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View Full Version : [Exalted 2nd Ed.] The Six King's Style, a Mortal Martial Art for the Superhuman. WIP



Justis
2015-05-01, 01:59 AM
Edit: Should have put PEACH in the title sorry!

So, I've been prepping for a big Exalted Campaign involving Heroic Mortals and a few of my players [Read: Nigh all of them] have expressed an interest in learning Martial Arts of some sort. So I've been brushing up on my Scroll of the Monk and Perfect Lotus when this little muse hit me with the biggest hammer in a long time. I literally typed this out in about a half hour and promptly went to sleep I'd been up for the past twenty-seven or so hours, so I thought to delete his little thing but then I wanted to know what you guys would think about it.

The Six King’s Style

A style developed by set of kings in Threshold for their armies when the Fair Folk and other supernatural threats raise their heads. With great care the masters of the six kingdoms came together and took upon the task of developing the style that would be their homelands shield from now unto eternity. Each of the masters were given a starting point and then given freedom to do as they wished with their budding art. In the end it was only when the six masters came together that they fully developed the style into what it is now.

This style was created in such a way that it can be fueled by an un-Enlightened man’s Willpower or an Essence-Users Motes without much difficulty, noted in the Cost section.

This Martial Art was developed for users of a myriad of weapons and thus you merely need to develop a Specialization [The Six King's Style: Weapon User] to equal the Martial Arts Specialty. However this takes even more time than normally mastering the style so is used less often than most would think. The Six King's Style is compatible with light armor only.

Life-Return Meditation
Cost: 2 Willpower [5 Motes]
Min: Essence 1, Martial Arts 3, Martial Arts Specialty [The Six King’s Style] 1
Type: Simple
Keyword: Combo-Ok
Duration: Varies [See text]
Prerequisite: N/A
Fluff: Through intense meditation and dedicated training the user has gained a level of self-awareness that can be utilized to allow the human body to surpass its natural limits and enter the realm of the supernatural. These teachings have been around for centuries, hidden in the training of the far-flung sages and master martial artists, but it wasn’t until the six masters gathered the knowledge together and learned the secrets of a thousand lies. They learned the Truth of Inner Rebirth.
Crunch: This technique allows the user to soak their whole Stamina in Bashing and half their Stamina in Lethal as long as the Willpower or Motes are locked into it, these are committed as if to an artifact.
This also creates a special die pool called Rebirth which has several effects. To fill the Rebirth pool the user accepts an internal penalty to any action that he was stunting, reducing the number of stunt die to a minimum of 0, to gain a die in the Rebirth pool. The Rebirth pool may only hold a number of die equal to [Essence+ Martial Arts] and the following actions reduce the Rebirth pool.
• The user may reduce the Rebirth pool by a number of die as a Reflexive action to heal a number of Bashing damage at a one to one ratio. This can be done to Lethal damage at a two to one, though this is a Dramatic Action unless the user spends another 1 Willpower or 2 Motes.
• The user may reduce the Rebirth pool by a number of die to increase the Acc. Or Defense of an attack. Any one attack can only be increased this way up to your Specialization [The Six King’s Style]
Ex.: Storm-Crow, an adept of The Six King’s Style, commits 5 Motes to his Life-Return Meditation and slowly through the fight has gathered four extra die in the Rebirth pool, his limit as he has only the minimum to gain the technique, and he may only add up to his Specialization to any attacks Accuracy or Defense. While this doesn’t seem like much it should be noted that he may still stunt for more accuracy and he can still use the Rebirth to heal should he need to.

Imitating Cloud Posture
Cost: 1 Willpower [2 Motes]
Min: Essence 1, Martial Arts 3, Specialization [The Six King’s Style] 1
Type: Reflexive [Step 2]
Keyword: Combo-Basic
Duration: Instant or Indefinite
Prerequisite: Life-Return Meditation
Fluff: To avoid a strike is to negate the force entirely. A master observed a cloud shrouding a mountain and then developed this technique using the ideal of floating defense against even the most brutal attacks.
Crunch: The user lowers his Rebirth pool to increase his DDV at a 1 to 1 ratio. This can be drawn out by lowering the users Specialization by an equal number. For as long as the Specialization is suppressed this way the user can maintain the Imitating Cloud Posture.
Ex.: Storm-Crow has learned Imitating Cloud Posture and a bunch of bandits have surrounded him. One of the enemies lunges, winning Join Battle, and swings his chopping sword to finish the young man in one blow. Storm-Crow barely manages to stunt out of the attack and begins battling on the defensive, stunting liberally and slowly filling Rebirth. When it comes to his action he Raises his DDV by three and lowers his Specialization by 1 so the next strike will have to hit his DDV +3 and all other attacks will have to hit his DDV +1 until he stops lowering his Specialization.

Iron-Lake Mountain Pulse
Cost: 1 Willpower or 2 Willpower [2 Motes or 5 Motes]
Min: Essence 1, Martial Arts 3, Specialization [The Six King’s Style] 1
Type: Reflexive [Step 2]
Keyword: Combo-Basic
Duration: Martial Arts in attacks
Perquisite: Life-Return Meditation
Fluff: The wind may howl as loud as it wishes but the mountain will not bow. This philosophy was adopted by one of the masters and he came up with this technique using his own knowledge of his body to harden his flesh to the point of it becoming an iron carapace. To do this he utilized his inner awareness to control the contortions of his body and allowed the ‘iron-water’ in his body to gather at the surface.
Crunch: The user ignores damage equal to their Martial Arts or Resistance [Whichever the player prefers] and the amount they lower their Specialization and Dexterity by. This damage is negated before soak and some blows that hit will deal no damage because the soak and negation lowered it to 0. Bashing damage being easier to negate it only takes 1 Willpower [or 2 Motes] but Lethal damage takes 2 Willpower [or 5 Motes].
The user may not move on the same tick that he uses this technique and has lowered his dexterity by more than half, but the user may abort it at any time. If the user can still move whiles using this charm he may parry lethal unarmed without stunting.
Ex.: Storm-Crow is forced to activate this ability, a bandit manages to pull a firewand out and fire at him, and thus negates his foes damage by 3 [Martial Arts] +1 [Lowering his Specialization to 0] +3 [Lowering his Dexterity to 0] before his armor soak. He's still in danger but he's safer with the ability than without. He chose to maintain it so that the other bandits have to attack him through this new hardness.

Shooting Star Step Method
Cost: 1 Willpower [2 Motes]
Min: Essence 1, Martial Arts 3, Specialization [The Six King’s Style] 2
Type: Supplemental or Reflexive [Step 1 or 2]
Keyword: Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Perquisite: Life-Return Meditation
Fluff: To move like the shooting star, that star which goes against fate’s weave, is the dream of many. This power grants superhuman speed that allows a person to ‘disappear’ even when an attack would have otherwise stricken the user.
Crunch: Provided that the user has a move action left in the tick he may use this technique to escape damage. The user lowers his Specialization by 1 and gains a Perfect Dodge from an attack that would otherwise hit; this Perfect Dodge has a special Flaw in that it can be beaten by a check. The enemy only needs to have seen the Perfect Dodge a number of times equal to the user’s Specialization and then he may make a check [Wit+ Perception] vs. the users [Dexterity+ Martial Arts+ Specialization] to see the dodge and adjust for the new position.
In addition whenever the user uses a move action in a flurry he may add any stunt die on his attack to his base damage as well with this technique.

Honed Steel Needle
Cost: 1 Willpower [1 Mote]
Min: Essence 2, Martial Arts 4, Specialization [The Six King’s Style] 2
Type: Supplemental
Keyword: Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Perquisite: Life-Return Meditation and Iron-Lake Mountain Pulse
Fluff: One master crafted his limbs into deadly weapons that could be used to deadly effect in close quarters. This technique was to attack not just externally but internally as well.
Crunch: This is an attack that has the following stats.
Acc. +0 Damage +1 Lethal Rate 2
This attack counts as Piercing and you may spend Rebirth, up to your Specialization, to raise Acc., damage, or rate at a one to one ratio.

Storm-God Strike
Cost: 1 Willpower [2 Motes]
Min: Essence 2, Martial Arts 4, Specialization [The Six King’s Style] 2
Type: Supplemental
Keyword: Combo-Ok
Duration: Instant
Perquisite: Life-Return Meditation and Shooting Star Step Method
Fluff: To strike like lightning, in a flash with sound dragging behind, is the objective of many martial arts but few have gotten this close. With this strike an attack can move so fast that it cuts the very air and creates vacuum blades.
Crunch: This is an attack that has the following stats.
Acc. -1 Damage Martial Arts+ Specialization Lethal Rate 2
This attack has a Range of 20 and you may spend Rebirth, up to your Specialization, to raise Acc. or Rate at a one to one ratio. You do not add Strength to this damage.

The Six Powers Realized Enlightenment
Cost: 3 Willpower
Min: Essence 3, Martial Arts 4, Specialization [The Six King’s Style] 3
Type: Supplemental
Keyword: Form Type
Duration: Scene
Perquisite: Life-Return Meditation, Shooting Star Step Method, Iron-Lake Mountain Pulse, Imitating Cloud Posture, Strom-God Strike, Honed Steel Needle
Fluff: By training that borders on torture and will that borders on insanity the masters finished their work at the dusk of their years and gathered the secrets of the style together to give to their Kings. It had taken six lifetimes but they had developed a set of techniques that would allow a kingdom to defend itself from all onslaught. When they returned to their homelands after all those years of seclusion they found the ruins of the kingdoms, long since lost to the ravages of not the Fair Folk but a singular Dragon-Blooded. Like leaves on the wind they scattered to teach the style they’d worked so hard on to others so that if only in some small way the Kingdoms would live on.
This technique was the penultimate expression of those Masters will. It opens the Crown Chakra and Root Chakra to allow Essence from the outside world to enter the Master allow for nigh-endless use of the style it was rooted in.
Crunch: When in this form the following rules apply.
• When this form is active you count as being in Life-Return Meditation.
• The Rebirth pool is calculated as [Essence+ Martial Arts+ Specialization (The Six King’s Style)+ Specialization (The Six Powers Realized Enlightenment)].
• A Rebirth point may be used instead of lowering your Specialization in any technique that does so.
• At the beginning of every turn the user can spontaneously gain a number of Rebirth points. To do this they roll their Martial Arts Specialization [The Six Powers Realized Enlightenment] in die and every success equals one Rebirth point gained.
• Rebirth points can be used instead of Motes of Essence for techniques that require the Martial Arts Specialization [The Six King’s Style]
• Any limit that states ‘up to Specialization’ is now up to Martial Arts+ Specialization.
• Iron-Lake Mountain Pulse can now be used for a number of rounds equal to Martial Arts+ Specialization (The Six Powers Realized Enlightenment) and you may move during its use but you pay 1 Mote for every tick that it is active.