If I remember it right, they have the licence leased , but do not own the licence which still belongs to WW.
General Exalted Thread
Depends on how far you take it. All Celestial exalts being capable of all three tiers of sorcery probably wouldn't break it. Siddie Martial Arts are their special thing because they can't create new charms, though, so that's not really fair to the Siddies.
As for Solar Supremacy, I always thought the idea was that the Solar should be the pinnacle in her field of choice. Nobody can out-sorcery the Solar Sorcerer, but the Dragonblood warrior can probably out-fight her. Every splat has their unique pluses and minuses.
I believe that's currently the case, actually. Not sure though.
Nope, Lunars are incapable of learning them.
Sucal
The Devil’s Cut
- Location
- Bottom of the barrel
Coming soon, Exalted Fourth Edition.
We promise it won't be a disappointment this time!
Infernals likewise are unable to learn them.
The_Reptile_
Jolly Good
- Location
- THE PITS OF HELL. Also known as Connecticut.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Yeah, Paradox in general do good work. Buggy releases, but most of their stuff gets support and is great in the end.
I mean take a look at their catalogue on Steam. Cities: Skylines, Crusader Kings II, Pillars of Eternity, the Magicka series, Mount & Blade, Sword of the Stars, King Arthur - The Role-Playing Wargame, the original Majesty, the Hearts of Iron series... These people have a pretty good pedigree.
I mean take a look at their catalogue on Steam. Cities: Skylines, Crusader Kings II, Pillars of Eternity, the Magicka series, Mount & Blade, Sword of the Stars, King Arthur - The Role-Playing Wargame, the original Majesty, the Hearts of Iron series... These people have a pretty good pedigree.
Last edited:
Roadie
A plate full of blins and a cat nearby.
Paradox Interactive, not Paradox Entertainment. Two different companies.
Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
Do you know what time is it?
It is time to do double the work of two days ago, because i procastinated one day!
yaaaaaay
Now with, more athletics!(But not more correct grammar.)
Graceful crane stance: could be written better(simplyfying the charm simply telling that every athletics check succed automatically), but it isn't half bad, and explaing things competently.
Monkey Leap tecnique: could be a bit more concise, but otherwise it is quite clear.
Soaring Crane Stance: the two main effects are quite clear,(you can drop down two range bands without hurting yourself, and you can use your movement action when falling or when jumping with sufficent strenght, to float a range band forward) but there are an arbitrary specification(You need to use the charm at least once three range bands to no get hurt) and unprecised rules(you can somehow use a stunt to fall more slowly, without any guidelines on anything). Would be better without anything but the main effects.
Foe Vaulting Method: if the use of the charm is successfull, then the exalted is in the conditions to launch a suprise attack. Nothing to see here.
Lighting speed: nothing noteworthy to see here. [usesless charm tricks will be elaborated in another guide. This one is only to see badly written charms, and ones with too much GM fiat]
INcreasing strenght esercise: it is not really clear if the strenght dots granted count as charms dices. It seems not, but it really need to be clarified.
Ten Ox Meditation: nothing to see here. Written competently and explained.
Thunderbolt Attack Prana: nothing to see here. Written cometently.
Feather Foot Style: Only a little nitpick: it could make more clear that only the dash version of the charm makes one invulnerable to what he is traversing. It writes it, but it is a bit confusing at first.
Spider Foot Style: good charm, except for the use of a stunt to extende the effect. At least limits are given this time(ONly one more turn can be given with the right stunt).
Unbound eagle Approach: written competently.
Leaping Tiger attack: written competently.
Racing hare method: a bit of probelm with determinating if the solar can completely benefit of the main effect. Otherwise not too bad.
Onrush Brust Method: it is difficult to understand if the motes granted by this charm last only untill the end of the turn in which they are gained, or if the dissipates at the end of the next turn.
Arete-Driven Marathon Stride: written competently.
Armor Eating Strike: written competently.
Thunder's might: written competently.
Mountain-crossing leap tecnique: It is difficult to understand how much the solar can jump(I think they put a "or" in the place of a "and", which would solve everything easily). otheriwse not bad.
Eagle wings style: written competently.
Demon-wasting rush: written competently.
Hurrican spirit speed: written competenlty.
Godspeed Steps: written competenlty.
Power Suffusing Form tencique: written competently.
Legion Aurochs Method: written competently.
Triumph Forged God-Body: written competently.
One extra Step: written competenlty.
Bonfire Anima Wings: written competenlty.
Aegis of unstoppable force: written competently.
Living Wind approach: written competently.
Nine Aeons Threw: written competenlty.
Suprisingly, Athletics was mostly written competently. Most charms should be excised or fused together, but they are at least written competenlty.
Understood? Written Competently. Written Competently. Written Competently.
.... Written competently!
Later, Awareness.
.... Written less competently.
It is time to do double the work of two days ago, because i procastinated one day!
yaaaaaay
Now with, more athletics!(But not more correct grammar.)
Graceful crane stance: could be written better(simplyfying the charm simply telling that every athletics check succed automatically), but it isn't half bad, and explaing things competently.
Monkey Leap tecnique: could be a bit more concise, but otherwise it is quite clear.
Soaring Crane Stance: the two main effects are quite clear,(you can drop down two range bands without hurting yourself, and you can use your movement action when falling or when jumping with sufficent strenght, to float a range band forward) but there are an arbitrary specification(You need to use the charm at least once three range bands to no get hurt) and unprecised rules(you can somehow use a stunt to fall more slowly, without any guidelines on anything). Would be better without anything but the main effects.
Foe Vaulting Method: if the use of the charm is successfull, then the exalted is in the conditions to launch a suprise attack. Nothing to see here.
Lighting speed: nothing noteworthy to see here. [usesless charm tricks will be elaborated in another guide. This one is only to see badly written charms, and ones with too much GM fiat]
INcreasing strenght esercise: it is not really clear if the strenght dots granted count as charms dices. It seems not, but it really need to be clarified.
Ten Ox Meditation: nothing to see here. Written competently and explained.
Thunderbolt Attack Prana: nothing to see here. Written cometently.
Feather Foot Style: Only a little nitpick: it could make more clear that only the dash version of the charm makes one invulnerable to what he is traversing. It writes it, but it is a bit confusing at first.
Spider Foot Style: good charm, except for the use of a stunt to extende the effect. At least limits are given this time(ONly one more turn can be given with the right stunt).
Unbound eagle Approach: written competently.
Leaping Tiger attack: written competently.
Racing hare method: a bit of probelm with determinating if the solar can completely benefit of the main effect. Otherwise not too bad.
Onrush Brust Method: it is difficult to understand if the motes granted by this charm last only untill the end of the turn in which they are gained, or if the dissipates at the end of the next turn.
Arete-Driven Marathon Stride: written competently.
Armor Eating Strike: written competently.
Thunder's might: written competently.
Mountain-crossing leap tecnique: It is difficult to understand how much the solar can jump(I think they put a "or" in the place of a "and", which would solve everything easily). otheriwse not bad.
Eagle wings style: written competently.
Demon-wasting rush: written competently.
Hurrican spirit speed: written competenlty.
Godspeed Steps: written competenlty.
Power Suffusing Form tencique: written competently.
Legion Aurochs Method: written competently.
Triumph Forged God-Body: written competently.
One extra Step: written competenlty.
Bonfire Anima Wings: written competenlty.
Aegis of unstoppable force: written competently.
Living Wind approach: written competently.
Nine Aeons Threw: written competenlty.
Suprisingly, Athletics was mostly written competently. Most charms should be excised or fused together, but they are at least written competenlty.
Understood? Written Competently. Written Competently. Written Competently.
.... Written competently!
Later, Awareness.
.... Written less competently.
The_Reptile_
Jolly Good
- Location
- THE PITS OF HELL. Also known as Connecticut.
Here's the thing, I like 3e. I really do. I think you will be hard pressed to find someone who looks at 3e and can say with a straight face that overall it is not an improvement over the mess that was 2e.
But whatever goodwill I have towards the book from the first 4 Chapters comes plummeting once I get to the Charms chapter as I realize that whatever improvement they have made towards other stuff, the devs have ultimately learned nothing about the fundamental problems about why late 2e was such a mess.
But whatever goodwill I have towards the book from the first 4 Chapters comes plummeting once I get to the Charms chapter as I realize that whatever improvement they have made towards other stuff, the devs have ultimately learned nothing about the fundamental problems about why late 2e was such a mess.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
One thing I've realized looking over the charmset is that I like charms that are multi-use/broad in theme. I like charms that say "I am a X" rather then "I have trick X".
Like, some of theme are painfully focused in scope. They might be meaningful, useful, but does adding them to your character make your character feel more mythic, or does it feel like you upgraded fire to fira.
I'm not saying focused limited tricks don't have their place - but they should be awesome tricks, the kind that reminds everyone you are a walking force of nature. To stick with the metaphor, I'm a lot more sympathetic to adding Meteo to your character sheet then Fira.
Broader charms would also mean LESS charms, since each one would take up more space, and it would mean that the epic charms wouldn't stick out as being overpowered in the same way. The two big lore prophecy charms seem big (even if they're fiddly and situational) because getting them adds whole new dimentions and directions of action to your character, and they're epic actions. That those are limited is fine.
But for 'now you're a bit better at X' charms... well, take the various 'Integrity enhancing martial arts' charms. They're boring, situational, and I don't like them. Yes, they exist in a legitimate design space - the Disciplined Martial Artist that draws strength and purpose from self-reflection and mastery. If this was Samurai Champloo (and Samuria Champloo is a perfectly legitimate game in exalted), these are charms Jin would have.
But they're boring and I don't want them.
Compare them with Salty Dog Method. It's another example of charms of one ability enhancing other abilities because they thematically fit together. Except I can instantly see what Salty Dog Method adds to my character, why I would want it. It's a better charm for being broader, and being broader means it leaves less room for other charms.
Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
Well, yeah. Most EX3 charms should be like Salty Dog Method. It may be written better, but it has more content and is thus better than most of the other charms.
I currently am refusing to see what else is wrong with EX3 charm, barring the need of GM Fiat to make them work and if they are understandable, because of the dozens of charms with way too niche effects. One of those Athletics charms simply allow the character an additional range band, once for Scene. Woop de woop.
Do you see all those charms with Written Competently in athletics? Most of them are giving very small bonuses.
I currently am refusing to see what else is wrong with EX3 charm, barring the need of GM Fiat to make them work and if they are understandable, because of the dozens of charms with way too niche effects. One of those Athletics charms simply allow the character an additional range band, once for Scene. Woop de woop.
Do you see all those charms with Written Competently in athletics? Most of them are giving very small bonuses.
vicky_molokh
Posthuman spidery thingy.
- Location
- Kyïv, Ukraine
I suppose it depends on location. It seems that a Realm campaign is supposed to be mostly about acting subtly. While something more far away from the Blessed Isle would be more of the 'returning rightful god-kings of Creation'. Which would also explain why there are so many charms like Harmonious Academic Methodology, Tiger-Warrior Training, Speed the Wheels, Immanent Solar Glory, and other charms that are all about being the blessed ruler-deity of a dominion. (Speaking of dominions, also what the Mandate of Heaven was made for, among other things, even though it was poorly written.)
You know, I don't know what fluff you're looking at and pulling this design intent out of, but I'm pretty sure you're reading it wrong. Let's ignore the written fluff and take a peek at the books, movies, etc. the devs cite as inspiration. From the 3e book, since that's what I have on hand.
Now, I'll admit to not having read/watched/whatever most of these, but from the "this is why we think it's important" blurbs, only about five of them seem to care about the nation-building scale you think is supposed to be the main focus of every Exalted campaign. The other twenty-odd sources are all about the personal scale you're convinced is an afterthought.
These inspirations are called out as inspirations because they provide the Exalted aesthetic. Not the themes of Exalted. Not the intended scope of play in Exalted. The aesthetic. In fact, a lot of them are aggressively anathema to the thematics of Exalted, what with the idea that there are good guys and there are bad guys and the good guys win and get a happy ending.
In fact... let's look every single one of those inspirations which talk about something other than aesthetics:
ASoIAF:
It's about politics and nation building.
The Bride With White Hair:
It's about politics.
Rome:
It's about politics.
Every single other inspiration is explicitly called out as being about Exalted's aesthetics-the thematic inspirations all deal with, you guessed it, politics and the grand scale where armies mattered. Even in the Iliad, there were no 'extras' or 'scenery' like people are suggesting- every single Greek warrior mattered and pretty much all of them got names. But the 'focal' inspirations? The ones which actually are called out as important because of their underlying foci? I've listed the only three that exist, and all of them directly and explicitly are important because they show that the intended scope of Exalted play is heavily political.
I mean holy shit, the devs have stated flat out that they want to encourage people to play at the grand strategy scale, they just had a lazy cop out excuse as to why they didn't have a system for it ("it stopped people from roleplaying and made them just roll dice"). In fact, the devs have also said, explicitly contravening the idea that mortals and kingdoms are just a backdrop for adventuring rather than the raison d'etre of the game, that they wanted to explicitly lower Exalted power levels because mortals as scenery was a terrible idea, which is why there is no such thing as 'heroic' mortals anymore and there are no "are you a supernatural being? No? Get fucked" charms anymore.
Last edited:
Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
Night's Master, Tanith Lee
A story about the King of Evil fucking around with humans, accidentally destroying the entire world, huge armies, the toppling of multiple governments and intricate supernatural politics.
The Black Company, Glen Cook
A series of novels about a mercenary army fighting in giant wars.
A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin
A series of novels about the politics of an entire continent.
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, Robert E. Howard
A series of novels about how Conan became a king by his own hand, engaged in mutliple large scale battles and ends up losing the above again.
The Histories, Herodotus
A history if Greece. Nuff said.
The Iliad, Homer
A story about a giant war.
Journey to the West, Wu Cheng'en
A story about a single person defying a political establishment and then bringing about massive cultural change. Contains many large scale battles.
The Book of Judges
The book of the bible that contains a huge number of massive battles. Like, huge.
Rurouni Kenshin, Nobuhiro Watsuki
Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahasi
Claymore, Norihiro Yagi
Ninja Scroll (1995)
Samurai Champloo (2004)
Here you get some actual stories that focus on more individual action but even then each of them contains multiple instances of people fighting off hordes of enemies.
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
A story about a young girl caught up in supernatural politics and a massive war.
Swordsman II (1991)
The Bride With White Hair (1993)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Like the anime above, but still mostly about politics and how they fuck up people's lives.
Rome (2005)
The Tudors (2007)
Yes, Rome and the Tudors are not about massive political shitstorms,
Dynasty Warriors series, Koei Tecmo
A series where it is not uncommon for your attacks to hit fifty to a hundred people in a single strike.
Final Fantasy VII, Square-Enix
Aside from the size of one dude's sword this has almost nothing to do with Exalted. Like, at all. Even the magic gems only resemble materia in the most shallow sense.
Assassin's Creed series, Ubisoft
A yes, the game about political assassinations has nothing to do with politics.
Dissidia Final Fantasy, Square-Enix
This is the closest to EX3, which is unsurprising because they stole the battle system entirely.
A story about the King of Evil fucking around with humans, accidentally destroying the entire world, huge armies, the toppling of multiple governments and intricate supernatural politics.
The Black Company, Glen Cook
A series of novels about a mercenary army fighting in giant wars.
A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin
A series of novels about the politics of an entire continent.
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, Robert E. Howard
A series of novels about how Conan became a king by his own hand, engaged in mutliple large scale battles and ends up losing the above again.
The Histories, Herodotus
A history if Greece. Nuff said.
The Iliad, Homer
A story about a giant war.
Journey to the West, Wu Cheng'en
A story about a single person defying a political establishment and then bringing about massive cultural change. Contains many large scale battles.
The Book of Judges
The book of the bible that contains a huge number of massive battles. Like, huge.
Rurouni Kenshin, Nobuhiro Watsuki
Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahasi
Claymore, Norihiro Yagi
Ninja Scroll (1995)
Samurai Champloo (2004)
Here you get some actual stories that focus on more individual action but even then each of them contains multiple instances of people fighting off hordes of enemies.
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
A story about a young girl caught up in supernatural politics and a massive war.
Swordsman II (1991)
The Bride With White Hair (1993)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Like the anime above, but still mostly about politics and how they fuck up people's lives.
Rome (2005)
The Tudors (2007)
Yes, Rome and the Tudors are not about massive political shitstorms,
Dynasty Warriors series, Koei Tecmo
A series where it is not uncommon for your attacks to hit fifty to a hundred people in a single strike.
Final Fantasy VII, Square-Enix
Aside from the size of one dude's sword this has almost nothing to do with Exalted. Like, at all. Even the magic gems only resemble materia in the most shallow sense.
Assassin's Creed series, Ubisoft
A yes, the game about political assassinations has nothing to do with politics.
Dissidia Final Fantasy, Square-Enix
This is the closest to EX3, which is unsurprising because they stole the battle system entirely.
Roadie
A plate full of blins and a cat nearby.
So here's my first pass at making a more distilled and more readable equivalent of the scrambled mess that is pp. 185-189 in the book.
Notable changes:
- "Pips" instead of "successes", so that you don't have successes on rolls and also successes on rolls.
- No stunting included for now, because of all the horror stories I've heard from GMs of forced stunting every round slowing things down too much.
- Defined terminology for opposed rolls.
- Changing "meet or exceed" in extended rolls to "exceed" because it's stupid as hell to have a threshold successes mechanic and then not use it a couple paragraphs later.
- Automatic success at Difficulty 0 actions with 0 dice.
- The return of "dramatic action" as an umbrella term for all those damn Charms that are "Simple except you have to speech at people for an hour to use this Charm".
- "Movement action" as a distinct type
- A multisided dice for dongeon and dragons.
Notable changes:
- "Pips" instead of "successes", so that you don't have successes on rolls and also successes on rolls.
- No stunting included for now, because of all the horror stories I've heard from GMs of forced stunting every round slowing things down too much.
- Defined terminology for opposed rolls.
- Changing "meet or exceed" in extended rolls to "exceed" because it's stupid as hell to have a threshold successes mechanic and then not use it a couple paragraphs later.
- Automatic success at Difficulty 0 actions with 0 dice.
- The return of "dramatic action" as an umbrella term for all those damn Charms that are "Simple except you have to speech at people for an hour to use this Charm".
- "Movement action" as a distinct type
- A multisided dice for dongeon and dragons.
Last edited:
- Location
- The end of all things
Situational? Would you really call vastly accelerated healing situational? Further, most people have to sleep every day. I'd sure love to be able to substitute an hour of meditation for that as per Energy Restoration Prana. It's not the most exciting charm, but it is exceedingly practical, and it couldn't possibly be more boring than 2e's Tireless Sentinel Technique.
Your suggestion about special dice breaks every dice trick in the game, including Sidereal excellencies. Now, I'm not saying all those dice tricks are good, but I am saying you'd have to rewrite about 65% of the book to get rid of them.
This is problematic. It means that succeeding on a normal roll means something different than succeeding on a roll in an extended action - instead of needing to meet the difficulty to work, you instead need to hit the difficulty+1 to accomplish anything. Plus, +1 difficulty on every extended roll in the game would kinda distort things.
Not a fan. Why conflate "trivial unrolled tasks" with Difficulty 0 actions? It's an important distinction, because attacking someone whose defense is down to 0 needs to be rolled to get the threshold successes.
Why? The distinction is only relevant in combat, and I don't think you really need special terminology to say "you can't make an hour-long speech in the middle of a fight".
Carrnage
Human
- Location
- New Zealand
or just simplify it to something much less finicky and filled with busywork.
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
I would hazard a guess that those were going to be on the chopping block anyway.