No Exalted thread

In Exalted 3e, is the division between Terrestrial, Celestial, and Sidereal martial arts maintained? I couldn't find anything about it in the new core book.

Not really. While Sidereal martial arts are still a separate thing, other martial arts are not split by Celestial and Terrestrial, at least in terms of being able to learn and make use of that martial art. Every martial art that isn't Sidereal is open to every supernatural being, but Celestials (especially Solars and Sidereals) get bonuses for the charms.

Can mortals still learn non-Sideral MA then?

We only have proper rules for Solar PCs, but so far there are two keywords that apply to certain martial arts charms that bring across the mechanical differences between the Exalt types. You can find these on page 427.

Terrestrial means that a charm is less powerful when a Dragonblood uses it. It mentions that the Immaculate Masters can bypass this limit for certain charms, which probably just means that a Fire Aspect using Fire Dragon Style will get the full benefit of that specific style.

Master means that only a master (i.e. a Solar or Sidereal) gets the full benefit of that charm. There is no reference in the Solar book to mechanics that cannot be used by Solars. Make of that what you will.

The devs have said that the Immaculate MAs will not have the Master keyword on any of their charms.

Mortals can learn MAs of any sort with the Martial Arts merit, but this only gives them the weapon proficiencies of that style (i.e. using a single skill to fight unarmed and with knives if using Ebon Shadow Style). Mortals cannot learn charms. Charms require essence use and mortals cannot use essence. If a mortal gains the ability to use essence, they are no longer a mortal. That's how 3e defines it.

Oh, that's a big change from 2e, thanks. I didn't expect mortals to actually get downgraded.

They've been downgraded in terms of Martial Arts, but another big change is that Sorcery no longer requires a character to be an essence user. Sorcerers harness essence from their surroundings, so a mortal can learn sorcery through a Merit. Being an essence user is an advantage in sorcery, but then being an essence user is an advantage in EVERYTHING.

Some players have tried to get around the "mortals can't learn martial arts charms" limit by creating spells or sorcerous traditions that mirror the martial arts. This only sort of works, which is an endorsement of how powerful sorcery is in 3e as much as anything else. Whether it's true of all characters or just Solars in general, making a Solar into a sorcerer requires a trivial investment of character resources compared to making them a martial artist.

>If a mortal gains the ability to use essence, they are no longer a mortal. That's how 3e defines it.
That was how 2e defined it as well, fwiw. But nobody abided by it.

I thought 2e had a concept of an enlightened mortal? I might be misremembering it.

> CHARM CONCEPT : MORTALS
> A mortal is someone who cannot spend motes of Essence to achieve effects. This includes normal people, animals and Wyld mutants.
-p218 of 2e core

but then there's also the setting intro text on p22:

> When immortal, beings who can control and channel Essence are called gods. When mortal, they are named Exalted.

In 3e, do you have to have every spell of a previous circle to go onto the next one? Like do you need all of the terrestrial circle spells before you can learn celestial?

Nah, you can pick and choose as you see fit. Not sure if there was an edition that required that. In fact, I doubt there's any game that requires that. Any design decision that makes it less likely that players are going to buy a new book that contains new spells is going to get vetoed by the publishers. Dosh uber alles.

Does anyone have the default exalted general intro post, the one with all the links?

just look it up in the archive

So are mortals unable to attain essence unless they exalt?

No, not in either 2E or 3E, they just don't count as mortals anymore when they do. In 3E, mortals becoming able to use Essence probably requires some weird, unique shenanigans. The one example from the core book is a guy who went to the Wyld and became sort of an archetype of a freedom fighter, someone who keeps looking for rulers to overthrow and whose powers are all about opposing those in power.

Its important because when they no longer become mortal, i.e. they become Enlightened, ascend to Godhood, etc. they are no longer applicable for Exaltation.

This is what the Perfect of Paragon will never Exalt, no matter how much it spurns his pride.

>no longer are mortal

Long day.

Anyone know why the Exalted generals are dead on here? I haven't been paying much attention but I am surprised by its absence.

My group plays 2e so I guess we've become like those grogs who stuck to 2nd or Red Box.

Well the Core book came out last year after the leak had already been out for like a year as well so the game's been "out" for about 1.5 years now. We're now waiting on the next book that is taking quite a big longer than expected wow what a surprise so there's just been a dearth of things to talk about.

What is even going to be in the new book? I assume its probably more Solar charms or artifacts. Anything new lore related been mentioned?

A lot of folks I've talked to about ex3 seemed to just be using 2e's setting with ex3's rules, its kind of strange, but I can't say I cared for their setting changes either.

It's going to be focusing almost exclusively on Artifacts, it's called Arms of the Chosen. Any lore we get from it will probably be through artifact fluff pieces.

As for the setting, almost everyone I know who uses 3e has done much the same. Not enough of 3e lore as come out to overwrite everything from 2e and a lot of the lore changes that 3e is or will introduce can be easily ignored or adapted into the setting we know from 2e.


I've been fine with a lot of the lore changes they've talked about since it's mostly scaling down the ridiculous magitech that got introduced later in the lifetime of 2e and generally trying to make the other splats more playable. Lunars are actually doing shit and not just sulking in the corner, Abyssals are supposed to be closer to Death's Lawgivers rather than the Exalted of Murder. And, as the writers themselves have said, there's no Canon Ninjas waiting to assassinate you if you change the setting so I personally very much encourage taking whatever you like from any edition and using it.

>. Lunars are actually doing shit and not just sulking in the corner

Was making some of the bigger, stronger non-Realm nations and fighting in the deep wyld and stymieing the Balorian Crusade not enough? I never felt like they 'did nothing'. Several centuries was a very effective if oppressive world regime backed by the Sidereals and it took the Contagion to break that and allow them and breathing room to do anything without being massacred on site by hundreds of Sengoku Basara looking motherfuckers in giant robots.

>. Lunars are actually doing shit and not just sulking in the corner

Lunars have always suffered from not having a realized place in the setting, with no long term goal or direction. The Solaroids can get away with that because they have just returned from a five year absence, but Sidereals have been guiding DBs in ruling the Ream for 1,500 years while also directing Wyld Hunts against various Anathema, while the Lunars hemselves have been taking part in a poorly defined "1,000 streams river" since the Usurpation and don't have anything to show for it. The Caul in Ex3 gives them a concrete power base to work off of.

How hard would it be for a powerful solar wizard to change exaltions so that they would breed and multiply like other lifeforms?

What, create dynasties in the same way DBs do? Considering that that would result in the creation of a new Celestial Exaltation ,something that only Autochthon was able to do, it probably wouldn't be possible at all.

Why would you want Dynasties of Solars though? There'd be likely no way to control all of those people and it'd irrevocably change the setting.

>Its important because when they no longer become mortal, i.e. they become Enlightened, ascend to Godhood, etc. they are no longer applicable for Exaltation.
That has not been the case in previous editions, and I don't think the devs have explicitly stated anywhere that formerly-mortal people can't Exalt in 3E. Previously, God-Blooded, Half-Castes and enlightened mortals have been just as valid candidates for exaltation as any regular heroic mortal.

>it'd irrevocably change the setting.
Which basically means its impossible.

That sounds like metalogic, but it works as in-setting logic as well. The Solars tried everything, with access to every resource and all knowledge. If it can be done, a Solar has already done it. The reason they didn't utterly destroy Creation and build it back up as they saw fit (presumably to get rid of those remaining limitations) is not because they couldn't, but because the Usurpation stopped them before they could do it.

But user, if there are things Solars didn't do because the Usurpation stopped them, then it obviously isn't true that everything that can be done has already been done by a Solar.

They did everything that can be done in *this* Creation. The interrupted plan was for the First Age Solars to tear down Creation and build a new one where they could do more things.

That only makes sense if tearing down nd rebuilding the Creation is something that can be done in this Creation. Aside from that, Solars of ages gone having already done everything your characters might think of is kind of a shitty idea. I sincerely doubt whether anything like that will be canon in 3E, and am unsure on whether it was even explicitly canon in previous editions. Either way, coming up with things your character's predecessors didn't think of, or though of but never got around to actually trying out, or maybe tried out but never developed to their full potential, should be possible. Maybe the different context of the Age of Sorrows leads to different ideas. Maybe the First Age Solars, while every bit as smart as your Twilight craftnerd or Eclipse schemer or Night criminal mastermind, weren't smart in quite the same way. The personal brand of an inventor's ingenuity leading to unique creations others can't easily replicate is certainly approriate thematically and genre-wise. Bottom line is that PCs should have room to do, think and create things their predecessors didn't.

Someone spoke (last thread) of a homebrew version of WST he uses in his games, where the charm creates a journey to some 'treasure' (the result of WST the lawgiver wanted) and the solars still have to take that journey.

I think this is a very cool idea and my ST senses are always tingling for any idea where the players create their own plot hooks.

Can anyone give me any tips on this? Is it a good idea? What exactly does the changed Charm have to do to make this fun?

Not the guy who mentioned that Chrm, and actually I haven't seen any version, canon or homebrewed, of WST used in my agmes yet, so I'm basically just talking out of my ass. Still, I'd say the single most important thing is to not make it too long. Not long enough to take a whole session, probably? The desired goal is still the main point, and while the journey should be interesting, it shouldn't take too much game time. The second most important thing is, I feel, showcasing the weirdness of the Wyld. When you play with forces outside and alien to the Creation, it should feel like you're playing ith forces outside and alien to the Creation, Throw in some weird shit. Third most important thing is the difficulty of the thing. The journey itself shouldn't be very likely to fail, because it really sucks to by a Charm and then fail to get any use out of it. Complications and unfireseen consequences are all fine and dandy asfar as I'm concerned. Like, maybe you manage to draw the notice of some powerful Fae, or maybe you bring some of the weirdness of the Wyld with you, which could manifets as strange and potentially troublesome phenomena around you for some time after your journey. Maybe your journey just took longer than you expected because time flows strangely in the Wyld - not long enouhg to ruin the campaign because centuries have passed in te Creation, obviously, but maybe long enough to inconvenience the party somewhat. There should be some risk involved. These are pretty vague thoughts which, again, aren't based on any personal eperience. Still, I hope they're of some help.