It's hard to determine since there's no index or anything on the leak, but the stunt rules themselves don't say anything to distinguish mortals from anyone else.
Granted, there may be something tucked away somewhere else.
General Exalted Thread
It's hard to determine since there's no index or anything on the leak, but the stunt rules themselves don't say anything to distinguish mortals from anyone else.
Granted, there may be something tucked away somewhere else.
Nope, stunts are still grouped in three tiers, but the rewards have been reworked.
One point stunts give two dice or raise a static value (i.e. your Parry) by one now, but nothing else.
Two point stunts give two dice and one autosuccess, and restore one wp (this can take you above your normal maximum).
Three point stunts give two dice, two successes, and two willpower.
In addition, the expected stunt frequency is different this edition. One point stunts are assumed to be the norm that you get on basically every action as long as you make the effort. Two point stunts are expected to have a few over a session per person, and three point stunts are maybe a once a session over the whole group.
And with all that, there's nothing in the stunt rules that denote any difference between PC's and NPC's, but there IS a mention that for most purposes NPC's and PC's use the same mechanics unless specifically mentioned.
One point stunts give two dice or raise a static value (i.e. your Parry) by one now, but nothing else.
Two point stunts give two dice and one autosuccess, and restore one wp (this can take you above your normal maximum).
Three point stunts give two dice, two successes, and two willpower.
In addition, the expected stunt frequency is different this edition. One point stunts are assumed to be the norm that you get on basically every action as long as you make the effort. Two point stunts are expected to have a few over a session per person, and three point stunts are maybe a once a session over the whole group.
And with all that, there's nothing in the stunt rules that denote any difference between PC's and NPC's, but there IS a mention that for most purposes NPC's and PC's use the same mechanics unless specifically mentioned.
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Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
Err...can any one help me with the 3E Iron Whirlwind Attack? Specifically how it works? I mean if it does 5 attacks do the initiative rolled in the previous attacks carry over the the next one?
Also how are charm conflicts like Falling Hammer Strike vs Dipping Swallow Defense resolved? (One stops Onslaught penalty from fading and the other cancels all penalties to Parry)
Also how are charm conflicts like Falling Hammer Strike vs Dipping Swallow Defense resolved? (One stops Onslaught penalty from fading and the other cancels all penalties to Parry)
Salty
Shadow Cabal Assumptor Supreme
- Location
- Sun, Moon, Talia
- Pronouns
- I/Me
I think that the whole Initiative not resetting is for the purpose of allowing the use of charms which can be used when you're at higher Initiative than the opponent.
FHS vs DSD...Falling Hammer Strike supplements an attack which would inflict an onslaught penalty when it was over, and prevents that penalty from fading. DSD cancels all penalties which would affect Parry against an attack. DSD resets the character to their unpenalized parry, but the onslaught penalty is still inflicted after the attack is over.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
This one came together faster than expected. Enjoy!
Twilight and Craft Essay
The Purpose of this Essay
I'm not here to offer you a house-rule solution to Craft, in 2nd edition or any other way. I am however hoping to give you all context for any changes that you would want to implement. I'm aiming to improve everyone's understanding of the game and setting, so you can make informed decisions!
To that end, realize that I'm not going to belabor the points regarding Craft Bloat, or artifact design restrictions.
On Twilights
The Twilight Solar is the Sorcerer-Sage, the Learned Hero. They're Gandalf, Tesla, Henry Ford. They're Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, Sherlock Holmes, Louis Pasteur, Confucius and so on.
In White Wolf's critique of Dungeons and Dragons, Twilights fall into the 'wizard/smart guy' of the classic roles, compared to the Dawn's Fighter, and the Zenith's Priest-Bard.
Their cast abilities are Craft, Investigation, Lore, Medicine and Occult.
The Twilight Anima
Hooboy.
The original, 2nd edition Twilight Anima, before it went under a staggering 3+ revisions over the course of 2e, was basically the ultimate defensive power short of a perfect defense, and it among other things enabled the Twilight Essence Reactor.
Basically, after spending 10 motes, or your anima having fired up to the 11m+ level, you would subtract [Essence] damage successes before they were applied to you in Step 10. So at Essence 2, you'd whip away 2 damage levels. At Essence 5, it negated up to 5 HLs worth of damage per attack.
The problem was, it applied equally at all times. You turned it on, and you were suddenly nearly impossible to kill. You were able to outfight Dawns, the ostensible super-combat caste of the Solars.
Now what I think was intended, was that the Twilight Anima served as a safety net for characters who were in dangerous situations, but not necessarily fighting directly. The Anima Power was meant to enable smart-person actions like defusing a bomb during an intense sword battle, ensuring you wouldn't get gibbed by random chance. Or, even more likely, it was to dovetail nicely into how Sorcery had stability mechanics, and if you suffered damage, you'd risk having a catastrophic backlash as your spell fizzled.
Unfortunately, this didn't work out as intended.
Short version: It was intended to let you do twilight-things in hazardous situations, but it was too open ended and broke combat wide open.
What is Craft, the Ability?
Craft is the mechanical, trait-value of how good you are at building, repairing, or understanding the construction of objects or other 'workings'.
Unlike other abilities, it's actually divided into numerous sub-crafts. The core book describes the basic five Elemental Crafts of Fire, Earth, Air, Water and Wood. I'll trust you to look up the corebook for their extended definitions- I want to focus on the more esoteric parts.
Craft as a system and it's statements on the setting
Now, for a brief recap- remember that a trait at 1 is passable, amateurish, or inexperienced. Two is 'average'. Three is 'Professional' or 'Reputable'. 4 is 'Known within their field', and 5 is 'Known for their work well outside their field.
So Strength 2 is 'Average person' while Strength 5 is someone who's famed for hundreds of miles as the strongest person around.
In context of Craft, especially system wise, your craft rating determines the maximum value/complexity of the good you're trying to make within reason. This is all based on the resource value of the mundane good in question of course, so someone with Craft Fire 2 satisfies the minimums to make a Resources 2 sword.
Now as mentioned, this system is meant to model mortals first, and an ability rated at 3 plus is notable, and 4 is outright exceptional. All kinds of res 4-5 goods get made all the time though, so in this case, these people have specialties in a given craft. Like a ferrier (a guy who makes horseshoes) would have Craft Fire 2, Horseshoes +3, meaning he could make base cost, res 5 horseshoes, if he needed to.
I should point out that your craft dots only determine the base cost of an object you can make. You can make better versions of low cost things as per the rules laid out in corebook. It's for this reason you can take res 1 materials like paint and make a painting that's worth res 5, if you roll well enough.
The reason I mention this, is because it ties directly into craft bloat. Mortals are expected to specialize in a single craft ability, and supplement with specialties. Exalted don't need to worry about specialties as much, just buying up straight, omni-applicable ability dots.
A combat engineer with Craft Earth 2, Fortifications +3 is only useful in wartime. A master architect with Craft Earth 5 can make anything that Craft Earth can allow.
The problem we're all aware of, is that players don't want to be a specialist crafter, they want to be the omni-applicable genius crafter, especially Solars! And that's not a bad thing to want! Of any statement Exalted tried to make, it wasn't that Exalts had to specialize and/or pour buckets of experience points into a craft ability.
Instead, like with a lot of rules, this one was written under the assumption that players and storytellers would play up the exceptionalism of player characters and their meteoric advances and rises in power, skill and the like.
A Note on Mortals, and Thaumaturgy
In Exalted 2nd edition, Thaumaturgy is a real and widespread practice. Most professional anythings know a few 0th and 1st degree procedures relevant to their primary jobs. The creation of varnish for woodworking, for example, is thaumaturgical in nature. Same with other kinds of sealant, caulking for households, and so on. The oil to quench a sword is a thaumaturgical product!
It's fair to say that many people know lots of small tricks and cantrips that are thaumaturgical in nature, without having a whole lot in the way of Occult Dots, and almost never having full Degrees in a given school of Thaumaturgy.
A Degree implies you can essentially improvise most any printed ritual (with the storyteller's permission) and make new ones, and reflects months if not years of committed study.
So never insult an armorer, thinking he doesn't know what he's doing… and be very wary of a village that has a local Enchanter.
Craft and the Greater Setting
No other ability in Exalted has as much tangible effect on Creation than Craft, simply because there's so many lost wonders. I mean the big ones- the Lap, the Five Metal Shrike, and so on. Setting aside how they were stated out, these great works painted a picture in the minds of readers, that we still remember to this day.
At it's core though, Craft is just like any argument for humanity's dominance over the land and each other. All things being equal, the person with the tool will win. The person with the best tools wins more. Two Dragon-blooded fighting to the death, and one is armed with a daiklave. That daiklave represents the time and effort that went into making it, the infrastructure, culture and techniques that lead to its creation. That it exists in the hands of the one DB says in no uncertain terms that this one has the advantage.
That is at the core, the point of crafting. Building things gives you an advantage.
Where Craft Went Wrong
Already mentioned: Craft Bloat.
Now for storytellers, the act of building things is supposed to be rife with all kinds of interesting plot hooks, challenges and more!
Unfortunately, it became a very obnoxious point/effect chasing slog that for most people, slowed down games and caused disruptions. I'll have to take a step back to explain.
The games people wanted to play did not fit crafting- The day to day, session to session gameplay did not lend itself to the timescales required of Crafting.
The kind of games crafting was meant to encourage, people did not want to play. Crafting, at it's core, like Training and Travel Times, existed to remind the players that the world was BIG, and that things did not happen constantly, compulsively and so on. That the world did not have to be populated by explosions every other scene, and that weeks, months passed between big, on-camera events.
The statement that crafting artifacts made about the setting was one that sounded interesting, but proved to be ill-applied to gameplay.
Here's the basics: When you try to craft an artifact, and assuming you satisfy the considerable dot investment across 3 abilities, Resources, and such, the project is divided in half. The first half is all theory- you can literally craft in your head on the go, as long as you keep notes, you can never lose progress.
This first 'theory' half of Crafting is meant to be the 'set up' for the epic quest to finish your projects. Every 5 accumulated successes on the research phase means the Storyteller is supposed to tell you a kind of exotic component you need to make the artifact- this ranges from a magical tool, the blessing of a specific god, cats footfalls, a child's laugh, or square circles.
In the case of the esoteric components, you'd bargain with a demon, a fair folk. Maybe a god would help (they have a charm that lets you contain an abstract concept and make it solid). Or, if you're a Solar, you use Wyld-Shaping Technique to make the impossible component and use it then.
So, the point of Exotic Components, such as they were, was a Stick to get the players out of the workshop and into the field on high adventure. The problem is, Exalted as a game is really bad about stick mechanics. The inherent benefit of going on adventures was sidelined in the face of 'This sounds like a chore'.
Like, if you have to go on an epic quest to MAKE an artifact (which is actually cool), why aren't you going on an epic quest to Find an artifact? Both are valid, but one has 'fewer steps' in the minds of players, or is easier to create gameplay around.
Exotic Components also are a statement on the setting. That statement was "This is the variable, the knob, the First Age twisted all the way to 11 to justify its existence."
Take a daiklave for example. A daiklave is a 2 dot artifact, and you need as many components equal to it's dot rating. Each component itself is equivalent to a 1 dot artifact on it's own.
To make this daiklave, someone probably had to go out and kill Grendel. Yes that Grendel. Imagine telling the story of Grendel, getting his arm and maybe a scale from his mother. You go out, kill the monstah, and come home with his arm and the scale. Now you can make your daiklave.
Now, a lot of people, not unfairly, criticized the portrayal of daiklaves throughout the game as being legendary, storied weapons… that got made in batches at the height of the First Age. Here however, is the crux of that statement. Also for the record Borgstrom didn't have much involvement in Dreams of the First Age, to my knowledge, so take that with a grain of salt.
If you have to go handle a Grendel-alike every time you want to make a daiklave, that means it's gonna be kinda hard to keep grendel-arms and mother-scales in stock. In the Second Age, a Player crafter is likely going to craft a few daiklaves per game. As mentioned, the First Age had factory cathedrals turning them out in batches- and here's how:
Delegation.
The implication, is that each individual Daiklave itself is still just as legendary as it was before, but the First Age literally turned itself into a pyramid of grabbing lesser components from Creation- making them in labs by mortal hands, sending journeymen out into the field to harvest them from uncapped demesnes, even sending Dragonblooded into the Wyld to get them from Raksha, and the list goes on. All of these things were stockpiled en masse, just to enable these batch-wrought daiklaves.
But each individual effort to gather the components to make the weapon were just as legendary as they would be in the fallen Second Age. It was the slaying of Grendel, writ over and over a hundred thousand times or more.
Compare this to our own modern reality- in fact, remember that the First Age itself was meant to be a parable and allusion to the Internet Age, with mass production, consumerism, and media celebrities all writ-large.
Assume we can make 1000 glass bottles in a minute using factory methods. Does that make artisan glass somehow less difficult as the results of skilled labor? Not really, but without those machines, we would still have bottles. They'd just More Effort without the infrastructure backing.
The First Age was literally an era of "six impossible things before breakfast."
Now, one possible intention here, regarding the scope of First Age Craft, was that you're kind of supposed to hate the First Age treatment of specialness and magic as signs of obnoxious excess and decadence. Its an era so great that you have god-warriors picking from their closet of unique and powerful named weapons as fashion accessories, like people today would choose iPhone cases.
The issue was, the writers of the time presented it with such absolute "THIS IS THE AWESOME YOU WANTED" finality that it undercut going back to hiding "merely" daiklaves from prying eyes and slogging around Nexus alleys with sand in your sandals. They bodged the tragedy in that loss of specialness, so it felt like a betrayal of concept rather than a return to form when the implications were set that "this will all come crashing down."
The First Age Exalted conquered and tamed the lands of Creation, and you, as Solar Alexander, were meant to weep for the loss.
Normally I'd be trying to give advice now about Exotic Components, but for now I'm gonna save that for another essay.
To summarize, Craft is one of those aspects of Exalted, mechanically and as a setting, that requires all parties really be on the same wavelength. You have to accept that as written, crafting takes time.
Related to this, is that Exalted assumes players can FILL their time with actions that don't happen on screen. Otherwise any downtime to let the crafter do his thing feels arbitrary and pointless. You're intended to use the time equally, but only Craft has a firmly structured system for filling in these big voids.
But that's enough about that. Without further ado-
Craft Charms
Craft for Solars is a reflection that they are Human Heroes, that they do Human things like Make Great Works, and Make Great Works Better. We will also again see their 'Transcendent' nature in their charm logic, not unlike Food-Gathering Exercise as seen in the last essay.
All Craft Charms require a Craft Excellency as a prerequisite.
A note on Applicability: It's assumed that all Craft Charms share the Craft Ability- you don't need Craft-Fire versions of any of these charms anymore than you need Craft Water versions. The limitation is that you need to be able to take an action normally first- satisfy those minimums. THEN you can apply these charms.
So yes, you could conceivably use Craft Water to strengthen a cake before someone eats it.
Object-Strengthening Touch
Craft 2, Essence 1
This introductory Charm has the lowest ability minimums of all the craft magic in the core book. It's function is so simple that it's nearly invisible, but can be used with great effect if you know how to look at it.
By spending 5 motes and touching an object (as per the keyword), this charm does two things, enhancing the object for the remainder of the scene.
It increases the number of successes on a non-Feats of Strength Action required to break the object by your Permanent Essence, and it increases the Feats of Strength requirement to break it by the same amount. The distinction is basically such that in the former, you're punching something. In the latter, you're taking a strongman attempt at ripping it apart.
Now what does this actually do, mean or say about Solars? It says that you can make something stronger- a stronger door, to hold off pursuers? A stronger bridge, that wouldn't support your weight, or was being damaged by enemy archers firing flaming arrows?
The crux of this charm, is that it's highly situational. For this charm to be useful, there have to be things in the world at risk of breaking, and most storytellers have trouble remembering to include those things.
But, in a very real sense, this Charm actually does do a lot compared to what mortals are capable of, reinforcing anything by merely touching it!
Durability-Enhancing Technique
Craft 3, Essence 2
This is the logical upgrade of Object-Strengthening Touch. It takes longer, Speed 6 in Long Ticks, but it's basic function is- you spend 3 motes and increase the relevant values to break an object by 1.
This is a permanent change, by the way.
So yes, you apply the charm once, and make something +1 point of difficulty harder to damage. You can stack this effect up to [Essence] times, and no combination of Durability-Enhancing or Object-Strengthening can make something stronger than your Essence rating.
But let's dig a little deeper. Let's say i'm Essence 2. I use this charm on a door twice, so it's +2 difficulty to break. That means it probably has +2 difficult to Soak (and by extension, Hardness, because it's an object).
On average, you need 2 die for every point of difficulty to have a 50% chance of succeeding. A storyteller D10 at TN7 with 10s as 2 successes nets out to 50% average of a success, or a coinflip. So two dice boosts your odds. Three dice is better though.
So, this charm automatically increases the requirement to 'damage' the object by 2 dice. For anyone who knows probability or has experience with the ST system, they know that even a 2 point swing in difficulty is nothing to laugh at.
Also note that you aren't limited to a specific class of object with either charm. If you can touch it, you can strengthen it. At Essence 5, that means a silk rope can be +5 difficulty to break!
Like with Object-Strengthening, the utility of this charm depends on either players looking for uses, or storytellers generating Fragile Things in their scenes.
Chaos-Resistance Preparation
Craft 4, Essence 2
Remember how Solars are Fuck You Wyld? Yeah, me too.
Spending 2wp and committing 5 motes, the Solar can render an object proof against the Wyld and it's corrosive effects for as long as they maintain the charm.
Now, strictly speaking, anything you 'Own' that is marked on your character sheet is a Trait, which is covered by Integrity Protecting Prana or other Charms as per the Borgstromantic interpretation of things- this charm exists to protect things you don't necessarily own or aren't yet on your sheet for whatever reason.
However, depending on your Storyteller, they may rule that a given item or prop you normally own isn't safe against the wyld- hence this Charm.
The other factor is you can commit to this charm, and then leave the object, no longer spending active effort defending it against wyld corruption. Active attempts to break it probably still would, but you won't suffer from 'Dumb random events' destroying it.
As a secondary, permanent benefit, an object enhanced by this Charm makes all unfortunate Wyld-based happenstance that could happen to it tenfold less frequent, AND it increases the difficulty of Shaping Effects used on it by 2.
So, we have here a pretty clear thematic statement of Solars Dealing with Wyld. Secondly, we also can see now that Solars have effects that let them leave things and go do Other Things, trusting their magic to keep their dependents safe. It's not even Essence 3, so this tell us that 'Against Wyld' is an Essence 2 effect at this scope.
Crack-Mending Technique
Craft 5, Essence 3
This Charm requires Craft 5, meaning you are likely a master, having attained a level that is known for hundreds of miles around as the master of your trade.
As for what it does- this is the first 'Speeder Upper' we see outside of the Training Charms. Crack-Mending Technique waives the need for repair tools like nails, glue and the like, when repairing an object. You must however, have all or most of the pieces on hand or the raw materials to make replacements.
Related to this, is that you accomplish [Essence x3] work hours per realtime hour invested. So at Essence 3, you're getting 9 hours of real work done for every hour.
Let's say you chose to work 1 hour a day. You're getting 45 work-hours done fixing something, over the course of a 5 day work week. What if repairing things was your job? You'd have SO much free time on your hands, wouldn't you?
Or, you can push further, working a full day and getting [Hours Worked x [Essence x3]] hours worth of work done!
Now here's the rub- Exalted never really says what a workday is. So it's up to ST arbitration as to how much this actually does for you. It can be a lot or a little. I personally like to assume based on my reading of most of 2e that a standard workday is 8 hours long, 24 days out of a 28 day month, year round.
The other factor, is that you can repair something that would normally be unrepairable- the book says you can clean and repair the burnt shards of a letter, or a shattered crystal decanter in a few hours. Actually recreating an object from ruined parts would require a higher Essence Charm, or the Terrestrial Spell 'Incantation of Effective Restoration', which does repair something nearly ex nihilo, as long as you have enough of it left over.
So again, Solar statement: At this master level of ability, you can repair something seamlessly, as if it had never been broken, but you can't quite restore it utterly in absence of necessary raw materials. You also accomplish work very quickly.
Shattering Grasp
Craft 5, Essence 2
The indirect opposite to Crack-Mending Technique, Shattering Grasp is the 'efficient deconstruction charm. Amusingly in corebook, there's a picture of 'this charm' being used on some unlucky foe's armor. Unfortunately, the actual mechanics don't let you do that.
Costing 5 motes and lasting for a scene, this charm is a Simple Dramatic Action, focused on the act of disassembling an object or structure. You get the choice of taking it apart non-destructively, or wrecking it messily as you do so.
Remember, a Scene is on average, 20 minutes long unless otherwise noted.
You're limited to only disassembling objects that you could normally break with a Feat of Strength, but the charm adds [Your Craft Score x2] to the Feats of Strength Rating for this purpose.
Assuming you're Strength 1, Athletics 0, and Craft 5, that's a FoS pool of 11. This charm lets you break down a Brick Wall, despite having No Training, and being a weak limp noodle of a nerd.
With more believable traits and a Feats pool of say, 14, you can snap iron manacles, or pull stone bricks out of a castle wall. This is BEFORE any extra effects of the charm- I'm just describing what the Feats table lets you do.
The second effect, is that it lets you disassemble an object (usually defined as something you can conventionally hold in your hands or carry) in [8 - Permanent Essence] Minutes, to a minimum of 3 minutes.
So like, let's say a Car engine, as a reasonable description. This charm lets you disassemble that in 5 minutes at Essence 3. I just checked, and normally something like that would take 40 hours. You're also skipping the need for tools too.
You can also target larger structures, such as castles and villages. Here the charm describes it as a methodical 'move from one major component to the next, taking them apart at the normal rate until interrupted or the task is complete. Large structures take [8 - Permanent Essence] Hours, with a minimum of 3 hours. Also once you start, you can't stop unless you finish or something interrupts you.
The text goes on to say that you can't disassemble BIG things without multiple activations of the charm against separate sections.
So we have a 'Repair without tools', and a 'Disassemble/Destroy' without tools. I'm sensing a theme here.
Craftsmen Needs No Tools
Craft 4, Essence 3
Ahhh, one of the most iconic Solar Charms. At Craft 4, Essence 3, this lovely effect is firmly a Miracle. You spend 7m+1wp to supplement a craft action.
This charm waives the need for tools when crafting, and removes any penalties for lackin tools. (You still might not have the right tools). By the strictest reading of the charm, you qualify as having a Basic Workshop for whatever craft you happen to be using. Basically if a job needs a hammer, you can push nails with your fingers. If you need chisels for shaping rock, your fingernails will do. You want to cook eggs? Your palms are now skillets.
Secondly, like Crack-Mending Technique, this charm lets you accomplish [Essence x3] hours worth of work per realtime work hour. Again I have to stress that there's no consistent ruling on how long it takes to craft an artifact in work hours, save that it's a Season, or three months.
So we have come yet again to the conclusion that Solars are all about Removing Obstacles between them and taking an action. There are THINGS that need to be made, and they don't have time to worry about having tools on-hand.
Now, here's another thing you should keep in mind, which is relevant to anyone who wants to craft artifacts- strictly speaking, this charm can't supplement the first half of an artifact project, the theory and research half, because that isn't, strictly speaking, the kind of craft action it's intended to supplement.
I personally am totally comfortable with CNNT applying to all stages of an artifact project, but there's equal mileage to get out of having custom lore/occult research charms, which play nice with other subsystems like Sorcerous Research and Thaumaturgical Design. This is one of those places where the core rulebook skimped on some detail in favor of getting the basics across, and we suffer for it now.
A Note on Workshops:
Corebook doesn't actually go into detail regarding workshop rules, so Craftsmen Needs No Tools does more or less depending if you adhere strictly to Oadenol's Codex and the rules provided there or not.
But, as written, CNNT provides a Basic Workshop, which means it satisfies all requirements for a single Ability's worth of crafting.
Next Essay: Solar Investigation and Lore!
Twilight and Craft Essay
The Purpose of this Essay
I'm not here to offer you a house-rule solution to Craft, in 2nd edition or any other way. I am however hoping to give you all context for any changes that you would want to implement. I'm aiming to improve everyone's understanding of the game and setting, so you can make informed decisions!
To that end, realize that I'm not going to belabor the points regarding Craft Bloat, or artifact design restrictions.
On Twilights
The Twilight Solar is the Sorcerer-Sage, the Learned Hero. They're Gandalf, Tesla, Henry Ford. They're Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, Sherlock Holmes, Louis Pasteur, Confucius and so on.
In White Wolf's critique of Dungeons and Dragons, Twilights fall into the 'wizard/smart guy' of the classic roles, compared to the Dawn's Fighter, and the Zenith's Priest-Bard.
Their cast abilities are Craft, Investigation, Lore, Medicine and Occult.
The Twilight Anima
Hooboy.
The original, 2nd edition Twilight Anima, before it went under a staggering 3+ revisions over the course of 2e, was basically the ultimate defensive power short of a perfect defense, and it among other things enabled the Twilight Essence Reactor.
Basically, after spending 10 motes, or your anima having fired up to the 11m+ level, you would subtract [Essence] damage successes before they were applied to you in Step 10. So at Essence 2, you'd whip away 2 damage levels. At Essence 5, it negated up to 5 HLs worth of damage per attack.
The problem was, it applied equally at all times. You turned it on, and you were suddenly nearly impossible to kill. You were able to outfight Dawns, the ostensible super-combat caste of the Solars.
Now what I think was intended, was that the Twilight Anima served as a safety net for characters who were in dangerous situations, but not necessarily fighting directly. The Anima Power was meant to enable smart-person actions like defusing a bomb during an intense sword battle, ensuring you wouldn't get gibbed by random chance. Or, even more likely, it was to dovetail nicely into how Sorcery had stability mechanics, and if you suffered damage, you'd risk having a catastrophic backlash as your spell fizzled.
Unfortunately, this didn't work out as intended.
Short version: It was intended to let you do twilight-things in hazardous situations, but it was too open ended and broke combat wide open.
What is Craft, the Ability?
Craft is the mechanical, trait-value of how good you are at building, repairing, or understanding the construction of objects or other 'workings'.
Unlike other abilities, it's actually divided into numerous sub-crafts. The core book describes the basic five Elemental Crafts of Fire, Earth, Air, Water and Wood. I'll trust you to look up the corebook for their extended definitions- I want to focus on the more esoteric parts.
Craft as a system and it's statements on the setting
- Exalted, and most Storyteller Games actually, model the mortal first, and then put exceptions on top of that.
- Craft as an idea exists to define that Infrastructure Matters, much like the armies you wield with War, or the cults you raise with Performance do.
- Exalted has a setting statement of 'There is no lost elf crafting'. if it had been done before in the history of the setting, you can do it again- because as a Solar, you are bringing back those lost techniques. The issue here is this got corrupted, into believing it was not merely possible, but easy/inevitable to regain first-age levels of infrastructure on a massive scale. See examples of people thinking a single Solar can punch out enough light bulbs to justify an industrial revolution.
- The one thing you cannot explicitly make, itself proves the exceptional nature of everything else- Exaltations. Attaining the secrets to make an Exaltation is something a storyteller says about your game at your table.
Now, for a brief recap- remember that a trait at 1 is passable, amateurish, or inexperienced. Two is 'average'. Three is 'Professional' or 'Reputable'. 4 is 'Known within their field', and 5 is 'Known for their work well outside their field.
So Strength 2 is 'Average person' while Strength 5 is someone who's famed for hundreds of miles as the strongest person around.
In context of Craft, especially system wise, your craft rating determines the maximum value/complexity of the good you're trying to make within reason. This is all based on the resource value of the mundane good in question of course, so someone with Craft Fire 2 satisfies the minimums to make a Resources 2 sword.
Now as mentioned, this system is meant to model mortals first, and an ability rated at 3 plus is notable, and 4 is outright exceptional. All kinds of res 4-5 goods get made all the time though, so in this case, these people have specialties in a given craft. Like a ferrier (a guy who makes horseshoes) would have Craft Fire 2, Horseshoes +3, meaning he could make base cost, res 5 horseshoes, if he needed to.
I should point out that your craft dots only determine the base cost of an object you can make. You can make better versions of low cost things as per the rules laid out in corebook. It's for this reason you can take res 1 materials like paint and make a painting that's worth res 5, if you roll well enough.
The reason I mention this, is because it ties directly into craft bloat. Mortals are expected to specialize in a single craft ability, and supplement with specialties. Exalted don't need to worry about specialties as much, just buying up straight, omni-applicable ability dots.
A combat engineer with Craft Earth 2, Fortifications +3 is only useful in wartime. A master architect with Craft Earth 5 can make anything that Craft Earth can allow.
The problem we're all aware of, is that players don't want to be a specialist crafter, they want to be the omni-applicable genius crafter, especially Solars! And that's not a bad thing to want! Of any statement Exalted tried to make, it wasn't that Exalts had to specialize and/or pour buckets of experience points into a craft ability.
Instead, like with a lot of rules, this one was written under the assumption that players and storytellers would play up the exceptionalism of player characters and their meteoric advances and rises in power, skill and the like.
A Note on Mortals, and Thaumaturgy
In Exalted 2nd edition, Thaumaturgy is a real and widespread practice. Most professional anythings know a few 0th and 1st degree procedures relevant to their primary jobs. The creation of varnish for woodworking, for example, is thaumaturgical in nature. Same with other kinds of sealant, caulking for households, and so on. The oil to quench a sword is a thaumaturgical product!
It's fair to say that many people know lots of small tricks and cantrips that are thaumaturgical in nature, without having a whole lot in the way of Occult Dots, and almost never having full Degrees in a given school of Thaumaturgy.
A Degree implies you can essentially improvise most any printed ritual (with the storyteller's permission) and make new ones, and reflects months if not years of committed study.
So never insult an armorer, thinking he doesn't know what he's doing… and be very wary of a village that has a local Enchanter.
Craft and the Greater Setting
No other ability in Exalted has as much tangible effect on Creation than Craft, simply because there's so many lost wonders. I mean the big ones- the Lap, the Five Metal Shrike, and so on. Setting aside how they were stated out, these great works painted a picture in the minds of readers, that we still remember to this day.
At it's core though, Craft is just like any argument for humanity's dominance over the land and each other. All things being equal, the person with the tool will win. The person with the best tools wins more. Two Dragon-blooded fighting to the death, and one is armed with a daiklave. That daiklave represents the time and effort that went into making it, the infrastructure, culture and techniques that lead to its creation. That it exists in the hands of the one DB says in no uncertain terms that this one has the advantage.
That is at the core, the point of crafting. Building things gives you an advantage.
Where Craft Went Wrong
Already mentioned: Craft Bloat.
Now for storytellers, the act of building things is supposed to be rife with all kinds of interesting plot hooks, challenges and more!
Unfortunately, it became a very obnoxious point/effect chasing slog that for most people, slowed down games and caused disruptions. I'll have to take a step back to explain.
The games people wanted to play did not fit crafting- The day to day, session to session gameplay did not lend itself to the timescales required of Crafting.
The kind of games crafting was meant to encourage, people did not want to play. Crafting, at it's core, like Training and Travel Times, existed to remind the players that the world was BIG, and that things did not happen constantly, compulsively and so on. That the world did not have to be populated by explosions every other scene, and that weeks, months passed between big, on-camera events.
The statement that crafting artifacts made about the setting was one that sounded interesting, but proved to be ill-applied to gameplay.
Here's the basics: When you try to craft an artifact, and assuming you satisfy the considerable dot investment across 3 abilities, Resources, and such, the project is divided in half. The first half is all theory- you can literally craft in your head on the go, as long as you keep notes, you can never lose progress.
This first 'theory' half of Crafting is meant to be the 'set up' for the epic quest to finish your projects. Every 5 accumulated successes on the research phase means the Storyteller is supposed to tell you a kind of exotic component you need to make the artifact- this ranges from a magical tool, the blessing of a specific god, cats footfalls, a child's laugh, or square circles.
In the case of the esoteric components, you'd bargain with a demon, a fair folk. Maybe a god would help (they have a charm that lets you contain an abstract concept and make it solid). Or, if you're a Solar, you use Wyld-Shaping Technique to make the impossible component and use it then.
So, the point of Exotic Components, such as they were, was a Stick to get the players out of the workshop and into the field on high adventure. The problem is, Exalted as a game is really bad about stick mechanics. The inherent benefit of going on adventures was sidelined in the face of 'This sounds like a chore'.
Like, if you have to go on an epic quest to MAKE an artifact (which is actually cool), why aren't you going on an epic quest to Find an artifact? Both are valid, but one has 'fewer steps' in the minds of players, or is easier to create gameplay around.
Exotic Components also are a statement on the setting. That statement was "This is the variable, the knob, the First Age twisted all the way to 11 to justify its existence."
Take a daiklave for example. A daiklave is a 2 dot artifact, and you need as many components equal to it's dot rating. Each component itself is equivalent to a 1 dot artifact on it's own.
To make this daiklave, someone probably had to go out and kill Grendel. Yes that Grendel. Imagine telling the story of Grendel, getting his arm and maybe a scale from his mother. You go out, kill the monstah, and come home with his arm and the scale. Now you can make your daiklave.
Now, a lot of people, not unfairly, criticized the portrayal of daiklaves throughout the game as being legendary, storied weapons… that got made in batches at the height of the First Age. Here however, is the crux of that statement. Also for the record Borgstrom didn't have much involvement in Dreams of the First Age, to my knowledge, so take that with a grain of salt.
If you have to go handle a Grendel-alike every time you want to make a daiklave, that means it's gonna be kinda hard to keep grendel-arms and mother-scales in stock. In the Second Age, a Player crafter is likely going to craft a few daiklaves per game. As mentioned, the First Age had factory cathedrals turning them out in batches- and here's how:
Delegation.
The implication, is that each individual Daiklave itself is still just as legendary as it was before, but the First Age literally turned itself into a pyramid of grabbing lesser components from Creation- making them in labs by mortal hands, sending journeymen out into the field to harvest them from uncapped demesnes, even sending Dragonblooded into the Wyld to get them from Raksha, and the list goes on. All of these things were stockpiled en masse, just to enable these batch-wrought daiklaves.
But each individual effort to gather the components to make the weapon were just as legendary as they would be in the fallen Second Age. It was the slaying of Grendel, writ over and over a hundred thousand times or more.
Compare this to our own modern reality- in fact, remember that the First Age itself was meant to be a parable and allusion to the Internet Age, with mass production, consumerism, and media celebrities all writ-large.
Assume we can make 1000 glass bottles in a minute using factory methods. Does that make artisan glass somehow less difficult as the results of skilled labor? Not really, but without those machines, we would still have bottles. They'd just More Effort without the infrastructure backing.
The First Age was literally an era of "six impossible things before breakfast."
Now, one possible intention here, regarding the scope of First Age Craft, was that you're kind of supposed to hate the First Age treatment of specialness and magic as signs of obnoxious excess and decadence. Its an era so great that you have god-warriors picking from their closet of unique and powerful named weapons as fashion accessories, like people today would choose iPhone cases.
The issue was, the writers of the time presented it with such absolute "THIS IS THE AWESOME YOU WANTED" finality that it undercut going back to hiding "merely" daiklaves from prying eyes and slogging around Nexus alleys with sand in your sandals. They bodged the tragedy in that loss of specialness, so it felt like a betrayal of concept rather than a return to form when the implications were set that "this will all come crashing down."
The First Age Exalted conquered and tamed the lands of Creation, and you, as Solar Alexander, were meant to weep for the loss.
Normally I'd be trying to give advice now about Exotic Components, but for now I'm gonna save that for another essay.
To summarize, Craft is one of those aspects of Exalted, mechanically and as a setting, that requires all parties really be on the same wavelength. You have to accept that as written, crafting takes time.
Related to this, is that Exalted assumes players can FILL their time with actions that don't happen on screen. Otherwise any downtime to let the crafter do his thing feels arbitrary and pointless. You're intended to use the time equally, but only Craft has a firmly structured system for filling in these big voids.
But that's enough about that. Without further ado-
Craft Charms
Craft for Solars is a reflection that they are Human Heroes, that they do Human things like Make Great Works, and Make Great Works Better. We will also again see their 'Transcendent' nature in their charm logic, not unlike Food-Gathering Exercise as seen in the last essay.
All Craft Charms require a Craft Excellency as a prerequisite.
A note on Applicability: It's assumed that all Craft Charms share the Craft Ability- you don't need Craft-Fire versions of any of these charms anymore than you need Craft Water versions. The limitation is that you need to be able to take an action normally first- satisfy those minimums. THEN you can apply these charms.
So yes, you could conceivably use Craft Water to strengthen a cake before someone eats it.
Object-Strengthening Touch
Craft 2, Essence 1
This introductory Charm has the lowest ability minimums of all the craft magic in the core book. It's function is so simple that it's nearly invisible, but can be used with great effect if you know how to look at it.
By spending 5 motes and touching an object (as per the keyword), this charm does two things, enhancing the object for the remainder of the scene.
It increases the number of successes on a non-Feats of Strength Action required to break the object by your Permanent Essence, and it increases the Feats of Strength requirement to break it by the same amount. The distinction is basically such that in the former, you're punching something. In the latter, you're taking a strongman attempt at ripping it apart.
Now what does this actually do, mean or say about Solars? It says that you can make something stronger- a stronger door, to hold off pursuers? A stronger bridge, that wouldn't support your weight, or was being damaged by enemy archers firing flaming arrows?
The crux of this charm, is that it's highly situational. For this charm to be useful, there have to be things in the world at risk of breaking, and most storytellers have trouble remembering to include those things.
But, in a very real sense, this Charm actually does do a lot compared to what mortals are capable of, reinforcing anything by merely touching it!
Durability-Enhancing Technique
Craft 3, Essence 2
This is the logical upgrade of Object-Strengthening Touch. It takes longer, Speed 6 in Long Ticks, but it's basic function is- you spend 3 motes and increase the relevant values to break an object by 1.
This is a permanent change, by the way.
So yes, you apply the charm once, and make something +1 point of difficulty harder to damage. You can stack this effect up to [Essence] times, and no combination of Durability-Enhancing or Object-Strengthening can make something stronger than your Essence rating.
But let's dig a little deeper. Let's say i'm Essence 2. I use this charm on a door twice, so it's +2 difficulty to break. That means it probably has +2 difficult to Soak (and by extension, Hardness, because it's an object).
On average, you need 2 die for every point of difficulty to have a 50% chance of succeeding. A storyteller D10 at TN7 with 10s as 2 successes nets out to 50% average of a success, or a coinflip. So two dice boosts your odds. Three dice is better though.
So, this charm automatically increases the requirement to 'damage' the object by 2 dice. For anyone who knows probability or has experience with the ST system, they know that even a 2 point swing in difficulty is nothing to laugh at.
Also note that you aren't limited to a specific class of object with either charm. If you can touch it, you can strengthen it. At Essence 5, that means a silk rope can be +5 difficulty to break!
Like with Object-Strengthening, the utility of this charm depends on either players looking for uses, or storytellers generating Fragile Things in their scenes.
Chaos-Resistance Preparation
Craft 4, Essence 2
Remember how Solars are Fuck You Wyld? Yeah, me too.
Spending 2wp and committing 5 motes, the Solar can render an object proof against the Wyld and it's corrosive effects for as long as they maintain the charm.
Now, strictly speaking, anything you 'Own' that is marked on your character sheet is a Trait, which is covered by Integrity Protecting Prana or other Charms as per the Borgstromantic interpretation of things- this charm exists to protect things you don't necessarily own or aren't yet on your sheet for whatever reason.
However, depending on your Storyteller, they may rule that a given item or prop you normally own isn't safe against the wyld- hence this Charm.
The other factor is you can commit to this charm, and then leave the object, no longer spending active effort defending it against wyld corruption. Active attempts to break it probably still would, but you won't suffer from 'Dumb random events' destroying it.
As a secondary, permanent benefit, an object enhanced by this Charm makes all unfortunate Wyld-based happenstance that could happen to it tenfold less frequent, AND it increases the difficulty of Shaping Effects used on it by 2.
So, we have here a pretty clear thematic statement of Solars Dealing with Wyld. Secondly, we also can see now that Solars have effects that let them leave things and go do Other Things, trusting their magic to keep their dependents safe. It's not even Essence 3, so this tell us that 'Against Wyld' is an Essence 2 effect at this scope.
Crack-Mending Technique
Craft 5, Essence 3
This Charm requires Craft 5, meaning you are likely a master, having attained a level that is known for hundreds of miles around as the master of your trade.
As for what it does- this is the first 'Speeder Upper' we see outside of the Training Charms. Crack-Mending Technique waives the need for repair tools like nails, glue and the like, when repairing an object. You must however, have all or most of the pieces on hand or the raw materials to make replacements.
Related to this, is that you accomplish [Essence x3] work hours per realtime hour invested. So at Essence 3, you're getting 9 hours of real work done for every hour.
Let's say you chose to work 1 hour a day. You're getting 45 work-hours done fixing something, over the course of a 5 day work week. What if repairing things was your job? You'd have SO much free time on your hands, wouldn't you?
Or, you can push further, working a full day and getting [Hours Worked x [Essence x3]] hours worth of work done!
Now here's the rub- Exalted never really says what a workday is. So it's up to ST arbitration as to how much this actually does for you. It can be a lot or a little. I personally like to assume based on my reading of most of 2e that a standard workday is 8 hours long, 24 days out of a 28 day month, year round.
The other factor, is that you can repair something that would normally be unrepairable- the book says you can clean and repair the burnt shards of a letter, or a shattered crystal decanter in a few hours. Actually recreating an object from ruined parts would require a higher Essence Charm, or the Terrestrial Spell 'Incantation of Effective Restoration', which does repair something nearly ex nihilo, as long as you have enough of it left over.
So again, Solar statement: At this master level of ability, you can repair something seamlessly, as if it had never been broken, but you can't quite restore it utterly in absence of necessary raw materials. You also accomplish work very quickly.
Shattering Grasp
Craft 5, Essence 2
The indirect opposite to Crack-Mending Technique, Shattering Grasp is the 'efficient deconstruction charm. Amusingly in corebook, there's a picture of 'this charm' being used on some unlucky foe's armor. Unfortunately, the actual mechanics don't let you do that.
Costing 5 motes and lasting for a scene, this charm is a Simple Dramatic Action, focused on the act of disassembling an object or structure. You get the choice of taking it apart non-destructively, or wrecking it messily as you do so.
Remember, a Scene is on average, 20 minutes long unless otherwise noted.
You're limited to only disassembling objects that you could normally break with a Feat of Strength, but the charm adds [Your Craft Score x2] to the Feats of Strength Rating for this purpose.
Assuming you're Strength 1, Athletics 0, and Craft 5, that's a FoS pool of 11. This charm lets you break down a Brick Wall, despite having No Training, and being a weak limp noodle of a nerd.
With more believable traits and a Feats pool of say, 14, you can snap iron manacles, or pull stone bricks out of a castle wall. This is BEFORE any extra effects of the charm- I'm just describing what the Feats table lets you do.
The second effect, is that it lets you disassemble an object (usually defined as something you can conventionally hold in your hands or carry) in [8 - Permanent Essence] Minutes, to a minimum of 3 minutes.
So like, let's say a Car engine, as a reasonable description. This charm lets you disassemble that in 5 minutes at Essence 3. I just checked, and normally something like that would take 40 hours. You're also skipping the need for tools too.
You can also target larger structures, such as castles and villages. Here the charm describes it as a methodical 'move from one major component to the next, taking them apart at the normal rate until interrupted or the task is complete. Large structures take [8 - Permanent Essence] Hours, with a minimum of 3 hours. Also once you start, you can't stop unless you finish or something interrupts you.
The text goes on to say that you can't disassemble BIG things without multiple activations of the charm against separate sections.
So we have a 'Repair without tools', and a 'Disassemble/Destroy' without tools. I'm sensing a theme here.
Craftsmen Needs No Tools
Craft 4, Essence 3
Ahhh, one of the most iconic Solar Charms. At Craft 4, Essence 3, this lovely effect is firmly a Miracle. You spend 7m+1wp to supplement a craft action.
This charm waives the need for tools when crafting, and removes any penalties for lackin tools. (You still might not have the right tools). By the strictest reading of the charm, you qualify as having a Basic Workshop for whatever craft you happen to be using. Basically if a job needs a hammer, you can push nails with your fingers. If you need chisels for shaping rock, your fingernails will do. You want to cook eggs? Your palms are now skillets.
Secondly, like Crack-Mending Technique, this charm lets you accomplish [Essence x3] hours worth of work per realtime work hour. Again I have to stress that there's no consistent ruling on how long it takes to craft an artifact in work hours, save that it's a Season, or three months.
So we have come yet again to the conclusion that Solars are all about Removing Obstacles between them and taking an action. There are THINGS that need to be made, and they don't have time to worry about having tools on-hand.
Now, here's another thing you should keep in mind, which is relevant to anyone who wants to craft artifacts- strictly speaking, this charm can't supplement the first half of an artifact project, the theory and research half, because that isn't, strictly speaking, the kind of craft action it's intended to supplement.
I personally am totally comfortable with CNNT applying to all stages of an artifact project, but there's equal mileage to get out of having custom lore/occult research charms, which play nice with other subsystems like Sorcerous Research and Thaumaturgical Design. This is one of those places where the core rulebook skimped on some detail in favor of getting the basics across, and we suffer for it now.
A Note on Workshops:
Corebook doesn't actually go into detail regarding workshop rules, so Craftsmen Needs No Tools does more or less depending if you adhere strictly to Oadenol's Codex and the rules provided there or not.
But, as written, CNNT provides a Basic Workshop, which means it satisfies all requirements for a single Ability's worth of crafting.
- No Workshop = Can't take craft actions
- Rudimentary Workshop = Can only take craft actions with the breadth of a specialty, -4 dice penalty on Magical Crafting Actions
- Basic Workshop = Can attempt Craft Actions within the scope of a single Craft Ability, -2 dice penalty on Magical Crafting Actions. This is what CNNT provides if you follow Oadenol's Codex.
- Master's Workshop = Counts a Workshop for all Mundane Crafts, +0 dice on Magical Crafts. (This is like having a giant warehouse that can do carpentry, stoneworking, silkweaving, and chemistry all in one.) The post-corebook charm Words-as-Workshop Method grants this level of bonus, as well as waiving the Mundane Resource cost for a project as a Shaping Effect.
A Master's workshop is inherently magical, though not necessarily Artifact or Manse- it has lots of thaumaturgical tools and first-age devices. - Flawless Workshop = As a Magical Workshop, it adds +2 dice to artifact creation, and usually has exotic tools (read: Exotic Components) built in. Not all Flawless Workshops are Atelier Manses, but all Atelier Manses are Flawless Workshops.
- Ideal Workshop = a First-Age workshop in perfect condition and fully stocked with tools and materials. (This is nearly unheard of in the second age.) All Factory-Cathedrals are Ideal Workshops. They add +4 dice to artifact rolls.
Next Essay: Solar Investigation and Lore!
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Touch of Sepia
Artisan of the Vital Tincture
- Location
- Connecticut
Joined the forum to contact the TAW folks, I'll just copy paste what I said on r/Exalted:
Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
@Touch of Sepia : i remember reading about a Cursed item/Nazgul Fan created TAW charm tree, written here by The Despot.
Now, either you are The Despot, and in that case i must compliment yourself for the good work, or you aren't, and in that case i at least linked you to something that could interest you.
Now, either you are The Despot, and in that case i must compliment yourself for the good work, or you aren't, and in that case i at least linked you to something that could interest you.
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AmineHsu
A worm, not a man, scorned and despised.
- Location
- NoVA
I know there has been talk and plans are in place but anything further is on hold till the official release has dropped and people have had some time to absorb and distill the rules.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Correct. I'm planning to convert TAW to 3e, but I'm not starting work until I have the physical book in my hands and have had time to absorb the rules. For the moment I have a 2.5 supplement in the works as a finale piece. That said, I'd be glad of the help. Is Touch of Sepia and The Despot one and the same?
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Touch of Sepia
Artisan of the Vital Tincture
- Location
- Connecticut
Yes, Touch of Sepia and The Despot are the same person. The Despot was my ST 'Hand' in my Alchemicals game, but that was a long time ago. Sepia was my first TAW character - paying homage to The Magic Paint Brush.
Crazy that people connect the dots on me like that - a friend linked me to a thing on 4chan's rp thread the other day too:
http://imgur.com/zuseixg
So I'm ChrisARose too.
But, all that aside, I'd love to assist on projects relating to TAW. I'll send you a PM with contact details!
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
@Touch of Sepia - hey. I'm technically sort of the origin of TAW, in that it was my bitching to @EarthScorpion and @Revlid that started the whole ball rolling. I don't believe any of us are particularly interested in a 3e conversion, but I guess I'd be up for some discussion of the philosophies behind it and the types of character that I wanted the TAW splat to enable me to play, if you wanted. Not right now; I've got dissertation stuff going on, but in two weeks or so that'd be fine.
Romantic_Kaiju
Romantic Kaiju
- Location
- National Battlefield
I eagerly await your next essay. Also, this is the best explanation For the Solar Charm Set that I have Seen. Do you mind if I use this for the Game I'm about to Run (actually Run and not do the descriptions and stuff because I am far better at that than the actually ST I had, why did you move). I've got new players, and this lays out everything amazing well.
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- Location
- Gladstone, OR
These Essays (I've done a bunch so far) are all for public consumption and the improvement of your game playing experience! They are not absolute truths however, so use your own judgement where reasonable.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
So it turns out that Arms of the Chosen won't have any guidelines for home-brewing Evocations. We have to just use whatever Exigents comes out with.
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
.....wait what? Where was this stated if you don't mind me asking.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
The dev Q&A thread, by Holden.
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
Can you link please?
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
I'm of two minds about it.
On the one hand, it's cool and gives you more depth for investing into the forms of animals you like.
On the other hand, more than a few of them seem redundant with what Lunar Charms would allow you to do in any and all forms.
There's also the Eclipse issue. If Lunars can learn the magical powers of animals, couldn't they also learn the Eclipse-keyworded Charms of the spirit forms they've stolen? Which would also be cool, buuut...
Holden and Hatewheel want to make turning into animals cool and powerful enough on its own, and don't want to make animal forms a mere stepping stone on the path to acquiring the forms of elementals, gods and demons, and they're seriously considering whether spirits even have "Heart's Blood" to take.
So long as Lunars can disguise themselves to look like spirits and fake the powers of spirits, I'm fine with not being able to take their forms, though I still want to be able to take their Heart's Blood for the purposes of stealing memories, skills and rights-of-possession.
Yes, for example, when you describe Craftsman Needs No Tools you don't ever mention that heat and flame could technically be considered a tool, therefore you could cook a steak perfectly medium rare as a Solar by glaring at a cow until it becomes one.
Walker of the Yellow Path
Ho There!
- Location
- The Land of Memes
What are Schools of Sorcery? I've seen references to the Salinian School of Sorcery, and I know there are others, but I don't know what that means, or if there is anything to be gained in being one over the other.
Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
The school of sorcery are represented in the game by the Absortion Charms(Page 21/22 of the second book of sorcery): buying one of them prevent you from buying the others, but also given you the ability to chose two special powers from a list unique to every school.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
They're not dissimilar to artificial versions of the "organic" Yozi Initiations.