Fire Dragon Style

Fire Dragon Style is an Immaculate Martial Art, the Glorious Dragon Path aspected to Hesiesh the Dragon of Fire. Like the example of Hesiesh himself, the practitioner of the Style practices temperance and restraint from action, until the time comes to expend all their power in a quick and furious inferno to obliterate a foe entirely.

SOURCE: Original in MoEP:Dragonbloded pp.205-207. Based almost entirely on revision by JiveX on the White Wolf forums. Also includes Scroll of Errata revisions where applicable.

ELEMENTAL ASPECT: Fire.

FORM WEAPONS: This style treats Short Swords and Short Daiklaves as Form Weapons.

Flash Fire Technique

Cost: 2m;
Mins: Melee 2, Brawl 2, Resistance 1, Integrity 1, Essence 1;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Leader 3
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

Flames can go from embers to infernos in a matter of moment, there is no reliable way of predicting how swiftly this escalation can happen. The only universal truth of the transformation is that it always happens too soon. This charm enhances the Martial Artist's Join Battle roll adding (lowest of Melee or Brawl) dice to it and reducing his final position in the reaction count by -1. If this final reduction in position in the reaction count would put him below tick 0 (ie: if the character is the first character to act before this reduction) refund 1m of this charm's cost. This Charm may be used to enhance a Join War roll.

Roaring Bonfire Dance

Cost: 3m;
Mins: Brawl 3, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One Action
Prerequisite Charms: Flash Fire Technique

The Martial Artist dances like a bonfire, surrounding and consuming his foe. This charm enables the martial artist to extend the reach of his blows with fire essence and to strike foes up close without putting himself at risk for retribution. The Martial Artist's unarmed and Form-weapon attacks gain the Reach (R) Tag for the duration. Additionally, Melee or Brawl attacks which target him, and are made by characters against whom he has directed unarmed or Form-weapon attacks during the duration of the charm's current activation, suffer a -3 external penalty (treated as a called shot penalty), unless they are made with a weapon with the R tag or which can strike at a range. Even with such a weapon, such attacks suffer a -1 point external penalty.

Searing Fist Attack

Cost: 2m;
Mins: Melee 3, Brawl 2, Essence 2;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Roaring Bonfire Dance

The Martial Artist strikes a blow that burns from within with terrible fire essence, when it strikes, she unleashes this essence to scorch the flesh of her foe. This charm may supplement any unarmed or Form-weapon attack causing it to scorch its target with fire. This attack does Lethal damage if it did not already, and converts one dice of lethal, post-soak, damage into an automatic success. Furthermore, if the attack succeeds in doing one or more level of damage, reduce the target's Appearance by a value equal to half the most serious lethal or aggravated wound penalty caused by this attack's damage, round down. This secondary effect is Crippling, manifesting as hideously scorched flesh which flakes and bubbles as it cooks from within. Exalted recover from this Crippling effect when they heal the associated wounds, mortals require magical medical care to treat the effect. The Crippling effect inflicted by this charm is not cumulative and subsequent uses of this charm replace the pre-existing one.

Perfect Blazing Blow

Cost: 3m 1wp; Mins: Melee 3, Brawl 2, Essence 3;
Type: Reflexive (Step 4)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Leader
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Roaring Bonfire Dance

This Charm may benefit a rolled unarmed or Form-weapon attack, converting all unsuccessful dice into automatic successes. This charm is subject to the same restrictions placed upon the 3rd Excellency with regards to its compatibility with the First and Second Excellencies. It also cannot cause the Martial Artist's final successes to exceed (Dexterity +[Brawl or Melee ability used for attack] +Relevant Specialty). The Leader effect of this charm may only be used to aid an attack against a solo unit or a called shot against a special character.

Fire Dragon Form

Cost: 6m;
Mins: Melee 3, Brawl 3, Resistance 2, Integrity 2, Essence 3;
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Form-type, Obvious, Enhanced
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Perfect Blazing Blow, Searing Fist Attack

The Martial Artist's anima bursts into its full, terrible, glory and sublimates itself into fire essence.

The Martial Artist's movements quicken, fueled by the vigor of fire. While this charm is active, the martial artist gains the following benefits:

- All unarmed attacks or attacks with the style's form weapon benefit from a -2 reduction in multiple action penalties. Because of the natural harmony between Jade and the Elemental Essence of the Fire Dragon Style, this bonus is increased to -4 when it benefits attacks with artifact form weapons forged of Jade. Terrestrial Exalted who activate this form further may further reduce the multiple action penalties suffered by their unarmed and Form weapon attacks by Stunting: In addition to the normal bonuses of the Stunt, reduce all multiple action penalties effecting the Stunted attack's dice pool by a value equal to the stunt's rating. The maximum cumulative reduction to multiple action penalties the form can provide is -6.

- The Terrestrial reduces the DV penalty associated with all unarmed and Form-weapon attacks by 1 (-1).

- The Martial Artist does Lethal damage with his unarmed attacks, as they are wreathed in flame. If an attack is supplemented by a Fire-Aspect charm which allows it to do lethal damage already, increase the attack's base damage by +2L.

- Terrestrial Exalted add (Essence/2) to the damage inflicted by anima flux, making this style dangerous for the unrestrained practitioner. Even Terrestrials of different Aspects gain this dubious benefit. Their anima flux takes on flame-like characteristics. A Water Anima might become a roiling wave of boiling seawater, while an Earth Aspect's Anima might become chunks of molten rock. The Anima banners of non-Terrestrial exalted are harmonized with fire essence to such an extent that behave as Terrestrial animas with regards to causing anima flux damage. They also take on flame-like characteristics.

Wound-Cauterizing Dragon Strike

Cost: 3m,
Mins: Brawl 4, Melee 3, Essence 3;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Crippling
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fire Dragon Form

This charm supplements an unarmed or Form-weapon attack which deals Lethal damage against a target with a Permanent Essence lower than the Martial Artist's Permanent Essence. If the attack lands, any damage it inflicts is a Crippling effect and cannot be healed by except by charms which explicitly treat Crippling damage. Furthermore, this damage in exceedingly painful, increasing the wound penalties the target suffers by the Martial Artist's (Essence/2). This effect also closes any wound it inflicts, preventing bleeding or infection. This Crippling effect persists indefinitely for mortals, and for 25 hours for the Exalted and other Essence Users.

Essence Igniting Nerve Strike

Cost:2m 1wp
Mins: Brawl 4, Melee 3, Essence 3;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Obvious, Combo-OK, Shaping
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fire Dragon Form

The Martial Artist forces harmony between her burning Essence and her opponent's Essence, transmuting their enemy's Essence into raw fire. This charm may target any Essence User. When used to supplement a successful unarmed or Form-weapon attack, it adds a number of dice of post-soak damage to the Martial Artist's attack equal to the target's Permanent Essence. It also causes the victim to instantly shed their (Permanent Essence x 3) motes in a blaze of fire essence. This loss of motes (not the additional damage) is a Shaping effect. Motes shed in this manner come from the target's peripheral pool, if they have one, and may cause their anima to flare. Immaculates often use this effect to reveal a hidden Anathema.

Breath of the Fire Dragon

Cost: Varies;
Mins: Brawl 4, Resistance 3, Essence 3;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Leader, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Pre-requisite Charms: Wound Cauterizing Dragon Strike, Essence Igniting Nerve Strike.

This Charm allows a martial artist to spew a gout of flame, inflicting terrible damage. With the expenditure of a Willpower, this flame may even damage dematerialized beings. See Manual of Exalted Power: Dragon-Blooded, p. 206, bearing in mind that this Charm inflicts dice of damage, not levels.

Overwhelming Fire Majesty Surge

Cost: 2m; Mins: Melee 3, Brawl 3, Presence 2, Essence 3;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Emotion, Leader 4
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fire Dragon Form

The Martial Artist gathers his essence and burns in the eyes of his enemies, a terrible expression of wrathful flame. As he blazes through the ranks of the enemy like a wildfire spreading across the open plains, he sows fear into his enemies’ hearts. This charm may benefit a close-range attack against any character. Compare the successes on the attack roll to the Defender's MDV. If the target of the attack's MDV is lower than the rolled successes (before physical DV applications), even if the attack did not land, the target suffers a fear based emotion effect which inflicts an internal penalty of the Martial Artist's (Permanent essence) to any action the target takes except; to flee the battle, surrender, or beg for mercy. This charm costs 1wp to resist for a single action, once a character has spend 3wp resisting this charm in a scene they are immune to all activations of this charm for the remainder of the scene. This charm inflicts unnatural mental influence.

Flickering Fire Mode

Cost: 5m
Mins: Melee 4, Brawl 3, Essence 3;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Leader
Duration: One Tick
Prerequisite Charms: Overwhelming Fire Majesty Surge

The More furiously you swat a flame the more it dances merrily. This charm eliminates all penalties to the Martial Artist's DVs against any close ranged attack. The Leader effect of this charm applies only to the Martial Artist's PDV.

Burning Fiery Blow

Cost:2m
Mins: Melee 5, Brawl 3, Essence 3;
Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flickering Fire Mode

The Martial Artist may activate this charm whenever she makes an unarmed or Form-weapon attack benefiting from any of the Following Charms: Essence Igniting Nerve Strike, Breath of the Fire Dragon and Searing Fist attack, as well as any other magic which inflicts damage by direct exposure to fire and enhances an unarmed or Melee attack. This charm causes the target, should they suffer one or more level of Lethal damage from the attack, to burst into flame. This flame has the properties of a Bonfire and is treated, for all purposes, as a magical environmental effect. It cannot be extinguished by submersion in water or any non-magical means. However, the flame is short lived, burning for a number of actions equal to the Martial Artist's (Permanent Essence/2), round up. At Essence 4+, while Fire Dragon Form is active, a martial artist can activate this charm whenever he deals damage on a target with magical fire created by his own magic.

Consuming Might of the Fire Dragon

Cost: -- (+5m, +1wp);
Mins: Brawl 5, Melee 5, Resistance 3, Integrity 2, Essence 4;
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Burning Fiery Blow, Breath of the Fire Dragon

The flames of the Fire Dragon are terrible indeed, but if not contained they consume even those who would command them. This charm represents consummate mastery of this style. This Charm is an optional enhancement to Fire Dragon Form, when it is active the fiery Essence display associated with the form changes from vibrant orange to flames of brilliant red, blue, or white. Use of this charm changes the activation speed of Fire Dragon form from Speed 3 to Speed 5.

The Martial Artist enjoys the following benefit while it is in effect (recalling that these come in addition to the effects of the Form charm itself):

- The Exalt may use Burning Fiery Blow with relative impunity, should the attack fail to ignite its target, he is instantly refunded the motes expended on it in.

- The Martial Artist gains the Terrestrial Aspect Anima Power, if he did not have it already and it remains active for the duration of this charm. Fire Aspected Terrestrials may stack the benefits of this with their natural anima creating an especially potent anima power and, should they pay the cost of this charm's activation entirely out of Peripheral Motes, may automatically activate their own Anima Power.

- Celestial Exalted's Anima Flux inflicts (Essence/2), round up, extra dice of damage, while Terrestrial Anima Flux now inflicts (Essence) additional dice of damage (this supplants original Anima Flux damage increase of Fire Dragon Form). At Essence 5+ a practitioner of this Style may exempt (Willpower) allies from the wrath of her anima flux and any non-magical fires while this charm is active, filling them with a spark of her internal fire. These allies are selected at the moment the charm is activate and may not be altered while the Form is active. Any dead bodies touched by the Exalt's anima banner are burned to ash, their spirits passing to Lethe (unable to become ghosts or hungry ghosts).