Bureaucracy + Larceny character identified.
General Exalted Thread
- Thread starter Aleph
- Start date
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
So I regiggered some stuff, and here is a revised version of the Warstrider. Please comment and Critique.
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The Upright Soldier
White Jade Warstrider
After the fall of the First Deliberative, many factions and Solar Warlords vied for control of creation. One of those was a Chosen of the Sun named Ten Million Stars. Talented in War, his strategems saw victory over army, behemoth, and warstrider alike.
At a parley diner he got into an argument with his host, over the value of having an army at all. His host claimed that a warstrider alone was worth any number of mortal men. Ten Million Stars, having taken down warstriders with mere mortals before, took the opposite position.
The parley ended in disaster as tempers flared and unwise words were said in anger.
Yet the argument had sparked an ember of inspiration in Ten Million Stars, and he built The Upright Soldier to prove that any creature or war machine is stronger when properly supported than when left to fight alone.
Fittingly, he and Soldier were only defeated four centuries later when he was cut off while covering his army's retreat.
Even after his death, The Upright Soldier found itself doing better in the presence of allied armies than alone on the field of honor. Such as the tale of Shogunate officer Shu Len who lost to Ling Chu in a warstrider duel only to crush him in battle two months later.
The Upright Soldier is not a warrior warstrider it seems, but a team player, and other soldiers fight all the harder in it's presence. In appearance, The Upright Soldier is a gigantic man of white jade and marble with a soldier's physique, carrying a shield and spear, and clad in Lamellar armor.
The Upright Soldier still stands, having died on it's feet fighting the Balorian crusade. A backwater threshold town has sprung up around it, believing it to be a statue of some great warrior.
Attunement: 15m
Soak: 15; Hardness: 10
Damage track: −0x5/−1x5/−2x10/−4x10
Speed bonus: +2
Hearthstone slot(s): 3
Era: Falling Stars Interregnum
Standard Armaments:
Shield (Medium Weapon)
Spear (Medium Weapon)
Evocations of The Upright Soldier:
The Upright Soldier counts as exceptional equipment for Command Actions, giving them the usual non-charm bonus die.
Example of the Upright Soldier
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Dissonant
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: None
When fighting alongside The Upright Soldier, allied battle groups gains +1 Might. If they are already Might 3, they instead gain +1 Defense.
Special Activation rules: So long as the Pilot is not Dissonant with Jade, she awakens Example of the Upright Soldier at no cost upon attunement with The Upright Soldier
Shields Overlap
Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Resonant
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisites: Example of the Upright Soldier
The Upright Soldier and any Allied Battle Groups in close range of each other may reflexively take Defend Other Actions to protect each other. This does not count as their combat action for their turn.
Resonant: Whenever an attack is successfully defended against because of this Evocation, the attacker loses 1i.
A Hundred Spears At Dawn
Cost: 2m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: ??
Duration: One Round
Prerequisites: Example of the Upright Soldier
For the rest of the round, The Upright Soldier gains Double 10s on Decisive damage rolls. Additionally, allied battle groups gain Double 10s on their own damage rolls.
The Chain of Command
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration:
Prerequisites: Shields Overlap, A Hundred Spears At Dawn
The Pilot may use The Upright Soldier's devastating action to take command actions.
Power of Teamwork
Cost: 2m; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: The Chain of Command
The Upright Soldier supports it's allies, and is supported in turn. When fighting alongside an allied battle group, the pilot may pay 2 motes to add the [Size] rating of the largest such group to her [Melee or Martial Arts] rolls. Alternatively, they may add [Size/2] to their Defense.
Glory to the Regiment
Cost: 1wp; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisites: The Chain of Command
Whenever an allied battle group crashes an opponent or causes an enemy battle group to lose a point of size, the pilot gains a point of temporary willpower. This cannot take them above their permanent rating.
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The Upright Soldier
White Jade Warstrider
After the fall of the First Deliberative, many factions and Solar Warlords vied for control of creation. One of those was a Chosen of the Sun named Ten Million Stars. Talented in War, his strategems saw victory over army, behemoth, and warstrider alike.
At a parley diner he got into an argument with his host, over the value of having an army at all. His host claimed that a warstrider alone was worth any number of mortal men. Ten Million Stars, having taken down warstriders with mere mortals before, took the opposite position.
The parley ended in disaster as tempers flared and unwise words were said in anger.
Yet the argument had sparked an ember of inspiration in Ten Million Stars, and he built The Upright Soldier to prove that any creature or war machine is stronger when properly supported than when left to fight alone.
Fittingly, he and Soldier were only defeated four centuries later when he was cut off while covering his army's retreat.
Even after his death, The Upright Soldier found itself doing better in the presence of allied armies than alone on the field of honor. Such as the tale of Shogunate officer Shu Len who lost to Ling Chu in a warstrider duel only to crush him in battle two months later.
The Upright Soldier is not a warrior warstrider it seems, but a team player, and other soldiers fight all the harder in it's presence. In appearance, The Upright Soldier is a gigantic man of white jade and marble with a soldier's physique, carrying a shield and spear, and clad in Lamellar armor.
The Upright Soldier still stands, having died on it's feet fighting the Balorian crusade. A backwater threshold town has sprung up around it, believing it to be a statue of some great warrior.
Attunement: 15m
Soak: 15; Hardness: 10
Damage track: −0x5/−1x5/−2x10/−4x10
Speed bonus: +2
Hearthstone slot(s): 3
Era: Falling Stars Interregnum
Standard Armaments:
Shield (Medium Weapon)
Spear (Medium Weapon)
Evocations of The Upright Soldier:
The Upright Soldier counts as exceptional equipment for Command Actions, giving them the usual non-charm bonus die.
Example of the Upright Soldier
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Dissonant
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: None
When fighting alongside The Upright Soldier, allied battle groups gains +1 Might. If they are already Might 3, they instead gain +1 Defense.
Special Activation rules: So long as the Pilot is not Dissonant with Jade, she awakens Example of the Upright Soldier at no cost upon attunement with The Upright Soldier
Shields Overlap
Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Resonant
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisites: Example of the Upright Soldier
The Upright Soldier and any Allied Battle Groups in close range of each other may reflexively take Defend Other Actions to protect each other. This does not count as their combat action for their turn.
Resonant: Whenever an attack is successfully defended against because of this Evocation, the attacker loses 1i.
A Hundred Spears At Dawn
Cost: 2m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: ??
Duration: One Round
Prerequisites: Example of the Upright Soldier
For the rest of the round, The Upright Soldier gains Double 10s on Decisive damage rolls. Additionally, allied battle groups gain Double 10s on their own damage rolls.
The Chain of Command
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration:
Prerequisites: Shields Overlap, A Hundred Spears At Dawn
The Pilot may use The Upright Soldier's devastating action to take command actions.
Power of Teamwork
Cost: 2m; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: The Chain of Command
The Upright Soldier supports it's allies, and is supported in turn. When fighting alongside an allied battle group, the pilot may pay 2 motes to add the [Size] rating of the largest such group to her [Melee or Martial Arts] rolls. Alternatively, they may add [Size/2] to their Defense.
Glory to the Regiment
Cost: 1wp; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisites: The Chain of Command
Whenever an allied battle group crashes an opponent or causes an enemy battle group to lose a point of size, the pilot gains a point of temporary willpower. This cannot take them above their permanent rating.
So my thoughts are as follows, overall I really like it but would change some of the powers.
Example of the Upright Soldier. I would change this one to upping the drill of battle groups first and then giving a elite group a point of might. My thinking here is while might is great it doesn't really help poor drill or average drills units survive morale checks.
Shields Overlap. My thought here is to either double its cost to 6 motes and keep the scene length duration or keep it at 3 and make it a reflexive with a instant duration(maybe a tick?). The second thought is to have it consume the battle groups combat action even if it does not consume the warstriders. Letting your warstrider take advantage of a battlegroups defence while having it still attack is probably to powerful for the mote cost, even at 6.
A Hundred Spears At Dawn. I like this one as is effect wise but would up the mote cost by one. No real reason for it to be honest it just seems a lot of charms seem to be costed at 3.
The Chain of Command. Like this one as is.
Power of Teamwork. Like this one as is.
Glory to the Regiment. I really like the effect but would get rid of the willpower cost and simply have the effect occur only once per scene unless a condition is met. Not really sure what the condition would be at this point though.
That's what they're supposed to do. The number of them who still do only that is very small though.
Spirits are mostly middle management. Those reports can actually do things, assuming that the bureaucracy of heaven acts on them.
Corrupt bureaucracy, pyramid schemes, and lot's of uncomfortable cult exploitation.
- Location
- Quezon City, Philippines
Watching and reporting aren't the only things they do. They're also First Response Troubleshooters. If the river doesn't flow right, drought is happening in winter, or any other aberrant phenomena occurs, they're empowered to fix that by virtue of their position. Then if they can't fix a problem, they call their superiors.
Sadly, the same powers which allow them to fix problems can also be used to caused problems or allows them to act as a Fixer. This allows for the gods to obtain protection money in the form of prayer, thus earning illegal income via graft and corruption.
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
This is brilliant. I'm doing it.
Hmm. Maybe make it 6m, 1wp?
Fair.
I like the idea, but I'm not sure what the reset condition would be either.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Since you wanted ten, what about out-of-battle evocations? Like, I have no idea how this would work, but what about something utility? Maybe involving marching together? I dunno.
Oh! Here's another one, a very minor thing, maybe not an evocation on its own? But a Warstrider seems like the perfect way to be able to gesture and indicate orders. Like how you do with banners or runners? Having a giant robot mime sign-language or something...
The above were ideas I forgot to post earlier. Also, I had another idea: not sure how it would work, but along the same 'marching' line, how fast does the Warstrider move? Is +2 faster than the average soldier?
Oh! Here's another one, a very minor thing, maybe not an evocation on its own? But a Warstrider seems like the perfect way to be able to gesture and indicate orders. Like how you do with banners or runners? Having a giant robot mime sign-language or something...
The above were ideas I forgot to post earlier. Also, I had another idea: not sure how it would work, but along the same 'marching' line, how fast does the Warstrider move? Is +2 faster than the average soldier?
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
+2 speed bonus translates to about 70 miles in ten hours. I don't know how that translates to an army on the march.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Hmm. Wait. Okay, here's a question: just an in-universe question. Is this warstrider faster or slower than a walking man?
Like, forget the numbers for a moment, and speak with the fluff that is within your heart! How fast are you imagining this thing covering ground?
- Location
- Singapore
2 questions. Sorry.
1. Okay, in an extended dice roll for artifacts, heranhal, cooperation, excellencies, nd a flawless workshop all work together to get 10 successes.
So does the artifact happen after a season, or immediately,
2. Ok, you can't get a demon sorcerer. But a nameke can have learn spells like incantation of repair and fugue of truth. What gives?
1. Okay, in an extended dice roll for artifacts, heranhal, cooperation, excellencies, nd a flawless workshop all work together to get 10 successes.
So does the artifact happen after a season, or immediately,
2. Ok, you can't get a demon sorcerer. But a nameke can have learn spells like incantation of repair and fugue of truth. What gives?
- Location
- Spain
Faster, obviously. That's why it has a speed bonus.
(But slower than a horse, than has a +4).
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
If you get the required number of successes to craft an artifact on the first roll, you get it after a season because that's how long the roll takes in-game.
- Location
- my house
See my issue is we are specifically told they aren't supposed to do that. Back during the solar deliberative it was decided gods would instead notify the exalted.
- Location
- Singapore
- Location
- Quezon City, Philippines
The Solar Deliberative no longer exists. The Usurpation happened. And the Great Contagion happened. And the Balorian Crusade happened.
The only Exalted able to do anything to fix problems are the Sidereals, Lunars, the Dragonblooded, and Solars. Sidereals number only in 100, thus they have to delegate. The Lunars are too busy with whatever it is they're doing. The Dragonblooded use the Immaculate Doctrine and Monks, but their reach only extends so far. As for the Solars, well, there's only 150 of them and Creation is huge.
Heaven can't do much due to it being a bureaucracy. It may have manpower in the form of an entire slum filled with unemployed gods, but gods need domains to function. There's no domain/job opening, so that manpower pool is unusable. And if you tell the unemployed Gods in heaven to go to creation, well, they won't go for a number of reasons.
So, a God of River X in a far away rural place can get away with messing around and demanding prayers. Nothing can gainsay the god unless an Exalted or an Audit from Heaven arrives. The latter is unlikely given that the God sends messages in the vein of "Nothing interesting to report. Everything is normal", thus Heaven has no reason to send it's agents. The former is also unlikely given that the Empire can't reach him, Lunars don't care, Sidereals need reports from the Bureaucracy, and the chance of one encountering a Solar is pretty damn unlikely. In the face of freedom from consequences, God of River X can now live like a king an glut itself on Prayers (as long as it conducts its graft and corruption intelligently).
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
Well, I was just wondering whether helping troops keep up with the Soldier is a viable sort of thing. Since you wouldn't want the Warstrider to charge into battle *ahead* of the troops, that'd be entirely against the point, wouldn't it?
- Location
- Virginia
Vance said a while back that they're planning on doing a book about cults and such, and they'll address the significance of gods doing (or not doing) their jobs in that book.
I happen to agree that GoD's portrayal of this is very bad and conveys the impression that gods are pointless and if they didn't exist things would be more or less the same, especially terrestrial gods.
With "Demon of the ____ Circle" you can't specifically make the request "A demon that knows sorcery", but you can make the request "This specific demon that I am acquainted with( who I know is a sorcerer)".
Also it's illegal for First Circles to know Sorcery, but IIRC the Nanekes' whole Motivation is to be killed for knowing too much.
- Location
- my house
Yeah this is basically my issue, and honestly I don't even know why gods have charms since they aren't allowed to do anything. I understand that in thwir corruption they leverage their charms in order to gain power, but why do they have those charms in the first place if all they are supposed to do is report things.
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Increased March speed sounds like an excellent evocation. Not sure how to balance it though.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Hmm, make it an if-then, and make it a relatively small bonus? I mean, is a +1 a huge bonus? Oh, that could be it? If the average soldier goes at +0, and the Warstrider moves at +2, then...
"If the Warstrider slows down (to +1), then the soldiers can speed up (to +1)."
Basically trading speed from the Warstrider for slightly more speed for the troops? Kinda?
Because they were designed by the Primordials when making Creation. The Solar Deliberative told them to stick solely to reporting things, so they could mess around without interference, but they couldn't make any difference to the Primordials' actions at all, so they were supposed to keep things running according to the system that was put in place, so the rulers of the world and the beings they cared about didn't have to unless something was going very wrong.