Exalted, Third Edition

[Lord Raziere]

I think it may be a bit too early to start worrying about the Sidereals, seeing as how Lunars is only now just at the first draft stage.

Not worried about Sidereals in general. just commenting on specific thing I find strange not worrisome commentary on potential splat in general, honestly with the current design team and how they've handled Dragon-Blooded, I'm not worried about Sidereals or Alchemicals at all, as like Solars and Dragon-Blooded they are pretty conceptually solid from edition to edition despite niggling details, while they seem to have a good idea of where to go with Abyssals and Infernals and I am sure they will be fine as long they stick with the concepts they have in mind for them. all those splats? they'll in all likelihood be fine when they get around to them.

Lunars are indeed the one to worry about out of all the old splats. they got shafted in both editions prior and were never conceptually solid or able to stand on their own two feet. Solars and DBs are the bedrock and therefore are the easiest two Exalts to design, but Lunars need someone to sell them like they've never been sold on before. I think the current design team based on what we've seen so far is up to it, but its a challenge considering what they have to work with.

the splat I'd worry about among the new splats would be Exigents, but thats mostly because two words: Custom Charms. the fluff is good, but the mechanical challenge of trying design create-your-own-exalt is something to watch out for.

[tonberrian]

We already know that 1. Sidereals can get Mastery effects in martial arts, through some sort of shenanigans, and 2. they're the only ones who can learn Sidereal Martial Arts without a teacher. Honestly they don't need anything else to be fine with Martial Arts.

[Lord Raziere]

We already know that 1. Sidereals can get Mastery effects in martial arts, through some sort of shenanigans, and 2. they're the only ones who can learn Sidereal Martial Arts without a teacher. Honestly they don't need anything else to be fine with Martial Arts.

Again, I wasn't talking about Sidereal martial arts in general. I was talking about their specific deal with Immaculate Martial Arts. I'm not seeing where you got this from.

[Kobold-Bard]

Again, I wasn't talking about Sidereal martial arts in general. I was talking about their specific deal with Immaculate Martial Arts. I'm not seeing where you got this from.

They have their own method for accessing Mastery effects. I assumed they will have a similar method for accessing Aura effects (maybe whilst under a Destiny), but admittedly it's not mentioned in the previews.

[Kobold-Bard]

As Dragon-Blooded had "what fire has wrought", the tagline for Lunars will be "fangs at the gate".

[tonberrian]

Though I am somewhat disappointed we didn't get the two warstriders, we got everything else I cared about, so yay Dragonblooded!

[Lord Raziere]

I'm happy with this book to. it actually makes me like both Dragon-Blooded and Solars more because I better understand their places and roles in a way that 2e did not convey. like sure I have Dragon-Blooded concepts but I also have Solar concepts that I want to play now, and in my head I'd build a Dragon-Blooded and a Solar very differently in terms of charms and things I want to pursue with them.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I'm happy with this book to. it actually makes me like both Dragon-Blooded and Solars more because I better understand their places and roles in a way that 2e did not convey. like sure I have Dragon-Blooded concepts but I also have Solar concepts that I want to play now, and in my head I'd build a Dragon-Blooded and a Solar very differently in terms of charms and things I want to pursue with them.

Is it too late to get in on the previews?

[Lord Raziere]

Is it too late to get in on the previews?

The kickstarter is over.....so yes, unfortunately. I've got the backer-only manuscript, but the actual pdf according to the kickstarter itself is estimated to not come until Feb 2019.

[SaurOps]

The kickstarter is over.....so yes, unfortunately. I've got the backer-only manuscript, but the actual pdf according to the kickstarter itself is estimated to not come until Feb 2019.

That's a bit of an "everything goes wrong" estimate, so it could be notably sooner. As the book is already in layout, it could be much sooner, in fact, but Onyx Path doesn't want another KS like the EX3 KS.

[Lord Raziere]

That's a bit of an "everything goes wrong" estimate, so it could be notably sooner. As the book is already in layout, it could be much sooner, in fact, but Onyx Path doesn't want another KS like the EX3 KS.

Yeah, thats why I said that. to make sure we expect the worst and not get excited. hopefully its sooner yes, but its better to expect it to take long and forget about a bit so that you can relax, so that when it does happen you can be pleasantly surprised rather than angry if it was an earlier date that wasn't met.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The kickstarter is over.....so yes, unfortunately. I've got the backer-only manuscript, but the actual pdf according to the kickstarter itself is estimated to not come until Feb 2019.

[Kobold-Bard]

I didn't know about the Antagonist PDFs. Not only did they make the Mouse of the Sun statblock from the 3e leak canon and official (yay glowing mouse familiar), but there's some neat Eclipse-keyword charms in there too. Plus a great spell that lets you eat books to gain the knowledge within.

Speaking of spells, some of the ones in the Dragonblooded book are maddeningly unbalanced.

[lightningcat]

I have only made it through the opening fiction, but so far I am not unhappy. Plus a story staring the Scarlet Empress (I am fairly sure).

[Andreaz]

Speaking of spells, some of the ones in the Dragonblooded book are maddeningly unbalanced.

I am listening.

[tonberrian]

Anyone interested in a 3e Solars game? Trying to draw interest.

And since it would be self-serving to only link my thread, there's a 3e Sidereal game and an 2e Evil Infernals game looking for players and storytellers as well.

[Beans]

I am listening.

As am I. I didn't notice anything seeming crazy imbalanced, but to be fair, I also didn't dig too deeply into them yet.

Anyone interested in a 3e Solars game? Trying to draw interest.

And since it would be self-serving to only link my thread, there's a 3e Sidereal game and an 2e Evil Infernals game looking for players and storytellers as well.

Thank y'all~

[Andreaz]

As am I. I didn't notice anything seeming crazy imbalanced, but to be fair, I also didn't dig too deeply into them yet.

I know a lot of people overreacted to the Maw because it's aggravated damage and battlegroups can do jack about it... But it doesn't do all that much damage. Compare to Death of Obsidian Butterflies:

aoe: pi/2 arc into medium range vs wide pipe-line into medium range.
hit: attribute + ability unblockable (and undodgeable vs bgs) vs attribute+ability undodgeable
damage: threshold success + attribute - attribute vs threshold success + attribute (+ability against bgs).
damage type: aggravated vs lethal
aftereffect: water bottle vs negligible hazard.

Control effect: special creepy melee weapon vs bigger attack pool & stunt fodder

sorta larger aoe, but without aerial targets. Slightly lesser damage, but aggravated. Aggravated is nastier to heal, but kills just the same against anything that isn't a regenerator.

[HighPriest]

The spell I suspect is most likely to make the biggest impact on balance is Virtuous Guardian of Flame. Admittedly, destroying it for a day isn't the hardest thing in the world, but until someone does that, it can make the caster pretty much untouchable by conventional attacks. Up to +6 on both DVs from a non-Charm source (provided by another "entity" in this case) is pretty huge, and even a character with sorcery as a secondary focus is likely to end up with at least +4 or so.

[Morty]

I've had two sessions of an actual Exalted game, finally. A Dragon-Blooded one. Granted, both of them were kind of cut short, but still. In the first game, the rest of the party duked it out with a Night Caste Solar... and my character wasn't there for it. They killed her, though. And now I've got some XP and so many things I could spend it on. I'm running a Wood Aspect outcaste monster-hunter, focusing on Golden Janissary, Survival and Occult.

I've also got an artifact spear without any actual Evocations. Nothing in Arms of the Chosen or What Fire Has Wrought quite fits.

[Lord Raziere]

then your doing better than the game I'm finally in, I'm playing a Twilight sorcerer that I foolishly overspecialized (8 spells, 4 occult charms, 4 lore charms, no combat charms) and got nearly killed in the first combat encounter. a character that seems to need constant revising every time something comes up to make it better from how badly designed they started out as. uuuuugh. I mean sure, she got an awesome moment from finding a way to save her neomah mother from another demon threatening her to send back to Malfeas unless she handed over this artifact she has, which she foiled by binding her mother as a familiar, but she got nearly killed in the process, and this was just the flashback of how the Circle met....

[Andreaz]

The spell I suspect is most likely to make the biggest impact on balance is Virtuous Guardian of Flame. Admittedly, destroying it for a day isn't the hardest thing in the world, but until someone does that, it can make the caster pretty much untouchable by conventional attacks. Up to +6 on both DVs from a non-Charm source (provided by another "entity" in this case) is pretty huge, and even a character with sorcery as a secondary focus is likely to end up with at least +4 or so.

Well, you have to compare it to something else, not just the void.
A bodyguard can do that for you. A fellow circlemate can do so even more strongly. A sorcerer can summon a demon to do that. An occultist can induct a spirit into that.

It's strong, we all agree. "overpowered" doesn't make much sense.

[Andreaz]

I've had two sessions of an actual Exalted game, finally. A Dragon-Blooded one. Granted, both of them were kind of cut short, but still. In the first game, the rest of the party duked it out with a Night Caste Solar... and my character wasn't there for it. They killed her, though. And now I've got some XP and so many things I could spend it on. I'm running a Wood Aspect outcaste monster-hunter, focusing on Golden Janissary, Survival and Occult.

I've also got an artifact spear without any actual Evocations. Nothing in Arms of the Chosen or What Fire Has Wrought quite fits.

Nice.

What is the spear made of? What is its level? Is there any story attached to it?

[Beans]

I'm hoping for the eventual beginning of a Dragonblooded game, and currently am trying to pull down players and an ST for an Underworld/shadowland game using my intensely-PEACH Abyssal homebrew (shameless plug, etc).

Also, re:Evocations... I kind of haven't really done much with them outside of my own attempts to make artifacts. I don't think I've ever gone for a prewritten artifact for its Evocations, nor when I make up artifacts for my characters do I tend to think much besides the attunement bonus. Part of it is probably that I've never really done a combat-focused character and many Evocations tend to be combat-focused, especially given they're usually from weapons or armor.

[HighPriest]

Well, you have to compare it to something else, not just the void.
A bodyguard can do that for you. A fellow circlemate can do so even more strongly. A sorcerer can summon a demon to do that. An occultist can induct a spirit into that.

It's strong, we all agree. "overpowered" doesn't make much sense.

Oh, I agree. There are plenty of other ways to get a similar bonus, but there aren't many that are as low-upkeep as a 2 WP spell that lasts a full day, and while walking around with a lit lantern in bright daylight might seem odd, it's definitely less immediately obvious than being followed around by a blood ape or what have you. I'm not necessarily arguing that it's too powerful for Terrestrial level, just that it is probably the best of the new bunch in my opinion, at least in terms of combat impact. Definitely better than the two decisive attack spells. Both look like reasonable substitutes for Obsidian Butterflies, but I'd imagine most sorcerers won't need more than one of the three.

[Morty]

Nice.

What is the spear made of? What is its level? Is there any story attached to it?

I'm keeping it a 3-dot green jade longfang until I figure it out. It's an heirloom from the clan of monster-hunters the character belongs to. It's got enough of the Dragons' blood to produce Exalted from time to time.

There's a moonsilver direlance in Arms of the Chosen that fits a hunter well, but a direlance wouldn't work with Golden Jansisary or White Reaper. But I suppose I could make it a longfang instead without much of a fuss? And having a moonsilver artifact might have been the reason the clan was attacked by a Lunar.

[Andreaz]

I'm keeping it a 3-dot green jade longfang until I figure it out. It's an heirloom from the clan of monster-hunters the character belongs to. It's got enough of the Dragons' blood to produce Exalted from time to time.

There's a moonsilver direlance in Arms of the Chosen that fits a hunter well, but a direlance wouldn't work with Golden Jansisary or White Reaper. But I suppose I could make it a longfang instead without much of a fuss? And having a moonsilver artifact might have been the reason the clan was attacked by a Lunar.

Galaech-ma, right? It's a good baseline. You can build off hitting particular types of enemies (Zelator is another good one for that), or a stalk/kill dynamic. Or maybe even building up power against an enemy as you hit it.

[Morty]

I'm away from my book right now, but I think so. I don't exactly feel confident creating my own evocations, so I might just ask the ST if taking the artifact and just changing its size would be alright.

[Beans]

It is indeed the Tusk of Gaelech-Ma, and it lets you pick someone as your hunted quarry and get a little bonus against him even before Evocations.
I figure asking your ST if you can just have it be a longfang is a pretty reasonable request, since it doesn't seem to me like it would mess up the theming or be mechanically unbalanced.