The_Snark
2014-03-20, 04:09 AM
Most of you looking here probably have a vague idea what this is about already. Those of you who don't are likely to be confused, but here's the quick version: the game system Exalted has a supplement called the Scroll of the Monk, featuring a number of supernatural martial arts styles for player use. Many of these were interesting concepts, but unfortunately the mechanics in the book were not well written; many are all but unusable.
This is a revision of one of those styles: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style, which focuses on grace, beauty and finesse. It is a soft style, emphasizing subtlety, skill and knowledge of the enemy over brute force. Masters of the style twist hearts and wield desires like swords.
This rewrite owes some to Plague of Hats' earlier revision of the same style, which can be found here (http://plagueofhats.blogspot.com/2011/02/dreaming-pearl-courtesan-rewrite.html). It was written prior to the system's last major update, and has some design elements I don't like; nevertheless, I've taken some inspiration from it both thematically and mechanically. Credit where credit is due!
Without further ado:
Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style
Weapons and armor: This style treats the war fan and the urumi as unarmed attacks. Chain and rope weapons may also be utilized, provided they are aesthetically appropriate (a delicate silver chain or silk rope-dart are appropriate, a heavy length of chain or knotted rope are not). Sashes, capes, flowing sleeves, and similar articles of clothing may also be treated as style weapons, although specialized Charms or weights sewn into the fabric are usually necessary to make them effective. Characters cannot practice this style in armor.
Complementary Skills: Dreaming Pearl Courtesans must have at least one dot in Performance and one in Socialize.
Demure Carp Feint
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The character moves with the practiced grace of a dancer or courtesan, graceful and unpredictable. Her motions draw the eye and confuse the senses. This Charm supplements an unarmed attack; the target of the attack suffers a -1 external penalty on all attack rolls until their DV has refreshed twice. Multiple invocations of this Charm against the same target (from any source) reset the duration but do not stack.
This Charm may instead be used to supplement a social attack; used in this manner, the target instead suffers a -2 external penalty on attempts to read the martial artist's motives, discern the truth of her words, or detect unexpected attacks from her.
NOTES:The original one is a generic DV bonus, quite possibly overpowered for its cost/duration. PoH's rewrite is… more complex, but easy to abuse. And I'm not sure why he picked that mechanic. It's supposed to be a feint! There were a lot of directions I could have gone, but I decided to go with a kind of pre-emptive defensive Charm. You have to use it in advance of an attack, and the penalty is pretty small, but it can penalize an entire flurry and will impede them no matter who they attack.
(At one point the effect was stackable and slightly more expensive, but I was persuaded this was a bad idea.)
It's a minor effect, but cheap, and I think it'll end up being useful. The secondary social function is pretty situational but adds a little bit of flair, and establishes a precedent - this won't be the last Charm with a secondary social effect.
Pearlescent Filigree Defense
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: None
The martial artist channels Essence into her robes, making them take on an iridescent sheen as shimmering motes trail behind her. The martial artist adds (Appearance + Essence) to her natural bashing and lethal soak. If her Appearance is greater than that of her attacker, she subtracts 1 from post-soak damage as well (to a minimum of 1).
NOTES:The original Scroll of the Monk version was pretty bland, although it is nice to have a soak-booster in a style that disallows armor, and PoH's version just made it slightly better (higher cap, more). I've tweaked the execution but it's still basically just a soak booster.
Plague of Hats originally had an effect worked into the Form which enhanced the first three Charms; Pearlescent Filigree Defense added to Appearance. I wanted to keep some aspect of that but felt an actual Appearance boost would be a bit much for one of the style's opening Charms.
Lethal Paper Fan Attack
Cost: 2m or 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: None
A courtesan wields her fans and fine clothing as a warrior wields shield and sword. Students of this style see little difference. The martial artist channels her Essence through her props and accouterments to turn them into deadly weapons, trailing razor-sharp afterimages. For the space of a single action, she treats paper fans (or similar handheld props such as hairbrushes and hand mirrors) as war fans. She treats sashes, long sleeves, hair ribbons, and so on as fighting chains. The Speed of such attacks is reduced by 1.
Alternatively, for a cost of 4m the character may enhance attacks with proper form weapons as well; in such cases it reduces Speed as above and adds two to Damage.
NOTES:This one was a headache. The idea is neat, but the execution… The original version is ghastly - Speed 1 attacks should not exist, thank you very much - and PoH's version just doesn't seem terribly good. After being annoyed by how non-useful Blade of the Battle Maiden is for someone who practices Violet Bier of Sorrows with a weapon, I also wanted to make sure it was useful (if not amazing) for people who are actually armed, too.
So I ended up with what we have above. In fact, I originally had it as a slightly cheaper Supplemental Instant-duration Charm, but realized that made it incompatible with a later Charm in the style. Right now it's kind of average with single attacks but good while flurrying; this is in-theme but I'm not sure about balance. May lower the cost and make the duration Instant.
Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Form-Type, Obvious, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Demure Carp Feint, Pearlescent Filigree Defense, Lethal Paper Fan Attack
The courtesan draws every eye. She is beautiful, graceful, effortlessly desirable. While this Form is active, the martial artist's unarmed attacks become DV -0, and she adds one success to all Performance, Presence, and Socialize rolls. Characters with a lower Appearance rating suffer a -1 external penalty on attacks against her; this unnatural Emotion effect costs (martial artist's Essence, maximum 5) Willpower to resist for a scene.
In addition, all characters who witness the martial artist employing this Charm count the scene as a scene of building (or reinforcing) a positive Intimacy towards the martial artist (with a context chosen by the target's player and approved by the ST). This is an unnatural Emotion effect; affected characters may twist the budding Intimacy to a negative one for 1 Willpower, or ignore it altogether for 2.
Lastly, the martial artist's props and robes take on a life of their own, complementing her movements. At her command, fans open and swirl around her body like butterflies, sashes tease and coil around her like a lover's hands, and flowing sleeves twist to her whims. Her attacks gain the R tag, and she need not use her hands to wield such weapons. She may animate up to (Essence) form weapons at a time in this manner.
Dynamic Form Transition
Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form may be assumed reflexively and without a Charm activation in the following ways:
If the martial artist makes a successful social attack or instills an Emotion effect in one or more targets
If the martial artist chooses not to pay Willpower to resist a successful social attack
NOTES:Ah, the Form. The original version just added dice to social rolls, which is powerful in a sense, but useless in combat - and more importantly, boring. PoH's rewrite makes it significantly more powerful: bonus dice to social rolls, plus benefits for the first three Charms, plus a free reflexive attack each action. But this was 2.0, when activating a Form-type Charm meant leaving yourself hideously vulnerable, so I suspect he wanted it powerful. Some of that had to go.
I could have focused more on the floating-weapons idea, like PoH did, but I'm not actually convinced that the Form should revolve around those; why does a style which revolves around beauty and social grace get "floating weapons" as its centerpiece? This isn't Thousand Flying Knives Style. It's a neat visual, so I left it in, but in general I wanted the effects to center around, well, beauty and grace. That meant defensive and social effects, mostly.
It feels like there's a lot of stuff here, but I compared it to Crane Form and it comes off reasonably equivalent; each of them grants 5-6 small-to-moderate perks. The combat benefits are solid but not overwhelming, the social perks are kind of neat but also not overwhelming… I think it more or less works out.
Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form
The martial artist’s delicate movements extend through her awareness of herself into the props she surrounds herself with, be they fans of silk or steel, sashes weighted or not, and even the air they fly through. These are her minions, and they act in concert with her to perfection. This Charm is a flurry of up to (Essence + 1) unarmed Martial Arts attacks, which ignore multiple action penalties but not Rate. If Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form is active, attacks made with floating props can target foes up to (Essence x 5) yards away. The DV penalty is equal to the highest of any one attack in the flurry.
NOTES:This Charm is a pretty standard Extra Action Charm, loosely based on Hammer on Iron Technique (Solar Hero Style). A bit more expensive, encourages using several weapons, can hit people at a distance.
Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious
Duration: Instant or until the clinch ends
Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
The whirl of high society surrounds the martial artist, deflecting and subduing distractions that are not worth his time. This Charm is an unarmed Martial Arts counterattack which may be used against any attack the martial artist successfully parried. If she has Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form active, she may use this Charm to respond to attacks from as many as (Essence x 5) yards away; otherwise, it is limited to close combat.
The counterattack inflicts no damage; instead, it has one of two effects.
Successfully striking the aggressor is resolved as an attempt to disarm them. This follows all the rules found on p. 158, save that the martial artist suffers no external penalty on her attack roll. Used in this way, this Charm is Instant.
Successfully striking the aggressor initiates a grapple that can only be used to hold. Every six ticks after initiating it, she reflexively maintains the clinch with half her normal dice pool as successes, which may be enhanced further with Charms. This clinch is maintained as long as the martial artist remains range of her foe and commits the cost of the Charm.
NOTES:The original Charm is messily written, but basically clear about what it should do. PoH's mechanics look solid, so I've swiped them nearly intact.
Vindictive Concubine's Pillow Book Understanding
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique
Even the mightiest tyrant is at the mercy of his concubines, who see him when he is at his most vulnerable. An insult from a lover can wound a person more deeply than any weapon. It slips past his defenses and cuts him where it can deal the most damage. As in social situations, so also in the martial arts.
Even the heaviest of superheavy plate armor has thin seams where the pieces join. A skilled craftsman will minimize the width of these seams so that no blade or arrowhead can pierce them, but even such seams are chasms to the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan who employs paper and silk—thinner than even the sharpest blade. An unarmed attack supplemented with this Charm ignores Hardness and up to (Essence + Martial Arts) points of soak from armor.
Alternatively, this Charm may be used to supplement a social attack that exploits an Intimacy, Virtue or Motivation; the target's Dodge MDV is halved against this attack.
NOTES:The basic function is swiped almost as-is from Scroll of the Monk, which for once seemed OK; it's like a supercharged Piercing tag, balanced by the fact that it's much less efficient. (Compare to: Burrowing Devil Strike, Sun-Sword Concentration.) This style's weapons are mostly on the light non-damaging side, so I figured it was a good effect to include.
The social function, I'm a little less sure of. It requires some knowledge of the target, and can't just be added to any social attack; I also added the Combo-Basic keyword to forestall possible abuse with other social Charms. We're also pretty far into the style, so it's good to have powerful effects. Still, DMDV is everybody's go-to defense and unlike regular DV, mental DV penalty-negators are all but nonexistent.
Fun fact: I think this might be the longest Charm name in Exalted.
Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
As the Exalt performs the sultry, languid moves of this Charm, ethereal music whispers in the air, and flower petals flow from her sleeves and the folds of her robes to swirl around her. The martial artist rolls (Charisma + Martial Arts + Performance); anyone whose MDV is lower is helplessly entranced by her posture, her movements, her mere presence. For the remainder of the scene they are fascinated by her, as an unnatural Emotion effect carrying the usual penalties.
This effect may be resisted for a base cost of two Willpower, or three if the target has a positive Intimacy towards the martial artist.
NOTES: The original version of this Charm is awful, basically a Total Control effect that inflicts high penalties even on people who resist. Luckily, PoH has a much better version, which I've tweaked and streamlined a bit here. I've also lowered the cost, because the effect doesn't seem all that potent - the penalty isn't that big, and nor is the cost to resist.
Seven Storms Escape Prana
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata
However deadly she may be, the courtesan is at heart a fragile creature, more at home in the boudoir than on the battlefield. Better to avoid such places. This Charm may be activated in response to any physical attack, providing a perfect dodge. In addition, the martial artist vanishes in a swirl of perfume and flower petals, reappearing up to (Martial Arts x 5) yards away. The Charm fails if she attempts to bypass a ward against teleportation.
This Charm may not be activated in response to unexpected attacks. After using it, the character is stunned until her DV refreshes twice; she may not use the Charm while stunned. This counts as a special Flaw of Invulnerability.
Alternatively, the martial artist may invoke this Charm as a Simple Charm for a cost of 4m, in which case it does not stun the martial artist and carries no Flaw of Invulnerability.
NOTES: Perfect dodge! Perfect defenses in CMA seem generally okay, as long as they're a bit worse than native ones. This one comes with a flurrybreaker attached, which is pretty powerful, but also costs Willpower, and you can't rely on using it all that often. I think it balances out.
Cup of Pearls and Wine Ascension
Cost: - (+8m, +1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type:
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration:
Prerequisite Charms: Vindictive Concubine's Pillow Book Understanding, Seven Storms Escape Prana
Love is a mystery. Nobody fully understands it, and it is never the same twice. Sidereal scholars who study this style make many conjectures on the nature of beauty and enchantment. If the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan reflects on the desires of the world as a whole, whence do these aesthetics come? Even the alien perspectives of the Primordials seem orthogonal to the nature of the Cup of Pearls and Wine Ascension.
When activating Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form, the martial artist may pay a surcharge of 8 motes and 1 Willpower to physically transform herself. Her body elongates, taking on the sinuous, powerful shape of a dragon covered in iridescent scales. Her eyes distend to form perfect teardrops of burning sapphire, mirrored in the one-hundred-and-one marks that line her sides. A willowy neck supports a head like that of a foal or an antelope, tipped with a golden beak and crowned with four twisting antlers that twist like smoke in the wind. Graceful carp fins support her in mid-air. Her possessions vanish into Elsewhere, save for weapons (which float around her as described in the Form); they may be retrieved for a cost of one mote. Artifacts and other relevant possessions may instead be adapted for her new form with a stunt.
The martial artist always gains the full +3/-3 Appearance benefit in social combat, regardless of her actual Appearance relative to theirs; her beauty touches on something deeper than simple visual aesthetics. She may invoke Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata as a Reflexive (Step 1 or 2) Charm rather than Simple. Anyone with a Dodge MDV less than the martial artist's (Martial Arts + Essence) instantly gains a positive Intimacy towards her, as described in the Form; the cost to resist is raised to 3 Willpower to twist the Intimacy and 4 to reject it. (Characters with a higher DMDV suffer only the usual effect of the Form.)
This Charm is not without its mundane benefits, as well. Her diamond-and-pearl scales offer +4L/+8B armored soak and 4L/8B Hardness, and she gains the ability to Move and Dash through the air at her normal speed. Lastly, she may not be clinched or bound; love knows no restraint.
NOTES:I actually wasn't sure if I wanted to keep this capstone, since it's so strange, but the first time I presented the style everyone I showed it to went "but I liked the gazelle-carp!" So here it is. The name is taken from PoH (chimera means something completely different in this setting), and I borrowed some of his mechanical ideas too. Made it an enhancement to the Form, because spending multiple actions powering up has never seemed like fun to me.
I'm still trying to work out how expensive this Charm should be; I don't want it to be prohibitively expensive, but at the same time it offers an impressive array of effects. It shouldn't come cheap.
This is a revision of one of those styles: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style, which focuses on grace, beauty and finesse. It is a soft style, emphasizing subtlety, skill and knowledge of the enemy over brute force. Masters of the style twist hearts and wield desires like swords.
This rewrite owes some to Plague of Hats' earlier revision of the same style, which can be found here (http://plagueofhats.blogspot.com/2011/02/dreaming-pearl-courtesan-rewrite.html). It was written prior to the system's last major update, and has some design elements I don't like; nevertheless, I've taken some inspiration from it both thematically and mechanically. Credit where credit is due!
Without further ado:
Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style
Weapons and armor: This style treats the war fan and the urumi as unarmed attacks. Chain and rope weapons may also be utilized, provided they are aesthetically appropriate (a delicate silver chain or silk rope-dart are appropriate, a heavy length of chain or knotted rope are not). Sashes, capes, flowing sleeves, and similar articles of clothing may also be treated as style weapons, although specialized Charms or weights sewn into the fabric are usually necessary to make them effective. Characters cannot practice this style in armor.
Complementary Skills: Dreaming Pearl Courtesans must have at least one dot in Performance and one in Socialize.
Demure Carp Feint
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The character moves with the practiced grace of a dancer or courtesan, graceful and unpredictable. Her motions draw the eye and confuse the senses. This Charm supplements an unarmed attack; the target of the attack suffers a -1 external penalty on all attack rolls until their DV has refreshed twice. Multiple invocations of this Charm against the same target (from any source) reset the duration but do not stack.
This Charm may instead be used to supplement a social attack; used in this manner, the target instead suffers a -2 external penalty on attempts to read the martial artist's motives, discern the truth of her words, or detect unexpected attacks from her.
NOTES:The original one is a generic DV bonus, quite possibly overpowered for its cost/duration. PoH's rewrite is… more complex, but easy to abuse. And I'm not sure why he picked that mechanic. It's supposed to be a feint! There were a lot of directions I could have gone, but I decided to go with a kind of pre-emptive defensive Charm. You have to use it in advance of an attack, and the penalty is pretty small, but it can penalize an entire flurry and will impede them no matter who they attack.
(At one point the effect was stackable and slightly more expensive, but I was persuaded this was a bad idea.)
It's a minor effect, but cheap, and I think it'll end up being useful. The secondary social function is pretty situational but adds a little bit of flair, and establishes a precedent - this won't be the last Charm with a secondary social effect.
Pearlescent Filigree Defense
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: None
The martial artist channels Essence into her robes, making them take on an iridescent sheen as shimmering motes trail behind her. The martial artist adds (Appearance + Essence) to her natural bashing and lethal soak. If her Appearance is greater than that of her attacker, she subtracts 1 from post-soak damage as well (to a minimum of 1).
NOTES:The original Scroll of the Monk version was pretty bland, although it is nice to have a soak-booster in a style that disallows armor, and PoH's version just made it slightly better (higher cap, more). I've tweaked the execution but it's still basically just a soak booster.
Plague of Hats originally had an effect worked into the Form which enhanced the first three Charms; Pearlescent Filigree Defense added to Appearance. I wanted to keep some aspect of that but felt an actual Appearance boost would be a bit much for one of the style's opening Charms.
Lethal Paper Fan Attack
Cost: 2m or 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: None
A courtesan wields her fans and fine clothing as a warrior wields shield and sword. Students of this style see little difference. The martial artist channels her Essence through her props and accouterments to turn them into deadly weapons, trailing razor-sharp afterimages. For the space of a single action, she treats paper fans (or similar handheld props such as hairbrushes and hand mirrors) as war fans. She treats sashes, long sleeves, hair ribbons, and so on as fighting chains. The Speed of such attacks is reduced by 1.
Alternatively, for a cost of 4m the character may enhance attacks with proper form weapons as well; in such cases it reduces Speed as above and adds two to Damage.
NOTES:This one was a headache. The idea is neat, but the execution… The original version is ghastly - Speed 1 attacks should not exist, thank you very much - and PoH's version just doesn't seem terribly good. After being annoyed by how non-useful Blade of the Battle Maiden is for someone who practices Violet Bier of Sorrows with a weapon, I also wanted to make sure it was useful (if not amazing) for people who are actually armed, too.
So I ended up with what we have above. In fact, I originally had it as a slightly cheaper Supplemental Instant-duration Charm, but realized that made it incompatible with a later Charm in the style. Right now it's kind of average with single attacks but good while flurrying; this is in-theme but I'm not sure about balance. May lower the cost and make the duration Instant.
Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Form-Type, Obvious, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Demure Carp Feint, Pearlescent Filigree Defense, Lethal Paper Fan Attack
The courtesan draws every eye. She is beautiful, graceful, effortlessly desirable. While this Form is active, the martial artist's unarmed attacks become DV -0, and she adds one success to all Performance, Presence, and Socialize rolls. Characters with a lower Appearance rating suffer a -1 external penalty on attacks against her; this unnatural Emotion effect costs (martial artist's Essence, maximum 5) Willpower to resist for a scene.
In addition, all characters who witness the martial artist employing this Charm count the scene as a scene of building (or reinforcing) a positive Intimacy towards the martial artist (with a context chosen by the target's player and approved by the ST). This is an unnatural Emotion effect; affected characters may twist the budding Intimacy to a negative one for 1 Willpower, or ignore it altogether for 2.
Lastly, the martial artist's props and robes take on a life of their own, complementing her movements. At her command, fans open and swirl around her body like butterflies, sashes tease and coil around her like a lover's hands, and flowing sleeves twist to her whims. Her attacks gain the R tag, and she need not use her hands to wield such weapons. She may animate up to (Essence) form weapons at a time in this manner.
Dynamic Form Transition
Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form may be assumed reflexively and without a Charm activation in the following ways:
If the martial artist makes a successful social attack or instills an Emotion effect in one or more targets
If the martial artist chooses not to pay Willpower to resist a successful social attack
NOTES:Ah, the Form. The original version just added dice to social rolls, which is powerful in a sense, but useless in combat - and more importantly, boring. PoH's rewrite makes it significantly more powerful: bonus dice to social rolls, plus benefits for the first three Charms, plus a free reflexive attack each action. But this was 2.0, when activating a Form-type Charm meant leaving yourself hideously vulnerable, so I suspect he wanted it powerful. Some of that had to go.
I could have focused more on the floating-weapons idea, like PoH did, but I'm not actually convinced that the Form should revolve around those; why does a style which revolves around beauty and social grace get "floating weapons" as its centerpiece? This isn't Thousand Flying Knives Style. It's a neat visual, so I left it in, but in general I wanted the effects to center around, well, beauty and grace. That meant defensive and social effects, mostly.
It feels like there's a lot of stuff here, but I compared it to Crane Form and it comes off reasonably equivalent; each of them grants 5-6 small-to-moderate perks. The combat benefits are solid but not overwhelming, the social perks are kind of neat but also not overwhelming… I think it more or less works out.
Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2; Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form
The martial artist’s delicate movements extend through her awareness of herself into the props she surrounds herself with, be they fans of silk or steel, sashes weighted or not, and even the air they fly through. These are her minions, and they act in concert with her to perfection. This Charm is a flurry of up to (Essence + 1) unarmed Martial Arts attacks, which ignore multiple action penalties but not Rate. If Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form is active, attacks made with floating props can target foes up to (Essence x 5) yards away. The DV penalty is equal to the highest of any one attack in the flurry.
NOTES:This Charm is a pretty standard Extra Action Charm, loosely based on Hammer on Iron Technique (Solar Hero Style). A bit more expensive, encourages using several weapons, can hit people at a distance.
Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious
Duration: Instant or until the clinch ends
Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
The whirl of high society surrounds the martial artist, deflecting and subduing distractions that are not worth his time. This Charm is an unarmed Martial Arts counterattack which may be used against any attack the martial artist successfully parried. If she has Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form active, she may use this Charm to respond to attacks from as many as (Essence x 5) yards away; otherwise, it is limited to close combat.
The counterattack inflicts no damage; instead, it has one of two effects.
Successfully striking the aggressor is resolved as an attempt to disarm them. This follows all the rules found on p. 158, save that the martial artist suffers no external penalty on her attack roll. Used in this way, this Charm is Instant.
Successfully striking the aggressor initiates a grapple that can only be used to hold. Every six ticks after initiating it, she reflexively maintains the clinch with half her normal dice pool as successes, which may be enhanced further with Charms. This clinch is maintained as long as the martial artist remains range of her foe and commits the cost of the Charm.
NOTES:The original Charm is messily written, but basically clear about what it should do. PoH's mechanics look solid, so I've swiped them nearly intact.
Vindictive Concubine's Pillow Book Understanding
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique
Even the mightiest tyrant is at the mercy of his concubines, who see him when he is at his most vulnerable. An insult from a lover can wound a person more deeply than any weapon. It slips past his defenses and cuts him where it can deal the most damage. As in social situations, so also in the martial arts.
Even the heaviest of superheavy plate armor has thin seams where the pieces join. A skilled craftsman will minimize the width of these seams so that no blade or arrowhead can pierce them, but even such seams are chasms to the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan who employs paper and silk—thinner than even the sharpest blade. An unarmed attack supplemented with this Charm ignores Hardness and up to (Essence + Martial Arts) points of soak from armor.
Alternatively, this Charm may be used to supplement a social attack that exploits an Intimacy, Virtue or Motivation; the target's Dodge MDV is halved against this attack.
NOTES:The basic function is swiped almost as-is from Scroll of the Monk, which for once seemed OK; it's like a supercharged Piercing tag, balanced by the fact that it's much less efficient. (Compare to: Burrowing Devil Strike, Sun-Sword Concentration.) This style's weapons are mostly on the light non-damaging side, so I figured it was a good effect to include.
The social function, I'm a little less sure of. It requires some knowledge of the target, and can't just be added to any social attack; I also added the Combo-Basic keyword to forestall possible abuse with other social Charms. We're also pretty far into the style, so it's good to have powerful effects. Still, DMDV is everybody's go-to defense and unlike regular DV, mental DV penalty-negators are all but nonexistent.
Fun fact: I think this might be the longest Charm name in Exalted.
Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
As the Exalt performs the sultry, languid moves of this Charm, ethereal music whispers in the air, and flower petals flow from her sleeves and the folds of her robes to swirl around her. The martial artist rolls (Charisma + Martial Arts + Performance); anyone whose MDV is lower is helplessly entranced by her posture, her movements, her mere presence. For the remainder of the scene they are fascinated by her, as an unnatural Emotion effect carrying the usual penalties.
This effect may be resisted for a base cost of two Willpower, or three if the target has a positive Intimacy towards the martial artist.
NOTES: The original version of this Charm is awful, basically a Total Control effect that inflicts high penalties even on people who resist. Luckily, PoH has a much better version, which I've tweaked and streamlined a bit here. I've also lowered the cost, because the effect doesn't seem all that potent - the penalty isn't that big, and nor is the cost to resist.
Seven Storms Escape Prana
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata
However deadly she may be, the courtesan is at heart a fragile creature, more at home in the boudoir than on the battlefield. Better to avoid such places. This Charm may be activated in response to any physical attack, providing a perfect dodge. In addition, the martial artist vanishes in a swirl of perfume and flower petals, reappearing up to (Martial Arts x 5) yards away. The Charm fails if she attempts to bypass a ward against teleportation.
This Charm may not be activated in response to unexpected attacks. After using it, the character is stunned until her DV refreshes twice; she may not use the Charm while stunned. This counts as a special Flaw of Invulnerability.
Alternatively, the martial artist may invoke this Charm as a Simple Charm for a cost of 4m, in which case it does not stun the martial artist and carries no Flaw of Invulnerability.
NOTES: Perfect dodge! Perfect defenses in CMA seem generally okay, as long as they're a bit worse than native ones. This one comes with a flurrybreaker attached, which is pretty powerful, but also costs Willpower, and you can't rely on using it all that often. I think it balances out.
Cup of Pearls and Wine Ascension
Cost: - (+8m, +1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type:
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration:
Prerequisite Charms: Vindictive Concubine's Pillow Book Understanding, Seven Storms Escape Prana
Love is a mystery. Nobody fully understands it, and it is never the same twice. Sidereal scholars who study this style make many conjectures on the nature of beauty and enchantment. If the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan reflects on the desires of the world as a whole, whence do these aesthetics come? Even the alien perspectives of the Primordials seem orthogonal to the nature of the Cup of Pearls and Wine Ascension.
When activating Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form, the martial artist may pay a surcharge of 8 motes and 1 Willpower to physically transform herself. Her body elongates, taking on the sinuous, powerful shape of a dragon covered in iridescent scales. Her eyes distend to form perfect teardrops of burning sapphire, mirrored in the one-hundred-and-one marks that line her sides. A willowy neck supports a head like that of a foal or an antelope, tipped with a golden beak and crowned with four twisting antlers that twist like smoke in the wind. Graceful carp fins support her in mid-air. Her possessions vanish into Elsewhere, save for weapons (which float around her as described in the Form); they may be retrieved for a cost of one mote. Artifacts and other relevant possessions may instead be adapted for her new form with a stunt.
The martial artist always gains the full +3/-3 Appearance benefit in social combat, regardless of her actual Appearance relative to theirs; her beauty touches on something deeper than simple visual aesthetics. She may invoke Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata as a Reflexive (Step 1 or 2) Charm rather than Simple. Anyone with a Dodge MDV less than the martial artist's (Martial Arts + Essence) instantly gains a positive Intimacy towards her, as described in the Form; the cost to resist is raised to 3 Willpower to twist the Intimacy and 4 to reject it. (Characters with a higher DMDV suffer only the usual effect of the Form.)
This Charm is not without its mundane benefits, as well. Her diamond-and-pearl scales offer +4L/+8B armored soak and 4L/8B Hardness, and she gains the ability to Move and Dash through the air at her normal speed. Lastly, she may not be clinched or bound; love knows no restraint.
NOTES:I actually wasn't sure if I wanted to keep this capstone, since it's so strange, but the first time I presented the style everyone I showed it to went "but I liked the gazelle-carp!" So here it is. The name is taken from PoH (chimera means something completely different in this setting), and I borrowed some of his mechanical ideas too. Made it an enhancement to the Form, because spending multiple actions powering up has never seemed like fun to me.
I'm still trying to work out how expensive this Charm should be; I don't want it to be prohibitively expensive, but at the same time it offers an impressive array of effects. It shouldn't come cheap.