Incidentally, if you squint just a bit, you seem to be describing an hipotetical version 2.0 of the Nocturnals. Not 100% right,(Nocturnals can time travel, but they have a lot of limitations on what exactly they can do. You can basically only save a little number of unimportant mortals.) but not that distant.
Given that he Jadeborn are still around, maybe the backstory can be modified a bit?
Something like being initially sealed (Maybe Autochton was trying to make them perfect before running away, and thus they weren't completed.), and the great contagion+ raksha army unsealed them accidentally? Then they can met the Jadeborn, and, if they make obvious to be the handywork of Autochthon, become a important part of their culture. Their very dwarflike culture.
Take it with a bit of salt, but i am almost sure there was a similiar thing going on with the Dragon Kings, only more like a fusion between a DK and a god: the end result was easily high celestial exalted tier, but both of the components were rarer(you needed a strong DK and god to obtain any result) and metaphysically much squishier. (An exaltation can be reincarnated as long as humans exists, a Dragon King need time to gain sapience and a strong god need even more time to become strong.)
Incidentally, all of this talk filled me with a question: was there any game/story set in the years immediately following the primordial war/the first years of the first age?
It should be an interesting setting: the Exalted have won, but the scars of the war are still fresh. Abominations still roam the land, the geomancy is shot to hell, and it was probably only thanks to the help of the Jadeborn that any kind of infrastructure exists. Every original kind of exalted is still around, and they are generally all allied together, and presumibly only few Elders are around, even if most exalted around have probably lived throught the war.
Take it with a bit of salt, but i am almost sure there was a similiar thing going on with the Dragon Kings, only more like a fusion between a DK and a god: the end result was easily high celestial exalted tier, but both of the components were rarer(you needed a strong DK and god to obtain any result) and metaphysically much squishier. (An exaltation can be reincarnated as long as humans exists, a Dragon King need time to gain sapience and a strong god need even more time to become strong.)
Take it with a bit of salt, but i am almost sure there was a similiar thing going on with the Dragon Kings, only more like a fusion between a DK and a god: the end result was easily high celestial exalted tier, but both of the components were rarer(you needed a strong DK and god to obtain any result) and metaphysically much squishier. (An exaltation can be reincarnated as long as humans exists, a Dragon King need time to gain sapience and a strong god need even more time to become strong.)
Given that he Jadeborn are still around, maybe the backstory can be modified a bit?
Something like being initially sealed (Maybe Autochton was trying to make them perfect before running away, and thus they weren't completed.), and the great contagion+ raksha army unsealed them accidentally? Then they can met the Jadeborn, and, if they make obvious to be the handywork of Autochthon, become a important part of their culture. Their very dwarflike culture.
The Jadeborn don't really make sense within the setting as is–they're poorly integrated in ways that run counter to human (and as presented, Jadeborn) nature. They apparently don't do trade with the Guild, despite supply stuff at least as useful as the Rhaksha do, and without killing the merchants just for lulz. The darkbrood they fight underground are... never really mentioned anywhere else, even if it would make sense.
So, these guys are instead of the Jadeborn, essentially, with the Jadeborn replaced with biologically humanish guys.
Way back when I said that the Company Rules from Reign would work well for simulating large organizations in Exalted. Mostly because I've been on an ORE binge and that they're system neutral enough that it's not too hard to convert them. The other major reason was because they abstract the numbers away so you don't have mess with them which I really appreciate. So I'm going to expand on that and make a few tweaks so it works better for Exalted, in my opinion at least.
Exalted Organization Rules (Reign Edition)
What is a Company?
It is a group of people brought together for a goal and made up of qualities which express their strengths and weaknesses.
What are Qualities?
Qualities are essentially the stats of your Company and the means by which they get things done. There are six qualities to keep track of. Might: How much your group can accomplish through the application of violence. Treasure: Your group's fiscal wherewithal and fiduciary infrastructure. Also, cash. Influence: Soft influence. Persuasion. The stuff of eavesdropping and smear campaigns. Territory: Land, property and people who do what you say. Sovereignty: The loyalty of your followers and their initiative in pursuing your will.
Normally, Companies have a cap of six for Qualities but I've expanded it to ten for Exalted to account for the higher power level. The approximate levels of competence can roughly be construed below:
How do I affect Qualities?
There are several ways to affect Qualities, four permanent and the two temporary. The permanent way is to increase them via combining which is merging with another Company, conquest which is reducing two of another Companies Qualities to zero one of which must be Territory or Sovereignty, the use of Sorcery or select charms, and finally by spending Experience. The temporary way is via most Charms or through special actions the players can take to swing things in their favor. Some examples are:
Might: Surprise, entrenchments, assassination, scare tactics, hire muscle Treasure: Get a loan, debase your currency, shake down a neighbor Influence: Overwhelming charm, bluffs, threats, bribes, blackmail Territory: Work your people mercilessly, like a tyrant. Sovereignty: Holidays, just decisions, benign neglect with high Territory
Typical bonuses and Penalties:
Major Failure: -3d Significant Failure: -2d Minor Failure: -1d 'Insert Approriate Name': +0d Minor Success: +1d Significant Success: +2 Major Success: +3
How do I use Qualities?
There are ten basic actions you can take with your Qualities. They are:
Might + Treasure: This is a direct, physical attack. It's resisted with Might + Territory. Might + Influence: Unconventional warfare or, if you prefer, terrorism. It's resisted with Might + Sovereignty. Might + Territory: Defends against direct physical assault. Attacker rolls Might + Treasure. Might + Sovereignty: Policing your territory, protecting your citizens, serving and protecting. If you have a concerted gang against you, they
resist with Influence + Might. Treasure + Influence: Espionage. As opposed to merely gathering information, this is the active pursuit of secrets desperately concealed. It's
rolled against Influence + Territory. It can also be used to plant ideas and influence opinions. Treasure + Territory: Cultural improvement. Rolled against no Difficulty, any success gives a temporary +1 to Sovereignty for the next month. Rolled against Difficulty = current Sovereignty can give a permanent +1. You can only do this once a month and it can't raise Sovereignty above 5. Treasure + Sovereignty: Improves your reputation. Rolled against no Difficulty, any success gives a temporary +1 to Influence the next month. Rolled against Difficulty = current Influence can give a permanent +1 against a specific target. You can only do it once per month and it can't raise Influence above 5. Influence + Territory: Counter-Espionage. Rolled against Influence + Treasure in order to protect your secrets. Influence + Sovereignty: Gather information. It's against a Difficulty, or against Influence + Treasure if you're trying to expose hidden enemies. Territory + Sovereignty: Rally people to your banner who are willing to fight for your cause. It's made against a Difficulty = Might and it gives a permanent +1 increase to Might for that opponent.
If you wish to take multiple actions subtract -2 from the Quality used after the first use. For clarification, if a Company had Might 7, Treasure 5, Sovereignty 5 and attacked his foe the first roll would be 12 (Might 7+Treasure 5). If he failed, he can try again with 8 (Might 5+Treasure 3). Now if he was attacked he would roll 8 (Might 3+Sovereignty 5) for defense.
What are Assets?
If Qualities tell what your Companies can do on a broad basis then Assets tell what you're specifically good at. They are narrow in scope and apply a +2 bonus when used. An example Asset would be Shogunate Ships which give the Realm +2 to Might rolls when attacking at sea.
Company Levels
Not all companies are equal and it's not uncommon that they operate on entirely different scales. To help deal with that issue there are three levels on which it is assumed Companies operate. They are:
Local - A thieves guild, small village, mercenary group National - A city-state, House of the Realm, Guild Prince Global - The Realm, the Guild, Lookshy
When interacting with a Company on a higher level you take -4 dice from each Quality except Sovereignty for each level of difference. For clarification, a Local Company with Might 10 when attacking a National Company would now have Might 6 and if it had attacked a Global Company would have Might 2.
How would I stat out the Realm?
It'd be a Global Company with maxed out Qualities and loaded down with Assets. I would advise against using the Realm though as that would be saying that it's marshaling it's full might against a target which is really unlikely. Instead, it would be better to use the Houses which are National level entities which make up the Realm and actually give the player a chance of fighting against them. In tearing down the Houses you weaken the Realm improving your chances of facing it head on if that's your goal.
What does everything Cost?
To be blunt, I don't know. It's something you're going to have to figure out for yourself unfortunately as I'm not knowledgeable enough on Exalted to convert the costs.
Where can I find more Information?
You can buy Reign Enchiridion which is where I got the Company Rules from. Or you can also look at the Reign Company Reference Sheet which is what I used for this post and make stuff up from there.
Notes
I'm sure there's some things I missed so feel free to ask questions and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.
Autocthon and the Incarna designed the Exalted Host first and foremost as weapons, soldiers who were capable of fighting and winning against unimaginable odds. Their battle would, and did, shake the foundations of reality, so Autocthon created additional champions, men and women who would ensure the survival of the world rather than the destruction of the Primordials. For their great deeds the Solars were given the Mandate of Heaven, and control over everything that walked, slithered, and crawled over Creation. These "Arken" were given the Mandate of Earth, burdened and privileged to protect Gaia's foundations from the horrors beneath and the excesses above.
For the most part, they have accomplished this, staying not so much hidden as simply out of sight, silently bent of preserving their underground kingdoms. These communities are hidebound and traditional, quick to anger if guests do not observe proper rituals and occasionally sluggish on remembering to explain things. The Arken themselves do not have Charms in the same way that their Exalted Kin do, for their power comes from without rather than within. Instead, Autocthon and Gaia gave them access to the same font of power that Elementals spring from, a narrow tap through which the limitless power of the Primordial can flow.
In the past thirty years, things have taken a turn for the worse: hordes of dark creatures have invaded the realm of the Arken, forcing them to abandon all but the most secure holds. Some Arken have turned to the Realm–or other forces–for aid, others have buckled down in their fortresses, determined to outlast this invasion, while still more seek to reactivate their own Defense Grid, a near mirror of the Realm's Manse, that they believe will stop the invasion. Unfortunately, said superweapon was one of the first casualties in the war, and it will take a near-suicidally brave band to push through the monsters that lurk below and reactivate it.
Given that he Jadeborn are still around, maybe the backstory can be modified a bit?
Something like being initially sealed (Maybe Autochton was trying to make them perfect before running away, and thus they weren't completed.), and the great contagion+ raksha army unsealed them accidentally? Then they can met the Jadeborn, and, if they make obvious to be the handywork of Autochthon, become a important part of their culture. Their very dwarflike culture.
Well, there is another problem, I wondering which of the version I would've choose, maybe you guys would help me out with this.
There's three version that I thought:
Basically, this Exalt, which is called the Ore Exalt, was created by Autochton, but was never used as it still in the prototype stage and was left buried under a small village in the mountain. The main character would found it by accident, as it fall into the cave as a young boy, then being Exalt into it, completely unaware of it. While he did gotten use to it, there was a ancient prophecy concerning him that only the Sidereal, or Chejop Kejak, know about it:
On the Dark Time, when the Creation would fall from the missing ruler was the time when a [color= blue]Fateless Human[/color], who ascended into a being only the One who created it know, would one day rise up and destroy the very chain that bind the humans, and would one day strike down toward [color= Green]The One who had Ruined the Golden Age[/color].
Naturally, Kejak wanted to make sure that the prophecy won't fulfill, so he would sent the Wyld Hunt and kill any Solars... But what he didn't know was that the prophecy was telling of the Ore Exalt, not the Solar. The plot kick started when the MC's village was attacked by the Wyld Hunt, as there was a "Solar" living there. Take a guess where that lead to?
Basically a armies of the humans from outside of Creation invade the land to not such uniting Creation, but to also uniting the Underworld and the Malfeas. They worship the "Ancestors", which are in reality the Solars, and there are over 127 of the Ore Exalted.
For those of you who want Chejop Kejak to be killed, then this is one of them.
The third one is basically the one you guys suggested.
I very much like the candle Charms in the appendix. They evoke a very specific image.
Wrt The Map is the Territory, I like the idea, but it seems overpowered. I would up the mote commitment to about a quarter or a third of what you have at Essence 5.
"The Map is the Territory" seems OP. What if an E5 Solar draws a Picasso map of all Creation, or a landslide waiting to happen over an enemy city? I'd throw in a range restriction at least, or maybe make it apply only to terrain that the Solar personally owns or made with other charms like WCT.
Its prerequisite, Ominscient Surveyor Meditation, seems strange for Solars. How does perfection let you draw a map of somewhere you've never seen? Knowledge ex nihilo isn't one of their themes, I think.
This was an objection I had to the canon craft charms, but I really do dislike the fact that Solar Tony Stark isn't an option. You have a some Charms that allow you to, when reforging or remaking (presumably other people)'s Artifacts, change up their Evocations and get one slightly earlier, but nothing that allows you to use Artifacts you've created better/more efficiently.
Why not have a Charm that gives you free (or half price) purchases of the first Evocation of any Artifact you create, so that Solar Tony Stark actually has an incentive to not just give all the sweet weapons he makes to Solar Captain America?
This was an objection I had to the canon craft charms, but I really do dislike the fact that Solar Tony Stark isn't an option. You have a some Charms that allow you to, when reforging or remaking (presumably other people)'s Artifacts, change up their Evocations and get one slightly earlier, but nothing that allows you to use Artifacts you've created better/more efficiently.
Why not have a Charm that gives you free (or half price) purchases of the first Evocation of any Artifact you create, so that Solar Tony Stark actually has an incentive to not just give all the sweet weapons he makes to Solar Captain America?
Honestly, I would rule most of the things that Solar Tony Stark makes as having a max of one or two Evocations. Most of the capabilities are just "on attunement" type stuff. I would save the full Evocation trees for the super-special ones like the Hulkbuster.
Honestly, I would rule most of the things that Solar Tony Stark makes as having a max of one or two Evocations. Most of the capabilities are just "on attunement" type stuff. I would save the full Evocation trees for the super-special ones like the Hulkbuster.
Which is why giving him heavily discounted/free purchases of the first Evocation or two makes a lot of sense: Solar Tony Stark can automatically put on and use pretty much all of his suits at 100% while Solar James Rhodes needs to specifically train to use War Machine and can't really swap things out easily. The really heavily customized suits Tony makes will still require training and experience, of course, but he'll still be better with them off the bat than Solar Captain America.
So hey, got to reading my 3E PDF in preparation for a game I'm running in the foreseeable future. Best edition so far. Nice teasers on the directions, rules are relatively streamlined except for charms being somewhat less powerful as the tradeoff for having so many.
Only one instance of the word 'rape' and it's in the context of "you can restrain yourself from murder or rape" during a specific limit break.
I very much like the candle Charms in the appendix. They evoke a very specific image.
Wrt The Map is the Territory, I like the idea, but it seems overpowered. I would up the mote commitment to about a quarter or a third of what you have at Essence 5.
Glad someone likes the candle Charms. They didn't get much response when I first posted them.
As for TMIST, I can increase the commitment. I kept it at 10m because I expect anyone using it to keep it up long-term while doing other stuff, which makes mote commitments a lot more burdensome.
"The Map is the Territory" seems OP. What if an E5 Solar draws a Picasso map of all Creation, or a landslide waiting to happen over an enemy city? I'd throw in a range restriction at least, or maybe make it apply only to terrain that the Solar personally owns or made with other charms like WCT.
Its prerequisite, Ominscient Surveyor Meditation, seems strange for Solars. How does perfection let you draw a map of somewhere you've never seen? Knowledge ex nihilo isn't one of their themes, I think.
The idea is that, since the speed of the changes is largely undefined, the ST will make everything slow enough to be roughly fair. Bigger changes are supposed to be slower, so Picasso-ing Creation should be totally impractical.
I do like the ownership suggestion, though. The whole justification for the Charm is that the Solar's authority trumps mere reality. And that would work well with that. Might use that limitation instead of increasing the mote cost.
As for OSM, I'm playing on the Craftsman Needs No Tools/Glorious Solar Saber concept. Solars can just do things, without having the logical prerequisites. And I think knowledge ex nihilo is at least vaguely Solar.
This was an objection I had to the canon craft charms, but I really do dislike the fact that Solar Tony Stark isn't an option. You have a some Charms that allow you to, when reforging or remaking (presumably other people)'s Artifacts, change up their Evocations and get one slightly earlier, but nothing that allows you to use Artifacts you've created better/more efficiently.
Why not have a Charm that gives you free (or half price) purchases of the first Evocation of any Artifact you create, so that Solar Tony Stark actually has an incentive to not just give all the sweet weapons he makes to Solar Captain America?
I have no objection to a Charm like that. I just didn't think of one while writing this up.
Celestial Reforging Technique was intended for a Tony Stark type. My comment on it, while writing it, was "Solar Tony Stark should be able to reconfigure his armour. And if he kills the Mask of Winters, and forges the Deathlord's body into his suit, he should be able to get some ghostly Evocations by doing so." But it was one of the last Charms I wrote, and I didn't really give much thought to that kind of character earlier in the process.
The tricky thing, I think, is to write the Charm in a way that's not abusable. One free Evocation per Artifact encourages making dozens of 3-dot Artifacts because each one is basically 10xp.
The tricky thing, I think, is to write the Charm in a way that's not abusable. One free Evocation per Artifact encourages making dozens of 3-dot Artifacts because each one is basically 10xp.
Attunement costs are still a things though, so actually using dozens of 3-dot Artifacts would pretty much wreck your ability to do anything. What you would do instead is what Tony Stark actually does: have dozens of different suits/gadgets, but only use a small handful at any given time.
Attunement costs are still a things though, so actually using dozens of 3-dot Artifacts would pretty much wreck your ability to do anything. What you would do instead is what Tony Stark actually does: have dozens of different suits/gadgets, but only use a small handful at any given time.
I'd say just borrow Perfected Battle Array and call it a night
The cahrm in question:
Cost: —; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3; Type: Permanent Keywords: Mirror (Blades Well-Blooded), Native Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: None
Capable of mastering all forms of combat, a Solar need not
limit herself to a single weapon. This Charm represents the
Lawgiver's mastery of and kinship with all forms of tactile artifact weaponry. When attuning multiple artifact weapons, the
Solar commits Essence to the weapon with the highest attunement cost. All additional artifact weapons cost only a single
mote to attune. The Solar may attune artifacts up to double
the mote cost of the initial attunement. For example, she pays
an attunement cost of five motes to attune a daiklave, and may
now attune five additional weapons, each for a single mote,
provided each weapon has a commitment cost equal to or less
than five motes. If she attempts to add a weapon to her array
which has a higher commitment cost than the most expensive
of her current weapons, the original highest-cost weapon in her
current panoply of attuned weapons transfers all but one mote
to the new highest-cost weapon and the Solar attunes the new
weapon by paying the difference.
The Lawgiver may expressly use this Charm to reduce the
attunement cost of artifact weapons for use with combat abilities other than Melee, however it does not reduce the cost to
attune armor, N/A-rated artifacts or non-weapon artifacts.
At Essence 4+, once the Solar has attuned enough weapons
to double the commitment cost of the highest-cost weapon in
her array, all additional artifact weapons have an attunement
cost of zero motes. At Essence 5+, the power of her attunement expands further: the Lawgiver may reach the threshold
of zero mote attunement after increasing her total commitment
by only 50%, rounded up. For example, at Essence 5+ the Solar
attunes a daiklave for five motes. The next three weapons she
attunes will each cost a single mote, and all weapons beyond
that will cost zero motes.
Glad someone likes the candle Charms. They didn't get much response when I first posted them.
As for TMIST, I can increase the commitment. I kept it at 10m because I expect anyone using it to keep it up long-term while doing other stuff, which makes mote commitments a lot more burdensome.
I think it was the fact that the candles counted as natural sunlight that did it for me. I immediately started thinking of how to use that. Things like ringing a shadowland in them to contain the Dead or equipping an army with them if you have to fight Erembour.
With TMItT, I consider it powerful enough that a crippling cost is appropriate. Plus, it would mostly be used in downtime. And if you suddenly need your whole motepool available, it would make sense to drop the commitment, rather than have an overall lower cost. After all, you don't really have any big requirements to reactivate it, just motes and a map. I would definitely second @Peanuckle'so suggestion for ownership.
That seems like it would end up being broken as hell after a while. An alternate approach would to be the ability to make Artifact Upgrades, and essentially turn high-end Artifacts into Alchemical Charms. When you need a Dragon Sigh Wand in the palm of your Artifact superheavy plate, you design it so it has an attunement cost of (+x) as a modifier to the armor attunement.
With TMItT, I consider it powerful enough that a crippling cost is appropriate. Plus, it would mostly be used in downtime. And if you suddenly need your whole motepool available, it would make sense to drop the commitment, rather than have an overall lower cost. After all, you don't really have any big requirements to reactivate it, just motes and a map. I would definitely second @Peanuckle'so suggestion for ownership.
That seems like it would end up being broken as hell after a while. An alternate approach would to be the ability to make Artifact Upgrades, and essentially turn high-end Artifacts into Alchemical Charms. When you need a Dragon Sigh Wand in the palm of your Artifact superheavy plate, you design it so it has an attunement cost of (+x) as a modifier to the armor attunement.
Cool idea, but I don't think it sounds like the kind of thing that should be handled with Charms. If your armour has optional guns, that's a feature of the armour. Or maybe of the guns.
Attunement costs are still a things though, so actually using dozens of 3-dot Artifacts would pretty much wreck your ability to do anything. What you would do instead is what Tony Stark actually does: have dozens of different suits/gadgets, but only use a small handful at any given time.
Eh. You're not wrong, but I'm still pretty sure such a Charm would be abusable. xp shenanigans almost always are. I guess canon Charms already allow for worse, but I hold myself to a higher standard than the one that created Exegesis of the Distilled Form.
Maybe making Evocations easier to buy is the wrong approach. Maybe we should try making them more effective in play. Would an extra mote/wp pool that you can only use for Evocations be unfair?
Cool idea, but I don't think it sounds like the kind of thing that should be handled with Charms. If your armour has optional guns, that's a feature of the armour. Or maybe of the guns.
I really really like Sidereal Martial Arts. I've almost never gotten to use them in a game, but when I first encountered them, they spoke to me, helped me understand what I then and now believe was an important aspect of Exalted. That a game could allow for this. I to this day have a positive emotional response to Sidereal Martial Arts.
They're also really confusing, broken or unusable.
So, SMA occupies an interesting place in Exalted's development. I don't have the full story- I wasn't here for Sidereals 1e, or the good and bad elements that were developed at that period.
I can say with some reasonable confidence an original objective of the Sidereal's closed charmset and their emphasis on the Martial Arts, was to create a kind of situation where- if a Sidereal has to solve a problem, they create a Martial Art (and raises a dojo) to solve it. This might not be true, might not be accurate, and is certainly almost never playable, but it to me was indicative of the kind of generational gameplay that Exalted was meant to enable.
On a related note, it's fairly reasonable to take Prismatic Arrangement of Creation as the 'Sidereal's Essence 4-5 charmset. It fills several niches and provides more than a few benefits- though it also in a strictly quantitative sense, has the most 'muscle'.
The last important consideration is that at the time of their publication, we had no high-essence Charms at all. There were no guidelines yet, no long held experience of how to write Essence 6+ effects. Eventually it was decided that you shouldn't. (I admittedly disagree, but I am most definitely an exception, not the rule).
With that in mind, I hope you'll enjoy your guided tour into my favorite Sidereal Martial Art…
Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic Style
So, two things before we begin: Terrestrial Martial Arts are best described as role/job arts. Seafaring Hero, Ill-Lilly, Crimson Pentacle, Night Breeze. Etc. They all were packaged as a kind of 'This is how this kind of person moves/acts/dresses' deal. They were specific, but not so specific as to be cheesy.
Celestial Martial Arts, at their best, embody broad platonic concepts or identifiers. Tiger Style is not one kind of tiger, but tigers in general. There are some exceptions- legacy code from 1st edition or rough places that don't quite fit this model, but that still covers it.
Sidereal Martial Arts, meanwhile, embody concepts of reality itself. Prismatic Arrangement of Creation is in fact, a Martial Art that emulates the entirety of Creation, from demesne to god to Essence. Charcoal March of Spiders is the martial art of Fate and Consumption.
The other thing to talk about, are Sidereal Sutras.
I don't know if Sutras existed in 1st edition or not. I can reasonably guess they were included as a kind of pressure valve/balance on non-sidereals learning the styles, and to make up for a Sidereal's own meager mote pools. Also before I forget, it's worth noting that in a lot of ways, a Sidereal Martial Art exists as a boss fight suite- taken as unlimited by an unawares player or storyteller, SMA almost inevitably unbalance a game.
Anyway, the function of a Sutra is such- with a Miscellaneous Action and 1wp, a sidereal can make a Student or Elder Sutra. Once activated, the Sutras float around the Sidereal, offering a 5m or 10m+1wp discount on their SMA charms to a minimum of 0m 0wp. It specifies that this discount is applied to an entire combo, as opposed to each charm in a combo- incentivizing single charm use instead of megacombos.
The other note, is that Sutras are meant to be the 'SMA' equivalent of Prayer Strips, from native Sidereal Charms. While the book does not say otherwise, I believe it is safe to assume that destroying a Sutra nullifies the benefit.
Are Sutras a good idea, mechanically? Experience with other discount effects tends to tell us 'No'. I'm sure with effort, it could work- and in context of how often it comes up, it probably works out okay in a table-to-table sense. We have to remember that notable SMA battles in actual tabletop games are rare, but idle theorycrafting is common. Useful! But common.
So, we accept that SMA charms are balanced or 'balanced' under the assumption that they might have 5 or 10m+1wp of their costs waived due to a piece of paper.
Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic Style is based on the themes and functions of mind, memory, learning and more. It is the mental martial art. You also might have noticed that most SMA have a color name. Logic Style and Prismatic Arrangement of Creation are two of the exceptions, insofar as not naming a specific color like Crimson, Charcoal or Citrine.
Another thing worth noting, is that SMA charms in their own way established, and were required to be small sub-systems in their own right. Exceptions within exceptions, or chains of operations. As the design of Exalted 2nd edition matured, some Charms became simpler and more elegant, others did not. Sapphire Veil of Passion, being the last printed SMA late in 2e's life, is notably simpler compared to what came before.
Logic Style itself cannot be practiced in armor, and must be performed with natural weapons.
The Student's Sutra of Understanding: Four maidens walked through the door…
Last Heart Enclosure
Weighing in at 20m+1wp before Sutras, Last Heart Enclosure is weaponized solipsism. Not counting the crunch and name, the charm is around 430 words long. It is a Simple, Speed 5 DV-2 action with the Combo-OK, Illusion and Obvious keywords. It requires Martial Arts 6 and Essence 6.
This Charm is modular- it can be used two ways. The first is simply attempting to ensnare a target with the effect, using an [Appearance + Martial Arts] roll against the defender's Dodge MDV. The Charm's illusion effect is to essentially convince the target that they are only real in the presence of the Martial Artist- that they are your dream, and must please you to continue existing. Interestingly, the charm explicitly specifies that it is always in line with the victim's Temperance, reducing their MDV by 2 if the target's Temperance is 3+. This is essentially saying "This is honorable/setting aside your honor is positive."
For those who want a more secure hold, the Charm allows you to initiate what is essentially a mental clinch. The Charm does not say so, but it's safe to assume the Clinch is a standard [Dexterity + Martial Arts] action, with riders! (Yes, I magine you are all clutching your hearts as your blood freezes in your veins).
This mental clinch is actually better against stronger-willed opponents; If the clinch rolls fewer successes than the target has Willpower, add 1 automatic success. This also applies when maintaining control of the clinch. This Charm is essentially trying to say that extremes of virtue and willpower can be exploited. Remember that, in context of how everyone absolutely needs WP10 to function in most 2e games.
Now to recap- if you're doing the Clinch, you do that as part of the Simple Charm. Once you nail the clinch, the Charm specifies that it is now maintained with a reflexive action on your acting tick- you can continue to do whatever you want while psychically holding someone down with how poised and pretty you are.
Once the clinch ends, by failure or release, the Sidereal adds one success per clinch roll to the original [Appearance + Martial Arts] roll to steal their secret heart. So if you hold on for 5 actions, that's +5 autosux against their DMDV.
I've already summarized the Illusion effect, but it bears repeating- once the Illusion is in place, the subject believes they are a figment of the Martial Artist's mind. This creates a secondary Motivation for that person- "Being known by [the character]. Further, he only recovers Willpower in the character's presence. When he is not present or sure the Martial Artist is not aware of him, the victim will work to catch their attention. The Charm points out the main exception of the victim believing the Martial Artist will return.
In terms of effect, this is actually a very long-winded way to explain how to get disposable minions as a Sidereal. You use this Charm on someone, enthrall them, and basically hold them hostage with their own existence.
The last paragraph of the Charm, (yes, paragraph) details its resistance mechanics. Resisting this costs 2wp per scene, and once 20wp is spent this way, the victim shakes free of the delusion. It goes on to say that any Charm or magical effect that could break the illusion multiplies its Essence Cost by the target's Temperance.
Now, remember, you can't gain WP outside of the Martial Artist's presence, (baring other Charms I suppose). So that minimum ten scenes of spending willpower can be extended, perhaps.
That last clause about cost multipliers is generally so that the victim has to likely wait until they've rested for quite a bit, in order to pop the cost. The Charm Solars get to deal with this- Transcendent Hero's Meditation, allows you to waive the mote cost for agg damage, while Elusive Dream Defense can in fact flat out no-sell this Charm and others like it.
Birth of the Perfect Ego Juggernaut
For 15m+1wp, this Supplemental is a doozy. It also clearly nails a kind of 'careful what you wish for' effect that speaks to me of Sidereal themes.
This Charm supplements a out-of-combat touch, or an in-combat attack that must pierce defenses (get past soak), but does not have to inflict levels of damage. (Try comboing this with White Veil, laugh). It imbues an Illusion Effect on the target as Unnatural Mental Influence.
The victim of this Charm is informed (in character) that they must make a subconscious choice between being blessed by fate and destiny, or denying it.
If they embrace it, they waive their mental defense against the Illusion. If they fight it, the Martial Artist rolls [Martial Arts + Essence], against the target's Dodge MDV, adding [Performance] automatic successes to the roll. Note that this is separate from the roll to hit someone in combat- you can use this Charm out of combat. This UMI can oppose a virtue, boosting their MDV appropriately.
If the UMI hits home, this Illusion convinces the victim that they cannot fail at anything, ever. They are suddenly The most mary-sue Ever. Everything goes right for them, everything is perfect… And oddly enough- they're right!
See, this Charm declares, that for the next minute, they will be getting an extra ten automatic successes on anything they do. These successes explicitly break the dice caps as well. But, here in lies the curse- the number of successes drops by 1 every minute after the first, until zero. The character still believes they are acting as if the heavens sing their praises.
Now everyone around her notes this prowess, and how quickly it fades. She just makes up excuses for why her successes don't seem to take shape- she's never at fault.
Interestingly, this Charm has no resistance mechanics. Implicitly with the Illusion Keyword, defensive Charms can defeat it, but the Illusion never actually fades naturally or with spent WP. Unlike a lot of Charms that have a strict mechanical explanation, this one is more… ominous- it tries to convey that coming out of the mania imbued by the Illusion does not end well.
The point of the Charm is to essentially defeat a foe with their own hubris, or to condemn a friend or ally as a semi-disposable genius weapon.
Impersonal Personal Denature Sting
This Charm is interesting, in that it evokes one of the great martial arts master tropes the Sidereals are recognized for.
Mechanically, this Charm supplemens an attack for 15m+wp, locking you down to bashing damage, but doubling raw, pre-soak damage. If you fill a target's Incapacitated Levels with that attack, they fall unconscious immediately. Overflow damage does not convert to lethal.
So in a very real sense, this is a Knockout Blow effect- and is very useful for that alone!
But the real meat of the charm is what happens while they're asleep. The Charm describes a mental battle as part of it's fluff, a metaphor for the mechanics of changing the target's Virtues. There really isn't any thematic weight to how the virtues are assigned, just that they are.
Alternatively, the Sidereal can with direct physical contact, shape the virtues herself, with a -1 DV penalty. Doing so adds the Touch keyword (when it normally does lacks it). From here, the martial artist can redistribute up to [Essence] dots of Virtues, minimum 1, maximum 5.
The really important (and admittedly questionable) aspect of this Charm is that it can actually alter a Flawed Virtue- changing the character's limit break along the way. Obviously no one in-character knows this is happening, but it IS part of the Charm.
Overall, Impersonal Personal Denature Sting is again, an Old Master Charm. It's intended to allow for the Sidereal to quite literally change someone's personality with a single blow. To sculpt them into a being that is either better, or at least serves their purposes more. It's also noteworthy that the Charm can be used to restore Virtues from zero; but you need an external source of them, like bargaining with a Raksha.
For 10m+2wp, this Supplemental allows the Martial Artist to reflexively move and attack up to [Essence x50] yards away. This speed makes it appear as if four copies of the Sidereal are striking at once, but only one is real- and each copy looks completely different- customized by the Sidereal.
The defender rolls [Perception + Defense Ability] to identify the true attack, against the Martial Artist's Dexterity as Difficulty. Failure makes the attack Unexpected. Remember how I said a lot of these Charms are lists of operations that lead to a conclusion? Here's a reminder.
When the attack hits and breaks defense (no HL damage required), it inflicts an Illusion Effect that makes it so the defender no longer recognizes faces, replacing them with other people they've encountered in their lives- even outside of conscious memory. It notes that the more emotionally tied the face is to the character, the more frequently it appears. Smell and voice also join the altered perception. Masked or hidden characters have faces made up wholecloth, but are 'recognized' regardless'.
The charm goes on in more elaborate detail of how this face-replacement works, but essentially this is a thoroughly disorienting psychological effect. It further describes that having low Temporary willpower exacerbates the issue, making the faces swap more frequently. Resisting the face-swap temporarily can be done with a [Perception+Integrity] roll as well, with varying difficulty.
Now, the charm points out that it cannot be broken naturally. I expect the intent of this Charm is to be a kind of suppression effect- you deploy it on someone to either drive them mad, or prevent them from taking direct action against you and yours. Sidereals don't need to worry about being recognized, usually, but their agents do.
Words Are Not Enough Infliction
This Charm invokes developmental psychology and intelligence, the theories and understanding of how the mind learns and behaves as it gains knowledge or is 'educated'. Specifically it invokes the idea of Language Equals Thought.
As a Simple Charm, the Sidereal summons an image of a language family's god (Foresttongue, Old Realm, High Realm, etc), and destroys it in view of an audience. That audience automatically has their attention drawn to it if possible, ensuring several people are affected.
The witnesses roll [Intelligence + (integrity/Linguistics) + Essence] against the Martial Artist's Essence as Difficulty. If they fail, they lose one dot in Linguistics and all ability to speak or comprehend that language. The charm then reminds the reader about how language learning is imperfect, for better roleplaying.
If a character loses all of their language dots, even the implicit zeroth native dot, they losethe ability to communicate at all. In return, they gain a kind of mental freedom from preconception and structure. It's worth noting that Creation is a fully constructed world, and while there was 'play' involved to let it evolve and grow, it was still authored by great intelligences. The Charm itself reminds us that mortals were given language to hinder us.
The advantage of this state is a total inward focus- the subject is immune to all forms of mental influence based on communication can affect her. She's absolutely secure from Performance, Presence and Linguistics-based social influence. She adds the higher of her Intelligence or Essence to creative rolls, invention, spatial reasoning, gut instinct and mind-over-matter.
This Charm, depending on how it's used, has multiple effects. You could grant someone incredible insight, allowing them to devise great things and then somehow 'get' at those ideas without communication. Or you can use this Charm to lock a secret inside someone's head, preventing them from ever blabbing it forever more.
Two Score Mirror Glance
A 20m+2wp Simple Charm- you'll notice that most of these Charms are not expected to be part of unified megadeth combos. They CAN be combo'd, but generally you want something simple like an Excellency attached to them.
The Charm itself is Simple, with Illusion and Obvious Keywords .(So this Charm can't be combo'd, but the previous ones could be!) It lasts for the scene. When performing it, the Martial Artist repeats his last actions in reverse. This convinces the target that tie has begun to flow backwards for her. As long as the sole target can see the Martial Artist, they can fall victim to the mental attack. It doesn't say, but I assume the attack reapplies itself on the Martial Artist's Acting Tick- it's honestly not very clear.
If the [Martial Arts + Essence] +Compassion Automatic Successes roll beats the target's Dodge MDV, the target stops moving for six ticks, no longer perceiving reality. She instead imagines her life living backwards, conscious but unable to change things. This all happens over the span of an instant, but she experiences it in real time. An [Integrity + Willpower] roll against the Martial Artist's combined [Martial Arts + Essence] breaks her out of the trance. Failing costs her 1wp, but reduces the difficulty of the next roll by 1.
This continues until the victim busts out or runs out of WP, which her existence ends with her first moment of sentience. They suffer [Attacker's Essence] unsoakable bashing damage, and likely wake up.
The important part of this trance, is that it is an objective review of the past, interwoven with her subjective experiences. She sees what Actually Happened versus what she Thought Happened. This breaks long-term Illusion effects, both in the past and ones still affecting her. Since it has no cost, the cost-increasers from the other Logic Style Charms do not apply.
In essence, this Charm is how you fix what you break. The Charm is also useful for teaching, allowing the subject to review past memories in great detail for vital clues or meditation.
Freeing The Father From The Child
Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic Style has 7 pre-form Charms. We're on #7.
This Charm is another Supplemental, and like the previous Charms, it invokes some kind of mental or psychological quality. Freeing The Father From the Child allows the Martial Artist to inflict magical anterograde amnesia on their opponents.
The Charm itself makes the enhanced attack deal Lethal and Piercing Damage, and actually reduces armor soak after the fact for subsequent attacks; By 5 for mundane armor ,and by 2 for artifacts- permanent until repaired.
To actually inflict the amnesia effect, the user must actually deal levels of damage, and each HL reduces the target's MDV by 1 against the actual amnesia effect. (This is not keyworded, by the way, and likely was developed before the idea of mental mutations). I'm not sure if this penalty stacks with that from wound penalties, either.
Anyway, once damage is dealt, the Martial Artist rolls [Manipulation + Martial Arts + Essence] against Dodge MDV. If sucessful, the target gains a permanent case of anterograde amnesia- they will not remember anything after the attack hit him- they can remember what happened in the past ten minutes, enough to make sense of a combat sequence or brief conversation, but it gets worse as time passses.
The victim can spend willpower to remember the next hour, or after the fact to recall the previous scene. This Charm does not prevent the victim from learning new traits, but it can be assumed that it makes it more difficult or otherwise creates a roleplaying challenge. Eliminating the amnesia does not restore the lost memories, but Two Score Mirror Glance can help bring them back.
At first glance, this Charm is almost like a Sidereal Neurealizer effect (but they alreayd have that in Duck Fate). Alternatively, this is a charm intended to prevent memories from being gained, to say nothing of the fact that it just plainly screws up someone trying to make future plans. Since it doesn't create retrograde amnesia, it can to an extent lock someone into the last plan they really had, before their faulty memory catches up with them.
Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic Form
The first seven charms in this style were MA6, Essene 6-7. This is the first MA7, Essence 7 Charm. Like all SMA form charms, it requires you have mastered a Celestial Martial Art in addition to its direct pre-requisites.
Notably, it has the Shaping Keyword. The function of the Form Charm is to allow the user to reach out and control other sentient characters with a touch and a reflexive action. This is a [Manipulation + Martial Arts + Essence] roll with [Presence] automatic successes against Dodge MDV.
If she succeeds, she exerts a Total Control effect on the subject, controlling it as if it were her own, using her own traits in place of the body. It will also act like her. Now, Total Control as per 2e core is a Mental Influence keyword, and logically this charm should have had it as part of its crunch block- editorial oversight? Probably.
The Charm goes onto explain the terms of controlling the body, allowing for the Sidereal to use her Charms and Combos through the patsy, and other advantages. The defender can spend 1wp to take back control for a single action as well. The Form also allows for reflexive rolls to coordinate an attack. Lastly, the Sidereal can have up to [Essence] patsies ensnared this way.
So, Form Charms huh?
Remember how I said SMA are meant to be boss suites? Charms like this are why. You take ONE character and now they are suddenly a Bunch. Is this Charm mechanically sound? Kinda. Like with a lot of 2nd edition Exalted, the stand-alone effects aren't always terrible. Coordinated Attacks are brutal, sure, but they're really brutal in context of a well-equipped group of enemies.
Reliant Soul Infiltration
Now we're gonna go nuts. The first Essence 8 Charm in the style. Reliant Soul Infiltration builds thematically on the idea of identity, to the point of letting the Sidereal weaponize her own personality.
The Sidereal creates a personality fragment -which costs 1xp to make in addition to normal costs!- and then implants it in a target with a touch-based martial arts attack. (The Charm lacks the keyword, but it is pretty implicit.) Notably, this charm has a Speed of 3- you are intended to use it Fast and Early?
If the attack succeeds, she rolls [Manipulation + Presence + Essence] against the target's highest MDV, and it can be excellency-enhanced. If it succeeds, the Sidereal exerts total control (like corebook says) on the target for 10 minutes. If the roll fails, the Sidereal can attempt up to [Presence] additional attempts, one per action.
At the end of the 10 minutes, the fragment and the host engage in mental battle. Here's where it gets interesting- there is a chance the Sidereal will create a full fork of themselves (save Exaltation and such), leaving them in the other person's body. The sidereal has a choice of making it so their fork will fail the contest more easily, but even then it can still happen.
So, this Charm in essence allows you to create a near identical copy of your mind, put it into a patsy, and let it run while you do something else. Forks are not guaranteed to be loyal and will likely diverge based on the new form they inhabit.
That's pretty bullshit, y'know? Best kind.
Without Assumption
Interestingly enough, Logic Style has a smattering of passable if situational combat supplementals. Like, they do useful things to make punching better, but their effect after the fact is where their utility really is. But, amusingly, we have yet to see any defensive charms in the style, until now.
Without Assumption is a surprisingly elegant charm, a 12m reflexive that lasts for [Martial Arts x2] actions. Or, 14 actions when you first can get it. By imagining an unreal place and populating it with unreal beings, the Sidereal can take over for one of those made up lives, vanishing from the perceptions of Creation.
Or, more directly, they become inapplicable subjects for any action that deliberately targets them. They explicitly vanish from perception and memory as part of this Charm's effect.
Mechanically, this is represented by declaring rolls or actions that target or otherwise acknowledge them are waived as 'Cannot happen, fails automatically'. Awareness cannot see them, Melee cannot hit them, and so on. This Charm even technically trumps Eye of the Unconquered Sun, because that Charm still requires a roll.
However, the Sidereal may still attack- and the defenders respond to those attacks with full agency. Under the aegis of Without Assumption, the Sidereal can attack with impunity, but the defenders will not sit there and take it.
Attacks or actions that have indiscriminate areas of effect like a Dragonblooded anima flux, an avalanche or some other powers still affect the Sidereal. She has not actually left the scene or is otherwise intangible. It is more that actors cannot act upon her.
Thematically, we have moved from the 'meat' of minds and identity into the realm of perception and more solipsistic ideals.
So, unlike the other Charms so far, this one I want to take a second and muse aloud about how to use it, as a player and a storyteller.
First off, Without Assumption lasts for at minimum, if every action is Speed 3, 42 ticks. This is not expected but a still possible assumption, considering other MA charms and the like. (Deadly Starmetal Offensive from PAoCS for example). Once you activate it, you cannot be targeted or remembered- but your attacks are still there and can be responded to.
The simplest, most obvious way to acknowledge this in-character, is that while they may not remember who was attacking them, characters understand they are being attacked and can sense all relevant information about the attacks to make the appropriate decisions. This includes making the judgement call that yes there is an improbably invisible attacker wrecking their shit- time to bust out the area of effect attacks.
As a player, it's interesting to note that this is not a Stealth Effect in and of itself, but it actually can be very easily. In a similar manner to Invisible Statue Spirit. The way ISS works is that it renders non-touch awareness rolls inapplicable, so you activate it, then make a standard stealth roll to set up an ambush. The enemy is denied the roll to see the ambush coming, therefore they cannot penetrate concealment. The ambush goes off without a hitch. Without Assumption allows you to do the same thing.
Further still, like many Charms, this one doesn't have to be used merely in combat. You have several actions worth of movement or whatnot where people cannot respond to or remember you.
Beauty is in The Eye
So this is one of the two charms people remember from Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic Style, because of it's fluff text. It in essence describes that the mortal soul/form can tap power not unlike that of the Primordials. How much of this is hyperbole I leave as an exercise for the reader.
Unlike the other notes of Unreality detailed in Exalted, this Charm takes a more lovecraftian, alien geometries take to it. You rip open a hole in reality and disappear into it- the charm tells you it's visible from 10 miles away in fact! Inside, the character transforms over the Speed 8 Action.
As a general rule, the Exalt adds [Virtue x2] to given Attribute pairs, like Valorx2 to Strength and Charisma. This is meant to have a kind of thematic flourish, but I'll spare you the nuts and bolts mechanics.
Aesthetically, the character becomes a giant, twice as tall as before based on Valor, an elemental aspect based on Temperance like 'made of wood or water'. Conviction draws on aesthetics of their patron god, usually a Maiden or other Incarnae. Compassion describes her as both death and life, terrifying and serene by turns.
Interestingly, this Charm actually takes the Exalt outside Fate for the duration as well, and the Loom cannot touch her. Further, Gods and Elementals are bound by a similar restriction to the geas that the Primordials enjoyed, and the user's social attack agianst spirits is improved. Such actions are always in line with that spirit's Motivation.
For context, that's like saying "Hey, buy me lunch and that's going to help you advance towards completing your life's work."
People who just look at the user after activating the Charm lose 1 temporary wp, and are assumed to avert their eyes unless forced to or attacking. The Sidereal's attacks drain virtues on damage, giving motes back as she goes. Virtues damaged this way do heal, but it's safe to assume that this effect is something of a 'Oh, you popped the boss mode, time to recharge while also messing with the enemy'. More importantly, the Sidereal experiences memories and emotions from her target, and they take a -1 MDV penalty for the scene.
I can say that virtue-drain effects like this are honestly questionable, especially considering how often they're used for mote calculation. If it were me, I'd actually have it drain channels instead.
We're still not finished yet either- this charm does a lot of relatively small things. A shaping effect actually allows the character to affect broad, sweeping changes as she takes fairly ordinary actions. Like slashing with a sword creates a rain of steel, or stone pillars to parry. It's permission to stunt even more grandly, hamming it up yet even more. They have no intrinsic mechanical value though.
When you finally finish activating the Charm, it actually detonates with an explosive burst of Essence that deals Aggravated Damage with a built-in falloff. Ending the Charm just replaces the godform with the character exactly as they were
Whew.
Meditative Battlefield Escalation
The Last Charm in the style, and this is the other one everyone remembers. Unlike the other Charms, I'm actually not going to go into as much detail on the exact Crunch of how it does things, because it's ridiculously complex. The best way I can summarize it, is that it creates a miniature-version of the combat rules to arbitrate its unique situation.
Instead, I want to re-emphasize the themes of the style. Of the mind and psychology, of perception, memory and ego. All of these give away into identity, then the existential natures of things and people…
Until this last Charm, which is essentially "I create a new battlefield in which to fight." It is exactly as metaphorical or literal as the wielder wishes it to be- the logical extension of fight a battle in my mind a thousand times. Instead, you fight one battle that happens a realm that you describe exactly the way you want.
The Charm explicitly tells you, go as far as you want with the scale of the combat. It is essentially a combat-within-a-combat, a Charm that is actually a setpiece unto itself. Is this good design? Debatable. Is it memorable? Very much so.
Mechanically, this Charm encourages the user to set up an engagement that plays to his strengths, so it does have a practical, tactical use. At the same time, this Charm is very clearly something that's about being part of an event, not actually about the nitty-gritty, tactical gameplay. This Charm is not for players who want to get a better ambush attack or whatnot.
Now, there are mechanical ramifications for using this Charm. When resolving the 'damage' mechanics, characters can fall under various Emotion, Compulsion, Illusion, and Servitude Effects based on the four Virtues. Reading over the examples given, this Charm is actually a kind of high-level, highly abstract social engineering platform. You use it to instill causes or feelings in people as part of a battle in the center of the mind!
Closing Thoughts
Whew. This is my favorite style. I'm not asking you to like SMA or to approve of it in your games. I'm sure that a lot of these Charms could be re-written to be more elegant, less abusive, more functional than they presently are.
But at the end of the day, they're just really, really cool.
Also I'm laughing because the style is So Big, I had to put all of my writeup blurbs under spoiler tags.
I really really like Sidereal Martial Arts. I've almost never gotten to use them in a game, but when I first encountered them, they spoke to me, helped me understand what I then and now believe was an important aspect of Exalted. That a game could allow for this. I to this day have a positive emotional response to Sidereal Martial Arts.
So, SMA occupies an interesting place in Exalted's development. I don't have the full story- I wasn't here for Sidereals 1e, or the good and bad elements that were developed at that period.
I still think introducing that as the definition of "what elder characters can do" was possibly the single worst unique mechanical decision in the line. In one stroke, they made it completely impossible to oppose the old bastards in any way unless one blatantly ignored the fact that an E7 Exalt was supposed to have thrice your effective dicepools (putting your ability to hit them somewhere in the single digit percentages, while your chance to not get hit also lived in around the same area), practically unlimited motes and the ability to kick Creation to death in one combat turn.
It's easy to ignore mass combat. You can grit your teeth through double-persistent combat or the paranoia combo. But faced with the decision to make elder NPCs invincible, you either have to fiat so they aren't, or play a miserable game.
And before anyone mentions 2E Scroll of the Monk, this one can't be blamed on Chambers and Shomshak: everything I'm complaining about above existed in Sidereals 1E.
Eh. You're not wrong, but I'm still pretty sure such a Charm would be abusable. xp shenanigans almost always are. I guess canon Charms already allow for worse, but I hold myself to a higher standard than the one that created Exegesis of the Distilled Form.
Maybe making Evocations easier to buy is the wrong approach. Maybe we should try making them more effective in play. Would an extra mote/wp pool that you can only use for Evocations be unfair?
So, basically an Arc Reactor? It does a pretty good job of tackling the fundamental issue I was trying to solve (Solar Tony Stark being worse at using his gear than Solar Captain America), but also adds some potentially annoying book keeping (I hate bonus mote/wp pools with a burning passion).
Alternatively (or additionally), how about a Charm that gives you a free Evocations from up to three Artifacts you've personally crafted and are currently attuned to, at the cost of some committed motes (possibly equal to the Arc Reactor charm).
WELL. That was fun. Kerisgame 61 starts the new doc with an enormously entertaining bit of, hehehe, showboating. Man, I did not expect to have quite that much fun playing Keris acting like an Unquestionable, but wow did I ever. That "standing on the waves and then rising up and it turns out it was a submarine tower just below the water and HOLY SHIT THAT'S HUGE" thing was great. And hee. I'm very happy with how Keris went through POWER -> AUTHORITY -> WEALTH -> SEDUCTION to set him up for a single brutal "be mine, Lintha" demand that pretty much obliterated any resistance he had.
I like doing it this way, because... heh. While I can then use UMI to make sure he can't think ill of me, starting with NMI to make him positively inclined to follow me all on his own means that he won't even subconsciously struggle against it - and maybe not easily be turned against me even if someone punches the mind control off. Much more effective. Keris is, unsurprisingly, picking up Mind-Eating Assimilation from this session - at least she will once Haneyl calms down and stops tantruming.
Not many extras this time:
EarthScorpion: ... and then Keris decides that she needs to learn Wind-Carried Passion, so she can be the BEST WORST CUPID EVER. Aleph: : D Aleph: EKO NO EarthScorpion: It comes after TLA. It might be Calesco's. Although Echo wants it. Aleph: And thus the first war between the Ruin and the Meadows begins, because fuck if Calesco is letting Echo get her hands on a tool like that, do you even know how much damage she'll do with it? Which... sigh. Is Keris debating whether to use it compassionately and cautiously, or for whimsy and fun. EarthScorpion: Echo slyly suggests that they both get it, which is a fair compromise and they clearly both got it from Other Mama.
... EarthScorpion: ... heh. Oh, Keris. As the Yozi essence twists you more and more... well, you started off your Exalted life as an attractive mixed race girl from the Scavenger Lands. EarthScorpion: Now you're becoming more exotic and people can feel that you're 'not from around here' - and you attract people regardless of who they'd usually prefer.
I really really like Sidereal Martial Arts. I've almost never gotten to use them in a game, but when I first encountered them, they spoke to me, helped me understand what I then and now believe was an important aspect of Exalted. That a game could allow for this. I to this day have a positive emotional response to Sidereal Martial Arts.
They harmed your understanding of an important aspect of Exalted?
On a somewhat more serious note, I find the overall difference of your viewpoints regarding the fluff and subtext and borgstromancy to be fascinating. To me, the two great attractors in this thread and forum were the Mechanical Optimization insights of @Jon Chung and the Why Is This Written So and What Does It Mean insights of @Shyft. But paradoxically, this is despite the fact that the perspectives of the two of you seem so contrary, opposite. And not in the sense of merely noticing different things either.
Alas, for me the discussion of both the crunchy optimisation and of the implications behind the melded borgstromantic crunch'n'fluff has become largely academic: due to certain real-life events, our GM has closed down the Exalted campaign he was running until further notice (i.e. either forever, or until it stops reminding him about those real-life events). He's trying to get into MtA and start a different campaign, though. Which makes me wonder: @Shyft, did you ever try writing similar essays about WoD by any chance?
To me, the two great attractors in this thread and forum were the Mechanical Optimization insights of @Jon Chung and the Why Is This Written So and What Does It Mean insights of @Shyft.
