[Lords of Creation] Chao DESTROYER OF WORLDS

[Tabby]

Okay, bit of infodump; Chao isn't rolling with an actual powersuit anymore, but since my entire history is character iteration I'm taking it to the NEXT LEVEL in her having a suite of custom charms to make, essentially, an Essence powersuit - not exactly armor but force amplification, some survivability since she can't wear ANY armor with the charms, etc. Sarky and I hammered out the very basics over the last week or two, so I'll summarize here.

• The overall concept (Essence reinforcement) is split into multiple trees, each requiring investment in different abilities, generally with prerequisites in existing charms to represent her evolution of them. Also, I'll probably just jack some ideas from other exalt charm trees or use them as inspiration to help keep things balanced, ex. costs and effects.
  
• Maybe that Lunar whatchamacallit form as inspiration? A core charm for actually turning on the hax, then boosting it with a multitude of smaller charms?
  
• Each tree reflects both an aspect of her technique and a mechanical approach - Integrity charms reflect the metaphysical defense of her will, Lore is special techniques THERE WILL BE A DRILL EVENTUALLY FOR PIERCING, etc. This leads to...
  
• Most of these charms are either permanent passives or scene-length. The active variety is primarily contained in a martial arts style that I have not started on at all, which depending on when Chao's essence when she actually starts running with it might be Celestial or Sidereal (or maybe Celestial, and then later a Sidereal one building off it? depends on Sarky as well as what essence stuff happens at). Regardless, there is a theme of reaching for perfection both figuratively and literally, something like Prismatic Perfection of Existence style.
  

Still in pretty early version and I don't have charms done yet BUT that's the general idea. These are the themes I'm pondering working with, complete with a bit of fluff explanation!

Integrity affects the impermeability of the shaped essence, representing the unbreakable willpower that armors her. It allows her to deflect and redirect attacks with raw essence, increasing soak and resistance to Shaping effects.
Resistance represents the union between body and essence, Chao literally becoming one with the world around her as it infuses her corpus. It allows her to dampen the force of blows and ignore those that do strike true.


Lore is knowledge - of history, of people, of the world itself. Emulating principles from other disciplines or natural events alike require knowledge of the base phenomena. Charms from this tree mimic techniques from nature and motonic physics alike.


Occult represents the finest control over essence at its most integral level, the ability to manipulate motes and strings of essence by sheer will alone. This allows for the mitigation and negation of non-native essence, as well as extended control of her own and the ability to fuse both varieties; essence projectiles, enhancement of and resistance to sorcery, and negation/reflection of hostile essence.


Athletics represents the unhesitating dedication to perfection of mind and body that drives Solars ever onwards, to infinity and beyond; only perfection can contain perfection, and only a flawless body can house the greatest mind. Abilities in this tree tend to improve her physical capabilities, amplifying the kinetic energy inherent to her movements or sapping it from others.

Current charm idears:

• Resistance: adding soak=[[Essence]x2]+1
  (Glorious Solar Plate+Iron Kettle Body? Possibly essence x1 permasoak, but active scenelength to make it ess x2?)
  

 

[Feantari]

Hmm.. neato.. I'd say Resistance and Athletics are likely points to start with the traditional suit style charms; however, a lot of that could be rolled into an MA.. maybe a CMA offshoot of Prismatic Perfection of Existence? Basically a style built to shape your core essence? Lots of meditative themes taking it from an internal power to external manifestation? (yet still very distinct from the way charms work naturally...)


Given the vast over application of the MA to to all the things ever in the exalted system, I'd recommend building it largely as an MA with pre reqs at various points. Like, you can't move to the form charm without essence 3 or you can't get the ranged attack aspect without lore, essense senses take occult, etc. (course that may make it overly brokeny from Sarky's perspective idk)


edit: and charms outside of MA could totally be required for some stuffs.. or something.. or maybe knowing certain charms gets you enhancer effects

 

[saganite]

A CMA could be good, I agree. If you go that route, you can very easily continue your ability-based theme if you give each Charm a secondary Ability minimum requirement as well. However, CMAs do tend to have Charms of Celestial power-level (Lunar/Sidereal) rather than Solar power-level. It's not a big thing, but its something to keep in mind as you're thinking about the stuff you want your Charms to do. The power gap isn't that big, but in certain areas is pretty noticeable.


Your Resistance Charm is pretty solid bonus-wise when your compare it to Iron Kettle Body (+[Essence + Stamina + Resistance] Soak for a scene). I would lean against making it or anything else have a duration of Permanent (save maybe the pinnacle, which I had a thought on), though - permanent Charm are much more difficult to balance, and you'll start getting into some wonky mechanical areas if you make Charms that have both permanent and activated effects (ex: timing - if the activated effect is reflexive, when does it happen? if not, what type of action is it? etc.). Yes, there are examples of this even in 2.5 (I'm looking at you Soul-Fire Resurgence... ಠ_ಠ), but it's kind of a swampy region to deal with.


EDIT:


Some possibilities that were jostling around in my head for if you decide go with CMA:


-Pre-Form Charms (Essence 1-2) are key suit functions


-Form Charm (Essence 3) is the entire suit; makes Pre-Form Charms: always on/better/more mote-efficient (maybe have them work like Lunar Gift Charms - Pre-Form Charms are instant/actionlength normally, but when activated with the form they last as long as it does)


-Post-Form Charms (Essence 3-4) are more powerful suit functions/activated powers


-Pinnacle (Essence 4-5) allows you to stay in-Form so long as you're awake (IIRC most, if not all Form Charms are scenelong), makes post-forms better

 

[Sarky]

That looks like a solid base to build on. Bear in mind that I'm knackered right now and probably missed something vital in the following ramble, so feel free to point it out, whatever it might turn out to be.


Say, we had the following aspect to the style, relating to armour soak and general damage resistance:


1: First charm: Conjure a piece of armour between your body and the attack, adds [(Essencex2) + 1] to natural soak. reflexive charm, only lasts as long as the attack.


2: Next charm along lets you add the lower of Integrity or Resistance. Requires at least one dot in either skill, naturally.


3: Next charm along lets you add both or something. Strength in mind and body = doubleplusgood tough!


I get the impression you wanted a sort of modular armour, so how about something like this:


Each aspect is a string of charms leading to the form charm. Learn one string of those charms (or maybe two?) and you can learn the form charm.


Form charm creates the full armour set for a scene. You can use the form charm to activate a few of the charms leading up to it which stay on for the scene (like adding Integrity/Resistance to soak), but if you've mastered one aspect (like the string of charms that led to the form charm in the first place), those charms have their cost reduced by (Essence or maybe their related ability) during the scene. Otherwise you pay full cost.


Master all the aspects leading up to the form charm, you can learn how to fuse the style with non MA charms: bolt on Glorious Solar Sabre or whatever weapon you want, with cost reduction from the form charm.


Something like that. I dunno, I'm a bit scattered right now.

 

[saganite]

That looks like a solid base to build on. Bear in mind that I'm knackered right now and probably missed something vital in the following ramble, so feel free to point it out, whatever it might turn out to be.
Say, we had the following aspect to the style, relating to armour soak and general damage resistance:


1: First charm: Conjure a piece of armour between your body and the attack, adds [(Essencex2) + 1] to natural soak. reflexive charm, only lasts as long as the attack.


2: Next charm along lets you add the lower of Integrity or Resistance. Requires at least one dot in either skill, naturally.


3: Next charm along lets you add both or something. Strength in mind and body = doubleplusgood tough!


I get the impression you wanted a sort of modular armour, so how about something like this:


Each aspect is a string of charms leading to the form charm. Learn one string of those charms (or maybe two?) and you can learn the form charm.


Form charm creates the full armour set for a scene. You can use the form charm to activate a few of the charms leading up to it which stay on for the scene (like adding Integrity/Resistance to soak), but if you've mastered one aspect (like the string of charms that led to the form charm in the first place), those charms have their cost reduced by (Essence or maybe their related ability) during the scene. Otherwise you pay full cost.


Master all the aspects leading up to the form charm, you can learn how to fuse the style with non MA charms: bolt on Glorious Solar Sabre or whatever weapon you want, with cost reduction from the form charm.


Something like that. I dunno, I'm a bit scattered right now.

That's a possibility, though if its going to be an MA style, it would feel a bit bloated to me with multiple branches leading to the Form for each "aspect." It's a possibility, and sure, it could work, but IMO, something more neat and compact could work just as well. You could very easily have an "aspect" (assuming we're talking about each conceptual Ability focus, ie: Resistance, Integrity, etc.) represented by a single pre-Form Charm. For example:


Resistance: Already described, +[Essence x2 +1 pr other calculation] soak. Instant seems pretty good for an early CMA Charm


Integrity: vs Shaping, prevent effects automatically or with roll? (like old Iron Skin Concentration??)


Lore: improve - soak vs Environmental effects, Stamina + Resistance roll to resist


Occult: Essence cannon a la Megaman? some of the other effects you described may be a little too powerful canonically-speaking for low-end CMA Charms (effecting Sorcery/other Exalts Charms, for example), maybe even for upper-end CMA Charms


Athletics: improve Jump/Dash/Feat of Strength/ +Damage/Parry/etc


These are just initial possibilities based on the descriptions in the first post. No doubt, there's more you can do with those descriptions than what I've just posted, but there's a lot you can do. I do like the modularity you've run with though, Sarky (especially the cost-redux for other Solar Charms, it really allows for some interesting integrations of the suit Charms into existing and potential custom Charms), I'm just not sure how it'd fit into CMA Charms (assuming you're running with the normal idea of a CMA, meaning anyone, Solar to DB, can learn it). For Solar-only Charms, you could really make something interesting, but then it's not really as much a CMA as it is a collection of Solar Charms forming their own unique tree. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but IMO it's a good idea if you and Tabby set aside some initial ground rules with which to guide Charm creation before you get too far into things.