Is Exalted 3e any good? I didn't realize it had actually

Hopefully. I'm about to start a 3e game

>>51159495
After running 15 sessions of Ex3, I...

I guess the players like it? But it's an extremely heavy game on the GM, from nigh-mandatory custom content and tricky challenge design to the combat taking forever and all of the before becoming progressively worse as you play.

I'm not sure how I'll manage to finish this campaign, it's been on hiatus for half a year, and the players are yearning to play.

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>>51159674

This sounds like the worst game for me to run; I'm not a mechanics guy. That's a shame.

>>51159495
Its good. I've been running a game for over a year now

>>51159708
Like, I guess the problem can be on my end, not knowing the rules well enough (Can't be bothered to read 600 pages of natural fucking language) and having a... Troublesome player group.

I might have just dug my own grave, and should have imposed more limits in character creation... Especially for a group of 6, which is over sensible maximum of people. If you have a big group, I say it's impossible. Exalted is a game best played with 4 or under, hell, 2-3 players seems optimal in my mind.

But I ended up having to create about 40 custom evocations (Honestly, I think it's nearer to 50-60 now) for my players, because that's life, innit. And then rebalance them. I will admit that designing them was somewhat fun, but holy lord is it arduous.

That's the custom content.

Then. The hardest difficulty a roll can have naturally is 5. You know how the system works, and when I have second-level characters rolling up to 20 dice with some insane charm combos, suddenly all difficulty is drained from the game.

That's the tricky challenge design.

Then I have opponents. I will be first to admit that I am pretty shit at combat, and trying to challenge a party of 6 solars is like trying to give a worthy challenge to the Justice League... I don't think I've actually managed to hit any player with serious damage during these 15 sessions of game because jeezums is it hard to balance this group. Even when I try to fudge the dice to my side, I don't even manage to dent the PC:s properly. This is because most opponents would have unique charm lists, and fuck lord it's more custom content you have to create unless you are lucky and there are some readily available.

Like, I originally started running Ex3 because I thought the players would like it. They do, they love it, but I just struggle to keep the game interesting. No wonder that they've hit so many puzzles during the game, at least that kind of challenges them, unlike combat.

>>51159960

Okay, maybe your group is very different than mine. Mine are even worse than me at the mechanics end, and basically we all stumble through things together. So I don't think overpowered PCs will be an issue so much as "how do I attack again?"

>>51159992
Oh don't worry, we also do got that. It's just that even a fool can figure out some sick charm combos, after all, there are hundreds of them.

What do I roll again is one of the most common things I hear in the game desu.

And with the 20 dice for one roll? Yeah, that player is little bit of a munchkin, in some senses, but others can do similar stuff. And even some really basic charms can give you somewhere amounting to 15-16 dice to roll, which diminishes the difficulty of everything to almost flat zero.

>>51159674
Sounds like how Exalted has always been. I remember running 1e being a nightmare until we figured out from other players online that we should be representing initiative as a wheel and make a physical board with tokens for it.

>>51159960
I know it is your game and all but here are a few things I picked up on as I ran some sessions. First don't be afraid to have a difficulty rating be higher then 5, superhuman challenges should have some superhuman challenges because while five is damn near impossible for a mortal that is child's play to an exalt. Don't overdo it and make sure the challenge is know to be superhuman in nature so they know that the roll will take some effort.

When it comes to artifacts don't be afraid to have them bring some to you, evocation don't all have to be on you, t you have final say on what flies but have a player or two flex their creative muscle.

Sandact has made a useful monster list that you can pull from to help make some cool beasties but also sometimes it's not about denting the players but the things they care about, like superman shrugs off hits Iike nothing but if the city is destroyed he is still crushed or harmed.

Also 20 dice is pretty normal if someone throws an excellency at something they are good at. I also find if you need some good and interesting combat have them run afoul of other solars that have a stake in the area so there is less home brew and more equal footing.

Sorry if this isn't helpful it is just some shit I learned the long way.

>>51160275
My gaming style has shifted during my hiatus, so I wonder how I would handle the game these days...

Because during this time I've basically made my own system that is hard mirror for Exalted 3, doing almost everything exactly the opposite way, yet giving a chance to play similarly powered characters. Hell, if charms weren't so hardcoded into Exalted's world, I could run Exalted with it.

The point about other costs than just health to make combat difficult will become more of a thing after the current campaign.

Currently they're just fucking about against a Deathlord, trying to collect elusive pieces of Autocthon that are the cause for his sickness and dying state (In my game at least). The next session the rest of the group would fight against one of the PC:s that has gone insane due to their mentor dying.

After that a new PC would be introduced and they would try to go get the final piece, that said Deathlord of course has in possession. They already killed all the Deathlord's lackeys so while still a deathlord (and thus a force to be reckoned with), if they manage to snatch the pieces, they will get something to fuck him up for good from Autocthon.

But yeah, after that would be over (It would take somewhere around 2-3 game sessions to get there), I will start a huge civil war for the throne between DB:s. The whole game would shift gears from that point on, from adventure to them trying to hold their own in this sweeping war.

>>51160149
>Sounds like how Exalted has always been
it's not, or at least it's basically the opposite


EX3 combat does make fun, both for the players and for the storyteller. The Withering/Decisive split is great.

You just have to use interesting enemies with strengths and weaknesses to give Solar PCs some kind of difficulty.


Than again, my newest group nearly was killed by fucking wolves in their first session, while ending the final fight with the BBEG within 5 minutes, so who am I to say something about Exalted balancing.

>>51160275
>Also 20 dice is pretty normal if someone throws an excellency at something they are good at
which is the reason new characters from my players are limited in their Dex+Combat Ability to be at most a dicepool of 8, reducing the maximum dice pool to 16.
Does not seem like a lot of reduction, but it's often the difference between auto-attacking any possible enemy to death and having to use tactics to overcome possibly high soak/DV

>>51162368
Well yeah, reducing the maximum that can be got from excellency, if they happen to burst all on that, or get full excellency from a charm. But it's much easier to boost attacks with charms.

>>51162353
Probably the hardest encounter my party ever had was a pair of demons, one of which was an invisible spellcaster. In addition, they were in a room where they couldn't approach the other one, and it kept hitting them with ranged attacks, but the party's ranged attacks didn't work.

Our team's brains decides to use a spell to puzzle the invisible enemy (I refluffed a spell from the older magic books) and the party just ganked that one.

Then there was this undead army and a lich-type caster that cast a bubble so the PC:s couldn't exit the area.

So yeah, if I make combat these days, I try to make it... Challenging in other ways than opponents simply being tough.

As said, my players love my game and they want more, I just struggle with the system because it's against everything I stand for. I kind of expected it to be a little difficult, but nowhere near this difficult.

>>51159960
Yeah, I counted the amount of custom evocations I've done. Currently it's 55-60. And they're not just effects. No no. Here's an example from the upcoming character. He really wanted to make a defensive-type character and this is one of the evocations that really hammer that in.

Wings of a Dragonfly Technique
Cost: 4m per round Mins: Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Withering-only, Innate
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite: Butterfly Dance
The movements of the butterfly become still, like a dragonfly over water. The shadows and afterimages that follow the menacingly still wielder give away the nature of them. Their movements are so fast that the eye cannot follow. Anything struck into the vicinity of the wielder gets retaliated with a devastating attack of the wielder’s own. In addition of the effects of Butterfly Dance, successful defence at close range grants an automatic free attack to the wielder. This attack is treated as a normal attack and can be enhanced by Charms. This attack does not count as the wielder’s own turn action.

This isn't even from the long end of evocations.

But yeah, what >>51160275 said, I could ask the players for the evocations. But the problem is that they have a very poor grasp of the mechanics, so maybe only for the fluff part.

>>51159495
The rules got worse. It's a needlessly crunchy game. New players may get excited by the premise of being an epic mythic hero from the beginning, but chargen will scare them away. They really should have made it a bit more narrative with charms that are much more freeform and much fewer in number, because fewer people than ever are interested in playing to begin with and they have less effort to invest in a fan remake of a dead game.

>>51163937
It's worse now? Jesus, I thought one of the aims of a new Exalted edition would be to simplify things at least a little bit. It's an awesome setting but it's too bad it's such a cluster fuck to play let alone run.

>>51163937
>>51164865
No, he rules did no get worse. Whether they got better is a matter of opinion, I guess, but they certainly didn't get worse.

>New players may get excited by the premise of being an epic mythic hero from the beginning, but chargen will scare them away.
Depends on the players. I have introduced new players to 3E, and chargen didn't scare them away.

>Need a fucking thesis to understand the god-damn setting or a long ass time to learn E V E R Y T H I N G
>Now gotta learn even more mechanics on top of that
I just wanted to be a Green Sun Prince, no one told me there'd be a test.

>>51162645
Why are you writing the Evocations yourself in the first place, ya goof? That's the player's job, you just approve of them.

>>51163937
>a needlessly crunchy game
I see this criticism a lot, and it is always wrong. It's not the game for you. Some people like crunch in their games. Exalted was never meant to be a fluffy, rules-light game. There are other games for that.

>>51165374
The people who complain about the crunch aren't just picking up a game that's known to be rules heavy and complaining about it. I think people are attracted to the setting but are a bit overwhelmed. It's not as simple as picking up another game if you want to play in the Exalted world.

>>51159495
If you had any issues with 2E's problems like Paranoia Combat, PCs getting splattered by a lucky hit with a grand goremaul, perfect defense spam, combat that drags on and on, that's all been addressed very well by 3E.

If you're expecting Exalted to be rules light or something now though, you're out of luck. There are still quite a few rules, but the rules work very well now and don't require direct GM intervention to function as intended.

>>51165506
I mean, it's not like people haven't made Fate knockoffs or Godbound. I still prefer 3E, but it's not like people have no viable alternatives now!

>>51166573
Fate is never really a viable alternative and my impression was that response to Godbound has been overwhelmingly negative.

>>51166930
Aside from people getting shut down in the Exalted thread when people try to use it to edition war, not really?

I mean, I enjoy both things.

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If you're going Melee and you're not using two identical weapons for the clash bonus, is having weapons a different as possible the best set-up? Also, what's the best way to deal with enemies of Legendary Size?

>>51166930
Really? My impression is that Godbound has been mostly received very positively. I wouldn't consider it a good lternative to Exalted, however, and I don't really think Ex3 requires an alternative, either.

>>51167097
For enemies of Legendary Size? I suppose heavy weapons. They don't have much defense to speak of, so accuracy is not nearly as important as exceeding 10 dice post-soak minimum.

Having two weapons be as different as possible is ideal if you don't want to get the same bonus. You can probably use a high accuracy weapon for attacking and a high defense weapon for parrying.

>>51167804

>You can probably use a high accuracy weapon for attacking and a high defense weapon for parrying.

I was think of a light weapon + shield combo for that reason.

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>>51168112
You legionnaire now

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>>51168217

What's funny is that I was thinking of adding a spear as well for some ranged capabilities, which Legionnaires also had. On that note, I still find the Dawn caste abilities a little restricting due to multiple offensive and defensive abilities, so which goes better with Melee; Archery or Thrown?

>>51168400
Thrown, because it doesn't go to shit as soon as you're in melee range with an enemy.

It's a great game but designed by people who enjoy mechanical engagement and the original format of the game. I think it's the best iteration so far, I just wouldn't use every rule until you're comfortable with it.

>>51165506
>>51165374

Personally, the setting was always what attracted me to the game, and my only concern for the mechanics was whether they represented that. With that in mind, it always seemed to me that Exalted's mechanics could never be perfect, because Exalted is about characters who do all sorts of crazy stuff that you could never have rules for, hence why you had the whole stunt system, and if the price was that the system would have holes or exploits in it then you just had to deal with that and agree with your players that you wouldn't try break the game.

I haven't been able to take part in games for a long time, and don't want to shell out money for 3e just for the pleasure of reading the setting material because I already have basically all the 2e books for that. But, from what I've heard (and I could have gotten the wrong impression), 3e has done some stuff I don't really agree with? Toning down power levels for different character types to be closer to each other, mortals no longer allowed to learn any supernatural martial arts, and what seems like overall some sacrifices from the older editions' fluff in order to serve the mechanics, which as I just said doesn't seem to me to fit what distinguishes Exalted from other games, or make it attractive in comparison to them.

I've also heard the art in the books is shit now.

Like I said, this is just a loose impression I've gotten without really doing the research, so correct me if I'm wrong.

>>51168873
You are aware that there's a link to the e3 book in the OP of the Exalted general when it's up, right?

>>51168913

Yes, and I haven't read it. I just said I haven't been bothered to actually research it, didn't I? I just decided to ask here since this thread seemed an opportunity to get a quick answer.

tl;dr I'm lazy and don't actually care that much.

>>51168873
Toning down the power-level isn't exactly hurting the fluff, really. Because the fluff sure as hell isn't "two combatants perfect each-others attack for several rounds until one is mote-tapped and instantly dies". Perfect defences are now actually a rare thing. Your Solar blocking a huge as fuck death-ray or a collapsing mountain now actually feels awesome and special, rather than "meh, use the same PD I've used against those bandits back there" like in e2.

>>51168873
The difference in power levels remains to be seen, but looking at the martial arts system there is still a difference between Solar/Celestial/Terrestrial. Its just no longer the case that celestials perfect defense spam and terrestrials are worthless. The book doesn't mention 'mortals' learning martial arts, but it does mention that any mortal who learns sorcery or unlocks an essence pool is no longer a mortal. So exceptional people can still learn supernatural things, they're just considered to be supernatural afterwords.

>>51168873
>I've also heard the art in the books is shit now.

Not really. A lot of people complained about the placeholder pieces in the backer version, but the final version is pretty good.

>>51169106
Well, there's hits and there's misses, but I think that goes for pretty much all RPG art. I mean, look through old e2 books and tell me the art there was all good.

>>51169082
>it does mention that any mortal who learns sorcery or unlocks an essence pool is no longer a mortal. So exceptional people can still learn supernatural things, they're just considered to be supernatural afterwords.

That was the case in 2e as well, it's just that the word "mortal" sometimes had two different meanings, one mechanical one relating to what certain effects could do to them (for example, a deathlord having the power to kill any "mortal" by looking at them, which would exclude people with enlightened essence), and which was basically what you just described there, and one more general one that usually meant "non-exalted human" (for example, describing how it was a bad idea for a "mortal sorcerer" to try use demon summoning sorcery because not being Exalted meant the demon wouldn't be bound).

>>51168873
>>51169069
>>51169082
So how have the Lunars faired? Anything significant you guys know of?
(inb4 furfag)

>>51171289
Mechanically, from what I remember, there's not much to go on. There are a couple of Lunars in the Antagonists section with basic combat and social Charms, but nothing really stood out to me as worth mentioning. Their dice cap is (Attribute) now, and you can add a second Attribute to that with an appropriate stunt, so they're pretty versatile.

Fluff-wise it looks like they actually have a role in the setting this time around, being more active in the Threshold and generally bent on tearing down the Realm, but the corebook only has a basic overview of Creation.

But we'll see how this all holds up in future releases, especially once the Lunar book is released in 3019. Anything could change.

>>51171289
Animal forms seem to be very worthwhile now. They all get major bonuses or special abilities depending on whether they're say, a Bear versus a Tiger.

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>>51169069

OP here. Glad to see that got fixed! I get that trying to make a really balanced and clean system for characters whose entire shtick is being overpowered for their surroundings in the actual setting fluff is kind of a fool's errand, but the Jon Chung trench warfare with Super Saiyans crap needed to go.

>>51175861
Yeah, there are some areas where 3E is a definite improvement over the previous editions. Social system is another thing worth mentioning. 3E's social system isn't perfect, but it's one of the better ones I've seen in RPGs.

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>>51178349

...I'm listening

>>51159495

lol no

>>51162353

>EX3 combat does make fun, both for the players and for the storyteller. The Withering/Decisive split is great.

Hell no, with how wildly Initiative scales up and down and very few attempts at putting any sane caps on damage. A fucking nightmare to run is what it is. Unless you enjoy throwing on enemy at them to gangbang to death before it does anything. Sure I guess that qualifies as 'quick and easy'.

Enjoy your shitty deathspiral mechanics.

>>51169069
>Because the fluff sure as hell isn't "two combatants perfect each-others attack for several rounds until one is mote-tapped and instantly dies".

Nah instead its

>The combat monkey goes first with their enormous Initiative result, punts them into Initiative Crash, then kills them on the following turn

or

>the party bumrushes him and keeps him permanently in Initiative Crash, then wails on his dick with Decisive attacks until he's dead

Very exciting.

>LOl fAG whY areNt you using MULTIPLE CELESTIAL EXALTED and BattlGRoups to fight teh SOlARZ

As if Initiative wasn't already annoying to track with its constant ping-ponging, but now you want me to track an entire party's worth of NPCs as well? nevermind that range bands fall apart as soon as anyone targets something besides a single NPC...

Its just not a good game. Even D&D 5e is a better investment of your time if you want functional combat mechanics that at least work as intended.

>>51169069

>Because the fluff sure as hell isn't "two combatants perfect each-others attack for several rounds until one is mote-tapped and instantly dies"

I don't think I have ever actually seen this in play. Sounds more like the Chung bogeyman to me. I mean if your ST's first response is instant death Combos or mountain top snipers then maybe you shouldn't play with them? Same reason you wouldn't stick around with a DM who's level 1 adventurers ran face first into a Balor and were forced to fight it.

You also know that the 2.5 errata fixed all of this? i'd rather play 2e for now, at least it has material for lots of other stuff to use and over a decade of house rules development to draw fixes from. At least until ex3 has more books out or its own extensive errata or a .5 edition.

>>51167397

Godbound is OSR with some Exalted trappings thrown on top. Its good.. if you like OSR and can overlook its flaws.

>>51168873

The art is extremely shit and a fair amount of it was stolen or copied from other products.

>>51171608
>Fluff-wise it looks like they actually have a role in the setting this time around, being more active in the Threshold and generally bent on tearing down the Realm, but the corebook only has a basic overview of Creation.

Actually they went at lengths to make them something besides 'rar barbarians! destroy the realm (civilization)!' like they were in 1e. The Thousand Streams is pretty cool and resulted in some of the biggest and most successful civilizations outside of the Realm proper.

Its also kind of cool if you look at it from the lens that Lunars aren't worried about the interior of Creaiton, and are instead trying to fortify the edges against another Balorian Crusade or other invasion (after all, they are the Stewards and protectors are a huge part of their theme) but that is my personal fanon, take from it what you will.

>>51181542
Like, in my mind, the idea with withering damage and decisive damage isn't bad. It's a pretty good alternative to make HP make sense.

I just think that Exalted is kind of the wrong game to put it in, and it was implemented poorly. While fluff-wise, the system is pitch-perfect to the setting, game-wise? A complicated health system in a game that's already very complicated? Euuughhh.

>>51181575
In my 15 game sessions, I've felt them all. Actually, I've even used multiple celestial exalted (Essence 3 Abyssals), but because I didn't bother making full charm lists for them (because there was like, 4 of them), they got absolutely annihilated.

What do you call the greater elemental dragon who has slept with your wife.

The Cuckla.

>>51181709

>I didn't bother making full charm lists for them (because there was like, 4 of them), they got absolutely annihilated.

This itself is a problem. The antagonist section mostly? kind of sucks in my experience.

What is worse is people insist on having to make new charms for antagonists when its clear the game just wants to see Solar charms blowing up other Solar charm users if you want balance. So .. you might as well just attack them with other Solars, or wedge Solar charms onto those existing antagonist stat blocks until we eventually get other splat books.

But don't worry i'm sure all of their charms, evocations and artifacts will be (vastly) inferior to the Solar ones thus continuing this trend of everything being too weak to oppose a Solar party in a meaningful yet balanced way.

>>51181709

I tried introducing a brand new person to Exalted through ex3 and the whole initiative aspect was really confusing, if only because of the semantics involved. Like weapons doing damage for Withering attacks.. even though they don't do damage, they just reduce initiative? and then using Initiative to do Decisive attacks.. which cause Damage?

Its interesting but it needs some sort of cap on how it scales and its terminology to be reworked. Feels like all of their ideas are sort of half-assed into Storyteller's system, causing more execution problems than its worth.

Me personally? I wish they had just adapted what was already learned with nwod and GMC. Maybe one day we'll get an Exalted 3.5e or 4e adapted to Scions' new ruleset..

>>51180114
Not him, and I admit I don't have much actual play experience, but basically:

Motivation is gone and Intimacies are rated as Minor, Major, or Defining. In order to convince someone to do something, you have to do it through a strong enough Intimacy; the most persuasive person in the world can't talk someone into fighting the Unconquered Sun by their side unless they give a convincing reason. Without any Intimacy supporting your efforts, the most you'll manage is to get some spare change off them. With a Minor Intimacy, you could talk them into inconvenient but not dangerous tasks, like delivering a package on the other side of the city. With a Major Intimacy, you can get them to take some risks and go to greater lengths, like a merchant letting you stow away on their next ship to the Blessed Isle. With a Defining Intimacy, you can convince someone to do pretty much anything that isn't obviously suicidal.

So social influence becomes about discovering, influencing, and using the things a character cares about in order to get them to do what you want, rather than beating their head in with big numbers until they agree.

>>51181636
That was only true in the pre-release version, "a fair amount" seems kind of an overstatement considering it was only a handful of them (I only remember the Kejak one, which was quite eggregious).

>>51159960
okay, question here, because I never understood it, what's the problem with natural language?

>>51183185
Mainly that when rules conflict or intersect, Natural Language assumes, "oh, they'll figure it out."
Or that it has multiple potential interpretations that are equally valid but mutually exclusive.

For instance, can you combo the charm that reduces an armor's mobility penalty as you put it on with the one that reduces the time to don it to a number of rounds equal to said penalty? I could make an argument either way, but being able to reflexively bump your soak to ridiculous for the scene is a consideration.

>>51162645
>Yeah, I counted the amount of custom evocations I've done. Currently it's 55-60
And you are not sharing them because you want other storytellers to suffer too?

>>51181784
>Me personally? I wish they had just adapted what was already learned with nwod and GMC

My newest campaign (only second session so far, fresh out for 2017) is using the Beats/Aspiration/Conditions system from CofD combined with Vice/Virtue (replacing Limit, because Limit sucks as a mechanic).

It works great. Especially Aspirations are a great thing for Exalted where every plot is basically driven by the PCs anyway.

In the process I also removed bonus points in favor of flat 'free' XP, but that's beside the point.

Exalted 3E is a fine system. It's just that Chronicles of Darkness / GMC is so much better. Moving mechanics from CofD over to EX3 makes it a lot more fun.

>>51181575
>>LOl fAG whY areNt you using MULTIPLE CELESTIAL EXALTED and BattlGRoups to fight teh SOlARZ
There hasn't been a single enemy Celestial in our game so far and we reached Essence 3. We still almost died several time and had lots of fun combat.

Just run the setting GURPs you scrubs

>>51184206
If you're going to use a different system, at least use one that's not a steaming pile of shit.

>>51180114
Sorry, anon, I left for work shortly after posting that, but >>51181817 covers it pretty well.

>>51181575
I have no idea what I've done differently from you, but your experience sounds nothing like mine. I've had fights that went on for multiple rounds and worked just fine, duels where both parties were crashed at some point, or where both parties took damage to their health levels, even. In my experience the combat system works just fine.

>>51181575
>the party bumrushes him and keeps him permanently in Initiative Crash, then wails on his dick with Decisive attacks until he's dead

If you're going to have /a single/ opponent fight multiple characters, at least give them some mooks or a charm to refresh DV. Of course they're going to get curbstomped when Onslaught is now cumulative, dummy.

>Its just not a good game. Even D&D 5e is a better investment of your time if you want functional combat mechanics that at least work as intended.

I mean, if D&D 5E's intent is "the rogue and fighter constantly fellate the group's casters" while having even worse natural language issues than 3E, then I suppose it's an exercise making the best shit game possible.

>>51181575
>As if Initiative wasn't already annoying to track with its constant ping-ponging

It isn't. Certainly, it isn't more annoying than Ticks, which deserve to die in a fucking fire.

>nevermind that range bands fall apart as soon as anyone targets something besides a single NPC...

Other systems, including Edge of the Empire and 13th Age use a range band system that is described in the exact same way. I wonder why those don't give other players conniptions...

>>51181636
It was a single piece that copied from four other products, and was immediately removed for the release version once it got their attention.

Also, all the worst pieces in the backer version were fixed.

>>51183506
I didn't think GMC's combat system is all the different from the older editions. Or is that not the case?

>>51184968
Not really, and I sure as hell wouldn't use nWoD's combat system for anything else. It's a serviceable system for WoD, especially for mortals, but not for a more action-heavy game.

>>51185881
Which Exalted definitely is. (Which made my experiences with 2E all the more painful)

>>51185911
Yeah. Personally I think Ex3's system works just fine for Exalted's needs. Well, most of the time. It is true that having several individual combatants involved can lead to a proper clusterfuck. On the other hand, I'm personally fine with most fights being pretty easily won, with actually difficult fights being either against some truly, earthshakingly powerful opponent or difficult due to some situational factors and complications. I'm also a fan of fights that don't involve the whole party. Like, the Dawn should get to have a nice duel every now and then, the Night should be allowed to get up to occasional ninja shenanigans on hiw own, and so on. The difficulty with such fights is handling them without making things dull for the people who don't participate, but it is doable.

>>51186081
It works. It's just really fucking demanding on a GM if you expect a lot of combat. This has always been the case. My best Exalted games have been where combat were rare but climactic, but I expect a lot of groups wouldn't tolerate that.

>>51186201
True. The group I play with is also cool with combat being infrequent. I mean, they are also cool with games where combat is frequent, but it's not required. Some groups are obviously different.

>>51186278
>>51186201

Part of the issue I've always had with exalted lies in the Dawn Caste. 'I'm the only guy who FightsGood and my sole role is to Fightgood' sorta makes any game that's going on 'Infrequent combat' or 'Non-required combat' rather painful.

I would have liked 3e to have done something a bit more like LOTW where it's 'All PCs have a basic level of competence in a fight'. As 3e can very easily have incredible differences in what people can fight safely.

>>51166930
>my impression was that response to Godbound has been overwhelmingly negative.

Don't judge Godbound's reception by the insane ramblings of Colette aka 2hu on /gbg/. Pretty much everyone else on the Net seems to consider Gangbang a triumph, /tg/ just got stuck with the Autismo Queen and for some inexplicable reason she has defenders here despite being literally the worst poster I've ever seen on /tg/. Thirsty Touhou-liking NEETs, probably.

As for Ex3... It worked relatively well for the campaign I ran last year, although the Giant Siege I used it for took about 6 months of play to resolve. It suffers rather badly from natural language and from So Many Fucking Charms Holy Shit but the core mechanics are solid as fuck. Also the new locations are incredibly awesome-sounding and I can't wait for the regional supplements to come out.

>>51186348
Dawns also get to do some strongman stuff with athletics, can intimidate people and it's fairly easy to go into a secondary social focus if you take charisma anyway for command rolls.

>>51186348
>As 3e can very easily have incredible differences in what people can fight safely.

That's mainly a problem of players creating characters with little combat ability, though. Pretty much any Solar can construct a defensive suite with the right Caste/Favoured choices, and there's enough in Essence 1 to construct an OK attack sequence, at least from Melee and Brawl/MA.

>>51186474
At the very least, noncombat skills now have charms with combat utility. Someone with Presence can basically do an Elite Beat Agents style thing where their allies get dice bonuses from getting cheered on, Performance lets you be a D&D style bard, etc.

>>51186523
Or the epic Pokemon shenanigans of Survival!

>>51186348
>I would have liked 3e to have done something a bit more like LOTW where it's 'All PCs have a basic level of competence in a fight'.
I'd kind of prefer it if this was done by giving all or at least most Abilites some combat stuff. I don't mean that every Ability should be as good at combat, because that would be dumb, but, like, let the Lore guy logic his way to some bonuses and introduce facts about situational factors advantageous to him. Let the Presence guy defend himself with the radiation of his Charisma and attemoth disarm gambits by ordering his opponents to drop their weapons with such authority that they might obey before realizing what they're doing. Give everyone the tools to at least survive and preferably contribute, no matter their specialization. Actual combat Abilities should obviously still be superior to combat and probably the only Abilities for doing damage.

>>51186567
>ike, let the Lore guy logic his way to some bonuses and introduce facts about situational factors advantageous to him. Let the Presence guy defend himself with the radiation of his Charisma and attemoth disarm gambits by ordering his opponents to drop their weapons with such authority that they might obey before realizing what they're doing.

...Both of those abilities have charms that let you do either that precisely or something similar.

>>51186348
As the ST I typically encourage people to have some investment in combat so that when shit hits the fan they can actually contribute.

Conversely, I also tell the big combat monkeys that they should have some social investment so they aren't twiddling their thumbs waiting for something to murder when the rest of the Circle is chatting.

>>51183185

I find most of the people who played/know 2e tend not to have an issue with natural language in most cases.

>>51186348
>Part of the issue I've always had with exalted lies in the Dawn Caste
Castes are stupid alltogether for this very reason. Every Exalt is a fighter and a lover. Why do we need Dawns?

>>51188374
Yeah, just ditching Castes and letting Solars choose one favored Ability as Supernal would work for me.

>>51159960

>Then. The hardest difficulty a roll can have naturally is 5.

By RAW

You know Morke, one of the game's own designers, breaks this over his knee right? He makes some rolls difficulty 10. Just use difficulties above 10 sparingly things will drain pretty fast if everything is difficulty 10, the game trying to avoid the 2e logic of "Have 5/5 in the area you're rolling in or don't fucking bother"

There's also penalties to impose to lower the dicepool

>Then I have opponents. I will be first to admit that I am pretty shit at combat, and trying to challenge a party of 6 solars is like trying to give a worthy challenge to the Justice League... I don't think I've actually managed to hit any player with serious damage during these 15 sessions of game because jeezums is it hard to balance this group. Even when I try to fudge the dice to my side, I don't even manage to dent the PC:s properly. This is because most opponents would have unique charm lists, and fuck lord it's more custom content you have to create unless you are lucky and there are some readily available.

It took me like a year to get used to the new system, in figuring out that things can challenge PC's. After about a year of lopsided battles I only pulled it off recently in the past 2-3 battles our group had.

Thought six PC's I will admit is your own damn fault and part of the reason.

>>51181542

I love 3e, but I need to agree with one point here.

>Hell no, with how wildly Initiative scales up and down and very few attempts at putting any sane caps on damage

To me it feels like base initiative needs to be doubled or something, at least at the beginning of combat.

>>51162645

>4m to make withering only attacks for the round

I think it should be 5m 1WP for the round and/or a gap on initiative gain. I tried such a thing before anon, it makes players insanely strong. The only way Crane form is balanced as it has balls for withering adders

>>51159495
No. If you like 2e and the rules were above your head, 3e is not for you.

>>51171289
>So how have the Lunars faired? Anything significant you guys know of?
Lunars release 2024 and climbing.

>>51188421
The biggest thing is not to just arbitrarily make something super high difficulty just to challenge the Circle. Look at the difficulties presented and go by those, and if things are genuinely harder, and not just through penalties, by all means increase the difficulty.

Typically I don't make things higher difficulties unless it's a contested sort of thing between two Exalts or supernatural beings. A riddle composed by a Sidereal will have a difficulty higher than 5 for a Solar Loremaster to decipher, things like that. Or if it's just beyond the scope of anything a mortal could possibly accomplish and that's the heroic mortals of Exalted, which is typically the type of cinematic nonsense you see in action movies.

I appreciate that they baked a 'no ERP' rule right into the book.

>>51181575

>As if Initiative wasn't already annoying to track with its constant ping-ponging, but now you want me to track an entire party's worth of NPCs as well?

Yup, that's how it works skippy.

If you don't do that then combat runs into one of those problems. Of course such things rarely happen in my game as I also actually know how to stat things so they'll live through those barrages you do.

In fact in last combat, I tracked 10 different NPC's

git gud

>>51181593

Did you know you didn't need to actively play them and that the rules would literally apart on their own given enough time?

It doesn't matter if you have a gentleman's agreement. Usually its a case of when, not if, 2.Xe breaks apart. I've learned this after years of playing with it.

>>51188788

It helps at the beginning of the game to take note of non-opposed dice rolls (Bureaucracy, Lore, etc...) and then figure out benchmarks of difficulty for those rolls. Like a difficulty 10 Lore roll would be knowing about biology of the Celestial Incarnae or a difficulty 10 medicine roll is doing something like healing terminal cancer (without charms)

For opposed rolls that's fine really.

>>51188792
WoD should steal that

>>51181575
Sounds like your GM sucked and/or you were exclusively curbstomping weak enemies with a full circle.

Jesus christ there are so many people itt who are bad at ex3 combat

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>>51189122
>Sounds like your GM sucked and/or you were exclusively curbstomping weak enemies with a full circle.
>YOU HAVE TO CONTRIVE RIDICULOUS SITUATIONS FOR THE GAME'S MECHANICS TO WORK

whew

>>51186372
>6 months of irl game time to resolve ONE siege

Holy fuck what the hell is wrong with you

>>51189201
roughly 24 sessions to resolve one series of combat encounters?

that sounds about right

>>51189196

To be fair it took me a year to make up challenging combats for my PC's and I consider myself to know more than average about the system.

The other part is you need to put in some of the work to make it shine. I consider it no more difficult than tracking 5 normal enemies in 4e.

>>51189196
>>YOU HAVE TO CONTRIVE RIDICULOUS SITUATIONS FOR THE GAME'S MECHANICS TO WORK
You could address things people actually said instead of making things up, anon.

>>51189201
A siege can be done in a single session or take an entire campaign, depends on how you do it. And not just in Exalted. I could easily see a D&D game about defending a city from some huge siege spanning an entire campaign arch.

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>>51189261
>I consider it no more difficult than tracking 5 normal enemies in 4e.
4e what? I mean, I can assume D&D because /tg/, but /tg/ has never played 4e. Otherwise it wouldn't hate it.

>>51189329
>You could address things people actually said instead of making things up, anon.
I mean, I can't think of many occasions where, knowing a fight is coming, the full circle wouldn't get involved. So, uh, unless you force your group onto railroads...

>>51189196
No? If you have 6 PCs you're likely attacking 6 or more times per round. For example, if you're gang banging 3 dudes no shit you're going to curbstomp them, because you literally have twice the action economy, this is something that applies to any game, not just ex3.

In addition to that, unlike DnD, the game assumes you're playing young demi-gods of enormous power - if you're picking on a couple random dudes and effortlessly slaughtering them, sounds like its working as intended, but I wouldn't know because the guy didn't elaborate in any detail about what kinds of enemies his circle was fighting and how many, just HURR COMBAT BAD.

>YOU HAVE TO CONTRIVE RIDICULOUS SITUATIONS FOR THE GAME'S MECHANICS TO WORK

You mean ridiculous situations like fighting a group of dragonblooded and their mortal soldiers? Or possibly a circle of abyssals? Or even a lesser elemental dragon you pissed off? NAH those things are contrived and would never happen in Exalted.

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>>51189261
>>51189329
>>51189434

whew

>>51188421

Any tips on balancing combat without constantly throwing Celestials at the group?

>>51189505
>That feel when you have no counter argument but DO have a stash of unfunny gifs

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>>51189601

>>51189529

For me its making all enemies on the battlefield have a reason to kill them first, or a reason why you would want to kill them first.

Aside from the apostate I had in the battlefield with his own giant mecha snake (Which itself was several enemies), I had the following enemies on the battlefield:

- Enemies with ranged vulcan cannons. Each turn firing at a target was treated as them having Falling Hammer Strike + Ferocious Jab (Withering only) for their attacks. Lots of soak.

- Enemies capable of painting out a target, highlighting them to make them shine like they had a burning anima banner, allowing friendly ranged units to attack out to medium range without needing to aim, also had very high awareness pools

- Fast annoying enemies would could reflexively rush every turn, and for every threshold success on a rush they got it let them add +1 post soak damage die.

- The size 4 or 5 battle group that was on the battlefield, with constant reinforcements flooding in through subway gates being treated as a reflexive rally action each turn (PC's nipped this really fast)

- The Giant Mecha Snake made by the apostate had segments on the body, which basically functioned as a battle group that would regenerate if too much time had passed. For each segment remaining the post soak damage for withering attacks and raw damage for decisive attacks was reduced by 1 each, to a maximum of 5 against the giant mecha snake. In addition to other defensive abilities it had.

>>51189529

Run a smaller group, get rid of Supernal for combat abilities, insist that no one hyperfocus and specialize solely in combat, limit or ban artifacts at creation.

>>51189788
Sorry no dawns right?

>>51189788
>the game is perfect if you completely change the rules

>>51190588
Honestly just having a smaller group who are actually attentive and competent players drastically lowers the time it takes to get through combat. The chief thing that slowed down my games where people who, after a year playing the game, still couldn't be trusted to calculate their own dice pools and dice caps when Charms came into play.

>>51190617
>after a year playing the game, still couldn't be trusted to calculate their own dice pools and dice caps when Charms came into play.
Are we pretending that wasn't true with 2e?

>>51159495
The problem with Ex3 is that it fixed the worst stuff from 1e and 2e (like the combat and social systems being totally broken), but it made the bad-but-not-worst stuff from 1e and 2e (too many Charms to do simple stuff, lack of rules clarity) worse than they were in either edition.

It's a five steps forward, four steps back kind of situation.

>>51190662
Yeah, I get it's a complicated system and I know I put the time in to understand it but that doesn't mean you can just keep foisting it off onto me and never actually learning.

And it's not like I would just tell them the numbers, I'd walk them through how to calculate it.

>Okay, you're making a Withering attack, add your Dex and combat ability, that's how many dice you can add to the attack. Don't forget your accuracy, no successes count as two dice you can't add 8 successes from Charms.

That was my first time STing but damn, I was never that bad as a player.

>>51190717
>That was my first time STing but damn, I was never that bad as a player.
If you were, you wouldn't be GMing.

>>51181784

They desperately needed a technical editor instead of just sending out second draft material.

Another example: Solar XP is XP that can only be spent on things that aren't Solar Exaltation-related.

>>51190848
>They desperately needed a technical editor instead of just sending out second draft material.
Well they kept lying about it, cut their tech editor out of the cycle, and then had to deliver what they had because people were getting refunds.

So since this is basically an Exalted Thread, any mind explaining to me on Martial Arts combos work in Exalted 2e?

>>51191347

Martial Arts are governed by a single ability in 2e and charms can be combined freely in an attack as long as the appropriate Form Weapons and Armor are being used. It's a bit ambiguous as to whether or not MA can combo with Melee.

>>51191955

>It's a bit ambiguous as to whether or not MA can combo with Melee.

That's not the intent of it.

>>51190900
None of those things are true, but you are well within your rights to respond with 'ok Holden' as if that somehow makes it true.

>>51189144
Is it really that hard? Especially in comparison to 2E?

>>51190674
I don't think it's nearly as drastic as four steps back. For example, I can now play Exalted RAW and have the game work like it's supposed to instead of simply imploding.

>>51193178
No, using 'ok Holden' on Holden undermines the meme.

Fact 1: they kept lying about it and said it was done. It was clearly not.
Fact 2: they cut their tech editor out. This is clear from the draft released.
Fact 3: people got refunds. This is what prompted the hurry up for release.

btfo

>>51193776
>Fact 1: they kept lying about it and said it was done. It was clearly not.

Said what was done? Everyone knew that they were still playtesting this shit, and they scrapped things halfway through because it just wasn't working with their first version

>Fact 2: they cut their tech editor out. This is clear from the draft released.

Said tech editor, SLSheppard, said unambiguously on RPG.net that this wasn't true. Multiple times.

>Fact 3: people got refunds. This is what prompted the hurry up for release.

People like Beron the Grey are still bitching and whining about not getting any refunds, but it's conceivable that he's an idiot.

>>51193821

Anon you're missing the point entirely.

The man is trolling. You're not supposed to argue make with solid evidence. You're supposed to call him a faggot that knows nothing.

>>51193893
It's good to argue coherently, for the benefit of other readers if not for the person actually arguing with you.

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>>51193821
>Said what was done? Everyone knew that they were still playtesting this shit, and they scrapped things halfway through because it just wasn't working with their first version
They said the game was done. It clearly wasn't. They said it had been done since 2013. It clearly wasn't.

>Said tech editor, SLSheppard, said unambiguously on RPG.net that this wasn't true. Multiple times.
I don't believe him, to be frank. The book clearly had not been through technical editing. If he hadn't been cut out, he should have been fired because he fucked up big.

>People like Beron the Grey are still bitching and whining about not getting any refunds, but it's conceivable that he's an idiot.
Pic related.

>>51194328
If you don't believe him when he outright says that, then fuck it. There's literally nothing that can convince you when you have a narrative already firmly locked in.

>>51194328
Just, as an extra thing though, the idea that some people asking for refunds was what prompted release is entirely out of your ass. It's a claim that's impossible to disprove or verify.

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>>51195038
>If you don't believe him when he outright says that, then fuck it. There's literally nothing that can convince you when you have a narrative already firmly locked in.
>facts are disrupting my narrative!
>better get my projector

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>>51186372
If you look over in the Godbound thread, you'll see that aside from like one other ultra-autismo guy, basically everyone is agreeing with 2hu. >>51185427

Maybe Godbound isn't as good a game as you think it is?

>>51195386
What facts?

>>51195428

>Shouldn't be trying OSR or d20's at all

I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS SINCE THE PRE-RELEASE AND NO ONE EVER FUCKING BELIEVED ME

>>51195428
>Avatarfag shows up to defend 2hu

I can barely contain my surprise.

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>>51195428
>i samefagged a thread so hard to prove my point

>>51195931
If he did that's wacky but, lol @ Kevin Crawford

>I would encourage you to look up Exalted 3e, as it has a much more rigorous mechanical framework that a lot of people are enjoying greatly.

>>51196006
I love Exalted 3e but "rigorous" isn't the most correct way to describe 3e.

>>51196027

Structurally sound with better mechanics to represent it?

>>51189383

That sounds kind of awesome, actually.

>>51196006

>Godbound maker says Exalted 3e is more rigorous

I'm going to enjoy slapping this in a few people's faces.

>>51196498
Better.

>>51196550
>That sounds kind of awesome, actually.

In fairness, taking into account time off for holidays and the set-up sessions, it was probably more like about 18 sessions long. It was a fucking ENORMOUS army of undead attacking Tusk. The PC had just arrived, one of them was the Oligarch of another Haslanti city-state and was there on business. They got wind of what was coming, knocked over opposition to beginning preparations, and called in a favour with the Icewalkers.

Cue the siege itself. The bad guys send out a messenger to invite them to parley - turns out they've already worked out there's a bunch of Solars in the fortress. They meet up with the Abyssal circle leading the army, then everyone heads back (after a bit of mutual Charm-wanking ineffectually on both sides).

So 5 experienced Abyssals and a fuck-huge Deathlord army vs 5 mismatched new Solars and a small city garrison and some Icewalkers. They had a few days to prepare, then the attack began.

The first wave took around 2 sessions to complete. Not too bad considering it was my first large-scale Ex3 combat, and it was pretty much continual action from start to finish and involved probably around 6,000 combatants in total. Ends in defeat for the Abyssal leading the assault, the players however learn how fucking scary battlegroup missile fire can be.

Then the siege carries on like that. The biggest thing they had going for them was a) the Dawn Caste, holy fuck and b) the Abyssals don't trust each other and each want all the glory for themselves, so they don't work together.

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>>51196889

You.

You know how to run Exalted right.

>>51196889

After another 3 waves (including aerial attacks, a Gorestrider and some vicious sapping that brought down the main gate) it becomes increasingly clear to the party that they are not going to hold out until the Fyrd arrives to relieve them. They get some Aerial Marines to shore up the defences, but they're losing.

The campaign then divides between those who continue the last-ditch defense of the city from continual waves of zombies and Tear Eaters, and those who came up with the idea of running to a nearby Fair Folk court to try to recruit their aid. (After all, dead people don't dream.) This slows things down a bit, but not by much; the latter half of the siege goes by faster than the first half. The Twilight medic is trying to fight back Bonestrider poisoning in the city's food supplies, the Night archer gets surrounded and fucked right up by Tear Eaters (though not killed due to the Severe Injury rule), and the Dawn Caste pretty much holds the Abyssals back by murderfucking them one at a time.

The undead forces get some Necrotech monstrosities as reinforcements, and my party started complaining that I was just trying to force a TPK... then the big final battle (which again took around 2 sessions) features massed Fair Folk Cataphracts absolutely mulching the Tear Eaters and Undead while the party rally the tattered remnants of the city's defenders to hold back the weird climbing-ghoul-things that were overrunning the walls.

End result? Three dead Abyssals, no dead Solars, thousands upon thousands of dead Tear Eaters, Icewalkers and Haslanti, the party now hailed as the "Saviours of the League", and... the Jet Court declaring themselves to now be a part of the Haslanti League, although they didn't find that out until later,

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>>51189383
Huh. I plan to run that in Exalted. I was planning on basing that on the Siege of Zhumar that was in a comic called the Way of the Rat

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>>51195428

>People eating each other alive
>posts of system stress testing met with "Well it works fine for OUR group!"

Holy fuck, its like an Exalted General back in the 2e days.

>>51188648
>Lunars release 2024 and climbing
cute that you are thinking there will be a 3rd Edition Lunar book.

All aboard the hype train for EX4!

>>51188957
Lore rolls can easily get 15+ Successes ON AVERAGE. Difficulty 10 is like nothing.

>>51188812
>git gud

Exalted Souls

>>51189529
>Any tips on balancing combat without constantly throwing Celestials at the group
how about not throwing Celestials at the party?
Exalted in general are dumb as PCs.

Use Sandact6's monster guide. They will be much worse than any celestial exalted the players could ever meet:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qA52CN4tbGbGS74qwL4LQiXE5f5lHCkk2C7dccIHF98/edit?usp=sharing

>>51190674
>It's a five steps forward, four steps back kind of situation
so it's still one step forward if my math is right

>>51199683

I dunno about that, I could make some pretty scary Celestials too. Usually the successful ones have a good reason for the players to not kill them for one reason or another.

>>51199658

If a players gets 15 successes in an ability, then he (A) Has luck from god or (B) heavily invested into an ability to get high attribute and ability ratings and the relevant charms.

Either way I see that as rewarding the player for the effort spend into getting that far.

>>51194328
>They said the game was done. It clearly wasn't. They said it had been done since 2013. It clearly wasn't.
They did? I don't remember thinking "Why don't they just release i if it's done?", I remember thinking "Why the fuck is it still not done?". I remember the devs moving the expected release date further and further, and eventually stopping giving release dates altogether, saying that it would be done when it's done. Ex3 development has had a lot, *a lot* of problems, but devs claiming things were done when they weren't isn't one of them.

Has anyone homebrewed any elementals for Ex3? I'm playing a sorcerer with Summon Elemental, and would like to have a wider selection of elementals that the few examples in the book. I am obviously prepared to come up with elementals of my own, but using stuff others have made would also help.

>>51199649
It's either 3E or nothing, I expect.

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>>51199649
>cute that you are thinking there will be a 3rd Edition Lunar book.
I'm an optimist.

>>51202504
I mean, we've had people bitching that 3E itself would never be released for years now too.

>>51204160
>I mean, we've had people bitching that 3E itself would never be released for years now too.
In their defense, they were right for a long time.

>>51204235
They only had to be wrong once, to be completely wrong.

>>51159495
>Is Exalted 3e any good?
3e is marginally better than 2e, to the point where I would have recommended it as the better product from an even start, but I don't think it's yet good enough to switch.

>although the rules were a bit above my head.
Oh dear. You remember how complicated attack resolution could easily get in 2e?
>"roll your 25 dice. third excellency? OK reroll them, now subtract DV, wait the defender is rolling his own dice to increase his DV, I need to count those first, calculate the difference, add to your damage, subtract the soak, add 4, then roll that many dice

3e reprints every piece of that and adds some more things like
> "roll an extra die for every 7-8-9-10 straight you got"
> "8s count double"
> "and when I say 8s count double, that means 9s count double too"
> "Up to (Essence) of your 7s count double)

>>51200949
>Has anyone homebrewed any elementals for Ex3? I'm playing a sorcerer with Summon Elemental, and would like to have a wider selection of elementals that the few examples in the book. I am obviously prepared to come up with elementals of my own, but using stuff others have made would also help.
Repeating this question with both the vain hope of getting an answer and the more realistic purpose of bumping the thread.

>>51204317

The recounting stuff is why I use electronic rollers only.

But overall, I still say its better than 2e even if you need to switch. The only reason to stay in 2e is more splats.

>>51205728
Yeah electronic rollers are the way to go, the players at my table would take ages to get through the results of a single attack. I understand people like the visceral feel of rolling 30 dice, but hot damn it takes forever.

>>51205531

Some of them on the OPP forums I think

>>51205728
Tell me about this electronic roller and how it helps. When I thought about such a thing, it seemed like I'd wind up needing almost an AI roller to handle all the potential dice tricks.

>>51206024
Which dice rollers do you use?

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>>51159495
I love these things!

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>>51209011

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>>51209029

Do the people of Nexus poo in the loo?

>>51208851

http://www.miketilly.com/exalted/diceroller.html

Sorts all the dice out, so while rerolling isn't automatic it allows you to count how many dice of each types in a flash.

Friend of mine is trying to make an IRC dice bot that automatically does dice tricks, very slow progress though.

>>51209161
Honestly, just the regular counting of successes saves so much time when you're making rolls.

>>51209161
>>51209311
Roll20's die roller is actually pretty decent. You can sort the results so that they are displayed in order, you can automate rerolls of a particular number (e.g. reroll 1s), and i'm sure it has the capability to automate some of the other accounting needed for the other dice tricks but i really didn't need to. the two mentioned above made things so much faster. you also have the option of seeing virtual dice rolled on the screen if that's your thing.

>>51210678
I plan on using Roll20 for an online game I'll be doing soon, really need to dig into the options and get everything set up. I really feel it's possible to have 3e combat go pretty smoothly with the proper tools and competent individuals. Definitely more work than other systems, but within grasp.

>>51210800
I've been running a game on roll 20 for about 6 months now. It's definitely doable. The most time consuming part is players looking up their dice pools and static values (sigh) and deciding whether to use excellencies or not.

>>51210678

What sort of command do you use to sort the dice? For my Exalted game it's been /roll Xd10>7 .

Telling me how to sort dice would be a godsend

>>51211253
/roll Xd10sd will sort results in descending order

/roll Xd10r1 will reroll any die resulting in 1

you can combine the two, so

/roll Xd10sdr1>7

will sort the results in descending order, reroll ones, and count any result >7 as success. Sadly i dont think there is an option to count 10s as 2 succeses

>>51208851
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17553329/Exalted%20Dice%20Roller/Ex3DiceRoll.html

This one does certain dice tricks.

>>51213434

The "Info" code sometimes uses characters that you can't render. Is there a character set or something I can download to fix that?

Question about familiars: How much control should a player with a combat worthy familiar have over its combat actions, if they are not using any charms?

>>51215312

I let my player roll and control their familiar in combat. Out of combat I let them control it as well but maintain veto power over what the familiar will or will not do.

Unless there's a very good reason (EX: A dog not entering a shadowland unless you make a social roll to overcome its fear) I rarely, if ever, do it.

>>51215312
Familiar makes them an extension of their character. They get as much control as their ability to communicate allows.

>>51199864
>I dunno about that, I could make some pretty scary Celestials too
the point is to not use normal Exalted as antagonist. Charms are not only bothering to track, but also make some encounters into pseudo PvP, which is stupid.

if you instead design a 'mock' exalted which is basically a simple monster with a human face and caste marked slapped on as cosmetic, there is no problem with that.

>>51199864
> I see that as rewarding the player for the effort spend into getting that far
to get that far you need just 2 bonus points and 2 Charms during CG.
And Lore rolls include Introducing facts.

Maybe my players are abnormal that way, but they abuse the shit about that system to solve encounters and longer quests quickly. Which is not bothering me, but it's a little boring for someone to always succeed.

File: IHAVETHESTRONGESTBONERRIGHTNOW.jpg (67KB, 519x321px) Image search: [Google]

67KB, 519x321px

Heed me, /exg/, for I come to you with a conundrum that, as far as I can remember, hasn't been discussed in the history of this thread.

I want to run a Mice of the Sun one-shot using a modified Mouseguard. It'll be a relatively short session, and I don't have any precise plans yet as far as the plot goes, but I do have some ideas. I like the idea of the final objective being to set free an imprisonned Solar. I don't care about the canon of either licence so much as somehow managing to run an enjoyable Little Big Adventure.

What I'm looking for here is the following :
-Does anyone have ideas of shenanigans a small group of Mice of the Sun might encounter? This is the more open question for those of you not familiar with Mouseguard's system.
-Does anyone have any ideas (or better yet, although unexpected, actual experience) of the Mouseguard system and what form "charms" could take in such a system? I'm thinking of implementing a simple ressources system, and giving each players a handful of charms. The mice will be pre-written, so there's no need for entire charm-trees, only a couple generic charms and a dozen "unique" charms at most.

>>51218779
I feel like this idea was floated years ago, but have no ideas of my own and no recollection of what was discussed.

>>51210858
>The most time consuming part is players looking up their dice pools and static values (sigh) and deciding whether to use excellencies or not
Players are fucking stupid. I even calculated their dice pools for them and prepared a sorted list. They still take 3 minutes each time just counting it up and deciding on excellencies.

But forever-STs would probably do the same as players

>>51220424
Forever STs might take time deciding on charm use, but by this point I know their stats by heart. As in, " Damnit bob your resolve is 3 and hasnt changed in 6 fucking months how do you not know that". I'm pretty sure I'd know my own stats too. Not to mention I know some NPC's stats too. Those are almost like storyteller PC's, right? ... right?

>>51159495
so, my newest player (Zenith) wants to become something similar to a vampire.
We already decided a parent of his was a vampire (whatever that may mean in Exalted), but his Solar Exaltation is blocking those latent genes from manifesting.
Now the BBEG has promised him a sorcerous working / ritual to change that, awakening those latent powers (because obviously my players decided to just change sides and help the BBEG in his evil plans in exchange for favors...).

How should those powers manifest to work best for a Solar PC in a Solar group?

I was going for something like D&D Drows, plus the 'drink blood to regenerate motes' mechanics we know from Abyssals. Does someone has further ideas?

>>51222804

Make him a Creature of Death, meaning that he's a Creature of Darkness that's unable to respire essence in Creation, but does so normally in the Underworld. Also make him be capable of regaining motes by drinking blood.

Considering that these are the hallmarks of an Abyssal, consider turning him into one if the BBEG is a Deathlord.

>>51218356

True, but remember you can make the much more difficult or obtuse information harder to find via difficulty mapping

Or challenge a sidereal to fact. Yea good luck with that

>>51218333

I admit that I rarely track resources for anything other than major NPC's (Enemy Exalts, 2CD's, major gods, etc...). I too advocate that Exalt encounters should be rare and unless there are special circumstances the fight is best handled 1v1, but Exalts shouldn't be thrown under the bus as possible opponents completely. Hell I feel the Dragonblooded often scream "USE ME IN FIGHTS!" for every splat, even Dragonblooded.

>>51193821
>Beron the Grey
Man i remember that guy. He would keep whining about how his vision of Exalted didn't match everyone else's, because he wanted brighter and more noble, while other peopled tended toward grimmer and darker. He'd complain how people kept trying to push him toward the latter and "unsell [him] on Exalted" as he put it, and he sounded so utterly miserable about it. He was also afraid that 3rd Edition would be more complex and shades of grey. Every single one those threads is a fond memory. His suffering brought me such joy, and i always wished there was more of it. Like he'd say that he was done and leave the thread, and i'd be thinking, "Nooo, come back, i want more of your tears!" It was great.

>>51223937

Got any links to those threads?

>>51223937
How did it feel getting cucked by him, anon?

Tell us the truth.

It amuses that i got the entire range of responses in two just two posts, thank you Anons, you brighten my day.

>>51224381
No most of those threads were lost when the White Wolf Forums went down, and they'd be a pain in the ass to find anyway because the search function there was shit. There's him whining about 3e in RPG.net, but it's just not as fun as when he cried over his unflawed heroic Solars who just wanted to make everything better.

>>51224983
It's weird, but i sometimes enjoy reading people complain about things i like. Especially if it sounds like they found the experience painful. For example, i loved Fury Road and think it's masterpiece of a movie. Yet this is my favourite review of it: http://www.pqed.org/2015/07/mad-max-fury-road-is-very-very-bad.html It seriously makes me smile and giggle to read how much he and his wife hated it the movie.

>>51225940

I'd love to hear about him in a game with Solar villains.

>>51225984
>Solar villains
That's kinda redundant senpai.