Exalted General - /exg/

Well here we go then. Let's see how much I can post at a time.

The Blade That Is Not
Starmetal Daiklave, Artifact ****

It is written, that as news of Autochthon's betrayal and the creation of the Exalted spread, a Primordial whose name has been lost to history sought to vent his wroth upon the mortals of Creation by destroying their fields and farmlands. The Primordial's first target was Twelve Blossoms Turning, a Harvest God of no particular significance. He was torn apart by the Primordial, the first needless death in what seemed in those days to be an endless series of needless deaths.

So it is written. And so it was not.

The Primordial's attack was perfect, irresistible, written into the fabric of fate itself. Stopping it was impossible. But a Solar sword-master stood in the field as the God attacked, and Solars have no concern for the impossible. A lone Solar could only fight a Primordial for a moment, but the moment was long enough for the god to flee, and so it was that a thing that should have happened did not.

The Yozi would claim that this act of defiance against fate introduced the first flaws into what was once a perfect tapestry. The Solars of the First Age claimed otherwise. Regardless of the truth, the god survived the Primordial War when Fate decreed that he would not. As a result, the god's star fell, and did not. And the metal of that star was forged into a sword to honour the fallen Solar, a sword that survives to the present day, and does not. This is The Blade That Is Not.

Evocations:
A Solar or Sidereal who attunes to The Blade That Is Not awakens Everywhere and Nowhere at no cost. If the Exalt pays three additional motes when attuning, they gain two initiative whenever they take a delayed action using the blade.

...

It would have done them favors if they haven't their head in their asses to the shoulders. Being in some sort of "Open Development" like other OPP lines would have changed that, but with their Ivory Tower Design Stance it didn't help at all.

Everywhere and Nowhere
Cost: —; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisites: None

From its first forging, The Blade That Is Not has existed outside of Fate. Even when wielded in battle, it is eager to slip out of reality, ready to return at the right moment.

The Exalt may reflexively banish the blade to Elsewhere at no cost. The Exalt may also call the blade from Elsewhere freely, but only once per round. If the player does so as part of an attack or parry attempt, this Evocation grants one automatic success or a +1 to Parry for that action only.

Once and Again
Cost: ?; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instantaneous
Prerequisites: Everywhere and Nowhere

The boundary between the present and the past is almost impermeable. Almost.

The Exalt may retroactively apply the benefits of an Aim or Full Defense action to an attack or parry with this weapon, either rolling three additional non-Charm dice and adding them to an attack roll or adding two non-Charm successes to the Exalt's Parry defense for the entire round.

The Exalt must spend their next turn performing the action they just benefited from, as a miscellaneous action that cannot be placed in a flurry and provides no additional benefit. If they are unable or unwilling to do so, the paradox causes The Blade disappears to Elsewhere as with Everwhere and Nowhere, and it cannot be recalled for the remainder of the scene.

...

Everwhere and Nowhere is mostly flavour and utility, so the mechanical benefit isn't supposed to be that great. Once and Again, however, should be pretty effective. Anything that lets you boost yourself after you've seen the dice fall should be effective. Currently it doesn't have a set mote cost, because it has the cost of either your next action or not being able to use the sword again for that fight. Big effect, big cost. Might need some balancing.

Still working on those capstones.

>It's almost as though that thing Holden said about the leak wearing out the hype too soon wasn't complete bullshit after all.

On one hand, you raise a valid point.

On the other hand, that's at least partly on them - Exalted third edition was promised in 2012, in 2013, in 2014, leaked in 2014, was promised later in 2014, then in 2015... the leak aggravated the issue, but Death-Of-Hype Meditation was already in full effect from seeming vaporware.

On the grasping hand, they used the leak as an excuse to reduce playtesting and slow down development. This seems like a bullshit maneuver if you're concerned about wearing out your hype, and a self-fulfilling prophecy.

>We should make more homebrew in these threads.

Here, I came up with this when thinking "How might a Solar grossly overengineer a solution to traffic jams?"

Overlap Gates (Artifact ?)

Large colored gates can be found scattered several places around the location of the First Age city in which they were forged. Some palaces even contain several of these arches imported as insets, obviously standing out from the lesser work of the Age of Sorrows. Blue Overlap Gates are great curving arches wrought from orichalcum and blue jade; Red Overlap Gates are more rectangular, made of moonsilver and red jade. These are the most common colors, but others may exist.

Inspection of an inactive gate (practically all gates are found inactive) by a character with sufficient skill reveals that it has an unpowered function related to materialization and dematerialization. When a gate is powered by plugging it into a geomantic network (in a pinch, inserting a hearthstone will also power it, or paying 10m will activate it for an hour), a character passing through the gate in one direction becomes tinged with the gate's color and quasi-immaterial: he can still interact with regular objects normally, but he and whatever possessions he was carrying will be immaterial relative to characters who have passed through a gate of another color.

These were developed as a parlor trick by a Solar wishing to pack a hundred guests into a manse-room for fifty without having to rebuild the entire manse, but soon found other applications, such as placing several at right angles along a street grid, allowing vehicles to drive at full speed through intersections as they would pass through any vehicles going another way through the same crossroad.

The quasi-immateriality wears off after one day, or when passing back through a gate of the same color (gates of other colors are impermeable when tinged), or by leaving the gate's maximum influence range, or when the gate becomes unpowered again.

>3e final is finally out
So has Jon Chung found the optimal way to play 3e yet?

t. bitter 2e grognard

Max out your Join Battle, blow all your initiative on a single decisive attack as the first action of the combat, and hope your opponent doesn't have any of the handful of things that turns that immediate victory into a drawn out defeat. Works 90% of the time.

In other news, you can win Shadowrun by shooting the other guy first.

No because we have nothing to work with but solar charmset and stock characters.

>Blinding Battle Feint
>Ambush
>win

Well, he admits to not having read the book yet still goes around critisising it, so I don't think he's an authority on the game anymore. All he does is shill ES's Style stuff and talk about combinatory hell.

When they roll Join Debate... you roll Join Battle.

That's a fantastic 1st age invention and I will likely steal it for my campaign. Thank you, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

Maybe building a business around hype, and then delivering the product 3 years late is a bad idea.

I posted this a few threads back: howsfamily.net/Exalted/wiki/index.php?title=Artifacts/Perfect_Form

>We should make more homebrew in these threads.

Alright, I'm game. I've been working on some War expansion charms, and I've got solid ideas for a bunch of charms, but I want to get one more big effect in as a big capstone charm for the strategic warfare subsystem, but the printed charms already cover stuff like 'more than one strategem at a time!', 'surprise strategems mid-battle', and 'counter the enemy's strategem if they manage to beat you on the roll'. The bases are covered so well I'm at a loss for what else I could add that would be worthy of E5.

Ideas?

Didn't they finally ban him on RPG.net for doing that?

Command action. Instead of getting a dice bonus equal to your result, your army makes a magical flurry, with an extra attack for every X successes in your command roll.

Flurries seem to be the basis of big OP combat effects. Again.

Not a bad idea, but I was looking for something more specific to the strategic warfare/strategem widgets. Maybe... removing action restrictions for allied battle group flurries for (Essence) rounds as a special strategem that you can pop when you would enact a strategem?

By 'remove action restrictions for flurries' I mean along the lines of Principle of Motion.

I dont think its a good idea to write a big OP affect just for the sake of having a big OP affect. If war is good as is then why not just leave it?

The point isn't to be OP, necessarily, but rather to be a big jaw-dropping effect to give war some E5 stuff.

GOREBURNER

*** Soulsteel Grimcleaver

Goreburner is not an old or storied weapon. Its creation dates back to the last few years, when it was crafted by an Abyssal as part of her instruction of necromancy, and the essence of blood in particular. Its evocations often involve either forcefully ripping gore from enemies upon cleaving their flesh, or else consuming that gore in order to fuel powerful attacks.

Its shaft is uncommonly short among grimcleavers. Its axehead depicts mutilated and dismembered corpses in red jade, and several barbs of the material sprout from its edge, included by its maker in a successful effort to give it powers useful against enemies without blood. Upon confirming this, she christened it Goreburner, an ugly name for an ugly weapon.

Evocations:

Ripping the Entrails, 2m
Reflexive, Decisive
Essence 1
Upon removing the axehead from a target, whether by pulling it out or cleaving straight through, the exalt commands Goreburner to feed. Feed it does, catching guts and sinew with its barbs and tearing them from its victim. The gore is reduced to scarlet essence and absorbed, causing the red jade to glow with sick power. Deals one extra level of lethal damage on a damaging hit, wielder gets ‘gore’ for use in later evocations, if he knows them. Foes without flesh or blood are immune.

cont.

Blood Knows its Home, 3m
Simple
Req. Ripping the Entrails, Essence 2
With a flick of his wrist, the wielder releases the essence within his weapon. Throws gore in enemy’s eyes to blind, expending it. Resolved as a difficulty 4 gambit, unless it’s the target’s own blood, in which case the blood follows its occult link back to its source, changing direction midair and flowing over and around shields and weapons. The attack roll cannot be blocked or dodged, though the Exalt must still roll Init.
Refer to the ‘Blind’ flaw on page XX (in the leak, p195). The target can immediately clear the blood from his eyes with a miscellaneous action that cannot be placed in a flurry.

Corpse Pyre, 5m
Supplemental, dual
Req. Essence 3
Decisive attack does three extra damage dice from fire, withering does five extra. Consumes a gore. The target is afterwards coated in burning blood, and takes further damage until he extinguishes himself.

Blood Calls to Blood, 4m
Supplemental, dual
Req. Ripping the Entrails, Essence 3
Spends a gore and gives double 9s on an attack roll. If the gore came from the target, double 8s instead.
Upon purchasing this charm, Goreburner’s hunger grows. It can now hold two gores. As long as it does, Goreburner gains the ‘Balanced’ tag.

Boil the Foe, 5m
Reflexive, decisive
Req. Tearing the Flesh, Fuel, Essence 4
Spends one gore upon damaging an enemy to give that enemy an additional -3 wound penalty. Reroll all 6s on the damage roll if the gore came from the target originally.

Blade of Burning Bone, 6m
Simple, withering
Req. Blood Calls to Blood, Hungry Furnace, Essence 5
Two attacks in the place of one. Costs two gore, allows the attacks to share an Excellency if one of the gores is from the target, or share any and all charms if both of them are.

This probably needs an update.

Nice sword.

Here's the new entry-level War charm I'm considering:

Supreme Martial Instinct
Cost: - ; Mins: War 3, Essence 1; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: None

As a peerless soldier and strategist, the Solar feels the flow of battle as easily as the breath in her lungs. Purchasing this charm provides the Solar with the following permanent enhancements to her capabilities:
-The Solar may roll Join Battle using her (Wits + War) if the encounter would be subject to a Strategem.
-For every enemy character or battle group who scores lower than the Lawgiver in her first Join Battle roll of a scene, she may grant any number of allied battle groups one free point of initiative.
-The Solar may ready a weapon reflexively at no cost or penalty while Joining Battle, and may ignore the -1 penalty to her Defense for switching weapons with the Draw/Ready Weapon action.

--------------

Manipulating the flow of battle (as represented by initiative) seems like it should be well within War's thematic wheel house, and I feel like there should be other ways to invest in Join Battle other than superhuman senses (i.e. favoring Awareness). This introduces these to the charmset at a low essence so that they 'exist' for later charms to make use of.

>she may grant any number of allied battle groups one free point of initiative.

Does this reduce the amount of initiative the Solar has, or is it created out of nothing?

>The Solar may ready a weapon reflexively at no cost or penalty while Joining Battle

JB rolls automatically ready a weapon. All fights that don't start with an ambush assume that every is armed.

>Does this reduce the amount of initiative the Solar has, or is it created out of nothing?

The intention was that it was created from nothing, which was why I said 'free point'. Is there a better way to phrase that?

>JB rolls automatically ready a weapon. All fights that don't start with an ambush assume that every is armed.

Hah, oops. Guess I should've reread that section before working on this. Hmm, you think the first two bonuses on the charm are enough that having the third perk be just ignoring the Defense penalty for switching is okay?

>Is there a better way to phrase that?

Change "she may grant any number of allied battle groups one free point of initiative" to "all battle groups allied to the Solar gain one point of initiative."

>Hmm, you think the first two bonuses on the charm are enough that having the third perk be just ignoring the Defense penalty for switching is okay?

How does that interact with the Quick Draw Merit on page 164?

>Change "she may grant any number of allied battle groups one free point of initiative" to "all battle groups allied to the Solar gain one point of initiative."

Ah, yeah, that is better.

>How does that interact with the Quick Draw Merit on page 164?

*sigh* Right. Merits. I could probably make it work but I think it'd be more trouble than it's worth. Think it'd be OP to just have it ignore the -1 Defense penalty for miscellaneous actions? Think it fits the thematics?

>Think it'd be OP to just have it ignore the -1 Defense penalty for miscellaneous actions? Think it fits the thematics?

No and no. Catch all, rarely done actions aren't governed by any one ability, putting a bonus in War just seems jarring.

How weirdly pulp can I get with this?

If your pulp levels are not turned up to 11 or higher you're not Exalted enough

Hmm. The ready weapon power was really just a nod to the Ink Monkeys charm tree I snatched the name from, so I'm not actually that attached to it. Honestly, the charm is probably worth the XP just for the first two functions, but rule of three makes it feel kind of awkward to only have two modes. >.<

Maybe "The Solar gains (Essence/2) initiative for successfully making a withering attack against battlegroups instead of the normal 1"?

>In case these threads havent tipped you off, random dudes usually dont make good play testers.
OK Holden, we get it. Ignoring feedback's been working wonders for you so far, why stop now?

I've spent a lot of time wondering whether I should boost my Willpower, and which builds or roles need it. I still got nothing. Would there be any interest in my going through the charms and counting up the number per ability that have 1+wp in their activation cost?

As the person who did the Alchemical homebrew and trying to do the Infernal homebrew, I need my life to stop being a damn rollercoaster. I mean normally I don't like bringing personal matters into threads, but this is getting a bit nuts:

- Father got cancer for a *fourth* time, this time terminal

- Forest Fire forces entire city to evacuate, now away from home from anywhere from two weeks to several months.

Well things could always be worse.

Wait wait... Alchemicalfag you're from Fort Mac?

St. John's, but I moved up to Fort Mac a year ago with the rest of my family.

Currently in Edmonton

My friend, I lived in fort mac for 5 years, I moved to calgary about 3 years ago. I have friends who are also in edmonton because of the fires and one currently staying with me. I wish I was in edmonton so I could buy you a beer or something. I'm also so sorry to hear about your father, my condolences.

What did you do to piss off a Sidereal so badly?

I've accepted my father, and the good news is that we've confirmed that our house is still standing (My cousin's BF is part of the cleanup crew, so he confirmed it for us). So not as bad as it could be, but good lord is it ever annoying.

If I did, I probably forgot it.

Out of curiousity, what weapon would represent a Naginata/Halbred for artifact weapons?

Heavy weapon, with the 2-handed, reach and slashing tags.

Grand grimcleaver or Dire Lance.

Yes sir.

CALCULATED MAID OF SAPIENCE
Cynical soul of SEVENTH MACHINE OF DESTRUCTION
Essence 6
Not unlike her patron, Calculated Maid of Sapience appears at first glance to be a woman of indeterminate age clothed in strict black garments. This isn't a coincidence, as the souls of Seventh Machine of Destruction tend to be the more human-like of the hierarchy descended from Octhon.

In personality, however, nothing would be more different. Indeed, Calculated Maid of Sapience is composed at all time, even in the wake of destruction. Her cynical sense of humour and gloom outlook on the world makes a starching contrast with her patron, and though by far the less dangerous second circle demon descended from Octhon, she also has the habit of not helping (or doing anything at all) unless specifically ordered to.

For many sorcerers, summoning Calculated Maid of Sapience is an exercise of frustration. Fortunately, she is also the perfect maid and caretaker of a manse, able to quickly and efficiently train an army of servants in all tasks imaginable. Her non-dangerous and useful nature made her a very popular summoning in the First Age, a practice that continues to this days for the few celestial sorcerers that owns a palace big enough to see her needed.

Calculated Maid of Sapience can enter Creation when a young girl suddenly finds she is a musical genius. She rarely does so, though, unless she needs something.

Attribute:
Strength 3 Charisma 4 Perception 4
Dexterity 2 Manipulation 5 Intelligence 3
Stamina 4 Appearance 3 Wits 4

Abilities:
Archery 0 Athletics 4 Awareness 4
Brawl 2 Bureaucracy 3 Craft 0
Dodge 1 Integrity 5 Investigation 0
Larceny 3 Lore 4 Medicine 2
Melee 0 Occult 3 Performance 5
Presence 4 Resistance 2 Ride 1
Sail 0 Socialize 5 Stealth 0
Survival 1 Thrown 0 War 0

Charms:
Calculated Maid of Sapience is a powerful second circle demon. She can be assumed to have a large number of spirit charms, most of them pertaining toward useful, direct, day-to-day application. Additionally, she has the following charms:

Perfect Maid of Duty:
Calculated Maid of Sapience gains (Essence) automatic success on any roll made to clean a room, cook a feast, or do any other stereotypical maid duties. This includes training the staff of a palace and receptioning and entertaining guests. This bonus can never be leveraged for combat, as a maid should never be in a fight, but can be leveraged in appropriate social actions.

Last Words:
The nature of Calculated Maid of Sapience is to find reconfort in besting her better. When summoned, she instantly gains 1 temporary willpower each time she wins a non-trivial argument with her current master. This cannot occur more than once per day.

Snarky Retort Venom (5m, Simple, Instant, Eclipse, Essence 4):
This charm uses the corrupting essence of Octhon in a most strange manner, however unwelcome. For five motes, Calculated Maid of Sapience can find the perfect sarcastic retort for any situation. The sentence is so corrosive that everyone that listen to it and is able to understand the language it is spoken treats it as a social attack made with her (Wit + Socialize) against his resolve. Modifiers apply normally. If the social attack passes the resolve of a character, this character is stunned for one round as the sentence burrows under his brain. It doesn’t necessarily mean a negative reaction, though: laughters are equally possible. Characters stunned cannot take any actions until they get their wits back.
Calculated Maid of Sapience likes to use this charm as liberally and often as possible, unless ordered not to. Most sorcerers do that between the first five minutes of interacting with her.

Bored Soul Rings No Bells (10m 1wp, Simple, Indefinite):
No other demon can affect an air of boredness more powerful than Calculated Maid of Sapience. Indeed, if she’s so willing, her unamused countenance is all somebody will ever read on her.
For as long as she maintains this charm, Calculated Maid of Sapience automatically wins against any Read Intentions action made against her. No matter what kind of magic helps the other party, they will only get that she is incredibly, mind-bogglingly unamused by everything that is happening around her.

Smiling Back At The Clowns (2m+, Reflexive, Instant):
Using this charm, Calculated Maid of Sapience can reflexively buy an additional point of resolve for 2 motes (maximum 3 points of resolve) to defend against any social actions targeted at her and leveraging either no intimacy, or a negative intimacy of her.
Calculated Maid of Sapience’s greatest weakness is to be made to care. If a social action targets any positive intimacy of any sorts, this charm becomes inapplicable.

Verdant Arrows of Implications (15m, Simple, One Conversation):
The green fire of Malfeas suffuses Calculated Maid of Sapience’s speech with numerous unheard implications. This charm functions as Subtle Speech Method, but is conversation long, and she can converses with (Essence) people simultaneously while seemingly having a normal conversation for any external person.
Each interlocutor can be fed something different. Thus it is possible for Calculated Maid of Sapience to talk about the weather while cajoling a particular guest and making plans to kill them all with her master.
This form of discourse is surprisingly emotionally powerful, though it is difficult to use complex arguments this way. Any (Presence) social action hidden by this charm adds one dice, while any social action made with (Socialize) loses two dices.

OHBOYOHBOYOHBOYOHBOY. MORE YOZICHTHON!

Friend With Everyone Technique (5m, Reflexive, One Scene):
Despite her attitude, Calculated Maid of Sapience is surprisingly good with people. This shouldn't be, for which maid cannot be friendly when she wants to be?
This charm can be used the first time Calculated Maid of Sapience meet a character. With but a few words, she instantly finds the way to endear herself to that person. For the rest of the scene, that person gain a temporary positive Minor Tie of amicality toward Calculated Maid of Sapience, unless it conflicts with another of his intimacies.
This Minor Tie fades slowly with the end of the scene, but it can be cultivated like any other intimacy.

Divine Accord Concordance (25m 1wp, Simple, Indefinite):
This charm is her most cherished secret, for using it means opening her own heart. Even sun kings of the first age were usually not privy of this secret. Indeed, it would be a great task to unearth it, if it is to be found at all, and Calculated Maid of Sapience would deny its existence against all evidence.
This charm can only be used in a musical performance, and only when Calculated Maid of Sapience accompanies another performer. When those prerequisites are met, she can activate and maintain this charm for as long as the musical performance continues.
For as long as Divine Accord Concordance is active, the other performer gains the capacity of using the charms Mood-Inducing Music, Soul-Firing Performance, and Heart-Compelling Method. This is true even if that musician doesn’t have the prerequisites for those charms (and indeed, even if he is a mortal!). Once per story.

Unmovable Object Approach (3m 1wp, Reflexive, Instant):
Calculated Maid of Sapience gains (Essence) automatic success against any tentative to move her. This include attack made to throws her around or to make her prone. This charm doesn’t prevent damage in any way. This charm is inherited from her patron, even though this version is obviously imperfect.

Defining Principle: I am not easily amused.
Major Principle: I am competent in my duties, one of the best there is. I am a professional.
Major Principle: I keep my secrets.
Minor Principle: Despite my behavior, I am still a good person at heart.
Major Intimacy: Seventh Machine of Destruction (Equal part exasperation and fondness)
Minor Intimacy: Future Yet To Come, Heavenly Goddess of Maids (one-sided rivalry)
Minor Intimacy: Mortals (crass)
Minor Intimacy: Demons (stupid)
Minor Intimacy: Gods (annoying)
Minor Intimacy: Exalts (crass, stupid, and annoying)

Calculated Maid of Sapience is dry, cynical, and perpetually foul tempered. She is also arguably the best maid of Creation, a fact she is keenly aware. She is often summoned into Creation to take care of a manse or a household for powerful Celestial exalts and was even summoned several times by Terrestrial sorcerers for the exact same reason. She’s virtually never met outside of Malfeas without an official capacity of some sort.
STs are encouraged to play her as a perfect ‘Jeeves’ that is as supremely competent as she is grating for everyone, her master first. She’s oh-so-very sarcastic, but surprisingly benign for a second circle demon. In a pinch she can be a decent social character, though most of her social prowesses are defensive in nature.
If her master is in danger, she will usually stay in the guideline and use Snarky Retort Venom every round. She never fights directly and will attempt to escape any combat before it even begins, unless bound by a major positive intimacy or a direct order. She has no particular quandaries at being slain to return to Malfeas.

Well seeing as this is HAMBREW time, I drew up a 2nd circle Warden soul. I don't really have much on the summoning of it or anything, but I did write up a charmset and such. Someone has urged me to share it so I shall do so. If you like it feel free to take it and slap it onto a 3rd circle you think it'd fit. Assume the usual spirit charms I suppose. Obviously Nala is her 3rd circle. I also know the name Nala is from the lion king. I realized it after I had already made the 3rd circle and the name is dear to me now.

Arey, the Unstoppable Inferno (Warden Soul of Nala)
Essence 6; Willpower: 10; Personal: 110 Health Levels: -0x5/-1x10/-2x13/-4x3/Incap.
Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 6, Stamina 5, Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 3, Perception 4, Intelligence 2, Wits 5
Abilities: Athletics 5, Awareness 6, Brawl 6, Dodge 6, Integrity 5, Resistance 4
Specialties: (Dodge) +Unarmored, (Brawl) Unarmed, (Brawl) Grapple, (Athletics) Rushing, (Awareness) Sight
Soak/Hardness: 14/8
Attack (Blazing Claws): Withering 17 (Damage 15 Ovw. 3) [Arey’s Attacks can always deal Lethal damage]
Attack (Grapple): 12 dice (11 dice to control)
Arey contrasts her Patron Nala's restraint with reckless disregard for collateral damage, yet she still echoes Nala's vast power. Arey tends to protect those she is charged with protecting by displaying overwhelming force. As her flames scorch what they touch, it turns to glass, no matter the material so burned, fond reminders for her to look over as she recalls her destructive prowess. She leaves entire fields turned to glass in her wake, every footstep leaves a perfect glass footprint. Her method of attacking those who cross her tends to comprise of shock and awe tactics that overwhelm her opponents in a vast display of force.

(Cont.)

Damn, forgot her art.

-Crystallizing Flames: The flames of Arey burn as surely as any other fire, but they leave in their destruction beautiful glass instead of ash. Just as every step leaves a glass footprint, so does every strike whittle away at the enemy’s strength as their very flesh betrays them. Any Decisive attack that Arey makes that does 3+ levels of damage causes a limb that she attacked to turn to glass. If an arm was holding anything it drops it immediately. Two handed weapons cause the user to suffer a -2 penalty to all actions when using one hand. Should both arms be turned to glass in this way the defender can only use a weapon with clever stunting. If she targets a leg then the target takes a -1 penalty to all actions involving movement and evasion. If both legs are turned to glass in this way the target is falls prone and takes a -3 penalty to all movements. This can be healed by exalted with a difficulty 7 Stamina + Resistance check made after 8 hours of sleep each day. The difficulty of the check lowers by 1 each failed check.

-Flames of Imagination: If Arey can be calmed down long enough, she can produce stunning works of glass art. With a gesture of her hand, flames dance perfectly throughout the air and create a beautiful glass art. Depending on how much of her power she pumps into it, she can create a statue worth anywhere from resource 1 to resource 5, each 10 motes pumped into it focuses the flames more perfectly, raising it by 1 dot per 10 motes.

-Burning Rending Claw (8m, 4i, Supplemental, Instant, Essence: 6): Arey looks at the damage she’s already done to her opponent and strikes at the wound with unfettered force. Striking at the crystallized wound, she seeks to shatter it. This attack adds Essence unsoakable levels of damage to a decisive attack, these extra levels can be removed, but only if the target accepts a permanent crippling effect (which does not count to the once per story limit). If the target accepts the penalty, the glass miraculously holds firm against the massive blow. Once per fight, resets by crashing an opponent.

-Unmatched Fury (2m+, Supplemental, Instant, Essence: 5): So long as Arey is charged with defending something or someone and that charge is under threat, she can add up to 5 successes at 2 motes per success. She can also activate this charm whenever she needs to, so long as she buys at least 3 successes, showing off her overwhelming force.

-Burn Away the World (2m (+3m, 3i), Supplemental, Instant, Essence: 4): Areys flames lick and weaken the defensive powers of hide and armor alike. Using this charm Arey’s claws coat themselves in a hungry fire with hints at her power to turn anything to glass. This charm removes soak equal to Essence for a withering attack. On a Decisive attack this removes Ess/2 Hardness. For a surcharge of 3m and 3i, a withering attack can remove this soak for an entire scene, this effect stacks with itself, but it cannot bring someone to negative soak and each use of this charm on a target already effected by the scene-long effect incurs an extra 2i surcharge to use this effect.

-Raging Burst (2m, Supplemental, Instant, Essence: 4): As Arey takes damage, cracks open in her charred flesh and flames spill out, seeking to repay what has been done. Arey may add twice her current wound penalty as damage to a withering or decisive attack (max of 4)

-Power Overwhelming (7m, 1wp, Reflexive, Instant, Essence: 6): Focusing all her fury into a concentrated burst of flame, Arey makes a special withering attack. She strikes at her target and the attack is soaked as normal, However all leftover dice on the withering damage roll are changed directly to decisive damage dice to be applied directly to the opponents health track, and for each success Arey rolled over her opponents defense on the attack roll, she may double one 10. After the attack is completed, Arey loses initiative equal to half of the levels of damage dealt. If this damage does 3+ levels of damage Arey can apply the effect of Crystallizing Flames to the target, she may choose any limb she wishes or she can cripple a sense such as the eyes or ears. If the eyes are crippled the target takes the usual -3 penalty for being blind and hearing means that all attempts to use that sense instantly fail. Once per scene, reset by incapacitating a non-trivial opponent.

I'm sorry to here that. I'm a fan of your work and I hope things get better for you soon.

-Explosive Rebuke (10m, 1wp, Reflexive, Instant, Essence: 6): In response to being struck, Arey’s charred flesh bursts open, sending a massive gout of flame at anyone foolish enough to strike her. She unleashes an unblockable decisive counterattack with an attack pool of 15 dice. This attack has a base damage of 10 + Levels of damage taken and DOES NOT reset her to base initiative. She may enhance the attack roll with Unmatched Fury as well as Raging Burst. Raging burst adds damage as per the wound penalty that she had before the damage was taken. Once per scene, reset by unleashing a decisive attack at 12+ initiative and then building back up to 15+ initiative.

-Frenzied Defense (5m, Reflexive, Instant, Essence: 6): When Arey’s charge is in danger, Arey can flash to their side, leaving a blazing trail in her wake. This allows Arey a reflexive defend other action to her charge out to Short range.

-Incomprehensible Rage (8m, 1wp, Reflexive, One Scene, Essence: 6): Arey’s fury cannot be contained, and it only serves to make her more dangerous, not less. Upon taking damage that would put her into a lower wound penalty, she can instead enter a battle rage. This rage reverses the current wound penalty she is at, as well as giving her the option to add decisive soak equal to her current wound penalty + 2. If she goes to a greater wound penalty from taking damage she may reflexively pay 5m which is not committed to activate this charm again to make her new wound penalty reversed. E.g. Arey falls into her -2 health levels from a frightening decisive attack of her enemy. She activates Incomprehensible Rage to gain +2 to all her combat actions. Later on in the fight she falls into her -4 health levels, she then spends another 5m which is not committed to increase her combat bonus to +4 instead of taking a -4 penalty.

More Albertans in here than I really expected. I'm from Calgary myself.

That's all, folks.

Calculated Maid of Sapience is extremely specialized as far as demons go, but that's fine. She's not a fighter.

>However all leftover dice on the withering damage roll are changed directly to decisive damage dice to be applied directly to the opponents health track, and for each success Arey rolled over her opponents defense on the attack roll, she may double one 10. After the attack is completed, Arey loses initiative equal to half of the levels of damage dealt.

This seems out of line.

2m for an extra Health Level seems a little bit cheap, at what point during attack resolution do they pay that?

We're behind you, user (no homo).

aaaand finally a few intimacies. These aren't complete.

Defining Principle: I will destroy any who stand in my way
Defining Principle: Those who would harm my charge will be as sculptures, or shattered glass.
Defining Tie: (Annoyed Obediance) Nala
Major Principle: Joy comes from conflict
Major Principle: Art comes in many forms/
Minor tie: (Enjoyment) Her Statues.

Care to elaborate?

Very good conversion rate on initiative to damage combined with not resetting initiative, and then a free powerful lead-into Charm that's very hard to reliably counter due to the double 10s.

Hmmm, I see your point. I did take a bit of the idea from Flashing Edge of Dawn. Mayhaps I will remove the double 10's rule on it. Thanks for clarifying.

I like her user.

>Verdant Arrows of Implications
Nice.
Also the rest of the stuff feels very thematic for this character you're making, I like how the charms describe her.

Decisive attacks don't get soaked.

The idea was to ignore decisive soak charms. Though thinking about it now that might be a bit much.

Truth

Thanks, it makes me happy that people like you guys are behind me and enjoy my work.

Yeah, the decisive soak charms sit in the same kind of 'charmtech to counter this is a bad idea' domain that 2e perfects sat in, even though they're not actually "perfect" anymore.

Don't write Zeal for Ex3 is what I'm getting at.

I would hope it's not QUITE on the level of Zeal. But I will be removing that after looking over it again.

>jyenicolson.net/exalted/
Do we still not have a mirror for this broken link?
I'd really like to try this tutorial out.

That's really not as bad as Zeal, but I agree that decisive soak is a rare enough effect to let those invested in it be able to keep it.

Homebrew question: What does anyone think about sorcerous artifacts?

One of the options for shaping rituals is the Talisman of Ten Thousand Eyes, and it doesn't have any references to the user needing to be an essence user in order to activate it. Similarly, the tattoos that Mara offers have evocations mentioned, but do not refer to this being an Exalts-only option.

I'm thinking about designing some Sorcerous Artifacts. They can be used by any sorcerer, mortals included, and their evocations are fuelled by sorcerous motes rather than the user's essence or lack thereof. Since these motes are essentially free, costing only time to accumulate, the design would be interesting; they could be very costly and have short durations, or be usable only once without a lengthy recharge.

Sound reasonable? Any thoughts on the concept?

You have my approval. Proceed!

Guy that made that here, yeah it probably does, it was one of my first homebrews. What exactly do you think needs change, though?

So this one is based on a character I'd like to play, a Dawn who uses Volcano Cutter and ends up learning Sorcery from Javarajati, VC's keeper. The Ifrit Lord shaping ritual has the Burning Name trait, and I was thinking it'd be neat to attach a few evocations to that as a magical tattoo, probably based on henna designs because Javarajati has an Indian sound to it.

So this is a tattoo that would have a conventional evocation with a conventional mote cost attached to it, for boosting the effect of the fire throwing attacks it makes to artifact-level (and doing something else, because Evocations should be more interesting than just dice adders), and a separate sorcerous evocation.

Keyword Sorcerous in this case means that the activation of the charm requires you to make one or more shaping actions. Basically, treat it as its own spell you're shaping.

Kindleflame
Cost: 15sm, 1wp; Mins: None;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Sorcerous
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None

Fire calls to fire. The sorcerer captures the energy of the Pole of Fire, preventing it from dissipating into Creation. While this Evocation is active, all flaming attacks and fire-based environmental hazards within Medium range of the sorcerer roll two additional dice for damage. This also applies to damage inflicted upon the sorcerer.

While Kindleflame is active, the sorcerer may pay an additional 10sm to increase the damage bonus by one.

Special activation rule: On the tick that the sorcerer successfully casts a fire-based sorcery or takes decisive damage from a fire-based source, they may reflexively add 5sm to Kindleflame's total. This does not eliminate the Willpower requirement for the Evocation, but it may also be paid reflexively if enough motes are gathered reflexively.

I'm pretty happy with how that turned out given that I didn't have it prepared, but I'd change a couple of things. The Minimum section could refer to the level of Sorcery that the sorcerer has initiated into. Terrestrial seems fine for this one. It's not breaking physics any harder than Exalted normally does to make flames burn hotter.

I'd also change the section on willpower cost at the end. If sorcerous evocations work like sorcerous spells, then you'd get the willpower back if you succeed in activating the thing. No point in asking for willpower and then giving it back, so the wording would be "The sorcerer must pay this evocation's willpower cost when first gathering motes toward activating it, including this method".

In order to make sorcerous evocations different to conventional evocations, the definition of Keyword: Sorcerous could be expanded. Not sure what the formal wording would be, but basically you only lose motes toward a sorcerous evocation at the end of the scene. The sorcerer doesn't need to concentrate on the evocation, and can even cast a different spell while trying to activate this one. That makes sense given the particular function of this spell, but also helps to clarify why this even needs to be a sorcerous evocation rather than simply making it a spell.

Finally, if you don't like tattoos, here's a lantern. The DB officer of Lookshy's Fifth Battalion Sorcery Corps. holds this thing while the mortal sorcerers under his command pelt the enemy with flame sorcery, to make up fluff at random.

Does Shadow Victor's Repose work for non-stealth based JB rolls?
If it's only for Stealth-based, is Blinding Battle Feint assumed to be free?

I think the general case is that you can't use a charm from one ability on a roll for a different ability. The game points out the specific instances when you can.

That said, I'm not sure it's obvious for this charm. Posting the text, in case someone else wants to chime in.

Shadow Victor’s Repose
Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Stealth 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Blinding Battle Feint
Standing unseen in the midst of her enemies, the Exalt
revels in her control of battle’s flow. Once per scene,
while concealed during combat, the Exalt may roll
Join Battle and add her result to her current Initiative,
so long as she has landed at least one decisive attack.
Any Charms the Exalt uses to enhance her roll are au-
tomatically muted.

The Thrown JB enhancers explicitly state they can be used with other abilities, this would seem to show SVP is for Stealth only.
Would this mean you're forced to use Blinding Battle Feint for the associated JB roll or does it provide its own [Dex+Stealth] JB roll?

I guess I might as well read them, since you are basically spoonfeeding me. Maybe then I will finally get that "Keychain of Creation" webcomic which I have bookmarked for years.

>jyenicolson.net/exalted/

Try this.

web.archive.org/web/20160314105757/http://jyenicolson.net/exalted/

Hey guys, I'm currently attempting to homebrew some of Creation's craziest sex charms and artifacts, I'm currently looking at Chimera Lunars and I think they'd be pretty wyld in bed, does anyone have any thoughts on some cuhrazy charm ideas for me?

Didn't think that'd work, thanks. Can someone make a more solid mirror?
Remember to update the OP next thread.

I'd say you have to use BBF.

Thinking about it, the fact that SVR's only pre-requisite is BBF does make one charm's reliance on the other make sense.

Woops, I didn't notice this was a tutorial for 2e. I don't think the OP should be using it to help introduce players to 3e's mechanics, it should be moved to the 2e collection instead.
Any news of someone working on something similar for 3e?

I'm going to assume you mean 2e since Chimerae aren't mentioned in 3e yet.

Stamina charm for endless sex without refractory period or fatigue is probably a good starter, followed up by charm for endless orgasm, and then you can maybe have a comic upgrade that converts motes into exponential volume of orgasm. (Downhill: "This river wasn't here yesterday." "That's no river.")

Possibly a merged charm across multiple Attributes in order to stretch/compress to be able to receive/insert bits that are too large/small, like Dog-Tongue/Dog-Ear method is merged across Charisma/Perception. Maybe a comic upgrade here too, allowing one to fit (like with Many-Pockets Manipulation) any object the character can lift with one hand.

Appearance charm to influence/compel anyone who's tasted your bodily fluids. Manipulation charm to make people addicted to sex with you. Perception charm to know off the bat "a little lower, oh yes, right there".

Peeking over to shapeshifting, I don't think you need to add much to what's already printed there. Hybrid Body Rearrangement to grow your own tentacles and orifices, Prey's Skin Disguise to take on a variety of humanoid forms, Changing Plumage Mastery to adjust the fine details on both the previous, Lunar Blood Shaping Technique to mod your partner(s), Life of the Hummingbird/Courtesan's Possession to imitate anyone you've slept with, and of course Twin-Faced Hero. Best of all, you don't even need to be a chimera for any of these. Regular Lunars can be bust-resizing celebrity-imitating tentacle-sprouting traps just fine with what the developers gave them.