The trick is to recognize that the primordial form of the Lunar Exalted is a tire fire and anything that elevates them, however slightly, above this tire fire should make people happy
The power of low expectations
General Exalted Thread
The trick is to recognize that the primordial form of the Lunar Exalted is a tire fire and anything that elevates them, however slightly, above this tire fire should make people happy
The power of low expectations
tbh my standards for Lunars were at "Doesn't lose in one turn to a Solar, more than three builds can accomplish this". Given these preview Charms, I've tentatively raised them
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
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I'm not so great at game balance, but isn't that mote cost a bit high for marking just one person? The later one for FAA is fine, but 20m for just one person seems like a bit much. Also, in terms of formatting, shouldn't the cost be expressed as (+cost), given that the charm is supplemental to GSNF, as a build-off of MWG? Just a slight nitpick there.
FTFY
I love the effect - it's perfectly thematic with Malfeas' general 'I'm an evil overlord, sue me' schtick. However, I'm not sure the death should be automatic. Maybe some kind of resistance roll is allowed - on a success, you suffer some serious negative effect (A Crippling effect? Green Sun Wasting doesn't quite fit as being a lesser consequence), on a failure, you just die.
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- Pittsburgh, PA
Maybe something like having your minion take (your Essence) in aggravated damage at the end of the scene, with an accompanying Crippling effect that represents how their chakra coils are all burnt/clogged with spiritual soot?
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
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- United Kingdom
That works. Although I think it would be more like their chakras being blasted open and seared with the terrible fire of Malfean essence than being clogged - spiritual third-degree burns, so to speak. The only issue is that if they're using By Pain Reforged, I'd imagine that they'd have taken damage anyway, so adding more on top of that would likely just be a simple death sentence. Perhaps instead you 'upgrade' damage equal to your Essence - Bashing to Lethal, Lethal to Aggravated, beginning with Lethal? So you'll always take at least 1 Agg if you've used BPR (that 1lhl cost).
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That makes sense to me. Won't kill them, but it'll put them out of the fight for a long time, and means using this has a cost since you'll need to worry about the extra cost in healing afterwards (unless you're malfeas in which case you just leave then there to die.)
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
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- United Kingdom
Maybe add some Obvious effect to using the Charms? Maybe the minion's chakras can be seen to visibly smoulder with green light, like when you shine a torch through your hand? And then at the end of the scene, the light erupts into flame. Hmm. Perhaps the 'damage upgrading' could automatically cauterize the wounds? That might be too kind for Malfeas, though.
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- my house
@GardenerBriareus @QafianSage
Rewrote it, what do you think?
Fatalistic Minion Fanatics
Cost: 5-20m, 0-1 wp; Type: Dramatic Action
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping
Requirements: Essence 3
Prerequisites: Magnanimous Warning Glyph
The minions of Malfeas work through the pain, because they know it pales in comparison to what their king will do should they fail.
By spending an additional 5 motes when marking someone with Magnanimous Warning Glyph, the infernal may grant them access to By Pain Reforged and Scar Writ Saga Shield. At the end of a scene where the target uses these charms, all damage taken is upgraded by one level, bashing to lethal, lethal to aggravated, the unholy fires of Malfeas poisoning their body from within as it races along their chakras.
If the Infernal knows Fealty-Acknowledging Audience they may choose to spend an additional 1 WP and 20 motes when using that charm to apply the effects of this charm to all who he marks.
@ManusDomine please threadmark
Rewrote it, what do you think?
Fatalistic Minion Fanatics
Cost: 5-20m, 0-1 wp; Type: Dramatic Action
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping
Requirements: Essence 3
Prerequisites: Magnanimous Warning Glyph
The minions of Malfeas work through the pain, because they know it pales in comparison to what their king will do should they fail.
By spending an additional 5 motes when marking someone with Magnanimous Warning Glyph, the infernal may grant them access to By Pain Reforged and Scar Writ Saga Shield. At the end of a scene where the target uses these charms, all damage taken is upgraded by one level, bashing to lethal, lethal to aggravated, the unholy fires of Malfeas poisoning their body from within as it races along their chakras.
If the Infernal knows Fealty-Acknowledging Audience they may choose to spend an additional 1 WP and 20 motes when using that charm to apply the effects of this charm to all who he marks.
@ManusDomine please threadmark
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QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
Shouldn't that be "At the end of any scene in which the targets make use of these charms" instead of "At the end of the scene"? That seems to imply that they have to use them immediately.
FTFY. I'm just a spelling-Nazi.
- Location
- my house
Think I got it all this time. What do you think?Shouldn't that be "At the end of any scene in which the targets make use of these charms" instead of "At the end of the scene"? That seems to imply that they have to use them immediately.
FTFY. I'm just a spelling-Nazi.
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QafianSage
Ascending Ape
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- United Kingdom
Looks good to me, other than the misspelling of acknowledging.
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- my house
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
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- United Kingdom
Cool. So, you said that this is meant to be the root charm of a tree intended to create 'warlocks' (presumably in the D&D sense - people who draw power from another source). How were you thinking of expanding the tree? Oramus has a mote-pool charm that allows allied Mad to draw from that mote pool (Lord of Asylums, IIRC), so we have a precedent for that kind of thing.
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- my house
Not sure yet. I don't want to give too many charms because then you're making mini exalts, but I am think maybe allowing them to take one aggravated HL damage to use GSNF or something, as well as a way to turn people into demons. I'll need to read up on spirit charms I think.
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
If I'm honest, I think you may need to dip a toe into heresy here. Malfeas drives foes and flunkies alike before him, but he doesn't really grant power to others. Plus, this is exactly the kind of thing that an Infernal would be likely to develop a charm to do - it makes sense to make one's subordinates better at their jobs, but the Yozis probably wouldn't think of it. They'd just make new races of serfs - which is why Titanic Spawn Uncountable is a thing. Maybe you could use Revlid's SWLiHN's Soul-Optimising Sophonics?
For turning into demons, there's Oramus' charm Ascension's Lullaby, as well as TED's Inner Devils Unchained to work from, though those two are thematically very different.
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- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
get a homebrew hub
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- my house
I have to disagree. Malfeas is a tyrant, an overlord, changing men into monsters, making them both less and more than human I'd definitely within his themes. I mean By Rage Recast and FAA are explicitly designed to do basically this, and the ring wraiths are exactly the kind of the thing he'd do.
Also, a question for the thread. One of the themes of exalted is that nobody deserves power, because nobody earns it. Some people are simply born smarter, or get the better oppurtunities or whatever. I'd like to try and run an AU with a different theme. Namely that power is something you take, bloody and raw, from the twitching corpse of your enemies. That power requires awful deeds and terrible sacrifices. Reach Heaven Through Violence and all that. Any ideas on how to change the setting/run things? One of the big issue's I keep running across is that if I make it to literal, than eventually one person will just have all the power and nobody will be able to take it from them.
A couple of ideas I've thought of.
Experience is a real thing people are aware you can get by killing people. But that just leads to industrialized slaughter which is too dark for my tastes.
Exalts getting a separate xp track for charms and such which only comes from killing and harvesting supernatural creatures.
Exaltations being actual physical things you can steal, but which you can only have one of.
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QafianSage
Ascending Ape
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- United Kingdom
Oh, turning people into demons and twisted monstrosities is definitely within his themes. However, given how badly he got burned with the gods and the exalted, I think that the Demon City would be wary, to say the least, of empowering his lessers in any way that doesn't tie them ever-more closely to him, or else neutralise their threat.
Welcome to xianxia. That's where I'd recommend looking for ideas for this kind of stuff.
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- Denmark
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i was serious about this btw, i'm not gonna threadmark a single charm get a goddamn homebrew hub
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
That's why he brands people with glyphs that'll murder them if they defy him, and that can be upgraded to torture people.
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
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- United Kingdom
Point. Even so, I can't help but think that the - for lack of a better word - trauma of the Primordial War and his defeat would make Malfeas not want to empower anyone. After all, the Exalted suffered much in the War, and drove him to surrender just the same.
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
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- United Kingdom
...Point.
This is not actually a theme of Exalted. "All power is inherently unearned" has never been a theme. You can run that theme with Exalted, but it's not written into the books. This is someone's headcanon.
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No, I'd actually argue that it's pretty inherent to Exalted in a lot of ways, although I'd describe it more as a sub-theme of Exalted's approach to violence than a significant theme in it's own right.