- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That sounds like an excuse for weakness.
General Exalted Thread
Yup. More often then not the Sabbat bury someone whose been turned and they are stuck digging themselves out. So basically, instead of dying and becoming a Vampire, the person nearly dies, and becomes an Abyssal instead.
The Sabbat Shovelhead who ends up becoming an Abyssal instead, then immediately takes over the local Sabbat
they try to explain stuff to the Abyssal like 'oh, our purpose is to kill the antediluvians'
the Abyssal just sits there, smiles, and asks calmly 'how many have you killed so far'
"well... there's, like, a lot of planning involved, and.. you know, we're getting all our, uh, ducks in a row, so-" "ducks." "yeah, you know, how you get everything lined up so you, uh..."
The Abyssal stops smiling.
"Kill them" the Abyssal says, and then the whole room goes very, very quiet. "You kill the ducks"
"Right! Totally! So, we're.. working on, uh.. how to do that part. Work in progress."
And the Abyssal then goes: "How long have you been lining up the ducks."
"Tchooo...well, kind of a loaded question, ha ha. Uh... I wannna saaaaaaay.... five...hun-hundred?"
Oppose, the Sabbat's purpose is to oppose the Antediluvians in general rather than specifically attempting to kill them.
Because trying to kill the Antediluvians when you don't have anybody that isn't both Fourth Gen or less and over a millennia old is usually suicidal.
Which is why they target the Camarilla, which they view as puppet's of the Antediluvians...and IIRC they are more or less correct on that matter.
Last edited:
I seem to be looking at a hamster...
Maybe with trenchcoats.
Next to the katana
hls
War hamster
Cave hamster, thank you.
- Location
- my house
Not war hamster?
The Zenith's re-eatable fish familiar, since hunting for food doesn't look very lady-like.
Agape, Banquet Table Siren
A witch created Agape to serve as their perfect ever-replenishing source of meats, though nobody knows why the witch imbue the fish with such sublime beauty, skin glistering with blue stripes like a summer ocean and golden scales decorated its fins with deep somber eyes that tells the love story of asea hag noon witch. Agape can steal the heart of countless tyrants and fairies with just a seducing glance if it isn't already so madly in love with its creator, and thus the fish responds to any suitors with scaling curses and insults.
Essence: 3; Willpower: 6; Join Battle: 3 dice
Personal Motes: 100
Health Levels: -0 / -1 x 1 / -2 x 1 / -4 x 1 / Incap.
Actions: Swimming (6 dice), Sense (4 dice), Resisting Disease and Sickness: (8 dice), Being Cute (7 dice), Cursing: (10 dice)
Appearance 8, Resolve 3, Guile 6
Attack (Bite): 2 dice (Damage 1)
Combat Movement: 10 dice
Evasion 5, Parry 1
Soak/Hardness: 3/2
Sample Intimacies:
Thousand-Facet Tuna: By tasting the blood of a non-magical animal, Agape can transform its meat into the meat of such creature with a Miscellaneous action.
Two Worlds Grace: Agape can swim through the air as if it's water and can breath air without suffocating.
Heavenly Ingredient: Agape's meat is never spoiled and combines perfectly with every other ingredient or method of cooking, the chef reroll every 1s on his Craft roll when preparing a meal using Agape's meat.
Fish Spring Eternal: As long as Agape's bone still existed, it can be resurrected by burying the bone into the ground and spring water onto the spot. The fish will grow back into its normal form after a day has passed.
Defensive Charms
Fish Soul, Sun Bod (10m,1wp; Reflexive, Instant): A spark of its Solar creator is imbued within Agape's body, allowing the fish to increase its soak to 20 and hardness to 10. This charm can only be used once per scene unless Agape crashes another opponent.
Social Charms
Elegant Psari Slander (5m; Reflexive, Instant): Hurling insults after insults, Agape wears down the enemy mental health. Roll 10 dices against the opponent's Resolve whom is inflicted with a negative tie toward themselves if they fail to resist. The lost of confidence also cause them to lose 5i (and an additional 1i for each threshold success on Agape's roll), if this lead to the opponent to enter crash then the negative tie increases to one tier, if it's already at the Defining level the opponent can't leave crash for the rest of the scene.
First Hook Impression (10m, 1wp; Reflexive, Indefinite): Anyone who meets Agape for the first time must roll their Resolve against an inspire action, if Agape succeeds then the target receives a minor Intimacy of platonic love toward the fish that can't be eroded as long as he can see Agape. Furthermore, he can suppress his other romantic Intimacies without paying Willpower or receiving Limit.
Sun Siren Ways (4m; Reflexive, Instant): Agape can add 4 dice to any social rolls, if the target is already inflicted with Elegant Psari Slander then the roll also benefit from double 9s.
A witch created Agape to serve as their perfect ever-replenishing source of meats, though nobody knows why the witch imbue the fish with such sublime beauty, skin glistering with blue stripes like a summer ocean and golden scales decorated its fins with deep somber eyes that tells the love story of a
Essence: 3; Willpower: 6; Join Battle: 3 dice
Personal Motes: 100
Health Levels: -0 / -1 x 1 / -2 x 1 / -4 x 1 / Incap.
Actions: Swimming (6 dice), Sense (4 dice), Resisting Disease and Sickness: (8 dice), Being Cute (7 dice), Cursing: (10 dice)
Appearance 8, Resolve 3, Guile 6
Attack (Bite): 2 dice (Damage 1)
Combat Movement: 10 dice
Evasion 5, Parry 1
Soak/Hardness: 3/2
Sample Intimacies:
- Defining Principle: "I love to be eaten by master."
- Defining Tie: Theodotus (Endless Infinity Bottomless Love)
- Major Principle: "True love can only be achieved with inner beauty."
- Major Tie: Theodotus's Friends (Eager to please)
- Major Tie: People with cooking skill (Respect)
- Minor Principle: "Sunbathing with salt on my skin is so calming."
- Minor Tie: Suitor (Annoyance)
Thousand-Facet Tuna: By tasting the blood of a non-magical animal, Agape can transform its meat into the meat of such creature with a Miscellaneous action.
Two Worlds Grace: Agape can swim through the air as if it's water and can breath air without suffocating.
Heavenly Ingredient: Agape's meat is never spoiled and combines perfectly with every other ingredient or method of cooking, the chef reroll every 1s on his Craft roll when preparing a meal using Agape's meat.
Fish Spring Eternal: As long as Agape's bone still existed, it can be resurrected by burying the bone into the ground and spring water onto the spot. The fish will grow back into its normal form after a day has passed.
Defensive Charms
Fish Soul, Sun Bod (10m,1wp; Reflexive, Instant): A spark of its Solar creator is imbued within Agape's body, allowing the fish to increase its soak to 20 and hardness to 10. This charm can only be used once per scene unless Agape crashes another opponent.
Social Charms
Elegant Psari Slander (5m; Reflexive, Instant): Hurling insults after insults, Agape wears down the enemy mental health. Roll 10 dices against the opponent's Resolve whom is inflicted with a negative tie toward themselves if they fail to resist. The lost of confidence also cause them to lose 5i (and an additional 1i for each threshold success on Agape's roll), if this lead to the opponent to enter crash then the negative tie increases to one tier, if it's already at the Defining level the opponent can't leave crash for the rest of the scene.
First Hook Impression (10m, 1wp; Reflexive, Indefinite): Anyone who meets Agape for the first time must roll their Resolve against an inspire action, if Agape succeeds then the target receives a minor Intimacy of platonic love toward the fish that can't be eroded as long as he can see Agape. Furthermore, he can suppress his other romantic Intimacies without paying Willpower or receiving Limit.
Sun Siren Ways (4m; Reflexive, Instant): Agape can add 4 dice to any social rolls, if the target is already inflicted with Elegant Psari Slander then the roll also benefit from double 9s.
Last edited:
- Location
- Singapore
Resurrection from burial? That's goats?
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Eh, not quite the same. Thor's goats didn't require burial and if you broke their bones after they were killed then they revive with the injury. Still, mythological precedent is always nice for Exalted stuff.
Nah, I got that merit from a folktale in my country where a girl buries the bone of her magical fish in urns, it either transforms into treasure or get resurrected depends on version.
Though Thor is also a hairy old-man like my Zenith so I guess they just have the same idea due to both being bear.
Though Thor is also a hairy old-man like my Zenith so I guess they just have the same idea due to both being bear.
Last edited:
On one hand, Potence is also broken, as are Potence-like effects (e.g. Hands of Death). On the other hand, if basically everyone has ways to get disgusting levels of damage output one way or another I suppose it's balanced in the same sense Mutually Assured Destruction is balanced and that makes a lot more sense.
I can see that design and I appreciate it for what it is. But that said, the primary issue I have with FFBS as such is that it actually effectively negates the power of having numbers and oWoD combat against superior foes is basically balanced by the 'you'll blow a dodge/soak roll eventually no matter how many actions you have, so taking on a swarm of nontrivial foes is pretty dangerous' factor, and the specific way FFBS seems to work (you get a fixed number of successes) reduces that chance as from what I'm understanding of the charm structure nothing prevents you from reactivating it again at cost if you screw up your initial activation. It would still be disgustingly powerful if it basically gave you full defense for a scene and have about as much average effect, it'd just make Solars a tad more vulnerable to slightly weaker opposition.
My thought is that an entire Primogen council would have a lot more trouble dealing with counterattacks from an angry Solar than that evaluation makes it sound, given how vampires have problems getting tons of health levels and the Solar's easy access to agg damage-and Ready In Eight Directions suggests that every attack they throw via Celerity shenanigans is going to be counterattacked at full-pool. I know that doesn't protect from more subtle forms of attack and an inexperienced Solar will be hard shut-down by various bullshit if they pick a really big fight with the wrong people, but it feels a little too reliable as a way to win fights.
Getting into a duel with Samuel Haight and his buddies as a Dawn with a bit of experience ("I no longer fear the bullshit, for I am the bullshit myself!") should probably still be a pretty epic fight where you come up on top eventually rather than a hard shutdown of the other guy.
Doesn't that depend on the definition of a scene? You can run, with a 4e + 2wp expenditure, unlimited reflexive counterattacks, unlimited reflexive dodges/parries, and a 20d attack pool. Anyone within sight of you who launches an attack just dies, with no additional expenditures. The only workable option would be using guys who would be immune to counterattacks due to range or people swole enough to just not give a shit, which is definitely an option but mechanically it still feels a bit too efficient for its raw power.
Going by M20, a heavy revolver is concealable under a jacket and does 6L. Now a totally invisible 5L weapon definitely has its uses but I'm not sure it has "60% of your starting charm allocation" worth of uses. And my read is that it costs 1 Essence per use of the 8L function, which is a lot when for that same 1 Essence and 60% of your starting charm allocation you could just pull a .30 caliber machine gun out of thin air and flex on people with your 12L/turn damage output and ability to hit multiple targets with said output. Now it's true that getting that first turn might be important and that oWoD combat is very much a game where shooting first is often pretty valuable (ask me about the fights you can win in Mage by going first and playing "use MJOLNIR on POOR SCHMUCK") but that's a lot of cost for a pretty niche use. Wind Weapons is also a viable alternative if you're fairly swole, by virtue of using your demigodly powers inherited from the power of the dragon to... make a large rock. Out of air. Don't ask how it's possible.
(a large rock is difficulty 5, Str + 3B damage. Because most supernatural critters which want to fight you have ways to get soak lethal/agg with full Stamina, and many of them can heal Bashing basically at the same rate as Lethal, said large rock is probably far and away the best throwing weapon for Wind Weapons if you're fighting a supernatural foe who qualifies as a serious combatant).
- Pronouns
- she/her
IIRC, it's a behemoth that was banished to Elsewhere, there's also a mention of an Eyeless Nation that went with it. Presumably they're the minions but it might be something more elaborate.
Yeah, I figured it was essentially the minions without the limited lifespan.
So still not much to chew on, huh? Unfortunate.
IIRC there was something about the Minions looking suspiciously similar to the Priests of Cecelyne?
- Pronouns
- she/her
Nope, that's the Hidden Judges of the Secret Flame a different group of summonables.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
Here's a link to when I asked this question!
General Exalted Thread - Megathread - Pen & Paper | Page 1599
EDIT: Looking back, I kind of like the idea of it being a sort of hiveminded Lost Race of the Primordials - a singular entity that nevertheless had the scale and capability of an entire civilization. I'd still stick with the idea of it/them being highly narcissistic and self-absorbed, though.
Last edited:
hls
War hamster
That's the design thesis, yeah. These guys are dropping into an ecosystem that already contains Crinos form, the Brujah clan disciplines, and other forms of madness.
(Another easy-to-overlook advantage of the Exalted, speaking of, is Ox-Body Technique. There are very few ways to get more health levels in the WoD. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is the Troll birthright, though I know there are a couple of others.)
The first draft of FFBS worked exactly the way you suggest (which is also how it worked in Exalted First edition), and it's a really easy house rule to tweak it back that way. It's wholly in line with the spirit of the hack, even. The main reason I ended up fixing it in its more-powerful current form was to cut ~20 extra dice rolls out of a big fight. WoD combat is slow enough as it is.
At a certain point, it's really the weird powers and wild dice rolls you're afraid of, or people messing with things you care about, because, yeah. All I can say is, they are designed to eventually roll over most direct combat challenges like a tank over a bunch of bicycles.
No, you're right. You can pretty much create a mountain of bodies the first couple of times someone tries to swarm you. This is useful if someone just sent a gang to kill you, less so if you're standing off against literally the full resources of the United States of America on the White House lawn.
(Also, your cost is going to be 5 Essence, 2 Willpower, so you can get infinite ammo going with Immortal Armory of the Sun.)
Hmm. It might sit better at 2 dots.
- Location
- Singapore
Aleph, Earthscorpion? I"m going to apologize in advance. I got a story idea, and it just won't go away.
He was walking along the road.... when the girl fell from the sky. White hair, like silver. Purple eyes. And beautiful beyond belief. A soft tracery of scars and stitches on her, that made her look all the more beautiful. She was injured, she was lost, and he took her in, knowing the pleading words she mouthed through cracked lips.
At his home, he realized what she was. A demon concubine of the local dragon-blooded sorcerer. She said that, due to her very nature and her duty, she is chaste and unable to love any but Kinmaya, her creator. Then he heard the announcement. The one to return the girl who had fled, would be rewarded. Beautiful women, land, power, generalship, tutorship in the occult... all these would be available. Just give up the girl.
What had happened, was that the dragonblooded had been summoning Aiderea, and holding them in jadesteel shackles, and doing you know what. This particular specimen rolled a natural 20, or the one putting on the shackle rolled a botch. Whatever happened, she escaped, killing guards with fingers that transformed into syringes and scalpels. She escaped, flesh enduring arrow shots and threw herself off the cliff, enduring the crashes and bumps along the way, until she struck the boy.
The boy now knew that she would never love him. The boy knew that all his dreams would come true if he just handed her over. And looking at the tearing, quivering face of the Sky-Sewn bride, he makes a decision that he will probably regret. He says no.
The next few days are hectic. The sorcerer searches, sending out demons and elementals to comb over. But they have already left. Or hidden. Maybe they rolled well, or the Unconquered Sun was kinder this time. But anyway, they escaped capture.
The end of the story kinda ends with them beckoning Kinmaya from Hell. With the Aiderea having Occult 7 and intelligence 3, its... kinda hard, but not impossible. 10 dice. Difficulty of 6/ 7. Add in ritual implements for more dice (story fodder! Run from the guards! Hide! Sneak into the occult lab!) And then, at the end, Kinmaya comes out. It ain't pretty. One angry second circle demon specializing in War, Sorcery, and Lore and moving in for the kill, versus a Dragonblooded sorcerer who's dabbled in melee, and only good in occult, lore, and survival.
Actually, it wasn't a battle. It was a slaughter. After the last of the guards has been killed and the last of the demons banished, Kinmaya turns to the boy, and offers him a reward. Tutorship, and patronage, from the Meteoric Twins, the Messenger Soul of the Heavenly Inferno. All her knowledge of sorcery, all his for the taking. As thanks.
And that's how the tale of Blazing Star, sorcerer of the night sky, was born.
He was walking along the road.... when the girl fell from the sky. White hair, like silver. Purple eyes. And beautiful beyond belief. A soft tracery of scars and stitches on her, that made her look all the more beautiful. She was injured, she was lost, and he took her in, knowing the pleading words she mouthed through cracked lips.
At his home, he realized what she was. A demon concubine of the local dragon-blooded sorcerer. She said that, due to her very nature and her duty, she is chaste and unable to love any but Kinmaya, her creator. Then he heard the announcement. The one to return the girl who had fled, would be rewarded. Beautiful women, land, power, generalship, tutorship in the occult... all these would be available. Just give up the girl.
What had happened, was that the dragonblooded had been summoning Aiderea, and holding them in jadesteel shackles, and doing you know what. This particular specimen rolled a natural 20, or the one putting on the shackle rolled a botch. Whatever happened, she escaped, killing guards with fingers that transformed into syringes and scalpels. She escaped, flesh enduring arrow shots and threw herself off the cliff, enduring the crashes and bumps along the way, until she struck the boy.
The boy now knew that she would never love him. The boy knew that all his dreams would come true if he just handed her over. And looking at the tearing, quivering face of the Sky-Sewn bride, he makes a decision that he will probably regret. He says no.
The next few days are hectic. The sorcerer searches, sending out demons and elementals to comb over. But they have already left. Or hidden. Maybe they rolled well, or the Unconquered Sun was kinder this time. But anyway, they escaped capture.
The end of the story kinda ends with them beckoning Kinmaya from Hell. With the Aiderea having Occult 7 and intelligence 3, its... kinda hard, but not impossible. 10 dice. Difficulty of 6/ 7. Add in ritual implements for more dice (story fodder! Run from the guards! Hide! Sneak into the occult lab!) And then, at the end, Kinmaya comes out. It ain't pretty. One angry second circle demon specializing in War, Sorcery, and Lore and moving in for the kill, versus a Dragonblooded sorcerer who's dabbled in melee, and only good in occult, lore, and survival.
Actually, it wasn't a battle. It was a slaughter. After the last of the guards has been killed and the last of the demons banished, Kinmaya turns to the boy, and offers him a reward. Tutorship, and patronage, from the Meteoric Twins, the Messenger Soul of the Heavenly Inferno. All her knowledge of sorcery, all his for the taking. As thanks.
And that's how the tale of Blazing Star, sorcerer of the night sky, was born.
- Location
- Ottawa
Felt like writing some Sidereal Charms of the "highly specific trick that you need to shoehorn into solving your current problem" variety.
Slightly silly, given that we don't have a Sidereal Charmset, but...whatever.
Homebrew isn't generally written to be used, is it?
Making Corpses
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Simple (Instant)
Prereqs: Medicine 5, Essence 2, Peaceable Conclusion
The Sidereal whispers a secret word and touches her target; his body falls to the ground, dead as can be, of whatever apparent cause the Sidereal chooses. This does not harm her target, although it may unnerve them to see their own corpse conjured. Dead bodies created through this Charm have no useful magical properties and lack artificial attachments like clothes, prosthetic limbs, and possessions. Otherwise they are perfectly identical to naturally-created corpses.
There are a number of Heavenly laws governing the treatment of bodies created through this Charm. Only two are actually enforced; the prohibitions on cannibalism and disease-creation. Sidereals who wish to eat their own corpses, or to create plague-dead to use as weapons, would be well advised to do so secretly.
This Charm may be used upon any sapient being of flesh and blood, including the Sidereal herself.
Cash-Emulating Practice
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Simple (Indefinite)
Prereqs: Larceny 5, Essence 3, Masque of the Uncanny
The Sidereal names herself Coin, and her body changes to suit her new name. For as long as she keeps her motes committed, her body takes the form of a small silver coin stamped with her Maiden's symbol on one side and her own face on the other. While coin-shaped the Sidereal is blind, mute, and immobile, but can hear and feel normally. If her coin-body would be damaged, she is forced back into human form instead.
Exactly As Planned
Cost: 2m; Simple (Instant) - Psyche
Prereqs: Socialize 4, Essence 2, Cash and Murder Games
The Sidereal claims responsibility for planning or orchestrating something. The claim seems immediately plausible, no matter how far-fetched it might be. In addition, the Sidereal rolls Manipulation + Socialize; if she overcomes the Resolve of her targets, they must spend 1 wp or be magically compelled to believe her claim. If the Sidereal's claim is actually more or less believable, this cost is increased to 3 wp.
Casual use of this Charm is discouraged by the Bureau of Destiny. While it may flatter a specific Sidereal's vanity to spin a humiliating defeat as one step in a grand design, the already-widespread-in-Yu-Shan belief that Sidereals are behind absolutely everything is really quite inconvenient. The Sidereal Exalted, as a group, would strongly prefer to seem less sinister.
Slightly silly, given that we don't have a Sidereal Charmset, but...whatever.
Homebrew isn't generally written to be used, is it?
Making Corpses
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Simple (Instant)
Prereqs: Medicine 5, Essence 2, Peaceable Conclusion
The Sidereal whispers a secret word and touches her target; his body falls to the ground, dead as can be, of whatever apparent cause the Sidereal chooses. This does not harm her target, although it may unnerve them to see their own corpse conjured. Dead bodies created through this Charm have no useful magical properties and lack artificial attachments like clothes, prosthetic limbs, and possessions. Otherwise they are perfectly identical to naturally-created corpses.
There are a number of Heavenly laws governing the treatment of bodies created through this Charm. Only two are actually enforced; the prohibitions on cannibalism and disease-creation. Sidereals who wish to eat their own corpses, or to create plague-dead to use as weapons, would be well advised to do so secretly.
This Charm may be used upon any sapient being of flesh and blood, including the Sidereal herself.
Cash-Emulating Practice
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Simple (Indefinite)
Prereqs: Larceny 5, Essence 3, Masque of the Uncanny
The Sidereal names herself Coin, and her body changes to suit her new name. For as long as she keeps her motes committed, her body takes the form of a small silver coin stamped with her Maiden's symbol on one side and her own face on the other. While coin-shaped the Sidereal is blind, mute, and immobile, but can hear and feel normally. If her coin-body would be damaged, she is forced back into human form instead.
Exactly As Planned
Cost: 2m; Simple (Instant) - Psyche
Prereqs: Socialize 4, Essence 2, Cash and Murder Games
The Sidereal claims responsibility for planning or orchestrating something. The claim seems immediately plausible, no matter how far-fetched it might be. In addition, the Sidereal rolls Manipulation + Socialize; if she overcomes the Resolve of her targets, they must spend 1 wp or be magically compelled to believe her claim. If the Sidereal's claim is actually more or less believable, this cost is increased to 3 wp.
Casual use of this Charm is discouraged by the Bureau of Destiny. While it may flatter a specific Sidereal's vanity to spin a humiliating defeat as one step in a grand design, the already-widespread-in-Yu-Shan belief that Sidereals are behind absolutely everything is really quite inconvenient. The Sidereal Exalted, as a group, would strongly prefer to seem less sinister.
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
There, fixed that for you.
TN Note: Keikaku means plan.
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
I know.