Exalted General - /exg/

>>48429032
>Heroes have unlimited potential to be villains
Yeah, about that, how much is this getting edition changed? I have the vague impression that it was supposed to be true in 2e as a social commentary on how Power Does Not Equal Goodness, but in 3e they shifted towards the Exaltation picking good people, not just skilled people. But I don't have any specific quotes I can point to.

Reposting from last thread:

I'll be starting a game 3E soon and I need some input. I'm keeping things simple and gave my Zenith character the motivation to restore the cult of the Unconquered Sun. Now, while the GM has admitted he's going to play a bit loose with the setting overall, the UCS will remain as he was in canon. So what exactly would a cult of the UCS be like, or at the very least some religious philosophy (think Buddhism) where Sol Invictus is at the center? I was thinking some 'way of life'-style mentality where individuals are expected to live as virtuously and heroically as possible and basing things off the four Virtues of previous editions (as I recall UCS had max virtues).

Is that too simple/generic or does it work just fine?

>>48429521
>but in 3e they shifted towards the Exaltation picking good people

Yeah, nah, not a thing.

The "righteousness" of the Solar Exalted gets mentioned in the text, just like it always is, but they still have a Charm that makes "I dislike them" a sin worth of burning and torturing someone, sooo.

>>48429521
Indeed, I think the book doesn't make such a good job at impressing, that Solars aren't Paladins and UCS isn't... whoever is the typical big good god in a generic fantasy setting. And even if he was, a particular Solar may not give a damn about Sol Invictus.

On the other hand, I think, I may be going a little bit overboard in other direction when I'm writing characters or GM'ing. My Bull of the North so far displayed some of the worst traits of a conquering warlord, for sure - if allowed to continue with his expansion, he would become the equivalent of Genghis Khan, but with much less redeeming features.
Still, I'll try to moderate myself.

>>48429532
Very curioys about this too. Tenetively have my own Zenith with intimacies reflecting the four virtues.

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>>48429532
The UCS is the god of righteousness and awesomeness. A cult of the UCS would literally be pic related.

>>48430209
So, /tg/ is a Sol Invictus cult?
>>15396072

>>48429532
>>48430209
He is also occasionally wrathful, arrogant and had a fondness for blood sacrifices. And Righteousness and Virtues are subjective. His focus on personal excellence and self-defining of virtue also makes him something of an Ubermensch.

Question is, would the flock seek to emulate him, or, as is more likely, slavishly extol his Kingship of the Cosmos?

>>48429521
>>48429547
What's funny is reading the criteria that the *Lunar* exaltation looks for in a cynical light. Solar one picks Big Names, heroes as villains, but the Lunar Exaltation picks people who
>are persistent
>are stubborn
>reject attempts to control them
>prize individuality and personal strength
Now consider that if these are read in a social rather than physical context, you've basically listed the traits of THAT GUY who won't shut the fuck up, argues every point for an hour, can't take "no" for an answer when hitting on people, insists on bringing his spirit animal dragon dildo to the table.

And now THAT GUY has just gotten shapeshifting powers, woo.

>>48430509
Yeah but Luna also prizes survival in her chosen and I doubt petulant man-children would have a high survival rate in creation

>>48430868
OTOH, shi also favors outcasts, loners and rejects, and those don't tend to have such a high survival rate either. Creation is full of horrible monsters that do horrible things to solo mortals, after all.

>>48431404
She favors outcasts, loners and rejects who are *also* survivors.

>>48431410
So, petulant man-children who are also survivors, then?

>>48431447
By that logic it'd mostly be /k/ommandos.

>>48431769
Now you get the point.
(I recall a thread that d?evolved into discussion about Knot, so beast shape is also kinda fitting)

>Daji's greatest joy was to hear people cry in physical torment. Once, she saw a farmer walking barefoot on ice and ordered his feet cut off so she could study them and figure out why they were so resistant to low temperatures. On another occasion, she had a pregnant woman's belly cut open so it satisfied her curiosity to find out what happened inside. To verify an ancient saying that "a good man's heart has seven apertures", she even had the heart of the minister Bi Gan (King Zhou's uncle) dug out and subjected to her futile scrutiny.

So, first age Twilight, or first age Twilight?

>>48433289
First age formerly-Twilight-now-Daybreak.

>>48433289
Typically, I'd say just your average Twilight.
Although, reading on her, she sound more like Zenith or Eclipse - or, if she was "possessed by vixen" - a Lunar. Maybe seeking to destabilize a kingdom or a satrapy.

>>48430209
I had a Zenith in my Circle whose Defining Principle was literally teaching people to be excellent to each other.

>>48433289
Honestly I would ake her a Zenith with Lore, Presence, Performance and Integrity as Caste Abilities and she would have Performance as her Supernal (there probably aren't many better examples of someone with Thousand Courtesan Ways and Celestial Bliss Trick).

Who is Medium Armor even for? Heavy Armor is cool if you don't want to Dodge or whatever. Light Armor is useful if you do. But Medium Armor seems to occupy a shitty middle space. I guess if you're a Single Point stylist who uses Parry or that Charm that lets you wear medium armor without penalty or something like that it might be useful?

>>48435134

Basically Martial Artists who want more protection than what's afforded by heavy armour.

>>48435134

Medium armor is for people who aren't using Dodge as a primary defense (and thus don't need it to be as high as possible) but still care about combat mobility (and thus can stand to eat the -1 die, which is about the upper limit of a penalty you can have before opposed rolls start seriously swinging against you).

>>48435189
In other words, for a wide range of fighters.

>>48429032
Not really. That's not what Exalted is for. Hell, just about every other Storyteller system suits that purpose to one degree or another.

/exg/ can you help me work out the uses for the higher end Stealth charms and less-used stuff?
Why would I need Stalking Wolf Attitude?
Smoke and Shadow Cover doesn't seem useful.
Shadow-Crossing Leap Technique seems to expensive for what seems like a minor effect.
False Image Feint just seems unlikely based on that roll requirement.
Flashing Nocturne Prana also seems too niche and expensive, when would I really want to pay 10m 1wp for that?
I'd appreciate you guys clearing things up for me.

>>48440072
>Why would I need Stalking Wolf Attitude?
Fucking shitloads of free initiative without having to break stealth.

>Smoke and Shadow Cover doesn't seem useful.
anywhere from +2 to +3 DV for 3m doesn't seem useful to you?

>Shadow-Crossing Leap Technique seems to expensive for what seems like a minor effect.
The E4 effect makes it completely retarded, but the basic effect is an excellent way of defeating the "fire and grenades" method of defeating Stealth checks

>False Image Feint just seems unlikely based on that roll requirement.
It's for use against mega-attacks, ones that roll 20+ initiative damage, to give you a final chance to dodge it. Against a Shining Point practitioner you'd never question your purchase.

>Flashing Nocturne Prana also seems too niche and expensive, when would I really want to pay 10m 1wp for that?
2 rounds of automatically-successful stealth no matter what you do plus a teleport that puts you way out of range to be pursued? Can't imagine why that would be useful.

So, what kind of criminal shit do gods get up to in Yu-Shan, asides from maybe selling memories of playing the Games of Divinity?

>>48440164
>Fucking shitloads of free initiative without having to break stealth.
I would have to spend several rounds solo with the rest of the group sitting around twiddling their thumbs though, right?

>anywhere from +2 to +3 DV for 3m doesn't seem useful to you?
If I'm going to be stealthed and concealed, DV will only come up for AOE attacks though.

>The E4 effect makes it completely retarded, but the basic effect is an excellent way of defeating the "fire and grenades" method of defeating Stealth checks
Okay I understand its useful to move from cover to cover, but the base version seems to expensive to be used regularly.

>It's for use against mega-attacks, ones that roll 20+ initiative damage, to give you a final chance to dodge it. Against a Shining Point practitioner you'd never question your purchase.
You'd need at least a 10 dice attack pool with 20 dice damage pool to have average chance of hitting those six 1s or 2s, and then there's the rest of the charm, it just seems overly complicated to me.

>2 rounds of automatically-successful stealth no matter what you do plus a teleport that puts you way out of range to be pursued? Can't imagine why that would be useful.
If you're this heavily invested in Stealth, those 2 rounds aren't that much better than your normal rolls, and the teleportation requires pre-emptively picking a safe spot and then committing 10m for the fight until you want to run and hide. Maybe I'm just picturing spaces that would be too restrictive for you to get 3 range bands away and safe from the kind of opponents you would be facing at this level.

In general, these just seem less efficient and useful to spend your charm xp on and all those motes and willpower, than the standard stealth set.
I feel like I should grab most of the other stealth charms for supernal and skip these for other abilities instead.
Any of these you think would be a must have over the other stealth charms?

>>48440469
>You'd need at least a 10 dice attack pool with 20 dice damage pool to have average chance of hitting those six 1s or 2s, and then there's the rest of the charm, it just seems overly complicated to me.

Its a dodge that forces the attacker to reset to base initiative, if they attack you with like 30i, they reset back to base. That is huge.

>>48440469
>>48440164
>>48440515
Actually, on re-reading False Image Feint, I realise you don't pay for the charm until after the attack definitely has those six 1s or 2s. So you just have to pay it, win a regular stealth roll to dodge it, and if you get a 10, their attack is used up and it resets them, paying you back the wp cost. Okay that does seem more reasonable if I'm targetted with powerful strike and my stealth, dodge, and other defences have failed me.

>>48440469
>I would have to spend several rounds solo with the rest of the group sitting around twiddling their thumbs though, right?
No? You use SWA while stealthed and wander around the battle field before popping out to gib somebody bothering your pals.

>>48440469
>I would have to spend several rounds solo with the rest of the group sitting around twiddling their thumbs though, right?
No?

>If you're this heavily invested in Stealth, those 2 rounds aren't that much better than your normal rolls,
Uh, no. Perfect success kicks the shit out of 10 dice, which is the most you would be getting for free.

>>48440701
>>48440704
If my allies aren't in the battle, they're bored at the table, if they're in the battle, it won't last long enough for me to be of particular use sneaking around to build up that initiative.

>>48440704
I normally run with 14 dice from belt and specialty, very few antagonists have a pool likely to beat that unless they're a boss or specifically built for awareness. In other cases, the 2 rounds don't really wow me.

>>48440756
>If my allies aren't in the battle, they're bored at the table, if they're in the battle, it won't last long enough for me to be of particular use sneaking around to build up that initiative.
If the battle doesn't last four rounds you won't be getting much use out of a lot of Charms, not just SWA.

>>48440515
>>48440542
You'd require a 45 dice pool from attack and damage to be sure to get 6 ones or twos 90% of the time, 30d only gives it 57% of the time, and that's from the higher end of non-ultra attacks. If you're trusting FIF to save you from those, it's an incredible risk of instant death.
Also it causes a weird incentive to attract the biggest attacks on yourself, baiting them into spending all their motes on the attack pool and unleash a massive initiative pool, without wasting your motes on defence. Seems dangerous for not otherwise tanky builds.

>>48440813
Combine it with Unbowed Willow Meditation for maximum risk/reward. Use the methods to boost your Evasion as far as you can and not cancel Unbowed Willow, they'll probably have boosted their attack pool pretty high if they have a really high Initiative attack so that's more chance of 1s and 2s. If they roll bad and miss, they crash and you get it all.

If they hit, False Image Feint that shit and get out of there anyway. Resetting them to base anyway.

>>48440813
High risk high reward

>>48441042
That's a pretty expensive and powerful high-tier combo, they do work well together as backups for the risk.

>>48441110
I definitely see the risk and reward, I just think it sticks out as different than the rest of the tree, and a lot of stealthy characters prefer dodge or even parry to having a high-post hit damage nullification or ox bodies to eat it up. If they start acting like a tank with FIF, they might pay for it if the rest of their build doesn't save them like a tank does.

Excellent Strike and similar no-1s effects would make False Image Feint even harder.

What're the most important investments for a scout, an infiltrator spy getting behind enemy lines to eavesdrop or steal documents (not a james bond spy)?
Stealth, Larceny, Athletics, Awareness, Investigation?

>>48441391

Don't forget Socialize to defend against Read Motive.

>>48441257
2s still count up and Excellent Strike doesn't apply to the damage roll. It's most useful and most applicable on high Initiative attacks.

>>48441545
Yeah, it doesn't entirely negate it, but the 10-20 ish dice attack roll was a solid contributor to the 1s and 2s, that basic melee charm halves that aspect of the pool. Requiring an even higher initiative pool for reliable activation chances.

>>48441531
Not as necessary if you're never seen, but I do have decent guile. Any other major focuses I'm missing for these tasks?

I haven't so much as touched Exalted since 3e came out. I feel like playing it again. A shame I live in Bumfuck, Nowhere, with no gaming groups around.

>>48440813
>You'd require a 45 dice pool from attack and damage to be sure to get 6 ones or twos 90% of the time, 30d only gives it 57% of the time, and that's from the higher end of non-ultra attacks. If you're trusting FIF to save you from those, it's an incredible risk of instant death.
>Also it causes a weird incentive to attract the biggest attacks on yourself, baiting them into spending all their motes on the attack pool and unleash a massive initiative pool, without wasting your motes on defence. Seems dangerous for not otherwise tanky builds.
Add Uncanny Shroud Defense for the worst case.

>>48429521
As far as I can tell that idea is pretty much confined to a story in the book about a local harvest god picking a maiden of his clergy who wasn't the best fighter but he thought was a virtuous person, since he wanted to leave a good legacy.

>>48443155

Online games.

>>48445018
Almost always are shitty and filled with flakes if they ever get off the ground to begin with.

>>48445331

Between that and bitching online about how you'll never find a game?

I have three online groups with solid players. You'll find them, keep looking.

>>48445580
>Between that and bitching online about how you'll never find a game?

Oh, I wouldn't bitch about it. It's just a game, not important enough to bitch.

Do you need Stormwind Rider as your Control spell to access the abilities that require essence?

>>48446936
>In addition, characters with an Essence pool gain access
to the following powers while this spell is active

No, just to have an Essence pool.

>>48447178
So Stormwind Rider doesn't have a control effect other than the windy thing?

>>48430209
JOLLY COOPERATION?

>>48431769
>/k/ommandos.
>Mole Totem unnagrounder.
Love it.

>>48447551
>Be innawyld
>Finish expanding the fortifications on my like-minded freedom-loving beastman compound
>Raid caravan filled with firedust
>Realm can come take our firewands from our cold dead paws

If you're in combat, and then enter stealth, can you gather sorcerous motes without being noticed?

>>48447332
Other than the windy jump boost thing (which should be houseruled to appl all the time instead of Stamina/day and maybe let them throw wind spirals to knock people back), no.

>>48447643
Glorious.

>>48447643
/k/ would have a Bad Dragon Sigh Wand version of Beloved Adorei.

>>48447861
Is that the exalted version of a Moist Nugget?

>>48447991
Use your dick to quell your talking wifle while ramrodding the firedust in.

>>48447861
I propose that the mental image involved in this post be declared a crime against humanity.
>>48447991
If a moist nugget were also a clingy girlfriend and a furry dildo, sort of.

>>48448047
>>48448048
I understand now.

>wifle

Can't believe I haven't heard this before.

>>48448182
Is it a thing? I just made it up on the spot, but I can totally believe /k/ already did it.

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ALL SHALL COWER BEFORE THE DARK SUN

TOO YOUR KNEES LIGHT DWELLERS

Is there anything like a bag of holding printed for 3e yet? I've got a character looking to carry around quite the load of stuff, and a mule would be conspicuous.

>>48449074
You could always have an artifact that lets you store things Elsewhere. There were plenty of those in previous editions.

>>48449240
> You could always have an artifact that lets you store things Elsewhere.
Isn't that pretty much what a bag of holding is?
> There were plenty of those in previous editions.
I know. But is there anything official for 3e yet, or am I going to have to ask my ST about converting a cache egg?

>>48440215

Technically, any time a god interferes with mortals directly, such as demanding worship in exchange for favors and benefits to their worshippers, is a celestial offense. The *intended* relationship between mortals and gods is that the gods stay in the background, don't reveal themselves to mortals, and just work to uphold the cosmos rather than meddle with humanity on an individual level.

Naturally, this is one of the things that is routinely violated, and is also the reason why the Immaculate Calendar is a thing: because it's the closest one can get to the intended relationship between humans and gods.

Of course, that's not to say that the other extreme is all that good an idea either. In Autochthonia, Autochthon was very careful in making sure that the abuses that happened in Yu-Shan would not happen with his own sub-souls, sub-sub-souls, and so on. But while this prevented favor trading, it also meant that Autochthon's souls have zero investment in humanity and most of them would neither know or care if all the mortals inside Autochthon went extinct.

>>48449321
>But is there anything official for 3e yet

Not yet.

For a traveller, scout, and spy, which control spell is best suited; Cirrus Skiff, Infallible Messenger, or Stormwind Rider?

Any good spell conversions or homebrew?

>>48449559
Check the homebrew folder. Some of those might even be decent.

>>48449342
Cirrus Skiff.

>>48449630
I checked the folder, doesn't seem to have any spells.

>>48448220

I think /k/ use Raifu because it's more weebish.

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>>48450588
Can confirm, here is sample thread currently on /k/

And for something topical, how do your Solars deal with less-than-benevolent Lunar friends?

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Heya Storytellers, tell me about what small kingdoms and cities you fill empty spaces on the map with

>>48454182
Small kingdoms and cities that enable my fetishes.

>>48454213
That goes without saying. I need DETAILS

>>48454182
>implying I have games

I have been thinking about an island kingdom, though, the biggest player in their little part of the Creation, and far enough away from bigger nations that they haven't really had to realize how small and meaningless they are on the Creation's scale. A kingdom with huge ego, so to speak, with really flowery and pompous titles for its officials. Would probably work best ina Dragon-Blooded game where the Realm starts to extend its reach towards the kingdom's sphere of influence.

Another palce I'ce been thinking about is a tehocracy of sorts, where a local god is the central figure of both worship and politics. He's not so interested in actually directly ruling, though, unstead delegating that stuff to one of his children, born from his mortal concubines. That child rules as the priest-kingor priestess-queen until he/she dies and is replaced by the one of his/her siblings who happens to be in their father's favor at the moment. There is some discontent with this system, some from the other, less favred children of the god, but more from the children of the current priest-king, who have grown up close to power they will never wield.

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>>48454182
OVER 9000 SECONDS IN PAINT WERE SPENT ON THIS MAP. It's my mini-heartbreaker elaboration on a stretch of the Grey River, originally made for a 2e game. Originally modified from two largely featureless tiles of map near the Nameless Lair. (Area is still featureless in 3e, but they moved the Nameless Lair closer and added a red splotch around.)

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>>48454620
Both sound quite nice. Good luck finding a game, brother.
>>48454640
Wow.

/exg/, my circle is currently having a bit of a debate over Heart-Eclipsing Shroud and Hundred-Face Stranger. Specifically, in HFS it says that, "Where the persona shares Abilities with the Solar, it automatically knows Charms the Solar already knows." (pg 401). The problem is thus: does this mean that if the persona has a single dot in, say, Melee, while the original Solar has 5 in Melee and some charms that require Melee 5 to learn, that the persona now knows and can use those Melee 5 charms? Or does the persona have to match the Solar in dots in order to know and use the higher ability charms?

The sticking point is that you have to use Heart-Eclipsing Shroud again to exit the persona. So do all personas have to have Socialize 5, or do they just need Socialize 1? Or is HES an exception in that all personas know and can use it regardless of their Socialize dots?

>>48455059
I would say they know the charm, but cannot use it. They lack the skill, finesse, and 'muscle memory' to use the charm properly. It would essentially just fizzle out, because while they could be aware of it, their new persona acts as another person whose body doesn't know how to weave essence in that way.

>>48455059
Lessee.
Hundred-Faced Stranger:
> Where the persona shares Abilities with the Solar, it automatically knows Charms the Solar already knows.
Unclear. On the one hand, one might say that if they meant needing Melee 5 for the persona to have cool Melee charms, they would have used the phrase "qualifies for" that appears in various places like the Lore training charms, on the other hand, wording elsewhere suggests that if the persona has Melee 1 it can't use them regardless of whether it "knows" them. I'd put this one down to White Wolf Editing and get your ST to rule on it until Mongden can be persuaded to issue errata.

Heart-Eclipsing Shroud:
> Motes spent activating this effect are not committed: reverting to her true Intimacies or changing to another persona requires that she use the Charm again.
Here, OTOH, I'd say the RAW is clear that personas need Socialize to have that charm so that the Solar isn't "stuck", and the sanity check is equally clear that that's fucking bullshit, you shouldn't get stuck by pretending to be someone less mannerly.

does yozi-body unity allow you to ignore material things?

Would Doctor Doom be an Infernal?

>>48455698
Doctor Doom is a Heroic Mortal Sorcerer.

>>48456000
No, that's just copy created by his Adjoran Shintai.

>>48456033
Doombots are mechanical, ergo he would be a Solar with that one charm.

>>48456066

Making him a Twilight Craftsnerd would also explain where he gets all his gadgets.

>>48456287
Can Twilights make use of Presence?
>"RICHAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRDDDDDSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!"

>>48456605

Any can if they favour it. Twilights have Linguistics as a caste ability, so our Twilight might only send mean spirited letters.

>>48456287
Eh, a Mortal Sorcerer could do similar things with Workings.

Does Shape Sorcery break stealth? Is it an Obvious effect?

>>48457608
Casting isn't, spells usually are

>>48457617
So I could hide while building up smotes for something like Travel Without Distance?

>>48457655
In general yes, but I'd say it depends on your initiation.

Mara would shroud you in shadows to conceal your escape, but Ifrit Pact is likely to have flames dancing around you as you gather motes

>>48457750
Would Mara's shadow ritual cover most covert casting in stealth then?

>>48457888
Mechanically there's no obvious spell casting, but there's also nothing saying it's not Obvious. So it's ST fiat

Personas say to use up to one Dawn Ability when distributing dots.

Are Martial Arts applicable to this?
Or only Brawl?
Or is it both together?

What if you have many points spread across two styles? Would you only receive the highest rated MA in dots for your Persona?

>>48459727

Martial Arts is a subset of Brawl and Dawns can choose it as a Supernal. Ask your ST about the other bit.

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Have we gotten any kind of ETA, even just a really vague one, for Liminals? They're the only new 3rd edition element that I'm interested in.

>>48461278

We don't even have an ETA for the Backer Charms. OPP plan to release about 3-4 books a year, and everything after the schedule is uncharted water.

>>48454182
You know the five wedge clans from Tarkir?
It's a plane from Magic: The Gathering. The setting is massively influenced by Asian cultures and works amazingly well for the southern continent in Creation.

There's five clans spread through out the plane, each headed by their respective Khan.
The Mardu Horde(RWB): raiders and warmongers, nomadic people who are expert horseman and ride through the desert. A martial society, they value courage and bravery.
Every Mardu clan member places great value on their war name, earned only through combat. All races, creeds, sexuality, genders, and people are welcome in the Mardu. There is no greater measure than war, and only those who excel in the meritocracy of warriors may become great. The Mardu value *swiftness*, the Wings of the Dragon.
Think Mongolia, Genghis Khan, etc. Those are the Mardu clans.

The Sultai Brood (BUG): Necromancers that value ruthlessness above all else, the Fangs of the Dragon. They strike deals with demons, raise the dead from the murky swamps, and dominate through deals and politics. They are schemers and statesmen that live in the deadly swamplands and jungles in the plane. Also snake women. The Sultai are inspired by Indochina/South East Asia.

The Jeskai Way(RWB): Classical Chinese martial artists and monks. Scholars that seek the way to enlightenment and happily work with the djinns and elementals along the way. They reside in the tall mountains, high in the clouds in their secluded monasteries. Every wuxia trope you can think of goes for the Jeskai monks, if not more *fantastical* in nature. They admire *cunning*, the Eye of the Dragon.

>>48462162
>>48454182
The Azban Houses (WGB): The other primary martial clan, the Azban are hardy *survivors* that thrive in the deserts. They are inspired by the Ottomans and are represented by the Scale of the Dragon, symbolizing their desire to outlast the harsh world they inhabit. They build cities of stone along side the oasis with towering ramparts that glitter in the hot desert sun.

The Temur Frontier (RUG): The harsh Siberian winters shape Temur society. Their people dress in heavy furs, travel with giant, powerful animals, and practice shamanic rituals. If the Azban outlast, the Temur survive. There are no warriors tougher than a Temur clansman, and as few as savage or terrifying a hunter.

I personally loved the flavor of the setting. It's absolutely wonderful to have five so contrasting and different Asian cultures all clashing together on the same continent. You'll have to twist it a bit to make it work with Creation, but it makes for a fantastic microcosm in the vastness of world map. The Claw of the Dragon consort with beasts like twenty foot long Siberian tigers and even larger mammoths.

And as a storyteller, it makes things easier for you, since there's five very distinct cultures to draw ideas and plots from, plus it has geographical ties to our real world, letting you pull history from the Ottomans, Mongols, South East Asian cultures, China, and Siberia.

Even better is that there's tons of monsters and beasts and influential people already in the world, ranging from the powerful Khans, to their underlings, and all of it is already set up for you in the actual cards, which are a great resource for mechanics or stat blocks (Like say the Azban battlegroups become stronger longer the battle goes on, unlocking abilities and new attacks)

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>>48462162
>>48462307
Fokken' great.

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>>48463375
It's amazing. Each of the clans has so much personality and flavor that's solely expressed through the cards, as does the plane itself.
Say what you want about the game itself, but their art team knocks it out of the park each and every time with the worlds they create.

Also, the Temur are fucking metal.
(This is from a card even. Yes, the card lets your creature punch out another dude. It's fucking great.)

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I'm going to be joining a game soon, and I have basically zero experience with Exalted.
I'm thinking of building a fairly frail, waif-ish, sheltered sorcerer with the cult background, but I really don't know what to do for my combat stats. I don't want to be that guy who just builds a utility character and has to be protected all the time in combat, particularly since we already have a socially capable character, and only three people in our circle, so I want to have at least some combat utility.
About how much of my starting resources (charms, abilities, etc.) into combat stats, and what is a decent combat package for a sorcerer?
Are there any particularly useful or flavorful charms that are worth looking at?
My GM vetoed Black Claw style, citing that it would be a pain for him to run.

>>48463549
MAs are good short packages you can spend sxp on, but if you're a sorcerer, then you'll want that for spells.
Melee has some basic bread and butter offence and defence charms that'll make a huge different compared to nothing.
If you don't want to attack, you can use your initiative for some combat spells, in which case some basic Dodge investment will help you stay safe, while also helping you gain initiative over the course of the fight.
Shame about Black Claw, there's some real flavourful MAs for tertiary combatants.

>>48440756
>If my allies aren't in the battle, they're bored at the table
The problem seems to be with your group and not the charm.

>>48463905
My problem is playing a Night Stealth Supernal or equivalent in every game we play, it's my jam, but it's sad that it mostly requires solo work when I want to work with the other players and have a good time together.

If you have solutions, I'd love to hear it.

>>48449324
What was the whole worship thing like back in other ages? It's always been one of the harder parts of the setting to understand for me, I get essentially forcing worship out of people is bad but besides that it's hard to tell.

>>48463549

If all you want is defence, go Melee, and take Dipping Swallow, and at E2, Hail-Shattering Practice and Five-Fold Bulwark. Bring up 5FBT at the start of battle, and you'll rarely need to spend motes to defend yourself, and can spend them doing whatever else your combat shtick is (Shape Sorcery, social influence, etc).

If you want offence and defence, go Melee, and take Excellent Strike, One Weapon, Two Blows, and Peony Blossom as well. Peony Blossom is especially good for Sorcerers, as it resets Supernal Control Method.

Melee is really the best all-rounder, low-investment combat ability (as it should be, really). Dodge, Brawl, Archery and Martial Arts are for specialists, willing to go deep.

>>48455059
I'd say you need the same number of dots but switching personas happens even if you have 0 dots. Mostly because certain charms get weird if you can do them at lower ability levels.

>>48463931
The only super obvious solution I have also usually doesn't work.
Get two STs, then you can split the party all you want and everyone's still involved.

All rigt, I read about peoples of Far East, and I have a question...
WHO THE FUCK IS A RAITON? How do raitonbloods look like?

>>48463931

It doesn't have to. Just flesh your character out, and make them more than All Stealth, All the Time.

My stealth supernal was also a sorcerer, and a loremaster, and ended up creating hogwarts for gish assassins. Even if stealth wasn't always useful, she had a bunch of other skills that was.

And it's not like stealth is useless in a group - you just have to satisfy yourself with scouting, rather than soloing everything in stealth mode. It's also great in combat.

>>48463549
Other players don't necessarily have to protect you - you have Demons and Elementals for that. Maybe some other supernatural creature or Retainer. Or even a combat group - indeed, it may serve you well to take some War and command a troop of warriors (cultists?) from the back ranks. May not be applicable in every situation. Having to attack you through their Defend Other many opponents would consider too much of a hassle.
Maybe you feel like riding an Agatae or a using Stormwind Rider to keep away from the thick of things?
Agatae "may use its Evasion in place of its Parry to protect a rider with a defend other action" - and due to all other neat traits (really pretty dragonfly), opponents may be disinclined to attack it.
I simply advise you to consider less conventional options.

And a bit of Melee never hurt anyone. If you don't want to build something gimmicky, it is perfectly solid and one of the best options in terms of defence. Dexterity 3, Melee 3, Excellency, Dipping Swallow for a start.

Was never particularly inclined towards Martial Arts. Merit, unless cheapened, eats up Merit Points and, for you in particular, that's some Solar XP that may better be spent on Spells and Sorcerous Workings.

>>48455522
bumping for help, please.

>>48463969
Yeah, it's a shitty problem for sneaky folk. But I'd rather play alongside my party and just have the ST quickly summarise any of my solo scouting stuff.

>>48463994
I make the effort to add additional skillsets and personality in each campaign, so I can do those in a group, but it's the sneaky roguey core that I love.

>>48463974
"These scaly omnivores, resembling crows with wingspans of up to three feet, will eat anything, from fruit to carrion, and will even hunt small prey with their toothed beaks."

Source: Second Edition Core, p. 348.

>>48463996
Oh yeah what this guy said. Sorcerers do very well with an easily summoned battlegroup, a dip into War couldn't hurt either.

>>48464018
>but it's the sneaky roguey core that I love.

Honestly, I got that feel just from one-shotting people with Thunderbolt Attack Prana + Fatal Stroke Flash ambushes from the shadows.

>>48464066
>Single Point Style
I play Stealth for the love of being hidden, not to break the combat system in half. I just need sneak attack benefits to offset the investment and time taken to hide.

>>48463996
>>48463549
Though, to be fair, a defensive oriented specialist never hurts.
I'm playing a Crane stylist in our Circle since I very much enjoy playing support characters.

It's hard to seriously harm the sorcerers when you have more parry than than most creatures have dice pools.

>>48464087

Why not both?

And it really doesn't break the combat system in half. You can kill someone really hard straight out of the gate, but you can't keep it up until you get to high Essence - it needs too many motes to keep it going. One hit, one kill, then vanish back into shadows - exactly how a sneaky assassin should play, in my book.

I'm just saying you can find ways to get mileage out of stealth in a group context.

>>48464095
>>48463996
>>48463943
>>48463837
Thanks guys. I'll have to take a better look at all of the things you're suggesting, but I feel I've got a good place to start now.

Are there any "must have" spells, other than Summon Demon and/or Summon Elemental?

>>48464161
Summoning is pretty versatile for most of the uses of the other spells, so pick the spells of the tasks you want to actually focus on.
Like an Agata makes a good mount, or you can get Cirrus Skiff or Stormwind Rider. A bloodape battlegroup is good for combat, or you could take Obsidian Butterflies or Flight of the Brillaint Raptor.

>>48464161

Not really. If you don't have anything else combattish, I'd take at least one of Burning Raptor, Obsidian Butterflies, and Mists of Eventide.

Infallible Messenger comes up more often than you'd think. Some form of travel spell is also good, although keeping a dematerialized Agata (or a flock of them) around is also usually sufficient.

>>48464161
Obsidian Butterflies or Flight of the Brilliant Raptor, pick at least one of the two.

Obsidian Butterflies is one of the best "Fuck battlegroup" attacks in the core, and Raptor is one of the best "Fuck this guy in particular", and one of the best sniper attacks without going balls deep into Archery.

Our Eclipse started as a heroic mortal sorcerer. His first act, and the moment he awoke as a Solar, was assassinating a Dragonblood from long range by setting up in a building under construction near his target's, and then slamming a Raptor through the Dynast's windowed penthouse.
Even better, with the Ifrit rituals, you can take the merit that reduces the cost of Raptor by 3 motes, making it even easier to cast.

Other than the two bread and butter offensive spells, there's utility spells like Circus Skiff or Stormwind Rider. At least one of the two is never a bad choice.

If you're a brawl or Tiger Style focused character, you can take Wood Dragon Claws for very easy to access Light Artifact weapons that work with your attacks and only take a measily 5 smotes to summon.

>>48464161
Well, Magma Kraken, but that goes without saying...

Infallible Messenger.
Either Cirrus Skiff or Stormwind RIder for ease of travel. Read through them and consider, which will be of more use to you.

Invulnerable Skin of Bronze isn't bad, if were you a particularly martially inclined sorcerer. I'm partial to Incomparable Body Arsenal.

Shadows of the Ancient Past are limited by their restriction on time since the event - you cannot use it to reliably discover particularly ancient mysteries (>500 years), nor recent, such as who murdered your henchman while you were away.

Travel Without Distance, even with minor penalties and restriction on distance - to get out of being cornered.

Otherwise, the assortment of spells in the Core is rather lackluster. You may check out White Treatise for 2e and ask the GM to convert something - but a lot of previously-spells would fit Sorcerous Workings in 3e. For better or for worse.

>>48454182
An official small kingdom I really like is Mount Metagalapa from the East. Due to the fact that the kingdom is built on top of a flying freaking mountain, and that there is no easy way down, it has developed in almost complete autarky. It's a small world with only two gods of note, their own flying mounts, half a dozen dragon-blooded, and several hundred people.

I really like the idea of those self-contained countries. It's metal.

>>48464287
>no Mists of Eventide

Come on now

>>48464296
It was nerfed from the preview.

>>48464287
>>48464161
Threefold Binding of the Heart is the only spell you'll ever need. It solves your mount issue, your defence issue and your love issues in one package.

>>48464305

And deservedly so; it's still good, you just don't get free zombie legions anymore.

>>48464287
>Magma Kraken

#triggered

Is it like, EVERY Twilight's dream to cast Magma Kraken to solve dumb problems?
Im pretty sure our Twilight is planning to burn off my Night's toes. With her Magma Kraken. Seriously she keeps laughing maniacally whenever we even remotely bring up her favorite spell.

It's kinda terrifying because we have TWO sorcerers in our circle.

>>48464418
Magma Kraken is awesome, and casting it feels like Gaia tickling your brain.

>>48464310
Funny, I'd still use Summon Demon of the (Second/Third) Circle for all that. Just don't start on best demon-waifu.

Besides, in 3e, I would definitely make Threefold Binding a Sorcerous Working.
To be completely honest, demons are so bloody useful and easy-to-use by default, that I feel there should be a mechanic to make it more risky or costly. And I'm saying it as a biggest fan of demons there is. There was Abscissic Binding in one of the Books of Sorcery, but it's fit only for flavour.

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>>48464431
FOUND THE TWILIGHT IN THE THREAD.

>>48464029
Thank you. Google gave me only thunder powers from Naruto, I almost assumed they are something like lightning genasi

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>>48464474
And proud

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>>48464491
Please stop I have two sorcerers already who are in love with nuking things and at this rate, the Night may pick up Occult and join them.

>>48464650
I'm a traditional Night, I saw how great and cheap sorcery is in 3e, but I didn't think it suited my character. Then recently I moved around some Occult stuff and found room to add it.
Believe in the magic.

>>48464418
I'm gonna use Magma Kraken with Element Resisting Prana to grapple people into the lava and outlast them.

>>48464734
>Not using it to throw the kraken at them.
Pansy.

>>48465013
If Muhammad won't come to Mount Megalapa then Mount Megalapa must go to Muhammad.

>>48465146
Hey! Muhammad! Catch!

>>48464418
>>48464734

Seriously.
You want a bridge over ravine? You want to fill or dig a ravine? Want to bring down city walls? Want to repair some city walls? Want a city surrounded by obsidian walls in a couple of days? Support a falling/dilapidated stone structure? Fight (forest) fire with fire? Need breakwaters against a tsunami? Rain cover? Sterilize a pile of corpses? Heat up some bath water, enough for a Realm Wing? Those are just off the top of my head.
As utility spells go, it only loses to demon summons.

Evocations cost 10 XP, while Charms and Spells can be reducedto 8 XP.

Why? Wouldn't it be more reasonable (from a balancing POV) to make Evocations the cheaper option? Because first you need the artifact itself.

And if one would houserule that Evocations only cost 8 XP, would that screw with balancing somehow?

>>48466101
>Because first you need the artifact itself.
But the artifact itself has nontrivial value. Charms don't get cheaper for having prerequisites.

>>48466101
Some people have essence 1 Evocations cost 8xp to be fungible after chargen. I think attuning to an artifact is enough to prove you've 'favoured' it too.

>>48463943
>Dodge, Brawl, Archery and Martial Arts are for specialists, willing to go deep
Don't agree with this.

Brawl just needs falling hammer strike and ferocious jab, many MAs are fine with just the form charm, and archery can contribute a lot with increasing strength exercise and wise arrow.

>>48466392
They're not as great with defence, which is a bigger focus for tertiary combatants. Not including some MAs, which would be included if anon wasn't already using solar xp for spells.

>>48466392

But Brawl and Archery also need to invest in a defensive suite as well - although you can sort of half-ass it a bit with Brawl. You're at least dedicating another 5 dots to combat on top of what Melee would need. Of the Martial Arts, only Crane Style has a great defensive suite, and it doesn't have an onslaught negator, which can be troublesome. All the others either have poor defensive options, or rely on Dodge.

>>48464295
Both metal and comfy

>>48466392
Hammer Strike can be countered by many charms and effects.

Can some of the problems of 2nd ed be made better by having only one player?

>>48467974
No.

>>48467974
Yes. And then match that player's weapon speed to the enemies to avoid tickitiative shit.

>>48467974
Some yes, but really not many compared to all the shit it has.

>>48467986
>>48468001
>>48468016
>Ask not the Eldar a question, for they will give you three answers...

With 5 Dex, Stealth, Wits, Larceny, a Belt of Shadow Walking, a Stealth Specialty, 1 wp spent, Blinding Battle Feint, Living Shadow Preparedness, and Stalking Shadow Spirit (as non-charm successes), I can get at least a reliable 38 starting initiative with an ambush from stealth.
Anything else I can add on to this build to one-shot boss QCs?
I could use Shadow Victor's Repose to get a less boosted JB roll for another hit, that'll take a few more health levels off after all this expenditure.

>>48468170
Holy shit.

>>48468246
The bulk of that is once per day banked non-charm successes. Around +24i reliably, but you can pay for all that earlier in the day and be refilled before the fight.

>>48430276
Have the cult being similar to the worship of the Emperor in 40k i.e. Extolling how merciful he is while decreeing any who go against him will be destroyed, emphasising that he loves everyone while at the same time stating that unless you devote your life to him he will reject you from heaven.

>>48468170

Fatal Stroke Flash from Shining Point Style (add difference between your initiative and your target to decisive damage) and Thunderbolt Attack Prana from Athletics (double decisive damage after it's rolled).

>>48468290
Is so much crunchwank a norm in Exalted? I'm scared to open character creation now

>>48468508
No, that's not normal, that's specifically an analysis of a very narrowly optimised build in a once per day situation.
3rd edition is actually really loose with how you can build your characters without doing it 'wrong' and being murdered on the spot, previous editions did have that problem though.
Just build your character with neat little tricks you want them to pull off, and high stats for things you want them to be reliably competent in, don't fret over optimisation.

>>48468508
Ehhh, it's one of several playstyles. Exalted (and much of White Wolf in general) is where they put the roleplayers and the crunchifiers and the settingwriters in a room and said "you three all contribute at least a hundred pages each to this sourcebook".

>>48468326
Thanks, I had forgotten about TAP, moving it up my wishlist. As for FSF, I didn't build the character from scratch for this purpose, just noticed it was something I could grow into, so I'm keeping the actual attack method agnostic, or maybe just looking into the one I'm using.
The stealth-based JB does exclude a lot of other JB modifiers, I was seeing how high I could go.

>>48468550
>>48468554
Now I like Exalted even more than before

>>48468508

It varies from table to table. Combat's really the only time you get "optimized builds" trotted out. Despite lots of the other stuff being fairly crunchy, there's not enough hooks to optimize for stuff like social, or sorcery.

Pretty much the only other thing that takes that much optimization is Craft, but that's the only way to actually engage with that system.

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Stat me

>>48468599
>>48468554
Yeah, I like Exalted for having crunchy stuff, roleplaying stuff, and a vibrant setting all there for the players and GMs that want it.
It's really fun to feel like each player has their particular tastes fulfilled when we easily shift between combat, free-flowing social encounters, logistical decision making, utilty skills, and learning more about our characters, the NPCs, and the specific area of the vast world we're in.
You can make a murder machine, or a schemer, or a socialite, or an unparalleled expert in their field.
As long as you put a tiny bit of xp into not dying, you can let your team handle the bulk of the combat, while even contributing a little to the fight yourself. While still being free to specialise in your real pursuits.

Which was the Maiden, that always calls off the marriage to UCS - Saturn or Jupiter?

>>48468769
Saturn

>>48463489
>Also, the Temur are fucking metal.
First pic we ever got of them, unlike the others, was not of their 'Ascendency' card but rather Savage Punch. That bear-punching card you just shown.

That's the very first pic we ever got of them and its a dude PUNCHING A BEAR!

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>>48466651
>Onibala, the Mountain Princess:
>The only god regularly revered by Metagalapa is an eight-foot-tall, ice-winged woman with blue skin and seven haloes of colored wind.

I want to fuck the goddess of Metagalapa in front of her people!

>>48469358

You slut.

>>48463974
There's a picture of a raitonfolk on page 92.

It's basically an archaeoptyrex combined with a vulture.

>>48469127
And even in the retconned timeline, that image is upgraded, in the new timeline Surrak goes from punching a bear to PUNCHING A MOTHERFUCKING DRAGON!

>>48466101
My assumption is they cost 10 xp because you can buy them with Solar XP and they can do all kinds of crazy nonsense.

>>48469384
And I forgot to mention that he punches it so hard one of it's teeth gets knocked loose.

>>48468170
This build is really bad because LSP+BBF/SWA is insane and stupid and shouldn't be in the game. It's way too small a buy-in for way too much benefit.

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>>48469435
More than one

>>48469469
So would Surrak be a Wood or Fire Aspect DB?

>>48469469
Jesus.

>>48469437
Yup.
Also I just wrote up a whole play by play of how I'd use it to 2shot Ahlat or someone on round 3, spending only 5wp and 24m, while being entirely stealthed and unable to be hit back.
But then I misclicked the captcha and lost it all, shit.

>>48469469
WALLOP!

>>48469482
FIST aspect

>>48469402
But you can buy MA charms and spells with Solar XP and they can also do nonsense. It seems like they put a bandaid on MA and Evocations so as not to overshadow the ridiculously cheap Sorcery option.

>>48469528
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W7c8QghPxk

>>48469469
*NECK BREAK!*

OnePunchMan vs Lady of Pain vs Unconquered Sun
Who survives?

>>48469542
Yeah but you have to favor Brawl/Occult to do that (and, for MA, you have to buy up a new ability for each new style). There's no Artifacts ability, and they have an enormously broad range of potential effects.

I'm not saying it's a good design. Just that I think that's why it's there.

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>>48469616
>involving OPM in powerlevel debates

>>48469616
Nobody.

>>48469616
>OPM
>whowouldwin
Yare yare daze.

Solaire of Astora pops into Creation in his search for the Sun. How does the presence of sunbro affect UCS's intake of Ambrosia?

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>>48469616

>>48469668
Which Exaltation fits Josuke?

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>>48469560
>>48469528
>>48469517
The Temur fit so well into Creation. Even their keyword fits into charms.
Ferocious - charms with the Ferocious keyword have additional effects when the Solar has strength greater than 4

>>48469659
Very, very slightly.

>>48469616
Arguably the Lady of Pain. She has no stats. Her stats are 'You lose' and she can teleport Saitama to that unsolvable maze. Though knowing how OMP works he probably punches his way out of it. So there isn't actually a definitive answer.

>>48469696
Hell you could have Formidable as an additional keyword on top of Ferocious for some charms.

>>48469659
Conky leaves the Games of Divinity to bask in the tsunami of new worship. Solaire becomes the official High Priest Zenith to Ignis Divine himself.

>>48469747
And there was much rejoicing.

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>The Twilight wants to roll her pet bear into battle as her mount and then have her bear roll her Magma Kraken into battle as her mount

Should we be stopping this?

>>48469974
Magma Kraken is lava tentacles coming out of the ground. They cannot be mounts because they don't move.

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>>48469974

>>48470013
>They cannot be mounts
Not with that attitude they can't.

>>48469974
>have her bear roll her Magma Kraken
I think I'm missing something here. Bear can't cast magma kraken, can it?

>>48429532
Look at early first age UCS worship.

Blood sacrifices on top of a pyramid offered to the sun and deadly combats during literally days where all the gladiators die in the name of the UCS.

UCS worship is not for the faint of heart. It demands greatness.

>>48464350
A shame. I took over an entire army of Wyld Hunters by spreading Mists of Eventide over everyone with the aid of a massive fan the rest of the Circle made.

>>48470121
Listen it's better than Mr. Bear becoming the Exigent of Bear of Saint Traft

>>48466101
Let people pick Supernal (Evocations)

Now they cost 8xp

Any news of updates? Call Holden to drop by and say something?

>>48470731
No updates. See http://nishkriya.com/Posts/LatestPosts

>>48470959
Does Holden visit /tg/? I saw a thread with him in the archives

>>48471167
Not anymore, IIRC. Butthurt over criticism.

>>48471190
A shame.

>>48471214
Not really, he's a cunt

So I wandered over to the OP forums for a bit and saw this:

>Exalted 3e wants you to still have the sense of phenomenal power that would be called overpowered in games like D&D without these core problems screwing up playing anyone who isn't goldshiny enough to be beloved by the game line developer.
>The core systems work, and Solars get to stretch their functioning to the limits and do amazing things, and this is a functionally non-broken system for playing a [by D&D standards]totally broken, OP protagonist.

Is it just me or is this a caricature based on level 1 death-by-housecat D&D? Because I have the distinct impression is that while Exalted certainly starts higher than D&D, D&D climbs really-fucking-fast to the point where your minor magic trinkets are providing reflexive teleports by level 10, by level 15 everyone is expected to have Death Immunity and at the top of the regular scale the Essence 5 exalts are looking at the Level 20 dungeongrinders with jaw-dropping jealousy.

>>48468326
Fate-Shifting Solar Arete on Blinding Battle Feint, reroll with Perfect Shadow Stillness and retain all those delicious 10s.

My ST tends to pretty much hand wave any duels my Eclipse gets into.

>>48471228
That's how it was in previous editions, and people have not bothered to re-examine it.

Am I the only one that wants Exalted to have a pseudo-prestige class option like all the NWoD splats? I just got into Mage, which is most thematically similar to Exalted, and now I can't get the idea out of my head.

>>48471369
I tried this, it was terrible

So did the people who wrote the double exaltation story, which was also terrible

>>48471369
In Exalted the prestige class is called being a Sorcerer.

Could you do a "pet" build where the pet is an artifact drone of some time? How would you do it?

>>48471879
>time
*kind

>>48431404
dude, to qualify for a lunar exalted you literally have to SURVIVE against impossible odds.

they by definition have a high survival rate

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>>48471405
>Double Exaltation

Now is this what I think it is, or something far worse?

>>48471405
>>48472430
>double exaltation
Oh jeez, I'd forgotten about that.

I just want my Zenith to rediscover the First Age Solars' most secret, powerful prayers to the UCS and have that be reflected in the crunch.

>>48472505
Just homebrew Essence 6 Charms or Solar Circle Sorcery.

Anyone have any good ideas for how a Solar might turn into a Lunar?

One of my players is playing a (fairly stereotypical) Night Caste Solar in my 3e game. However, she really wants to play a lunar when they come out and I'd rather avoid A) Have her retire her previous character or B) "Oh, you were always a Lunar." and hand-wave it.

Since it's going to be quite a long time before I either find the official material comes out or I find a good fan-made book, I have a lot of time to build up to it in-story.

>>48472519
>Essence 6 Charms or Solar Circle Sorcery
Preferably, this would be around Essence 3.

>>48472568
>how a Solar might turn into a Lunar
No fucking way, dude.

>>48472430
it was in the fiction anthology. A DB got captured by pirates and she double-exalted as a Solar

>>48472606
>getting super powerful stuff at Essence 3
Just no. Sidegrades are fine, but getting stuff above your Essence bracket is dumb.

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>>48472640
I'm saying I don't WANT it to be Solar Sorcery or Essence 6 charms, dingus.

>>48472715
Really nothing else fits. Maaaaybe Essence 5 charms, so you get one you have Supernal for.

>>48472568
>Anyone have any good ideas for how a Solar might turn into a Lunar?

Have the Night and their Lunar Mate use "Hallowed Bond of Night and Flame" during Calibration, then when the charm ends, because of the metaphysical wackiness of Calibration, the two have now switched Exaltations.

>>48472568
Well, first I want to say that I sympathize with the "no fucking way" remark in that Exaltations are supposed to be for life, and inviolate. The Exaltation departs a host at death, and nobody can make it leave earlier, catch it when it leaves, or compel it to a new host.

Now with those constraints in mind, let's think about what could possibly be done nonetheless, because I don't want to brush this off. You should be aware that it's a really weird edge case, but that doesn't mean it should be kept out of homebrew and personal stories entirely.

One option might be that the character winds up at death's door, and is dying a slow and prolonged but seemingly inevitable death, and the Solar Exaltation departs as though on death lest it be effectively caged by holding its host crippled and comatose. Cue the Lunar Exaltation; the one drawn to fortitude over courage.

Another idea, and here I'm getting into really mad fringe territory, is that two different Exaltations saw the same character being heroic at once, and the Solar Exaltation won. The Lunar Exaltation went off to find a different host, which died a while later, and the exaltation is now hanging around the original character saying the exaltation-ese equivalent of "look, can't you take a turn finding another hero and letting me have this one for a while?" which the solar exaltation might be persuaded to do if it sees an a appropriate candidate around. So have the PC turn into a Lunar at the moment some mortal else nearby turns into a Solar.

>>48472761
Nah, make them switch bodies wholesale. Just switching Exaltations seems kind of like a cop out, switching bodies could be reversible and perhaps the other party wants their back. Bam, plot hook

>>48472753
I'm thinking some Essence 3-5 charms to buy, a free merit, maybe an additional/upgraded anima power.

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>>48472916
In order:
Only if those charms are not more powerful than others at their essence level or are upgrade charms for existing ones.

Something like Blessed from the Siddie homebrew, something to signify UCS's favor would work, but no straight and boring upgrades.

Sounds dumb. Anima Powers are something each member of the caste is supposed to be able to do at any point, regardless of variance between them (which would be signified by Charms).

>>48472568
They could always try to strike a bargain between themselves, Lytek, The Unconquered Sun and Luna.
I can see PLOT HOOKS

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does this let you ignore material things as if you were immaterial?

>>48473011
Yes.
The Green Sun Princes are OP as fuck.
I love them.

>>48471167
yeah that was before the two massive leaks happened. I'd be pretty pissed to.

>>48473266
yeah god forbid people actually be interesting in something you're doing.

>>48473323
yeah im sure they're fine with that part, i think its the breaking legal contracts, leaking an unfinished work and extending the project by months thing they dislike.

>>48473743
how exactly did people seeing their work cause the project to be extended by months?

>>48473743
why would the company that always leaks their unfinished work be this butthurt about their work being leaked?

>>48473266
Feeling's mutual, I'm pretty pissed at how they handled the leaks by saying "This will make our book suck because we can't have playtesters any more".

>>48473785
They made a post about it in some unrelated thread, i think it was the lunars one. They now kinda have to fire every playtester and do it all in house. Then at the second leak they had to do something else, i think it was down to like 3 or 4 people.
>>48473800
to be fair thats because they're doing those things open development and exalted isnt.

>>48473913
>i think it was down to like 3 or 4 people.
oh so they're just being retarded.

Anybody got any pictures fitting for a female Night caste? With black hair, and anime-ish, if possible lads

>>48473785
Because the people who read the leaked documents caught a whole bunch of mistakes and poor, poor Holden had go to back and fix them on his antique Remington typewriter. Please donate to his Paetron. If he can afford to buy white out he won't have to retype an entire page when he makes a mistake.

>>48473913
>They made a post about it in some unrelated thread, i think it was the lunars one. They now kinda have to fire every playtester and do it all in house. Then at the second leak they had to do something else, i think it was down to like 3 or 4 people.
They don't "have" to do any such thing. They could have just not engaged in this insane secretive nonsense for sixteen years, killing any momentum the game had and making everybody hate them. For no fucking reason, as the nWoD stuff mostly does fine with releasing drafts to backers (Beast excepted, but Beast was actually bad while Exalted is good).

>>48474014
Sure thing my man, I gotcha.

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&sa=1&q=anime+girl+black+hair&oq=anime+girl+black+hair&gs_l=img.3..0l10.5642.6054.0.6691.5.3.0.0.0.0.369.662.2-1j1.2.0....0...1c.1.64.img..4.1.289.X1Iw-N9ZOTI

http://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=1girl+solo+black_hair+-nude+-nsfw+dagger

>>48474230
Seems pretty simple to me. They just have to accept that if they playtest the material there's going to be leaks which means going public with the material.

I think the best option would be to do public playtesting on the material the way some companies do rather than trying to be secretive and release material that hasn't been vetted or playtested. But it seems like Onyx Path prefers the latter rather than the former.

>>48474378

Because OPP doesn't have the manpower to do public playtest that's any degree of useful.

It'll be exactly like the WotC "playtest," where 90% of the feedback gets tossed out and the 10% of "shit we were gonna do anyway" is what gets "listened to."

>>48474392
So then the other result is to not do any playtesting because of fears of leaks. I'd rather see most of the playtesting get tossed in the trash than not have any at all.

>>48474392

Weren't they just saying they didn't have the manpower to do internal playtesting, either? Besides, all their other properties seem to do fine with open playtesting.

This was nothing to do with resources: it was the devs having a mania for secrecy, to the point it has a negative impact on their product, and then chucking a hissy fit when the people who'd paid for their work years ago actually got to see it.

>>48473938
>>48474230
You can say whatever you want, but im gonna trust the word of people who have actually worked on professional projects then random mcfuckhead on the internet.

>>48474908
There is absolutely nothing about Exalted that required the level of secrecy applied to it. Nothing. The devs did it because they are retarded. IIRC they wanted it to be like a Christmas present. They are stupid and need to be killed.

>>48474846

You're deluded if you think Dave or Matt actually took the feedback given when they showed off mechanics. I can think of exactly one instance where a mechanic was actually changed, out of how many, and it wasn't even via the feedback system.

>>48474953
Why does it matter?

Like, yeah, Holden and Morke could, would, and did ignore people telling them things like "BP/XP is stupid." They are repulsive little wieners I want to chop to death with a machete.

That doesn't mean that the game needed to be kept under wraps for most of the period it was being developed (and only being released from said wraps by a heroic NDA violator), making it look like vaporware and undermining any and all hype that players might have had for it.

>>48474990

It doesn't, but don't be disingenuous. You wanted to see the mechanics because you wanted to see the mechanics. I wanted to see the mechanics too, that's why I downloaded the leaks.

"muh open playtesting" is laughable and its very presence weakens the argument.

I wanted to ask y'all a quick question about custom charms. I'm playing a 2e Solar Martial Artist and intend to get a bunch of permanent and indefinite charms for improving my physical abilities. I already have a few canon charms and was hoping for some help in designing custom charms with that theme. Any help?

>>48475016
It ended up working fairly well for D&D 5e.

>>48474953

And how many were changed as a result of Exalted's non-existent public playtesting? Oh, right, zero - doesn't seem like there's much of a downside there, then.

So what's going on with Morke and Holden? It seems like every time I turn around they're dealing with some new kind of massive trauma, personal grief, horrible circumstances, etc. Are they just really that unlucky or what?

>>48475713

What's up with them this time?

>>48475758
I don't know, that's what I was wondering. I was glancing through the OP forums and some freelancer said -

>Holden and John are both going through massive personal grief and trauma right now because god forbid the guys get a break for a moment and be able to focus on work.

Just wondering if anybody knew what was up this time. I probably enjoy hearing more about their trainwreck lives than I enjoy hearing about future Exalted material.

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So I've been giving a look at Exalted lore again, across both original editions and the changed lore of third edition and I realize what I know the least about the setting are its locations, countries and political powers. I know of The Realm, obviously, I mean its such a big deal and right in the center. Lookshy and Nexus are two other I'm aware of but what about the rest? The major ones, I mean, those I'd have a bit of a problem just ignoring if I was trying to stick to canon just enough to keep the setting recognizable but not enough to bother keeping track of every single line of lore pooped out by the writers over about a decade.

>>48476100
Holden's mom died of cancer a week ago. No idea if that's also what's fucking up John.

>>48476133
I don't know how much of the Compasses of Terrestrial Directions are still useful.

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>Take Ravnica: City of Guilds
>Refluff the guilds with Asian names
>Set the various Guild controlled districts as parts of Nexus
>World building complete

They will never know...
I am the best, simply the best.

>>48476133
Your best bet is to look at the old Scavenger Sons book from First Edition. It does a nice job of covering the major kingdoms in the different directions.

>>48476198
Sounds reasonable. Nexus was originally envisioned as a nod to Sigil from Planescape (even having an all-powerful ruler who doesn't give a fuck about much). One thing Nexus didn't have that was prominent on Sigil was the idea of "factions" which Ravnica Guilds can fill pretty nicely.

>>48476167
Fucking pussy. Gonna cry about his dead mom? Baby gonna cry? Baby gonna cry to mommy?

>>48476238
Adding from this: is there a kingdom/region/whatever loosely based off ancient greece? I know Exalted is primarily asian but its shown bits and pieces of other stuff.

>>48476279
Fuck you.

>>48476279
I think Holden is a scumbag and a shit writer but there is no need to be petty about this. Cancer ain't fun.

>>48476282
Lookshy is basically Sparta + Japan. If you're thinking classical Athens, I don't know of anywhere off hand, though Great Forks can fill that role, or at least provide you people who like to sit around, drink wine and engage in philosophical discourse and pederasty (sometimes both at once!)

>>48476500
Yeah I meant more the Athenians, since Sparta is already covered. I want people in toga blabbing about philosophy and maybe having some local dickass gods putting their dicks in things they shouldn't. Oh and a lot of sea travel.

>>48476268
The guilds don't have to be as strong or organized, but they offer 10 contrasting archetypes for populating the city with citizens and factions

>>48476100
lol @ this being part of how they defend their awful, insanely stupid throughput. Just looking for pity. I don't think I have ever seen somebody outside the Exalted dev team say that the way they handled the writing process was at all reasonable, other than a "maybe there's something I don't know." I've seen plenty of people who have done complete core books say it's insane and retarded.

>>48475713
>Are they just really that unlucky or what?
Victim complex like any good social marxist.

>>48476525
Aside from Great Forks, meant to evoke some of the more popular images of an antique Greek city-state, nothing immediately jumps to mind. But one can take some of the other cities of the Scavenger Land and Hundred Kingdoms region and give them appropriate flavour. Even Thorns.

>>48476834
>Does not even think to suggest creating a new place
This is why I often hate White Wolf fans: look at this setting but never touch it.

>>48476933

This is why I hate pretentious tossers - they think that saying "make it up yourself" is an actually novel answer that the OP totally hadn't ever considered themselves.

Also, they're pretentious tossers.

So how do you guys balance fights around Solars, anyways? Asides from making them fight other Solaroids, I don't know how to make an even fight for them. Should I just try to aim for making the fights fun or dramatic, not life threatening?

>>48477430

Once in a while I give them a tough challenge that often counters most of their tricks.

If you have Solar in your group that loves Nova attacks, that is big one hit strikes from Shining Point, Stealth, Archery, or Thrown? Make an opponent Octavian who can counter it by throwing away a huge nova attack.

Other than that, the Dragonblooded I used in the book with some modifications were very deadly. An Air Aspect who had an Ice Bazooka nailed a Dawn to the floor who was a literal hair's breath away from being on a massive end of pain from a Soulsteel Alchemical, the Night must've not realized that the Earth Immaculate Monk could attack at short range and was OHKO'd from a Tremor strike. The Fire aspect... could've done better but got a horrible join battle roll and then had fear instilled in him and was convinced to leave shortly after the Nightengale MA'ist got some initiative off of him.

Other than that I also experiment with enemies time to time. The encounter before that saw a group of low soak automatons who had the nasty ability that the beginning to every turn all the Automaton's initiative would be set equal to the highest currently within the area (So if 1 had 15, one had 7, and the other 1, then at Turn 2 start they'll all be at initiative 15). It sounds broken as hell, so I took some measures to make it not broken. Either way it was a high stress for the PC's as while each one was weak, they each had the chance to immediately become a huge threat and the Dawn was forced to expend a lot of resources (Which made the second fight against the Dragonblooded+Alchemicals far more difficult)

>>48477430

Make fights appropriate. All fights don't need to be challenging - when the local town militia tries to shake down the Circle, the Circle should cut them down like wet grass. If the Circle picks a fight with the Mask of Winters, there should be a significant chance of failure. In our games, maybe only one or two fights a Story are actually challenging. The rest are speed-bumps demanded by the story.

As to how to make a fight challenging, well, it somewhat depends on your circle. If the group likes alpha-striking, then you're big bad will need a perfect defence. If they like flurried attacks, then counter-attacks. If they rely on sorcery, then a sorcerer to counter or distort. Ambush-specialist? Charms that function during unexpected attacks.

You should pretty much never have a "one big boss" fight. They'll always squish him. Make sure he's got some (chunky) lieutenants - preferably ones that can competently lead the battlegroup that also should be there. Don't put weak mooks in the fight unless they're a battlegroup - they're just free initiative.

>>48477430
Split the party.

So, uh, on a scale from 1 to Nice Boat, how worried should I be that an Ajodan Infernal has the hots for my solar?

ARMS WHEN
R
M
S

W
H
E
N

>>48478125
8.3

>>48478645
Rrriiiiight, uh, and how much worse would that be if I also happened to use Celestial Bliss Trick on said infernal?

So how do people feel about an Exalted game where the lore is only used loosely with the GM changing/adding whatever detail he feel like? For you is it still 'Exalted'?

>>48478695
About the same really.

>>48478695
probably not that bad. if the worst thing they want from you is to fuck then you should be ok.

>>48478947

CBT isn't a persuasion, it's an Intimacy. The character acts on that Intimacy as they would any other Intimacy of lust.

This is why it's not so good to use on, say, people who murder their lovers and make love to their enemies.

>>48478705
Perfectly fine - even better, honestly. I never imagined adhering strictly to published material, whatever the game. Hell, you want Solars to -actually- be Sun-power-stealing-demon-thieves? Lunars Exaltations being transmitted like lycanthropy? An elemental-powered railway system through the Blessed Isle? A Great House, openly administered by a Second Circle Demon, bound to the Scarlet Empress? I can work with that.

>>48479076
My Storyteller decided that his game is going to be one where the Primordial were defeated by...the Exigent. No really. Now I know this will make purist immediately cringe purist but his explanation basically amounted 'Hey it worked in my game). Instead of Solar and Lunar, the gods made the Dragonblooded and Sidereal and the remaining gods made the Exigent. There was never really a First Age or at least not one recognisable as the canon one. Presumably at some point the Sidereal did manipulate stuff to put the Dragonblooded on top, its unclear and the game hasn't started yet.

Solar and Lunar came into existence in that one moment the UCS bothered to actually look at Creation and went "Wait a minute, this place is a fucking mess....yeah maybe I *should* do something!" There was a bigass eclipse and the first Solar and Lunar came into existence and now the Dragonblooded aren't really happy the UCS and Luna bothered to do something the mess they've been in charge of for hell if I know I long.

>>48479187
Man, so many typo in there I must be tired. Anyway, some more stuff I know from this pitch:
-Given how Exigent have no proper rule for them, its justifiable that they got some high power ones in their ranks. It seems they may or may not be the Anathema of the setting, at least those not sanctioned by the Realm.
-The UCS and Luna may or may not have already had those shards from Autochton, its just that in this reality they never unleashed them.
-Abyssals and Infernals most probably don't exist given the new origin to Solars.

>>48476198
Where do I read on Ravnica fluff? And other MtG fluff?

>>48479538
There were some articles about recent planes/settings on the MTG website. The rest is on cards and in some novels.

>>48479187
>>48479249

So, did the UCS and Luna actually involve themselves in Primordial War? Even Solars had to, basically, drown Primordials with their corpses - exigents of even the greatest gods had to have great powers and numbers to challenge the titans.
But at least, since they do not procreate naturally and do not have the structure of Sidereals, it is at least understandable, why they do not rule the Creation.

Then again, how would the UCS ensure that Solars are serving to improve and bring order to the world? By default, they have no impetus whatsoever to do it - only plunge it into greater chaos with their ambitions and unregulated powers. ...Yeah, sound like something that would happen in Exalted.

>>48479699
No clue, not the GM of this I'm just going off what me and my character know/have been told before the game start.

>Then again, how would the UCS ensure that Solars are serving to improve and bring order to the world? By default, they have no impetus whatsoever to do it - only plunge it into greater chaos with their ambitions and unregulated powers. ...Yeah, sound like something that would happen in Exalted.
I'm going to guess the shards were sent to find the most righteous people. Of course, the nature of the Great Curse (at least for Solars in this game) is, in fact, that the UCS is *not* perfect. Or at least not anywhere as perfect as people believe him to be. Is it the Primordial Curse affecting him directly and Solar by proxy& The Game of Divinity? Was he always an egotistical asshole who just THINK he's a paragon of righteousness and virtue? All of these options? None at all?

I've got no effing clue, man! But I think the mystery of it and the sheer clusterfuck for the setting will make this an interesting game.

>>48475048

So, first off, my advice is firmly 'General 2e', not 'At your Table'. I'll be trying to point out some common pitfalls regarding permanent/indefinite trait boosts.

Secondly, Exalted (the game) is largely about the use and choice of active techniques. Passive buffs are actually mechanically athematic to the game/setting. Infernals, with their transformative Charms, are a big exception for a reason.

So, if I'm reading your intent correctly, you're hoping for Charms that increase your dot-ratings. I am going to advise you to not pursue those mechanics- you already have access to some of the best die adders in the game with your baseline Excellency and Infinite Martial Arts Mastery.

Attempting to do so breaks the already flimsy combat math over its knee and makes things un-fun for lots of people, including yourself.

The other factor, is that if you're investing in permanent/indefinite charms, you're likely trying to get around the Combo rules, where you spend XP to build combos. You could pay 8xp for eight ability-dots worth of combo, or 8xp to just say this Charm is now 'non-charm'. that was a hugely common gimmie all across 2e's life. Most people houserule combos thoroughly.

Assuming the thread has room, reply back and I'll try to help!

>>48479786
Well, in any case, I'm all for experimentation and changing dynamics. Hope you'll have fun, sir.

>>48479848
Thanks.

>>48477430
If you're playing 2e (which is mechanically broken), the answer is 'You really don't'.

Exalted is not a combat engine or dungeon simulator. Trying to run it like one, where you have combat encounters with clearly balanced mobs/locations and the like- that's pointless.

Exalted the game cares about consequences. You get mobbed by mortal bandits- but the actual bandits don't hurt you much- fleshwounds at best and you kill them all to a man. However, now you walk ahead and see a farming town that has no working-age men, with dustbowl fields. Oops, you killed the breadwinners. And then the game is supposed to ask you 'Now What do you do'? And, you are supposed to be able to say "I take over the town" or "I leave", etc. Any number of actions.

3e, while being shit, is actually designed more for 'combat' actually being a meaningful game, what with its initiative system.

So in Ex3, do you have to declare a defense and what charms you're using for defense before or after the attacker rolls their attack? The reason I ask is because I can't seem to figure out where the rules support that you have to declare BEFORE the roll, but the Serpentine Evasion charm in Snake Style says that if you acted already in the round, you can choose to declare using the charm after the attacker rolls their attack dice.

I know in Ex2 you were supposed to declare defense before the attack was rolled, but where does it say that's the case in Ex3, other than that charm?

>>48479914
Page 251, second column second paragraph under Using Charms and Charm Limitations.

>Players (including the Storyteller)....

Attackers declare the Charms they are using, Defenders declare, then rolls are made. Serpentine Evasion specifically calls out that you can use it after the attacker rolled, so you can kind of retroactively boost your defense with it, making it more efficient to use. You don't have to risk blowing it on a bad roll, if they miss, sweet you don't have to use it, but if they hit then you do.

Is it acceptable to request some other god for the next thread OP?

>>48480579
I'll do one with the Incarnae.

>>48480684
>>48480684
New Thread

>>48479538
Two sources really. There's the Uncharted Realms that go up on Wednesday on Wizard's website, but the best resource is the cards themselves.

The Creative and Art teams do a lot of work expressing the plane through all of the pieces, especially the lands. There is so much expressed of how the plane looks and feels through art on each basic land.

>>48480620
Awesome choice!