mothematics
How wide is the concept of "you"?
- Location
- the bottom of a coffee cup
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Alternatively people are writing bad charms because they don't know how to write good charms, and both mechanics and thematics are important?
General Exalted Thread
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, that or you just get a headache trying to take this approach so instead you just load up on combat Charms and wreck fucking face until the end of days
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This is also an issue.
I never said that thematics weren't important (because they certainly are), though I can see in hindsight how I may have implied that, which I apologize for.
What I meant was that, people (I could show you some of my old work, which suffers from this flaw as an example) write Charms with no consideration for the implications of their mechanics and their effects (See: all of Sidereals 1e), and instead only considered the thematics of them.
But yes, lack of understanding of the system is certainly an issue as well, and I would have to be an ignorant idiot to not acknowledge it.
Well, that or you just get a headache trying to take this approach so instead you just load up on combat Charms and wreck fucking face until the end of days
I AM THE OLD MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN
THE MOUNTAIN OF SVOLE
FIGHT ME
- Location
- Spain
Giving that this has been a particular problem of Sids since it's very begining? Not really. It's not like all splats suffer from it, after all.
The "Heaven wills it" charms have always been poison.
mothematics
How wide is the concept of "you"?
- Location
- the bottom of a coffee cup
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Fair enough. I'll admit I'm fortunate in that my experience with bad homebrew has been minimal 
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Like, by the end of @Kylar's 2.5e mixed-splat game? @Fenrir555's Chosen of Endings was so batshit, our enemies thought "we are going to split up and send someone to assault his fortified super-mansion guarded by bound spirits to dig up and destroy his buried prayer strip" actually had better chances of success than attacking him head-on. His character had the soak of heavy artifact armor while unarmored, could stack actual armor on top, and healed from literally any wound within at most a minute.
And that was one of his Charm trees.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Fair enough. I'll admit I'm fortunate in that my experience with bad homebrew has been minimal
it's time
i was young and stupid
don't blame me
Resistance-Defining Denial of Aggression
Cost: 8; 1wp; Mins: Essence 3, Type: Reflexive (Phase 2)
Keywords: Sorcerous,
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: First Oramian Excellency.
Oramus is the Dragon Beyond The World, he defines all, shapes all. His wings encapsulate all, only inside his own wings may he be confined. This Charm reflects that by setting an area of absolute territory for the Gatekeeper where his will is law. Any attacks made against him for the remainder of that scene will immediately fail as if they had failed to exceed his DV no matter what. This Charm is, however subject to the Imperfection of Oramus.
this is what i thought was acceptable Charm design once.
please punish me someone
- Location
- Singapore
Boo! boo! boo!
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Are you sure someone didn't use Cash-And-Murder-Games on you?
Alt Joke: The Masochist says, "Punish me please!"
The Sadist says, "No."
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
i have more charms from that document
for your perverted pleasure
for your perverted pleasure
FaeGlade Plural
Semper Legens
- Location
- Land of Bureaucracy
- Pronouns
- Plural/They
So I mentioned this in the recruiting-thread, but the Where Fate Has Led document is a bit weird in regards to Resplendent Destinies.
At it's base, a Resplendent Destiny is crafted via astrology (potentially costing XP if you have too many) and grants you a number of background merit dots while wearing it, as well as giving you one Defining and two Major Intimacies which give you Paradox if you act against them. Those only take effect while you wear the destiny, which takes an hour of meditation to accomplish and undo (though that can be done quickly at the cost of gaining Paradox).
Then, there is a "Resplendent" Keyword which isn't used anywhere in the document. There are however plenty of "Resplendent Destiny of X" charms - however, here's where an issue starts.
Some of them just modify your abilities while you wear the resplendent destiny of their constellation.
Others allow you to create a persona, presumably as per the Solars ability to do so. It's not specified in the document how those work really.
It's a wee bit of a mess because of that Persona-stuff, since there's no statement in the document how it interacts with Resplendent Destinies.
Hence, a suggestion on how to untangle that:
Resplendent Destinies stay as they are.
"Resplendent Destiny of X" charms all modify your abilities while you wear an appropriate RD. This effect is gained on the first purchase, even for charms where it says "an essence 2 repurchase" or the like.
These Personas are activated when you don a destiny from the college of the charm that created them, at the cost of 10 non-committed motes. While you wear it, you're treated as having those Intimacies in place of your normal ones (instead of just getting additional ones). There is no danger of them carrying over into your normal personas as for Solars with Heart-Eclipsing Shroud (you instead have to worry about Paradox), but other than that it works like that charm.
Exiting such a persona could also always make you roll one Paradox die, though that's optional.
@Maugan Ra ,this would really untangle the mess there is, and give you the best of both worlds.
At it's base, a Resplendent Destiny is crafted via astrology (potentially costing XP if you have too many) and grants you a number of background merit dots while wearing it, as well as giving you one Defining and two Major Intimacies which give you Paradox if you act against them. Those only take effect while you wear the destiny, which takes an hour of meditation to accomplish and undo (though that can be done quickly at the cost of gaining Paradox).
Then, there is a "Resplendent" Keyword which isn't used anywhere in the document. There are however plenty of "Resplendent Destiny of X" charms - however, here's where an issue starts.
Some of them just modify your abilities while you wear the resplendent destiny of their constellation.
Others allow you to create a persona, presumably as per the Solars ability to do so. It's not specified in the document how those work really.
It's a wee bit of a mess because of that Persona-stuff, since there's no statement in the document how it interacts with Resplendent Destinies.
Hence, a suggestion on how to untangle that:
Resplendent Destinies stay as they are.
"Resplendent Destiny of X" charms all modify your abilities while you wear an appropriate RD. This effect is gained on the first purchase, even for charms where it says "an essence 2 repurchase" or the like.
In the case of Resplendent Destiny of the Mast, you just gain the +1 Resistance, maximum 6, until someone comes up with something more interesting. Or alternatively +1 Stamina.
All such charms also gain an Essence 2 repurchase that allow you to craft more intricate destinies of that college. Such a "Destiny Persona" can be created with more Intimacies, including minor ones, at no additional cost (though you still gain paradox from violating them). As a special rule, you can take this repurchase at Essence 1 for your Caste abilities.These Personas are activated when you don a destiny from the college of the charm that created them, at the cost of 10 non-committed motes. While you wear it, you're treated as having those Intimacies in place of your normal ones (instead of just getting additional ones). There is no danger of them carrying over into your normal personas as for Solars with Heart-Eclipsing Shroud (you instead have to worry about Paradox), but other than that it works like that charm.
Exiting such a persona could also always make you roll one Paradox die, though that's optional.
@Maugan Ra ,this would really untangle the mess there is, and give you the best of both worlds.
So on the one hand, the transformation token Charm is hilarious.
On the other hand, the way this is framed makes me think instead of Problem Sleuth's "innocuous double" mechanic, where one's key/lipstick/deck of cards might at any point suddenly be a machine gun, chainsaw, or belt of knives.
And that makes me want to write up Sepulchritude. Though I'm not sure as what, really. The name suggests Abyssal, the appearance suggests Infernal Malfean, the thematics suggests Solar, so I really have no idea.
- Location
- New York City
Wastevens was beginning his first in-depth editing pass on the Charms in Where Fate Has Lead when he went quiet, so I would imagine that some of the messiness is the result of not getting to that second pass for most Abilities.
TenfoldShields
Lounging on a Hoard of Words
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ah yeah! Thanks heh sorta forgot about that.
(I'm sloppy and stupid that's my excuse
)I think what I was going for was....mm if you summon them the regular way you just get the boat, so the squid-blobs are almost never summoned ('cause literally why bother) and the whale-things usually only see use with sorcerers who already have a bunch of naval-themed demons and want to splurge out and get a big naval
When they escape though I figured that the whale-things bring their crews in and it becomes a sorta infernal swashbuckling adventure that, idk, a team of DB's would be tasked to solve or a Sidereal would find in their in-box. Find the sunken treasure of Merchant McDeepPockets to earn his favor and also banish back the big angry demon-ship that's sinking even more shit. One of the weird Creation exclusive natural disasters that shows up now and then y'know? If that makes sense I mean. <<
Edit: But yeah thanks for the feedback and edited some! >>
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- Location
- Spain
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- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
To be fair was he a single dude doing all that alone.
Like, that's still pretty impressive.
Also, I assume you can still defend against that? I mean, it just says "martial arts gambit," I dunno the mechanics but can you just dodge it?
Because instadeath Charms are, aheh, not exactly unknown.
(Also it sounds like a Shaping defense should shut it down, but I think they got rid of that entire concept in 3e?)
Because instadeath Charms are, aheh, not exactly unknown.
(Also it sounds like a Shaping defense should shut it down, but I think they got rid of that entire concept in 3e?)
Hakazin
Serpent Admirer
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Thanks a lot! That was throwing me when I was reading through. I was chalking it up to being incomplete.
- Location
- Spain
Yeah, you can defend. And yeah, a shaping defense could break it. (But note, this isn't like 2e where you could assume everybody important would have one).
But it's much worse than a "mere" insta-kill charm. This allows you to make perfect slaves with minimal effort.
Well, yes.
It's here so you can turn your stockings into daiklaives and your panties into firewands.
FaeGlade Plural
Semper Legens
- Location
- Land of Bureaucracy
- Pronouns
- Plural/They
Yes, some of those Sidereal Martial Arts are not that well-done.
Pattern-Spider Touch is really a "I kill you" effect where you may show more mercy and simply remake the victim. So for balance reasons, you should treat it as a means of killing your victim.
Well, this version of it is a Gambit with a difficulty between 3 and 7 (or 8 or 9 for powerful spirits). So you have to be able to land a decisive attack first (since it's a gambit), then roll your Initiative and get at least as many successes.
You also pay 7 Initiative first, so that'd be an extra 3 successes or thereabouts if you made a normal decisive attack. So you trade between ~6 and ~10 damage for the opportunity to just kill them - against most targets, this will be a very good trade. 6 damage won't even kill a mortal, while 10 damage won't kill most Exalts or similar opponents.
Honestly, I'd just rework Pattern-Spider Touch into a charm that enhances decisive attacks. You get the option to not inflict the damage so that you can do sneaky stuff. At any rate, you look into which health levels you'd knock your opponent - 0, -1, -2, -4, incap - and depending on which it is, you get to inflict worse and worse effects. Maybe start with messing with Intimacies, then with story-merits (since you're altering their fate), some poison/disease effects, physical changes that act as crippling effects and finally just "erase from existence" if you'd incapacitate them.
That way, it turns into a debuff-effect more than an instant-kill effect, curse-defending magic gets more opportunities to act against it, and if you're strong enough to kill the target - well, you could have done that without the charm, this is just flashier.
Pattern-Spider Touch is really a "I kill you" effect where you may show more mercy and simply remake the victim. So for balance reasons, you should treat it as a means of killing your victim.
Well, this version of it is a Gambit with a difficulty between 3 and 7 (or 8 or 9 for powerful spirits). So you have to be able to land a decisive attack first (since it's a gambit), then roll your Initiative and get at least as many successes.
You also pay 7 Initiative first, so that'd be an extra 3 successes or thereabouts if you made a normal decisive attack. So you trade between ~6 and ~10 damage for the opportunity to just kill them - against most targets, this will be a very good trade. 6 damage won't even kill a mortal, while 10 damage won't kill most Exalts or similar opponents.
Honestly, I'd just rework Pattern-Spider Touch into a charm that enhances decisive attacks. You get the option to not inflict the damage so that you can do sneaky stuff. At any rate, you look into which health levels you'd knock your opponent - 0, -1, -2, -4, incap - and depending on which it is, you get to inflict worse and worse effects. Maybe start with messing with Intimacies, then with story-merits (since you're altering their fate), some poison/disease effects, physical changes that act as crippling effects and finally just "erase from existence" if you'd incapacitate them.
That way, it turns into a debuff-effect more than an instant-kill effect, curse-defending magic gets more opportunities to act against it, and if you're strong enough to kill the target - well, you could have done that without the charm, this is just flashier.
A gambit requires a successful attack roll, followed by a successful gambit roll. That said, the difficulty to reshape some Essence 2 guy with that Charm is the same difficulty you'd need to roll to knock him off a horse (albeit with a hefty Initiative cost paid before your roll). So it's not great even before you get into the issue of being able to rewrite people's character sheets to make them whatever you want.
It basically requires enough init to kill most opponents and then has you gamble it all on one attack, so it's not horribly broken.
And sure, making perfectly obedient slaves is nice...but you're E4, you already have very loyal slaves in demon summoning. It's an upgrade, but not a totally broken one.
And sure, making perfectly obedient slaves is nice...but you're E4, you already have very loyal slaves in demon summoning. It's an upgrade, but not a totally broken one.