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< Charm Index - The Dragon Blooded? - General >
The charms of the Dragon-Blooded are not like the Charm's of the Celestial Exalted. The blessing of the Elemental Dragon's shape the Dragon-Blooded directly, imposing their own nature on those that bear their Exaltation. This is far different from the integration of a Celestial Exaltation, which is itself shaped to empower a mortal host as much as it shapes the host that it empowers. While the greater power of the Celestial Exalted is undeniable, there are certain benefits to the method chosen by the Elemental Dragons. Most focus on the fact that the Terrestrial Exaltation can be passed on by blood, but subtler benefits include the fact that the powers of the Dragon-Blooded are less tied to their mortal capabilities and are for that reason somewhat easier to learn. Of course, a significant downside is the fact that much of their power is tied into their bloodline. The Dragon-Blooded have always been weaker than the Celestial Exalted. In the dawn of the First Age, however, none of the Terrestrial Exalted could have imagined the great gulf of power that would exist between them and their betters in the Age of Sorrows.
A Dragon-Blooded charm is associated with a given ability, but often not strongly. Only a rare few Dragon-Blooded charm requires more than 3 dots in a given ability, with most Terrestrial Charm Trees being balanced around Essence Minimum's, Prerequisite Counts, and the Purity Keyword (see below). The experience point cost to Combo any Dragon-Blooded charm is always based upon it's Minimum Essence requirement, not it's Ability requirement.
Some Dragon-Blooded charms only have a Minimum Ability rating of 0. If the ability in question is a Caste or Favored ability, such charms can be learned with only a few hours of training time, while non-Caste Charms take a number of days to learn equal to the Minimum Essence of the charm in question. The Breeding requirement of a Charm never factors into the training time to learn it, as this isn't a "true" requirement of the charm, but an indication of fading Terrestrial power.
Unlike the other types of Exalted, the Excellencies of a Dragon-Blooded are not simple innate charms that are easily earned. Each requires at least an Ability rating of 2 in the given ability, and the Dragon-Blooded must already know a base charm with the Root keyword (see below). Other charms never require an Excellency as a Prerequisite, with such charms being diversions off the Elemental Trees rather than integral parts of it.
| New Keyword: Channel |
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| All Dragon-Blooded have a number of Innate Channels equal to their Essence, and potentially additional Channels granted by Charms. A Charm with this Keyword benefits from these Innate Channels, and can provide an additional effect -- also called a Channel -- when slotted into the Terrestrial's Innate Channels. The effects of these Channels are outlined in the charm description, but a Channel's effect is entirely separate from the charm that grants it and does not require the Dragon-Blooded activate that charm in and of itself. Some Channels, however, are largely useless unless combined with the Charm in question or allow the Dragon-Blooded to utilize that Charm in a more powerful or flexible fashion. |
| There are two types of Channel effects, persistent Channels and reflexive Channels. A persistent Channel never requires committed Essence, but instead occupies one of the Dragon-Blooded's Innate Channels for so long as the Dragon-Blooded wishes to benefit from the effect. Activating or deactivating a persistent Channel is a reflexive action that can only be performed on the Dragon-Blooded's Action. A reflexive Channel can only be used if the Dragon-Blooded has one Innate Channel not being used to empower a persistent Channel, and can be activated as if it was a reflexive charm that does not require a charm activation. Once you've used a given Innate Channel to use a given Abilities reflexive Channel, that Innate Channel can only be used with reflexive Channels of the same Element until the Dragon-Blooded's next action. |
| The use of Channels, of either type, always requires persistent Essence. Some Dragon-Blooded Charms grant an additional Channel that can only be used with the reflexive Channels of a given Ability or Element. The Dragon-Blooded may only use one charm of this type at a time. |
| New Keyword: Draconic(Aspects) |
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| Certain Charms represent an innate nature common to the Dragon-Blooded as a whole, or a cross-section of the Dragon-Blooded, rather than aligning specifically with one Elemental Aspect. A Charm with this keyword does not require an Elemental Surcharge from one or more different Dragon-Blooded Aspects. Most charms with this Keyword are Draconic(All), allowing any Dragon-Blooded to use this charm without a surcharge regardless of Elemental Aspect, but some Draconic charms are easier for certain Aspects than they are for others. |
| New Keyword: Purity |
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| While once natural to the Dragon-Blooded, these powers are now tied to the purity of a Terrestrial's Bloodline and thus limited by his Breeding Background. A character must have at least that level of Breeding in order to learn a charm with this keyword, and cannot progress any further along this branch of that abilities Elemental Tree without this requirement. Any Charms which are further along in the charm progression of an Ability than a Purity Charm are considered to have the same Purity requirement if a higher requirement is not listed. I.e., once a charm lists Purity(1), charms with it as a prerequisite are considered to have that requirement even without this Keyword, as are charms that require that charm as a prerequisite, and so on. The greatest powers of the Dragon-Blooded are restricted to those with the purest blood, which is most often found in the Realm, Lookshy, or another remnant of the First Age's Gentes. |
| New Keyword: Root |
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| This charm allows access to the Excellency of a given ability. These charms always require a single dot in the ability, and are usually thematically linked to the ability in question (often quite closely), rather than being a more elemental power. If a given Elemental Tree has more than one charm with this Keyword, you can use any of them as the Prerequisite when buying the Excellencies for that ability. However, you cannot use a Root charm from another ability for this purpose. |
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First (Ability) Excellency - Essence Overwhelming
Cost: 1m per die; Mins: (Ability) 2, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender) Keywords: Combo-OK, Channel, Draconic(All) Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Any (Ability) charm with the Root keyword.
This is as per the First (Ability) Excellency in the Solar Corebook, except the Dice Cap is only (Ability + Applicable Specialty).
Channel (Cost: 0m): While channeling the First (Ability) Excellency, that charm gains the Cooperative keyword. Each Dragon-Blooded beyond the first with this Channel active raises the number of dice purchased with the Excellency being channeled by 1, to a maximum of 1m per 4 dice. Only five Dragon-Blooded may share in this bonus, with the Fifth Dragon-Blooded extending this benefit to the Second (Ability) Excellency as well, lowering its cost to 1m per success.
Second (Ability) Excellency - Essence Triumphant
Cost: 2m per success; Mins: (Ability) 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender) Keywords: Combo-OK, Draconic(All) Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: First (Ability) Excellency
This is as per the Second (Ability) Excellency in the Solar Corebook, except that the Dragon-Blood can only spend motes equal to (Applicable Specialty x 2). In order to use this charm the Dragon-Blooded must thus have a specialty appropriate to the situation.
Third (Ability) Excellency - Essence Resurgent
Cost: 3m; Mins: (Ability) 2, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 4 for attacker, Step 6 for defender) Keywords: Combo-OK, Channel, Draconic(All) Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Any (Ability) charm with the Root keyword.
This is as per the Solar Third Excellency, except that the Dragon-Blooded only pays the above listed cost. A Dragon-Blooded may use the Third Excellency with the First or Second (Ability) Excellency, if using the channel listed below or with an appropriate combo. In order to make re-roll a boosted dice pool, the Dragon-Blooded must pay the cost for any other Excellency used on the first roll a second time. The cost of other charms need not be repaid.
Channel (Cost: 0m): While Channeling a Third (Ability) Excellency, Terrestrials may use any Reflexive Charms from (Ability) without their use counting as a charm activation, allowing the Dragon-Blooded to use such charms during the same action as other charms without the use of a Combo. You may not benefit from this Channel and the First (Ability) Excellency Channel at the same time.
Note: These two Charms are pre-Dragon-Blooded rewrite. They need to be operated upon and fixed.
Terrestrial (Ability) Reinforcement
Cost: 4m (2m to maintain); Mins: (Ability) 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 6, -2 DV) Keywords: Combo-Basic, Cooperative, Obvious, Touch Duration: While maintained Prerequisite Charms: Any Excellency for the relevant Ability.
The two greatest strengths of the Dragon-Blooded have always been their superior numbers and their boundless capacity for teamwork. A Dragon-Blood with this Charm can extend a weak version of the First Excellency to up to his (Ability) in total subjects for as long as he maintains this Charm with a Simple action every six ticks. The Dragon-Blood maintaining the charm must spend 2m each action after the first to maintain the charm, though (unlike the initial cost) these motes are not committed. Each individuals subjected to this charm gain a +1 dice bonus to their ability pool, with two significant restrictions. First, this bonus counts as a charm bonus in every way and cannot add more dice than the subjects Ability rating. Second, the subjects Ability and the bonus die granted from this Charm cannot exceed the Terrestrial's own rating in the ability in question. Neither the subjects nor the Terrestrial's Specialties factor into either comparison. As an example, a Dragon-Blooded with the minimum abilities required for this Charm could give four other individuals with a Dodge rating of 1-3 a +1 charm bonus to their Dodge pools, but would give no bonus to someone with Dodge 4 or 5.
The true potential of this charm, however, comes when multiple Dragon-Blooded use it cooperatively. No more Dragon-Blooded can cooperate using this charm than the lowest (Ability) amongst them, and this Ability rating is also what is used when calculating the ability cap on the bonus dice. However, each Dragon-Blooded who has committed essence to this Charm beyond the first adds +1 to this cap. The dice added still count as a charm bonus, and specialties do not factor into cap. As an added bonus, only a single Terrestrial need maintain this charm every action, and which Dragon-Blooded does such can be changed on a action by action basis though this requires some form of coordination. As an example, Five Dragon-Blooded with Dodge 5 can use this charm together and would thus be able to raise their effective Dodge score to 9 while they keep this charm up. One amongst them would have to devote a Simple action and 2m to maintaining the effect every six ticks, while the others can take actions normally and even raise their dice pools by another (1 + Applicable Specialties) dice.
In either case, all individuals must form up and briefly touch on the action they invoke this charm but may thereafter separate and act individually. If the Dragon-Blooded maintaining the charm is hit and takes damage he must make a Wits + Lore roll to keep control of the charm, at a difficulty equal to the levels of damage inflicted by the attack. If the Dragon-Blooded in question is killed, the effects of the charm end immediately.
Greater (Ability) Reinforcement
Cost: --; Mins: (Ability) 5, Essence 4; Type: Permanent Keywords: Upgrade Duration: N/a Prerequisite Charms: Terrestrial (Ability) Reinforcement
This charm enhances it's prerequisite's cooperative functionality. When multiple Terrestrial's use Terrestrial Reinforcement as a group, they can reflexively choose between two different effects at the beginning of every action. They may choose to use the charm as written, with one Dragon-Blood maintaining the charm to boost the abilities of the rest of the group, or they may choose to have one Dragon-Blood be the focus of the rest of the Group's efforts. If they choose the second option, the Dragon-Blooded that remains active gains a number of bonus dice equal to the number of Terrestrials maintaining this charm every action. He also increases his dice adder cap by a like amount, up to a maximum of his (Attribute + Ability + Applicable Specialties).
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