Infinite (Ability) Mastery

Cost: 2m+, 1wp; Mins: (Ability) 4, Essence 1; Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Any (Ability) Excellency
The Solar Exalted are infinite wells of talent. Each two motes committed to this Charm reduces the mote cost for the first three (Ability) Excellencies by one, to a minimum of 0. Exalted with Essence 3 can spend up to six motes on this Charm, while Exalted with Essence 4+ can spend as many motes as they like.

Example: A character with Infinite Melee Mastery, a Melee of 4, a Dexterity of 4 and an Essence of 3 could commit up to six motes to the Charm. This would reduce the cost of any given Melee Excellency by three motes. While the character is technically using a Charm for the purposes of Combos, she could gain up to three bonus dice from the First Excellency on any action using Melee at a cost of 0 motes. She could buy one success with the Second Excellency at no cost in motes or reduce the cost of the Third Excellency to one mote.

She could also gain one die with the First Excellency if the First and Second Excellencies were together in a Combo she had activated (see p. 244). Any additional effect—adding more dice or more success—would cost the normal price. So, the example character could purchase up to eight bonus dice using the First Excellency and apply a three-mote discount to the total cost, so buying the maximum eight dice would cost five motes.

Apply the discount to the total expenditure on Excellencies relating to a given roll. A character who spends motes on the Comboed effects of the First and Second Excellencies does not receive the discount for the use of both Excellencies on a given roll. If the example character activated a Combo and spent four motes to buy two successes on a roll with the Second Excellency and four motes to buy four dice using the First Excellency, the cost would be five motes ([4 + 4] – [3 for the six motes committed to the Infinite Melee Mastery]).

This Charm and the relevant discount are incompatible with any effect that invokes the effects of Excellencies as innate powers rather than as Charms. A character must have the Excellency in order to invoke it at a discount through the use of this Charm.

The discount of this Charm does not apply to dice purchased over the Solar's normal dice limit with (Ability) Essence Flow.

Abyssal Exalted

The three basic Excellencies, Infinite (Ability) Mastery and (Ability) Essence Flow function exactly for Abyssals as they do for Solars and are Mirrors to each other.

Spirits

Spirits can use the First, Second and Third (Ability) Excellencies for each Ability, as well as Infinite (Ability) Mastery, as long as they meet the prerequisites for each Charm. These count as spirit Charms, and most are related to a specific Virtue, just as their other Charms are. A spirit cannot use Charms to add more dice to any dice pool than the spirit’s Essence. A spirit cannot increase its static values by more than half that amount.

Virtue	Associated Excellencies and Ability-Based Charms
Compassion	First, Second and Third: Awareness, Craft, Investigation, Linguistics, Lore, Medicine, Survival, War
Conviction	First, Second and Third: Bureaucracy, Integrity, Larceny, Performance, Presence, Ride, Socialize, Stealth
Temperance	Infinite (Ability) Mastery and Divine (Ability) Subordination for all Abilities
Valor	First, Second and Third: Archery, Athletics, Dodge, Martial Arts, Melee, Resistance, Thrown
Universal	First, Second and Third: Occult

Spirits have one additional Ability-based Charm, Divine (Ability) Subordination. This is a Temperance Charm.