/exg/ - Exalted General

Can we get some of the good pics from the actual Ex3 core in here? I'm so tired of Gilgamesh.

Also do small Gods still exist in this edition?

File: red elf blue elf.jpg (166KB, 550x390px) Image search: [Google]

166KB, 550x390px

>so tempted to roll up a fair folk noble and make Christmas themed minions

>>47008661
>Also do small Gods still exist in this edition?

They probably still 'exist,' but I would expect considerably less wordcount devoted to them. Occasional flavor text, like they were always supposed to be.

>>47008715
Any fans of a Discworld deity approach to Gods (belief empowers them, shapes them, they can shrink to almost nothing without it, but never die)

The Incarnae would be more like Anthromorphous Personifications of Success, The Sun etc.

>>47008766
I'm a fan of pretty much anything Discworld, but I wouldn't necessarily like that approach in Exalted. In Exalted, belief empowers deities much like wealth empowers people in the real world, which is an appointment I like.

Is it just me, or does sniping seem way more effective in 3e?

By contrast clinch seems more balanced, but still really potent.

>>47008942

How so? Any attack made from Medium range or further require an Aim action, and a number of Athletics charms allow for closing the gap.

What are all the charms relevant to buffing up spirit familiars? Occult, Survival, whatever, I just want to see what my options are, because my sorcerer is very closely tied thematically to their familiar.

>>47010291

By sniping I mean long range in conjunction with unexpected attacks, which means there is time for aiming and then some.

>>47010431
Survival. Almost all of it.

>>47010508
The trouble is that ranged ambushes face all the difficulties of regular ambushes (have to beat their Awareness roll, and the Join Battle roll), on top of the difficulty of recovering, since you're so far away it's almost impossible to gather init for a second go.

File: totallynotanassassin.jpg (2MB, 1066x1772px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1066x1772px

So... you guys ready for 3e's Sapphire Veil of Passion Style? Or sidereal styles in general?

>>47010535

Yeah, but now Solars can actually BE ambushed meaningfully. I'd say it's worth it to try and initiative crash or gack an opponent with an ambush.

>>47010535
Really? I thought most of the Survival Familiar charms specified that they only work on animal familiars rather than spirit ones.

>>47010595
Depends on whether they're accessible before Essence 3. If so, then yes. If not, then they'll be filed under 'waste of pages,' just like half of the Evocations and all of Solar Circle Sorcery.

>>47010633
Oh! Yeah it's definitely more of a threat now, comparatively. I thought you meant it was, like, too much of a threat.

>>47010647
I don't think so? Some might, but I don't remember it being a constant.

Did First and Forsaken Lion give Autochthon cancer?

>>47010884

No, Autochthon was ill long before the Deathlords even came into existence.

>>47010884

No, Autochthon already had cancer due to his own actions.

In 1e, Falafel just attempted to take advantage of Autochthon's cancer during the events of "The Autochthonians," 1e's equivalent to RotSE.

Have you guys looked at http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/872463-sidereals-martial-arts-and-violet-bier-of-sorrows/page2 ?

I'm thinking of making a character using it but I'm not great at mechanics.

How does one counter Melee's unique and overwhelming flurry charm?

File: abyssal.jpg (115KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

115KB, 600x600px

>>47010912
That's what I thought, thanks.

>>47010925
Oh, so that's why I recall there being some connection between him and Autochthon. What did he do exactly?

>>47010995

As I recall, Falafel interloped in the Locust Crusade and attempted to invade Autochthon to make his cancer worse until it killed the Primordial. This would therein birth a Neverborn who was free of the restless slumber and sorcerous sealing that plagued its kin, a being more likely to actively attempt to destroy the world. Unfortunately for Falafel, it seems his goal was misguided, as the Engine of Extinction is indicated to be more interested in invading Malfeas and giving his erstwhile brethren a taste of Oblivion as vengeance for their cruelty towards him in ages past than attacking Creation.

As badass a military leader as Falafel is, he is kind of a moron with regards to fucking with the various cosmic forces of the setting.

>>47010987
By consistently denying them Initiative advantage. The Melee guy will likely not open the fight with his flurry Charms- that's a rather bad idea given the fact that he can't make these attacks accurate as using Excellency on every single one is going to be way too costly. If they're blowing it early, they're risking a lot, because if these attacks fail, they are vulnerable as hell.

>>47010987
The multi-decisive ones for Melee and Archery (and others?) can be pretty effectively nullified by hardness or just not letting the other guy get to high initiative. (i.e. be better than them) The others either have activation conditions that are either triggered by hitting the target or spending a lot of essence, so they can be negated by defending effectively (i.e. be better than them).

I know how people love trumpeting the One Weapon Peony Blossom Iron Whirlwind Fury of the Dawn combo as evidence that 3e is broken and terrible, but I'm the guy who pointed out the damn combo X threads ago, it gets shut down by dodging the first attack in the chain or having a good soak, it's not really any better than any of the other ways to spend stupid motes at once (of which there are many), and 3e is imperfect but still brilliant. Go play it.

File: the queen.jpg (165KB, 790x556px) Image search: [Google]

165KB, 790x556px

>Cataphractoi are actually dangerous this edition right out of the core

Pinch me

>>47010987

Personally I'm an "ambush and re-establish surprise" kind of fighter. Melee doesn't worry me too much.

File: 1461963113490.jpg (201KB, 480x640px) Image search: [Google]

201KB, 480x640px

>>47010987

By grappling them.

File: xa.png (2MB, 2228x1740px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2228x1740px

>>47011807
Is this the combo you're talking about? I'm not very familiar with Charm combos, so let me know if I get something wrong here.

You do a withering attack, one which manages to get their initiative lower than yours. Then you use One Weapon, Two Blows to make another withering attack, with a -1 onslaught in effect. Between those two attacks you spend enough Essence to get yourself to bonfire. Then you use Peony Blossom Technique to make another withering attack, with a -2 onslaught. With all the initiative you've built up now, you use Iron Whirlwind Attack with its upgrade and make 5 decisive attacks, distributing your Initiative so that the last attacks have more initiative than the initial ones, to take advantage of the mounting onslaught penalty.

Ideally every attack will hit, but in case they don't, if you spend enough on the first attack to get to bonfire, you can still use Peony Blossom Technique and go from there.

The Charms themselves cost a total of 9m, but you need to spend at least 15m to get to bonfire, and you'll probably need a lot more motes to make your attacks able to land. Probably dump your whole pool into the combo.

Is this right? I'm not very familiar with 3e Exalt combat yet.

>>47012504

That's basically the idea, yes.

I wanna make a sexy assassin killer character exg. What charms/stuff should I focus on?

>>47012504

Throw in Increasing Strength Excercise as well just to squeeze out more attacks using Invincible Fury of the Dawn. This combo is powerful but eats up Willpower quite fast.

>>47012705

Socialize, Performance, Stealth, Thrown or Melee. Sprinkle in Larceny and other abilities to taste.

done.

>>47012504

>Storm-Slaying Rebuke (2m, 2i; Reflexive; Instant; Counterattack, Decisive-only; Essence 1): All onslaught penalties to the cataphract’s Defense are cancelled against a single attack. At an onslaught penalty of -3 or greater, a successful defense allows the raksha to respond with a decisive counterattack.

Fair Folk can counter that pretty effectively, particularly since their normal combat dicepools are in the 14-18 range.

>>47012804

>against a single attack.

The Dawn is probably going to slinging out eight at least. A better counter is Fivefold Bulwark Stance and Ready in Eight Directions Stance. I think Crane Style might have some counters.

>>47012504

Well, I notice that you can only pop peony blossom once in a sequence unless you burn so much essence in the interim that you flare again. So your sequences would be like

>Withering Attack
>OWTB
>PB
>IW + Excellence + Others
>PB again
>OWTB or IW

Your essence expenses look like this (x being the cost of other charms in a combo)

>0+X
>3+X
>1+x+wp
>5+x+wp (min 15 to reset the sequence)
>Optional 1+x+wp
>Optional 5+x+wp (min 15 to loop)

You can loop it pretty much ad-infinitum, but you need to spend 9 motes 2wp minimum for one set, and to tack on another sequence you need to burn through 19 motes 2wp, and that set will rack your costs up to 25 motes 4wp minimum and 35 motes 4wp to set yourself up for another chain of attacks.

>>47013043

They can reflexively use that charm in response to every attack at the cost of 2 motes each.

>>47013043
Against a single attack doesn't mean "you can't use this against a flurry," it means you'll have to use it each time against each attack. It's Reflexive so you can do this.

>>47013077
>>47013089

I misinterpreted the text. I read it as only being able to throw out a counter every third attack, as if the onslaught was being removed outright.

>>47013065
Sheesh, I didn't notice that. Yeah, if you had infinite motes and willpower, you could bounce between Peony Blossom and Iron Whirlwind indefinitely.

>>47013141

Nope. Then consider that they have a default dice pool of 16 and defense of 8 or 9. Back in the day I could build shit that was even scarier.

>>47013199

Yep. But I'd imagine that a Lunar with high soak/hardness and healing would fuck your shit up.

>>47011879
Is it true? I want to believe.

>>47013300

A static dicepool of 16 is pretty important shit this edition. Plus they seem to be able to generate a "battle group" of hobs in any given fight, which makes withering attacks for them. Their lethality against celestials/solars seems way up from last edition.

>>47013332

Plus, they have a janky kind of flurry breaker in Dreadful Fanged Maelstrom Approach and Storm-Slaying Rebuke. Once their Onslaught hits -3, they get their decisive counterattack, which they use to pop fanged maelstrom and teleport to anywhere in short range of where they started. It doesn't get them away from Solar Melee, because there's that one charm that lets you move a range band between each attack, but it helps against a lot of other stuff.

>>47012765
Add in Leaping Tiger Attack and you're getting a base damage on every Decisive Attack of (Ess*2)+1, and then you start adding on Initiative.

File: be water.jpg (39KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

39KB, 640x480px

>>47013886

Initiative can crash, and it can flow

>>47013743

It becomes tit for tat at a certain point. At a certain point you have an essence depleted solar rolling his attack against a base defense of 8 and getting a counterattack at base pool of 16ish while burning his essence like crazy to keep up tempo.

Do you like having a dice pool system?

Do you like having Exalted's dice pool system, where you have to keep track of specific numbers being rolled?

>>47014091

I remember 1e. Dice pools have only gotten better since.

>>47012504
That all relies on you actually making the attacks. If a guy can just out defend your shit then its all worthless.

>>47014176

Or if they can soak/hard/heal like a motherfucker. Then you're burning essence/wp at a loss.

Wait. Wait. Does Bulwark Stance defeat ambushes, or do ambushes bypass Bulwark Stance?

File: terrible.png (3MB, 1612x2064px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1612x2064px

Heh

>>47014400
Ambushes don't penalize your defense, they directly set it to 0. Bulwark Stance's penalty-negating effect does not stop ambushes. This is how this mechanic was in 2e as well.

>>47014400
Ambushes beat Bulwark Stance, but Bulwark Stance beats surprise attacks.

So as some one who may or may not start a game of Exalted and is completely new to the setting and system.

Exactly what the hell is supposed to challenge Solar's? I mean from what im getting these dudes are basically invincible and all powerful?

>>47014523
Other Exalted.

Also, unintended but logical consequences of their own actions.

>>47014523
Not really invincible and all powerful. I mean there are things that can directly challenge them, but it's less about what directly challenges them and far more often about 'Okay you did this really difficult thing. Here are your consequences and this is what happens BECAUSE you did that thing.' It's more narrative focused in the long run. Although throwing things like Abyssals at your players or even other Solars can directly challenge them.

>>47014523

In a Solar's specialty? Not very much. The upper power-players of the setting can still throw down with them, but meeting a Dawn head-on in combat is still a risky proposition, whether you're a sworn brotherhood of DBs or a god of war.

In a Solar's middling capabilities? Much more. A mortal and the weaker end of spirits will still probably lose to a Solar who only has one or two Charms in something, but a DB will trounce him at it.

In a Solar's weaknesses? Even a mortal will take a Solar to task.

Solars are not "all" powerful. That is, in fact, exactly their problem: Solars are GREAT... at one thing. Which usually means that one thing gets them into trouble in ways that one thing can't help them in.

>>47014557
>>47014553

Doesn't just throwing other Exalted kind of pose the problem of the enemy just "conveniently" is another Solar ? (Well at least other Solars and Abyssals. Book does really explain just how powerful Dragon exalted are.

Also for consequences of actions. Maybe I'm still stuck in D&D mode but doesn't that cause the problem of making victory... Well not very victorious?

>>47014523
Sufficiently challenging your PCs is one of the biggest challenges for an Exalted GM. At the level of starting characters, they are strong in an area that they specify, but not so strong that they just win instantly. In combat, a higher-Essence god or other Exalt will be a strong challenge. That's the easy part for a GM. In politics, social aspects, or adventuring, you have more trouble.

One of the best things you can do is to make sure there are always, always consequences to the characters' actions. Consequences which follow logically. If they enter a kingdom in the Hundred Kingdoms and decide to slaughter its leaders and say they're in control now, there's probably no one who can stop them. But then what? A kingdom of however many people is now in upheaval, conquered by a foreign group. Some of their now-subjects will flee, neighboring warlords will try to take advantage of the land's turmoil, and not many people will think very highly of the new rulers. Local gods will be upset and may curse the players for interrupting their prayer income. And worst of all, if they were open in their usage of Essence and their Anathematic nature, they risk drawing the attention of Sidereals and the Wyld Hunt.

Moral quandaries are good too. Deciding who lives and who dies is part of wielding the power of Exalted. Starting Solar characters have only been Exalted for a year or so, so their memories of being human should still be dictating their personality and thought patterns. They shouldn't be able to so easily go "I'm a demigod now, you all suck."

Practically speaking, after each session, think about what the players actually did, and what may happen now. You don't have to come up with these consequences on the fly.

>>47014662
>Doesn't just throwing other Exalted kind of pose the problem of the enemy just "conveniently" is another Solar ? (Well at least other Solars and Abyssals. Book does really explain just how powerful Dragon exalted are.
The power gap is REALLY narrow. A single Solar and a single Dragon-Blood facing off in areas of equal investment, the Solar is probably going to win.

2 DBs? Prrrrobably still got it.

3, 4, 5? Now he's sweating.

For Lunars and Sids, it's even trickier; both are very good at avoiding any kind of direct confrontation, which means the Solar's strength might never even get a chance to come into play.

>Also for consequences of actions. Maybe I'm still stuck in D&D mode but doesn't that cause the problem of making victory... Well not very victorious?
Not quite.

The idea isn't "You overthrew the tyrant! J/K AN EVEN WORSE EVIL ERUPTS BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU DID, EAT SHIT."

It's "You overthrew the tyrant! Now what about everything else? You going to just throw someone on the throne? Take over yourselves? What policies are you going to institute? What about [problems the country had before]? And the old loyalists?" etc etc etc.

Basically Exalted never says "and then everything was happy ever after," it doesn't let players have that excuse.

>>47014431
Compared to the original version, that isnt bad at all. Still not sure if its appropriate, but I can tolerate this version.

Reminds me though! The thing I am now sad about, is that the original 2nd edition mistake that meant the Mask of Winters couldn't read; wasn't kept as an ongoing joke. Even if those kinda jokes have no real place in a serious game.

>>47014662
Well it might be 'convenient' but the thing is, Exalts are kind of drawn to each other, further a group of dragonblooded can be a big problem for fledgling solars. It's not always a cut and dry thing.

For the consequences portion, no not really. Consequences don't have to be inherently negative to the party, but could cause them more problems down the road. As >>47014709 said, it's not like you beat the problem now suddenly a bigger problem is instantly in your face. It's kind of like your Twilight Medicine Man just cured a big plague. He made a vaccine in a couple days and shipped it out to the entire affected area, now no more people are dying. But he can't fix what's done. What about the people who died before he got there? Sure, a lot of people are going to be thankful, but there might be a few other people who are bitter. They could cause him trouble down the road, or maybe they blame him for not getting there sooner and now he has to fix his relationship with those people before they do something stupid. That kind of thing.

>>47010732
>I don't think so? Some might, but I don't remember it being a constant.
It seems strongly implied, if it isn't stated outright. A lot of them feel frankly inappropriate for non-animals, especially with how their fluff text is written. For example:

>An Exalt with a familiar has experienced the gift of having been chosen twice. The Exalt reaches through her anima to touch the bond she shares with her companion animal
>The Solar holds dominion over the beasts of the field. With this Charm she can train an animal, familiar or otherwise, to follow her commands.
>With this Charm, the Solar can invest her Spirit-Tied Pet with traits beyond its natural capacity. This Charm supplements a normal beast-training roll
>The Solar reaches into the substance of her familiar, and draws out that which is soft and vulnerable, hardening muscle, bone and hide.
>The Solar can inspire zealous devotion, even in the beasts of the wilderness.

It's less that Survival charms explicitly spell out that these charms don't work on spirit familiars, and more that they're written in a way that doesn't seem to realized that anything other than animal familiars even exist.

>>47014791

And Melee's flavor is written like nothing but swords exists. It's fine, mang.

>>47014709
>>47014764

Ok. So in general play the cards:
1. There are a shit ton of these guys and some may be smarter and/or know more about you than yourself
2. You can save people. You can't save everyone though.
3. When you fuck up you have ROYALLY fucked up

These sound about right. At least for simple guidelines?

>>47014821

You got it exactly.

>>47014431
That looks fine to me. Im not even just talking about in comparison to the first one.
That lunar is kinda hot

File: lore0.jpg (74KB, 465x639px) Image search: [Google]

74KB, 465x639px

>>47014731

>>47014821
If by 'these guys' you mean Dragonbloods, there are about 20,000 (?) DB's if I recall correctly, Realm has about half of them. Lookshy has a large portion of the last 10K and then others all over the place. Though, I guess in 3e there's not a solid number of Solars anymore from what i've been hearing, in 2e they were at a solid 300, but 150 of those were morphed into the Abyssals and Infernals.

Otherwise, exactly right.

Wait, wait wait. Guys, are there still Infernals?

>>47015037

Almost certainly, yes.

>>47015037
From the core book no.

Though they maybe may come back someday. There are also no Alchemicals which from what I hear were dope as all fuck

>>47015037
Yes.

>>47015070
>There are also no Alchemicals which from what I hear were dope as all fuck

At least Lissome Avid Engineer is in a pic in the corebook.

>>47015093
Is that the girl with the goggles when they have all the different exalted lined up?

>>47014993
>If by 'these guys' you mean Dragonbloods, there are about 20,000 (?) DB's if I recall correctly, Realm has about half of them.
Not quite. The Realm has 20k, which is half of the setting's DBs, for 40k total. You can probably expect 20k in the Realm, 10k in Lookshy, 5k in the Realm's satrapies, and 5k 'other.'

>>47015107

Correct.

>>47014523

This is actually quite an interesting thing.

For a start, as a young Solar, your main challenge is not getting killed by the Wyld Hunt and dealing with people who think you're a demon. Basically, most of the setting thinks that you're a fiend right from hell. Overcoming that so you don't get crucified on sight is pretty hard.

As you get older and more powerful (And you can get powerful fast) your next challenge is making the world a generally better place. You're only one man, so if you want to run a kingdom or better society - this shit happens naturally - you have to make the step from wandering hero to King.

At the same time, you have to deal with the bigger hitters like Deathlords (Who cannot be killed, so raw punching is out of the question), your opposite numbers in Infernals and Abyssals (Who are as powerful as you) and politics.

In Exalted, a fight shouldn't just be about the fight itself. If, assuming a white room, a Dawn Caste goes up against a handful of bandits or mortal soldiers, he will slaughter them. The context of the fight is important: Are you protecting your love interest, so that half of your actions have to be focused on defending her so she doesn't die? Are you fighting your family and friends, and you're doing your best to avoid crippling or killing them, while desperately talking them down and going "I'm not a demon! I'm still the man you know!"

There are a lot of fights like that. For instance, a Zenith Caste does great against the walking dead. But he isn't focused solely on fighting them, in this encounter: While he could fight off his immediate attackers and escape easily, the goal in the fight is to hold off the undead hordes until the villagers escape. And that is hard, because he has to hold the line.
The point is, Exalted shouldn't really be about those white-room punching matches. In contrast to D&D, where killing enemies and looting them is essential, you don't really need to do that.

File: 1454534152655.png (284KB, 1049x550px) Image search: [Google]

284KB, 1049x550px

>>47015093
>tfw lost all crops and fanart of LAE
>need to comb through 2e books to find it all again

Hey, my sorcerer tore off their own shadow in order to animate it into a spirit familiar. What should it count as, mechanically? A unique demon of the first circle? Some kind of elemental - probably air, representing the absence of light/fire and its ephemeral form?

I want it to qualify as a target for the Twilight Anima, because it doesn't look like you can get anything other than an animal as a familiar any other way, so it actually needs to fall into one of those two categories, I think.

>>47015286

I think there's an actual spell for that.

>>47015328
For making a custom spirit familiar? Because that's an Essence 5 Occult charm, actually.

Anyone have a link to that google doc combat tracker that was making the rounds a while back? It used to be in the OP but I don't see it now.

>>47008701
And now there remains only one final question...have you been naughty, or nice? HO...HO...HO...

Quick question, can you Command Action for multiple battlegroups at once if you have a way to direct all of them?

>>47016318
If you have a way to flurry them, then yes.

Otherwise that'd need a War charm, something akin to you raising your sword and everything under your sway belts it in the same direction until there's nothing left.

I can never keep this straight. If the roll is difficulty X, and you roll exactly X successes on your dice, do you count as having "one success" or zero successes?

>>47014821
This is yes. I would perhaps add another category:

4. Your well-meaning improvements, social reforms, and general Solaring have succeeded beyond your wildest expectations and resulted in unexpected side effects that beg for more Solaring.

For example, you issue an edict banning police brutality. A month later 90% of your law enforcement wants to quit because of some combination of having seen police brutality as a job perk, or having been convinced that it's a necessary tool for dissuading criminals.

You bring sanitation and hygiene reforms to the country. Child mortality is practically not a thing any more. Sadly, the demographic shift takes time to work, during which a lot of people will still be having eight children in ten years, and now food prices are sky high and the Guild has you over a barrel with the threat of starvation.

You overthrow the oppressive tyrant. Said oppressive tyrant was the main thing protecting a hated minority group that a tyrant was a member of; now there's a serious risk of genocide unless you intervene. (*cough*libya*cough*)

With the common thread here that's it not just about "what else" as >>47014709 mentions, but about the temptation to fix the consequences of your solaring by solaring HARDER. Police trouble? Grab some more Socialize charms and issue a magically compelling edict that just bans crime nationwide. Hunger trouble? Get sorcery, cast Benediction of Archgenesis, problem solved. Country in danger of genocide and civil war? You had better take power yourself for the greater good.

Or to put it another way:

Exalted has lots of charms for making your decision stick.

Exalted has no charms for making particularly good decisions in the first place.

Exalted most of all has no "Wisdom" stat.

With all the Craft talk that's been made. Can large scale construction projects be made by a single character? Could a ship or manse be made by just one person in the listed time or would it take longer than normal?

>>47016609

You succeeded, with 0 extra (threshold) successes.

>>47016759

Really big scale projects (read: 2-dot superior projects, even mundane ones), like palaces and ships, require a workforce to be done in the given time, so it would take easily much longer working alone, even with Charm help (ST discretion).

Major projects are generally assumed to have a single character working on them, even if they're kinda big (a hut, a boat). They might be closer to the upper end of the timescale working alone, but it wouldn't take you years to build a cabin.

>>47016609
>>47016789
Except for extended actions, where you would add 1 to your total number of successes.

>>47014731
Me and a friend were talking about that in the gym yesterday. The idea that a 1st Age solar was a high functioning illiterate was the greatest thing ever.

>>47016808
Where does it mention the workforce necessity?

>>47016899

Large-scale projects sidebar, page 243.
>and sufficient materials (including, for most such projects, significant funds and manpower) to attempt

So basically just reiterating the rule that exists, and pointing out that "enough dudesmen" is part of materials.

>>47014523

Don't think of it like DnD, think of it as though this is a superhero game (even though it isn't a superhero game, but it's the closest narrative I can think of in short notice); don't think of things to challenge a Solar 1v1 so much as 'Alright, now, the prince of the kingdom you sworn to protect is being dragged away by the Guild coup people, who have Dragon-Blooded bodyguards, the support of the kingdom's angry god, and several trainers tigers, the army has been told you guys are the villains, and there's a bunch of ninjas with a contract in your head. You need to survive the entire city's worth of guards, the ninjas, and rescue the prince before he leaves town. GO!'

Think of impossibly difficult, cool situations, really tricky stuff, and let the PCs go nuts on 'how the fuck do we work our way out of this one?'

>>47015037

No.

Never again.

Suffer.

>>47010987
>How does one counter Melee's unique and overwhelming flurry charm?
Dodge, Resistance, and Martial Arts all have effective counters.

Crane + White Reaper is particularly effective.

>>47016155
I don't know where it is. All I see is this here.
https://github.com/gblosser42/Misc-Projects

>>47014523
Mortals with Parry rating 13.

What tier working would it be to allow someone to see up to 1,000 ri ahead?

>>47018138
Depends on the distance of the horizon in Exalted-land, Momiji.

3.927 megametres is a long way.

>>47018138
>>47018162
Eh?

>>47018181
What?

>>47018186
That's what I asked?

>>47017419
That.

>>47018190
I don't know what you're confused about, awoo. Seeing past the horizon is trickier than just zooming in on something really far away.

>>47018200
>Seeing past the horizon is trickier than just zooming in on something really far away
Yes, that makes sense, I was just wondering about the ri and momiji and megametres.

Though quick double-click shows that an Mm is 1,000 km, I'd say T2-3 for sight-limited-by-horizon-and-obstacles, and C1-2 for looking around such things I guess?

>>47018226
Momiji is a Touhou character who has the ability to see 1000 ri away. A ri is a Japanese unit of measurement equal to 3.927 km.

>>47018235
Huh, okay.
Cool I guess.

I wonder how tuhus would look like in Exalted...

>>47018243
Exactly like they are in Touhou.

Exalted and Touhou go together like sex, beach, and rock and roll. The setting just werks.

File: 1383005806162.png (109KB, 700x500px) Image search: [Google]

109KB, 700x500px

>>47018296
>Exactly like they are in Touhou.
Arousing, yet fucking terrifying.

>>47010929
Anybody read this?

>>47018690
I don't see the unifying thematic in the rule.

It's a martial art that gives you a ton of good melee charms, but without the synergy that you are supposed to get in a MA. SPSV by instance is all about having a second attack each round. Tiger is all about retreating, jumping on you and pounding you, then retreating again.

Here you just have good melee charms and good melee charms. Violet Bier of Sorrows should be something else than good melee charms.

File: 80b0243f9e9c2b0ac34a473553d7ca98.png (233KB, 800x803px) Image search: [Google]

233KB, 800x803px

So, by popular demand.

SEVENTH MACHINE OF DESTRUCTION
Destructive Soul of OCTHON
Essence 9
Seventh Machine of Destruction appears as a mechanical young girl not older than 21, with (literally) flaming red hair that glows increasingly red as she uses essence. Three glowing orbs are disposed on her left breast and on her hands. Very knowledgeable scholars of first age will recognize those as three Protoshinmaic Vortexes, artifacts of tremendous power.
She is surprisingly amenable for a soul of Octhon, and indeed, possess a seemingly boundless energy that is only topped by her apparent friendliness to everyone. This friendliness is beyond all boundaries ordered by Cecelyne, and albeit genuine, she frequently forgets all about her 'friends' once outside her visual range. Seventh Machine of Destruction lives in the now, and has no thought for what tomorrow will bring.
Beyond her apparent friendliness, Seventh Machine of Destruction is the single most powerful soul of Octhon. She has been summoned to destroy entire cities in the past, which she did with almost no effort. No one knows the limit of the destruction she can bring, and in the First Age, summoning her was a very serious offence.

Summoned, Seventh Machine of Destruction frequently appears as an energetic, friendly, normal human girl, so much that some summoners forget her true nature.

Seventh Machine of Destruction can enter into Creation in the wake of a mortal that just exalted, destroying at least a small town in the process.

Attribute:
Strength 9 Charisma 9 Perception 6
Dexterity 8 Manipulation 5 Intelligence 8
Stamina 9 Appearance 8 Wits 8

Abilities:
Archery 4 Athletics 9 Awareness 8
Brawl 9 Bureaucracy 3 Craft 9
Dodge 7 Integrity 9 Investigation 0
Larceny 0 Lore 4 Medicine 2
Melee 8 Occult 9 Performance 6
Presence 9 Resistance 9 Ride 5
Sail 4 Socialize 7 Stealth 0
Survival 2 Thrown 8 War 9

>>47018979
Yeah, I guess you're right. I was thinking of dabbling in it to go with Single Point but it's actually suspiciously good for it.

File: a15dd8c0d9e164b80d250d19112dfa33.png (3MB, 2000x1143px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 2000x1143px

>>47019017
Charms:
Seventh Machine of Destruction is a tremendously powerful third circle demon. She can be assumed to have a huge number of spirit charms, most of them pertaining toward destruction of any kind. Additionally, she has the following charms:

Permanent Charms:
Fountain of Essence:
As long as she has her three Protoshinmaic Vortexes on her person, Seventh Machine of Destruction regenerates 20 motes each round in combat or 20 motes each hour outside of combat. She loses 5 motes of regeneration for each Protoshinmaic Vortex that is separated from her, but this is incredibly difficult task (at least 7 successes on a disarm action, and Unmovable Object Approach can be used to defend against it).

Physic Canceller:
Seventh Machine of Destruction can cast spells of the terrestrial and celestial circle. Additionally, she has explicit access to Death Ray, even though she probably will never need it (see Twin Suns Lance). Finally, she adds (Essence) successes to all her Shape Sorcery actions used to cast violently destructive spells of any sort, like Death of Obsidian Butterflies or Magma Kraken.

File: 7c861fc995c8083de7e94dabc0037a54.jpg (373KB, 600x690px) Image search: [Google]

373KB, 600x690px

>>47019038
Offensive Charms:

Twin Suns Lance (50m, Simple, Instant, Aggravated, Decisive-only):
Seventh Machine of Destruction gathers raw essence in her hands, summoning two pulsing scarlet suns for a single moment. Two searing red lances of pure destruction follows soon after.
This function as the spell called Death Ray, but with the following modifications:
Two rays are created instead of one. Each ray is controlled and rolls independently.
Seventh Machine of Destruction rolls Charisma + Occult as a decisive attack for each ray, adding (Essence) extra-successes.
Seventh Machine of Destruction can continue using this charm by paying 10 motes each turn.
Twin Suns Lance has been found to cut mountains and cities in the past. Everybody with a lore specialty (Ochton), a specialty toward (Seventh Machine of Destruction) or any specialty toward unnatural catastrophe (on ST decision) will recognize the use of this charm on sight. In Creation, Heaven will most likely be dispatched very quickly.

Annihilating Rain (20m, Simple, Instant, Aggravated):
Dozen of spikes are released from Seventh Machine of Destruction’s legs. The next instant each of them spouts a terrifying lance of light that spears through countless bodies like it is nothing.
This charm is a (Dex + Thrown) attack adding (Essence) automatic successes and dealing a raw damage of (Essence + Additional Successes) that touches everyone in a straight line to middle range. Battlegroups are especially vulnerable to that charm and add a -2 penalties to Defense against it.
Annihilating Rain is the less powerful of the signature charms of Seventh Machine of Destruction and tends to only destroy part of the city it is activated in. As such, it is frequently used when anything else would be overkill.

File: 51732902_p0.jpg (793KB, 827x1169px) Image search: [Google]

793KB, 827x1169px

>>47019049
Exceptional Kick of Lightning (30m 1 wp, Simple, Aggravated, Instant, Eclipse, Essence 9, Decisive only):
Seventh Machine of Destruction never uses this charm against creature of lesser make than herself, for she is aware of the strain it puts on the fabric of reality.
Taking the stance of a flying kick, legs extended, she suddenly leaps into the sky, her body scorched in lightning and the radiance of destructive energy. Soon she becomes the essence of annihilation.
This unblockable decisive (Brawl + Strength) attack adds (Essence) successes, doubles 7, and ignore the soak of the opponent. Additional successes and the (Essence * 2) rating of Seventh Machine of Destruction is added to the damage roll of the attack. It is usable once per fight.
Creation has so far never seen Exceptional Kick of Lightning in action. This is good, because it could have catastrophic consequences. The ST is encouraged to play on those consequences (shadowlands forming, tears gaping into Cecelyne, Fate being disrupted in the area, etc).

World of Cardboard Stanza (1, 2 or 3 motes, Reflexive, Instant):
The world is small before Seventh Machine of Destruction, far too easily broken into pieces.
For 1 mote, she can automatically break a mundane object she is currently grasping in the palm of her hand. For 2 motes, she can break an object of her size she currently touches, while for 3 motes she can break objects of size greater than her (like a wall or a house). Objects so broken are neatly sliced in half against all reason.
To her own aggravation, Seventh Machine of Destruction has trouble controlling this charm, which frequently activates on its own.

File: 33885090_p0.png (2MB, 1200x1600px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1200x1600px

>>47019068
Defensive Charms:

Bold Confrontation of Fierce Destruction (15m 1wp, Reflexive, Instant):
Seventh Machine of Destruction boldly makes a statement toward the universe, crossing her arms to signify the purity of her will. No attack would dare touch her in this state.
She instantly rolls (Charisma + Presence), with (Essence) automatic successes. Each success on this roll burns one success on the opponent attack roll. If all successes are mitigated this way, the attack stops before even touching her.

Unmovable Object Approach (3m, Reflexive, Instant):
No force can make Seventh Machine of Destruction move if she isn’t willing. Isidoros itself would be hard pressed to make her budge.
Using this charm, Seventh Machine of Destruction automatically succeed against any tentatives to move her. This includes attacks made to throws her around or to make her prone. This charm is considered a perfect defense against any such tentatives, but the damage is not mitigated in any way (i.e she won’t be thrown around if you kick her, but she will still get injured).

File: 1415196759367.jpg (5MB, 3320x4436px) Image search: [Google]

5MB, 3320x4436px

>>47019086
Misc Charms:

Energetic Girl Masquerade (25m 1wp, Simple, Indefinite):
Seventh Machine of Destruction has learned how to don her glory away to live in a world that is so easily broken. This is one of her greatest pleasure.
Activating this charm, she transforms into a seemingly normal girl with none of the usual telltale of a demon. She’s still mechanical under close inspection (difficulty 3), but can very easily pass as a human.
This is a deep metaphysical transformation rather than a simple disguise. All charms, including Eyes of the Unconquered Sun and magic reproducing its effect, ping her as an Essence 1 automata. Indeed, for the duration of the effect she is effectively an Essence 1 automata by all means, with 60 motes in her essence pool and half her usual rating in attributes and abilities. In this state she has only access to one charm, World of Cardboard Stanza, which to her own frustration still activates randomly. This form doesn’t provide her with any special protection, however, and if she is slain in this form she reforms in Malfeas as if she were slain normally.
Seventh Machine of Creation frequently uses this charm when entering Creation, either because she is summoned or by other means. At times, she spends months in Creation with nobody the wiser.

Warp (60m 1wp, Simple, Instant):
Seventh Machine of Destruction has learned to destroy even distance. Such is her might.
Using this charm, she creates a hole in space and enter inside it. The next round she reappears through a similar hole in the fabric of space everywhere in the same realm of existence. That way she can effectively moves between an elemental pole of Creation to another in a matter of minutes.
Charms that prevents dematerialization prevents her departure. Crazy pursuers can try to follow her through the same hole if they jump before it closes up the next round, but they should be prepared for a travel that will break even the most resilient of the Exalted.

File: 44b84e31a0aa516287ef320d3c63505c.jpg (248KB, 736x538px) Image search: [Google]

248KB, 736x538px

>>47019102
Defining Principle: Uphold the legacy of Autochton.
Major Principle: Life is fun.
Major Principle: Everything can be solved with hard work and guts.
Minor Principle: Everything can be solved by bringing the right amount of firepower.
Minor Principle: I like to play as if I were lesser than what I really am.
Defining Intimacy: Octhon (Grudging acceptance of his authority)
Major Intimacy: Great Devourer (Icky)
Major Intimacy: Souls descended from her (Protectiveness)
Minor Intimacy: Everyone (Friendliness)

Seventh Machine of Destruction is friendly to everyone, cheerful at all time, and a walking weapon of mass destruction. She rarely thinks about the consequences of her actions and has a positive outlook on life that can be extremely grating, even more when it is obviously wrong. STs should keep in mind ber that even though she is the most humanlike of Octhon’s Souls, she is still a demon, and as such possesses absolutely alien thoughts and reactions. They are encouraged to play her like a deluded hyperactive 19 years old that sincerely believe everyone would be friends if only they tried, and is pathologically unable to understand that violently destroying the city of the evil will create more misery and deaths than finding a peaceful resolutions to the problem.
If met in Creation, there is a significant chance that she will be in the form given by Energetic Girl Masquerade. In this form she is as cheerful and energetic as ever, though she will sincerely try to uphold the masquerade for as long as it is possible. She will usually only drop the pretense if discovered, to protect at least a major intimacy, or under the menace of a Creation-level threat.
In combat Seventh Machine of Destruction is fast, efficient, and ruthless. She tends to destroy an absurdly high amount of collateral without a second thought and is prone to flashy display of powers.

>>47019068
>>47019049
So does she have no withering attack charms at all?

>>47019139
It actually makes a strange sort of sense doesn't it?

>>47019139
Annihilating rain is dual.

I'm taking it from the source, and there is very few attacks that aren't an instant 'I kill everything and everyone in that planet', which I take for a decisive attack. Only what Annihilating Rain is copied from could be considered a withering attack.

>>47019017
Why are her attributes and abilities so absurdly high? Wasn't it the idea of the new edition that we keep things on the scale of 1-5 except for Essence in very rare edge-cases like the Incarnea?

>>47019146
I wouldn't know, I don't know what she's a reference to. But mechanically, it might make her far weaker than intended. Also, she might need a way of regaining wp, since so many of her charms use it. She's got mote regen covered but it won't do her much good on its own.

>>47019163
I don't think she needs any Charms when her dice-pools are at stable 16+ anyway. It kind of makes anything pointless.

>>47019163
>I don't know what she's a reference to.
I think it's the chick from Diebuster.

>>47019161
Some people can't let go. Their idea of 'high power' is just ignoring the rules.

>>47019170
well, she's lacking in penalty negators and social defences. She's a glass cannon and especially the social thing might be her undoing given how friendly she is.

>>47019017
>>47019038
>>47019049
>>47019068
>>47019086
>>47019102
>>47019121

I fucking love it. Updated the Yozicthon file.

>>47019163
Nono from Diebuster

>>47019161
Have 3rd Circle Demons been statted in 3e?

>>47019181
She's got Resolve 9. Fucking 9. I don't think that argument will fly.

>>47019178
>>47019161
Well, that's not quite right. Non-exalt high essence spirits still have some attributes over 5. Fakharu, for example, still has Strength 10 and Stamina higher than 5

>>47019183
>Have 3rd Circle Demons been statted in 3e?

>Why did you give that duck Solar Circle Sorcery?
>Have any ducks been statted in Ex3?

You need to justify any rules exceptions, not just assume they will be the case.

>>47019161
I'm taking from 2E thinking on 3CD.

We do not have any example of a 3CD in 3E, and even though the devs certainly implied high essence are rarer for Exalts, I do not think they implied 3CD should not be high essence, nor should they have lesser attributes than they already have.

A 3CD is, thematically, close to Incarnae level of power.

If it still irks you you can always remove 1 or 2 points randomly.

So, who's got good ideas for traps in Solar tombs?

>>47019229
make them mirror the Solar's life in some way. Did he grow up in the Far North and exalt in a snowstorm? Magical environmental effect that's a snowstorm on steroids.

>>47019204
And that kind of makes sense, given how Soak and Weapons work in the new edition, but you'll notice that even a fucking Lesser Elemental dragon doesn't roll more than 11 dice for attacks and his Resolve is 5, which is less than a specialized Solar.

No, sorry, these statistics are absurd and make any encounter with her completely meaningless just by virtue of her rolling more dice. It just reeks of complete lack of understanding how the system works and why dice-pools are the big deal that they are.

>>47019161
I would argue that a 3cd falls into this category, yes.

File: 1452222661325.gif (276KB, 500x554px) Image search: [Google]

276KB, 500x554px

>>47019017
through
>>47019121
>mfw

>>47019269
She'd be rolling 20 dice on a normal attack. That is... Yeah, that is not a good idea. Seeing how her stats on their own make any encounter pointless, you might as well keep her stat-less and give her GMPC-level protection, because it seriously wouldn't change anything.

>>47019229

There's a series of three gates with simple riddles (Wits+Lore 1) graven above. For the first two gates, it briefly opens when you stand in front of it and speak aloud the correct answer. Those two gates exist to "train" intruders, because the third gate is a decoy: standing in front of it and speaking aloud the answer unleashes hell on the spot where you're standing.

Variations:
-after the first two gates, the path ahead might be by speaking a wrong answer, or finding the hidden correct exit, or by going back through the second gate which has now reconfigured.
-replace gates with portals that activate on speaking the riddle answer, now the party has to voluntarily walk into them
-good old fashioned trap doors in front of all three gates, reinforcing the "training", first two might open on false answers or never open under any conditions, third one opens for the poor sod who thinks he has this figured out

>>47019321
>standing in front of it and speaking aloud the answer unleashes hell on the spot where you're standing.
Why not just dump you to hell instead?

>>47019229
Not a trap in itself, but put some kind of noxious miasma or respawning guards or something in there to encourage people to move with enough speed that the tomb stays a little risky, rather than carefully and laboriously testing every square inch of floor with an eleven foot pole and a herd of sheep or other expendables to walk ahead and trigger traps. Stampeding sheep into the traps is funny once and then it gets retarded.

>>47019315
She's supposed to be a serious threat for a circle of experienced essence 4-5 Solars, like any combat focused 3CD.

Now, maybe I overdid it a little, but throwing 18 dices in a combat with several experienced Solars who will throw just as much does not seem crazy crazy. Even more when she has no access to excellencies or dice adder, beyond willpower costly attacks.

>>47019347
Because that takes five days.

>>47019397
18 dice on every attack is not a "serious threat", it's unbeatable.

>ow, maybe I overdid it a little, but throwing 18 dices in a combat with several experienced Solars who will throw just as much

No they won't. A fully specked Essence 5 solar will be rolling 15 dice per attack and that's already including specialties and accuracy bonus. She's rolling 21. Her static defense is about 10. You literally have to apply Excellency every time on order to even have a chance to hit her.

>>47019642

Given that a Essence 2 Cataphract in the core back has attack dicepool of 16, I consider your argument that a Demon of the Third Circle having 18 is broken and unbeatable, to be a steaming pile of shit.

>>47019642
>You literally have to apply Excellency every time on order to even have a chance to hit her.
So? If you're fighting a third circle demon, you should be burning through your motepools like crazy just to keep up.

With all this talk about excellencies, has anyone noticed that 3e spirits don't have them any more? Exalts do, but only exalts.

>>47019642
>A fully specked Essence 5 solar will be rolling 15 dice per attack and that's already including specialties and accuracy bonus.

What? A full excellency will put you far, far higher, and that's even before double rolls and other Fate-Shifting Solar Arete.

>You literally have to apply Excellency every time on order to even have a chance to hit her.

Ahhh. Ok. You didn't take into account the excellencies.

>You literally have to apply Excellency every time on order to even have a chance to hit her.
And that is exactly as intended.

She's intended to be a threat for a circle of experienced high essence Solars, with fully specked melee trees. If they can touch her without even trying hard (and an excellency is the beginning of trying hard), then she is no threat.

She's not a 'I can reasonably defends myself against a full Dawn' second circle demon like Octavian. It is a third circle demon that is supposed resilient enough to survive creation shattering attacks and can destroy cities without trying. She's the kind of endboss you put against a reasonably experienced Solar circle.

And even then, she's still far from being omnipotent. Trying to wither her WP by playing the long run will help against her, as any high level social-fu able to succeed against her resolve.

>>47019183
>Updated the Yozicthon file.

Thanks mate.

File: Here's_to_you,_you_glorious_sexy_bastard.gif (1015KB, 500x211px) Image search: [Google]

1015KB, 500x211px

>>47019810

>>47017001
>Don't think of it like DnD, think of it as though this is a superhero game (even though it isn't a superhero game, but it's the closest narrative I can think of in short notice); don't think of things to challenge a Solar 1v1
>Think of impossibly difficult, cool situations, really tricky stuff, and let the PCs go nuts on 'how the fuck do we work our way out of this one?'
Also, still in the vein of superhero stories, don't always throw them at situations where they get to use their specialty. Throw the Dawn into situations where starting a fight will make the problem worse instead of resolving it. Have the Twilight need to find a way to cleverly sneak and misdirect his way to the heart of an occupied Manse. Have an Eclipse's poorly-worded Oath force them into an athletics competition.

It's always a good idea to give exalts prime moments to shine, where they get to be the center of attention showing off their rad powers. But, by the same token, it's also always a good idea to remind everyone that, outside of their specialties, they're basically still just human too.

Sorry to bother, but is there some sort of megatrove for all white wolfs game lines?

>>47011304
Dammit Falafel.

File: scrooge2.jpg (7KB, 189x250px) Image search: [Google]

7KB, 189x250px

>>47019211
>>Why did you give that duck Solar Circle Sorcery?
He clearly had a good reason.

>>47020048
There's an oWoD trove torrent, but combining that with all the other line would make it pretty huge. You'd have to have a dedicated Mega account or something.

>>47020143
So, it would be too big and without scion. Kinda disappointing. Anyway, thanks anon. And sorry for the disrubtion.

>>47020235
I have the Scion. You don't want the Scion. It makes Exalted 2e look good.

>>47019755
Some of the more powerful spirits do have dice or success adders. Ahlat, Mara and Octavian, at least, have powers like that.

>>47020264
Sure, but it seems like spirits don't have the "throw motes at it" option. Which is good, because their mote pools are enormous. Halved if they have to manifest using their own power and don't have time to regen from it, but still enormous.

>>47020286
Keep in mind that elementals are manifest by default, and as a result can go from immaterial to material for free - when they even have the Dematerialize power, which they usually don't. That does mean, though, that they need to keep half their mote pool in reserve if they want a 'get the fuck out of dodge' button.

>>47020286
It was a design decision, and a good design decision.

The idea is that excellencies are a by-product of the Exaltation, and explain how an Exalted can be so good at so many things so quickly. Some powerful Spirits, have specialized dice-adders, or in the case of Octavian 'I am so awesome I add three successes at whatever I do' adder, but only Exalted have quick and dirty easily applicable excellencies out of the box.

A very good idea of 3E.

>>47019909
>Throw the Dawn into situations where starting a fight will make the problem worse instead of resolving it. Have the Twilight need to find a way to cleverly sneak and misdirect his way to the heart of an occupied Manse. Have an Eclipse's poorly-worded Oath force them into an athletics competition.
This is what John Wick would do. Don't be John Wick.

>>47020619
I don't understand what you mean.

>>47020632
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wick_(game_designer)

>>47020680
So you're saying that throwing people into situations where they're out of their element to serve as contrast to situations where they're the king of the scene is a bad thing because a successful game designer with several really good games in his portfolio would advise doing the same thing?

I still don't think I understand what you mean.

>>47020710
You don't make a character with an expectation that they will engage with the exact opposite of what you're building them towards.

>>47020619
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having the Dawn end up in situations where violence isn't really a good solution.

>>47020728
Not arguing against that, it's just that the post in general seems to be encouraging an ST vs Players sort of approach.

>>47020726
That's dumb and you're an idiot. This same logic follows through in literally every RPG. Sometimes the Fighter has to attend a party. Sometimes the hacker needs to get his hands dirty. Sometimes the pilot needs to survive in the wilderness after crashing his plane.

You don't do that ALL THE TIME. You do it occasionally, to add drama and to show how the character operates when they're outside of their element.

But if you ONLY pit them against their specialty, you'll only see one facet of the character instead of getting to see nuance.

>>47020744
>post in general seems to be encouraging an ST vs Players sort of approach
You're not just a dumb idiot, you also can't read.

>>47020726
It's shitty GMing to never let characters just do their thing and shine. It's completely acceptable GMing to sometimes have characters encounter situations that are outside their comfort zone.

>>47020744
>it's just that the post in general seems to be encouraging an ST vs Players sort of approach
It really, really doesn't. The very same post explicitly states that you should also give Exalt chances to shine.

>>47020710
John Wick is infamous here for his book Play Dirty, which advocates negating and misusing the characters' advantages to fuck them over. For instance, one example is when he introduced a super-disease that infected everyone, and the guy who was immune to poisons couldn't be cured because 'lol, the cure is technically a poison!'. Or something like that.

Fuck, even salt is technically a poison, was the character immune to that?

File: John-Wick-Poster.jpg (509KB, 1296x720px) Image search: [Google]

509KB, 1296x720px

>>47020680
Oh, right, my mind went somewhere completely different.

>>47020781
That's stupid and not even close to what I was suggesting.

>>47020775
Didn't see that, sorry.

>>47020781
>the guy who was immune to poisons couldn't be cured because 'lol, the cure is technically a poison!'.
That's bullshit.
Should make the cure actually a fucking poison and make it not work for poison immunities

>>47020781
>Or something like that.
Worse than that.

The guy was immune to diseases.
Anti-super disease worked on him because it's anti-super.*
But the cure also was a disease (just because) and so it didn't work.

*that step is actually occasionally fine in supers RPG, by the grace of plot and party goodwill. Wick abused that goodwill with his continuation.

>>47013237
>implying lunars will do anything but eat shit against solars

>>47020868
It's OK as long as there's a next step. It's a game; players need to be able to take actions to continue to be players. Rocks Fall Everyone Dies is bad; Rocks Fall, make a save vs death is just diluted bad; Rocks Fall and now you're lost underground is just another adventure hook.

That said, John Wick is clearly an ass. Probably not as extreme as a book about being a dick DM makes him look, but that's marketing for you.

>>47013237
>I'd imagine that a Lunar with high soak/hardness and healing would fuck your shit up.
>>47020926
>implying lunars will do anything but eat shit against solars

Lunars do indeed seem to be a little shafted on healing this edition. 2e Lunars had heal 1hl/2m and a warform Gift to heal 1hl every action at no cost.

3e Lunar preview?
> he heals a single level of lethal or bashing damage whenever he resets to base Initiative after making a decisive attack with 11+ Initiative or recovers from being crashed.

meanwhile Solars have gotten spot healing in Resistance this edition, on top of the Instant Treatment Methodology and other spot healing in Medicine that they kept from 2e.

Here's hoping the preview lunar warlord is a shitty newbie moron not representative of Lunar power.

>>47020744

I don't really agree.

You see, the Exalted are good at a lot of things. But if they're solely doing the thing they're good at, it becomes an exercise in dice-rolling. Something like the Dawn Caste romancing a girl is more fun than having him cut an army down.

I say this because I recently ran a solo session (As a tutorial and buildup to the party meeting) for the Dawn Caste, and it was a fucking killfest. As a noble's son, who Exalted when dueling his Fire Aspect brother over a woman they both loved, he ended up killing his brother and about a dozen other household soldiers and his old instructor before he escaped.

It was also pretty tedious. The one characterful moment was when he stripped his brother's armor and sword from his body and - In the throes of a kind of desperate despair - walked out to meet the people swarming to catch him/kill him with a:

> "Here I am. Kill me, if you can."

It's the same with his instructor, a cool old guy he treated as his surrogate father. He really didn't want to kill the old man, so the conflict was about desperately trying to talk him down. Ultimately, he gave up and chopped his leg off instead.

>>47021176
To be fair, you also take health damage a LOT less frequently in this edition. In 2e, it was the target of every attack. Resetting from 11+ Initiative or recovering from a Crash probably means you're recovering health at approximate the same rate per health-targetting-attack, all things considered.

After all, regenerating health round after round while Witherings are being thrown would make you more or less invincible to anything other than one-hit kills.

File: old cool.png (46KB, 358x307px) Image search: [Google]

46KB, 358x307px

>>47021053
>Rocks Fall, make a save vs death is just diluted bad

Save or Die are not inherently bad, as they should be taken like they are: the last hope of the characters who fucked up.

Save or Die situations are here to provide incentives to the players to play correctly and intelligently. A good example of a good Save or Die situation is the result an easily discoverable trap. The players didn't think about it? Well, now their character is dead! But wait, we are sympathetic beings, you have the right to have a save to prevent your character from suffering from the consequences of their actions.

Good Save or Die create a sense of tension and an enormous incentive to play intelligently, with a sense of danger and the thinking that the characters you play are only as strong as they are played cleverly. Some really good games, I played them with old school rpg and characters with pathetic saves and Save or Die situations literally everywhere.

This is the essence of old school. It's not for everyone, but it's really fun.

>>47021251
It's great for games where you put a character together in ten minutes and don't get attached to them.

>>47021238
>To be fair, you also take health damage a LOT less frequently in this edition. In 2e, it was the target of every attack. Resetting from 11+ Initiative or recovering from a Crash probably means you're recovering health at approximate the same rate per health-targetting-attack, all things considered.

As a piece of abstract theory about reduced healing keeping pace with reduced health damage, I would agree.

But in practice, I look over at Solar Resistance (never mind Solar Medicine) and see the following:
Iron Skin Concentration: 6m for (Stamina) -0 health levels, reflexive, once per (complicated interval based on healing)
Tiger Warrior's Endurance: recover 2hl whenever you recover from Crash
Wound-Knitting Exercise: recover your -0 levels at one every (7-Stamina) rounds

>>47021303
Except when they survive, levels up, and get progressively better saves. You are even more pushed to play intelligently then, and you become even more, and more, paranoid as they start to have a name (never before level 3), an occupation, depth, etc.

A RPG should create emotions on its players. I have rarely felt more emotional than with my level 12 fighter that just failed his save against petrification and suddenly, he is no more.

Of course, Save or Die situations are not for Exalted, where a big theme of the setting being that you are a practically unkillable demigod of war.

>>47018162
There is no horizon, the world is flat.

>>47021176
>Here's hoping the preview lunar warlord is a shitty newbie moron not representative of Lunar power.

He is. He is a quick character, to begin with, and then he is only essence 2, and his charms are kind of meh. He is representing of a meh Lunar.

>>47021401
So, barring aerial haze, can you see right to the Wyld looking West from Onyx?

>>47021395
>where a big theme of the setting being that you are a practically unkillable demigod of war
I've never played a combat exalt because 3e is the first edition where combat hasn't been anti-fun itself, and I haven't gotten to play in a 3e game yet.

>>47021448
>So, barring aerial haze, can you see right to the Wyld looking West from Onyx?
Nope. Trees, buildings, and more importantly hills block your line of sight. You can just see significantly further away than you can on Earth, unless you're on something crazy-tall like Mount Meru.

In which case, yes, aerial haze, weather, smoke, and other airborn particulate becomes what blocks your line of sight.

There's no horizon based on the curvature of the Earth. But there's still a horizon beyond which mundane perception is blocked.

And honestly, unless you live on some kind of flat plains or the ocean in real life, you probably never see an actual horizon during your day to day life either. It's usually blocked by buildings, trees, and hills in real life too.

>>47014523

It's definitely been mentioned before, but consequences for a Solar's actions are a major factor of how the game is played. PCs are so strong out the gate compared to other games that, especially when they're new players, they're arrogant. Though if they truly have the best of intentions, they tend to be successful in their endeavors and can be the saviors they were meant to be to the populous at large, if they're not thinking things through and only looking out for number one, they can pull some serious, civilization-toppling shit at the drop of a hat.

Getting companions killed, throwing the local branch of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy into chaos, starting wars, all inadvertent, all in a day's work. You've gotta look out for that spark of self-righteousness, greed, egoism, and willful ignorance in your players - I know you've seen it before. If you notice them leaning on it at any point, their hubris is likely leading them down a sad - and interesting - path. They don't have to be directly threatened by it, but their interests and loved ones very well can be.

>>47021539
>Trees, buildings, and more importantly hills block your line of sight.
I was meaning the islands under the control of Onyx, more than the city of Onyx.

>>47021641

Exactly. A Circle of Solars is insanely powerful. They're not like a typical group of adventurers: The best analogy is the Justice League, or Odin and the Norse Gods on a wander.

In fact, the sample Circle in 2E feels really weird. You have Dace - whose whole shtick is being a leader of men - tagging along with the others, and he's more-or-less alone. Then Panther does the fighting!

If you have a whole Circle open up a can of whop-ass on one opponent, that opponent is going to drop. That's why in most final battles, you need to have a similar number of enemies.

>>47021653
Then yes, air, smoke, and airborn water mist are probably the main things blocking out your vision.

>>47021752
What would you see if you tried to sail into the Wyld from the West? Is that sort of thing mentioned somewhere?

>>47021770
Keep in mind that the Wyld isn't some distinct line that gets crossed, and that the Pole is also a major force there. The setting describes the approach to the pole of water as being one where, after a certain point, the sky gradually becomes a second sea above you, the sea eventually becomes bottomless as there ceases to be Earth underneath, and then you reach a point where everything is just water, with no top, no bottom, and nothing in between.

But by that point you've already been in the Bordermarches or deeper for thousands of miles.

So take that as you will.

>>47021770

Things get gradually crazier the further you go. It starts with something that could be put down to coincidence - flocks of oddly colored seagulls, a distant noise of song, flotsam and jetsam of unusual materials.

Then it starts to be obviously "off", but still not quite contradictng the regular rules of Creation: birds of paradise fly overhead, you hear the loud cheer of a thousand spectators echoing as from an arena, the driftwood spells your name.

Then it becomes clear that you're into the depths of the Wyld where the normal rules give way to the whim of the Fair Folk: the birthmarks on your skin start rearranging themselves to spell the local raksha noble's name (didn't have birthmarks? YOU DO NOW), every fourth wave smells of cooking meat and the spray when it strikes your keel tastes of pistachio, you wonder why there's the sound of an orchestra coming from belowdecks, and bird-fish-flower-beastmen and goblins approach your ship to see the newcomer for themselves.

>>47021865
>after a certain point, the sky gradually becomes a second sea above you
That must be really unsettling. One day you wake up, go up on deck, and there's no clouds, no stars, just water. Might not even be a sun, if you're far enough. That's a thing, where would the light come from if there's only water?

>>47021905
Don't forget the schools of flying fish that form the shape of a man as they leap from the water in a perfectly synchronized formation. They're waving.

>>47021909
Once you go far enough to lose the Sun, you're probably at a point where there's light because the local raksha want there to be light.

>>47021909
>That's a thing, where would the light come from if there's only water?
That's something the setting doesn't mention. I'd go one of two ways with it. Either the Celestial bodies are still there (just because the sky is water doesn't mean that the sun/moon/stars aren't still in that sky; they still rule Heaven regardless of what type of sky there is) or shit's only lit by things like glowing jellyfish, radiant currents, and other increasingly-psychedelic displays as you get deeper into the Wyld.

>>47021979
>>47021969
Are the Poles in the Wyld?

>>47022019
The poles are the tent pegs keeping Creation in place. They're in Creation, but are surrounded almost entirely by Wyld

Is it just me or does it seem like the system begs you to take artifact weapons/armor at character creation?

They seem very cheep at character creation and are soooo much better than mundane weapons/armor.

>>47022019
>Are the Poles in the Wyld?
Yes. In the deep Wyld, in fact. The only Pole that isn't completely beyond the boundaries of Creation is the pole of Earth - which is the Firmament defining reality from non-reality in the first place, and therefore obviously the one in it.

>>47022033
Incorrect. They're beyond it with their influences defining it. Earth is the one keeping Creation as Creation. The other four are just defining its nature through their effects to add nuance and therefore strength to reality.

>>47022045
No, every artifact should have a unique backstory that is integral to your character's own and relevant to the greater plot of your group's game. If you just take it because it's mechanically better and cheaper then you're a powergamer who's playing it wrong and should probably go back to D&D.

t. Holden

>>47022045
>Is it just me or does it seem like the system begs you to take artifact weapons/armor at character creation?
It absolutely does. The system expects you to by a hyper-specialist whose backstory involves acquiring artifacts out of chargen. That's why things like Supernal, the BP/XP divide, cheap Artifact merits, and even basic-ass charms that require Ability 4+ are a thing.

They expect and want you to hyper-specialize.

>>47022045
>soooo much better than mundane weapons/armor.
one more dice, for 5 commited motes? Meh.

>>47022019

In 2e, the Poles (except Earth) were in the Wyld.

In 3e, the exact locations of the Poles hasn't been stated yet, AFAIK.

But I should perhaps clarify that "the Wyld" is not a strictly bounded place. Physics in Creation is a sort of infrastructure, and the Wyld is where you run out of infrastructure, like taking your car for a spin, driving to where asphalt roads become gravel roads then dirt roads then wide trails. Eventually you hit a place with no roads at all, just driving across the landscape. It kinda works, but you can't count on it to be quite reliable or do all the things you were used to.

>>47022125
+2 dice, +3 damage, the negation of the Heavy Defense penalty, and +2 to +4 Overwhelming.

That's sexy as fuck for just 5 committed motes.

>>47022168
>+2 dice
it's just 1 die, dude

>>47022045
>>47022097
>>47022125
>>47022168
>>47022199

Am I making a mistake by having a solar dawn-caste brawl supernal character who's forwent having artifacts at chargen? Because she's still using mundane cesti and a chain shirt...

>>47022241

Nah, Brawl is fairly lethal, and parading around with artefacts immediately advertizes that you're some sort of supernatural being. Sometimes it's just good to be able to blend in.

>>47022045
You're forgetting commitment.

>>47021395
>Of course, Save or Die situations are not for Exalted, where a bit theme of the setting being that you are a practically unkillable demigod of war.
I'm not so sure about that. The game is telling me to do Save or Die at times on page 187. If an Exalt jumps off a tower to grab an enemy, I should give the player a good chance to survive and stay in the fight, such as letting them grab onto a ledge. But if they fail to grab the ledge, they're going to fall and suffer the consequences for it.

I think the Exalted devs may be influenced by the design of Mutants&Masterminds.

In M&M, "power" has a couple of hard caps in terms of how high you can raise your attack DC and your saving throws, and everything else is up for grabs. Attack, OK, ranged attack, OK, ranged area attack, OK, ranged area attack that reaches to the moon, OK, ranged area attack that reaches to the moon and can blow up the moon at chargen, no, your character is stupid.

But M&M is loud and explicit that the GM can and should reject stupid characters and set guidelines and nudge people to be on the same page. M&M lets you sink points into Telepathically Communicate With Martian Robots or Homing Rerolling Laser Missile That Goes Around Corners on an equal basis, and while the first might be an "experience sink" in some games, M&M tells you to consider if it's going to be fun to have this power and if it's in line with the rest of the group. Which it might be, if you're playing alongside Captain Cowardice and her super power of looking so pathetic that villains usually won't bother to damage her.

Exalted, meanwhile, offers you an experience sink on one hand and a ton of power on the other, and if you pick the wrong one it passive-aggressively glares at you and mutters "that's not what I had in mind, you're a bad roleplayer".

>>47022321
Five motes for a weapon really doesn't seem that bad.

I mean in combat you regenerate 5 motes of essence just to start with. So essentially loosing out on essentially one round of 5 essence seems like a non-issue when you have enough bonus accuracy, damage, availability of powerful evocations to make the fight end more than one round quicker.

Plus your weapon would be immune to mundane destruction.

Are there fanmade or official adventures for 3E to play or do I have to try and design my own?

>>47022241
>Am I making a mistake by having a solar dawn-caste brawl supernal character who's forwent having artifacts at chargen?
Do you want to eventually have an artifact someday? Did nobody in your party take Supernal Craft?

If the answer to both of those questions is 'yes,' then you made a bigass mistake.

If the answer to either of those questions is 'no,' then you're good.

>>47022491
Fuck no. As a rule, characters have too much - and too wildly varying - agency in Exalted for a pre-written adventure to ever work. The tiny handful of times when it's been tried, it's failed miserably in every edition to date.

>>47022530
So, I have to try and make my own? Got it.

>>47022498
>If the answer to both of those questions is 'yes,' then you made a bigass mistake.
dude, if you ask your ST he'll just give you a chance to find one, making them youselves is really pointless.

>>47022491
There isn't really any such thing as an "adventure" for Exalted in the usual sense of the world. Solars are the best at what they do; they're not adventurers for hire, and they can't be consistently lured in with plot hook. Every Exalted game is to some degree a sandbox where the characters might decide to murder the king, brainwash the population, confiscate the nation's artifacts, and this is supposed to be a supported style of play.

>>47022530
>>47022546
The only thing adventure-like thing that would really work would be something like a pregen city full of interlocking plans that the players can blunder through.

>>47022548
>if you ask your ST he'll just give you a chance to find one
Mine wouldn't. Not without a commensurate expenditure of resources.

Getting something like that after chargen COSTS you something - something serious. In the case of a crafter, it's the cost of buying all those fucking charms. In the case of finding it out in the world, it's going to cost something comparable, bare minimum, to the resources that go into purchasing the merit.

You want that Artifact, you're going to have to lose something else on the way to it. It's not just going to fall into your lap without a price, because that would be a huge punch in the dick to people who spent chargen points or buying an entire Charm cascade just to get theirs.

>>47022586
Just kill a Dragonblooded and take his shit. It's really not that hard. Stop being so overly dramatic.

>>47022605
>using cheap second age Jade knock-offs

eww, what sort of pleb are you

Just raid your first age incarnation's solar tomb like the rest of us

If I wanna play a character with four arms who uses four weapons, what benefits do I get for that? Are there rules for it?

>>47022689
>If I wanna play a character with four arms who uses four weapons, what benefits do I get for that?
Basically none.

>Are there rules for it?
Using a pair of matched weapons gets you a small bonus on Clash attacks. Otherwise, the only benefit to using mismatched weapons would be to have one weapon in one hand which has a Defense score you want, another weapon in another hand which you use for Accuracy and Damage, a third one that is Ranged, and so forth.

>>47022689

>what benefits do I get for that?

Either the benefit of using weapons with four different tags, the benefit of using multiple weapons of different weight classes, the benefit of using weapons compatible with different combat styles, or the benefit of extra dice on clashes.

>>47022689
Your choice of tags, using a medium weapon for defence and the +2 bonus to clashes with paired weapons, as well as disarming resistance.

I'm starting a new game and one of the submitted characters has the Giant merit (7-10ft tall) and wears heavy artifact armor.

Roughly how noticeable would Tank Man be, in terms of "days until someone calls the Wyld Hunt"?

>>47021448
>>47021909
I don't think it would be a one day thing. First the clouds get thicker, eventually it's entirely overcast, then they're so thick that part of them is blue water, then eventually m ore of the clouds are blue than white, and eventually the white is just whitecaps on an inverted sea. And as you keep going, the sky gets lower, or perhaps the sea gets higher, so soon your mast is grazing the sky, and then your sails are being dragged through it, and then the two have met and there's no more air.

What are the Realm's Magistrates? What are their duties?

>>47022727
>Your choice of tags

Will Wood Dragon's claw benefit my many arms / penises (haven't decided how to fluff it yet)

>>47022738

>"days until someone calls the Wyld Hunt"

It'd be more like "this guy's a freak and I want nothing to do with him" if he's obviously a mutant instead of just regulaly huge, as per the Wyld Mutant flaw. Depending on what the armour is made of, they might think that he's some sort of DB, in which case they may treat him with reverence until they discover he's not.

>>47022324
Yes, but for Exalted, the consequence of a fall is very narrow, because you have so many charms that can be used to mitigate that fall.

Save or Die are used to simulate situations where very human, oh so mortal people are interacting with deadly poisons, traps, or magic. If you are fighting giant scorpions and you didn't bring anti scorpion venom (and didn't though about poison at all), then you have one and only one chance to wither the venom. If not, kiss your mortal character goodbye, next time you'll hopefully think about bringing a potion of antipoison.

In Exalted, if you are struck by a deadly giant scorpion, then:
* The poison is literally reflected by your superhuman constitution.
* The poison is not entirely cancelled, but has almost no meaningful impact.
* If the poison is a superpoison from Malfeas good enough to even touch exalts, then you can still bring your ton of charms to protect yourself from the poison or the consequence of the poison, or even develop one right now if you have the XP and prereqs.

Save or Die has no sense in Exalted. Perfect defence against shaping attack in 2E were rightly created because Save or Die makes no sense in Exalted.

It doesn't mean actions should have no consequences in Exalted, and indeed, if you do something stupid, you should be penalized. But extreme mortality has an incentive to play better makes no sense when your character is very, very superhuman, and very, very, very difficult to kill.

If you want to play Save or Die in Creation, play a bunch of heroic mortals. That'd be fun. Going by the extreme lethality of the setting for a mortal, that would be really fun.

>>47022019
It's really a semantic question, but they're beyond the borders of the map. Aside from Earth of course. But look how broad an influence Earth has, there's land all over creation. The area of wyld around the poles is unlike what most of creation would consider to be normal, and it's full of fae shit, but it's vastly more mundane than the non-elemental chaos that would be there if you go past them by about the width of creation or more. People don't generally run adventures there, because that level of chaos is beyond what the human mind can build a decent narrative with.

>>47022787
>penises

>>47022817
Penii?

>>47022738
>Roughly how noticeable would Tank Man be

Creation is weird. There are ant-people and shark-people, and people with blue or green hair, and people with multicolored spots everywhere on their body. Somebody who is huge would be weird in a small village, and perfectly like any other freak in a big city.

>>47022498

"yes' and "no' respectively.

Fuck. I'll try to rework things, I guess, though given backstory I doubt my character'd have orichalcum stuff... at best jade, since she's recently escaped from enslavement at the hands of a sadistic air-aspect sorcerer who was using her for experiments, but, hrm. Still, damnit.

>>47022826
Penes.

>>47022844
No way

>>47022841
dude, don't stress it, you'll be fine

>>47022586
>In the case of a crafter, it's the cost of buying all those fucking charms.
Except you can make tons of artifacts, tons of five dot artifacts at six charms or four dot at four charms. And if you go deeper, the charm tree pays for itself since it generates tons of gxp which you can then change to wxp and to experience.

>it's going to cost something comparable, bare minimum, to the resources that go into purchasing the merit.
Sure, that's fair. Spending a few sessions trying to steal it or have it made is perfectly reasonable.

>or buying an entire Charm cascade
You buy the charms for the charms. Having the ability to shit out artifacts when you need them is different than having artifacts.

>>47022883

I just don't want to be a drag on the party; given I'm the dawn, I'm the primary combat character, and if you really need artifacts and they're that hard to get iwthout having a circlemate invested in crafting, then I should start with them. I don't mind not starting with them if it's 'simple enough' in a sense of 'not ridiculously diffuclt to the party' to get them somehow, but if it's that much of a struggle then I need to start with them.

>>47022866

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemipenis

> A hemipenis (plural hemipenes) is one of a pair of intromittent organs of male squamates (snakes, lizards and worm lizards).

Which perhaps also answers the question of why he has penes in the first place: snake/lizard beastman, maybe?

I want to play a sort of con-man, smart talker and kind of a wanker type, would Eclipse or Night be better suited?

>>47023081

Depends on what type you want. You'll obviously want Larceny and Socialize, both of which are caste abilities for both castes. Eclipses have Linguistics and Presence to more social fuckery but Nights have Investigation for sizing up their mark, not to mention Stealth and Dodge in case anything turns tits up.

>>47022778
They're people chosen personally by the Empress and given broad authority and mostly free hands to work to the benefit of the Realm.

>>47022933
You won't be a drag on the party. Bonuses of Artifacts are nice but ultimately pretty minor. Your character's stats and Charms are what really matter.

>>47023482

I guess? But this is my first ex3 game and I don't really have system mastery yet, so I'm not sure if my charms are the 'right choice' for what I want to do or not. My stats are good becuase I went with the old 2e standby of 5+5+3 (well, +1 since specialties cap at 1 now), but I dunno if that's enough, you know? Most of my ex2 characters had at least three or four artifacts and a couple of hearthstones and this character doesn't have any, which worries me.

>>47023081
Look at the caste roles as well as the abilities. Here's what you need to do for delicious Solar XP.

Night Castes: Removing a major impediment to the
character’s or Circle’s goals through assassination, black-
mail, or other underhanded means; stealing something
that directly furthers the character’s or Circle’s goals;
gaining a significant advantage over a dangerous enemy
through infiltration or stealth; upholding or protecting
a Major or Defining Principle through “criminal” means
(larcenous association, robbery, poisoning, and so forth).

• Eclipse Castes: Bringing two or more parties with a
meaningful dispute to accords, gaining a noteworthy
advantage for the character or the Circle through dip-
lomatic means, successfully navigating and thwarting
social or geographical obstacles preventing the charac-
ter or Circle from achieving a significant goal, exploit-
ing a cultural tradition or legal system in furtherance of
a Major or Defining Intimacy, bringing someone’s Inti-
macies closer to aligning with those of the Eclipse or
with the goals of his Circle, inspiring or taking part in
the creation or transformation of a social institution.

Either one can be cunning and manipulative, but the sorts of challenges they should be tackling differ. Remember that Eclipse Immunity only applies to people on legitimate business.

What's your alignment? Lawful Wanker or Chaotic Wanker? Will you be perverting the rules or ignoring them?

>>47019068
Decisive attacks don't need to ignore soak, because you don't apply soak to decisive attacks.

>>47022778
W40K inquisition but for the Realm. They have an inquisitor retinue and everything.

>>47023582
Of course, yep. Fuck'd up.

>>47017182

What are Dodge's particular counters, if I might ask?

>>47023607
So can you have Cogbros and Demonhosts on Creation?

>>47023653
>Demonhosts

If you are DB sorcerer and you don't have many, many demons running around, you are doing something terribly wrong.

>Cogbros

It can be found.

>>47023222
>>47023541
Thanks, it will probably be Eclipse then, Lawful Wanker feels more my thing.

>>47023649
Evasion and Parry are both strong if you put a lot of charms into them. Evasion has more charms and can be much stronger with a comparatively stronger investment, but it has the disadvantage that its "nope" charm, Seven Shadow Evasion, only works once a scene. Evasion only works once a fight against Undodgeable attacks unless reset, while Parry's Heavenly Guardian Defense can be used against as many Unblockable attacks as you want as long as you have motes.

>>47023801

what about brawl or MA based parry?

>>47023801
Don't forget that Parry has the added advantage of counterattacks. It may not always be the best defense, but it also brings some offense to its defense by virtue of being Melee.

Which Caste best fits the David Attenborough of Exalted?

>>47024009
Survival Supernal Zenith

>>47023801
>Parry's Heavenly Guardian Defense can be used against as many Unblockable attacks as you want as long as you have motes.

And Initiative. One way to shut down a Melee guy is to deny him Initiative, since they're basically using all of it for defense while using small, cheap attacks. If they run out of Initiative they can't use Heavenly Guardian and at that point they're on a fast track to losing the fight.

File: Genuine Attenborough Quote.jpg (70KB, 625x391px) Image search: [Google]

70KB, 625x391px

>>47024009
>>47024079

>>47024105
Fun fact, there probably IS a God of Parrot on Creation (or, at the very least, a God of Birds) and to him 900 species of Parrot probably seemed like a very good idea.

So how would one keep a sorcery focused twilight cast from getting splatted in combat?

How much of an investment in dodge charms would be a good idea?

Would they want heavy armor since they aren't going to be using martial arts? Or just use the Invulnerable Skin of Bronze sorcery every day that combat might occur? (This sounds like a fun idea to take a bunch of brawl charms with since your unarmed attacks become medium lethal weapons, plus you can give them tags and evocations if you needed to with the wood dragon's claws which would instead be light artifact weapons)

Or should you just try to make yourself a non target by summoning/binding an elemental to stand between you and the enemies?

>>47024258
War will serve you a lot better.

Sorcerously bind a demon army then use War to have them killdoze anything that threatens you.

>>47024277
Any reason to use a demon army over an elemental army? Elementals don't have the drawback of rebelling from a failed binding and they last just as long.

>>47023852
True, but looking at purely passive defense Dodge beats it by being more focused.

It's interesting to me that Melee can defend by attacking with a clash and Dodge can attack by defending with the charms that steal the attacker's initiative.

>>47023822
MAs don't have parry options that compare favourably to Melee in terms of pure defense. Look at Gathering Light Concentration as an example. Not only is it Shining Point's only parry charm, but it also doesn't actually negate onslaught penalties. If you're suffering a -7, then you need to parry at -7 before you activate that charm. A lot of these styles have bonuses for clash attacks, which can be an effective defense and ignores onslaught, but those charms tend to be expensive to activate and then expensive to match the accuracy of the incoming attack.

>>47024099
I thought you could use HGD to apply your parry defense to an unblockable. No initiative cost if the attack doesn't hit you. It's a muddle of a charm, granting three different benefits, but that's my reading. Look at the three different costs.

Heavenly Guardian Defense
Cost: 1i per success +4m or 4m or 4m, 1wp

One for negating damage on an attack that hit you, one for blocking unblockable attacks, and one for NOPE-ing uncountable damage.

>One way to shut down a Melee guy is to deny him Initiative
Doesn't that shut down everyone?

>>47024277
>"Are you serious I know that names of everyone close to you and with one word I can-"
>Yeah, that's good and all mate, but guess what, I can see your house from here..."

>>47022356
I actually have to agree with that and it sucks. I built a Melee character, but I thought that the idea of Melee, as shown by things like One Weapon, Two Blows is to actually have low Initiative and steadily increase it while using things like Blazing Solar bolt for attacks that don't consume Initiative. I had no idea how important a good Join Battle Roll is, so much so that often times a fight is ended at the stage of rolling Initiative simply by one chucklefuck rolling higher and killing everything with one flurry.

Case in point, we've fought a Nephwrack last session. I as a Dawn would consistently hit for 1 damage and wouldn't be able to do any more damage than a fucking Eclipse with Dexterity 3, because I had Initiative 6-7 throughout most of the fight and couldn't do shit. And each turn I was sitting there thinking "you know, if I I had a good Join Battle Roll, I could just Whirlwind and this would be over 5 rounds ago, meanwhile the Zenith Archer decimated 3 battlegroups and her Initiative was at steady 20, just due to awakening Eye.

You want to know what's the one good combat choice? It's not Melee, it's not Brawl, it's not Thrown. It's Awareness. When you really think about it, Join Battle roll is like an attack roll with difficulty 0 on which you automatically gain 3 successes. The only difference is nobody's losing Initiative, but it doesn't fucking matter- it's just as easy to kill something that has 20 Initiative as it is something that has 3. There is absolutely no difference.

So yeah, I'm slightly butthurt. I thought that as a Dawn with supernal Melee I would kick some ass and I get outclasses by a Zenith every time, just because she has higher Join Battle roll than me. It's retarded.

>>47024362
Sorry, "demon army" is a 2e holdover.

You can cast each spell 1/day, so you should really have an army of each. Spirit army would be a more appropriate term I suppose.

>>47024407
>Dragonblooded with sqaud of soldiers
You're outnumber and cornered ANATHEMA!
>Material Exigenisis Prana
>Free full excellency from Spirit Drawing Oculus
>Suddenly a dozen hungry Greenmaws
Thanks for bringing my friends a snack
>Screams continue into the night

>>47021348
I thought instant-speed health recovery was supposed to pretty much be a near-exclusive Lunar thing, with only Abyssals getting close via life stealing mechanics?

>>47024687

god forbid another splat be better than the Glorious Golden Gods at something, though.

>>47024735
>Glorious Golden Gods
>Unity Of Closed Fist is no longer a thing
It's a shame well will never again be able to go "FINAL FUSION! OPERATION...APROVED!"

>>47021433
See, I have a real issue with representing *any* Exalt as 'meh'. By the very fucking nature of exaltation 'meh'-people should not become exalts.

>>47024770
>Unity Of Closed Fist is no longer a thing

The bell cannot be unrung

>>47024687
to be fair those are mostly -0 levels, that's more like recovering from a serious bruise than straight up regeneration like a lunar would have

>>47024782
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYk-IIQvBsE
King Of Braves would be an AWESOME title to have attached to your character.

>>47024881
Get out of here with that weeaboo faggot shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0efObqHsls#t=49s

>>47024943
Power Rangers is as American as Robotech.

>>47024943
...you do know Power Rangers was originally from Japan, don't you?

>>47024974
>>47024996
Right, just like Cardcaptors was from Japan.

Niggas pls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERpK-7K70ws

>>47024996
And it had a catchier opening theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k308dg1Cynk

>>47025031
>America only got slightly over half the full run of Cardcaptors

This resounded with me:

> I am reminded of the earliest editions of Magic: the Gathering. When you saw the glimmers of terminology but each card tended to have the rules explained, and often slightly different from each other as a result.

http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/868640-i-am-mad-the-civil-thread-for-voicing-displeasure?p=878318#post878318

Clearly, what the next editor for Exalted should do (or maybe a 3.5 release) is KEYWORD HARDER! Standardize all the things! Starting with the various reroll abilities.

>>47024735
Oh oh, but they're better at turning into animals! At least until some Solar decides that they like this cute little animorphism trick, and then procedes to give themself the ability via Sorcerous Working.

>>47025239
>but they're better at turning into animals

Infernals were better at this than Lunars

>>47025252

Yeah, but when Infernals are better at everything than everyone else it's fine, because they're cool rockstars who flip everyone the bird, not boring stupid paladins--I mean Solars.

>>47024687
>>47024735
I don't know how anyone could honestly think, after 2 editions of them being-shit-to-mediocre, that lunars will suddenly be worth a shit in 3e. I mean, the fucking intro comic faithfully follows prior edition examples of the solar casually making the lunar his bitch. It doesn't really bode well for the splat, when the very first piece of illustrated fiction for the edition has them be made an utter joke of.

>>47024194
There's probably a god of parrots and a god of birds, and the god of parrots is the subordinate of the god of birds and has a retinue of 900 small gods under him, each one the greatest deity for an entire species of parrot.

>>47025252
I only recall Infernals being better at human-shifting then Lunars. Btw, is human-shifting even still a thing for Lunars in 3E?

>>47025371

>Solars
>Paladins

WhatthefuckamIreading.jpeg

God, I fucking hate Infernals so god damn much.

>>47025422
What about the pic in the 3e core of two Solars fleeing in abject terror from a Lunar?

>>47025504
>WhatthefuckamIreading.jpeg

Exalted 3e

Holden has confirmed that the Realm are objectively evil; and intentionally so.

Your Solar is the good guy. Deal with it.

>>47025468
But is there a God of Cassowaries?

>>47025486
>Btw, is human-shifting even still a thing for Lunars in 3E?

Yes, very much so. Sample Lunar antagonist no. 2 says in part:

> He also has numerous human forms that grant him access to power and influence, such as a satrap’s trusted advisor, a Guild merchant prince, or the mastermind of an underground crime syndicate. In addition to taking forms by drinking the heart’s blood, he has learned to temporarily steal a person’s form through seduction or as repayment for a service or favor done.

>>47025504
>>47025530
Calm down Strength of Many.

>>47025540
Welp, I know who my first Exigent is going to be from.

>>47025092
>earliest editions
>goes on to describe the (more or less) middle of the franchise
ಠ_ಠ

>>47025092
4e D&D tried that. It worked okay but the less generic they made powers, the less it worked.

What do you guys use as your method for deciding on a supernal? I'm working on an Eclipse Solar and none of them really stand out as 'the supernal for me' yet

>>47025468
Honestly, I'm not sure parrots would have gods by species. They tend to live in big multi-species flocks so it might make sense for each community to have a god rather than each species.

>>47025671
sail

The backer charm book is going to make Sail hax, best to get ahead of the game

>>47025689
(Party spends the whole game in the East)

>>47025708
The East has rivers so fucking big entire civilizations can be found on islands in the middle of them. Also pirates. Sail ain't useless in the East.

>>47025622

Wait, what? The earliest editions of M:tG very much had individual quirky card descriptions, that's why Spirit Link didn't wind up with the Lifelink keyword and Cockatrice didn't get Deathtouch in the great keyword passes, but early M:tG also had a few rare keywords like First Strike and Flying that are still around.

Am I missing something here?

>>47025671
I try to look through the options and find a combo or an entire branch of charms that I could build a character around. Resistance - Aegis of Invincible Might is a fun one, especially when you go Zenith instead of Dawn with the concept.

Eclipses get Occult, and I'm fond of Spirit-Drawing Oculus as a branch that gets you loads of motes and the ability to see through illusions and such. Useful for an Eclipse.

>>47025708
>East and West have a shitload of water
>North has airships
>South has landships
>literally everywhere has roads and Sail includes any vehicle more than 2 people can travel on

I fail to see the problem

So I'm thinking I've just misread or don't understand quite how battlegroups work.

It seems that a size 1 group of fighters (about a dozen) is only as dangerous as a single fighter with essentially a +1 to attacks, damage, defense and 1 more health level.

Are battlegroups (especially size 1/2) completely useless without charms?

>>47025911

1) They're not intended to be that much stronger than a single person, but they're still useful in that they eat one or two withering attacks without giving anything in return.

2) Don't forget order actions, which are easily worth another +3/+5 to their attacks, all of which benefit from extra accuracy.

A size 1 group of bandits isn't much scarier than a single bandit, but it's more accurate and, metaphorically speaking, is made of sandbags.

>>47025911
A Size 1 BG without a leader is just an abstraction of mooks who chip away at you whilst you fight the real baddy.

Give them a guy to issue command actions ("FUCKIN STAB THE CUNT YOU PACK OF SHITEBAGS!!") and they get a massive boost in power.

>>47025622

...? This was a huge thing in the earliest editions, namely Alpha and Beta and Arabian Nights and etc

File: trigglypuff.gif (2MB, 197x182px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 197x182px

>>47025530
>Holden has confirmed that the Realm are objectively evil; and intentionally so.

I only read him as saying the Realm is objectively _imperialist_ and intentionally so. Of course _he thinks_ imperialism is evil, but he's a giant triggerfaggot and a quick trip to Rhodesia would set him straight if he could ever be bothered to stop raging about how GAMERGAAAAATE! is behind everything bad.

(Seriously, Holden is insane on that score. Someone posts on the forum wondering why people like Charm bloat... and Holden says 'go back to r/kotakuinaction and ask your friends there' and launches an epic rant how about that subreddit is an archive of terrorism or something.)

>>47026030
>dat pic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPT81QTmXHg#t=2s

>>47025950
>>47025953
I was thinking about it from a PC perspective. Is giving up your action to give the group an order worthwhile instead of you attacking and the group attacking? Though I guess you could say you're the general but the group has it's own sergeant who gives orders? The book says that 'characters' are the ones who give orders, which is what they use to refer to player characters yes?

I understand it's meant as a sort of 'mob' to be an easy way to put large numbers of people on the field without clogging up combat, but it seems like a serious disconnect that even a dozen midling level city guards (Size 1, Average Drill, Might 0) can be scattered to the winds almost exactly as easily as a single guard.

>>47024392
Uhhh. Dude. I hate to say you're playing the game wrong, but you are.

You can be amazingly strong against battlegroups with just 6-7 initiative as a Melee Dawn.

Consider this combo against enemies with no hardness (like Battle Groups): Invincible Fury of the Dawn, 3 motes of Fire and Stones Strike, Excellent Strike.

Lets say you have 5 initiative, you gain a further 5 from IFoD, so each attack could have 2/2/2/2/2 base damage. Add in 3 damage from Fire and Stones, so 5/5/5/5/5

Wow! at FIVE initiative you have the potential to hit a battle group for 25 dice of decisive damage! And remember, for every 4 dice of decisive damage you do 1 automatic level of damage to a battlegroup.

So for 11 motes 1wp, you're doing 25 dice + 5 levels of damage to a battlegroup. At close to base initiative. You can do this every round. Not that you would need to, because you're close to guaranteed to get the initiative break bonus from emptying a magnitude track.

The people posting about the 3e portraying the Realm as evil are retarded lmao

File: Mnemon Is Unimpressed.jpg (599KB, 2386x921px) Image search: [Google]

599KB, 2386x921px

>>47026147
Only racists don't like giant robots

>>47026075
>I was thinking about it from a PC perspective. Is giving up your action to give the group an order worthwhile instead of you attacking and the group attacking? Though I guess you could say you're the general but the group has it's own sergeant who gives orders? The book says that 'characters' are the ones who give orders, which is what they use to refer to player characters yes?

Characters are characters. You could have an NPC sergeant, yes.

That said: A lot of people forget that Battlegroups flurry FOR FREE.

You're not giving up your action to make one attack, you're giving up your action to make an attack against every single person your BG can reach, which is going to be most of the enemy combatants.

You can easily squeeze 5 attacks out of a single order action.

>>47026104
You don't use decisive attacks against battlegroups.

>>47026201
This is true, but they don't get the best benefit of such a thing; they can only attack each character once on their turn, so they can't inflict onslaught penalties.

>>47026270
Page 208.

>>47026104
Yeah well maybe if I HAD Invincible Fury of the Dawn and Fire and Stones. I don't. I built my character to use counter-attacks and Solar Bolt. Had I been informed of the importance of high JB roll and of power of flurries I'd build completely differently.

Yeah I am absolutely playing the game wrong. I hate the fact that I was informed of this AFTER making a character and like 6 sessions in.

I seriously feel the same fucking thing I felt back in 2e when I was told I could make a cool character, proceeded to, and then was told that I failed at character creation minigame. And I failed again.

Right now I'm happier than ever I never spent a fucking penny on this game.