azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
For Solars.
In some areas.
General Exalted Thread
In some areas.
Hmm. So, hacky quick Lintha rules I came up with at work today because I was sure that Keris would probably wind up fighting them (I was wrong) and while I could have used the Blood and Salt ones, HA HA HA HA no.
Lintha
- Lintha use Breeding as a totally unfair and mean-spirited chargen tax. It permanently caps how powerful they'll be, and they'll never be better unless they want to go supplicate Kimbery (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha good luck with that). Modern Lintha never have more than Breeding 3 and even then only the products of the most dedicated eugenic have that much. Most "pureblood" Lintha are Breeding 0 or 1.
- At Breeding 2+, Lintha heal as Exalts.
- Lintha cap their Enlightenment at their Breeding without outside alteration. Modern Lintha therefore cannot reach the Enlightenment 4 required to learn Emerald Circle Sorcery, but could theoretically learn it if their blood strength could somehow be enhanced. Obviously this does not apply to Dragonblooded with a Lintha heritage.
- The Lintha have a dice cap of Applicable Style + (Lower of Attribute or Breeding). Pure blooded Lintha had a Terrestrial dicecap - modern ones are much worse off. Nevertheless, one who's studied their Style well is probably better off than most god-blooded with their cap of (Enlightenment).
- Lintha power is conceptually rooted in their body and their blood purity, with some Kimberyian themes. Oceanically they're more like dolphins than Kimbery's more general ocean themes - they're sea-adapted mammals (who are dicks, much like dolphins), not the ocean.
- Native Lintha Charms are spirit Charms themed around Lintha magic. For example, a Lintha with pure blood can heal himself by gritting his teeth and forcing his wounds to close, leaving his body pure and unblemished. Things that enhance combat are based around them being graceful and elegant and generally kinda sea-elfy. Large extents of the ancient Lintha charmset are inaccessible due to Breeding prereqs. Other bits are not used because of their culture, which doesn't value the fine arts and crafts of their old culture.
- Modern Lintha have bred extensively with gods, elementals and demons. As a result, any given Lintha may well have other "themes" to their spirit Charms. Any Lintha with access to non-Lintha spirit Charms has a maximum Breeding of 1, because it's tangible proof of the weakness of their blood.
- Most modern Lintha will have a low level of mutations. Most common are gills, which are viewed as "normal" for them. More extensively mutated Lintha are neutered at birth and sent out to die on the pirate ships without tainting the bloodlines, which means that you may find stranger quasi-Lintha among their ranks.
- Lintha of Breeding 2+ can get the equivalent of a Level 1 anima (respiring at the 1-dot rating when they do it) by spending 1 wp and succeeding on a Physique check at difficulty (6 - Breeding), or by taking 2 points of Agg and spending 1wp. Their skin flushes green, their hair pales, they bleed from the nose and eyes, and the divine Kimberyian blood within them pumps to life, hurting their weak frames. A faint blue-green halo surrounds them when they do this. This lasts for a scene, and the Lintha is left exhausted and starving after doing it.
Lintha
- Lintha use Breeding as a totally unfair and mean-spirited chargen tax. It permanently caps how powerful they'll be, and they'll never be better unless they want to go supplicate Kimbery (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha good luck with that). Modern Lintha never have more than Breeding 3 and even then only the products of the most dedicated eugenic have that much. Most "pureblood" Lintha are Breeding 0 or 1.
- At Breeding 2+, Lintha heal as Exalts.
- Lintha cap their Enlightenment at their Breeding without outside alteration. Modern Lintha therefore cannot reach the Enlightenment 4 required to learn Emerald Circle Sorcery, but could theoretically learn it if their blood strength could somehow be enhanced. Obviously this does not apply to Dragonblooded with a Lintha heritage.
- The Lintha have a dice cap of Applicable Style + (Lower of Attribute or Breeding). Pure blooded Lintha had a Terrestrial dicecap - modern ones are much worse off. Nevertheless, one who's studied their Style well is probably better off than most god-blooded with their cap of (Enlightenment).
- Lintha power is conceptually rooted in their body and their blood purity, with some Kimberyian themes. Oceanically they're more like dolphins than Kimbery's more general ocean themes - they're sea-adapted mammals (who are dicks, much like dolphins), not the ocean.
- Native Lintha Charms are spirit Charms themed around Lintha magic. For example, a Lintha with pure blood can heal himself by gritting his teeth and forcing his wounds to close, leaving his body pure and unblemished. Things that enhance combat are based around them being graceful and elegant and generally kinda sea-elfy. Large extents of the ancient Lintha charmset are inaccessible due to Breeding prereqs. Other bits are not used because of their culture, which doesn't value the fine arts and crafts of their old culture.
- Modern Lintha have bred extensively with gods, elementals and demons. As a result, any given Lintha may well have other "themes" to their spirit Charms. Any Lintha with access to non-Lintha spirit Charms has a maximum Breeding of 1, because it's tangible proof of the weakness of their blood.
- Most modern Lintha will have a low level of mutations. Most common are gills, which are viewed as "normal" for them. More extensively mutated Lintha are neutered at birth and sent out to die on the pirate ships without tainting the bloodlines, which means that you may find stranger quasi-Lintha among their ranks.
- Lintha of Breeding 2+ can get the equivalent of a Level 1 anima (respiring at the 1-dot rating when they do it) by spending 1 wp and succeeding on a Physique check at difficulty (6 - Breeding), or by taking 2 points of Agg and spending 1wp. Their skin flushes green, their hair pales, they bleed from the nose and eyes, and the divine Kimberyian blood within them pumps to life, hurting their weak frames. A faint blue-green halo surrounds them when they do this. This lasts for a scene, and the Lintha is left exhausted and starving after doing it.
This certainly seems like a very interesting take on the Lintha. It seems as if you are making them considerably weaker than the version roughly depicted in canon. Are you planning on making any changes to Lintha society in tandem with these changes in power level? The Lintha society depicted in Blood and Salt seemed very interesting but it looked as if it was almost totally reliant on the disparity of power between the "pure-blooded" Lintha and the weaker mortals that comprised the bulk of the Lintha forces1. I imagine that the Lintha would be forced to develop a very different society if the "pure-blooded" were no longer capable of guaranteeing their power and warding off threats thru raw power. Do you have any set ideas for Lintha society in your game?
[1] Here is a thank you to Aleph for her earlier recommendation regarding purchasing the book "Blood and Salt" by the way. I found it to be an excellent read that gave me a lot of ideas for using the Lintha as a unique threat.
[1] Here is a thank you to Aleph for her earlier recommendation regarding purchasing the book "Blood and Salt" by the way. I found it to be an excellent read that gave me a lot of ideas for using the Lintha as a unique threat.
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Walker of the Yellow Path
Ho There!
- Location
- The Land of Memes
Can you link me to the modified Enlightenment system you are using?
Walker of the Yellow Path
Ho There!
- Location
- The Land of Memes
Thank you.
Yes. Insofar that I'm not, you know, giving a bunch of jumped up *blooded access to Solar Charms and the capacity to combo them together [1]. Giving Lintha access to Solar-level Charms (literally reskinned Solar Charms) is quite obviously a placeholder based on "well, we know people have the corebook", and I feel no need to respect it. Instead, I based it around the fact that a) Lintha get most of their magic by being *blooded, so should basically be around *blooded level [2], and b) we know that the Terrestrial Exalts among them are waaaaaaaaaaay better than the normal Lintha, so that mandates that they do not have access to better-than-Terrestrial Charms.
Oh, at a geopolitical level they are certainly weaker. Because no, South-Western pirates cannot seriously attempt to raid Chiaroscuro which is 5000 miles away from Bluehaven as the crow flies (and rather longer if you have to sail it). And also has a Realm garrison, and wooden ships hate Elemental Bolt Attack. The Lintha are a regional, South-Western presence and that's all I need them for.
[1] Because there was no fucking way I was going to let a 14 year old pirate captain, to give but one example of a canon character, have access to Accuracy Without Distance, Graceful Crane Stance, Integrity-Protecting Prana, Perfect Reckoning Technique, Reed in the Wind, Salty Dog Method,Sensory Acuity Prana, Shadow Over Water, Sight Without Eyes, Storm-Weathering Essence Infusion, There Is No Wind, Wise Arrow. Which includes the Solar "I can shoot you in the fact from the next prefecture over" Charms.
[2] With a few extra benefits, like a better dicecap and the ability to get an anima for mote regen.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
Solar Stealth
Ahh… to be the sneaky thief, to be the guy who can infiltrate the guarded fortress, evading all the guards. To be the ninja, efficient and ruthless. Perhaps one is the secret agent, mingling with the crowd?
None of these are Solars, and yet all of them are.
To be a Solar is to let yourself step into a given archetype known across human mythology and fiction- you can in fact be a ninja-solar, but I have seen people suffer for it, simply because they tried for too much Ninja.
Invisibility is a -2 External Penalty on rolls made against the invisible target, or, in some situations +2 automatic successes to Stealth Action taken by the invisible actor. Further, invisible characters do not need to stunt in order to establish surprise. That is the mechanical definition of Invisibility in Exalted 2e.
Invisibility is for Dragonblooded.*
Solars approach Stealth from the opposite, almost conceptual direction, which I'll go into more further down. *Dragnonblooded technically don't even get invisibility, they iirc get a charm that lets them move where people aren't looking, and a noise-maker effect as a distraction.
Borgstromancy, at it's core, is the idea of equating fluff text with mechanical text- of making them similar in value and information. It is also the idea of injecting meaning and methodology into the text and subtext of a setting element or Charm mechanic. Of informing how you play with how the mechanics and setting read.
Like with Solar Larceny, Solar Stealth is thoroughly Borgstromantic.
A Brief Introduction to Solar Stealth
You can't see me. That's Solar Stealth. It's not "I make it so you cannot see me." or "I hide in the shadows." It's "I prevent you from acknowledging I'm here." Among other things.
More seriously, one of the sub themes of the Solar Exalted is that they have some of the most powerful Unnatural Mental Influence Effects in the game, extending outside of the normal Social Combat powers and into other areas like say Stealth.
Part of the point of these Essays is to share and describe the character of the Solar Exalted and experience. Solar Stealth isn't about trope and archetype Stealth- there are non ninja charms, just the same as there are hide-in-forest fantasy ranger charms. At least not in Stealth.
What this means is that trying to evoke 'trope' effects in the Solar Charmset tend to fall flat, because for all of it's subtlety or blatancy, Solars already have their own tropes, their own Aesthetic. You can be a Solar Ninja, sure, but you'll have a real hard time being a pop-culture ninja with Solar Charms.
Stealth the Ability
This ability governs, obviously, the actions and practices of being undetected. It doesn't do much else, and is a very niche and active ability. It's mechanics could be summarized in maybe a page with a couple of riders and notable penalties.
It's primary utility is in of course, taking stealth actions. As long as you're not in combat, this is pretty awesome!
The basic flow is this: You take a stealth action. If you do it where other people can see you, they get to reflexively roll wits+aware+2d to spot you hiding and likely sound the alarm/take action against you. Note that anyone who does fail still can't target you, but they can be alerted. I'm pretty sure that until you get attacked or someone takes a misc action to point you out, you can't be targeted either, so 'Alerting' is still a two-step process.
Also in the above situation, if a stealth roll is beaten, the observers can initiate Join Battle.
But if you stealth first, enter a scene, and so on, nobody will automatically roll to notice you- you'll basically be 'Stealthed' until the storyteller decides there's cause for an Awareness Check. Usually based on how well you accomplished an Athletics or Larceny roll, perhaps. The point is, if you're stealthed and not messing with anything, people will probably not actively notice you.
If people Are actively looking for you (thing MGS alert), that's a Miscellaneous [Perception+Awareness] roll on their part against the results of your [Dexterity+Stealth] roll. Note that they don't get the +2d here.
Anyway- let's assume the stealthed character succeeds at avoiding detection- as detailed in the Join Battle analysis, you can immediately attack and be the first character to roll Join Battle, and you will act on tick 0. Your Join Battle result becomes the Reaction Count everyone else rolls against to find their starting tick as well.
So, Unexpected Attacks, Hiding from Sentries and a couple other niche effects- that's Stealth the Ability.
Solar Stealth Charms
Easily-Overlooked Presence Method
Stealth 3, Essence 1
One of these things is not like the others…
The introductory Charm to Solar Stealth, EOPM is yet again a testament to Borgstromancy. For 3 motes, the Solar may force observers attention to slide away from him, to be unable to pick him out in the crowd.
Mechanically, this is represented by declaring Investigation and Awareness rolls against the Solar to automatically fail unless the Solar is Joined in Battle or the observer has a minimum of 2 dice in circumstance (not stunt!) bonuses from the Solar's condition or environment.
Now Circumstance Bonuses are to my knowledge described in the core rules- they have been injected by this Charm for the Storyteller's benefit. A circumstance bonus is basically anything the Observer can't control about the situation (such as via direct stunting).
The Charm text itself describes a +1d bonus like someone being obviously foreign in a monocultural city (Red hair in a sea of blondes, for example). A +3 bonus is like 'The solar is covered in blood, wearing full armor, in the middle of a high class party'. The reason it doesn't allow stunts, is because stunting allows minor dramatic editing of the scene- and stunting in mechanical weaknesses into another character usually is a bad precedent.
What this charm says about the Solars is that as long as you take a moment to pay attention to your surroundings, you can easily blend into the vast majority of the world. A little makeup (or Flawless Disguise Technique) solves the 'are you foreign' problem for example. It's frighteningly subtle, but the Solar has the advantage here of being able to look for places they can blend in, preventing people from finding them.
Also note, like with Solar Larceny-this charm has no keywords. It's not meant to fall into the Stealth/Awareness arms race. Sorcerer's Sight amusingly would help, if the Solar happens to be Essence 4+ in a crowd of mortals. An Essence 4+ Solar in a crowd of other such beings though, they'd be hidden again!
Now how do you beat this Charm? By degrees of separation. You might not be able to spot the Solar, but if you know he's in the area, you can smoke him out by denying him places to blend in. As long as they have nowhere to blend into, they won't be able to hide.
Mental Invisibility Technique
Stealth 4, Essence 2
IGNORE ME!
The successor to EOPM, Mental invisibility Technique is the psychic Stealth charm. The Solar rolls [Manipulation+Stealth] adding Essence automatic successes to the roll. This is because Dodge MDVs are by their nature higher than normal, so it offsets that difficulty.
For the remainder of the scene, any character with a DMDV lower than the successes earned on the stealth roll falls under a Compulsion Effect to ignore the Solar's Presence. There is a big blaring magical siren going IGNORE ME! in the observers minds. This only works if the Solar isn't Joined in Battle.
Now, Creation is a setting where this kind of thing actually probably happens quite a lot- petty gods throwing their weight around, Dragonblooded, etc. Solars get the most explicit Ignore Me Magic, but the feeling this charm creates, what people internalize when it grabs hold of them, isn't 'My Mind is being messed with', but 'I am getting the feeling I really shouldn't look at that. It's somebody else's problem, I don't want any trouble. I don't want to look at the monster under my bed'
And, as I've gone over at length regarding Unnatural Mental Influence, the conditions for someone to spend the 4wp to resist this compulsion are not commonplace.
If someone calls attention to the Solar (by spending 4wp, a compulsion defense, or a high enough DMDV, etc), the cost to resist this effect drops to 1wp!
So how does this actually work? The Solar isn't gone, and people are still aware of their existence- they won't acknowledge it. It won't come up. They'll aggressively look anywhere but the Solar, but the Solar isn't actually invisible. The crux of this charm is that it prevents would-be observers from taking action even after seeing the Solar.
"I don't want to get involved." or "I the Solar am so far above your concerns that you need not raise your head."
Mental Invisibility Technique is what you use to walk through the Lobby in the Matrix without being stopped. The guards won't look up from their newspapers, or even comment as you walk past the metal detectors.
In combination with EOPM, it works like this: As long as you're blending it, people can't roll to find you, and if they could, Mental Invisibility will make them do nothing after having spotted you.
So what's the Borgstromancy? Solar Stealth at the core isn't about being a ninja, it's about not being seen. It's about telling people that they can't look at you, can't see you. None of Solar Stealth cares about sneaking around in the shadows, of crawling through vents or windows. It's about removing these concerns until all that's left are the actors who can perceive you, and your attempt to prevent that from happening.
Shadows are used to hide, but you don't need shadows to not be seen.
Invisible Statue Spirit
Stealth 3, Essence 2
Building off of EOPM, this charm costs 5 motes and has an indefinite commitment- you turn it on and can leave it on as long as you want, or it's failure condition triggers.
This is, if you don't mind me saying, Glorious Solar Tanuki Suit.
The way it works is this: You spend your motes, and hold still. You aren't supposed to take Move/Dash/Jump Actions or their dramatic equivalents As long as you're holding still, the charm renders all Non-Touch Actions inapplicable against the Solar. You aren't just Invisible, you are Un-Whatever-able. If it needs to target you, it cannot apply.
Now obviously area-effect actions will still work, but that's a side note. If you do end up moving or Joining Battle while the charm is active, it ends instantly .If someone touches you, you have 5 seconds of this perfect un-whatever-ability before the charm ends.
ISS has no keywords either. Sensing that pattern again?
Storytellers and Players! The main weakness of this charm, is that it requires the player and storyteller pay attention to where the character is in the scene when they activate it, and what's going on in the scene! if you're forced to go Statuemode in the middle of a busy street, someone is probably going to bump into you!
The trick with this charm, is that it's meant to be the perfect 'Lie in Wait' charm.You find a place where you won't be disturbed,and then you just sit down, waiting, watching. You can observe all the guard changes in peace, mosquitos won't pick on you, you can listen in on all the espionage secrets you want, the list goes on.
As far as Ambushes (surprise attacks before Join Battle), that's a bit tougher. This depends on your interpretation of the rules and timing, so I'll lay out the exact terms and let your tables make their own decisions:
1: ISS will end if you Move (Action) in any meaningful fashion. Shifting in place is fine, moving 5 yards for a better view ends the Charm.
2: ISS will end if you Join Battle
Strictly speaking, the Ambush Establish Stealth Check is neither of those things, so using ISS and starting an ambush, you generate the Stealth roll versus their awareness- but because ISS makes it so they can't make the roll to perceive you, you automatically succeed on the ambush check.
Yes, this means that you can spend 5 motes, lie in wait, and get a free unrolled Unexpected Attack. I didn't realize this until I wrote this Essay.
Vanishing from Mind's Eye Method
Stealth 5, Essence 3
Here we have another Mental Stealth Charm, and it costs 10m+1wp with an Indefinite Commitment. You activate it and roll [Wits or Manipulation+Stealth] + Essence automatic successes… And then you wait.
You wait, because this charm is designed to retroactively apply stealth. It does this by manipulating memories!
The first time in a day another character tries to remember a Solar who used this Charm, they immediately roll [Wits+Lore] at a difficulty equal to the results on the Solar's Stealth Roll. If they pass, they remember the Solar exactly as if nothing changed.
If they fail the roll (which considering the amount of dice a Solar can apply to this is likely), the doesn't remember the Solar or anything that Solar did. Instead they replace the Solar with something likely, or just wave it off as an unremarkable person lost in their memory.
Now what this means, is that if you say, stole the Scarlet Throne. And people saw you do it. Obviously if you went back to the Imperial City and tried to head back into the palace, you'd get stopped and attacked because everyone recognizes you the thief!
So what this charm does, is that you activate it, and until you turn it off, people will try to remember you. If they can't, they will treat you as if it's the first time they've ever encountered you.
Oh yeah, by the by? No keywords again. Well, Combo-OK, but that's it.
Now I should stress, that this applies only while the charm is active. It's basically ensuring that when people interact with you, they're being denied access to memory of you, not having it erased. As a related effect, they will also still remember anything you do during the use of this Charm…
So if you abduct Regent Fokuf the day after stealing the Throne, you can come back on the third day, reapply Vanishing from Mind's Eye Method and now people again act if you hadn't stolen a national treasure or kidnaped a head of state.
So, Borgstromantic Progression: Solar Stealth is about manipulating the human concepts and aspects of concealment. Can you pick me out of a bunch of other people? Can you act upon my presence? Can you remember my actions?
Solar Stealth isn't about being a sneaky ninja, but about controlling the terms of how , when and where people see you.
Also there aren't any more corebook Solar Stealth Charms, unless you count Stealth Essence Flow at Essence 4.
A note about Solar Progression
As mentioned in some of my other essays, Solar progression of effect along Abilities and Essence is… Not obvious to most people initially. Essence isn't supposed to be efficiency, it's supposed to be scope. Many players are trained by other games to accept that Later means Better or More Of Same, instead of Progressive or Iterative.
Solar Charms especially, but even other Exalted, follow a sort of logical progression.
Add Dice/Successes
Operate on Results (Multipliers, etc)
Assure Automatic Success
Render Applicable/Inapplicable
And so on.
I suppose what I'm saying, is that Charms have a Tall/Wide axis, which is actually very reasonable, but one of the most common pitfalls is believing the 'Tall' means 'More Roll Manipulation', instead of increasing Applicability.
Solar Stealth makes Stealth applicable to memory, for example, at Essence 3! Maybe an Essence 4 Stealth charm makes it possible for you to apply stealth to your Business Actions? (That'd be a Bureaucracy Charm I bet but you get what i mean).
Next Week: Eclipse Castes, Solar Bureaucracy, and what Bureaucracy?
Ahh… to be the sneaky thief, to be the guy who can infiltrate the guarded fortress, evading all the guards. To be the ninja, efficient and ruthless. Perhaps one is the secret agent, mingling with the crowd?
None of these are Solars, and yet all of them are.
To be a Solar is to let yourself step into a given archetype known across human mythology and fiction- you can in fact be a ninja-solar, but I have seen people suffer for it, simply because they tried for too much Ninja.
Invisibility is a -2 External Penalty on rolls made against the invisible target, or, in some situations +2 automatic successes to Stealth Action taken by the invisible actor. Further, invisible characters do not need to stunt in order to establish surprise. That is the mechanical definition of Invisibility in Exalted 2e.
Invisibility is for Dragonblooded.*
Solars approach Stealth from the opposite, almost conceptual direction, which I'll go into more further down. *Dragnonblooded technically don't even get invisibility, they iirc get a charm that lets them move where people aren't looking, and a noise-maker effect as a distraction.
Borgstromancy, at it's core, is the idea of equating fluff text with mechanical text- of making them similar in value and information. It is also the idea of injecting meaning and methodology into the text and subtext of a setting element or Charm mechanic. Of informing how you play with how the mechanics and setting read.
Like with Solar Larceny, Solar Stealth is thoroughly Borgstromantic.
A Brief Introduction to Solar Stealth
You can't see me. That's Solar Stealth. It's not "I make it so you cannot see me." or "I hide in the shadows." It's "I prevent you from acknowledging I'm here." Among other things.
More seriously, one of the sub themes of the Solar Exalted is that they have some of the most powerful Unnatural Mental Influence Effects in the game, extending outside of the normal Social Combat powers and into other areas like say Stealth.
Part of the point of these Essays is to share and describe the character of the Solar Exalted and experience. Solar Stealth isn't about trope and archetype Stealth- there are non ninja charms, just the same as there are hide-in-forest fantasy ranger charms. At least not in Stealth.
What this means is that trying to evoke 'trope' effects in the Solar Charmset tend to fall flat, because for all of it's subtlety or blatancy, Solars already have their own tropes, their own Aesthetic. You can be a Solar Ninja, sure, but you'll have a real hard time being a pop-culture ninja with Solar Charms.
Stealth the Ability
This ability governs, obviously, the actions and practices of being undetected. It doesn't do much else, and is a very niche and active ability. It's mechanics could be summarized in maybe a page with a couple of riders and notable penalties.
It's primary utility is in of course, taking stealth actions. As long as you're not in combat, this is pretty awesome!
The basic flow is this: You take a stealth action. If you do it where other people can see you, they get to reflexively roll wits+aware+2d to spot you hiding and likely sound the alarm/take action against you. Note that anyone who does fail still can't target you, but they can be alerted. I'm pretty sure that until you get attacked or someone takes a misc action to point you out, you can't be targeted either, so 'Alerting' is still a two-step process.
Also in the above situation, if a stealth roll is beaten, the observers can initiate Join Battle.
But if you stealth first, enter a scene, and so on, nobody will automatically roll to notice you- you'll basically be 'Stealthed' until the storyteller decides there's cause for an Awareness Check. Usually based on how well you accomplished an Athletics or Larceny roll, perhaps. The point is, if you're stealthed and not messing with anything, people will probably not actively notice you.
If people Are actively looking for you (thing MGS alert), that's a Miscellaneous [Perception+Awareness] roll on their part against the results of your [Dexterity+Stealth] roll. Note that they don't get the +2d here.
Anyway- let's assume the stealthed character succeeds at avoiding detection- as detailed in the Join Battle analysis, you can immediately attack and be the first character to roll Join Battle, and you will act on tick 0. Your Join Battle result becomes the Reaction Count everyone else rolls against to find their starting tick as well.
So, Unexpected Attacks, Hiding from Sentries and a couple other niche effects- that's Stealth the Ability.
Solar Stealth Charms
Easily-Overlooked Presence Method
Stealth 3, Essence 1
One of these things is not like the others…
The introductory Charm to Solar Stealth, EOPM is yet again a testament to Borgstromancy. For 3 motes, the Solar may force observers attention to slide away from him, to be unable to pick him out in the crowd.
Mechanically, this is represented by declaring Investigation and Awareness rolls against the Solar to automatically fail unless the Solar is Joined in Battle or the observer has a minimum of 2 dice in circumstance (not stunt!) bonuses from the Solar's condition or environment.
Now Circumstance Bonuses are to my knowledge described in the core rules- they have been injected by this Charm for the Storyteller's benefit. A circumstance bonus is basically anything the Observer can't control about the situation (such as via direct stunting).
The Charm text itself describes a +1d bonus like someone being obviously foreign in a monocultural city (Red hair in a sea of blondes, for example). A +3 bonus is like 'The solar is covered in blood, wearing full armor, in the middle of a high class party'. The reason it doesn't allow stunts, is because stunting allows minor dramatic editing of the scene- and stunting in mechanical weaknesses into another character usually is a bad precedent.
What this charm says about the Solars is that as long as you take a moment to pay attention to your surroundings, you can easily blend into the vast majority of the world. A little makeup (or Flawless Disguise Technique) solves the 'are you foreign' problem for example. It's frighteningly subtle, but the Solar has the advantage here of being able to look for places they can blend in, preventing people from finding them.
Also note, like with Solar Larceny-this charm has no keywords. It's not meant to fall into the Stealth/Awareness arms race. Sorcerer's Sight amusingly would help, if the Solar happens to be Essence 4+ in a crowd of mortals. An Essence 4+ Solar in a crowd of other such beings though, they'd be hidden again!
Now how do you beat this Charm? By degrees of separation. You might not be able to spot the Solar, but if you know he's in the area, you can smoke him out by denying him places to blend in. As long as they have nowhere to blend into, they won't be able to hide.
Mental Invisibility Technique
Stealth 4, Essence 2
IGNORE ME!
The successor to EOPM, Mental invisibility Technique is the psychic Stealth charm. The Solar rolls [Manipulation+Stealth] adding Essence automatic successes to the roll. This is because Dodge MDVs are by their nature higher than normal, so it offsets that difficulty.
For the remainder of the scene, any character with a DMDV lower than the successes earned on the stealth roll falls under a Compulsion Effect to ignore the Solar's Presence. There is a big blaring magical siren going IGNORE ME! in the observers minds. This only works if the Solar isn't Joined in Battle.
Now, Creation is a setting where this kind of thing actually probably happens quite a lot- petty gods throwing their weight around, Dragonblooded, etc. Solars get the most explicit Ignore Me Magic, but the feeling this charm creates, what people internalize when it grabs hold of them, isn't 'My Mind is being messed with', but 'I am getting the feeling I really shouldn't look at that. It's somebody else's problem, I don't want any trouble. I don't want to look at the monster under my bed'
And, as I've gone over at length regarding Unnatural Mental Influence, the conditions for someone to spend the 4wp to resist this compulsion are not commonplace.
If someone calls attention to the Solar (by spending 4wp, a compulsion defense, or a high enough DMDV, etc), the cost to resist this effect drops to 1wp!
So how does this actually work? The Solar isn't gone, and people are still aware of their existence- they won't acknowledge it. It won't come up. They'll aggressively look anywhere but the Solar, but the Solar isn't actually invisible. The crux of this charm is that it prevents would-be observers from taking action even after seeing the Solar.
"I don't want to get involved." or "I the Solar am so far above your concerns that you need not raise your head."
Mental Invisibility Technique is what you use to walk through the Lobby in the Matrix without being stopped. The guards won't look up from their newspapers, or even comment as you walk past the metal detectors.
In combination with EOPM, it works like this: As long as you're blending it, people can't roll to find you, and if they could, Mental Invisibility will make them do nothing after having spotted you.
So what's the Borgstromancy? Solar Stealth at the core isn't about being a ninja, it's about not being seen. It's about telling people that they can't look at you, can't see you. None of Solar Stealth cares about sneaking around in the shadows, of crawling through vents or windows. It's about removing these concerns until all that's left are the actors who can perceive you, and your attempt to prevent that from happening.
Shadows are used to hide, but you don't need shadows to not be seen.
Invisible Statue Spirit
Stealth 3, Essence 2
Building off of EOPM, this charm costs 5 motes and has an indefinite commitment- you turn it on and can leave it on as long as you want, or it's failure condition triggers.
This is, if you don't mind me saying, Glorious Solar Tanuki Suit.
The way it works is this: You spend your motes, and hold still. You aren't supposed to take Move/Dash/Jump Actions or their dramatic equivalents As long as you're holding still, the charm renders all Non-Touch Actions inapplicable against the Solar. You aren't just Invisible, you are Un-Whatever-able. If it needs to target you, it cannot apply.
Now obviously area-effect actions will still work, but that's a side note. If you do end up moving or Joining Battle while the charm is active, it ends instantly .If someone touches you, you have 5 seconds of this perfect un-whatever-ability before the charm ends.
ISS has no keywords either. Sensing that pattern again?
Storytellers and Players! The main weakness of this charm, is that it requires the player and storyteller pay attention to where the character is in the scene when they activate it, and what's going on in the scene! if you're forced to go Statuemode in the middle of a busy street, someone is probably going to bump into you!
The trick with this charm, is that it's meant to be the perfect 'Lie in Wait' charm.You find a place where you won't be disturbed,and then you just sit down, waiting, watching. You can observe all the guard changes in peace, mosquitos won't pick on you, you can listen in on all the espionage secrets you want, the list goes on.
As far as Ambushes (surprise attacks before Join Battle), that's a bit tougher. This depends on your interpretation of the rules and timing, so I'll lay out the exact terms and let your tables make their own decisions:
1: ISS will end if you Move (Action) in any meaningful fashion. Shifting in place is fine, moving 5 yards for a better view ends the Charm.
2: ISS will end if you Join Battle
Strictly speaking, the Ambush Establish Stealth Check is neither of those things, so using ISS and starting an ambush, you generate the Stealth roll versus their awareness- but because ISS makes it so they can't make the roll to perceive you, you automatically succeed on the ambush check.
Yes, this means that you can spend 5 motes, lie in wait, and get a free unrolled Unexpected Attack. I didn't realize this until I wrote this Essay.
Vanishing from Mind's Eye Method
Stealth 5, Essence 3
Here we have another Mental Stealth Charm, and it costs 10m+1wp with an Indefinite Commitment. You activate it and roll [Wits or Manipulation+Stealth] + Essence automatic successes… And then you wait.
You wait, because this charm is designed to retroactively apply stealth. It does this by manipulating memories!
The first time in a day another character tries to remember a Solar who used this Charm, they immediately roll [Wits+Lore] at a difficulty equal to the results on the Solar's Stealth Roll. If they pass, they remember the Solar exactly as if nothing changed.
If they fail the roll (which considering the amount of dice a Solar can apply to this is likely), the doesn't remember the Solar or anything that Solar did. Instead they replace the Solar with something likely, or just wave it off as an unremarkable person lost in their memory.
Now what this means, is that if you say, stole the Scarlet Throne. And people saw you do it. Obviously if you went back to the Imperial City and tried to head back into the palace, you'd get stopped and attacked because everyone recognizes you the thief!
So what this charm does, is that you activate it, and until you turn it off, people will try to remember you. If they can't, they will treat you as if it's the first time they've ever encountered you.
Oh yeah, by the by? No keywords again. Well, Combo-OK, but that's it.
Now I should stress, that this applies only while the charm is active. It's basically ensuring that when people interact with you, they're being denied access to memory of you, not having it erased. As a related effect, they will also still remember anything you do during the use of this Charm…
So if you abduct Regent Fokuf the day after stealing the Throne, you can come back on the third day, reapply Vanishing from Mind's Eye Method and now people again act if you hadn't stolen a national treasure or kidnaped a head of state.
So, Borgstromantic Progression: Solar Stealth is about manipulating the human concepts and aspects of concealment. Can you pick me out of a bunch of other people? Can you act upon my presence? Can you remember my actions?
Solar Stealth isn't about being a sneaky ninja, but about controlling the terms of how , when and where people see you.
Also there aren't any more corebook Solar Stealth Charms, unless you count Stealth Essence Flow at Essence 4.
A note about Solar Progression
As mentioned in some of my other essays, Solar progression of effect along Abilities and Essence is… Not obvious to most people initially. Essence isn't supposed to be efficiency, it's supposed to be scope. Many players are trained by other games to accept that Later means Better or More Of Same, instead of Progressive or Iterative.
Solar Charms especially, but even other Exalted, follow a sort of logical progression.
Add Dice/Successes
Operate on Results (Multipliers, etc)
Assure Automatic Success
Render Applicable/Inapplicable
And so on.
I suppose what I'm saying, is that Charms have a Tall/Wide axis, which is actually very reasonable, but one of the most common pitfalls is believing the 'Tall' means 'More Roll Manipulation', instead of increasing Applicability.
Solar Stealth makes Stealth applicable to memory, for example, at Essence 3! Maybe an Essence 4 Stealth charm makes it possible for you to apply stealth to your Business Actions? (That'd be a Bureaucracy Charm I bet but you get what i mean).
Next Week: Eclipse Castes, Solar Bureaucracy, and what Bureaucracy?
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, mostly wrong. She did beat up a couple. But other than that it was very peaceful!
So, Kerisgame update! In which Keris pretends to be pureblood Lintha Azula, hilariously fails a stealth roll and gets herself a fleet of demonic cannibal pirate sea people as allies!
Also in which we trial the new mote reactor hack, which makes Keris much keener to pop her anima out to get those delicious yummy mote-regen incentives. And also intimidate people into shutting up and doing what she says.
To expand on the logic behind these alterations, as it stands animas are terrible for being power auras. What an anima tells you is that your opponent is tiring, running out of motes and having to move into their peripheral motes, and that now you've got them on the ropes since they can't run from you.
This hack is intended for two things. Firstly, it disassociates essence and wp regen from the metagame considerations of stunting. You stunt because you want dice (ps you always want dice) and because your stunts justify why you can apply your Styles (ps you always want to apply your styles, unless you deliberately want to stop people recognising your Style). Instead, it associates it with the risk-reward mechanics of anima levels. An Exalt who refuses to go to Level 1 is getting no combat-time regen. This is a big deal. They only have their essence pool, which is all Personal now, to take them through a fight if they want to be sneaky and leave witnesses alive. Why, yes, it goes encourage you to flare to Level 1 if you know you don't plan to leave witnesses. It means that stealth Exalts have to consider what they're doing and husband their resources much more.
And secondly, it changes the meaning of an anima banner showing up. It's not that the Exalt is getting desperate, or at least not directly. It means they have gotten serious - possibly because you just pushed them hard, but the anima banner showing up means that they've suddenly become a much larger threat. And even a level 1 anima banner, the caste mark showing up, means the Exalt has just turned up the mote reactor attached to their souls and their metaphysical stamina has just become effectively unlimited. An anima banner means that the Exalt has just gone super-saiyan and entered total bullshit mode, especially if they're at level 2 or higher because a few other things in Creation can get Level 1 animas, but Level 2 animas (which come with a willpower drip) are basically an Exalt exclusive.
It seems to me that a similar thought may have been behind 3e including some Charms that could only be used at a certain level of anima.
Is the mechanics behind the mote reactor hack linked somewhere? It's entirely possible I missed it.
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
((New hack introduced; "Mote Reactor Exaltations". All Essence is Personal, and stunts no longer regenerate motes. Instead, Exalts get two automatic stunt rewards per action whenever their anima is flaring - 1-dot (4m/action) at the caste-mark level, 2-dot (8m/action) at the aura level and 3-dot (12m/action). Characters can freely choose whether to take motes or wp as their automatic rewards.))
There you go, it was in @Aleph's document.
Ah, I see. Thanks.
Er. 3-dot rewards when?
Er. 3-dot rewards when?
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
Wait, am I unusual in that I frequently burn my peripheral pool first?
Getting my anima power active is useful. I've had my aura up in all but 3 fights in the campaign so far (the first was too short, the second was over before I engaged, the third was a challenge to myself in a relatively safe battle). That's out of... 9 fights, I think? Yeah, 9 fights sounds right. Three of which were easy OHKOs (and I still managed to have my anima totemic in one of those).
I suspect totemic.
Though the quote @greensun provided doesn't say anything about how to activate your anima.
If you're talking about the same game I was in, almost all of those fights occured in the wildnerness, where using one's anima does not result in long term problems, and against people who either already knew we were solars or against who this fact wouldn't be a problem. That isn't an assumption that you can rely on.
You can always chose to have personal motes count towards Anima use.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ooops. Yeah, 3-dot when totemic (edit-fixed in the doc). Activating your anima is a choice, you can do it whenever you want instantly to any level. If Keris chooses to, she can kick her keter-soul into high gear and explode totemic in a single action. But that then means that it takes you three scenes to cool back down again, so it commits you to finishing the fight/interaction/whatever, since you can't run away while there's a giant ocean-whirlwind of scarlet light surrounding you.
And flaring - unless you kill all the witnesses - tells everyone that there's an Exalt in the area, which is a) the sort of thing that gets Wyld Hunts dispatched when the nearest Realm garrison catches on and b) is rather awkward if you're trying to maintain a cover of being a Tengese merchant or something.
Interesting idea. This certainly seems like it would both allow for much longer lasting battles at the lower levels and increase the power of beginning exalts. How does this new system interact with the (Yozi) Mythos Exultant charms? Is their going to be a distinction between Terrestrial and Celestial "Mote Reactors"?
Mythos Exultant are mote rewards, so slot in nicely. The only one which doesn't work is TED's one, but I don't really care about TED's one. I'll just give him a new one if it ever comes up (Sasi uses Cece's excellency).
Terrestrials and Celestials use exactly the same regen rates. This system replaces the stunting mote economy.
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
Candles is not a subtle person.
I think she's going to have another Wyld Hunt targeting her soon (once word gets from Greyfalls to parts of the Immaculate Order that can bring force to bear, and they realize she has a new face, that is).
That's what I suspected.
You can, it's just significantly harder, since your lightshow is visible from several miles away.
The solution is to be faster and have enough endurance that you either get a lead of several miles (or get somewhere your anima isn't visible from several miles away) or they can't pursue any longer.
Dynamesmouse
Bzzzzzz
Question about the mote reactors. Does this mean that Exalted can basically restore their willpower and mote pools by flaring their anima to the aura level and just waiting a few minutes?
As a Scourge Kerris is extremely well suited to runing away and keep up her running.
Not with the normal rules, but Aleph and Earthscorpion's rule hacks seem to allow it, yes.
Not with the normal rules, but Aleph and Earthscorpion's rule hacks seem to allow it, yes.
Yes. And then they're a glowing beacon for the rest of the scene, and obviously an Exalt for the scene after that.
This is actually potentially more troublesome and a more meaningful limitation than the canon situation, where the canon mote respiration and willpower recovery rates are only meaningful in enforced downtime. If you're given screentime, you're simply earning motes or willpower per action. Literally, I can reliably get back 1wp for how I stunt getting out of bed, seeing the weather outside through my window and setting the scene, (unrolled actions are still actions), which is the same return a Conviction 2 person would expect for the 8 hours of sleep which preceded it.
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Dynamesmouse
Bzzzzzz
I was actually thinking of Sasi. She has Cecelyne's Excellency, and I presume she has Verdant Emptiness Endowment. Since you can regain 12 motes and 2 willpower with Cecelyne Mythos Exultant, you could just spam VEE on everyone in the scene. Just walk into the village and ask people for their wishes and them BAM, everyone is a cultist (and owes Sasi a favor or five).
Then there's Dragonblooded on the Blessed Isle. I could just see a bureaucracy focused Dynast sitting on a miniature ziggurat with a throne on top going full iconic, shouting orders to all the mortals below her.
Then there's Dragonblooded on the Blessed Isle. I could just see a bureaucracy focused Dynast sitting on a miniature ziggurat with a throne on top going full iconic, shouting orders to all the mortals below her.
Bursting Eagerness Soul
Threadwalking Rating Machine
- Location
- Wisconsin
@Aleph and @EarthScorpion I really enjoy the idea of anima flare giving you more power and I'm wondering, how would you adapt that to the 3E rules as they stand now?
Would it make sense to leave 0-level anima as 5 motes per turn and just crank that up as you unfurl your anima further? Or would you want to add the willpower drip in too?
It could look something like this:
0-level: 5m
1-level: 8-10m (just estimating numbers from here on out)
2-level: 10-15m or 8-10m + 1wp
3-level: 15-20 or 10-15m + 1wp or 8-10m + 2wp
Would it make sense to leave 0-level anima as 5 motes per turn and just crank that up as you unfurl your anima further? Or would you want to add the willpower drip in too?
It could look something like this:
0-level: 5m
1-level: 8-10m (just estimating numbers from here on out)
2-level: 10-15m or 8-10m + 1wp
3-level: 15-20 or 10-15m + 1wp or 8-10m + 2wp