cause any non-magical weapons to perish, but the
Charm will blunt the attack at no harm to the blocking character. Characters
wielding magical weapons can parry any number of incredibly powerful attacks
without risk.
Dual Slaying Stance
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
The character
guides his hands with Essence, allowing him to fight with weapons in both
hands. This Charm reduces multiple action penalties by 2 for an attack or parry
action performed by a character wielding two weapons and completely eliminates
the penalty for using a weapon in the character’s off
hand. The character can activate this Charm a maximum number of times per turn
equal to his Melee score.
Sun-And-Moon Method
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: One turn
Type: Extra action
Minimum Melee: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Dual Slaying Stance
Through harmony
with the Essence flows, a character holding a weapon in each hand can strike
once with each weapon without penalties for off-hand use or multiple actions.
In a single turn, the character can make two parries, two attacks or one attack
and one parry without any penalties for multiple actions. However, a character
cannot split his dice pool when using this Charm, and
the character’s parry is normal single-attempt parry unless the Exalt is also
using Two Swords Technique. In order to use this Charm, the character must have
weapons in both hands. This Charm may explicitly be placed in a Combo despite
its non-Instant duration. This Charm may be activated reflexively but Combos as
if it were of the Extra action-type.
Two Swords Technique
Cost: 4 motes
Duration: One
scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Melee: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Sun-and-Moon Method
The character can now
allow Essence to manage his hands for him and receives no penalty for fighting
with two weapons for an entire scene. He may use either weapon to perform any
combat action without penalty. This does not allow him to take extra actions as
if he were using Charms, but he may split his dice
pool normally. In addition, this Charm completely eliminates the off-hand
penalty and also allows the character to sacrifice an action for the turn make
a “cascading parry.” This consumes both his actions for the turn. The cascading
parry’s dice pool starts at the Exalt’s Dexterity +
Melee + the sum of the two weapons’ defensive bonuses and drops by 1 for each
successive parry attempt. A character using Two Swords Technique can abort to
this defense, just as if he were aborting to a full dodge or a full parry. In
order to use this Charm, the character must have weapons in both hands.
Steel Devil Style
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One
scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Melee: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite
Charms: Ready in Eight Directions Stance, Two Swords Technique
The character
enfolds himself in Essence, allowing it to guide his
actions as he whirls through a breathtakingly graceful whirlwind of deadly
blows. So long as he has weapons in both hands, a character who has activated
this Charm is an incredibly deadly opponent.
Whenever the
character is attacked, he may make a reflexive automatic parry attempt with
whichever of his weapons he chooses at his Dexterity + Melee + any other
modifiers. In addition, he may reflexively counterattack any hand-to-hand
attack with whichever of his weapons he chooses. This counterattack is rolled
after the automatic parry, and if the automatic parry is successful, extra
successes on the parry attempt are added as bonus dice to the counterattack
roll.
The parry and the
counterattack are “normal” actions for the character, and so, the character
could enhance his counterattacks with Excellent Strike or his defense with
Golden Essence Block, but the character still cannot invoke the effects of more
than one different Charm per turn without a Combo. In addition, a character
under the effects of this Charm may not use or benefit from extra action
Charms, nor may he use or benefit from any effect that causes him to make
another parry or riposte. The counterattack effect of Steel Devil Style cannot
be used in response to other counterattack effects, but the automatic parry is
still active against these attacks.
In order to use
this Charm, the character must have weapons in both hands. If the character is
no longer using two weapons, he loses access to the Charm’s effects, though he
can use them again the instant he is rearmed. A character under this Charm’s
effects who no longer has a weapon in either hand is still unable to activate
extra action, full parry or riposte Charms while disarmed and must terminate
the Charm’s effects (this can be done reflexively and does not require dice or
count as an action) in order to permit these types of effects to work on him.