i don't think that's how NRS works
#Exalted
spring lynx
bleak hazel
well, you can tie a rope around it and drag it out of the wrestling ring, close enough
there's also a relic chariot that you can use to Neighborhood Relocate even faster
prisma sun
What happens if Neighborhood Relocation Schemes ends while you're in mid-air
spring lynx
it doesn't end until you stop moving, so it can't end in mid-air
spring lynx
As the Sidereal moves, the region moves with her.
She must travel under her own power, rendering this
incompatible with mounts, sorcerous travel, and the
like. Vehicles are also incompatible, except for mobility
aids like wheeled chairs.
bleak hazel
tulip folio
> As the Sidereal moves, the region moves with her.
> She must travel under her ...
So an Airfolk Sidereal? đ
Wings are 'your own power'
prisma sun
What if I stop moving while on the ground but the ground is moving?
Just have another Exalt throw the ground up into the air
easy peasy
spring lynx
What if I stop moving while on the ground but the ground is moving?
well then you're not moving under your own power, so the charm fails
bleak hazel
Oadenol's Wheel can't fly but it can jump to heaven
tulip folio
Entertainingly, Alchs have some decently big blasts but nothing that's truly 'fuck that city'.
tulip folio
That said: Alchs have the opposite of that.
Where they go 'No, fuck you. My city, can't tell it to fuck off'
bleak hazel
if you get really lucky with this one, I am fairly sure you can use this to dump a city into Cece
spring lynx
it would be very impressive if you managed to relocate a city into malfeas, given you take a level of bashing damage per hour the charm is active
bleak hazel
you just have to tank 100+ dice of bashing damage, yeah
which is not impossible for a high essence sid, they have some decent regen charms
tulip folio
'You nuke my city? Well, fuck you. I defend other the entire city and have the ability to soak uncountable damage'
Alchs are great for doing Iron Giant Cosplay
spring lynx
really the bigger issue would probably be staying conscious and mobile for five days straight
spring lynx
and then of course at the end of it all you'll have a Lot of Explaining To Do once you get back to the bureau
bleak hazel
spring lynx
...actually, do shaping (fate) effects even work in malfeas
bleak hazel
(you do need to pack food, there not being much in the sky of demon deserts)
they work fine on demons, and we have no rules for Malfeas yet but in general Sids are now super-effective against stuff from outside fate rather than useless
tulip folio
...actually, do shaping (fate) effects even work in malfeas
I imagine 'we won bitches' lets them cover a lot there.
bleak hazel
Sid fate magic being more "impose localised causality" than anything else
so yeah I am pretty sure that a sufficiently specialized sidereal elder can haul a city into malfeas
all the third circles will notice that you have done this, though
bleak hazel
and you will probably be Very Tired by the time you're done
tulip folio
Ligier turning up to say it clashes and needs a makeover if you're going to set it down here.
bleak hazel
"so how did you deal with the Living Manse from hundred devils night parade?"
"you probably won't believe this, but...."
spring lynx
(it should be noted that if the owner of a manse, demesne, or other such geomantic thingâ˘ď¸ doesn't want their shit to be moved, they can roll against you to stop it)
(everything else still goes tho)
bleak hazel
An E5 sidereal is also fairly likely to win, although in that case I would definitely recommend beating the Living Manse back into unconsciousness first
spring lynx
i think they still get the roll even if they're unconscious
bleak hazel
I'm not sure it does, but at the very least they don't get to buff it, and E5 Siddy is going to be pretty hard to beat without a full Excellency of some kind
spring lynx
fair point
bleak hazel
You know, I think "you can personally drag a city to hell in your chariot using PC-accessible techniques" is the thing in 3e that's come closest to hitting the mythic paratext level of Exalt Accomplishments for me
this is proper heroic epic stuff
today we have learned not to underestimate the Division of Journeys no matter how annoying their skill list is to work with
spring lynx
having played fallout new vegas, i already knew not to fuck with journeys, because they are, after all, the celestial couriers
prisma sun
A Sidreal can also cut your tower in half from 10 miles away
spring lynx
and could do from longer, if not for that pesky draw distance (this was canon in 2e)
prisma sun
There is no draw-distance now
spring lynx
hence "was"
bleak hazel
I'm not sure Lunars have a straight up city-scale tac nuke like Solars, but worst case scenario a T-rex with a strength excellency covereth a multitude of sins
spring lynx
while also providing ample opportunity for other, much more exciting sins
prisma sun
WHY
IS ||BAD TO THE BONE PLAYING||
bleak hazel
and can probably do quite a lot of damage while the Sid or Deebs are sitting there channeling Pull Down The Sky or As In The Beginning
spring lynx
see, that's why you start channeling before the lunar knows you're about to fuck shit up
bleak hazel
Oh I assumed we were having some form of friendly city wrecking competition
probably on Gem because nothing would be lost that wasn't already going to be
Sid Prophecy is what you use if you want to do it sneakily, at least
spring lynx
i'm pretty sure gem% is an extremely competitive speedrunning category
bleak hazel
A really big one takes you about six weeks but you can do it while wandering around being a tourist with arcane fate at full power
Producing a frequency 5 prophecy by composing a beautiful guidebook to the lost city of Gem on paper trimmed with Sidereal sutras and giving it to the pattern spider tour guides
It's so nice to have Sidereal astrology that actually involves Sidereals
spring lynx
"Visit Gem! We've got:
-a fucking hole in the ground
-that's about it"
tulip folio
Hmm...are the zombies raised by Raise The Skeletal Horde worth using if I have mortals to command at the same time? They're expendable and perfect morale but their stats are not great compared to even basic mortals.
prisma sun
They are probably a liability if you're fighting one single super cool dude
but against other armies it's never a Bad thing
tulip folio
Fair. I guess with Perfect Morale and how you can't farm init off armies, I guess there's no real reason not to have Another Army About.
quiet garnet
also i like the art for NRS
NRS?
tulip folio
Hmm...Monkey Style Martial Art seems fun
It's very Gambit-based
But fun
On the topic of martial arts: If you're a Sidereal, obviously none of them are fantastic for you but do you think Air Dragon or Water Dragon would be better for 'Hey, I know a martial art I use to Pretend To Be An Immaculate Master'?
This seems like it could be really cool with 'Hey, sids treat autosuccesses as 1 die instead of 2' and their ability to boost their essence.
bleak hazel
OK, I went and checked the relevant charms and normally an Exalt heals one -0 level of bashing damage every two hours while actively doing things
so if you attempted a five day Neighborhood Relocation through the demon desert's sky you'd probably be all right without a run of bad luck or external intervention - each hour you have a 40% chance of taking a health level of damage, and one level heals every two hours, so you probably won't die as long as you have a couple of ox-bodies to give you enough -0 health
they also have gross overkill for this available if you want to guarantee it
a stamina 1 exalt here is still outhealing the maximum possible damage from NRS easily
a stamina 5 exalt is healing one health level every five minutes or so
if you get chipped down into -1 health you're in trouble because that takes a full day to heal without this charm, but luckily Sid ox-bodies add lots of -0
spring lynx
so if you attempted a five day Neighborhood Relocation through the demon desert'...
wait hold on, 40%?
bleak hazel
one die of bashing damage, not one level
and decisive damage doesn't double 10s, so that's one level of damage on a 7-10 and nothing on 1-6
spring lynx
one die of bashing damage, not one level
oh, huh. so it is. i've been misreading that for ages.
bleak hazel
if you're lucky you can go for ever, or at least until someone stops you, but in practice I would obtain some Sid Resistance heal juice before attempting to walk the length of the Blessed Isle
if you can use NRS you can also use One-Direction Invocation, and it's perfect for this, so get swole (10 resistance charms)
bleak hazel
On the topic of martial arts: If you're a Sidereal, obviously none of them are *...
you can get vastly increased power from anything with Mastery, but it does depend how much of the dragon style you actually need to be plausible here
the dragon styles are very long and Sids only get the essence booster form at E4 + a decent chunk of Prismatic Arrangement Style
spring lynx
on the other hand, i don't think it'd be outside for a GM to say "you can't heal the damage caused by NRS while it's still active" because otherwise there's not much point to having it hurt you
bleak hazel
I would be a bit miffed if the various Resistance charms themed around picking up heavy things and marching in one direction until the job is done didn't work when doing exactly that
if they meant to make it impossible to heal except by waiting around, it would be Aggravated, but as it it's mostly "if someone manages to knock you into -1s while you're marching, you probably won't make a long trip"
you can also accomplish this with other Sid charms that don't rely on regen, but it requires a bit more work (using Shattered Self Duality to transfer 8 damage to your reflection, tanking a day's worth of damage while your reflection reforms and then doing it again, for instance - that means you only need 8 more health levels above the usual Sid max to survive the trip on average, and you can get that with the Medicine capstone if you can find a beefy god to make a pact with)
fierce star
hmm, need to figure out if dragonblooded ahve any source of extra mote regen that can be used for elemental bolt attack... most mote regen charms would be in, like, resistance or integrity I'd think?
next delta
Do Hearthstones stack or do they cap out at +1/turn?
fierce star
that's only out of combat mote regen unfortunately
next delta
Oh, rip
velvet raft
The big thing with a manse is not that it helps your note regen in-fight, but that your out-of-combat is amazingly fast by comparison
fierce star
yeah, a four dot demense/five dot manse almost doubles it
velvet raft
So you can go into most or all fights at full
In some situations, thatâs hard to guarantee
fierce star
the big thing is I'm burning 3m, 1 level of anima, and 1 WP at the start of each fight (well, just after sicne I have to get at least one anima level first), before then burning 3m/attack, after that burning 1m/attack and 1m/defense
assuming no other augment charms being used for elemental bolt attack
and with dragonblooded mote pools being what they are
next delta
Is there a defend defend other charm for DBs? Maybe try saving motes by convincing a friend to do that?
next delta
This is a lore based attack right? So you probably are on the less combat focused and right?
velvet raft
If youâve got the whole sentai squad around as a Deeb, youâre already doing much, much better
Deebs love teamwork
next delta
Basically I'm wondering what situation you are hoping to cover and maybe you don't have to worry about it too much (e.g. maybe you won't be alone very often so you can just be willing to blow through your mote pool if it does happen).
bleak hazel
the big thing is I'm burning 3m, 1 level of anima, and 1 WP at the start of each...
pack Awareness 5 to get your excellency limit up to 5 motes on join battle, then buff that with peripheral to get your glowing anima
in-combat mote regen is relatively expensive for deebs, mid-cost for normal celestials and then dirt cheap for solars because they have like two broken charms for it
Victorious Wreath and Essence-Gathering Temper
fierce star
This is a lore based attack right? So you probably are on the less combat focuse...
Lore0-based but works with archery and thrown charms, planning to invest in archery
basically I feel like focusing on using EBA for both attack and defense is gonna have me bleeding motes even mroe heavily in combat than most builds, and want ways to supplement or support extra mote regen to avoid running dry quite as quickly
fierce star
looks like my answers are in Lore mostly, which is nce,t hough one's not really combat useable and the other's essence 5 (and resets to base initiative) and can only be used 1/story unless reset. Will continue looking.
ooh, there's an essence 3 medicine one...
hmm
it occurs to me, acutally
that due to how dragonblooded excellencies work, I can't actually enhance my parry using thrown or archery with elemental bolt attack under mantle of elemental power, can I?
upper stratus
you can't parry with thrown or archery in general
fierce star
You explicitly can with mantle of elemental power, is the thing, but only with elemental bolt attack at a cost of 1m per defense
upper stratus
oh i see
fierce star
but the way DB excellencies work, not all of them are like, 1m for 1 dice, 2m for one success or to increase a static value
and neither the thrown or archery ones let you spend motes for enhancing static values, so you'd be stuck with base (Dex + archery or thrown)/2 + 1
fierce star
hmm. Green and blue jade smashfists that let you summon exceptional instruments out of air and wood, since I also want to make use of DB perform. Three-stringed sword prana is a beautiful charm, lol. And battle-anthem of the ten thousand dragons, petal-strewn pavane... there's other fun stuff there. Evocations to help parry with instruments and EBA, perhaps. Improvised weapons use brawl. Though you'd probalby be better off just paryring with the smashfists themselves, so maybe don't make them a weapon.
tulip folio
I'm dangerously tempted to try to recreate First Pulse, as it was my Favorite Martial Art in 2e.
A brutal streetfighting style with a lot of dirty cheating.
bleak hazel
ah
terrestrial scale Sidereal Brawl
personally I am considering making a five dot artifact map table for our Circle to use to do geopolitics and I think I may have out-high-concepted myself again
specifically, this bit from an essay on the evacuation of afghanistan inspired me to go "wait, what if I could make a really big relic that put a Somebody Else's Problem field over battles where it was used"
not Arcane Fate, per se, the details are recorded just fine, but.... people gloss over events
"oh, that wasn't too important, we have another legion"
Abyssal masking his growing trade empire with great works of sorcery to just make it seem generically unimportant and non-pressing
at least until a Sidereal with the "un-Psyche effect yourself" button wanders past or another exalt makes their saves
tulip folio
Introduction to the Stone Prince
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-Only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: First Pulse Form
This supplements a Decisive Attack, adding (Str/2) to the raw damage.
If the attack deals 3+ levels of damage, the target is Knocked Prone. If the target is already Prone, the Martial Artist instead brutalizes the target, treating them as having suffered a Crippling Injury for the purpose of Wound Penalties until the end of the scene.
A bit yeah.
The 2e one let you just Do Crippling Effects but 2e's section on crippling effects says they're supposed to be opt-in, so I shouldn't likely make them effects on a martial art where the defender didn't agree to get their arm broken/spine shattered.
bleak hazel
there are many moves that produce temporary crippling effects
snake style, a few Lunar buttons
tulip folio
Oh yeah, I just think that the old one's 'Dealing out Lifelong Lessons' isn't going to quite work. XD
+Str/2 damage + Knocked Prone (Or double wound penalties for the scene if you're already prone) seems like it should be good for a decisive booster?
bleak hazel
extremely, although maybe I'm missing a core rules clause
I'm not sure what "crippling injury for purpose of wound penalties" actually does
oh, never mind, found it
yeah, that's very mean, although I think doubling wound penalties is slightly above the scope of a non-mastery effect essence 2 charm in a basic martial art
does very mean things with Violet Bier but you'd expect that
tulip folio
yeah, that's very mean, although I think doubling wound penalties is slightly ab...
Fair. I might make it '+1, double if you've got mastery'
So it's still a 'Oh, fuck, that hurt' but if your base wound penalty was above -1, it's less than it could be.
bleak hazel
better hope the lunar you just hit was a berserker or else they're straight into -4s
lunar ox-bodies only give -2s and -4s
so >3 damage puts you straight to -2 penalty
not that they don't have buttons for that
tulip folio
Huh, didn't realize that with lunars. So ti's the opposite of Sids, who don't get a lot of boxes but those boxes barely matter because they're like 'Nope, that was fated not to be a big injury' or something.
upper stratus
i think one of the MAs in sid supplement is gonna be like a brutal fighting style type beat but i don't recall
bleak hazel
Sids get the good health, yeah
solars get the best one but even they cannot quite match the number of -0 boxes that sids get at max power, despite having 5 more boxes in total
tulip folio
Introduction to the Stone Prince
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-Only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: First Pulse Form
This supplements a Decisive Attack, adding (Str/2) to the raw damage.
If the attack deals 3+ levels of damage, the target is Knocked Prone. If the target is already Prone, the Martial Artist instead brutalizes the target, treating them as having suffered a Crippling Injury for the purpose of Wound Penalties until the end of their next turn.
Mastery: Brutalizing a target lasts until the end of the scene, instead of the end of their next turn.
Toned it down with a tinkering. Made the effect last a Lot Less Time unless you've got Mastery but 1 turn is still a turn of 'Oh, I do not like this'.
bleak hazel
Lunars will usually have things to negate their massive wound penalties but if they don't have Bear Sleep Technique then beating up a lunar can easily leave them out of action for a month or so
healing lethal damage to -4 boxes takes ages
tulip folio
Ah, that's why Sids get -0 boxes.
They're not legally allowed to rest đ
Titan of the Streets will likely need a full redo as 'Just give you a heap of bonus stat points' isn't really a 3e thing.
Cost: 2m, 1wp, 1lhl
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Introduction to the Stone Prince, Fleeting Wings of Dust
A master of First Pulse Style knows the streets. She has lived on them and slept on them, eaten off them, breathed them. The streets are her domain, and she is equally at home on the back streets of the Imperial City, in the oldest and worst districts of Nexus or surrounded by the celestial slums of Yu-Shan. All such places are alike, in spirit if not appearance, and the master has taken the thousand hard lessons she learned there and internalized them.
Activating this Charm, the character adds one to her Strength, Dexterity and Stamina for the duration of the scene. Her Wits score increases by three. She appears at least a foot taller, menacing, rough, deadly. Her hands drip bloodâher blood and that of every tough she has made bleed during her period as a student of this styleâand it flicks everywhere with her blows and parries. When people suffer knockback from her attacks, they travel twice as far, and it is the same when she throws them. She adds two yards to her Move and Dash actions and moves with the speed of death on the streets. While this Charm is active, First Pulse Form can reduce attack Speeds to a minimum of 3.
the 2e combat system was heavily buffered by the fact that you could defeat literally any level of bullshit +damage for 3 motes, yes
although I cannot remember if combo-basic was adequate to use this and not get ganked for not having your paranoia combo up
tulip folio
Bird Of Paradise Whistles In The North is one that I feel is easy to translate mechanically to 3e.
As it's thing was 'Hey, you hit me. I get to Clash That With A Grapple'
fierce star
There was such a fun bit in the ex2 game I ran where a Lunar who had mastered first pulse style was taking part in a martial arts tournament against a bunch of xblooded, terrestrials and enlgihtened mortals
tulip folio
Bird Of Paradise Whistles In The North
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Dual, Terrestrial, Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Stubborn Monkey Hesitation, Hunter Bags the Deer
One of the best things a back-alley warrior can do when attacked from surprise is to whip the attacker out of hiding, especially when she can toss him into a circle of her friends.
This Charm allows the Martial Artist to make a reflexive Clash with a Grapple Gambit against an incoming unexpected attack, savage or slam. If the Martial Artist cannot reach the attacker (Such as a slinger attacking from range), a successful Clash will still negate the attack but will not grapple the attacker.
Terrestrial: This counts as the Martial Artist's attack action.
Mastery: The martial artist can reflexively move one zone towards the attacker before attempting the gambit, allowing them to grapple targets attacking with some ranged weapons.
and since he had announced first pulse style as the style he was representing, he was free to use his variety of 'get bigger and tougher' charms mroe or less at will because 'well it's just Titan of the Streets, isn't it?'
tulip folio
That guy was fun
I do like first pulse because it's not just a 'dirty cheater' style, it's also the 'I am such a dirty cheater, you can't outcheater-me'
Not 100% on the cost of that 3e version. It's a kinda situational clash but it's also a clash that opposes really dangerous attacks with a very nice trick of your own.
fierce star
1wp is a decent cost... hmm. I would say 'maybe make it perilous'? but you wouldn't be in crash against most unexpected attacks
... most, but not all, admittedly
stealth in combat is not impossible
bleak hazel
seems reasonable, honestly
there are actually a few buttons that produce "unexpected attacks" from just moving really fast
solar Foe-Vaulting Method, sidereal Flickering Moonsilver Approach
also, my abyssal has finally reached Craft (Geomancy) 5 so it will soon be giant pointless megaproject time
wise ocean
[evil vizier voice] use a magic nuclear bomb to dig for gold
bleak hazel
we don't have Soulbreaker Orbs and I am not quite first-age level good at crafting yet
once I am, first legendary project will be a Thousand-Forged Kraken if I don't need that juice to do some kind of big plot beat
tulip folio
Will you have a Fuck The World Button?
wise ocean
critically important to have Project Abyssal Plowshare at some point
bleak hazel
give us some time, we're just getting started
(a Thousand-Forged Dragon, for those unfamilliar with traditional Exalted WMDs)
they are stored in silos and have specific launch codes
I do not know if there are giant squid versions but I intend to build one if given half a chance and a lot of jade
tulip folio
It's amusing that Dragonblooded are about the only people who can't turn into dragons.
There are dragon WMDs
Elementals can become dragons
Humans can become dragons (With Sid 'help')
But Dragonblooded? Nope, no dragon for you.
bleak hazel
admittedly you very much do not want to be hit with the Sid charm for derg form
tulip folio
Look, I never said it was a good thing đ
bleak hazel
the default assumption of use is that you've restrained the poor bastard first
tulip folio
Look, just get yourself a wuxia cult where people are willing to die for you.
Then you don't feel bad.
bleak hazel
(this is quite easy to do, if you're a Sidereal)
reset: once per day
duration: one day
mote cost: very affordable for essence 5
you will regain the willpower after a solid night's sleep even if the charm is still running
you can maintain permanent dragon uptime if you are willing to accept a significant mortal burn rate
tulip folio
Yes but if the mortal forgets who you are, they can't bring you to court for damages.
bleak hazel
I like the idea that there are certain elder Lunars and similar who are aware that if a Sidereal shows up on a dragon it means that things are about to go extremely loud and they should be worried
(beyond the usual level of loud associated with elemental dragons)
conveniently the dragon can fly or swim at 500mph, so if you need to go collect your friends it will not take very long
tulip folio
If you need to go collect your friends and you use Riding the Dragon to do it, I'm not sure your friends will last very long either. XD
bleak hazel
this is the whip round you use to get all your spare lunar elders, mysterious dragonblooded assassins, etc. together before you go fight a deathlord or whatever
it is kind of cool to imagine a mixed circle all going to war in legendary size form
alch colossus, Twilight in warstrider, lunar in giant murderbeast form and then the Sid in an old master's robe riding on top of a dragon made of scriptures
tulip folio
Alch: "When I get big enough, I am getting launch tubes for thousand forged dragons."
bleak hazel
(the deeb is sad, but he does have four friends)
bleak hazel
Alch: "When I get big enough, I am getting launch tubes for thousand forged drag...
they can launch "colossus-scale drones" in metropolis form
as per the alch book
so totally doable
how would alchs react to the traditional form of Elder Exalt, anyway
tulip folio
Bored Alch starting off a Metal Gear Solid plot but he's the base.
bleak hazel
it's not like an Essence 7 meat celestial is less powerful than a Metropolis in their area of focus, but it might be very odd to realise that the normal-looking guy is actually a strategic asset on the scale of the entire magical material city
"yeah, this is the lineup to go fight the Viator, it's four cities and Dave who slipped through the Seal by accident"
tulip folio
Dave, who is currently an essence 7 housecat
bleak hazel
hey, do cities get a permanent +2 evasion?
that's cheap excellency
damned robot fortresses are clearly not optimised for mote efficiency
tulip folio
Vaguely on that topic: I do kinda wish that there was more mechanics under the hood for Cool Bases. Like we have Manses and Hearthstones but with 'This big cool manse' so much a setting thing, Craft(Geomancy) being an entire skill and quite a few of them having Notable Environmental Shit (Looking at you, Realm Defence Grid), I'm kinda surprised we don't have any like 'Hey, your manse gets <Cool Upgrades> equal to its dot value' etc.
bleak hazel
also I went to check if the Viator had a statblock this time around and in the process got slammed by how cool Alchemical names are
love these guys
I never used to like them much but Metropoli are especially stylish
no Viator
I suppose they are kind of an outside context problem
fierce star
yeah, viator doesn't have stats this go around
and maybe we'llg et it in a sourcebook, iki? We got manse customization in one of the oadenol's codexes in ex2
tulip folio
Yeah, I get the feeling they sorta wanted to play careful with 'The guy that wiped out multiple cities'. As well, they don't let players be cities yet. XD
He's sorta in that 'Statting an Incarnae' area of 'Urrgg...this is going to mess with our combat system unless we're real fucking careful'
bleak hazel
designated Nonsense Book that includes the higher echelon SMA styles, metropoli charms and even bigger lunar shapes
the Solar section can just be Zeal
"but we don't have virtues to channel any longer" - tough
fierce star
lmao
bleak hazel
(I'm pretty sure that SMAs are all on the same E3-5 tier these days anyway, they managed to flatten Obsidian Shards out)
tulip folio
Also: From a minor thing with that swordswoman sid I made: Her thoughts when she hears about someone who looks exactly like the Scarlet Empress is going about:
It's likely not that weird. There's a damn lot of people who just try to get a fleshwarper to make them look like Her Redness. Or it's a Lunar that went around licking objects she touched until they found a drop of blood. Serenity has an entire sub-division for 'Imitation Scarlet Empresses Bullshit'.
she had lots of presumably redhead kids, too
no shortage of Small Reds
neat
sid picking this up to aid with the alchemical cosplay
tulip folio
Yeah, in this case it's another PC who is a neomah-made clone of her redness as part of a Cunning Scheme (That promptly failed when she failed to exalt as a Dragonblood).
fierce star
lol
'surely this idea is genius'
'we spent a fortune on her redness' toenail clippings from her personal pedicurist'
tulip folio
*neat*
I do like that it also like...acknowledges that exalts that are not the assumed exalt type exist/gives some guidance.
Which I feel is a mandatory level of support for anything that ties into a Specific Mechanic like that
Instead of 'Well, it's just sitting there, work out what it does for other exalts yourself'
tulip folio
"You are very lucky that 'insulted by cultural appropriation' is an emotional intimacy and thus clarity is preventing me calling you a dick."
bleak hazel
I like to think this is Lunar Dave and as such the cat is trying to figure out how the robot translates to quadrupeds
got to find a quadrupedal alch to ask
fierce star
... Great, now I'm imagining an Alchemical who's made a warstrider that's a scorpion from battletech
love me a quad
tulip folio
Quad + Essence Cannon seems entirely valid
fierce star
oh yeah Radiance is rad
bleak hazel
this is the really stylish attrition move from Fire Dragon but with more power
and cheaper
tulip folio
I keep being so tempted by Radiance because Brilliant Shining Heart is just so cool.
But then one of the players fluffed up an artifact for RiRi đ
bleak hazel
yet another case of "E7 Sid really wants this so he can carve people up with 16 overwhelming + 4 flat levels"
this thing so much as clips your parry and you take more posture damage than being hit square on by a Deadly Beastman wielding a grand daiklaive usually causes
bleak hazel
I keep being *so* tempted by Radiance because Brilliant Shining Heart is just *s...
it's badass but I could never justify grabbing it because 5 dot statsticks feel to me slightly like cheating unless I made them
maybe this is why I have so many crafters
coral wraith
misc you have so many crafters because you like pushing systems to their limit like a gremlin
tulip folio
I kinda stole an existing 5* as the basis for Glacier Jade's artifact but it went through a lot of changes getting there.
bleak hazel
craft doesn't let me do that
coral wraith
it can!!
bleak hazel
the way to do that is to buy the right 5 dot as a merit and spend the rest of your juice on training up Rexy the Tyrant Lizard
fierce star
I'm working on a 5 dot
bleak hazel
Exalted is a fun system to push but only if you aren't trying to push along the direct axis of "no thematic limits, how do I become as powerful a damage gremlin as possible" because that's not actually that hard or entertaining
fierce star
it's capstone is 'what if autochthon asked your target 'hey, do you deserve to exist?''
tulip folio
I basicly stole the deal of Sozen, the Cataphract of Keys but with a very different vibe. Instead of being a fictional person, it's a creepy set of armour that disguises you as a potential person. So Glacier Jade is wearing armour that disguises her as Glacier Jade...but the Glacier Jade that a deathlord is sure she'll someday become when she accepts the truth that love is a lie and oblivion is a release.
bleak hazel
it's why I like making Sids so much, their raw power is just low enough that if you optimise them a fair bit you don't blow past the reasonable bounds of party opposition and you also get to keep all the fun non-numerical tricks
you just become mean in cool ways
tulip folio
Which makes the 'Hey, you can use the intimacies of this armour but if you do so, you take them on a little bit' a lot imo stronger thematically.
As with Sozen, none of the intimacies are ones you're super worried about keeping
But if the intimacies are for someone you'd hate to be...
fierce star
hell yeah self-loathing
bleak hazel
love a self-loathing button
strongly considering giving the soulsteel silken armour that hates everything an expensive button that lets you treat a negative intimacy towards yourself as a negative intimacy towards whatever the hell you like for the purpose of social interaction
fierce star
every sidereal I make with dead wife defense is gonna have at least a major positive intimacy towards mortal life in general
bleak hazel
magically enforced grumpiness
tulip folio
Hell-Soul Masquerade
Cost: 5m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mute, Resonant
Duration: One scene
Prerequisites: None
The wearer veils her spirit beneath the Cataphract of Keysâ illusory identity. While this Evocation is active, she gains +1 Guile. If a character fails an attempt to discern the wearerâs intentions or Intimacies, she sees only Sozen. The demon personaâs intentions are always mercenary, and her Intimacies are as follows:
⢠Defining Principle: âI am the greatest thief that Hell will ever know.â
⢠Defining Tie: Sozen, the Cataphract of Keys (Vanity)
⢠Major Principle: âI will abide no disrespect for my skills and achievements.â
⢠Major Principle: âI take what I desire.â
⢠Major Tie: Precious things (Covetousness)
In addition, treat the wearer as having specialties of âdemonsâ and âthe Demon Cityâ in every Ability.
An Essence 3 repurchase allows the wearer to reflexively spend one Willpower to use one of Sozenâs Intimacies to bolster her Resolve against influence or in a Decision Point. Doing so causes her to gain that Intimacy at Minor intensity, or to increase its intensity if she already has it (though no higher than Sozenâs intensity). She cannot voluntarily diminish the Intimacy that session.
Resonant: This Evocationâs duration is Indefinite.
Like this is Conceptually Cool but also: None of the Sozen Intimacies are likely to cause serious problems or chaos in a game.
The average PC is already a greedy muderhobo that takes the shit they want đ
fierce star
'that's a nice wife you have there'
tulip folio
I've realized a real dick move a Sid can do to abyssals.
Name-Pilfering Practice expressly works on Abyssal Titles.
You can steal the safe name for an Abyssal.
Leaving them the choice of 'Gain limit for being deadnamed' or 'have no name'
bleak hazel
I feel that this is on the level of continuously hitting all your enemies with Shun the Smiling Lady in terms of "things a Sidereal could theoretically do for no apparent gain"
I don't feel that making the deathknight a continuous font of bleak expiations is going to make them less likely to killmaimburn
unless you just have a Sid whose entire motivation is
L + ratio + Charcoal March of Spiders Form + Blade of the Battle Maiden + Pattern Spider Touch + Thumbnail Spider March + Jumping Spider Strike from the summit of Mount Meru
tulip folio
I feel that this is on the level of continuously hitting all your enemies with S...
Yes but to be fair, making someone you hate miserable is often its own reward.
bleak hazel
CMOS is admittedly not the best style to pick if you just want to BM people
it's very good though
upper stratus
between pattern spider touch and jumpint spider strike getting stronger the more you hate someone i think there's a fair degree of BM going on
bleak hazel
also the button that lets you just demolish someone's relic sword
upper stratus
not as much as glimpse of infinity i reckon
bleak hazel
the reflexive clashes in all the Sid styles are brutal
upper stratus
or all that bullshit that was going on in the ol BoKL times
bleak hazel
between Cannibalistic Heritage Technique and Essence Redirection Technique sids are very big on ultrakill hitstop parries
tulip folio
I forgot that one of the charms for First Pulse is literally just 'POCKET SAND!'
bleak hazel
CMOS also comboes very well with Ways of Exaltation
set it to Moonsilver Alch for Dex + Wits, max your join battle, move in, take a swing and then reflexively pop the form from hitting, rising to bonfire
tulip folio
Speaking of BM. I should continue updating First Pulse to 3e.
bleak hazel
that gets you free full excellencies on both your subsequent Joins Battle and suddenly CMOS form gives you something like 25 free init
which you can then doom clash them with using Sid Melee for reflexive aiming
upper stratus
flickering moonsilver approach also seems funny to pick up combined with dance of the hungry spider
im just There now
bleak hazel
the best part is that Cannibalistic Heritage is reflexive so this can literally be like a one turn blitz
you show up, dive in, tap them once with your sword and then when they try to riposte you split into three copies of yourself, summon a tripartite vortex of entropy and shatter their daiklaive while dealing something like 30 levels of damage
(assuming you hit them, then win the clash, anyway - you're going to want to wait for them to throw something low-balled because otherwise you might eat shit for clashing decisives with only 18 dice)
Asna Firstborn surprisingly good at hitstop railcoins
upper stratus
as part of 'sidereal gets better with prep time' you first spent a couple of weeks with a photorealistic sketch of your target on your person so you can stare at it and convince yourself you hate them at major intensity
tulip folio
Though 'blind a guy for 3 turns' for a late-in-the-martial art feel kinda mediocre. Crippling Pressure-Point Strike does that and several other things.
bleak hazel
yeah, this also counts as most of the prep time for the emergency prophecy you threw down to get you TN4 vs TN9 on the clash
upper stratus
tears of the blade time
bleak hazel
it probably says something about Soulfire Form that despite CMOS being able to do all this I'm still not sure whether I want to pick it up or just stick with Prismatic
upper stratus
as part of 'sidereal gets better with prep time' you first spent a couple of wee...
aha. i found it
the first 3 panels
bleak hazel
classic Division of Serenities activities
the love affair is a key component of the assassination
upper stratus
sereneties - endings cross division mission
tulip folio
Hmm...pondering how to give Fleeting Wings Of Dust some spice as the Penultimate Charm to this style...
tulip folio
Maybe add an Init Drain to it. So you're not just blinded, you're put heavily off balance.
bleak hazel
sereneties - endings cross division mission
this is actually what my Sid is currently doing
the Joybringer is the grumpy, violent and cynical one, which is fun
tulip folio
Fleeting Wings Of Dust
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Terrestial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: First Pulse Form
No one ever said life was fair. Whether he picks it up or kicks it up, the character sends Essence-charged dirt, sand, dust or grime into the eyes of his opponent.
The Martial Artist rolls (Strength + [Athletics or Stealth]), adding (Target's Wound Penalty) non-Charm dice, with the target opposing it with a (Wits + Awareness) roll. If the martial artist wins, the target is blinded for the rest of the scene. They also lose (Martial Artist's Essence) Initiative, which the martial artist gains.
Terrestial: The Martial Artist does not gain Initative lost by the target.
rest of the scene is extremely strong
bear in mind most exalts don't actually have broad-spectrum attack penalty negators, only Sids can go full blind swordsman
fierce star
I'd also specify that it counts as a gambit? It feels like it hsould be a special gambit
tulip folio
Fair, the intent was to sorta be a sidegrade to Crippling Pressure-Point Strike, where it has only one option but it's better at being that single option than the multi-purpose snake charm.
upper stratus
the Joybringer is the grumpy, violent and cynical one, which is fun
i assume they bring joy when they leave the scene then
bleak hazel
crippling pressure-point strike is a diff 3 gambit, so you're paying 3m 3i for the pleasure and you have to land a decisive first
which there are many ways to prevent
I would say this is just a gambit
also, it can be ended by skipping a turn, whereas this sticks for the entire fight and isn't even classified as any kind of injury so even Citrine Pox or Lunar regen won't get you out of this one
tulip folio
nods
I'll have to ponder how to adjust it then. As the other charm comparison was Blinding Strobe Projector, the Alchemical 'Blind People' one, which is 'everyone in short range' for the rest of the scene. XD
bleak hazel
for one, that's seven entire motes
which is Heaven Thunder Hammer territory
wait, you don't even skip attacking, you basically get a free withering hit if it lands anyway because you get the initiative that they lose
yeah this is a little much in like three or four ways at once, although not incredibly overtuned in any one of them
tulip folio
Yeah, that's the part that was inspired by Blinding Strobe Projector/its submodules, with the limitation that it's single target and its access to bonus dice is much more restricted than the Alchemical 'Go Bonfire, you're an alch, no reason not to'.
I guess I'll need to tinker with it more.
bleak hazel
considering they have to pay over twice the cost of the charm and nearly twice as many motes to get "steal the initiative straight up" I think this may be too many clauses to cram into one easily spammable charm
making it a gambit and increasing the cost slightly probably covers most of the sins, because gambits can be parried, and that means that you won't occasionally just wreck someone completely because they botch a save roll they have no way to buff
tulip folio
I guess I overvalued 'no longer AOE'
bleak hazel
that's a downside, but it's probably not enough of one to make it otherwise a strictly better combo of Crippling Pressure-Point's blind and strobe projector for less cost than either
it's absolutely a thing you can do, but if it's going to be this harsh it needs to be more expensive and go through the gambit rules, because gambits are where you put your save-or-sucks
tulip folio
Fleeting Wings Of Dust
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only, Terrestial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: First Pulse Form
No one ever said life was fair. Whether he picks it up or kicks it up, the character sends Essence-charged dirt, sand, dust or grime into the eyes of his opponent.
The Martial Artist makes a Difficulty 3 Gambit, adding (Target's Wound Penalty) non-Charm dice on the attack roll. If the martial artist succeeds, the target is blinded for the rest of the scene. They also lose (Martial Artist's Essence) Initiative.
Terrestial: A terrestial martial artist can only use this charm as an Unexpected Attack or against a Prone target.
Stripped out the 'gaining init' and made it a gambit
bleak hazel
gain the init probably works as Mastery
tulip folio
With a terrestial limitation that doesn't make it weaker but does make it more situational
bleak hazel
and yes, this seems a lot more reasonable
do you get the non-charm dice on the attack roll or the initiative roll?
tulip folio
The intent was the attack roll.
So it has a little skornergy with the terrestial
As if you're using it from ambush, they're likely not super hurt
Or you're spending a lot of actions doing the Back Into Stealth dance/Knocking them on their ass.
bleak hazel
if you're using this martial art you're making smash attacks all day every day, surely
tulip folio
Fair
bleak hazel
this seems much more reasonable. although I do like the idea of getting the initiative on the Mastery
tulip folio
I'll see how many I end up with Mastery on. As I don't want like the entire martial art to have mastery effects.
If that makes sense?
bleak hazel
always fun to have more grimy bastard martial arts for Sidereals to play against type with
tulip folio
With how much this likes knocking people about, I'm pondering what to do with Titan of the Streets as its 3e version is just 100% not functional.
I'm kinda pondering it as one of those 'when you assume the form charm, pay X extra to get bonus effects', that a good number of martial arts have
Rather than a Seperate Mode.
fierce star
That could work. Maybe have it give a bonus on Gambits (since this is a style heavy on them), smash attacks
... let you treat improvised weapons as if they had artifact stats?
upper stratus
i kinda love 'form upgrade capstones' tbh
tulip folio
I was actually thinking fo something that relates to smash attacks but isn't directly them.
An upgrade to the form that adds 'While you are in this form, anyone non-trivial who starts their turn prone and within close range of you loses an init'
As you've just got an Oppressive Bully Aura that drains people's ability to fight.
tulip folio
... let you treat improvised weapons as if they had artifact stats?
Okay so:
That would be fun but I have a pondering there.
bleak hazel
... let you treat improvised weapons as if they had artifact stats?
sidereal charm
tulip folio
Yes, that pondering was 'sids already do that'. XD
bleak hazel
very directly sidereal charm, it's their version of Glorious Solar Sabre, which would be a bit odd to stick in as a capstone for a completely different martial art
tulip folio
My pondering for something along those lines but not quite?
fierce star
It's conceptually appropriate for first pulse, though, and if it's the sidereal version of GSS then it's probably early on in the tree and not full capstone tier, yeah?
bleak hazel
essence 2 Maiden charm, so 18xp at least for everyone besides Battles
tulip folio
It's conceptually appropriate for first pulse, though, and if it's the sidereal ...
My thoughts is to actually make the thing along those lines a much earlier charm but one that sids also don't mind having.
fierce star
ooh?
bleak hazel
also, if you're going to just outright steal celestial charms then for the love of god steal someone elses', Sidereals already have half their high essence moves on the table for three other splats
tulip folio
Make the redone Hunter Bags The Deer not about 'I reduce the speed of an an attack' (As we don't use speed any more) but instead a Hefty Improvised Weapon Damage Boost...that shatters improvised weapons
So it works with the sid one.
Rather than stealing it.
As the sid goes 'Oh look, disposable artifact weapon' smash
bleak hazel
actually significantly worse with the sid one because the downside of Auspicious Instrument For Strife is that it's not invincible
so you'd be paying 5m 1wp to get your sword back
tulip folio
Oh, they pay per-weapon? Aww.
bleak hazel
although at least you can reflexively pull a new mundane weapon out of nowhere for free
fierce star
hmm, i guess I should rework the passive effect on this artifact I'm working on, then, since it was going to be letting you use improvised weapons that are musical instruments as if they had the stats of the smashfists you're wearing.
bleak hazel
bleak hazel
yeah, that's a whole turn's regen on an exalt type that lives and dies on beating out the others in mote efficiency
tulip folio
Hmm...goes back to pondering cool improvised boosts that don't either step on the toes of sids or have scornergy with them
...heheheheheh
bleak hazel
well, it still works, it would just only work once
they can still replace said weapon reflexively, unlike most other builds
tulip folio
'Your attack with an improvised weapon is considered an unexpected attack. If this is the first time in the scene you have attacked with an improvised weapon, it is treated as an ambush'
bleak hazel
OK, that is a spectacularly mean capstone but I do like it
death chopsticks go
Wait, you could do the break-your-weapon thing, Sids would just have to use it on something expendable and then grab a new one to artifact
since the first purchase basically means you're always able to keep grabbing more
fierce star
... hey does Paragon actually not have an ex3 writeup? I'ts on the maps, but there's nothing on it in core, the realm, or across the eight directions that I can find
tulip folio
Okay, yeah. So my thoughts on Titan of the Streets:
-When you go form, you can spend extra motes + 1 WP to go titan of the streets.
-You can spend to make an attack (Including Gambits) with an improvised weapon an unexpected attack.
-The first time in a scene you do this, it's an ambush.
-You always ignore Difficult Terrain from Ruins, Urban Environments and Stone, as the stones bow to the titan.
it will overlap a hair with sids but I'm giving the form 'You ignore the init cost for attacking with improvised weapons'
As that's kinda important
And I think being only A Part Of The Sid Charm is an okay one to grab.
tulip folio
since the first purchase basically means you're always able to keep grabbing mor...
...actually, do you think this as the 'how you get into a form' is too much/too abusable with the sid one?
When you ready an improvised weapon from the environment, you can reflexively enter this form.
As for most people that means 'You spent an action picking up a rock or something' but sids could do that really fast.
bleak hazel
Normally you can flurry Ready Weapon, so in practice battles sids are mostly dodging a -3 penalty for one attack
This is a really accessible form though
just in general
tulip folio
Yeah, that's my concern
bleak hazel
what this does let Sids do is weave into and out of this form very fluidly, but since I have no idea what it does yet I don't know if that's particularly useful
There's also a Solar Brawl move to reflexively ready improvised weapons but that's Solar Brawl, which doesn't really care about anyone else's damage boosts
tulip folio
My current vague notes on things that could be possible options for the form are:
-You treat all improvised weapons as Grappling and ignore the 1 init cost to attack with them.
-Add (1/2 Athletics) to your base init when you reset after an Unexpected Attack, Savage or Throw/Slam.
-Reduce the Def Penalty for Surprise Attacks and Grappling by 1.
So it's all about Unexpected Attacks and Grappling (Though it's also good at being on the receiving end of them too).
It wants to Grab people and then Slam them into objects and then grab more people.
The old 2e one was another 'hey, this does basicly nothing but increase the speed of attacks, a system that doesn't exist in 3e' XD
bleak hazel
I remember that being basically standard for 2e forms
tulip folio
Yeah, it's kinda dull. I like 3e ones a lot more.
The intended 'vibe' I'm going for with First Pulse is 'Iki really liked Sleeping Dogs and its Enviromental Kills'
...actually, I do have a bit of a silly idea for a charm. A little inspired by some of the AOE charms.
When you decisively slam a guy, you can slam him into a second guy. Roll to hit the second guy. If you hit, divide the init between the two of them but add the slam bonus vs both. If you miss, it's treated as a normal slam.
If someone clashes you doing this, any damage from the clash is applied to the guy being used as a projectile.
YEET THE SHIKARI
bleak hazel
YEET THE SHIKARI
(oh wait, that's a skitarii)
spring lynx
no that's the skitarii, very different
...man my life would be a hell of a lot better if i fucking read things, huh
fierce star
Look, sometimes we lose the linguistics tax dot, it happens
tulip folio
...are all non-sidereal martial art forms Essence 1 now?
bleak hazel
no, a few are 2
tulip folio
Wait, no, single point is...yeah
Okay, cool. So it's okay for First Pulse to have an E2 form because it's got a few prereqs to get there.
bleak hazel
Single Point is 2, as are the Dragon styles
tulip folio
Poisoned Rat Moves Without Pride
Cost: Xm; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Lightning Mental Armament, Stubborn Monkey Hesitation
It is always an advantage to throw your opponent off guard. Slow reactions in a deadly conflict show a lack of focus, but controlling someone else's reaction? That's skill.
This charm supplements a decisive slam attempt. The martial artist attempts to slam the victim against another character within short range. Make a Decisive Attack against the target as with a Thrown(Short) Improvised Weapon. If they hit, divide the martial artist's initiative evenly between the two targets, gaining the full dice of the Slam against both targets. On a miss, treat this as a normal Slam against the initial victim.
If a character attempts to Clash this attack, any harm the Clash would cause is inflicted upon the unwilling projectile instead of the martial artist.
nice
bleak hazel
I dig it
not sure on the name because Rat Style is a thing already but that's not your fault, obviously
one of the rules things I'm still not clear on is if you can use a reflexive clash or block unblockable charm while grappled to contest a savaging attack
tulip folio
I'm not 100% sure myself. I don't think you can use block unlockable
But I think you could use clash
As it's not unblockable, it just sets defences to 0.
bleak hazel
natural language strikes again: does "without opportunity for defence" mean you can't activate charms against it or what
tulip folio
Not 100% sure. My thoughts is that it refers to that 'always hits, even if you got no successes on the attack roll'
bleak hazel
presumably you can use Duck Fate, because Duck Fate has the get-out clause of "yes, you use evaison, doesn't matter"
tulip folio
not sure on the name because Rat Style is a thing already but that's not your fa...
Yeah, there's a possibility I might need to rename things.
bleak hazel
I think it's fine, keep the old names
tulip folio
Sid: 'My fate is to never be hugged...wait, shit'
bleak hazel
First Pulse just has Highly Variable name quality
because Introduction to the Stone Prince is incredible but most of the others are pretty dull
tulip folio
Yeah, I do feel like keeping the 'stone/street' theming would be stronger.
As its capstone is Titan of the Streets
next delta
natural language strikes again: does "without opportunity for defence" mean you ...
They even had the unblockable and undodgeable words! Does anything use both terms for an attack?
tulip folio
They even had the unblockable and undodgeable words! Does anything use both term...
Yes but
It's God-Scourging Wail
bleak hazel
actually there are a few more
tulip folio
Which goes 'unblockable and undodgable but you get resolve instead'
So it's using it less for Truly Unblockable/Undodable and more for 'odd defence'
bleak hazel
next delta
Neat, but of course a non-core book charm is better written
I wonder if anyone asked about grapples in that ginormous "ask the devs" thread on the forums
tulip folio
Bone and Flagstone Meeting
Cost: Xm; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Lightning Mental Armament, Stubborn Monkey Hesitation
It is always an advantage to throw your opponent off guard. Slow reactions in a deadly conflict show a lack of focus, but controlling someone else's reaction? That's skill.
This charm supplements a decisive slam attempt. The martial artist attempts to slam the victim against another character within short range. Make a Decisive Attack against the target as with a Thrown(Short) Improvised Weapon. If they hit, divide the martial artist's initiative evenly between the two targets, gaining the full dice of the Slam against both targets. On a miss, treat this as a normal Slam against the initial victim.
If a character attempts to Clash this attack, any harm the Clash would cause is inflicted upon the unwilling projectile instead of the martial artist.
Tried with a name that better fits what I think should be general naming scheme.
Which it really just a fancy name for 'I throw a fucker into things'
next delta
That's a funny euphemism
bleak hazel
I wonder if anyone asked about grapples in that ginormous "ask the devs" thread ...
looking would require wrestling with the onyx path forums, but there was a summary compiled, one moment
next delta
Might I also suggest "Flagstone Meets Face" if you want to be more flippant
tulip folio
That also works, yeah. The general intent is 'stone/street metaphors for brutality'
next delta
Oh, it's funny you still get to slam if you miss
tulip folio
Well, if you throw a guy at another guy and miss, you still threw the guy đ
Also I didn't really want to cost the Slam if you fail because slams are 'This can never fail' normally.
And making it fail if you missed your cool thing is kinda Badfeel
If that makes sense?
next delta
Oh yeah, it makes total sense
tulip folio
Hmm...the starting charm for First Pulse is a very easy translation.
It was a Join Battle booster in 2e, it can remain such in 3e
next delta
```
Bone and Flagstone Meeting
Cost: Xm; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: S...
My very nitpicky complaint is that the name makes me think it would boost being slammed into the ground
bleak hazel
yeah, you can't get "don't roll for join battle" anymore because that would mean your initiative score would be N/A and the combat system would break
but "add essence to join battle, some booster to calculating turn order" is very straightforward
tulip folio
yeah, you can't get "don't roll for join battle" anymore because that would mean...
Yeah, I do have a thought on how to translate the vibe of it.
Add X to join battle, get +1 automatic success if nobody else was wanting a fight.
It's about initiating hostilities.
So you get a jump on people who want to do things other than apply fists to faces.
bleak hazel
I assume that's "gain +1 automatic success if you started it" rather than "GM has to check everyone else's vibes"
tulip folio
Yeah, basicly.
If you're the guy who goes "HEY, ROLL JOIN BATTLE EVERYONE!' you get a bonus
If you're being dragged into it by a friend starting shit or you're getting ambushed, it won't help.
next delta
What happens to people if they don't join battle in 2E?
tulip folio
They're just Not Part Of The Fight Unless You Make Them Such.
As init in 2e is just about 'when you take actions'
Rather than your ability to absorb hits like it is in 3e
next delta
Yeah, but it'd be weird in other systems if you didn't roll initiative for someone relevant but also still punched them lol
bleak hazel
"you can't make me roll join battle" would be a very funny Sidereal Peace Aura charm
you just don't have an init value
tulip folio
'I can neither gain nor lose init because I'm not part of this shit'
bleak hazel
they can try to decisive you but that's it
tulip folio
...honestly wouldn't be bad for someone who doesn't have much offensively going on.
As it means they can't give enemies init
while the real combatants fight
bleak hazel
I don't think it would actually be good to have around because it removes most of the flow of combat and I know there are lots of dedicated combatant builds that would try to cheese it
but "nope, not touching the dice, you can't make me" "what the fuck are The Dice, we are doing iajutsu" is very sidereal
tulip folio
Yeah, feels like it would need at least a like 'If you do this, you can't take any hostile action' effect to stop you going 'what can I do that doesn't involve init rolls ever?'
As like a guy with init n/a just constantly draining your init with withering attacks would be obnoxious.
next delta
Just literally not let you be involved in combat until someone does the thing to force you in (at which point the charm ends and you join battle)?
tulip folio
...I could totally see sids getting a variation of how the Dr Who RPG does init as a charm.
next delta
You can keep drinking tea as the teahouse gets destroyed around you though, leaving just your table and chair intact
tulip folio
Where you get a huge bonus in Turn Order, as long as you're not actually fighting anyone.
So if you want to talk or run or grab things, you're going before the people doing Fightstuff.
bleak hazel
Just literally not let you be involved in combat until someone does the thing to...
there are a few of these but they're usually "nobody here can fight full stop"
personal fight excluder would be fun, if it had the usual "intimacy/willpower gets through it" clauses so you couldn't just be immortal and irritating
next delta
Yeah
bleak hazel
tulip folio
Heels on Cobblestone Echo
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
When living on the streets, itâs wise to keep your ears out for incoming danger. The martial artist adds (Athletics) bonus dice on an Awareness roll to Join Battle or detect a hidden threat in combat. If the Martial Artist is within a city or in contact with environmental worked stone, she benefits from Double 9s on this roll.
Mastery: The martial artist ignores penalties for visual conditions for this roll, guided by the feeling of the earth underfoot and the sounds about them.
If you're not on worked stone, it's not as efficient as 'Just using excellency' if you've got an awareness excellency (Which to be fair, many exalts do have) but if you're fighting in a city or ruin it's very good and the mastery lets you do it in the dark fine.
fierce star
hmm
went to double check some sidereal things, and there's a curious rule here to me. They're assumed to always have access to any prayer strips they need, but there's also rules specifically for crafting them. I guess as an easy way to farm silver craft XP, at least?
bleak hazel
yeah, I would assume that's for if you have to do Prison Escape Arc or similar
fierce star
legit
bleak hazel
ah, I found the ask-the-devs compilation from a while back
that clears up the sorcery question at least
you need to say it ignores legendary size if you want it to
this is also very handy for max power crafters because Big Abyssal Craftgar can just bulldoze any reasonable diff increase
tulip folio
...so no spell does shit to Legendary Size targets?
bleak hazel
yeah, you can only chunk them
tulip folio
That's...kinda disappointing
bleak hazel
stuff that doesn't use strength as damage counts strength as 4
so you can still batter pretty hard
tulip folio
God, imagine being they guy who cast a solar circle blast spell and a tyrant lizard just shrugs it off. XD
bleak hazel
you have to keep death raying for a few rounds, which it does let you do
bleak hazel
stabby stabby
tulip folio
I guess I'm going to have to add 'ignores Legendary size' to some of my spells
tulip folio
To make them work
bleak hazel
also argh
Solar Brawl: literally nothing can slow them down
other than having such a monstrous parry they can never hit you
tulip folio
As the spell that deals bonus damage to Legendary Size should likely not be blunted by Legendary Size. XD
bleak hazel
thank fuck
we have a weakness boys
time to kill some solars
although this is extra bullshit
fierce star
Sidereal in a warstrider: artifact tree!
tulip folio
...do Siege Weapons ignore legendary size?
As I feel like they SHOULD be good against big targets
fierce star
RAW? no, but they also suffer no penalty to aim at them like they do against smalelr targets!
tulip folio
That feels off
fierce star
wait no that's just bombard weapons
tulip folio
A Ballista should threaten a tyrant lizard.
bleak hazel
It can, it just won't oneshot one
tulip folio
Okay, gunna go put 'Ignores Legendary Size' on spells (Mostly just void mirror, as its designed for chunking big boys XD)
bleak hazel
Now that I think of it, there are no starmetal warstriders in the published books
Asteroids are presumably too expensive
I'm sure yu-shan has one stashed somewhere
next delta
It's often a secondary material used for certain components. Which makes sense because of how little starmetal there is in Creation
And there isn't much point in making warstriders in autocthon
If anything, I'm surprised there are cities mostly made of starmetal in autocthon. Are all the magical materials roughly equally rare in him?
velvet raft
You can get ethically sourced starmetal and soulsteel from Autochthon, iirc
next delta
I don't think starmetal is unethical in 3e?
At least I don't think the dead gods part is mentioned
bleak hazel
starmetal is fine now, yes
there is one sid with a mace made out of a dead god but that was a special case
and not the generic source of all meteor iron
next delta
You might be able to mine ethical soulsteel in the underworld. Unclear how that was generated iirc
velvet raft
Well, either way, it'd be funny to see a Starmetal-caste alchemical show up in Creation
next delta
Have to watch out for everyone who'd want to strip them for parts
bleak hazel
chased by a horde of sidereals trying to attune them
also a few solars
side note: Sid Brawl doesn't have the accuracy or mote efficiency benefits of Sid Melee, but I could see some serious damage being done by comboing these two with the Prismatic clash set
Costs an arm and a leg, but you can clash someone, negate one of their charms with Essence Redirection, gain 3-4 init with it if you're in Soulfire Form, add another 2-3 init from winning the clash and then double combo them with two attacks at your full init pool, including the 5-7 initiative you just burned off them for winning.
If you are willing to sink 30m 4wp into one turn of E4 beatdowns, you can do this off join battle by enhancing your clash attack with a full excellency and a basic damage booster on top of Essence Redirection so that you instantly hit bonfire from dim, reflexively pay 15m to enter soulfire form and then resolve all the buttons you just pressed.
velvet raft
chased by a horde of sidereals trying to attune them
Is that what the kids are calling it these days
granite fable
Been reading through the third edition core book for the first(ish) time and am trying to get a good grasp of the setting. Was wondering, why is the Dreaming Sea there? Isn't it on the opposite side of the Pole of Water?
velvet raft
The elements aren't pure until you reach the very poles
(Which isn't even necessarily possible, the poles are a little conceptual)
But also, the easiest answer to a question like that is, in general, "shenanigans"
bleak hazel
the composition of the landscape doesn't make a ton of sense other than "big desert goes next to pole of fire"
see: the west having all the big islands right out close to the pole of water, separated from the pole of earth by a giant ocean
I just assume that the way the poles interact is not a nice linear scaling
granite fable
I presume they also put the Sea there to break up the very monotonous landscape that I'm pretty sure the previous editions had.
granite fable
I just assume that the way the poles interact is not a nice linear scaling
Yeah, it's not like there's no forests outside the East
velvet raft
Naw the Dreaming Sea has been there for a while
At least iirc
Also worth noting that Creation used to be a lot bigger. Great Contagion + Balorian crusade was a rough time
granite fable
Naw the Dreaming Sea has been there for a while
Not there on the 2e maps as far as I can see
velvet raft
Oh really? Could have sworn
granite fable
velvet raft
I stand corrected
Or lie
I'm not standing
I am reclining in the manner of the Corrected Buddha
granite fable
Also the borders on the North used to look way worse
Seems like the map just generally was smaller too
bleak hazel
the 2e map is at least convenient for telling me where the hell everything on the Blessed Isle actually is
fierce star
Less functional IMO than the ex2 maps
they're more about evoking The Feel Of A Map Of Creation than Being A Functional Map You Put UP On The Game Room Wall And Stick Pins In
granite fable
Mm. Cartography aside, I do think I like 3eâs iteration of Creation as a whole more for now.
prisma sun
I think that's fine
you kinda want Creation to be more vibe-based
cuz you kinda need the freedom to just Slap a Kingdom somewhere
fierce star
Yeah, ex3's vresion is more interesting--I was iffy on the dreaming see at first but it's grown on me, I love Prasad--but I don't think they necessarily needed to make it so much bigger. There was arleady plenty of empty space to slap a new kingdom on before, and given this is a game that doesn't have vibes-based overland travel rules by default you kinda wanna know how far X is from Y or A is from B and C
granite fable
They probably didnât need to make it bigger, but I donât think making it so really makes things worse either
fierce star
It mostly makes things like international trade and creation-spanning logistics organizations less plausible
but I'm the sort of person who unironically would play a bureaucracy supernal solaroid and get way too deep in the reeds about all the kingdoms and organizations I'm suborning with my creation-spanning trade organization built from the ground up to rival the Guild until my inevitable demise to a knife in my back in a back alley when I go out to take a smoke and leave my bodyguard behind becuase who would try to kill me, god-king of all coin, in the town I first made bend knee and coffer so long ago?
I'm the sort of persont o unironically come up with dumb local currency systems and keep track of how they convert to other currency systems in real time as trade waxes and wanes
I'm the sort of person who used to play EVE online for fun
fierce star
Apologies if that came off too intensely, I have strong feelings about trade and logistics
tulip folio
I'll get you a spreadsheet to calm you down ID đ
bleak hazel
I too play Bureaucracy Supernals
but I am a semi-professional bureaucracy researcher in real life so I tend to lay off making my own currencies, it feels too much like bringing work home with me
also eventually I'm just running my own singleplayer game on the side and it doesn't really help group cohesion much
it's better in something like CPRed where I can just run the finance spreadsheet for the entire party
fierce star
legit, legit
bleak hazel
I run a mean Fixer
fierce star
Hell yeah. It's funny; I'm a medical professional IRL but I still end up playing a good amount of medical characters in RPGs
bleak hazel
strangely exalted medicine has never grabbed me
possibly because it basically amounts to racking up the ability to fix problems A, B and C and then you're done
tulip folio
I think part of it is that medicine doesn't have much in the way of hooks.
bleak hazel
bureaucracy is similar but with a bit more space for freeform nonsense
tulip folio
Medicine is very...reactive...
bleak hazel
crafting appeals to me more because you have an obvious set of things you need and ways to go get it, whereas bureaucracy is something I've only jumped on in the game I got recently starting at Essence 3
where I could leap straight to the parts of the bureaucracy tree that actually do stuff
tulip folio
If someone's not currently dying, it's something you need to really work to make relevent.
While with Crafting and Bureau, you can go 'I am going to Do A Thing'
If that's remotely coherant?
bleak hazel
yeah
crafting is a very obvious giant lump of downtime power that lets you do things you otherwise wouldn't
sid craft is great for me here because it also provides a workable healing spell for use on 90% of common problems
fierce star
Yeah, medicine is very like
you cannot pre-empt it, you have to react to things like ongoing plague sor whatever
and the actual rules for healing are very... limited?
There's not a lot of depth to the system
bleak hazel
the best medicine videogame I've played is Arma 3, where you also get to do other stuff and your skill at triage and speed-medicing is actually relevant to how quickly you can get dudes back on their feet
tulip folio
Malifaux's RPG I think does a bit to help there where if you're a doctor, you're also the sort of person who can Make Drugs.
bleak hazel
most other medical systems don't really have the cronch
tulip folio
And Drugs are nice for helping Solve Problems
fierce star
yeah
plus you can get an igor lackey!
and beat people to death with your bag of scalpels
bleak hazel
(also as combat medic in Arma I can fill my entire backpack with meds, go off on a wander and take a whole base of AI over by myself because physician may heal thyself)
fierce star
lol
Gotta love a good triage. Black, black, red, black, yellow, black, green,--no ma'am I'm not ignoring you I am trying to make sure this fellow doesn't bleed out--green, yellow, red, red...
tulip folio
Unironically?
bleak hazel
I love my map of Problems from a good arma op
tulip folio
I think medicine charms should get to break a cardinal rule of exalted.
bleak hazel
bleak hazel
you can tell I wrote half those notes Very Quickly
tulip folio
More 'He's still here, I can save him' than 'Actually raised the dead'
tulip folio
As it's very easy for a character to get knocked from 'standing and fighting' to 'turbodead' with a good hit
fierce star
also yeah, that would be fun iki
bleak hazel
'don't bradly open inside' LMAO
the AI sometimes cannot get out of a building it spawns in
I opened the door, the turret turned, I closed the door in a hurry
tulip folio
Something along these lines. Where the guy has been gone for seconds and can't be like 'splatted all over the room' level dead.
bleak hazel
I think that can be done quite easily without breaking the Big Rule by just exploiting the fact that Incapacitated is deliberately ambiguous
the core book even says "if appropriate, you can have someone hang around for a few rounds after being lethally incapped so the team can save them"
just make a charm that says "yeah, if you get there in five minutes they're Fine, you are the megadoc"
tulip folio
Yeah, with that same 'And they were not killed by something that kills souls'
So it's got counterplay
Mr Reaper Abyssal with his Soul Eating Blade is a Problem for the doctor
bleak hazel
Gotta love a good triage. Black, black, red, black, yellow, black, green,--no ma...
you can use the triage cards in Arma if you want, it can be quite handy and it's a built-in function of the standard medical mod
tulip folio
snrk
I also forgot malifaux doctors get a trick that feels very sidereal medicine.
bleak hazel
the thing is that all your greens are also players, which means they will walk up and steal morphine out of your backpack if they don't feel suitably reassured, and you kind of have to trust them not to take all the stuff and leave you with nothing for the unconscious ones
tulip folio
You diagnose a guy with a sickness and, regardless of if he's actually got it, everyone treats him like he has it.
This sorta effect feels like something a Sid Medicine Charm could do. Where you create the illness (or the perception of it) with a diagnosis, as the world goes 'Sure, I guess that's true?'
bleak hazel
yeah, that sounds suitably Siddy
Citrine Pox is pretty good actually, it has fun medicine moves
also lets you play a total noncombat character and then go into SMAs anyway, which is fun
tulip folio
Citrine Pox is like 90% of the reason ID is begging the GM of the alch game to let him have just one sid martial art đ
For his Doctor
fierce star
you *can* use the triage cards in Arma if you want, it can be quite handy and it...
that's amazing and kind of exactly what i'd expect
also I wouldn't say begging
I'm gently musing on how neat it would be
begging is unseemly
bleak hazel
that's amazing and kind of exactly what i'd expect
I am always either medic, pilot or engineer, and I vastly prefer the ones that aren't flying but had to learn to fly for lack of anyone else who could pilot the choppers
it's a good time
tulip folio
I like playing Engineer/Support in those sorta games. I played a lot of Hell Let Loose for a while and everyone else would be going and shooting while I'd be just quietly making my Cool Fort on a control point.
bleak hazel
standard medical kit is triage cards, splints, tourniquets, morphine for putting people to sleep, epinephrine for the inverse, blood for transfusions and approximately 500 bandages, all of which you need to use sensibly
you can go more complicated but it's mostly just annoying
fierce star
huh, blood product but not isotonic IV solutions?
bleak hazel
oh no there's also saline
but usually you just fill a backpack with blood since blood types are one of the settings most games leave off
fierce star
also yeah iki that was some of my best HLL rounds was driving supplies bakc and forth to engineers while singing whatever faction song was up at the top of my lungs
tulip folio
'It's all blood' pours it down people's throats
bleak hazel
only designated medics can do splints and blood transfusions so you end up with a queue of complaining players in most ops regardless of how well things are going
I love my truck full of blood
fierce star
my god it's so accurate
tulip folio
also yeah iki that was some of my best HLL rounds was driving supplies bakc and ...
The supply truck is fun and I will dispute any player who says otherwise.
fierce star
"So this is a realistic WW2 simulator, how do you play it? Are you a tank crew? A sniper? Do you man the machine guns?" "I drive trucks full of wood and concrete from spawn to mid."
bleak hazel
the one bit that is slightly less accurate is that there are no melee weapons, but the general purpose interact menu allows you to select vehicle crew inside vehicles to drag them out for heals
fierce star
"This is the most engaging gameplay you have ever seen."
bleak hazel
you can use this to crawl under a Bradley, clip your face through the underside, interact on the driver and open the context menu to fill the entire crew with five ampoules of morphine each
this is the standard anti-tank method in the absence of C4 or real AT launchers
fierce star
... amazing
tulip folio
The Alch 'make buildings' charm makes me slightly drool and I think my mage is going to pick it up as soon as she can. XD
Being able to Produce Zombies and Forts will be fun
tulip folio
Robomunism!
bleak hazel
my current Abyssal has two levels of combat capability, basic White Veil Style and big combat engineering
absolutely useless in any situation between cocktail party and small war
I love the one Shadow Circle spell that just lets you pay 2 willpower for a giant bone fortress
fierce star
Necromancy really is the magic of being Fucking Stylish, between that and BOSS
bleak hazel
love the fact that this works even if the team gets ambushed
you just slam the ground and the enemy are held off by gleaming ramparts of ivory blades
tulip folio
Alch, Abyssal and Earth Dragonblooded team who just turn every single battle into 'how can we make this about them fighting our fort?'
bleak hazel
not sure if the robits have an Auto-Fortify charm but they should
tulip folio
not sure if the robits have an Auto-Fortify charm but they should
They do! It's actually reaction speed!
With upgrades
Sorry, with the upgrade it's simple for her still but gives everyone else the cover reactively
fierce star
the other charm you need for it
bleak hazel
OK, this actually does something different so you can layer the instant combat engineering up
tulip folio
There is a very valid Alch strategy of 'Make Bunker, turn self into an essence cannon artillery piece in bunker'
bleak hazel
the big battlegroup combat benefit of Forest of Ivory Razors and Ramparts of Unbroken Earth is that they let you reflexively enact a fortification stratagem regardless of how the strat maneuver roll goes
so the enemy general rolls yours, because they're a Solar with double 7s at Essence 1, then you hit them with the "you start at long range, also your whole army treats the battlefield as difficult terrain"
by the time they slog that far through the trench hell the ambush strat has worn off
tulip folio
While the Alch is going 'Oh and the battlegroups you're trudging towards have Heavy Cover'
bleak hazel
pair with friendly general buffing a big battlegroup of archers for extra juice
you can also Defend Other a friendly battlegroup, so interposing exalts in heavy armour is a great way to let your battlegroups fuck theirs up without losing too many dudes
bleak hazel
despite having a very similar powerset, I think my Abyssal is actually a better person than Kaiser from Worm
fierce star
I'm not familiar with Worm
bleak hazel
(nazi gang leader who also does the Summon Wall of Blades thing)
fierce star
it's hard to be a worse person than a nazi
tulip folio
...vague pondering: Zombies are well...classic zombies and there are war ghosts but is there really something in exalted for classic 'Skeleton Warriors'? As like 'Basic Medium Infantry But Undead'?
bleak hazel
he's an arch-necromancer sworn to genocide the entire world, albeit Very Unenthusiastic about that part
Sauron: morally grey, technically
fierce star
Eh, omnicide is at least fair
bleak hazel
...vague pondering: Zombies are well...classic zombies and there are war ghosts ...
I think they mostly just use the zombie statline
ivory battlegroup charm is "skeletal" horde, after all
if you want slightly better chumps you can presumably summon bonesiders minus the plague, though
tulip folio
yeah, I was pondering if there was a stepping stone between my Zambies and my eventual Hungry Ghosts
As that's kinda a big jump in quality. XD
fierce star
you could just modify one of the mortal templates, probably?
bleak hazel
the zombies are unfortunately the definition of meat
they do take orders though
I use mine as pack mules for human troops
bipedal pack mules might be quite handy in autoland, due to the lack of Actual Mules
tulip folio
you could just modify one of the mortal templates, probably?
Eh, likely going to be fine. That and unlike charms, spells don't really have 'upgrade' options. XD
fierce star
also, hear me out
what if we--no, actually, that's probably too close to looking like a gremlin
tulip folio
We are not cyborging the zombies
fierce star
but ikiiiii I have medicine chaaaaaaaarms
and craaaaaaaft
necroteeeeeecccchhh
(I don't have craft (necrotech) I'm not sure that's actually a thingi n ex3)
I might be influenced by youtube shorts' algorithm feeding me a bunch of reanimen scenes from invincible
tulip folio
...I wonder if an evocation that upgrades a specific spell would be unreasonable.
tulip folio
I suppose technically one exists in Mnemon's hat. Which lets you get the Next Level of Demons. XD
tulip folio
My thoughts was basicly one that replaces the standard Zombie Statline for Skeletal Horde with 'Militia Statline but with Mindless + Are Undead' for Skeletal Warriors. Was briefly looking at Medium Infantry but felt like they were likely a Bit Much, most likely?
fierce star
cosmic circle sorcery
bleak hazel
cosmic circle sorcery
fierce star
lol
tulip folio
Time-Engraved Skills
Cost: â; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Raise the Skeletal Horde
When you Raise the Skeletal Horde, instead of Zombies, you can instead raise Ghouls. Ghouls are treated as Militia, except they are Mindless and Undead. When you raise multiple size worth of zombies, you can divide the raised undead among any type of undead you can create.
Echoes of Heroism
Cost: â; Mins: Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Time-Engraved Skills
You can also raise Revenants with Raise the Skeletal Horde. Revenants are treated as Medium Infantry, except they are Mindless and Undead.
Even with the 2x Upgrades they're not Hungry Ghost good.
But you can get a Lot Of Them.
And they're still a good step above normal zombies
tulip folio
Too much, you think?
fierce star
I wouldn't say so
bleak hazel
can't remember how many dice medium inf throw but it's probably reasonable
tulip folio
can't remember how many dice medium inf throw but it's probably reasonable
7 dice.
The big improvement is the Parry 4 over both Militia and Zombies having 2 def
The chopping sword is an improvement but 5-7 is not quite as big a deal as 2-4 def
bleak hazel
yeah, it's an improvement but a perfectly reasonable one
the one thing Skeletal Horde lets you do here is spend a lot of downtime massing up permanent high-size blobs of these guys, whereas Hundred Shade Breath is superior in quality, instant and transient
tulip folio
The Militia's big advantage over zombies is 'we're still shitty but we're shitty at range'
With bows. XD
bleak hazel
I would find literally anything else to crew my expensive siege weapon
fierce star
it looks like they can, actually
only the artillerist has to roll, so you'd want like a war ghost or something actually directing them, but
tulip folio
'Eww, you're getting zombie gunk on the machine'
bleak hazel
yeah, you need the biggest dice pool you can get on trigger pulling duty
war ghosts don't actually swing particularly accurately
fierce star
hrm you'd probably want a cusotm war-ghost, the base one wouldn't be able to doi t, but i don't think any generic QCs have artillery as a primary action
bleak hazel
thousand-corpse goliaths with all one thousand corpses loaded have pretty big dice pools
and can also probably one-hand your ballista
tulip folio
I know what to do.
this but undead and with zombies hanging off it to reload đ
For your thousand corpse goliath
fierce star
hell yeah
I should see about translating one of my ex2 lunars to ex3, actually
her first age incarnation was one of the foudning members of the Black Nadir Concordant, and her second age version was a sijanese funerist. She had a carrion bee totem.
carrion bees are really cool
tulip folio
carrion bees?
fierce star
three species of bees that use meat as the protein base for their nectar instead of pollen
cute littlet hings (TW insect)
tulip folio
the game lacks stats for Cassowaries so I think I'd just use tyrant lizard stats if I made a Cassowary lunar đ
prisma sun
the game lacks stats for Cassowaries so I think I'd just use tyrant lizard stats...
There's giant bipedal birds
BASICALLY a Cassowary
fierce star
oh hey lunars can make infinite clones of themselves (well, essence+1) with full personhood and qualia
okay locust and starling legion is really cool
yeah I think I can work with this
tulip folio
...what is a Bunyip supposed to be? Like, I know what an Aboriginal Mythology bunyip is but I'm assuming this is some animal that got a rename like tyrant lizards for T-Rexes.
As it's definitely not an Australian Bunyip.
tulip folio
Feels like a weird choice for the name.
Kinda surprised they didn't use it for like a Giant Platypus or something.
As Bunyip's main defining feature is being a Water Creature.
Though I'd have likely made it an Elemental, myself.
bleak hazel
new ExEss book has some very funny art of Charcoal March of Spiders style
extremely fed-up Lunar
tulip folio
I seriously doubt H+H got any cultural experts for doing the bunyips...
tulip folio
new ExEss book has some very funny art of Charcoal March of Spiders style
She looks both angry and bored.
tulip folio
Tinkering with First Pulse.
With it being clarified that you can't clash a savage.
Do you think it would be too much to have a defensive charm actually say 'wait, no. I can clash a savage, that's part of my unique aspects?'
prisma sun
Think that's fine
tulip folio
First Pulse Form
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Flagstone Meets Face, Street Shifts Underfoot
First Pulse Style prizes action and despises hesitation. It strikes fast and relentlessly, hammering the foe again and again until they are nothing but red stains upon the cobblestones.
The martial artist gains the following benefits:
-She ignores the initiative cost to attack with Improvised Weapons.
-Improvised weapons she wields gain the Grappling and Thrown(Short) tags while she wields them.
-She adds (1/2 Athletics, rounded up) to her base initiative when she resets after an Unexpected Attack, Savage or Throw/Slam.
-She reduces the Defence Penalty for Surprise Attacks and Grappling by 1.
Special Activation Rules: Whenever the martial artist wins Join Battle, she may reflexively enter this Form.
Initial sketch up of First Pulse Style's Form. It's all about 'Hey, I'm gunna grab you and beat you with a rock'
tulip folio
Really? Huh, I kinda grabbed the same one as Fire Dragon as it's another 'Go first' martial art. XD
bleak hazel
yeah that's quite a common one
Single Point is the same
also apparently new Essence book has a Starmetal warstrider that allows you to use all martial arts while piloting it, although it is squishy and sneaky by warstrider standards
so they do exist
it also has First Pulse, albeit heavily simplified as suits Essence
tulip folio
also apparently new Essence book has a Starmetal warstrider that allows you to u...
(Not exalted art, that's Mindlink Mech from the new Kamigawa sets)
bleak hazel
all the new-old SMAs in it besides Scarlet Patterned Battlefield are bangers and I really like how they look, although I'm not a huge fan of Essence in general so we wait for Ex3 versions
tulip folio
Yeah...since it's essence I guess it's okay that I keep updating first pulse đ
bleak hazel
I'm not too familiar with the system but Essence CMOS looks utterly monstrous compared to the main game version
and the main game version is pretty damn good
tulip folio
I'm pondering a thing for first pulse.
dense verge
also apparently new Essence book has a Starmetal warstrider that allows you to u...
using a starmetal warstrider to use my SMAs to create a dragonblooded out of a dream so i can use my other SMA to punch him up to celestial exalt tier
bleak hazel
this is my new deeb, he was made while I was in warstrider mode so he has Legendary Size
tulip folio
Special: Architects ignore the Terrestrial Keyword with First Pulse. She may benefit from Mastery with First Pulse while within her Home City.
Architects: Very good at the 'hit you with the city' martial art.
bleak hazel
I do not think the terrestrial martial art has enlightenment effects
is that perhaps meant to be Mastery
bleak hazel
SMA-scale first pulse lets go
tulip folio
fixes
dense verge
using a SMA to generate Ethically-Sourced Soulsteel, do not attempt to free the souls from the steel, they have no ontology and merely believe themselves to have lives
tulip folio
SMA-scale first pulse lets go
SMA First Pulse: Hits you with the city. The Entire City
bleak hazel
a getimian has exalted entirely within my imaginary soulsteel warstrider that I made in a dream
somehow I think compressing the SMA styles slightly has actually made half of them more juicy rather than less
but the regular martial arts do feel a little too small in Essence
tulip folio
But yeah, overall: First Pulse doesn't have too much terrestrial so I think most of the time it's not a catastrophic power up for Architects and 'Fighting an Architect in his Home City' is supposed to be the Time He's Most Scary anyway. XD
bleak hazel
the essence version has special modes for Architects actually
which is cute
great minds think alike
tulip folio
As yeah, i'm kinda renaming a lot of the less interesting charms to be more 'hey, I'm doing shit with the city'
bleak hazel
because essence martial arts styles are tiny it's just Titan of the Streets/Introduction to the Stone Prince/pocket sand/form
which is really the four big ones
tulip folio
Makes sense. The others are sorta 'also there, because we needed numbers'
prisma sun
using a SMA to generate Ethically-Sourced Soulsteel, do not attempt to free the ...
Turning Tidus into a soulsteel sword
tulip folio
I'm trying to give a bit more identity to them/a rename (While keeping the same mechanical vibe area)
dense verge
i love the SMAs covered in the new essence book solely for the existential nightmare scenarios they can create. ok not solely, but one major reason.
tulip folio
Street Shifts Underfoot
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Dual, Terrestrial, Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Heels on Cobblestone Echo, Hunter Bags the Deer (Still in the list for a redo)
One of the best things a back-alley warrior can do when attacked from surprise is to whip the attacker out of hiding, especially when she can toss him into a circle of her friends.
This Charm allows the Martial Artist to make a reflexive Clash with a Grapple Gambit against an incoming Unexpected Attack, Grapple Gambit, Savage or Slam. If the Martial Artist cannot reach the attacker (Such as a slinger attacking from range), a successful Clash will still negate the attack but will not grapple the attacker.
Terrestrial: This counts as the Martial Artist's attack action.
Mastery: The martial artist can reflexively move one zone towards the attacker before attempting the gambit, allowing them to grapple targets attacking with some ranged weapons.
Like this used to be Bird of Paradise Whistles In The North. Which...what does that have to do with the theme?
bleak hazel
I'm really happy with the new Essence version of Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic, they kind of de-juiced primordial form and Meditative Battlefield Escalation by combining them into one charm but the rest is great
Hoping the eventual 3e version is as well executed
tulip folio
BKL is one of those sidereal martial arts with an amazing vibe
But then you get to the 2e mechanics and go 'What the hell am I doing here?'
Which I feel was a bit of a commonality with a lot of 2e Sid martial arts. Where they were a mix of 'You'll never have enough essence to use this', 'This does game breaking things' and 'this does nonsense but not really useful nonsense' in a lot of cases.
bleak hazel
I think the essence version of CMOS is what I'd show people to get the basic gist of Sidereal Martial arts across
tulip folio
I like the 3e handling of them a lot more.
bleak hazel
2e ones were basically all unusable
Essence ones seem stronger than 3e ones at first glance but I don't know the system well enough to say that for sure
tulip folio
Where they're A) Something a player character might actually see used B) Not the second most incomprehensible nonsense next to Fae Shaping Combat.
I love you Raksha but...what the hell was shaping combat?
bleak hazel
Luckily we can now replace shaping combat with Quicksilver Hand of Dreams Style
which just lets you wander around pleasantly in the wyld chatting to Fae as one of its side effects
treat deep wyld as bordermarch, ignore all else
tulip folio
So the worst you'll ever get is 'Oh no, the wyld did Cosmetic Changes to me' Dings addiction 'and I liked it!'
Rather than 'Well shit, my body no work good no more'
bleak hazel
Other than Scarlet Patterned Battlefield being very boring and missing its one iconic charm the only thing in there I didn't like was Ligier only having two of his four arms
dense verge
BKL is incredibly funny because the capstone charm lets you use the rest of the style to kind of. just put down your character and have your character play another person as if they were their PC
bleak hazel
Presumably he put them away for convenience, since it's not like demon forms are fixed
dense verge
BKL is incredibly funny because the capstone charm lets you use the rest of the ...
like,
tulip folio
'Fuck it, I'm Not Existing for a while'
dense verge
'Fuck it, I'm Not Existing for a while'
along with her. If heâs willing, she does so as a reflexive
action. If he isnât, itâs a Power 5 gambit requiring a successful attack action.``` this is the get power-up to without assumptionI think it's the best Get mode
dense verge
another move lets you punch intimacies off people
bleak hazel
They have a lot less of them than Sids, as is good and proper, and a lot of theirs are "when you would Do Move, you may use Getimian class feature"
tulip folio
Letting them combo with existing get things, rather than having a direct bonus to the martial art thing, basicly?
bleak hazel
It's specifically "inflict Infected Fate on the target" which I assume is a fairly general purpose get thing because it's attached in lots of places
tulip folio
Hmm...this is another 'this super doesn't exist in 3e mechanics'.
Gunna need a full tinkering.
dense verge
oh right first pulse has an anti-solar bullshit button in essence
"fuck you I'm still taking the first turn"
tulip folio
That is Very Cool. A very different area to where I went but very cool.
...actually, I could be inspired by an element of this.
How silly it would be do you think to have a charm that lets you Act Sooner (but doesn't increase actual init). So you pay X motes and you get to act up to Y faster?
So you can use it to Set Up Clashes or Jump Ahead Of People.
dense verge
my reference stick for this kind of thing is thunderclap rush attack, which, i know is probably not balanced and therefore useless as comparison for reasonable design
tulip folio
Blood-spattered Stone
Cost: 4m (+1 wp); Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mastery
Duration: One round
Prerequisite Charms: None
Once in combat, any urchin knows that itâs better to give than to receive. Characters who master this Charm learn how to use an opponentâs preparation to strike against him.
The martial artist can act up to (Essence) ticks earlier, without changing her initiative. This can allow her to clash attacks, or act before foes.
Mastery: For +1 wp, this can be used after another character has changed their acting tick (Such as with Delay or Thunderclap Rush). If the Martial Artist's acting tick after using this charm is higher than the other character's initiative, she may interrupt their action, taking her turn before proceeding with the previously appointed character.
A bit of the old Hunter Bags The Deer 'Act fast, act fast!' and a bit of the Essence 'Hey, no cheating the init order' effect. That said: You won't stop a lot of thunderclap rushes with this, even if it technically could happen as you'd still need to beat the solars init and solars can get more init than god.
I didn't want it to Autobeat but it does go 'Hey, you're tick 10 and I'm tick 12. Respect the damn init order'
next delta
The Sidereal mode on the ultimate White Veil charm in Essence is neat:
Sidereals can choose to deal damage with the decisive attack by spending Stunt dice, and they choose when the poison will take effect, which must be after the combat. The victim has trouble eating anything, they become increasingly lethargic, and death gods watch them from windows and the corners of rooms and the shadows of the trees. <Mechanical stuff>
The Sidereal must meet the person again in a different guise and speak with them naturally to present a hard bargain: complete one last task or succumb to the poison. The task must be something the target can complete and cannot be unacceptable influence. If the target agrees, they lose the dice penalty to rolls and the poisonâs effects end upon completion of the task. If the target refuses, the poison kills the target so thoroughly that they pass immediately into Lethe.
tulip folio
That is very fun
tulip folio
Okay, just 2.5 charms left to update First Pulse
Hmm...these last two are really tricky to update.
Not because they're a lot but because they're not.
Okay so, which of these seems more interesting:
-Anti-Surprise Charm
-Destroying Environmental Stuff Charm
-Shatter an improvised weapon for extra effect
Well you already have an anti surprise charm
tulip folio
Yeah, that's my concern with the first.
prisma sun
The other two sound more interesting
tulip folio
Contrary to what 2e First Pulse thinks, I don't think this needs two anti-surprise charms. XD
next delta
This amuses me
tulip folio
...can Sids inflict arcane fate on other people? I swear there was a charm for that.
coral wraith
yeh
coral wraith
...can Sids inflict arcane fate on other people? I *swear* there was a charm for...
Gift of a Broken Mask, pg284
Stealth 5, Ess 3
next delta
Huh, Infernals can upgrade their coadjutor into third circle demons in Essence
tulip folio
Shattered Cornerstone Shards
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Dual
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
First Pulse knows that to strike first also often means to strike last, bringing such force to bear that foe and weapon alike are shattered.
The Martial Artists rerolls up to 2 dice on a damage roll. If she is using a weapon (Including using a Grappling weapon to Savage or Slam), she can instead choose to instead reroll up to <Essence +2> dice. If she does so, the force of the attack leaves the weapon unusable for the rest of the scene or shatters it entirely if it is a non-artifact weapon.```
Not 100% sure on this.Hmm. Looks fine to me? Rerolling damage dice is fun, it's a nice baseline damage booster destroying weapons as a cost is fun to me. RAW that works for unarmed strikes, though, I think?
THough it IS funny to punch someone so hard you break yourself I don't think that's necessarily in the intent of the charm lol
tulip folio
THough it IS funny to punch someone so hard you break yourself I don't think tha...
That's fair. I'll note that you instead take health levels if you're unarmed đ
bleak hazel
How silly it would be do you think to have a charm that lets you Act Sooner (but...
this exists in at least one place already, probably more but I can't remember the others
tulip folio
Okay. So 4m for Blood Spatted Stone should be okay, as it's got the same scaling for 'effective init' but without the 'wound penalty' effect and a Different Mastery.