Assorted Lunar weapon charms

[AlaskanWyvern]

Some of these are early, some just have random numbers thrown in. The first one is a new idea - Claws of the Silver Moon don't have a defense bonus, which is weird given that moonsilver has +2 defense bonus by itself... so I made an e5 upgrade.

As for the others, I liked the idea of the Claws, but there were only melee versions. No thrown, no archery. But not anymore.
Swan and Lobster Shield
Cost: (+2m) Mins: Strength 4, Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Combo-OK, Gift, Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite charms: Claws of the Silver Moon
This charm upgrades Claws of the Silver Moon. In the First Age, some elder Lunars found themselves dissatisfied with the defensive advantages claws provided and sought to rectify the situation. They came up with the idea of strategically overloading the claws with Essence so that tangible moonlight flowed from them. At the charm's most basic form, the moonlight forms a web around the existing moonlight claws, like duck's foot, creating a war fan that adds half the Lunar's essence to the claws' defense bonus. Also, when using them underwater, they raise underwater movement speed by the user's essence.

When used as a gift charm, it costs one mote in addition to Claws of the Silver Moon, which must be fully active. For a two mote activation of Swan and Lobster Shield, bonuses may be calculated based on the warform's stats.

Moonlight Wisp Barrier
Cost: (-), special Mins: Strength 4, Essence 4
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Combo-OK, Gift, Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite charms: Swan and Lobster Shield
This charm permanently upgrades its prerequisite. Instead of forming comparatively clumsy shields, the Lunar's claws trail the long wisps of solid moonlight that give this charm its name. Effectively, the Lunar may now draw in the air with these lights, which remain in place for one action. By leaving a solid barrier everywhere the Lunar's claws have gone in that action, he raises his defense bonus to +(Essence). The hand fans are still available at a permanently and comprehensively reduced cost of one mote, if the Lunar wishes to gain their advantages to swimming speed.

By spending essence independently of the basic effect, the Lunar may gather the light into a solid ball inside his claws and hurl it as a speed 5 attack, targeted with martial arts or thrown. This carries an accuracy bonus equal to the Lunar's essence, rate 2, range of Essence*10 yards, and damage equal to 2L per mote spent (capped by the Lunar's essence). At essence 5, this attack ignores cover and shields, as the ball of light diffracts around them and reforms on the other side. The activation cost is per shot, rather than per scene. This does not interfere with the Lunar's defense bonuses, although it will cause her to momentarily stop trailing light.

Osseous Shuriken Attack
Cost: 6m, 1wp (+2m, 1bhl) Mins: Stamina 3, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Gift, Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite charms: Armor-forming Technique
In her resourcefulness, the Lunar turns even her bones into deadly weapons. By activating this charm, the Lunar gains (stamina) bony spines somewhere on her body, which may not necessarily be obvious if she already has bony protrusions (for instance, Armor-forming Technique or Limb-Shielding Growth), but it will be readily apparent when she hurls them from her body at her opponent as a thrown attack. These projectiles have the following statistics: Speed 4, Accuracy +2, Damage (Essence*2 L), Rate 3, range (Essence*10) yards. When she has expended these attacks, she must reflexively pay two motes and suffer a level of bashing damage to gain another (stamina) projectiles.

At Essence 3, they upgrade to Accuracy +(Dexterity), at a two-mote surcharge to the initial activation. At Essence 4, they have become piercing, and the Lunar gets an extra shot if she is using another charm that gives her external bony protrusions. That adds an extra two-mote surcharge to the initial activation. These upgrades may be used independently of each other, but activating either or both of the upgrades adds a non-cumulative one mote or one bashing damage surcharge to the re-activation cost.

Used as a Gift charm, this charm costs two motes for the basic attack. For four motes, she gets the best bonuses possible, and bases her ammunition on her warform's stamina.


Skeletal Sky-Cutter Method
Cost: (+5m) Mins: Stamina 4, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Gift, Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite charms: Osseous Shuriken Attack, Limb-shielding Growth
Having mastered the art of launching small bone projectiles and making large bone shields, the Lunar takes the next logical step. This charm first requires that Limb-shielding Growth be active already or be activated along with this charm. On the charm's initial activation, the shields edges grow razor-sharp saw teeth. Then with a mighty roar, the Lunar rips her shield from her arm and hurls it like a discus at her opponent. The shield automatically returns to the Lunar's arm at the end of the tick, unless she botches the thrown attack. While the shield is in midair, it obviously cannot defend its owner. While it remains in place, its utility as a shield is unaffected. After the initial use, the Lunar need not pay the cost again, unless she wishes to pay an extra two motes for an instant return. In all other respects, the shield behaves as a moonsilver sky-cutter.

When used as a gift charm, the Lunar may commit three motes in addition to her activation of Limb-shielding Growth. At Essence 5, this charm upgrades to have (Dexterity*10) yards range, if that is better than the standard skycutter's range.


Bone Cannon Conflagration
Cost: 5m, 1wp Mins: Stamina 4, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Gift, Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite charms: Osseous Shuriken Attack, Scorpion and Toad Mastery
This charm comes with a sticky, flammable tar that can be produced via Scorpion and Toad Mastery. Mechanically, it is similar to alchemical weapon fuel.
The Lunar forms a body-mounted firewand out of bone and fills it with the aforementioned tar (or anything else she feels like launching*). The weapon's base attributes are Speed 5, Range 15 yards, Rate 2, Accuracy +(Essence), and raw damage of 16L. It reloads every (stamina) shots, at which point Scorpion and Toad Mastery must be used, at a three mote cost.

When used as a gift charm, the willpower surcharge is removed.
At Essence 5, this weapon may be optionally be concealed within the mouth in lieu of the normal activation, using the following attributes: Range 8 yards, Rate 3, Accuracy +(Essence), and 8L damage. An obvious version is a complicated, multi-barreled affair with Speed 4.

*Lunars with this charm sometimes used water, alcoholic drink, or some other harmless substance during training, resulting in epic water gun fights.

[CodexGigas]

Moonlight Wisp:

I really like it, especially the flavor, but I'd probably make it a permanent Charm, otherwise you'd be forced to combo it if you wanted to activate it at the same time as the claws. It also doesn't need to be Essence 5; even 4 feels a little high. I might make the barrier/energy ball effects a repurchase or possibly another charm entirely.

Osseous Shuriken:

More review later, but for clarification, I'm assuming that sprouting new spikes is a reflexive action? Also, don't forget to add (+2m, 1bl) to the Cost.

Skeletal Sky Cutter:

Almost certainly Essence 3 or 4 if it creates the equivalent of an artifact weapon. I'd make it a reflexive, otherwise it won't be much good in combos. I also might consider making it a permanent upgrade to Limb-Shielding Growth. There are some counterattack charms that act on the same tick, which will lead to timing issues in rare cases. Does the Lunar lose the defensive benefits until the shield returns? Or does the shield maintain any defensive qualities at all once it's been turned into a weapon?

Bone Cannon:

Awesome idea.
Does the character need to use Scorpion and Toad to reload after every shot? (Stamina) shots? How does reloading work speed wise? Artifact flamepieces usually have five shots and then a misc. action to reload.

I'd give the character the ability to launch anything he creates with S&T. What's the Speed of a concealed cannon? I might bump the speed up to at least 4 for the obvious version; you can always use other charms to drop the speed.

[AlaskanWyvern]

Good points. I made some changes and bolded them.


Moonlight Wisp barrier: also useful for sweet rave parties or lightcycle hands. Or rock climbing.
Since the voiding of defense bonuses was intended as a drawback to fit the whole batch into one charm, I ditched it.

[AlaskanWyvern]

The thrown attack for Moonlight Wisp kind of sucked the way I wrote it, so I cloned Elemental Bolt and gave it a shorter range. I have this mental image of a Lunar and a Wyld Hunt member charging each other in preparation for epic battle:
DB: "Just a little closer, and my daiklave will cut him to bits!"
Lunar: "HADOUKEN!"
DB: "Aw sh-"(is hit in the face with a Lunar Laser while ever-so-slightly out of melee range)

Or possibly a Lunar's companion is faring badly in the fight, so the Lunar nonchalantly flurries that and an attempt to establish surprise, nailing his companion's opponent in the back from several squares away.

[CodexGigas]

That's a pretty inexpensive attack to be avoiding shields and cover. Maybe it reduces cover bonuses? Although, it doesn't do much damage and you can still soak it. Although if the player had a Lunar lens...

[AlaskanWyvern]

What would you recommend, then?

[CodexGigas]

A few things come to mind; halving the shield/cover bonus, automatic upgrade at Essence 5 to ignoring shield/cover, or if Lunar knows some other Charm (maybe Riding the Secret Wind?), let him freely apply it as a non-charm activation.

[AlaskanWyvern]

I'm liking the e5 auto-upgrade, personally.

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