[Exalted] What are the various power levels of character types?

[nolispe]

As the title. Basically, I understand that it goes
Solar/Abyssal/Infernal
Lunar/Sidereal
Alchemical
Dragonblooded
Dragon King/Spirits
God-Blooded
Essence-using Mortal
Non Essence-using Mortal

Is that right? And where do the fair folk and jadeborn land?

[Draxar]

As the title. Basically, I understand that it goes
Solar/Abyssal/Infernal
Lunar/Sidereal
Alchemical
Dragonblooded
Dragon King/Spirits
God-Blooded
Essence-using Mortal
Non Essence-using Mortal

Is that right? And where do the fair folk and jadeborn land?

Probably about right. Lunars are generally somewhat better than Sidereals at lower Essence levels, but possibly weaker once the Sidereals have got Sidereal Martial Arts. Also, as a general thing, it's easier to play a reasonably powerful Lunar, whereas with Sidereals you have to leverage their charmset to the greatest possible extent to make them really work.

Alchemicals are strange fish. They lack the continuous breadth of the other Exalted, but an Alchemical focused in an area can beat Lunars and Sidereals, and probably approach Solars in that area. And then they can go back to the vats, and refit so they're focused in a different area, and can beat/challenge you there.

Spirits occupy such a range of power levels (and conceptually, they 'start' at or near whatever power level in most cases, rather than having to work their way up like everyone else.

Godblooded have some advantages over 'normal' Essence using mortals, from the merits they can access, and if they're Half-Caste, from the superior charms they can get, but their main advantage is they have backing. A godblood with a few of her daddies charms, versus an enlightened mortal with Sorcery and Terrestrial Martial Arts, is probably going to get her arse handed to her.

Fair Folk (and I'd guess Jadeborn, but I don't know them well enough to be sure) probably fall at the Dragon King level – distinctly more powerful than humans, but their powers have less breadth than those of Exalts. A starting one sufficiently carefully built could beat a starting Dragonblooded, but given time the DB will pull a long way ahead. Of course, you also have the Noble/Non-Noble thing with Fair Folk, as those two are definitely not made equal.

[potatocubed]

The thing to bear in mind with fair folk, as I have discovered in the game I'm currently running, is that they start out very powerful - possibly even Solar-level powerful in a narrow area of expertise - but after that they're static.

My PCs took down the combat monster Lord of Frost and Silver by out-socialising him to isolate him from his lackeys, then using perfect dodges against his auto-hit spear (it's a fair folk charm) and making surprise attacks to bypass his absurd parry DV. Once they started using options he wasn't able to respond to, he went down in short order.

[Swooper]

A related question: How do you gauge the actual difficulty of encounters in Exalted? Eyeball it? Am I too used to the (disfunctional) helping hand of ECLs and CRs? I'll be starting a (Solar) Exalted game in a few weeks and this aspect confuses me. I'd hate to throw something way too hard at them when they have no sense of their own strength and don't know when to walk away, and walkovers are no fun. Any tips?

[Tengu_temp]

A godblood with a few of her daddies charms, versus an enlightened mortal with Sorcery and Terrestrial Martial Arts, is probably going to get her arse handed to her.

Technically, it's impossible to be an enlightened mortal with Sorcery. It requires the expenditure of more BP than you could start with as a mortal, even if you buy 10 points in vices, and the necessary benefit must be bought with BP, not XP.

[The Rose Dragon]

Technically, it's impossible to be an enlightened mortal with Sorcery. It requires the expenditure of more BP than you could start with as a mortal, even if you buy 10 points in vices, and the necessary benefit must be bought with BP, not XP.

There is errata or something somewhere that states that Merits and Flaws can be taken by XP, assuming ST approval. Might be in the White Wolf forums.

Personally, I blame Carl Bowen.

[Draxar]

Technically, it's impossible to be an enlightened mortal with Sorcery. It requires the expenditure of more BP than you could start with as a mortal, even if you buy 10 points in vices, and the necessary benefit must be bought with BP, not XP.

Well firstly, that's just silly. So some way round it is needed.

Secondly, Scroll of Heroes page 49. If you get your enlightened essence in play, you either a) get it for free, b) get flaws/lose stuff equal to the value of the merit, or c) pay XP = double the cost of the merit, going into XP debt if you can't.

The thing to bear in mind with fair folk, as I have discovered in the game I'm currently running, is that they start out very powerful - possibly even Solar-level powerful in a narrow area of expertise - but after that they're static.

My PCs took down the combat monster Lord of Frost and Silver by out-socialising him to isolate him from his lackeys, then using perfect dodges against his auto-hit spear (it's a fair folk charm) and making surprise attacks to bypass his absurd parry DV. Once they started using options he wasn't able to respond to, he went down in short order.

Assuming the auto-hit spear was using Imposition of Law, then either a stunt or any charm aiding their efforts not to be hit will shut that down.

Fair Folk are very variable, but not so much on how well they're made (though it's certainly relevant) but on how well those they face are made – if your game is fairly Chungian (aka optimised), with all the players having the base paranoia combos, and able to perfect, stunt and mote-tap the Raksha, then they'll take them down fairly easily. Whereas at lower levels of optimisation, the high stats of the Fair Folk will be rather more scary.

A related question: How do you gauge the actual difficulty of encounters in Exalted? Eyeball it? Am I too used to the (disfunctional) helping hand of ECLs and CRs? I'll be starting a (Solar) Exalted game in a few weeks and this aspect confuses me. I'd hate to throw something way too hard at them when they have no sense of their own strength and don't know when to walk away, and walkovers are no fun. Any tips?

I've not ST'd myself, but I'd suggest looking at the Combat Strategy pages from 247 of the core on, working out where your players fall on that, and using that to make foes that will challenge, but not obliterate, them.

[Kylarra]

A related question: How do you gauge the actual difficulty of encounters in Exalted? Eyeball it? Am I too used to the (disfunctional) helping hand of ECLs and CRs? I'll be starting a (Solar) Exalted game in a few weeks and this aspect confuses me. I'd hate to throw something way too hard at them when they have no sense of their own strength and don't know when to walk away, and walkovers are no fun. Any tips?

I use Epsilon's NPC system as a guide. There's a section on assigning stats by challenge rating, and you can eyeball from there depending on the opfu levels of your group.

[nolispe]

Right, so where do Fair Folk Nobles and Fair Folk Commoners land, respectivily?

[The Demented One]

Right, so where do Fair Folk Nobles and Fair Folk Commoners land, respectivily?

Sub-terrestrial. Maybe roughly on par with a God-Blood in some areas.

[Deca]

Doesn't the Fair Folk power level also depend on if they're in the Wyld or not? Would a raksha inside the Wyld be considered any higher on the powerscale?

[The Rose Dragon]

Doesn't the Fair Folk power level also depend on if they're in the Wyld or not? Would a raksha inside the Wyld be considered any higher on the powerscale?

Not really. I mean, they would certainly grow more powerful, but not enough to increase their place on the power scale. Most of their Wyld-exclusive abilities work only on creatures of the Wyld, and others have a fairly easy way to resist.