Charm Activation and Patterning

I am changing the way Charm Costs work.

When you activate a Charm the first time you pay the full amount. To activate the same charm against or as a part of a Flurry has significant discount after the initial activation.

Any subsequent activation of the exact same Charm, with all optional costs and bonuses being the same, only cost 1 mote for each additional activation, or the full activation cost – whichever is cheaper.

Should the subsequent activation be in anyway different it is considered the new initial activation and cost resets.

This effect I call Patterning. It makes flurries more common and feasible. Instead of paying 5x5 = 25 motes, you actually pay only 5+1+1+1+1 = 9.

Example: Balan activates his Death Blossom Combo which includes Excellency and Magic Flurry. So he chooses to spent 10 motes for 5 attacks as the Magic Flurry Charm. On his 1^st attack he chose to spent 5 motes for 5 added dice, he missed. On his 2^nd attack he chose to repeat the attack so he pays only 1 mote for +5 dice on his 2^nd attack. He missed so he decide for his 3^rd he needs higher dice pool, so he adds 7 dice, since he change the bonus of the charm he has to pay the full price of 7 motes for the 3^rd attack, he hit. The opponent is near death. So for his 4^th attack he thought he would hit normally since the opponent is at -4, so he chooses to add no bonus dice, costing 0, and he missed. For his last attack he thought he minds well finish it. So he adds 5 more dice. However since he changed his bonus on the 4^th attack yet again (from +7 to +0) he lost the pattern, so he would have to pay 5 motes full price again.

This made his Death Blossom Combo a total of 28 instead of the normal 32, for a grand total saving of 4 motes. If he choose wisely and added 7 motes in the beginning, it would have only cost him 21 motes.

This rule favors total commitment for better or for worse. To accommodate this, the Essence regain for Stunts has also been lowered to half. See the “Stunts: Essence Gain” rule change.

Keep in mind this rule only accounts for actions or defense within a Flurry.

So attacked by 4 different person will cost the character 4 full cost for dodge charms. Then pattern cost of 1 mote each dodge activation if the attackers are using flurry. Should the player choose to not dodge any attack of that specific flurry sequence he losses the patterning and must start over.