General Exalted Discussion Thread VIII: Ten Thousand Playgrounders Post As One!

[Rockphed]

For the most part, animals aren't that much tougher - yes, particularly large animals have been known to take gunshots to the face and whatnot without going down, but something like that really seems like it should be represented by having more health levels, not because it was inherently harder to damage.

People have been known to take (small) gunshots to the face. I don't have personal experience, but I imagine it hurts.

[The Demented One]

Animal Stats: Things ETP Will Fix in 2.5 Hopefully

Not yet. 2.5 consists of system-level fixes for combat and social combat, as well as to affected Charms. Animal stats are something I'd like to eventually rewrite, though. Maybe as my contribution to Lunar errata.

[Lord Raziere]

Since I'm feeling a slacker for not making it sooner, and since I'm feeling the holiday mood of giving, I give you hopefully my only working Lunar charm for Christmas…

Silver Chameleon Framing Technique
Cost: 4m
Mins: Appearance 3, Essence 2
Type: Instant
Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Shaping.
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Hide of the Cunning Hunter
The Lunar Exalted sometimes like others to share their appearance when needed. The Lunar points at a person making Lunar Tattoos appear on their skin and a Tell manifest somewhere on their body, making them stand out from everyone else. This illusion costs one willpower to see through.

Please be good, please be good please be good...

[Kyeudo]

That is too specific for a Lunar Charm. Then again, most Lunar Charms are too specific to be Lunar Charms, so take that for what its worth.

[Turalisj]

Shouldn't it have the shaping keyword?

[Lord Raziere]

Shouldn't it have the shaping keyword?

No. It is just an illusion.

but fine, I'll add it so that it can be completely useless and fall to any shaping defense even though its just an illusion, good idea.

edit: see? edited.

[Xefas]

The Brass Vice
Artifact ●●
Sapience ●●

Spoiler

Show

This artifact is a leather overbust corset, made of a naturally pale-gold demon hide, and supported by a network of Malfean brass boning. Its craftsmanship is of an obviously masterful quality, although it lacks any sort of extra frills or decoration. Much like the brass layers of the Demon City, it lifts and presses together with astounding prowess.

The first owner of the Brass Vice was an Earth Aspected Dragonblood of House Mnemon during the third century of the Realm's rule. Born and raised in a relatively small satrapy, upon her Exaltation, she was dispatched to the Blessed Isle to receive proper training in the use of her new powers. But not before her father, the satrap, had his demon laborers and artisans construct this artifact as a gift to her. It was his concern that she would be unprepared for the treacheries of big city life that were simply not present in their more rural setting.

Many decades later, the original owner would be killed on a diplomatic mission to a court of Terrestrial Gods disputing the Realm's hold in their local forest set upon the Threshold. It remained in the coffers of that court for several months leading up to a merciless retributive raid lead by Immaculate Monks that left no survivors or loot in its wake.

As a demonic artifact, the Brass Vice was disdained by most of the Monks whose teachings had been from monasteries on the Blessed Isle. However, one among them was happy to have it, heralding from a sect whose stance on demons had room to include forced servitude.

For the next few centuries, the magical corset changed hands among the Monks of that particular sect, based in a threshold city near the Scavenger Lands. Once the details of its various powers were puzzled out, it was requisitioned to those whose business happened to take them into the heart of the many corrupt cities of the East.

That is, until 764 RY, when its wielder was struck down during an unrelated mission in Thorns by the suddenly present hordes of the Mask of Winters. Following this, it became the trophy of a powerful Ghostblooded warrior and loyal servant of the Deathlords.

Nearing present day, the Brass Vice has found its most recent home, as its ghostly wearer was struck down in a back alley of Nexus during a barfight with someone that the Ghostblooded was not aware was a newly incarnated Solar God-King.

However, that Solar was already heavily laden with a multitude of 5-dot Artifacts (including a few suits of Celestial Battle Armor) from character creation, and consequently only mumbled something about "...only 2 dots? What a piece of garbage..." before tossing it into a nearby bin.

Spoiler

Show

Powers:
The Brass Vice requires an attunement of 5 motes of Essence. It may be worn unattuned more or less without difficulty (although, obviously, without access to its powers). However, the attuned corset is significantly more comfortable and somehow manages not to restrict one's breathing overly much.

Furthermore, the corset magically secures its wearer's possessions. The base difficulty to successfully pickpocket the wearer is 5, regardless of where on their person the item is kept, and the wearer adds 4 dice to their (Wits + Awareness) to notice the attempt.

Against Manipulation-based social attacks meant to swindle the wearer into buying something for more than its worth, the wearer's mental dodge defense value increases by 2.

As a Hellforged Wonder, the Brass Vice inflicts an Urge upon its wearer. "Control this city with a web of contacts, favors owed, and filthy lucre." Actions taken to further this Urge gain a 2-die bonus.

In addition, the wearer has access to three spirit charms. Listed page numbers are from the Roll of Glorious Divinity. Due to the nature of the demon from which the charms are drawn, they only function within the bounds of a city. As a lesser soul of Malfeas, this demon is bound by his definition of 'city' - therefore see The Imperfection of the Demon City (pg111 of the MoEP: Infernals).

Landscape Travel (pg157) - The user doubles their land movement speed and may walk on the walls and ceilings of buildings and other artificial structures.

Mirror of the Infinite Wardrobe (pg155) - While active, creatures with a Dodge Mental Defense Value equal to or less than 9 perceive the user as an inconspicuous and inconsequential feature of the city around them, unless they pay 4 Willpower or succeed on a difficulty 4 (Perception + Occult) roll. Others need only pay 1 point of Willpower.

Memory Mirror (pg149) - The user determines the target's desires; what it wants most of all. The user adds one automatic success against creatures of Essence 5 or lower.

[Turalisj]

No. It is just an illusion.

but fine, I'll add it so that it can be completely useless and fall to any shaping defense even though its just an illusion, good idea.

edit: see? edited.

That way it will be just as effective as every other lunar charm.

[Lord Raziere]

That way it will be just as effective as every other lunar charm.

yes and I'll be perfectly fine with that. I'm glad that you are here to help improve upon what I make and critique them for mistakes.

[Turalisj]

We really should have sarcasm tags on this board.

[TheCountAlucard]

I'm okay with it not being Shaping, but a roll and how to oppose it would be cool.

[Lord Raziere]

oh, I was being sarcastic back.

as for roll……hmmm….well….perception plus awareness? that sounds logical, but how much would the threshold difficulty be?

[Urpriest]

The Brass Vice
Artifact ●●
Sapience ●●

Spoiler

Show

This artifact is a leather overbust corset, made of a naturally pale-gold demon hide, and supported by a network of Malfean brass boning. Its craftsmanship is of an obviously masterful quality, although it lacks any sort of extra frills or decoration. Much like the brass layers of the Demon City, it lifts and presses together with astounding prowess.

The first owner of the Brass Vice was an Earth Aspected Dragonblood of House Mnemon during the third century of the Realm's rule. Born and raised in a relatively small satrapy, upon her Exaltation, she was dispatched to the Blessed Isle to receive proper training in the use of her new powers. But not before her father, the satrap, had his demon laborers and artisans construct this artifact as a gift to her. It was his concern that she would be unprepared for the treacheries of big city life that were simply not present in their more rural setting.

Many decades later, the original owner would be killed on a diplomatic mission to a court of Terrestrial Gods disputing the Realm's hold in their local forest set upon the Threshold. It remained in the coffers of that court for several months leading up to a merciless retributive raid lead by Immaculate Monks that left no survivors or loot in its wake.

As a demonic artifact, the Brass Vice was disdained by most of the Monks whose teachings had been from monasteries on the Blessed Isle. However, one among them was happy to have it, heralding from a sect whose stance on demons had room to include forced servitude.

For the next few centuries, the magical corset changed hands among the Monks of that particular sect, based in a threshold city near the Scavenger Lands. Once the details of its various powers were puzzled out, it was requisitioned to those whose business happened to take them into the heart of the many corrupt cities of the East.

That is, until 764 RY, when its wielder was struck down during an unrelated mission in Thorns by the suddenly present hordes of the Mask of Winters. Following this, it became the trophy of a powerful Ghostblooded warrior and loyal servant of the Deathlords.

Nearing present day, the Brass Vice has found its most recent home, as its ghostly wearer was struck down in a back alley of Nexus during a barfight with someone that the Ghostblooded was not aware was a newly incarnated Solar God-King.

However, that Solar was already heavily laden with a multitude of 5-dot Artifacts (including a few suits of Celestial Battle Armor) from character creation, and consequently only mumbled something about "...only 2 dots? What a piece of garbage..." before tossing it into a nearby bin.

Spoiler

Show

Powers:
The Brass Vice requires an attunement of 5 motes of Essence. It may be worn unattuned more or less without difficulty (although, obviously, without access to its powers). However, the attuned corset is significantly more comfortable and somehow manages not to restrict one's breathing overly much.

Furthermore, the corset magically secures its wearer's possessions. The base difficulty to successfully pickpocket the wearer is 5, regardless of where on their person the item is kept, and the wearer adds 4 dice to their (Wits + Awareness) to notice the attempt.

Against Manipulation-based social attacks meant to swindle the wearer into buying something for more than its worth, the wearer's mental dodge defense value increases by 2.

As a Hellforged Wonder, the Brass Vice inflicts an Urge upon its wearer. "Control this city with a web of contacts, favors owed, and filthy lucre." Actions taken to further this Urge gain a 2-die bonus.

In addition, the wearer has access to three spirit charms. Listed page numbers are from the Roll of Glorious Divinity. Due to the nature of the demon from which the charms are drawn, they only function within the bounds of a city. As a lesser soul of Malfeas, this demon is bound by his definition of 'city' - therefore see The Imperfection of the Demon City (pg111 of the MoEP: Infernals).

Landscape Travel (pg157) - The user doubles their land movement speed and may walk on the walls and ceilings of buildings and other artificial structures.

Mirror of the Infinite Wardrobe (pg155) - While active, creatures with a Dodge Mental Defense Value equal to or less than 9 perceive the user as an inconspicuous and inconsequential feature of the city around them, unless they pay 4 Willpower or succeed on a difficulty 4 (Perception + Occult) roll. Others need only pay 1 point of Willpower.

Memory Mirror (pg149) - The user determines the target's desires; what it wants most of all. The user adds one automatic success against creatures of Essence 5 or lower.

...a Calibration Present for Lix Lorn I assume?

[Xefas]

...a Calibration Present for Lix Lorn I assume?

That's not really what I was thinking. Does Lix have frequent mugging/pickpocketing problems?

My train of thought was:
"I wanna make an artifact. But what hasn't been done to death yet?"
"Hey, I should make some artifact underwear."
"Its definitely got to be demon underwear..."
"If its a corset, I can make a pun about lifting and pressing!"
"But I really don't want to make a feminine item that gives +Appearance and other social bonuses. That's so cliche."
"Hm, it's Malfeas, so I could always do smashy and/or burny stuff. But that's way overdone too. Dancing, perhaps; but that's back to the girlie social bonuses thing."
"City bonuses! It could be made out of some kind of mobster demon."
"Mobster demon underwear. It all makes sense now."

[Lix Lorn]

...a Calibration Present for Lix Lorn I assume?

That's not really what I was thinking. Does Lix have frequent mugging/pickpocketing problems?

I am getting spoken about when I haven't even posted in the thread.

THIS IS BOTH AWESOME AND TERRIFYING

[Story Time]

Silver Chameleon Framing Technique

...neat little charm... I like it. I agree that instructions to counter it would be appreciated.

[Lord Raziere]

ok….but the edited version probably won't be good:

Silver Chameleon Framing Technique
Cost: 4m
Mins: Appearance 3, Essence 2
Type: Instant
Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Hide of the Cunning Hunter
The Lunar Exalted sometimes like others to share their appearance when needed. The Lunar points at a person making Lunar Tattoos appear on their skin and a Tell manifest somewhere on their body, to recognize this as an illusion one must make a (Perception+Awareness) roll at difficulty (essence X 2), this illusion costs one willpower to see through.

should I decrease it difficulty 3? or take out the willpower cost?

edit: now as I realize it, the strange thing about Lunar castes breaking is that its too consistent….if its the Wyld, why would every Lunar become a chimera? why wouldn't some Lunars gain something beneficial and some get something not beneficial? I'm sorry if this kicks off a debate or whatever, I just realized the strange thing about that.

[Dragnar]

Charm: I'd make the difficulty (essence x 2) or something. A static one becomes useless at higher levels.

Edit: The problem with the breaking of the castes goes deeper than that really... Why did they break AT ALL? Exaltations are indestructible. The most that can be done is minor changes. (see: abyssals, which are just a flipped switch. And infernals, which are solars with some easily removed yozi gunk) And yet we are expected to believe that every last lunar exaltation was fundamentally BROKEN just by being out in the wyld too long? You know, that place they were created to defend against?

[Lord Raziere]

yea….but why did the Wyld break them at all in the first place? its too consistent, why weren't some y'know, altered in other ways other than being broken? like acquiring extra charms when you Exalt, or giving you an extra arm when you Exalt? or doing something weird with the Great Curse? its too consistent for the Wyld for all 300 Exaltations to experience the same breaking of the caste and chimerism.

[Xefas]

Edit: The problem with the breaking of the castes goes deeper than that really... Why did they break AT ALL? Exaltations are indestructible. The most that can be done is minor changes. (see: abyssals, which are just a flipped switch. And infernals, which are solars with some easily removed yozi gunk) And yet we are expected to believe that every last lunar exaltation was fundamentally BROKEN just by being out in the wyld too long? You know, that place they were created to defend against?

It's a question of semantics. People call it "breaking" the castes, and it has a connotation of negativity.

Think of it as "freeing" the castes. Reuniting with the Wyld allowed the Lunars to transcend, if only slightly, as a whole, and throw off the unnecessary bonds that forced them to conform to certain ideals. Before, they were bound by their pathetic patron's phases, but now they have taken the power into their own hands. They, themselves, may create and dictate their own castes, unlike the Solars whose castes were dictated to them before their birth.

Some say they may now "suffer" chimerism. But I say they have the "option" to become chimerae. An option they may not have had before. Some might think that's a bad way to go, but not every Lunar thinks so. It's an option, and having lots of options sounds like a fairly Lunar thing, don't you think?

And perhaps it is not the only option! Perhaps there are a multitude of other options for the Casteless that we may have simply not seen yet, because it has not occurred to any particular Lunar yet. Either way, the glass is half full, if you ask me.

[Qaera]

Not yet. 2.5 consists of system-level fixes for combat and social combat, as well as to affected Charms. Animal stats are something I'd like to eventually rewrite, though. Maybe as my contribution to Lunar errata.

Oh cool you're still here. I'd like it but really any ST can come up with numbers on the fly. It'd be nice, but far from necessary.

~ ♅

[Story Time]

Silver Chameleon Framing Technique[EDITED]

Essence, even scaling Essence, is a generally good Difficulty to set for overcoming an Exalted character's charm.

[Dragnar]

Think of it as "freeing" the castes. Reuniting with the Wyld allowed the Lunars to transcend, if only slightly, as a whole, and throw off the unnecessary bonds that forced them to conform to certain ideals. Before, they were bound by their pathetic patron's phases, but now they have taken the power into their own hands. They, themselves, may create and dictate their own castes, unlike the Solars whose castes were dictated to them before their birth.

Actually... Lunars picked their own castes originally. They cycled through them with the moon's phases when they first exalted, before settling into one that fit them best. The wyld took 5 options and reduced them to 3. With external tattoos needed to actually pick.

Seriously, why did the wyld effect them AT ALL? Sure, there are ways to use that wyld spark they have now to their advantage... but the point is, it changed the lunars against their will. Which is meant to be impossible for anything to do to an exaltation.

[Turalisj]

Seriously, why did the wyld effect them AT ALL?

Poor writing, that's all.

[Lord Raziere]

It's a question of semantics. People call it "breaking" the castes, and it has a connotation of negativity.

Think of it as "freeing" the castes. Reuniting with the Wyld allowed the Lunars to transcend, if only slightly, as a whole, and throw off the unnecessary bonds that forced them to conform to certain ideals. Before, they were bound by their pathetic patron's phases, but now they have taken the power into their own hands. They, themselves, may create and dictate their own castes, unlike the Solars whose castes were dictated to them before their birth.

Some say they may now "suffer" chimerism. But I say they have the "option" to become chimerae. An option they may not have had before. Some might think that's a bad way to go, but not every Lunar thinks so. It's an option, and having lots of options sounds like a fairly Lunar thing, don't you think?

And perhaps it is not the only option! Perhaps there are a multitude of other options for the Casteless that we may have simply not seen yet, because it has not occurred to any particular Lunar yet. Either way, the glass is half full, if you ask me.

yea, I'm currently thinking of alternate options of Casteless: like instead of Chimerism, a Casteless could have some background that allows them to purchase charms and knacks at the cost of negative mutations, or learning SMA's at the cost of gaining paradox, or gaining Protocols at the cost of instead gaining Clarity…..or maybe these would be bad ideas….I have a hard time telling the difference sometimes….

[tonberrian]

Not yet. 2.5 consists of system-level fixes for combat and social combat, as well as to affected Charms. Animal stats are something I'd like to eventually rewrite, though. Maybe as my contribution to Lunar errata.

*Fanboyish glee*

Can you tell us anything more about 2.5? The White Wolf forums always get all the spoilers, can you release one here?

[Lord Raziere]

I have one:
"Achieving the highest rank in the Guild is no mean feat. One must lie, cheat, steal, murder, and accrue more capital than any one mortal should ever amass and still be considered to espouse humanity. In short, one must win an election."

an excerpt from Masters of Jade, quoted from hatewheel, has its own thread on the White Wolf forums.

[Xefas]

Actually... Lunars picked their own castes originally. They cycled through them with the moon's phases when they first exalted, before settling into one that fit them best. The wyld took 5 options and reduced them to 3. With external tattoos needed to actually pick.

The Wyld didn't take 5 options and reduce them to 3. The Wyld took away five constraints. At one point, there were absolutely no Castes. Then this freedom gave Lunars the ability to make their own Castes. Unfortunately, the Lunars of the Silver Pact decided to recreate two in the pale image of previous Castes. But they made a new one!

Sure, the simpletons of the Silver Pact are stuck in tradition, and only feel safe in doling out these three Castes. But that doesn't mean that other Lunars couldn't innovate and make their own, with their own Caste Attributes and Anima Powers and what have you.

Either that, or we could sit around and moan and complain to no actual benefit. That's actually a perfectly valid course of action. One that I can get behind (I'm not being sarcastic, I promise). Either way - I don't really care about Lunars. I have no stock one way or the other whether they suck, but I think this is more interesting. And while Exalted has a rich history of choosing the suck path over the interesting one, this is my two cents anyway.

[Mr.Bookworm]

*Fanboyish glee*

Can you tell us anything more about 2.5? The White Wolf forums always get all the spoilers, can you release one here?

You could just read the White Wolf forums.

But, nah, I don't think anything of real importance has been released about 2.5, beyond what it will contain.

The last big news I heard was that the martial arts system was getting a complete overhaul, to be debuted in Scroll of the Monk 2: Monk Harder.

Either that, or we could sit around and moan and complain to no actual benefit. That's actually a perfectly valid course of action. One that I can get behind (I'm not being sarcastic, I promise). Either way - I don't really care about Lunars. I have no stock one way or the other whether they suck, but I think this is more interesting. And while Exalted has a rich history of choosing the suck path over the interesting one, this is my two cents anyway.

I would far prefer to just say that the breaking of the castes never happened, Wyld Taint is not actually a thing, and that Chimerism is a natural path of evolution for Lunar Exalted, albeit usually not a desirable one.

[Xefas]

I would far prefer to just say that the breaking of the castes never happened, Wyld Taint is not actually a thing, and that Chimerism is a natural path of evolution for Lunar Exalted, albeit usually not a desirable one.

That works too.