Dragon-Blooded Charms preview! [Exalted]

Hey y’all. Vance here, with a preview from our upcoming book Dragon-Blooded: What Fire Has Wrought. Keeping in mind that this isn’t final draft material and is still subject to significant change, let’s dive into our first preview for the Dragon-Blooded Charms.

Dragon-Blooded Charms are drawn from their Abilities, like the Solars, but in addition, each Charm resonates with the Essence of one or more of Creation’s five elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Wood.

Deep-Listening Palm

Cost: 5m; Mins: Awareness 2, Essence 1; Type: Simple

Keywords: Earth

Duration: One scene

Prerequisite Charms: None

Touching a surface or barrier made out of earthen or wooden materials, the Dragon-Blooded displaces her sense of hearing into the Essence of earth. She can listen through that barrier as though it were not there. Metal or similarly durable materials may require a (Perception + Awareness) roll of difficulty 3+ to hear through. On a failed roll, the Exalt is only able to hear fragments of conversation or certain noises determined by the Storyteller with this Charm for the rest of the scene. She cannot listen through barriers made of the magical materials, or those enchanted to be impervious to harm or warded against scrying.

Seed and Salt Warding

Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Occult 4, Essence 1; Type: Simple

Keywords: Earth/Wood, Stackable

Duration: One day

Prerequisite Charms: Whispered Secrets Insight

The Dragon-Blooded lays down a line of salt or germinated grain to keep ghosts at bay (Exalted, p. 506). The aspect of this Charm depends on which she uses—salt is Earth, while grain is Wood. She rolls Intelligence + Occult to determine the power of the warding. Powerful ghosts who could normally cross through the line by spending Willpower can only do so if their Resolve exceeds the Dragon-Blooded’s successes on her Occult roll. Otherwise, they cannot cross over the line. In addition, the line repels other forms of the undead, such as zombies or hungry ghosts, who can also only spend Willpower to cross through it if their Resolve beats the Exalt’s roll.

Each use of this Charm strengthens a salt or grain line that extends up to a single range band. The Exalt may stack up to (Essence) invocations to create an extended warding line. The Willpower cost of subsequent activations to extend a line is waived.

Wild-Wandering Forester’s Charm

Cost: 3m; Mins: Survival 3, Essence 1; Type: Simple

Keywords: Wood

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: None

The Dragon-Blooded knows the wilderness as well as she knows her own domain, aware of the secrets and wonders hidden within it. This Charm is a roll to introduce a fact (Exalted, p. 237) about a wilderness region that she is familiar with with Wits + Survival. She might recount her knowledge of an animal species native to the region, the location of a rare medicinal herb, or effective preparations against a hazard she might encounter.

Dragon’s Hidden Treasure

Cost: 1m; Mins: Larceny 5, Essence 2; Type: Simple

Keywords: Earth

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Naked Thief Style

The Dragon-Blooded strikes the earth or an earthen structure with precise deliberation, attuning herself to the flow of Earth Essence. She may cause a held object to vanish into soil, stone, or similar materials, submerging into them without displacing or increasing the earth. She cannot store an object in something that is smaller than it—she could hide her daiklave in a brick wall, but not in a pebble. A second use of this Charm allows her to retrieve the embedded object.

This Charm can also be used to steal objects that other Dragon-Blooded have hidden using it. Finding the location of a hidden cache usually requires both Investigation and Awareness rolls, and potentially Survival rolls to navigate long distances. The hidden object also reappears if the stone it is embedded in is destroyed.

Passion-Transmuting Nuance

Cost: 5m; Mins: Presence 5, Essence 2; Type: Simple

Keywords: Water

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Burning Dragon Mien, Unbearable Taunt Technique, Warm-Faced Seduction Style

Human passion is as mutable as flowing water. With a few choice words, the Dragon-Blooded can turn anger to optimism, lust to fear, or delight to sorrow. This Charm is an inspire roll with Manipulation + Presence against a single character who is in the grips of strong emotion, either as a result of an inspire action (Exalted, p. 217), or due to roleplaying reasons unrelated to social influence. A successful roll lets the Dragon-Blooded change her target’s emotion to another, unrelated passion. The new emotion is treated as a Major Intimacy even if the original was not inspired using influence. Resisting this influence requires entering a Decision Point and calling on a Major Intimacy to pay one Willpower.

Revelation-of-Associates Hunch

Cost: 5m; Mins: Investigation 3, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Fire

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Scent-of-Crime Method

Criminals surround themselves with cronies, accomplices, and hirelings like a bonfire wreathes itself in cast-off embers, leaving behind a trail for an intrepid Dragon-Blooded to follow. Any Investigation roll can be enhanced by this Charm, rolling an additional die for every 10. If the Dragon-Blooded successfully uncovers evidence of crime, she experiences the sensation of flashing heat. Based on the intensity of this heat, she can gauge roughly how many individuals were involved—a lone offender’s crime barely registers as heat at all, while a conspiracy of hundreds roars like a bonfire.

With an Investigation 5, Essence 3 repurchase of this Charm, the Dragon-Blooded can detect that a character is connected to the crime with a successful profile character roll enhanced by Revelation-of-Associates Hunch. She recognizes an all-too-familiar heat rising off of the suspect. This does not reveal the role he played in the crime.

Spirit-Chaining Strike

Cost: 4m; Mins: Occult 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple

Keywords: Air

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Spirit-Grounding Shout

Dragging a spirit halfway into the material realm with her attack, the Dragon-Blooded exposes it to her allies. She rolls a gambit using any combat Ability against a dematerialized foe, adding (Essence/2) bonus successes. Spirit-Grounding Shout enhances this attack for free. The difficulty of the gambit is equal to the targeted character’s (Essence). A successful gambit weaves gossamer threads of Air Essence through the spirit, binding it partly to the material world. While it does not become fully materialized, it is visible to all Dragon-Blooded characters in the scene, and can attack or be attacked by them as though it were material. This lasts for one round, plus an additional round for every two threshold successes the Exalt rolled on the gambit’s Initiative roll.

Following the River’s Course

Cost: 5m; Mins: Bureaucracy 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Mute, Water

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Dashing Brook Method, Finding the Water’s Depths

It is easier to understand the tides that bring every piece of flotsam and jetsam than to understand the forces that govern the flow of money, but the Dragon-Blooded does both. She may invoke this Charm whenever another character makes a money payment to her as part of an economic transaction. She gains a flash of insight into the flow that brought it to her, rolling (Perception + Bureaucracy) with double 9s to read the payer’s intentions. Success reveals how they obtained that money, and any Intimacies that character upheld in the process.

An Essence 4 repurchase allows the Dragon-Blooded to use this Charm on any payment she observes being made.

Phantom Fire-Warrior Horde

Cost: 5m, 1a; Mins: War 5, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Fire

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Blazing Courageous Swordsman Inspiration

The Dragon-Blooded draws on the subtler strengths of flame, overwhelming enemy forces with the appearance of superior force. Her anima banner disperses among the ranks of her soldiers, creating illusionary warriors of smoke to fill in any holes in their ranks. The phantom-fire warriors supplement a roll to rally for numbers, increasing the amount of Magnitude restored by (Essence/2).

The Dragon-Blooded also treats the results of her roll as a threaten action against all battle groups that see the fire-warriors come into existence. Battle groups whose Resolve is beaten will retreat from her army, moving away from them with each turn until their commander makes a successful command roll to give them other orders.

Reading The Unspoken Word

Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Linguistics 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple

Keywords: Air

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Speech Without Words

The Dragon-Blooded’s keen intuition can discern the words that someone expects to hear, uncovering the expectations or assumptions couched in that language. A satrap’s servant waiting to lead a foreign prince into his master’s manse might expect to be greeted haughtily and with disdain, a prowling thief worries that someone will question what he is doing, while the guard of a secret meeting awaits the password.

The Dragon-Blooded rolls to read the character’s intentions with Perception + Linguistics, adding (Essence) bonus dice. On a successful roll, she can discern precisely what a character expects to be told in their current circumstances. This may allow her to effectively impersonate someone her subject is waiting on but has not met before, or to otherwise become privy to their confidences. If she leverages this knowledge as part of an influence roll, she adds a non-Charm bonus success on the roll.