Exalted General

I honestly want to see what happens if you try applying another Yozi's aesthetic to another's Charms. How would Malfeas execute 'Locust Mana Plague'?

Lovely, thank you very much. I plan to steer away from top many defense focused charms from melee though, so I can just take everything on the chin, to use essence gathering temper as much as possible, and keep the Aegis up.

Is Lars Andersen a Solar in disguise?

youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk

You can only benefit from Essence Gathering Temper's (Stamina) or (Stamina x 2) per round. So having a high Parry from Melee allows you to filter out some of the hits, not even boosting it beyond a resting Parry of 7. This also reduces the extra successes that could turn into higher than minimum post-soak damage.

Nah, just a Mortal w/ Archery Supernal.

I donno. well hes a city, so at least some degree of sheltering or nurturing his inhabitants/subjects should be possible to make "in theme" even though it's not technically in his excellency right? like how cecelene has all those "is literally a desert" charms... even if hes a really rough and violent city far more like batman's gothem than any sort of post scarcity utopia...

personally, I don't think he'd actually bother having that charm though.

What set of charms do you guys think makes the best 'ruler of a kingdom' set?

Assuming you avoid outright mind control charms (buffs to your social rolls are fine, actively forcing peoples brains to reverse not so much), I'd think you basically need a bunch of preform, presence, bureaucracy and maybe some crafting charms.

Crafting and, to a lesser extent, Bureaucracy, you can delegate to your minions unless you want to take Kingdom building quite literally. Presence, Perform and Socialize would be my go-tos. Maybe some War or Lore splashed in.

When are we getting Necromancy? I want to raise up some undead cannon fodder for my supernal war Dawn.

you'll get it as soon as it becomes a toy for solars instead of abyssals. only then can necromancy be cool. since high level necromancy is basically the only toy in the box that solars don't get it'll always have to suck and will always be bottom priority.

To the guy that was asking if Holy charms should work on creatures of the void a while back. They should work on gremlins and the like.

Manual of Exalted Power - Abyssals pg. 16
Oblivion: Also called the Void or the Abyss. Oblivion is an active force of annihilation and a place beneath the Underworld and the Labyrinth. The ultimate source of the Abyssal Exalted’s power.

Would there be any way to do it through sorcerous workings maybe?

Different user here, making a similar character, but Supernal Melee instead of Resistance. I'm thinking of going for the full Clash package for defence, with heavy armour and Resistance charms for backup. Any idea what charms I should buy up at chargen?

Any 2.5ed slightly less rapey homebrewed lunar bond charms? Preferably ones that have been playtested.

yeah but holy draws from a checklist of things that the unconquered sun personally said 'this is unholy' so it's really up for debate. Unless all Raksha are unholy, then I'd say creatures of the void are as well, otherwise they're a completely new category of void creature that the unconquered sun has never encountered and thus do not qualify.

in the same way, axiomatic probably doesn't effect the normal dead, but I'll bet hard money it effects nephwracks and other void touched beings like abyssals, deathlords, and the like.

Actually, do abyssals qualify as unholy? If so then yeah, creatures of the void probably do too.

no idea, but the lunar bond charms are rapey? I've never seen charms dealing with the lunar bond, just the lunar bond background trait. (I fully believe you that they are, what with the old realm having been entirely predicated on mind control and folks like Desus running around I just want to know where the fuck these charms are so that if they -haven't- been homebrewed into less rapey versions I can make some myself)

>Actually, do abyssals qualify as unholy? If so then yeah, creatures of the void probably do too.
UCS declared Infernals and Abyssals as CoD

...

huh, wonder when he did so to the abyssals and infernals. But that makes it sound like it was a concious choice he made in between turns during the games of divinity, like how infernals and abyssals are both bound by venus to not cause harm inside her bathhouse but solars aren't cause she never managed to get her hands on a solar without the siderals killing them first.

If that's the case I'd say void beings probably would end up being unholy in relatively short order, but otherwise probably aren't atm.

Keep in mind that UCS has been around since the Primordial days, back when he was kicking Fae ass to protect Creation. Pretty sure he's ran into gremlins before.

why would he have? Nothing suggests gremlins existed before Autocthon inverted his body and made himself into a world onto itself in order to kidnap a bunch of folks and run from creation.

Gremlins are inherit to his nature. Read his lore, his gimmick is he's constantly dying.

yeah but my point is that HE wasn't always a giant world that folks could live in. He was huge, but he flipped himself inside out, turning from something massive but actually containable within our frame of reference (he fit inside of a single room of the sword of creation for example, and right now he's several times bigger than creation itself). The Gremlins existed but were internalized, nobody ever went inside of him until right before he left creation.

He flipped himself inside out, hoovered up a bunch of souls from the well of souls, then made a beeline for the edge of creation, hoovering up every mortal he ran across in the process.

That's the first time anybody had been inside of him. The only time his internal mechanisms had been swapped into being an actual world, thus needing an externalized expression of his sickness (AKA: Gremlins).

He wouldn't have expressed it as gremlins until that point.

>What set of charms do you guys think makes the best 'ruler of a kingdom' set?
Depends on what you mean.

Do you mean a queen that leads by example, someone who inspires everyone to be like them? Integrity is great for doing that, from stuff like 'my words literally sustain people' to 'people can tell I have such-and-such as a Principle', to 'I can tell when people are about to do something I disapprove of'.

Do you mean a warlord who wins the hearts of those around him, winning them over to their point of view through force of will? Presence is ridiculously good at that, particularly on a one-to-one basis. Performance is also ridiculously good for winning over the masses and being a general all-around cool dude that's loved by everyone.

Do you mean a king who doesn't really care for the opinions of others, but still protects those around him because that's from what he derives his pride or whatever? Just do your own thing with overwhelming force. A king is one who enforces their will upon the world without a care for consequences.

Do you mean a vizier who manipulates everyone behind the shadows, making sure things proceed according to plan? Most Sidereal charms are basically designed around being a wise all-knowing master that acts behind the shadows and is half prophet.

Do you mean an ideologue that uses blunt social talent like a chisel or a sledgehammer, wearing away at society like a fairy-tale monster? Lunar social charms... probably help? Bleh. Sadly, Lunars remain thematically incoherent as to what exactly they're meant to do as a whole. But on an individual level, they can do whatever role they want socially with sheer power.

Bureaucracy charms, no matter the splat, are always great for maintaining and improving organizations (or destroying them if needed).

But IMO there's no such thing as a perfect ruler. It's not something that can or should be perfected, even for Solars or the Sun himself.

As if I needed another reason to hate Primordial Principle charm I stumbled on this by mistake just now nobilis.me/quotes:solars-and-abyssal-infernal-charms which dev is this self-battered snowflake?

Michael Goodwin, according to the wiki.

A person who snorts the glowing, softly humming orange powder gains one dot each of Dexterity, Stamina, Appearance, and Wits for at least five hours, ignores wound penalties, and can perceive Essence flows as if he were using All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight (see Exalted, p. 222) although this sense is cosmetically refluffed as an auditory hallucination resembling an angylkae's fate-wrung music as covered by overamped electric guitars.
The demonic drug is nonetheless a poison with these traits: Damage 5A/hour, Toxicity 2 (4 for mortals), Tolerance – / – , Penalty -0, or -3 for the rest of the day after the high fades. Multiple doses extend both the benefits and the length of time the user takes damage. (See Exalted, p. 130, for complete rules about poisons.)
While she is high on infernal cocaine, a person can try to activate her latent Essence. Doing so requires a simple success on a (Stamina + Awareness) roll, diffi culty 2. The user’s player also has to succeed at a Willpower roll for the character to avoid addiction, at +1 difficulty for every other dose of infernal cocaine taken in the last year. If this roll fails, the character is addicted to both infernal cocaine and its celestial counterpart, though he will prefer the infernal variety. (Demons and Infernals of any kind(gsp, akuma, halfcastes) are untouched by this addiction. it would not do for the 50 Princes to shirk their duties in creation in order to persue their next fix)
It is not uncommon for Favored GSP to be showered in literal mountains of the stuff(not to mention the demon hookers) whenever they have occasion to return to hell. Sadly, it does not last beyond Malfeas' borders, decaying rapily into (biochemically inert) twitching purple sludge when cut off from Liger's glow.

Other yozis are dangerous too. Are they going to try to murder eachother once they leave?

that is the ebondragon's sudden but inevitable backstab

He's just a trickshooter. Anyone in Exalted with Archery 4 or 5 should be able to do what he does but with actual bows, arrows, and armor designed for war.

Paths of Brigid or Abyssals

No

Some Athletics too

Yep, what he does is what decent dexterity and archery skills get you. Keep in mind that a mortal with strength 5 and athletics 5 is capable of feats that no human being has ever performed irl. Mortals kick ass in Exalted.

>Some Athletics too
Nah it's just normal stunting.

Just figured out why the law of diminishment doesn't apply to Alchemicals.

They have a physical exaltation, like dragon blooded. Dragon Blooded don't drain the elemental dragons or gaia.

>tfw you're a lunar and can't find a Solar to impregnate you over and over again

I'm pretty sure lunars can impregnate themselves.

I've gotten off my lazy ass and started working on the Infernal homebrew again. The next "Yozi" that joins the rank of technically complete is Infernal Monster, the martial art from 2e now expanded to fit the themes of a Yozi with 62 pages of charms to go with it.

docs.google.com/document/d/1wxgk2sXGB_HQipjeZll_tkOrIKaQxojQFPMLSL9Zi9k/edit#

Thanks to another guest writer by the name of Atlas, the Yozi known as Metagaos is also complete. Made with all the fun goodness to eat and devour your opponent like the /d/eviant you truly are.

docs.google.com/document/d/15lXrwm2kmnZKKE_5wyDhzNy0HwPLXvVS9M7jAcbJ-s0/edit

Hopefully after this long lull I can get back to finishing this project once and for all and move onto making Warstriders.

Melee
>Excellent Strike
>One Weapon, Two Blows
>Flashing Edge of Dawn
>Fervent Blow
>Over-and-Under Method X
>Peony Blossom
>Omniscient Focus Attack X
>Dipping Swallow Defense
>Hail-Shattering Practice
>Perfect Strike Discipline

Resistance
>Ox-Bodies x 4
>Body-Mending Meditation

Kept giving spam warning, here's my explanation.

Honestly Resistance doesn't really pickup at the base level, especially without Supernal giving those auto-upgrades and you won't have too many extra Charms leftover to really buy up the prerequisites you'll need. Most of what you want is Essence 2 or 3 and it requires most of the package to really get working. On top of the Charm that makes you bonkers being Essence 5.

Flashing Edge of Dawn and Peony Blossom let you clash/counterattack with Withering which is huge for your accuracy pool. Try and go for Rising Sun Slash and Foe Cleaving Focus pretty early since you should be resetting Perfect Strike Discipline pretty often. Willpower 10 is a given, if you don't you'll probably die.

Nah, just make it so that the law of diminishment only apply to gods. Gaia and Autobot are Primordials. They made Creation and all the divine hierarchy, of course they wouldn't be harmed by the act of creating something like the Exaltations.

But the gods aren't the builders of the universe. They can only create Exaltations by tearing a part of themselves.

It's coherent, doesn't rape the lore of the setting, and I'm okay with that.

Nice

Nah Autobot snuck the Law of Diminishment in the rules so it applies to erryone

To do this in 2/2.5 you need two Knacks:

"Twin-Faced Hero" and maybe"Ant and Starfish Trick".

The first needs essence and wits 3.
It allows you to turn into the opposite sex.
It can also make you neuter.
It's unclear if it could make a girl grow a penis, it doesn't say it can do that so it probably can't.*
Thus we need the next knack.

The latter needs essence 7 and int 5, its from glories to the most high.
It allows you to temporarily make a second body, the clone can still use your knacks. Each clone takes at least 1 dot of your permanent essence, and can't go more than a mile from you.

So the Lunar splits off a copy, has the copy turn into a guy and has sex with themself.

The only way I can see Malfeas developing the Charm below is if he contemplates his nature and the relation between Subject and King, something I can't see him doing. So this Charm is going to seem very un-thematic.

Servants Feed themselves
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Desecration, Shaping, Sorcerous, (Heretic?)
Duration: N/A
Prerequisite Charms: ?
>In the deepest reaches of Malfeas, hidden cracks deep within his layers, one of his souls
>contemplates horrible thoughts. It measures the weight of a King against his subjects
>and struggles to find a way to elevate the King above the teeming masses that support him.
>Each time this soul ponders too hard on the nature of royalty Malfeas spasms, shedding layers
>and upheaving himself to distract himself from such blasphemous thoughts.
>The contemplations of Mafleas' hidden soul has led to this Charm, and affront to the Demon-City, and King of all Yozis, Malfeas.
...
>Servants must be fed, is one of the conclusions of the hidden soul. For they must live in order to serve,
>is the justification. But the thought of what is 'food' differs between mortals and gods.
>Grabbing hold of an essence-less mortal the Infernal floods the weak thing with their own Essence.
>Over several seconds the mortal is immolated in a wave of green fire and collapses into a pile of bones and ash.
>But the bones partially bronze, and the ash is Infernal Cocaine.
>This Charm will transmutate enough people equal to the Infernals (Ess. - 2), turning even the clothes and bones into drugs if needed.

How old/powerful does a Solar have to be to start making their own Charms?

What level of working would it be to remove a book from fate?
How about a weapon?

They can day 1.

A charm is a personal technique filtered through your exaltation. It's not a spell. You just take a bow, train with it, and somehow, you find that you can imbue your greatness into the arrows. They explode.

As the Exalted have already explored most venues for things like war or crafting, you get a comprehensive list of techniques that just work. This is the charm set. You can refine a technique beyond the charm set, but this usually means you need to have all the high prerequisites for the new charms you want to insert at the top of the charm tree.

But a new Exalted can explore new venues and create new techniques for things no-one ever thought, as long as it is thematically appropriate.

Say, an Essence 1 charm that helps with cooking. Or an Essence 2 charms based around, I don't know, creating little animated figures from the smoke of your pipe. As long as it is something a Solar/Lunar/Whatever you are can reasonably do, and it isn't already done by another charm.

Lunar-Taming Leash. Fun charm, I hope they keep it around this edition in one form or another. But the devs are busybody and naysayers, so we'll see.

Instantly forces the lunar bond at a maximum level (5) for a time.

Man, I like Marena. Well, I don't LIKE her, as a person directly, but she's a really good example of the mentality that led to the first age going to shit, and how even "good" exalted, can be total cunts.

you get "by hunger nourished" which malfeas can also use to say "hey! you! eat shit"

Well, she isn't wrong.

Yeah, she's correct, in the sense they CAN do that shit. It doesn't make it a GOOD thing to do, and as I said, is a huge part of what led to things going so shit, during the first age. Again, I think it's amazing characterization, and a really good example of how Exalted works. Just doesn't mean it won't lead to disaster.

I don't think Exalted being assholes on a perosnal level was the main reason for the First Age going to shit. Solars who, being the kind of people who become Solar in the first place, went for greater and greater achievements without really considering the consequences of failure, or even the possibility of failure, seem like a bigger problem. Twilights who start to think about all the things you could learn by dismantling the Loom of Fate and then putting it back together, people like that. As far as the overall state of the Creation is concerned, Salina was significantly more frightening than Desus.

Oh, I 100% agree on Salina, but the idea that other beings simply don't matter as much, and also the idea of "I won't feel any consequences for this, so no one else will", and the lack of foresight caused by it, were huge factors in them pushing on so recklessly.

True enough, that was definitely a factor.

Can't believe I forgot the "eat shit" Charm.

Anyway, what Charm Concept do you like but can't find a way to stat it?

Mine will always be:
>The Infernal Prince draws a tongue of Green Fire from their Essence and then another,
>and another, and another, until he has drawn Ess.x2 blades.
>He then sends these blades to harass a target.
>All blades attack as a flurry every turn, delivering Withering attacks (only?). With a blade lost every time it is parried or dodged.

It is difficult to believe people matter when you just need to try a little hard to make them agree with whatever you tell them.

It is difficult to believe a nation matter when you can take on all their armies and win.

The exaltation makes you a superman. It takes a very personal sort of craziness to be a superman, stronger, smarter, better than everyone else and still takes the feeling of some poor peasants into account. On the contrary, most people would use that power for their own gain and beliefs, and simply cease to consider mortals after a while, because they simply aren't relevant.

Exalted is the only RPG I have read (with Don't Lose Your Mind) that play the superpower trope correctly. It's not about good or evil, because at this point you make the rules. The universe is teaching you, every day, for years on end, that the only one that makes the rules is you. Even the purest of souls would be tarnished by that much personal power. Even the grandest of souls that wants nothing but happiness for everyone would still consider itself better than the mortals surrounding it.

And yes, monogamy is for the weak.

Celestial 2 at the very least

I've always found this page a bit, not ironic exactly, but amusing. She's giving this speech to a Death Knight, who was literally chosen for the purpose of murdering everything. The "divine endorsement" argument is not one I'd go with.

>Exalted is the only RPG I have read (with Don't Lose Your Mind) that play the superpower trope correctly. It's not about good or evil, because at this point you make the rules. The universe is teaching you, every day, for years on end, that the only one that makes the rules is you. Even the purest of souls would be tarnished by that much personal power. Even the grandest of souls that wants nothing but happiness for everyone would still consider itself better than the mortals surrounding it.

Well, unless you are a Dragonblooded. Then even AFTER earning that power, the universe likes to shit on you for not being a Solar. Because while you did do amazing, heroic stuff you had the bad fortune to also have the blood of dragons

I had fun playing a Solar once who was 5 compassion and fucking terrifying for it.

She was a teacher and treated most of the world liker her students. You were not disagreeing with her out of a belief that was just as valid as hers, you were mistaken and needed to be taught better for your own good.

DBs have another thematic.

They aren't the strongest badass of the setting, but they're still strong. Strong enough to fight twenty men and win, or make an oration that leave people in tears. To fight against world-ending abominations, they need cunning, training, organization, and artifacts. They still win, but at cost.

If you can't see how they are thematically interesting, then you're stupid.

They are interesting but people really like to make grand statements about what Exalted is that mostly apply to Solars. Like the people last thread talking about how it's about exceeding limits when non-solars have VERY strongly defined limits.

As far as the danger of power is concerned, all Celestial Exalteds share this thematic.

Be it Lunars, Solars, Abyssals, Infernals, Misc-exalts, or even Sidereals. Though Sidereals have checks in place, but they learn to circumvent them.

The DBs have another thematics, though you can still make a good point about the danger of power for DBs. Remember, a DB is basically culturally considered as better than mortals.

The Alchemicals are best Exalts and have another theme whatsoever, though.

>The DBs have another thematics, though you can still make a good point about the danger of power for DBs.

I'll admit, I'm a bit annoyed that they canon answer to 'What happens to the canon DB who is the best DB at martial arts, training and meditating for years and under the direct tutelage of Sidereal Martial artists who has made this his life goal actually tries to use a charm from it' is 'He dies'.

While DB are weaker, I do feel like the setting goes out of it's way to shit on them overmuch at times.

The canon answer was followed by 'but if you want it to succeed, go for it'.

Never once had I the impression that DB were shat upon by the official publication, and I have read all of them dozen of times back in the days. Weaker? Yes. Sometimes they try to do the impossible, and fail? Yes. But they still fought in the Balorian Crusade, saved Creation countless of time, the Realm is still the superpower of the setting (though crumbling like a madman), Lookshy is still strong, and a DB is still a dangerous opponent.

In that particular example, I think it is fair and balanced. Sometimes, what is impossible is impossible. Lunars can't learn Solar Circle spells. God knows Rakshi tried, but she couldn't. Solars can't learn SMA without a Sidereal teacher. You simply can't do it man. DBs can't learn SMA, period, like Lunars or Infernals or whatnot, and the result of one trying very, very, very hard is canonically an explosion. It's coherent. I like it.

There's nothing to bitch about. Especially when this is amended by the authors saying that you can decide if it works out or not.

>Never once had I the impression that DB were shat upon by the official publication, and I have read all of them dozen of times back in the days.

Compass was pretty bad on that front. With the whole 'The heavens like mortals more than they like DB, as some day a mortal might be a Solar'.

>And yes, monogamy is for the weak.
I was with you till this man. It's a preference, nothing more.

I dunno mate. I dunno.

Alright, thanks. I'm looking at the charm tree and it says that I need Solar Counterattack to buy Flashing Edge of Dawn, putting me just over 15 charms. Should I buy that with bonus points or drop an Ox-Body? Any advice on what to look for in Resistance once I go up in Essence?

Neph had serious issues that developer drama has let us forget.

fixalted.bazzalisk.org/index.php?title=Abyssal_Redemption is blank. but fixalted.bazzalisk.org/index.php?title=Manual_of_Exalted_Power:_Abyssals&redirect=no says "Redemption: Errata Team Prime posted the Redemption rules cut from the book. They can be found on the Abyssal Redemption page!" Anybody still have this?

yeah, but then you get doofy ex-dev forum quotes like "heaven values random peasants over dragonblooded trash because the mortals can become solars. dragonbloods have no rights in yushan, less than animals"

more even than solars dbs are a literal masterrace. solars are oneoffs who burn out...after 7000 years...ok yeah that doesn't really count. solars forget they used to be normal really fucking quick. but they still like to hold onto that technicality to feel superior to those poor dragonbloods ;)

I forget, why didn't Infernals get SMA? something about Shintai charms interacting badly?

Something about not being part of Fate (Abyssals despite not being part of Fate, are still close enough to being Solars, or something) Shintai charms definitely evoke SMA though, being an E5 from charm like most SMA have, requiring a shit load of charms as a prerequisite, allowing the Infernal to embody esoteric concepts, and so on.

Is it possible to fiddle with exaltions?

Like for example taking lunar and solar exaltion and merging them into one superexaltion?

It's not about being outside of fate. It's about being "Out of tune" with the things Sidereal Martial Arts represent in the universe.

How the exalted of the creators of the universe are less in tune with it than the ones who draw their power from that thing that happened when the universe broke is left as an exercise to the reader.

Doubt it. Fiddling with Exaltations opens up the path to pic related, and kind of goes against the return to the being mysterious, miraculous things. There is a backer charm that lets a Solar and Lunar fuse for a while, and Unity of the Closed Fist still exists.

They aren't primordials anymore. They're Yozis.

The difference between a primordial and a yozi is entirely political. Metaphysically speaking, they're no different than a regular primordial in spite of their current status.

Wow. I think I lost some IQ points on that story. I'm saving this as an example of why Solars aren't mary sues.

I saw a futa oppai loli Abyssal that was said to look like a twelve year old girl on f-list yesterday.

I can't but think that an Infernal would be a better Exalt type than Abyssal for a twelve year old girl with a dick and ginormous breasts (larger than her head was all the specifics we got).

Sounds more like a lunar desu, they're all degenerates.
Although I guess it could be an Infernal with that one EB shapeshifting charm.

No.

Why haven't the Deathlords captured and made Abyssal Lunars?
The mates of the Exaltations they have, so they don't have a reason to rebel, for example.

nope, they were made explicitly to avoid that. The closest you can get is to what the infernal exaltations or abyssal exaltations are, and it's implied that's only in there because Autochthon put in a hidden "flip the switch to the dark side" option into solar exaltations.

The gods were worried about the primordials using shaping attacks. Even if all of creation and the wyld falls into the void, there'll be 700 celestial exaltations glimmering in the darkness.

Because capturing shapeshifters alive is hard.

because they can't. The abyssal exaltation is something built into the solar exaltation, nobody is sure why, but if I had to guess, it's a backdoor Autochthon left in, just in case he was ever in a situation where he felt that he needed to kill all of creation to get away or save himself. Remember, he was crazy paranoid.