Stealth & Deception Charms:
Flawlessly Impenetrable Disguise: (Essence 2) Passive: You may, with a few minutes work, disguise yourself as literally anyone. You can change your height, skin texture, hair color, eye color, apparent gender, apparent age, height, voice scent and speaking style. Mortal human senses cannot penetrate this disguise, though certain animals can. At Essence 4, you may alter your apparent Essence Score (up to half or double) and can mimick supernatural appearances, allowing the character to pass as a demon, god, ghost or elemental. At this Essence you can also perfectly imitate anyone you are at least passingly familiar with, though you do not gain the imitated character’s powers, knowledge or skills.Stealing from Plain Sight Spirit: (Essence 2) Passive: Your pickpocketing, sleight of hand and casual robbery skills are not limited by reason. You can steal objects without touching them (though they must be reachable) and without being noticed, provided there was an instant that the object was unguarded or unobserved. You can also steal things from out of the hands of extras, they will not notice the item has been stolen until it becomes obvious or until another character points it out to them. This charm never works on attuned artifacts or constructs made of a persons’ essence.
Door-Evading Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: Your breaking and entering skills are not limited by reason. You can pick mortal locks without tools and pass through any portal you are capable of opening without opening it. You are capable of picking locks that should not be pickable (such as supernaturally secured locks or first age Essence-attunement locks), but this may require a Conflict with the lock.
Mental Invisibility Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: Your Stealth is not limited by reason. So long as you are not engaged in combat or otherwise have direct attention or are being actively sought, you can vanish from the minds of all onlookers. Extras will never notice you and forget you were ever there. Heroic characters must have their suspicions raised enough to declare that they are searching for someone. They must either beat you in a Conflict or pay 1 Limit to overcome the supernatural mental effect that commands them to ignore you.
Invisible Statue Spirit: (Essence 2) Passive: When you are still, you become completely imperceptible to all senses besides touch. Unlike Mental Invisibility Technique, this charm is genuine non-existence from those senses, not merely a trick of the mind, and so can be used when people are on alert for you. The invisibility fades immediately if you move from your position or take any offensive action, and fades a few seconds after you are touched or bumped into.
Mist On Water Attack: (Essence 3) Passive: When you initiate a Combat Conflict by making an attack against a target who is completely unaware of your presence, if you win, you can declare that the victim does not know who attacked them or from where, as the surprise attack takes them out of the fight immediately. If you lose, you can inflict a single Significant Injury complication on them. If the target is an Extra, you can kill or knock them unconscious them, silently and imperceptibly, without their allies even knowing.
A major design intent with these charms was to allow characters with them to do a lot of stuff but to not ruin plots with them. I felt it necessary to remove the obnoxiousness that was Disappearing from the Mind's Eye, so a lesser version (that only works on Normals and Extras) was folded into Mental Invisibility. Mental Invisibility and Invisible Statue combine to make very effective stealth, but that's two charms worth of commitment. Mist On Water Attack was kind of meant to take the entire Thrown tree, which was built around assassination, and put it where it belonged, which was not combat charms. I just don't agree with silent assassinations of key enemies, it's not a very satisfying end to a big epic story.
Worthy Mount Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: While your Anima Banner is ignited, you are capable of impossible feats of horsemanship, while it is down you are merely capable of improbable feats. No matter the mount, they are impossible agile, graceful, strong and confident, a willing extension of your will and prowess. Your horse might leap from tree branch to tree branch chasing down your foes as you stand in the saddle prepared to leap off, fight for a moment in midair and land on the horse’s back.
Invincible Admiral Method: (Essence 2) Passive: You and any who sail under your command are guarded from the dangers of the high seas. Any who consider you their commanding officer will not be swept overboard, even during storms, nor suffer scurvy, sunstroke or other afflictions, nor will their ships be at risk of sinking from wear or weather. This protection always applies to your ship and spreads to others so long as they remain at a distance where the other ships could see your ship given smooth seas. When you navigate a ship and prepare its course, it travels perfectly on that course at maximum speed, avoiding any and all hazards that you are aware of on the way, regardless of wind or doldrums. Other ships under your command can follow your course safely as well. Ships under the influence of this charm can still be harmed by deliberate action or unknown threats: Storm Mothers, mutinies or running aground of reefs they were unaware of, but otherwise this is perfect protection.
Ship-Claiming Stance: (Essence 2) Passive: Your ship is an extension of yourself. While your Anima Banner is up, you can perform Impossible feats of naval skill, while it is down you can still perform Improbable ones. This charm, additionally, allows you to supernaturally claim any ship that has reason to recognize you as its owner. Your ship will hold together against catastrophic damage (long enough to see you to the nearest island), and you can literally turn it around on nothing, no matter sea or conditions, and it travels at approximately triple the speed it 'should'. You are even capable of running your ship with no crew besides yourself and other such unreasonable feats.
So Travel Powers aren't that useful in a lot of RPGs. When we can sideline several months of travel into ten, fifteen seconds of gameplay, we don't care a lot that it takes forever. So sometimes GMs imply that if you don't get there right now something bad is going to happen. Also, Exalted more than most games has a habit of characters getting too big for the party and running off to do their own things before rejoining the party when they deal with something big, and for things like that it's good to have a personal travel power. Thus, these charms. I won't be shy about saying how terrible Ride Charms were in core Exalted, so I've dramatically reduced the requirements to actually get an effective travel power out of them. Sail was always a bit better but only useful on land, so it took a little bit less effort to adapt.
Know the Soul’s Price: (Essence 3, Judge’s Ear Technique): Passive: After getting to know a person, you know their ‘price,’ what it is they will do anything in exchange for. While this does not directly identify the character’s Motivation, it likely comes close to it. This Charm can also be used to guarantee someone’s loyalty for no less than a Season, should you provide their Price to them.
Courtier’s Eye Technique: (Essence 2): Passive: Studying the currents of relationships and body language, you immediately understand social dynamics of situations you enter. This will not necessarily provide perfect details (you would know that two people are close, but might not be sure if that was because they were friends or if they were having an affair), but you will immediately understand who has power over whom, who likes whom and who dislikes whom when you walk into a room or hear them talk about others. This charm also allows you to smooth over minor faux pas and breaches of etiquette you make perfectly, you will never give offense unless you deliberately intend to.
Social Perception is powerful stuff in Exalted, Judge's Ear Technique was known for a while as 'The Charm' in my group because I ruined several plots with it on my social-tertiary character. For this version I've actually toned it back a bit and made it more like Insightful Buyer Technique (I think it was), which is still very effective but no longer perfect-lie-detector status. Know the Soul's Price was always a cool charm that was never really worth taking, I felt, so I tried to make it easier to use. Courtier's Eye, finally, also contains Mastery of Small Manners as well as its original incarnation, allowing you to chat a few people up and immediately know the score.
Commanding the Ideal Celestial Army: (Essence 3): Passive: All who who consider you their commanding officer are your hands and eyes. All soldiers who consider you to be superior to them on the chain of command resist disease, starvation, exhaustion and dehydration so long as they receive any food, water and rest and remain within 1 hours’ communication with you. In battle, you are aware of the location and condition of all your subordinates, and orders you convey reach them instantly.
Deft Official’s Way: (Essence 2): Passive: You may, after spending a few hours working with or as part of a bureaucracy, speed up or slow down its overall efficiency or only one piece of legislation or paperwork by a factor of three. This charm lasts so long as you spend fifteen minutes a day interacting with the bureaucracy and wear off one week after your final contact. Your influence is subtle and it will not be apparent that the cause of the speed up or slow down is you. If you work with the bureaucracy for an extended period, you may more permanently affect its functioning.
Tiger-Warrior Training Technique: (Essence 3) Active: Spend 1 Essence when taking a week-long dramatic action to train 100 or less soldier extras who share an intimacy with your or have an intimacy for you. These soldiers need not initially be warriors, the might be peasants or bandits. After each week’s training (which requires no less 2 hours of your time per day), they are braver, stronger, more skilled and more loyal. After a month, even the greenest troops become Tiger Warriors, elite soldiers brave and skilled enough to dive into the teeth of Hell, the Underworld or the armies of the Wyld.
Legendary Scholar Curriculum: (Essence 3) Active: Spend 1 Essence when taking a week-long dramatic action to teach 100 or less students who share an intimacy with you or have an intimacy for you. Pick a non-combat skill that you have rated at 3+ that you wish to teach. Teaching fresh students to become mortal masters of this discipline takes one month, but they improve dramatically with each week.
Wise-Eyed Courtier Method: (Essence 2) Passive: After spending several days work with or among a discrete social group (an organization, household, occupational group or ruling class, but not an entire city or nation), you can create a single belief, emotion, taboo or fad among them. Your work will be subtle and tracking its origin back to you is impossible for a mortal to achieve. Note that the belief occurs within the group, not within individuals within it, it is very likely that no members of a group would believe that they were all animals transformed into humans, but they would all think that everyone else in the group, possibly everyone who they didn't personally think was an idiot, believed it.
Travel Charms:
Flashing Thunderbolt Steed: (Essence 2) Passive: Any natural, unowned animal that you know how to ride instinctively submits to you. Your mount never tires nor panics and is never at any risk of harm from natural terrain or roads. You will never fall from your mount, even when unconscious or asleep, only when slain. If your Anima Banner is up, your mount travels at quadruple its normal speed and can run all-out on unstable terrain or liquid. This charm only functions on your mount so long as you are one of its riders (or are nearby it with intent to return soon, for instance if you’ve temporarily leapt off to climb onto a behemoth to slay a Fair Folk Cataphract).Worthy Mount Technique: (Essence 2) Passive: While your Anima Banner is ignited, you are capable of impossible feats of horsemanship, while it is down you are merely capable of improbable feats. No matter the mount, they are impossible agile, graceful, strong and confident, a willing extension of your will and prowess. Your horse might leap from tree branch to tree branch chasing down your foes as you stand in the saddle prepared to leap off, fight for a moment in midair and land on the horse’s back.
Invincible Admiral Method: (Essence 2) Passive: You and any who sail under your command are guarded from the dangers of the high seas. Any who consider you their commanding officer will not be swept overboard, even during storms, nor suffer scurvy, sunstroke or other afflictions, nor will their ships be at risk of sinking from wear or weather. This protection always applies to your ship and spreads to others so long as they remain at a distance where the other ships could see your ship given smooth seas. When you navigate a ship and prepare its course, it travels perfectly on that course at maximum speed, avoiding any and all hazards that you are aware of on the way, regardless of wind or doldrums. Other ships under your command can follow your course safely as well. Ships under the influence of this charm can still be harmed by deliberate action or unknown threats: Storm Mothers, mutinies or running aground of reefs they were unaware of, but otherwise this is perfect protection.
Ship-Claiming Stance: (Essence 2) Passive: Your ship is an extension of yourself. While your Anima Banner is up, you can perform Impossible feats of naval skill, while it is down you can still perform Improbable ones. This charm, additionally, allows you to supernaturally claim any ship that has reason to recognize you as its owner. Your ship will hold together against catastrophic damage (long enough to see you to the nearest island), and you can literally turn it around on nothing, no matter sea or conditions, and it travels at approximately triple the speed it 'should'. You are even capable of running your ship with no crew besides yourself and other such unreasonable feats.
So Travel Powers aren't that useful in a lot of RPGs. When we can sideline several months of travel into ten, fifteen seconds of gameplay, we don't care a lot that it takes forever. So sometimes GMs imply that if you don't get there right now something bad is going to happen. Also, Exalted more than most games has a habit of characters getting too big for the party and running off to do their own things before rejoining the party when they deal with something big, and for things like that it's good to have a personal travel power. Thus, these charms. I won't be shy about saying how terrible Ride Charms were in core Exalted, so I've dramatically reduced the requirements to actually get an effective travel power out of them. Sail was always a bit better but only useful on land, so it took a little bit less effort to adapt.
Social Perception Charms:
Judge’s Ear Technique: (Essence 2): Passive: This charm permits you to to know the immediate goals of a character you are dealing with, in person or in writing. This also will inform you if their dealings with you are honest, dishonest or somewhere in between, though it will not identify specific lies. It will also inform you if their goals suddenly shift.Know the Soul’s Price: (Essence 3, Judge’s Ear Technique): Passive: After getting to know a person, you know their ‘price,’ what it is they will do anything in exchange for. While this does not directly identify the character’s Motivation, it likely comes close to it. This Charm can also be used to guarantee someone’s loyalty for no less than a Season, should you provide their Price to them.
Courtier’s Eye Technique: (Essence 2): Passive: Studying the currents of relationships and body language, you immediately understand social dynamics of situations you enter. This will not necessarily provide perfect details (you would know that two people are close, but might not be sure if that was because they were friends or if they were having an affair), but you will immediately understand who has power over whom, who likes whom and who dislikes whom when you walk into a room or hear them talk about others. This charm also allows you to smooth over minor faux pas and breaches of etiquette you make perfectly, you will never give offense unless you deliberately intend to.
Social Perception is powerful stuff in Exalted, Judge's Ear Technique was known for a while as 'The Charm' in my group because I ruined several plots with it on my social-tertiary character. For this version I've actually toned it back a bit and made it more like Insightful Buyer Technique (I think it was), which is still very effective but no longer perfect-lie-detector status. Know the Soul's Price was always a cool charm that was never really worth taking, I felt, so I tried to make it easier to use. Courtier's Eye, finally, also contains Mastery of Small Manners as well as its original incarnation, allowing you to chat a few people up and immediately know the score.
Organization Charms:
Fury-Inciting Presence: (Essence 2): Passive: You possess an aura of command, inspiration or charisma. When you call upon people who share at least one intimacy with you to follow you or to stand down, they will do so, and they will treat you as their leader and trust you implicitly: their morale will be far stronger than their rag-tag origins would imply.Commanding the Ideal Celestial Army: (Essence 3): Passive: All who who consider you their commanding officer are your hands and eyes. All soldiers who consider you to be superior to them on the chain of command resist disease, starvation, exhaustion and dehydration so long as they receive any food, water and rest and remain within 1 hours’ communication with you. In battle, you are aware of the location and condition of all your subordinates, and orders you convey reach them instantly.
Deft Official’s Way: (Essence 2): Passive: You may, after spending a few hours working with or as part of a bureaucracy, speed up or slow down its overall efficiency or only one piece of legislation or paperwork by a factor of three. This charm lasts so long as you spend fifteen minutes a day interacting with the bureaucracy and wear off one week after your final contact. Your influence is subtle and it will not be apparent that the cause of the speed up or slow down is you. If you work with the bureaucracy for an extended period, you may more permanently affect its functioning.
Tiger-Warrior Training Technique: (Essence 3) Active: Spend 1 Essence when taking a week-long dramatic action to train 100 or less soldier extras who share an intimacy with your or have an intimacy for you. These soldiers need not initially be warriors, the might be peasants or bandits. After each week’s training (which requires no less 2 hours of your time per day), they are braver, stronger, more skilled and more loyal. After a month, even the greenest troops become Tiger Warriors, elite soldiers brave and skilled enough to dive into the teeth of Hell, the Underworld or the armies of the Wyld.
Legendary Scholar Curriculum: (Essence 3) Active: Spend 1 Essence when taking a week-long dramatic action to teach 100 or less students who share an intimacy with you or have an intimacy for you. Pick a non-combat skill that you have rated at 3+ that you wish to teach. Teaching fresh students to become mortal masters of this discipline takes one month, but they improve dramatically with each week.
Wise-Eyed Courtier Method: (Essence 2) Passive: After spending several days work with or among a discrete social group (an organization, household, occupational group or ruling class, but not an entire city or nation), you can create a single belief, emotion, taboo or fad among them. Your work will be subtle and tracking its origin back to you is impossible for a mortal to achieve. Note that the belief occurs within the group, not within individuals within it, it is very likely that no members of a group would believe that they were all animals transformed into humans, but they would all think that everyone else in the group, possibly everyone who they didn't personally think was an idiot, believed it.
Organization Charms were a bit of an oddball category for me that I realized I needed to put in because those Eclipse Charms were actually really cool, if you could use them, and I didn't have space for a lot of War or Training Charms either. They mostly work they way they did in core, though Wise-Eyed Courtier now covers all three of the original charms it did.
And that's all our Solar Charms. I think that so long as characters gain them more slowly than they did in canon (though I don't have any sort of experience system worked out) that that's enough. Depending on how Dragon-Blooded are looking tomorrow I may either post about Custom Charms, a subject I think is woefully lacking in discussion in Core Exalted, or give some examples of how the Dragon-Blooded have come out.
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave questions or comments!
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