Alternate Twilight Anima Power

[Kyeudo]

As I'm sure everyone knows, the Twilight Anima power is the most powerful anima for combat, but is attached to a caste whose themes normally keep them away from combat. Further, unlike the anima power of any other caste, they don't help a Twilight do what a Twilight does. Dawns fight, Zeniths throw back darkness, Nights sneak, and Eclipses cut deals. Twilights are supposed to think. They find and put knowledge of all sorts to use. How does shrugging off damage help them do that?


Yes, sometimes a Twilight will have something blow up in his face (literally) and need some damage sponging, but that should mean he grabs some Resistance Charms before building a death ray. It shouldn't be something so critical to the caste's function that it is built into every Twilight.


So, I'm thinking about replacing their defensive shield with a moment of clarity. Instead of shrugging off damage, they get a bonus to discerning anything hidden, secret, or concealed, from the symptoms of an unknown illness to illegible graffiti on the walls. Does anyone see anything that would make this against the themes of the Twilight Caste? Maybe step on another Caste's toes?

 

[ghoti115]

I don't know if it needs to be changed because damage doesn't just occur in combat.


Where combat is concerned, most Twilight try to avoid it, but they can't always escape it. For example, Medicine is in Caste for Twilights and I think it is useful to be able to shrug off damage when trying to heal your buddy in combat. Not to mention it would be extremely useful when the demon you just summoned decides to turn on you, you might be able to survive long enough to banish it (especially because it most likely cost more than 11 motes to summon the demon, so the effect is alreayd in place).


Also, since there is so much heat involved in making most of the magical materials and crafting in general, the banner effect would help a great deal when dealing with environmental effects. After all, a bonfire rolls 4L/action as damage with a Trauma of 3 to scale it back to Bashing (sticking protected hands into the fire would provide soak, but to a minimum of 1 damage die). Not to mention exploring ruins in hostile environments, scorching heat, ice storms, or near an active volcano.


A moment of clarity can come from a roll of the dice (if your ST is feeling nice at the time). Discerning hidden things can come from Merits and Awareness Charms.

 

[Kyeudo]

I don't know if it needs to be changed because damage doesn't just occur in combat.
Where combat is concerned, most Twilight try to avoid it, but they can't always escape it. For example, Medicine is in Caste for Twilights and I think it is useful to be able to shrug off damage when trying to heal your buddy in combat. Not to mention it would be extremely useful when the demon you just summoned decides to turn on you, you might be able to survive long enough to banish it (especially because it most likely cost more than 11 motes to summon the demon, so the effect is alreayd in place).


Also, since there is so much heat involved in making most of the magical materials and crafting in general, the banner effect would help a great deal when dealing with environmental effects. After all, a bonfire rolls 4L/action as damage with a Trauma of 3 to scale it back to Bashing (sticking protected hands into the fire would provide soak, but to a minimum of 1 damage die). Not to mention exploring ruins in hostile environments, scorching heat, ice storms, or near an active volcano.

Yes, the Twilight Caste does do many dangerous things. So do the other four castes. Heck, the other four castes have a tendancy to do more dangerous things than the Twilights. Eclipses have a tendancy to go unarmed to their enemies to negotiate peace. Dawns and Zeniths charge into battle with not just one, but many demons. Nights sneak into places alone that their circle cannot get to by other means. If the heat of a bonfire and a single demon is all that the Twilight has to deal with, they are relatively carefree. Grab two Survival Charms and you can juggle molten lava. That's more than sufficient protection for many of the perils a Twilight will face.


Their anima power also doesn't help them do their job. A Dawn's anima power enables him to do better at fighting and killing things. A Zenith's anima power allows him to give last rights, fight the unholy, and is what makes him a priest of all gods. A Night's anima powers make him able to hide himself longer and better than any other Exalt. An Eclipse's anima power allows him to enforce the deals he makes. How does a protective barrier make the Twilight a better crafter, scholar, investigator, doctor, or sorcerer?

 

[Synapse]

TLR: Twilights are, at first sight, the least likely solars to throw themselves in danger and so their anima power is not justified nor thematic.


Well, let's see what they could get instead...

• -[Essence] to the cost of spells {Don't like this one. Pigeonholey}
  
• Negate (some?) external penalties to any Caste ability roll {Those guys can be rather obsessive about their stuff}
  
• Reduce the time necessary to finish any Caste ability roll (faster crafts, faster medicine checks, faster sorcery shaping?) {Dunno how well it plays with Extra Actions}
  
• A surcharge of motes or wp reduces the target number for any Caste ability roll by 1 {same problems as haste}

 

[wordman]

Anima Effects: Solar Exalted of the Twilight Caste may channel essence through their animas to create impromptu magical improvisations. They may cast solar charms they have not previously learned by paying an additional five motes on activation. Charms cast in this way must be associated with their favored or caste abilities and must have a minimum essence requirement less than the Twilght's permanent Essence rating. Once the Solar spends 11-15 motes of Peripheral Essence, this effect may be used without paying the additional five motes per activation.


By spending an additional ten motes and 1 Willpower as part of activation, this ability can be used to improvisationally cast charms from other exalted types. Such charms must be associated with the Twilight's favored or caste abilities (e.g. no charm based on an Attribute can be improvised in this way) and must have a minimum essence requirement less than the Twilght's permanent Essence rating. Charms which are noted as being unlearnable by Eclipse Caste Solars cannot be improvised by this ability.


Charms cast using this ability function using standard charm timing, and cannot be cast as part of a Combo.

 

[Kyeudo]

I'm not looking for an alternate Twilight Anima Power. I'm suggesting one and I want to know if it has problems, specifically in power level and theme.

 

[wordman]

Oh, I see.

Instead of shrugging off damage, they get a bonus to discerning anything hidden, secret, or concealed, from the symptoms of an unknown illness to illegible graffiti on the walls. Does anyone see anything that would make this against the themes of the Twilight Caste? Maybe step on another Caste's toes?

This seems totally in theme, but doesn't really do what anima powers are supposed to do, narratively.


The only real weakness solars have is a massive cultural backlash against them. Their defense against this is anonymity. One of the points of anima powers is to provide solars an incentive to expose themselves as anathema. This is, at least as far as I'm concerned, the main point of the "once you reach the 11-15 level flare, this power is free" riders in all of the powers.


Your power doesn't do anything like that. It is essentially a bonus that costs nothing, because the times when it will be used (i.e. almost always out of combat), tracking motes doesn't really matter.

 

[Kyeudo]

You have a point, but when a Twilight is doing Twilighty things, he's not likely to be in combat or social combat. He's usually got at least twenty minutes to do what he's doing.


Also, I've never seen anything in the rule books that says all anima powers are obvious or allways cause some sort of anima display. Some seem like they must, like the Zenith and Eclipse powers, while others don't seen like they would have to be, like the current Twilight power or most of the Terrestrial anima powers.

 

[FluffySquirrel]

One solution I came up with once was that it works as per the original (subtracting ess health levels), whenever they're using twilight abilities.


So while in the course of an investigation, a twilight shrugs off puny things like attackers trying to stop him getting to the truth


While casting sorcery, or using an occult ritual, similarly they can shrug off distractions that might cause others to falter


While crafting, twilights can confidently pick up some lava with their cupped hands, hold a red hot blade or avoid getting burnt by the soup


Twilight battle medics can rush into the midst of fierce fighting to aid their charges, without fear of being taken out by stray arrows or blades


Twilight librarians.. well.. they don't get paper cuts (yeah, it's harder to work into lore really). Suppose they also can't easily be assassinated while teaching


So kinda rewards them for doing twilighty things

 

[uteck]

My houserule was a compromise between the old power and making it artifact orientated, while still making them useful fighters against the Primordials.


The Twilight can commune with the least-god of any object for 1 mote.


For 5 motes he can rebuke the least-god which causes mundane object to reduce to their component pieces, or disintegrate. For artifacts, if her essence is greater then the person the object is bound to, the least-god will break the bond and the artifact is now de-attuned.


The Twilight can also pick up any unattuned artifact and attune to it instantly for one scene for motes equal to the twice the rating of the artifact.


Once the Twilight has spent 11+ motes, blah blah


Rebuking counts as a counter attack, which is kind of odd when a diklave gets unattuned in mid-swing. In which case it loses any essence powering it. Attack roll is still the same, but anything else is gone and now the weapon is useless.


Gaining the cooperation of a least-god has benefits like, reduce the difficulty of Crafting rolls, learn the history of the object, help to make it self-aware, ect.