- Location
- Spain
Eh, i am fine with not having rules for everything. But really, if something is important enough to have charmtech dedicated to it, it's important enough to have a general system.
General Exalted Thread
Eh, i am fine with not having rules for everything. But really, if something is important enough to have charmtech dedicated to it, it's important enough to have a general system.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I don't believe it does demand a Charm do things in ironclad absolutes. Forgive me for bringing up a controversial charm, I don't have time to research a bunch and this one comes to mind, but God-King's Shrike definitely asks specifically for an ST-judgement call on what the results are. As to spending motes and asking the ST what happens not being satisfying, you could stunt and you know whether it succeeds based on the difficulty he told you before you rolled.
I believe it's intended to be played by providing your own context and interpretation. Maybe you don't like it, but I believe it's an intentional feature that they leave room for the ST to be creative with things they don't thing are core systems or potential problems.
I'm not really convinced it's that simple, though with how much space they spent on the general system of battle groups, I do think they should have included a section on training armies.
edit: Oh, I think Prophet of the Seventeen Cycles is a good example in both cases. It leaves a lot to the Storyteller to interpret and I think it's perfectly fine that there's charmtech for giving prophecies and no general system for interacting with prophecies.
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You're missing my point, which is when you activate a Charm, something of your intent behind what you want to accomplish Happens. When you take an action requiring ST Arbitration, you have a Chance of your intent coming across, either via a random roll, or by debating it out with the ST until you both resolve it. You can't do the latter without a box to place that action within, or else it leads to the ST and Player having a wider range of misinterpretations of the same thing, meaning it requires More discussion to reach that common-agreement.
Invoking God-King's Shrike is super-ironic here as well, because the controversy surrounding that Charm exists precisely since the subjectivity of its strength and unspecified intent behind its use ingame means it can either do nothing actually meaningful, be houseruled-out and become a nonissue, or snap the setting under itself without any effort. None of these are ideal states from an ST point of view, particularly with the overhead it creates having to put out these kind of fires.
The thing about playing in a sandbox is that sandboxes have defined edges, not a stated goal to just keep digging until you find cat crap you must clean up before you can continue.
I'm amused by a world where anything which can only be done with a Charm, when Charms comprise over 2/3rds of the system text, can be written off as "not a core system."
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'll decline to open up the GKS debate.
I guess the core disagreement here is that I think it's perfectly fine to assume a little competence on the part of the ST and some cohesion between the people playing the game.
I think you'll find most adults prefer beaches to sandboxes.
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
A lot of games have an understanding that if somebody payed XP for it, it is considered "protected"
7th Sea does this, but in that game you pay XP for disadvantages, because disads garuntee you more spotlight time and give a bit of XP over time.
The way I view 2E lunars is that a Solar Mate/Lunar Mate pair will be the most important people in each other's lives, but it doesn't have to be romantic. IIRC, it is even stated that the bonds have manifested as fierce rivalries.
Yeah, but "help me out all the time as my loyal bodyguard without requiring any meaningful reciprocation" is often reserved for items built as characters rather than more normal characters. Allies don't become too powerful until higher power games, where the absolute cost of taking allies is small. Supers introduced allies that had a base cost of fractions of points, so that 500 point charachters can still have 50 point characters as allies.
Of the multiple WW games I've played in, nobody ever builds character with no combat options, but "Two dots+spec in Firearms" is a much lower investment than "I am a fuzzy murderblender".
That's not a conflict I've seen come up. I have seen characters on the opposite sides of that spectrum in the same game though.
Admittedly, "Survive long enough for GLORIOUS SOLAR MURDERBLENDER to get around to the guys trying to kill me" is a valid strategy.
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
That's Dr. Murderblender to you!
... Why?!
"You can make this thing, but what actually happens as a result is entirely up to your ST" is terrible.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I don't see why. It's how most quests on this board run, isn't it? I mean, am I some insane exception that my storyteller tries to make the game fun for us?
Further, I don't see a problem with abilities that just set things in motion rather than having fine control over every aspect of what happens. I think there are times when it's very appropriate for a character to bring more brute power to bear than they are capable of fully controlling.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
Quests are entirely different from at-table play experiences, which are what most TTRPGs are designed for. Even IRC-based games are an unintended beast. 3e implicity went out of its way to make itself unplayable on forums and IRC platforms.
You are essentially invoking the Rule Zero fallacy: "If the table can fix it, it isn't broken."
So- you're not wrong that an ST should be willing and able to make a game fun for their players and vice-versa. However, when the mechanics as presented in the bookMakes the ST's job harder, that's a pretty good sign you're dealing with Shit Rules.
Jon Chung
=][=
This is true, but it requires you to still invest in enough defensive combat ability to credibly not die well enough that "attack Squishy McSquishface while the Glorious Solar Murderblender wails on me, taking chunks out of my mote bar" is a losing strategy for hostiles. This is traditionally not a particularly expensive thing to do because of how the P-combo worked, at least.
With absolutely nothing in terms of combat investment, Squishy McSquishface dies in one hit, which isn't a lot for the hostile to invest in even when being wailed on by the Glorious Solar Murderblender.
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Eukie
Powered by furious Canadian redheads
The game specifies that Allies that have no Appearance Roll are usually magical items the character carries or familiars bound to them. As far as I can tell, that's the game predicting that that is what the Advantage will be used for, not ruling that it can't be used otherwise. The way I interpreted the text, taking regular humans as an always-present Ally is not forbidden, if you need to model a loyal servant (who won't strangely disappear on a roll of 16, 17, or 18 made at the start of every session). If you want a Fate/Stay Night-style Servant, that's totally an Always Present Ally, and if you're the kid with the reprogrammed death-robot that has to follow you, that's also an Always Present Ally. Point-wise, Saber-the-magically-bound-servant and Saber-the-loyal-but-free-bodyguard are basically the same character anyway.
My comment about Allies being powerful is actually one fairly irrespective of character point-levels. As a 150-point character, you can spend 5 points to get a 150-point Ally who'll help you out during 50% of your adventures. That's a serious increase in ability and firepower, bordering on doubled utility for 5 points. 5 points, generally, does not double utility or firepower. That's why I think Allies is way too powerful. (There's a similar issue with the Morph advantage, which becomes disproportionately powerful once you take it for a character built on more than 150 points, if I recall correctly.)
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
implying that someone else wants to?
Dishonesty by implication is still dishonest, dude.
You don't design anything for mass market consumption under the assumption that all your end users are geniuses. That's called bad design, and people who do so are frankly either dumb or just out of touch with reality. You design on the assumption that even if all your end users are decently smart (which they won't all be), by sheer number and happenstance, a good proportion of them will fuck up.
I still hear a ton of bitching about munckin players, but i'm fairly certain that the majority of problems in games come from bad gamemastering. GMing is hard, tiresome work, and people are lazy, prone to cut corners, and have tendency to double down on bad decisions rather than accept criticism. Giving the GM more work is always bad design. The GM already has to design the backstory, flesh out the setting, and sometimes assemble antagonists. If they are paying for a product, it's to offload part of that design work (the game mechanics) on the game dev. IF the game dev shrugs and says "just make something up" as the mechanic, he is shirking the work he is being paid for, and should rightly be called out for being a shitty dev.
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
So, Plug-Suits. I've been thinking on them and I thnk I may require some help.
And one for the hell, I'm pretty sure that Ligier has one that provides more protection than plate-mail and shows off his heroic figure.
But seriously, I need some constructive critisim on these, like if they're too weak or too strong or if they should have some extra effects if they're more powerful etc...
*** Artifact.
Attunement:4m
Soak: 0/0
mobility: 0
War-Striders are massive, clumsy things that require a prestigious amount of skill and spent essence to perform at peak efficiency. These suits were made to make using those most Prussian weapons of war easier to use.
They are suits of skin tight leather made from specially breed beasts, usually colored to match the Exalt's aesthetic with circuits of one of the magical materials woven between the inner and outer layers. Corresponding to where the leather straps that allow the exalted to operate her super-weapon is a series of sockets of the resonant Magical Material that connect to a system of Moon-Silver plugs that are attached to wires made of one of the Magical Materials that replace the standard system of wires and harnesses (which is on its own a * artifact that is useless without the suit.) this includes the hands as well.
Once attuned to the Raiment the Mobility penalty for Warstriders is reduced by have, E.g. a the Common Warstrider now has a mobility penalty of -3, rather than -6, and reduce the successes taken from attacking a smaller target to 2 success instead of three.
Attunement:4m
Soak: 0/0
mobility: 0
War-Striders are massive, clumsy things that require a prestigious amount of skill and spent essence to perform at peak efficiency. These suits were made to make using those most Prussian weapons of war easier to use.
They are suits of skin tight leather made from specially breed beasts, usually colored to match the Exalt's aesthetic with circuits of one of the magical materials woven between the inner and outer layers. Corresponding to where the leather straps that allow the exalted to operate her super-weapon is a series of sockets of the resonant Magical Material that connect to a system of Moon-Silver plugs that are attached to wires made of one of the Magical Materials that replace the standard system of wires and harnesses (which is on its own a * artifact that is useless without the suit.) this includes the hands as well.
Once attuned to the Raiment the Mobility penalty for Warstriders is reduced by have, E.g. a the Common Warstrider now has a mobility penalty of -3, rather than -6, and reduce the successes taken from attacking a smaller target to 2 success instead of three.
***** Artifact
Attunment:8m
While they share many similarities in terms of doctrine, deployment and sheer impact on the battlefield, the cruel abominations of tortured demon flesh and steel that is a Hell-Strider is far different animal than the Exalted's War-Striders. The same goes for the equipment that pilot must wear to get the best out of their Hell-Strider; This insidious uniform is made of demon-leather inscribed with foul symbols and runes to the Yozi and their souls. instead of circuits made from Moonsilver or Jade, a living matrix of nerves, veins and arteries lies in between the inner and outer layers of demon-leather, this suit is filled with the comfortable warmth of and ocassionally its wearer can feel the pulse of the heart that was once their.
Along the chakra points on the spine are a series of brass sockets, that connect to a tendrils of demon flesh made from the Hell-Strider's flesh (a modification difficulty 3 Craft-Gensis roll with a cost equal to 2 Resources.) and covered in black iron and tipped plugs of greened Malfean copper. Once a pilot, either demonic or Exalted, attunes to suit and is connected by the tendrils to their Hell-Strider they gain several advantages:
* They reduce the Awareness Penalty to 0 as their sense and the Hell-Strider's merge together, allowing them to see with their eyes and smell with their nose(s)
* The Mobility penalty is halved, and the success subtracted to hit smaller targets is reduced to to 2 instead of 3.
(In need of Work)Beyond that, once per scene, the Pilot and the Hell-Strider may gain a point of Limit and allow the Hell-Stride and the Pilot to enter into a controlled version of the Hell-Strider's Limit Break: Instead of using the Hell-Strider's characteristics, they instead use the best of rating of the pair, so it may use the pilots Athletics score of 5 to quickly hop from ship to ship in order to duel a Raksha sea-beast, but it will use the Hell-Strider's superior Martial-Arts score to rip out its heart.
(A/N) If the normal Hell-strider Limit Break envokes Beserker, then this is supposed to be the Beast-Mode from the movies, a relatively controlled loss of limits.
Attunment:8m
While they share many similarities in terms of doctrine, deployment and sheer impact on the battlefield, the cruel abominations of tortured demon flesh and steel that is a Hell-Strider is far different animal than the Exalted's War-Striders. The same goes for the equipment that pilot must wear to get the best out of their Hell-Strider; This insidious uniform is made of demon-leather inscribed with foul symbols and runes to the Yozi and their souls. instead of circuits made from Moonsilver or Jade, a living matrix of nerves, veins and arteries lies in between the inner and outer layers of demon-leather, this suit is filled with the comfortable warmth of and ocassionally its wearer can feel the pulse of the heart that was once their.
Along the chakra points on the spine are a series of brass sockets, that connect to a tendrils of demon flesh made from the Hell-Strider's flesh (a modification difficulty 3 Craft-Gensis roll with a cost equal to 2 Resources.) and covered in black iron and tipped plugs of greened Malfean copper. Once a pilot, either demonic or Exalted, attunes to suit and is connected by the tendrils to their Hell-Strider they gain several advantages:
* They reduce the Awareness Penalty to 0 as their sense and the Hell-Strider's merge together, allowing them to see with their eyes and smell with their nose(s)
* The Mobility penalty is halved, and the success subtracted to hit smaller targets is reduced to to 2 instead of 3.
(In need of Work)Beyond that, once per scene, the Pilot and the Hell-Strider may gain a point of Limit and allow the Hell-Stride and the Pilot to enter into a controlled version of the Hell-Strider's Limit Break: Instead of using the Hell-Strider's characteristics, they instead use the best of rating of the pair, so it may use the pilots Athletics score of 5 to quickly hop from ship to ship in order to duel a Raksha sea-beast, but it will use the Hell-Strider's superior Martial-Arts score to rip out its heart.
(A/N) If the normal Hell-strider Limit Break envokes Beserker, then this is supposed to be the Beast-Mode from the movies, a relatively controlled loss of limits.
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Eukie
Powered by furious Canadian redheads
The criticism that obviously comes to mind is "why aren't you just replacing all the text about them with 'like the plug suits from Evangelion'?". It's not very intriguing a concept as you've described it, since its so obviously just an attempt to be the Eva plugsuits. They match the Exalt's aesthetic? Add some comments about the original Raiment of the Hallowed Colossal being embroidered with a depiction of the original wearer's anima banner maybe, to emphasise the Exalted connection. If you want to toss in something akin to the prototype plug-suit Asuka wears in Rebuild 2.22, toss in a mention that the front is adorned with a bronze muscle cuirass that gives a flattering impression of the wearer's musculature.
- Location
- Ottawa
Lore
Lore has plenty of Charms, but most of them are weird magic tricks that would fit just as well in another Ability. That's disappointing to me, because I think Lore is super interesting. Especially the mathy side of it. Here are a few Lore Charms that have more to do with, well, Lore.
Abacus-Scorning Intellect
Permanent
Prereqs: Lore 3, Essence 1, Harmonious Academic Methodology, a specialty in mathematics
Mortals find numbers strange and mystifying. They rely on written records to remember them, and crude tools like abacuses to make use of them. The Solar Exalted are above such things.
This Charm ensures that the Solar will never make a mistake when performing arithmetic. At all times, she may act as though she had an abacus of superior quality (good enough for a +1 bonus) on hand. She never forgets a number and can memorize arbitrary amounts of numerical information instantly. She performs all tasks of pure calculation, like determining whether a number is prime, two increments faster. She performs tasks which are partly calculation, like accounting, one increment faster. This does not make Artifact construction or sorcerous workings any faster.
With an Essence 2+ repurchase, the Solar also dispenses with the need for measuring sticks and surveyor's chains. She may identify distances, angles, and weights at a glance. She never makes a mistake of measurement and may always act as though she had access to appropriate tools of superior quality. She performs all tasks of pure measurement two increments faster and all tasks which are partly measurement one increment faster.
Understanding the Heavens
Cost: 4m; Simple (Instant)
Prereqs: Lore 3, Essence 1, a specialty in astrology
The Solar Exalted do not move the stars or weave the fates like their Sidereal brethren, but they can certainly perceive the workings of fate in the patterns of the night sky.
The Solar spends an hour viewing the night sky at a time when her view of it is clear. As she does so, she may select a subject. If that subject has a strong destiny, the Solar becomes aware of it. As a general rule, any destiny created through Sidereal magic is strong. So is any destiny-based Merit or Flaw.
Infallible Historian's Insight
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Simple (Instant)
Prereqs: Lore 5, Essence 2, Truth-Rendering Gaze, a specialty in history
Every historical text is a doorway to the past. With this magic, the Lawgiver walks through that door.
The Solar spends four hours studying another historian's work. As she does so, she may focus on a person described in it or some detail of the time described. If she chooses a person described in it, she may attempt a (Perception + Lore) Read Intentions action against their past self. If she chooses a detail of the time described, she rolls (Perception + Lore) to gain insights not listed in the text. 1 success gives a bit of trivia, 3 gives some useful information, and 5 successes induces a vision of the time described in which the Solar sees more or less what she wishes to see. More successes make the vision longer and more detailed. Given a deeply biased or dishonest text, she cannot look into the past. Instead she attempts a (Perception + Lore) Read Intentions action against the author to determine how the historical account is distorted.
People scrutinized with this Charm obviously can't respond, but the GM should set the difficulty as though they used whatever Charms they would've used to defend given the chance. This Charm may only be used once per text per story, or once per chapter per story given an unusually lengthy and comprehensive text. This Charm will never provide false information unless opposed by deceitful magic.
Technique Resurrection Prana
Permanent
Prereqs: Lore 5, Essence 3, Infallible Historian's Insight
By the genius of the Solar historian, skills long thought lost to time can be given new life.
So long as the Solar has access to reliable historical documents describing the use of a martial art or spell, she may learn it without texts explaining it or anyone to teach her.
Notes:
I would really like to have Abacus-Scorning Intellect. And I live in a world with computers. Pretty happy with that name, too.
Infallible Historian's Insight is more useful than you might expect, since Creation is packed with immortals and many of the factions have very deeply-rooted motivations. Hope I was specific enough in explaining the mechanical effect.
Not sure how I feel about Technique Resurrection Prana. My philosophy for "solve this problem" Charms is that they should only apply to boring but significant problems. Does "there are no living masters of Essence Mudra Style" count? I'm undecided.
Understanding the Heavens is absolutely an effect that should be available to Solars, but writing it without the Sidereal book is hard. So this is a bit thin, mechanically speaking. I feel like it should include a roll but all my ideas for adding one are clunky.
Lore has plenty of Charms, but most of them are weird magic tricks that would fit just as well in another Ability. That's disappointing to me, because I think Lore is super interesting. Especially the mathy side of it. Here are a few Lore Charms that have more to do with, well, Lore.
Abacus-Scorning Intellect
Permanent
Prereqs: Lore 3, Essence 1, Harmonious Academic Methodology, a specialty in mathematics
Mortals find numbers strange and mystifying. They rely on written records to remember them, and crude tools like abacuses to make use of them. The Solar Exalted are above such things.
This Charm ensures that the Solar will never make a mistake when performing arithmetic. At all times, she may act as though she had an abacus of superior quality (good enough for a +1 bonus) on hand. She never forgets a number and can memorize arbitrary amounts of numerical information instantly. She performs all tasks of pure calculation, like determining whether a number is prime, two increments faster. She performs tasks which are partly calculation, like accounting, one increment faster. This does not make Artifact construction or sorcerous workings any faster.
With an Essence 2+ repurchase, the Solar also dispenses with the need for measuring sticks and surveyor's chains. She may identify distances, angles, and weights at a glance. She never makes a mistake of measurement and may always act as though she had access to appropriate tools of superior quality. She performs all tasks of pure measurement two increments faster and all tasks which are partly measurement one increment faster.
Understanding the Heavens
Cost: 4m; Simple (Instant)
Prereqs: Lore 3, Essence 1, a specialty in astrology
The Solar Exalted do not move the stars or weave the fates like their Sidereal brethren, but they can certainly perceive the workings of fate in the patterns of the night sky.
The Solar spends an hour viewing the night sky at a time when her view of it is clear. As she does so, she may select a subject. If that subject has a strong destiny, the Solar becomes aware of it. As a general rule, any destiny created through Sidereal magic is strong. So is any destiny-based Merit or Flaw.
Infallible Historian's Insight
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Simple (Instant)
Prereqs: Lore 5, Essence 2, Truth-Rendering Gaze, a specialty in history
Every historical text is a doorway to the past. With this magic, the Lawgiver walks through that door.
The Solar spends four hours studying another historian's work. As she does so, she may focus on a person described in it or some detail of the time described. If she chooses a person described in it, she may attempt a (Perception + Lore) Read Intentions action against their past self. If she chooses a detail of the time described, she rolls (Perception + Lore) to gain insights not listed in the text. 1 success gives a bit of trivia, 3 gives some useful information, and 5 successes induces a vision of the time described in which the Solar sees more or less what she wishes to see. More successes make the vision longer and more detailed. Given a deeply biased or dishonest text, she cannot look into the past. Instead she attempts a (Perception + Lore) Read Intentions action against the author to determine how the historical account is distorted.
People scrutinized with this Charm obviously can't respond, but the GM should set the difficulty as though they used whatever Charms they would've used to defend given the chance. This Charm may only be used once per text per story, or once per chapter per story given an unusually lengthy and comprehensive text. This Charm will never provide false information unless opposed by deceitful magic.
Technique Resurrection Prana
Permanent
Prereqs: Lore 5, Essence 3, Infallible Historian's Insight
By the genius of the Solar historian, skills long thought lost to time can be given new life.
So long as the Solar has access to reliable historical documents describing the use of a martial art or spell, she may learn it without texts explaining it or anyone to teach her.
Notes:
I would really like to have Abacus-Scorning Intellect. And I live in a world with computers. Pretty happy with that name, too.
Infallible Historian's Insight is more useful than you might expect, since Creation is packed with immortals and many of the factions have very deeply-rooted motivations. Hope I was specific enough in explaining the mechanical effect.
Not sure how I feel about Technique Resurrection Prana. My philosophy for "solve this problem" Charms is that they should only apply to boring but significant problems. Does "there are no living masters of Essence Mudra Style" count? I'm undecided.
Understanding the Heavens is absolutely an effect that should be available to Solars, but writing it without the Sidereal book is hard. So this is a bit thin, mechanically speaking. I feel like it should include a roll but all my ideas for adding one are clunky.
Sucal
The Devil’s Cut
- Location
- Bottom of the barrel
I could have sworn I've seen these charms before, even if I'm currently not at home to do a search
- Location
- Ottawa
This is a cross-post. You probably saw them on the OP forums.
Azrael
Sakura Saber
- Location
- Throne of Heroes
No, you've posted them here before.
Walker of the Yellow Path
Ho There!
- Location
- The Land of Memes
He posted them plus a few more a little less than a month ago
- Location
- Ottawa
Hmph. Seems I screwed up my bookkeeping. Sorry for the repeat, folks. Even if there are a couple of slight changes.
These should be new.
Additional Shaping Ritual (Merit ••)
You possess an additional shaping ritual from an archetype that you already have one from.
Occult
Spell-Breaking Word
Cost: 3m; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Occult 4, Essence 2, Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
The Solar Exalted are the true masters of sorcery. Other beings practice it only as long as the Lawgivers allow them to.
This Charm supplements a Distort or Counterspell action. It allows the action to target a spell from the circle above the Solar's highest, increases its range to Medium, removes all difficulties stemming from not knowing the target spell, and allows the action to be flurried normally.
With an Essence 3+ repurchase, the range of the enhanced action increases to Long. Moreover, it can target any spell of any circle and the Solar may flurry two Counterspell actions or two Distort actions enhanced this way as long as each is targeting a different spell.
Power-Draining Secret
Cost: 2m; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Occult 5, Essence 3, Spell-Breaking Word
Sorcery draws its power from the world around the sorcerer. So perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that the greatest sorcerers can draw from the magic of their enemies. Judging by the reactions of those targeted with this technique, though, it is very surprising indeed.
This Charm supplements a Counterspell action made while the Solar is shaping a spell. Any sorcerous motes that the target loses are added to the Solar's spell. The Solar does not lose motes for not making a Shape Sorcery action during a turn where she uses this.
Notes:
There are lots of niggling little restrictions on counterspelling and distorting. Removing them seems like a worthwhile Charm effect. Figure it's pretty safe balance-wise, because it'd be pretty hard for even total immunity to Sorcery to break anything.
There are good balance reasons not to let people bumrush Solar Circle Sorcery at chargen, but I don't think that should mean a Solar sorcerer can't mess with opposing Solar Circle spells until Essence 5.
Power-Draining Secret might be overpowered or it might be useless, I can't tell.
Linguistics
I'm not sure if Linguistics really needs more Charms. It's kinda borderline. But there are abilities I want, and they're not there. So now they're here.
I'm planning to make Infinite Linguistics Mastery into an EET repurchase, and I might reduce the prereq on Supreme Perfection of Linguistics.
Word-Giver Stance
Cost: 6m; Simple (Indefinite) - Stackable
Prereqs: Linguistics 5, Essence 2, Mingled Tongue Technique
The Solar spends an hour explaining a language that she knows to someone. As long as the Solar keeps her motes committed, that person knows that language too. He retains a -3 penalty to social influence in that language until he's got a week of practice, though. If the Solar keeps this Charm active while teaching a language, her student may learn that language permanently for the normal xp cost after two weeks of instruction.
If the student has an Essence pool, they may pay the cost of this Charm for the Solar. The Solar may still end it at will even if they do, though. A single one-hour lesson suffices to use this Charm on several people.
Fountain of Tongues
Permanent
Prereqs: Linguistics 5, Essence 4, Word-Giver Stance, Excellent Emissary's Tongue
The Lawgiver's mind is an endless wellspring of words, constantly springing forth to enrich the world.
The Solar may create magical languages. Doing so uses the rules for Sorcerous workings, with Linguistics replacing Occult. The Solar counts as a sorcerer of the highest Circle allowed by her Essence for this purpose.
In addition, any word or language the Solar uses or invents spreads extremely quickly. She can coin words easily, and her linguistic quirks will be imitated by the general populace wherever she goes.
Infinite Linguistics Mastery
Permanent
Prereqs: Linguistics 5, Essence 4, Excellent Emissary's Tongue
This Charm upgrades Excellent Emissary's Tongue. It removes the initial penalty to social influence, makes the Charm Stackable, and reduces the mote cost to 4m for the first activation, 2m for the second, and 1m for further activations. Moreover, if the Solar spent merit dots or xp to purchase languages, she is refunded 3xp per language at a rate of one language per month.
Supreme Perfection of Linguistics
Permanent
Prereqs: Linguistics 5, Essence 5, Infinite Linguistics Mastery, 20 languages
The Solar knows Language. Not just languages, but Language.
The Solar can speak, read, and write any and every language that she's ever been exposed to. And she knows every word in every language she knows. As soon as she hears a word of a language, she can write a dictionary for it.
Notes:
Foreign areas present a sort of decker problem, where only one PC can participate fully in social scenes. Word-Giver Stance is meant to address that.
I always thought the idea that Solars invented languages in the First Age to shape society was really cool. So I wanted to make that ability available to PCs.
Infinite Linguistics Mastery should probably be an Excellent Emissary's Tongue repurchase. Wrote it partly to help Solars learn multiple languages at once, partly to address the xp disparity issue that the Charm presents, and partly so that Supreme Perfection of Linguistics would have another prereq. Jumping straight there seemed a bit much.
Knowing languages is non-competitive enough that I'm preprared to write "you win at knowing languages" into a Charm. It's not really all that useful, since Excellent Emissary's Tongue is usually enough and you have to know a ton of languages to buy it, but it's impressive enough that usefulness seems secondary.
Thrown
Thrown is heavy on stealth and disarming. It's light on everything else. So it's great if you're Batman, and not so great if you're someone else. Here's an attempt at remedying that.
World-As-Weapon Meditation
Cost: 4m; Reflexive (One scene)
Prereqs: Thrown 3, Essence 1, Effortless Armament Mastery
A pin, a pillow, a handful of water...all are deadly weapons in the Solar's hands.
This Charm may be activated at any time. The Solar may take draw/ready actions to prepare Thrown weapons reflexively, and may use absolutely any object as a light mundane thrown weapon with Medium range. Weapons improvised this way have whatever tags the Storyteller sees fit to give them.
With a Thrown 5, Essence 2+ repurchase, the Solar may spend an additional 1m, 1wp when activating this Charm to infuse their thrown weapons with supernatural force. Small and harmless improvised weapons gain the traits of light artifact weapons, dangerous objects like actual weapons gain the traits of medium artifact weapons, and objects that require an action and a feat of strength to lift gain the traits of heavy artifact weapons. All have Medium range.
Arrow-Piercing Dart
Cost: 2m; Reflexive (Instant)
Prereqs: Thrown 5, Essence 3, Fallen Weapon Deflection
To strike down an arrow in flight is impossible. To strike down a magical lightning bolt is doubly so. But neither is beyond the skill of a Lawgiver.
This Charm may be activated when the Solar or another character within the maximum unenhanced range of the Solar's weapon makes or becomes the target of a ranged attack. The Solar makes a withering attack roll against the attack, as though Clashing it. The range is the range to the attacker or defender, whichever's closer. If the Solar's roll is better, the attack is negated. This Charm may only be used once per scene.
The Inescapable Javelin
Cost: 1wp or 5m, 1wp; Simple (Until attack hits or runs out of initiative) - Quickshot
Prereqs: Thrown 5, Essence 5, Cutting Circle of Destruction
If it looks like a Solar missed, look again.
This Charm is a decisive Thrown attack. If it hits, the Solar's weapon returns to her hand. If it misses, then after subtracting Initiative for missing the Solar gives her initiative score to her weapon and resets to base initiative. The weapon then repeats the attack next turn and each turn after that until it hits or reaches 0 initiative. When the Charm ends, the weapon returns instantly to the Solar's hands.
This Charm costs 1wp if used with an attuned artifact weapon and 5m, 1wp if used without one. Charms used to enhance it apply to every resulting attack, as long as the Solar commits their mote costs. Escaping this Charm through movement is impossible; the Solar's weapon will chase its target to Hell if need be. The weapon is not a valid target for attacks, although at the ST's discretion a gambit against the Solar may be able to strike it down. The Solar can't use the weapon while it chases her target, but may end the Charm at any time to reclaim it.
These should be new.
Additional Shaping Ritual (Merit ••)
You possess an additional shaping ritual from an archetype that you already have one from.
Occult
Spell-Breaking Word
Cost: 3m; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Occult 4, Essence 2, Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
The Solar Exalted are the true masters of sorcery. Other beings practice it only as long as the Lawgivers allow them to.
This Charm supplements a Distort or Counterspell action. It allows the action to target a spell from the circle above the Solar's highest, increases its range to Medium, removes all difficulties stemming from not knowing the target spell, and allows the action to be flurried normally.
With an Essence 3+ repurchase, the range of the enhanced action increases to Long. Moreover, it can target any spell of any circle and the Solar may flurry two Counterspell actions or two Distort actions enhanced this way as long as each is targeting a different spell.
Power-Draining Secret
Cost: 2m; Supplemental (Instant)
Prereqs: Occult 5, Essence 3, Spell-Breaking Word
Sorcery draws its power from the world around the sorcerer. So perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that the greatest sorcerers can draw from the magic of their enemies. Judging by the reactions of those targeted with this technique, though, it is very surprising indeed.
This Charm supplements a Counterspell action made while the Solar is shaping a spell. Any sorcerous motes that the target loses are added to the Solar's spell. The Solar does not lose motes for not making a Shape Sorcery action during a turn where she uses this.
Notes:
There are lots of niggling little restrictions on counterspelling and distorting. Removing them seems like a worthwhile Charm effect. Figure it's pretty safe balance-wise, because it'd be pretty hard for even total immunity to Sorcery to break anything.
There are good balance reasons not to let people bumrush Solar Circle Sorcery at chargen, but I don't think that should mean a Solar sorcerer can't mess with opposing Solar Circle spells until Essence 5.
Power-Draining Secret might be overpowered or it might be useless, I can't tell.
Linguistics
I'm not sure if Linguistics really needs more Charms. It's kinda borderline. But there are abilities I want, and they're not there. So now they're here.
I'm planning to make Infinite Linguistics Mastery into an EET repurchase, and I might reduce the prereq on Supreme Perfection of Linguistics.
Word-Giver Stance
Cost: 6m; Simple (Indefinite) - Stackable
Prereqs: Linguistics 5, Essence 2, Mingled Tongue Technique
The Solar spends an hour explaining a language that she knows to someone. As long as the Solar keeps her motes committed, that person knows that language too. He retains a -3 penalty to social influence in that language until he's got a week of practice, though. If the Solar keeps this Charm active while teaching a language, her student may learn that language permanently for the normal xp cost after two weeks of instruction.
If the student has an Essence pool, they may pay the cost of this Charm for the Solar. The Solar may still end it at will even if they do, though. A single one-hour lesson suffices to use this Charm on several people.
Fountain of Tongues
Permanent
Prereqs: Linguistics 5, Essence 4, Word-Giver Stance, Excellent Emissary's Tongue
The Lawgiver's mind is an endless wellspring of words, constantly springing forth to enrich the world.
The Solar may create magical languages. Doing so uses the rules for Sorcerous workings, with Linguistics replacing Occult. The Solar counts as a sorcerer of the highest Circle allowed by her Essence for this purpose.
In addition, any word or language the Solar uses or invents spreads extremely quickly. She can coin words easily, and her linguistic quirks will be imitated by the general populace wherever she goes.
Infinite Linguistics Mastery
Permanent
Prereqs: Linguistics 5, Essence 4, Excellent Emissary's Tongue
This Charm upgrades Excellent Emissary's Tongue. It removes the initial penalty to social influence, makes the Charm Stackable, and reduces the mote cost to 4m for the first activation, 2m for the second, and 1m for further activations. Moreover, if the Solar spent merit dots or xp to purchase languages, she is refunded 3xp per language at a rate of one language per month.
Supreme Perfection of Linguistics
Permanent
Prereqs: Linguistics 5, Essence 5, Infinite Linguistics Mastery, 20 languages
The Solar knows Language. Not just languages, but Language.
The Solar can speak, read, and write any and every language that she's ever been exposed to. And she knows every word in every language she knows. As soon as she hears a word of a language, she can write a dictionary for it.
Notes:
Foreign areas present a sort of decker problem, where only one PC can participate fully in social scenes. Word-Giver Stance is meant to address that.
I always thought the idea that Solars invented languages in the First Age to shape society was really cool. So I wanted to make that ability available to PCs.
Infinite Linguistics Mastery should probably be an Excellent Emissary's Tongue repurchase. Wrote it partly to help Solars learn multiple languages at once, partly to address the xp disparity issue that the Charm presents, and partly so that Supreme Perfection of Linguistics would have another prereq. Jumping straight there seemed a bit much.
Knowing languages is non-competitive enough that I'm preprared to write "you win at knowing languages" into a Charm. It's not really all that useful, since Excellent Emissary's Tongue is usually enough and you have to know a ton of languages to buy it, but it's impressive enough that usefulness seems secondary.
Thrown
Thrown is heavy on stealth and disarming. It's light on everything else. So it's great if you're Batman, and not so great if you're someone else. Here's an attempt at remedying that.
World-As-Weapon Meditation
Cost: 4m; Reflexive (One scene)
Prereqs: Thrown 3, Essence 1, Effortless Armament Mastery
A pin, a pillow, a handful of water...all are deadly weapons in the Solar's hands.
This Charm may be activated at any time. The Solar may take draw/ready actions to prepare Thrown weapons reflexively, and may use absolutely any object as a light mundane thrown weapon with Medium range. Weapons improvised this way have whatever tags the Storyteller sees fit to give them.
With a Thrown 5, Essence 2+ repurchase, the Solar may spend an additional 1m, 1wp when activating this Charm to infuse their thrown weapons with supernatural force. Small and harmless improvised weapons gain the traits of light artifact weapons, dangerous objects like actual weapons gain the traits of medium artifact weapons, and objects that require an action and a feat of strength to lift gain the traits of heavy artifact weapons. All have Medium range.
Arrow-Piercing Dart
Cost: 2m; Reflexive (Instant)
Prereqs: Thrown 5, Essence 3, Fallen Weapon Deflection
To strike down an arrow in flight is impossible. To strike down a magical lightning bolt is doubly so. But neither is beyond the skill of a Lawgiver.
This Charm may be activated when the Solar or another character within the maximum unenhanced range of the Solar's weapon makes or becomes the target of a ranged attack. The Solar makes a withering attack roll against the attack, as though Clashing it. The range is the range to the attacker or defender, whichever's closer. If the Solar's roll is better, the attack is negated. This Charm may only be used once per scene.
The Inescapable Javelin
Cost: 1wp or 5m, 1wp; Simple (Until attack hits or runs out of initiative) - Quickshot
Prereqs: Thrown 5, Essence 5, Cutting Circle of Destruction
If it looks like a Solar missed, look again.
This Charm is a decisive Thrown attack. If it hits, the Solar's weapon returns to her hand. If it misses, then after subtracting Initiative for missing the Solar gives her initiative score to her weapon and resets to base initiative. The weapon then repeats the attack next turn and each turn after that until it hits or reaches 0 initiative. When the Charm ends, the weapon returns instantly to the Solar's hands.
This Charm costs 1wp if used with an attuned artifact weapon and 5m, 1wp if used without one. Charms used to enhance it apply to every resulting attack, as long as the Solar commits their mote costs. Escaping this Charm through movement is impossible; the Solar's weapon will chase its target to Hell if need be. The weapon is not a valid target for attacks, although at the ST's discretion a gambit against the Solar may be able to strike it down. The Solar can't use the weapon while it chases her target, but may end the Charm at any time to reclaim it.
FaeGlade Plural
Semper Legens
- Location
- Land of Bureaucracy
- Pronouns
- Plural/They
On the earlier Occult/Lore split:
I'm sorry, but here 3Es system just makes way more sense to me.
First of all, with Occult being an "intuition" ability, I can clearly have characters that have a good intuition for it, but no actual learning in it.
So that newly-exalted former slave from the Blessed Isle? He has a sense for the supernatural, developed from spending years around various Dragonbloods - but since he obviously never got any schooling, he has no clue on how these things actually work. Doesn't mean he can't now see spirits and slay them, or exorcise people. But he won't understand a thing when the Twilight starts talking about prayer-flows or soul-duality or some such thing.
Second, it's now perfectly possible to have a character who is very learned about supernatural things - but it's pure book-learning, with no actual sense for these things. That's simply be a Lore-specialty that might allow you to identify the difference between a ghost, an elemental and a god, and piece together a description of their powers - but won't allow you to actually interact with them or instinctively understand an unknown spirit.
Third, it's still perfectly possible to have a "learned scholar" with high Occult - all that book-learning simply awakened your senses for the supernatural. And obviously, the best scholars of the supernatural have both high lore and occult because they need the latter to really delved into things.
So that means that you can still have a Sorcerer who got her knowledge via studying.
Fourth, it's now much clearer what Lore actually does. Thanks to Occult not representing any learning, I can simply put all learning under Lore. While it is interesting to debate whether a specific form of science falls under Occult or Lore thanks to it really being part of magic in Exalted, that's not very useful when actually running a game. Though I'd also note that nothing in the 2E corebook gave any indication of such a mix anyway, and that the descriptions of Occult and Lore are quite similar between the two editions.
Doesn't mean that I approve of the changes to Thaumaturgy - I'd still like it to be something that can be taught, maybe not to everyone, but to people who have a knack for it. And something like giving an exceptional Blacksmith good Occult because he has a feel for how his actions interact with fate or how his actions appease the goddess of blacksmithing is just too appropriate. And calling that Thaumaturgy and making it something that can be trained was very interesting - I'll either miss it or bring it back in a limited form.
I'm sorry, but here 3Es system just makes way more sense to me.
First of all, with Occult being an "intuition" ability, I can clearly have characters that have a good intuition for it, but no actual learning in it.
So that newly-exalted former slave from the Blessed Isle? He has a sense for the supernatural, developed from spending years around various Dragonbloods - but since he obviously never got any schooling, he has no clue on how these things actually work. Doesn't mean he can't now see spirits and slay them, or exorcise people. But he won't understand a thing when the Twilight starts talking about prayer-flows or soul-duality or some such thing.
Second, it's now perfectly possible to have a character who is very learned about supernatural things - but it's pure book-learning, with no actual sense for these things. That's simply be a Lore-specialty that might allow you to identify the difference between a ghost, an elemental and a god, and piece together a description of their powers - but won't allow you to actually interact with them or instinctively understand an unknown spirit.
Third, it's still perfectly possible to have a "learned scholar" with high Occult - all that book-learning simply awakened your senses for the supernatural. And obviously, the best scholars of the supernatural have both high lore and occult because they need the latter to really delved into things.
So that means that you can still have a Sorcerer who got her knowledge via studying.
Fourth, it's now much clearer what Lore actually does. Thanks to Occult not representing any learning, I can simply put all learning under Lore. While it is interesting to debate whether a specific form of science falls under Occult or Lore thanks to it really being part of magic in Exalted, that's not very useful when actually running a game. Though I'd also note that nothing in the 2E corebook gave any indication of such a mix anyway, and that the descriptions of Occult and Lore are quite similar between the two editions.
Doesn't mean that I approve of the changes to Thaumaturgy - I'd still like it to be something that can be taught, maybe not to everyone, but to people who have a knack for it. And something like giving an exceptional Blacksmith good Occult because he has a feel for how his actions interact with fate or how his actions appease the goddess of blacksmithing is just too appropriate. And calling that Thaumaturgy and making it something that can be trained was very interesting - I'll either miss it or bring it back in a limited form.
Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
About the not completely abbandoned topic of a big scale system: hey, i read here that Reign was one of the inspirations of a scrapped such system that was being done for EX3: are Reign systems any good as being converted in Exalted terms? It should be easier taking something else and converting for our uses, than making something from scratch and half working 2E systems.
Also, speaking of the devil, i just discovered this Adaptation of Exalted using Reign's system: has anybody read it?(It requires the Reign rules to be understood, and i have never read Reign) it is any good?
Last but not least: Hey @Shyft, do you plan expanding/doing a Artifact analisys anytime soon? Because i got the idea to try to fix all the various Backgrounds by applying Artifact like penalities and bonuses (like the table in the Oadenol's Codex, and apparently there is something similiar in the 1E book Savant and Sorcerer?), but i better start from understanding which Artifacts are broken or not, and create a scale to them (I was thinking to leave the Sorcery like effects in scale/power from three dots up, but modify the first and second dots a bit more than "It is like essence 1/2 solars charms!").
Okay i lied about the previous Period being the last, because i need also to finish the exposition of my Stance system. But i will have to do another time, becaus eno i haven't it.
Bye!
Also, speaking of the devil, i just discovered this Adaptation of Exalted using Reign's system: has anybody read it?(It requires the Reign rules to be understood, and i have never read Reign) it is any good?
Last but not least: Hey @Shyft, do you plan expanding/doing a Artifact analisys anytime soon? Because i got the idea to try to fix all the various Backgrounds by applying Artifact like penalities and bonuses (like the table in the Oadenol's Codex, and apparently there is something similiar in the 1E book Savant and Sorcerer?), but i better start from understanding which Artifacts are broken or not, and create a scale to them (I was thinking to leave the Sorcery like effects in scale/power from three dots up, but modify the first and second dots a bit more than "It is like essence 1/2 solars charms!").
Okay i lied about the previous Period being the last, because i need also to finish the exposition of my Stance system. But i will have to do another time, becaus eno i haven't it.
Bye!
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
...why would hanging around Dragon-blooded for years let me see spirits? That makes no sense.
Oh, Dragonblooded are very good at helping you see spirits. Especially House Cynis. Whiskey, sake, rum, vodka - they'll show you all of them and more.
Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
Well, you see: if you stay too close to a Dragonbloded, you are going to die the next time he flares his Anima.
Then, assuming that you had unfinished business, you become a ghost, who is prefectly capable of seeing spirits. Hell, Ghost are spirit themselves: you are getting more than you wanted from the Dragonblooded.