Prayer Pieces

G

Geracht

New Member
Hello, folks! This'd be my first topic posted to the Exalted forums here, and I figured I'd start off by asking some questions in regards to Sol's own weapons of cowboy-themed justice: Prayer Pieces!


So in the book Glories of the Most High: Unconquered Sun, there exists a ranged weapon that Solar Exalts may use: Prayer Pieces. For those who don't know, these function essentially just like Plasma Tongue Repeaters, except instead of fire bolts, these weapons fire solid slugs of gold, lead, or other soft metals thanks to rifling that houses prayers to Sol and millions of microscopic shrines housing millions of microscopic gods who exist only to fling bullets at people. Each bullet takes five hours to make, meaning ammo's tight, but it does aggravated damage against creatures of darkness, and has a range increment of 50 feet, without the range limitation that flame pieces have.


However, I had a few questions regarding them that I'm not too sure about, which I had hoped the people of this fine board could help me with! :D


Can I assume that, when wielding a Prayer Piece, I can augment my attacks with any Archery charm? That is, I can increase the range using There Is No Wind and similar Charms, increase the number of bullets fired using Arrow Storm Technique, or even create bullets using nothing but Essence with the Phantom Arrow technique? Would a Prayer Piece count when using Righteous Devil or Golden Exhalation martial art styles?


Also, I'm curious about something; in the fluff text of the firearm, it states that it's made of orichalcum, but also Essence-sensitive red jade and other materials. Would I add the bonuses to stats I'd get from making, say, a Powerbow or Flame Piece out of orichalcum, or do I accept the stats as-is?
 
1.) Yes, you would use Archery.


2.) As no Resources cost is assigned to the ammunition, you could use Phantom Arrow Technique, though I would make the wielder have the ability to make the ammo normally to be able to be able to do so.


3.) They should count for those MAs (they are physically the same as flamepiecees). Nothing is stated outright so the ST will have to make that choice.


4.) If they got one, I would presume they would get Orichalcum material bonus. Though they don't appear to receive one. Again, up to the ST .
 
Excellent. I know you have to use Archery to hit with them (Or Martial Arts, if you happen to use Golden Exhalation, etc.), but knowing that any Archery charm will affect a Prayer Piece just as well as it does a bow answers a big question for me. :)


Thanks very much, Jeri! I really appreciatei t!
 
They should function like flamepieces for any charms you use. The only odd thing is the no cost for ammo, which means it's easier to make ammo for Prayer pieces than for flamepieces. Which is weird.
 
Yeah, that's one of their emphasized points. Though it does take you /longer/ to make individual bullets. Remember, that 5 hour time is for one bullet, not a full gun. So if your Exalt uses his ammo, it's gonna be harder to find more than it would be to find flame piece ammo. :D


'Course, this is why you use charms like Phantom Arrow Technique.
 
The Martial Arts' entries state that a flame piece or similar flame-discharging weapon needs to be used.


Prayer Pieces cause a small explosion of flame and a puff of smoke, which rises as a prayer to Sol.


This is why I'm askin'; there might be errata somewhere I don't know about. :D
 
I would explicitly allow a prayer piece to work with Righteous Devil style because of the thematic parallel.


Remember that Solar charm work off of Abilities, so anything that uses the Ability in question can be used with charms for that Ability. This means that your Archery charms all work with the Prayer Piece. You may run into some issues when making combos for the weapon if you want to use both Archery and Martial Arts charms. Just make sure that your supplemental charms in any combo are from the ability you will be rolling for the attack. (ie: Essence Arrow Attack cannot be comboed with Blessing of Righteous Solar Spark Meditaion since the Essence Arrow can only supplement archery rolls, not MA rolls. You could, however, add Lightning Draw Stance to an Archery combo, since it's reflexive.)


I would rule that any essence-based-ammo charm works for the weapon as normal, but since the ammunition has special crafting requirements, the extra effect of dealing aggravated damage to creatures of darkness does not apply, since this boon comes from the prayer process which is being eschewed. Don't forget that the weapon requires a mote per shot to fire anyway, and that doesn't go away when using conjured ammo. Spending another mote per shot with Phantom Arrow (for a 2m per shot total) will add up fast in battle. I would not be surprised if your ST decides differently and doesn't allow conjured ammo. The argument is pretty good for saying that blowing off the "prayer" part of using the "Prayer Piece" is not an option.
 
True; except in my case, I plan on playing Exalted games using a MUSH or something similar. Nobody nearby likes playing Exalted that I know of, sadly. < :D


And with my abilities in posing, I tend to get one- or two-die stunts pretty easily.


I managed to get a three-die stunt the other day. Hilariously, it wasn't from taking any other action than looking up. I was playing a Soulsteel Alchemical with a Compassion of 1. In this story, Sova made a breach into Creation, meeting up with the Jadeborn first. When he first left the tunnels of the Jadeborn, he looked up to see the starry night sky.


He was moved to tears, weeping openly at the beauty of it all, and his Compassion swelled to 2 in one fell swoop. Every one of the players demanded that the ST give me a three-die stunt bonus with the XP that comes with it. I could paste the pose here if you fellas would like to see it. :)


But yeah! Point is. I do likes me some roleplaying, so mote costs could be mitigated to some extent. Naturally, there would still be issues with cost, but I'd do well enough. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top