Great Heart Companion
Cost: None Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: Anima
Mins: Ride 1, Essence 1 Prereqs: None
When the Dragonblooded purchases this Charm, he selects one animal that he has ridden on at least for one hour. This animal is almost always a Familiar, but it need not be. Once purchased, this Charm renders the animal immune to the Dragonblooded’s Anima Flux damage. It also grants the animal a number of Improvement Points equal to the Dragonblooded’s Essence. These points may be spent on a one tor one basis to add: 1 dot to Strength and Stamina, 1 dot to Dexterity, 1 dot to Wits, 1 dot to Perception or 1 -0 Health Level. These bonuses increase as the Dragonblooded’s Essence increases. The animal will also not die of old age as long as the Dragonblooded lives but will die if the Dragonblooded dies for any reason.
This Charm can only be purchased once, even if the Great Heart Companion dies. In that case, only in that case, the Dragonblooded may spend 3XP to choose a new Great heart Companion from among his former companion’s direct descendants.
Elemental Halo Meditation
Cost: None Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: Anima, Elemental
Mins: Ride 3, Essence 2 Prereqs: Great Heart Companion
This Charm improves Great Heart Companion. So long as the Dragonblooded is riding his chosen steed and his anima is flaring at the 1+ motes level, his mount gains special abilities dependant on the character’s Aspect.
Air Aspects grant their mounts improved aerial movement. For land or sea animals add the Dragonblooded’s (Essence x2) to its leaping distance even for creatures who normally can’t jump, such as Yeddim. Flying mounts add the Dragonblooded’s (Essence x2) to their movement in yards/tick.
Earth Aspects grant their mounts improved durability. The mount’s Stamina increases by the Dragonblooded’s Essence, and it may soak lethal damage with its full Stamina.
Fire Aspects grant their mounts blazing speed. Add half of the Exalt’s Essence (round up) to the mount’s Dexterity for all purposes.
Water Aspects mounts can travel on water as if it were solid ground and add the Dragonblooded’s (Essence x2) in yards/tick to their movement rates if moving across or under water.
Wood Aspects grant their mounts enhanced strength. Add the Dragonblooded’s Essence to the mount’s Strength. If its natural attacks don’t normally do lethal damage, they do as long as they are affected by this power.
Mount Summoning Ritual
Cost: None Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: Anima
Mins: Ride 5, Essence 3 Prereqs: Elemental Halo Meditation
Through use of this ritual, the Dragonblooded need never leave his Great Heart Companion behind. This anima power is a one hour long ritual that greatly resembles the Summon Elemental spell in some respects. The Dragonblooded spends 15 motes at the culmination of the ritual, at which point the Great Heart Companion appears in a swirl of elemental Essence, magically transported from anywhere in Creation to the character’s side.
Compassionate Master’s Defence
Cost: 1m Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-OK
Mins: Ride 2, Essence 1 Prereqs: (Any) Ride Excellency
While they do not often ride to war, those Dragonblooded who do show a concern for their steeds that far exceeds those of their fellows. This Charm can be activated in response to an attack against an animal the Dragonblooded is riding. When activated, the Dragonblooded becomes the target for the attack. He defends against the attack as normal.
Breaking The Dragon’s Back
Cost: 1m+, 1wp Type: Simple (Speed 5, DV-1)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Mins: Ride 4, Essence 2 Prereqs: Compassionate Master’s Defence
This Charm allows an Exalt to instantly take control of any mount by leaping onto its back and creating a bridle of Essence which breaks its will to serve the Exalt. The Exalt spends 1m for every permanent Willpower dot the potential mount has plus one willpower, then rolls his Charisma + Ride against its Dodge MDV. If successful, he immediately mounts the animal in a single fluid motion and the mount will accept him as its master from that point forward. Its control rating is effectively 1 for the purpose of the Exalt (and only the Exalt) who used this Charm. After use the bridle of Essence vanishes.
Usually use of this Charm is wasted on normal riding mounts, but this Charm also effects mounts trained to accept only one type of rider, normally dangerous or “untrainable” animals that would never accept a rider (such as Tyrant Lizards) or even intelligent creatures which have enough in common with mounts for them to qualify (Storyteller’s call but Agata certainly qualify, as would God-blooded horses). Only Familiars and other animals with magic-backed loyalty are immune to this Charm.
The Dragonblooded can also use this Charm to benefit others. He makes the roll as normal, but if he succeeds, he passes the Essence bridle to another who then becomes the animal’s master. He must make the roll even if he has already broken the mount for himself. Any use of this Charm erases any previous use, so an animal may only be enchanted by one version of this Charm at a time.
Horse Whisperer’s Encouragement
Cost: None Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: None
Mins: Ride 3, Essence 2 Prereqs: Third Ride Excellency
Bending over and whispering encouragement into his steed’s ear, the Dragonblooded gives it supernatural steadiness which prevents it from failing at any task. This Charm can be used to affect any roll made by a mount the character is currently riding, allowing him to evoke his Third Ride Excellency to benefit the mounts actions. This Charm can affect any Ability roll made by the mount, but only if the Dragonblooded is riding it at the time. This Charm does not change the timing and compatibility issues of the Third Excellency by itself, merely allows the Dragonblooded to evoke it to benefit his mount.
Terrain Traveling Method
Cost: 3m,1wp Type: Simple
Duration: One Day
Keywords: Cooperative, Elemental, War
Mins: Ride 4, Essence 2 Prereqs: Horse Whisperer’s Encouragement
Using this Charm, the Dragonblooded is able to allow his mount, and a number of additional mounts suitable to seat a unit of Magnitude 1, travel at great speed through even the harshest of climates or terrains… provided the Dragonblooded has affinity for that area.
This Charm treats all travel times for the unit as if the unit was traveling on a clear, well maintained road provided the unit is traveling through aspect compatible terrain. Air aspects ignore penalties to their travel time from ice, snow, blizzards and cold. Earth aspects treat mountains, regardless of steepness, as level terrain. Fire aspects move at normal speed through deserts, in sandstorms or in blistering heat. Water aspects can ford and portage rivers so quickly that unless the body of water is at least five miles across they treat it as no barrier at all; similarly, they ignore travel time penalties from swamps. Wood aspects move through even the thickest forest or most overgrown jungle with equal speed.
Note that this Charm does not prevent environmental damage, nor does it drive off insects and other vermin or provide the unit with provisions. In War, a unit effected by this Charm does ignore the limitations on available formations and magnitude imposed by the environment (which is particularly handy in the East, see the Scroll of Kings pg. 84 for more details).
If multiple Dragonblooded use this Charm cooperatively the size of the unit that can be affected is equal to the total number of Dragonblooded using this Charm. Additionally, the unit gains the benefits of all relevant environmental immunities (so a Magnitude 3 unit of two Fire and one Earth could effortlessly travel at full speed through a range of highly volcanic mountains, even if they risk damaging their unit by doing so).
Charge of the One Hundred Generals
Cost: 5m,1wp Type: Extra Action
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-OK, War, Cooperative
Mins: Ride 5, Essence 3 Prereqs: Terrain Traveling Method
Few things in Creation are as feared as this Charm. Using it, the Exalted rallies a single unit mounted on cavalry to his voice and leads them forward, a thundering wave of hooves and steel that overrun everything. This Charm fills the mounts of all the unit with supernatural speed and synchronizes their attack to maximum possible effect.
To use this Charm, the Dragonblooded must be a member of the Unit. If the commander, he uses this Charm as his normal action, bringing the entire unit along with him. He then spends the motes and charges an opponent. This Charm allows the cavalry unit to move twice its normal Dash movement on the tick in which it makes this attack, but only in a straight line. It can attack an enemy unit at any point along this line.
This Charm allows the unit to make one attack for every point of Magnitude it has. The player can make all these attacks against a single unit or splits them up among any number of units along the unit’s path of movement in any way the Exalt pleases. Once it makes an attack, the unit affected by this Charm may disengage automatically and continue its movement if it hasn’t yet used up its full movement this tick.
In addition to being damaged by the attack, any unit attacked by this Charm adds +1 difficulty to the Morale roll to resist rout after being attacked by this Charm. Any unit that takes any damage from this Charm immediately falls into an Unordered Formation as the cavalry cuts straight through their formation and sends troops flying in all directions.
A Dragonblooded Hero, Sorcerer or Relay in the unit can activate this Charm in response to a charge made by the unit’s Commander. It doesn’t grant the speed bonus or inflict Morale or Formation penalties but does grant an Extra Attack made with the units normal attack bonuses. Multiple Dragonblooded can activate this Charm, granting the unit a single Extra Attack per Dragonblooded willing to activate this Charm.
This Charm may be explicitly be used in a Combo with Charms of other Abilities.
Breeding the Ideal Partner
Cost: 15m,1wp Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Duration: Special
Keywords: Training
Mins: Ride 5, Essence 3 Prereqs: Breaking the Dragon’s Back
NOTE: This Charm assumes you are using my Mutation-Based Alternate Familiar Background (which can be located on the Fixalted Wiki). If you are not using those rules, delete this Charm from the set.
This Charm is a dramatic action to breed together two animals, which need not necessarily be of the same species! This Charm can only be performed in an uncapped demesne (five uncapped demesnes on the Blessed Isle are maintained solely for the use of this Charm). Use of this Charm ensures that the breeding will succeed and produce viable offspring, no matter how incompatible the two animals may be.
The offspring born of this union will be of the same type as its mother but retain a number of beneficial qualities from its father. These are represented by Mutation Points. The offspring has as many mutation points as a level 2 Familiar and the mutations selected should reflect its father’s qualities or qualities related to the demesne they were raised in (a Water demesne might result in an animal with gills or Water Adaptation for example). The motes for this Charm must be committed for the duration of the pregnancy, which always lasts one season.
If the breeder is not yet happy with the offspring he may further breed that offspring with another animal, taking another year but increasing the resultant animal’s effective Familiar rating to three, and this may be repeated twice more to create up to a level 5 Familiar. The breeder must keep the motes committed for the entire process.
Once the breeder is satisfied, he is left with a Familiar. He then may give this Familiar to another Exalt or an Enlightened Mortal as a Training effect, effectively bestowing the Familiar on the other at its current level. If the ST charges XP for Backgrounds the character with the new familiar goes into XP debt, but this debt is only 1XP per dot of Familiar, not 3XP per dot. Needless to say, this cannot increase the maximum amount of familiars that a character can have.
If the familiar is not attuned to a master within one season or the breeder ceases to commit Essence to it, the animal becomes a free animal. It must be won over in the normal fashion of animals, and animals bred this way are often extraordinarily obstinate. These animals created by this Charm may breed, but the mutations granted do not breed true. Only singular familiars may be produced.