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.

You get perfectly loyal Exalted slaves.

Yeah this isn't balanced in like, any way unless you righ the weight more heavily than the election Trump supporters see.
 
@Serafina your Resplendent Destiny Charm fix sounds lovely. I just had made the weird assumption that you needed the Charm to possess a resplendent destiny in a college, but I realize now that wasn't the case.
 
You get perfectly loyal Exalted slaves.
Not perfectly loyal. At most you give them a Defining Intimacy towards you...which can erode naturally or be removed with normal social influence. Not to mention the risk of them learning charms to regain their memories or learning of what you did and then you have an Exalt you think is your slave trying to murder you when you least expect it.
 
Not perfectly loyal. At most you give them a Defining Intimacy towards you...which can erode naturally or be removed with normal social influence. Not to mention the risk of them learning charms to regain their memories or learning of what you did and then you have an Exalt you think is your slave trying to murder you when you least expect it.

...is this really the hill you're going to die on?
 
Not perfectly loyal. At most you give them a Defining Intimacy towards you...which can erode naturally or be removed with normal social influence. Not to mention the risk of them learning charms to regain their memories or learning of what you did and then you have an Exalt you think is your slave trying to murder you when you least expect it.

So it is balanced through either:
A): Complete storyteller fiat.
B): Partial storyteller fiat.
B): Complete storyteller fiat again.

Color me unimpressed.
 
I think some consequence for the Charm like a point of Paradox or Backlash as WFHL defines it could be a cool consequence for using a power like that, though I also think making it uniformly difficult to use like a Difficulty 7 Gambit would be a decent way to do it. Or maybe Essence + 4. A good thing to keep in mind is that an Initiative roll for a gambit can't be enhanced with Charms.

Failing a consequence like Paradox or Backlash, maybe it can only be used once per story or something, because radically altering Fate that way is messy stuff.

I'm not saying that it's perfect by any stretch, but it's worth keeping in mind that as an Essence 4 effect for a Sidereal in 3e, it's not a terribly common ability, and with limitations like the technique being difficult to pull off and not something commonly deployed, it might exist as one of those rare, but powerful techniques they might deploy infrequently.

That predicating on giving it some limitations in another development pass. None of it is a final draft after all.
 
@Serafina - Yeah, I was a little uncertain what was going on with the Resplendent Destiny charms. They are pretty clearly part-way through being written as well, which adds a bit of extra difficulty in properly interpreting them.

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.
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.

I like the idea of keeping the basic Resplendent Destiny mechanics and then just having the charms bolster or otherwise modify them. That certainly seems like a viable way to interpret them.

That said, I'm less sure on the Personas. Unless... hmm, I guess if the intimacies in question are specifically emblematic of the college/sign rather than a specific cover identity, that would work. It does make it somewhat awkward to void your own intimacies when adopting the cover though, since specific ties and the like would go away.
 
I have some ideas for an original Yozi, but given how much ideas for the Underworld I'm sitting on, don't hold your breath on it.

His basic thematic is a perfection/superiority/inferiority complex. As in, he thinks he has to be perfect in everything he does, feels guilt and self-loathing when he isn't, and when he does measure up to his own expectations he still thinks 'so what, this is merely what I should be doing all the time'. Also has a tendency to see others only in comparison to himself, either as idols to aspire to and surpass, or to patronize as inferiors to magnanimously teach and guide. A number of charms would only function as long as the Infernal has some sort of negative intimacy to himself.

His fetich would be a seemingly perfect king whose constant micromanagement and reforms in spite of his at best middling ruling skills do more harm than good, that hides a sickly and wasted appearance behind elaborate robes and masks sewn and bolted directly onto his flesh and bones by his Warden soul, who resents and dreams of covertly elminating the Defining Soul that is his secretary who is obsessed with keeping up decorum and enforces the public image of the court with a cadre of assassins against anyone who would say otherwise or even know too much, whose Indulgent soul is a partying slob that's kept far far away from the public, and whose reflective soul is locked up in the dungeon for failure and speaking out of turn.

Other third circles are a criminal ragged-seeming and constantly maniacally muttering, raving and giggling saboteur and terrorist obsessed with tearing down everything that's not perfect, his siblings and their works most of all, who can escape Malfeas if a person looks back at their own life's work in shame and disgust to offer his assistance in turning it down, a polymath artist obsessed with his magnum opus which he constantly throws into the trash to start over, and one 3C obsessed with imitating and impersonating the embodiment of imitation itself, aka Szoreny and some of his own 3Cs, who can be recognized by always having minute cracks in whatever appearance he dons.

Problems with him are that I'm not sure what environmental aesthetic he should have, and that he somewhat thematically overlaps with the Principle and Szoreny, who have the 'perfectly geometrical crystals' and 'mirror cabinet' environments locked down already.
 
In response to this, I mean:

I've been thinking about filling out the ranks of the Yozi, and I wanted to get some input. Now, I prefer to have Ramethus, Taakazoa, and Mardukth as Yozi rather than Neverborn, because we have some information on them. Are there any non-canon Yozi that are any good anywhere? I've been thinking about an ice Yozi, focused on stasis, and a fire yozi, focused on filling the mad scientist slot since Autobot's sleeping.
 
I think some consequence for the Charm like a point of Paradox or Backlash as WFHL defines it could be a cool consequence for using a power like that, though I also think making it uniformly difficult to use like a Difficulty 7 Gambit would be a decent way to do it. Or maybe Essence + 4. A good thing to keep in mind is that an Initiative roll for a gambit can't be enhanced with Charms.

The only other example of such charmtech I can think of would be Heart-Eating Fist in Miracles of The Solar Exalted, which requires a gambit with a difficulty of (remaining health levels).
 
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Are you really arguing that 'Intimacies change with time' is ST fiat? That changing how someone views a PC based on how the PC treats them is somehow unusual?

No, I'm arguing that it'll fail against mundane social influence.

Whereas, you seem to be arguing that an Essence 4 Charm that outdoes an Essence 5 Charm from Miracles of The Broken Exalted in every single way is acceptable.
 
@Serafina - Yeah, I was a little uncertain what was going on with the Resplendent Destiny charms. They are pretty clearly part-way through being written as well, which adds a bit of extra difficulty in properly interpreting them.

I like the idea of keeping the basic Resplendent Destiny mechanics and then just having the charms bolster or otherwise modify them. That certainly seems like a viable way to interpret them.
That said, I'm less sure on the Personas. Unless... hmm, I guess if the intimacies in question are specifically emblematic of the college/sign rather than a specific cover identity, that would work. It does make it somewhat awkward to void your own intimacies when adopting the cover though, since specific ties and the like would go away.
Well, in 2E and (I think) 1E, Resplendent Destinies gave you some minor powers you could use. The "Resplendent Destiny of X" charms do give you those, so that works rather well.

As for the personas - well, that's how they work for Solars. And yes, they were supposed to fit with the college, forgot to add that.
What you could do instead (and I just see you've done in the recruitment thread) is to add more Intimacies instead of voiding your main ones. However, if you do that, I'd add one or two things:
- either just a resolve to Guile to hide your main intimacies. +1 Essence or something like that. This aids with, well, people not noticing who the Sidereal really is
- or temporarily reducing the intensity of all your main intimacies by one. Roughly the same effect, but alos makes it easier to act against who you actually are and fits with the destiny affecting you in some way.
- or both, both is also good.
 
No, I'm arguing that it'll fail against mundane social influence.
You are? That's new. What's your argument? Because nothing you've said so far seems even tangentially related to that.

Whereas, you seem to be arguing that an Essence 4 Charm that outdoes an Essence 5 Charm from Miracles of The Broken Exalted in every single way is acceptable.
Have you actually read the charm in question? Beyond creating a Gambit to take someone out, they do very different things and have very different costs.
 
To go in a completely different direction, something's been bugging me: how do people handle abstracting language in their games? It's certainly no fun for a character to have to worry too much about communicating around language barriers, since that can get really annoying really fast, but it's a bit of a stretch realistically to have something as, say, Firetongue for example, be one single language - if anything it would be a language family, and a large one at that - closer to Indo-European than Romantic. But the game also has it such that Firetongue from An Teng to Chiaroscuro is supposed to be mutually intelligible, which is kind of like saying that because you speak Romanian you can speak Punjabi. It's tricky to try and find a balance between the nature of Exalted as asking those kinds of barbed, world-at-large focused questions, while not driving people mad in detail. Obviously you have to strike a balance but I'm stumped as to where that line should be.
 
First, we assume that the language divide is reduced because all those gods and such both reduce the change of language over time, and between regions.
Then, we accept the language groups are an abstraction. People in An Teng and Chiaroscuro don't actually speak the same language, but for most game-purpose we don't bother tracking that.
Third, we explain that by most people who actually travel or deal with travelers being multilingual. Your average uneducated farmer won't understand someone from a different region - but the village chief might, the priests should, the merchants will and so on. We just don't represent that on their sheet, it's just called "Firetongue" and since the player characters are by definition exceptional, they'll be able to talk with the uneducated farmer as well.
Fourth, we include that in the game via short mentions as "he did not understand your initial question, but after two more tries in different languages, you found the one he spoke".
 
To go in a completely different direction, something's been bugging me: how do people handle abstracting language in their games? It's certainly no fun for a character to have to worry too much about communicating around language barriers, since that can get really annoying really fast, but it's a bit of a stretch realistically to have something as, say, Firetongue for example, be one single language - if anything it would be a language family, and a large one at that - closer to Indo-European than Romantic. But the game also has it such that Firetongue from An Teng to Chiaroscuro is supposed to be mutually intelligible, which is kind of like saying that because you speak Romanian you can speak Punjabi. It's tricky to try and find a balance between the nature of Exalted as asking those kinds of barbed, world-at-large focused questions, while not driving people mad in detail. Obviously you have to strike a balance but I'm stumped as to where that line should be.
After various attempts at handling language all fell through in various ways, my main group basically just ignores languages. Everyone can understand what everyone says and language is basically there as aesthetics.
 
To go in a completely different direction, something's been bugging me: how do people handle abstracting language in their games? It's certainly no fun for a character to have to worry too much about communicating around language barriers, since that can get really annoying really fast, but it's a bit of a stretch realistically to have something as, say, Firetongue for example, be one single language - if anything it would be a language family, and a large one at that - closer to Indo-European than Romantic. But the game also has it such that Firetongue from An Teng to Chiaroscuro is supposed to be mutually intelligible, which is kind of like saying that because you speak Romanian you can speak Punjabi. It's tricky to try and find a balance between the nature of Exalted as asking those kinds of barbed, world-at-large focused questions, while not driving people mad in detail. Obviously you have to strike a balance but I'm stumped as to where that line should be.

Cultural imperialism, go!

Entirely seriously, a basic knowledge of High Realm/Low Realm is going to be common knowledge among the educated of Realm-dominated areas of Creation - and that's going to result in its presence as a lingua franca of ruling classes in places in the Realm's periphery. No, the peasantry won't speak it, but the important people will.

And then there's Old Realm, which is Creation-wide, very useful if you're educated and having to do anything with spirits - and that means that a lot of towns and villages in Creation will have priests who have a basic knowledge of Old Realm - enough to serve as an intermediary if you need to talk to people.

And finally, with our Style system, new languages are a Style, and things are calibrated so Styles are cheap to get, so picking up 1 dot in a Language Style is enough for basic conversation and is super-cheap, so if you're staying in an area for an extended period, you can just pick it up.

More generally, the thing is to remember the scale of Creation and not let them zip around the map too quickly.

EDIT:

Oh yeah, and remember, there's a demon for it.

Peronelles are Linguistics 5, and that means you can wear them and have them whisper a translation in your ear - and have them translate for you. And you can also summon them and make sure they know a specific language.

Just remember to execute them when you're done with them, so they don't whisper all your secrets to Lucien.
 
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Um. Well. Fuck, I can't believe I am saying this...

But Return of the Scarlet Empress has a decent section on this. Yes, I know, but I actually did find the section interesting and not insane. It also sounds like it's basically what he's asking for.

(Usual disclaimers: RotSE is a terrible book, use it at your own peril.)

Ok, serious question time: do you have one player that really wants to play an Infernal and the rest of the group is fine playing Alchies?

If so, put your foot down unless you trust the player. And I mean in on both the mechanics side of things and the roleplaying side and the general table relations. I'd still be opposed on general principle, as Infernals are a significant power jump from Alchies, nevermind the training time problems.

But if you were running those two splats only, 2e would in fact mostly work, as both splats were written around the understandings of 2e's environments.
I have one who really wants alchemical one who really wants infernal and the rest are undecided. I trust them all to be mature with their picks
 
I've not had the opportunity to do much with language in my games, but I am interested in exploring it. In one of the first games I ran, I used it as a sort of bludgeon that felt very inelegant at the time, but that was years and years ago.

I'm hoping to explore it with an eye towards how it might effect social situations dramatically. Generally though, my table is comfortable with dramatic irony, where they're aware of something that their character isn't, so I'm optimistic that will lend itself to interesting situations. I don't think it will come up in my current game, but in the next one involving the Dreaming Sea, it might.

With that most places will still speak local families of Firetongue, but I have the idea that Ysyr might have its own language, and that Forestongue and Riverspeak might also be spoken by peoples there.
 
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