Deadly Beastman Transformation

Prerequisites: Essence 2, Stamina 3

This Knack forms the basis of many Lunar battle techniques. Once a character learns it, she can shift into the fearsome war form of the Lunar Exalted, a monstrous amalgam of her two other true forms. The Steward usually gains several feet in height and increases proportionally in mass. Muscles ripple across her form, which usually has fearsomely long and sharp teeth and/or claws. Even if the Lunar's spirit shape is something as harmless as a groundhog, the hybrid war form looks awesomely dangerous.

War forms are stronger, faster and more resilient than the character's normal forms. They have animal characteristics that give them an edge. Lunars in war form heal even faster than other Exalted, and war form allows them to make use of special aspects of certain Charms, called Gifts. Because Dexterity, animal qualities, healing and Gifts can all be useful outside of combat, some Lunars use war forms for purposes other than combat. At the very least, the war form is a tool of purpose—the Lunar dons this form to accomplish a goal. Design the war form as follows:

• Bonus Attributes. When a character takes Deadly Beastman Transformation, her player adds one dot each to the character's Strength, Dexterity and Stamina. This increase can bring a character's physical Attributes above five and only affect the character when she is in war form. Any improved Attributes are considered natural when calculating the Lunar's dice maximums. (See Natural Attributes.)
• Wyld Mutations. The character's player adds mutations to the form to represent animalistic features. She chooses from the list of Wyld mutations in The Touch of the Wyld, or creates her own, then applies these to the war form. The player has (Essence + 4) special bonus points to spend on mutations, using the costs given at Wyld Mutations as Traits. Increases in Essence later on allow the player to choose further mutations or "upgrade" existing mutations.

Ignore all negative aspects to these mutations beyond the obvious and frightening change in appearance. These are not actually Wyld mutations; they represent the admixture of human and animal of the hybrid form. Players can only choose or create mutations appropriate to the characters' spirit shapes. Characters cannot take negative mutations, such as deficiencies, and they cannot take single mutations multiple times.

Players cannot apply the Large mutation to the war form; war forms are already larger and stronger than a normal human form. Players may, however, apply the Small mutation, accepting its benefits and penalties. This is how some Lunars create their smaller, less monstrous-seeming war forms. Players and Storytellers must remember that not all mutations are appropriate as animal Traits. Those that are not may be altered, at the Storyteller's discretion, to represent an appropriate animal Trait.

Some mutations alter the character's health level track. Ignore these changes; Lunar Exalted remain hard to wound even when their war form is slight and fast, and the increased resilience of the Exalted is represented by their Ox-Body Technique.

Example: Travis creates a Lunar character whose spirit shape is a frog. At Essence 2, the character's war form has six points' worth of mutations. Looking through the list of mutations, Travis takes Wall Walking for the frog's sticky pads. With two points left, he wants to take horns, but his Storyteller suggests that another mutation may be more in theme. Instead, Travis takes Frog Tongue.

When the character's Essence increases, Travis may choose a beneficial pox for the war form or wait until his character's Essence increases again to pick an affliction. With those two points, he could also strengthen one of his Lunars' current afflictions to a blight-level mutation. Many mutations are not appropriate for upgrading, or do not yet have upgrades. There may not be any reasonable upgrade for Frog Tongue, but Travis could (with Storyteller approval) upgrade Wall Walking to make the character more capable in that activity.

While in the war form, Lunars also gain a supernatural resilience that helps them survive terrible wounds. The Lunar does not actually heal any faster (that requires Charms such Bruise-Relief Method and Healing the Scarlet Flow). While in war form, however, a Lunar can completely regrow lost limbs or organs using such Charms. It takes at an hour to regenerate such an extreme wound.

When a Lunar in war form falls into her Dying health levels, her wounds do not worsen. She does not lose additional levels of damage until she dies; instead, she remains that wounded until either someone stabilizes her with surgery (returning her to Incapacitated) or she uses a Charm to heal a point of lethal damage, which accomplishes the same effect. (For this reason, the Lunars' Ox-Body Technique gives them two additional Dying health levels with each purchase.)

Taking Deadly Beastman Transformation also allows the character to make better use of Gift Charms. Legend says that Luna herself composed Gift Charms for her Exalted. When a character learns a Charm with the Gift keyword, she gains abilities that she can activate automatically when she dons her war form. See the individual Charms for more details.