How I wish charms were written

[BlueWinds]

As a mathematician, I wanna see support for mathematician Solars. Heaven-Turning Calculations doesn't cut it.

I imagine people in other fields feel similarly, and anyway it's lame if an Ability's Charms don't have anything to do with the things mortals do with that Ability.

This is sort of a thematic question that comes up a lot on the forums: Things modern mortals do with the ability, or things historical mortals did with the ability? Because that's changed an awful lot more than people realize.

Mathematics is one of the few areas I agree Lore should support better. There are lots of other modern knowledge-based professions that I want nowhere near the ability, however - Lore is not another word for Science.

Medicine is actually a pretty good tree, in my opinion. There's just a few pointless Charms that need cutting.

There's less health-level-restoring stuff than you'd expect in there, and the only heal-during-a-fight effect is limited to (Essence) levels once per scene.

Yeah, I'm more saying it's one I'll have trouble with, because I have weird opinions, rather than that the charm tree itself has issues. Just bracing myself to not cut too much stuff "because I don't like it."

You should probably fix this bit: "reduces the of the attack"

When I went to see the clarification, I saw that the prereq was Immanent Solar Glory. Which doesn't exist anymore..

Fixed and fixed.

Huh?

Order-Affirming Blow doesn't do that.

Oh. Um, I was thinking of Injury-Forcing Technique, which apparently I already cut. Yeah, Order-Affirming Blow. I'm not sure difficulty 5 is too high here - taking a raging monster of a man and returning him to sanity and health seems about equivalent in difficulty to killing him - or reducing a house-sized giant tortise back to the size of a dog and removing its acid blood and ability to breath fire... mutations are pretty important, at least for some opponents, and I think removing them should be nearly as difficult as defeating them outright.

[Sanctaphrax]

That's really what I want, Whirling Brush not to aid with the creative process. Hopefully this new version conveys that? Also removed the repurchase from Heaven-Drawing Disciplie, made it an automatic upgrade. Because really, who wants to buy that effect a second time?

Looks good. I might remove the word "quick", though. I'd let someone produce 500 pages of pablum with Whirling Brush Method.

I really wish that Supernal was Essence + 2, rather than E5 from the get-go. I keep wishing that more with every ability I edit.

Easy enough to houserule. I don't even think it'd affect the way you're rewriting the Charmset.

Hm. I'm really sort of torn about this - the "difficulties shouldn't go above five" thread was actually pretty convincing. On the other hand, yeah, let's just make it a roll and give the player a bonus. Seems easier than trying to balance a static difficulty.

I missed that thread. Link?

Counter tricks end up meaning that only people who specialize in the same area can oppose you - the effect/counter effect have to be balanced off each other, which means that if someone doesn't buy "Detect Forgery" (and what a boring effect to spend three sessions worth of XP on!), they can't even play that game. 2e went down that road, and it's not real pretty.

It's a potential issue, but I think it's avoidable. And the alternative is that your investment in Solar Linguistics does nothing to protect you from linguistic tricks and evil mind-destroying text.

And the boredom issues can be reduced by packaging effects together. You could include anti-forgery stuff with more general reading perception stuff.

Urg. I don't like that. Um... I don't like any of these ways they could interact. Let's give it one more shot.

Looks pretty good. Wording on option two seems iffy though: "believes letter" should probably be "believes the message".

This is sort of a thematic question that comes up a lot on the forums: Things modern mortals do with the ability, or things historical mortals did with the ability? Because that's changed an awful lot more than people realize.

Mathematics is one of the few areas I agree Lore should support better. There are lots of other modern knowledge-based professions that I want nowhere near the ability, however - Lore is not another word for Science.

It might not be another word for science, but it's closer to science than to sorcery. If I take Supernal Lore, I probably want to make a great historian or a revolutionary philosopher or something like that. Sima Qian or Aristotle, but a demigod. Lore Charms don't do me much good there. Even the Charms that purport to be appropriate, like Prophet of Seventeen Cycles and God-King's Shrike, tend to feel more like sorcerous spells to me.

PS: Now that you've removed Essence-Laden Missive, you should probably remove the reference to it from Power-Snaring Image.
PPS: Any thoughts on my suggestions regarding Mind-Scribing Method?

[BlueWinds]

Looks good. I might remove the word "quick", though. I'd let someone produce 500 pages of pablum with Whirling Brush Method.

Easy enough to houserule. I don't even think it'd affect the way you're rewriting the Charmset.

Nope, wouldn't affect the way I'm writing things, but it would make me happy about Supernal people still getting a sense of growth in their central area.

I missed that thread. Link?

I can't seem to find it anymore, or recall the name of the thread. The forum runs so fast. ^^;; I think maybe Chejop Kejak was one of the main participants? Do you happen to remember the thread I'm talking about, where people (including some of the writers) talked about why difficulty 5 was as high as things should go? Sorry if I'm remembering the wrong person here.

Looks pretty good. Wording on option two seems iffy though: "believes letter" should probably be "believes the message".

Fixed.

It might not be another word for science, but it's closer to science than to sorcery. If I take Supernal Lore, I probably want to make a great historian or a revolutionary philosopher or something like that. Sima Qian or Aristotle, but a demigod. Lore Charms don't do me much good there. Even the Charms that purport to be appropriate, like Prophet of Seventeen Cycles and God-King's Shrike, tend to feel more like sorcerous spells to me.

There's probably a whole other thread to be had here - I'm having trouble articulating my thoughts, which means I'm not entirely clear what my own opinion is. So if you want to start that thread, "what is Lore," I'll certainly follow it. I think my basic question what does it mean to be a pulp hero using lore? Perhaps another way of phrasing that is what are the active uses of lore, rather than the passive ones? Because most I've seen this play out in games many, many times, where on character wants to play a "lormaster", then sits around bored and frustrated because being a walking book isn't actually an interesting character.

PS: Now that you've removed Essence-Laden Missive, you should probably remove the reference to it from Power-Snaring Image.
PPS: Any thoughts on my suggestions regarding Mind-Scribing Method?

Done.

I just don't like Mind-Scribing Method. Not a fan of separating out the creative act from the physical act. I didn't like it in craft (get started on craft without crafting!), didn't like it in Investigation (run an investigation inside your own mind!) and I don't like it here. Or maybe to put it a bit differently, it's how people wish things worked, but real writers know that only putting a pen to paper gets the job done.

...I'm really going off on a philosophical tangent here, which doesn't really belong in the rewrite project. Anyway, it could be fit in as an addendum to another charm because the effect is weak, but it's just not an effect I want in the charm set of "people who do things" (Solars) at all.

[BlueWinds]

Medicine is in a grim state. This is a charm tree that really needs some more meat to it. The fact that the entire top half of the tree is dice adders is a pretty strong sign the devs were just out of ideas. Definitely open to suggestions for things to add here - one idea I had is for a "long term care" charm, where having a Solar looking after you for long periods of time provides [minor bonus] due to glowing good health.

I stole Wound-Accepting Technique from Lore. No way is it more Lore than it is Medicine.

Note that Life-Exchanging Prana and Feit of Imparted Nature can now be used together. If you're Essence 5 and want to spend a simple action spending 1wp for 5m, I'm ok with that.

Also want to note: This puts us at 13 abilities, more than halfway done! There are 283 charms I've rewritten and 133 I've cut (both those are approximate), and 369 non Martial Arts charms in the remaining 11 abilities (that number is exact).

Whew!

---

Medicine

Flawless Diagnosis Technique
Cost: 1m; Mins: Medicine 1, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

This charm supplements an attempt to diagnose a medical issue. The Solar gains disappearing 1s and is aware if she fails her roll - misdiagnosis is impossible.

Ailment-Rectifying Method
Cost: 3m; Mins: Medicine 2, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

The Solar spends an hour treating a patient with herbs or other remedies appropriate to his disease, and rolls (Intelligence + Medicine) against the disease's Morbidity. As long as he spends his time resting and cared for, he receives half of her threshold successes on his next resistance roll.

With a repurchase at Medicine 3+, if she rolls twice the disease's Morbidity, she may spend an additional 3m to end it immediately - her patient recovers from the disease over the course of a day.

Wound-Mending Care Technique
Cost: 5m; Mins: Medicine 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

The Solar spends an hour doctoring a patient with bandages, herbs or other remedies and rolls (Intelligence + Medicine) against the highest wound penalty he suffers (5 for incapacitated). If he remains in bed for the rest of the day, he heals (Solar's Essence or three, whichever's higher) levels of Bashing or Lethal damage.

With a repurchase at Essence 3+, once per day she may have him instead heal by the time the treatment is complete, with no need for bedrest.

Wound-Cleansing Meditation
Cost: 10m; Mins: Medicine 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Wound-Mending Care Technique

The Solar spends an hour cleaning and wrapping her patient's wounds, after which he converts all Aggravated damage he's suffered to Lethal. She may also reattach any severed limbs or digits, as long as they're still fresh.

Contagion-Curing Touch
Cost: 1m; Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Ailment-Rectifying Method x 2

This charm supplements any Medicine roll to treat disease, granting the Solar (Essence) automatic successes, and allowing her to do so even if lacking the proper medicines or herbs. In addition, if the patient recovers, he gains (Solar's Essence) automatic successes on all rolls to resist disease for a season.

Instant Treatment Methodology
Cost: 5m, 1wp or 5i, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Wound-Cleansing Meditation

This charm supplements any Medicine charm that requires an hour of treatment, reducing it to seconds (a single combat action). An appropriate stunt may remove the need for tools as well.

Touch of Blissful Release
Cost: 5m; Mins: Medicine 3, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Flawless Diagnosis Technique

The Solar touches a target (herself or another), and rolls (Intelligence + Medicine). He ignores up to (Successes) wound or other crippling penalties, down to a minimum of -1 penalty.

Wound-Accepting Technique
Cost: 3m per health level, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Touch of Blissful Release

The Lawgiver touches another, and heals him up to (Essence) Bashing or Lethal levels of damage. She takes a like amount of damage of the same type. She may use this charm only once per scene per patient.

Feit of Imparted Nature
Cost: 10m; Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Touch of Blissful Release

The Solar touches a patient, granting them (Solar's Essence) -0 health levels. These levels disappear when this charm ends, taking any damage they're holding with them.

Body-Purifying Admonitions
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Touch of Blissful Release

This charm may be activated at any time. The Solar touches a target suffering from poison. She rolls (Wits + Medicine), removing successes from the poison's remaining duration as it boils out from its point of entry. If she fully cures a supernatural poison, she gains 1wp.

Wholeness-Restoring Meditation
Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Until treatment ends
Prerequisite Charms: Instant Treatment Methedology, Wound-Mending Care Technique

This Lawgiver begins treating a patient with some sort of permanent debilitation. The Storyteller should decide if this is Minor, Major or Defining. She begins an extended (Intelligence + Medicine) roll, difficulty 5 and terminus 5. The interval and goal depends on the severity.

- Minor - Goal 10, interval one hour. Minor debilitates include major scars, missing ears, simple wyld mutations and Minor derangements.
- Major - Goal 20, interval one day. Major debilitates include congenital blindness, missing hands and Major derangements.
- Defining - Goal 30, interval one week. Defining debilitates include missing limbs, burned out eyes and Defining derangements.

If she succeeds in the extended roll, her patient is cured of the issue at hand. If she botches a roll or fails to reach the goal inside the Terminus, the Solar may not try again until she learns a new Medicine charm.

Life-Exchanging Prana
Cost: 1lhl per 3m, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One Tick
Prerequisite Charms: Wound-Accepting Technique

This charm may be activated at any time. The Solar gains 3m for every 1lhl she pays, trading her vital energies for Essence. For the rest of the tick, she ignores all wound and fatigue penalties. She may not reduce herself below Incapacitated with this charm, and doesn't fall unconscious until the end of the tick if she goes that far.

Master Chirurgeon Meditation
Cost: —; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 4
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Any Medicine Charm

The cost of the Solar's Medicine excellency is reduced to 1m per 2 dice.

Healer's Unerring Hands
Cost: 3m; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 4
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Master Chirurgeon Meditation

This charm supplements any Medicine roll, granting it disappearing 1s and 2s.

Living Lands Approach
Cost: 15m; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Body Purifying Admonitions, Contagion-Curing Touch

The Lawgiver spends a day leading a group in planting, clearing, weeding and generally treating an area of Shadowland no larger than (Essence * 10) acres. If living humans frequent it and attend to the land's needs over the course of the next month, it gradually returns to being a normal part of Creation.

Perfect Celestial Chirurgeon
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 5
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Healer's Unerring Hands

This charm supplements any Medicine roll, granting it double 7s. It may be used once per day.

Science of Mutation
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Until treatment ends
Prerequisite Charms: Wholeness-Restoring Meditation

The Solar takes her patient to the wyld, and spends at least a day applying powerful herbs, operating, or otherwise working on her patient as appropriate to her methods. She selects an Innate merit, and begins an extended (Perception or Intelligence + Medicine) roll, interval one day in the bordermarches or one one hour on the middlemarches. The difficulty is equal to (sum of the dots of all his existing innate merits + dots of the new one). The Storyteller should estimate the dots of innate merits possessed by an NPC without a full character sheet. The goal is 5 * dots of new merit, and there is no terminus.

If she succeeds, her patient gains the mutation. If he tracks experience, he must pay for it as though it were a purchased Merit. If she botches or abandons the project before completion (or her patient escapes), he instead gains one or more mutations of the Storyteller's choice (often starting with Hideous) related to the attempted change.

She may substitute a sufficiently advanced and well supplied laboratory for the wyld energy of the bordermarches by committing an additional 5m.

---

Removed Charms

• Plague-Banishing Incantation: Moved to Ailment-Rectifying Method repurchase
• Wound-Banishing Strike: Merged with Touch of Blissful Release to make one not-useless, not-abusing-combat-rules charm.
• Anointment of Miraculous Health: Wound-Cleansing Meditation + Instant Treatment Methodology already does this. Downvote for charms that obsolete their prerequisites.
• Body-Sculpting Essence Method: Moved to Wound-Mending Care Technique repurchase
• Healing Trance Meditation: This charm is horribly broken. No free motes + willpower, please. And besides the brokenness, I'm not really sure why it exists.
• Anodyne of Celestial Dreaming: Merged with Touch of Blissful Release, because that charm needed to be better.
• Benison of Celestial Healing: Making charms free is just not a good space for design.
• Life-Sculpting Hands Technique: Already have Master Chirurgeon Meditation for making things cheaper, two such effects is overkill. I kept the other one, because I like the way it encourages lots of medicine rolls over this one, which only helps once.
• Immaculate Solar Physician: Only so many dice-adders I can handle in one charm tree.

[Sanctaphrax]

There's probably a whole other thread to be had here - I'm having trouble articulating my thoughts, which means I'm not entirely clear what my own opinion is. So if you want to start that thread, "what is Lore," I'll certainly follow it. I think my basic question what does it mean to be a pulp hero using lore? Perhaps another way of phrasing that is what are the active uses of lore, rather than the passive ones? Because most I've seen this play out in games many, many times, where on character wants to play a "lormaster", then sits around bored and frustrated because being a walking book isn't actually an interesting character.

Pulp isn't really my main inspiration for Exalted, but I agree that active effects make better Charms than passive ones. So the math/philosophy/history/whatever Charms should do interesting things. Like:

-Gain the mental math skills of a laptop computer.
-Immediately perceive angles, distances, and weights.
-Write mathematical proofs that are heart-breakingly beautiful to anyone capable of understanding them.
-Boost social attacks, particularly written ones, when trying to spread your philosophy.
-Use Read Intentions on historical figures you're studying as if they were in front of you. Useful when dealing with really old people.
-Learn or teach lost spells and martial arts techniques based on historical records of them.
-Detect Sidereal shenanigans and other fate magic by looking at the stars.
-Read the plans of heaven off the sky. (Sidereals should probably get these two for free)

I'd rather not start another thread...somehow I don't think it would go good places.

I just don't like Mind-Scribing Method. Not a fan of separating out the creative act from the physical act. I didn't like it in craft (get started on craft without crafting!), didn't like it in Investigation (run an investigation inside your own mind!) and I don't like it here. Or maybe to put it a bit differently, it's how people wish things worked, but real writers know that only putting a pen to paper gets the job done.

...I'm really going off on a philosophical tangent here, which doesn't really belong in the rewrite project. Anyway, it could be fit in as an addendum to another charm because the effect is weak, but it's just not an effect I want in the charm set of "people who do things" (Solars) at all.

Obviously it's your choice, but for the record I disagree. Solars have a long tradition of abstracting away the actual difficulties involved in doing skilled work, and I for one think it's a good tradition.

Medicine is in a grim state. This is a charm tree that really needs some more meat to it. The fact that the entire top half of the tree is dice adders is a pretty strong sign the devs were just out of ideas. Definitely open to suggestions for things to add here - one idea I had is for a "long term care" charm, where having a Solar looking after you for long periods of time provides [minor bonus] due to glowing good health.

I don't really agree about the grim state. A short tree is fine by me. Still, I have ideas:

-Do the stuff modern doctors do: research diseases, develop vaccines and medicines, etc.
-Train other doctors, either to be better doctors in general or to treat a specific problem.
-Recover willpower faster by saving lives.
-Perform supernaturally insightful autopsies.
-Direct a large team with supernatural skill, effectively treating dozens of people at once.
-Moreau-style mutation engineering.
-Improve someone physically over time, using teaching mechanics with a supernatural bonus.
-Give people lifestyle advice, and have them benefit greatly if they follow it. Maybe especially in childbirth.
-Change people's Intimacies when you operate on them. Not with mind control, with inspiration.
-Change people's Intimacies by operating on them. Not with inspiration, with mind control.
-Notice plagues before they get big or even before they get started.
-Heal the land itself when it's poisoned or polluted.
-Diagnose people at a glance, and get an idea of their medical history while you're at it.
-Flawlessly stop people on the edge of death. If your friend is decapitated, grab the head and stitch it back on before the brain dies.
-Invert your medical expertise, creating poisons and diseases.

The manga Jin is a good one for Solar Medicine inspiration, if you ask me.

Ailment-Rectifying Method
Cost: 3m; Mins: Medicine 2, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

The Solar spends an hour treating a patient with herbs or other remedies appropriate to his disease, and rolls (Intelligence + Medicine) against the disease's Morbidity. As long as he spends his time resting and cared for, he receives half of her threshold successes on his next resistance roll.

With a repurchase at Medicine 3+, if she rolls twice the disease's Morbidity, she may instead end it immediately - her patient recovers from the disease over the course of a day.

I think it'd be worth keeping the willpower cost on the repurchase. Shouldn't be too easy to heal like an assembly line.

Glad you got rid of the "people with high Stamina are more vulnerable to disease" bit, though. And requiring the patient to succeed at the roll to be fully cured always seemed like a formality to me.

Wound-Mending Care Technique
Cost: 5m; Mins: Medicine 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

The Solar spends an hour doctoring a patient with bandages, herbs or other remedies and rolls (Intelligence + Medicine). If he remains in bed for the rest of the day, he heals that many levels of Bashing or Lethal damage.

With a repurchase at Essence 3+, once per scene she may have him instead heal by the time the treatment is complete, with no need for bedrest.

Not sure about this. Anointment of Miraculous Health is pretty well-capped in how much it can heal, but this + Instant Treatment Methodology can easily heal a whole lot of health levels in one go. It seems like a bit much.

With the full Medicine tree and max stats, you can heal 22 health levels for 19m, 2wp. Even for that huge cost, healing 22 health levels seems excessive.

Also, why remove the possibility that less serious wounds will take less time?

Instant Treatment Methodology
Cost: 5m, 1wp or 5i, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Wound-Cleansing Meditation

This charm supplements any Medicine charm that requires an hour of treatment, reducing it to seconds (a single combat action).

Canon also lets you stunt your way around the need for tools. I think that's worth keeping.

Touch of Blissful Release
Cost: 5m; Mins: Medicine 3, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Flawless Diagnosis Technique

The Solar touches a target (herself or another), and rolls (Intelligence + Medicine). He ignores up to (Successes) wound or other crippling penalties, to a minimum of -1. If he would ignore the entire penalty levied by a crippling effect, it's held in abeyance as long as this charm lasts (he could use a broken leg normally, for example).

I think this is too strong. With fairly normal wound penalties, it can easily be +2 to everything for a a scene. And in more extreme scenarios, it can have a more extreme effect.

Also, I don't think you need to say "minimum of -1". How often do Solar physicians roll 0 successes?

Feit of Imparted Nature
Cost: 10m; Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Touch of Blissful Release

The Solar touches a patient, granting them (Solar's Essence) -0 health levels, which disappear when this charm ends, taking any damage they're holding with them.

That sentence should probably be two sentences.

Body-Purifying Admonitions
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Touch of Blissful Release

The Solar touches a target suffering from poison. She rolls (Wits + Medicine), removing successes from the poison's remaining duration as it boils out from its point of entry. If she fully cures a supernatural poison, she gains 1wp.

You inherited this problem from canon, but...what does it mean for this to be Reflexive? Can I use it four times in one turn while attacking when Fakharu breathes poison on my circle?

Wholeness-Restoring Meditation
Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Until treatment ends
Prerequisite Charms: Instant Treatment Methedology, Wound-Mending Care Technique

This Lawgiver begins treating a patient with some sort of permanent debilitation. The Storyteller should decide if this is Minor, Major or Defining. She begins an extended (Intelligence + Medicine) roll, difficulty 5 and terminus 5. The interval and goal depends on the severity.

- Minor - Goal 10, interval one hour. Minor debilitates include major scars, missing ears, simple wyld mutations and Minor derangements.
- Major - Goal 20, interval one day. Major debilitates include congenital blindness, missing hands and Major derangements.
- Defining - Goal 30, interval one week. Defining debilitates include missing limbs, burned out eyes and Defining derangements.

If she succeeds in the extended roll, her patient is cured of the issue at hand. If she botches a roll or fails to reach the goal inside the Terminus, the Solar may not try again until she learns a new Medicine charm.

So...you're requiring committed motes and adding a terminus, but you're also reducing the goal number, making the interval much shorter, and allowing derangements to be cured.

Seems like a random bunch of changes. Care to explain?

Life-Exchanging Prana
Cost: 1lhl per 3m, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One Tick
Prerequisite Charms: Feit of Imparted Nature

This charm may be activated at any time. The Solar gains 3m for every 1lhl she pays, trading her vital energies for Essence. For the rest of the tick, she ignores all wound and fatigue penalties. She may not reduce herself below Incapacitated with this charm, and doesn't fall unconscious until the end of the tick if she goes that far.

I think Wound-Accepting Technique would be a more logical prereq now that it's a Medicine Charm.

Healer's Unerring Hands
Cost: 3m; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 4
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Master Chirurgeon Meditation

This charm supplements any Medicine roll, granting it disappearing 1s and 2s.

Perfect Celestial Chirurgeon
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 5
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Healer's Unerring Hands

This charm supplements any Medicine roll, granting it double 7s. It may be used once per day.

I dunno about these changes. They don't seem necessary,

I liked that Healer's Unerring Hands could rescue you from a flubbed roll, and I don't think it's necessary to weaken Immaculate Solar Physician that much.

EDIT: One more effect I forgot for Solar Medicine. Curing old age. Or at least ameliorating it.

And I recently stumbled across this post from Revlid, which seems relevant here.

[Sanctaphrax]

Sanctaphrax - Yes, I'd be glad to - give me some time to get up to speed on it, though; this is a heck of a week.

Poke, poke, nag, nag.

[BlueWinds]

Pulp isn't really my main inspiration for Exalted, but I agree that active effects make better Charms than passive ones. So the math/philosophy/history/whatever Charms should do interesting things. Like:

-Gain the mental math skills of a laptop computer.
-Immediately perceive angles, distances, and weights.

My main inspiration is more Odyssey / Anead / Illiad, with a smattering of Chinese epics. Pulp is secondary for me as well.

What do these two charms actually do, gameplay wise? The "fluff only" implementation seems like it'd open up a lot of player-ST arguments about what it actually means to be able to do that.

-Write mathematical proofs that are heart-breakingly beautiful to anyone capable of understanding them.
-Boost social attacks, particularly written ones, when trying to spread your philosophy.

- Wasn't there a charm which forces a reader to finish reading once they begin? For the life of me I cannot find it. Also seems related to the Mind-Swallowing Missive linguistics charms.
- We already have Linguistics charms for the second.

-Use Read Intentions on historical figures you're studying as if they were in front of you. Useful when dealing with really old people.
-Learn or teach lost spells and martial arts techniques based on historical records of them.
-Detect Sidereal shenanigans and other fate magic by looking at the stars.
-Read the plans of heaven off the sky. (Sidereals should probably get these two for free)

- Seems suspiciously similar to Sagacious Reading of Intent.
- This is a good one! Maybe something of the form "may treat texts about X as a tutor for learning X."
- These last two are definitely things that Lore should do. Sidereals write fate, but anyone (especially Solars) should be able to read it. If anyone wants to argue they should be in Occult... well, I'll argue back, because Occult already has all the cool stuff.

I'd rather not start another thread...somehow I don't think it would go good places.

><; Yeah, probably wouldn't go good places.

I don't really agree about the grim state. A short tree is fine by me. Still, I have ideas:

-Do the stuff modern doctors do: research diseases, develop vaccines and medicines, etc.
-Train other doctors, either to be better doctors in general or to treat a specific problem.
-Recover willpower faster by saving lives.

I guess grim is overselling it. Not nearly as bad as Awareness was, for example. Mostly it just feels a little... monomaniacal. Maybe that's inherent to an ability named "medicine," but a few flavorful charms could do a lot to open it up to different characters.

- Eh. Not feeling inspiration here. Feels more like stories for a doctor to have than charms.
- A bit of overlap with Bureaucracy could do the tree good, but I'm not feeling inspired to write it right now.
- I'd be ok with this.

-Perform supernaturally insightful autopsies.
-Direct a large team with supernatural skill, effectively treating dozens of people at once.
-Moreau-style mutation engineering.
-Improve someone physically over time, using teaching mechanics with a supernatural bonus.

- Read Intentions actions through medicine starts feeling a bit too abstract for me.
- Meh.
- I was thinking about this as I was writing the tree. Added Science of Mutation.
- I'm worried about the Lore training charm overlap here. It could be done well, but I'm not sure how I'd do it well.

-Give people lifestyle advice, and have them benefit greatly if they follow it. Maybe especially in childbirth.
-Change people's Intimacies when you operate on them. Not with mind control, with inspiration.
-Change people's Intimacies by operating on them. Not with inspiration, with mind control.
-Notice plagues before they get big or even before they get started.

- I proposed something similar, still working out the details a bit. But yeah, good design space.
-
- These two in combination made me laugh. I'd have trouble fitting them in the same charmset - if mind control is better mechanically then it's feel bad for players ("be mechanically suboptimal or be evil, your choice" sucks), and I'd have trouble making them different enough that you'd want to take both (which means that one of them could be cut for space).
- Not inspired by this.

-Heal the land itself when it's poisoned or polluted.
-Diagnose people at a glance, and get an idea of their medical history while you're at it.
-Flawlessly stop people on the edge of death. If your friend is decapitated, grab the head and stitch it back on before the brain dies.
-Invert your medical expertise, creating poisons and diseases.

The manga Jin is a good one for Solar Medicine inspiration, if you ask me.

- Yes yes yes yes yes. I am excited, why did I not think of this, I am a total fangirl of Mercedes Lackey's Valdamar series, wherein this is a big theme. Added Living Land Approach.
- Sounds a bit uninteresting for a thing to spend XP on.
- Let's leave that space open for the Abyssals, so they have some medicine stuff that's not murder-death. Not that there can't / shouldn't be overlap, but as a specific charm, I'm not sure Solars need it.
- I'd be more down with this if I weren't 60% convinced poison is already brutally overpowered. Not a bad idea, I'm just uncomfortable messing with that aspect of combat balance until I have more experience with it.

I don't read a lot of manga. Only series I follow is Tower of God, which I recommend if someone wants a Shonen/action story with actual world building.

--------

So long story short, I've added two charms to medicine: Science of Mutation and Living Lands Approach. I'm a lot happier with the tree now.

--------

I think it'd be worth keeping the willpower cost on the repurchase. Shouldn't be too easy to heal like an assembly line.

Glad you got rid of the "people with high Stamina are more vulnerable to disease" bit, though. And requiring the patient to succeed at the roll to be fully cured always seemed like a formality to me.

Added a 3m surcharge for next day shippi... healing. 6m is nothing to sneeze at as far as doing it en-mass, but I'm not sure it needs a willpower in the cost.

Not sure about this. Anointment of Miraculous Health is pretty well-capped in how much it can heal, but this + Instant Treatment Methodology can easily heal a whole lot of health levels in one go. It seems like a bit much.

With the full Medicine tree and max stats, you can heal 22 health levels for 19m, 2wp. Even for that huge cost, healing 22 health levels seems excessive.

Also, why remove the possibility that less serious wounds will take less time?

I guess I was still thinking in 2e terms of "everyone has 7hls," not seeing number of levels healed as important (I'll be curious if "Ox body is great" is still a thing in two years - I suspect advice'll go from "lots of buys" to "a couple buys" and finally settle at "once is pretty good, maybe twice"). Tweaked.

Canon also lets you stunt your way around the need for tools. I think that's worth keeping.

Ok.

I think this is too strong. With fairly normal wound penalties, it can easily be +2 to everything for a a scene. And in more extreme scenarios, it can have a more extreme effect.

Also, I don't think you need to say "minimum of -1". How often do Solar physicians roll 0 successes?

Ah, I'll clarify. It's meant to reduce the wound penalties to a minimum of -1. Makes it quite a bit weaker when read that way.

That sentence should probably be two sentences.

You inherited this problem from canon, but...what does it mean for this to be Reflexive? Can I use it four times in one turn while attacking when Fakharu breathes poison on my circle?

Done.

Oh dear, I forgot to specify when it could be activated. The answer is "any time", so yes, any time, as many times as you like.

So...you're requiring committed motes and adding a terminus, but you're also reducing the goal number, making the interval much shorter, and allowing derangements to be cured.

Seems like a random bunch of changes. Care to explain?

Long-duration charms with ongoing effects should, IMO, generally be committed. I've done a similar thing most other places where a charm triggers an extended roll (Wyld-Shaping is an exception, because it expects to be reactivated repeatedly). I like committed motes - they're a neat way to say "you can't be everywhere."

The terminus and goal number changes are aimed to rebalance around the new set of dice-boosting tricks.

The interval is shorter to better facilitate actually using the charm on people who aren't plot-central. Solar Therapist to the rescue.

Derangements can be cured because... why couldn't they be in the first place?

I think Wound-Accepting Technique would be a more logical prereq now that it's a Medicine Charm.

Oh. Yeah. Somehow forgot about that charm when looking around to set the prereques.

I dunno about these changes. They don't seem necessary,

I liked that Healer's Unerring Hands could rescue you from a flubbed roll, and I don't think it's necessary to weaken Immaculate Solar Physician that much.

Rerolling all non-successes is a non-standard dice trick - that was my original intention for this rewrite, before I got into adding charms and making all these other changes. ^^;; Disappearing 1s and 2s saves you from most flubs anyway - you can't botch, and it way reduces the chance of 0 successes.

Double 7s is also not that far from doubling successes period (it's 3/4s of it), except it's less likely to explode successes all out of proportion when interacting with other standard effects which might be added later / in other books.

EDIT: One more effect I forgot for Solar Medicine. Curing old age. Or at least ameliorating it.

And I recently stumbled across this post from Revlid, which seems relevant here.

I'd rather leave youth (temporary or eternal) as something up to each individual storyteller, rather than as part of the standard ST bundle. Peaches of Immortality? Blood sacrifices? Fountain of Youth? These are can be important parts of a story. Ameliorating it doesn't have the same issues, but instead feels uninteresting for most players (not all, but most).

That Revlid post is really neat. If someone wanted to take on the task of redoing Lore + Occult from the ground up the way several people have for Craft, I'd totally consider using it. I do, however, already have a dozen more charm trees on my plate.

It was also really nice to see Aleph's posts on evocations a few pages earlier, someone else sharing my opinion on evocations.

Though the fact that you can say "okay, right, there are thousands to tens of thousands of artefacts in Creation, and they're all unique, special-snowflake wonders that are fantastic and incredible" with a straight face is impressive, I guess.

[Irked]

Poke, poke, nag, nag.

Thanks - I probably needed that. Trying to carve time.

[BlueWinds]

Melee time! Combat charm trees tend to be in pretty good shape - most of the charms are effective, and even if many of them are somewhat boring to read, they're pretty interesting to use, because they're competitive.

My biggest gripe here is Protection of Celestial Bliss. It's weird and filled with clauses that make it hard to figure out if you've actually used it right. The new version - I think - fills much the same role, with similar balance, but it's hard to tell. It costs committed motes to use, but is more reliable.

---

Melee

Excellent Strike
Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

This charm supplements a Melee attack. The roll gains one automatic success and disappearing 1s.

Fire and Stones Strike
Cost: 1m per die or success; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Excellent Strike

This charm supplements a Melee attack. If it's Withering, the Solar may spend up to (Strength) motes, adding that many dice to the post-soak damage. If Decisive, she may spend up to (Essence) motes, adding up to that many threshold successes from the attack roll to the raw damage.

One Weapon, Two Blows
Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 2, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Advantage
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Excellent Strike

This charm may be activated immediately after one of the Solar's Melee Withering attacks reduces her opponent from higher initiative than her to lower. She makes another Melee attack against that same opponent.

Peony Blossom Technique
Cost: 1m, 1wp, 3a; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: One Weapon, Two Blows

This charm may be activated on any tick. The Solar makes a Melee attack (which may force a Clash, if another player attacks on the same tick).

Dipping Swallow Defense
Cost: 2m; Mins: Melee 1, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

This charm supplements a Parry. The Solar ignores all non-surprise penalties to her Parry, and if the attack misses, gains 1i.

Bulwark Stance
Cost: 5m; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Until next turn
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense

This charm may be activated at any time. The Solar ignores all penalties to her Parry, and any damage roll made against her suffers Penalized 1s.

At Essence 2+ she may also parry unblockable attacks.

War Lion Stance
Cost: 2m; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense

The Solar chooses one ally. Her Defend Other actions for that person are Reflexive.

Guard-Breaking Technique
Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: War Lion Stance

This charm supplements a Distract gambit for the benefit of a person the Solar is defending with Defend Other. She gains double 7s on her Initiative roll. If the gambit is successful, her ally gains (Solar's Essence) or three, whichever is greater, bonus dice on the first attack benefiting from the the gambit.

Solar Counterattack
Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense

This charm may be activated after an attack the Solar attempted to Parry. She makes a Decisive Melee attack against the foe who attacked her.

Call the Blade
Cost: 1m; Mins: Melee 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

This charm may be activated at any time. The Solar summons a weapon she owns within Short range into her hand. If the path is obstructed (doors, chains, or similar obstacles block it from reaching her), she rolls (Wits + Melee), difficulty 4. On a success, she summons it anyway - it might break a weak barrier, or simply teleport into her hand. If she fails, she can't use this charm again until her next turn.

Summoning the Loyal Steel
Cost: 1m; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Stackable
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Call the Blade

The Solar banishes a weapon she's holding Elsewhere. It reappears in her hand when the charm ends.

Hail-Shattering Practice
Cost: 4m; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense

This charm supplements a Parry. The attack gains Penalized 1s and 2s.

Rising Sun Slash
Cost: 1m; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplement
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fire and Stones Strike

This charm supplements a Melee attack also supplemented by a full excellency. The attack gains an automatic success and (Essence) bonus dice that don't count against normal dice adding limits.

With an Essence 3+ repurchase, she also gains 1m for every 10 in the attack roll.

Iron Whirlwind Attack
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Peony Blossom Technique

The Solar makes up to (lowest of Strength, Dexterity or Stamina) Decisive Melee attacks, dividing her initiative evenly among them, spread among one or more targets as she chooses. Any non-excellency supplemental charms applied to the first attack are applied to all later ones at no additional cost.

With an Essence 3+ repurchase, she may instead make up to (highest of Strength, Dexterity or Stamina attacks), and adds 1 to the raw damage of each, and may move one range band in order to make each attack.

Fivefold Bulwark Stance
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Bulwark Stance

The Solar ignores penalties to her Parry from wounds, onslaught and being grappled. Dipping Swallow Defense costs 1m less to activate and raises her Parry by 1. Bulwark Stance costs 2m less to activate.

Heavenly Guardian Defense
Cost: 4m + 1i per success, or 4m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Post-roll
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Bulwark Stance

This charm supplements a Parry against a Decisive attack, after damage has been rolled. Reduce the damage dealt by one level per initiative spent.

If an attack would deal uncountable reoccurring damage (such as an exploding volcano or a swirling maelstrom of adamant blades), she may instead spend 4m, 1wp to block all damage.

Calm and Ready Focus
Cost: —; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: War Lion Stance

While using Defend Other, whenever the Lawgiver successfully Parries (against her charge or herself) an attack she gains 1i.

Unassailable Guardian Posture
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One turn
Prerequisite Charms: War Lion Stance

This charm may be activated whenever an attack would harm a ward the Exalt is defending with War Lion Stance. It hits her instead.

At Essence 3+, she may take the damage even from sources that are not attacks, such as explosions or environmental damage.

Ready in Eight Directions Stance
Cost: 5m; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Counterattack
Duration: Until next turn
Prerequisite Charms: Solar Counterattack

The Solar may apply Solar Counterattack without paying its cost. If such a counterattack hits, she does not reset to base initiative until this charm ends.

Glorious Solar Saber
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Summoning the Loyal Steel

The Exalt forms her essence into a weapon with the same statistics as a Daiklave, glowing like a torch. She may purchase evocations for this weapon, working with the Storyteller to design those appropriate to her character and iconic anima manifestation.

She may supplement any attack using this weapon by spending 1m, 1wp. If she does, the blade glows with heat and at the automatically destroys any mortal weapon used to parry it or that it clashes (after the attack is resolved). This effect can also be used to carve her blade through up to two feet of rock or metal for a stunt.

Iron Raptor Technique
Cost: 7m; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mute, Quickshot
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Call the Blade, Excellent Strike

This charm supplements a Melee attack, allowing the Solar target opponents at up to Medium range. If the attack crashes the opponent, she gains 1wp.

Sandstorm-Wind Attack
Cost: 5m, 2i; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Call the Blade, Excellent Strike

This charm supplements a Decisive Melee attack, allowing the Solar to target opponents at up to Short range. She ignores hardness, and her target cannot benefit from cover. Flimsy cover may be destroyed at the Storyteller's discretion.

Edge of Morning Sunlight
Cost: 2m; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Post-roll
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Sandstorm-Wind Attack

This charm supplements any attack against undead, demons or similar creatures of darkness after it has rolled at least one success on its damage roll. The Solar rolls (essence) decisive damage dice against that target, ignoring hardness.

Hungry Tiger Technique
Cost: 3m, 2i; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Rising Sun Slash

This charm supplements a Melee attack against a crashed opponent. The Solar adds (threshold successes) to the raw damage.

Perfect Strike Discipline
Cost: 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense, Excellent Strike

This charm supplements any Melee roll with a full Excellency.

It may be used only once per scene, but can be reset by incapacitating a significant opponent with a Melee attack.

Flashing Edge of Dawn
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: One Weapon, Two Blows, Solar Counterattack

This charm may be activated after the Solar has been attacked. She makes a Withering Melee attack against the person who attacked her. If she deals damage, rather than gaining that initiative herself she rolls that many dice of decisive damage against her target, ignoring hardness.

Fervent Blow
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flashing Edge of Dawn

The Solar may use this charm when she's the target of an attack. She clashes it with a Decisive Melee attack of her own.

Immortal Blade Triumphant
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Solar Saber

The Solar may only activate this charm when her anima is at the bonfire level, and it ends if her anima drops lower. Her weapon cannot be disarmed or destroyed. If she receives a stunt on any attack, she adds the bonus dice to its raw damage as well as the attack roll. She converts up to (Essence) damage dice on each attack to successes.

She may supplement a decisive attack with (Essence) bonus damage dice and ignore hardness, in addition to the above effects. After the attack, this charm ends and her anima resets to Dim.

Corona of Radiance
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Edge of Morning Sunlight

The Solar's Parry increases by 1 against demons, Abyssal Exalted, the undead and similar creatures of darkness. If they strike her without a weapon, they take (Solar's Essence) dice of decisive damage, ignoring hardness.

Sharp Light of Judgment Stance
Cost: —; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Corona of Radiance

Sandstorm-Wind Attack and Blazing Solar Bolt gain (Essence) bonus dice on their damage rolls against creatures of darkness. While Corona of Radiance is active, the Solar's minimum damage against creatures of darkness increases by (Essence).

She may reflexively spend 2m to treat any enemy she has a Defining intimacy against as a creature of darkness for the purposes of all Melee charms until her next action, or 2m 1wp to do the same with a Major intimacy.

Blazing Solar Bolt
Cost: 5m, 2i, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Corona of Radiance

The Solar makes a Decisive Melee attack at an enemy within short range. She may expend anima levels to increase the range by one band per 1a. The attack is unblockable. If it hits, the attack has a base damage of (Essence + Threshold successes), ignores hardness, and her initiative does not reset. Against residents of Malfeas or the underworld or other creatures of darkness, the attack deals Aggravated damage.

Blazing Solar Bolt can be used only once per scene, but may be reset by landing a decisive attack that resets her to base initiative and rising back to 12+.

Heaven Sword Flash
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Iron Whirlwind Attack x2

The Solar rolls a single Decisive Melee attack with raw damage of half her current initiative, and applies it against all opponents within close range. Against battle groups, she uses her full initiative value for damage. If she only hits battle groups, her initiative does not reset.

Circle of Bright Reaving
Cost: 6m, 1a, 2i; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 5
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Heaven Sword Flash

The Solar may activate this charm when Heaven Sword Flash slays an enemy or deals magnitude damage to a Battle group. She makes a single Withering Melee attack, and applies it against all opponents within close range. She gains full initiative only for the opponent who would give her the most, and no more than 3i for each other opponent hit.

If she crashes at least one enemy, she may immediately activate Heaven Sword Flash reflexively.

Protection of Celestial Bliss
Cost: 2m per initiative; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 5
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Heavenly Guardian Defense

The Solar may activate this charm after she spends initiative on Heavenly Guardian Defense to completely negate an attack. She may spend no more than (Essence * 2) motes on this charm, and no more than twice as many motes as the initiative spent on Heavenly Guardian Defense.

Activating this charm has no immediate effect, but she may later end it to reduce the cost of applying Heavenly Guardian Defense by 1i per 2m invested in Protection of Celestial Bliss.

---

Removed charms

• Agile Dragonfly Blade: This looks pretty niche, it's unclear what it's meant to do, and my best guess has no concise explanation. It's also a dangling charm, which means cutting it is less likely to impact balance.
• Foe-Cleaving Focus: Moved to Rising Sun Slash repurchase.
• Invincible Fury of the Dawn: Moved to Iron Whirlwind Attack repurchase.
• Over-and-Under Method: This is a rules mess. Such a mess. Naughty charm, stepping all over the attack resolution rules. Also hangs, so I'm comfortable enough removing it rather than trying to bring clarity.

[Sanctaphrax]

What do these two charms actually do, gameplay wise? The "fluff only" implementation seems like it'd open up a lot of player-ST arguments about what it actually means to be able to do that.

Makes a bunch of tasks faster and easier, makes a few other tasks possible to attempt. No need to spend days surveying the land - look at it and you know all the numbers. And if you're compiling actuarial tables or trying to figure out the first X prime numbers, you'll be really glad to have the speed of a computer.

A lot of it boils down to ST discretion, it's true. But the increased speed can at least be codified.

- Wasn't there a charm which forces a reader to finish reading once they begin? For the life of me I cannot find it. Also seems related to the Mind-Swallowing Missive linguistics charms.
- We already have Linguistics charms for the second.

It rings a bell but I couldn't tell you the name. And it's pretty different from Mind-Swallowing Missive, because it's not harmful.

A little overlap is fine by me. I think there's room to distinguish a Lore-based social Charm from a Linguistics-based one.

- Seems suspiciously similar to Sagacious Reading of Intent.
- This is a good one! Maybe something of the form "may treat texts about X as a tutor for learning X."
- These last two are definitely things that Lore should do. Sidereals write fate, but anyone (especially Solars) should be able to read it. If anyone wants to argue they should be in Occult... well, I'll argue back, because Occult already has all the cool stuff.

I think the similarities are superficial. Sagacious Reading of Intent tells you what inspired an author to write something. This uses writing about someone rather than by them, and isn't so tied to the text itself.

I'll probably write it one of these days.

Only problem is, it's hard to write astrology Charms without knowing a bit more about how Fate is going to work this time around.

- Eh. Not feeling inspiration here. Feels more like stories for a doctor to have than charms.
- A bit of overlap with Bureaucracy could do the tree good, but I'm not feeling inspired to write it right now.
- I'd be ok with this.

Maybe. The Medicine rules are very focused on personal-scale work, though, and stuff like making a vaccine might too modern for Creation to support without magical justification.

Might write the other two sometime, if I feel inclined.

- Read Intentions actions through medicine starts feeling a bit too abstract for me.
- Meh.
- I was thinking about this as I was writing the tree. Added Science of Mutation.
- I'm worried about the Lore training charm overlap here. It could be done well, but I'm not sure how I'd do it well.

Didn't have reading intentions in mind. Was thinking more about getting incredible detail about how the person died.

Didn't expect you to like that one.

I dunno about the difficulty calculation there. It doesn't really work for NPCs and it seems like it can very easily get very high...I guess Medicine can produce tons of successes, but eh. Also, I think a sufficiently good laboratory should be able to substitute for the Wyld. Otherwise looks good.

Me neither. Probably best just to leave it out.

- I proposed something similar, still working out the details a bit. But yeah, good design space.
-
- These two in combination made me laugh. I'd have trouble fitting them in the same charmset - if mind control is better mechanically then it's feel bad for players ("be mechanically suboptimal or be evil, your choice" sucks), and I'd have trouble making them different enough that you'd want to take both (which means that one of them could be cut for space).
- Not inspired by this.

I hope you figure out something good for it.

Probably better to write just one. Or to make the nastier one an Abyssal Charm.

Fair enough.

- Yes yes yes yes yes. I am excited, why did I not think of this, I am a total fangirl of Mercedes Lackey's Valdamar series, wherein this is a big theme. Added Living Land Approach.
- Sounds a bit uninteresting for a thing to spend XP on.
- Let's leave that space open for the Abyssals, so they have some medicine stuff that's not murder-death. Not that there can't / shouldn't be overlap, but as a specific charm, I'm not sure Solars need it.
- I'd be more down with this if I weren't 60% convinced poison is already brutally overpowered. Not a bad idea, I'm just uncomfortable messing with that aspect of combat balance until I have more experience with it.

Looks pretty good. Much easier than using a Working, but that's probably how it should be. Not sure about the roll - using any mental attribute seems a bit odd, and somehow I doubt anyone's gonna fail the roll. If you're interested in expanding on the theme, a Charm to cure other forms of blight/curse/pollution/environmental damage seems worthwhile to me.

Matter of opinion, that. I like powers that give extra information.

I'm reuctant to let Abyssals take anything from anyone, since I don't like them all that much. But you have a point.

Makes sense.

Added a 3m surcharge for next day shippi... healing. 6m is nothing to sneeze at as far as doing it en-mass, but I'm not sure it needs a willpower in the cost.

Alright. I'd make it cost wp in your shoes, but obviously it's your call.

I guess I was still thinking in 2e terms of "everyone has 7hls," not seeing number of levels healed as important (I'll be curious if "Ox body is great" is still a thing in two years - I suspect advice'll go from "lots of buys" to "a couple buys" and finally settle at "once is pretty good, maybe twice"). Tweaked.

I think you've gone too far the other way now. Healing a ton of health levels in a day is fine, it's just the combat use that needs limiting.

As for Ox-Body, I think it'll hold up well. At least for higher-end characters, who have good Stamina and would rather upgrade in a way that doesn't place yet another demand on their mote pool.

Ah, I'll clarify. It's meant to reduce the wound penalties to a minimum of -1. Makes it quite a bit weaker when read that way.

Makes sense. Doesn't seem to fit with the last bit about ignoring crippling injuries, though. Is the idea that wound penalties can only go down to -1, but other penalties can be negated completely?

Long-duration charms with ongoing effects should, IMO, generally be committed. I've done a similar thing most other places where a charm triggers an extended roll (Wyld-Shaping is an exception, because it expects to be reactivated repeatedly). I like committed motes - they're a neat way to say "you can't be everywhere."

The terminus and goal number changes are aimed to rebalance around the new set of dice-boosting tricks.

The interval is shorter to better facilitate actually using the charm on people who aren't plot-central. Solar Therapist to the rescue.

Derangements can be cured because... why couldn't they be in the first place?

Makes sense.

Rerolling all non-successes is a non-standard dice trick - that was my original intention for this rewrite, before I got into adding charms and making all these other changes. ^^;; Disappearing 1s and 2s saves you from most flubs anyway - you can't botch, and it way reduces the chance of 0 successes.

Double 7s is also not that far from doubling successes period (it's 3/4s of it), except it's less likely to explode successes all out of proportion when interacting with other standard effects which might be added later / in other books.

Would you believe that I actually forgot what your original goal was?

But yeah, make sense. Even if it's actually 3/5, not 3/4.

That Revlid post is really neat. If someone wanted to take on the task of redoing Lore + Occult from the ground up the way several people have for Craft, I'd totally consider using it. I do, however, already have a dozen more charm trees on my plate.

I don't think a full rewrite is really needed. Lore's not nearly as bad as Craft was.

I'll probably write up a few academic Lore Charms one of these days, though. Fill in some of the space you made by cutting 26 Charms.

It was also really nice to see Aleph's posts on evocations a few pages earlier, someone else sharing my opinion on evocations.

I have mixed feelings on Evocations.

Thousands of Artifacts each being unique and special doesn't bother me; I already think of real objects that way. And I think additional Charms is a good way to represent the effects of some Artifacts.

But they're being pushed too hard. Not every Artifact weapon needs Evocations. And it's okay, even good, for an Artifact's effects to be expressed in other ways.

Encouraging/requiring everyone to write their own homebrew seems...risky, but maybe it'll be cool.

[Sanctaphrax]

Peony Blossom Technique
Cost: 1m, 1wp, 3a; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: One Weapon, Two Blows

This charm may be activated at any time. The Solar makes a Melee attack.

What exactly does "any time" mean? Can I interrupt a successful attack, kill the attacker, and prevent the damage? Can I automatically Clash?

Dipping Swallow Defense
Cost: 2m; Mins: Melee 1, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

This charm supplements a Parry against a non-surprise attack. The Solar ignores all penalties to her Parry, and if the attack misses, gains 1i.

Not sure if this is what the book intended. To me, it seems that the canonical version works on the non-surprise-related penalties attached to a surprise attack.

Bulwark Stance
Cost: 5m; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Until next turn
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense

This charm may be activated at any time. The Solar ignores all penalties to her Parry, and any attack made against her suffers Penalized 1s.

Shouldn't the 1s penalize the damage roll, not the attack roll?

Or did you change that on purpose?

Solar Counterattack
Cost: 3m; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense

This charm may be activated after the Solar attempts to Parry at attack from close range. She makes a Decisive Melee attack against the foe who attacked her.

...

Flashing Edge of Dawn
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: One Weapon, Two Blows, Solar Counterattack

This charm may be activated after the Solar has been attacked by an opponent at close range. She makes a Withering Melee attack against the person who attacked her. If she deals damage, rather than gaining that initiative herself she rolls that many dice of decisive damage against her target, ignoring hardness.

I think it'd be good to unify the timing here, to clarify whether the two can be used together, and to make it very clear whether killing someone who's trying to hit you stops their attack.

Call the Blade
Cost: 1m; Mins: Melee 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

The Solar summons a weapon she owns within Short range into her hand. If the path is obstructed (doors, chains, or similar obstacles block it from reaching her), she rolls (Wits + Melee), diffucilty 4. On a success, she summons it anyway - it might break a weak barrier, or simply teleport into her hand.

You mispelled difficulty.

Also, you should specify when this can be activated. I'm guessing at any time, once per turn, but it should be explicit.

Summoning the Loyal Steel
Cost: 1m; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Call the Blade

The Solar banishes a weapon she's holding Elsewhere. It reappears in her hand when the charm ends.

An Essence 3+ repurchase grants this charm the Stackable keyword.

That's an underwhelming repurchase. Why not just let people stash an armory elsewhere if they care to commit the motes?

Rising Sun Slash
Cost: 1m; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplement
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fire and Stones Strike

This charm supplements a Melee attack also supplemented by a full excellency. The attack gains (Essence) non-charm bonus dice.

With an Essence 3+ repurchase, she also gains 1m for every 10 in the attack roll.

This Charm was always lame. Removing the non-Charm bonus success makes it almost worthless until your Essence gets high.

Heavenly Guardian Defense
Cost: 4m + 1i per success, or 4m, 1wp; Mins: Melee
5, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Post-roll
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Bulwark Stance

This charm supplements a Parry against a Decisive attack, after damage has been rolled. Reduce the damage dealt by one level per initiative spent.

If an attack would deal uncountable reoccurring damage (such as an exploding volcano or a swirling maelstrom of adamant blades), she may instead spend 4m, 1wp to block all damage.

Why remove the block-the-unblockable option?

Solar Melee should be able to do that. Though I could see moving it to another Charm.

Also, this would probably work better as a Reflexive Charm.

Hail-Shattering Practice
Cost: 4m; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Post-roll
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense

This charm supplements a Parry after the attack roll has been made. The attack looses (Essence) successes.

Pretty sure this is a bad idea. Letting an Essence 5 Solar subtract 5 successes for 4m whenever they want is a bit crazy.

Why not just use the original effect? You seemed willing to penalize 1s on Bulwark Stance.

Calm and Ready Focus
Cost: —; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: War Lion Stance

Whenever the Lawgiver successfully Parries an attack while using Defend Other, she gains 1i.

If the attack was aimed at me, do I gain the i?

Unassailable Guardian Posture
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One turn
Prerequisite Charms: War Lion Stance

This charm may be activated whenever an attack would harm a ward she is defending with War Lion Stance. It hits her instead.

At Essence 3+, she may take the damage even from sources that are not attacks, such as explosions or environmental damage.

Would be better to replace "she" with "the Solar", I think.

Glorious Solar Saber
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 3, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Summoning the Loyal Steel

The Exalt forms her essence into a weapon with the same statistics as a Daiklave, glowing like a torch. She may purchase evocations for this weapon, working with the Storyteller to design those appropriate to her character and iconic anima manifestation.

She may supplement any attack or clash using this weapon by spending 1m, 1wp. If she does, the blade glows with heat and automatically destroys any mortal weapon used to parry it or that it clashes. This effect can also be used to carve her blade through up to two feet of rock or metal for a stunt.

Do attempts to parry or clash the heated blade automatically fail?

Can I use the heated blade to disarm destructively with a gambit?

Iron Raptor Technique
Cost: 7m; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Call the Blade, Excellent Strike

This charm supplements a Melee attack or clash, allowing the Solar target opponents at up to Medium range. If the attack crashes the opponent, she gains 1wp.

Isn't "attack or clash" the same as "attack"?

Also, I think the Quickshot keyword belongs here.

Sandstorm-Wind Attack
Cost: 5m, 2i; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Call the Blade, Excellent Strike

The Solar makes a Decisive Melee attack at up to Short range, ignoring hardness. Her target cannot benefit from cover, and flimsy cover may be destroyed at the Storyteller's discretion.

Should probably be Supplemental, not Simple, especially since that'd let it be used to clash like the original.

Edge of Morning Sunlight
Cost: 2m; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Post-roll
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Sandstorm-Wind Attack

This charm supplements any attack against undead, demons or similar creatures of darkness after it has rolled at least one die of damage. The Solar rolls (essence) decisive damage dice against that target, ignoring hardness.

Should probably require a success on the damage roll, not a die. And Essence deserves a capital.

Perfect Strike Discipline
Cost: 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense, Excellent Strike

This charm supplements any Melee roll with a full Excellency.

It may be used only once per scene, but can be reset by incapacitating an opponent with a Melee attack.

The anti-synergy with Excellent Strike bugs me.

Also, it might be better to specify a significant opponent.

Fervent Blow
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flashing Edge of Dawn

The Solar may use this charm when she's the target of a non-ranged decisive attack. She clashes it using Melee.

I think "decisive-only" meant that the Solar's attack had to be decisive.

Also, why not let this be used against ranged attacks? Many people with it will have Iron Raptor Technique, after all.

Sharp Light of Judgment Stance
Cost: —; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Corona of Radiance

Sandstorm-Wind Attack and Blazing Solar Bolt gain (Essence) bonus dice against creatures of darkness. While Corona of Radiance is active, the Solar's minimum damage against creatures of darkness increases by (Essence).

She may reflexively spend 2m to treat any enemy she has a Defining intimacy against as a creature of darkness for the purposes of all melee charms until her next action, or 2m 1wp to do the same with a Major intimacy.

Bonus dice to hit or to hurt?

Also, Melee should probably be capitalized.

Blazing Solar Bolt
Cost: 5m, 2i, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Corona of Radiance

The Solar makes a Decisive Melee attack at an enemy within short range. She may expend anima levels to increase the range by one band per 1a. The attack is undodgeable and unblockable unless the defense is supplemented with magic or a stunt. If it hits, the attack has a base damage of (Essence + Threshold successes), ignores hardness, and her initiative does not reset. Against residents of Malfeas or the underworld or other creatures of darkness, the attack deals Aggravated damage.

Blazing Solar Bolt can be used only once per scene, but may be reset by landing a decisive attack that resets her to base initiative and rising back to 12+.

If a stunt suffices to block or dodge, you might as well just let everyone defend. Nobody worth spending wp on is gonna fail to stunt. At least the original had niche usefulness on Tyrant Lizards and the like.

Heaven Sword Flash
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Iron Whirlwind Attack x2

The Solar rolls a single Decisive Melee attack with raw damage of half her current initiative, and applies it against all opponents within close range.

Circle of Bright Reaving
Cost: 6m, 1a, 2i; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 5
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Heaven Sword Flash

The Solar may activate this charm when Heaven Sword Flash slays an enemy or deals magnitude damage to a Battle group. She makes a single Withering Melee attack, and applies it against all opponents within close range. She gains full initiative only for the opponent who takes the most damage, and no more than 3i for each other opponent hit.

If she crashes at least one enemy, she may immediately activate Heaven Sword Flash reflexively.

These should specify some kind of effect on battle groups.

Also, can you pick up multiple Initiative Break bonuses with Circle of Bright Reaving?

Protection of Celestial Bliss
Cost: 2m per initiative; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 5
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Heavenly Guardian Defense

The Solar may activate this charm after she spends initiative on Heavenly Guardian Defense to completely negate an attack. She may spend no more than (Essence * 2) motes on this charm, and no more than twice as many motes as the initiative spent on Heavenly Guardian Defense.

Activating this charm has no immediate effect, but she may later end it to reduce the cost of applying Heavenly Guardian Defense by 1i per 2m invested in Protection of Celestial Bliss.

Not sure this should be Indefinite. Scene-long would feel less game-able.

[BlueWinds]

I dunno about the difficulty calculation there. It doesn't really work for NPCs and it seems like it can very easily get very high...I guess Medicine can produce tons of successes, but eh. Also, I think a sufficiently good laboratory should be able to substitute for the Wyld. Otherwise looks good.

Yeah, it's designed as a way to make use of double 7s + disappearing 1s + 2s. That means an average of 20 successes on 20 dice - so you can (without getting risky about it, and without being too tricky about pumping your dice pool) give a character something like 15 dots of mutations. That's a lot of dots.

Lab is a good idea. Pay a few more motes (from a reduced base cost) instead of using the wyld.

Looks pretty good. Much easier than using a Working, but that's probably how it should be. Not sure about the roll - using any mental attribute seems a bit odd, and somehow I doubt anyone's gonna fail the roll. If you're interested in expanding on the theme, a Charm to cure other forms of blight/curse/pollution/environmental damage seems worthwhile to me.

Matter of opinion, that. I like powers that give extra information.

That's the idea - it's a specialized power, so it should be reliable / efficient, even if it's a thing sorcerers can do too.

I wanted to make it (Willpower + Medicine), but that felt weird, and I couldn't figure out which attribute is appropriate. Maybe it should just be unrolled? Let's go with that. Simplifies the text a bit too. I did add in a bit about people needing to occupy it - if you're driven off by undead raids, it won't work.

I think you've gone too far the other way now. Healing a ton of health levels in a day is fine, it's just the combat use that needs limiting.

I like not being able to heal a ton each day. Recovering from a really serious fight being a multi-day affair - even with an excellent Solar doctor - seems like a neat thing.

Makes sense. Doesn't seem to fit with the last bit about ignoring crippling injuries, though. Is the idea that wound penalties can only go down to -1, but other penalties can be negated completely?

The idea is that if there's a charm that renders you blind, and you would ignore the entire blinding penalty (except you can't actually ignore the last -1), then you can see normally while being Blissfully Released. Not sure of a better way to say that.

I have mixed feelings on Evocations.

Thousands of Artifacts each being unique and special doesn't bother me; I already think of real objects that way. And I think additional Charms is a good way to represent the effects of some Artifacts.

But they're being pushed too hard. Not every Artifact weapon needs Evocations. And it's okay, even good, for an Artifact's effects to be expressed in other ways.

Encouraging/requiring everyone to write their own homebrew seems...risky, but maybe it'll be cool.

And that other thread reminds me why I keep to my own little niche, and why saying you should open a new thread to discuss a thing was silly. ^^;;

[BlueWinds]

Just wanted to thank you again for all your valuable feedback. This rewrite is far more cohesive and well edited because of it.

What exactly does "any time" mean? Can I interrupt a successful attack, kill the attacker, and prevent the damage? Can I automatically Clash?

Hm, good point.

Really, I sort of want The Stack, with priority and everything, where a flurry lets you place two actions on the stack, a multiattack charm places a bunch of actions on the stack, and whenever the stack is empty, you move to the next tick. ^^;;

Failing that, let's try "This charm may be activated on any tick." That's not MtG technical, but I think it's clear enough that people can divine what's meant.

Not sure if this is what the book intended. To me, it seems that the canonical version works on the non-surprise-related penalties attached to a surprise attack.

Point.

Shouldn't the 1s penalize the damage roll, not the attack roll?

Or did you change that on purpose?

Not sure how I misread that. Not a purposeful change.

I think it'd be good to unify the timing here, to clarify whether the two can be used together, and to make it very clear whether killing someone who's trying to hit you stops their attack.

Already clarified the bit about multiple triggers a while ago, just now added a bit of clarification about when they occur. I don't think the last bit would be necessary in a "blank slate" situation, but coming from 2e, people are going to have notions of how counterattacks work, so no sense ignoring that fact. From the opening post:

"Counterattack: This charm may not be used in response to attacks created by other charms with the Counterattack keyword, and only one Counterattack charm may be activated for a given trigger. Attacks it creates cannot be Clashed, even with the use of charms. These charms can't be used until after the triggering attack as resolved."

You mispelled difficulty.

Also, you should specify when this can be activated. I'm guessing at any time, once per turn, but it should be explicit.

Clarified to "any time". Is there a reason only once per turn?

That's an underwhelming repurchase. Why not just let people stash an armory elsewhere if they care to commit the motes?

I dunno. I forgot that 2e did that weird thing where it refunded you XP when you purchased the second charm - that was a weird time. Stackable by default it is.

This Charm was always lame. Removing the non-Charm bonus success makes it almost worthless until your Essence gets high.

The repurchase is lame, but I think the main effect is still decent. Added back the success.

Why remove the block-the-unblockable option?
Solar Melee should be able to do that. Though I could see moving it to another Charm.
Also, this would probably work better as a Reflexive Charm.

It should be able to, yeah, but this charm is the wrong place to do that, since all the other effects are post-roll, and being able to apply your DV is the definition of pre-roll.

Hm. I'm tacking it on to Dipping Swallow Defense. Effect itself costs 1m less, but requires you to use DSD.

It's Supplemental, though. "Supplemental Charms enhance an action or defense... A reflexive Charm either creates an action or can be activated at any time."

Pretty sure this is a bad idea. Letting an Essence 5 Solar subtract 5 successes for 4m whenever they want is a bit crazy.

Why not just use the original effect? You seemed willing to penalize 1s on Bulwark Stance.

I think the original is supposed to be Post-Roll? And I'm 100% against any effect that means I can't count up successes and sweep up the dice without waiting for my opponent to make up their minds about what effects they're using.

But post-roll, I think that effect was really strong anyway. I'd be happy to use penalized 1+2s and do it pre-roll - that'd feel more balanced anyway, so let's do that.

If the attack was aimed at me, do I gain the i?

Yep!

Would be better to replace "she" with "the Solar", I think.

So it would.

Do attempts to parry or clash the heated blade automatically fail?

Can I use the heated blade to disarm destructively with a gambit?

Nope.

Ask your Storyteller about this unique opportunity for a stunt! I'd say sure.

Isn't "attack or clash" the same as "attack"?

Also, I think the Quickshot keyword belongs here.

So it is, and neat, a chance to use it outside Archery!

Should probably be Supplemental, not Simple, especially since that'd let it be used to clash like the original.

Yeah. Strange the original wasn't.

Should probably require a success on the damage roll, not a die. And Essence deserves a capital.

Done.

The anti-synergy with Excellent Strike bugs me.
Also, it might be better to specify a significant opponent.

I get that bit of annoyance, but pick your benefit - you want a cheap bonus, or a full excellency + Rising Sun Slash? Only so much goodness you can cram in at once. :P

I think "decisive-only" meant that the Solar's attack had to be decisive.

Also, why not let this be used against ranged attacks? Many people with it will have Iron Raptor Technique, after all.

I think this qualifies as a defensive charm. Unless it's both, in which case it sort of needs the Perilous keyword to make sense.

"Decisive-only: If it’s an attack Charm, the Charm can only be used with a decisive attack. If it is a defensive Charm, it can only be used to defend against a decisive attack." It would feel too powerful to me if it were any attack.

No good reason (now it can).

Bonus dice to hit or to hurt?

Also, Melee should probably be capitalized.

Hurt and yes, clarified.

If a stunt suffices to block or dodge, you might as well just let everyone defend. Nobody worth spending wp on is gonna fail to stunt. At least the original had niche usefulness on Tyrant Lizards and the like.

I have to disagree here. My experience is that ST characters don't usually stunt unless they're important. Battlegroups of minions probably won't, for example, and making an attack unblockable is seems decent against them.

These should specify some kind of effect on battle groups.

Also, can you pick up multiple Initiative Break bonuses with Circle of Bright Reaving?

The first one does, sure.

Tweaked it slightly so it's "you would gain the most from" rather than "took the most damage." Also, no. You crash three people, you gain the most from one opponent, then at most 3i for each other. You're already raking in the initiative, I don't feel the need to reward further.

Not sure this should be Indefinite. Scene-long would feel less game-able.

Should definitely be One Scene, good catch.

[Sanctaphrax]

Yeah, it's designed as a way to make use of double 7s + disappearing 1s + 2s. That means an average of 20 successes on 20 dice - so you can (without getting risky about it, and without being too tricky about pumping your dice pool) give a character something like 15 dots of mutations. That's a lot of dots.

So how do you calculate an NPC's Merit dot count?

Also, I'm starting to wonder whether it's worth keeping those dice tricks. They seem like a source of trouble, and I'm not sure what they're adding.

I wanted to make it (Willpower + Medicine), but that felt weird, and I couldn't figure out which attribute is appropriate. Maybe it should just be unrolled? Let's go with that. Simplifies the text a bit too. I did add in a bit about people needing to occupy it - if you're driven off by undead raids, it won't work.

Good call, I think.

I like not being able to heal a ton each day. Recovering from a really serious fight being a multi-day affair - even with an excellent Solar doctor - seems like a neat thing.

But then why bother with healing Charms? Why not just heal normally?

I can see why you wouldn't wanna go full D&D here, but healing magic should still be worth using.

Incidentally, Wound-Accepting Technique seems kinda lame even compared to the new version of Wound-Mending Care Technique.

The idea is that if there's a charm that renders you blind, and you would ignore the entire blinding penalty (except you can't actually ignore the last -1), then you can see normally while being Blissfully Released. Not sure of a better way to say that.

Do you need to say anything?

If being blind gives you -6 to your vision-related rolls, and you negate that penalty almost entirely, then clearly you can still more or less see. And if being blind makes vision rolls truly impossible, then no amount of penalty negation will help.

Hm, good point.

Really, I sort of want The Stack, with priority and everything, where a flurry lets you place two actions on the stack, a multiattack charm places a bunch of actions on the stack, and whenever the stack is empty, you move to the next tick. ^^;;

Failing that, let's try "This charm may be activated on any tick." That's not MtG technical, but I think it's clear enough that people can divine what's meant.

I know what you mean. Whenever I think about how the RPG industry operates, I get really jealous of the sheer competence that MtG operates with.

Compare the way Shadows Over Innistrad is rolling out to the way EX3 rolled out. The contrast is almost tragic.

Already clarified the bit about multiple triggers a while ago, just now added a bit of clarification about when they occur. I don't think the last bit would be necessary in a "blank slate" situation, but coming from 2e, people are going to have notions of how counterattacks work, so no sense ignoring that fact. From the opening post:

"Counterattack: This charm may not be used in response to attacks created by other charms with the Counterattack keyword, and only one Counterattack charm may be activated for a given trigger. Attacks it creates cannot be Clashed, even with the use of charms. These charms can't be used until after the triggering attack as resolved."

Makes sense. Still kinda bothersome that they don't have the same condition, though.

Clarified to "any time". Is there a reason only once per turn?

So you can't keep rolling until you succeed.

It should be able to, yeah, but this charm is the wrong place to do that, since all the other effects are post-roll, and being able to apply your DV is the definition of pre-roll.

Hm. I'm tacking it on to Dipping Swallow Defense. Effect itself costs 1m less, but requires you to use DSD.

It's Supplemental, though. "Supplemental Charms enhance an action or defense... A reflexive Charm either creates an action or can be activated at any time."

It doesn't actually enhance the defense, it gives you a special damage-negating roll to make after failing to defend.

Anyway, moving that effect to DSD makes sense to me. Having the upgrade depend on knowing HGD is weird, though. Maybe make it depend on Essence instead?

I think the original is supposed to be Post-Roll? And I'm 100% against any effect that means I can't count up successes and sweep up the dice without waiting for my opponent to make up their minds about what effects they're using.

But post-roll, I think that effect was really strong anyway. I'd be happy to use penalized 1+2s and do it pre-roll - that'd feel more balanced anyway, so let's do that.

Yeah, the original is definitely post-roll. And very strong.

New version also seems pretty darn powerful, and is probably worth keeping an eye on. I couldn't tell you whether it's balanced or not.

I get that bit of annoyance, but pick your benefit - you want a cheap bonus, or a full excellency + Rising Sun Slash? Only so much goodness you can cram in at once. :P

Solar Charms should synergize, though. And Excellent Strike does a fair bit to increase your chances of using RSS, so I'd wanna use it alongside Perfect Strike Discipline.

I think this qualifies as a defensive charm. Unless it's both, in which case it sort of needs the Perilous keyword to make sense.

"Decisive-only: If it’s an attack Charm, the Charm can only be used with a decisive attack. If it is a defensive Charm, it can only be used to defend against a decisive attack." It would feel too powerful to me if it were any attack.

No good reason (now it can).

I think "any attack, only against decisive attacks" is probably stronger than "decisive attacks only, against any attack". After all, withering attacks have a strong advantage in Clash rolls.

And for some reason, it feels more natural to me if it can be used against any attack.

I have to disagree here. My experience is that ST characters don't usually stunt unless they're important. Battlegroups of minions probably won't, for example, and making an attack unblockable is seems decent against them.

That's gonna vary greatly by ST. And I don't think the effectiveness of a Charm should hinge on a style thing like that.

The first one does, sure.

That helps, but I don't think it goes far enough. Heaven Sword Flash should be a go-to anti-battle-group Charm. With these rules, it's only useful if you're facing a battle group and something else as well.

Just wanted to thank you again for all your valuable feedback. This rewrite is far more cohesive and well edited because of it.

You're very welcome.

But really, I should be thanking you. As it stands this game is a bit of a mess, but I think it'll be pretty solid once you're done with it.

PS: Just realized you removed the movement from Invincible Fury Of The Dawn. Any particular reason?

[BlueWinds]

So how do you calculate an NPC's Merit dot count?

Also, I'm starting to wonder whether it's worth keeping those dice tricks. They seem like a source of trouble, and I'm not sure what they're adding.

Urg. I keep forgetting the "quick character" rules - they're so vague. Could be handled a bit better, IMO. But anyway, added some guidance to the charm. "(the Storyteller should estimate the dots of mutations possessed by an NPC without a full character sheet)".

But then why bother with healing Charms? Why not just heal normally?
I can see why you wouldn't wanna go full D&D here, but healing magic should still be worth using.

Incidentally, Wound-Accepting Technique seems kinda lame even compared to the new version of Wound-Mending Care Technique.

Because the excellent Solar doctor can speed your recovery from weeks to days if you have 20 health levels, or from days to seconds if you have 7. I'm seeking the middle ground between "doctors aren't worth anything" and "all injuries are trivial."

Reduced the cost on Wound Accepting Technique to 2m per health level, and added "per patient" to "once per scene".

Do you need to say anything?

If being blind gives you -6 to your vision-related rolls, and you negate that penalty almost entirely, then clearly you can still more or less see. And if being blind makes vision rolls truly impossible, then no amount of penalty negation will help.

The idea was that if being blind gives you -6, and the solar removes the penalty completely, you can actually see again while the charm lasts. Maybe that's too fine a point and doesn't need to be covered - I'm coming around to that point of view. Removed.

I know what you mean. Whenever I think about how the RPG industry operates, I get really jealous of the sheer competence that MtG operates with.

Compare the way Shadows Over Innistrad is rolling out to the way EX3 rolled out. The contrast is almost tragic.

If the charms hadn't needed so much work, I might have instead done a basic system overhaul that both reduced complexity (cognitive load) and increased precision. But that'd mean rebalancing combat, which is more than I care to do as a hobby.

So you can't keep rolling until you succeed.

Oh. Duh. ^^;; Changed to once per round.

It doesn't actually enhance the defense, it gives you a special damage-negating roll to make after failing to defend.

Anyway, moving that effect to DSD makes sense to me. Having the upgrade depend on knowing HGD is weird, though. Maybe make it depend on Essence instead?

I considered making it Essence based, because yeah, having a charm reference a later charm in the tree is ick, but I'm just a little uncomfortable having the surprise negator so early in the tree / easy to get. Melee 2, no prereqs.

Yeah, the original is definitely post-roll. And very strong.

New version also seems pretty darn powerful, and is probably worth keeping an eye on. I couldn't tell you whether it's balanced or not.

Well, it's weaker than the original, so let's leave it here and see how things play out.

Solar Charms should synergize, though. And Excellent Strike does a fair bit to increase your chances of using RSS, so I'd wanna use it alongside Perfect Strike Discipline.

Hm. I guess this actually opens up an interesting question. How does "can't add more than X dice/successes" work? If I have Int 1, Lore 0, and someone else (for whatever reason) adds 2 dice to my pool... anyway, let me clarify things in the opening post.

"Add X dice: Roll X more dice than you normally would. She cans still activate additional charms (if she wants their other effects, for example), but remember that for Solar Exalted the final roll can't have more than (Attribute + Ability) * 2 dice in it."

So you could waste the bonus success and activate Excellent Strike anyway. Still a little anti-synergy, less so with this general clarification of an edge case.

I think "any attack, only against decisive attacks" is probably stronger than "decisive attacks only, against any attack". After all, withering attacks have a strong advantage in Clash rolls.

And for some reason, it feels more natural to me if it can be used against any attack.

Point. I keep forgetting that weapon accuracy adds to clashes, not sure why I can't keep that stuck in my head.

That's gonna vary greatly by ST. And I don't think the effectiveness of a Charm should hinge on a style thing like that.

Hm. I'm not really sure why it's undodgeable, fluffwise. It's a balance change... but how about just making it unblockable period, but still dodgeable?

That helps, but I don't think it goes far enough. Heaven Sword Flash should be a go-to anti-battle-group Charm. With these rules, it's only useful if you're facing a battle group and something else as well.

I think battlegroups are already weak enough to single characters attacking them, and don't really want to encourage dealing massive stacks of damage against them. (White Reaver Style is a whole different can of worms). Added "If she only hits battle groups, her initiative does not reset." - that makes it a bit stronger anti-battle group, without encouraging "I swing my sword and the army dissolves" sort of play that additional damage would give it.

PS: Just realized you removed the movement from Invincible Fury Of The Dawn. Any particular reason?

Oh, I forgot about that. Added back. I was worrying for a moment about being able to move up to 5 range bands in one action, but then realized that's a white room worry - in practice, if that ever happens, it'll be because it was set up (either by players or the ST) and it'll be awesome.