- Location
- PA
The hidden joke is mostly that I'd rather people do such things because they want to and because it expresses something important rather than for a handful of motes.
General Exalted Thread
Jon Chung
=][=
Yeah, well, that is precisely why the incentive structure is bad there. Remove the need to do pointless stunts to get motes and you'll only get this sort of thing when the players feel like stunting because it's thematically appropriate, rather than whenever they feel like they need motes, which is "all the time".
- Location
- Washington, USA
In terms of specifically combat balance, first two that spring to mind are Blinking Eye of Chaos and Spreading The Wyld Roots.
More generally, though, "some of our best powers only work in the wyld" is a thematic thing for Lunars. Bypassing that runs the risk of turning into a meaningless speedbump on the way to one true build, like Natural Spell for druids, and powers to ignore the original environment by overwriting it with whatever would be most convenient for your character seem likely to result in white-room battles displacing meaningful engagement with the setting.
- Location
- Earth Prime
This is a long-running, established game, not a game I need to balance against chargen and the like, and none of my players are optimizing particularly hard. (Still very effective in combat, because I'm not optimizing very hard, either.) We play a bit loose with the rules, but my "rules-lite system of choice" rips out the flavor of the game provided by the system, so I am using 2E. I...don't like 3e, for all that it has some nice innovations. The rules get even fiddlier in places that are harder to gloss over without throwing out the system entirely, and the charm bloat for utterly boring dice manipulation charms is hideous in the extreme. Heck, I want to like the crafting system, but its complications are followed by Charms that obviate them, rather than by Charms that exploit them, and they lead to weirder behavior than stunting-for-motes.
I have a Lunar player (by far the least optimized in the already unoptimized party) who is idly considering Wyld Charms for humor value, but doesn't want to spend XP on Charms he'll use as rarely as the Wyld comes up. Hence my musing on a Charm to let him bring the Wyld with him. That said, the next session is taking place in an Unshaped.
(I wish I could find the writeup of it that I put on the old 2E wiki, but even the archived versions of said wiki seem to lack the pages I added, sadly. I was quite proud of the Isolated Youths' Academy, but sadly I lost my own copy of it two or three computers back.)
I have a Lunar player (by far the least optimized in the already unoptimized party) who is idly considering Wyld Charms for humor value, but doesn't want to spend XP on Charms he'll use as rarely as the Wyld comes up. Hence my musing on a Charm to let him bring the Wyld with him. That said, the next session is taking place in an Unshaped.
(I wish I could find the writeup of it that I put on the old 2E wiki, but even the archived versions of said wiki seem to lack the pages I added, sadly. I was quite proud of the Isolated Youths' Academy, but sadly I lost my own copy of it two or three computers back.)
For which edition? In 2E that sounds like just an Excellency and in 3E it would be any charms having to do with introducing facts.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Don't worry, soon we will have Exalted Essence and all the warring tribes of the editions shall join together in one harmonious union.
- Location
- Ottawa
Remember these?
In retrospect, I should've said that Technique Resurrection Prana also lets you use history books as tutors more broadly. A Solar historian reading about Queen Merela should be able to learn Brawl as though they spent their reading time being trained by an expert fighter.
Any edition. And I'm hoping for something more engaging than just an excellency or fact introducing charms.
I had forgotten about those, thanks! I don't suppose you've made any more along those lines?
- Location
- Ottawa
Not that I can recall, no.
HamSandLich
MEAT WIZARD
- Location
- Somewhere in NOVA, possibly, maybe, presumably
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You ever had one of those games where the Horrifying Mothman No Moon Lunar finds himself in a bunch of Harem Protagonist scenarios?
boo600
Ego sum egredietur tempestas.
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him/Hungry
Nope.
Because people HATE playing Lunars, for some reason. They love the ability to make weapons that hit them disappear into pocket dimensions, and turn into an animal-human war-beast a la Werewolf the Apocalypse/Forsaken, but having to choose between charms and knacks for the listing of 10 to start being for both combined leads to real-life flame wars, and houseruling it to 10 charms and 4 knacks just doesn't cut it for some people.
Anyways. Now that I've finished griping, I'd like to ask for help. Namely, I can't find the Demon Mass Summoning Rules for 2e, and I could have sworn they were in Oedanal's Codex... but I still can't seem to track them down. Anyone remember where they were?
Because people HATE playing Lunars, for some reason. They love the ability to make weapons that hit them disappear into pocket dimensions, and turn into an animal-human war-beast a la Werewolf the Apocalypse/Forsaken, but having to choose between charms and knacks for the listing of 10 to start being for both combined leads to real-life flame wars, and houseruling it to 10 charms and 4 knacks just doesn't cut it for some people.
Anyways. Now that I've finished griping, I'd like to ask for help. Namely, I can't find the Demon Mass Summoning Rules for 2e, and I could have sworn they were in Oedanal's Codex... but I still can't seem to track them down. Anyone remember where they were?
- Location
- my house
I think mass summoning is only possible with a spell ES wrote
In canon, it's a manse feature in Dreams of the First Age.
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
There should something in Roll of Divinity 2, I think, about how to go about summoning an army.
- Location
- Ottawa
Page 29.
WildCardFool
A Reaction Pic for nearly every occasion
- Location
- Earth
So one of my friends is just getting me into Exalted. We're running 2e with the Scroll of Errata, but when I'm googling around for advice and tips I see that 2.5e is sometimes thrown around. This seems to be 2e with the Scroll of Errata and sometimes something called Ink Monkey? What is this, and do we need it for our game to be considered 2.5e? Just want to know if any of the advice I saw for 2.5e would still work with our campaign as is.
UrsaTempest
Don't Panic!
2.5e is basically 2e with Errata, yes. Ink Monkey are charms and some rule clarification made on writers' blog, back when they still exist (they might not, dunno).
They are not strictly necessary, but they are pretty nice to have.
Advice should still mostly work, I think.
boo600
Ego sum egredietur tempestas.
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him/Hungry
Speak for yourself. No Malfean Infernal is truly complete without By Rage Recast, and Driven Beyond Death is absolutely the best way to go "you fools, this isn't even my FINAL FORM!"
Plus, no Defiler is complete without Orbital Impact Storm, and Dragon's Lair Obtenebration is perhaps the best reason to learn TED charms. Yes, even more so than the Golden Years Tarnished Black tree.
All of this is in Ink Monkeys, along with more for each type of Exalt, and essays on the nature of the Shinma, the Primordials, the difference between Demons and Devas...
It is truly a necessity for all who wish for the full experience... and it's nicely balanced, unlike so many fan supplements.
(Anyways, ranting in good fun aside, that pretty much summarized it. Personally, I recommend 2.5 due to combos being free to make and not costing WP, but be warned- Infernals function around perfect defenses, so 2.5 slashed them something fierce. Every other exalt did pretty well, though [except dragonbloods, but they only lose out by comparison, what with combos being free for all])
Plus, no Defiler is complete without Orbital Impact Storm, and Dragon's Lair Obtenebration is perhaps the best reason to learn TED charms. Yes, even more so than the Golden Years Tarnished Black tree.
All of this is in Ink Monkeys, along with more for each type of Exalt, and essays on the nature of the Shinma, the Primordials, the difference between Demons and Devas...
It is truly a necessity for all who wish for the full experience... and it's nicely balanced, unlike so many fan supplements.
(Anyways, ranting in good fun aside, that pretty much summarized it. Personally, I recommend 2.5 due to combos being free to make and not costing WP, but be warned- Infernals function around perfect defenses, so 2.5 slashed them something fierce. Every other exalt did pretty well, though [except dragonbloods, but they only lose out by comparison, what with combos being free for all])
WildCardFool
A Reaction Pic for nearly every occasion
- Location
- Earth
Well any advice for a complete newbie making his first character? Chargen tips, essential Charms/Abilities, common pitfalls? Not too sure what I'm gonna go with so far besides maybe a basic Dawn Melee build or maybe a Night/Twilight Archer...
Edit: Typed the wrong Caste for the Archer idea. Starting at Essence 2, 15 Bonus Points, the whole shebang.
Edit: Typed the wrong Caste for the Archer idea. Starting at Essence 2, 15 Bonus Points, the whole shebang.
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Jon Chung
=][=
So, I'm going to be a killjoy and recommend you not play Exalted 2 because the system is broken - is it reasonable for you convince your GM to use a rules-light system he knows instead?
If not, E2 paranoia combat breakdown. The numbers change around a bit in 2.5, but the lethality doesn't go anywhere.
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WildCardFool
A Reaction Pic for nearly every occasion
- Location
- Earth
He knows, we're just running it for fun. That being said... I should take Dodge and Athletics charms and make them favored or Caste abilities at the least. Maybe I should just make that Archer lmao.
- Location
- Texas
Ignore the paranoia combat stuff. It's not false, but it's not helpful to a game being run off standard chargen, and if you force it, it will take all your resources and wreck the game in addition.
If you expect there to be fighting: You need one defensive combat ability and probably one offensive ability. Defensive abilities are Dodge, Melee, Martial Arts. They help boost your dodge and parry defense values, so that you can avoid being hit. Offensive abilities are Melee, Martial Arts, Archery, Throwing. They boost your accuracy for hitting other people. Get the 1st Excellency for those abilities, and maybe a basic charm or two.
For attributes, you want good Dex. It's just flatly the most valuable physical stat. You want one of Manipulation or Charisma, but you don't need to invest heavily in both unless you're really, really focused on being talky. You want Wits to be OK, since it gets rolled a lot.
Probably half your starting charms should be excellencies, and usually the 1st Excellency. It's really good for Solars, and most charms require an excellency as a prerequisite. Resist the temptation to dig super-deeply in any one charm tree; it's easy to spend everything going for some super-cool charm, and then hardly ever get to use it and be terrible at everything else. You're better off having 3-4 abilities with an excellency plus a charm or two in them, and then building off that in game. This is especially true for crafting and lore charms; many of those look really awesome but are hard to use in most games and have high requirements. It's also very true for martial artists; trying to start with a full martial arts charm tree known is frustratingly expensive, and will leave you bad at everything else.
For spending your bonus points: Stat bumps and skill bumps are cheaper at chargen than later spending XP. Also, it matters what order you apply things in. It's sad but true that you can get two characters with identical stats but one has spent half the bonus points of the other. Buying essence with bonus points is generally not efficient; don't do it unless you really want to be a sorcerer or something that needs Essence 3. Buying more charms is pretty expensive, so if there's something you really want, ok, but don't go nuts. Backgrounds are pretty solid purchases, in general.
Wear armor unless it's completely against your character concept. Armor in Exalted is incredibly useful against anything but the absolute top tier of combat threats. Even pretty weak armor. It will save your character's life. You still don't want to get hit casually, but it's the difference between having a tough fight and dying like a chump. And mundane armor is relatively cheap.
Don't go bonkers on having lots of artifacts, because attunement costs add up, and directly reduce the pool of essence you have for using charms. Having an artifact sword or armor is great for a starting character. Having both is a serious investment. Having a daiklaive, a suit of superheavy armor, a collar of cleanliness, a powerbow, some bracers, and a pair of artifact boots will leave you frustrated.
Jon Chung
=][=
Given that threats that require the use of the p-combo triad to survive include no cost ambushes/surprise attacks, poisoned anything, five guys grappling with hammers and similar extremely simple things (this is not an Exalt-class entity problem, it's an everything problem), unless the guy's GM has precomitted to never using any of the paranoia triggers against the guy's party (in which case anything is fine, but it requires the GM to know the meta intimately), advising him not to get them is irresponsible.
Remember, it's not the best defense build, it's the only defense build that works (as in, stops you from being instantly wrecked by reasonably common threats you may run into), unless your GM proactively avoids using paranoia-inducing threats or you're unreasonably lucky. Unless you have confirmation from your GM that he's going to take care of it from his end, have a perfect, have a surprise negator, have a flurry breaker, they're necessary.
You can do this by taking the first four charms (Shadow over Water, Seven Shadow Evasion, Leaping Dodge Technique, Reflex Sidestep Technique) from Solar Dodge and calling it a day. If you're playing with 2E rules you need to put Seven Shadow Evasion, Leaping Dodge Technique and Reflex Sidestep Technique into every single one of your combat combos. Yes, this sucks, but having your character die to an extra probably sucks more.
Remember, it's not the best defense build, it's the only defense build that works (as in, stops you from being instantly wrecked by reasonably common threats you may run into), unless your GM proactively avoids using paranoia-inducing threats or you're unreasonably lucky. Unless you have confirmation from your GM that he's going to take care of it from his end, have a perfect, have a surprise negator, have a flurry breaker, they're necessary.
You can do this by taking the first four charms (Shadow over Water, Seven Shadow Evasion, Leaping Dodge Technique, Reflex Sidestep Technique) from Solar Dodge and calling it a day. If you're playing with 2E rules you need to put Seven Shadow Evasion, Leaping Dodge Technique and Reflex Sidestep Technique into every single one of your combat combos. Yes, this sucks, but having your character die to an extra probably sucks more.
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
For fuck's sake Jon, no one wants or needs you to rant about this shit yet again.