Tension
Strength
The surge of Tension alters the rigidity of objects. This allows you to reinforce flexible materials such as cloth, making them firm and strong like steel.
Tension Surge
Radiant Orders: Bondsmith, Stoneward
Activation: ▶
To use this surge, spend 1 or more Investiture to infuse a soft object within your reach; you must have a hand free and touch the target. The infusion uses 1 Investiture each round, and for the duration, the object becomes completely rigid.
This object can't exceed the surge size for your ranks in Tension (see the Surge Scaling table at the beginning of this chapter).
When you activate this surge, you can first form the soft material into a rough shape as part of that action, but any elaborate molding requires more time (see "Creating Objects and Weapons").
You can't use this surge on characters, Invested objects (like Shardplate), or objects that have been infused with Stormlight (like infused spheres or objects affected by surges).
Hardened Defense. When you infuse a soft material worn by you or a willing character, you can increase the wearer's Physical defense by 2. Alternatively, before you infuse a material, you can wrap it around a character as part of that action, granting the same effect. A character's Physical defense can't benefit from more than one Tension surge at a time.
Using Tension
In addition to the basic surge rules above, this section provides more guidance on using or interacting with this surge in your game.
Creating Objects and Weapons
You can shape cloth, rope, or other soft materials into a specific form, then infuse Tension to temporarily stiffen them into a usable object. When you activate the surge, you can briefly shape the material, but more elaborate reshaping requires additional time. In combat, this usually requires an additional Interact action (for moderate reshaping) or Use a Skill action (if your creation is intricate enough to require a Tension skill test). The GM sets this test's DC based on the complexity of the object you're creating.
At the GM's discretion, you can creatively use Tension to create nearly any solid object of an appropriate size. For example, you might shape a tarp into a box, then infuse it to use as a stepping stool. You could shove a handkerchief into a keyhole, then infuse it to make a key that can open the lock. A piece of rope could even serve as a sturdy staff or similar weapon.
When using Tension to temporarily create a weapon, treat it as an improvised non-special weapon, but remove its Fragile trait (see "Improvised Weapons" in chapter 7).
Tension on Opponents
While it's simple to shape unattended cloth, it's challenging to wrap your opponent in it or to infuse something they're already wearing. To infuse an object worn by or wrapped around an unwilling target, make a Tension test against the target's Physical defense. On a failure, you don't infuse that object and you don't spend Investiture on the attempt. On a success, the target has difficulty moving for the duration, becoming Slowed and gaining a disadvantage on all physical tests.
A character can try to bend an object you've stiffened with your Tension. To do so, they Use a Skill to make an Athletics test opposed by your Tension. If they succeed, the infusion ends.
Tension Talent Tree
Tension Talents
The following talents, presented here in alphabetical order, appear in the Tension talent tree for the Stoneward path.
Cloth Mastery
Prerequisite: Tension 2+; Rigged Weaponry talent
Activation: ∞
As you infuse soft materials with Tension, they contort themselves into exactly what you envision.
When you use Tension to create an object or weapon, you can automatically reshape it before it becomes rigid without using additional actions or time. When you do, you instantaneously mold the soft material into an object as elaborate, intricate, and complex as you wish. For example, you could turn a large tarp into a table or chair, shape a cloak around its wearer as a functioning suit of half plate, cause a grappling hook attached to a rope to secure itself to a ledge above, or create intricate shapes or images.
Clothsmith
Prerequisite: Cloth Mastery talent or Surface Tension talent
Activation: ∞
The impromptu weapons and armor you create with Tension are so powerful that they rival Shardblades and Plate.
When you infuse Tension to grant a character the Hardened Defense effect, their Physical defense increases by 4 (instead of 2).
Additionally, when you temporarily create a weapon with Tension (see "Creating Objects and Weapons"), it gains an extra d4 damage die (for example, an axe created this way deals 1d6 + 1d4 keen damage). The size of this die increases with your ranks in Tension; at 2 ranks, the extra die becomes a d6 (instead of a d4), and so on.
Extended Tension
Prerequisite: Stormlight Reclamation talent
Activation: ∞
Your infusions of Tension expend the Stormlight far less quickly.
When you infuse Tension into an object, instead of the infusion expending 1 Investiture per round, it expends 1 Investiture per number of rounds equal to your ranks in Tension. For example, if you have 3 ranks in Tension, those infusions expend Investiture once every 3 rounds.
Additionally, while you have 1 Investiture or more, you can maintain Tension infusions on objects you're holding or wearing without either you or the infusion expending Investiture.
Fine Control
Prerequisite: Cloth Mastery talent
Activation: ▶▶
Your careful practice allows you to selectively change the rigidity of an object's parts, allowing fine control much like the movement of muscles and tendons.
Infuse 1 Investiture or more into an unattended object within reach that is of a size you can affect with Tension. Though the infused object isn't a character, for the duration, its current and maximum health both increase to 5 × your ranks in Tension, and each of its defenses equals 10 + your Tension modifier. If the infused object is reduced to 0 health, the infusion ends early and the object breaks.
Many Tension users infuse long pieces of cloth, rope, or other flexible material that they can control, effectively extending their range. On each of your turns for the duration, while touching part of one object you infused using this talent, you can move it up to 25 feet along surfaces (including ceilings) and can use it to interact with characters and other objects. You can use ▷ to have one infused object perform simple tasks like climbing a tree or opening a door. You can use ▶ to task one infused object with something that requires a test or your careful attention, such as attacking someone or writing a message. The object has no senses of its own and can't act without your touch and direct control, so you can't give it tasks that require senses or knowledge you don't have.
If the object's task requires a test (such as an attack or Athletics test), you must be able to sense its target, and you use your Tension instead of that test's usual skill.
The object can make a melee attack using Tension against the Physical defense of a target within 5 feet of it, rolling 2d4 impact damage. The size of these dice increases with your ranks in Tension; at 2 ranks, roll 2d6 (instead of 2d4), and so on.
Rigged Weaponry
Prerequisite: Tension Parry talent
Activation: ★
Dynamic use of Tension on cloth or rope allows you to augment your martial prowess.
While wielding a melee weapon and holding cloth or other flexible object that's at least 10 feet long, you can spend 1 Investiture as ▷ to increase the weapon's reach by 10 feet until the end of your next turn.
Additionally, after you hit a character with a melee attack, you can spend ✧ or 2 focus to use Tension on an object the target is holding or wearing, infusing Investiture as usual but without spending an action. You automatically succeed on the test to infuse it.
Stormlight Reclamation
Prerequisite: Speak the First Ideal
Activation: ▷
You can reclaim Stormlight from active infusions.
After your infusions expend their infused Investiture at the start of your turn, you can end any number of those infusions within your reach, recovering all remaining Investiture they were infused with.
Surface Tension
Prerequisite: Extended Tension talent
Activation: ∞
You use Tension to solidify the surface of liquids into traversable ground.
You can use Tension on liquid, affecting an area up to twice the size you can normally affect with your ranks in Tension. For the duration, this liquid's surface tension increases and characters can walk on it like solid ground.
Tension Parry
Prerequisite: Speak the First Ideal
Activation: ⟲
You stiffen clothing to block incoming attacks.
Before you or an ally within your reach is hit or grazed by an attack against Physical defense, you can use this reaction to infuse Tension into the target's clothing or a soft material you wrap around the target, spending Investiture as usual. They gain the Hardened Defense effect, increasing their Physical defense by 2 for the duration, including against the triggering attack. If the attack hit, this increase can change it to a miss. If the attack grazed, the target ignores its effects.