Martial Arts (for Solars)
Ah, good, you Solars have all filed in. Take a seat. You may be wondering why crack teams of the five score fellowship abducted you from your homes and palaces and brought you here. Well, we had a policy meeting and cast some fates, and decided that if you are to provide some sort of opposition to our newly trained operatives, some sort of minimum competence amongst your martial artists must be assured. So if you will just sit quietly and observe this short presentation…
What do you mean “Why am I, Chejop Kejack, giving this presentation about Solars?” Because I am the greatest living martial artist in creation. Do you want to argue about it? I thought not.
What are martial arts?
Martial arts are movements and postures which harness essence in such a way as to enhance ones capabilities, through the use of charms
Why should I practice martial arts?
Increased flexibility in mortal combat, as styles focus on attack, defence, armed and unarmed combat. No other combat method provides this flexibility, in addition, the martial arts forms often have unusual charms one would not expect to find in a combat art.
You there, with the braid, pay attention! Oh, you know this, you’ve learned Snake Style all the way to the form. Good for you. When you understand the One Thousand Perfect Katas then you can ignore my lessons!
Chejop Kejack's two immutable lessons of Martial Arts
1) Martial Arts is a complementary ability: As a combat method, martial arts does not stand alone. You need to be able to avoid or absorb attacks sent at you. For you Solars, this means one of three things:
- Learn Dodge. This is the route most often travelled by Martial Artists, as dodge provides a strong defence with minimal commitment to the ability (two or three charms)
- Learn Melee. This route is less common amongst Solars for a variety of reasons; If you’re learning some melee, why not just concentrate on it? You lose the advantage of being able to avoid attacks while unarmed. The Solar persistent parry is slightly less effective than the persistent dodge.
- Learn Soak charms: This route is by far the least travelled on its own, simply because Solar soak charms are not as potent as the other two methods of defence.
2) As a martial artist, you will (unless you are a Sidereal) be less dangerous in battle than your melee using brethren. Yes Dace, that’s you, now please stop waving that daiklaive around. Oh, Swan, just take it off him. Dace stop pulling Swans hair. Yes, I know it’s like a girls, and you’re very manly. CHILDREN! That’s better.
Now, where was I. Oh yes, you’ll be less effective at slaughtering hordes of enemies. You will have several unique tricks and unusual advantages however, depending on your chosen style.
Now that you know those lessons, how should you proceed?
Well, first, choose your style. I will go into further detail on individual styles later. You should, if you wish to concentrate on martial arts, make sure you know at least up to the form charm, yes, like you Swan, of your chosen style before you can consider yourself a true martial artist. You should also make sure you have a decent method of defence, a reflexive dodge or parry is suggested. Generally, completing one style before beginning a second is preferred to starting multiple styles, with a few exceptions, such as learning the first two charms of Violet Bier of Sorrows Style as soon as possible.
But Master Chejop, how should I advance?
Well, unless you intend to crush your enemies solely with your finger tips, never allowing them to strike back, there are two ways you can advance:
1) Shore up your defences, layer them as strongly as you can. Getting access to a persistent defence should be your biggest long term goal.
2) Pick a style with the same form weapon as the style you currently use, then the charms can be cross comboed with that weapon easily, then learn into that style
Yes, Arianna, I Know this advice is somewhat obvious, but with Solars of Dace's intelligence around, you can never be sure. Is he eating paste again?
The one paragraph analysis of each Celestial style has been moved to the Exalted Martial Arts page.
Original Author: Ubermonkey on RPG.net
