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

[Story Time]

Here's Solars:

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The Solar Exalted can excel in every field of human endeavour, becoming undefeatable in almost any activity they choose to specialise in. The exceptions are impersonating specific people, communicating with other Exalts, and manipulating and enhancing mortals. Other Exalts can match Solar abilities in these areas. Solars are capable of granting mortals the ability to channel essence, but cannot share motes with them.
Lawgivers have the most powerful attacks and most efficient defences of all Exalts. Their abilities extend beyond extraordinary talent into the supernatural, but always have some connection to skills of mortals. A mortal swordsman may draw his weapon so fast it seems to appear from nowhere – a Solar can simply retrieve a sword from Elsewhere. But no mortal can fly, so neither can a Solar. Lawgivers can extend their powers beyond these limits by using Sorcery, the Adamant Circle of which is exclusive to them, or the first two Circles of Necromancy. The Obsidian Circle of Necromancy is restricted to Deathlords.
Solars can easily conceal themselves but have difficulty concealing the mark of the Unconquered Sun. In extreme cases fortresses may appear to be infiltrated by disembodied, glowing caste marks.
Lawgivers can easily become immune to the dangers of the Wyld, the Underworld, and Malfeas, and can prevent areas of Creation from being absorbed by any of these planes of existence. However, they are incapable of extending Creation into the Wyld, shrinking shadowlands by other than mundane effort, or expelling intrusions of the Yozis into Creation.

Mutation: wings. Various power armors. Sorcery. Fair Folk artifacts.

People of The Air...living in Sezakan...


This snippet, Gareth, did not make as much sense to me. It seemed more...smudged with concepts rather than clear defining lines. It is difficult for me to explain more accurately. I suppose one of my inquiries would be, "Do you plan to remove perfect attacks and defenses?"

[Dragnar]

also, now I'm confused of how to deal with Blessings in places like the Underworld, Malfeas and Autocthonia….hrrmmm….

And... I'm confused as to why you need to. What's wrong with the way Blessings already work? There's an entire tree of spirit charms devoted to them, and their mechanics are leagues better than the crafting ones tying them to artifacts would introduce.

I mean, it's not necessarily WORSE. (Er. Except for the idea of Exaltations being Blessings. That... rather seriously breaks canon.) But it is unneeded, and doesn't really provide any more options than are already there. Besides: There ARE immaterial artifacts for those few things that wouldn't fall under blessings. One in particular gives the attuned person Arcane Fate, and the thing has no physical form at all. So... my point is: Adding in "blessings" as a new type of artifact, purchasable as a background at chargen... adds nothing that cannot be done already, and makes the rules for them simultaneously more complex and less well-defined.

[gareth]

This is a description of how Solars would work in a hypothetical rewriting of the game, not a summary of how they work now. All the details of the game are supposed to develop out of these three descriptions. So I probably would remove the flying mortals. Gadgets and sorcery are fine, it's just that the Solars won't be able to fly with their own charms. This description is a bit muddled, it probably suffers from following the others. I'll give them all another pass.
Anyway, perfect attacks and defenses stay. Solars get the best, Lunar perfects are a bit worse, and Dragon-Blooded's are much weaker. The latter might not work at all against Lunars and Solars, or might need dozens of Terrestrials with the same charm to activate them.

[meschlum]

(whistles innocently)

Well, if certain people, after asking for an Emerald Quiver are not satisfied with an easy route to unlimited arrows (for 1 committed mote only), I suppose it's time to make things interesting.

Archer's Soul

Once upon a time, a Wood-blooded Lost Egg dedicated herself to archery with a thoroughness that had not been seen before, or since. Endless practice, training and exercises on the physical front, meditation and offerings to the gods of bow, arrow, hunting, and more on the spiritual side, and plumbing the depths of danger and essence to push yet further.

One day, when she was near the height of her powers, a young maiden smelling of crystal roses came to her, and asked, "Why do you work so hard at what is so easy?". Amused more than angered, the Wood-blooded challenged the maiden to contest, and the maiden smiled and asked, "And what shall you wager as it is so easy?". The Lost Egg waved negligently at her tent, where the trophies and treasure she'd won with her skill waited. "A bauble of mine." "For a bauble of mine," the maiden replied.

When the maiden took up the bow, the Dragon-blood barely contained her laughter - here was one who did not even know how to hold it properly, for all that she was comely and smelled of crystal roses. Then the maiden released her arrow, and it fly true, piercing the target's center. Unsettled, the Dragon-blood fired in turn, shooting through the maiden's arrow.

"Have I lost so easily?", the maiden queried, and the Dragon-blood nodded, still staring at the target. "Then here is my wager," the maiden said, and gave her opponent a rose scented ring. The Dragon-blood glanced at the ring and took in its scent, but was not satisfied. "Have you ever used the bow before?" she finally asked. "Why no, it seemed too easy," the maiden replied.

"Then we must have another contest, for I had to practice for five years before I could make a shot like yours," the Lost Egg demanded, and the maiden accepted. "And what shall you wager on this easy challenge," she asked, blushing under the Dragon-blood's intense gaze.

"A bottle of your perfume," the Lost Egg decided. "For a lock of your hair," the maiden finally replied.

Then the maiden tried her bow once more, and her arrow passed through a cobweb without disturbing the dew, striking one target in the center then bouncing off to go through the next. "That was easy," she said, and set down her weapon, forgetting to unstring it. The Dragon-blood focused her essence and robbed the spider of its prey, her arrow striking both targets in turn and coming to a stop upon the third.

"Have I lost so easily," the maiden queried, and the Dragon-blood nodded, leaves and thorns writhing around her as she stared at the targets. The maiden excused herself and returned an hour later, a fine crystal vial in her hands and a deep flush on her face. "Then here is my wager," she stated and offered it to the Dragon-blood.

The Lost Egg looked at the vial, then at the maiden and there was hunger in her eyes. "Have you seen a bow used before," she asked, intent. "Why yes, when you defeated me," the maiden replied.

"Then we must have another contest, for I only learned to shoot like you did when fighting a pair of Anathema," the Dragon-blood spoke fervently, and the maiden acquiesced. "And what easy wager shall you set," she asked, not meeting the Dragon-blood's gaze.

"An hour of your time," the Dragon-blood replied. "For an hour of yours," the maiden replied, with a faint smile on her lips and the smell of crystal roses around her.

The tale does not tell of what happened in that last contest, but the Dragon-blood left the lands she had been known in and traveled far away, always with her bow at her side and the scent of crystal roses behind her. Some say she lives yet, seeking ever more challenging targets as all prove too easy. Some say that she became a goddess, blessing those who sought love or skill with the bow. Some say she cast aside archery for...

But those are other stories.

1-dot Behemoth
Assumption of the Person's Heart - the Soul is visible only to its owner, taking on the aspect of their ideal partner. To others, it is either invisible or an exceptionally well made bow. Whatever its form, it always exudes a faint smell of crystal roses.
Luminous Exhalation - the Soul ensures its owner always has as many arrows as may be required.
Surpassing Excellence - the Soul makes its owner immensely skilled at archery, potentially boosting a Dragon-blood's aptitude to the level of the Anathema.
Mind's Grip Rigor - the Soul possesses incredibly acute sight, and can convey it to its owner, working like Keen Sight Technique at will.


Crystal Rose Vial

While traveling, the Dragon-blood fell afoul of one of the Anathema, who jumped at her out of a teacup and punched her into the middle of the Western ocean. There, surrounded by only fish and sea, she came close to despair, for she had no arrows left to shoot.

Before contemplating surrender, the Lost Egg found that she still had the maiden's vial with her, and opened it, to delight in the scent of crystal roses one last time. "Leaving the ocean is easy," a voice murmured in her ear, as she let a few precious drops out.

"And it would be, had I any arrows, but all I have is fish," the Dragon-blood replied, more amused at her seeming madness than worried. "And why would they not suffice?", the voice of she who had been the maiden rose again.

The Lost Egg had no reply, and with hands trained to grab arrows as fast as thought, she seized a fish, set it to her bow, and fired. After gaping for a moment at the sight of a bass impaling a stone, she shot her way to safety.

"If all you find are easy challenges, how will you improve?" the Dragon-blood may have heard as she reached dry land once more. Or perhaps not. In any case, she now moved with greater ease, for she had not only gained insight into archery, but also gained hope for what she had feared was lost.

1-dot Oneiromancy
Assumption of Air Form - a crystal vial full of the smell of crystal roses.
Ordinary Object Conjuration (x5) - the person owning the vial will always manage to find one of the four different arrow types (and a perfect one at that). Similarly, a perfect composite bow is never far from hand.
Imposition of Law - the vial's owner cannot fail an ordinary shot with a bow.
Mad God Mien - counter magic has no effect on the Vial

The Vial is under the effects of Translucent Dream Sheathing Technology, which explicitly allows its owner to use anything they can lift as an arrow.

The bow created by the Vial has the following properties:

Speed 6, Accuracy +1, Damage +1, Rate 3, Range 350, Strength (whatever).

[TheCountAlucard]

Well, if certain people, after asking for an Emerald Quiver are not satisfied...

I didn't ask for the Emerald Quiver... rather, I suggested that if the reader of this thread ever wondered how one could play the Green Arrow with Fair Folk artifacts, that this thread is indeed for them... and to that, you proved my point splendidly.

with an easy route to unlimited arrows (for 1 committed mote only), I suppose it's time to make things interesting.

I wasn't actually interested in unlimited arrows or how to attain them, but rather puzzling out whether such things are worth one's time in a system that supposedly doesn't care about minor frivolities.

Archer's Soul

I rather like how you presented this, though.

[aetherialDawn]

My idea for Blessings is simply a thing that closely RESEMBLES an Exaltation, but isn't, the idea being that the normal Celestial Exaltation is probably an N/A level Blessing or something.

Good news: This exists!
It's Sorcery. Imbue Amalgam.
In fact, it specifically mentions in the text of the spell in the Black and White Treatises that in the first age it seemed that granting so much power to a mortal without making them in some way inhuman seemedto be the sole purview of Exaltation.

Swords made of hope sound pretty cool. But for what you want, current methods of blessing are more or less the limit.

(Of course... there's also inward-facing Oneiromancy with assumption of the Person's Heart.)


All hail Meschlum's Archer's Soul.

And people say that daiklaves have stories! Hah!
I'm also pleased to see something other than an Oneiromancy or Adjuration doing this, of course.

[Lord Raziere]

And... I'm confused as to why you need to. What's wrong with the way Blessings already work? There's an entire tree of spirit charms devoted to them, and their mechanics are leagues better than the crafting ones tying them to artifacts would introduce.

I mean, it's not necessarily WORSE. (Er. Except for the idea of Exaltations being Blessings. That... rather seriously breaks canon.) But it is unneeded, and doesn't really provide any more options than are already there. Besides: There ARE immaterial artifacts for those few things that wouldn't fall under blessings. One in particular gives the attuned person Arcane Fate, and the thing has no physical form at all. So... my point is: Adding in "blessings" as a new type of artifact, purchasable as a background at chargen... adds nothing that cannot be done already, and makes the rules for them simultaneously more complex and less well-defined.

yes, but what about things that are more abstract than mutations, attribute dots, skills and essence? powers and charms not covered by what is already there?

@ Aeth-Dawn: oh? how about this for a story….

Quillklave

Long ago during the Solar Deliberative, a Solar who was a master novelist, crafter and sorcerer of his time, disliked the normal short daiklave design, and so made his own, making an orichalcum quill daiklave the size of a short sword.
However he also made it for another reason, using it to gain an advantage against his Solar novelist rivals. With the Quillklave he was able to out-write them all, his works of prose and storytelling became the bestselling novels in all of Creation, Heaven and even the Wyld, as Raksha just love getting new ideas for themselves.
however he used the Quillklave for other purposes as well, carefully writing criticisms so subtle that his rivals did not notice that they were turning away from competing with him even as they wrote more novels in response to his reviews, and used it to public messages that subtly persuaded people to read his books even as he wrote about something completely different.
There are rumors that this Solar novelist even used the Quillklave to kill, with both is bladed and its writing end. Some of his novelist competition turned up dead from stab wounds, but there was always a written confession wrote perfectly in the hand of someone else confessing they did it…
However, the Quillklave also killed the one who created it. During the Usurpation, a Dragon-Blooded grabbed the Quillklave and used it to write the perfect message that spoke of betrayal to the Solar Novelist, telling him that his circle-mates were secretly funding his novelist competition from behind his back and saying that his books were garbage.
the solar novelist, enraged that his comrades would betray him so, attacked his circle while everyone else was fighting the Dragon-Blooded and so perished from being killed both by Dragon-Blooded and Solars during the feast.
All his books were then burned for fear of lingering messages of obeisance and loyalty.
The Quillklave was then put in the solar novelist's tomb along with all his other possessions, to await the Solar novelist's reincarnation to pick it up….

Quillklave.
Artifact 2
Attunement: 6
The Quillklave adds four dice of Linguistics for all purposes of writing. other than that, it is a normal orichalcum short daiklave.

[Story Time]

I find it a deep irony that Raziere's building of artifacts and charms almost directly contradicts the push for Narrative over Mechanics several pages earlier. Ah well...

All the details of the game are supposed to develop out of these three descriptions.

This is roughly what I expected. Perhaps a rule should be made that People of The Air can not Exalt. Or perhaps that Crafted Races in general can not Exalt.

(whistles innocently)
[...]
Archer's Soul
[...]
Crystal Rose Vial

There is now a fish in my version of Exalted. It is called the Arrow Fish in most tongues and can be harvested for exactly this purpose. Using it in impromptu circumstances, of course, would require a stunt without other tricks.

Meschlum is owed a moment of thanks for this creativity.

I wasn't actually interested in unlimited arrows or how to attain them, but rather puzzling out whether such things are worth one's time in a system that supposedly doesn't care about minor frivolities.

The issue, perhaps can best be summed up in two questions. First, "Does the player care about running out of ammunition in the middle of combat?" Second, "What does the Story-teller plan to do about this?"

Some Players like greater options for failure and logic-driven plot. Some Players would like to request the Story-teller make secret die rolls to determine how much ammunition the character has, or to keep track of it.

However, it also seems that the particular Player in question may not have quite grasped some of the abstracting principles used in Exalted. This could be a possible contribution to the current situation. Still, it boils down to Player preference, Story-teller proclivity, and Rule Two.

Good luck working it out!

[TheCountAlucard]

This is roughly what I expected. Perhaps a rule should be made that People of The Air can not Exalt. Or perhaps that Crafted Races in general can not Exalt.

Bright Shattered Ice and Faka Kun will be so disappointed.

Good luck working it out!

Oh, I've already worked this out - now we're on to the next problem... I hadn't been keeping in touch with one of my players, and he's gone and made a Dynast where everyone else has made a Lookshyan.

[Dragnar]

yes, but what about things that are more abstract than mutations, attribute dots, skills and essence? powers and charms not covered by what is already there?

What about them? Mutations can cover a LOT already, and due to the rather modular nature of spirit charms it's easy to homebrew any given god a simple Panoply blessing charm if the canon ones don't work. If Blessings were artifacts on the other hand, MORTALS could craft them. And in fact, Jadeborn could craft them better than any god. As it is, blessings are open only to things with spirit charms, the nature of which makes expanding them very easy.

So, my point is: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. (And in exalted? Saying it ain't broke means something.) Though if you're not convinced: Please, I'd love to see an example of something the current system cannot do that your idea would.

[gareth]

Thanks for the feedback on the descriptions. Here's all three, revised:

Solar Exalted (Lawgivers)

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The Solar Exalted can excel in every field of human endeavour, becoming undefeatable in almost any activity they choose to specialise in. An exception is the impersonation of specific people, where their abilities are exceeded by the Lunars. Lawgivers have the most powerful attacks and most efficient defences of all Exalts. Using their native charms, Solars may defeat entire armies in combat, radically change a society through conversation, and wring a sword from a heap of ore with their bare hands.
A Lawgiver’s abilities extend beyond extraordinary talent into the supernatural, but always have some connection to skills of mortals. A mortal swordsman may draw his weapon so fast it seems to appear from nowhere – a Solar can simply retrieve a sword from Elsewhere. A mortal may dodge a blow, but a Solar can dodge all blows, and become invulnerable to attack. But no mortal can fly, so no Solar charms allow flight. Likewise, sharing motes with others, transforming into animals, controlling the weather, and changing the aspect of a demesne cannot be accomplished with Solar charms. Lawgivers can extend their powers beyond these limits by using Sorcery, the Adamant Circle of which is exclusive to them.
The Solar Exalted can also become immune to the dangers of the Wyld, and extend their immunity to others. They can prevent the Wyld spreading into Creation, and make land and resources conjured from the Wyld by Lunars permanent. They are unable to extend Creation into the Wyld without the cooperation of a Lunar.

Lunar Exalted (Transcendents)

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The Lunar Exalted transcend the limits of humanity to adapt to any situation, by stealing the shapes and abilities of nonhumans. Most Lunars start with animals - every mortal appreciates the flight of birds as an ability that is beyond him. But Lunars can take the form of spirits and fae, and even other Exalts, and mimic their abilities. They can even learn the charms of other beings, a feat impossible for other Exalts. Lunars are also unique in their ability to mimic humans, perfectly duplicating their appearance, voice and mannerisms. Eventually Lunars go beyond mimicry of surface features to the duplication of the target's mind and soul. The opposite sex is also a source of new abilities, and Lunars can easily change between male, female, androgynous, and genderless forms.
In direct conflict with a Solar in an area both have specialised in, the Lunar will lose, since their raw power is weaker. But they have the ability to transform themselves to adapt to changing circumstances, sacrificing useless charms for the resources to develop new ones. Given time to adapt, every Lunar can become a deadly beastman in combat, an iridescent social butterfly, a transhuman intellect, or whatever else the situation demands.
The Lunars can also adapt to and manipulate the Wyld, contrasting with the Solars who can merely become immune to its dangers. They are the only Exalt able to conjure up land and resources from the Wyld, but their creations remain ephemeral unless a Solar can stabilise them.

Terrestrial Exalted (Dragon-Blooded)

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The Terrestrial Exalted are the weakest of the Exalts and a single Dragon-Blooded is easily defeated in any field of endeavour by most Lunars or Solars. However, Terrestrial Exaltation is inherited rather than limited to a fixed number of Exaltations. There are tens of thousands of Dragon-Blooded to the 300 Lunars and 300 Solars, and their numbers are constantly increasing. Terrestrial charms increase the effectiveness of groups of Dragon-Blooded working together. They are the only Exalts able to magically share resources such as motes, willpower, and health levels between each other and with mortals. A sufficiently large group of Terrestrials, with the appropriate charms, can defeat any single Lunar or Solar in any field of human endeavour. The size of the group increases with the power of the opponents, but if all Dragon-Blooded in Creation cooperated against all Lunars and Solars, they would easily win.
Using their native charms, Dragon-Blooded can defeat large groups of mortals in combat, quickly dominate any social group of mortals, and create artifacts beyond the reach of any mortal craftsman. They can also control the five elements of Creation, creating typhoons, earthquakes, and firestorms to attack their enemies or stimulating the growth of crops. Dragon-Blooded are also the only Exalts able to manipulate the geomancy of Creation with their native charms, creating, enhancing, or suppressing elemental demesnes.
Terrestrials were created to serve Lunars and Solars. Their charms work more efficiently in the presence of those Exalts, whether following their orders or assassinating them.

So, if these descriptions are the basis of a rewrite of Exalted, what would you like to see next? Keep it to something that can be written up in 250 words.

[golentan]

Question: would I be able to convince anyone to run a somewhat experienced infernals game?

[TheCountAlucard]

Question: would I be able to convince anyone to run a somewhat experienced infernals game?

I just got finished running a somewhat-experienced Infernals game.

But I'd be willing to play in one.

[Kyeudo]

I've been looking for the rules for FatExalted and I can't seem to find them. I finished reading up on Fate, so I wanted to see how someone could take a heavyweight system like Exalted and make it run on a lightweight system like Fate. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Xefas]

I've been looking for the rules for FatExalted and I can't seem to find them. I finished reading up on Fate, so I wanted to see how someone could take a heavyweight system like Exalted and make it run on a lightweight system like Fate. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

This thread has a link to the version our group used for our game. It's more or less an alpha document, rough and lacking a lot of the trimmings, and may have been altered by Mouse since we played. But there you go.

[Lord Raziere]

ok, ok.

I think I really got what Lunars are about this time. for real.

All the other Exalts are about infrastructure in some way, even the Infernals are alien-kings making alien kingdoms and such, and even the Abyssals have a dark tyrant theme going on. the Sidereals and Dragon-Blooded are about positions within the infrastructure, spy/adviser and soldier respectively, and Alchemicals need mortals to modify themselves.

but Lunars are primarily self-sufficient. everything else, the adaptability, the shapeshifting, all that is just offshoots of self-sufficiency.

Lunars are the Exalts who charms should make them not need any infrastructure, in short a Lunar should be able to take care of all their needs by themselves, without any help whatsoever. a Lunar by then is so strong that they do not need help from other people, because they are all about taking care of numero uno. however they are also created to be protectors, meaning they protect people, by becoming so self sufficient that no one else needs to help them, so that this self-sufficient Lunar does not need to worry about themselves and focus their energies on helping other people, because
if they do worry about themselves, they can't worry about protecting other people, because obviously they are not self-sufficient enough yet to become their own closed system that needs no help from anyone.

the Lunars are kinda like those independent loner people who want to help everyone else, but if you dare say THEY need help, they will instantly deny it and do everything themselves anyways, because to admit that they, the guys made to protect other people, need protection themselves, is admitting that they are not strong enough to do their job.
The Lunars fleeing into the Wyld makes sense now: they could gone to Heaven and asked the gods for help against the Sidereals instead, but they didn't because they could not admit they could ever possibly need help from something like a god. They are Lunars, and they believe they should be able to take care of themselves, so no one has to take care of them for them.

their shapeshifting is just another way of becoming self-sufficient, their adaptability, another way of becoming self-sufficient. to be self-sufficient, you have to be pretty multi-talented, so they try to be as flexible as they can.

a Lunar never asks for help. they are the guys who believe everyone else needs help. five Lunars teaming up? thats a big deal, because thats five Lunars admitting "ok this might be too big for one of us" or at least, each Lunar believing that the other four Lunars need their help and are just not admitting it.

the Thousand Streams river and trying to make all nations self-sufficient and all that without Exalts and just mortals? thats just them applying their "everyone should be self-sufficient" logic to everything.

[Recaiden]

I think Lunars are about more than that, although self-sufficiency is certainly part of it.

I think this mainly because the (only) Lunar I've played had "I'm not okay to do this on my own" as a big part of their thoughts' composition, and that didn't seem too off. But maybe it was, or a rare exception.

So, if these descriptions are the basis of a rewrite of Exalted, what would you like to see next? Keep it to something that can be written up in 250 words.

Well, the Sidereals (although I think you said you wanted to do without them), or the Raksha (them too?).

[gareth]

The Sidereals will be left out. I might leave some hints in the setting - have the Usurpation and the Wyld Hunt more sucessful than is possible with just Dragon-Blooded, but not specify what's helping them.
Raksha will be included, but only as NPCs. I don't know much about them at the moment, I'll have to do some reading.

[TheCountAlucard]

In that case, how about a list of the changes to the setting caused by your revisions? Because this does change the setting.

[gareth]

That's a good suggestion. I'll see if I can fit the list of changes into 250 words, that'll avoid waffling.

[Story Time]

So, if these descriptions are the basis of a rewrite of Exalted, what would you like to see next? Keep it to something that can be written up in 250 words.

Wyld Folk.

In that case, how about a list of the changes to the setting caused by your revisions? Because this does change the setting.

Agreed. Gareth, I would like this added to my above suggestion.

I think I really got what Lunars are about this time. for real.

[...]

Raziere...Lunars are a name. Think of them like a brand name. One brand can be responsible for many lines of individual products. It can be accurate to say that Lunars are capable of being self-sufficient, but so can other Exalt types. What you suggest might work well for one character type, but not all of them. I can think of three which would drown if put in the context of, "Lunars do not associate with others / organizations."

Perhaps your suggestion would work as a sect of Lunars...a specific group. It...does not seem to me that it would work well for most character concepts.



...actually...now that I think of it...reclaiming the past might be a good motive for a Lunar. To restore the caste system which was lost so long ago. One which did not require tattoos...

[Lord Raziere]

? Sidereals seem to be all about being secretive manipulative masterminds, Dragon-Blooded about soldier teamwork, Solars about being kings, Abyssals being destroyers, Alchemicals being modifiable machines and Infernals being alien kings. so why can't Lunars can't be self-sufficient protectors?

they would have the same number of themes as everyone else.

edit: oh and can anyone tell me if this would work for incorporating sorcery stuff into artifacts:

Cirrus Horn
Artifact 3
Attunement: 15
For an expenditure of 1wp, the user instantly casts Cirrus Skiff by blowing through the horn.

basically, incorporating the cost of the spell into the aritfact as the attunement cost, then having the amount of willpower needed to cast a spell of that circle being how much you have to spend to call it up per activation.

[Kyeudo]

When you build a Solar character, he doesn't have to be a king. You can avoid any and all leadership and goverment Charms in favor of their other themes, which focus on glory, perfection, and righteousness (as far as righteousness exists in Exalted).

Boiling Lunars down to self-sufficient protectors deprives them of their other themes of darkness, predation, illusion, and trickery. Don't do that to the red-headed step-child splat. They are already abused enough.

[Recaiden]

? Sidereals seem to be all about being secretive manipulative masterminds, Dragon-Blooded about soldier teamwork, Solars about being kings, Abyssals being destroyers, Alchemicals being modifiable machines and Infernals being alien kings. so why can't Lunars can't be self-sufficient protectors?

they would have the same number of themes as everyone else.

See, those are only some of the Themes each of those have. Solars are Perfect, make important decisions, are humanity and all. Abyssals...are mostly Destroyers, yeah. Alchemicals are also about Industry, Society, The Greater Good, Logic and Efficiency, etc. Sidereals and DBs I don't know much about, but I'm fairly sure they have more an equally valid themes available to them.

Except for Infernals who are not like that. Kingship belongs only to Malfeas, if at all. What Infernals do is combine Yozi themes (and also failure?) in varying measures.

[Tavar]

Cirrus Horn
Artifact 3
Attunement: 15
For an expenditure of 1wp, the user instantly casts Cirrus Skiff by blowing through the horn.

basically, incorporating the cost of the spell into the aritfact as the attunement cost, then having the amount of willpower needed to cast a spell of that circle being how much you have to spend to call it up per activation.

I'm not entirely comfortable with this. If you're really going to make a reusable artifact that can cast sorcery spells, it should probably be 4-dots at least for Terrestrial, and a bit more expensive. Artifacts shouldn't be just as efficient at sorcery as sorcery is.

[TheCountAlucard]

Eh, actually Raziere's version is worse than the spell, seeing how you have to commit fifteen motes to the thing to use it. At least with the actual spell, generally by the time you get where you're going, your mote pool will be full again.

[Tavar]

I'm pretty sure you can let an attunement lapse.

[TheCountAlucard]

I'm pretty sure you can let an attunement lapse.

Sure, twenty-five hours after you stop coming into contact with it. If you happen to need those motes before then, well, it just sucks to be you.

And if you have let attunement lapse, and then suddenly need to get away? Takes another twenty minutes to be able to use it again.

Me, I'm okay with it being a three-dot artifact, but I'd distance it somewhat from the actual spell a bit, by lowering the attunement cost, but making this version less-effective than the actual spell (for instance, perhaps it goes slightly more slowly), as well as altering the fluff a little to make it more distinctive.

[Story Time]

Between Gareth and Raziere I have trouble not thinking that if I were to make a re-write, not the Fluff Patch that I am still plodding through ( thanks, Gensh ), that I would take most of the Sidereal coolness, give it to the Lunars, and re-fluff Sidereals completely.

And I'm sure a mention of Fey Folk would enter in there somewhere.

[tonberrian]

Actually, you can withdraw a commitment at any time.