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Spirits use Valour to affect the physical world, whether positively or negatively. Valour Charms are often used to harm others.
Accomplishments are an expression of the spiritual force of Valour; they allow the spirit to generate certain Charm-like effects without expending his use of the Charm-per-turn. A spirit has only a single pool of Accomplishments; an Accomplishment may be spent to use the ability of any Charm that consumes Accomplishments, regardless of the Charm that generated that Accomplishment.
The spirit may add a number of dice equal to its Valour score to a single roll. This roll could be anything from a single blow with a weapon to a single performance or even to the roll to create a single piece of fine jewelry. When used for longer endeavors, this Charm adds dice to each roll of a single extended action. However, it can only be used on one endeavor at a time, the Essence invested in this Charm cannot be regained, and the Charm cannot be recast until the task has been completed or abandoned.
Spirits use Change to alter small details of something's physical appearance, upon a successful Charisma + Valour check. Each use of this Charm allows one discrete detail to be changed. The size and complexity of the detail depends on the number of successes the spirit achieves. One or two successes allow a small detail to be changed: hair length, the shape of the target’s pupils. Three or four allow the spirit to change larger details: the design of a dress, the length of limbs. Five or more successes allow the spirit to create details from nothing: a bracelet where there was none. These details may confer a +1 virtual Specialty while they are in effect, as the Systematic Understandign of Everything does.
The spirit may, upon a successful Charisma + Valour check, take on another’s physical form. This requires the spirit to touch the being to be emulated, which may require a successful Dexterity + Brawl or Martial Arts check, depending on the circumstances. The spirit must pay in advance and choose up front how many motes to spend; if it chooses to break the Charm early, those motes are not recovered. A very successful Perception + Awareness check may see through the disguise. Four successes indicate that small elements of the disguise seem wrong, while five or more indicate that the shapechanging seems patently false. Also, some spirits and Exalted may possess Charms designed to see through such trickery. It is very common for spirits to choose Scourge rules that allow this illusion to be seen through or broken entirely with the use of some simple ritual. Some of these include: looking at someone’s reflection in a fractured mirror, looking at someone through lenses that have been soaked in a special herbal solution, blowing ashes of certain types of wood into someone’s face.
This Charm causes its target to become “touched” by an element of the spirit’s choosing. The spirit must touch its target for this Charm to work, possibly requiring a successful Dexterity + Brawl or Martial Arts attack. Roll the spirit’s Manipulation + Valour with a difficulty equal to the target’s Essence. The more extra successes, the more intense the target’s reaction to this Charm. A fire-aspected touch causes someone to grow feverish. The target might take on some of the personality traits associated with fire: a hotheaded temper, lusty libido, curiosity, anger, vengeance, forcefulness or willfulness. The effects of this Charm last for one day or until the spirit chooses to release the target, whichever comes sooner. This Charm is a favorite among demons, who use it to bring out the worst in targets.
This Charm is the same as Element Touch, but it lasts for one week or until the spirit chooses to release the target, whichever comes sooner. Like Element Touch, this Charm requires the spirit to touch its target. If the spirit achieves three or more successes, the target may have hallucinations that support and intensify his reaction.
This Charm is similar to the lesser Element Kiss and Element Touch Charms, but lasts for one month or until the spirit chooses to release the target (whichever comes sooner). The spirit must either touch the target or look into the target’s eyes. Roll the spirit’s Manipulation + Valour with a difficulty equal to the target’s Essence. With two or more successes, the target has the hallucinations described under Element Kiss. At three or more successes, the target may well harm herself under the force of her reaction.
The spirit may, upon a successful Charisma + Valour check, take on any physical form it wishes; it must pay the cost for the full duration in advance (if the spirit breaks the Charm early, the extra motes are not recovered). After that, the spirit must reactivate the Charm if it wishes to continue the masquerade, making the Charisma + Valour check again. The spirit must spend another 10 motes and a Willpower point in advance (once per use of the Charm, not per day) if it wishes its Abilities, Attributes, etc. to change with its form; the Trait changes this provides function in the same manner as those of Another Face.
(De)Materialise
Using this Charm, the spirit may change the materialisation state of a being. Dematerialised beings become materialised, and vice versa. In the spirit realms (Yu-Shan, the Underworld, and Malfeas), this is a meaningless distinction; the Charm cannot be used, and when beings enter these realms it instantly deactivates.
Dematerialised beings with awakened Essence 2 or greater may spend one mote to manifest; this makes the spirit's presence obvious and allows him to communicate with nearby entities without materialising. Spirits manifest in different ways; it is common to project a translucent image of oneself, but others suffuse the area with a distinctive fragrance or cause the air to hum with their voices.
The cost of this Charm varies based on the affected being's Essence pool. It is 45% of the spirit's Essence pool, plus 5% per dot of Essence the spirit has. This Essence is not committed! However, the spirit must pay half this cost each sunrise to maintain his abnormal materialisation state, else the Charm ends. While under the effects of this Charm, a being does not regain Essence via respiration. Other methods of Essence regeneration (including but not limited to Cults, Hearthstones, and Stunts) function normally.
This Charm allows the spirit to inflict damage with a touch; for the remainder of the scene it may make Dominion attacks.
A Dominion attack visibly manifests one of the spirit's dominions when it is used; it replaces the base damage of the attack used to deliver it with the spirit's Valour + Essence. This damage is lethal, and not piercing. Extra successes add to damage normally.
When a spirit learns this Charm, he must choose with Dominion it will always manifest. He may learn additional variants of the Charm normally.
This Charm allows the spirit to deliver Dominion attacks at range. The attack roll for these is Charisma + Valour and their base damage is Strength bashing. This damage can only be soaked by Stamina, and the attacks may not be dodged or parried without the use of Stunt or Charm.
This Charm allows spirits to create supernaturally exquisite items or to perform feats of inhuman skill. When using this charm, roll Intelligence + Valour for the spirit. Every success gained on this roll can be added to a single Attribute + Ability roll. No activity can simultaneously benefit from both this Charm and the Uncanny Prowess Charm.
The spirit may, upon a successful Stamina + Valour check, create a small amount of a substance or condition. For instance, a garda bird could set fire to something it touches. For five motes, that created can appear in a context where it does not normally belong: the garda may set flame to something that isn't flammable; Berengiere enjoys planting the beginnings of sexual attraction between siblings.
Animate - Affinity Element Control
The spirit using this Charm puts events into motion following its desires. These events must be natural behaviours (however improbable) of the elements affected, but other than that the spirit is unrestricted in its ability to control them. A storm serpent can use this Charm to prolong his progenitor's existence unnaturally, spread the falling of thunderbolts so they do the most damage, and so forth. The player rolls the spirit's Manipulation + Valour. The number of successes indicates how fine a level of control the spirit has and how powerful an effect it can create. One success allows a spirit to call forth a mild rain or to light a campfire, while three allow a spirit to cause a rainy day or to build a torch into a bonfire without any extra fuel. Five successes might allow a spirit to summon a storm from clear air or to instantly consume a large wooden structure in flames. The spirit may manipulate a one-yard cube of an element per point of Essence it possess. In the case of area effects such as rain, it could cause the effect in a five-yard radius per permanent Essence point.
Earth Sovereign - Element Control
Prerequisite Charms: Animate The same as Animate, except that the spirit can demand impossible and unnatural behaviours. On five successes, a spirit could build a phantom lover out of air or halt a tsunami, leaving it hanging motionlessly overhead.
Air Sovereign - Weather Control
This Charm allows the spirit to control the manifestations of its Dominion in a large area, with one mile per permanent Essence being the maximum range available. Roll the spirit's Manipulation + Valour; just as with Animate, the number of successes indicate the size and extremity of the effect. The effects generated by this Charm are generally more subdued and far-reaching than the dramatic, localised transformations of that Charm and Earth Sovereign; they remain limited by Animate's "natural behaviour" restriction.
It takes one hour per success for the prevailing conditions to reassert themselves, if those that the spirit demanded are less tenable. Unnatural or unique effects halted by the use of this Charm (teeth blizzards, desert tsunami, etc.) do not normally reassert themselves, and if they were created supernaturally, then their supernatural creator's intervention is required to restore them.
When a spirit uses this Charm, he gains as many Accomplishments as his Valour.
While this Charm is in effect, the spirit may spend one Accomplishment to gain an extra action. These actions are used as described in Exalted p. 292. While the spirit retains any Accomplishments, he cannot deactivate this Charm.
The spirit who knows this Charm has a number of additional forms equal to his Essence rating; when his Essence rating increases he learns a new form. Each additional form has the same totals of Attribute and Ability dots as the spirit's default form, but they may be distributed differently.
The spirit may, upon a successful Charisma + Valor check, take on one of its alternate forms; it must pay the cost for the full duration in advance. After that, the spirit must reactivate the Charm if it wishes to continue the masquerade, but does not need to repeat the check.
Elementals use this Charm to gain access to the dragon shape, a special ability accessible only to them. An elemental with Essence 5 or greater has a single alternate form (not additional to the ones provided above) where he is not only able to rearrange his Attributes and Abilities, but also the Auspicious Ability selections of his Dominions. Elementals use this to raise their Ability caps, so that they may be especially masterful at tasks of their choice. This shape is always that of an immense dragon.
The effect of this Charm is identical to that of Words of Power, with the addition of the following: for each Health Level of damage the attacks deal, the victim has a -1 wound penalty to all dice actions. This penalty lasts as many turns as the conferring spirit's Essence.
The spirit may, upon a successful Stamina + Valour check, destroy a small amount of a substance or condition. For instance, a garda bird could extinguish a campfire with a touch. For five motes, the spirit can expunge the substance or condition from a place that would naturally generate that condition; for instance, a tempest spirit might be able to still the rapids in a rocky mountain stream. When the Charm is used in this way, the effect is suppressed for one hour per success.
This Charm cannot be used on an unwilling target.
Upon a successful Stamina + Valour check, the spirit creates a large amount of a substance or condition, or a smaller amount of an exceptional substance or condition. For instance, an ifrit could cause a bonfire to spring into existence in the open air. Generally, for each success, the spirit can create an appropriate amount of ordinary substance to affect one person per dot of its Essence, or an appropriate amount of exceptional substance to affect one person.
The things that this Charm creates are spun out of worship and Essence, and are not generally as permanent as truly material things. They can remain in existence as long as a story before they rot away, return to their prior state, or otherwise cease to be useful. When they replicate especially transient material things, such as winds, flames, or daylight, these creations last no longer than a scene.
By spending an additional 5 motes and 1 Willpower, the spirit can create large amounts of exceptional substance.
Example: Alveua, Keeper of the Forge of Night, uses The Shape of the Supplicant, one of her versions of Bloom. This Charm permits her to rapidly forge devices of mortal iron. She rolls 3 successes on her Stamina + Valour check. Since her Essence is 7, this means that she is able to equip 21 mortals with her devices; she chooses to make each a sweet iron trumpet, so that they may accompany Erembour's nightly anthem.
This Charm is identical to Bloom, except in terms of its prerequisites and that it destroys or suppresses, rather than creating. It cannot be used on an unwilling target.
Using this Charm, the spirit is able to transform one substance into another. Its use can bring things into existence at the same magnitude and quality as the more expensive usage of Bloom, but it requires a comparable amount of raw material. By spending 1 Ambrosia at the time it uses the Charm, a spirit may make this transformation permanent.
This Charm cannot be used on an unwilling target.
Using this Charm, the spirit is able to create other living creatures. It rolls Appearance + Valour; this determines the quality of creatures it may create. The spirit may not spend more Ambrosia activating this Charm than its successes on the roll.
The spirit causes brief, somewhat muddled manifestations of sound, smell and light, such as a ball of light or indistinct sounds of conversation. Roll the spirit’s Manipulation + Valour. The more successes, the more noticeable these manifestations are (louder, brighter) and the longer they may last. This Charm may not be used in precise ways — no writing words or making pictures in light, and no speaking distinct phrases.
The spirit may cause the same manifestations as Will-o-Wisp, again making a Manipulation + Valour check. This time, however, it may create distinct patterns. For instance, ghostly writing may be created. This Charm may be used to hold a conversation with a target while the spirit is unmanifested. The number of successes affects how distinct the manifestations are, how precisely controlled they are and just how thoroughly the spirit may manipulate its medium. With five successes, the spirit may paint simple scenes out of light, sound and smell. These scenes may not be larger than 10 feet in any direction, and they are obvious to anyone who is close enough to observe them.
Through the use of this Charm, spirits can paralyze targets. A spirit must touch its target for this Charm to work, which may require a successful Dexterity + Brawl or Martial Arts check. If the spirit successfully touches its target, roll its Strength + Valour with a difficulty equal to the target’s Stamina. Every extra success the spirit achieves causes the target to suffer a -2 penalty to all rolls involving movement or agility for the rest of the scene.
This Charm allows a materialized spirit to launch a single attack at an unmanifested spirit. For the purposes of the individual attack, the small god attacks the immaterial spirit normally.
Please see Blessings & Curses.
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