Charms
Charm Lists
- General Charms
- Charms listed by Ability:
- Charms by Essence requirement
- Charms by Ability
- Charms by Aspect
- Charms by Caste
- Charms by Cost
- Charms by Duration
- Charms by Exalted Type
- Charms by Group (Mostly Lunar Charms)
- Charms by Keyword
- Charms by Type
- Spirit Charms by Group
- Supernatural Martial Arts
Charms by Type of Entity
| By Entity Type | By Caste/Aspect | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| • Abyssal Exalted Charms | TODO | ||||
| • Alchemical Exalted Charms | TODO | ||||
| • Fair Folk Charms | |||||
| • Infernal Exalted Charms | TODO | ||||
| • Lunar Exalted Charms | TODO | ||||
| • Sidereal Exalted Charms | TODO | ||||
| • Solar Exalted Charms | TODO | ||||
| • Spirit Charms | |||||
| • Terrestrial Exalted Charms | Air | Earth | Fire | Water | Wood |
Presentation Format
This section explains the format used to present Charms. While each Charm is a unique magic, all Charms are presented in a regular format listing the Charm's important game statistics.
Charm Name
Cost:
The cost to use the Charm. Charms usually cost one or more Essence motes to use. This cost is generally written as follows:
Therefore, a Charm that costs three motes and one Willpower would have a cost listing of 3m, 1wp.
A character can use a Charm only if he can immediately pay the Essence cost for its use. A Charm that generates Essence cannot power itself when its wielder is otherwise without Essence. Charms that cost health levels to activate inflict unsoakable levels of damage, usually bashing damage, on the character using them. This damage cannot be prevented by any effect that does not also nullify the Charm. Finally, unless the description of the Charm states otherwise, the Exalt must spend the cost of the Charm before his player makes any rolls related to it.
| Label | Cost | Example |
|---|---|---|
| #m | motes | (4m for four motes) |
| #wp | willpower | (1wp for one temporary Willpower) |
| #hl | bashing health levels | (2hl for two bashing health levels) |
| #lhl | lethal health levels | (1lhl for one lethal health level) |
| #ahl | aggravated health levels | (1ahl for one aggravated health level) |
| #xp | experience points | (2xp for two experience points) |
Mins:
The minimum scores the character must possess in the Ability that the Charm enhances and in Essence in order to learn the Charm. For example, a character who wishes to learn Phantom Arrow Technique must have an Archery Ability of 3+ and an Essence of 2+ in order to do so. Characters with insufficient Ability scores don't have the personal mastery of the Ability required to empower the Charm, and characters with insufficient Essence cannot channel enough power into the Charm to manifest its effects. If a character stops meeting the minimum trait requirements for a Charm, she remembers the magic but cannot use it again until she restores her traits to appropriate levels.
Type:
For the purpose of game mechanics, Solar Charms are divided into five types. A Charm's type governs how often it can be used in an action and if it requires a character’s dice action or not. The five types of Charms follow.
Simple
The Charm is the characters action. It can only be used once per action. Simple Charms have an associated Speed and DV penalty.
Charm Speeds are measured in ticks. The Speed is the number of ticks that must elapse in combat time before the character can act again. Simple Charms are Speed 6 unless otherwise noted, so using a Simple Charm is usually a six-tick action. For example, a character can use a Speed 6 simple Charm on tick 2 and then take another action when his DV refreshes on tick 8.
Some Charms have a Speed measured in long ticks. These Charms are useful only in social conflict, in mass combat and in general when one has several minutes to spare. For example, a character who uses a Charm with a Speed of six long ticks cannot take another action for six minutes. The Charm usually fails if the character is forced to join battle in the meantime (but see "Dealing with Interruptions"). Some Charms have their Speed listed as a dramatic action. This means that the Charm is tied to a single action that usually takes a long time—gathering food in the woods, for example, or boating down a river. The character is committed to that action for as much as several days unless interrupted, and the Charm usually includes some measure of progress in the event of that interruption. The DV penalty of a simple Charm reduces the character's DV while using this Charm. Charms default to a -1 DV penalty unless otherwise noted.
Charms with unusual Speed or DV penalties list these values in parentheses next to the type. For example, a simple Charm with a Speed of 3 ticks and the default DV penalty would have Type: Simple (Speed 3). If you cannot find the Charm's Speed, the Charm has Speed 6; if you cannot find its DV penalty, the Charm has a DV penalty of -1.
The character cannot take multiple actions when using a simple Charm.
Supplemental
The Charm enhances the character's action. Unless stated otherwise, a supplemental Charm can enhance actions involving only the Ability associated with that Charm. It cannot enhance actions involving other Abilities, and it cannot be used on its own. The character can invoke the Charm multiple times in a flurry, with each invocation assisting a single action.
Reflexive
The Charm isn't part of the character's action. Reflexive Charms used during attack resolution specify the steps of attack resolution during which a character can use the Charm. This information is written in parentheses next to the Type. Characters can use a reflexive Charm in any instant and as many times during her action as she wishes. She can even use it before her first action. She must pay the Charm's cost with each use.
Using a reflexive Charm counts as the one Charm the character can use in an action. This means that if the character has already used a Charm in her action, she cannot use a reflexive Charm until her next action. It also means that if she uses one reflexive Charm in her action, she cannot use a different one until her DV refreshes. Combos change these limits. Many reflexive Charms also function as supplemental Charms—they enhance some action the character is taking. For example, characters can use Crashing Wave Throw when throwing an opponent to enhance the effect.
Extra Action
Extra action Charms are Charm-based flurries. Each functions as a normal flurry but has no multiple action penalties. In addition, only the action with the highest DV penalty imposes a DV penalty. The others do not. This magical flurry is the character's action. Therefore, if a flurry gives the character two attacks, those two attacks are her complete action. The character can use the Charm only once per action and cannot add multiple actions by mundane means.
Permanent
Permanent Charms permanently enhance the character's capabilities. The effect cannot be dispelled, and it has no cost to maintain. Most permanent Charms require the character to spend Essence to take full advantage of their effects, but doing so does not count as a Charm or an action. Permanent Charms do not list duration, and their cost is listed as —.
Keywords:
See Charm Keywords for a complete list an explanation of all keywords.
Duration:
The length of time the Charm lasts. Charms can measure their duration in real units, such as days, or game units, such as ticks or scenes. Indefinite Charms have no fixed duration—they last until the Exalt cancels the effect. Instant Charms happen in an instant—an abstract, indivisible moment of game time. If you look at your game as a kung fu movie, an instant is a single panel of the storyboard.
Some Charms last a certain number of actions—either the Solar's actions or the target’s. These Charms always expire at the beginning of an action, not the end—an effect that lasts through two of the target's actions expires just as the target begins his third action.
Prerequisite Charms:
Some Charms are very simple, and the Exalted can learn them on their own. Most Charms are more complex. The character's ability to execute them depends on his mastery of other, simpler Charms. Characters cannot purchase a Charm without first purchasing all of its prerequisites, either during character creation or with experience. Thereafter follows a description detailing the effects of the Charm. Charms are idiosyncratic, and each Charm's description details the rules for its use.
Excellencies and Related Charms
Every Ability has three Charms known as Excellencies. Characters can buy one, two or all three of these Charms for each Ability, though each of the three Charms may be purchased only one time for each Ability. In addition, Solar Exalted have two Charms that enhance their Excellencies. Each of these may also be purchased once for each Ability, as can other Storyteller- or player-created Charms of this sort.
Certain Exalted handle Excellencies differently (e.g. First (Yozi) Excellency—Essence Overwhelming).
Charms and Pools
Charms can increase a Lawgiver's dice pools by only an amount equal to (the relevant Attribute + Ability). No combination of Charms can increase a Solar Exalt's dice pools by more than this amount. Charms that add automatic successes or remove penalties do not count as increases to a dice pool unless otherwise stated.
For unrolled activities such as DV, Mental DV or feats of strength, Charms increase a character's static rating by adding to (the relevant Attribute + Ability). This bonus increases the (Attribute + Ability) pool, not the final result of any calculations, so if the (Attribute + Ability) is divided in half, the bonus rating will be applied before the division, not afterward. The result is that player will normally have to add two "dice" to increase a static value by one—although the First Excellency provides a discount of sorts for this, increasing static values by one per success rolled.
Regardless, no combination of Charms, including the First Excellency, can increase a static rating by more than half the (Attribute + Ability), and Charms that remove penalties do not count as increasing the character’s static rating. Treat Willpower as an Attribute for this purpose. If there is no applicable Attribute, Charms can add only a number of dice equal to the character’s Ability.
Examples
| Pool or Rating | Maximum Increase |
|---|---|
| Perception + Awareness | Perception + Awareness |
| Dexterity + Melee + Specialties + Weapon Accuracy | Dexterity + Melee |
| Charisma + Presence – Penalties | Charisma + Presence |
| Dexterity + Stealth + Bonus | Dexterity + Stealth |
| Essence + Presence + 10 | Presence |
| Dodge DV | (Dexterity + Dodge) ÷ 2 |
| Parry DV with Sword | (Dexterity + Melee) ÷ 2 |
| Parry DV with Fists | (Dexterity + Martial Arts) ÷ 2 |
| Mental Dodge DV | (Willpower + Integrity) ÷ 2 |
Example: Thorn has Dexterity 5 and Melee 3 and two specialties in Sword. Melee Excellency adds at most eight dice to her attack pool or +4 to her parry DV, even if she is using a sword and therefore has a 10-die attack.
Charms that increase others' dice pools or static ratings count as a dice bonus from Charms. A Solar cannot add more dice to his pool by combining his Charms with assistance from another Exalt than he could alone. Charms that increase the dice pools or static ratings of creatures that do not wield Essence can increase those pools by a maximum of the creature's Ability, without benefit from Ability specialties.
The Rules of Charms (Creating Your Own Charms)
If players create their own Charms, Storytellers should keep the following rules of thumb in mind.
Efficiency: The Charms presented here (for Solars) are already at the peak of mote efficiency for Solar Charms. This is the basic Solar toolkit, refined through millennia of experimentation, a testament to the power of the Chosen written into the book of the world. Don't let a player convince you that because her character has spent time optimizing the Charm that he should get to use it at a discount.
Coherence: Charm trees work along a theme. Lesser Charms build on one another and act as a logical foundation for the more powerful Charms. Feel free to refuse a player who draws up a grab-bag assortment of what she wants her character to do and then cobbles it together into a Charm tree. Most Charms should either be offshoots of or variants on an established tree or part of an entirely new tree that the Storyteller and players design together.
Theme: Solars are the heroes of the dawn. They are the sages, warriors and god-kings of old, wakened from the sleep of ages to set their order on the world. They fight, they lead, and they rule. They don't really shapeshift, fire ice bolts out of their hands, raise legions of the dead, curse villages to doom or inject poison with their fingernails. These are the sorts of things that other Exalted do. No matter how long they work at it, Solars can't learn to shoot their mouth out on a tentacle and bite someone to death—any more than Gilgamesh, Herakles, David, Solomon, Paul Bunyan or the Yellow Emperor could. A Solar might shout loudly enough to shatter bones or call down solar flames, but she cannot achieve Gigeresque special effects without the art of sorcery.
Limits: Don't just let characters produce powerful Charm after powerful Charm. Charms have prerequisites because learning Charms is complex, and a lot of lesser knowledge leads to mastery. Don't let a player make a powerful Charm just because she's mastered one or two unrelated trees—if it were that easy, Charms wouldn't have prerequisites. Start with a weaker effect and work upward, or start with an effect that relates to existing Charms and move outward.