The new merits here are generally available for purchase by PCs and NPCs.
This fighting style replaces Fighting Style: Dream Combat (Rites of Spring page 90) in our game. Several of its maneuvers are directly from that merit, though tweaks have been made for game balance.
Prerequisites: Wyrd •••, Empathy •••
Effect: Your character has honed her oneiromachy skills to a high degree, allowing her to push the envelope of dream-battle and take the dream-bound combat beyond the reach of less experienced or dedicated oneiromancers.
Dots purchased in this Merit allow access to special combat maneuvers that are only applicable for oneiromachy (dream-battles). Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next. So, your character can’t have Double Team until she has Stunning Blow. The maneuvers and their effects are described below.
Disabling Blow (•): Your character knows how to make powerful attacks that weaken her enemies. When you choose this option your character inflicts one less point of damage than usual, counted after rolling to see if the attack succeeds. (For example, an attack that scores one success would still be a successful Disabling Blow, but inflicts no Willpower damage). However, each such attack imposes a -1 penalty on the opponent’s own attack rolls during the combat, until they are reduced to rolling a single die.
Mirage (••): Your character makes a special Environmental attack using her Subterfuge in place of Empathy. If your character scores even one success, her opponent finds their defenses have been compromised. Against the next attack – from any source – they use the lowest of their Finesse Traits for Defense and the lowest of their Resistance Traits as Armor.
Double Team (•••): Not content with a single avenue of attack, your character is adept enough with oneiromancy that she can coordinate an environmental and a personal attack against her target at the same time. The second attack suffers a -3 penalty. Drawback: Your character cannot use her Defense against any attack in the same turn in which she intends to use this maneuver. If she uses Defense against attacks that occur earlier in the Initiative roster, before she can perform this maneuver, she cannot perform the maneuver in the same turn, her attention is too focused on protecting himself.
Wyrd Armor (••••): Your character’s mastery of the dream-realm protects him in battle. Any incoming attack which is penalized by her defense or armor is also penalized by her Wyrd.
Coup de Grace (•••••): Even as your character’s opponent fades from the dream-arena, she is capable of delivering a final blow. At any time that an opponent in a dream-combat is beginning to wake (i.e., has dropped to or below 0 Willpower), she may deliver one final dream-attack (environmental or personal) against her Willpower as she wakes. She may not use her Defenses or armor against this attack.
Prerequisites: Double Team Fighting Style Maneuver (Oneiromachy •••), Subterfuge •••
Effect: Your character may use Double Team to perform a Mirage maneuver followed by a Personal attack. If she succeeds with the first maneuver, her dice pool doesn’t suffer the usual -3 penalty for the second attack in the Double Team series. Instead, the character gains a +2 bonus to strike her confused opponent.
This adds a fifth maneuver to Fighting Style: Grappling.
Your character’s expertise lets him set up his opponent for a hard fall. After successfully establishing a grapple, she can immediately attempt an overpowering maneuver at a -1 penalty. Drawback: Your character cannot use his Defense against any attack in the same turn in which she intends to use this maneuver. If she uses Defense against attacks that occur earlier in the Initiative roster, before she can perform this maneuver, she cannot perform Lightning Takedown in that turn. She is too busy bobbing and weaving out of the way of attacks.
When making rolls for an extended test related to the creation of hedgespun or tokens, the changeling can make any number of rolls that they like, regardless of the check’s interval, as long as they have at least two hours to spend on the project. Each roll suffers a cumulative -1 penalty, so the first roll is made at the changeling’s full dice pool, the second at pool -1, the third at pool -2, etc. Once the changeling fails a roll, they cannot roll again to make hedgespun or tokens until a full 24 hours have passed. Other modifiers, like from tiredness, apply as normal. Sisyphus’ Gift (Flowering Spring •) has no effect on the penalties from this merit.
The changeling cannot choose to stop their crafting, either. Only an outside force can break them from the fugue. The rolls that they make always use all of the available time. Sometimes, that’s the two hours until their motley comes home. Other times, it’s until the changeling falls asleep from exhaustion.
The changeling cannot choose whether to use this merit’s benefits. All extended checks for creating hedgespun and tokens are affected by this merit.
Effect: Your character can effortlessly enter the Metamorphic Dream when she chooses with even a single success on a Resolve + Wyrd roll, and can remain in it for as long as she wishes. All environmental penalties imposed to Resolve + Wyrd rolls to reach the dream are ignored. Not even wound penalties apply to your character’s efforts to reach this place.
Once in the Metamorphic Dream, your character can pull objects from the mortal world into the dreamspace and change them, infusing within them the potential of dreams. To the dreamer, the object takes on a surreal represenation reflecting what it has been or has meant so far in its life. While resting in that void, an object’s appearance begins to change: it becomes more disfigured and mangled, like some cosmic animal was toying with its body. The physical form shows these degredations as they happen, though the object’s metaphorical presence in the dream does not change.
Once the process is complete, the object can be nudged back out of the dream and fully into the real world. Objects subjected to this process become indistinguishable from materials taken from the hedge and can be used for hedge crafting in place of their naturally made counterparts.
Though any changeling can theoretically make use of the Metamorphic Dream, their ability to do so is limited without this merit. An exceptional success on Resolve + Wyrd is required to stay in the dream for more than a few seconds, and at most a small handful of material can be converted.
Eroding objects so they can be used as hedgespun requires the character to apply her Wyrd to the materials at hand through a thin channel of glamour. Mechnically, she rolls her highest Power stat + Wyrd every hour and expends a single point of glamour. The required number of successes is based on the amount of material she wants to erode, described in the chart below. Once enough successes are gathered, the process is complete.
| Successes | Mass | Volume (liquid) | Area (gas or intangible) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 success | 10 lb. | Milk jug | 1-cu. yard area |
| 2 successes | 20 lb. | Gas tank | 8-cu. yard area |
| 3 successes | 50 lb. | Bathtub | 27-cu. yard area |
| 4 successes | 100 lb. | Average Jacuzzi | 64-cu. yard area |
| 5+ successes | 500 lb. | Large hot tub | 125-cu. yard area |
All of the successes must be gathered simultaneously. Waking from the Metamorphic Dream part way through the process ruins the materials and makes them unsuitable for replacements in hedge crafting.
Changelings who enter the Metamorphic Dream leave themselves exposed to hungry things that live in-between the waking world and sleeping world.
This style is designed for Daniel and has nothing to do with Iado.
Prerequisites: Strength ••, Dexterity •••, Weaponry •••, Wits •••, Fighting Finesse
Effect: Instead of attacking your enemies, you prefer that they come to you. To this end, you’ve developed a set of techniques that turn your strong defense into a weapon.
Dots purchased in this merit provide access to special combat maneuvers. Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next. These maneuvers are based on the Weaponry skill and are used with a one-handed piercing or slashing weapon.
Better Part of Valor (•): Instead of rolling Initiative at the start of combat, you may voluntarily act last. When taking this option, you gain a bonus of one to your defense score for as long as you remain last in initiative.
Parry (••): You may forgo your standard Defense against a single attack, and instead roll a Dexterity + Weaponry + Weapon attack of your own. If you gain more successes than your opponent, you take no damage and inflict your net successes as damage on him. You cannot use this maneuver if you have lost your Defense for the turn (as from being surprised, or because of another maneuver). Drawback: This maneuver constitutes your action for the turn.
Dis-arming (•••): Attacks made with a piercing or slashing weapon have Armor Piercing 1, and penalties to hit specific targets or body parts are reduced by 1. (See WoD p165).
No Weakness (••••): You may make one additional Parry defensive maneuver per turn for each point of Dexterity you have above 2. Each extra action is rolled at a cumulative -1 modifier. Drawback: If your first action of the round is anything but a Parry maneuver, you cannot use this benefit. Additionally, you cannot move when using this benefit.
Dance of the Willow (•••••): You declare and benefit from a normal Dodge action, but may abort that action to make an immediate, reflexive counter-attack against an opponent whose attack fails to overcome your Dodge trait. After your counter-attack, your Defense applies normally for the rest of the turn. Drawback: This maneuver costs one Willpower point to enact, which does not add to the counter-attack dice pool. Additionally, it constitutes your action for the turn and you may not move in the turn that you enact it.