That's kinda the whole idea behind a good chunk of Chariot's set up.
His little syndicate has malcontents and social outcasts of pretty much every stripe he can get to cooperate - i think i mentioned he recently secured allies with ghostblood and expanded his smuggling routes to include a small shadowland somewhere in the south.
It also means that in many ways he is more sympathetic to the average denizen of Malfeas than the average denizen of Yu-Shan, which is actually kinda a problem for the Bureau of Destiny - or would be if they knew it.
So yeah, Chariot is an awesome boss as far as most first circles who know him are concerned. He pays employees in actual goods and services other than "maybe i wont kill you today", for starters.
Now, I know I'm not the most mechanically apt member of the boards, and 3E is certainly going out of its way to be difficult to understand, but it seems like a style focused around the chaining of charms, most notably Double Attack Technique and Steel Devil Strike, to wear away at an opponent's health track.
Kind of the opposite of the way the rest of combat functions where you're building Initiative to launch one gigantic killshot or protect yourself from Initiative crash
P.S. Sonic Slash seems incredibly meh. Whee, you get to pay a willpower to fail utterly against Hardness! Also, the style just kind of seems to founder against Bulwark Stance and every other sort of onslaught breaker.
The style seems to founder against anyone whose DVs you can't semi-reliably double with your attack successes. Which is... most serious opponents? Good against battle groups, I guess.
Well, it's not the only style that gets much worse against certain enemies. Snake Style does too, for example (against enemies faster than you).
Naked Fang Draw is a nice way to boost your starting Initiative. Could be slightly more mote efficient, but its still good. Double Attack Technique is a significant damage booster. Effectively you trade up to 7 damage (against enemies with really high defense) for 8 damage (with a full charge pool, more with higher Essence/using the stance). Yes it's significantly better against enemies with low defense/no way around onslaught penalties. But it still works against those. Triple Attack Technique is actually more damaging than Double Attack Technique, though of course pretty hard to land. Still, its a free upgrade. Steel Devil Strike does a lot of damage - if DAT lands, you should gain a lot of Initiative that you can now turn into an instant decisive attack. Oh and no need to worry about Hardness, you ignore it. Steel Devil Form is great for what the style does. More damage from a greater offhand charge and it reduces the cost of your two most important charms. Seconds between Strife is great if an opponent is far way, rush-enhancers are important for that and this one gives several auto-successes for only 4 motes. Sonic Slash is indeed a bit weak against high hardness - but then again, you can already overcome Hardness 9 with it once you have this charm. (Dexterity 5 + Essence 3 + 2 from Form) means 10 damage dice, after all.
Heavy Artifact Armor is not THAT common, and free decisive attacks are great. Dual-Slaying Stance is terrifying. It makes you better at counter-attacks than Crane Style, and I would be tempted to go into Steel Devil Style just for this stance. Automatic mote-free decisive counterattack with a damage pool of 8 or greater...yikes. Oh and it increases your Defense too. Twin-Blade Defense is a pretty great emergency defense against strong or decisive attacks. Iron Lotus Unfurling is a pretty good combination of disarming and damage, and a good reason to use Twin-Blade Defense AND have Sonic Slash. Empty Mind Strike is...why would you use this really? Steel Devil Strike does more damage, using this lowers your further withering damage and unlike SDS you can't even regain the spent willpower. Dervish Blade Frenzy oh so that's why. As a prerequisite, though any Solar will only use this charm with SDS instead of EMS. This is pretty devastating, if expensive. Whirling Guillotine Dance oh look this resolves the problem of this style having two stances.
Just the four Essence 1 charms create a nice combo.
Your goal is to gather sufficient Offhand Charge, then launch decisive attacks while still withering down the enemies Initiative and retaining your own. You need to hit four times to gain your maximum Charge (8, gaining two with each hit) but Naked Fang Draw pretty much reduces this to zero if you roll well.
Double Attack Technique is a solid damage enhancer even without a charge, so you can start using that right away. The only reason not to use it is if you are up against an enemy with high defense and want to conserve motes.
Once you are set up, you can launch a decisive attack every turn with Steel Devil Strike. Your Initiative won't increase further, but you do keep the enemies down.
Now, you can not combine Martial Arts Charms with Ability charms.
But this only applies to supplemental charms. So you could use some Melee charms in combination with this. One Weapon, Two Blows is reflexive and creates an entirely new attack. Use it after DAT to launch a normal withering attack - or better yet, to launch a Decisive attack with all the Initiative you might not even need. Granted it will be made with Melee, but hey extra attack. Peony Blossom Technique should also work just fine, for yet another attack. Call the Blade, Summoning the Loyal Steel and Glorious Solar Saber all work obviously, since they aren't even related to attacking. Dipping Swallow Defense definitely works, since it enhances Defense which your Style charms don't. The same goes for Hail-Shattering Practice, Bulwark Stance and Heavenly Guardian Defense. The latter is especially interesting since you do not need your Initiative pool to deal decisive damage, so you have plenty to use HGD with.
All the charms listed (except Heavenly Guardian Defense) only need Melee 3, so it's not even that heavy of an additional investment. The following charms need higher melee but also work with Steel Devil Style: War Lion Stance, Guard-Breaking Technique, Calm and Ready Focus, Unassailable Guardian Posture all work as well. Solar Counterattack works, though it doesn't combine with those gained from Dual-Slaying Stance. The same goes for Flashing Edge of Dawn, Fervent Blow and Over-and-Under Method.
But that's not even it yet. Steel Devil Style works with paired swords, but that could be any kind of Sword. So you can combine it with other Martial Arts Styles as well. Snake Style can use Hook Swords. It's compatible with Light Armor as well. Just grabbing Striking Cobra Technique is nice for the extra damage on your decisive attacks. Other charms are possible but don't add terribly much. Single Point Shining into the Void obviously uses Swords (Slashing Swords to be precise) and is compatible with light and medium armor. Gathering Light Concentration is nice for heaping Onslaught Penalties on an enemy. Shining Starfall Execution is GREAT for your reflexive decisive attacks - it adds damage, probably more since you are not spending your Initiative AND you don't even loose more if you miss (since you don't loose any anyway). Fatal Stroke Slash is devastating as well, though more risky. Liquid Steel Flow works as well, indirectly increasing your Steel Devil Strike damage. Six-Demon Scabbard Binding is a stylish utility charm. Crane Style can use Hook Swords, but is incompatible with armor. It's charms work decently with your style, but I wouldn't use it in order to avoid loosing your armor. Then again, Empowering Justice Redirection adds an extra success to your attacks.
It's the Baby-eating aliens from that dumb story by Yudkowsky.
Facts in evidence, let's move on.
I've been reading the leak (and sweet crap what a project that is, even with all the charms I've glazed over) and I took a look at Steel Devil Style.
Now, I know I'm not the most mechanically apt member of the boards, and 3E is certainly going out of its way to be difficult to understand, but it seems like a style focused around the chaining of charms, most notably Double Attack Technique and Steel Devil Strike, to wear away at an opponent's health track.
Kind of the opposite of the way the rest of combat functions where you're building Initiative to launch one gigantic killshot or protect yourself from Initiative crash, and for all that it seems much more vulnerable to just being blown to shreds immediately, especially with the lack of defensive Charms up until *checks* eugh, Essence 3. Definitely not a style I'd take on any character but a Dawn with Supernal Martial Arts.
P.S. Sonic Slash seems incredibly meh. Whee, you get to pay a willpower to fail utterly against Hardness! Also, the style just kind of seems to founder against Bulwark Stance and every other sort of onslaught breaker.
Steel Devil's main advantage, so far as I can tell, is that you can spam the living crap out of it. 2m for its main charm, provided you have the form up (3m else wise), isn't exactly taxing on your reserves. Further, the combo nature of it means that if you get a good hit, you can carry it pretty hard, chipping away at your opponents health, while not giving up motes if you fail to get the combo rolling. Course, this stops holding true as much when Dervish Blade Frenzy comes into play, but if you manage to get that far, your opponent has problems. Its also a good style for poison users, as the constant attack spam give lots of opportunities to hit. It does have issues with heavy armor, but if pickup something like Armor-Eating Strike (Athletics) or the right evocations you can bypass their Hardness. The onslaught issue issue does look like it biggest problem, but given the spammability of the style, you just need one good hit, and with Dual-Slaying Stance you can actually pause, Aim (or fire up other Simple non-attack charms), and resume attacking. I mean, they can attack you, but that probably means eating a decisive attack.
Also, Sonic Slash eats none of the usual resources for Decisive Attacks (Initiative or Charge), and it an AoE chaining off Rushes, so you can combine it with Athletics pretty well. It's certainly not the styles strongest charm, but if your running down a dodge heavy runner, its a bit more extra damage.
Overall, the style probably runs in a burst-pause cycle as you build up charge, Aim, then start trying to get a good hit in. It also seems to function well as skirmisher style, where you pick and chose weaker or flagging opponents and hammer them to death.
The highest defense found in the leak is 10, from an Immaculate Dragonblood using Excellencies to enhance her parry-value. The highest static value is 7.
Assuming you fight with paired short Daiklaves, have Dexterity 5 (you really should) and Martial Arts (Steel Devil) 5, you'll have 15 dice on each attack. So you'll reliably land Double Attack Technique on enemies with Defense 4. Using a full Excellency increases that to 7.
Onslaught-Penalties are not actually that much of a deal. It's a matter of needing one success more to hit the enemy (or rather land DAT), but even Solar charms that cancel it out tend to cost about the same amount of motes as DAT.
And there are several ways to reduce an enemies defense accessible to a user of this Style, most notably Evocations.
Perfect Unity Cut (Sappphire, Essence 3, 5 prerequisite charms) allows you to ignore one point of defense per level of your anima banner (so up to 4). It's not even a penalty, so you can't defend against that with charms.
Swirling Petal Defense (Emerald, Essence 1, no prerequisites) allows you to inflict -3 on the dice pools and Defense of an enemy whose attack you successfully parry.
Shedding Fever Dreams (Sapphire, Essence 2, 4 prerequisites) increases this to -4/-2.
Maybe the idea is to not point out, but make it possible for people to realize, "Hey you! Yes you! You're actually enslaving people!" or something of that fashion?
Maybe? The issue with that interpretation is that it's just another take on what Demon of the First Circle does - the whole "summon and brainwash a sapient being for labour" thing. It's just that Demon does it better, because a) you're definitely summoning an established being, and b) they're demons, so traditionally you're not supposed to care about them.
The idea behind "create rather than summon" as the elemental spell was to distinguish it in practical terms from Demon of the First Circle. However, it was also meant to emphasize the not-a-person nature of elementals - you'd "created" a blob of Elemental Essence in a vaguely animalistic shape that would follow your orders. The elementals that were people were the equivalent of rampant or emergent AI, and tended to be big ol' monsters like Mother Bog or the Undersun or that plant elemental from Hellboy, with disruptive flocks of wild Pokemon around them... which encouraged you to take Heaven's view of them as "unnatural" rather than totally and unfairly disenfranchised spirits without a voice or status.
The 3e version achieves a practical difference - the elemental can't "escape" the binding, can be summoned at any time, and has no existing relationships or resources that could complicate or aid things. But it's oddly at odds with the role of Elementals as "the strange peoples", with enclaves and traditions across Creation - it doesn't exploit what they are, and their role within the setting.
Given that set-up, I'd expect something more like "Call Elemental", where you put out a call for aid rooted in ancient elemental contracts, and the local elemental tribe has to respond somehow - though most will just bind one of their number to your service for a time. Something like that ties really well into their role, because it means your sorcerer wants to develop good relations with and accumulate favours from the local kappa tribes and dvergr clans, in case they need to call on their service at some point. Which makes them look like a weirdo who consorts with weirdos, but that's sorcerers.
I'd be interested to hear the reasoning behind the change to Summon Elemental in concert with the change to Elementals themselves, anyway.
The highest defense found in the leak is 10, from an Immaculate Dragonblood using Excellencies to enhance her parry-value. The highest static value is 7.
Assuming you fight with paired short Daiklaves, have Dexterity 5 (you really should) and Martial Arts (Steel Devil) 5, you'll have 15 dice on each attack. So you'll reliably land Double Attack Technique on enemies with Defense 4. Using a full Excellency increases that to 7.
You're forgetting stunts and specializations. Really, it's 11+5+2=18 dice, but against that, the defender gets to stunt, too. 9 successes still double-hits defense 4+1, but 14 successes won't double-hit defense 7+1. (Plus, ten motes on a single attack isn't something to use lightly, especially if your opponent can drop 4 motes or so on his own excellency to deny the extra hit.)
Perfect Unity Cut (Sappphire, Essence 3, 5 prerequisite charms) allows you to ignore one point of defense per level of your anima banner (so up to 4). It's not even a penalty, so you can't defend against that with charms.
Actually, it's up to 3. Dim is the baseline, not the first level of glow. I'm not sure why it isn't called None, but only Glowing, Burning, and Bonfire are visible or spendable.
An Abyssal Craft Charm, for the crafter on a budget. Inspired by the Junk Hounds from @Khepri's Slayer.
Any Necromancer can raise a living being's earthly remains as undead. An inventive Abyssal however, may broaden his understanding until so he can give even inanimate detritus new unlife in his creations, allowing him to assemble animated constructs from metal junk or statues scoured blank by the desert wind, scrape the mold off of stale bread to use as seed for genesis-projects, or fashion a ship from the scorched and worm-eaten wood of an old house.
An activation of this charm allows the Abyssal to lower the resource cost of a Craft, Medicine, or Occult (including Thaumaturgy, Sorcery, and Necromancy) project by (Essence) dots, by substituting raw material with junk and other refuse. Pretty much anything is valid for this, as long as the new materials are in some way broken or commonly seen as trash, and the substitution still makes a kind of sense.
Note however that tools are usually still needed, unless the character finds some way to circumvent their need; Using duct tape string instead of nails doesn't require a hammer, for example. Keep also in mind that tools are among the things you can craft, making them a valid target for this Charm.
Although the ramshackle nature of the resulting items is normally obvious to see [1], their quality and use don't suffer from this at all; The aforementioned ship from rotten planks is no more leaky than any other, a battleaxe made by binding pottery shards to a chair's leg with twine is as sharp and sturdy as one forged from solid steel, and both the ale brewed from gutterwater and the stately banquet cooked with wilted flowers, roadkill, and old boots are both healthy, tasty, and in their own peculiar way aesthetically pleasing.
Even the appearance of the crafted objects does not necessarily need to suffer; Jewelery out of bent nails and glass shards can look as exquisite as if it was made from gold and the finest gems. As long as the onlooker isn't put off by the style, at least.
Only the Rare Ingredients necessary for the creation of artifacts aren't done away with quite so easy, although the remains of another Artifact can be repurposed as raw material. Doing this also keeps any Magical Material Boni the former Artifact had intact.
[1] This propably needs some kind of escape clause. A skill penalty to disguise where the raw material came from, maybe?
An Abyssal Craft Charm, for the crafter on a budget. Inspired by the Junk Hounds from @Khepri's Slayer.
Any Necromancer can raise a living being's earthly remains as undead. An inventive Abyssal however, may broaden his understanding until so he can give even inanimate detritus new unlife in his creations, allowing him to assemble animated constructs from metal junk or statues scoured blank by the desert wind, scrape the mold off of stale bread to use as seed for genesis-projects, or fashion a ship from the scorched and worm-eaten wood of an old house.
An activation of this charm allows the Abyssal to lower the resource cost of a Craft, Medicine, or Occult (including Thaumaturgy, Sorcery, and Necromancy) project by (Essence) dots, by substituting raw material with junk and other refuse. Pretty much anything is valid for this, as long as the new materials are in some way broken or commonly seen as trash, and the substitution still makes a kind of sense.
Note however that tools are usually still needed, unless the character finds some way to circumvent their need; Using duct tape string instead of nails doesn't require a hammer, for example. Keep also in mind that tools are among the things you can craft, making them a valid target for this Charm.
Although the ramshackle nature of the resulting items is normally obvious to see [1], their quality and use don't suffer from this at all; The aforementioned ship from rotten planks is no more leaky than any other, a battleaxe made by binding pottery shards ound to a chair's leg with twine is as sharp and sturdy as one forged from solid steel, and both the ale brewed from gutterwater and the stately banquet cooked with wilted flowers, roadkill, and old boots are both healthy, tasty, and in their own peculiar way aesthetically pleasing.
Even the appearance of the crafted objects does not necessarily need to suffer; Jewelery out of bent nails and glass shards can look as exquisite as if it was made from gold and the finest gems. As long as the onlooker isn't put off by the style, at least.
Only the Rare Ingredients necessary for the creation of artifacts aren't done away with quite so easy, although the remains of another Artifact can be repurposed as raw material. Doing this also keeps any Magical Material Boni the former Artifact had intact.
[1] This propably needs some kind of escape clause. A skill penalty to disguise where the raw material came from, maybe?
Hmm, what first circles/elementals would you guys summon to help set up a 'home base' on an unknown land? I've got about 1500 hundred people to keep supplied, and my original idea of using Neomah to spin up buildings was vetoed. I was tempted to summon Heranhal, but its 3e and I don't want the party twilight to run out of ways to get silver xp.
Hmm, what first circles/elementals would you guys summon to help set up a 'home base' on an unknown land? I've got about 1500 hundred people to keep supplied, and my original idea of using Neomah to spin up buildings was vetoed. I was tempted to summon Heranhal, but its 3e and I don't want the party twilight to run out of ways to get silver xp.
Marottes (hopping puppeteers). Building things is what they do.
Sessaljae. Gotta deal with the waste somehow.
Firmin. Free, light-weight, strong material.
Demjen. Find some ore veins for non-firmin materials to use.
Hmm, what first circles/elementals would you guys summon to help set up a 'home base' on an unknown land? I've got about 1500 hundred people to keep supplied, and my original idea of using Neomah to spin up buildings was vetoed. I was tempted to summon Heranhal, but its 3e and I don't want the party twilight to run out of ways to get silver xp.
Demon wise, Sessaljae would probably be my first choice.
Get rid of waste and help keep people healthy.
For Elementals, it depends largely on the terrain and what's readily available, but Earth Elementals to help construct shelter, Water Elementals to provide clean water, and Wood Elementals to aid in providing food and setting up farming.
Could claim that a landmass recently rose out of the sea in the west and is mostky uncharted, and the celestial beraucracy is taking forver to catch up.
Creation is a bronze age post apocalyptic world, just because people might have known what the land was over a thousand years ago doesn't mean its not 'unknown land' in the 'modern' era, especially when your only clue it exists is a journal.
Could claim that a landmass recently rose out of the sea in the west and is mostky uncharted, and the celestial beraucracy is taking forver to catch up.
If you want to still use some 2E fluff, just have Saigoth re-emerge from the depths after the First Age. For reference it was basically an Australia sized continent that was being colonized in the First Age and disappeared when Creation's borders shrank.
Seriously though the west would be perfect for a an unexplored land mass with strange wildlife and resources, sadly exalted seem to leery of any "age of sail" elements.
