Charms These are the miracles by which the Solar Exalted may, perhaps, shift the course of the world… or speed it on its way to disaster.
Dawn Charms Excellence of the Rising Sun: (Ability) (●) By feeding raw Essence into martial endeavor, the Chosen of the Dawn may perform feats of battle far beyond the human norm.
System: Select one of the following Abilities when purchasing this Charm: Alertness, Athletics, Brawl, Drive, Firearms, Intimidation, Melee, or Leadership. At any time, the player may reflexively spend 1 Essence to add (the Attribute being rolled + the Ability in question) dice to all rolls using this Ability for (Essence rating + 1) turns in combat, or minutes outside of combat.
This Charm can be repurchased to unlock additional Abilities, but Essence must be spent to add dice to each Ability separately. Dawn Castes get all versions of this Charm with a single purchase.
Dragon Coil Technique (•) Those caught in the Solar’s grasp find that it is like being enwrapped in iron chains.
System: The Solar adds her Essence rating in automatic successes to all attempts to gain or maintain control of a clinch, and to damage rolls made to damage a foe by grappling them. By reflexively paying 1 Essence, she can also inflict lethal rather than bashing damage with a clinch for one turn.
Supernal Effect: The Solar’s grapples automatically inflict aggravated damage against creatures of darkness, and by reflexively paying 1 Essence, may inflict lethal damage to all other foes for an entire scene. Additionally, any foe seeking to gain control over or escape from the Solar’s grapple does so at +1 difficulty.
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Creature of Darkness… ?
To formally cover the major supernatural beings of the World of Darkness:
Creature | …of Darkness? |
---|
Most vampires | Yes |
Vampires in Golconda | No |
Most werewolves/Fera | No |
Black Spiral Dancers | Yes |
Banes | Yes |
Fomori | Yes |
Most mages | No |
Nephandi | Yes |
Most wraiths | Yes |
Spectres | Yes |
Most Changelings | No |
Sluagh, Redcaps, Thallain | Yes |
Imbued Hunters | No |
Demons | Yes |
Mummies | No |
Hungry Dead | Yes |
In general, mortals “touched” by the supernatural such as ghouls and Kinfolk aren’t creatures of darkness. If in doubt, assume that anything that is undead, intrinsically connected to darkness or nightmares, or has been corrupted by or born from forces of cosmic corruption or entropy is a creature of darkness, while anything else isn’t. This does, it should be noted, mean that some creatures of darkness aren’t really “evil” in the conventional sense (Sluagh fairies, for example, are born of nightmares but may want to do nothing more offensive than drink tea in their favorite musty old bookshop and frighten children who are too loud), but intrinsically evil beings are always creatures of darkness (such as Banes). Abyssal, Liminal, and Infernal Exalted are always creatures of darkness.
Glaive of Steel and Gasoline (•) To a Solar facing down eight feet of stinking fur, screaming teeth, and angry muscle, a car is a weapon: a one-ton fist made of steel and glass and aluminum driven by slamming pistons and burning petrol. Her anima intertwines itself into any vehicle she commands to make her one with the machine, reinforcing its frame against impact, brushing flying shards of safety glass away from her face and eyes, and preventing the engine block and door frame from collapsing upon her under the force of even the most violent impact. Those she sets before her headlights are not so lucky.
System: The Solar ignores the Maneuverability restriction of any vehicle she pilots, allowing her to apply her full expertise. When she rams a vehicle she’s driving into someone or something, she may reflexively spend 1 Essence to double the dice of damage inflicted to the target, while preventing herself from suffering any damage whatsoever. The rules for vehicles and wrecking them can be found on pages 458-462 of
M20.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may accelerate any vehicle she commands to its maximum speed in a single turn. While she’s behind the wheel, whatever machine she pilots increases its Durability by her Essence rating, never suffers more than a single point of damage from a deliberate collision, and she simply cannot ever suffer damage from being in a wreck. Even if she guides a tanker-truck head-on into an RV loaded with Sabbat vampires, she may stroll out of the flaming wreckage unharmed.
Heaven Thunder Hammer (●) The Solar’s blows and bullets land with a crash that sends foes flying like leaves in a hurricane.
System: If one of the Solar’s attacks inflicts at least two points of damage after soak, the player may send the target flying 10 yards per dot of the Solar’s Strength (or reflexively spend 1 Willpower to gain this effect even if the attack’s damage isn’t sufficient to trigger it automatically). Upon landing, they must soak two – or, potentially, lethal damage if they impacted with something particularly sharp. This Charm is equally effective whether delivered with a fist, baseball bat, axe, bullet, or whatever else.
Supernal Effect: When in the grip of righteous fury or similar deep passions, the Exalt’s fists crackle with lightning. Her hands are hard as iron, capable of blocking blades and bullets, and her punches can inflict lethal damage if she wishes. Whenever she makes a Brawl attack against a target in line with one of her Intimacies (such as to protect the subject of an Intimacy, or to defeat a foe she truly hates), her blows writhe with lightning, and Heaven Thunder Hammer automatically triggers if the attack succeeds, no matter how much damage she inflicts or how many actions she takes. These Heaven Thunder activations are particularly potent: the opponent flies 20 yards per dot of Strength, smashing through intervening walls and other scenery, and must soak three levels of lethal damage upon landing rather than two levels of bashing, unless the Solar deliberately pulls her punches and employs the normal version of the Charm.
Ox-Body Technique (●) The Solar’s body is fortified with divine power, enabling her to survive grievous injuries.
System: The character permanently gains an additional set of Bruised (-0), Hurt (-1), and Wounded (-2) health levels. This Charm can be purchased a number of times equal to the character’s Essence rating.
Edge of Morning Sunlight (●●) The Solar’s attacks burn the undead, the unholy, and other such creatures of darkness like fire.
System: The Solar’s attacks inflict aggravated damage against all undead beings, servants of the Wyrm, demons, Nephandi, and similarly depraved monstrosities.
Supernal Effect: The Solar’s anima banner is true, real sunlight. The sight of it provokes panic in vampires. Its touch when manifested (it extends for about a yard around the Solar) counts as exposure to the undiluted light of the sun at noon on a cloudless day.
Hungry Tiger Technique (●●) When the Solar focuses all her attention on a single foe, her strikes become peerlessly deadly.
System: If the character takes no other actions during a round save to attack a single opponent once, then count her extra successes twice for the purpose of determining damage. Spend 1 Willpower to gain this benefit on an attack even if the Solar takes additional actions. Reflexively spend 1 Essence and 1 Willpower to gain this benefit on
all attacks made during a round.
Supernal Effect: When the Solar takes a moment to concentrate her skills and Essence into a blow, no mere object of the world may withstand it. The Solar never needs to roll to strike at an object with a bladed weapon, if she takes no other actions during that turn; her blow cleaves through the object as though it were made of mist, inflicting damage appropriate to the angle of her strike and the length of her blade. This effect has no regard for how hard an object is, or how strongly warded against damage by magic, though it will still only cut physical objects, not patterns of magic, the Gauntlet, or other ephemera. Had the Solar Exalted been free in the world, one with this Supernal Effect could have cleaved open the Black Vault easily, paying no heed to its many wards or the now-impossible magical materials of its construction.
Immortal Armory of the Sun (●●) The Solar becomes absolute master of all weaponry, and may even sculpt weapons from her own anima.
System: With a moment’s concentration and a Wits + Athletics roll (difficulty 6), the Solar can call any weapon she can see into her hand, so long as it’s not actively in someone else’s possession. By taking an action and spending 1 Essence, she can forge any personal-scale weapon she desires out of raw Essence; this weapon persists for the rest of the scene, but becomes ephemeral and useless in any hands save the Solar’s own. Created weapons may be anything from brass knuckles to a bazooka. Created ranged weapons may be reloaded with a round of concentration spent summoning additional ammunition. Alternately, a Solar may reflexively spend 1 Essence to charge an existing ranged weapon with power, granting it infinite ammunition for the rest of the scene.
Supernal Effect: The Solar shapes a weapon from the foundations of her very soul, one that perfectly expresses and encapsulates her as a person and a warrior. She may reflexively call this weapon to hand at any time, or dismiss it back into the depths of her Essence at no cost. This weapon is completely indestructible, and inflicts +1 damage compared to its mundane counterparts. The weapon is always the same every time; if she wishes to create a different weapon (a rifle in a situation where her soul-sword will be of little use, for example) she must use Immortal Armory of the Sun normally.
There Is No Wind (••) Summoning the totality of her concentration, the Solar delivers her attack along a divinely ordained vector. Distance, wind resistance – these things are of no consequence.
System: If the character takes no other actions during a turn save to make a single ranged attack, then that attack ignores all range limitations. If the Solar can see her target, then that target is considered to be within the normal range of whatever weapon she’s firing or throwing. Spend 1 Essence or 1 Willpower to gain this benefit on an attack even if the Solar takes additional actions.
Supernal Effect: By paying 2 Essence upon making an attack enhanced by this Charm, the Solar may imbue it with a ferocious payload of destructive Essence. Her shot flashes with lightning and blazing sunlight, and if it connects, rolls damage against difficulty 3.
Unassailable Guardian Posture (••) Setting herself to the protection of comrades and innocents alike, the Solar forges herself into an unbreakable bulwark.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence. For the rest of the scene, whenever an attack targets someone standing behind and within a yard of the Solar, the Solar may opt to force the attack to target her instead. She cannot dodge such redirected attacks, but only block, parry, or allow them to strike her.
Accuracy Without Distance (●●●) The Solar may close her eyes before striking, if she desires; she aims with her heart, kills with her will.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence when making an attack. The attack automatically hits with no extra successes, no matter how well the opponent defends or how poorly the Exalt rolls; if the dice indicate that the attack should not strike true, then it hits anyway, with no extra successes. Accuracy Without Distance can’t strike through a perfect defense such as Heavenly Guardian Defense, however, nor can it strike a target if there’s simply no way to reach them (such as if they’re on the other side of a wall, or outside of a gun’s maximum firing range).
Supernal Effect: The first time in a scene the Solar uses this Charm, its normal limitations do not apply: if she is certain of her target’s location, she may strike him even through solid walls so long as he is within the weapon’s maximum striking range; and by paying 1 additional Essence while making that attack, she may even strike through the protection of absolute defenses such as Heavenly Guardian Defense or Duck Fate, although in this case the attack is considered to strike with no extra successes.
Fire and Stones Strike (●●●) The Solar’s strikes burn with the long-dimmed fires of Creation, striking grievous wounds through the strongest armor and the most potent defenses.
System: After successfully striking a target, the player may reflexively spend 1 Essence to add (rating of the Ability she’s attacking with) automatic damage to her damage roll.
Supernal Effect: When the Solar defeats an opponent with Fire and Stones Strike (either by knocking them unconscious or slaying them), she may opt to describe the ludicrously overkill method by which they suffer defeat (spiraling through the air and crashing through a pile of crates, for example; or exploding into four segments separated by a bloody cross hanging in the air for a moment in the wake of the Solar’s cuts). All enemies who witness this spectacle increase the difficulty of all actions they take by +1 for the rest of the battle.
Heavenly Guardian Defense (●●●) Focusing her Essence into an unassailable barrier, the Solar may block or parry any single attack of which she is aware.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence. The attack fails to strike the Solar without any further dice rolls. Area-of-effect attacks and the like harmlessly splash around her Essence-fueled defense. If the Solar spends 2 Essence, then she perfectly defends against all attacks from a single source or opponent for the rest of the round.
Supernal Effect: The Solar does not merely protect herself, but rebuffs those so bold as to strike at her immaculate defenses. Anyone whose attack is quashed by Heavenly Guardian Defense is knocked down by an Essence shockwave, and if within a yard of the Solar, sent sprawling back (Essence x 2) yards as though by a mighty wind.
Sandstorm Wind Attack (•••) The Solar strikes with such swiftness and power that a blur of force erupts from her hand or weapon, striking down foes far beyond her reach.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence. For the rest of the scene, the Solar may direct Brawl and Melee attacks against targets up to 30 yards away.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may concentrate all of her power into a particular Sandstorm Wind Attack. For each point of Essence she pays, she may extend its range by an additional 30 yards, expand the width of a cut or radius of a blow by 100%, add the highest of her Strength or Dexterity to its damage, and the attack will attempt to strike
all targets within a line until it reaches its maximum distance or strikes something too hard to pierce. Furthermore, she may ignore her normal limitations on Essence spent per round when powering this attack, enabling her to potentially punch a hole through several office towers, or split a cruise ship in twain with a sufficiently extravagant Essence expenditure.
Thunderclap Rush Attack (•••) The Solar’s Essence rises in reaction to killing intent projected against it, giving her the edge on her foes.
System: The Solar’s base Initiative rating becomes Dexterity + Wits + (highest of Athletics, Brawl, Melee, or Firearms). By reflexively spending 1 Essence, she can ignore Initiative results for a turn and simply go first.
Peony Blossom Technique (●●●●) The Solar moves like ice on hot metal, like a deadly mirage, like an enraged angel amidst bullet casings and blood spatter.
System: Spend 1 Essence reflexively. At the end of the round, after all characters have taken their actions, the character may two additional attacks at her full dice pool per point of Essence spent. She can make no more extra attacks than the highest of her Brawl, Melee, or Firearms Abilities.
Tiger Warrior Training Technique (●●●●) By putting a mortal through a dedicated training regimen, the Solar can transform him into a finely tooled killing machine.
System: During each day of training a mortal or group of mortal students, spend 1 Essence per student. At the end of seven days of training, all students gain 30 experience points to spend raising their Physical Attributes, Wits, and Alertness, Athletics, Brawl, Melee, or Firearms Abilities. No Ability can be raised higher than that of their Solar instructor. This Charm
can be used on the same students repeatedly, but bestows only 20 experience points on subsequent training regimens. Any unspent experience is lost.
Any Tiger Warrior who achieves 5 dots in an Ability or Attribute under this Charm’s training regimen gains the ability to do stunts in the same fashion as the Exalted.
Supernal Effect: Whenever the Solar leads her Tiger Warriors in battle, all of their attack, defense, damage, and soak rolls are made at –1 difficulty.
Fivefold Bulwark Stance (●●●●●) Focusing her battle awareness into a preternatural trance, the Solar beholds the violent intent of her foes as golden traceries forecasting where their attacks will occur.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence and 1 Willpower to activate this Charm. For the rest of the scene, at the beginning of each turn roll Dexterity + (player’s choice of Brawl, Melee, or Athletics) against difficulty 7. The Solar applies the successes on this roll as a reflexive dodge, parry, or block against all attacks made against her of which she is aware during that turn. Her choice of dodge, parry, or block doesn’t have to match the Ability she chose to roll that turn.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may close her eyes and sense the killing intent of her foes, even when violence has not yet ensued. Take a turn to concentrate and shut out extraneous stimuli, then roll Perception + (highest of Brawl, Melee, or Firearms) against a difficulty depending on how hectic and distracting the Solar’s surroundings are (a quiet room would be difficulty 5, the middle of Times Square at noon could be difficulty 8). Success allows her to open her eyes and perceive anyone who would see her hurt or dead if given the opportunity as surrounded by a writhing red-black anima.
Ready in Eight Directions Stance (●●●●●) The Solar directs Essence into her killing intent until it becomes a deadly guardian angel guiding her motions by sheer instinct, cutting down those who would strike at her.
System: Spend 2 Essence reflexively to activate this Charm. For the rest of the scene, the Solar responds to every attack against her by launching a reflexive counterattack at her full dice pool, if it’s possible to strike back at the attacker.
Zenith Charms Excellence of the Blazing Sun: (Ability) (●) By feeding raw Essence into her sense of self and surety, the Zenith Caste may perform feats of inspiration and endurance far beyond mortal expectations.
System: Select one of the following Abilities when purchasing this Charm: Animal Ken, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Law, Leadership, Performance, or Survival. At any time, the player may reflexively spend 1 Essence to add (the Attribute being rolled + the Ability in question) dice to all rolls using this Ability for (Essence rating + 1) turns in combat, or minutes outside of combat.
This Charm can be repurchased to unlock additional Abilities, but Essence must be spent to add dice to each Ability separately. Zenith Castes get all versions of this Charm with a single purchase.
Iron Skin Concentration (●) The Solar fortifies her body with Essence, making her skin as tough as steel.
System: The Solar adds two dice to all soak rolls. Reflexively spending 1 Essence allows her to add her Stamina rating in further dice to all soak rolls for the rest of the scene. She may also reflexively spend 1 Essence to make soak rolls at –2 difficulty (generally meaning she rolls at difficulty 4 rather than the normal 6) for the rest of the scene.
Supernal Effect: The Solar’s hardened flesh simply shrugs off all incidental wear and tear as she moves through the world. If an attack or effect would inflict only a single level of bashing or lethal damage on the Solar (either before or after soak), then she receives no damage at all.
Righteous Lion Defense (●) The Solar fortifies her convictions with the very fabric of the cosmos, making an invincible fortress of her heart.
System: Any attempt to cause or force the Solar to betray, undermine, or abandon her Intimacies automatically fails.
Clear Mind Discipline (••) Emptying her mind for a few brief and refreshing minutes, the Solar sinks into the deep pool of her own Essence, and emerges renewed.
System: The Solar may substitute 15 minutes of meditation for a full night’s sleep, leaving her refreshed and well-rested. She can only regain Willpower by this method once per day.
Supernal Effect: The Solar is a self-supporting bastion. She may go for up to a month without food, water, or rest with no ill effects, and 15 minutes of meditation at any point fulfills all of these needs for up to a month.
Enemy-Castigating Solar Judgement (●●) The Solar’s words burn and sear with righteous truth, laying bare the souls of the enemies of Creation before her sermons.
System: Creatures of darkness suffer a –3 penalty to all dice pools to resist the Solar’s social rolls and mind-affecting Charms. If they spend Willpower to resist or oppose her in any way, they must double the usual Willpower cost to get any benefit from doing so. If one of the Solar’s social rolls uses a creature of darkness’s Willpower as its difficulty, reduce the difficulty by –3.
Harmony with Nature Approach (●●) The Solar becomes as one with the natural world. Even the most savage of predators will avoid rather than attack her. The world offers up shelter from extreme environments merely for the asking, and finding forage is effortless.
System: The Solar needs never make a Survival roll to remain safe, comfortable, and fed in the wilderness. The difficulty to feed and protect others in such environments is reduced by 3 (minimum of 3). By spending 1 Essence, she becomes completely immune to environmental damage for the rest of the scene.
Supernal Effect: All of the effects of Harmony with Nature Approach are permanently active at no cost, and the Solar has no difficulty operating in environments with no breathable air, or sensing her surroundings in environments that make doing so difficult or nearly impossible (such as lightless trenches at the bottom of the sea, or when burrowing deep into a sandy dune). The Solar may understand animals as though they were able to speak her native language, and beasts similarly understand her when she speaks.
Listener-Swaying Argument (●●) The Solar’s words burn with conviction, striking through the cynicism and doubt of any who listen.
System: By spending 1 Willpower, the Solar’s words become impossible to ignore, and she reduces the difficulty of all social rolls by 2 (minimum of 3) for the rest of the scene.
Supernal Effect: Select a social Attribute (Charisma, Manipulation, or Appearance). The Solar is a living exemplar of beauty, or of being larger-than-life, or of finding exactly the right thing to say at exactly the right time. All rolls using the selected Attribute permanently reduce their difficulty by –2.
Body-Mending Meditation (●●●) The Solar may heal at an accelerated rate by resting.
System: So long as she takes no strenuous activity, the Solar heals all bashing damage or one level of lethal damage per 15 minutes of rest. An hour of rest mends one level of aggravated damage.
Supernal Effect: The Solar’s body knits itself back together quickly enough to be seen by the naked eye. She heals one level of bashing damage per turn, and one level of lethal damage per minute if exerting herself, or
all lethal damage if she rests and takes no actions for a full minute. Every 15 minutes, she heals one level of aggravated damage, regardless of her activity levels.
Hypnotic Tongue Technique (•••) By using nothing more than a steady patter of dialogue, the Solar can lull someone into a hypnotic trance and then talk them into doing whatever she wishes.
System: Spend 2 Essence and roll Manipulation + Leadership against a difficulty of the target’s Willpower rating. One or two successes will allow the Solar to command her target to do anything that doesn’t seem tremendously unusual or out of character. With three or four successes, she can command the target to do anything that doesn’t endanger themselves or a loved one. With five or more successes, the target will risk his life and the lives of others at the Solar’s command. The target
will be aware his actions are unusual and inexplicable afterwards, unless the Solar spends an additional 1 Willpower. In this case, the target will rationalize his actions to the best of his ability.
Hypnotic Tongue Technique cannot hypnotize a target into harming or killing himself, compel him into certain death, or force him to betray his Nature.
Supernal Effect: With five or more successes, the Solar
can hypnotize her victim into harming or killing himself, compel him into certain death, or force him to betray his Nature.
Intergrity-Protecting Prana (●●●) Fortifying her will with Essence, the Solar throws off any attempt to control or beguile her.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence or 1 Willpower to become immune to all thought and emotion-altering magic for the rest of the scene.
Iron Kettle Body (•••) Infusing her body with her sense of discipline, the Solar treats even grievous injuries as mere nuisances.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence. For the rest of the scene, all aggravated damage the Solar suffers becomes lethal damage instead; all lethal damage becomes bashing damage; and when she suffers bashing damage, she halves it (round down) after soak.
Terrible Sun King Condemnation (•••) The Solar castigates her enemy as a foe to Creation and villain in the eyes of all upright individuals, crushing them beneath the weight of her disdain and casting a pall over them which becomes obvious to everyone they meet.
System: The Solar spends 2 Essence and rolls Charisma + Expression against a difficulty of the target’s Willpower rating. The target may attempt to rebut the Solar’s words by spending a point of Willpower and making a (Charisma or Manipulation) + Expression roll of his own, at a difficulty of the Solar’s Willpower. If he neglects to do so, or fails to gain more successes than the Solar, then he is condemned and accursed. Everyone who meets the target knows instinctively that he is a wretch and a scoundrel; the difficulty of all his social rolls increase by +2, and people distrust him on general principle. This condemnation lingers for the Solar’s Essence rating in weeks. She can extend this by one additional week per extra Essence point spent to activate this Charm.
Supernal Effect: While Terrible Sun King Condemnation is in effect, the target is also considered a creature of darkness if they were not one already. This additional effect only activates if the Solar truly considers the individual to be villainous, wicked, or loathsome, however; while she can ruin reputations on a whim, the Exalt cannot brand anyone as metaphysically evil simply for the sake of convenience.
Unshakeable Bloodhound Technique (●●●) No force can evade the Solar once she’s picked up her quarry’s trail.
System: Once the character finds some evidence of a trail to follow, her player may spend 1 Essence to perfectly track the target for the next 24 hours. No roll is needed. If she knows she’s tracking a creature of darkness, this Charm’s Essence cost falls to 0.
Immunity to Everything Technique (●●●●) The Solar gains the hardiness of the gods of old.
System: Poison and disease can no longer harm the character in any way whatsoever.
Inviolable Essence Bastion (••••) Sinking into a meditative state, the Solar becomes utterly immune to worldly concerns. So long as her concentration remains unbroken, she is invincible.
System: The Solar takes a moment to sink into a lotus posture, empty her mind, and close out the world around her. Spend 2 Essence and roll Willpower against difficulty 8. Success allows the Solar to maintain an invincible meditative state for one hour. While meditating, she cannot take any voluntary actions, including deliberate thought or planning, and is completely immune to all damage of any kind. Attempts to strike her deflect harmlessly off of the momentarily-visible golden barrier of her anima. She cannot drown, suffocate, or otherwise suffer any physical harm of any kind. If the Solar wishes to extend her meditation beyond the first hour, she must pay 1 Willpower point at the beginning of each additional hour.
This Charm doesn’t protect the Solar from attacks on her mind or spirit, such as possession by a ghost, a mage attempting to control her mind, or even an ordinary person attempting to talk her into abandoning her meditations to act upon some pressing concern.
Memory-Reweaving Discipline (●●●●) Focusing her will and her words, the Solar may rewrite the memories of another.
System: Spend 2 Essence while detailing the subject’s new memories and roll Manipulation + Expression, resisted by the target’s Willpower (both at difficulty 6). The subject’s memories can be rewritten based on the number of successes left after subtracting the result of the opposed Willpower roll:
Successes | Effects |
---|
1 | The events of a recent scene can be rewritten. |
2 | The events of a recent day can be rewritten. |
3 | A single pivotal memory in the subject’s life can be rewritten. Alternately, entire weeks of the subject’s past can be written so long as they’re not crucial to the substance of her life or identity. |
4 | A major feature of the subject’s life can be rewritten (such as who they’re married to, where they went to school, or whether the Solar is a hated enemy or their childhood friend). |
5+ | The subject can be given an entirely new history. |
You Can Be More (••••) Drawing a mortal aside, the Solar speaks with eloquence and conviction of the wonders she’s seen and the potential for the world to be something more and better than what it is. Her words are seeds brimming with Essence, and may take root in the soul of the listener, blossoming into wisdom and power.
System: The Solar must spend at least an hour speaking to a mortal listener about her experiences as one of the Chosen and elaborating on one of her Intimacies that gives her hope for a better tomorrow, then spends 5 Essence and rolls Charisma + Expression (difficulty 9). The mortal listener in turn attempts to truly feel and believe in the Solar’s words down to the uttermost depths of her spirit, rolling Willpower against difficulty (9 – the Solar’s successes, minimum 3) to do so. If the mortal rolls any successes at all, she instantly restores all of her Willpower, and enjoys an applicable specialty to any roll supporting the Intimacy the Solar expressed for the rest of the story. If the mortal rolls five or more successes, she undergoes Awakening as a mage (see
M20).
An individual can’t be targeted with this Charm more than once per story.
Adamant Skin Technique (●●●●●) Focusing her Essence into her body, the Solar becomes momentarily indestructible.
System: The player may reflexively spend 1 Essence after the character is struck by an attack, but before damage is rolled. The Solar negates the damage roll and suffers no damage.
Supernal Effect: The Solar’s perfect form breaks whatever has the temerity to strike it. If the attack’s base damage (usually Strength + a weapon modifier, or a flat damage rating for ranged weapons) is lower than the Solar’s soak pool would have been if she hadn’t used Adamant Skin Technique, then the weapon used to strike her shatters into a million pieces. Unarmed blows which meet these criteria instead inflict one level of bashing damage to the attacker.
Demon-Wracking Shout (●●●●●) The Solar can bellow forth a wordless but divine cry of condemnation, shattering the resolve of the unholy.
System: Spend 1 Essence and roll Charisma + Performance, difficulty 6. For each success, all creatures of darkness who hear the Demon-Wracking Shout lose 1 Willpower. If this reduces them to 0 Willpower or less, they must flee from the Solar in a blind stew of panic and self-loathing; while doing so, creatures capable of fear frenzy, such as vampires, enter that state automatically.
Supernal Effect: If the Demon-Wracking Shout reduces a possessed being to 0 Willpower, then the possessing spirit releases its claim and flees without its stolen flesh. This inflicts ten dice of lethal damage to fomori, as the possessing Bane claws its way free of its host’s transformed flesh, violently unraveling the mutations it inflicted in the process. In the event that they count as a creature of darkness (most aren’t, but one suffering Catharsis or who has become Shadow-eaten might be), Risen are reduced to empty corpses, and the expelled ghost must undergo the harrowing process of Rising once more if they wish to reclaim their body a second time. While most of the Hungry Dead must endure the indignity of wave soul, they are at least spared the terror of being cast out of their body; Yulan-jin are not so fortunate, and must find a new corpse to inhabit. Demons, thanks to their blanket immunity to mind-control and fear, are ironically in no danger from this Charm.
Majestic Radiant Presence (•••••) The Solar dons the authority of kings and burns with the incandescent glory of the sun. It becomes nigh-unthinkable to belittle or deny her in any way, much less actively oppose her in or raise a hand against her.
System: The Solar spends 2 Essence. For the rest of the scene, whenever anyone seeks to oppose her in any respect, either socially or physically, they must make a Willpower roll against a difficulty of the Solar’s (Charisma + [higher of Essence or Leadership]) or else abort their action and bow their head in shame at their own temerity. Characters may still defend against the Solar’s attacks, but do so at +1 difficulty.
Supernal Effect: Majestic Radiant Presence is always in effect when the Solar directly acts to support or defend an Intimacy.
Twilight CharmsExcellence of the Setting Sun: (Ability) (●) By feeding raw Essence into her sense of self and surety, the Twilight Caste may perform feats of research, insight, and creation far beyond mortal limits.
System: Select one of the following Abilities when purchasing this Charm: Craft, Academics, Computer, Investigation, Medicine, Occult, Science, or Technology. At any time, the player may reflexively spend 1 Essence to add (the Attribute being rolled + the Ability in question) dice to all rolls using this Ability for (Essence rating + 1) turns in combat, or minutes outside of combat.
This Charm can be repurchased to unlock additional Abilities, but Essence must be spent to add dice to each Ability separately. Twilight Castes get all versions of this Charm with a single purchase.
All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight (●) The character may attune her senses to otherworldly emanations, glimpsing places of power or even other worlds.
System: Roll Perception + Occult against difficulty 7. Success allows the character to see the aura of power emanating from places of otherworldly or supernatural energy such as Nodes, Caerns, Freeholds, or Haunts. These appear as rising auras of Essence, visible from up to (Essence rating) miles away. Spending 1 Willpower permits the Solar to attune her senses to the vibrations of another realm of existence for a scene, seeing through the Gauntlet or Shroud and into the Penumbra or Shadowlands, or to behold reality’s Chimerical aspect.
Craftsman Needs No Tools (●) The Solar is a genius with her hands, able to improvise whatever works of craftsmanship she may need in even the most adverse of circumstances. Give her a cave and a box of scraps, and she can make just about anything.
System: The Solar can work ten times faster than normal when creating, modifying, or repairing something. Generally this Charm enhances Crafts or Technology actions, but might also apply to coding a program with Computer, creating explosives with Science, or preparing a meal. By spending 1 Essence, she can forego any need for tools for the next 8 hours, as well.
Supernal Effect: If working in relative seclusion without distractions from the outside world, the Solar may not only waive the Essence cost to work without tools, she may dream up a dozen or so assistants and heavy machinery such as cranes and hydraulic lifts from the depths of her anima to assist her with her work. This allows her to work twenty times faster than normal, and to undertake projects that should be impossible for a lone craftswoman to attempt. These phantoms vanish if the world intrudes on the Solar’s labor-trance to any greater degree than, say, a Circlemate stepping in to leave her coffee and a plate of lunch.
Essence-Lending Method (●●) By touching another Exalt or other supernatural being, the Solar may grant them a gift of her Essence.
System: Spend an action touching another character and spend as much Essence as desired. If the recipient is an Exalt, they gain that Essence. If the target is another sort of supernatural being, they gain whatever form of spiritual energy they are capable of storing and using, according to the chart.
This Charm’s cost does not contribute to anima banner manifestation.
Supernatural Energy | Points per Essence Given |
---|
Blood Points | Not valid for this Charm |
Rage | Not valid for this Charm |
Gnosis | 2 |
Quintessence | 1 |
Pathos | 1 |
Spite | Not valid for this Charm |
Glamour | 2 |
Conviction | 2 |
Sekhem | 3 |
Faith | 3 |
Chi | 3 |
Crafty Observation Method (••) The Solar may observe a scene to its minutest detail in a matter of seconds.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence to compress a scene’s worth of observation into the time it takes to draw in a deep breath, allowing for such feats as a reflexive Perception + Investigation roll while running through a room at a full sprint.
Ghost-Eating Technique (●●) The Solar rediscovers the ancient art of destroying souls and ephemera, scattering them into raw energy and becoming empowered by the destruction.
System: When the Solar slays a spirit, demon, or ghost, the player can opt to roll Wits + Occult. Doing so prevents the being from ever returning or reforming, and grants the Solar 3 Essence on the spot. Furthermore, the Solar can reflexively spend 1 Essence to gain the ability to strike and damage intangible beings for the rest of the scene, so long as she can perceive them.
Supernal Effect: The Solar is a godslayer. If she wishes it to be so, any spirit, ghost, demon, or other ephemeral being that looks upon her
knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they behold a being capable of casually ending their existence. When her caste mark shines, she cannot hide this knowledge even if she wishes to. When she ends a being’s existence forever with Ghost-Eating Technique, a shockwave ripples out that causes all spirits that witness the destruction to lose 3 Essence, all ghosts to lose 3 Pathos and 3 Spite, and all demons to lose 3 Faith as the outer fragments of their power are drawn out and sucked into the momentary void the Solar’s act has left in the substance of the universe. The Solar, in turn, gains an additional point of Essence if any bystanders are affected in this way.
Heaven-Turning Calculations (••) Though she may not be the strongest, fastest, or most skilled, the Solar can make up for all other deficiencies with her lightning acumen and precise analytical abilities.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence to substitute Intelligence in place of any other Attribute, or Academics in place of any other Ability for the next (Essence + 1) turns, or (Essence + 1) minutes outside of combat. Alternately, by spending 1 Essence and 1 Willpower, the Exalt can roll Intelligence + Academics in place of another specific Attribute + Ability pool for that duration.
Supernal Effect: The Solar is connected, in the depths of her soul, to the wellspring of all human wisdom, all human endeavor. By meditating for an hour and descending deep into the Akashic records, she may make an Intelligence roll to retrieve a desired Knowledge (difficulty 6), Skill (difficulty 7), or Talent (difficulty 8). She gains a number of dots in the retrieved Ability equal to the successes rolled (to a maximum of 5) until she next sleeps or meditates.
Wound-Mending Care Technique (●●) The Solar’s ministrations grant health and hardiness with a speed and efficiency unknown to modern medicine.
System: After a mere scene of treating and ministering another character, the Solar may spend 1 Essence and roll Intelligence + Medicine. Her patient heals one lethal or two bashing damage per success, or one aggravated damage per two successes.
Supernal Effect: The Solar is the archetypal healer behind every prayer ever uttered by the sick and the dying, the deliverer of woes. The difficulty of all Medicine rolls are permanently lowered by –2, but moreover, if the Solar arrives with the intent to render aid (medical or otherwise), she needs only say something along the lines of “I’m here to help,” and anyone who hears her is able to perfectly and unerringly gauge the sincerity and intent of her words – even if they don’t speak the language she utters them in.
Burning Eye of the Deliverer (●●●) The Solar’s searing gaze burns through supernatural deceptions and cuts through to the truth.
System: The character may spend 1 Essence to pierce supernatural disguises and transformations for the rest of the scene. If another character is using magic to appear to be someone or something she is not, the Solar automatically sees through their disguise. This pierces deceptions, not attempts at hiding. Thus, it could see through Obfuscate’s Mask of a Thousand Faces, but not Obfuscate powers that prevent a vampire from being noticed or detected at all. Burning Eye of the Deceiver sees the true face of changelings through their mortal seemings, and will detect spirits or wraiths possessing a person. Transformed werewolves are exactly what they seem to be - all of their various forms are who they “really” are - and so don’t show up as anything special to Burning Eye of the Deliverer unless using some additional disguise or illusion Gift.
Chaos-Repelling Pattern (●●●) The Solar draws a fortifying pattern of Essence to protect her from hostile curses and transformations.
System: Whenever the character is the subject of any supernatural power that seeks to transform, infect, taint, transport, or control her body or spirit, she may reflexively spend 1 Essence or 1 Willpower and roll Wits + Occult against difficulty 7. Success shatters the hostile magic, protecting the Solar completely, and immunizes her against repeated attempts to exert the same sort of influence for the rest of the scene.
Incalculable Flowing Mind (•••) The Solar encounters an obstacle or mishap, but thanks to her canny foresight, has already anticipated such difficulties in advance and planned for them accordingly.
System: Once per scene, the Solar may reflexively spend 1 Essence to re-roll a failed or botched roll, keeping the preferred result. Her player must describe how the Solar anticipated the difficulty that faces her and planned ahead for it in advance. Alternately, the player can spend 1 Willpower to retroactively declare that the Solar brought along some useful bit of equipment (or performed a useful bit of research), and has had it with them all along, so long as this isn’t clearly in violation of the established scene. For example, a Solar might have smuggled a knife or small pistol into a grand opening gala at a museum, but she definitely hasn’t been toting around a rocket launcher unnoticed all evening.
Supernal Effect: When the player spends Willpower to retcon the scene, she may cite one or more of the Solar’s Backgrounds and call upon some truly implausible or significant bit of foresight: she had one of her Contacts stow a bulldozer on the grounds, or a helicopter pilot she hired with her Resources passes over at that moment and tosses down a rocket launcher from her Arsenal.
Instant Treatment Methodology (●●●) The Solar becomes capable of blindingly swift medical treatment, able to cycle through an entire hospital ward in under ten minutes while providing world-class care.
System: Spend 1 Essence. For the rest of the scene, the Solar can complete any medical assessment or treatment she undertakes, regardless of its complexity, in no more than a minute at most; most treatments take mere seconds.
Legendary Scholar’s Curriculum (●●●) By putting a mortal through a dedicated training regimen, the Solar can fill him with wisdom to rival the sage-kings of old. In little more than a week, a Solar with this Charm can transform a group of poor farmers into world-class neurosurgeons or chemists.
System: During each day of training a mortal or group of mortal students, spend 1 Essence per student. At the end of seven days of training, all students gain 30 experience points to spend raising their Mental Attributes, Manipulation, and Craft, Academics, Computer, Investigation, Medicine, Occult, Science, or Technology Abilities. No Ability can be raised higher than that of their Solar instructor. This Charm
can be used on the same students repeatedly, but bestows only 20 experience points on subsequent training regimens. Any unspent experience is lost.
If the Solar knows hedge magic, she may also use this Charm to train students in the mystic arts, allowing them to spend the granted experience on Paths and rituals, though she can only bestow Paths and rituals that she herself knows.
Copper Spider Conception (••••) Binding together prayer, craftsmanship, and ephemera, the Exalt may craft an item suitable for habitation by a spirit, and then bind a suitable denizen of the Spirit World into it.
System: This Charm allows the character to create fetishes (see
W20, page 221). The character must first craft the item that is to serve as the physical substance of the fetish, and must do so entirely by herself. Then, the Exalt uses this Charm to bind a spirit into the fetish. This may be done either with the spirit’s willing cooperation, or after battering it until it has been reduced to 0 Essence and then suspending its dissolution for 24 hours by reflexively spending 1 Essence. Such a “suspended” spirit swirls about within the Exalt’s anima until either bound into a fetish, or until the suspension ends, at which point the spirit finishes discorporating.
To bind a spirit into a prepared vessel, the Exalt must retire to a ritual space and spend (Fetish’s rating) hours and (Fetish’s rating x 3) Essence binding the spirit and object together. Because of the high Essence cost of this Charm, it is most easily performed within Dragon Nests.
Emerald Induction Technique (••••) The Solar fortifies her Essence and will through countless hours of painstaking study and practice of various spiritual disciplines, becoming a puissant master of the mystic arts thereby.
System: Upon purchasing this Charm, the Solar permanently lowers the cost of all ancient sorcery spells by 1 Essence (to a minimum of 1), and lowers the difficulty of all ancient sorcery rolls by –1.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may elect a spell she knows as her signature spell. That spell’s cost is a mere 1 Essence, and its difficulty is reduced by –2.
Soul Projection Method (●●●●) The Solar may suffuse her flesh with the raw power of the cosmos, translating herself into spirit-stuff.
System: Spend 1 Essence and roll Wits + Occult against a difficulty of the local Shroud, Gauntlet, or Banality rating. Success transports the character into an otherworld of her choice: the Penumbra, the Shadowlands, or - if used at a Trod the - Near Dreaming. By raising the difficulty by 1 (to a maximum of 9) and spending 1 additional Essence per ally, the Solar can also draw other willing characters into the otherworlds with her. This Charm may also be used in reverse to return to the material world.
The character also permanently gains the ability to understand the language of spirits and to make herself clearly understood by them.
Supernal Effect: The Solar gains the Priest Merit if she did not already possess it, and may draw her allies into the otherworlds with her without raising the difficulty or paying extra Essence. Moreover, the Solar always treats the Shroud and Gauntlet as being rated 2 lower than they really are (to a minimum of 3) while standing in natural sunlight.
Wholeness-Restoring Meditation (●●●●) Such is the Solar’s genius that her medical care can cure the incurable, or mend permanent maiming or ailments.
System: The Solar may spend several hours treating an untreatable ailment, then spend 2 Essence and roll Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 8). Success cures her patient of any illness, disease, or disorder, or repairs any one physical debility, such as blindness, a weak heart, a missing limb, or a damaged spine.
Supernal Effect: Such is the Solar’s genius that she can move beyond repairing the human form, and create improvements to it. The Solar may devise and execute a medical procedure requiring a fully stocked laboratory and surgical theater and 18 hours of uninterrupted labor; even Instant Treatment Methodology can’t lower her working time below 6 hours. She then rolls Intelligence + Medicine against difficulty 9. Failure inflicts four levels of aggravated damage upon the patient, while a botch kills them outright; success, on the other hand, bestows them with some post-human biological feature, such as wings, the ability to digest rocks, or altered anatomy allowing the beneficiary to climb walls. In game terms, grant them a fomor power with no concomitant spiritual taint or Flaws as drawbacks, and probably less gross than the printed examples, such as feathered angelic wings rather than ugly fleshy skin flaps to enable flight; see W20, page 429 for examples. This procedure can only grant physical capabilities, not mystical ones such as the ability to step into the Umbra, or dots of Gnosis. This procedure is best employed upon mortals, or beings with fundamentally mortal bodies such as mages, Kinfolk, ghouls, and Kinain. Exalts, werewolves, vampires, and other creatures capable of rapid healing or whose bodies eventually revert to a set form will quickly reject the alterations unless they pay a point of permanent Willpower to keep them.
Judge’s Ear Technique (●●●●●) None can lie to the canny Chosen of the Sun without their deceit being known. Some distinct sensation alerts the Solar to attempted deception—a sour taste or smell, perhaps, or a ringing in her ears.
System: Spend 1 Essence. For the rest of the scene, whenever someone knowingly lies to the Solar, she recognizes the lie immediately for what it is.
Supernal Effect: The Solar is a master of the nuances of truth and deceit, and can construct detailed psychological profiles from the lies people tell. When she catches someone in a lie with Judge’s Ear Technique, she may ask the liar’s player a single question about that character, which they must answer honestly.
Wonder-Forging Genius (•••••) The Exalt conceives an impossibility in her heart. Fixing it into the potentiality of the world with Essence, she then plumbs the depths of her genius until she finds a way to affix dreams into reality, birthing forth a wonder into the world.
System: This Charm allows the character to create Talismans and Devices (see
M20, starting on p. 651). The character first envisions a magical item or product of impossible science of some kind, from a flying carpet or unbreakable sword to a rocket pack or plasma cannon. The character then spends a period of time working out the principles necessary to create the wonder. This is an extended Intelligence + (Occult, Science, Technology, or just possibly Computer) roll against difficulty 9, made at one week intervals, and needing to accumulate a total of three times the Wonder’s rating in successes. The Exalt must spend 2 Essence each time she makes this roll. A botch at any point forces the Exalt to start over
and doubles the necessary number of successes.
Once she designs the Wonder, the Exalt must then create it herself – likely an extended Craft or Technology roll. Some projects, it should be noted, while technically within the scope of the Exalt’s imagination, may be extremely difficult or even impossible to actually create. An Exalt who wants to construct a flying helicarrier like in
The Avengers will soon discover that this is a multi-billion dollar project and that only one shipyard in the United States is capable of producing even
normal aircraft carriers. Even with Craftsman Needs No Tools, infinite financing, and access to a properly supplied facility, that’s still a years-long project for a single crafter.
Finally, having crafted her Wonder, the Exalt must perform either a ritual to enchant it or a procedure to charge it with her Essence, bringing its miraculous properties online. This requires (Wonder’s rating) hours of work or ritual, and the expenditure of (Wonder’s rating x 5) Essence. Because of the high Essence cost of this Charm, it is most easily performed within Dragon Nests.
Night Charms Excellence of the Hidden Sun: (Ability) (●) By feeding raw Essence into criminal endeavor, the Chosen of the Night may perform legendary feats of skullduggery.
System: Select one of the following Abilities when purchasing this Charm: Alertness, Athletics, Computer, Investigation, Larceny, Stealth, Streetwise, or Subterfuge. At any time, the player may reflexively spend 1 Essence to add (the Attribute being rolled + the Ability in question) dice to all rolls using this Ability for (Essence rating + 1) turns in combat, or minutes outside of combat.
This Charm can be repurchased to unlock additional Abilities, but Essence must be spent to add dice to each Ability separately. Twilight Castes get all versions of this Charm with a single purchase.
Easy Rider Method (•) The Solar can sense the movement and flow of traffic around her and blend into it effortlessly and perfectly, making it impossible to pick her out from the masses of the highway.
System: Spend 1 Essence and roll Wits + Drive (difficulty 5). For a number of hours equal to the successes rolled, it’s impossible to specifically notice the Solar’s vehicle so long as she’s not doing anything brazenly attention-grabbing like blazing down a 45 mile per hour speed limit street at 120 or veering crazily from lane to lane. The eye slides right off of the Solar’s vehicle without noticing anything unusual or suspicious about it, even if the observer is watching for a specific make and model to enter an area, or paranoid about being followed.
Graceful Crane Stance (●) The Solar becomes near-weightless, and enjoys perfect balance.
System: The character needs never roll to maintain her balance, no matter how precarious her footing, and may stand or run upon even the weakest or most insubstantial of surfaces, such as falling leaves, individual threads, drops of rain, or even the surface of water. Reflexively spending 1 Essence allows her to run and stand upon walls or even to cling to ceilings.
Supernal Effect: The Solar also permanently lowers the difficulty of all Dexterity + Athletics rolls by one.
Proof-Eating Palm (•) The Solar may easily conceal anything she has on her which she ought not to have, producing it later at her convenience.
System: The Exalt can perfectly hide anything she can carry in one hand which might conceivably be concealed inside of a long coat, even if she’s not wearing a long coat. Indeed, even if strip-searched by a team of experts, the Solar’s contraband will not be found. When she has need of a concealed object, she may reflexively bring it to hand: it could be that it drops into place from a sleeve; or maybe she plucks it from concealment in a nearby potted plant; or perhaps she simply produces it with a magician’s flourish. She can simultaneously conceal up to (1 + her Larceny rating) objects with this Charm.
Sensory Acuity Prana (●) By focusing Essence into her awareness of the world, the Solar’s senses become impossibly, superhumanly sharp. She can hear a person’s heartbeat from rooms away, read a sheet of paper by letting her fingers trail across the ink on it, and count the hairs on a fly’s legs from across a room.
System: The Solar must spend a turn in concentration to activate or banish this Charm. While it is active, the difficulty of all Perception rolls drops by –3, to a minimum of difficulty 3. Since Sensory Acuity Prana sharpens the Solar’s senses indiscriminately, few of the Chosen leave it active at all times, having no desire to smell the odor of every garbage bin they pass in superhuman detail.
Drifting Leaf Elusion (••) The Solar, finely attuned to danger, moves to avoid it at the last moment as a matter of bone-deep reflex. Even if it appears the Solar has been struck down, it may be revealed that she is safe after all, having faded away from the blow with nothing left to spare.
System: So long as she’s aware of an attack, the Solar may soak with her Athletics rating rather than Stamina, if she desires. If her Stamina rating is equal to or higher than her Athletics, then she adds one die to all soak rolls against attacks she’s aware of.
Soaring Crane Leap (●●) Essence surges through the Solar’s legs, propelling her effortlessly through the air.
System: The Solar’s jumping distance and height is tripled. By reflexively spending 1 Essence, the Solar may increase her jumping distance or height tenfold.
Supernal Effect: The character always lands on her feet, is permanently immune to falling damage, and this Charm’s more powerful mode is always on without the need of an Essence cost.
Surprise Anticipation Method (••) A sixth sense warns the Solar of impending danger, making her impossible to take unaware so long as she hasn’t totally exhausted both body and spirit.
System: The Solar may reflexively spend 1 Essence to automatically notice an ambush or other such unexpected attack, allowing her to defend against it as normal.
Ten-Ox Meditation (●●) Essence burns and surges in the Solar’s muscles, granting strength beyond strength.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence or 1 Willpower to add the Solar’s Strength as automatic successes to any Strength roll or Strength-based damage roll.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may spend 1 Essence to succeed at absolutely any feat of strength when using Ten-Ox Meditation involving objects up to the size of a skyscraper. If Superman can do it, so can the Solar. Ten-Ox Meditation’s enhancement to damage rolls still functions as normal.
Falling Icicle Strike (•••) Those who cannot see the Solar coming for their life also cannot survive her displeasure.
System: The Solar may reflexively spend 1 Essence when launching an unexpected attack against a target. The final damage of the attack is doubled after soak. By spending 1 Willpower when activating this Charm, the Solar ensures that the target’s death makes no noise and will not be discovered for at least the next few minutes, if that is at all possible. The Solar could hurl a knife into a gangster’s body in such a way that he falls behind some bushes or a car and isn’t missed for a few minutes, for example, but couldn’t shoot a politician in the head in the middle of a speech and keep his death secret from the thousands of people staring directly at him – at best, it might look for a few moments as though the man is leaning over his microphone, considering his next words.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may obscure any death she directly causes at no cost, even without inflicting it via Falling Icicle Strike. Even in the midst of battle, it may not be immediately apparent that the leader of the Sabbat pack she’s fighting is dead after the Solar beheads him, for example – his followers might simply think they’ve lost track of him in the chaos for a few moments.
Flawlessly Impenetrable Disguise (●●●) The Solar becomes a master of disguise, able to appear as whoever or whatever she likes with only a few moments of preparation.
System: The difficulty to see through any of the Solar’s disguise attempts is permanently set at 9. By spending 1 Essence, the character can make her disguise absolutely perfect so long as she chooses to maintain it, even mimicking supernatural elements such as a vampire’s pale aura, lack of breath, and roomtemperature flesh. These are tricks and cosmetic imitations, and won’t grant any special powers (the Solar
does still need to breathe, even if it looks like she doesn’t, and she still maintains her human Attributes even if she convincingly
appears to have become an 8-foot-tall werewolf).
Lightning Speed (●●●) The Solar moves with the speed of darting sunbeams, able to flash from place to place almost faster than the eye can follow.
System: The Solar’s movement speed is permanently tripled, and she doubles the result of all Initiative rolls. By reflexively spending 1 Essence on her turn, she can instantly flash to any location within (Essence x 100) yards. This is super-fast movement, not teleportation: the Solar has to actually be able to reach the place she wants to go.
Supernal Effect: The Solar moves with the speed and freedom of light itself; there’s nothing faster. By spending 1 Essence, she may release her god-speed for the rest of the scene; each turn, she gains one free 100-yard reflexive quickstep, as though she were using Lightning Speed at no cost. Furthermore, her movement speed is permanently quintupled by Lightning Speed rather than tripled.
Seasoned Criminal Method (●●●) The Solar is a master of all criminal enterprise, able to trivially go where she will and take what she likes.
System: Spend 1 Essence or 1 Willpower to perform any of the following feats: Cause a lock to spring open, pass through a closed door or window without disturbing it, or attempt to steal an object in plain sight without anyone noticing the attempt.
Supernal Effect: Any career criminal the Solar meets instinctively recognizes her as a fellow member of the underworld, and furthermore, one who represents potential opportunities for enrichment and advancement rather than a potential threat or rival. This is a potent first impression, but won’t negate or erase any knowledge to the contrary that an individual might have (it won’t make them forget their boss telling them that the Solar is an enemy and should be killed on sight, for example).
Vanishing from Mind’s Eye Method (●●●) The Solar can still her Essence, vanishing from sight and awareness completely.
System: By standing still in a shadowed place or obscure corner and remaining quiet, the Solar can become functionally invisible and impossible to notice so long as nobody’s actively watching her. This obscurity remains in place so long as she doesn’t move or make noise. Spending 1 Essence renders her invisible and impossible to notice for the rest of the scene, so long as she doesn’t make some sort of loud noise or take blatant action such as attacking or tipping over a bookshelf.
Supernal Effect: The Solar’s invisibility is unimpeachable. Even if she makes loud noises or begins fighting, the invisibility granted by Vanishing From Mind’s Eye Method won’t break. Only her anima flaring will break the Charm. Attempting to target the Solar in combat while she is invisible increases the difficulty of attacks by +2.
Eye of the Unconquered Sun (●●●●) The Solar’s eyes cut through all supernatural obscurity, unerringly sighting her foes.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence to immediately defeat all forms of supernatural concealment, invisibility, and the like. Any character that is trying to hide from the Solar is immediately revealed to her senses.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may spend 2 Essence when activating Eye of the Unconquered Sun to open her Caste Mark and unleash a flood of searing, all-revealing light. Any being within 300 yards of the Solar that is attempting to hide or conceal itself is outlined in brilliant white flames that shine through all covering and concealment, even through walls, revealing them to
all characters present, not just the Solar. There’s nothing subtle about this display: the air quakes and seethes with golden light, shining through walls and obstacles to banish all shadows. This display lasts until the Solar wills it to end. All attempts to target an individual wrapped in white flames (which linger for as long as a marked individual stays in the Solar’s light) lower their difficulty by –1.
Mountain-Crossing Leap Technique (••••) Gathering all her power into her legs, the Solar propels herself into the air and over the horizon with a mighty leap.
System: The Solar spends a moment concentrating and spends 2 Essence. Her player then rolls (Strength + Athletics) against a difficulty determined by the density and complexity of the Solar’s destination. Open farmland would be difficulty 5, while downtown Tokyo would be difficulty 8. The more successes rolled, the more accurately the Solar touches down exactly where she wants to land. This Charm can carry the Solar up to (Essence rating x 3) miles in a single leap. Everyone within 5 yards of the Solar when she takes off or lands must make a Stamina roll against difficulty 6 to avoid falling down.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may pay 1 additional Essence while soaring through the air with Mountain-Crossing Leap Technique, or indeed at any time when she is plummeting toward the ground from a great height for any reason, to wrap herself in a powerful corona of Essence. When she lands, this Essence-corona detonates, and she strikes the ground without suffering any injury whatsoever with the force of a runaway meteorite. Everyone and everything within 50 yards of the Solar’s point of impact must soak (Essence rating x 2) levels of bashing damage.
Seven Shadow Evasion (●●●●) Letting her Essence instinctively carry her out of harm’s way, the Solar may dodge any single attack of which she is aware.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence. The attack fails to strike the Solar without any further dice rolls. If the Solar spends 2 Essence, then she can perfectly defends against (Essence) additional attacks between the moment of activation and her next turn.
Supernal Effect: The Solar repositions herself optimally after avoiding an attack. If she uses her next action to attack someone whose attack she dodged with Seven Shadow Evasion, that attack is made at –1 difficulty.
Bonfire Anima Wings (•••••) The Solar’s anima bears her aloft like a comet or a pair of angelic wings, allowing her to fly.
System: Spend 3 Essence. For the rest of the scene, the Solar can fly at twice her normal movement rate. If activated at the apex of Mountain-Crossing Leap Technique, this Charm costs only 1 Essence. Even if her anima has otherwise faded from visibility, it streams out like a contrail behind her when she flies at maximum speed, making her highly visible.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may use this Charm for free whenever her anima is flaring.
Foe-Scenting Method (●●●●●) The Solar’s senses, attuned to darkness, immediately pick out the supernatural.
System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence. For the rest of the scene, the Solar becomes aware when she stands in the presence of any supernatural being, though she doesn’t inherently know what
sort of supernatural being any given individual may be. Imbued hunters don’t register as supernatural beings.
Supernal Effect: By concentrating on an individual the Solar believes to be a supernatural entity, she may scrutinize that creature’s Essence for clues to its nature. Roll Perception + Occult against difficulty 8. Success causes the Solar to receive compelling clues. For example: “His aura swirls with arcane geometry in rigid and regimented patterns.” Or: “A great hulking wolf-shadow looms above her.” If the Solar has encountered and scrutinized this sort of supernatural being in the past, then she can identify them as such. “He’s a technomancer.” “She’s a werewolf.”
Eclipse Charms Excellence of the Crowned Sun: (Ability) (●) By feeding raw Essence into martial endeavor, the Chosen of the Eclipse may effortlessly broker deals, cut through red tape, and speak with impossible eloquence.
System: Select one of the following Abilities when purchasing this Charm: Awareness, Empathy, Etiquette, Expression, Finance, Law, Politics, or Subterfuge. At any time, the player may reflexively spend 1 Essence to (the Attribute being rolled + the Ability in question) dice to all rolls using this Ability for (Essence rating + 1) turns in combat, or minutes outside of combat.
This Charm can be repurchased to unlock additional Abilities, but Essence must be spent to add dice to each Ability separately. Eclipse Castes get all versions of this Charm with a single purchase.
Inverted Ego Mask (•) The Solar builds up a wall of masks around the innermost truths of her heart, ensuring that none can discover who she really is unless she permits it.
System: Any ordinary or supernatural attempt to discern the Solar’s Nature automatically fails, revealing her Demeanor in its place. This Charm’s effects are permanent.
Supernal Effect: The Solar is an absolute cipher. Unless she willingly reveals information about herself, it is impossible to learn anything about the Solar’s identity, past, or innermost motives through mundane research or magical means of any sort. Another character can still attempt to speak to the Solar to convince her to open up, of course.
Master Equestrian’s Techniques (•) The Solar exhibits the traits of a figure of legend, whether it is a noble chevalier, rugged cowboy, or aristocrat on the hunt.
System: This Charm conveys the following benefits:
• The Solar may buy the Hobby Talent: Ride for 1 experience point per dot. Alternately, she may substitute Animal Ken or Drive whenever a roll would normally demand Ride.
• All rolls made while the Solar is mounted on a steed are made at –1 difficulty.
• The Solar may whistle and spend 1 Essence, and any mount she owns, or which regards her with deep fondness even if she doesn’t own it, will appear within a matter of moments, ready to be mounted and ridden.
• Any mount the Solar rides can race all out for 12 hours without tiring, and can move twice as fast as it would if bearing any other rider.
• All attacks directed at a mount bearing the Solar raise their difficulty by +3, and her mount can soak both lethal and aggravated damage.
Salty Dog Method (•) Like the ancient mariners who once held the world together through trade, the Solar is the exemplar of nautical daring and perseverance.
System: This Charm conveys the following benefits:
• All rolls made while the Solar is on the deck of a boat or ship are made at –1 difficulty.
• Having stared the worst horrors of weather and the deeps directly in their dead and hateful eyes, the Solar has become inured to fear. The difficulty of all attempts to frighten her by supernatural means is increased by +1, and the first time in any given session that someone or something tries to terrify her in such a fashion and fails, she gains one point of Willpower.
• The Solar can swim at her full sprinting speed, and may hold her breath for up to 15 minutes at a time. By spending 1 Essence, she can extend this to (Essence rating) hours, and also survive the crushing pressure of the deepest ocean trenches.
• So long as she can see the sky and feel the wind against her skin, the Solar can spend 1 Essence to accurately predict the local weather over the next (Essence rating) days.
Supernal Effect: The weather ever reflects the Solar’s mood. When she’s happy or content, it’s clear skies and warm sunshine. Her sorrows bring heavy rains, and her rages provoke violent storms. She can roll Willpower against difficulty 6 to still this effect for a day if she wishes.
Speed the Wheels (●) The Solar is like a saint of complex systems, leaving efficiency in her wake.
System: When the Solar engages with bureaucracy or labyrinthine systems such as courts of law, corporate networks, or government offices, red tape parts before her like the Red Sea and she is able to proceed in a mere fraction of the normal time. Moreover, she can spend 2 Essence to place her blessing upon a project such a certain police investigation, bit of legislation, or attempt at reforming city government, and everyone involved in pushing the project forward reduces the difficulty of all rolls to do so by 2.
Supernal Effect: The Solar is a natural bureaucrat, integrating herself smoothly – if superficially – into any bureau she strides into. As long as she doesn’t do something outlandish to call attention to herself, she can sit in on meetings, walk the halls, lounge around in the break room, chat with workers in the cubicle farm, and otherwise occupy an office space without anyone noticing that she doesn’t belong there.
Whirling Brush Method (●) Words pour through the Solar’s mind like a rushing river, leaving wisdom behind in their wake without consuming her precious time.
System: Spend 1 Essence. For the rest of the scene, the Solar may read and absorb information as fast as she can track her eyes across the page or screen. Books can be consumed in moments, online databases memorized as quickly as the data can be loaded and scrolled across the screen. Moreover, she can copy text by hand at lightning speed, transcribing an entire book in minutes, up to and including any diagrams or illustrations.
Foul Air of Argument Technique (●●) The Solar may embed her Essence in a bureaucracy or project like a curse, causing it to bog down in inefficiency, errors, and red tape.
System: The character can spend 3 Essence to target a specific office or project with terrible inefficiency for the rest of the current story. Everyone involved in pushing the project forward increases the difficulty of all rolls to do so by 2.
Irresistible Salesman Spirit (••) The Solar focuses her Essence into the ultimate high-pressure sales pitch, capable of convincing almost anyone to buy almost anything, and for outrageous prices.
System: After spending a few moments delivering her pitch, the Solar’s player spends 1 Essence and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge against a difficulty equal to the target’s Willpower. She can raise or lower the fundamental value of whatever she’s trying to buy, sell, barter, or bargain for in the target’s eyes by a factor of (successes rolled + 1).
This Charm is equally as applicable to political favors as to financial transactions; a Solar who rolled five successes might convince the Prince of Chicago to lend her six times as many ghouls as he’d initially considered in exchange for her help discovering who or what is causing Masquerade breaches in his domain, for example. This Charm doesn’t force the target to accept a deal, only to re-evaluate its reasonable worth; it also doesn’t mystically enforce any agreements made under its auspices. Its enchantment fades after the Solar’s (Essence rating) hours, at which point the target may very well realize they’ve been swindled.
Supernal Effect: If the target’s Willpower rating is equal to or lower than the Solar’s Essence rating, she may use this Charm to convince him that absolutely any price she cares to name is reasonable.
Sagacious Reading of Intent (••) The Solar’s keen insight cuts through all attempts at dissembling, allowing her to easily decipher the intentions of others.
System: By taking a few moments to concentrate on another character or a piece of writing, the Solar may roll Wits + Subterfuge against a difficulty of (3 + the target or author’s Subterfuge). Success reveals what the subject wants to get out of the current interaction, or any agendas present in a written work. Spending 1 Essence after a successful roll will also let the Solar read the target’s surface thoughts for a few moments.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may continue reading a target’s thoughts for as long as he remains in her line of sight, rather than for only a few moments.
Subtle Speech Method (●●) The Solar becomes a master of hidden meaning, coding messages inside messages that only reveal themselves to those she wishes.
System: Spend 1 Essence while speaking or composing a written work to embed a second, hidden message inside the statement or writing. This hidden message can only be discerned by those the Solar intends to address it to.
Wise-Eyed Courtier Method (••) The Solar can quickly unravel the dynamics of any social situation she finds herself in by observing little more than word choice and body language.
System: The Solar can analyze the relationship between any two characters by spending a moment observing them, then spending 1 Essence and rolling Perception + Subterfuge against difficulty 8. Even so much as one success not only reveals whether the two characters know one another, but also the depth and nature of that relationship (“They’re business partners, but they don’t advertise that relationship, and they don’t trust one another”).
Guarded Thoughts Meditation (●●●) The Solar’s mind is a vault, holding her thoughts within like precious gems.
System: Whenever someone attempts to read the Solar’s mind by any means, roll Perception + Awareness against difficulty 6. Success reveals not only the mind-reading attempt, but also who is responsible. The Solar may then pay 1 Essence to reflexively shield her thoughts, making them impossible to read for the rest of the scene. The Solar may also pre-emptively shield her thoughts by paying 1 Essence, even before anyone attempts to pry.
Supernal Effect: The Solar’s secrets are her own, and Guarded Thoughts Meditation is always active at no cost.
Mastery of Small Manners (●●●) An instinctive facility for etiquette and social currents ensures that the Solar never commits
faux pas or social gaffes when dealing with unfamiliar cultures or social situations.
System: The Solar lowers the difficulty of all Etiquette and Streetwise rolls by 1, and cannot botch with either Ability. Should she fail at any social roll, she may reflexively spend 1 Essence to attempt to reroll it once.
Supernal Effect: The Solar unfailingly gives excellent first impressions to all those she meets, lowering the difficulty of all social rolls against a character during the first scene she meets them in by one. Unless given some pressing reason to act otherwise, those who first encounter the Solar are inclined to regard her well and behave favorably toward her; in short, they like her.
Phantom Steed (•••) Reaching deep within herself, the Solar finds a conveyance that expresses her innermost self and brings it forth into the world to serve her. In the Age of Legends, it may be supposed that this Charm allowed the Chosen to harden their anima into a golden horse to carry them into battle or to convey them along ancient roads to deliver vital missives. It can still do that, of course, but in the World of Darkness this Charm is much more likely to create a glowing motorcycle or sports car.
System: Spend 1 Essence to solidify a conveyance of some kind out of the Solar’s anima for the rest of the scene. Should she disembark, dismount, or otherwise leave the conveyance behind, it dissipates back into the pure Essence from which it came.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may spend 1 Willpower to maintain the solidity of her Phantom Steed even while no longer in contact with it. Not only will the conveyance continue to exist, it can move of its own accord in response to the Solar’s will, as though she were riding or driving it, making rolls to maneuver with the Solar’s dice pool. The Phantom Steed always “knows” where the Solar is and how to find her, and is otherwise as “intelligent” as the Solar in carrying out the tasks the Solar assigns to it. The Solar doesn’t need to be able to see or communicate with her Phantom Steed to give it commands.
Strange Tongue Understanding (●●●) The Solar is a master of tongues, able to understand and be understood despite any language barrier.
System: The Solar can understand any earthly language after a few minutes of exposure to it, and make herself understood after a few minutes more. Spending 1 Essence grants instant fluency for the rest of the scene, and makes the character sound like a native speaker.
Supernal Effect: The Solar may spend 3 Willpower to permanently retain any language she learns with Strange Tongue Understanding, gaining an appropriate Merit.
Asp Bites Its Tail (●●●●) Such is the Solar’s assurance and bearing that she may effortlessly turn barbs and imprecations cast against her back on those so foolish as to slander her.
System: When slighted, humiliated, or accused of wrongdoing, the player can reflexively spend 1 Essence and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge against the accuser’s resisted Charisma + Expression (both difficulty 6). Should the Solar gain more successes, then everyone present becomes convinced the aggressor was in fact the one who belittled, insulted, or implicated herself.
Supernal Effect: When using this Charm, the Solar rolls against difficulty 5 and her aggressor against difficulty 7. Additionally, should she successfully turn the tables, the difficulty of all of her social rolls against that target for the rest of the scene drop by –2, while the difficulty of all social actions made by the individual who embarrassed himself are increased by +2.
Cup Boils Over (••••) The Solar composes a condemnation of purposeless existence, which is so profound that it strikes dead those with no bastion of ego to protect them against the Exalt’s words.
System: Spend 3 Essence and roll Manipulation + Expression against a difficulty of a particular target’s Willpower rating in order to craft a condemnation of their specific life within the world. This condemnation can be verbal or written. Should the target hear or read this condemnation while they have 0 Willpower points, their soul leaves their body, and they die soon after. The Solar must be familiar enough with her target to be able to criticize their life in at least very broad strokes, and a condemnation devised with this Charm loses its potency after one month, as the events and circumstances of the target’s life cause her to no longer perfectly match the Solar’s critiques.
Supernal Effect: When the target hears or reads the Solar’s condemnation, they lose a number of points of Willpower equal to the successes she rolled. If this reduces them to 0 Willpower, Cup Boils Over knocks their soul off.
Venomous Rumors Technique (●●●●) Insinuating a thread of her Essence into illintended gossip, the Solar assures that her poison reaches every ear that might matter.
System: Spend 2 Essence and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge against a difficulty of (3 + the target’s most relevant Background, such as Influence or Fame). While this Charm can’t ensure that everyone believes whatever terrible rumor the Solar wishes to spread, success does guarantee that within a day or two, everyone who matters has at least
heard it.
Supernal Effect: By spending 3 Essence rather than 2 when activating Venomous Rumors Technique, the Solar may define the scope of the damage her rumors inflict, causing the target to lose a dot of the Background she chooses to target. This can only damage external Backgrounds like Resources and Contacts, not Backgrounds that describe intrinsic qualities like a Lunar’s Heart’s Blood.
All-Seeing Master Procurer (●●●●●) Essence connecting her to the world around her, the Solar has learned to be all things to all people.
System: By spending an hour in meditation and spending 3 Essence, the Solar may grant herself a dot of a Background of her choice for the next 24 hours, letting her Essence lead her to the needed contacts, money, parties, or whatever else.
Supernal Effect: This Charm grants two dots of Backgrounds, which may be assigned to the same Background or separately.
Knowing the Soul’s Price (●●●●●) Everyone, no matter their integrity, no matter their morals, has a price for which they will bend to the Solar’s desires. This Charm cuts through to the soul’s innermost secrets, revealing that price.
System: Spend 3 Essence and roll Perception + Empathy against a difficulty of the target’s Willpower. Success reveals the price that will cause the target to do what the Solar wants, whether it’s as simple as a sum of money or as daunting as the return of a dead loved one.
Supernal Effect: Should the Solar accumulate five or more successes when using Knowing the Soul’s Price, she also gains an instinctive hunch where to start looking to find the price she’s uncovered, if she doesn’t have it already.
Special The following Charm can’t be Favored and belongs to no specific Caste. A Solar must have an Essence rating of at least 3 to purchase it.
Should the Sun Not Rise (•) The Solar’s legend and legacy are her own, and though the candle of her life may gutter out, her works will not vanish when she does.
System: Should the Solar die with at least one point of Willpower remaining to her, the guttering sparks of her vitality restore her to fitful life at some point during the next three days. She has only a short time – a few hours at most – before her injuries reclaim her, but may use this very brief reprieve to locate a hand-selected successor, and, with her final breath, pass her Exaltation on to the mortal inheritor of her choice. Her chosen successor need not be physically present when she expires, but if he is not, she must spend a point of Willpower to send her Exaltation to him.
The newly-Exalted Solar automatically gains both Past Life 3 and Mentor 3 (in the form of the Exaltation’s former bearer instructing and advising him in his dreams).
Final Ray of Light (●●●●●) Though even her very flesh and divinity falters under the claws and curses of a world of monsters and darkness, the Solar rises up one last time in defense of those she loves.
System: If the Solar dies in the course of protecting or fighting for one of her Intimacies, she immediately returns to life in a blaze of golden Essence. Her Essence pool restores itself to full, and she heals (Essence rating) levels of damage immediately. Final Ray of Light can only activate once per story.
Supernal Effect: Upon her resurrection, the Solar swallows her anima into herself, transforming into an idealized incarnation of her own godhood. She may manifest new clothing, glowing tattoos, alterations to the appearance and coloration of her hair and eyes, and similarly outlandish indications that she is far more than mortal. While wearing this ascendant visage, she doubles her movement speed and base Initiative, and increases all of her Attributes by three dots. The transformation lasts for one scene, then abates.
After assuming her ascendant visage once, the Solar may activate it again in the future with a turn’s concentration (doing so heals her and replenishes her Essence as though she had revived with Final Ray of Light), but only once per story, and doing so negates the possibility of using Final Ray of Light during that story. Alternately, she may attempt to enact this transformation without “using up” the Charm for the rest of the story by spending 2 Essence and then making a difficulty 9 Essence roll, but in this case she does not heal or replenish her Essence.
Phoenix Renewal Crucible (•••••) The fires of the sun are the catalyst for life itself, and the Solar may give of herself to gainsay an unjust demise.
System: The Solar may attempt to return a corpse to life by placing a hand upon the cadaver’s chest and infusing it with her Essence. Spend 5 Essence, 5 Willpower, and roll the Solar’s Essence rating. She cannot spend Willpower for an automatic success on this roll. Success returns the target to life and restores all of their Health Levels. Failure means the resurrection hasn’t taken and can’t be attempted again. A botch carries all the consequences of failure, but also forces all of the Solar’s Essence to depart her body in a torrent, and renders her unable to regain or store Essence by any means for 24 hours per 1 rolled. Botching twice within the span of a single story causes the Exalt to be fatally consumed in her own solar flames.
In order to use this Charm, the deceased individual’s death must in some way violate one of the Solar’s Intimacies, and must have taken place during the last (Essence rating) days. Losing a loved one who is the subject of an Intimacy always counts, of course, but more abstract violations are also possible, such as the death of a vampire’s anonymous victim violating an Intimacy to protect the innocent from the horrors of the supernatural world.
The difficulty to resurrect a person with Phoenix Renewal Crucible is 6. If they were one of the Celestial Exalted when they died, they are mortal upon their return to life, their Exaltation having departed. Other sorts of living supernatural beings (including Dragon-Blooded) usually retain their powers upon returning to life.
Phoenix Renewal Crucible may also be used to attempt to return the undead to life and mortality. In this case, the individual may have been deceased for much, much longer than the usual limit permitted by Phoenix Renewal Crucible, but the difficulty begins at 7, increases by +1 for every 50 years the individual has been undead, and if the target is a vampire, a failure inflicts five levels of aggravated damage, while a botch inflicts ten as the power of incorrectly-channeled Solar Essence rips through the fabric of the monster’s being.