Infernal war forms

Seraphina

Seraphina

New Member
Hi I'm new and came across this forum from a Google search. I wanted to get some opinions and feed back on some Infernal shape change charms like the ink monkeys "By Rage Recast and Devil tyrant Avatar Shintai"


I just recently got into exalted and noticed that there didn't seem to be many monster style shapshifting charms (I admit I may have just missed them). I know the Lunars sort of own the warform shtick but their approach is usually more mixing human and nature.


The mutation list was a good start but it still seemed limited I was looking for something more unique like wings made from swords or searing brass skin. Do you think it would be reasonable to just take the lunars shape change knacks and alter them to work for infernal warforms?
 
I never found personal shapeshifting for Solars or their derivations to be thematically fitting. Solars are godkings, al la Gilgamesh, Conan, or Achilles. They don't change shape, they just make themselves impossibly awesome and effective. Abyssals get away with alot but Infernals are a much stronger parrallel to a normal Solar than an Abyssal with their whole twisted hero of the Yozi thing so having them undergo a full out transformation doesn't really fit with my vision of them.


Lunars shapeshift, that's basically their thing. For a demonic transformation I think an akuma Lunar is really the most appropriate choice.
 
It's not Solars doing it is the thing.


I think the Infernal's warform takes a lot of discretion. I want a thousand eyestalks all over my body! Mutation 4-6? Arbitrarily price things, set bonuses - but ultimately, those charms are fairly clearly designed as Boss Fight charms. I would not let them steal Lunar stuff for this


Alternatively take Toxicity 15 times, murder everyone.
 
Seraphina said:
The mutation list was a good start but it still seemed limited I was looking for something more unique like wings made from swords or searing brass skin. Do you think it would be reasonable to just take the lunars shape change knacks and alter them to work for infernal warforms?
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The stuff you seem to be looking for from Lunars is the same stuff you buy with Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai. Want wings made out of swords? Apply the Wings mutation, and say they look like swords. Searing brass skin? Apply Tough Skin and its derivations, plus either a "you touch me, you take damage" custom mutation, or combine with some other Charm that makes you dangerous to touch.
Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai accesses the same library of effects as the Lunar's Hybrid Body Rearrangement. Lunars' other Knacks venture into deeper and more abstract parts of shapeshifting than is likely appropriate for Infernals.


Be warned, though, that whether it's By Rage Recast or Hybrid Body Rearrangement, the mutation system is kind of spotty.
 
I never found personal shapeshifting for Solars or their derivations to be thematically fitting. Solars are godkings, al la Gilgamesh, Conan, or Achilles. They don't change shape, they just make themselves impossibly awesome and effective. Abyssals get away with alot but Infernals are a much stronger parrallel to a normal Solar than an Abyssal with their whole twisted hero of the Yozi thing so having them undergo a full out transformation doesn't really fit with my vision of them.
Lunars shapeshift, that's basically their thing. For a demonic transformation I think an akuma Lunar is really the most appropriate choice.
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Er - isn't he whole thing about Infernals that they're turning into Yozi-scale abominations? They're not twisted heroes, they're transhuman cosmic monsters embodying hybrid elements of contradictory forces. The Abyssals are the twisted antiheroes.
 
Thanqol said:
It's not Solars doing it is the thing.
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Right, they just descend from the same familial group so I tend to apply similar visions of their themes. I know the Adyssals and Infernals are really different. Alot of their charms already achive similar effects by different means. Just my take on things.


It seems like sword wings would be an awesome artifact to build. Probably more in setting to build them than randomly create them through a transformation charm.

Er - isn't he whole thing about Infernals that they're turning into Yozi-scale abominations? They're not twisted heroes, they're transhuman cosmic monsters embodying hybrid elements of contradictory forces. The Abyssals are the twisted antiheroes.
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That it totally the reverse of the way I view things. Abyssals are anathema to living things while Infernals are in support of life but inverted against the normal order of Creation. I don't doubt that Infernals have access to some pretty insane stuff thanks to their demon allies but I don't imagine they can just whip it out of nowhere with their charms.
 
That it totally the reverse of the way I view things. Abyssals are anathema to living things while Infernals are in support of life but inverted against the normal order of Creation.
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What is the natural order? Who put it there?
I'm curious how you define "cosmic monster hybrid" and "twisted anti-hero."

I don't doubt that Infernals have access to some pretty insane stuff thanks to their demon allies but I don't imagine they can just whip it out of nowhere with their charms.
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Someone who climbs around in a Yozi's Charm tree deep enough gets to turn into an archfiend that spits nuclear explosions, or into a terror-utopia wish-granting genie made out of a desert. By Rage Recast and Devil-Tyrant Avatar Shintai are basically carte blanche for "You look like an actual demon. Like, demonically demonic, dude. Go nuts." Sword wings? Why the hell not?
 
Someone who climbs around in a Yozi's Charm tree deep enough gets to turn into an archfiend that spits nuclear explosions, or into a terror-utopia wish-granting genie made out of a desert.
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I didn't know that either. Clearly I haven't read the Infernal charms trees throughly enough.
 
I didn't know that either. Clearly I haven't read the Infernal charms trees throughly enough.
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Those are just the Essence 5 and under Charms he was talking about.
 
Are there many Charms above Essence 5 for Infernals? I feel out of the loop.
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Okay, Primordials are made out of Charms.


Malfeas literally has a Charm that says "You now have a body which is a city". The Ebon Dragon literally has a Charm that says "You are a 50 mile long flying phallic symbol".


Infernals have unrestricted access to all Primordial charms. Even the freaky weird shit. So as they progress, they start looking less like people and more like Primordials - and perhaps even more like terrifying, unholy blends of 2+ Primordials. They are on the road to transhumanism; the gateway to Primordial perspective and Primordial power is wide open to them. Every step on this road makes them a little less like a human and a little more like one of these cosmic horrors.


And this isn't even looking at Infernals designing "The First Bob Excellency" and becoming their own style of Primordial.


So, in effect, anything that Malfeas can do any Green Sun can do to - and every Malfeas charm on that list is one of the actual Malfeas charms that Malfeas uses to define himself.
 
Are there many Charms above Essence 5 for Infernals? I feel out of the loop.
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Theoretically scores' date=' or maybe even hundreds. Each Yozi goes up to Essence 10, and they (conceptually) have a full complement of self-defining effects that take them from the basic personality foundation of their Excellency all the way up to universe-birthing Charms. In practice, they mostly don't have any published Charms that start above Essence 5, but we're moving into an era where that kind of stuff is better and better defined (for everyone).
Thanqol said:
Infernals have unrestricted access to all Primordial charms.
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To be a little pedantic, Green Sun Princes have unfettered access to the Charms of Yozis who have joined the Reclamation.
 
The idea I had was that there wasn't really any exalted "evolution" charms and by evolution I mean like you see in a tons of anime, where the bad guy or even the good guy transforms to a more powerful (and often inhuman) form. They do show in a few of the comics/art pages different characters becoming monstrous like Typhon and a few others.


In the Return of the scarlet empress They recently published a whole list of very high essence yozi charms for TED including the one to become him.
 
Birth of Sanity's Sorrow fills that role- Void Circle Necromancy, usable only when you go to Incapacitated, and makes you into a Massive Doom Thing.
 
MorkaisChosen said:
Birth of Sanity's Sorrow fills that role- Void Circle Necromancy, usable only when you go to Incapacitated, and makes you into a Massive Doom Thing.
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Maybe. It's nifty. Sadly it's one time use. Ever. Not likely a good purchase generally...though if you need it, it can seriously save your life...
 
I'll admit it's Awesome But Impractical. I'd be tempted to allow you to use it more than once, it doesn't seem unreasonable- maybe after some meditation in a tomb-body.
 
As an ST, yeah, it's final boss material.


But I'd love to use it as a player!


(I had it on the final boss of a D&D game. He'd avoided the guards on the three doors into this thing that lets you see alternative universes by breaking in through the fourth wall.)
 
thank you broken wing crane! I love the war forms in there. My only problem with the book is it makes normal solors look so plain :|
 
For additional high-power Solar flavors, Ink Monkeys might provide some materials. Apparently the popular opinion on the additions seem a bit divided, but I liked them so far.
 
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