How I wish charms were written

[nessuno]

Not much to contribute except to say: I just snagged the pdf and I, too, wish that the Ex3 charms were written this way.
Lean, clean, and best of all: NOT AMBIGUOUS. I just can't imagine why the Ex3 team, with all the time they had on their hands, did not produce something like this.
It's terribly frustrating. Particularly because this fanwork shows that the Ex3 "fundamentals" (which this rewrite does not touch) are very sound, and can be the basis of excellent work.

[BlueWinds]

Snake Style

Snake style is swift and agile, moving with the speed of a striking serpent to fell stronger or better-armed foes before they even have a chance to act. Its strikes emphasize precision over brute strength, and a master of the style can pierce through armor, paralyze an enemy with a pressure-point strike, or even deliver poisonous Essence through her fingertips. It flourishes in dojos of the South and the East, where students learn to emulate the motion and tactics of the native serpents, but as one of the ancient animal styles whose lineage dates back to the First Age, its practitioners can be found throughout all of Creation.

Weapons and Armor
Snake style may be practiced unarmored or in light armor. Its unarmed attacks are usually two-fingered fang attacks that stab at pressure points and exposed tendons. It can also be used armed with a seven-section staff or hooked sword, which are wielded with extraordinary speed and finesse.

Serpentine Evasion
Cost: 2m; Supplemental (Instant) - Post-Roll, Advantage
Prereqs: Snake 2, Essence 1

This charm supplements a dodge, increasing the martial artist's evasion by 1.

Mastery: If her dodge succeeds, further activations of this charm before her next turn cost 1m less (cumulative).

Striking Cobra Technique
Cost: 3m; Supplemental (Instant) - Advantage
Prereqs: Sanke 3, Essence 1

This charm supplements a Snake attack, increasing the raw damage of a withering attack by (Dexterity) or a decisive attack by 1. If the enemy is crashed, increase a withering attack's minimum damage by the same amount, or for a decisive, the added die changes to a success.

Mastery: Count the martial artist's Initiative as (Essence + 2) higher than it is to determine if she has Advantage.

Snake Form
Cost: 8m; Simple (One Scene) - Form
Prereqs: Snake 4, Essence 1, Serpentine Evasion, Striking Cobra Technique

The martial artist adds (Dexterity) to her soak. Enemies suffer a -1 penalty on attack rolls against the martial artist, or -3 if she has Advantage over them. She may activate this charm reflexively whenever she makes a withering attack that grants her Advantage over an opponent (where she didn't previously have it).

With an Essence 2+ repurchase, she may spend an additional 1wp when activating this charm to gain an additional +(Essence) soak, and increase the raw damage of all Withering attacks she makes by +2.

Mastery: The repurchase's damage bonus also applies to Decisive attacks against enemies she has Advantage over.

Armor-Penetrating Fang Strike
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Snake 5, Essence 2, Snake Form

This charm supplements any Snake attack, allowing the martial artist to ignore the enemy's armored soak or their hardness.

Terrestrial: This charm gains the Once/Scene keyword, and can be reset by dealing 3+ levels of damage with a decisive Snake attack and raising her initiative back up to 12+.

Crippling Pressure-Point Strike
Cost: 3m, 3+i; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Snake 4, Essence 2, Snake Form

This charm supplements a decisive Snake attack with one of the following benefits:

• Blinding Fang Strike (3i): If she hits, her enemy suffers a -3 penalty on all actions and is blinded for the rest of the scene. He may spend an unflurryable miscellaneous action rubbing his eyes to remove these penalties.
• Nerve-Deadening Venom (5i): If she hits, one of the victims arms is paralyzed for the rest of the scene, and he suffers a -2 penalty on all actions that would normally require the use of both hands.
• Withering Venom Paralysis (7i): If she hits, her enemy's lower body is paralyzed until the end of the scene, knocking him prone. Even if he succeeds on a Rise from Prone action he can only crawl, treating all terrain as difficult and taking a -3 penalty on movement actions.

Terrestrial: The marital artist cannot use Withering Venom Paralysis.

Snake Strikes the Heel
Cost: 2m, 1wp; Reflexive (Instant)
Prereqs: Snake 4, Essence 2, Snake Form

This charm may be activated any time Solar is targeted by an attack from Close range (or further, if she knows and uses Uncoiling Serpent Prana). She clashes the attack with a Snake attack of her own. If she clashes with a withering attack, she does not gain any initiative even if she succeeds; if she clashes with a decisive attack, she must attempt a gambit rather than dealing damage.

Terrestrial: This charm gains the Attack-Action keyword.

Uncoiling Serpent Prana
Cost: 7m, 3i; Supplemental (Instant) - Advantage
Prereqs: Snake 4, Essence 3, Snake Strikes the Heel, Armor-Penetrating Fang Strike

This charm supplements any Snake attack, allowing her to strike at up to Medium range using a serpentine ribbon of essence. If the attack deals 5+ Initiative damage or any decisive damage, she may drag her enemy into Close range.

Terrestrial: The martial artist may only make this attack at Short range rather than medium.

Mastery: The martial artist does not need to be in Snake Form to use this charm.

Countless Coils Evasion
Cost: 7m, 1wp; Supplemental (Instant) - Perilous, Post-Roll
Prereqs: Snake 5, Essence 3, Snake Strikes the Heel, Crippling Pressure-Point Strike

This charm supplements the martial artist's defense against a decisive attack, after it rolls damage. She rolls (Essence + Initiative), and each success negates one level of damage from the attack. She resets to base initiative, and if she negated all the damage, gains 2i.

Terrestrial: The martial artist must decide to use this charm before damage is rolled (but still rolls and applies the effects after damage).

Essence Venom Strike
Cost: 6m, 3i, 1wp; Simple (Instant)
Prereqs: Snake 5, Essence 3, Countless Coils Evasion, Uncoiling Serpent Prana

The martial artist makes a decisive Snake attack. If it deals at least one level of damage, she poisons her enemy. Her essence venom has a damage of 1A/round, a duration of (raw damage / 2) rounds, and inflicts a -2 penalty. If her victim is crashed, he receives no (Stamina + Resistance) roll to lower the duration. Until the poison runs its course, she's treated as having Advantage over her victim for the purposes of all Snake charms.

Terrestrial: The maximum duration of the poison is 5 rounds.

[BlueWinds]

Tiger Style

Tiger style emulates the ferocious strength and swift, pouncing strikes of the predatory cats. A Tiger stylist treat combat as a dance between predator and prey, pursuing her foe with unmatched speed and unrelenting patience. Once she closes in on her victim, she brings him down like a tiger fells its prey - knocking him to the ground, crippling his limbs, and moving in for the killing strike. Many who follow the path of Tiger style become arrogant, impatient, or cruel, as their trust in their killing power becomes absolute. Others learn different lessons, adapting the patient bearing of a cat stalking its prey through the jungle.

Weapons and Armor
Tiger style uses unarmed attacks - generally raking claws strikes - or tiger claws to slash the flesh of enemies. The style is compatible with light armor.

---

Crimson Leaping Cat Technique
Cost: 3m; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Tiger 3, Essence 1

This charm supplements a Rush action. If successful, the martial artist steals 1i from her target, and any attacks she makes against him before the end of her next turn gain (threshold sucesses on Rush) bonus dice.

Striking Fury Claws
Cost: 6m; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Tiger 3, Essence 1

This charm supplements a withering Tiger attack, increasing its minimum damage by the lower of (threshold successes on the attack roll) and (Strength). If her target took a Disengage or Withdraw action last round, also convert that many damage dice into automatic successes.

Tiger Form
Cost: 10m; Simple (One scene) - Form
Prereqs: Tiger 4, Essence 1, Crimson Leaping Cat Technique, Striking Fury Claws

The martial artist doubles up to (Strength) threshold successes for purposes of calculating the raw damage of withering attacks, and takes no penalty for fighting while prone. She adds (Essence) dice to Rush actions and rolls to contest Disengage attempts. She gains the initiative her enemies spend attempting to disengage from her.

She may activate this charm reflexively whenever she lands any decisive attack that deals 3+ levels of damage.

Terrestrial: The martial artist only doubles up to the lowest of Strength, Dexterity, and Wits threshold successes when calculating withering damage.

Celestial Tiger Hide
Cost: 5m; Reflexive (One scene)
Prereqs: Tiger 5, Essence 2, Tiger Form

The martial artist adds (Strength) to her natural soak and gains (Essence) hardness. She increases both values by +2 against attacks made from long or extreme range.

When struck by a decisive attack, she may spend 1wp and end this charm to reduce its raw damage by her Hardness. Ended in this way, the charm cannot be reactivated until she's taken at least three additional health levels of damage.

Terrestrial: The martial artist must spend 2wp instead of 1wp to end the charm when struck by a decisive attack.

Iron Claw Grip
Cost: 4m; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Tiger 4, Essence 2, Tiger Form

This charm supplements a Tiger grapple gambit, granting both the initiative roll and the control roll double 9s.

Mastery: The control roll gains double 8s instead.

Prey-Maiming Frenzy
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Supplemental (Instant) - Once/Scene
Prereqs: Tiger 5, Essence 3, Iron Claw Grip

This charm supplements a decisive savaging Tiger attack against a grappled enemy, adding (Strength) to the martial artist's raw damage. Every round of control she has remaining adds 1 to her base initiative when she resets (this can increase her above her starting initiative).

Terrestrial: The martial artist cannot increase her base initiative by more than (Essence).

Raging Tiger Pounce
Cost: 4m; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Tiger 4, Essence 2

This charm supplements any Tiger attack. If it deals at least one level of damage, the martial artist's enemy is knocked prone. As long as he remains within Close range of her, she steals 2i whenever he attempts to Rise from Prone.

Mastery: This charm can also supplement an attack against a prone enemy, rendering it undodgeable and adding +1 raw damage.

Spine-Shattering Bite
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Supplemental (Instant) - Post-roll
Prereqs: TIger 5, Essence 3, Raging Tiger Pounce

This charm supplements a decisive Tiger attack after the martial artist rolls at least three levels of damage. She reduces the damage by two levels and cripples him instead. He may not take movement actions until he shakes off the paralysis, a miscellaneous action costing 2i and requiring a (Stamina + Resistance) roll, difficulty (Martial Artist's Strength).

Terrestrial: This charm gains the Once/Scene Keyword

Stalking Cat Movement
Cost: 5m; Reflexive (One Scene)
Prereqs: Tiger 4, Essence 2, Tiger Form

Enemies at short or medium range must use Disengage actions to move away from the martial artist as though she were at close range to them. They take -1 penalty on their defense against surprise attacks she makes.

Mastery: The martial artist may Rush enemies while in stealth.

Leap from Cloaking Shadows
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Tiger 5, Essence 3, Stalking Cat Movement

This charm supplements an unexpected Tiger attack, or one against an enemy who disengaged or withdrew on his last turn. The attack roll gains double 9s. If both are true it gains double 8s instead.

Mastery: Increase the raw damage of the attack by (Strength / 2, round up).

Angry Predator Frenzy
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Reflexive (One Scene)
Prereqs: TIger 5, Essence 3, Celestial Tiger Hide, Prey-Maiming Frenzy, Spine-Shattering Bite, Leap from Cloaking Shadows

This charm may be activated at any time while the martial artist is in Tiger Form, and it ends if she leaves the form. On decisive attacks she adds up to (Strength) threshold successes to the raw damage, and can Rush once per round as a reflexive action, in addition to her normal movement, but cannot Disengage or Withdraw. She gains a Defining Tie of savage hatred against her foes while this charm lasts

Terrestrial: The martial artist adds only (lower of Strength or Essence) to the damage of decisive attacks.

Mastery: The martial artist's base initiative increases by (Strength / 2, rounded up).

[Indivisible]

These look really good!

The Snake Form repurchase doesn't say by how much withering damage increases.

[BlueWinds]

These look really good!

The Snake Form repurchase doesn't say by how much withering damage increases.

Haha, whoops. Now it does.

[Alanis]

BlueWinds , you removed the link to the details forum post on the first page I liked them to understand what were your thought behind the change or removal of charms. Is there any save of this? :s

[BlueWinds]

BlueWinds , you removed the link to the details forum post on the first page I liked them to understand what were your thought behind the change or removal of charms. Is there any save of this? :s

Everything that's not still in the forum post on the first page should be in the PDF - it was duplicate (and misleading / old) information. What's missing?

EDIT: Oh, duh. I have reading comprehension problems. ^^;;

All of that stuff is still immortalized here in this thread - especially with little bar at the top to filter posts, it's not hard to find the main post for any given ability.

[Maudova]

BlueWinds / Irked Do either of you have a recommended resource for learning leTex? I am trying to do something similar to what both of you have done but with internal links and less revisions and its a real pain to have to write all of this and make the edits by hand.

[Irked]

BlueWinds / Irked Do either of you have a recommended resource for learning leTex? I am trying to do something similar to what both of you have done but with internal links and less revisions and its a real pain to have to write all of this and make the edits by hand.

Honestly, I pick up most of it by writing until I get stuck and then Google searching specific questions. This looks like a pretty decent starting place, though.

[BlueWinds]

Honestly, I pick up most of it by writing until I get stuck and then Google searching specific questions. This looks like a pretty decent starting place, though.

I did the same thing, learn the very basics from here and then just search for specific answers as I needed them. My link is a lot shorter - and not nearly as in-depth - as the one Irked suggested.

[Maudova]

Thanks to both of you Irked BlueWinds. I'll use both resources. I'm a technical writer by profession so this will be a good way to cross over my hobby with my job.

My boss will ask: what did you do on your vacation?
Me: Well I uhhh learned a layout language
My boss: Nerd
Me: Yeah. It was fun.
Boss: Seriously?

[Eris]

I was just introduced to this by the DM for a PbP game I may be joining, and I just wanted to say thanks so much - this addresses so many of my issues with Ex3. In particular, I think with your Socialize and Bureaucracy trees I could now actually translate my 2e Eclipse diplomat into 3e if I needed to do so.

One question that didn't seem to come up during the in-thread discussion of Lore, that I was a little curious about: what were your reasons behind the change to Power-Awarding Prana? It went from "let circlemates (and you) go temporarily deeper into their own Charm trees / use entry-level Charms as you need them" to "let circlemates borrow your Charms".

I'd be interested to see the "more Lore-like Lore tree" that was discussed earlier in the thread, too. Lore was an unusual case where the 3e charmset actually gave me more interesting ideas than the 2e one; while I understand why you cut the Charms you did, you kinda managed to mostly remove or change the Charms that had been motivating me, so I'd be interested to see replacements. (Of course this may just mean that my loremaster characters are all naturally Chosen of Secrets ;-) )

[BlueWinds]

Just tweaked some of the Snake and Tiger charm based on feedback from a non-forum source (or rather, a once-forum source who's now banned).

I was just introduced to this by the DM for a PbP game I may be joining, and I just wanted to say thanks so much - this addresses so many of my issues with Ex3. In particular, I think with your Socialize and Bureaucracy trees I could now actually translate my 2e Eclipse diplomat into 3e if I needed to do so.

One question that didn't seem to come up during the in-thread discussion of Lore, that I was a little curious about: what were your reasons behind the change to Power-Awarding Prana? It went from "let circlemates (and you) go temporarily deeper into their own Charm trees / use entry-level Charms as you need them" to "let circlemates borrow your Charms".

Glad you like it, thanks!

Power Awarding Prana was in design space that I don't think should be explored. It's too meta, too "charms as real things" rather than "charms as representing how cool you are." If you wanted to access charms above your current level of knowledge yourself... just buy one of those, instead of spending the XP on power-awarding prana.

I'd be interested to see the "more Lore-like Lore tree" that was discussed earlier in the thread, too. Lore was an unusual case where the 3e charmset actually gave me more interesting ideas than the 2e one; while I understand why you cut the Charms you did, you kinda managed to mostly remove or change the Charms that had been motivating me, so I'd be interested to see replacements. (Of course this may just mean that my loremaster characters are all naturally Chosen of Secrets ;-) )

Which ones specifically? I removed a lot of Lore charms, and guessing wildly which ones you liked doesn't seem that helpful. I don't want to remove things that actually inspired people, just all the extra chaff. (except for forging artifacts/armies from the wyld - that I do want to remove, even if it did inspire people. Be happy to discuss if that's the part you meant).

[BlueWinds]

Ok, finally got around to adding Snake and Tiger styles to the PDF. Download link in the first post is still correct, but here's another one for your end-of-thread convenience.

[AtG]

On page 333 Glorious General's Charge overflows the page margins and some of the text overlaps the page number marker.