General Exalted Discussion II: No Longer Mortal

[Reynard]

Well... Moonsilver Warstriers are pretty decent. You can take a colossal one and not suffer any mobility penalty, and keep the insane strength.

Yes, you'll be just as nimble in a colossal warstrider as you are on the ground.

[Indon]

Actually, I'm searching for spells for a Lunar, not a Solar - I don't play Solars if I can avoid it at all.

If you want to get the most out of Sorcery, you'll probably want to write spells for yourself. The written spells give a broad power range for what the spells can do, and sorcery itself has few non-power limitations.

Though? The Faithful Ally looks like the most awesome Celestial spell for a Lunar ever. You can hook yourself up in a mind-network with your party, and the teleportation is expensive but potentially awesome - heck, a No Moon with even mediocre Essence could concievably pop their entire circle to them, albeit at the cost of most of their motes.

[Reynard]

I did something.

Any comments would be very welcome.

[/shameless plug]

[SurlySeraph]

@^: I'll need to read it over more carefully to really analyze it, but I certainly like the idea so far.

To most people, being a Lunar is simply about being tough and being persistent. Which is great for Full Moons, but makes thinking of No Moon exaltations a serious bear . I mean, I managed in the end, but still...

Yeah, No Moons don't seem to get much support/ recognition. The most prominent one is Raksi, and she spends her time being creepy and failing at Solar Circle Sorcery. I'd assume a No Moon elder would generally be some ridiculously old guy with high virtues and moss growing in his beard guiding the younger generations with timeless wisdom, but the closest thing we see is Ingosh Silverclaws, and he isn't a No Moon.
I can think of a few No Moon concepts (mostly variations on "wise nature person" and "shapeshifting master manipulator/ guy who out-plots the Sidereals"), but there isn't much to go on.

Start with making your character legless. You're getting bonus points at creation AND your top speed is going to be somewhat limited. For extra effect, have your character's arms chopped off as well.

Have you read Scroll of Heroes?

A legless character in a wheelchair or cart (either of which is Resources 1) can move and dash, but the movement rate is based on the character’s Strength instead of Dexterity.

Yeah, that's right. If you're beefy, having no legs lets you be faster than you would normally be. And even if you don't have a wheelchair, you can crawl at 1/3 your normal movement rate, which isn't terrible.

[IcarusWings]

Bit o' Homebrew from me. It's my first ever though, so probably very very broken or useless. One of the two

[MickJay]

Yeah, that's right. If you're beefy, having no legs lets you be faster than you would normally be. And even if you don't have a wheelchair, you can crawl at 1/3 your normal movement rate, which isn't terrible.

Well, according to the text, you still need that wheelchair or a cart (and arms to push yourself, too). Eliminate either of these, and your maximum speed becomes "0", meaning you can use Adorjan charms at will.

[SurlySeraph]

As I quoted, you can crawl at 1/3 your normal speed without a chair or cart. It doesn't specifically say that having no limbs makes you immobile, though ruling that it does is certainly reasonable (though one could still roll or shimmy along like a snake). Quadriplegic would do it, though, and you can still get (reduced) BP for being quadriplegic *and* missing limbs. So if you don't mind being limbless and paralyzed from the neck down, you can get 16 BP and use Velocity charms at will. I don't have MoEP: Infernals, but I assume there are Adorjan charms that would allow movement again.

Also, a limbless Green Sun Prince who runs by wiggling his nose or pulling himself along the ground with his tongue, so fast that you can't see him pass, while periodically dispensing inscrutable wisdom and finding people he loves and biting them to death... god I love Exalted. Can someone who has Infernals stat this up?

@V: Unless you take the Experienced merit or the Inheritance or Esoteric Knowledge backgrounds. Though none of those are available for a Scourge (unless you let him keep mortal-only/ God-Blood only things after Exalting), so your point stands.

Considering that, it would be mechanically superior to have arms, but I'm going to put fluff ahead of power here. To the extent that "Scourge Caste who is just an inexplicably fast-moving torso" is a fluff-reasonable concept.

[Reynard]

As I quoted, you can crawl at 1/3 your normal speed without a chair or cart. It doesn't specifically say that having no limbs makes you immobile, though ruling that it does is certainly reasonable (though one could still roll or shimmy along like a snake). Quadriplegic would do it, though, and you can still get (reduced) BP for being quadriplegic *and* missing limbs. So if you don't mind being limbless and paralyzed from the neck down, you can get 16 BP and use Velocity charms at will. I don't have MoEP: Infernals, but I assume there are Adorjan charms that would allow movement again.

Also, a limbless Green Sun Prince who runs by wiggling his nose or pulling himself along the ground with his tongue, so fast that you can't see him pass, while periodically dispensing inscrutable wisdom and finding people he loves and biting them to death... god I love Exalted. Can someone who has Infernals stat this up?

No, you can't. The total BP you get from flaws can't be above 10.

[Tavar]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe that flaw also states that people who are badly injured in a permanent way generally don't exalt. For various reasons.

[SurlySeraph]

Yep, it says "Exalted characters gain less from this Flaw than mortals, since the gods simply do not normally choose crippled characters for Exaltation." It's even more ludicrous for the Primordial who never steps moving to choose a completely immobile person as a champion. Adorjan tends to be weird even for a Yozi, and given her maimed state and high Compassion would probably be able to identify with and pity an immobilized former runner, particularly if he didn't talk much. But a paralyzed Scourge Caste is still a very, very dumb idea.

With that said, hyperspeed Infernal torso-assassin.

[Lochar]

Tis just a flesh wound! Come back over here and I'll bite your kneecaps off!

[SurlySeraph]

On a non-paralysis-related note, I just found a potentially useful trick. It's a semiperfect defense + counterattack. You combo either Break the Storm (from Solar Hero Style) or Crimson Palm Counterstrike (from VBoS Style) with Empowering Justice Redirection (from Crane Style). Empowering Justice Redirection adds a number of successes equal to the successes on your opponent's attack roll to your counterattack roll, so you'll automatically negate the attack, and if your parry DV was already high you'll get a fairly hefty bonus on your counterattack because more of the successes from EJR will go towards attacking instead of towards negating your opponent's successes.
A further advantage is that since high PDV effectively increases your successes on the counterattack roll, this is nice with post-errata Blade of the Battle Maiden and great with pre-errata.
Disadvantages: Takes 8 Charms to get the necessary Charms and prereqs. I think rerolls let the attack get through anyway since you negate the attack in Step 2. The Crimson Palm Counterstrike version is a lot weaker than the Break the Storm version, unless you take "The intercepting fist seen here will also be repeated in the errata of Crimson Palm Counterstrike" to be stealth errata replacing CPC's text with Break the Storm's text or decide that ambiguous things in CPC should be treated like clearer things in Break the Storm. It's expensive, at 8m per attack plus 1wp for the combo; you can bring it down to 4m per attack with the Precision of Form Gemstone and Perfected Kata Bracers, but those are pretty expensive and powerful items to be relying on. Adding in Joy in Adversity Stance, Certain Victory Formulation and/ or Final Sunset Stance + Fading Light Quickening would also help with the cost.

@V: Nice!

[Lochar]

Snake Strikes the Heel, Empowering Justice Redirection, Adamant Skin Technique.

Hi, I absorbed your attack without dodging (so your successes ALL count), and I'm returning that twofold to you with my MA tacked on as well.

Nighty night.

[Tavar]

Do flurries count as one action or multiple actions for the purposes of charms that count on those, like Relentless Lunar's Fury?

[SurlySeraph]

For duration, you mean? One action.

[Lochar]

An action is the time in which you do something to when your DV refreshes.

[The-Mage-King]

So. I am interested in learning to play this game.


Teach me. In a simple manner.

[Tavar]

Do you have the books? Because, there's not SRD for the game, so there's a lot the we can't cover right, unless you have the books to fall back on.

[The-Mage-King]

Do you have the books? Because, there's not SRD for the game, so there's a lot the we can't cover right, unless you have the books to fall back on.

*shifty look*

...Assume I have core.

[Lochar]

Then we must assume you at least have a character archetype you want to play.

So what is it? Do you want to play sorcerer, god-king of war, the person that could rebuild the world as a machine, what?

[The-Mage-King]

...LARGE HAM?

Wait, no, that's probably inherent in the system...


Uh... Will... Master swordsman, able to cleave tall buildings in twain with a single strike do?

[Tavar]

Basic setting history; Primordials created the world out of raw chaos. They set up gods to run the world, and went off to do their game, and generally screw around. The gods didn't like this, but they and everything else of power was geased so as not to be able to fight the primordials. Then some of the most powerful figured out how to empower the weakest of the primordials creations, Mankind, with part of their power. These were the Exalted, subdivided into Terrestrial(dragonblooded), Sidereal, Lunars, and Solars. The Solars were the most powerful. The revolt succeeded. Some Primordials were killed outright, others were forced to swear oaths and were terribly maimed. Then, these twisted survivors were stuffed inside the world body of their leader, and sent into elsewhere.

Solars started ruling the world. But there was a problem. When some of the Primordials were killed, they put terrible curses on their murderers. No one realized this happened, but as time went on it began to drive the exalted to madness. Worst effected were those considered most responsible, the Solar exalted. Eventually, the Terrestrials rose up, guided by the Sidereals, and killed the solars. Their exaltations, usually free to reincarnate, were trapped. The world was diminished, but it survived.

Fast forward...1000 years? The Great Contagion hit. This killed 9 out of every 10 people. If that wasn't enough, the Fey, creatures spawned from the chaos outside of the world, trying to end the horror that was structure, invaded. They Killed many of the rest. But one Terrestrial managed to activate Creation's defenses. Saving the world, and restoring order. She founded the Realm, which over the next 750 years became the primary superpower in the world.

But, 5 years ago, she disappeared. Now the realm is pulling itself apart. Even more recently, the Solar shards, so long gone, have returned.

This summary leaves out a lot. Including most of your antagonists, and the world.

[The-Mage-King]

Got it.

I've actually read the article on TVTropes about the game's setting, so I was more asking for help with the mechanical side of it...

Like understanding Charms and the other abilities.

[Tavar]

Okay, the system is based on 9 attributes and 25 abilities. Rolls are Attribute+ability, with certain things adding modifiers. Charms are, well, magical abilities that you get due to being an exalted. You activate them with motes, which are magical energy. There are limitations. Unless otherwise noted, you can only activate one charm per action.

[The-Mage-King]

Obtaining the aforementioned Charms? And do they have levels of power?

EDIT: Another question: Motes- do they regenerate, or do you need to have a way to restore them?

[Tavar]

You get some at chargen, and others can be bought with Xp, given out over time. Charms do have prerequisites, leading to what are called charm trees.

[The-Mage-King]

And motes regenerate?

[Tavar]

Yes, over time. There are also stunts. Basically, describe something, adding details and interactions with the scenery, and you get bonus dice and more motes back.

[The-Mage-King]

Alright.


I don't suppose that there's a newbie game recruiting now?

Or that they'd mind an inhuman abomination empowered by the Yozi master swordsman joining?


Or should I stick with a Solar for my first character?

[Tavar]

Solars are probably the easiest. Plus, you only need to flip through one book, not multiple.