Night Caste Anima

[Coyotekin]

What about expanding on the theme of the Caste and the Anima power?


For the Zenith the focus is obviously against the hings that came after Creation, i.e. the Demons and Undead (Creatures of Darkness) Why not have a bit of the anima imbue his attacks toperhaps cancel summonings of Demons, cut the ties of the Underworld energy that animates the Undead, perhaps even disconnect the Abyssals ability to regain Essence for a bit of time, not matter in the Underworld or not, etc.  Perhaps a grand apex Charm that allows the ability destroy, unsummon, all Demons, Undead, with an Essence score less than the Zenith's, and those with equal Essence making a resisted roll.

 

[Jukashi]

Well, if you want to avoid stepping on the other Caste's toes, you could just alter/expand the anima's own power - for example, for Dawn again, you could make so that, as well as having everyone who wants to attack/face them roll, you could get the ability to direct the effect; to look out across the battle field and strike fear into a man merely by looking at him. Or you could invert the effect at will, giving a bonus to the morale of anyone who's fighting  at your side.


Or, if we tried a different Caste, you could alter the Twilight anima. What it's designed to do currently is essentially to a) prevent sorcery from being disrupted, b) make them sound tuff and c) to represent their occult mastery with the ability to "pull" essence into a shield around them. So to expand the effect you could, for example, turn it into a "push"; expanding the normal deflecting effect into a nearby area in order to repel anyone/thing that's close to you. Or you could extend the effect beyond your body; touch an object or person and give them the same protection the normal anima gives you.

 

[Vanman]

Like I said, I really like the idea of "upgrading" the anima banner. I just didn't like it when it stepped on other anima's turf. All those ideas sound good.....

 

[Coyotekin]

Well, if you want to avoid stepping on the other Caste's toes, you could just alter/expand the anima's own power - for example, for Dawn again, you could make so that, as well as having everyone who wants to attack/face them roll, you could get the ability to direct the effect; to look out across the battle field and strike fear into a man merely by looking at him. Or you could invert the effect at will, giving a bonus to the morale of anyone who's fighting  at your side.
Or, if we tried a different Caste, you could alter the Twilight anima. What it's designed to do currently is essentially to a) prevent sorcery from being disrupted, b) make them sound tuff and c) to represent their occult mastery with the ability to "pull" essence into a shield around them. So to expand the effect you could, for example, turn it into a "push"; expanding the normal deflecting effect into a nearby area in order to repel anyone/thing that's close to you. Or you could extend the effect beyond your body; touch an object or person and give them the same protection the normal anima gives you.[/quote


Jukash, good stuff. Get on that and let us know when you are done. Thanks for volunteering.

 

[tjcoonrod]

Jukashi - I absolutely love that idea, very creative and original. You could even create an entire high essence charm tree for that very purpose, although they wouldn't be 'ability' based charms, but exalted type/caste charms. You could even branch that out further and create some for the other celestial exalted types, even terrestrial if you wanted to, although they don't get as high essence as the celestial exalted.


I guess, in my kudos to you, I rambled my way into a question. Would you consider Jukashi's idea:


1) would you do it?


2) If you would, would you create them not just for high essence solars, but for high essence lunars and sidereals?


3) Would you create a lower essenced variant for terrestrial exalted, or leave them be?


#3 in my opinion is a bit tougher a question if you decide to do this, would this unbalance things too badly for terrestrials (as in, weakening them?) At the point in the game world, would allowing this for sidereals be too unbalancing, as there are far older/experienced sidereals (ones who would actually be able to buy these higher essence charms) than the other castes?


And lastly, what do you consider 'high essence'? 5+? 7+?


Oh, and don't take my questions as bashing your idea Jukashi, I absolutely love it.

 

[Haku1]

TJ... Sidereals don't get custom charms. However, they DO have the greater version of their anima power  lying around. It's caled the Greater Signs of XXX.

 

[Sherwood]

But if I remember correctly, those are horrendously expensive to get to, with high Essence prerequisetes.

 

[Persell]

And cost a point of Permanent Essence to activate, if I remember correctly.

 

[Haku1]

Quite... they could also do a hell of a lot.

 

[Sherwood]

But is it worth the cost of losing so much?  Lets say you have a Essence of 5.  That represents a load of xp spent to build it that high, along with time spent on it.  In character, you also have the spiritual side of all the meditation and such needed with a Essence increase.


Now, throw all of that away for a one shot effect.  Yowch.  That's what?  40 or so xp right there.  Even more if you have a character with a higher Essence.

 

[tjcoonrod]

And cost a point of Permanent Essence to activate' date=' if I remember correctly.[/quote']
Correct.


Even so, and I was aware of the greater signs - that being said, if you create custom anima banner charms for solars, do you do it for lunars? sidereals? terrestrials?


I dont quite understand Haku's reply, my guess is that your opinion is saying no to creating custom anima banner charms for sidereals because of their greater sign anima ability? To be honest, I think if you allow it for one type of exalt, logically by extension you would need to allow it for all types of exalts, but then there are questions of game balance.

 

[Vanman]

What Haku is saying is that Sidereals can't make custom charms unless they are okayed by the Maidens. So, essentially, no custom charms. As such, anima charms are right out, unless the Maidens okay those charms.

 

[Haku1]

And cost a point of Permanent Essence to activate' date=' if I remember correctly.[/quote']
Correct.


Even so, and I was aware of the greater signs - that being said, if you create custom anima banner charms for solars, do you do it for lunars? sidereals? terrestrials?


I dont quite understand Haku's reply, my guess is that your opinion is saying no to creating custom anima banner charms for sidereals because of their greater sign anima ability? To be honest, I think if you allow it for one type of exalt, logically by extension you would need to allow it for all types of exalts, but then there are questions of game balance.

Basically what Vanman says.


Unless the maidans okay 'em... you're not getting custom charms for sidereals. Which means outside of MA styles and sorcerery spells, Sids have can only have what is listed in their big book, and that would be it.


However, the sidereals DO have a comparable effect in their greater signs, to what you're thinking of. Which is anima effect enhancement.

 

[Braydz]

Unless the Maidens say so.


So what if the Maidens say so, or have said so?


I'm dubious about Anima Charms because A) I don't think they're necessary, and B) I feel that bigger & better anima effects should happen automatically with high essence (which I think of as 6+, and this is assuming you're using them). I think of is this way: an anima effect is a free, inherent, bad-ass Charm. There are Charms that have variable or additional effects when the character reaches a higher Essence, and as part of being bad-ass Anima Effects would have such addendums.


If you're doing it for Solars, either do it for everyone else (the bonus effects being appropriately more powerful to the kind of Exalt), or no one else (as Solars are top-dogs and have things other Exalts don't, even other Celestials.)

 

[Unforgiven]

But is it worth the cost of losing so much?  Lets say you have a Essence of 5.  That represents a load of xp spent to build it that high, along with time spent on it.  In character, you also have the spiritual side of all the meditation and such needed with a Essence increase.
Now, throw all of that away for a one shot effect.  Yowch.  That's what?  40 or so xp right there.  Even more if you have a character with a higher Essence.

Well, read what they do, and judge yourself whether you find them worth it or not. Depending on your type of campaign, I can see why someone would find a use for it somehow, and they CAN be quite devastating, depending on situation..


on the quarry of anima powers and charms, I think there's only one rule that applies, the golden one (nr. 2 I think). If you don't like some restrictions, change them. Just be sure you know what the consequences are, and that everybody in your group is ok with those consequences. Changing rules with white-wolf games often leads to balance issues..

 

[Haku1]

That's just it, the Greater Signs are powerful enough to warrant their cost. They're like nukes, you have access to them but don't use them because it'd be expensive to just use them out of hand.


But when you have a massive demon/fey/death-lord incursion kicking some butt, a few high essence sidereals could easily turn the tide;


By bringing in a MASSIVE strike force asap (Yellow Sid), right after every single active essence usage (with certain exceptions like 3rd level spells, Incarna effects, and permenent effects) is cancelled out in the area, and artifacts are neutered for hours (Blue Sid), while buffing up your allies so that they do auto-damage with every die of damage (Purple Sid), while pulling certain entities INTO fate (Green Sid), while whatever damage the enemy does is lowered to essence ping prior to soak with a de-buff (Red Sid).


And that's 5 sidereals hitting a region that is (essence) miles per effect. -5- Sidereals can do this... now imagine said sidereals are there as backup of a celestial legion or they have a massive task force of Dragonblooded led Legions. Which they likely would be in certain end-game scenarios.

 

[Unforgiven]

Also, consider that when you find yourself faced with a situation where you're actually using them, and assuming you emerge victorious.. you're bound to get something in return for the service you've provided to the bureaus and creation.

 

[Dracogryff]

Wow. Didn't know they altered the Greater Signs...them's impressive.


As a side note, so long as you or a friend knows Citrine Poxes of Contagion, and has the Charm Perfect Reconstruction Method, it makes the permanent Essence and Willpower loss of using them rather negligable. When used on a person, it allows them to buy back permanent trait loss at 1 XP instantly. Kinda handy.

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

Wow. Didn't know they altered the Greater Signs...them's impressive.
As a side note, so long as you or a friend knows Citrine Poxes of Contagion, and has the Charm Perfect Reconstruction Method, it makes the permanent Essence and Willpower loss of using them rather negligable. When used on a person, it allows them to buy back permanent trait loss at 1 XP instantly. Kinda handy.

As proved by our Ghostblooded in our North campaign back in the day with his frequent use of Lower Soul Ascendant to get back up from mortally wounded.

 

[magnificentmomo]

Also, consider that when you find yourself faced with a situation where you're actually using them, and assuming you emerge victorious.. you're bound to get something in return for the service you've provided to the bureaus and creation.

Also something that epic is bound to count as fulfilling a motivation which raises your essence by 1.

 

[Vanman]

That depends on the motivation. If my character's motivation is to wipe out slavery, spending a dot of Essence to prevent a demon from entering Creation and wreaking havoc won't really count toward fulfilling your motivation.....

 

[magnificentmomo]

Truth, I just said it is bound to fulfill a motivation. Not that it would always.