In itself this is a good idea. But I sort of have a paradigm of sorts for SMA, in the absence of a solid canon guideline, which more or less precludes that kind of approach. SMA covers... aspects of cosmic truth, and are half-designed, half-revealed. A style lies partly in potential within the cosmos; while a Sidereal master could design it in several different ways, once it is designed it is to some extent part of Creation, of Fate. One cannot simply rediscover it or branch it off into a variant form.

Of course, as a writer, that wouldn't preclude me from designing several takes on a style and just picking whichever I prefer for a given game. I'm just too lazy to tackle an SMA as my first writing project in three months :p

Speaking of, I have so much stuff to procrastinate on now that I can properly write, I need a one-off to ease me back into things. Anyone's got some Exalted stuff they'd like me to write something on?
Going back aways, you could write up the demon-kamui idea that got thrown around with the Hegra stuff.
 
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Or, as a lot of the vets here are fond of saying, it's not about what you can or can't do, it's about what it will cost you. You can tank planet destroying attacks, but you can't do it without cost.
That is the problem I wan't it without cost of Motes , and if you really want to do it with a cost which mostly be time needed to learn this and that to reach that level of tanking ability
 
It worked on Omicron, Dif, and Shyft, now we just need to start throwing rotten fruit at EarthScorpion and we're like 80% of the way there.
Honestly if we could get everyone to individually organize their own indexes we could solve all the threadmark bloat problems forever (or until lordsquishy dies which based on my estimate should be more than 50 years away assuming he dies a natural death which is basically all the time we'll ever need), so that would be great.

But I don't have the strength of personality to strongarm everyone who writes homebrew nor the patience necessary to remind them to update- so I gotta work with the tools I got.

Revlid has the right of it IMO; threadmark bloat is hell, particularly on mobile.
You know what would be great? If threadmarks had a option where you could sort them into categories that would be hidden, until you opened them, essentially like a dropdown box or something on that sort.

But you know, since I'm not an executive I don't help make these sorts of decisions. HINT HINT
 
You know what would be great? If threadmarks had a option where you could sort them into categories that would be hidden, until you opened them, essentially like a dropdown box or something on that sort.

But you know, since I'm not an executive I don't help make these sorts of decisions. HINT HINT
I too would like the ability to manifest additional Xon-hours, but for the time being we've just got to work with what we have.
 
That is the problem I wan't it without cost of Motes , and if you really want to do it with a cost which mostly be time needed to learn this and that to reach that level of tanking ability
At this point, you seem to no longer want anything close to Exalted, because everything in your post is utterly abhorrent of what Exalted is. In Exalted, you do things. You don't just stand there bouncing bullets off of your chest, you actively counter them in some way. Just please stop going on without knowing what you're talking about. Go read the goddamn mechanics if you want to talk about the mechanics, and read more than half a book of the setting fluff before you start running your mouth about literally anything else in the game. I am begging you to stop. Please.
 
Sidereal charms in a 3e design philosophy fascinate me, though I lack a lot of the basic mechanical understanding of the newer structure to really grok how they might work.

One thing they really should do is integrate the astrology stuff more closely with the actual charms, though. Having it as an entire separate mechanical system just makes the whole thing aggravating to deal with and easy to ignore, which isn't exactly ideal.

In terms of basic dice tricks, I'm kind of fond of the idea of handing most of that kind of thing off to destinies, come to think of it. The Solar can double-9s on any performance roll involving oratory, but a Sidereal needs to set up a destiny that they can exploit to get the same benefit - a resplendent destiny of a skilled orator, perhaps.

The overall effect should be that the Sidereal can get a lot of probability-manipulating effects stacking on top of each other, but that they go away if he loses control of the situation or an enemy works out what he's after and kicks over the metaphorical game board.

Sidereals: Where Fate Has Lead is a pretty great conversion. As I came in with 3e, I'm not to familiar with their previous design, but WFHL not only converts the rules, but does a pretty good job at the lore, too. It reads like a full splatbook, not just a conversion a la Irked's Lunar Charms. I'm totally planning on using it as an option come my next game.
 
That is the problem I wan't it without cost of Motes , and if you really want to do it with a cost which mostly be time needed to learn this and that to reach that level of tanking ability
NO cost, always on invulnerability, or nigh-invulnerability, is not something to be used in Exalted. What you suggest, I can see as a cascade of Charms that starts with a basic, repurchasable passive 'Gain X Soak vs nonmagical damage' and moves into gradually improving durability that has oddly, cripplingly specific conditions with the option to pay Motes to remove a set number of them.

Or just a 'limitlessly' repurchasable Charm for Alchemicals, who have a hard limit on how many Charms they get to have, or have it as a limitlessly repurchesable Evocation for a specific set of armor, with different XP-Soak ratios and maybe a specific restriction based on Exalt type using the Evocations.
 
That is the problem I wan't it without cost of Motes , and if you really want to do it with a cost which mostly be time needed to learn this and that to reach that level of tanking ability
Bursting Eagerness Soul is coming on a bit strong, but he's essentially correct.

The thing is, Charms in Exalted are not superpowers. The fundamental conceit of Charms is that they are magic in the sense of manifestations of talent, practice and experience sufficient to perform superhuman feats; they aren't Superman being bulletproof as a simple fact of who he is, they're Batman being able to dodge bullets thanks to intense training.

Because of this, you can't be bulletproof, but you can know how to block bullets, and by necessity, that requires a measure of effort both to learn how to do that, and to actually put your training into practice.

There's a reason that words like 'technique', 'meditation' and 'kata' are common threads among the names of Charms; with a very few exceptions, Charms, and magic in general in Exalted, is a thing you do, not simply an innate quality of who you are.

So, an Exalt can learn how to parry any blow, or harden her body at the moment of impact sufficient to withstand any event... But these are, necessarily, strenuous techniques that tire out the magical muscle of their Essence reserves. Making these things costless and always-on is fundamentally counter to how magic in Exalted works - and would shatter any semblance of game balance, besides.
 
@Kinunatzs

Just so you know, most of the stuff people are telling you is based on the second edition of Exalted. The third is quite different.

The stuff about the inapplicability of VS-debate-style thinking holds true for all editions, though.

Although...2e does add an extra wrinkle to VS-debates by containing essence reactor hacks and Scroll of the Monk SMA. Obsidian Shards of Infinity is actually more impressive than the "omnipotence" of some fictional characters. So maybe 3e is a little more tractable.

Bursting Eagerness Soul is coming on a bit strong, but he's essentially correct.

The thing is, Charms in Exalted are not superpowers. The fundamental conceit of Charms is that they are magic in the sense of manifestations of talent, practice and experience sufficient to perform superhuman feats; they aren't Superman being bulletproof as a simple fact of who he is, they're Batman being able to dodge bullets thanks to intense training.

Because of this, you can't be bulletproof, but you can know how to block bullets, and by necessity, that requires a measure of effort both to learn how to do that, and to actually put your training into practice.

Well...usually. Solar, Abyssal, Sidereal, Martial Arts, and Terrestrial Charms follow this paradigm. Infernals and Alchemicals sometimes get "simple fact of who you are" Charms. But even for them, Charms are meant to make for fun gameplay. So they don't trivialize attacks from non-trivial opponents except when the writers screw up.
 
@Omicron Maybe write up something for the Dreaming Sea? I've been hunting for a good idea for a "home territory" setting for the beginning of a campaign as a city-state.
 
That is the problem I wan't it without cost of Motes , and if you really want to do it with a cost which mostly be time needed to learn this and that to reach that level of tanking ability
The last couple of posters criticism of this is valid. The closes there is to that in exalted is part of the malfeas charm tree for Infernal exalted who have transhumanism, supervillains and videogame style bosses as part of their meta themes. It does include some passive durability boosts but never enough to let you ignore truly dangerous attacks just weak ones from unskilled opponents.

The tree goes like this.
A passive ox body stand in that give more health levels. Think hp but very little and as you lose it the greater you wound penalties get. This version gives you three -2 health levels and one -4. This is more than other exalts get but it only improves the ability to fight longer while wounded rather than the time spent fighting at 100%. It says that Infernals can survive a lot of injuries and keep fighting but they are still hurt.

A scene long charm that allows you to ignore the effects of bashing damage including wound penalties and losing consciousness when you run out of health levels but lethal damage works as normal. There is a second charm that adds lethal to the effect.

Then comes a permanent soak booster that can be repurchased 2 times at higher essence levels. Taken together it is basically a good set of mundane armor for the first purchase okay magic armor at the second and great mundane armor at the second. With the third purchase it lets you bypass ping for things that are 4 or more essence levels below you so as an elder you could ignore the attacks from mortals almost all the time and possibly all the time if you stack this with really good armor. That is unless they think to use poison then you are fucked. This is the closest setting gets to natural invincibility.

Alchemicals also have a stackable armor charm but their themes are being robots so it is rather literally having armor bolted to you
 
This is the closest setting gets to natural invincibility.
There is that Adjoran charm that can activate for zero motes under a specific set of circumstances, but the point of that is to let you walk through the hail of arrows from the mooks.

And the lesson of the P-combo is that you don't have to be invincible all the time. You just have to be invincible long enough to kill the other guy. (The fact that if there are three or four guys like that, your options are to die or run unless you have buddies is completely intentional.)
 
For every instance of Son Goku casually backhanding away a blast that can vaporize a planet we have an instance of him being punked with a single punch to the back of the head or being hurt by a tiny rock bounced off his skull.
The thing that people forget is that Dragon ball was a comedy.
Spiderman dances around bullets and gets clobbered by a geriatric senior.

Would beating a defenseless old man be what Uncle Ben wanted? ;)
 
The stuff about the inapplicability of VS-debate-style thinking holds true for all editions, though.

Although...2e does add an extra wrinkle to VS-debates by containing essence reactor hacks and Scroll of the Monk SMA. Obsidian Shards of Infinity is actually more impressive than the "omnipotence" of some fictional characters. So maybe 3e is a little more tractable.
They can't really be tiered normally due to how their abilities work, but that is only at the higher essence levels.
Like when you have access to stuff like: Draw forth one Shard, Shadow Slave Extraction, Sky Breaker Throw, World Scarring Solar Glory, Great Thinker's Defense Maneuver.
That stuff doesn't make them unusable in vs. debates, but it complicates stuff.

Pre-elder essence they don't really make that much problems.
 
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Ok I see this where are going you guys are just too focused on how to make the game or whatever it is to be interesting and fun, but that's not what I'm after is not to have fun but to win and always win against any opponents, traps and schemes without problem and without a hint that I would lose and by the end of it become a God with capital G in the setting not a straggler of fate or fight battles with 50/50 chance of winning or have a thrilling battles
 
Ok I see this where are going you guys are just too focused on how to make the game or whatever it is to be interesting and fun, but that's not what I'm after is not to have fun but to win and always win against any opponents, traps and schemes without problem and without a hint that I would lose and by the end of it become a God with capital G in the setting

Mate, this is a setting where Yahweh got turned inside out and sewn up inside his own stomach by Aztec Lucifer's autonomous respawning combat drones. You're not getting "I always win" by any path. If you do, that's an obvious mechanical bug to be promptly exterminated.
 
If you are Exalted, you are already more powerful than most gods.

Exalted is the game where you say "I am no mere god" and mean it.
fight battles with 50/50 chance of winnin
If you're in a fair fight, ya dun goofed. Exalted should always endeavour to make the fight as unfair for their opponents as possible.

Exalted gives you power. It does not give you wisdom or victory. Those must be earned, although they may be earned easier with the power of Exaltation.
If you do, that's an obvious mechanical bug to be promptly exterminated.
CoughScrolloftheMonkcough
 
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