Charm Keywords
These rules use the following keywords to describe qualities of a Charm.
Avatar (Rating)
These Charms draw directly on the power of the Neverborn through the psychic link of their Whispers. Characters must have the minimum rating in that Background listed in parentheses to purchase or use Avatar Charms. Moreover, the effects and/or use of these Charms are considered outside fate since they disrupt the Tapestry with Primordial Essence. The Neverborn cannot withhold their power from being tapped in this fashion any more than they can prevent powerful necromancy spells from doing the same.
- List of all Avatar 1 Charms
- List of all Avatar 2 Charms
- List of all Avatar 3 Charms
- List of all Avatar 4 Charms
- List of all Avatar 5 Charms
Combo-Basic
Exalted can place this Charm in a Combo with reflexive Charms, including the Excellencies. They cannot place this Charm in a Combo with simple Charms, extra action Charms or supplemental Charms.
Combo-OK
Exalted can place this Charm in a Combo.
Compulsion
This Charm's special damage is a Compulsion effect.
Counterattack
This Charm is or involves a counterattack—something extra that happens during the course of attack resolution, usually but not always the defender counterattacking the attacker. Characters cannot use counterattacks to respond to other counterattacks, and characters cannot use multiple counterattacks to respond to a single attack unless otherwise stated.
Making a counterattack imposes a cumulative counterattack penalty of -1 to your DV until your next action.
Crippling
This Charm's special damage is a Crippling effect.
Dawn
Solars of the Dawn Caste may buy Charms with this Keyword for eight experience points, even if they do not Favor the Ability the Charm is located in. Training these Charms takes as much time as training a Caste or Favored Charm. This Keyword applies to the following Charms:
Resistance: Essence-Gathering Temper, Durability of Oak Meditation, Spirit Strengthens the Skin, Iron Skin Concentration, Iron Kettle Body, Adamant Skin Technique, Unbroken Chain Resolve, Ruin-Abasing Shrug.*
Occult: Spirit-Cutting Attack, Ghost-Eating Technique.
Athletics: Thunderbolt Attack Prana, Increasing Strength Exercise, Hill-Hurling Might, Lightning Speed, Godspeed Steps, Speed of Light Approach.*
Awareness: Panoptic Fusion Discipline (Ink Monkeys, Vol. 8).
Dodge: Seven Shadow Evasion, Reflex Sidestep Technique, Leaping Dodge Method, Refinement of Flowing Shadows, Divine Witness of Utter Safety.*
* The last two listed Charms are from Dreams of the First Age, pp. 67, 77 and 77-78 respectively.
Dusk
Abyssals of the Dusk Caste may buy Charms with this Keyword for eight experience points, even if they do not Favor the Ability the Charm is located in. Training these Charms takes as much time as training a Caste or Favored Charm. This Keyword applies to the following Charms:
Resistance: Injury-Absorbing Discipline, Spirit-Hardened Frame, Wounds Mean Nothing, Far Beyond Ruin.
Occult: Corpus-Rending Blow, God-Slaying Torment.
Athletics: Corpse-Might Surge, Headstones Flung Like Pebbles, Falling Scythe Attack, Shadow Races the Light, Death Draws Near, Swifter Than a Scream.
Dodge: Flickering Wisp Technique, Uncanny Impulse Evasion, Foe-Shaming Defense, Thousandfold Shadow Dance, Shadow Fades at Dawn.
Emotion
This Charm's special damage is an Emotion effect.
When an Emotion effect instills a feeling but does not specify a particular result, treat the Emotion as a sceneduration one-die situational internal penalty that applies to all actions that do not fall in accordance with the emotion (such as attempting to decipher a First Age text while enraged), and a three-die penalty for all actions that run directly counter to the emotion (such as resisting a seduction attempt while feeling lust). Beyond these mechanics, players should endeavor to represent their character's emotional state in their choice of actions as befits the balance of the character's Virtues, especially Temperance.
Enhanced
This keyword denotes ‘hero style’ Charms which grant an enhanced benefit when used by the Exalt type they belong to (for example, Solar Hero style Charms used by a Solar).
Form-type
This Charm is a martial arts Form-type Charm. Characters cannot use more than one Martial Arts Form-type Charm at a time. The character must end one Form-type Charm to use another.
Holy
These Charms have special effects against "creatures of darkness." These are the enemies of the world, so named—where judgment is required—by the judgment of the Unconquered Sun. These include, but are not limited to: Yozis, demons, Neverborn, walking dead, ghosts, Deathlords, unshaped Fair Folk, Abyssal Exalted and Infernal Exalted.
The Storyteller can make exceptions or add other groups to this list as appropriate. A sympathetic ghost might not be a creature of darkness, while a horror that eats at the world's heart would be.
A complementary unit primarily composed of creatures of darkness is itself considered such for the purpose of Holy Charms.
Holy effects fail to function when invoked by creatures of darkness, whether they attempt to activate a Holy Charm or try to direct the Holy powers of an artifact.
Illusion
This Charm's special damage is an Illusion effect.
Knockback
This Charm knocks its target backward. Appropriate Charms can resist this effect.
Leader #
Any character capable of acting in mass combat may use Charms as explained on p. 166 of Exalted, including unit commanders. However, applying non-Excellency Charms to enhance the entire unit's action or to extend the benefits of a personal Charm to the entire unit normally require justification as a form of special stunt. Charms with the Leader keyword do not require this justification and have the same overall function in mass combat when leading a complementary unit as they do normally, whether to enhance the unit or the unit's actions. Unit bonuses also apply normally to use of these Charms. Unless specific differences are noted, Leader Charms operate identically in both personal and mass combat. When the Leader keyword lists a number beside it, an Exalt must have that Essence rating to apply the Charm to a unit she leads. Cooperative Charms with a Leader function allow the led unit to join with its special characters to produce the usual magnified effect. By definition, Charms with the Leader keyword automatically have the War keyword.
Martial
Charms with this Keyword may also be used with or applied to the listed Abilities when the Exalt's rating in those Abilities meets the Charm's minimum Ability rating.
Martial-ready
This Keyword replicates all the effects of the Martial keyword. In addition, the character may use the Charm with or apply its benefits to any of the listed Abilities that he has as a Caste or Favored Ability, even if their ratings are lower than the Charm's minimum Ability requirement.
Merged
Charms with this keyword can be bought from multiple sources, but they all count as a single Charm purchase. For instance, a Solar learning Call the Blade from Melee also learns Call the Blade from Thrown at no additional cost or training time. The list of other Charms with which one is Merged are listed at the end of the Charm.
Mirror
As mockeries of Solar power, deathknights wield comparably potent Charms arranged in similar structures. Abyssal Mirror Charms list their Solar analogues in parentheses, which always have the same total number of prerequisite Charms and minimum trait requirements. For Eclipse and Moonshadow Castes, a mirror can substitute for its analogue with regard to any prerequisites as if it were the same Charm. This keyword also guides Charm reallocation for redeemed Abyssals or Solars corrupted to darkness.
Note that some Abyssal Charms mirror Solar Charms that are not in general use (i.e., not in the Exalted rulebook itself). In such cases, the Charm description appends a brief description of the Solar analogue. Storytellers can introduce these new Solar Charms to their series—or perhaps a Solar who wants to learn these Charms must seek an Abyssal teacher. At the Storyteller's option, cross-training Solars and Abyssals can deduce the Mirrors of each others' Charms. For instance, a Dawn Caste could study with an Abyssal who knows Lightning Clutch of the Raptor, and after four days he could learn its Mirror Charm, Deft Hands Deflection. Solars and Abyssals thus become valuable but morally objectionable sources of Charms for the other side to learn.
Native
Powers like the Eclipse, Moonshadow and Fiend anima do not allow acquisition of Native Charms. Only natural wielders can learn Native charms. Exalted Charms and herostyle expansions are natural to the appropriate type of Chosen. Spirit Charms are natural to gods, elementals, demons and akuma. Arcanoi are natural to ghosts. Raksha Charms are natural to Fair Folk. Primordial Charms are natural to Primordials, Green Sun Princes and Exalted akuma. The God-Blooded children of natural wielders cannot learn their parents' Native Charms. Martial Arts Charms that are not Hero Style expansions cannot have the Native keyword.
Obvious
Observers can tell that the Exalt is using a Charm, and they have a rough idea of its effects. Obvious permanent Charms are only obvious when actively in use.
Overdrive
Charms with this Keyword create a temporary pool of Peripheral Essence, which can only be filled by terms outlined in the text of the Charm. Motes in these pools may only be used to activate offensive Charms with a duration of One action or less. Charms whose mote cost are paid for entirely from a character's Overdrive pool do not count as Charm activations, but must obey normal Combo rules if used in conjunction with other Charms. Other restrictions may be present in the text of the Charm. Motes gathered into the pools created by Overdrive Charms dissipate at the end of the scene, barring additional Charms to prolong their existence. Temporary mote pools created by the Overdrive keyword share their motes and stack together to determine the storage capacity of the overall pool. This Overdrive pool may store no more than 25 motes, regardless of the size of the pool generated by individual Charms with the Overdrive keyword.
Poison
This Charm's special damage is a Poison effect.
Servitude
This Charm's special damage is a Servitude effect.
Shaping
Integrity and Lore Charms treat this Charm's effects as a Shaping effect.
Sickness
This Charm's special damage is a Sickness effect.
Social
This Charm is often used when the character participates in a social conflict. It affects actions on the social time scale.
Spectral
This keyword identifies Charms that specifically depend on the metaphysical properties of the Underworld. Although characters can use Spectral Charms beyond the realms of the dead (which are defined as the shadowlands, Underworld and Labyrinth), doing so adds a +1 Willpower surcharge to the activation cost. Once a character activates a Spectral Charm at this increased cost, further Spectral Charms do not require this surcharge until the character's next action.
Stackable
Multiple invocations of this Charm are cumulative—the Solar can use it more than once to increase the bonuses or penalties the Charm inflicts.
Taint
This keyword allows Abyssals to make a Charm's effect permanent, enabling her to use it without further expended or committed costs. This is not done lightly, however, as the transformation is irreversible and such Charms always carry some kind of drawback. Therefore, for every persistent advantage gained with this keyword, an Abyssal also bears a new curse to compound the doom of his Dark Fate.
Turning a Charm into a permanent Taint also costs bonus points or experience points. The sample costs are based on comparison with Wyld mutations (see The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld, p. 144). The more extreme (or useful) the effect of making a Charm permanent is the more points doing so costs.
Touch
The Exalt must touch the target to use the Charm.
Touching a non-consenting target requires a (Dexterity + Martial Arts) attack.
Training
This Charm trains other characters. Characters who receive training and aren't extras must pay the normal experience cost for any trait increases. If they can't afford this cost, they go into "experience point debt." They must pay at least half of all awarded experience points, rounded down, toward this debt until repaid.
War
This Charm is often used when the character participates in a war, by means of the Join War action. It affects actions on the war time scale.
All special characters in a complementary unit and that unit's champion during mid-battle duels are fellow officers to one another. If a Charm functions differently when targeting a fellow officer, it deactivates if that relationship no longer applies due to either character leaving the unit. Cooperative Charms ignore their usual range limit for close contact when used by fellow officers, as the unit itself conducts the harmonization.