Yeah, how would he know that? I mean they only have a small presence in the core book leak, not nearly enough to say anything about there overall charm set.
I'm talking about the antagonist section. Sorry if I was a bit too vague on the wording there. The other exalted antagonist have charms for more than just combat or you can mix and match them from other versions of them (I.e Barbarian Warlord and Shapeshifting Trickster) and I dunno, the fact that the Liminal(and after rereading it Abyssals too*) only has ones for combat just.. irks me for some reason.
I'm talking about the antagonist section. Sorry if I was a bit too vague on the wording there. The other exalted antagonist have charms for more than just combat or you can mix and match them from other versions of them (I.e Barbarian Warlord and Shapeshifting Trickster) and I dunno, the fact that the Liminal(and after rereading it Abyssals too*) only has ones for combat just.. irks me for some reason.
Abyssals already have a zombie charm. Also it's less mid-combat Frankensteining and more mid-combat Necromorphing, and really fighting someone who looks like a Resident Evil Disney Princess is much cooler.
After looking up what Necromorphs are, I think it might be easier to word it so the charm creates an [x], which has the traits of a wolf, dog, bear, whatever, plus other "Oh god that thing should not be" gimmicks. Maybe have a few different monster options you can buy with repurchases of the charm. That way you know if you use the charm to create a Slasher it functions as a bear-alike, if you create a Stalker it's a wolf-alike, etc. Would cut down on looking up traits each time and haggling with the ST over what makes sense on a case-by-case basis.
So after a full night's sleep(/actually checking the help pages) it seems the problem was fixed by simply clicking on the white box and clicking delete. It truly is the future. This should work.
Can you make the history box taller? Without editing privileges, I can't scroll the box, so I can't read the first part without copying and pasting the text into a text editor.
Edit: Also, your charms list is very hard to read; you should really summarize the charm description instead of putting the whole text in there. Heaven Thunder Hammer doesn't even fit on my screen at that width!
And are you even capable of using Trance of Fugue Vision? You need to have 10 motes committed to scene-length charms before you can use it, remember.
And what does a specialty in Survival: Turtling mean?
Oh, and I had a look at the Pestletail - I think two dots in familiar is plenty. Simhata are much faster and more formidable, and they're listed as two-dot familiars.
Also, your charms list is very hard to read; you should really summarize the charm description instead of putting the whole text in there. Heaven Thunder Hammer doesn't even fit on my screen at that width!
I was at a loss for which Supernal to take, and then I remembered Serafina pointing out that Performance allowed you to regen motes faster if you used ToFV to social people in battle, and I thought that sounded like a fun trick to build a character around. The motes committed comes from Harmonious Presence Meditation and the Silver-Voiced Form charm (5+8), but since that hoovers up all the personal essence she'll only use it when she wants to really bring the fear of Sol into her enemies.
To train animals you need a Survival specialty in Animal Husbandry and another in a relevant animal training method. I know you need falconry to train birds, but I don't know what the formal equivalent is for giant turtles, so I went with Turtling.
Oh, and I had a look at the Pestletail - I think two dots in familiar is plenty. Simhata are much faster and more formidable, and they're listed as two-dot familiars.
I originally had it at two dots, and then I finished with an extra dot of merits. I had originally thought two dots was stretching (thinking that a two ton armored car might be closer to a tyrant lizard than a horse). I guess it's ST's choice, but I reasoned that if a pestletail was a baseline two dot, I could use the extra dot to say that he was smarter than the average turtle (spirit blooded, maybe?) and/or that his latent abilities are already unlocked.
To train animals you need a Survival specialty in Animal Husbandry and another in a relevant animal training method. I know you need falconry to train birds, but I don't know what the formal equivalent is for giant turtles, so I went with Turtling.
Something that confuses me about a Lunar Charm spoiled in the Corebook leak. "Spine-Breaking Technique".
The Charm allows the Lunar to perform a decisive savaging attack without resetting to base Initiative. Very, very useful, but... what about this effect is "Lunar"? What is the particular reason that Solar Brawl doesn't offer such a trick?
More importantly, it doesn't actually feel like a spine-breaking attack. For such a name, I would expect a Charm that increases the damage you inflict with a decisive savaging attack, and/or inflicts a crippling injury upon the victim. You know, something that assures THIS attack will break the victim's spine, as opposed to giving me a second opportunity to do so if I fail the first time.
But the given effect is actually pretty cautious in nature. By allowing you to keep your full Initiative total, you have protection against the victim's potential allies hitting you and putting you into Initiative Crash (which would also instantly end your clinch).
Of course, you could also follow the decisive attack up with a second decisive savaging attack on your next turn... but I would sooner expect the name "Spine-Breaking Technique" to apply to a Charm meant specifically to enhance such a follow-up attack. For this more conversative effect which makes such a follow-up possible, I would expect a name like "Mighty Bear Crush" or "Jaws of the River Dragon".
I know this isn't set in stone, and I agree that it's not worth worrying about, but does anyone else feel the same?
Define what makes an effect a Lunar Charm. The problem is that no one seems to really know what a Lunar Charm should be like, to differentiate it from Solar Charms. People have spent the last 13 years arguing about what a Lunar Exalted is, and what it should be, when not even the Devs have an answer. Needless to say, this has lead to a large number of people arguing about what they are, and getting very firmly set in their positions, and refined into glittering gems of hatred.
Granted, 3e seems to be going to define the Lunars as Werewolf-Hulk, so there is that.
Something that confuses me about a Lunar Charm spoiled in the Corebook leak. "Spine-Breaking Technique".
Of course, you could also follow the decisive attack up with a second decisive savaging attack on your next turn... but I would sooner expect the name "Spine-Breaking Technique" to apply to a Charm meant specifically to enhance such a follow-up attack. For this more conversative effect which makes such a follow-up possible, I would expect a name like "Mighty Bear Crush" or "Jaws of the River Dragon".
I know this isn't set in stone, and I agree that it's not worth worrying about, but does anyone else feel the same?
I think it might be evoking the whole lunar savagry thing where you snap somebody in half and it doesn't even slow you down. Like they're a toothpick. It's not just the Lunars though, it's them and DBs that are the most common targets of "why the balls isn't this a Solar charm?"
More importantly, it doesn't actually feel like a spine-breaking attack. For such a name, I would expect a Charm that increases the damage you inflict with a decisive savaging attack, and/or inflicts a crippling injury upon the victim. You know, something that assures THIS attack will break the victim's spine, as opposed to giving me a second opportunity to do so if I fail the first time.
I don't know what to tell you about the Lunarosity-quotient of the Charm, but as far as the name goes I think you might be bringing your own baggage to it. Which is understandable, seeing as it has no fluff, although I think you're expecting something far more literal from a game where a Charm called Cancel The Apocalypse doesn't actually have anything to do with stopping world ending calamities.
If it helps, when I first read the name I figured it be something where the Lunar cracks her grappled foe's spine taking most of the life out of him, then finished him off with her next (full) attack.
I think you're expecting something far more literal from a game where a Charm called Cancel The Apocalypse doesn't actually have anything to do with stopping world ending calamities.
3rd Ed Cancel the Apocalypse now at least CANCELS something, by letting a Solar Brawler deactivate a Charm or effect, which could weaken an apocalyptic threat enough to stop it.
By contrast, Spine-Breaking Technique sounds like it should be extremely lethal if not automatically crippling, yet it can be used to inflict Bashing-type damage without any crippling effect at all. Again, the printed effect is more suited to a name like Mighty Bear Crush (which was an actual Charm in First Edition).
So, it occurs to me that one of the bigger complaints out of Exalted 3rd Edition was 'I have no idea what these modifiers do to dice pools'. So lets go over that.
These are mostly going to focus on average number of successes, since around the 10 dice level failure starts becomes statistically improbable to the point it might as well not exist (though not impossible: I have rolled 2 successes on 18 dice. The RNG really hated me that day) and even below that your going to get at least one success most of the time unless you are literally rolling only one die.
For simplicities sake, I'm going to keep most of the math spoilered, and most of the stuff will be simplified down: these are meant for being able to make a quick glance at a pool and know what roughly to expect, not to be accurate to two significant figures.
Alright, the basic math for average number of successes in Exalted is add the number of successes a given face of the ten sided dice gives to the number of successes that all the other sides of the dice give, divided by the number of faces. So 7, 8, and 9 give 1 success each, so add all three together for a total of 3, and then 10 gives 2, so add that in for a total of 5. Divide by 10 because this is a ten sided dice. Tends to look like:
([1+1+1+2]/10)*Dice pool = Average Successes
Most long term Exalted/White Wolf fans who care about probability are already familiar with it, its nothing new.
Doubles
Doubles are one of the more persistent introductions to 3e, so far as dice mechanics go. Basically, if you see the term double x, double everything after that number for successes. Double 9s mean 9s and 10s are doubled, Double 8s 8s, 9s and 10s, etc. Double 10s applies to all rolls but Decisive damage by default, so its not used much as a term. Watch out for it on Decisive-only charms though.
Math wise, it takes one of the 1s from the basic equation ([1+1+1+2]/10) that represent the successes on the 9s or 8s, and makes it a 2. Ergo, calculation now looks like 1+1+2+2= 6/10, for 60% of a given pool turning up successes on double 9s.
Generally speaking, these increase the number of successes you roll, not how likely you are to roll a success in the first place. Ergo, they're not so great on smaller pools where there is a significant question of if your going to succeed on a given roll. On larger pools, where the question isn't so much if you will succeed but by how much, these can increase the amount of successes you have significantly.
Rules of Thumb
Double 9s: 60%
Double 8s: 70%
Double 7s: 80%
Re-roll till a Number Fails to Appear
Another fairly common effect in 3e, at least Solars. Its actually pretty rare outside of them, though this may just be a side effect of other books not being written yet. I have my own theory, but I'll wait till I'm done with all the mechanics to explain that.
What happens probability wise is that rerolling till a number no longer appears effectively reduces your dice by a face: rerolling dice till 6s no longer appears is effectively rolling a d9. Ergo, for the probability calculations you no longer divide by 10, but by 9: ([1+1+1+2]/9). If you are rerolling out two numbers, it would be ([1+1+1+2]/8).
These tend to be better for smaller pools, as they do increase your chances of rolling a success in the first place as opposed to amplifying successes like Doubles. It also nets you less successes on average then an equivalent Doubles level, so watch out.
A note on the Rules of Thumb here: one or two number rolled out of a roll are fairly common, but three is outright rare to the point that I'm not sure where it happens. Four, I'm pretty sure does not happen, but included for completeness sake. Anything more is right out. (And before anyone mentions it, Fate-Shifting Solar Arte is getting its own section, because it is weird.)
Rules of Thumb
One Number: 55% (Actually 55.5%)
Two Numbers: 60% (Actually 62.5%)
Three Numbers: 70% (Actually 71.4%)
Four Numbers: 80% (Actually 83.3%)
Exploding Dice (Rerolling Successes)
There are few varieties here: some are capped by how many dice you rolled (rerolling failures) others are not. Averages wise, we don't care to much. Basically all of these trigger off 10s, which simplifies thing a fair bit, thankfully.
These are a bit more complicated then the others. They trigger off 10s, causing another dice to be rolled. Therefore, from a probabilities calculation stand point, you re-add the calculation for averages to the number of successes for a ten. For example: ([1+1+1+{2+([1+1+1+2]/10})/10. You could hypothetically nest that again, like so ([1+1+1+{2+([1+1+1+{2+([1+1+1+2]/10}]/10})/10, all the way to infinity, but given this is about rules of thumb and not accuracy, I feel safe in nesting it once and saying anything beyond that is basically adding decimals you don't need.
Rules of Thumb
For those that really don't care about math to much, take your modifier (50% or whatever), divide it by 10, and add it back to the modifier. Ergo, a standard roll where you generally get 50% of your roll will probably give you 55% of your roll. This one is simple enough that its not really worth listing out all the permutations.
Combining Stuff
Or where things get complicated. Generally speaking, there isn't to much high level combinations: your not generally rerolling two numbers while on Double 7s and the dice are exploding. Unless you are using Craft, which I covered before and separately for a reason.
If you have the basic grasp of how the prior stuff works, this isn't to complex. If your for example combining Double 9s with one number rerolled till gone, then the formula is as for double 9s (1+1+2+2) divided by the altered dice (9). All together: (1+1+2+2)/9=0.66666666666... rounded to 67%, or 2/3s of your roll. If you want to factor in exploding dice, 67/10 = 6.7+67 = 73.7, rounded to 74%.
But for those that just want rules of thumb, have no fear, they are here:
Rules of Thumb Single Dice Rerolled
Double 9s: 67% -> 70%
Double 8s: 78% -> 80%
Double 7s: 88% -> 90%
And I'm just going to stop there, because anything more is silly and melts the dice curve. Generally speaking, your not getting better then a single rerolled die with double 9s, and Craft is the only place I know of where you can get Double 7s with two dice rerolled (and you need it, given how many successes craft demands).
Other Strangeness: TN reduction
Or as most people know it, the Sidereals favorite trick. This sets the number you need to roll to get a success to one lower then normal: 6s now give successes in addition to the usual numbers.
Add another 1 into the formula for each new number that can be counted as a success. Setting the TN to 5 would add two, for example: 1+1+1+1+1+2/10 for 70% of your roll.
Functionally this gives the improved chances of succeeding on the roll that rerolling till a number fails to appear gives, along with a similar averages curve to Doubles rules. Dirty cheating Sidereals, getting the best of both worlds.
Rules of Thumb
Target Number 6: 60%
Target Number 5: 70%
Target Number 4: 80%
Fate-Shifting Solar Arte
And then there is this guy that I need to do its own section for. Right: Fate-Shifting Solar Arte doesn't melt the dice curve so much as it renders it into slag. It works by you picking a non-success number (1, 2, 3, etc) and treating it as a 10. In short, it combines the best of Target Number reduction and the Doubles rule. And you can apply it to any action, once per day. At E4 or with Larceny Supernal, you can do it to two numbers. This costs 1wp.
As TN reduction, except with a 2 instead of a 1 for each number made a success.
Rules of Thumb
1 Number: 70%
2 Numbers: 90%
Given this can, explicitly, affect any action, you can combine it basically any of the above dice altering affects to get an average roll of more successes then you rolled. Given this also affect things like Sorcery Workings and Craft, which are meticulously internally balanced within their own ability Charmsets but do not account for this one, I feel no hesitation in saying this Charm breaks the game. Even if you limit it to 'only' reflexive or combat actions, cutting out the success building systems like Craft and Workings, its still in effect a once per day pseudo perfect effect, which 3e mostly seems to be veering away from, and the few effect like it are very expensive. Personally, I'm hoping they cut this charm, because its way to much of a 'I Win' button even with the once per day mechanics.
Reroll X Number of Failed Dice
And because I really don't want to finish on a 'this Charm is broken, avoid' note, I just want to talk about these. Probabilities wise, they're pretty simple: they use the same calculations as the main pool usually, albeit usually a bit smaller. What makes these interesting is their usually either rider effects or trigger after the roll is made. In the latter case, in certain contexts that makes them very useful indeed, especially with the number of charms that key off the number of 1s or 2s rolled: these represent an opportunity to get rid of those. It makes assessing those from a probabilistic stand point a bit tricky. Overall, context and activating the right charms/taking the right actions at the right times matter almost as much in 3e as probabilities, though the RNG laughs at both.
Ok, So What does Any of this Mean?
One of things I've noticed is people seem a bit unsure of what a given dice alteration is representing. in 2e, it was pretty straight forward: more dice meant you were better at it, and TN manipulation typically meant Fate fuckery. So what do these new and strange dice manipulations represent?
What follows is my opinions on it. I might be wrong or completely off base, but hey, best way to figure that out is to let other people look at those assumptions.
Doubles: Doubles amplify prowess. They don't give you a better chance at succeeding, but they make the successes you have more. Ergo, this is a kind of brute force approach: superhuman strength or speed, the blessing of a War God to strike faster and harder, inhuman intelligence connects what you know together better.
Rerolls: These make you better by making you less likely to fail. So, I tend to see these as a kind of supernatural skill: not the raw power approach of doubles, but being just that good. It fairly obvious why Solars have so many of these under this model, or why the DBs have something similar in their Excellency for their in the pinch moments.
Exploding Dice: Exploding dice are mainly well known for allowing people to, with a lot of luck, spike way higher then they would normally. So these are a sort of, 'beyond the limit' or 'boundless power' type effects. Again, with Solars its not hard to see the why its there.
Well, that went on for a bit. Hope this is useful to people.
Fate-Shifting Solar Arte
And then there is this guy that I need to do its own section for. Right: Fate-Shifting Solar Arte doesn't melt the dice curve so much as it renders it into slag. It works by you picking a non-success number (1, 2, 3, etc) and treating it as a 10. In short, it combines the best of Target Number reduction and the Doubles rule. And you can apply it to any action, once per day. At E4 or with Larceny Supernal, you can do it to two numbers. This costs 1wp.
As TN reduction, except with a 2 instead of a 1 for each number made a success.
Rules of Thumb
1 Number: 70%
2 Numbers: 90%
Given this can, explicitly, affect any action, you can combine it basically any of the above dice altering affects to get an average roll of more successes then you rolled. Given this also affect things like Sorcery Workings and Craft, which are meticulously internally balanced within their own ability Charmsets but do not account for this one, I feel no hesitation in saying this Charm breaks the game. Even if you limit it to 'only' reflexive or combat actions, cutting out the success building systems like Craft and Workings, its still in effect a once per day pseudo perfect effect, which 3e mostly seems to be veering away from, and the few effect like it are very expensive. Personally, I'm hoping they cut this charm, because its way to much of a 'I Win' button even with the once per day mechanics.
Wow. That's...ouch. Maybe if it was count as a 10 in place of 10's, after the roll(and possibly not counting explosive dice)? Still powerful, but that would seem to make is less eye-searingly bad.
Thought it sounds more like a Sidereal charm in either case.
The whole 'counts number as double' sounds far too sideral for me to be honest. Getting extra successes or just doubling/tripling success sounds simpler.
Dragon-Blooded are about trained excellence without the transcendent power of the Solar Exalted, so they might have... Ah, yup. Let me just quote the leak:
The Dragon-Blooded can use their Essence to fortify their mortal skills much as the Solar Exalted can (p. XX). While the heights of prowess they can attain are not as high, they can seize triumph from the jaws of defeat with great exertion of will. The maximum number of dice they can add to a roll is equal to the Ability used, +1 if they have an applicable specialty. After making a roll, the Dragon-Blood may pay a point of Willpower to reroll up to (Essence) dice that came up failures, paying one mote for each re-rolled die. Thus, an Essence 2 Dragon-Blooded with Dexterity 5, Melee 5 (Specialty: Swords) could raise his melee dice pools by up to +6 dice. After rolling, he could spend one point of Willpower and up to two motes to re-roll two failed dice.
Hmm. That's the Terrestrial Excellency, so their Charmset wouldn't need to provide rerollers. If rerolling features heavily in their Charmset, we might instead see upgrades to their Excellency -- Charms that make it cheaper and/or more powerful for particular actions or situations.
Sort of like how we see a number of Solar Charms that let Lawgivers apply a full FREE Solar Excellency to particular actions or in particular circumstances.
Holden spoke about Lunar Charms feeling very powerful, but rough and raw compared to Solar Charms. I suspect we might see a lot of Doubling effects to help capture the feel of Beastly Power without trained excellence.
The Lunar Excellency is all about increasing the raw power of an action, by allowing a stunt to add a SECOND Attribute rating to the first for the purposes of your dice-adding limit. Double the basic Attribute might without any concern for the practiced skill of an Ability rating. This provides bigger dice-pools that work best with Doubling effects, but which don't offer NEARLY the kind of safety net of the Dragon-Blooded reroller or the Sidereal TN-reducer.
Wow. That's...ouch. Maybe if it was count as a 10 in place of 10's, after the roll(and possibly not counting explosive dice)? Still powerful, but that would seem to make is less eye-searingly bad.
Thought it sounds more like a Sidereal charm in either case.
I can see where they're coming from: the rouge who make their own luck is a very Solar Larceny image. This is not the best way to model it though; something like Master Plan Meditation works better.
But yeah, this would work better for Sids, especially given their comparatively smaller dice pools.
Holden spoke about Lunar Charms feeling very powerful, but rough and raw compared to Solar Charms. I suspect we might see a lot of Doubling effects to help capture the feel of Beastly Power without trained excellence.
I know that for the Alchemicals conversion I'm working on, I'm planning on using Doubles to accomplish most dice/probability manipulations. It fits for Attribute types pretty well in general, IMHO.
I can see where they're coming from: the rouge who make their own luck is a very Solar Larceny image. This is not the best way to model it though; something like Master Plan Meditation works better.
But yeah, this would work better for Sids, especially given their comparatively smaller dice pools.
I know that for the Alchemicals conversion I'm working on, I'm planning on using Doubles to accomplish most dice/probability manipulations. It fits for Attribute types pretty well in general, IMHO.
