Exalted General - /exg/

What's the most efficient way to spend BP at chargen: Bumping critical Attributes to 5 or bumping critical Abilities to 5?

Critical abilities. Attributes cost FUCKTONS of BP

Approximate scale?

What's medo?

Abilities.

Attribute 4->5: 3/4 BP or 16xp
Favored Ability 4->5: 1BP or 9xp
(Unfavored Ability 4->5: 2BP or 10xp)

Honestly I think theres a much simpler approach. The neverborn themselves are dead. They can only act through proxies, deathlords or abyssals or nephwraks or various other underworld things. If creation ever got unified again and managed to take care of the deathlords then it could probably just handle the rest of the things as they come. Like sure every now and again some weird thing may come from the underworld, but the exalted will probably just be able to handle it. The only reason they had 13 super powered deathlords like they do know is because no one was paying enough attention as they were just all split to far.

That mostly depends on how good the mercenary in question is. I mean demons running around usually aren't a super big problem since they dont really get out on their own alot. If he's good enough to take them though then i suppose its only a matter of finding people willing to pay enough to get pretty rich pretty fast. Resources 3 or 4 id say with skills like those.

Medo is a region of Creation looking like a crossover between Transylvania, Ottoman Empire and Eastern Europe.

Eeh, pretty close.

>Approximate scale?
500 miles from the westmost point of the middle empire to Yesserechny circa.

middle state* not empire... I need to get some sleep.

In my head canon, the Neverborn are - like all ghosts - bound to the world by Intimacies. The problem is: they're too far gone to have Intimacies of their own.

So if everyone would just forget about them, off they go into whatever comes after a Primordial dies.

Would make for an awesome Inception-style campaign, where you would need to rewrite the memories of Creation and beyond...

What's the population density and city frequency in those hundreds of miles of empty area? How much is "not drawing this bit" versus "nothing interesting here"? Pic related, see Tangiers and Ceuta in close proximity, then nothing for a thousand miles of Africa, while Spain has lots of dots.

You might consider somehow marking the main roads/routes of travel up here, those can serve as clean indicators of settlement, since smaller cities would presumably be found along them.

What are good, fairly reusable antagonists for Solars who are in an area that is very far from the Realm and beyond the reach of the Wyld Hunt?

Other Solars, Lunars, Abyssals, Fae, Gods.
Be more specific.

Regenerating Chimerae.

>Solars, Lunars, Abyssals
These aren't really reusable, because if the PCs kill them, it stretches credibility to keep throwing them at the PCs. Whereas with DBs, for example, there's like twenty thousand so you can reasonable have multiple fights with them in a given area.

>>Solars, Lunars, Abyssals
>These aren't really reusable, because if the PCs kill them, it stretches credibility to keep throwing them at the PCs.
Abyssals still work for that. Their Deathlords can just make more when they're killed.

I misinterpreted "reusable" for "recurring." You could feasibly have a Solar that escapes via Stealth, Athletics, or the Twiliight Anima Banner. Lunars can simply shapeshift.

Then they're E1 chumps the players can clown on.

You know the drill. How cute is your character? My standards get higher and higher by each cute things my current players do.

>So has anyone had a game or an idea on how to stop the Neverborn?
I think the most common idea of how to deal with the Neverborn is in the vein of the endings of all things that linger in the Underworld: bring them peace and acceptance of their death or cast them into Oblivion. Getting the the Neverborn to move on could involve any number of solutions, from sacrificing all Creation to atone for their murders to sacrificing the Primordials' most treasured things (the Games of Divinity might be a good start) to listening to their whispers to understand their torment and questing to resolve the tethers that bind them to their cursed half existence.

It may be possible to destroy the Neverborn through application of destructive force (or perhaps by some other, more esoteric means), but I tend to think that approach would cause more trouble than it solves.

I hasten to take issue with the precise phraseology of your question, though. I think the Neverborn have already been pretty definitively "stopped". They don't really do much anymore. They can only barely be said to exist. They are more like an ambient, destructive force of nature than villains.

For what it's worth, here's some stuff Neph wrote back on the old forums.

exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/Thus_Spake_Zaranephilpal/MalfeanDeath

They're a pretty qt little boy.

Tell me more about that.

>Also what is your opinion of if the Neverborn are destroyed/reincarnated the Great Curse is removed.

I don't think so, no. My interpretation is that the Great Curse is something that was caused by the Malfeans and is under their power but exists independently of them. Depending on how they are destroyed, though, they might choose to lift the Great Curse as they go, though.

Cake loving, seafaring, diplomatic little boy.

nah i dont like little boys

You're right... I will add the main streets and think of a population density for it all.

As for the population, I was thinking that about 75.000.000 people should be alright. Linowan, Fae and criminals notwithstanding.

Doesn't sound like you are to me

I am.

>How much is "not drawing this bit"
A lot of it. It was just a rough draft to start off with, I'm going to expand on it more as time goes by.

dubs confirm.

But why did you ask to know more if you don't like little boys? Doesn't sound very logical to me

That's cool. I didn't really know anything about your game, your players or anything else, so it's kind of hard to get invested or appeal to your tastes like that.

Maybe he likes little cute boys but not cute 'little' boys.

Even if I don't, there could be something interesting about it. Now, if you'll be a little boy who's also a milf-hunter, now that changes things.

Even when ERPing, we must not betray our own principles. Only then will we be true traitors.

>Even when ERPing, we must not betray our own principles.
See though, my principals are far and wide, hence why it's best to know what I'm dealing with, so we can find the most overlap within principles.

For example, Milf-hunter? Perfectly fine and down with that, size difference and shotadom are some of my great likes after all.

The Great Curse is a death curse of the slayed Primordials. That was the same in every edition. It says it right on page 134 in 3e. The Malfeans have no power over it. In 2e they were able to alter it to make urges but not eliminate it. The only beings who can remove the Great Curse have been Neverborn. That was replaced with resonance (which was just the Neverborn being jerks and is assumed to be replaced) but it was said that if an Abyssal was ever redeemed his Exaltation would be Curse free as a Solar.

Okay, you're in. I hope you're into netorare too. My self-inset is nailing a lady and I want you to steal her from me, got that?

"Malfeans" was the 1E term for the Neverborn; it's never been a term for the Yozi.

So, I have a player that made a supernal Stealth night caste, and as part of his assassin tool kit took Perfect Shadow Stillness, Stalking Wolf Attitude, and the Belt of Shadow Walking Artifact.

Because it's what he invested a lot into, I have no problem allowing him to use these charms to basically one shot most anything that's not a celestial exalt-tier opponent (it's hard for anything below that to beat his maxed out stealth pool + excellency + rerolls from Perfect Shadow Stillness), and they haven't come up against such an opponent yet.

My question is, what is the best way for such an opponent to counter this stealth combo, apart from simply having a supernal awareness type being (i.e. awareness dice pools matching his, excellencies, Eye of the Unconquered Sun, etc.)?

The main problem arises because his stealth combo allows him to accumulate pretty high initiative values fairly quickly while being hard to harm because no one can reliably find him. Any ideas?

Charms in question:

>Perfect Shadow Stillness
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Stealth 2, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Lawgiver’s stealth technique is honed until it’s flawless.
Perfect Shadow Stillness allows a reroll of any Stealthbased
action, preserving the 10s from those results and
rerolling the remaining dice. At Stealth 5, succeeding at a
stealth attempt with this Charm awards the Solar one
point of temporary Willpower.

>Stalking Wolf Attitude
Cost: 5m; Mins: Stealth 4, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Blinding Battle Feint
The Solar stalks her prey unseen, waiting for the perfect
moment to strike. While concealed, the Solar uses this
technique to focus on an opponent. Feeling along the
pulse of the world’s Essence, she stalks her target from
the shadows, her veins coursing with lethal readiness.
With this Charm, the Solar ignores the -3 penalty to
Stealth rolls for moving while concealed. In addition, on
each round in which she succeeds at the contested roll
to evade detection by her mark, she gains an amount of
Initiative equal to her extra successes on the roll. When
the Exalt senses the perfect moment to strike, she may
then leap from concealment to unleash a decisive attack,
as long as she’s been hidden by this Charm for at least
a round.

For each round that she remains under the effects of this
Charm, the Solar gains a mounting -1 penalty to her Stealth
rolls, and if she is discovered or if she voluntarily leaves
concealment or terminates the Charm without making a decisive attack, she loses all of the Initiative she gained
through her most recent activation of the Charm.

Come on user, step up the trolling.

That's no trolling though. Being partial to netorare is a requisite to enter.

Something with surprise negator. Or maybe some charm allowing for attacking stealthed foes and forcing them to move away from you. Or maybe clash working only against attack from surprise or ambush. Dunno, I have no mechanical experience and I'm just shooting at the dark.

Now that's what I call misleading. I can see why they gave up on that.

If you actually wanted someone in, you'd have probably given some sort of contact details

The same thing happens with Single Point stylists, so the answer is the same: Damage limiters. Things with Legendary Size heavily cripple this build or at least force him to make battles significantly longer if he cannot do multi-attacks. Dread Gear Fortification, a charm possessed by Viator of Nullspace in 2e, allowed him (for free) to halt any and all damage from wrapping over into his next health level batch. Meaning if you attack does 52 levels of damage and he has 1x -0 health catagory and 16x -1 health levels, only the -0 is filled out and the other 51 levels are completely and utterly wasted.

Its worth reminding that Viator of Nullspace was a BBEG, but charms of this guideline should help you make opponents of 2CD tier class to fight him reasonably.

I'm curious, how do Tya refer to one another?
As I understand it they're not like Dereth in that you can call them what they present as; a male Dereth is a he and a female Dereth is a she.

Tya are just sort of.... there.

This is a great idea, thank you!

Do they all talk like this person, and just refer to themselves as "this one" and other tya as "that one"?

Do fair folk eat emotions dreams or souls?

Yes.

>playing Exalted
>writing out multiple paragraphs describing how you would solve a problem
>not just punching it harder

Not to be confused with Meido, a town popular due to the high number of maid cafes.

I believe that one of these fellows is supposed to be a Medoan abyssal.

Have you read the preform and presence charm trees? The answer is always.

I recall one game where the only way to ever permanently get rid of them was to not only convince them to pass on, but to somehow make a device that can finally left them pass peacefully away while the fighters combat the inevitable hoards of ghosts that will try to stop it.

It sounded more awesome when I read about it.

Thread-Bumping Technique.

Performance or Presence, guys?

dubs confirm the truth

For general purposes, Presence. Because trying to frame every piece of social influence as a song or dance gets old quick.

Has anyone tried implementing exalted social combat in other Storyteller/Storytelling games? Does it work?

Presence. Performance has some neat tricks, but Presence is more broadly useful, and things like Fulminating Word or Countenance of Vast Wrath are really sweet.

Octavian has similar charm in the 3E core, The Tower Still Stands. Makes him gain a point of initiative from each box of damage he is about to take and if a single attack would completely fill his boxes of one type the rest of the damage is negated but he still gains initiative. Very powerful stuff.

Well, a good thing to make your stealth player sweat a bit more is to have the combat take place in a situation where there is next to no shadows or easy spots to hide behind, especially if there are other Exalted combatants around with Animas flaring and everything. Make them work for their stealth actions.

Also remember that the Belt gives charm dice like all artifacts unless otherwise specified, so no stacking that with excellency.

I find Countenance of Vast Wrath to be way overpriced. I mean, it's practically 13m, 1wp, 3a - or 20m, 2wp, 3a if you want to get Terrifying Apparition of Glory up again and you're not E5, which you probably do.

Even my threaten-specced Presence supernal didn't bother taking it - I just stopped at Terrifying Apparition. The -1 intiative thing is good if you're going for a tanky character, but if you've got CoVW, then you're probably Supernal Presence, and likely not too tanky.

or you could just convince a single infernal to steal their identity. sounds like about the same thing as your first idea

...why would the curse disappear if the ones who can remove it are killed?

good this was a test. you passed

--the fbi

In how me and my friends do lore, nobody is really trying to stop the Neverborn. Partially because most people don't know they exist, but mostly because aside from being a malign influence on Creation by virtue of their very existence... they don't really have enough presence of mind or sapience or consciousness to do anything proactive.

They don't have plots or plans or schemes. They have dreams that spiral out into existence like tendrils of rotation and infect minds and souls who speak of their new devotion and thrallhood to magnificent beings who bring horror and tears by their very comprehension. These isolated madmen may start cults that worship monsters like Nephwracks, open shadowlands, etc. But this is seen as the actions of madmen, so rare that few could draw connections between them in the face of more prominent and reasonably minded death cultists, all of the madness resolved by heroes, if at all.

And somewhere the Neverborn sleep, and somewhere, one stirs and dreams another horrifying dream.

>tendrils of rot.*
We'll done autocorrect.

I tried doing a similar feature for my PF game, but the gronard at my group RRREEEE'd for even suggesting a change to the system.

Well shit. I'll try it anyway and hope nobody spergs.

>Also remember that the Belt gives charm dice like all artifacts unless otherwise specified, so no stacking that with excellency.

I know that the artifact gives charm dice, but you can add more excellency dice up to your Ability + Attribute limit, no?

Meaning, if the belt grants 3 dice, and the character has 10 Dex+stealth, he could add another 7 dice with excellencies without breaking any rules or the cap, no?

presence is better for convincing individuals, performance is better for whole people groups.

yes.

By the way, does anyone else kind of wish that giving speeches was Presence, with Performance being just for artistic performances?

Does the anathema 3e source code thing actually work? I'm not great at computers but following the instructions I still can't get the thing to start.

Eh, commanding the attention of and speaking to a large crowd is a distinct skill from one on one conversation. It's perfectly appropriate to treat it as performance.

I'd let you switch to presence with a stunt tho.

Performance. At the low end, it's a legitimate moneymaking skill that doesn't draw pointed questions; at the high end, sometimes you gotta get an entire country in on your musical number.

youtube.com/watch?v=5MOUsDox-zQ
God/Goddess of Black Midi? They'd probably be called something like "whatshis/herface of the Black Cascade" and give their Exigent a charm that lets them vomit sprays of Mote-infused death.

A good time ago, maybe two months, someone posted in the thread an image of it working after being compiled. Personally, I could never make heads nor tails of Gradle.

Someone else on OPP has made an attempt at creating their own chargen software, but I've not tried it.

forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/882498-new-anathema-character-management-anathema-reincarnated

You can use Presence if you don't mind the penalty for talking to crowds.

What do you guys use for character sheets?

I've fallen back to Notepad. (Technically Notepad++) after a series of experiences with so many dedicated charsheet app/template/site/whatevers being shit in various ways:
*some section is stupid tiny, like 5-word space for charm descriptions
*sheet is nice and compact, but thing I want is missing
*thing I want is there, but sheet is bloated to five pages with Craft color point tracking, Craft project types and progress tracking, a billion slots for intimacies just in case I have more intimacies than I have charms, and combat statline spaces that could hold every weapon in the Gate of Babylon

I use the char sheet in the OP with all the formulas and shit. Seems to have worked pretty well for me so far.

Still waiting for Anathema to hit.

>never ever
:(

Was there a hombrew evocations tree for the tailismen?

I made my own google sheet, but the one in the OP is good too.
I like that it can calculate values for me, but that I can also adjust them based on houserules, charms or other misc bonuses.
I really prefer the ability to fit in what parts you actually need, and adjust the space in case you do have lots of intimacies or spells or whatever.
I quite like having all the charms listed out in a way that's easy to search and skim, and the full charm text being viewable when I need it.

bump

nah

I think I saw one of those on the onyx path artifact workshop.

i thought it was its own thread so i was just searching through all the old threads and couldnt find anything. That might explain it

Are elementals restricted to representing elements?
How could you use one to power a warstrider, or a ship?

>Are elementals restricted to representing elements?
Uh, yes, that's kind of the whole thing of it.

>How could you use one to power a warstrider, or a ship?
By enslaving it and telling it to turn a crank.

What sort of crank would it turn into? How could I enslave it?