Exalted General

>I want to start them off with a published mission/campaign etc.
Don't. They tend to not be very good, there aren't any for 3E yet, and Exalted is at its best in more player-driven games anyways. Just, like, run a solo prelude for each of your players if you feel like it, one where they Exalt. Think about a scenario to bring the PCs together, write up some early adversaries and see where it goes from there.

>If the 2e fluff is more complete, are there any books out there that I can port pretty seamlessly into 3e? Have not read the entire 3e rulebook yet, so will probably come here with questions soon
To be honest, I wouldn't do that. When you're starting off, it's probably a good idea to neither throw too much of the setting at your players sraight away. If you want to read some material to get a better grasp of the setting yourself, Games of Divinity and Scavenger Sons from 1E are good places to start.

Found them. Not sure how good it is as I'm the other new guy, but here: forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/817844-dragonblood-3e-conversion-peach

I think I'd like 'tying together' powers from different Yozis to be a standard and expected part of the Infernal Charms, even. It makes sense that Infernals can draw from several Yozis and make that power into something new. It's very Exalted-like. Maybe all the entry-level Charms should be associated with a single Yozi, with 'mixed' Charms being more common deeper into the Charm trees. I think focusing on a single Yozi should also offer some benefit, maybe the favor of that Yozi and his progeny and/or eventual access to Shintai Charms associated for that Yozi, with Charms being an alternative ption for those who prefer more flexibility and less ties to a particular Yozi.

Thanks! I assume you're the other user who brought them up, if not then thanks to that guy too.

I just mean concepts and particularly cool fluff to inspire whatever rendition of the setting I come up with.

If you could still recommend a published scenario or at least the name of one, I'd like to read it to get an idea for what an official game looks like. Or even like... some kind of description of another GM's campaign that seemed really cool. Anything to get an idea of a more experienced player's idea of the game.

My biggest personal inspirations are Berserk, the fantasy series The Second Apocalypse, Planescape: Torment, Final Fantasy Tactics, and for this kinda thing I liked that it mentioned Claymore, yadda yadda yadda.

Do you think I can get some mileage out of my dark fantasy fetish with this system?

Thanks for everyone's help! I'll check out the books from 1E you mentioned.

Yeah, same guy. I found a decent youtuber who uploads lore videos and actual plays. I haven't watched his actual plays but his lore primers are great. youtube.com/user/SerAaronsMind
He's a 2e guy, but if all you need is inspiration he's pretty good. Abyssals and Infernals are basically like the God hand and apostles from berserk except sometimes against their will. Also Claymore is great.

>Do you think I can get some mileage out of my dark fantasy fetish with this system?
Sure. It is kind of unfortunate that Abyssals won't be punlished for 3E for years, because they fit dark fantasy campaigns very well, but Solars can work as well. The thing about them is that their glorious golden glowy powers kind of mess with standard dark fantasy aesthetics. Still, despite the power of the protagonists, there is plenty of disturbing shit in the Creation, if that's the kind of inspiration you want to draw from dark fantasy. If you meant the hopelessness common to such stories...well, the Creation can be a very depressing place, too, even for the Exalted, but that isn't really the default tone.

A Clutch of Dragons is a really good homebrew that is almost complete.

forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/881714-a-clutch-of-dragons-hub-thread

>I'm under that impression as well. In fact, I can't see any other way of implementing more than a hand full of Yozi. Interestingly, this doesn't completely shut out the idea of Heretical charms; Triumph Forged God Body ties together speed, strength, and jumping charm trees in Athletics, who's to say there can't be a charm that ties together the themes of Isidoros and Adorjan in the same way?

Well from reading the preview it kind of seemed like they going for solar charms with Yozi paint jobs rather than actual Yozi charms

>I think I'd like 'tying together' powers from different Yozis to be a standard and expected part of the Infernal Charms, even. It makes sense that Infernals can draw from several Yozis and make that power into something new. It's very Exalted-like. Maybe all the entry-level Charms should be associated with a single Yozi, with 'mixed' Charms being more common deeper into the Charm trees. I think focusing on a single Yozi should also offer some benefit, maybe the favor of that Yozi and his progeny and/or eventual access to Shintai Charms associated for that Yozi, with Charms being an alternative ption for those who prefer more flexibility and less ties to a particular Yozi.

While that is a good idea I liked how in 2e you could imagine the Yozi going Oh Shit when they found out about Heretical charms. But making some of the higher level charms be heretical as a standard seems interesting.

I think how they treat Yozi's plans and goals for their Infernal Exalted is going to determine what Infernals are going to be like.

Just noticed that there are a few references in the core about encrypted documents, but nothing about actually encrypting or decrypting in a mundane manner. Would it be fair to say that it's (Int+Lin) to encrypt, and to decrypt it's (Int+Lin) again against a difficulty of the amount of successes rolled to encrypt it in the first place?

One of the newfags from earlier. Can someone throw together a recommended reading list of things from various editions? I imagine even if I'm running 3e it might be a good idea to read the Exalted books from other editions.

Is there a decent set of homebrews for most of the Exalt types?

Also, aside from Solar and Lunar, what are good ways or reasons for a mixed party? A DB that is either too smart for "Anathema" nonsense, or doesn't care if it ups their odds against their rivals?

Lost eggs or from Lookshy.

loom.webtelligence.com.au/#/

Reposting this awesome character creator.

Click things to get a description. Click+hold to edit things.

Click and drag left or right to get additional options

Friendly reminder that the West is the worst direction in all of Creation.

>worst
thats an odd way to spell awesomest.

Read all of the Compass Books.

>An island of Spooky Abyssal necromancers + artificers doing Sol knows what, evil imbred demon people, not to mention all the sacrifice happy island gods
Sounds like a wonderful place.

Sidereals can join a mixed party easily. They'd obviously need to be Gold Faction, though. Renegade Abyssals and Heretical Infernals as well. Be careful with DBs, because they're the weakest Exalts, and you don't want a scenario where you've a player who never shines.

I had a nice long post for you but the forum software ate it, so have the short version:

- 1e books have better writing, 2e books are more to the point. One is stories other is wiki, both have uses.

- Scavenger Sons is a great romp through 1e Creation. Master of Jade 2e is a great book for telling how mortals interact with supernatural creatures. DB caste books are amazing, Solar caste books are garbage outside of Dawn and bits and pieces of Zenith.

- I made the Alchemical set here for Exalt types in 3e, but if you're using a non-seal breach game its use may be limited.

Did you mean worst as in bad to visit or worst as in written/designed poorly?

Thanks both of you! Bookmarked for use

I translate everything into Spanish for my players, being the only native English speaker, the biggest nerd, and the DM for our group all at once. Exalted seems like it will be quite the task, it's so heavy in terminology. lol

A little bit of both to be honest.

Been out of these threads for a while, have they revealed any information on new exalts?

>Do you think I can get some mileage out of my dark fantasy fetish with this system?

For mortal heroes, Creation is a terrifying place. Bloodthirsty bandits, mercenary armies and the forces of the Realm who look upon Threshold peasants as little more than illiterate savages are everywhere. Alien demons, the Fair Folk, rogue gods, and vicious undead are the least supernatural threats a mortal hero can expect to deal with. And the Exalted themselves? No mortal hero, no matter how skilled and brave, can hope to match even a fledgling Exalt in their area of expertise. A mortal Exalted game is excellent for dark fantasy.

>Do you think I can get some mileage out of my dark fantasy fetish with this system?
Yes, Malfeas and the Underworld alone are enough for that.

Creation's set in a weird eastern dark age where the people are only happy if they stay low to the ground and are lucky to not have one errant spirit of any kind come over and genocide them for literally no good reason.

And that genocide stuff tends to happen really, really often.

By any chance is the guy who made the chargen system for mobile still around? This one, I mean:

loom.webtelligence.com.au/

how should I make a first level character with the intent of becoming Aku, shapeshifting master of darkness

Lunar with heavy darkness themed MA/sorcery, maybe an Ebon Dragon Akuma.

>first level character
? You mean Essence?

you know what I mean, nerd

Was any progress on that infernal conversion in the op ever made or has it died?

I intend to continue it one day, but right now I'm doing a time sensitive project that I need to finish beforehand.

>Your character is suddenly ambushed by ninjas who exclusively use Swallowed Darkness Style

Are they fucked?

Man, what a hero!
Also do you still have that bestiary floating around? I never was able to grab it when it was fresh

Here ya go.

has anyone played a game where a player made a First Age Artifice? What did they make? What could it do? I'm having trouble coming up with what a First Age Artifact is besides power armour or warstriders, so I'm looking for ideas.

Just out of curiosty, 3e Splat books Never?

I mean, the main book hasn't, afaik, hit shelves, so 3e has officially rotted on the vine, yeah?

I think they do print on demand for onyx path books now or some shit and splatbooks will come....never in our lifetimes

Jesus this 3e charm list though. Any advice or tips on what to avoid? Are there "ivory tower" levels of traps here, or is it decently balanced to choice? I heard 2e had a lot of lopsided things as far as perfect defenses and one hit kill rocket tag.

As far as I can tell it isn't "Jungian Combat" types stuff, and if you don't know what that is do yourself a favor and don't ask, but if you're playing a Solar there is a strong skew toward melee being to your advantage. Ivory tower isn't as much a problem this edition though.

That's a real shame. Me and my roomate had quite the Exalted World going. Chars across all the exalt types with a kind of seven degrees of sepration thing going on. There was the Dawn Cast Solar general. One of Cathack Cainin's thousand or so grandchilren. Served as his father's aide de camp in the Wyld Hunt. Exalted durring a battle with Fair Folk raiding party. Killed his father and ran. (Dad was already OOE from the fighting with the Fair Folk)

Then his little Fire Blood little sister who was a massive Brocon, her sworn sister hood consiting of a House Menmon wood blood Mage Tech and a House Tepis air blood archer. Little sister didn't realize she was a full blown bro con till she had a talk with a twilight cast Delzhan woman who funded her archeological expidetions by being part of a sexy gyspy dancing troupe. who was friends with a Night Caste who exalted in a Barbarian Tribe and was being raised by the old ass No Moon to be a weapon against the wyld and his full moon bonded mate... You get the idea.

>Jungian

I'm drunk. Chungian.

1E was alright mechanicly, but of course then the stats for the high end badasses came out and you were left wondering "How in the hell did the Exalts EVER manage to win the Primordial War? I can't even figure out how my party could take out the Mask of Winters, let alone a Third Circle Demon."

Then they dropped 2E with the "Here's how exalts get older and get E5+," Dreams of the First Age and Ink Monkys stuff showed off high level Exalted power at which point it was an overcompensation and you were playing OverPowered Shounen Protag: The Game

Never mind the jaw drop when the devs flat out admitted the different exalt types were never balanced against one another so you were never supposed to have exalts of different types fighting one another. Just slap around some mortals, monsters, and the occasional Spirit.

For all the fluff that pitted the diferent exalts against one another that seemed like a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE fuckin design flaw.

That was one thing that Holden and I were never on the same page on. When you bring up that Solars are categorically OP'd in every area he and other dev's would say "niche protection". But when the niche is pure fluff and doesn't translate into any kind of mechanical endgame then it doesn't matter. Sometimes I wonder if that very debate isn't why the various splats are taking so long to come out.

When will the Dragon Blooded book be out?
DragonBlooded best Exalt

It's far harder to fuck up a character in 3e. Granted 5/5 combat pool still dominates, but in this edition is merely shooting yourself in the foot rather than blowing the entire foot off. Likewise skill challenges have be lessened in difficulty so you don't need a 5/5 split in other areas just to be competent. Doing Lore rolls with 6 dice before stunts and charms can still do a fairly good job of making most facts up, while an excellency can push that to 12 dice and makes passing the occasional difficulty 5 Lore roll far easier.

In terms of combat trees, I tried doing a breakdown in my ST guide of sorts. Though most of the combat trees, but still largely WIP.

docs.google.com/document/d/1sG52v0QCij7-vI0Y3Mb2s2gusu8dfkzdUOLkmMshw3Q/edit

Does 3e address anything high end yet or is it mostly just assorted mortal/spirit/lesser detailed exalted slap fighting?

>Never mind the jaw drop when the devs flat out admitted the different exalt types were never balanced against one another

The Dragonblooded/Solar split has always been deliberate even in fluff since 1e though. Probably not as big of a gap as 2e makes it out to be, but still there.

Terrestrial vs Solar tier was a gap in total output vs efficiency. A well built terrestrial with CMA could go toe to toe with Solars up until they built to the point where their passive output eclipsed the difference in mote efficiency that a properly built DB could run with.

The bigger issue was the gap between Solar and Celestial tier exalts.

As a core book it's back down to Biblical/bronze age Heroes. Think of Brad Pit playing Achilles in Troy, when he chucked that spear and Hector said it was "an impossible throw" there's your triple throwing distance charm.

Working up to the high end shit always involves getting out splat books.

Yeah, this was balanced by the Terrestrials having access to more toys then a starting Solar. Dude in Jade Full Plate with a Grim Cleaver dosen't really need to use too many charms when you're mundane Slashing Sword struggles only ever gets to roll 1 die and his weapon can knock you into -2's with even 1 net success on the hit.

I remember the first time I read the splat that stated up the Incarna and I couldn't help think to myself, "If they had just STARTED with this there wouldn't be so much damn crossover with bland charms." Just give each Exalt a few special keywords that tie in to their God's portfolio, you know? Instead of this here's your extra attacks, here's your damage adder, here's your Kill Ghosts and Spirits blah de blah blah. It felt at times like the only thing separating Exalt was Essence Pool, Excellency Limits, and Ox-Body

The toys were only meaningful because the Terrestrials more efficient charmset meant that they could afford to sink the motes upfront.

>only ever gets to roll 1 die

Now now, be fair.

So... Fair Folk look pretty beastly this edition where their natively high mote pools actually mean shit and they already have a native perfect. Ready to kneel to Rakshastan?

Yeah,fair folk looks decently troubbling, finally, hope they can still make awesome crafting materials from souls.

Now now, when they are still in mortal bodies they are called souls. When they are eaten they are just gossamer and essence :^).

Okay, that's fine. Could you now process this mortal martial artist into leather and a mindless husk?

>1E was alright mechanicly,

For everything other than combat, maybe. (Combat was the only real system)

>Never mind the jaw drop when the devs flat out admitted the different exalt types were never balanced against one another so you were never supposed to have exalts of different types fighting one another. Just slap around some mortals, monsters, and the occasional Spirit

This is just plain not true. The writer for 1e Sidereals talked at length about how Sidereals were balanced against Solars in combat.

>"How in the hell did the Exalts EVER manage to win the Primordial War? I can't even figure out how my party could take out the Mask of Winters, let alone a Third Circle Demon."
UCS, Luna and the Maidens actively buffed the Exalted back then, like a chargen Solar can jump up to E5 in half a year or so, not to mention Autobot and his minions were shitting out Artifact 5 like nothing, but the true reason to why they managed to win is because someone murdered a Primordial and Theion just couldn't believe it and ordered everyone else to stop fighting.

> true reason to why they managed to win is because someone murdered a Primordial and Theion just couldn't believe it and ordered everyone else to stop fighting.

This is retarded. Fuck 2e

That's how they explain it really.
See if all of the Primordials, especially SWLiHN was allowed to use full force we would have Gunstar timeline.

This is only true in 2e, there is nothing to suggest that the Primordials did not fight with all their strength in Games of Divinity.

One of the few direct references to the conflict is a story about the armies of the Exalted weathering the magical onslaught of Adrian, who encircled all of Creation with fire, razors and ice, until the Solar Marus closed with her fetich and slew it. In a few short sentences it captures the imagination; despite its scale, this is just one small part of an epic conflict, this is what the Primodials were capable of but still the Exalted killed and imprisoned them.

It does mention that the war began in ambush, which is probably there to draw a parallel to the usurpation.

>Or even like… some kind of description of another GM’s campaign that seemed really cool.
exaltwitch.com/
youtube.com/watch?v=woQuG6NfQJk&index=1&list=PLiS0McnLDI6Q0PmHK9Z7W61UCjzx9HN2r

Fiend, probably?

None of the above. Wait for Scion 2.

Yes, but I'm on Australia time, so I'm likely going to be responding at odd times.

ugg. ability based infernals. remove everything that made them fun to play....and of course the one thing they're keeping is the "special-est snowflake in all of exalted" bits ;P and after their whole rant on how deviltiger was a story killer too. you'd have thought they'd focus on everything that came before it instead

lunar for shapeshifting, no moon with dex fav would hit it, martial arts, ebon shadow style and stealth.

Ability-base charms are fine as long as Infernal still has option to turn into a supernova or spheres of crystals

this.
taking the fundamental changes that come with being an infernal out of the infernal makes it... green painted mutant solars.

>Green Solar but with lesser power level
Worse than 2e Luna if they go this route, the sell point of Infernal is that if Solar gets to be the best sailor in the world then Infernal gets to become the sea in that world

now I want these two in a fight, the infernal trying to make sailing impossible the solar trying to cross the infernal, literally.
>"TAME THIS!" cue acidic wave of cthonic horror

Oh? Can you elaborate?

I thought that's the point, right? Like, a starting Solar - assume that Solar is unarmed, has nothing better than mortal armor and weaponry - should be able to take out several Dragonblooded.

Otherwise, if a Solar can't do that, he won't even survive his prelude. The less powerful Solars are, the less meaningful their return to Creation is.

Besides, I'm pretty sure the PCs are supposed to be playing as Solars. The other splats are there to enable them: Dragonblooded are the starting enemies and then later the foot soldiers, the Lunars are there to be the waifu, the Sidereals are the wise mentors and Jedi-like dudes who don't fight much but are all mysterious and occult when they do.

Meanwhile, Abyssals are the dark villainous half, and the Infernals are the chaotic villainous half. (DEATH SOLARS and HELL SOLARS respectively.)

The game doesn't work as well otherwise.

>should be able to take out several Dragonblooded.

Debatable. They should be able to survive a Wyld hunt, which could be anything from a DB leading a team of mortals or a Sidereal leading a dedicate death squad. While a Dawn might be able to take out several Dragonblooded, the other castes will likely deal with them differently.

Well, you need Abyssals, Ghosts, and the Underworld. You can't be more dark fantasy than a dimension made of the souls of the dead, where necromantic monsters of bones, metals and chains roam the roads to steal the souls of the imprudent, where even the magical materials are screaming and in pain for all eternity. The Underworld is dark as fuck.

Unfortunately, no Abyssals, Ghosts and Underworlds rules for 3e before a long, long time.

Alternatively, Malfeas is a good dark setting, though less dark than fucking metal and quite weird.

I'll point out that Swan, the non-combat-optimized Eclipse Caste, is canonically capable of killing the fuck out of a Wyld Hunt with Snake Style as a starting character.

That's sort of the starting power-level we're looking at. In the fluff, the only ones who had trouble with the 'fighting' thing are the Twilight Castes, and that was in 1E.

Why do people hate tattoo artifacts?

Was this a full DB Wyld hunt? In the 2e comic a perfect circle went up against 5 DBs and the Dawn ended up killing the Eclipse by accident.

Besides, in the new edition, the power curve is being flattened, specifically so we don't get Wyld hunts that can't do shit.

The fluff isn't specific, just that Swan killed a few Dragon-blooded while Arianna was out of it.

>I'm pretty sure the PCs are supposed to be playing as Solars. The other splats are there to enable them: Dragonblooded are the starting enemies and then later the foot soldiers, the Lunars are there to be the waifu, the Sidereals are the wise mentors and Jedi-like dudes who don't fight much but are all mysterious and occult when they do.

this right there, this is shit.

>Otherwise, if a Solar can't do that, he won't even survive his prelude
Back when just after the Usurpation DB could afford multiple Wyld Hunt squads to take out Solar before they had chances to grind for xp, but in the Age of Sorrow the majority of DB are called back to the Blessed Isle to prepare for civil war, hence newbie Solar can survive just fine, assuming he is not a retard.
Seriously if DB are that weak there's no way they could beat the 300 E6+ Solar and more than dozens of Lunar back then.
That udon comic is kinda shitty though, like the DB has no PD and died when Dawn threw an ox at them.

>Like, a starting Solar - assume that Solar is unarmed, has nothing better than mortal armor and weaponry - should be able to take out several Dragonblooded.

Unless your starting Solar is a specced dawn, that's completely false.

A good rule of thumb is that a starting, decent Solar, specialized, but not unduly so, in one category, is as powerful as a trained, old DB specialized in the same category.

So a starting decent melee Solar is as good as an older, trained, specialized melee DB. If you start to pill several of those on the same decent melee Solar, your Solar will lose quite quickly.

Ultra specced Solar with the help of supernals can get absurdly powerful at chargen, but that is expected: if you want your Dawn to become Murder of Gods at chargen and are willing to pay all your xp to make it so, then yes, your Dawn will be able to fend off several experimented DBs.

>Seriously if DB are that weak there's no way they could beat the 300 E6+ Solar and more than dozens of Lunar back then.

I thought they had the Sidereals helping them? Like, 1E and 2E basically said that the Solars were caught with their pants down, and even then it led to an exceptionally terrible and costly war.

I mean, the Solars didn't make it easy for them. It was a grueling, protracted campaign even though one side had all the guns, magitek and the element of complete surprise.

Sid could only help so far, I doubt among the 300 Solar nobody sniffed out the smell of traitors when they got multiple Investigation charms. Noted that Solar were mad and kinda paranoid at that time.
Even if we assume those bullshit E6+ OP charms were not used they still have tons of xp and time to become captain turbo killshit with at least one or two artifact 5 hidden in their sleeves all the time.
DB are Exalted too and they should have considerable power level, like ok 1v1 or 1v2 chargen Solar can win but no way he can beat a squad of 5 DB, not without suffering heavy wound or something pricey in return.

keep in mind even the dragonbloods were lessened by the usurpiation. the first age was bounteous for all exalted to cultivate skills and mastery of essence. Legendary Breeding was the norm and dragonbloods were trained to perfection by their peers and sometimes a solar overlord who wanted a specialist for something. enlightenment was readily available and deep insights in essence and the nature of the world gave everyone power

Weren't there like millions of Dragon-blooded?

I only remember the hot girl who became Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS.

Not saaying you're wrong about your main point, but part of the reason why it worked so well was that Solars were paranoid, headstrong fuckers.

So when the Dragonblooded came in with weapons at the ready, about half the Solars leaped up, drew their weapons from elsewhere, and declared "So, it has come to this!"

And then proceeded to immediately jump their own pet hated enemy who they've been expecting to betray them for years now.

I'm not terribly a fan of that, it downplays the work of the Dragonblooded and Sidereals. Millions of DBs outfitted with a crazy amount of preptime aided by the preptime Exalted should be more than enough to take down 300 Solars without having to make the Solars be fighting amongst themselves at the same time.

This seems reasonable. In-setting, it's also impressive as fuck. An old, experienced Dragon-Blooded who has truly mastered something is a legend in whatever his specialty is, and some you freshly-Exalted whelp being his equal is nothing short of a miracle as far as most people in the setting are concerned.

Assuming 2e mechanics, it's really not near enough, and basically relies on every single Solar being literally retarded and not bothering to us any of the charms that would have made the usurpation impossible.

Assuming 3e, then sure. That works.

>Now now, be fair

I am! The comparison was about how the massive numbers that artifacts can give allow an exalt to avoid essence expenditure. Solar with mortal weapons vs Dragon Blood with 20E worth of attuned artifacts that Solar is blowing Essence every turn just to make up for that shit. Sure, all he needs is a fire and stones strike to mitigate or even negate the Jade Supreheavy plate, but he's also got to be worried about that Grim Cleaver/Grand Daiklave/Dire Lance.

That's the whole point of artifacts, nice fat numbers WITHOUT having to spend resources every single time you cast SWORD.

>This is just plain not true. The writer for 1e Sidereals talked at length about how Sidereals were balanced against Solars in combat

I think we're talking about two different kinds of balanced here. I don't mean balanced as in "Sticking to the teirs of power established in the fluff" I mean balanced as in "These two types can do battle without it being a boring game of insta-kill vs. perfect defense until one of the combatants runs out of essence or someone tosses an instakill that the other dosen't have a perfect defense for"

If I had to guess, that would be the number 1 most voiced complaint about Exalted. In a tabletop that should have had combats looking like shit from Asura's Wrath ended up with it being more like Inu-Yasha.