General Exalted Discussion Thread X: Playground Cosmic Principle

[Exthalion]

Glories of the Most High: Unconquered Sun
Final Ray of Light
Integrity 6 Essence 6

[Hiro Protagonest]

I imagine any pre-existing character is going to require more than "a couple changes", since you know it will be taking place IN SPACE!!!!


...Sorry, I had to do it.

So we're going to be using the Space Opera Shard?

Kinda cuts into my plan of having a small town ('bout 400-500)that I've trained for the last few years in combat. But then, it's probably pretty easy to replace "small town" with "single planet" or "single solar system", depending on the scale.

[Exthalion]

So we're going to be using the Space Opera Shard?

Kinda cuts into my plan of having a small town ('bout 400-500)that I've trained for the last few years in combat. But then, it's probably pretty easy to replace "small town" with "single planet" or "single solar system", depending on the scale.

Or a generation ship which which you could use to bring your army with you. Make said generation ship a giant battleship and the 40k channels itself.

[Sanguine]

Glories of the Most High: Unconquered Sun
Final Ray of Light
Integrity 6 Essence 6

Bah Humbug!

That is surprisingly similar. Still mine allows a character to be spaced and then brought back to life over the course of two years using cellular regeneration and cybernetic implants and is thus far superior for my purposes.

So we're going to be using the Space Opera Shard?

Yep. Didn't I say that? I thought I said that. Based on the Warhammer and Mass Effect inspired character concepts people have proposed I'm pretty sure I said that.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Yep. Didn't I say that? I thought I said that. Based on the Warhammer and Mass Effect inspired character concepts people have proposed I'm pretty sure I said that.

...Yes you did. *_*

As for generation ships, those things take forever to get anywhere. I could be Essence 10 by the time I reach a planet. It'd be faster for me to just get the Broken-winged Crane and get that E10 Charm that gives me infinite size.

[Exthalion]

Generation ship != STL

[Hiro Protagonest]

Generation ship != STL

What's STL? I just looked up generation ship on wikipedia.

[Tavar]

What's STL? I just looked up generation ship on wikipedia.

Slower Than Light, as opposed to Faster Than Light.

And, well, it's complicated. You can certainly have a Faster Than Light generational ship, as long as even with your ships speed it would take generations to get to the destination.

I think Exthalion is more referring to a city ship. If you've played Mass Effect, kinda like the Quarian Flotilla. Basically, space migrants.

[Edge]

A Mass Effect and 40k inspired Space Opera Exalted game?

Are you still taking on interested people, Sanguine? Because this might be the perfect opportunity for the Grey Knight-inspired White Reaper Stylist Soulsteel Caste concept I've had brewing for a while.

Or the Eldar Farseer Starmetal Caste.

[Sanguine]

A Mass Effect and 40k inspired Space Opera Exalted game?

Are you still taking on interested people, Sanguine? Because this might be the perfect opportunity for the Grey Knight-inspired White Reaper Stylist Soulsteel Caste concept I've had brewing for a while.

Or the Eldar Farseer Starmetal Caste.

I feel it needs saying that I never said it was based on Mass Effect and 40k, people just sort of jumped on those franchises for character concepts. I mean it is, I just thought it needed saying that I hadn't said so yet.

Seeing as how I haven't actually started recruitment yet, just said I want to do this when Shards comes out. Sure, I'll accept new interest.

[Edge]

I feel it needs saying that I never said it was based on Mass Effect and 40k, people just sort of jumped on those franchises for character concepts. I mean it is, I just thought it needed saying that I hadn't said so yet.

Seeing as how I haven't actually started recruitment yet, just said I want to do this when Shards comes out. Sure, I'll accept new interest.

Noted, on both counts.

[Weimann]

I don't know what you are smoking there. Badass has nothing to do with power level. Harry is probably best statted out as a Dragon-Blooded sorcerer, since he seems to lack a lot in the magical oomph department. He just makes up for it by being experienced and clever.

You kidding me? Harry is a blunt object. Sure, he can use some basic planning and scouting, but mostly he goes straight on and pushes through on grit, determination and inability to comprehend the words "give up". In fact, it's outright stated that he makes up for his lack of technical aptitude by using twice as much power as anyone else.

Edit: Bah, too late.

Anyway, I think Harry could be statted up in quite a few ways. I could see Zenith, Battles, Fire or No Moon.

[Exthalion]

Slower Than Light, as opposed to Faster Than Light.

And, well, it's complicated. You can certainly have a Faster Than Light generational ship, as long as even with your ships speed it would take generations to get to the destination.

I think Exthalion is more referring to a city ship. If you've played Mass Effect, kinda like the Quarian Flotilla. Basically, space migrants.

As I understand it, city ship is as vaguely defined as generation ship. What I meant was that a ship designed such that multiple generations of people can be born, live, and die without ever having to leave is by definition a generation ship.

Thus a giant space battleship in which the current crew is the descendents of the original crew would qualify.

[Sanguine]

Edit: Bah, too late.

Anyway, I think Harry could be statted up in quite a few ways. I could see Zenith, Battles, Fire or No Moon.

Harry Dresden was one of the major inspirations for the Slayer I'm currently playing.

Or at least I am if our ST ever deigns to post again.

[Xefas]

Harry Dresden was one of the major inspirations for the Slayer I'm currently playing.

Slayer is highly appropriate for Harry. Especially if you're using EarthScorpion's coadjutor revision, so coadjutors are more interesting.

[Sanguine]

Slayer is highly appropriate for Harry. Especially if you're using EarthScorpion's coadjutor revision, so coadjutors are more interesting.

We are actually. Though I didn't get a Coadjutor despite really wanting one because the deadline was looming and I just didn't have the time to come up with a second personality.

[Xefas]

We are actually. Though I didn't get a Coadjutor despite really wanting one because the deadline was looming and I just didn't have the time to come up with a second personality.

Perhaps some sort of charismatic temptress. A meticulous plotting web weaver, one might say. Maybe a First Circle descended from Ligier, who was alive as a Deva pre-Primordial War, and is now a... what would one call that? A Fallen Deva...?

Dunno where I'm getting this.

[Sanguine]

Perhaps some sort of charismatic temptress. A meticulous plotting web weaver, one might say. Maybe a First Circle descended from Ligier, who was alive as a Deva pre-Primordial War, and is now a... what would one call that? A Fallen Deva...?

Dunno where I'm getting this.

That actually does fit rather well with how she was portrayed in my backstory. I'll have to see if my ST is okay with me switching around some points to get the background.

[Tavar]

I feel it needs saying that I never said it was based on Mass Effect and 40k, people just sort of jumped on those franchises for character concepts. I mean it is, I just thought it needed saying that I hadn't said so yet.

Seeing as how I haven't actually started recruitment yet, just said I want to do this when Shards comes out. Sure, I'll accept new interest.

To counter this, I will submit a character based either on Picard from the First two seasons of Next Generation, or Janeway as interpreted by Sfdebris.

Seriously, though, I'd be interested as well.

[horngeek]

Anyway, I think Harry could be statted up in quite a few ways. I could see Zenith, Battles, Fire or No Moon.

I mostly see him as a Twilight since he's an investigator, and a wizard. I mean, he does know quite a bit.

So yeah, Twilight Caste with some dots in Craft, dots in Investigation and Lore, not so much Medicine but a few in Occult.

Presence and (probably) Firearms are Favored Abilities.

[golentan]

So, with Exalted Modern coming out my girlfriend and I hit upon an amazing assassination method available to sidereals. You drive your victim along the highway. Then you avoidance kata.

Watch the resulting wreck from the gas station back half a mile down the road. Nobody even knows you were there, and even if the victim survives they can't prove you did anything.

[horngeek]

See, anyone worth spending Essence on to assassinate can probably survive that any number of ways, so the effectiveness is limited.

[Lord Raziere]

oh don't be unfun like that horngeek….that way is AWESOME. now find the fastest car you can, drive at full speed towards some building full of people you hate, and just let it go as you Avoidance Kata….

[golentan]

So, if you're from monterey county and you think you might be in my game, please stay out of the spoilers. Everyone else please put your responses, if any, in spoilers. Thanks.

Spoiler

Show

I've come up with an encounter for my players, as their first "boss fight." They're chasing a really powerful abyssal, and I've had him create a hekatonkhire as a weapons test. I want to know if (in your opinion) it's a fair fight for a group of celestials. I've tried to make it so that if they can keep it from eating the villagers in the town they're in the fight will go their way, but if they grow too callous about bystanders things can turn sour fast. I've also left a vulnerability in it to holy charms. Finally, I've made it so that if they are driven enough they can permanently destroy it despite none of them having spirit killing charms, but if they're flippant with it it may be a recurring foe. I'm a bit worried that Withering Breath is too powerful. And I'm worried that dice pools may be wrong (I tried to put them on the threshhold where they will hit my entirely combat-focused characters (yes, they're all combat junkies) about half the time barring defensive charms/stunting: enough to keep them on their toes but not so much as to completely overwhelm them. Similarly, I keyed the damage to the average soak (about 7-10B, meaning 5-8 dice of damage, meaning 2-4 levels on average).

Anyway, enough ranting. Have a Hekatonkhire.

Thousand Soul Stranglevine
A mass of writhing vines rise from the ground, dozens of them moving in concert like a strange octopus with too many limbs. From the center rises a thick stalk 40 feet tall, topped with a many petaled white flower in which a hungry maw works. Dozens of smaller mawflowers line the vines, gnashing their teeth. The whole plant glows with a sickly green radiance which seems to fade to transparency and resolidify in odd, almost random ways. The Thousand Soul Stranglevine was created by a spell which conglomerated it from the dead spirits of hundreds of animals and dozens of ghosts succored on the wood aspected demesne within a forest, and designed by the necromancy of the Master of Shattered Bones. It is possibly the first hekatonkhire deliberately created by one of the abyssal exalted, intended as a weapons test for the potential destruction of Sijan. The nightmare flower is neither material nor immaterial, but some strange ectoplasmic hybrid which affects both.

Motivation: Devour the souls of the living and the dead.
Attributes: Strength 15, Dexterity 4, Stamina 15, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 6, Perception 3, Intelligence 1, Wits 2
Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 4, Temperance 2, Valor 4
Abilities: Athletics 7, Awareness 2 (movement sense +4), Craft (wood) 7, Dodge 3 (partial dematerializing +7) Integrity 8, Martial Arts 7 (Vines +2), Presence 2 (terrifying +8), Resistance 8, Thrown 6
Special Abilities:

Ectoplasmic rending: The ectoplasmic vines of the stranglevine touch the immaterial more easily than the material, allowing it to always assault immaterial creatures. A living creature slain by the creature's vines does not die to physical wounds, but rather has its soul torn bodily from it before being devoured screaming by the hekatonkhire's mawflowers, the body falling limply to the ground and the spirit permanently destroyed. This feeding process is terrifying to behold, requiring a valor check (difficulty 2) to avoid fleeing from the creature. Spending 2 wp overcomes this unnatural emotion effect, and a character who passes the valor check or spends the willpower is immune to the fear engendered for the remainder of the scene. In addition, the digestion of the spirit's corpus reinvigorates the Stranglevine, giving it 5m for every dot of essence possessed by the victim. This is the only means by which the stranglevine may regain motes. This is a shaping effect.

Necromantic Spores: For a cost of 1m, the Stranglevine may spit forth a spore from any maw. On striking a living creature, it extends barbed tendrils and burrows into the creature's flesh and soul as a ranged clinch which takes no effort to maintain. If the target should win the clinch, they may pry the spore away and cast it aside, where it lies twitching for a few seconds before subsuming On slaying a victim or striking a corpse, the tendrils sink deep into the flesh and begin it moving in twisted puppetry, causing the body to arise as a zombie 6 ticks later.

Twisted Semblance of Life: With sufficient volumes of dead wood and flesh the Stranglevine may spend 10m and make a successful Craft (wood) roll difficulty 4 as simple action taking one long tick to create a necromantic war machine. These shambling wooden monstrosities survive for only a week before decaying away to nothing, consumed by unnatural and hideously toxic mushrooms and disturbing plant life.

Cursed Resilience: By spending 5m per bashing health level or 10m per level, the Stranglevine may instantly heal from any damage it has the motes to recover. This cannot heal aggravated damage.

Withering Breath: When all else fails, the Stranglevine may forego its desire to feed in order to slay its enemy. By spending 20m, the Stranglevine opens all its maws and vomits forth a toxic cloud of death essence as a simple action. This cloud spreads in all directions out to a distance of 200 yards, advancing at a rate of 20 yards/tick until it has reached its full range. All living things within it are exposed to a poison with the statistics of Yozi Venom for each action they remain within the cloud. The cloud lingers for up to an hour before congealing into a shadowland. Living things slain by the cloud waste away and crumble to dust before the eyes of spectators. This mode of death leaves no ghosts behind for the Stranglevine to feed upon

Deathless Seed: When reduced to dying health levels by an attack which does not permanently destroy spirits, the Stranglevine convulses for several minutes before decaying into nothing, collapsing into the underworld as it dies and losing all motes. All that is left behind is a single seed, the size of a coconut, at the center of the decaying ectoplasmic vines outside creation. This seed is bone white and freezing to the touch. It sends out a lure, drawing all ghosts and plasmic entities within 13 miles to it as a social attack affecting non-heroic ghosts with MDV less than 7, costing 1 wp to resist for a scene. Any ghost foolish enough to touch it is consumed instantly as per Ectoplasmic Rending. When the seed has consumed enough ghosts to completely refill its mote pool, it puts out tendrils and rebirths itself as a full stranglevine over the course of a month. This seed may be destroyed by any living thing courageous enough to brave the underworld and destroy it, without fear of being consumed. It has soak and hardness 5, and 7 health levels.

Join Battle: 4 (8 if foe is moving)
Attacks: Vines: Speed 5, Accuracy 13, Damage 15B, Rate 5, Parry 7 (cannot parry lethal)
Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 13, Damage 15B, Rate 5, Parry -
Necromantic Spore: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage Special, Rate 3, Parry -
Withering Breath: Special
Soak: 15B/7L/7A
Corpus Levels: -0x5/-1x10/-2x10/-4x3/Incap
Dodge DV: 7 (4 vs. Strike Immaterial)
Willpower: 10
Essence: 5
Essence Pool: 100/100

Apologies for poor writing.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Party makeup and stats? Saying "celestials" in Exalted is like saying "wizards" in D&D. We know they're powerful, but we don't know even know how powerful.

[golentan]

3 Combat focused solaroids (Dusk, Dawn, and Slayer). 1 combat focused sidereal (chosen of battles). 1 Lunar: proclivities yet unknown. Houserule gives them all free ox bodies equal to stamina. Otherwise, they're character generation.

[Rockphed]

oh don't be unfun like that horngeek….that way is AWESOME. now find the fastest car you can, drive at full speed towards some building full of people you hate, and just let it go as you Avoidance Kata….

Or an airplane. Opens up a whole new level conspiracy theory.

[Arrghus]

So, with Exalted Modern coming out my girlfriend and I hit upon an amazing assassination method available to sidereals. You drive your victim along the highway. Then you avoidance kata.

Watch the resulting wreck from the gas station back half a mile down the road. Nobody even knows you were there, and even if the victim survives they can't prove you did anything.

Given that Avoidance Kata also rearranges reality so it's plausible you are where you are, I suspect this'd end either with the other guy in the driver's seat or with the car stopping somewhere. So you'd have to make sure the other guy knows how to drive and place the car right in front of a major catastrophe to be reasonably sure of it working.

[horngeek]

Yeah, it is a cool idea, but it wouldn't work all that well, to be honest.

There are cooler ways for Sidereals to kill someone.

Anyway, I got a better idea for Space Opera Exalted- character (Dawn Caste, probably) based off this picture.

Probably a Spec. Ops tactical commander/general.

[Rikandur Azebol]

Jump from the speeding car, aimed properly ... and then use Avoidance Kata to not splash yourself ?