General Exalted Thread
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I swear with the amount you love to grumble you should be a dawi.
Jon Chung
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Nah, books of grudges are inefficient. You need cogitators to properly store and query your database of grudges.
By the will of Deus Mechanicus and the grace of the Motive Force. Ave Omnissiah.
- Location
- Texas
If you have a pretty much average storyteller running your game, who is actually motivated to have a fun time playing games with friends, as opposed to trying to maximize player character carnage, most of those threats that could theoretically one-shot you if you don't have a paranoia combo running are going to remain theoretical.
Because, honestly, even the threats that are low cost to set up are obviously, from a game-playing perspective, major, session-defining threats. If you want to have a bunch of mortals surprise an exalt, surround him or her, and commit murder, you need to actually answer some questions. Questions like "how many people are actually in this fight?", because if you have, say, three player characters, and you want to have enough mooks to be sure of surrounding one, you'd better bring some spares to keep the other two busy. So, now we're looking at, say, 10-15 guys bushwhacking the players. And that raises further questions, like "how did that many guys sneak up on the players, or convince the players not to shoot them full of arrows on the way in, or to run away?" And questions like "who convinced that many regular humans to try and rush down a handful of supernatural threats, in a world where supernatural threats could plausibly win a fight against those odds?"
I mean, that's a situation where the logic is that sure, at least eight of those ten guys are going to die, but first they might kill a player character, if they're lucky. What sold them on this plan as a good idea? Why do they want your player characters dead so badly they'll try to crush them beneath the weight of their own NPC corpses?
This isn't actually rocket science. If your storyteller is setting up fights to intentionally exploit lethal vulnerabilities your starting characters have, he's doing it on purpose, and you aren't going to thwart him by outfighting this particular set of ten bandits, because he'll just attack you with a hundred next time.
Because, honestly, even the threats that are low cost to set up are obviously, from a game-playing perspective, major, session-defining threats. If you want to have a bunch of mortals surprise an exalt, surround him or her, and commit murder, you need to actually answer some questions. Questions like "how many people are actually in this fight?", because if you have, say, three player characters, and you want to have enough mooks to be sure of surrounding one, you'd better bring some spares to keep the other two busy. So, now we're looking at, say, 10-15 guys bushwhacking the players. And that raises further questions, like "how did that many guys sneak up on the players, or convince the players not to shoot them full of arrows on the way in, or to run away?" And questions like "who convinced that many regular humans to try and rush down a handful of supernatural threats, in a world where supernatural threats could plausibly win a fight against those odds?"
I mean, that's a situation where the logic is that sure, at least eight of those ten guys are going to die, but first they might kill a player character, if they're lucky. What sold them on this plan as a good idea? Why do they want your player characters dead so badly they'll try to crush them beneath the weight of their own NPC corpses?
This isn't actually rocket science. If your storyteller is setting up fights to intentionally exploit lethal vulnerabilities your starting characters have, he's doing it on purpose, and you aren't going to thwart him by outfighting this particular set of ten bandits, because he'll just attack you with a hundred next time.
boo600
Ego sum egredietur tempestas.
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him/Hungry
Not to mention the insanity of trying to surprise an Exalt in the first place, especially a Solar. Wits and Perception both allow for great passive "I don't want to be ambushed," and Awareness 5 explicitly states that it's standard for those at that level to determine the number and position of assassins in a dark room by the sound of their breathing. Awareness 3 or Wits 3 are both generally enough to avoid poorly-planned ambushes, and clever ambushes mean investment and story.
Ta-da. We can stop worrying about being suddenly surrounded by Extras with hammers, and start discussing stunts! And demon bodyguards, if you're still feeling paranoid.
Personally, I will admit that Eurymanthoi are a classic for a reason, but I will always love the "fwump" people make when a Noresore flies through their heads. Plus, a Peronelle and Sesseljae combo is usually enough to prevent "stabbed in sleep with dagger." Seriously, armor you can sleep in, that pays attention to your surroundings while you take a nap? The SBB is really only needed for "someone slipped Yozi venom into my food again."
Ta-da. We can stop worrying about being suddenly surrounded by Extras with hammers, and start discussing stunts! And demon bodyguards, if you're still feeling paranoid.
Personally, I will admit that Eurymanthoi are a classic for a reason, but I will always love the "fwump" people make when a Noresore flies through their heads. Plus, a Peronelle and Sesseljae combo is usually enough to prevent "stabbed in sleep with dagger." Seriously, armor you can sleep in, that pays attention to your surroundings while you take a nap? The SBB is really only needed for "someone slipped Yozi venom into my food again."
Roadie
A plate full of blins and a cat nearby.
He's completely accurate about the basic paranoia combo being the only defensive schema that actually reliably works, especially with all the 2e errata that makes offense cheaper and more practical.
A single Dragon-Blooded with a grand goremaul and a streak of lucky rolls could splat the overwhelming majority of new Solars in one round unless there's a paranoia combo or a lot of Ox-Bodies in play. This is not some rare, esoteric condition.
The "lethal vulnerability" here is "being in a fight with a handful of peer opponents", which the fiction of the game actively encourages you to do.
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Jon Chung
=][=
This thread is so nostalgic.
Jon Chung
=][=
This is what I mean when I talk about the "if your GM will ensure that you don't encounter anything that requires the paranoia combo to stop you don't need the combo" case. Note that for this to work, the GM needs to know all the things that require the paranoia combo to stop, so they do not kill their players who do not have the paranoia combo by intentionally avoiding those options. Otherwise they are likely going to do it by accident given how easy it is to do, and then you have chunky player salsa to clean up.
Does this GM sound like they have this knowledge? I don't think they do if they're new. Thus the advice to get a perfect, a surprise negator and a flurry breaker, unless you have confirmation from your GM that they know what requires the p-combo to stop and they are actively going to go out of their way to remove those things from the game in real time, with retcons included if they make a mistake and you get gibbed anyway.
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- Location
- Texas
One of the most potent warriors in the entire setting, armed with one of the most lethal artifact weapons in the entire setting, with a streak of lucky rolls, could splatter a new Solar?
Seems sort of like how things should work to me.
If you're fighting peer opponents, you have a good chance of losing. Definitionally! Otherwise, they wouldn't be peer opponents! Being in a fight with peer opponents is the sort of thing that doesn't happen very regularly in any game, or you get high turnover in player characters.
Yes, it sounds like the GM has the required knowledge. Because it's not a complicated and esoteric secret of Exalted; it's just how games work.
If a GM comes to me and says, "Gosh, I had a force with major numerical superiority and very deadly weapons attack my players from ambush, and to my surprise, a player character died", I will look at that GM in befuddlement. Because that is incredibly unsurprising. Player death is the expected result there; otherwise you would have sent fewer opponents, or given them shoddier weapons, or had one of them sneeze at the wrong moment, allowing your players a perception roll to avoid being surprised, or something.
If your GM is frequently killing off player characters, sure, then you need to start making play decisions on that basis. Or have a conversation with the GM about expectations. But that should be an informed decision, not a default assumption. Exalted 2e is not a game that works well when played in an adversarial manner, even more so that most RPGs. Immediately escalating the combat stakes as high as they can go is just an efficient way to skip past all the actually fun bits of the game and go right to the bit where the wheels fall off. It's a bad plan.
Jon Chung
=][=
No, that's not how this works. You're assuming the GM has enough system knowledge to correctly predict the outcome of encounters, this is not a safe assumption. E2 is full of traps.
If a GM running a game about being a demigod tells me they threw a bunch of trash mobs at their demigod, trash just like the setting fiction suggested demigods roll over with ease and said demigod unexpectedly exploded into giblets because they didn't know how nonsensically deadly [insert_threat_here] is, that is not the GM's fault, it's the system's fault. The p-combo is anti-system insurance, with the advice to take it predicated on the assumption that the GM doesn't have perfect system knowledge and can't catch every "oh, that's actually super lethal oops" case the rules happen to spit out.
The GM is not killing player characters intentionally in this example, the GM is killing player characters accidentally by deploying things that look reasonable at first glance (particularly to a new GM who buys into the hype that Exalts are superhero demigods instead of delicate glass cannons which shatter with ease when hit outside their active defense suite) but are actually TPKs waiting to happen.
This can be defused three ways:
a) The players take the p-combo. They are safe and cannot die until their motes run out.
b) Or, the GM agrees to not use anything that would require the players to have a p-combo to survive.
c) Or, the GM agrees to undo any unexpected event that kills players outside a case where the GM explicitly intends to kill them.
Option B requires an experienced Exalted GM with extensive system knowledge (because now the GM can accurately predict the outcome of encounters). Option C requires a group with the willingness to accept a "that never happened" retcon every time a chunky salsa event happens (because now the GM doesn't need to accurately predict the outcome of encounters). I can't assume this guy has either of these things, so the recommendation is Option A. If he does have the requirements for Options B or C that's perfectly fine and he can ignore Option A. Remember, I hate paranoia combat, I'm not advising him to take the PD/surprise/flurry breaker combo because it leads to wonderfully exciting gameplay.
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Roadie
A plate full of blins and a cat nearby.
"A single lucky attack from a peer opponent can instantly kill a PC with no in-game or metagame recourse, unless that PC has taken specific defensive powers" is very much not how most RPGs work. Even for the ones that do work that way, the overwhelming majority of them very clearly warn GMs and players that even brief 'normal' encounters can kill PCs. Exalted doesn't bother to include that warning, because the authors literally didn't realize at the time that they were writing a very lethal combat system.
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- Location
- Texas
Nah, that's silly.
You don't need anything like "perfect system knowledge" to understand that fighting lots of people at once is dangerous, or sneak attacks are dangerous, or weapons with high damage numbers are dangerous.
The entire logic for using those things is that they increase the danger level.
You just need common sense as a GM to decide whether you want to go about making an encounter more dangerous or less dangerous, and then act accordingly.
Want an easy fight? Attack the players openly with an equal number of goons. Want to make it more dangerous? Increase the goon count. Make it a surprise attack. Give the goons better weapons or stats. This isn't a unique system challenge. The same logic applies to D&D, or Savage Worlds, or GURPS.
Exalted 2e has an unusually low power threshold where the game's combat engine starts sputtering and flailing about, but the paranoia combat paradigm aggravates that issue; it doesn't mitigate it.
There's a zone of fun in Exalted, which lasts right up until several people intentionally simplify it down to rocket launcher tag. Paranoia combat is about recognizing that fact and making sure you're well-prepared for rocket launcher tag, at the cost of sacrificing all the fun stages of the combat system, and also all the non-combat parts of the game.
I stand by my original advice. The paranoia combat junk is not false. It's not a math error. It's just a completely unhelpful starting point for actually playing a fun game. If you take the standard starting resources of a by-the-book Solar and use them to build a paranoia-combat-compatible character, you will end up with a character that is only good at not dying, and nothing else. Meanwhile, your other players will be solving mysteries and fomenting rebellions and sneaking into forgotten tombs and hanging around with their talking bear sidekicks. You could be doing those things, too, but you spent all your background points on dodging the slightest possibility of a fight scene being entertaining.
You don't need anything like "perfect system knowledge" to understand that fighting lots of people at once is dangerous, or sneak attacks are dangerous, or weapons with high damage numbers are dangerous.
The entire logic for using those things is that they increase the danger level.
You just need common sense as a GM to decide whether you want to go about making an encounter more dangerous or less dangerous, and then act accordingly.
Want an easy fight? Attack the players openly with an equal number of goons. Want to make it more dangerous? Increase the goon count. Make it a surprise attack. Give the goons better weapons or stats. This isn't a unique system challenge. The same logic applies to D&D, or Savage Worlds, or GURPS.
Exalted 2e has an unusually low power threshold where the game's combat engine starts sputtering and flailing about, but the paranoia combat paradigm aggravates that issue; it doesn't mitigate it.
There's a zone of fun in Exalted, which lasts right up until several people intentionally simplify it down to rocket launcher tag. Paranoia combat is about recognizing that fact and making sure you're well-prepared for rocket launcher tag, at the cost of sacrificing all the fun stages of the combat system, and also all the non-combat parts of the game.
I stand by my original advice. The paranoia combat junk is not false. It's not a math error. It's just a completely unhelpful starting point for actually playing a fun game. If you take the standard starting resources of a by-the-book Solar and use them to build a paranoia-combat-compatible character, you will end up with a character that is only good at not dying, and nothing else. Meanwhile, your other players will be solving mysteries and fomenting rebellions and sneaking into forgotten tombs and hanging around with their talking bear sidekicks. You could be doing those things, too, but you spent all your background points on dodging the slightest possibility of a fight scene being entertaining.
Jon Chung
=][=
What? No, you need to know whether "more dangerous" means "my whole party could die" or "we all took a bunch of injuries and need medical attention". D&D has a reasonably functional mechanism to tell the DM whether or not what he's going to throw at the adventuring party will kill them all or bring them down to 50% HP with their daily spell allotment exhausted. Exalted doesn't, and will happily kill your players with something that looks much "weaker" than them at face value. Exalts are much, much more fragile than D&D characters relative to the threats they're expected to be facing if they don't have their defense powers available.
It lasts right until something innocuous splatters a PC, which I have literally seen happen in fight 1, session 1. The power threshold where the combat system starts causing problems is chargen. You invest in anti-rocket-launcher protection because the enemies have rocket launchers from the beginning of the game, and your GM may not be able to tell if something is or is not a rocket until after you die if they're new.
Uh, it takes four dodge charms and an artifact weapon to be paranoia-OK on defense and capable of forcing other entities into "be paranoia-OK or die horrible deaths" status. You have more than half of your chargen resources remaining to do whatever you want with. Sure, actually playing out fights will be horrifically boring, but that can't be helped unless you have a group that satisfies conditions B or C. The ideal case is still "don't play Exalted 2 lol".
Now, if he does have a group that satisfies conditions B or C, great! Ignore this whole issue and enjoy the curated experience. But does he?
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- Location
- Texas
Yes, and I've had a D&D character get killed in round 1 of the first fight of a campaign, after failing a reflex save for a dragon turtle's breath weapon.
Things happen. Games are like that.
So, someone came to this thread asking for advice, and you gave them advice which will make playing out fights "horrifically boring".
I advise that person to ignore your advice, because if they take it, playing out fights will be horrifically boring.
I don't think we disagree about the value of paranoia combat here, we just disagree about the utility of being horrifically bored. I think people should generally avoid horrifically boring leisure activities, while you think they should intentionally pursue the state of horrific boredom.
Jon Chung
=][=
Sure, you can die in D&D. Generally though, it's much harder to die by the GM dropping accidental "oops this thing will oneshot you unless you have a specific power counter which you don't have so boom you're dead".
Choices for you, assuming you are not in a group that satisfies solutions B or C:
a) Be paranoia-OK, and have boring mote-attrition combat.
b) Be not paranoia-OK with your GM unable to predict the outcome of encounters to remove paranoia threats and unwilling to retcon events in case of something happening, and thus have coinflip combat where you could randomly explode because surprise lethality! Proceed to explode, depending on luck. This will either require you to make a new character or will result in ending the game, I have observed or heard of multiple cases of both reaction types.
Yes, I do think that boring mote attrition combat (solution A) is better than making new characters every other session or ending the game, which is what happens with unmitigated system lethality. Naturally, what's even better is playing a game where this isn't such a big problem, like the D&D we're discussing above.
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Lealope
Not yet invincible
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah but in D&D, Savage Worlds or GURPS, the PC's are randos who should get dunked on if they're outnumbered. But the fluff of Exalted tells me that the PC's are all world changing demigods, to which I'd reasonably respond by sending 50 mortal badasses at them so my players can oneshot them and look really cool. I'd be really, really surprised if and when they ended up dying because of how my expectations were calibrated.
Back when I was first getting into Exalted, I actually asked a similar question and got a response so helpful* that I remembered it six years later** to pass on to you.
*The game I used the advice for was (though kinda jank and silly in hindsight) was fun enough to make me a serious fan of the game, reading through all the books I could get my hands on. Seriously, thanks Omicron.
**and now i really feel old.
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- Location
- Washington, USA
2e plus the Scroll of Errata IS "2.5e." The ink monkeys created a lot of new content (not all of which I agree with) but they never changed core rules.
There's actually only one thing you really need to remember, as an ST, to keep paranoia combos from being necessary: make every single attack by every single NPC a called shot, usually -1 success to maim or otherwise limit injury, unless said NPC is 100% committed to the immediate ruthless murder of their target (think rabid animals or berserk rage limit break, not just rando bandits) and you're prepared for the consequences if they succeed. Even fanatical death cultists would usually prefer to capture folks alive and then sacrifice them under more controlled conditions, given the opportunity, so that's natural setup for a classic pulp adventure raid-the-temple-and-interrupt-the-ritual sequence.
That doesn't cover environmental hazards or other impersonal stuff, but problems which can reliably threaten an exalt also tend to be obvious certain death for any normal person: acid pits, avalanches, raging infernos, demonic windstorms with three-syllable names, etc. When you're bringing in some problem like that, unless it's part of a final-act boss fight and you really want TPK to be one of the plausible outcomes, make sure to include some straightforward method of escape or bypass for those who aren't immune - and be generous to anyone who wants to stunt in alternatives.
I would not personally advise retconning events just because a PC died. Exalted is at least partly a game about epic tragedies, and the no-true-rez rule is there for a reason. Books of Sorcery 5 has mechanics for continuing as a ghost (though arcanoi, as written, are laughably inadequate - I'd recommend adapting general spirit charms, erring on the side of downgrades and thematically appropriate limitations, until a more systematic rewrite is available). For celestials there's the obvious option of playing as your shard's next incarnation, and DBs tend to have extended families who'll want to follow up somehow on retrieving personal effects, completing unfinished business, and/or delivering vengeance, as appropriate.
Edited to add: Long as we're on the subject, I've got an idea for how to make grapples more tactically interesting, less of an immediate fight-ender, while remaining compatible with existing charms. https://docs.google.com/document/d/...AIYl1cy50KEw2y75o/edit#heading=h.1gw7tp2swslv Any opinions on how well it would work?
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Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
I am completely and utterly baffled by the assertion that two dozen random assholes with pitchforks should be a legitimate threat to an Exalt. I play this game to be the almighty force of nature that scatters armies before her, not the mudstained dumbass who dies in a ditch after a sweaty bandit knifes them.
UrsaTempest
Don't Panic!
Your ST is not inflexible computer that auto-execute shoddy instruction. Generally if something's wrong - say, they accidentally enact paranoia combat - you can always tell 'em about and roll back, or work out other way to make it works on your table.
- Location
- Washington, USA
Exalts are humans except as specifically noted. The automatic benefits of exaltation are actually fairly minimal; it would absolutely be possible to build a starting exalt with Stamina 1, Resistance 0, then have them drink a large bottle of hard liquor and die later that same night of alcohol poisoning. Every exalt has the potential for world-shaking greatness, but not all achieve it. If you want to avoid dying like a chump, you need to avoid behaving like a chump. Know your limits, use appropriate tactics, plan and prepare and train instead of just reacting when some problem is already on top of you.
Even a single "random asshole with a pitchfork" can be a legitimate threat if they're trying to shove a sharp piece of metal through your eye while you lay there unconscious, when you haven't got step seven charmtech to shrug that off, or friends to intercept assassins before they reach your bedroom.
You want to be an army-scattering force of nature? That's certainly doable - per the morale rules, just flaring your anima or using some Obvious charms will scatter most mortal opposition. Reasonable investment in combat charms will let you stomp on almost anything... but you can't start out with every charm and spell and skill in the game. If you did, what would you spend XP on?
- Location
- NOVA
I don't think anyone's asserting that they ought to be threats, they're saying that the mechanics of the system guarantee that they are threats.
For a flipped around example.
I introduced a few friends to Exalted by running a mortals campaign where they were planned to Exalt in the time skip that occurred when they took down the asshole who ruined the kingdom they all lived in. Said asshole was a young, socially focused Dragonblooded who couldn't handle his family's pressure and decided to take over a small kingdom. He had a 'perfect defense' in the form of the third melee excellency, an artifact weapon, and artifact armor.
The party's serious fighters could injure him on an average hit, so he focused on them.
Then, the boss was one shot by the party's least effective combatant.
She had something like a 6 die pool and throwing knives. Normally, she didn't penetrate hardness on any attack. The boss named her as the 5th person, who his DV didn't apply against.
But, she got a good stunt, spent a Willpower, and rolled all 10's on her 8 die pool.
2L damage + 3 successes on an average attack normally did nothing when it went up against hardness 5 and 10L soak.
19 damage damage does a lot.
She also rolled very well on her damage roll.
This DB had overall stronger defenses than most non-combat focused Celestial/Adamant PCs I've seen, which lowers the oops threshold significantly.
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
This isn't d&d, you don't start a chump and get badass later on. You start a badass and become a worldshaker. Exalts are human, sure, but even a chargen combat Dragonblood is worlds beyond a mob of angry peasants. Because fucking obviously I'm talking about combat specced characters when I discuss standing against armies and so on, come the hell on.
The point is that a defining aspect of Exalted is that PCs are Important. Whatever their thing is, they do it on a scale no mortal can come close to matching. No combat Exalt is going to be outmatched by a flash mob of idiots with pitchforks. No Social exalt is going to be outmaneouvered by random merchant dude #46. Sure, it takes investment to scale up, but when you take that investment? You get fucking results.
This is a game, as said, about world shaking demigods. You start nigh untouchable to normal humans in your field of focus, and then keep scaling up. If it took "every charm and skill in the game" to be able to fight fifty shovel-wielding idiots and handily win, this would be a deeply shit execution on the core fantasy.
Because fuck me, the five guys with hammers thing is the stupidest fucking mechanical outcome in this whole damn game.
The point is that a defining aspect of Exalted is that PCs are Important. Whatever their thing is, they do it on a scale no mortal can come close to matching. No combat Exalt is going to be outmatched by a flash mob of idiots with pitchforks. No Social exalt is going to be outmaneouvered by random merchant dude #46. Sure, it takes investment to scale up, but when you take that investment? You get fucking results.
This is a game, as said, about world shaking demigods. You start nigh untouchable to normal humans in your field of focus, and then keep scaling up. If it took "every charm and skill in the game" to be able to fight fifty shovel-wielding idiots and handily win, this would be a deeply shit execution on the core fantasy.
Oh I know, I'm not arguing against Chung, I'm expressing disbelief at the people suggesting that the mechanics producing these results is okay.
Because fuck me, the five guys with hammers thing is the stupidest fucking mechanical outcome in this whole damn game.
- Location
- NOVA
Ahh, gotcha, my bad.
I spent a decent chunk of time thinking about Exalted 2e and 3e as they compared to other systems recently.
I think Exalted 2e is on the upper edge of the "oops, accidentally too lethal" tier, but it shares a grouping with GURPS, Shadowrun, and DnD 3.x level 5+ for things which accidentally oneshot characters. It's worse because it doesn't have the fallbacks of "strong emphasis on the lethality of certain things to set expectations" or "easy outs for PCs who stumble across this and get splatted". But I don't think it's in a tier of its own regarding problems anymore.
- Location
- Washington, USA
This is not Nobilis or Mythender. In Exalted, mortals are more than scenery, "wind and grass," they're allies, enemies, spiritual revenue-generating assets for gods and demons to fight over, and potential peers (in disguise, or yet to be Chosen). Sure, Dex 5, MA 5, and an excellency would let you beat Bruce Lee in any remotely fair contest of unarmed combat, but could Bruce Lee with just his bare hands really take on five or ten ordinary soldiers, with knives, all at once on open ground? It takes a certain amount of specialized magic to bring that sort of matchup back to the level of "remotely fair," then it's another little step past that to "reliably winnable."
Simplest way to beat an army - and fifty guys is definitely enough to use the mass combat system, if that fight matters enough to resolve mechanically at all - is to bring your own army, preferably one that's well trained and provisioned and stacked with force-multipliers like the Daiklaive of Conquest. Very much possible to have that sort of thing as a starting character, just invest a few points in the Followers background and War. If you haven't got an army of your own, look for a choke point: doorway, bridge, canyon, anything that forces them to come at you in smaller groups from a predictable direction. Being able to reliably massacre competent armies all by your lonesome out in an open field (as opposed to breaking their morale, or challenging the leader to a duel) is fairly expensive because that effectively makes you a concealable army, with negligible logistical footprint besides.
If you want to be able to utterly ignore mere mortals, try this:
Artifact 3, Scabbard of the Living Weapon
Artifact 2, Daiklaive (or any other scabbard-compatible 2-dot weapon with a hearthstone socket)
Manse 3, Freedom Stone
Then sink a charm or three each into boosting MDVs, busting through walls, resisting pickpockets, and you're pretty much set. The only thing ordinary peasants can do to even seriously inconvenience you at that point is call for help from someone who knows magic.
Another 3-dot artifact, the Dark Rider, is also worth noting as a persistent surprise-negator which additionally provides various other henchman-like benefits without the potential hassles of managing friendly NPCs.
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