Craft Charms

Peerless Paragon of (Craft)

Cost: —; Mins: Craft 4, Essence 2; Type: Permanent Keywords: None Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: Any Craft Excellency

A Lawgiver who has focused his expertise upon a certain expression of craftsmanship soon finds that his least effort matches and exceeds the most desperate labors of mortal artisans. This Charm may be purchased multiple times, once for each Craft Ability the Solar possesses at a rating of 4 or higher. Purchasing this Charm adds (Essence/2) automatic successes to all rolls made with the Ability in question. An Essence 5 Solar with Peerless Paragon of Elements would add three successes to all Craft (Elements) rolls at no cost.

Exotic Crafts such as Craft (Fate) or Craft (Glamour) require Essence 3+, while First Age Craft skills such as Craft (Genesis) and Craft (Magitech) require Essence 4+.

Words-As-Workshop Method

Cost: 16m, 2wp; Mins: Craft 5, Essence 4; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Shaping Duration: Varies Prerequisite Charms: Craftsman Needs No Tools

Creation is the Lawgiver’s workshop. With thisCharm active, as the character works he names whatever small things he needs—advanced tools, alchemical substances, common materials—and they appear in his hands, ready for use. Motes spent on this Charm remain committed as long as it takes to resolve a single roll. For artifact creation, this generally means one season, the length of a single roll interval. Words-as-Workshop Method allows the character to function as if he had a master’s workshop.

Wonder-Forging Genius

Cost: —; Mins: Craft (any) 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent Keywords: None Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: Divine Transcendence of Craft, Crack- Mending Technique, Craftsman Needs No Tools

As the premiere artisans of the Chosen, the Solars can achieve in a mortal lifetime what lesser Exalted require centuries to understand. Purchase of this Charm reduces by one dot each the minimum Craft, Lore, Medicine and Occult requirements to build or repair artifacts—to a minimum requirement of one dot for any Ability normally required for the task. Therefore, a four-dot artifact (normally requiring Lore, Occult and Craft at 6 to build and at 5 to repair) would require those Abilities only at 5 to build or 4 to repair. Purchasing this Charm also reduces by three the total number of dots the character must allocate among Craft, Lore and Occult to design manses. Characters may purchase this Charm up to two times.

Keen Understanding of the Core Imperfection

Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Craft 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-OK, Touch Duration: Indefinite Prerequisite Charms: Shattering Grasp

The Solar touches a structure or object and gains a perfect understanding of what can damage or destroy it and how well. Furthermore, for this Charm's duration, her attacks ignore the target's soak and deal to it (Essence x5) additional dice of damage. If the object is completely immune to damage, the Charm's duration becomes Instant and the Lawgiver is instead granted divine inspiration, discovering an existing Flaw of Invulnerability (created by the storyteller) that would permit the object's destruction.

Design Beyond Limit

Cost: —; Mins: Craft 5, Essence 4; Type: Permanent Keywords: Mirror Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: Durability-Enhancing Technique

The Solar Exalted see potential in the matter and Essence of Creation far beyond the petty limitations of Primordial vision—and make that potential reality. A character who knows this Charm may design artifacts and manses more efficiently.

The character may cap a demesne with a manse rated one dot higher than the demesne. For example, the Lawgiver could cap a 3-dot demesne with a 4-dot manse; the difficulty of all design rolls and the required construction time would be that of a 3-dot manse, but the resultant structure would be a 4-dot manse in all regards (producing a 4-dot hearthstone, having creation points equivalent to a 4-dot manse [see The Books of Sorcery, vol. III—Oadenol’s Codex], and so forth). The Solar may still deliberately weaken his designs to produce one-dot manses, if desired. If used to design a 5-dot manse, Design Beyond Limit does not raise it to N/A level, instead providing ten additional creation points with which to design its features, and it makes the manse a potential geomantic channel to sustain a N/A level manse elsewhere.

Genius and excellence springs from the Solar’s hands almost unbidden when crafting artifacts. She needs only accumulate a number of successes equal to an artifact rated one dot lower than her actual project (see Exalted, p. 134). For example, if attempting to forge a grand daiklave, the Solar would need only 30 successes rather than the usual 60. This Charm provides no benefit when the Solar deigns to construct one-dot artifacts.

Holistic Miracle Understanding

Cost: —; Mins: Craft 5, Essence 5; Type: Permanent Keywords: None Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: Design Beyond Limit

The Solar craftsman has progressed beyond applying discrete bits of knowledge and skill—every part of him is an extension of his prowess, and intuitive understanding blossoms from every aspect of the world around him. The Solar perfectly understands how to recreate any object he makes use of. When he climbs into a warstrider, he is able to estimate what prayers accompanied its creation, the temperatures used to forge its armor, and the order in which its parts were assembled. When he fires a bow, he deduces the materials and methods used to create it—and to fletch the arrow it just fired. When he eats a cake, he deduces all the particulars of its recipe.

Any effort the Solar undertakes to precisely reproduce an object analyzed by this Charm reduces its cumulative difficulty by half and the total number of successes required by his (Essence x 2), to a minimum of 5. With Craft 6+, Essence 6+ the Solar also counts each hour of work invested in building such a replica as three hours of labor. This Charm cannot perfectly analyze N/A-rated wonders like the Five-Metal Shrike or unique miracles of Primordial (or stranger) design such as the Sword of Creation, the elemental poles, or the Well of Udr. Instead, it grants the Solar a sense of vague but potent inspiration—a clue as to where useful information about or elements of the wonder’s construction might be sought. On all occasions when the Solar Exalted have attempted to use Holistic Miracle Understanding to examine an Exaltation, they have experienced only an encouraging-but vague sense that the answer rests within themselves.

The Art of Permanence

Cost: -; Mins: Craft 6, Essence 6; Type: Permanent Keywords: None Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: Durability-Enhancing Technique

The Lawgiver leaves the world eternal monuments to her genius. Anything she uses Craft to create will not age, erode, wear out or otherwise diminish through the natural process of time and use. Nor will it require maintenance. It can, however, be deliberately destroyed.

Applying this Charm’s benefit raises an item’s effective Resources value by one. Applying it to an artifact raises the artifact’s effective background rating by one dot. The benefit granted by this Charm is optional; the Solar may still produce lesser works, if she wishes.