General Exalted Thread

[EarthScorpion]

Yesterday, we ran into some letters written by Sidereals (we don't know that, but still). So, of course, now we'll all be subject to having our memory wiped by a Shaping mind-wiping effect of the Broken Mask Fate and Destiny . . . but wait. Turns out Arcane Fate is kinda underwhelming: for a heroic person (including Exalts), achieving as many successes as the Sidereal's Essence over the course of multiple rolls seems not to be a particularly hard task (sure, it's hardish, but not too hard), given that the roll is Difficulty 1 and that Internal Penalties can't bring a dice pool to less than Essence (we ¾ of our Circle is Essence 5). Even without lucky rolls, Willpower expenditure is a thing, and Shaping Defences are a thing.

So . . . am I missing something, or should Sidereals actually be remembered by high-end supernatural persons quite well?

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Yes. That is entirely intentional.

Given that the majority of Sidereals have a hateboner for the majority of playable splats, it would be what the French call "Pretty fucking stupid" if they couldn't remember that fate ninjas are out to murder you.

Arcane Fate is meant to be a problem for the Sidereals, not an I Win card.

 

[Havocfett]

Yesterday, we ran into some letters written by Sidereals (we don't know that, but still). So, of course, now we'll all be subject to having our memory wiped by a Shaping mind-wiping effect of the Broken Mask Fate and Destiny . . . but wait. Turns out Arcane Fate is kinda underwhelming: for a heroic person (including Exalts), achieving as many successes as the Sidereal's Essence over the course of multiple rolls seems not to be a particularly hard task (sure, it's hardish, but not too hard), given that the roll is Difficulty 1 and that Internal Penalties can't bring a dice pool to less than Essence (we ¾ of our Circle is Essence 5). Even without lucky rolls, Willpower expenditure is a thing, and Shaping Defences are a thing.

So . . . am I missing something, or should Sidereals actually be remembered by high-end supernatural persons quite well?

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I'd assumed that it was purposeful. Heavily stressed out Exalts or Exalts with a bunch of other shit on their minds likely won't remember, and mortals won't, but it shouldn't really be functioning as a ridiculously potent safety net.

Nope! I'm totally aiming for Keris to be Id 5 Coadjutor 5. With her as the ego between Id and Superego/Dulmea.

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Meanwhile Ravana may well have Id (Po), Id (Ravana), and Id (Surpanakha).

 

[EarthScorpion]

Meanwhile Ravana may well have Id (Po), Id (Ravana), and Id (Surpanakha).

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That is because Ravana basically exists so Keris can point to him and say "At least I'm not him".

 

[Matsci]

Next AEE chapter when?

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What about GSItV?

 

[Sucal]

What about GSItV?

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What about Three Thousand Four Hundred And Eighteen?

 

[vicky_molokh]

Yes. That is entirely intentional.

Given that the majority of Sidereals have a hateboner for the majority of playable splats, it would be what the French call "Pretty fucking stupid" if they couldn't remember that fate ninjas are out to murder you.

Arcane Fate is meant to be a problem for the Sidereals, not an I Win card.

Click to shrink...

Ah, so it's intentional. Thanks for the info.
It's just that everyone was somewhat overestimating the forgetfulness aura of Sidereals and was preparing to have to let the characters forget all about our discoveries (we got past some nasty locks and traps to get a hold of Sid correspondence). But if passable resistance rolls are a sign of things working as intended, then we can use our discoveries more as a hook into getting more knowledge about the world we live in!

 

[EarthScorpion]

Ah, so it's intentional. Thanks for the info.
It's just that everyone was somewhat overestimating the forgetfulness aura of Sidereals and was preparing to have to let the characters forget all about our discoveries (we got past some nasty locks and traps to get a hold of Sid correspondence). But if passable resistance rolls are a sign of things working as intended, then we can use our discoveries more as a hook into getting more knowledge about the world we live in!

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Well, just consider the consequences of it being that strong:

1. Sidereals are utterly unplayable in mixed groups, since most Resplendent Destinies are incompatible with Sidereal Charm use.
2. Sidereals don't need stealth charms - they just need to run away and let the enemy forget. Sidereals don't need to play smart to keep their involvement a secret - they can just run around anima flaring and murdering dudes safe in the knowledge that everyone will forget them. Sidereals don't need to play like spies, contravening one of the major aesthetics of the splat.
3. Non-Sidereals have no clue that invisible Fate ninjas are out to murder them, and will forget any murder attempts made. This is stupid, when Sidereals in the RAW already have an information advantage and the majority faction of them is positively incentivised to murder most other Celestials.
4. Being Outside of Fate is inherently basically mandatory for any non-Sidereal Celestial Exalt, as if you're Outside of Fate you ignore Arcane Fate. Infernals laugh and laugh and laugh at this.

Bluntly, if I could I'd make Arcane Fate weaker and make it rather instead blur their identity in the recollections. As I see it, Sidereals are meant to be Heaven's Men in Black [1] who scare gods just by their presence (the gods can feel the presence of people with spirit-killers) before you even get into their influence, or the way that gods who seriously cross the Bureau of Destiny tend to... suffer demotions. Hence, for that all you really need is for people to remember the Sidereal as the fantasy equivalent of the faceless government agent. They remember they dealt with a mysterious person, and they also remember that there was something very (Maiden's Colour) about them. And so not really remember them as different people, which a) helps them do their job, b) makes it very hard for them to maintain a normal life, and c) means that at least some essence theorists speculate that there are in fact only five Sidereal Exaltations, one for each Maiden, but they can be in lots of places at once.

So, you know. Basically I'm saying that Arcane Fate should practically speaking make people remember all Sidereals as if they were played by Hugo Weaving.

[1] Men in Yellow, Men in Blue, Men in Red, Men in Green, Men in Purple.

 

[vicky_molokh]

Well, just consider the consequences of it being that strong:

1. Sidereals are utterly unplayable in mixed groups, since most Resplendent Destinies are incompatible with Sidereal Charm use.

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Hmm. Sounds like an Acquaintance tax for mixed groups. Though that could be handled by a rule about making Acquaintance PCs free (either official or houserule).

BTW, are mixed groups actually a 'safe' thing to play with at all? At a minimum, I thought different splats have too different power levels and priorities in their lives.

2. Sidereals don't need stealth charms - they just need to run away and let the enemy forget. Sidereals don't need to play smart to keep their involvement a secret - they can just run around anima flaring and murdering dudes safe in the knowledge that everyone will forget them. Sidereals don't need to play like spies, contravening one of the major aesthetics of the splat.
3. Non-Sidereals have no clue that invisible Fate ninjas are out to murder them, and will forget any murder attempts made. This is stupid, when Sidereals in the RAW already have an information advantage and the majority faction of them is positively incentivised to murder most other Celestials.

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I thought the intention was for people to forget who flared, alerted the guards, attempted the murder etc. to be forgotten, but for the alert not to subside as long as it mattered. E.g. a castle being on alert for an unknown (forgotten) intruder the whole night after the first alert, even though nobody remembers who was the spotted infiltrator. (I'm not sure if it was a Moran quote or not.)

4. Being Outside of Fate is inherently basically mandatory for any non-Sidereal Celestial Exalt, as if you're Outside of Fate you ignore Arcane Fate. Infernals laugh and laugh and laugh at this.

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Hmm. Seems so.

Bluntly, if I could I'd make Arcane Fate weaker and make it rather instead blur their identity in the recollections. As I see it, Sidereals are meant to be Heaven's Men in Black [1] who scare gods just by their presence (the gods can feel the presence of people with spirit-killers) before you even get into their influence, or the way that gods who seriously cross the Bureau of Destiny tend to... suffer demotions. Hence, for that all you really need is for people to remember the Sidereal as the fantasy equivalent of the faceless government agent. They remember they dealt with a mysterious person, and they also remember that there was something very (Maiden's Colour) about them.

So, you know. Basically I'm saying that Arcane Fate should practically speaking make people remember all Sidereals as if they were played by Hugo Weaving.

[1] Men in Yellow, Men in Blue, Men in Red, Men in Green, Men in Purple.

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I kinda like the idea of an identity-blurring effect.
However, that seems to undermine the iconic nuance that people outside the immune-to-AF-group don't know about the MIB even existing, despite all the meddling and the occasional screwups over the centuries.

Basically, that nuance is why the players of our circle assumed that Arcane Fate is powerful in the first place.

 

[Kiriel]

So, you know. Basically I'm saying that Arcane Fate should practically speaking make people remember all Sidereals as if they were played by Hugo Weaving.

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I'll take this wonderful idea and use it whenever the Sidereal NPCs come knocking.

And then eventually do Exalted Modern with Matrix themes and sensibilities. Chejop Kejak acts as Morpheus and have recently Exalted Solar Neo say that he knows Kung Fu Martial Arts.

 

[EarthScorpion]

However, that seems to undermine the iconic nuance that people outside the immune-to-AF-group don't know about the MIB even existing, despite all the meddling and the occasional screwups over the centuries.

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You know what that means?

That means that if a Sidereal fucks up and gets caught, that means they have a lot of extra work to cover up their presence - and even then, there are myths and rumours in Creation about the divine servants of the Maidens of Fate, gods who walk among the world pretending to be men. Hell, in folklore the Sidereals and the Maidens are probably conflated - was it a secret servant of the Maiden of Battles who helped you win that war, or was it Mars descending from Heaven in a disguise to sway things to your side?

Both of these things are good for the game. "Sidereal clean-up ops" is absolutely full of plot hooks and GMing material, both for protagonists and antagonists, while the latter is not only mythologically fitting but also means it's less hard for PCs to realise a GM Sidereal is fucking with them in an in-character way. If Sidereals need to wipe people's memories, then they should have access to neuraliser charms that may well involve people looking into their eyes before there's a flash of anima-coloured light - which can be resolved as a normal Illusion effect.

 

[vicky_molokh]

You know what that means?

That means that if a Sidereal fucks up and gets caught, that means they have a lot of extra work to cover up their presence - and even then, there are myths and rumours in Creation about the divine servants of the Maidens of Fate, gods who walk among the world pretending to be men. Hell, in folklore the Sidereals and the Maidens are probably conflated - was it a secret servant of the Maiden of Battles who helped you win that war, or was it Mars descending from Heaven in a disguise to sway things to your side?

Both of these things are good for the game. "Sidereal clean-up ops" is absolutely full of plot hooks and GMing material, both for protagonists and antagonists, while the latter is not only mythologically fitting but also means it's less hard for PCs to realise a GM Sidereal is fucking with them in an in-character way. If Sidereals need to wipe people's memories, then they should have access to neuraliser charms that may well involve people looking into their eyes before there's a flash of anima-coloured light - which can be resolved as a normal Illusion effect.

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I do like the potential extra plot of clean-up. As long as it doesn't become tedious and doesn't become a Catch-22 where you need to clean up after two more people witnessed your cleanup all over again in perpetuity.

But existence of folklore and myths about the Sidereals (even with said myths misattributed to Maidens)? That seems to run very counter to their image, which seems to be (in the game world) "they're absurdly good at hiding their existence even when they don't want to, so they have no image in Creation whatsoever" and (outside the game world) "real good at being unseen, but abysmally bad at actually making a difference in the lives of PCs and/or achieving their actual goals".

Having neuralizer Charms does seem to support their 'no image' . . . but it also seems like a step into full circle, granting them a supernatural phenomenon that does what Arcane Fate does but under a different name. Plus, there are lots and lots of entities with some sort of resistance and even some with perfect defences against NMI. That, again, will likely produce too many people in the know, whether by personal encounter or by indirect transmission of knowledge.

 

[EarthScorpion]

I do like the potential extra plot of clean-up. As long as it doesn't become tedious and doesn't become a Catch-22 where you need to clean up after two more people witnessed your cleanup all over again in perpetuity.

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If you can't cover up your presence without alerting more people, I have some simple advice.

"Git gud."

That, or be prepared to argue that what you did was necessary, and given that your party's Serenity flared their anima and pretended to be Venus and publicly blessed a wedding, you in fact successfully covered up the entire incident as the goddess Venus showing up to defeat a demon which would ruin a couple's wedding and thus you shouldn't be demerited in your file for the high speed chase scene on agata-back and the kung-fu duel in the main square against Octavian which ended in you kicking him through every single fruit stand. Twice. And then into the glass workshop. And then into the temple so hundreds of witnesses at the wedding saw the entire thing.

Part of Sidereals being James Bond is having to explain to M that what you did was totally justified in the name of the mission and you shouldn't be docked pay for doing a few things that might have been precisely the opposite of what she ordered you to do.

But existence of folklore and myths about the Sidereals (even with said myths misattributed to Maidens)? That seems to run very counter to their image, which seems to be (in the game world) "they're absurdly good at hiding their existence even when they don't want to, so they have no image in Creation whatsoever" and (outside the game world) "real good at being unseen, but abysmally bad at actually making a difference in the lives of PCs and/or achieving their actual goals".

Click to shrink...

Elements of the Scarlet Dynasty know about the Sidereals. The inner circle of the Immaculate Order knows that they answer to Sidereals. There damn well should be tales which contain nuggets of truth about the Sidereals. Because they're the Men in Yellow, Men in Blue, Men in Red, Men in Green and Men in Purple and that means they should be the subject of conspiracy theories - ie, folklore. Terrestrial Gods should know of the rumours of the Men in Purple who'll show up at the sanctums of gods who make deals with demons and audit them. With Terminal Sanctions. Priests in the Threshold should have tales that an occultist can put together to realise that sometimes the Maidens or maybe their divine servants act in secret in the world, playing games with the fates of nations.

If the game forces Sidereals to actually work to cover up their involvement, and someone who's being fucked with by Sidereals can put the evidence together and work it out, that's something I consider to make the game a better game. Bluntly, Jenna Moran didn't write Sidereals to be NPCs because she doesn't take these sort of things into account much. I do. Hence I will freely make it so Sidereals actually have to work to cover up their presence and there are myths about them and they're embedded in the gameworld, because I consider it to make it a better game.

I mean, Arcane Fate is basically just the Arcane background from oMage. Except Arcane actually required work to maintain and required sacrifices and was blown if you didn't take care and acted too publicly.

And I don't give any cares about the dumb fanon image of Sidereals. So I'm not going to bother to engage with anything that seems to base arguments off "Sidereals are a Baen villain who manage to simultaneously pull all the strings behind the world's greatest empire while also being so inept that they can't have any real impact".

Having neuralizer Charms does seem to support their 'no image' . . . but it also seems like a step into full circle, granting them a supernatural phenomenon that does what Arcane Fate does but under a different name. Plus, there are lots and lots of entities with some sort of resistance and even some with perfect defences against NMI. That, again, will likely produce too many people in the know, whether by personal encounter or by indirect transmission of knowledge.

Click to shrink...

People with defences against mental tampering - ie, people who matter - are able to remember that the Sidereals exist and are fucking with them?

Feature, not bug. Will not fix.

 

[Aaron Peori]

If Sidereals need to wipe people's memories, then they should have access to neuraliser charms that may well involve people looking into their eyes before there's a flash of anima-coloured light - which can be resolved as a normal Illusion effect.

Click to shrink...

"The important thing to remember is that I... was never here. <Avoidance Kata.>"

That reminds me about his one Sidereal one-on-one game I ran for a short time which was basically Assassin's Creed Yu Shan. The entire game was the player planning elaborate infiltration schemes (Underling Invisibility Practice for the win) and then engaging in one round combats, taking out the primary target and engaging Avoidance Kata before the end of the second round. Instant perfect escape plus cover up of the crime. Best of all, since everything that had happened still had happened the target was still dead, just with a plausible cover story.

Of course, since they used Underling Invisibility Practice so much they ended up getting a lot of innocent maids, cooks and bureaucrats killed in their place. But if you aren't leaving a string of 'acceptable tactical losses' in your wake that keeps you drinking Celestial Wine every night so you can sleep you aren't playing a Sidereal right.

 

[Scia]

One that note back in first edition arcane fate was if I remember it right, much more likely to make even exalted forget about them.

 

[notanautomaton]

If I was doing that, I'd add a background that increases the effect of Arcane Fate, as Difficulty 1 is pretty easy to resist. Maybe 1-5, with each level making the Difficulty increase by 1? And if the person gets no successes they forget the presence of the Sidereal entirely. Or something, it's not like I've run the math on this.

 

[vicky_molokh]

If you can't cover up your presence without alerting more people, I have some simple advice.

"Git gud."

That, or be prepared to argue that what you did was necessary, and given that your party's Serenity flared their anima and pretended to be Venus and publicly blessed a wedding, you in fact successfully covered up the entire incident as the goddess Venus showing up to defeat a demon which would ruin a couple's wedding and thus you shouldn't be demerited in your file for the high speed chase scene on agata-back and the kung-fu duel in the main square against Octavian which ended in you kicking him through every single fruit stand. Twice. And then into the glass workshop. And then into the temple so hundreds of witnesses at the wedding saw the entire thing.

Part of Sidereals being James Bond is having to explain to M that what you did was totally justified in the name of the mission and you shouldn't be docked pay for doing a few things that might have been precisely the opposite of what she ordered you to do.

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So basically every Sidereal out there who ever gets one's plan go pear-shaped is bound to be a Carjack-wannabe from a philosophical/ethical PoV? ^_^

Elements of the Scarlet Dynasty know about the Sidereals. The inner circle of the Immaculate Order knows that they answer to Sidereals. There damn well should be tales which contain nuggets of truth about the Sidereals. Because they're the Men in Yellow, Men in Blue, Men in Red, Men in Green and Men in Purple and that means they should be the subject of conspiracy theories - ie, folklore. Terrestrial Gods should know of the rumours of the Men in Purple who'll show up at the sanctums of gods who make deals with demons and audit them. With Terminal Sanctions. Priests in the Threshold should have tales that an occultist can put together to realise that sometimes the Maidens or maybe their divine servants act in secret in the world, playing games with the fates of nations.

If the game forces Sidereals to actually work to cover up their involvement, and someone who's being fucked with by Sidereals can put the evidence together and work it out, that's something I consider to make the game a better game. Bluntly, Jenna Moran didn't write Sidereals to be NPCs because she doesn't take these sort of things into account much. I do. Hence I will freely make it so Sidereals actually have to work to cover up their presence and there are myths about them and they're embedded in the gameworld, because I consider it to make it a better game.
[...]
And I don't give any cares about the dumb fanon image of Sidereals. So I'm not going to bother to engage with anything that seems to base arguments off "Sidereals are a Baen villain who manage to simultaneously pull all the strings behind the world's greatest empire while also being so inept that they can't have any real impact".

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I know that your version of the setting is its own thing anyway, so I'm not trying to try telling you what is 'more right', but instead would still be interested in clearing up some things that I'm not as knowledgeable in.

• Is it really a fanon image? I had the impression that it was the image as presented by the actual author of Sidereals. (Including the part of the image that no, even supernaturals generally have no idea that Sidereals exist unless they were 'enlightened' by a non-trivial effort.) Did I misread stuff on the net regarding that?
• I seem to have encountered the words 'Baen villain' in this thread a few times, but it doesn't seem to be in any sorts of FAQs, urban dictionaries etc. etc. (at least as far as first search results show). Given the rarity of the name, I'm guessing it has something to do with the sort of characters favoured by the eponymous science fiction and fantasy book editor? But I'm not sure. What qualifies one for a Baen villain, and what disqualifies one despite superficial similarities?
• Regarding writing for NPCs and Jenna Moran in general. As far as I understand and remember her explanations, Jenna Moran doesn't write powers for a reality-simulator sort of systems. I recall her explanation being that such a task would be too time- and effort-consuming for the resulting gains, or something like that. But it seems to me (I could be wrong!) that some less obvious stuff implied behind 'she does not take these sort of things into account much'. What other things are 'such things', other than NPC design? In general, is there something more to the anti-Borgstrom sentiment, aside from the difference in opinion regarding Sidereal NPC issue that you and @Jon Chung expressed over the time (difference between you two and Borgstrom, not between the two of you)?

I mean, Arcane Fate is basically just the Arcane background from oMage. Except Arcane actually required work to maintain and required sacrifices and was blown if you didn't take care and acted too publicly.

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Was it? Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I thought Arcane in MtA largely worked independently of the mage's wishes. I guess I should re-read Mage at some point.

One that note back in first edition arcane fate was if I remember it right, much more likely to make even exalted forget about them.

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People with defences against mental tampering - ie, people who matter - are able to remember that the Sidereals exist and are fucking with them?

Feature, not bug. Will not fix.

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Well, it's certainly one of the way a feature can be designed for a system+setting. It's just that it's a case of "the way a feature works mismatches the supporting documentation/explanations of the creator". Unless I misunderstood the author's explanation/intentions, of course (which, again, is quite possible!).

 

[EarthScorpion]

Is it really a fanon image? I had the impression that it was the image as presented by the actual author of Sidereals. (Including the part of the image that no, even supernaturals generally have no idea that Sidereals exist unless they were 'enlightened' by a non-trivial effort.) Did I misread stuff on the net regarding that?

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People who know about Sidereals, off the top of my head:

• Ghosts - especially Deathlords, who are incentivised to make sure their subordinates know to be wary of the Chosen of the Maiden. Outside of Fate, so immune to Arcane Fate
• Demons - well, 2nd Circles upwards at least, and even 1st Circles have good reason to know about them since they were one of the great enemies of the war and should a random demon manage to kill a Sidereal, that's a hilarity for Hell. All 2nd+ Circles are Outside of Fate, 1st Circles are Outside of Fate in Malfeas
• Lunars - setting requires them to know.
• Abyssals - told by their bosses
• Infernals - told by their bosses. Also, all Outside of Fate
• Gods - especially Celestial Gods, but Terrestrial gods are depicted as knowing about the scary agents of Heaven.
• Elder Dragonblooded, like the heads of the houses, etc
• The senior parts of the Immaculate Order
• Like... half the graduating class of the Heptagram (and the ones that don't know may well pick up rumours from demons)

When it comes down to it, most of the parts of the setting with magical power are depicted as at least knowing of the existence of Sidereals. So, sure, Sally the Newly Exalted Solar and One Fat Donkey, Great Forksian Peasant might not know about Sidereals. But the Chosen of the Maidens are far from an ultra top secret only known about by their chosen acolytes, and insisting they are isn't really grounded.

 

[Shyft]

hey i come bearing a gift!

Name: Ledger-Master Stroke
Cost: 3m
Minimums: Linguistics 3, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequistes: Whirling Brush Method

As Lawgivers, the Exalt understands they must convey much with as little as possible.

This Charm supplements action to record information by text or image, allowing the Solar to write the equivalent of a page in the space of a single word or pictograph, and novels across single pages. Her highly compacted script is often dense, flowing and iconic as a result.

Observers can read a page-symbol written by the Solar with a Reflexive action. Longer works, including contracts, novels and so on can be completely digested with a Speed 5 Miscellaneous Action. Readers intuitively perceive every nuance and meaningful grain of knowledge, even if they only see a handful of strokes representing a whole page.

The writing itself is not inherently magical, only a representation of the Solar's unsurpassed grasp of language. Any character with a Linguistics rating equal to the Solar's at the time of writing can copy the information without issue, ensuring it remains legible. If copying the text via printing or some other method, substitute [Craft] in place of Linguistics.

 

[SerGregness]

Glorious Solar [3x5 card]!

 

[Aaron Peori]

It's probably too powerful when added to Linguistics based Unnatural Mental Influence. If all it takes is a reflexive glance to trigger something like Letter-Within-A-Letter or Twisted Words they become far more powerful.

 

[Shyft]

It's probably too powerful when added to Linguistics based Unnatural Mental Influence. If all it takes is a reflexive glance to trigger something like Letter-Within-A-Letter or Twisted Words they become far more powerful.

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That's a good point, but my intent was to say voluntary reflexive action, not passive sigil spam. Would adding 'voluntary reflexive action' solve that issue?

 

[uju32]

hey i come bearing a gift!

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Books written with this technique would have been useful when I was in college.

 

[Omicron]

That's a good point, but my intent was to say voluntary reflexive action, not passive sigil spam. Would adding 'voluntary reflexive action' solve that issue?

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What's 'voluntary'? People tend to look at interesting things in their environment unless they have reason to believe that looking is actively harmful to them. If you put up magical sigils people who aren't aware that they're magical mind-warping sigil will voluntarily look at them and attempt to understand them, since it only takes a glance and it's an eye-drawing feature of your environment.

 

[Aaron Peori]

That's a good point, but my intent was to say voluntary reflexive action, not passive sigil spam. Would adding 'voluntary reflexive action' solve that issue?

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Not really.

The biggest weakness of linguistics based UMI is that it's longer than just talking to someone. Yes, you can use the same letter to brainwash the entire Immaculate Temple but you have to wait for the time it takes each monk to read the letter individually, which could takes hours or even weeks as opposed to just walking into the courtyard and dropping Husband Seducing Demon Dance on them.

In effect, you've done the social combat equivalent of allowing the character to spam reflexive attack actions.

 

[Hazard]

You could simply strike the Combo-OK keyword, or replace it with Combo-basic. It would remove most of the shenanigans possible with this, especially since most UMI Charms are Simple.