PDA

View Full Version : [Exalted] Willow Style



Sallera
2011-04-10, 11:20 PM
Just playing with a staff-using style, 'cause I like them. It's intended to be a sort of Terrestrial counterpart to White Reaper in application, a way to even the odds when outnumbered and fight through large numbers of lesser opponents. 'Tis my first attempt, so I'm sure it needs work; I'd appreciate knowing what'll be broken.

Willow Style
The Willow Style is rather unorthodox in that it was initially developed by a God-Blood, rather than a Terrestrial. The son of an Eastern Wood King, living in a manse above his ability to hold, developed this art from his attempts to hold off the frequent assaults by mobs of local barbarians and ranging scavengers. As such, it is focused on assisting a lone individual against multiple opponents. Although he fell before completing the work, he had recorded enough of the style in the manse's memory crystals that when the remote site was eventually claimed by an outcaste Terrestrial, she was able to recreate and extend the style past the form. From there, it spread to several outcastes, and even a few Celestials, but its focus on the individual means that it never obtained great popularity in the Realm. Willow Style is aspected toward Wood, and its form weapons are the staff and wrackstaff. It is not compatible with the use of armour.

Rebuke the Cringing Child
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

The child who fears the switch may hide themselves away, but this is but a momentary respite from the one they have offended. The martial artist's blow seems to twist unhindered around any obstructions, negating bonuses to DV from shields and less than 90% hard cover.

Countless Branches Deceit
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 5, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Rebuke the Cringing Child

Those who forget that a weapon never holds only a single end will soon find cause to regret their shortsightedness. Misleading their opponents by focusing only on a single point, the martial artist suddenly reverses their focus, striking in all directions faster than their opponents can react. The martial artist makes a single attack with a -2 internal penalty and applies the result to all opponents within reach; each target resolves defense and damage separately.

Principle of Acquiescense
Cost: 1m per 2B or 1L; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

To be the willow is to bow to pressure, rather than standing until you crack. Every child knows this, but the martial artist applies it to their own body. When struck by a blow, the martial artist moves with it, bending or twisting in sometimes impossible ways to absorb the strike. No matter the force behind it, the martial artist will never lose their footing, and even if hanging from a ceiling or falling from the sky will simply twist or spin, their progress unhindered. The martial artist increases their soak against a single attack by two bashing or one lethal for every mote spent, and in addition, is immune to knockback or knockdown from that attack.

Hidden Hollow Heart
Cost: 2m per -1 (+1m per opponent); Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Principle of Acquiescense

When you look at the willow from afar, you see only its shroud. Sight obscured, even were you to strike it, you would hit nothing. To approach is only to become isolated from those outside, and alone with the truth you seek. So it is with the martial artist. Spinning staff or even limbs through a flowing kata that inverts or obscures the body's true motions, they make a target so unpredictable that teamwork becomes useless. With an additional effort, they can increase the speed of their motions to the point that they can defend equally well in any direction. For each two motes spent, the martial artist negates one point of a coordinated attack penalty to their DV. For an additional cost of one mote per attacker beyond the fourth, those attackers do not gain the unexpected quality on their attacks when surrounding the martial artist.

Willow Form
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Countless Branches Deceit, Hidden Hollow Heart

Unhindered by battle or terrain, the martial artist dips into a mental state where no obstacle can block the flow of her technique. Her motions become effortlessly fluid, matching her opponents without need to measure them beforehand, and wherever they go, she is already there. Lacking such forethought, they merely hinder each other if they attempt to corner her. The martial artist gains +1 to Parry DV, and may make one free counterattack at her full dice pool for each five attacks she is subject to in the space of a single one of her actions.

Blood Feeds the Roots
Cost: 4m, 1lhl; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: (Martial Arts) actions
Prerequisite Charms: Willow Form

The willow's roots run wide, and those who think themselves out of reach would do well to look beneath their feet. With a sacrifice of blood, the martial artist calls upon the unseen roots that permeate the soil, beckoning them with the promise of more. Breaking through the surface, the greedy least gods of the plants cause them to clutch at everyone who has not offered the same consideration. Anyone other than the martial artist within a range of (Martial Arts x 5) yards who does not succeed on a reflexive (Dexterity + Athletics) roll at a difficulty of the martial artist's (Martial Arts/2) is caught by the roots. They become unable to take Move or Dash actions that are unassisted by magic, and suffer a -1 external penalty on melee attacks as their stance is hindered.

Soothing Willow Tea
Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Blood Feeds the Roots

Protecting, sheltering, weaving, and healing, the martial artist internalizes the willow's purpose, and briefly draws upon the vitality of his foes to feed its most valued aspect. For a few precious seconds, the martial artist's skin becomes as the bark of the willow, and as it is fed with the blood of his opponents, their essence flows through him, converted into the tree's soothing extract. For one action, the martial artist heals one lethal health level for each separate opponent he deals damage to.