Exalted 2nd Edition - Martial Arts Without Virtue

[Endless Query]

I had an idea for an Exalted Solar who, in contrast with the more energetic, volatile, virtue channeling Solar Hero-style sort of combatant, fought with a sense of serenity, of clarity untroubled by emotions, even by those impulses of their own virtue. My first instinct for character design was to build them with the Celestial Monkey Style, as it's Form actually does permit the user to completely ignore their virtues in combat, but based on what I've seen around the 'net the Celestial Monkey Style is a bit on the jankey-unreliable-to-broken side and probably best left alone. Is there any other martial art the deals with virtue suppression? And, failing that, is there any sort of overwhelmingly brutal killing style, something Street Fighter Akuma like or similarly heinous? I figure with something like that the character could be maintaining that serenity/avoiding their virtues to keep the destructive nature of their art in check or something to that effect. Any ideas?

[The_Snark]

Well - I don't know of any off the top of my head, but you could look around online to see if anyone has re-written Celestial Monkey Style online. A number of styles have gotten that treatment from fans, and while they vary in quality some of them are pretty good.

Barring that, Dark Messiah Style and Infernal Monster Style are both pretty functional, and definitely fit the criteria of "overwhelming brutal killing style."

Dark Messiah Form has similar Virtue-negating effects (not as an advantage, it just precludes channeling them), and while its Charms tend to be brutal (Bone-Shattering Blow, Lashing Tempest Palm, Illustrative Overkill Technique) there's nothing preventing you from using it calmly. Infernal Monster, on the other hand, has a couple of Charms that involve going on an uncontrollable berserk rampage, which doesn't sound like what you want for this character; it could work if you want to reserve them for the times when he loses control, to show why he strives for serenity, but otherwise I'd go for Dark Messiah. (The rest of the Charms are all very aggressive and tend to involve charging and brutal smashing blows, but don't actually require you to be frothing mad.)

[Endless Query]

Mmnnh, not bad ideas all around, I'll see if there'd a decent Celestial Monkey re-write (though re-writes can be tricky with getting GM oversight some days e_e), probably go for Dark Messiah, though I'll get winged with the "No art extensions" nerf for going out of type, but ah well, the things we do for flavor =P

Though I'm still open to other suggestions if people got 'em.

[TheCountAlucard]

Temperance is all about being level-headed and not being overcome by rash impulses and such, so it's unlikely to interfere with your stone-cold ass-kickery.

But if you've absolutely gotta, you could pick up the Ebon Dragon Charm, "Hollow Heart Transcendence," which drops all your Virtues to 1. You won't be compelled by your Virtues again after that. :smallamused:

[Endless Query]

Haha, don't think my GM is going to go for that one, he's actually quasi-wrote all Infernals out of existence/playability at least temporarily, though yeah, I was considering a 2/2/3/2 starting virtue spread, probably not the most effective thing I've ever designed, but the game is theoretically lower powered so it might be okay.

[Friv]

There's always the Art of Meditative Discussion.

It uses Temperance, so it's not entirely Virtue-free, but as mentioned, Temperance does get to be the Virtue of being serene and thoughtful, and the style isn't totally wonky. It's a little wonky, but you're playing Exalted, so it's kind of hard to avoid that.

[Endless Query]

That's actually where I started, but it feels a little too... Just tranquil, very a, mnh, "I'm not going to fight and you aren't either" (Especially with the way it can crank DVs to the stratosphere) as opposed to the "I'm not going to get upset that you're making me fight, but I'm going to end this very quickly" peaceful brutality that was what I was hoping for.

[Friv]

Ah, okay.

In that case, there was a re-write of Celestial Monkey (http://forums.white-wolf.com/cs/forums/p/32443/665564.aspx#665564) that you might like.

[Endless Query]

I'll look it over, from what I've seen so far it might work fine, assuming the GM is okay with it. Always tricky, I've found, with net write ups.

[Mewtarthio]

Maybe you could take Infernal Monster, tie it to Deliberate Cruelty instead of Berserk Anger, and refluff it as an Ender-esque "If you have to fight someone, make sure they can never hurt you again" approach to combat.