Exalted Martial Arts

Martial arts in Exalted

Martial arts occupy a somewhat unique position in Exalted, they are the only completely universal charms in the game. Sorcery is similar, but the Raksha (Fair Folk) are unable to learn it preventing it from being truly universal. This means that martial arts mean something different to each different type of Hero (our term for those important enough to have a name and stat line, be they player characters or NPC’s). This also means that Martial arts must complement rather than replace the basic charms of the Heroes.

These factors mean picking your martial art can be an important stage of the character creation process, since its abilities when compared to the native abilities of the Hero you are using will affect the charm and stat choices you need to make.

This guide is intended to provide a breakdown on each of the martial arts currently presented in Exalted, giving an overview of the style as a whole, a brief look at each of the charms, and some nasty tricks the style can pull in a game, as well as brief advice on running a martial artist PC.

Gateway charms

Gateway charms are the charms which allow Terrestrial Exalted, Heroic Ghosts and Raksha to learn Celestial martial arts. That doesn’t mean they are limited to those Hero types, rather; they can be taken by any Exalt type, as well as Raksha and Ghosts. There are three sets of gateway charms available to characters; the Immaculate Order Spirit Mastery, the Iris Bulb Understanding of Secular and Profane Brokerage, and Tiger and Bear initiation.

The Immaculate charms and the Iris bulb initiation have similar mechanics, with the Iris Bulb being a less refined version of the Spirit Mastery charms. As such, they are moderately less powerful, but more flavourful for non immaculates. The initial charm of each allows the user to perceive immaterial spirits (although the Iris bulb initiation charm only allows the perception of an outline filled with irises). The second charm allows interaction (usually the administering of a sound beating) with immaterial beings, a very useful ability to the god bullying immaculate monks. These abilities are relatively useful to the Terrestrial Exalted and Raksha, who do not have easy methods of detecting or interacting with immaterial beings without some kind of artefact or other prop (a mirror for Dragonblooded, for example). Celestial Exalted generally have their own spirit perception charms, which are generally at least as good as the initiation charms. They also do not need to learn the initiation charms, meaning the Immaculate initiation is somewhat useless to them (unless they wish to totally specialise in Martial Arts, as spirit interaction charms are usually Occult charms).

The Tiger and Bear Initiation charms are very different in focus from the spirit manipulation charms of the other initiations. Where the spirit manipulation initiations focus on expanding your perceptions into the immaterial as a method of enlightening your essence, the Tiger and Bear initiation charms do it by mastering their martial skills: The initial charm, Tiger and Bear awareness, gives immunity to ambush and automatically detects anyone hiding by mundane means nearby. The second charm, Tiger and Bear unity is very much a heightening of the martial skill of the Hero, it grants several automatic successes to a martial arts roll, making it very desirable indeed, especially as it can be comboed normally.

Different groups are more likely to learn different initiations: Immaculates and immaculate taught Dragonblooded (they are unlikely to teach anyone else) will certainly learn Spirit Sight and Spirit Walking. Those learning from spirits could conceivably learn all three, but the Iris Bulb understanding is probably the most likely. Those learning from first age troop training devices or possibly war gods are likely to learn Tiger and Bear Initiation.

Terrestrial Martial Arts

The terrestrial martial arts are the starting point for the supernatural martial arts, they represent the truly basic techniques that even enlightened mortals can achieve. This does not, however, mean they are useless.

Five Dragons Fight as One Style

This style is the ‘default’ terrestrial style. That is, it has very few flashy ‘concept’ charms and a whole load of utility charms. The initial two charms boost attack (Five Dragon Claw)and passive defence (in this case soak, Five Dragon Fortitude), however, the attack charm is somewhat weakened in that it doesn’t do anything if you are armed with a weapon capable of lethal damage. The form charm is a nice, utilitarian form charm, which increases soak (not uncommon) and mobility, as well as breaking strength. The pinnacle charm is a standard extra action charm that might well be found just post form charm in a celestial martial art, with a slightly increased cost. This is clearly much weaker than the celestial equivalent, but not unexpected. Other interesting or standout charms are Five Dragon blocking technique, which grants a persistent defence (sort of, it’s not very good, but it’s still persistent) and Five Dragon Fist, which is a strike for aggravated damage, relatively rare in the Exalted world. Concerning combo potential, the style is quite weak, with a lack of good supplemental charms, and since the users of this tree will most likely be Dragonblooded, comboing reflexive defences from it is unnecessary. The form weapons are both very good for this style, however. Swords and spears are in form for this style, so daiklaives and dire lances are appropriate form weapons (conceivably including grand daiklaives). Furthermore, the style is compatible with armour Overall, the style is quite useful for terrestrial level Heroes, giving a decent mixture of offensive and defensive capabilities, and an excellent form weapon. Naturally, the style shines in the hands of the Dragonblooded, where the free reflexive charm capabilities they possess allow greater flexibility. It is also conceivable that a Sidereal Exalt who has mastered Violet Bier of Sorrows style would choose this style, as it also works with daiklaives.

Crimson Pentacle Blade

Crimson Pentacle Blade is a Terrestrial Martial Art. This means two things. Firstly, that it can be learned by nearly anyone. Exalts, ghosts, raksha, godblooded, even mortal thaumaturges, all can learn this style. Secondly, it has a looser and more concrete symbolic referent than Celestial styles, and far less abstract than Sidereal ones. The unifying themes of Crimson Pentacle Blade Style are teamwork and athleticism.

The form weapons are shield and "polearm," the latter category including all weapons with a haft at least four and a half feet long. Included are spears, sledges, poleaxes, and scythes, and the artifact forms of these. It is relevant to notice that due to this, there is overlap with the form weapons of Five Dragon Style for users with a spear, and with Earth Dragon Style and Jade Mountain Style with the sledge. Note also that the first charm in the Style makes it possible to use a large shield in one hand and a normally two-handed polearm in the other without penalty, which would not normally be possible. It is generally assumed that Crimson Pentacle Blade users will be armed, as no charms exist to allow unarmed users to do lethal damage or to parry it without a stunt. Crimson Pentacle Blade does not permit the use of armor.

One unique feature of CPB is the "postures" it grants. Five are given, each of which emphases a particular approach to the style, with suggested clothing and weapon, although those are not mechanically required. Each posture provides a different "posture bonus," which is in effect an extra specialty dot for a particular sort of situation. These dots are cumulative with normal specialties, but cannot raise the total specialty applied to a roll above three.

As the Terrestrial styles go, it has perhaps more "style" than any of the others. Crimson Pentacle Blade has a very distinct visual approach, and one that works well with the Dragonblooded aesthetic in particular. Unfortunately, the promise of the potential is not fully realized in the mechanics, due to problems of the sort that afflict perhaps all of the Players Guide's martial arts.

Jade Mountain

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Celestial Martial Arts

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Siderial Martial Arts

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See also Martial Arts

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Original author: Ubermonkey on RPG.net