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| The Sidereal Dice Cap |
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| The Sidereal Exalted are limited to adding no more dice to any (Attribute + Ability) pool than the Sidereal's Essence when using the First, and Second Excellencies. However, they may use these Charms to offset up to their Essence in dice of both internal and external penalties as well as any penalties to Defense Values. Internal penalties map to dice on a 1-for-1 basis, while External penalties and penalties to a Defense Value map to Essence on a 2-for-1 basis. A Sidereal may use the First Excellency to remove External penalties, and the Second Excellency to offset Internal penalties. |
| The Sidereal Exalted may thus add up to their (Essence x 2) dice to a valid action's dice pool, with success from the Second Excellency counting as two dice as normal, but may only freely use half of that limit when not under adverse conditions. The Maximum DV bonus a Sidereal can attain without using Essence Auspicious is (Essence / 2). When rounding is necessary due to an odd value, for any reason, round up for bonuses of any kind and the caps for Defense Values, and round down for penalties of any kind. |
| For example, a Sidereal with Essence 5 has "10 dice" worth of purchasing power with the Second Excellency. He may add +3 successes to a dice pool, and remove a -2 external penalty or a -4 internal penalty, or increase his DV by +3 as well as removing a -2 DV penalty. |
Fourth (Ability) Excellency -- Essence Auspicious
Cost: 1-3m OR 4m, 1wp; Mins: (Ability) 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (1/2) Keywords: Combo-OK Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Any (Ability) Excellency
Viziers with this Charm are known for their moments of momentous brilliance. The Exalt's player can invoke this charm when making a roll based on the relevant Ability, spending from one to three motes, or four motes and one point of Willpower for an Auspicious Success. Each mote spent on this ability reduces the target number for the roll by 1, to a minimum of 4. Any roll equal to or higher than the target number counts as a success. An Auspicious Success purchased with this charm forfeits the roll and instead provides a number of successes equal to the dice pool.
This charm may not be used to enhance a Static Value, as it represents fated brilliance and luck. It can be used, in Step 2 of Combat Resolution, to enhance a Defense Value with each mote adding +1 to the DV. If the character purchases an Auspicious Success for a defensive action, his Defense Value is set to his (Attribute + Ability) rating. This explicitly includes any applicable specialties and/or any bonus dice not gained from charms. No charm or other form of magic can further increase this Defense Value, which is not limited by but counts toward the characters dice cap.
This Charm cannot be Comboed or used together with the First, Second or Third Sidereal Excellencies.
See the New Keywords.
The charms of the Sidereal Exalted are very different from those of their Celestial kin. For one thing, not a single one of them was invented by the Sidereals themselves though they suggested more than a few of them. Instead, the Sidereal Charmset was constructed by the Five Maidens, and they are generally reluctant to give the Sidereal Exalted any new toys to play with - though it has happened on multiple occasions throughout the Ages. Most of these charms have been upgrades to existing Charms, rather than entirely new charms, as these have the advantage of not disturbing the astrological associations of each charm tree nor requiring the insertion of another line in the relevant Scripture. Still, what the Sidereal Exalted lose in flexibility they more than make up for in the scope and power of their charms which in many cases are quite favorable to that of the other Exalted.
Each Sidereal Charm set is based on a given Astrological College, and to a lesser degree on a given Ability. When viewed from this perspective, their charms make considerably more sense than if viewed as a scattered grouping of haphazardly related effects. As mentioned above, the Sidereal Charmset is also complete and largely fixed without the intervention of the Maidens. While the Maiden's have given the Sidereals new charms before, and will probably do such again, these charms have their limits and the Maidens must "color within the lines" with regard to those limits. Most importantly, the capstone charm of a given charm set is always a Prayer Strip charm and it has the highest Minimum Essence of any other charm in the set. These charms never require any upgrade charms, and upgrades never require an Essence rating higher than the capstone charm (though they can match this value). An entirely new charm has to be inserted somewhere into the charm set and the scripture before the capstone charm. These charms are rarely at the base of the tree, either, but instead tend to build off already existing charms and thus change the prerequisites required for the capstone charm. In the event such a charm is introduced in play, any changes to the prerequisites take effect previously and a Sidereal cannot use a Charm unless he has all of it's prerequisite charms - including any new ones freshly created by the Maidens.
Note, for now, these Keyword Descriptions are taken from Charles (Plague of Hats) Spaulding's excellent Loom 2.0 PDF supplement.
| New Keyword: Fate |
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| Sidereal Charms function by manipulating the fate of the world that suffuses and surrounds the Exalted. Even when venturing beyond the normal bounds of fate, into Malfeas or the Underworld’s Labyrinth, the Sidereal’s thread of destiny can whip about to entangle powerful demons and ghosts. Sometimes, however, a Sidereal Charm’s power relies heavily or entirely on the influence of the Loom of Fate. Such Charms carry this keyword and are less effective or ineffective against beings that are outside fate or in locations beyond the Loom’s reach. By default, Fate Charms can’t alter the target numbers of the dice pools of a being outside fate, nor can they drain them of Virtue channels or Willpower (though requiring Willpower expenditure to shake off influence may still apply). If the Charm is also a Shaping effect, it can not affect a being outside fate unless otherwise stated. |
| When a Fate effect is restricted to use inside Creation, this usually includes the Bordermarches and Middlemarches of the Wyld, and shadowlands during the day. |
| New Keyword: Maiden |
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| Some Sidereal Charms work by exploiting the base nature of the Chosen of the Maidens as acting in the capacity as special agents of the Maidens themselves. This authority is something that all Sidereals have naturally, just as they are all priests of their respective Maidens. Others are not so lucky. An Eclipse, Moonshadow or Fiend who learns a Maiden Charm may not actually make use of its effects without authorization, which can be granted only by the appropriate Maiden or head of the Maiden’s Bureau. In the event others somehow learn or gain access to such a Charm, it is up to the Storyteller’s judgment, but he is advised to err on the side of ‘no’ in this regard. |
| New Keyword: Prayer Strip |
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| Some Sidereal Charms are rooted in worldly truths that express Essence in strange wisdom. This wisdom is known to Sidereals by the scriptures of the astrological colleges, though its true scope and origin is unknown to any save the Primordials and perhaps the Maidens. As concatenations of powerful threads of fate, Sidereal Exaltations draw on these fundamental truths to express their powers, so some of their most powerful Charms blatantly rely on the scriptures. These Charms carry the Prayer Strip keyword, indicating that they require the use of a specially prepared prayer strip bearing the appropriate sutra. |
| Each prayer strip is made from fine ink and silk paper, usually a Resources •• purchase altogether. If the prayer strip is not consumed by a Charm’s use or otherwise destroyed, it may be reused indefinitely. Only prayer strips that an Exalt has created himself may be used to power that Exalt’s Charms. Actually preparing a prayer strip is a difficulty 2 (Dexterity + [Craft (Air) or Linguistics]) six-hour dramatic action. A prayer strip may be prepared in as little as one hour by raising the difficulty of the roll to 3, or as little as one minute (one long tick) by increasing the difficulty to 5. Unless otherwise stated in a Charm, readying a prayer strip for use is a reflexive action, much like nocking an arrow in a bow. |
| When a Prayer Strip Charm is active and the prayer strip is infused with the Esence that allows the Charm to function, the piece of paper becomes magically resilient. Active prayer strips that move about on their own have a Dodge DV of 8 and can apply this DV even against undodgeable attacks; those that are affixed to the Sidereal or a target benefit from their host’s DVs, if any. Prayer strips soak damage as inanimate objects (Exalted, p. 153-154) with a soak of 10L/10B, 25 Damaged health levels and one Destroyed level. Once a strip loses all its Damaged levels it becomes an inert, mundane piece of paper again and the associated Charm lapses. |
| Active prayer strips appear as Artifact • items to perceptions such as All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight (Exalted, p. 222) or Telltale Symphony (p. XX?). Actually noticing a prayer strip may be difficult, however, depending on what it is affixed to. However, a prayer strip can not be actively concealed or else the patterns of Essence that infuse it are disrupted and it stops working. This does not mean it can not be a function of the prayer strip itself to mask its presence. |
| New Keyword: Sanction |
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| The use of Charms with this keyword is closely monitored by the Bureau of Destiny. While the Sidereals are the personally-chosen agents of the Maidens, they must follow the rules, or appear to do so, as best they can. Whether due to lingering animosity, the political realities of a giant bureaucracy or simply disruption of the Tapestry, Charms with this keyword invite scrutiny from others. They produce powerful effects that the Bureau is wary of. Injudicious use of such a Charm is often an offense with a severity one less than the Charm’s minimum Essence. Using them to purposely disrupt destinies planned by Heaven is an offense with a severity equal to the Charm’s minimum Essence, or even one higher if the effects are wide-ranging or disruptive enough. |
| New Keyword: Touch |
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| When a Touch Charm targets a group, that does not necessarily mean the character need come into physical contact with every member of the group. Instead, the character must be available to every member of the group, capable of meeting with each individually without necessitating face-to-face time with all of them. It is up to the Storyteller to determine whether or not a character can meet this requirement within the constraints of a Charm’s activation, the number of people in the group and the types of communication available. |
| New Keyword: Virtue |
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| As described in The Manual of Exalted Power—Sidereals, p. 125-126. |
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