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General Exalted Thread

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Omicron said:
Today my players killed my carefully-designed boss monster in a single decisive attack ;_;
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Uncanny Shroud Defense or an equivalent charm are great insurance against this.

Omicron said:
Well they didn't use spirit-killers but don tell that to @Fenrir666 !
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But eating tasty spirits gives delicious and nutritious motes! Growing young Solars need all the essence they can get, so there's really no reason not to use them. It's not like anyone will miss those millennia-old Second Circle Demons anyway.
 
Omicron said:
The action economy is merciless.

The Silence She Speaks was a third Terrestrial Sorcery, a third White Reaper Charms, a third homebrew mechanics. Among other things, she had two Initiative tracks and acted twice per turn - once a normal turn and once a shaping/casting sorcery action. She won Join Battle, but her first attacks were parried, and the players' relentless onslaughts crashed her on the first turn. By the time she (barely) got out of crash, the resident Dawn Heaven-Thunder Hammer'd her for over 16 lethal damage once all was said done. She died.

My main mistake was not attacking the Dawn. I wanted to crash the Night so he couldn't pull off his ridiculous decisive stealth attacks, then the Twilight started distorting her combat buff and was an alltogether weaker target so I figured I could kneecap her, and by the time I could have turned my attention to the Dawn she was sitting on top of 27 Initiative and acting first. Nothing to be done.
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So what you're saying is that you got tanked and spanked because you split your focus like a nub
 
Omicron said:
I'm not gonna lie, I absolutely borrow concepts from MMOs to apply to my tabletop monster design.
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Well...hmm. I'm gonna go ahead and offer what I think is actual advice on your specific case of boss encounter design instead of pithy quotes.

Firstly, the action economy. As the GM, if you don't have at least as many actions in the round as the players do, versus PC Solars you're probably going to get fukt.

Secondly, the build. White Reaper charms are primarily useful against mooks and battle groups, which is something PC Solars aren't.

Third, what happened. Splitting focus and poor targeting, as well as the poor luck you seem to have suffered, happens. However, if you want your boss encounter to have resilience and a bit of meat to it, add it.

Have a battlegroup or two. A second heart with three -2 health levels is revealed after the PCs pump all of their initiative into blowing up the ablative first one. There's an energy shield that halves all initiative and health level damage taken that's being maintained by a fragile, occupied minion 4 range bands away. Any number of things!

Also, that one shape sorcery action per turn is probably about... .5/.7 regular actions in terms of effectiveness? And I don't exactly remember the Terrestrial Circle having the sort of big AOE attacks a proper solo boss encounter would require.
 
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So, I've um, wrote up a First Circle Demon. I hope people like it.

Sekeme
The Karōshi
Progeny of ????
Description:

Materializing chalcanth is a constant chore for the citizens of the Demon city. While demons of the first circle are never in short supply, binding an unwilling demon and rendering it down is a chore, and while sometimes that is necessary for strong drinks or high wonders, sometimes larger easier quantities of chalcanth are needed. Thus were created the Sekeme, demons born to be rendered down.

Sekeme are a paradox, a demon born with the desire to be rendered down, to whom existence itself is pain. Such a demon is nearly impossible to create, as it would refuse to take form unless bound by something else. Thus Sekeme are a demon of two parts, the outer Sekeme, which is an azure humanoid with a bulbous head and eyes that are but single points of blackness, and an inner skeleton of brass and spikes.

The skeleton is forged of duty and forces the Sekeme into shape and existence. As long as it survives, the outer layer will regrow anew from any damage. In order for the Sekeme.to escape their existence, they must perform the tasks others requested of them. As the tasks are performed, the brass weakens, until it shatters and the Sekeme can dissolve. The greater the task completed, the quicker the skeleton will weaken so that an epic quest could destroy it alone, or hundreds of lesser duties. If all else fails, they Sekeme can tear out portions of their own skeletons to weaken them, creating new Sekeme from the portions, though they are loath to bring others of their kind into the pain that is their existence.

Once a Sekeme's skeleton is destroyed, it will quickly dissolve into nothingness over the course of three days. If it is submerged in vitriol during this time it can be turned into chalcanth. Sekeme are especially palatable to this, and take 3, rather than the usual 5 days, as well as granting two successes to the roll.

Sekemes gain a point of limit for every hour they are not making progress on their tasks, be it because no one will assign a task, or because the task is not progressing. Sometimes, when a mortal of no great skill desires a task done that is far more complex than they believe, a Sekeme can escape to creation to assist the mortal.


No if anyone is wondering, their creator isn't a spoiler, I just can't decide who. Most crafting type second/third circles tend to take far to much pride in their word, and wouldn't want something that's supposed to be easy. This is more a mass production type.... I considered Octavian, since they would be useful for creating large quantities of chalcanth , but their's likely isn't the type that forges well into weapons, so I doubt he cares and... yeah. So I haven't really decided.
 
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Aleph said:
And Cosplay of All Torments Shintai is a Chungese special. It runs thusly:
  1. Assume Greater Shintai of the Endless Desert (Broken Winged Crane, pg 18). Other landscape-scale Shintai also work, but Jon likes Cecelyne/Adorjan, so he uses this one. This turns you into a living patch of desert about a mile across.
  2. Activate Pellagrina's Fury (MoEP Infernals, pg 142). This boosts your anima banner to maximum and erodes any stone within (Essence) yards of you. Which includes the mile-wide patch of desert you now occupy.
  3. Purchase all three versions of Wind Daughter's Wrath (Ink Monkeys, pg 65). This expands Pellagrina's Fury to damage first all non-magical inanimate objects in range, and then with a repurchase, all animate beings with an Essence rating lower than yours, then all beings with Essence equal to yours as well.
  4. You are now a mile-wide dematerialised presence that inflicts 1lhl/tick on everything within your desert-body, plus everything five yards outside it, while your anima flares totemic. Optionally, also purchase Spiteful Sea Tincture twice and paint yourself with lethal Kimbery venoms that discharge on contact.
  5. Enjoy.
Jon refers to this as the Cosplay of All Torments because a) you are basically cosplaying as Adrián and b) he is a terrible person.
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Her character build makes this unlikely but I would love to see how Adorjan would react to Keris is she were to appear in a form that was intended to deliberately mirror Adrián. Would Adorjan become furious as she is forced to recognize how much she has lost as a consequence of her unwilling transformation or would it be the start of a deeply twisted selfcest fantasy?
 
Ct613hulu said:
Her character build makes this unlikely but I would love to see how Adorjan would react to Keris is she were to appear in a form that was intended to deliberately mirror Adrián. Would Adorjan become furious as she is forced to recognize how much she has lost as a consequence of her unwilling transformation or would it be the start of a deeply twisted selfcest fantasy?
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I'd imagine her response would be GIGGLE MURDER ZOOM ZOOM. The giggle is because they're emulating Adrián, the poor dumb primordial who got fetich-ganked because he hadn't yet learned her lessons about not caring about shit and thus got distracted by the Games of Divinity. The "murder zoom zoom" is because, y'know, she's Adorjan.
 
"Before the first day rose upon Creation, there was the night before night. Darkness was unbroken, the soil was hard and frozen, and the wind howled through hills and crags that had never felt the touch of mortal feet. There the Frozen Ones shed the first snows of the world from long braided hair and many-jointed arms, in their endless frantic dance.

Then the sun rose, and the Frozen Ones were no more. But an echo of their innocent laughter can still be heard in the coldest, harshest winds of the North; a sorcerer who hears that sound can learn to whistle their high-pitched laughter, and laugh a memory of the first storm into being."
 
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Aleph said:
And Cosplay of All Torments Shintai is a Chungese special. It runs thusly:
  1. Assume Greater Shintai of the Endless Desert (Broken Winged Crane, pg 18). Other landscape-scale Shintai also work, but Jon likes Cecelyne/Adorjan, so he uses this one. This turns you into a living patch of desert about a mile across.
  2. Activate Pellagrina's Fury (MoEP Infernals, pg 142). This boosts your anima banner to maximum and erodes any stone within (Essence) yards of you. Which includes the mile-wide patch of desert you now occupy.
  3. Purchase all three versions of Wind Daughter's Wrath (Ink Monkeys, pg 65). This expands Pellagrina's Fury to damage first all non-magical inanimate objects in range, and then with a repurchase, all animate beings with an Essence rating lower than yours, then all beings with Essence equal to yours as well.
  4. You are now a mile-wide dematerialised presence that inflicts 1lhl/tick on everything within your desert-body, plus everything five yards outside it, while your anima flares totemic. Optionally, also purchase Spiteful Sea Tincture twice and paint yourself with lethal Kimbery venoms that discharge on contact.
  5. Enjoy.
Jon refers to this as the Cosplay of All Torments because a) you are basically cosplaying as Adrián and b) he is a terrible person.
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How the fuck would you even deal with this thing.
 
It seems as if the ideal method would bombardment with artillery from out of range. The "Cosplay of All Torments Shintai" and the majority of the Infernal charms on the path leading to this Shintai do not provide significant long range attacks so an ideal attack would be using mobile artillery platforms capable of moving fast enough to ensure that they never become vulnerable to attack.
 
More seriously?
Artillery + Charms; have fun getting nailed by a Lightning Ballista from a mile out.
Haltan airship with appropriate weapons. Lookshyan airship. Realm naval ships.

Immaculates in Dragon Armor supported by Golden Janissary users.
Fluff warstriders(not as statted, but as they are supposed to be) packing essence cannon.
Glorious Solar Railgun + Essence lens.
 
Greater Shintai of the Endless Desert ends if it gets submerged in water, so a clever Solar would lure the Cosplayer into a fight near a major dam and breach it at the opportune moment. Adamant Countermagic/Banishing also ends the Shintai if the sorcerer can reach the Infernal's center.

As for artillery... Does the Shintai limit movement? Because this Infernal seems invested in Adorjan and will likely have all the speedy charms. So they're a mile-wide desert with a kill-all aura zooming along at over 100 mph. They could just start at one end of Creation, then go up and down the map until they've wiped out everything.

Other weird ideas: Nothing in the Shintai says you have to be land-bound. You could be a flying plane of silver sand, scattering grains all over the place. Or teleport your entire mass on top of that nasty artillery encampment that thinks its safe.
 
Option A, where a murder-desert is a threat my character is experienced enough to handle: murder it harder because I fucking love combat charms.
Option B, where my ST is throwing something at the circle that we're not ready to handle: do my best to convince a god that can handle it to deal with the murder-desert.
 
Peanuckle said:
As for artillery... Does the Shintai limit movement? Because this Infernal seems invested in Adorjan and will likely have all the speedy charms. So they're a mile-wide desert with a kill-all aura zooming along at over 100 mph. They could just start at one end of Creation, then go up and down the map until they've wiped out everything.
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Yeah, odds are that you run into the Aerial Legion before too long.
Or just a kill-squad of Sidereals out to get their murder on.
 
Aleph said:
And Cosplay of All Torments Shintai is a Chungese special. It runs thusly:
  1. Assume Greater Shintai of the Endless Desert (Broken Winged Crane, pg 18). Other landscape-scale Shintai also work, but Jon likes Cecelyne/Adorjan, so he uses this one. This turns you into a living patch of desert about a mile across.
  2. Activate Pellagrina's Fury (MoEP Infernals, pg 142). This boosts your anima banner to maximum and erodes any stone within (Essence) yards of you. Which includes the mile-wide patch of desert you now occupy.
  3. Purchase all three versions of Wind Daughter's Wrath (Ink Monkeys, pg 65). This expands Pellagrina's Fury to damage first all non-magical inanimate objects in range, and then with a repurchase, all animate beings with an Essence rating lower than yours, then all beings with Essence equal to yours as well.
  4. You are now a mile-wide dematerialised presence that inflicts 1lhl/tick on everything within your desert-body, plus everything five yards outside it, while your anima flares totemic. Optionally, also purchase Spiteful Sea Tincture twice and paint yourself with lethal Kimbery venoms that discharge on contact.
  5. Enjoy.
Jon refers to this as the Cosplay of All Torments because a) you are basically cosplaying as Adrián and b) he is a terrible person.
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So, you erode everything, including [bed]rock in a mile. What happens when you fall through? Do you end up in the Underworld, the Wyld, or do you keep bobbing down and up because Creation Gravity eventually starts pulling you 'up' if you go 'down' far enough?

uju32 said:
As has been mentioned here?
Infiltrate their camp
and poison their food/water beforehand.
If everyone has the runs, their security will be spread thin and you are more likely to ghost through or achieve local superiority of force so you can afford non-lethal options.

As a reminder, I will point you at the 1995 Rugby World Cup finals, where food poisoning at one meal is alleged to have played a significant part in the victory of the SA Springboks over the NZ All Blacks.
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Well, that's a bit of a Catch-22, isn't it?

MJ12 Commando said:
Failure mitigation-if you're detected, go fast and lethal. Don't fuck around with nonlethal weapons and unreliable tools. The fundamental state of soldiers is unready for combat. By fucking around with slow tools that don't kill people, you give them a chance to get ready for combat, or figure out what you actually want and light it on fire.
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I understand that nonlethal incapacitation is riskier than lethal. But our Sorc has Compassion 3, and my character will eventually raise it to 2 (it's complicated); the former insisted we avoid bloodshed and the latter is generally inclined to indulge her within limits of capability. Which is why we're trying to pull off an Anya Romanov/Batman/Garret (from Stolen/Arkham series/Thief series) and finish the mission without kills if possible.
 
vicky_molokh said:
I understand that nonlethal incapacitation is riskier than lethal. But our Sorc has Compassion 3, and my character will eventually raise it to 2 (it's complicated); the former insisted we avoid bloodshed and the latter is generally inclined to indulge her within limits of capability. Which is why we're trying to pull off an Anya Romanov/Batman/Garret (from Stolen/Arkham series/Thief series) and finish the mission without kills if possible.
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So, here's my question: beyond "don't have them set off alarms while we're in the place," how badly do you need to avoid detection? Is it fine if they figure out it was you guys once you're safely out? Is it OK that they realize they've been hit as long as they don't know by who? Or do you need to go full-on no one realizes that anything happened?

Also, do you expect them to have mystical defenses? Because if not, summoning an elemental/demon and send it in as an immaterial infiltrator is something they cannot counter.
 
vicky_molokh said:
Well, that's a bit of a Catch-22, isn't it?
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No?
Getting at their food and water supply is going to be vastly simpler than something they have to guard.

Do you have a Sorcerer in your party? Have him summon an elemental to do it.
Or have the party diplomancer chat up the cook/ a kitchen staff member when he/she goes to the market and have him/her slip something into the food.
Or kidnap the cook/a member of the kitchen staff and infiltrate in his/her persona and poison everyone.

Again, diarrhea is no respecter of persons, and as long as you are dealing with healthy adults(like in a guard troop) they will survive the experience.
They won't be happy, but they'll survive it; better than a length of jade steel in the guts.
It may not be as sexy as re-enacting a video game stealth section, but it should be vastly more effective.
 
Aleph said:
... no? Give them all food poisoning, sneak through. Nobody is hurt - yay Compassion - and the alarm doesn't get raised when they find a blowdarted-unconscious body.
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Oh, I meant in the "need to sneak into a fortified compound and sneakily spike all their foods (unnoticed and without knocking anyone out so that nobody's suspicious) in order to sneak into the fortified compound and steal a thing".

uju32 said:
No?
Getting at their food and water supply is going to be vastly simpler than something they have to guard.

Do you have a Sorcerer in your party? Have him summon an elemental to do it.
Or have the party diplomancer chat up the cook/ a kitchen staff member when he/she goes to the market and have him/her slip something into the food.
Or kidnap the cook/a member of the kitchen staff and infiltrate in his/her persona and poison everyone.

Again, diarrhea is no respecter of persons, and as long as you are dealing with healthy adults(like in a guard troop) they will survive the experience.
They won't be happy, but they'll survive it; better than a length of jade steel in the guts.
It may not be as sexy as re-enacting a video game stealth section, but it should be vastly more effective.
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All good ideas (thanks!), some variations of which I had, but for various reasons they're not applicable (most notably, high MDVs, highly isolated compound, lack of Summon Elemental or Larceny Charms). On the bright side, we do use the Sorc's ability to (a) summon a demon to tell us where the thing is hidden and (b) summoning 'two-way radio' demons so we can coordinate an on-demand diversion if things go south.

tzar1990 said:
So, here's my question: beyond "don't have them set off alarms while we're in the place," how badly do you need to avoid detection? Is it fine if they figure out it was you guys once you're safely out? Is it OK that they realize they've been hit as long as they don't know by who? Or do you need to go full-on no one realizes that anything happened?

Also, do you expect them to have mystical defenses? Because if not, summoning an elemental/demon and send it in as an immaterial infiltrator is something they cannot counter.
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Having an alarm pulled in the end is undesirable but acceptable (assuming we get the thing and manage to disappear without a trace in the process). Having us identified is totally unacceptable.

I have to admit that "there's an app for this" seems like one of the best methods against mortals. Now I wonder if I should ask the Sorc whether she knows a thief-demon to summon, or not. Because that kinda seems to deprive the two semi-stealthy Solars of a mission. I'll have to think about that. And see what others think.
 
Dynamesmouse said:
How the fuck would you even deal with this thing.
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Laugh that it isn't meaningfully more deadly to mortals then Greater Shintai of the Endless Desert alone. :V

When you're done laughing, just kite the extremely slow moving sandstorm from the air with explosive canons or incendiary grenades or something else that can't be parried. Since it's a mile wide, it's basically impossible to miss. Continue until it either runs out of motes and health levels or realizes that being a giant target sucks.
 
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