General Exalted Discussion IV: Roll Join Debate

[Feriority]

And speaking of the signature characters, everybody hates Panther, obviously, but who are your favorites?

Desus is a pretty awesome guy. Heroic, but still humble, and the nicest guy I've ever met.

[Xefas]

Desus is a pretty awesome guy. Heroic, but still humble, and the nicest guy I've ever met.

Desus is a pretty swell dude. He's a Solar even an Infernal can like. A friend to the end, that one.

[TheCountAlucard]

Also, Defiler issue's taken care of, for now - he decided to get Ego-Infused Pattern Primacy after I pointed out the possibility of various Shaping effects utterly messing him up.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Plus, ever since one of my first Exalted sessions, it's been an in-joke with our group, "Channel Compassion to twist his head off!"

Pacifism head explosion!
If you get that joke, I will get you a complete copy of CoCD: Autochthonia.
A complete preview copy.[/1stebondragonexcellency]
Also, how could I forget Desus, that paragon of righteousness and virtue?
i think Exalted is a pretty cool guy eh blinds behemots and doesnt afraid of anything

[Turalisj]

And speaking of the signature characters, everybody hates Panther, obviously, but who are your favorites?

Oh, and Demetheus, of course.

DEMETHEUS APPROVES OF YOUR LIKING!

[meschlum]

So, one of the players in my Infernals game is playing a Defiler. He's curious about making a Charm/Artifact/Hearthstone/Something else he can snag for 3 bp, the effects of which would let him add more numbers to his Mind-Hand Manipulation (which he's already maxed out so far: Occult 5, Willpower 10, and even a three-dot specialty in "Mind-Hands"). Any suggestions?

Sorry I'm late to the party.

1 bp: Get a Grace, any Grace.
1 bp: 1-dot Adjuration with Surpassing Excellence. Gives you another 2 specialty dice that stack with existing specialties (but not itself). Take this for Mind Hands and something else that looks useful. Dodge? Integrity? Tricking Fair Folk?
1 bp: 1-dot Outward Facing Oneiromancy with Sovereign Air Shape, granting another +3 dice (count as from Charms) to Mind Hands, as gusts of corrupted wind push things to follow your bidding. Add World Angering Air Mastery to give people who try to resist your Mind Hands a penalty to a suitable roll - Dodge, perhaps? Take it twice if you feel like it, or use Ordinary Object Conjuration to create rains of daggers over people you dislike - which can then be tossed around with Mind Hands.

[Turalisj]

Er, can non-Fae get graces?

[DeadManSleeping]

Er, can non-Fae get graces?

Lunars definitely can. I'm not sure about other Exalted.

[meschlum]

Yes.

A Fair Folk with the suitable Charm (available with Birth 4) can give a Grace to pretty much anything (GM permitting). This explicitly includes Creation-born, so any sentient being can get a Grace.

At character creation, post errata (November 2010 to be precise), it costs 1 bp to have a Grace. At 1, but it's all you need to attune to Grace Magic and reshape the Wyld at will.

Of course, there are no side effects. Anyone want to buy a spare soul? Barely used, still very tasty.

[Sanguine]

Er, can non-Fae get graces?

Anyone can get a Grace. It just takes some backstory finagling and some bonus points for anyone whose not Fae. As DeadManSleeping already pointed out most Lunars have at least one or two.

Edit: Damn meschlum sidereal'd me with awesome.

[Reynard]

And speaking of the signature characters, everybody hates Panther, obviously, but who are your favorites?

Kees is a baddass. He plays Gateway with demons for the lives of his kidnapped friends, tries to make things in the Realm fairer, is a superspy, and saves all of the baby Siddies in RotSE.

Five Days Darkness is one of the only gods who actually cares about his job, rather than the power it gives. He and someone I cant remember basically hold Creation together during Calibration.

Oh, and there's that Heroic Mortal shopkeeper who keeps getting laid by various female Exalts.

[Xefas]

Oh, and there's that Heroic Mortal shopkeeper who keeps getting laid by various female Exalts.

Oh yeah, that guy is a badass.

[Kris Strife]

Pacifism head explosion!
If you get that joke, I will get you a complete copy of CoCD: Autochthonia.
A complete preview copy.[/1stebondragonexcellency]

Fist of the North Star.

[Sanguine]

Kees is a baddass. He plays Gateway with demons for the lives of his kidnapped friends, tries to make things in the Realm fairer, is a superspy, and saves all of the baby Siddies in RotSE.

Five Days Darkness is one of the only gods who actually cares about his job, rather than the power it gives. He and someone I cant remember basically hold Creation together during Calibration.

Oh, and there's that Heroic Mortal shopkeeper who keeps getting laid by various female Exalts.

Excluding Five Days Darkness as I haven't actually read the Compass for the Scavenger Lands, though from what I hear from hearsay I would probably like him, I would have to agree with your choices.

Also does anyone know all of the appearances of the Heroic Mortal Shopkeeper. Off the top of my head I know he's in a chapter comic for Sidereals and Scroll of Heroes, but does he show up anywhere else?

Edit: Also it's Kes not Kees.

[Yuki Akuma]

I find that Heroic Mortal Shopkeeper cute.

Just saying.

[Kylarra]

I find him hilarious. Anyone have a list of all his conquests (and their corresponding reference pages?)

[a_humble_lich]

Hey, I never noticed that he was a recurring character. I'll join in the asking, other than Sidereals and Scroll of Heroes where else does he appear?

And he is kinda cute....

[SurlySeraph]

May Blossom on p. 99 on MoEP: Sids is the only one I can think of.

And speaking of the signature characters, everybody hates Panther, obviously, but who are your favorites?

Panther. Seriously, though, I like Panther. He's not a good character, but he's entertaining. Heysha Black Asp, that Lunar with the accent, is weirdly endearing. Black Ice Shadow is the least bland of the signature Sidereal circle. Of gods, Saturn is simultaneously endearing and terrifying, as she should be, and Wayang, Uvanavu, and Nara-O are all pretty cool.

[Kyeudo]

I like Panther. Not as portrayed in the comics, since all he does is go "HULK SMASH!!", but as he was at the start of 1st Edition's core book. That piece of prose where he decided to stand up for something instead of his own personal gain.

Second Edition has lost alot of the mysticism and mythic feel since the 1st Edition core book.

[The Rose Dragon]

I like Panther. Not as portrayed in the comics, since all he does is go "HULK SMASH!!", but as he was at the start of 1st Edition's core book. That piece of prose where he decided to stand up for something instead of his own personal gain.

Second Edition has lost alot of the mysticism and mythic feel since the 1st Edition core book.

That's what happens when you have an already established mythology and cosmology to work on rather than "this is a very big secret that even we don't know about". Like, remember the Yozis were supposed to be kept such a big secret, only vaguely defined rather than given absolute mechanics?

That wasn't back in the First Edition, mind you. That was in Roll of Glorious Divinity II.

[ShadowFighter15]

*really needs to catch up on everything*

It's over on Myth Weavers. The Scarlet Eclipse. It was going to involve RotSE at one point down the road and the ST wanted us all to be more experienced Exalts. Giving us an extra 75BP probably wasn't the best way to do it, but it certainly saved my Lunar, Daine the Fanged, from having to train up his Essence mid-game. Managed to get him to Essence 5 with all those extra BP, though I wasn't able to get him a perfect attack.

At least he's got a Perfect Dodge so at least he has a decent chance of surviving long enough to learn a perfect attack.

Use the errata. All of it.

In this particular case, the Dawn anima was way weak, and the Twilight anima was broken-good. Now, they're pretty decently balanced.

Also, RttToFC (there's a hell of an acronym) uses the premade signature characters, right? You might want to update them slightly, depending on how long ago they were made. Particularly Dace, for the revised character creation rules. Their Scroll of Exalts write-ups are probably fine, but if you don't want to shell out the money, I'm sure there's someone who'd be happy to help.

Didn't know that the Dawn and Twilight animas were like that - haven't looked into Solars much and I'm still not 100% on what's broken-useless and what's broken-overpowered.

And 5Corners' pre-made characters aren't the signature ones. The 1st edition version might've used them, but this one's made four new characters for it. The only caste missing is the Eclipse, who was left out for plot purposes (won't bother typing them here since the adventure's a free download). I might try doing a little work with the characters in Anathema and see what changes they'd go through if I made them with the new character creation rules.

EDIT: Well, hit my first snag. The Dawn Caste character, Kade, has Respect Commanding Attitude, but only has one of the three Performance dots he needs to learn it. Either the pre-reqs have changed since 5Corners was written, or whoever was in-charge of making the characters made a mistake. Either way, easily fixed. Had the bonus points to give him the two extra Performance dots he needed for the Charm.

I am, however a little confused by his Combo since the writers didn't just list which charms it included (that and I'm still sketchy on some parts of Combos) so I don't know if it includes the Excellencies it mentions or if he can use those in addition to the Combo. This is what the module says on the combo:

Spoiler

Show

DEVASTATING STRIKE OF FIRE AND LIGHT
Kade's anima flares with golden fire that trails down his arm and engulfs his weapon in a shining inferno. Activating the Combo with the expenditure of a Willpower point, Kade can (and must) use both Hungry Tiger Technique and Fire and Stones Strike to supplement whatever melee attack he makes that action (or every attack in a single flurry) and also may use the First Melee Excellency to enhance it (or them). Thereafter, Kade may use the First Melee Excellency, Dipping Swallow Defence or both to defend against any attacks made against him until his next action.

Basically, when making the combo in Anathema, should I just throw in every charm mentioned there or do I leave the Excellencies out?

And speaking of the signature characters, everybody hates Panther, obviously, but who are your favorites?

It's a bit of a tie between Strength of Many (because who doesn't like hurling Immaculate Monks over the horizon by their shin?) and Anja Silverclaws - the latter mainly because of how appropriate her spirit shape is when you read about her personality in Scroll of Exalts. Seriously, she's that cat-like it's scary.

As for Panther, I liked him in the novel that focussed on him. It showed how self-centred he was as a gladiator and how he first started to use his power to help a village, even using the tricks he'd used in the arena to make the fight a greater show for the crowd as a way to inspire the village to help fight off the barbarians attacking them. He's not my favourite though, but he still came out better in the novel than he did in the comics.

[SurlySeraph]

You put the Excellencies in. When you activate a combo, you must use all the Supplemental charms in it, but you can choose whether or not to use the Reflexive charms in it. Hungry Tiger Technique and Fire and Stones Strike are supplemental, the Excellency and Dipping Swallow Defensive are reflexive.

[ShadowFighter15]

You put the Excellencies in. When you activate a combo, you must use all the Supplemental charms in it, but you can choose whether or not to use the Reflexive charms in it. Hungry Tiger Technique and Fire and Stones Strike are supplemental, the Excellency and Dipping Swallow Defensive are reflexive.

Ahk, thanks for the clarification.

I've gone through and re-created each of the characters from the module in Anathema and all of them came out fine. Kade, though, is the only one without any bonus points left over. The other three have two to four BP each left over and none of them have any specialties so I'm a bit stumped.

I've re-created them exactly as they're sheets in the module say, so if anyone wants to download the module, give the characters a skim and suggest any additions, let me know. As I've said, they've all still got the free four points of Specialties to spend while Morning Breeze has 4 BP left, Naria has 2 and Rinan has 3 1 (missed his Combo). I'm probably overlooking something stupidly obvious for them, but I can't think what.

EDIT: Also, they don't start with artifacts because the module covers the four of them finding the tombs of their First Age selves and getting artifacts that way (a reaver daiklave for Kade, a seven-section staff for Morning Breeze, a short power bow for Naria and a pair of hearthstone bracers for Rinan).

[The Rose Dragon]

I'm not sure what you mean by "overlooking something stupid". Are you trying to rewrite the characters, or just see how they are built?

[ShadowFighter15]

I'm just wanting to add to them and spend the last of their BP and the free Specialties, but I can't think what on. Odds are, there's an obvious thing they can be spent on, but I can't think of it.

Although, considering his combo, I'm tempted to give Rinan a fourth dot in Melee. Problem there is that he's the circle's sorcerer so I could also give him a fourth dot in Occult. Either way, I use up that last BP but I can't decide on which one to spend it on or whether to use it for something else entirely.

This is my main problem with Exalted - too much bloody choice!

[Drascin]

And speaking of the signature characters, everybody hates Panther, obviously, but who are your favorites?

Let's see... Strength-of-Many is a pretty cool dude, as are Stern Whip of Industry and Eternally Vigilant Bell (and Excessively Righteous Blossom, while not likable in the least, is a bit entertaining to read about because the dude just fails so unbelievably much at everything it veers into black comedy). Nazri has the honor of being one of the extremely few authority figures in Exalted that aren't portrayed like drooling myopic idiots. Cynis Denovah Avaku is great, too.

On the god side, I quite like Five Days Darkness (plain nice dude) and Luna (because troll gods are always amusing. Besides, actually bothering to personally visit her Exalts instead of leaving them a premade message in the answering machine scores her points).

[SurlySeraph]

Holden had a good quote on how Excessively Righteous Blossom and Ten Stripes fought in 1st editon:

This is actually the one part I'm okay with. The two biggest ****-ups in the setting fight, and it concludes about like you'd expect--the Lunar doesn't even manage to die gloriously, and the Alchemical botches his victory and ends up running for his life from spear-chucking cavemen in grass skirts.

[golentan]

Ledaal Kes is easily my favorite exalt that I've read about. Every time I see him or reread something about him I notice another layer of awesome or deviousness. I've got such a crush on him. *sigh*

Also, the one soulsteel caste guy started as one of my least favorites but really grew on me when I read his writeup in scroll of exalts. Away from my books at the moment, but I think he's named dreadful adjudicator of law?

Also, my pater familias just bought me compass autobot for my birthday. Best dad ever. Not because of that, he just is, but I figured it's corroboration.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Oh, yeah. I forgot about Kes. He manages the simultaneous feat of keeping up the stereotype that everyone in Exalted is gay while also having one of the only loving, non-troubled relationships in canon. He also chess-duels demons for his wife, which is just straight-up badass.

Exalted has lots of awesome canon characters, really.

It's over on Myth Weavers. The Scarlet Eclipse. It was going to involve RotSE at one point down the road and the ST wanted us all to be more experienced Exalts. Giving us an extra 75BP probably wasn't the best way to do it, but it certainly saved my Lunar, Daine the Fanged, from having to train up his Essence mid-game. Managed to get him to Essence 5 with all those extra BP, though I wasn't able to get him a perfect attack.

At least he's got a Perfect Dodge so at least he has a decent chance of surviving long enough to learn a perfect attack.

...ah. For some reason I thought you were referring to the game I'm recruiting for right now. Where they also have 90 BP.

[Kris Strife]

What were the changes to the Dawn Caste anima? My Scroll of Errata is a bit out of date, and the Exalted Wiki only has the Twilight one.