General Exalted Discussion: There's a God for that! Except for Sorcery, of course.

[golentan]

She's not a terrestrial exalt. She's THE terrestrial exalt.

And, depending on which version of her statblock you read she's either got 4 or all 5 of the elements as her aspect.

[ShadowFighter15]

He's awfully specialized; almost all his Charms are oriented towards combat. Nothing wrong with a focused character, but you might consider taking another Excellency or two. Charms like Finding the Needle's Eye and Cat Falling Attitude are cool, but you might not have many chances to use them; a social Excellency, on the other hand, is applicable to nearly any social situation.

I'd recommend picking up a social or mental Attribute Excellency to give you more options out of combat - Excellencies are pretty broadly applicable, especially Lunar Attribute-based ones. They may seem like boring options on paper, but when you're actually playing, just being good at stuff is pretty fun.

Any suggestions about which Excellency? Like I said; this is my first character and I don't know how often the mental and social attributes'll come up and which Excellency would be best to raise them.

You've got both Claws of the Silver Moon and a daiklaive, and you're investing in both Martial Arts and Melee. Mechanically speaking, this is not a great idea. It's not terrible, it's just that you're investing in two redundant combat strategies, rather than focusing on one. I'm assuming it's a stylistic choice, though, and who are we to gainsay style?

This was mainly to fit with the character's backstory. Don't know if you read it but when he was mortal he was a natural with a blade and actually took down two trained soldiers with as many slashes (my own mental image of the scene has the first blow lopping off a leg and the second slashing the other guy's throat). Since then, the character's started to use claws more often in a fight, but keeps the daiklave so that he can pass himself off as a mortal; daiklaves and reaper daiklaves are about the same size as German Zweihanders so he could just use the blade in both hands and stick to using Personal Essence (if he needs it) to keep his anima from showing.

Speaking from a strictly mathematical standpoint, it'd be a good idea to buy Essence 5 with bonus points now, rather than stopping at 4. It would cost you 10 bonus points, which you could get by giving up a couple of favored Charms; if you did it with XP, it would cost you 36 experience, which you could use to purchase 3 favored Charms and have some experience left over.

That said, having fun with the character is more important than crunching numbers so they all fit perfectly; if you like all of your starting Charms and aren't in a hurry to grab Essence 5, don't feel like you have to.

I was tempted to start with Essence 5 so that he could get Devastating Ogre Enhancement eventually. Any suggestions on which Charms to lose? Finding the Needle's Eye is one I'm fine to part with (I think I originally took it just because I liked the image of using a daiklave to deflect arrows... a good reason to take some Charms in Exalted, but it may not be used too often) and maybe Cat-Falling Stance (which I took because he has a panther for his spirit totem) but then I get stumped.

[Tavar]

The Appearance one is supposedly decent. Since in Mental Combat you get bonuses/penalties based on one's appearance, you can use your excellency to boost it. I think.

[The_Snark]

Any suggestions about which Excellency? Like I said; this is my first character and I don't know how often the mental and social attributes'll come up and which Excellency would be best to raise them.

Whether you want a mental or social Excellency is up to you, really. If you go for social, I'd recommend either the First Charisma Excellency or the Third Appearance Excellency, whichever you prefer. Both are useful when trying to persuade or intimidate other people, or when resisting their attempts to convince you of something.

For the mental attributes... hard to say how often these will come up, so try to think about what rolls would use that Attribute, and how often you'll want to do those things. Perception is pretty straightforward: it's used when trying to spot hidden things, track people, eavesdrop on conversations, and so on. Intelligence is used for researching things, making rolls to see how much you know about a subject, crafting, and generally being learned. Wits is useful for Join Battle rolls, plus a few miscellaneous things, like concealing your tracks.

In the end, though, it all comes down to what you want the character to be good at.

This was mainly to fit with the character's backstory. Don't know if you read it but when he was mortal he was a natural with a blade and actually took down two trained soldiers with as many slashes (my own mental image of the scene has the first blow lopping off a leg and the second slashing the other guy's throat). Since then, the character's started to use claws more often in a fight, but keeps the daiklave so that he can pass himself off as a mortal; daiklaves and reaper daiklaves are about the same size as German Zweihanders so he could just use the blade in both hands and stick to using Personal Essence (if he needs it) to keep his anima from showing.

*nod* Not a bad idea, but I should point out that a moonsilver daiklaive is pretty clearly a magical artifact; artifacts in general don't look mundane, and carrying a weapon traditionally associated with the Anathema may attract unwanted attention. Not everybody's going to recognize it, but the Wyld Hunt and other educated people will. Perhaps carry a normal sword instead of the daiklaive, or in addition to it?

If you'd like to be able to pass for mortal, you might consider finding a way to hide your tattoos, too; again, those won't get you instantly denounced wherever you go, but people who know what to look for will recognize them. There are a couple Charms and Knacks that can help with this, or you could just wear concealing clothing when in large cities.

I was tempted to start with Essence 5 so that he could get Devastating Ogre Enhancement eventually. Any suggestions on which Charms to lose? Finding the Needle's Eye is one I'm fine to part with (I think I originally took it just because I liked the image of using a daiklave to deflect arrows... a good reason to take some Charms in Exalted, but it may not be used too often) and maybe Cat-Falling Stance (which I took because he has a panther for his spirit totem) but then I get stumped.

Those two wouldn't be bad choices. Finding the Needle's Eye is cool, but remember, you only get to use 1 Charm on your turn unless you use a combo, so even when this situation comes up you may find you can't use it, because you've already done something else that action. Part of the reason that Excellencies are so useful is because you can enhance both your attacks and your defenses with them; failing that, a more broadly applicable defense like Flowing Body Evasion is generally a better choice.

Cat-Falling Stance is handy if you expect to be doing a lot of rooftop combat and jumping around, but otherwise I don't think it'll come up much.

Lastly, you could save a few bonus points by shuffling around the order in which you buy your Charms and Knacks. At the moment you're paying for 2 non-Favored Charms and one Knack via bonus points; if you use some of your starting Charms to take those, and take the rest of your Charms (all favored) through bonus points, you'll end up with 5 unused bonus points. That's enough to buy another Charm, or pick up a few specialties in Melee or Martial Arts.

[Xefas]

She's not a terrestrial exalt. She's THE terrestrial exalt.

And, depending on which version of her statblock you read she's either got 4 or all 5 of the elements as her aspect.

I thought she was an Earth Aspect? Which kind of makes me want to homebrew a Charm of hers.

Spoiler

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Imperial Seahorse Reversal
Cost: 1m; Mins Resistance 5, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Shaping
Duration: One Year
Prerequisite Charms: None
You don't got time to be all preggers. You all busy doin' **** like runnin' the world. And spaceships.

When you succeed on the (Stamina + Resistance) roll to become pregnant, you may reflexively activate this charm to shape your lover's squiggly internal bits into a makeshift womb, that you then implant the newly fertilized egg into, allowing (*cough* forcing) them to take your place and waddle around with the behbeh for a full year, whereupon they then participate in the wonderful miracle of life by squeezing a watermelon through a garden hose.

You may have as many simultaneous uses of this charm active as you wish, so long as you commit a separate mote to each one. If you are not currently pregnant, and you release a committed mote, the baabi is sucked through a wormhole into Elsewhere, and then plopped into your procreational oven as normal. Releasing committed motes while your tumtum is currently Occupied simply aborts the additional children through a chasm into Elsewhere.

Aborted children may or may not become shambling, tainted shadow-beasts in the unknowable abyss you have doomed them to, and may or may not seek to cross into Creation and seek their bloody vengeance upon you.

Other types of Exalted also practice similar variations on this charm. Especially Lunars, because they be crazy like that.

I mean, c'mon, the Scarlet Empress had seven children. And she had a lot on her plate as it was.

[ShadowFighter15]

Whether you want a mental or social Excellency is up to you, really. If you go for social, I'd recommend either the First Charisma Excellency or the Third Appearance Excellency, whichever you prefer. Both are useful when trying to persuade or intimidate other people, or when resisting their attempts to convince you of something.

For the mental attributes... hard to say how often these will come up, so try to think about what rolls would use that Attribute, and how often you'll want to do those things. Perception is pretty straightforward: it's used when trying to spot hidden things, track people, eavesdrop on conversations, and so on. Intelligence is used for researching things, making rolls to see how much you know about a subject, crafting, and generally being learned. Wits is useful for Join Battle rolls, plus a few miscellaneous things, like concealing your tracks.

In the end, though, it all comes down to what you want the character to be good at.

I might go with the First Charisma one; I've been worried about him not having any defence for social combat (I took Righteous Lion Defence and Intimacy of the Hunter and Prey because I was worried about that) and the Excellency might be the best way to shore that up. Plus it fits because I pictured him doing some mercenary work occasionally and I think the First Charisma Excellency would help with haggling prices.

*nod* Not a bad idea, but I should point out that a moonsilver daiklaive is pretty clearly a magical artifact; artifacts in general don't look mundane, and carrying a weapon traditionally associated with the Anathema may attract unwanted attention. Not everybody's going to recognize it, but the Wyld Hunt and other educated people will. Perhaps carry a normal sword instead of the daiklaive, or in addition to it?

If you'd like to be able to pass for mortal, you might consider finding a way to hide your tattoos, too; again, those won't get you instantly denounced wherever you go, but people who know what to look for will recognize them. There are a couple Charms and Knacks that can help with this, or you could just wear concealing clothing when in large cities.

Passing as a mortal isn't a big thing with this guy; it'd just be for those times when they have to fight around mortals who would just think the daiklave's a fancy and well-polished sword. Besides, with how I picture Daine kind of drifting away from the sword by this stage, he might not carry it with him often. Depends on how much damage he'll be able to do with his bare hands and no Obvious Charms. Plus he could just grab a weapon off one of the beaten-up mooks if he needs one. Or get himself some claws with Hybrid Body Rearrangement if there's no risk of witnesses (though if there aren't any witnesses, then he'd be able to just go straight to his warform).

Those two wouldn't be bad choices. Finding the Needle's Eye is cool, but remember, you only get to use 1 Charm on your turn unless you use a combo, so even when this situation comes up you may find you can't use it, because you've already done something else that action. Part of the reason that Excellencies are so useful is because you can enhance both your attacks and your defenses with them; failing that, a more broadly applicable defense like Flowing Body Evasion is generally a better choice.

Cat-Falling Stance is handy if you expect to be doing a lot of rooftop combat and jumping around, but otherwise I don't think it'll come up much.

Lastly, you could save a few bonus points by shuffling around the order in which you buy your Charms and Knacks. At the moment you're paying for 2 non-Favored Charms and one Knack via bonus points; if you use some of your starting Charms to take those, and take the rest of your Charms (all favored) through bonus points, you'll end up with 5 unused bonus points. That's enough to buy another Charm, or pick up a few specialties in Melee or Martial Arts.

Well; if I ditch Cat-Falling Stance and Finding the Needle's Eye, that should give me the bonus points I'd need to get to Essence 5. I'm happy with not having any specialities in Melee (since I always pictured him being pretty versatile with weaponry) but I'm kind of undecided about Martial Arts. I might try to do a bit of re-arrangement and get a Martial Arts speciality that focuses on his warform's claws and teeth, but I figure his reliance on unarmed combat is a recent thing and so wouldn't have developed any MA specialities yet. I might just ditch those two charms and get Essence 5 then maybe lose one of the two charms I took for social defence (Righteous Lion Defence and Intimacy of the Hunter and Prey) to get the points for the First Charisma Excellency.

EDIT: Might lose Righteous Lion Defence since it relies on a pre-existing Intimacy and I don't know how often that'd be useful, given Daine's Intimacies.

[ShadowFighter15]

I mean, c'mon, the Scarlet Empress had seven children. And she had a lot on her plate as it was.

Isn't she also over seven hundred years old? That's one kid every century and I think even someone with her schedule could manage a week or two to have the kid before lumping them off to the palace maids and getting back to the business of running an empire.

[SurlySeraph]

Imperial Seahorse Reversal

It took me a couple tries to read past the name. Between "watermelon through a garden hose" and shadowbeast never-born (but not Neverborn, thank the UCS for small mercies) children breaking into Creation from Elsewhere to exact vengeance upon you, I wish I hadn't.

...shouldn't duration be nine months?
...what if the target has Integrity-Protecting Prana or another shaping defense up? The egg just doesn't get transferred, right?
...why is it Combo-OK? I can see activating a Perfect Defense or one of those leaping-away flurrybreaker moves causing serious issues. Actually, don't answer that, I really don't want to know what could be reasonably combo'd with this.

[Toptomcat]

I thought she was an Earth Aspect? Which kind of makes me want to homebrew a Charm of hers.

Spoiler

Show

Imperial Seahorse Reversal
Cost: 1m; Mins Resistance 5, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Shaping
Duration: One Year
Prerequisite Charms: None
You don't got time to be all preggers. You all busy doin' **** like runnin' the world. And spaceships.

When you succeed on the (Stamina + Resistance) roll to become pregnant, you may reflexively activate this charm to shape your lover's squiggly internal bits into a makeshift womb, that you then implant the newly fertilized egg into, allowing (*cough* forcing) them to take your place and waddle around with the behbeh for a full year, whereupon they then participate in the wonderful miracle of life by squeezing a watermelon through a garden hose.

You may have as many simultaneous uses of this charm active as you wish, so long as you commit a separate mote to each one. If you are not currently pregnant, and you release a committed mote, the baabi is sucked through a wormhole into Elsewhere, and then plopped into your procreational oven as normal. Releasing committed motes while your tumtum is currently Occupied simply aborts the additional children through a chasm into Elsewhere.

Aborted children may or may not become shambling, tainted shadow-beasts in the unknowable abyss you have doomed them to, and may or may not seek to cross into Creation and seek their bloody vengeance upon you.

I note that the phrasing of the Charm allows you to simultaneously release as many committed motes as you wish assuming you are not currently with child. Also, the culture of the Realm makes Terrestrials having children a holy, celebrated duty. And Dragonblooded biology makes even having twins extremely rare.
Dragonblooded Octomom!

[Jokasti]

It took me a couple tries to read past the name. Between "watermelon through a garden hose" and shadowbeast never-born (but not Neverborn, thank the UCS for small mercies) children breaking into Creation from Elsewhere to exact vengeance upon you, I wish I hadn't.

...shouldn't duration be nine months?
...what if the target has Integrity-Protecting Prana or another shaping defense up? The egg just doesn't get transferred, right?
...why is it Combo-OK? I can see activating a Perfect Defense or one of those leaping-away flurrybreaker moves causing serious issues. Actually, don't answer that, I really don't want to know what could be reasonably combo'd with this.

I think gestation is longer in Creation than Earth, and their year is something like 425 days. Plus, months are different, so I think it would be 37-42 weeks if translated as is. Unless weeks are different, but I forget.
~
Husband-Seducing Demon Dance, any of the sex-y charms Lunars have, that Sidereal charm so that you literally have a town raising a child (that might work for Alchemicals too...Thousandfold Courtesan Calculations?), especially those Glories: Luna Stamina charms. *assumes Eclipse caste*

[ShadowFighter15]

Just did the number crunching (and realising that Righteous Lion Defence is a pre-req for Intimacy of the Hunter and Prey) and after losing Needle's Eye and Cat Attitude, I was able to get the bonus points for Essence 5 and Devastating Ogre Enhancement and still had one point left over, which I'll just use for a one dot MA specialty for fighting with claws.

Would someone be able to double-check my math? Check here in a few minutes or so to see the revised list (haven't posted the changes yet).

[Toptomcat]

I think gestation is longer in Creation than Earth...

Not for mortals, but Dragonblooded have extended gestation periods.

[Rhyvurg]

..I'm going to use that Charm on some unsuspecting players.

[Xefas]

...shouldn't duration be nine months?
...what if the target has Integrity-Protecting Prana or another shaping defense up? The egg just doesn't get transferred, right?
...why is it Combo-OK? I can see activating a Perfect Defense or one of those leaping-away flurrybreaker moves causing serious issues. Actually, don't answer that, I really don't want to know what could be reasonably combo'd with this.

Yeah, if you used a Shaping Defense, it would keep the womb from being formed in the first place, which would stop the charm completely. Unless you have Ego Infused Pattern Primacy, which doesn't stop Shaping effects, it just ends them after a certain duration has passed (depending on how many times you purchase it). I think that would just end the charm as if the user had released the mote commitment.

I have quite a few ideas for Combos, but if you'd rather I not share...

I think gestation is longer in Creation than Earth, and their year is something like 425 days. Plus, months are different, so I think it would be 37-42 weeks if translated as is. Unless weeks are different, but I forget.

Exalted moms have a gestation period of 1 year, while everyone else has a gestation period of nine months as normal. However, a Creation year is 15 months long, each exactly 28 days (and the 5 days of Calibration), separated into four 7-day weeks.

The names of the days are either:
1) Sunday, Moonday, Marsday, Mercuryday, Jupiterday, Venusday, and Saturnday (heh, at the end, of course).
2) Sunday, Moonday, Fireday, Waterday, Woodday, Airday, Earthday.

Depending on where you are in Creation.

..I'm going to use that Charm on some unsuspecting players.

Ah, so I should do more, then? My first attempt at Exalted homebrew.

[golentan]

She was originally earth aspect, but has transcendence of something or other granting her additional aspects. Also, that is a very... awkwardly worded charm.

[Xefas]

She was originally earth aspect, but has transcendence of something or other granting her additional aspects.

Oh, right. I think I remember an Elder Terrestrial charm (Integrity, maybe?) that did that. Makes sense.

Also, that is a very... awkwardly worded charm.

I was trying to transcribe some of how I imagine the Scarlet Empress speaks in portions of it. I associate her style of speech heavily with Uncle Ruckus.

Spoiler

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[golentan]

I... What this is I don't even...

But yeah, the charm is actually a medicine charm: Transcendent Gaian Harmony.

[The Rose Dragon]

I'm tempted to run a game of proto-titanic-Exalts riding Third Circle hellstriders made out of their own souls into battle now.

[Kris Strife]

Assorted Story Tellers, would you allow a Solar limited flight by using Iron Raptor Technique and not letting go?

Using Call the Blade to stop without returning to their point of origin if needed.

[SurlySeraph]

I've got a question about Exaltation. It appears to me that doing something that qualifies you for becoming one kind of Exalt would often qualify you for more than one kind of exaltation, i.e. fighting off an army might qualify you to be a Solar or a Lunar, trying to fight off an army, being awesome, and failing could qualify you to be a Solar or Infernal. If there's more than one available essence shard floating around, is there a way to determine which gets priority? Could you potentially get the UCS and a Yozi arguing over who gets to exalt a particular mortal?

[Teln]

Under the situation you've described, the mortal would become a Solar, because the Yozis artificially prevent the Infernal shard from Exalting the mortal, so that they may better evaluate the candidate. With only 50 tainted shards, they're not taking any chances.

[The Rose Dragon]

Could you potentially get the UCS and a Yozi arguing over who gets to exalt a particular mortal?

This, at least, will never happen, since Infernal Exaltation is an offer and not a natural process like Solar Exaltation. And Yozis almost always choose people who refuse to rise up to the challenge out of fear or spite or whatever petty mortal reasons they have, so if someone qualifies for a Solar Exaltation, the Yozis would not offer him Exaltation to begin with.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Could you potentially get the UCS and a Yozi arguing over who gets to exalt a particular mortal?

Now that's a conversation I'd love to hear.

[Drascin]

I've got a question about Exaltation. It appears to me that doing something that qualifies you for becoming one kind of Exalt would often qualify you for more than one kind of exaltation, i.e. fighting off an army might qualify you to be a Solar or a Lunar, trying to fight off an army, being awesome, and failing could qualify you to be a Solar or Infernal. If there's more than one available essence shard floating around, is there a way to determine which gets priority? Could you potentially get the UCS and a Yozi arguing over who gets to exalt a particular mortal?

You can't get the Sun arguing with anyone, because the Solar Shards are automatic - they fly on their own searching for hosts. The Sun has no say on who Exalts and who doesn't.

[NeoRetribution]

Oh, but would it not be interesting to watch a five-way battle between the Celestial Maidens over one Sidereal Exaltation? Fate aside I can see someone selling tickets.

The real question boils down to the Apparatae of Periaptic Surgery. Even if a character received an improper Exaltation, would it be allowed to stay in that character?

Considering the...traditional Setting in Exalted, I am surprised that more feuds between the Celestines and Primordials do not break out.

But the best answer that I can think of is: Find someone who will run that kind of game.

[Yuki Akuma]

Why would the Maidens fight over an Exaltation? They each own twenty (and only twenty).

And it is impossible to remove an Exaltation, except via death. So even if a Solar stops being heroic (... somehow), he'll still be a Solar.

The only Primordial free to fight with the Celestines is Gaia, and she's kinda screwing one of them.

[Kyeudo]

This, at least, will never happen, since Infernal Exaltation is an offer and not a natural process like Solar Exaltation. And Yozis almost always choose people who refuse to rise up to the challenge out of fear or spite or whatever petty mortal reasons they have, so if someone qualifies for a Solar Exaltation, the Yozis would not offer him Exaltation to begin with.

Actually, the Infernal Exaltation cannot bond to someone who couldn't have been Exalted as a Solar. The Infernal Exaltation even uses the Solar host locator to find potential Infernals. The demon carrying the Exaltation finds someone about to attempt something that would have garnered them a Solar Exaltation, then waits for them to fail and offers them the power to never fail again.

Oh, but would it not be interesting to watch a five-way battle between the Celestial Maidens over one Sidereal Exaltation? Fate aside I can see someone selling tickets.

Can't happen. Sidereals don't Exalt because of anything they themselves do. A Sidereal has been fated since birth (probably even before birth) to be a Sidereal and Exalt at a particular moment in time. This is why Sidereals can kidnap those destined to Exalt as Sidereals, train them pre-Exaltation, and have them working in some minor post as part of the Bureau of Destiny when their Exaltation finally comes. Because each individual Sidereal Exaltation has a target that is fated to recieve it, there is no possibility of overlap.

Even if a character received an improper Exaltation, would it be allowed to stay in that character?

There is no way to recieve an improper Exaltation. Either you meet the basic requirements of Exaltation - possessing the will to use power and generally fit enough to serve as a soldier - or you don't. If you don't, no power in the cosmos can bond the Exaltation to your soul. If you do, no power can tear the Exaltation from your soul once it is bonded.

[NeoRetribution]

I said, "Fate aside," for a reason. Anything can happen in Exalted with the permission of a storyteller. Debating the material in the manuals does not interest me. I already know what they say.

Also, for anyone interested in the in-Setting mobility of Exaltation shards, please research Lytek's tools.

[Yuki Akuma]

Then why bother asking these questions? It happens however the ST wants it to happen.

[NeoRetribution]

Yes. Exactly. Very good.