Okay. A quick skim says nothing about Ancient Sorcery having Excellency as an option.
You can use your Excellency but you can also take spells as extended actions unless it is a sorcery spell that requires a ritual you can assume that it uses your excellency. It assumes that you would want to not spend an additional Essence on top of the three, four or five Essence you're about to spend on a ancient sorcery spell.
You wouldnt really need an extended roll if you can drop an Excellency on it; most spells require 5 sux or less to proc.
But yes, using an Ancient Sorcery spell is at least 3m of Essence, which is roughly 20% of the total Essence pool of an E3 Solaroid. Its not something thats done casually or routinely; there's entire major fights where Molly might spend that much Essence on all her buffs, total.
Thqt thing with the keys is kinda silly in the bigger picture.
If he can't defend himself against that, why didn't McCoy blugeon him to death with a sattelite or something like that years ago.
I hate plot armor that works until it doesn't anymore, it makes it unecessary hard to give people coherent mechanical abilities.
You don't survive killing the daughter of the deadliest Forces Mage on the planet with half-assed immunity.
Maybe as the head of a faction instead of just a senior noble like Ortega, there's wards around his house, or other protections against indirect attack from a distance.
Maybe nuking a populated estate in Chicago, Illnois in the First World is very different from dropping a satellite on a village in the Third World, both in supernatural and mundane consequences.
Maybe its just a plothole.
I can only report what I know.
Fairly sure that isn't based on anything in the splat.
It is explicitly stated in Exalted 2E that you cannot use Excellencies for Sorcery.
Exalted 2E p251 said:
Shaping a spell takes the character out of active par-
ticipation in a battle—he may operate on combat time, but he
cannot focus on or react to events. He cannot use Charms or
Combos, including reflexive Charms. He cannot take voluntary
reflexive actions, such as speech, Move or Dash. He can benefit
from the established effects of ongoing or permanent Charms,
and he can—as a special exception to the rule on reflexive ac-
tions—activate his anima.
That isnt true for Hedge Sorcery here, but Ancient Sorcery is its own thing.
This might be evidence of the protection being vulnerable to Starborn magic, actually. Because McCoy couldn't take him, despite trying. It should also be noted that it's likely that Lord Raith's benefactor is not an Outsider, but an outright Old One, "Lord of Slowest Terror" to whom He Who Walks Behind is a subordinate:
If that was true, Dresden trying to strike at him directly would have worked, instead of getting eaten.
Like how it worked on Sharkface in Cold Days.
Ox Body doesn't really help and isn't really needed. We are very tanky as is. Sandstrike blast I'll give you, but it's a secondary concern at best.
You indicated your primary concerns as:
1) Not having poison immunity - there's a charm for that. Why not take it instead of Ox Body?
2) Not having a perfect defense - there's Ablation of Brass and Fire, or Shadow Murk Evasion or Counter-Conceptual Interposition. All those work well, and two of those are favored. Why not take them? Shadow Murk Evasion also adds additional movement option.
Personally, I am planning to address a lot of those concerns with personal splendor armor for everyone, to be worn always.
1) Ox-Body most definitely helps. Remember this?
Arc 11 post 61 said:
Alas you are not the only one to move as the electrum spear in the statue's hand becomes light and as light it moves slamming into your shoulder from behind and then a again from the side.
Snap
As the others shout a warning or in Harry's case a spell of warding come too late you realize was definitely something important, a rib maybe. Two more stabs like that would... not... be... healthy. "I'm on your side asshole! See!"
You take 9 Damage -> Now at 6/15 Wounds
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 7/15
I certainly havent forgotten.
We spent almost 12 hours in a Vegas bath tub at 40% health because we got stabbed twice.
Weapons that ignore armor, and even that ignore part or all of your soak, are a thing.
Not everything we run into will ping off our soak, especially as we're aggroing major players with the will and resources to look for countermeasures.
And Sandstrike Blast is not secondary. We have had repeated reminders since Vegas about its pressing necessity.
2) Because taking a PD right now leaves other gaps in our capability set that can be filled for cheaper.
Once we get SGI this turn and Unbound Eschaton Shintai next turn, my next major priority is either a PD or The City Still Stands, whatever's cheaper.
3) Ive made my general opinion of splendor armor clear.
Thats certainly not the intent of splendors anyway, as stated by Holden in his craft guide.
