On your MA rules: I don't think making it easier to master multiple styles is a good call, MAs are very, very strong, buying them in-play at unfavored costs is actually worth doing (I'm doing it with my Night Caste, actually), making them easier to get, master, and combine seems like a not-so-good decision.
So, I mean, in the 'intended' use case of 'non-dawn Solar dips into one Martial Art for combat competence' the RAW work perfectly well. I was mostly trying to enable the guy who wants to be an Immaculate Grandmaster or something. My end goal wasn't really to make it
easier per se (it was one of the
ways I did it, but wasn't a goal in and of itself), but more to make the journey there less of a pain. Honestly the biggest thing for me was getting rid of repurchasing your five martial arts dots again, since it seems like just a big span (17 XP per style at favored rates) )where you're not really
getting anything. At least, nothing big and flashy. I wanted to skip right into buying charms for the next style, after the requisite training montage to get the initiation merit, because buying up five dots of Ability over and over again seems like kind of a drag. The Martial Arts are definitely powerful, absolutely. Would it be better if it was still a four-dot merit?
Part of the reason I thought shaving some of the XP cost wouldn't break anything for multiple style users is that it seems like you get diminishing returns after a point on Martial Art investment, so making you pay the same 17 XP to start your sixth style because it plays to your concept seemed kind of pointless. A guy with four styles mastered seems like he's nowhere
near twice as powerful as someone whose mastered two styles. Has your experience shown differently?
On chargen, I think its unnecessary to change it, I don't think its a problem that will come up often, and spending BP is simpler than XP, so I prefer the vanilla method. If you have a player seriously trying to win chargen and it could be a problem, just talk to them about it, and figure out if people are not on the same page in regards to how much optimization is expected/if people would feel overshadowed.
Heh, I already had one player ask me if he could spend his bonus points on his stats before assigning his 8/6/4 to get the most bang for his buck, so I figured some sort of statement on this section was necessary. :lol
I do not like MA Charms as spells. I would veto that hard if a player asked to do it, and would pass over games with that houserule. I am not okay with Sorcerers running around with MA Charms as spells. If you want to play that, play a Sorcerer who also favors MA. Don't open the whole can of mortal supernatural martial artists again, to hell with that. This is me speaking as my reaction if you asked me in a game, so it's probably a bit stronger than is warranted. You clearly like it, so if you're running the game and you want it, have fun. But I would strongly argue against this as a general houserule.
On the combat thing, initiative pinatas are not the issue you think they are. People come out of crash automatically after three turns, and if you're targeting someone for easy init, you're open to the other combatants on the field. Speaking as someone who's seen this happen twice now, and both times it ended with the death of the person going for the 'easy initiative'.
Smashing is really good, but I don't think its good enough to deserve a nerf, again, having seen it used in actual play.
I do not like MA Charms as spells. I would veto that hard if a player asked to do it, and would pass over games with that houserule. I am not okay with Sorcerers running around with MA Charms as spells. If you want to play that, play a Sorcerer who also favors MA. Don't open the whole can of mortal supernatural martial artists again, to hell with that. This is me speaking as my reaction if you asked me in a game, so it's probably a bit stronger than is warranted. You clearly like it, so if you're running the game and you want it, have fun. But I would strongly argue against this as a general houserule.
Well, that's a shame. You've seen the
brew in question, right? Mortal martial artists (who, explicitly, only ever get access to E1 charms) are just not something you feel belongs? Hidden groups of mortal Ebon Shadow practitioners seems like the kind of thing that's worth enabling in the setting without them all being required to be exalts or whatever.
On the combat thing, initiative pinatas are not the issue you think they are. People come out of crash automatically after three turns, and if you're targeting someone for easy init, you're open to the other combatants on the field. Speaking as someone who's seen this happen twice now, and both times it ended with the death of the person going for the 'easy initiative'.
Yes, I know. Do remember that I've been on the pro 3E side every time initiative pinatas have come up.
This is more codifying the approach I'd take
if it became a problem, as well as a road sign to my players (who are all new) to discourage them from trying in the first place.
Smashing is really good, but I don't think its good enough to deserve a nerf, again, having seen it used in actual play.
Well, noted, but it's not the experience I've had. How do you deal with someone just spamming it? The Defense penalty to launch it is kind of inconsequential since (if memory serves) the penalty from fighting prone is the same 3 dice penalty you get for flurrying the miscellaneous action to rise. When you cost them three dice for one Defense of yours, you come out ahead. Now, it
is bad if you're outnumbered, but there's a
lot of bad shit about being outnumbered, so that doesn't really seem like much of an argument.
