Silver Gateway Gaming

[Glorious Phoenix]

[My first custom martial arts style. 🙂 Based to some extent on the Air Dragon and Fire Dragon styles in DB, I’m putting Glorious Phoenix up for commentary. I am particularly interested in discussion of the Supreme Rising Phoenix Method’s power level.]

The Glorious Phoenix Style is one of the earliest martial arts schools, dating back to the First Age and the war against the Primordials. It deals with the use of Essence, likening it to the fire and light of the Unconquered Sun as manifested through one of His greatest servants, the Great Garda. It is said the Sun Himself taught this style to the Garda, who in turn brought it to the Chosen. While Lunars, Sidereals, and even Terrestrials (particularly Fire Chosen) would learn it, Solars would make up the bulk of the style’s masters.

After the triumph of the Chosen, the Glorious Phoenix Style became something of a training school for Solars, particularly those wanting greater understanding of the Essence within them. Though many Dawn Caste preferred the more combative Snake and Tiger Styles, Glorious Phoenix was very popular with other Castes, particularly Zenith and Twilight Solars.

When the Dragon-Blooded revolted, the Glorious Phoenix style enjoyed a very brief surge in popularity, as masters of the style were able to fight on when their brethren had fallen. Still, the style all but died with the Solars, as even the power of the Phoenix could not save them once the Unconquered Sun’s favor was lost.

The Glorious Phoenix style was kept alive by a tiny handful of Lunars who had shared the technique with their mates and several Sidereals who found the style to be particularly useful. It is now undergoing a renaissance with the return of the Solar Exalted, as many of them (including, ironically, at least one prominent Dawn Exalt) are remembering the style from their previous lives. Practitioners of this fast, Essence-rich school often unnerve Exalted opponents, particularly the Dragon-Blooded.

Note 28 Jun 09: The style has been partially edited to reflect 2nd Edition changes. Double-Wing Strike now preceeds Stunning Essence Blow, and the form is now compatible with all types of armor. Further editing is still necessary to fully update Glorious Phoenix to 2e (Style needs Keywords…badly!), which will hopefully be forthcoming relatively soon. For now, remove Hatchling’s Talent completely, since it’s just the 1st Excellency redux.

Hatchling’s Talent ↓ ↓
Rapid Dive Technique ↓	Double-Wing Strike ↓
Dancing Raptor Stance ↓	Stunning Essence Blow ↓
Glorious Phoenix Form ↓ ↓
Flickering Essence Stance ↓	Whirling Talon Technique ↓
Lingering Essence Blow ↓	Striking Essence Thrust ↓
Phoenix-to-Ashes Strike ↓	Essence-Hungry Attack ↓
Supreme Rising Phoenix Method

Hatchling’s Talent

Cost: 1 mote per die
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 1
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None

The Sun’s Essence guides even the youngest novice through her maneuvers. For each mote of Essence the player spends, add one die to a single Martial Arts attack roll. The player cannot spend more Essence that the character’s Dexterity + Martial Arts total. The player must decide how much Essence to spend on this Charm before rolling.

Rapid Dive Technique

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Hatchling’s Talent

The character leaps and strikes with a raptor’s speed. During the turn when this Charm is activated, the character adds her Martial Arts score to her initiative total. This Charm may be used only once per turn.

Dancing Raptor Stance

Cost: 1 mote per +1 difficulty
Duration: One turn
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Rapid Dive Technique

The character’s form flickers, as if the light around her were moving of its own accord. For the remainder of the turn, all attempts to physically attack her are at +1 difficulty per mote of Essence spent. A character cannot spend more motes in a turn than she has dots in Martial Arts.

Double-Wing Strike

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Hatchling’s Talent

The martial artist is now so in tune with the flow of Essence that she can adjust her blows in mid-strike. After the Exalt attacks, but before a defense roll is made, the player may choose to reroll the attack and pick the preferred result. A character may only use this Charm once on any given attack.

Stunning Essence Blow

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One turn
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Double-Wing Strike

Though the Stunning Essence Blow does not cause any more damage than a normal strike, its effect on an opponent can be crippling. The Exalt focuses on the target’s Essence and, with a successful attack, disrupts its natural flow. Figure damage as normal for the attack. A target that takes damage from a Stunning Essence Blow suffers a -1 penalty to his dice rolls for the rest of the scene. The attack must do damage to the target to inflict the penalty. The effect of multiple Stunning Essence Blows is cumulative. A character who knows the Stunning Essence Blow and is the victim of its effect can spend three motes to negate a single -1 level of penalty.

Glorious Phoenix Form

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Dancing Raptor Stance, Double-Wing Strike

The Exalt’s eyes glow brightly with her anima’s color as she earns the favor of the Unconquered Sun himself. By properly executing the stance and katas of the Glorious Phoenix, the character’s movements are attuned to her surroundings, and she can follow trails of Essence to and from every person on the battlefield. This Charm requires a successful Dexterity + Martial Arts roll. If the roll fails, no Essence points are spent, but the Exalt does not gain the benefits of the form.

If the Glorious Phoenix Form is executed successfully, the character may add her Martial Arts to her ranged attacks and dodge attempts for the rest of the scene. Archery attacks cannot benefit from this effect, as holding a bow interferes with the proper execution of the Form.This can no more than double her Dexterity + Ability in the dice pools in question, after all active Charms are taken into account. The bonus is applied before any penalties for splitting her dice pools.
If she wishes, the Exalt may reflexively dodge attacks with her permanent Essence + Martial Arts score (do not add Dexterity). The above benefits are specifically cumulative with and independent of any other Charms, Artifacts, or anima powers invoked by the character. This Form is explicitly compatible with armor.

Only one Form-type Charm can be used at a time yada yada yada.

Flickering Essence Stance

Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Until abandoned
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Phoenix Form

By concentrating on the flows of Essence around her, the Exalt can disrupt attempts to attack her and those around her. Any being deliberately attacking the character must subtract her Martial Arts rating from their dice pools while doing so. Additionally, anyone trying to attack any of the Exalt’s allies within sight of her subtracts half that number of dice (rounded down).

While maintaining the Stance, the character can defend herself, move at half normal speed, and take normal actions, but she may not make any attacks or activate other Charms. (Any Charms, explicitly including Glorious Phoenix Form, that are active when this Charm is activated may still be used, as long as no attacks are attempted.) If the Exalt is struck and suffers any health levels of damage, the stance ends instantly. The character may also end the Flickering Essence Stance deliberately at the beginning of a turn, in which case the effect continues until the end of that turn.

Lingering Essence Blow

Cost: 4 motes
Duration: Varies
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Flickering Essence Stance

This Charm leaves a “memory” of Essence in a strike to duplicate the effects of a successful blow. At the beginning of the turn following the one in which a Lingering Essence Blow was successfully applied, the victim suffers the same post-soak damage done by the original attack. Soak does not apply to this damage, but damage dice are rolled normally.

Phoenix-to-Ashes Strike

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Lingering Essence Blow

Instead of using the target’s Essence indirectly, the Exalt causes the victim’s very life Essence to burn as paper does when sunlight is focused perfectly on it through a lens. The character makes a normal Martial Arts attack, but the blow itself does no damage. Instead, the character "charges" a number of temporary Essence points equal to her Essence + Martial Arts, or the victim’s remaining Essence pool (mortals begin with 10 Essence), whichever is less. Each of these charged points of Essence is used as a lethal damage dice pool, which ignores armor but can be soaked normally with Stamina and other non-armor defenses. The Essence points are not lost; the energy simply reacts briefly and dramatically, soon returning to its normal state.

Whirling Talon Technique

Cost: 4 motes per attack
Duration: Instant
Type: Extra Actions
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Glorious Phoenix Form

The Exalt moves with the speed and power of an enraged phoenix, becoming a blazing whirlwind of destruction. For every 4 motes the character invests in this charm, she may make an additional martial arts or ranged attack without penalty. The maximum number of attacks a character may make in a turn is equal to her Martial Arts rating.

Striking Essence Thrust

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Whirling Talon Technique

By infusing her body or weapon with Essence, an Exalt can cause those struck by the Striking Essence Thrust to fly back as if hammered by the fist of the Unconquered Sun himself. An attack boosted by the Thrust is rolled as a normal attack, and damage is figured normally — with one extra effect. After being hit, the Martial Artist’s player and the target’s player must immediately make a reflexive, contested roll of Perception + Martial Arts against Strength + Athletics. The target is thrown back 10 yards for each success on the Martial Arts roll, -5 yards per success on the Athletics roll. This effect occurs whether the blow actually does any damage or not. Additional damage can easily ensue depending on what is behind the victim…

This Charm can be used with martial arts or thrown attacks, which can be an unpleasant surprise for those who underestimate the "lowly" chakram…

Essence-Hungry Attack

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Striking Essence Thrust

To use the Essence-Hungry Attack, the Exalt must make a successful Martial Arts attack. The attack does no damage (and cannot be Comboed with Charms that do damage or require the Martial Artist to do damage); instead, the character rolls Essence + Martial Arts, stealing 2 motes of Essence for each success. Peripheral Essence is stolen first, but the Exalt’s Personal Essence pool is filled first. Essence-Hungry Attack cannot reduce the target to less than zero motes of Essence, nor does it allow the Martial Artist to exceed her normal Essence pools. Essence-Hungry Attack cannot cause the target to lose Essence after the attacker’s Essence pool is full.

Supreme Rising Phoenix Method

Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 Health level
Duration: One Scene
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Phoenix-to-Ashes Strike, Essence-Hungry Attack

The Exalt becomes a living explosion of Essence embodying the Unconquered Sun’s wrath. A winged anima banner of fire and light surrounds her, which doubles the number of damage dice of all Martial Arts or Thrown attacks she performs before soak is applied. This damage is considered aggravated to creatures of the night, undead, and Abyssal Exalted. In addition, her leaping distance and running speed are multiplied by her permanent Essence rating. Finally, for the duration of the Method, the Essence costs of her Charms are halved (round up). This bonus does not affect the cost of Sorcery spells of any Circle or non-Solar Charms known to Eclipse Caste Solars.