Immaculate Charms

Wood Dragon Style

Most mysterious of an already mysterious group, the followers of the Wood Dragon often baffle even their Immaculate brethen. The element of wood encompasses much more than the literal wood of trees. The currents of life and death itself are within the Wood Dragon Immaculate's purview, and this confuses the other more literally minded members of the Order.
The training that Wood Dragon disciples go through is the least physically grueling of all the five styles, at least in terms of raw physical exertion. While there is the usual regimen of basical training, the heart of the Wood Dragon discipline's training calls for bouts of extreme ascetism, including but not limited to food and water deprivation, masochism and the consumption of even greater quantities of hallucinogenic drugs that the usual Immaculates consumes. All this leads the Wood Dragon Immaculates into a close examination and relationship with the Wood Dragon and the forces of life and death that make up the world.
To those who judge strength only by the force of blows and the speed of fists, the Wood Dragon Immaculates may seem weak. This is a foolish belief. The fortitude cultivated by the Wood Dragon warrior is one of spiritual and mental strength, not just physical power. Although it is the least openly destructive and violent of the five elemental styles, those who master the Path of the Wood Dragon can gain power over life and death itself. Their blows can hurt or heal, and they may even sever or restore the soul's connection to the body. Those who know better tread lightly in the presence of the Immaculates of Wood.
The signature weapon of the Wood Dragon Path is the bow. Wood Dragon acolytes are instructed in all aspects of fletching and bow construction, and each is expected to create his own bow as a rite of passage. These weapons are prized possessions, and a Wood Dragon Immaculate will go to great lengths to retrieve his personal bow if it is lost or stolen.

In the hands of a Wood-aspected Immaculate, any arrow adds +2 to its damage bonus.

Spirit Sight

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms : None

A basic part of Immaculate training is that of interacting with the spirit world. The first step in this training is to comprehend how to perceive the spirit world. This ability is gained as part of the basic training of a Dragon Path, whether the Exalt becomes an Immaculate during character creation or joins the Order later in life. Possessing it is a requirement for learning the charms on the Dragon Path.
The practical upshot of this is that by spending a single mote of Essence, an Immaculate can perceive spirits and incorporeal beings. Normally invisible spiritualized become visible to the Spirit Walker. This power lasts for an entire scene, or until the Exalt consciously reattunes herself to the normal world. Reattuning to the normal world is a dice action.
Tuning in to the spirit world does tend to distract one from the concerns of the material one though. The Exalt invoking this ability suffers a +1 to the difficulty of any activity relating to the corporeal world while using Spirit Sight.

Personal notes: It is a very interesting charm, not too expensive and reflexive. Being able to see in the spiritual world can make the difference.

Spirit Walking

Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms : Spirit Sight

The Immaculates are widely known for their ability to interact with and combat spirits. By merely concentrating for a moment, a properly trained Dragon-Blood can do more than just see the spirit world. She can “Spirit Walk”, mystically attuning herself to the spirit world on a physical level.
This charm allows the Immaculates who know it to interact with spirits as if they were normal corporeal beings. Physical damage dealt by a Spirit Walker that would normally pass right through a spirit’s immaterial form affects it as if the spirit were flesh and blood, as do the charms and abilities of the Exalted. The Immaculate is still in the physical world, however, and has to deal with any physical limitations that may apply. Also, unless the Immaculate uses Spirit Sight, she cannot see dematerialized spirits.
Spirit Walking puts the character truly in tune with both the spiritual world and the corporeal one. When Spirit Walking is used with Spirit Sight, the +1 penalty to difficulties for physical world action is negated.

Personal notes: Very good charm, long duration, only little problem: it is a simple type… But being able to fight non-material spirits is worth the price.

Eyes of the Wood Dragon

Cost: 2 motes (when in form: 1 mote)
Duration: Five turns or until used
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms : None

By invoking the Eyes of the Wood Dragon, an Immaculate can perceive the patterns of a victim’s soul and easily find the place to strike to cause the most damage. When the Exalt next makes a martial arts attack that succeeds, roll her essence rating as extra damage dice. This damage is delivered after the damage from the attack itself has been soaked. This damage ignores any armor, magical or otherwise, but may be soaked normally. If, for some reason, the attack does not roll dice of damage, the extra dice of damage are not applied.
This attack may also affect dematerialized spirits as if materialized. This charm is only effective against living beings and spirits; constructs and automata are immune to its effects. A character cannot invoke the effects of more than one instance of this charm on a single attack.

Personal note: the weakness of the charm is its type, simple means it is useful only for the next turn (except for Exalts who have more than one full action in a single turn). But the good point is that it cannot be soaked with armor and it can affect dematerialized spirits. Another good point is it’s duration, an Exalt can invoke this charm before the combat takes place if he has reasons to think there will be a fight, in that case, his first attack will be enhanced without having to use a charm the same turn (up to five turns…).

Mind-Over-Body Meditation

Cost: 2 motes per health level (when in form only 1 mote per level)
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence : 2
Prerequisite Charms : Eyes of the Wood Dragon

The followers of the Wood Dragon have mastered the flow of life in their own bodies, and healing minor damage is a simple task for them. By simply concentrating and focusing for a moment, the Immaculate invoking the charm can marshal his own essence to heal.
For every 2 motes the Immaculate spends on this charm, he may instantly heal one level of bashing damage. This charm cannot heal lethal or aggravated damage.

Personal note: No use at all in a fight, and actually not really useful at all when the character masters the Wood Dragon Form…

Wood Dragon Vitality

Cost: 2 motes (when in form only 1 mote)
Duration: One turn
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Mind-Over-Body Meditation

Essence surges through the Immaculate’s body, bolstering her life force with that of the Wood Dragon. For the rest of the turn, the Immaculate’s bashing soak is boosted by his martial arts rating, and he may soak lethal damage with his normal bashing soak.

Personal note: … Same than above… It is good to boost soak but this charm is a simple one, so it is the only action for the turn. So I guess it is useful only if the character gets more than one full action in a single turn, or if the character knows he is going to be hit without possibility of defence (when bounded for example).

Soul-Marking Strike

Cost: 3 motes (when in form 2 motes)
Duration: One scene
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Wood Dragon Vitality

To use this charm, a Wood Dragon Immaculate need merely caress his opponent, which results in a sharp pain in the target’s head and no other obvious effects. If done in combat, this caress must be part of a successful attack.
For the remainder of the scene in which the Soul-Marking is placed, any attacks the Immaculate makes against the Soul-Marking target have an automatic success added to the attack roll before the target’s player makes her defensive roll. Multiple soul marking are cumulative.
Soul Marking is especially painful to spirits, as painful as a real brand is to mortals. In addition to the effects listed above, each Soul-Mark reduces a spirit’s dice pools by -1 for the remainder of the scene, representing the constant burning pain the beings endures.
For 24 hours following the use of this charm, an Immaculate can sense when a being he has Soul Marked is within his essence in yards, and which being it is.

Personal notes: That is the first really good charm of the Wood Dragon charm’s tree. This one, combined with multiple attacks can be really dangerous, for example, 3 Soul Marks on one target, gives 3 automatic successes for the rest of the scene for any attacks the Immaculate makes against her… It is quite wise to use this charm at the very beginning of a fight which appears to be long. Used on a dangerous and vengeful spirit it can be very useful, because, even if the spirit tries to approach the Immaculate being dematerialized, this one will sense it (if the attempt is done during the 24h period) and will be able to activate more charms that can attack this enemy… It can be use as well as an interrogation tool, inflicting pain without damaging the target’s body…

Wood Dragon Form

Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Soul-Marking Strike

Invoking the Wood Dragon Form puts the Immaculate in deeper touch with his own life force and healing ability. The martial artist strikes his own body with a series of precise, quick blows, which activate certain pressure points and strengthen the flow of essence through the character’s mortal shell.
For the remainder of the scene after successful invocation of the Wood Dragon Form, the Immaculate regenerates one health level of bashing damage per turn and one health level of lethal damage every two turns until killed. These health levels return at the beginning of each turn. Health levels lost to aggravated damage cannot be regenerated in this manner.
Invoking the form also requires a successful Dexterity + Martial Arts roll, representing the basic execution of the move itself. If the roll fails, the motes for this charm are not spent, but the action is wasted.
Only one Form-type charm can be invoked at any one time. Invoking a new Form-type charm automatically ends the effects of any currently active Form-type charm.

Personal notes: This is a very good Form-type charm, he can regenerate a character, even if this one is unconscious! And it is always a big advantage to know that time is in your favour, the more an enemy takes to damage you the more difficult it will be for him to actually endanger the character…

Wood Dragon Style Charms (order of preference.)

Unbreakable Fascination Kata
Enthralling Blow Attack
Death Pattern Sensing Attitude
Wood Dragon Succor
Spirit Wracking Method
Spirit Rending Technique
Soul Mastery

Other Dragon Blooded Charms

Archery (1)

Spring Follows Winter
Swallows Defend The Nest
Harvest Of The Hunter
Life Swelling Sap Strike
Dragonfly Finds Mate
Seven Year Swarm Volley
Sparrow Dives At Hawk

Martial Arts (5)

Five Dragon Fortitude
Five Dragon Blocking Technique
Five Dragon Claw
Five Dragon Force Blow
Five Dragon Form
Five Dragon Fist
Five Dragon Invulnerability
Five Dragon Wraith

Endurance (3)

Ox Body Technique
Unsleeping Earth Meditation
Uneating Earth Meditation


Survival (2)

Wild Wandering Forester Charm
Forgiveness Of Nature Invoking Prana
Quarry Revelation Technique
Trial Concealing Measurement
Ration Enhancing Method
Hostile Environment Preparation Method
Shelter Creation Technique.

Medicine (3)

Infection Banishing Prana
Dread Infection Strike
Disease Banishing Technique
Wound Closing Touch
Grievous Wound Alteration Energy
Madness Analyzing Stare
Purity Of Mind Method

Occult (2)

Spirit detecting mirror technique
Harmonious Wind Luring Song

Athletics (3)

Effortlessly Rising Flame
Falling Star Manuever
Bellows Pumping Stride
Incense Smoke Ladder
Dancing Ember Stroke
Phoenix Mates Lament
Fiery Prowess
Swift Legion Technique

Dodge (3)

Threshold Warding Strike
Hopping Firecracker Evasion
Virtuous Negation Defense
Flickering Candle Meditation
Smokes Obscuring Effect
Safety Among Enemies
Arrow Consuming Flame Defense
Smoldering Karma Strike

Linguistics (2)

Language Learning Ritual
Thousand Tongues Meditation
Poisoned Tongue Technique
Voice Of Mastery
Wind Carried Words Technique
Voices On The Wind
With One Mind

Socialise (2)

Loquacious Courier Technique
Sweeten-the-Tap Method
Wary Yellow Dog Attitude
Seizing-the-Tongue Technique
Brother-Against-Brother Insinuation
Warm-Faced Seduction Style
Friend-to-All-Nations Attitude
Smoothing-Over-the-Past Technique