totally fair
#Exalted
obtuse heron
bleak hazel
the general rule is "corebook stuff other than half the martial arts is jank and poorly balanced, future books are generally fine no matter what apart from Abyssals, who inherited the sins of Solars because they're evil solars and have to have the same power level"
they're better written and far easier to play, though
velvet raft
Shieldback is the ankylosaurus, Siege Lizard is the stegosaurus
Although to be tbh Shieldback feels like an alternate, nerfed stat-block for Siege Lizards
bleak hazel
yeah
fierce star
random favorite lunar thing of the moemnt: "I eat the god and steal his cult" is a beautiful thing
tulip folio
Hmm...I wonder what the Form for this SMA should do. It's got some real beefy forms in both 'Single Point' and 'Other SMAs' for competition.
velvet raft
Remind me, this is the one about death as natural cycle?
tulip folio
Yeah. Its a knives and swords SMA that's about both 'There is nothing I can't cut' and death as a natural cycle.
bleak hazel
I would be tempted to add something like "you do a tiny amount of chip decisive when you hit someone with a withering" but that's almost certainly cracked
tulip folio
I am tempted to give it the Beamklaive 'if you parry me with a non-magic weapon/if I parry a non-magic weapon, I destroy your weapon'
To play into the 'cutting' theme without it just being Pure Offence.
bleak hazel
damage to any enemy with a withering attack, it
may pay a Willpower to roll one lethal damage die
against its victim as well, which ignores Hardness.```
ah, here's the thing that the siaka doesit has a latent to make that basically 3 dice , so I might go for that
tulip folio
That's pretty cool
bleak hazel
purely spitballing here though because a decent SMArtist can spit out a lot of withering attacks
(although you are going to eat willpower like candy and not many sids can spare much of that)
tulip folio
Yeah, that's a concern as right now this style already eats WP like candy. XD
bleak hazel
you could also make it "when you crash someone with a withering attack, do the thing from that one Solar charm", hang on
abyssal version for readability
I have no idea if any of this is balanced, I am purely spitballing
I do not feel confident in making an SMA that is even vaguely balanced, I have not done that much high essence combat
tulip folio
Yeah. I'll ponder a few ideas. I've got some ideas here and there and I'll just sorta let it percolate until I get some solid plotting.
Liar's Tongue Removal
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Cutting the Strings
There is no secret that will remain such forever. The most careful of lies and the most brilliant of schemes will one day be found out and their price paid in blood.
The stylist can use this charm when affected by Distract Gambit or an action that is resisted by Resolve or Guile (Such as an Influence action or a God-Scourging Wail). She may clash it with a Decisive attack, regardless of distance. If the action occurred outside of combat, the stylist may immediately roll Join Battle to generate an initiative for this attack, drawing a weapon reflexively.
If she wins, she may choose to either deal damage as normal, or to cut an offending language of the stylist's choice from the target's mouth. If she chooses to cut a language, the target becomes unable to comprehend or speak that language as a Crippling effect. The Exalted and other characters with Exalted healing may make a (Charisma + Linguistics) roll at difficulty (Essence +3) each day to recover from this effect. The difficulty drops by 1 each day.
I added this to give the style some stuff that's not just 'Make your attack each turn even beefier'. XD
fierce star
Solar Linguist: "I will write him a letter such that he will die!" Sidereal Sword Special Interest Haver: "I parry the mail"
fierce star
okay at first I wa slike 'well this doesn't necessarily have to be ressurection it can just be the dead holding on barely and you trying to fix that' but then I saw the upgrade
bleak hazel
also their ghost is apparently hanging around in the E3 form
if they have a ghost they're dead, that's only half your soul
fierce star
Not strictly true!
One of the core book undead characters, the hungry ghost, is attached to a still living person
core ex3, not essence
bleak hazel
the Po soul can go walkabout, but not the rest of it
fierce star
oh
bleak hazel
(without big necromancy, anyway - I think there's a shadow circle spell that lets you temporarily shunt your hun out of your body for a bit and go ghosting around, so maybe it's that)
velvet raft
Hun and po is something from Chinese folklore: the idea is that the po contains the animal desires of the physical body, and unless quieted, it can cause problems for the living without the hun to steady it
prisma sun
Incredibly funny combo I just realized
Nightingale comboing with CMOS means you can do thousand spider March with yelling
Hit everyone in extreme range by yelling really really loud
bleak hazel
do you not need Prismatic Form for that?
oh wait I guess Thrown Enlightenment might do it
talk about an edge case
but you can't use nightingale charms on it, and you get the kiai from a charm
so ???
prisma sun
Isn't the kiai inherent to the style?
bleak hazel
it's a style form weapon but you unlock the kiai from the first charm, Voice of the Night Bird
I suppose technically using the kiai to make an attack isn't a supplementary or reflexive charm so it might combine?
man this is jank
prisma sun
The way I look at it is "if a charm spawned a rock in my hand, would it be against the rules to use that"
It doesn't feel like it
velvet raft
I think you'd be able to use the kiai for sure, but maybe not in concert with other charms?
Still, it might be fun to just grab that first charm so you can do Voice Stuff
next delta
*Essence!*
I feel like this is poorly worded because it is unclear that it lets you bring them back to life. But I agree the upgrade is bad re: resurrections
(Though dying as a PC in Essence doesn't happen unless you want it to lol)
bleak hazel
yeah
a lot of the new charms previewed in essence are basically not Setting-OK, in that they break the world if you assume they're things that anyone other than the PCs can do
but Essence seems to be far more focused on providing a good narrative experience for Your Party than keeping the world neat and tidy, as shown by stuff like "dying is strictly optional"
upper stratus
*Essence!*
how hard is a 'venture with three obstacles' in this game?
bleak hazel
Damned if I know, I'll be honest
I don't think it's too difficult but I'm not an Essence rules understander, my brain is instead full of 3e craft
upper stratus
as far as im concerned 3e craft is a venture with 10 obstacles
fierce star
SMA based around understanding the craft system
bleak hazel
I made a joke about a management consulting martial art earlier
I think you could do a knowledge-themed one, at least
and then make a bunch of information theory jokes
fierce star
Hmm.
next delta
how hard is a 'venture with three obstacles' in this game?
I am surprised they don't give any guidelines for the venture. But printed difficulties can be anyway from 3-7 per obstacle for existing ventures (and difficulties can hypothetically go up to 10 in Essence)
And failing an obstacle can result in a consequence which isn't a total failure (though I can imagine it will generally be Not Great if you are trying to undo someone's death)
fierce star
hmm, are sickles statted up as a weapon anywhere in ex3...
next delta
"Time scale that ends at the end of the current story" doesn't really make sense though. It's supposed to be an interval 🤔
fierce star
I'll have to stat one up them, because while I may not have any charms ready yet a sidereal style's thematics have flown into my brain and won't let go
The Scripture of Creation
Once, there was a barren maiden
Who's sisters shunned her
and family turned away from her
for she could make nothing
But she tried, time and time and time again
Until the gods answered her fervent desire
And life sprung anew from her hands
"Go, little ones," she told her children
"Creation requires but thought."
Emerald Foundry of Genesis Style
This style of martial arts was created by a small cadre of Sidereals during the First Age who were delving into the secrets of creation--of the craftman's hands and the mother's womb, and of the arts the Primordials once used to craft Creation itself from the Wyld around it. It mimics the principle of Creation, of taking the old and making it anew.
Students are required to create to learn this style, and to create in many ways. Novels, poetry, art; but also practical things, swords and plows and houses. The creation of life--be it through sorcery or more traditional methods, as well as through farming or ranching--is also favored as a way to understand the principles this style seeks to emulate.
Emerald Foundry of Genesis weapons: This style's unarmed attacks are sweeping strikes with the legs, combined with heavy, direct blows of the fists, either straight or as if striking with a hammer. It's also compatible with scythes, sickles, hammers, sledges, knives, needles, and nunchaku. Unarmed attacks enhanced with this style's charms can be stunted to deal Lethal damage. Certain charms in this style can expand its weapon compatibilty to include weapons the stylist has created themselves.
Armor: This style is incompatible with armor, but certain charms in this style can expand its armor compatibility to include armor the stylist has created themselves.
Complementary Abilities: Craft is important for the creation of objects of use, as well as certain artistic objects; Linguistics aids in the creation of novels, poems, and songs, and Medicine is helpful for understanding the creation of life.
I dig it, and not just because all my Sids have Craft
I would suggest changing the colour slightly because we already have an Emerald
fierce star
ah shit
I always forget Emerald Gyre of Aeons exists
dunno why, it just slips my mind
Malachite? Malachite's fun.
yeah we'll go for malachite. Now to let it simmer until charms fall out
velvet raft
Huh, Alchemicals don't get increased attribute dots the way Lunars do
fierce star
Let me get back to my computer to check mine
fierce star
huh, no, you're right, though that feels like a mistake
I even went to check my created alchemical and I did 8/6/4 with them
fierce star
yeah, even attribute-based exigents are called out as being 9/7/5* (*if celestial and the GM agrees they should be powerful enough, which seems silly to me so I let the architect in the game i'm running be 9/7/5)
velvet raft
Is there a newer version of the master sheet which is compatible with Alchemicals, btw?
velvet raft
Yeah okay Transpuissant Essence Upgrade is woof
fierce star
yeah TPEA is the reaosn I think maybe they might not supposed to be 9/7/5
because even with 8/6/4 I've got an extra 5 dots of stats
tulip folio
True but those stats cost Limited Slots.
velvet raft
Although you have to spend charms on those, unless I'm yeah
tulip folio
I wonder what the meanest Bad Touch is in the game. Like not 'you're instantly dead' like Solar brawl but the most 'Hahah, fuck you. You're still playing the game but you sure as fuck are not winning it'.
bleak hazel
is Pattern Spider Touch cheating?
failing that, Solar Brawl has Knockout Blow, which is instant knockout on crash with retroactive bonus damage adding on the damage roll in case you didn't quite get it
tulip folio
nods
Pondering things for that SMA that is a Big Bad Touch but also not sure if it's too much.
bleak hazel
Crane Style and Righteous Devil Style both have win condition capstones but they're more "nonlethal takedown" than Bad Touch
crane needs you to incap, righteous devil is "surrender or take mucho agg damage"
Knockout Blow was removed from Abyssals, it's nuts by Solar Brawl standards, so I think that's definitely too far
tulip folio
My thoughts was you Cut Away Someone's Future and the world starts to Final Destination them.
All damage they take is aggravated and every failed roll is treated as a botch.
bleak hazel
that is very scary but possibly within the remit of SMAs
does this apply to them trying to hit you and being parried?
tulip folio
...I'd not considered that. The intent was not for combat rolls. I might give a Lesser Effect for combat rolls than 'Fuck you, 0'
bleak hazel
pattern spider touch technically doesn't outright say "you win the fight" but transforming them into something with a 3 die fight pool ends most engagements
even a full solar excellency doesn't really get you up to "engaging a sidereal martial arts master" levels at that point
tulip folio
Makes sense.
bleak hazel
I wonder what the most harmless thing to turn someone into is
Destiny-Manifesting Method technically means they can still sword you, but I am not sure it protects you from fuck-your-dice-pools
it's an entirely natural language shaping defence so it's basically Ask Your GM
spring lynx
a gentle breeze, perhaps?
bleak hazel
PST sadly no longer lets you turn someone into a gust of wind
spring lynx
refund
bleak hazel
your options are "new personality and memories", "quack quack" and "you're a deckchair now"
tulip folio
Deckchair is likely a pretty damn solid option for winning
I've never lost a fight with a deckchair and I'm not a sid
spring lynx
i lost a fight with a deckchair once
tulip folio
It would be very funny to turn an Alch into a deckchair and he just unveils the chair still has an essence pulse cannon.
bleak hazel
the Sid sits down in the chair and gets ejector seated into orbit by the pilebunker charm
tulip folio
Do A Hefty Gambit. On Success, Final Destination Them.
While Final Destinationed:
-All damage suffered is aggravated
-All attacks are treated as Surprise Attacks (Not Ambush, Surprise)
-All non-combat failures are treated as Botches and the difficulty to resist non-combat harm from any consequences of those botches are increased by (Essence)
The ponderings I have.
bleak hazel
huh
PST specifies that Immunity to Everything Technique defends against it
but ItET only works on poisons you have previously been exposed to
fierce star
I'ms orry but if you can turn people into a lawnchair as as sidereal you are honor-bound to do it to a high essence abyssal at least once
bleak hazel
otherwise it just decreases the duration by 1, which moves it from "permanent" to "permanent -1 interval"
so I guess you can't be duck punched twice?
tulip folio
How bad at this do you need to get duck punched twice?
bleak hazel
presumably you tank it on shaping defences?
bleak hazel
The Perpetual Moment is pretty big
Enlightenment: target's onslaught penalty never refreshes
I think you could go bigger for 20m 1wp higher essence
tulip folio
I will admit, part of my ponderings with making a SMA is trying to make it a thing that sids would like. As other people can use them but sids are the main focus. So part of this pondering was something that turns a Sid Prophesy Curse from 'painful' to 'actively lethal'. XD
bleak hazel
the agg clause is interesting because it is good for martial arts sids but melee and brawl sids actually don't care, they have agg on tap
4m essence 1
prisma sun
is there any real difference dealing agg vs lethal in exalted?
bleak hazel
do Lunars not have an anti-agg button?
Solars have one to convert agg to lethal, as does Citrine Pox
(Citrine Pox is just better solar medicine, 50-ish splat XP gets you everything you care about from the Solar Medicine tree because so much of solar medicine is "get 40+ successes on a medicine roll" and nothing in the game cares about that)
tulip folio
do Lunars not have an anti-agg button?
Not that I can find!
tulip folio
Though I don't think most exalts have one.
They have one listed in the concepts
But it's not fleshed out as a real charm
prisma sun
The Anti-Agg tech as Lunars is to just keep ripping your arms off
bleak hazel
I guess agg also prevents Bear Sleep Technique from multiplying your heal speed by a bunch?
tulip folio
Yeah
tulip folio
You know what would be a really nice charm for Lunars to get?
'Pick a guy, for charms that care about solar mates, they count'
As lunars have a lot of 'for your solar mate, X extra bonus' in their charms.
bleak hazel
Moon and Earth Marriage exists
it appears we will never get Moon and Stars Marriage because there are no sid charms in the sid companion
tulip folio
...where is Moon and Earth Marriage? I can't seem to find it.
bleak hazel
heirs, I think
bleak hazel
max lunar has -0, 2x -1, 12x -2, 11x -4
so assuming you lose all of those, which is possible if you use the "fake death on going down" charm....
prisma sun
bleak hazel
injured for 96 days, if a Sid burns all those health levels off you
very sad moon boy
tulip folio
3 Moon Nap
bleak hazel
not that a Lunar doesn't have pretty much even odds to win that fight, but it's probably happened at some point
you get back up from coma after five days when the first level heals, but you're still dragging yourself around for the first two months before you're out of -4s
tulip folio
'Please friendly sid, please heal aggravated'
bleak hazel
sid casts fist, the fist is a very versatile tool
I like to imagine that as a big cat or something being hurled through several trees like an Asterix comic and then getting up right as rain
to be fair sids need to learn one very particular SMA to be able to do this, most of them really can't
yeah, Sid medicine can't do it, you need Sid Medicine 2, Medicine Harder
solar doctor will peacefully convert (Essence) levels of agg to lethal per scene of treatment
sid doctor will do the Crouching Tiger pressure point combo on you repeatedly until they're out of motes or willpower, converting (int+medicine successes -7) levels every time
I can see why you'd want to go to Solar House MD, that sounds much less disconcerting and doesn't cost willpower
fierce star
House would be an Infernal in ex2
bleak hazel
I hope Infernals have some really fucky medicine charms this edition
tulip folio
I really liked the 2e Malfeas Medicine Charm.
bleak hazel
they didn't have a ton for that in 2e that I recall and I think it's one of the best spot for patented malfean freakiness
oh did they have one?
tulip folio
Yeah, you gave someone turbocancer that consumed their entire body and cracked open like a chrysalis a the end to reveal the person fully healed.
It was one of the best 'Yep, Full Heal' effects at the cost of 'You have to spend like 5 days screaming in agony as you die'
bleak hazel
that's really neat
fierce star
IIRC it like
bleak hazel
the list of malfeas charms on the usual 2e repository doesn't have it but there were quite a few infernal charms published
fierce star
fully healed all damage including agg, healed all poisons and sickness, healed all missing limbs/etc and reset your age to the prime of your life
like literally just factory reset you
bleak hazel
yeah, that's ideal malfeas energy
tulip folio
bleak hazel
although I would like one for "you stick their arm back on but it will be weird"
what's the point of being a demon king if you can't give people cool red right hands
apparently the Gold Faction martial arts master who runs the cult of the illuminated has one of those this edition
I know it's not spelt this way but I can only remember their name as Red-Handed Kilimanjaro
ah, "Kijamano"
tulip folio
I kinda hope they change something from 2e infernals that I wasn't super a fan of.
bleak hazel
I do not believe the Infernal Monster mind control will be back
tulip folio
Basicly: Infernals had a charm to turn mortals into demons but they didn't want to fuck with the idea of souls so they said that if you did it permanently it didn't actually turn them into a demon, it killed them and made a demon based on them.
Which always felt like a cheap out.
Let me turn minions into demons without going 'well, it's not really your minion any more!'
fierce star
demon of theseus, huh
prisma sun
I feel like you can't turn minions into demons the same way you can't turn minions into Gods
they're just a wholly different Thing
spring lynx
can't sids literally do that now though
prisma sun
No
tulip folio
Sids literally have a charm for turning their familiar into a god. XD
prisma sun
You can force an adoption and make someone godblooded
bleak hazel
I feel that "I am increasingly fucking up my human followers more and more as I buff them to be better at fight or bureaucracy or whatever with my Cece or Malfeas charms" should be a thing Infernals should be confronting more directly than that
tulip folio
I did love the Cece charms that let you be a Dickhead Genie.
They had a Training Charm that let you train people instantly...if you were answering a prayer or wish they had expressed.
bleak hazel
I can't remember if this was an actual cece charm or one of the infinite pile of homebrew yozi charms but I liked one I saw once that was an Optimises You training button
built on the VEE tree
it was faster than Tiger Warrior Training but you had to take the dots from elsewhere to put them into combat
tulip folio
iirc, that sounds like a CeCe + SWLIHN combo charm.
'Your job is combat, why do you need to know how to read or understand human emotions?'
bleak hazel
precisely
man infernals are neat
I know I have my abyssal dark lord eating my One Solaroid Slot this edition, but I will follow infernals from a distance with interest
and hope they don't get too much soul pantheon stuff and become fifty times stronger than anyone else this time
tulip folio
I think infernals are most interesting when they focus on...flaws...not just raw power. Like, Malfeas isn't anywhere near as interesting without that 'He is so fundementally broken as a person' aspect.
Likewise SWLIHN without her aspects of just incomprehension of how people work is just 'Generic Smart Logic Yozi'
She's much more fun as 'I am doing a billion calculations and they are all wrong because I just don't Get People'
bleak hazel
Swillin was the only one I genuinely did feel slightly bad for
it's hard to be sad about Ebby being sad, but "I tried to surrender in good faith, why did they cut me up" is a fairly genuine point of emotional resonance for a giant galaxy made of authoritarianism
tulip folio
I have some sympathy for most of them but SWLIHN and Isodorios are top of the list.
The latter for genuinely trying to surrender, the latter for at no point actually realizing he was in a war
tulip folio
It's a little lean because there's so little he can interact with but a lot of it is that he has genuine trouble comprehending anything exists outside himself because he's so big.
The greatest fortifications of the solar exalted, crafted by the twilights were shattered by him...because they got big enough that he finally noticed they existed and wandered over to take a look.
He's one of the Yozi who has absolutely zero hostility for humanity. He's just also fundamentally unable to live with humanity in the same way that a truck can't really live in harmony with ants crossing the road.
By the time he notices a thing really exists, he's already smashed it
fierce star
he's like, aware of humans as a concept
because he was one of the main pressures for free will, iirc
him, gaia, kimbery, teddie and malfeas
tulip folio
I'ts also sorta why he loves the Silver Forest. He saw his own reflection there and for a brief moment found something that he could immediately recognise as a person.
bleak hazel
I suppose on the spectrum of yozi relationships this is reasonably healthy
I think Ramethus has has been put into the retcon box along with the rest of the silly first age lore but I always thought he was a cute idea
tulip folio
What was his thing again?
bleak hazel
fled into the wyld during the Usurpation and come back having done auto-esque soul surgery on himself to optimise himself for combat
then fought a couple of hundred years of guerrilla war against the first age, dubbed the Aftershock War
they eventually got him
the joke was that because this was 2e, he'd become an expert on paranoia combat
tulip folio
snrk
bleak hazel
I just thought "the Crusader Worm" was a good name for a primordial
tulip folio
Yeah, that's a good title.
Future Cut Short
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only, Shaping(Fate)
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: (Lots)
The stylist makes a gambit against a crashed enemy. Its difficulty is (victim’s Essence + Resolve, Minimum 6), though she gains +Awareness non-Charm dice if the target is an Enemy of Fate.
On a success, she cleaves away their future, the world striving to free itself of this irritant that should not be. The target suffers the following effects:
-He becomes an Enemy of Fate.
-He cannot benefit from Hardness or Exalted Healing and all damage he suffers is Aggravated Damage.
-All attacks made against him are treated as Surprise Attacks
-Outside of combat, even the most mundane of failures risk death. All failures he has outside of combat are treated as botches and the difficulty to resist damage from these botches is increased by (stylist's Essence).
By default, this is permanent, persisting until undone by magic like Order-Affirming Blow (Exalted, p. 334).
Future Cut Short can only be used once per scene.
Fair. I couldn't justify 'I fucked your fate up beyond belief' not behind Shaping(Fate). XD
prisma sun
Man there were a lot of Primordials
bleak hazel
but I would maybe go 1/story, with a proviso that it has to actually apply to consume your use
1/story, reset if effect ended without the target dying?
prisma sun
it's kinda nuts there's like a 3-to-1 ratio of primordials to incarnae
next delta
The incarne were built for purpose (mostly, I think the maidens just showed up or something?)
tulip folio
1/story, reset if effect ended without the target dying?
Idea.
Future Cut Short
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only, Shaping(Fate)
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: (Lots)
The stylist makes a gambit against a crashed enemy. Its difficulty is (victim’s Essence + Resolve, Minimum 6), though she gains +Awareness non-Charm dice if the target is an Enemy of Fate.
On a success, she cleaves away their future, the world striving to free itself of this irritant that should not be. The target suffers the following effects:
-He becomes an Enemy of Fate.
-He cannot benefit from Hardness or Exalted Healing and all damage he suffers is Aggravated Damage.
-All attacks made against him are treated as Surprise Attacks
-Outside of combat, even the most mundane of failures risk death. All failures he has outside of combat are treated as botches and the difficulty to resist damage from these botches is increased by (stylist's Essence).
By default, this is permanent, persisting until undone by magic like Order-Affirming Blow (Exalted, p. 334).
Reset: Once per Story, unless reset by the effect ending without the target dying. Using this charm on Trivial Characters does not require this to be reset.
'You can final destination as many trivial people as you want'
bleak hazel
mean
coral wraith
mena
bleak hazel
they're just mortals, you could kill them by learning their name and getting punched in the face
coral wraith
tulip folio
Kinda a pity the Cloak of Forgotten Midnights is a bit generic in its shaping rituals.
Like they're not bad. Sorcerer's Mantle is a good 'just fucking spam my control spell' one.
But they're a bit generic.
The base evocation though is Pretty Damn Good.
bleak hazel
oh yeah that's pretty neat
good if you're going for an Obsidian Butterflies build or similar
I am trying to figure out what happens if you punch a lunar in duck form into a duck
you change the colour scheme to an appropriate maiden's and the lunar gets really mad at you for leaving them stuck there?
fierce star
The incarne were built for purpose (mostly, I think the maidens just showed up o...
The Maidens time travelled from the future and had certificates from the primordials verifying they were created by the primordials and had to exist for creation to work right
(this is only like half a shitpost)
tulip folio
Gloaming Shroud
Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Uniform, Resonant
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: One With Night
The cloak billows around its wearer, hiding her from view.
When an enemy makes a roll opposing the cloak’s wearer, if it relies on his sense of sight, he suffers a −1 penalty from the cloak’s swirling darkness. This penalizes most attacks, but can also affect rolls opposing the wearer’s Stealth, an attempt to pickpocket her, etc. If the penalized roll fails, the opposing character loses one Initiative.
Against characters already suffering a penalty from poor lighting, darkness, or magic like the No Moon anima power (Lunars, p. 130), this Evocation instead causes up to three points of penalty to subtract successes, rather than dice.
Resonant: Against enemies already suffering a vision-based penalty from darkness, the wearer can use this Evocation after their roll.
This seems situationally very good
3m for a -1 on Almost Anything.
With a big upgrade against people who don't have a 'ignore vision penalties' ability.
bleak hazel
is this a moonsilver cloak or what?
I could see it being extremely big for the sid with the "at night" WSAV specialty
tulip folio
is this a moonsilver cloak or what?
Yeah, it's a moonsilver cloak (Many Faced Strangers)
bleak hazel
damn, batsid is going to have to figure out how to get Four Magical Materials Form
tulip folio
I do think a 5m attunemnt cost is a bit high considering its base effects are just 'exceptional equipment' but its first charm is a Permanent Charm so I think that's really where the attunment cost is supposed to come in.
bleak hazel
the solution of so many problems is "sink 100+ XP into PAOC", I wonder why
it's almost like it costs 189XP to master
tulip folio
Honestly it seems like a really good artifact overall.
Endless Walpurgisnacht Revel
Cost: —(+10m); Mins: Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Queen of Darkness, Veiled in Midnight
Echoing Luna’s legend, the cloak’s master brings night to the world.
The Lunar may pay a ten-mote surcharge when she uses Veiled in Midnight to bring an end to day:
• The darkness extends out to long range.
• The Evocation’s duration becomes one hour.
• The fall of darkness counts as sunset for purposes of magic that can only be used at that time or that gains additional benefits at night. If the wearer uses this to cast a demon-summoning spell, the ritual’s duration is shortened to one hour.
• The Lunar gain one sorcerous mote on the start of each of her turns as long as she remains within the darkness.
• The Lunar’s anima banner doesn’t impede Stealth rolls she makes within the darkness.
Special activation rules: The Lunar may use Shifting Penumbra Stance and Subtle Chameleon Practice reflexively with this Charm, waiving their costs.
Veiled In Midnight + Walpurgistnacht Revel seems like a really big 'Hey, do you have immunity to vision penalties? No? FUCK YOU THEN!'
'Free Shifting Penumbra Stance and Subtle Chameleon Practice' also seems Really Good.
As Shifting is 5m and Subtle Chameleon is 10m, 1 WP
So getting them free means you're spending 15m, 1 WP to get 15m, 1WP free on top of the effects of veiled and endless
I'm noting this down for that Lunar Witch I was plotting.
Endless Revel + Combat Spell Kitty
Heartbeat Destination Slash
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Dual, Enlightenment
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Cutting the Strings
The fundamental precept of Amethyst Eyes of Division is that everything must end. There is no journey without a destination and no traveler who's path does not cease. Drawing on this death of distance, she slashes down the path before her to hasten its end.
This supplements an attack against a character within medium range. The martial artist is immediately placed in Close Range with the target before the attack. This is not movement and ignores any obstacles between the martial artist and the target, as the very concept of distance is chopped down by her blade. All hostile characters out to Short Range from a line between the starting an ending points of this movement are caught within this slash and must make a (Perception + Dodge) opposed to the attack roll or suffer (Awareness) lethal damage, which ignores hardness.
Alternatively, this can be used to supplement a movement action. If she does so, gains (Awareness) automatic successes on the movement action and is immediately placed in the final location of that movement action, ignoring all obstacles in the way and allowing her to travel to places that would be impossible, such as straight through a wall.
Enlightenment: This can supplement an attack against a character within Long Range.
Reset: Once per scene, unless reset by incapacitating a non-trivial foe.
Also made this more a Blade Dash than a recreation of Moonsilver But For Swords
Not 100% sure on if the wording for the 'long slash' quite is clear enough.
tulip folio
the intent was yes but I could tone it down it if it ends up too much to not affect the target.
bleak hazel
also I was looking at the (incredibly strong) Lunar Endurance tree and was struck by the fact that a) wow this one is nuts and b) you can do so many funny bits with this charm
so we need to ship a bunch of fresh meat several thousand miles to the Isle
have the lunar eat all of them, and then we will strategically knock him out when we get there to unpack all the yeddim steaks
bleak hazel
I don't know, why does the Lunar apparently have a pocket dimension in which they store copies of all the things they steal the shapes of?
new version of the infinite hydra steakhouse
tulip folio
also I was looking at the (incredibly strong) Lunar Endurance tree and was struc...
...considering it's free to get a form from a sacred hunt and you're allowed to do it in downtime, it could result in a fucking comical amount of 'Okay, stab him again'.
...the bit I find really funny with it? You don't have to kill things for sacred hunts. You could seduce someone, steal their form, deliberately swan dive off a cliff and have a Perfect Corpse of that still-living human for any schemes.
bleak hazel
you have to run the lunar out of motes or beat the False Death Technique and then stand there punching the elder lunar hundreds of times which is just a bad comedy sketch
if they have Wound-Mastering Body Evolution up you gain a whole 1 init for hitting them, too, so either crash them before they go down or be sure you can deal with 20 hardness
tulip folio
'Hey so I'm 300 years old and I sacred hunted like...4 times a year, as I wasn't an insane hunter, just a pretty normal lunar. That means there are like 1200 times I need to be killed'
bleak hazel
"fuck it, I'm going to go learn OSOI so I can punch all your willpower out next time, enjoy the rez"
this, ladies and gentlemen, is why they invented the duck punch
tulip folio
I think at that point it would be genuinely easier to just pick them up, walk to the Labyrinth and toss them into a pit into Oblivion.
bleak hazel
Duck punch is a good start, but I actually think the only thing that reliably bypasses this is E5 Wood Dragon
I'm pretty sure it can kill you without having to fill your incapacitated level
coral wraith
soul kill
bleak hazel
nope, has to be a decisive attack
tulip folio
Wood Dragon would make sense. That's not damage, that's just 'Fuck it, You Die'
bleak hazel
the infinitely dense ball of yeddim must be slowly hacked apart by a very bored deeb
tulip folio
(And the reason why I decided not to have a Fuck It, You Die in this SMA as I felt it would overlap too much with wood dragon's cool punch despite the 'I can slash anything' theming.)
bleak hazel
If you incap the lunar before using soul mastery, I'm pretty sure the improbably dense ball of yeddim can now tank soul mastery
but it works the other way around
and yeah, fair enough
I suppose that would work
It's such a funny defence, no other fake death does this kind of thing
bleak hazel
Only Lunars would come up with a capstone that requires your opponent to stab you several hundred times while you're lying in a perfect yamcha pose on the ground before you die
wise ocean
Not a ton of printed ways to send someone into space
HTH into a borehole that leads out into space
tulip folio
Alchs have a 'god fucking dammit, kill him again' but it's a lot more tame. XD
tulip folio
Alloyed Reinforcement of Flesh
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Stamina 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Decisive-only, Internal, Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Strain-Resistant Chassis Modification x5
The Alchemical’s body is reinforced with wires and struts, while her bones are plated with her Caste’s magical material.
The Alchemical can use this Charm after being hit by a decisive attack, before the damage roll. If she takes enough damage to fill all of her −4 health levels, any further damage is negated. She can’t use this Charm if she only has one undamaged −4 level remaining.
This Charm can also defend against environmental hazards, traps, and similar sources of decisive damage.
Reset: Once per day.
Submodules
Fortified Chassis Overhaul (3xp) (+5m): For a five-mote surcharge, the Alchemical can use this Charm for −2 levels. With a Stamina 7, Essence 3 repurchase, she can use it for −1 levels.
Death-Defeating Processors (6xp; Stamina 7, Essence 4) (1wp): Once per scene, the Alchemical can pay one Willpower to reset this Charm.
Much less beefy
bleak hazel
That's really neat
Sid beef is far lower so I'm always impressed when things like this show up in other books I'm less familiar with
tulip folio
It's great for 'Take a billion but not technically uncountable damage' hits
bleak hazel
I think Lunars also have a similar damage cap charm but that's because they have about 50000 beef capstones
tulip folio
...do we have stats for the Great Contagion as a disease?
bleak hazel
nope
all we know is that the first charm in solar medicine can cure it with E1 no prereqs and nothing else mentions it at all
(other than to say that you can't pick it for effects that convey diseases like Citrine Pox)
tulip folio
Okay, just checking. Looks like the Alch anti-disease charm doesn't make you immune to any of the Citrine Pox diseases.
tulip folio
Industrial Consecration Altar (6xp; Stamina 5, Essence 3) (1wp): The Alchemical can reflexively pay one Willpower to heighten her resistance to supernatural disease for a scene. She’s immune to magical diseases whose virulence and morbidity are both lower than (her Stamina − 3).
So a maxed out Alch can just no-sell supernatural diseases with virulence and morbidity 4 or lower.
bleak hazel
Okay, just checking. Looks like the Alch anti-disease charm doesn't make you imm...
I feel that giving the robot the dancing plague is stereotyping
tulip folio
But the weakest of the Citrine Pox ones is Virulence 5, morbility 4.
So just outside that range
bleak hazel
I'm pretty sure there's some kind of white veil nonsense that gets you an effective virulence 10 plague but I couldn't tell you the exact charm name
I know their thing has vir 5 at max and then there's a -5 something penalty against it or what have you
tulip folio
Alchs can also energiser bunny like crazy.
As with their stamina charms they can get a full night sleep in 'a few minutes'
bleak hazel
Sid: "I have to do eight hours of paperwork for this willpower!"
tulip folio
Meanwhile the Alch is just going 'Feeling a bit tired. Gunna shut down for a few minutes to clear RAM'
I think the Alchs have one of the better 'fake death' in terms of 'how good it is at actually seeming fake'
Difficulty Stamina + Essence, Augmented
So that could be Difficulty 13 for an E5 alch
bleak hazel
That's not bad, I think Lunars can technically fake death harder with App+Stealth doubling 8s as their part of the contested roll but that would require your lunar faking death with a full Excellency + 4m for the charm left
I'm not sure Sids have one of those, although I guess that slot is partially filled by Avoidance
tulip folio
Oh right, I forgot Alchs have a Cooking charm that's pretty good.
You spend 1 WP +5 motes per person (Only pay the willpower once)
And everyone who eats the food gets a willpower back
So you can turn a willpower into many willpower for friends
bleak hazel
Infinite rat kebab refuelling loop?
tulip folio
They also get two automatic successes on Stamina rolls opposing poison, disease, and environmental hazards for the rest of the day.
Which is pretty nice
It's not the Biggest Deal but I like charms that are not just 'punch good'
bleak hazel
They're very nice when someone has the toolkit charm they can just break out
It's why I like Sid Craft's similar one that makes a No Fighting dinner
everyone treats negative ties towards each other as one notch smaller
Didn't Alchs have one that could theoretically stack with that, the "who, me?" social charm?
tulip folio
Yep!
They've got one that lets them go 'Even me?' and have the other guy go 'Well no, of course not you'
That makes negative intimacies that are about them but not directly targeting them one degree lower.
RiRi has it
So she should bat her eyes at the Wyld Hunt and turn that Anathema (Major) down to Anathema (Minor)
But not 'RiRi ate all my rations'
wise ocean
Would RiRi eat all the rat kebabs
bleak hazel
She's about three inches tall, I imagine it would take work
tulip folio
Would RiRi eat all the rat kebabs
She would be tempted but her intimacy towards people getting along is higher than her intimacy towards rat kebabs.
bleak hazel
If only there was a second negative Intimacy downgrader in Sid social
You could put that, Atelier-and-Embassy and the first survival charm on one goldsid and get Feather Drenched to net positive
tulip folio
While I'm not sure it's as good as just 'killing stuff normally', Stamina Alchs look to have a surprisingly solid set of 'fuck around in combat' charms.
As they just Open Up Tear Gas Vents
Chemical Fog Generator
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Stamina 4, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Augmented
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Toxin Synthesis Injector
A bulky apparatus in the Alchemical’s torso churns out thick streamers of black smoke from vent tubes and exhaust ports across her body.
The Alchemical dispenses a cloud of poisonous chemical smoke, which extends out to close range from her. It imposes a −2 penalty on vision-dependent actions, and a two-success penalty on scent-based Perception rolls. The smoke is an inhaled poison, with Damage 2B/hour, Duration (Stamina) hours, and a −1 penalty. The cloud spreads slowly enough that characters caught within it when the Alchemical first uses it— including the Alchemical herself — don’t roll against the poison until the end of the round.
The Alchemical can use this Charm on multiple successive turns to dispense a greater quantity of smoke, expanding the cloud’s range by one band for each additional use, up to a maximum of medium. She waives the Willpower cost of uses past the first.
Submodules
Clandestine Toxin System (6xp; Essence 2): The Alchemical can dispense poison as a colorless, odorless gas rather than a smoke cloud. It doesn’t impede visibility or smell, but can only be noticed with a successful (Perception + Awareness) roll at a difficulty of (Alchemical’s Manipulation). This is Augmented. Clandestine Toxin System compatible with submodules that let the Alchemical deploy alternative poisons.
Tear Gas (6xp): The Alchemical can dispense a yellowish tear gas, a poison with Damage 2i/round (B in Crash), Duration (Stamina) rounds, and a −3 penalty. The penalty subtracst successes instead of dice from vision-based Perception rolls. Even after the poison’s duration expires and it stops dealing damage, its penalty remains for up to an hour thereafter.
Vectored Toxin Deployment (6xp; Stamina 5, Essence 2): The Alchemical can use this Charm to make a decisive attack with one of her ranged weapons, gathering plumes of chemical smoke into a tight ball that surrounds her projectile. If her attack hits, the smoke cloud forms around him. If the attack benefits from aiming, each round of aiming increases the cloud’s range by one band.
Industrial Haze Dispenser (3xp; Essence 3): This Charm’s maximum range increases to long.
Nerve Gas (6xp; Stamina 6, Essence 3): The Alchemical can release a deadly green haze that attacks the nervous system, a poison with Damage 1L/minute, Duration (Stamina) minutes, and a −4 penalty.
At E3 they can also pick up 'Fuck it, Acid Spray'
Acidic Synthesis Spray
Cost: 3m, 3i, 1wp (3m); Mins: Stamina 6, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Aggravated, Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Chemical Fog Generator
Tanks of acid jutting from the Alchemical’s shoulder dispense a caustic spray of acid through black jade nozzles mounted on her wrists.
The Alchemical rolls (Stamina + [Archery, Resistance, or Thrown) to attack with acid. She can direct this against a single enemy within medium range. Alternatively, she can unleash a plume that extends out to short range, affecting all other characters caught within it — friend or foe. The attack has a base damage of (Essence) dice of aggravated damage, which ignores Hardness. If the Alchemical directs her attack against a single target, she adds her attack roll extra successes as dice of damage. The damage roll doesn’t include the Alchemical’s Initiative, and she doesn’t reset to base Initiative.
A damaged character suffers an additional die of aggravated damage from lingering acid as the end of his next turn, unless it’s washed away before then. For instance, a character near a water conduit might take a miscellaneous action to cleanse himself.
Reset: Once Per Scene
Submodules
Acid Magnet Deployment (3xp): The Alchemical’s acid is magnetized, clinging to metallic substances. Enemies wearing metal armor — or those made of metal — continue to take damage at the end of each of their turns that scene until they’ve washed away the lingering acid.
Essence + Successes Aggravated Damage, ignoring Hardness, that keeps doing 1 aggravated each turn for the rest of the scene seems pretty fun.
tulip folio
I know they're supposed to be flippy martial artists but I do kinda wish Sids had some ability to do heavier armour without feeling miserable about it. XD
coral wraith
Well, you don't have to do martial arts, to be fair
tulip folio
Hmm...does this structure seem okay for the start a SMA?
One Starting Charm
Three Charms that Follow Up The Starting Charm
Form Charm that requires all Three Follow Up Charms
[Intro]
[One|Two|Three]
[Form]
...with that Moon and Earth Marriage Charm, I'm imagining what other 'X and Y Exalt' charms would do.
Starmetal Alloy Alliance
Cost: —; Mins: Integrity 2, Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Until Hope’s End
The Sidereal must spend this Charm’s training time interacting with a willing Alchemical who she has a positive Defining Tie toward, and who has a positive Defining Tie toward her. Their interactions
culminate as the Charm is learned, creating a Bond between the Sidereal and the Alchemical.
The Sidereal treats her tie towards the Alchemical as a Hopeful intimacy and may lower the willpower cost to resist attempts to erode it with the prerequisite charm as if eroding it was an attempt to create Despair.
The Alchemical is immune to Arcane Fate, if he was a God working in the Bureau of Destiny. If the Sidereal's tie to him is ever fully eroded, she immediately forms a new Minor Tie toward him after the scene’s end. If the Tie cannot be recreated by any means, such as one sacrificed by Last Hope Salvation, the Alchemical can still reform it by completing a Legendary Social Goal.
A Sidereal can only have one Alchemical bonded at a time, and vice versa, and this bond can be broken only by death.
I kind of liked the idea that forming bonds to people was just a thing Lunars did, but if I suppose moving to that decreases the odds of specifically lunar/solar reincarnation romance which is what many people are really here for
coral wraith
I don't understand the whole "Solar/Lunar mate" thing
Are people really showing up for that
tulip folio
I'd say no but there are multiple backers who requested charms for it so...clearly someone's into it.
I always saw it mostly as a way to make solars More Special
By making the Big Powerhouse Exalt have an instilled destiny as 'My Waifu' rather than giving them a lot of autonomy.
coral wraith
I can believe that
bleak hazel
I also know a bunch of people who just want an embedded excuse to jump straight to star-crossed lovers stuff
coral wraith
I mean, each to their own, I find that hideously boring
tulip folio
Are they star crossed because the sids keep trying to kill both of them?
velvet raft
Are people really showing up for that
People like destined perfect love stories 🤷♂️
Never mind that the Solar Bond frequently didn't even result in romantic relationships
I think it's Leviathan who was good friends with his associated Solar back in the first age, and then was also having sex with that guy's wife - another Solar - behind his back
tulip folio
People are into the freaky fish man
velvet raft
Whale :P
upper stratus
3e's depiction of solar/lunar mate is miles ahead of 2e but i'd like it a lot more if it wasn't just lunars who get a boatload of charms that are more effective when it includes their solar mate
at least it's opt out now
tulip folio
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AIBgU41XmOoG64RyeaLlbXiS8dLyohKjfCUdnbpIFjk/edit?usp=sharing First four charms of that SMA put together. Heart-Killing Blade is the one I'm least set on. I want to keep the vibe but the mechanics i'm very 'not sure' on.
fierce star
ooh
getting spicy
... can knowing a themaitcally appropriate SMA count as a means for sorcerous workings?
I feel like it should be able to
tulip folio
Honestly seems legit. Why?
fierce star
Just vague musings, honestly
there's a lot of fun stuff you can do with a means of 'cut away the ubllshit'
tulip folio
Yeah. Just not 100% sure if Heart Killing Blade does it in a good way. There isn't really many effects that take out an intimacy entirely, rather than just degrade it a level.
...I had an idea on that 'stab a guy so well you kill one of his charms'
Make it a Simple Action charm most of the time...but
If the target accepts a Crippling Injury to reduce the damage they suffer, you can replace the crippling injury with 'Immediate effects of this charm' reflexively.
So someone goes 'I'll lose a hand to avoid getting taken out' and you can go 'No, you'll lose Heaven Thunder Hammer asshole'
fierce star
oooh
velvet raft
... can knowing a themaitcally appropriate SMA count as a means for sorcerous wo...
PAOC seems like a reasonable means for basically any working imaginable to me, especially given PAOC benefits from being a sorcerer
(Spell-Shattering Palm is -1 willpower for every circle of sorcery you know)
tulip folio
...I had a pondering for the form, just let me check some wording.
bleak hazel
sids are very good celestial sorcerors because the excellency lets you go absolutely nuts for a very affordable price
lunars might beat them at essence 5 battle magic, though, I think they have a capstone charm for that
tulip folio
Alchs keep up their usual 'I am the energiser bunny' routine
As they've got a 'Hey, the bonus dice from Trans Intelligence is instead auto-successes on shape magic'
I'm not sure they are the burstiest mages but an Alch can be sitting on 2-3 automatic successes constantly.
velvet raft
Alchs getting 2e Second Excellencies is wild
I think it's fun, too, as a thing specific to them
bleak hazel
hey, Sids can convincingly fake Infinite Ability Mastery, everyone can get one
velvet raft
Iki, you're the alch expert in town, do you know if there's been anything about why alchs only get 8/6/4 on attributes as opposed to the Lunar 9/7/5?
tulip folio
Strength Alchs have a charm that I'm perpetually not sure if it's good. It seems really good but it's got a counter built into it.
tulip folio
Iki, you're the alch expert in town, do you know if there's been anything about ...
My guess is it's a typo, as that's the attribute spread for basicly every exalt.
Lunars being the only other Celestial-Tier Attribute Exalt
fierce star
My best guess is either typo or it's lesser due to the existance of transpuissant
velvet raft
I feel like Transpuissant doesn't really make sense as a reason for it, but that could be the rationale
tulip folio
I lean against Trans being the reason because trans takes up Charm Slots.
So you're paying Notable Resources for it
velvet raft
Aye
fierce star
also yeah lunar combat magic is 'I get a free shape sorcery with a free full excellency on join battle for 5m1wp', misc
tulip folio
As 'Charm slots' is the single most valuable thing for Alchs
velvet raft
Only 32 charms at essence 5 is potentially rough
fierce star
they actually have a pretty good workings sorcery capstone?
well, capstone, it's ess 3 but int 5
tulip folio
Only 32 charms at essence 5 is potentially rough
It really wants you to really make a few Loadouts, or Get Artifacts/Martial Arts to help the load there.
velvet raft
Yeah
I don't suppose alchs randomly have some shit that lets them imitate Elemental Aura?
fierce star
permanent charm, negate the first botch of each working, animal shapes that are thematic for the working count as a means, terminus bonus can increase to +2 if you have a lot of related shapes/charms, territories count as sorcerous infrastructure, and your solar mate providing helps as a means gives +1 terminus additionally
tulip folio
I do think a few more Alch charms should say 'this doesn't take a slot'. Not too many but I feel like repurchases of the same charm shouldn't count as extra slots.
velvet raft
Asking because I'm looking at making an alch who is spending time with DBs
velvet raft
I *do* think a few more Alch charms should say 'this doesn't take a slot'. Not t...
Definitely
tulip folio
How much of an 'imitate' are you looking for?
mechanically?
Or just 'I can fool people'?
tulip folio
Nah, nothing for emulating that.
They can do a pretty solid pretend job of a Fire Aspect but it won't count as real aura. XD
velvet raft
Oh, do you know if there's a version of the Master Sheet that has support for alchemicals?
tulip folio
Not off the top of my head @fierce star might know though.
He's more into sheets like that than I am
Also: Man, this is a cool charm I keep being tempted by. You get a Cool Super Mode with a Glowing Weak Point. XD
fierce star
Oh, do you know if there's a version of the Master Sheet that has support for al...
Not that I am aware of, though lot-casting atemi can do okay with alchs for now
fierce star
yeah
bleak hazel
also yeah lunar combat magic is 'I get a free shape sorcery with a free full exc...
yeah, thought so
the thing about sids is that their excellency is so goddamn good that they're basically Bestest Low Investment Sorcs because they can very affordably boost their rolls
they're actually the best first circle necromancers too, they're just giga sad at E3 or higher because they can't get Shadow Circle
tulip folio
...can you get Superior Gear bonuses on Shape Magic?
velvet raft
That one sid seven-section-staff is also pretty wild for warrior-sorcerers
bleak hazel
presumably, although I would ask for something a bit more than "major project to make an orb to ponder" as a GM in order to do that
at least make a big sorcery palanquin held up by your beastman retainers that you sit in to throw spells around
velvet raft
Reliably lets you mix sorcery and martial arts, good stuff
tulip folio
presumably, although I would ask for something a bit more than "major project to...
Yeah, pondering due to the Lunar Artifact Cloak saying it's Exceptional Equipment for stealth and magic.
bleak hazel
huh. solars have no sorcery charms
making them the worst sorcerors until Essence 5, with the sole exception of the free-occult-excellency charm
tulip folio
It's literally just 'has solar circle sorcery', yeah
Which to be fair: Solar Circle Sorcery is good but there's a lot of 'I could be the best sorcerer in 4 essence' twilights buried under a mountain of Obsidian Butterflies and Fire Hawks from guys who can do the basics better than them.
-While the stylist has Aimed at a target, she may reflexively sacrifice the normal benefits of that Aim to gain a +3 Non-Charm Bonus on a Clash against that character or Heavy Cover against an attack from that character.
-The stylist destroys a non-magical weapon after successfully blocking an attack made with it if the attacker failed by two or more successes. (This doesn’t affect weapons that use projectiles). Against an unarmed attack, instead inflicts (Essence/2, Rounded Up) dice of decisive damage, which ignore Hardness.
Pondering 'I am unbelievably good at stabbing' forms that don't just go 'Get a tonne of attack bonuses'. As I don't think there's much that can compete with Single Point Form on that front.
Playing more in the area of 'Nobody gets out of a knife fight without getting some cuts'.
upper stratus
aiming already applies to clashing im pretty sure
bleak hazel
I think all the really big sorcery stuff will be in the Infernal book
vague vibes I get from the exalted discord is that the Get book has all the SMAs and Infernals basically drop most/all of the martial arts for more sorcery
and yes, you already get aim on clash
tulip folio
...right, it would, wouldn't it. Okay, I guess the clash bit is pointless.
bleak hazel
it's basically "next attack after your turn ends"
despite slightly jank wording
(unless you're a sid, in which case you can delay your turn, reflexively aim and then clash, which is pretty hype)
tulip folio
Oh well, 'can spend aim to get heavy cover against an attack' is still likely valuable. XD
velvet raft
IIRC 2e Infernals were unable to learn SMAs like the other Solaroids, but were really good sorcerers
So that tracks
tulip folio
They were interesting sorcerers in 2e.
Mostly in that the barrier for entry didn't exist for them.
Every Infernal, no matter how much of a dumbass or incapable of introspection could be a sorcerer.
Everyone Else: "I need to go on a journey of self-discovery and introspection, learning to change myself before I can change the world."
Infernals: "Demon Summoning go Brrr."
velvet raft
"Yeah I'm friends with the yozis I just have direct source code access"
Really wondering what they'll do with the Ebon Dragon this time around
His "everyone, including me, fucking sucks" thing was on the one hand interesting but on the other hand was very ehhhhhhhh
tulip folio
Hey, don't forget his other main character trait.
'I want a wife'
More seriously: I desperately hope that Acts of Villainy are still part of Infernals. Even moreso than their charm structure (Which I know I'm not getting back, despite my desire for it), Acts of Villainy were so much of the personality of Infernals.
And they were genuinely good game design in an edition that had quite a few game design issues.
bleak hazel
Infernals do get SMA this edition, since they're now actual ability exalts
I am hoping they do not do the abyssal thing again and go "here's a super special SMA all for you"
coral wraith
I am hoping they do not do the abyssal thing again and go "here's a super specia...
Well, it's not "all for them" when Sids can learn it too
tulip folio
They're confirmed as Ability Exalts?
...damn.
I really worry we're going to get a lot of 'Here is a solar charm but we made it green' with them as ability exalts.
bleak hazel
the abyssals do have a bit of a case of that but there's a bit more unique stuff to go on with Infernals
velvet raft
I have a lot of worries about where infernals are going
Essence was not encouraging to look at, making them ability-based removes something that made them interesting in the past, and ...
Guh
And to some extent the abyssals were always meant to be dark mirrors of the solars while the infernals were extremely not
tulip folio
I'll admit, Exigents made me think they might make them Essence-Based.
As they introduced Essence-Based Exalts in Exigents for the Puppeteer
And we don't have a mainline Essence-Based Exalt
velvet raft
Infernals had some of the worst setting stuff in 2e and they also had some of the very best setting stuff
And the structure of their charms contributed a lot to their vibes
"I have a variety of alien, sometimes malign influences in me that drive me to behave in certain ways" is so much more interesting to me than "generic iconoclast who turns into a monster"
tulip folio
I must admit...I know it's not fair but I really worry Infernals are going to be designed based on 'Return on Scarlet Empress left a bad taste in people's mouths, lets not have them be like those guys again', instead of drawing on the bits of them that were fun.
tulip folio
"I have a variety of alien, sometimes malign influences in me that drive me to b...
Also they had incentive to be just the Hammiest Fuckers, as that's how they shed limit. It was so much fun for promoting roleplay without absolutely dictating player actions.
velvet raft
Infernal excellencies legit felt like taking tech from a very, very different type of game and successfully incorporating it
And 3e is already using a lot more tech of that type pretty successfully, they would fit right in
Auuuuugh
tulip folio
Acts of Villiany feel in many ways like the precuror to 3e's Role Exp
Where it's 'if you do a specific thing, you get a bonus'
So I don't think they'd be out of place in 3e if they made a return.
velvet raft
World Shaping Artistic Vision basically is an infernal-style excellency, but non-specific
It's haphazard, but this type of stuff is around
bleak hazel
WSAV: "Cartoon Villainy' would be a very funny sid
Doofenshmirtz energy, you need to build a giant terrifying sorcerous ritual circle to arrange dinner because it buffs your cooking rolls
tulip folio
"Cooking and Alchemy are the same thing."
velvet raft
I should take another look at the Infernal homebrew. It's ability-based but I've heard good things about it.
tulip folio
Executioner of Divinity
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Virescent Eyes of Division Form
Bringing her blade down in a scything arc, the stylist leaves a gash within the very exaltation of her foe.
The Stylist makes a (Perception + Martial Arts) gambit against an enemy within Close range to destroy one of her divine powers. The gambit’s difficulty is (enemy’s Essence, maximum 5). Success lets her destroy a Charm, Evocation, or Spell. This can’t affect Permanent effects. If the gambit succeeds, the target can’t use the destroyed power. If it’s currently active, it ends. The eruption of lost power takes with it (Awareness) motes, from the stylists choice of the target's personal or peripheral motes.
In order to regain this power, the affected target must learn the Charm, Evocation or Spell again (With normal Training Time), though it costs no experience to re-learn.
Reset: Once per scene, unless reset by incapacitating a non-trivial foe.
Enlightenment: Against Enemies of Fate, this Charm waives its Willpower cost and gains a non-Charm success on the attack and initiative rolls.
gotta think of a cool aesthetic for my sidereal yu-shan manse. was thinking about some internal lake where a lantern floats for every single person killed under the orders of the violet bier of sorrows
bleak hazel
For some reason my first thought was "The exact number is the subject of some bureaucratic contention and there's a guy trying to figure out whether the five-stage sequence of proxies that led to the assassination of James T Rando qualifies as Under Orders so he can properly maintain the manse."
upper stratus
oh the manse does it all by itself
bleak hazel
fair enough that would make it easier
upper stratus
if it doesn't we need to ring up the geomancer's union, something's hampering the essence flows
bleak hazel
this does mean that the number of lanterns in your manse is classified Bureau information
upper stratus
it's okay. strict inheritence clauses dictate manse ownership is only ever issued to a sidereal who works for the bureau and hosts the same exaltation as the previous
bleak hazel
throw a few extra lanterns in manually to confuse the number
I am messing around with War Theory
I have figured out how to stop a Sid general being ran over by Solar War's infinity successes in the initial strat maneuver roll with a bit of preparation, which at least means you get to have a fight, but I can't figure out a reliable counter to the silly charm from miracles
upper stratus
throw a few extra lanterns in manually to confuse the number
letting getimian spies in on purpose so they get wrong information
bleak hazel
"if one of your BGs ever hits an enemy BG by 3 or more, the entire enemy army is locked to def 0 by repeated ambushes forever"
upper stratus
i gotta be real i think your only counter is to ignore miracles or to kill the general in their sleep
bleak hazel
theoretically I guess you get a really high parry exalt, bring one BG and stick Defend Other on the battlegroup
and yeah, but that's no fun for Solar General
Solar General wants to actually use war charms
this is mostly pure whiterooming because I want to see if it's theoretically possible to not instantly get owned when they press three buttons
Sid War literally has a "declare your enemy botched strat maneuver" charm that you can set up and even that only gets you to a tie because Battle-Visionary's Foresight is bullshit, so you have to pick a really low-impact strat
next delta
I take it Sidereals (or anyone?) don't get to affect strategems in this way?
Ambush being too good seems like the other part of the problem lol
upper stratus
does your white room includ landing descending horoscope of battles on the general beforehand
bleak hazel
unnecessary, you just tag 'em with Tattered Standard Denigration and force them to autobotch the initial strat roll
velvet raft
Oho, I guess they had to include this so players at Essence 5 would have less hesitation to become colossi
upper stratus
unnecessary, you just tag 'em with Tattered Standard Denigration and force them ...
ayo?
bleak hazel
you'll never get Ambush on them, but you can pick one of the 1-cost strats that doesn't have much effect on the actual battle in and of itself, and then if they manage to predict it they can only pick one of those two 1-costs anyway,
so you don't end up that owned
and maybe you get a little something
oh yeah I guess you may as well throw descending battles on if you've got it
bleak hazel
downside is that you have to beat the Solar's war roll to get it going, but the only one of the 50000 dice tricks that works on that war roll is Four Glories Meditation so you can theoretically actually do that at E4 with a specialty
if you ever have a battlegroup sized in the fight they can reflexively inflict Ambush on you for 1 mote, so you can't afford that either
I think you get one mega-battlegroup with as many buffs as you can come up with and no others, ideally archers or something, make sure you have Tattered Standard on them, autobotch the initial strat roll and then Defend Other your BG with Crane or similar
and then you can actually have a fight with a battlegroup on each side without instantly losing
the smart thing here is to just Not Bring BGs, walk your elder battles sidereal into the enemy camp and facestab the solar many times
but that is not very satisfying for the solar
tulip folio
...Does Tattered Standard work even if the battlegroup has Perfect Morale or is Mindless? It doesn't say it doesn't but you literally can't weaken the intimacy zombies have towards their master.
upper stratus
but that is not very satisfying for the solar
that's the sidereal way baybee
bleak hazel
it doesn't weaken the intimacy but I am pretty sure the rest still applies
perfect morale on your tiger warriors doesn't mean they like you, it means they won't run away
tulip folio
I suppose that 'if his chosen strategem would be hindered by disloyal subordinates' is where zombies fall.
'No, my strategem is never hindered by disloyal subordinates because I own their souls'
obtuse heron
chat exalted is so cool
bleak hazel
to be fair if the only battlegroups the solar has are zombies you're probably fine for other reasons
obtuse heron
weirdass lunar woman
bleak hazel
first circle demons might be more of a problem
obtuse heron
i am
slowly learning
how exalted works
i have the flimsiest grasp on battle mechanics and am now trying to comprehend initiative
bleak hazel
would you like a slightly long-form but comprehensive worked example of how exalted play works
it's also yuri, for some reason
someone wrote a big thing on the forums ages ago
obtuse heron
would you like a slightly long-form but comprehensive worked example of how exal...
sure!
obtuse heron
it's also yuri, for some reason
only gif i could find
asshcnrucjensndjafbajdjahsjaj
bleak hazel
it's a bit longer than I think it needs to be but it really does go through everything
fierce star
chat exalted is so cool
Gettin' big malekith (elden ring) vibes here (complimentary)
velvet raft
it's also yuri, for some reason
gestures at who generally forms the internet communities that like exalted :P
velvet raft
Thought: an SMA based on Luffy from one piece, including ||Gear Five||
Not just the stretching but his broader thematic idea of joyous freedom from constraint
First from the limits of the body, ||and then from the laws of the physical universe||
fierce star
Gilded Drupe of Freedom Style
limpid badge
Are people really showing up for that
yes me. i love a reincarnation romance from the dawn of time between the sun and moon.
sorry this is late as hell but i am showing up for it
lunar magnet
A ready-made hook for toxic yuri? Oh yeah, people are showing up.
prisma sun
I like it when it's optional
I do not like designated husband caste and designated wife caste
lunar magnet
The Bond is also just "You have very strong Emotional Bonds with this person"
limpid badge
yeah optional is reasonable enough
lunar magnet
It may not necessarily be... positive
limpid badge
i just think it should be a knife the GM gets of "here is ur reincarnating soulbond"
prisma sun
Yeah I know and I do like a Mr and Ms Smith But Wuxia set up
prisma sun
Ye as a plot element it's not something I deride people showing up foe
lunar magnet
Oh no, it's better. Kaiba and Yugi are a perfect example of the bond too.
limpid badge
A ready-made hook for toxic yuri? Oh yeah, people are showing up.
this is in fact what im doing with a friend and bloody hand's lunar mate
the toxic yuri is right there
lunar magnet
It's so easy
limpid badge
abyssal lunar make it so easy
velvet raft
The Bond is also just "You have very strong Emotional Bonds with this person"
Yeah, romantic relationships were common, but by no means to the exclusion of other stuff
"Whatever it is, it's intense"
It's really not designated husband and wife
bleak hazel
I like to think that my Abyssal is bonded to Sublime Danger and were they to actually know of each others existence would express this mostly by sending her mocking little gifts
a perfect 1:20 scale miniature soulsteel daiklaive
he has zero interest in swordfights
velvet raft
I would be unsurprised if there's a pair out there who keep murdering each other
That's just sorta how their karma is working out
bleak hazel
I don't think the Golden Widows are back in 3rd but there used to be some Lunars who had a charm that allowed them to sacred hunt their Solar mates and get an Essence boost out of it
lunar magnet
Behold, the Lunar Bond!
velvet raft
Yes actually
Leviathan remains the easiest example:
- best friends with his solar bond
- betraying said solar by having an affair his wife (another solar, with her own bond of course)
fierce star
I love the solar bond so much tbh, as long as people remember that it does not have to be romantic love (or even any positive emotion) and people don't get all weird with me
like there's Getting Weird With It (becuase it's exalted)
and there's Getting Weird With It (I should have brought hte x-card to this game)
fierce star
oh, absolutely
merry arch
solar bond very good. toxic and/or redemption arc reincarnation romance stories are good. I'm showing up for that 100%
doesn't even have to be romance. political marriage leading to reincarnation friendships? badass. bitter enemies through numerous lives? also badass.
solar bond is juice
velvet raft
of course it would be even more juice if all the solars were abyssals or infernals now
merry arch
obviously context matters and in roleplaying settings so does consent. but realistically that should go without saying. unfortunate that it can't tho
anyways I'm echoing what Lilah said, solar bond is tremendous for xianxia storytelling
fierce star
Even if I don't buy allies 5, with lunars I like to think about what kind of story I want to tell with their bond
obtuse heron
i also like the idea of the solar bond being flipped opposite
they used to be in a power dynamic but now the turns have tabled
type deal
velvet raft
It very easily can be, too, if the bond is with an elder
tulip folio
Virescent Eyes of Division Form
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Uniform, Form
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Liar's Tongue Removal, Heartbeat Destination Slash, Heart-Killing Blade
The stylist gains the following benefits:
-While the Stylist has Aimed at a target, she gains Light Cover against that character. She can reflexively sacrifice the normal benefits of that Aim to improve this to Heavy Cover against an attack from that character.
-The stylist replies with blistering speed after successfully blocking an attack if the attacker failed by two or more successes, (This doesn’t affect weapons that use projectiles) inflicting (Essence/2, Rounded Up) dice of decisive damage, which ignore Hardness.
-Attempts to Clash her attacks suffer a -(Awareness) die penalty and she may apply her Total Successes to overcome the defence of a target benefitting from Defend Other, instead of Threshold Successes.
Vague Ponderings
prisma sun
Thinking of what to do for my Fire Deeb instead of Stormcaller
and I think I hit an idea
One of 99 swords forged by Ligier
Kinda like the Swords of Khaine
mighty rover
looking at Thousand Blades Style
so, when you learn the style, you pick a signature weapon
but the rest of the style assumes you have several signature weapons
where do the rest come from
bleak hazel
yeah you become John Spears or John Swords
makes it very easy to mix with other MAs, strangely
apart from SMAs, unless you want to get really odd with it and be John Knives or John Seven-Section Staves
tulip folio
At some point I want to become John Smashfists and just Rapid Fire Punch Volley people with like 12 fists.
The one area I'm not 100% sure with Thousand Blades is how it works with melee weapons that have thrown. As you need to pick a melee weapon to use but knives are melee weapons, they're just also a thrown weapon.
mighty rover
I thought you needed to spend dots in character creation to get an artifact
do you need to... pay fifteen dots to get five swords for Thousand Blades?
tulip folio
If you wanna do it at chargen. Though you could get it cheaper if it's 1 handed artifact weapons that are traditionally paired
As a lot of knives and short swords tend to be '2 swords to a single artifact pair'
fierce star
Thousand Blades isn't really a chargen style, though
tulip folio
You can also Make or Loot Artifacts.
fierce star
it's more for 'you have a crafter in the party or you're a bunch of scavenger kings' yeah
tulip folio
If you are John Goremaul and you beat up dragonblooded a lot, you'll eventually get your full set.
bleak hazel
if I was playing Jimmy Knives I would reasonably expect Arsenal 5 to be 10 knives, to be fair
10 knives and the shield I stand on while floating around to ~~abuse ~~make efficient use of Sidereal Melee
mighty rover
Comprehensible
this is... potentially an NPC concept so i could probably handwave a bunch
bleak hazel
after the fifth artifact attunement the rest are free, so you can just keep racking them up for aesthetic reasons or to get extra evocations you can mix in
CMOS/1kblades knife enjoyer is quite tempting, even if your parry is a bit worrying
an intangible storm of knives
I guess you get the dual-wield bonus with anything, so if you're going to do nothing but clashes heavy weapons aren't even that bad of an idea
dual-wielded two-handed goremauls have better decisive clash accuracy than any number of knives
chilly sluice
I wonder if making one artifact that can split into several different weapons is too cheaty
bleak hazel
I think the intent is that you're putting 9 motes into attunement to max it out
although I would permit the hearthstone that creates a ghostly copy of your weapon to add 1
it takes a misc action in combat to turn it on, anyway
chilly sluice
My intent for that artifacts was probably tying the different weapons to buying evocations, and still require the usual extra motes probably
bleak hazel
hmm, I think if you want to do a 1kblades clash build and optimise for that you either want nothing but tetsubos (smash smash smash smash) or nothing but greatswords (balanced, huge overwhelming) since both have +4d to decisive clashes
rare heavy weapon W?
on the other hand, you can fit ten knives under a cloak, you're probably going to struggle with five Grand Daiklaives
prisma sun
Do it as a Deeb
and just pull 'em out of an element
That'd be fucking Sick As Shit Actually
mighty rover
it would
bleak hazel
I think that would hypothetically be the only style you could mix with Earth Dragon's weapons
and both have medium armour compatibility
you would be ungodly tanky
fierce star
...
I want this theoretical earth immaculate to have perform and carry around gigantic reinforced taiko drums
bleak hazel
Sword-Shrike's Garden and Thousand Daiklaive Wings both have harsh terrestrial restrictions on them but the rest isn't so bad
I think this works fine
your deeb mote pool might be a bit sad but fuck it, just keep clashing
tulip folio
Alchs seem like they'd be fun with it.
bleak hazel
you're also well into the "my GM is crying" levels of soak
which really is anything over 15-20
there's a vaguely popular houserule that says "everything after 16 (stam 5 + heavy artifact) soak instead gives you ablative init which the enemy steals as they burn it, to keep combat going"
you're not losing your real init but at least your enemy isn't completely stalled out on momentum if they aren't Endings Georg
prisma sun
Eh, I feel like at that point taking them down is a fun challenge rather than a numbers game
Like the Armored Warrior fight in Sekiro
bleak hazel
yeah, it's good when it's one boss but it can get a bit old when it's all 5 PCs
it's not that hard to get a ton of passive soak
I have not personally introduced this houserule because in my games it's utterly unnecessary but I think it's vaguely interesting for certain kinds of group who are going all out on the megabeef
you eventually want combat to end
prisma sun
Each Sword is unique, and are often, confusingly, not actually swords. Diremauls, Lances, Whips, Smashfists, the Swords may take any shape and size, and may indeed simply affix themselves to their owners and become what they must. However every wielder still calls their weapon a Sword, regardless, for each one desires nothing more than to Cut.
The Swords hunger for each other in a way that defies reasoning. Though not outwardly sapient, each Sword possesses a driving animus and malice. They thirst for their Sword-siblings, and when they clash on the field of battle one will inevitably devour the other. This is not metaphorical. The victorious weapon Cuts the loser into two, then draws them into itself, crunching and biting with grown maws of jade for the act. This begs the question of what happens when all 99 Swords are compiled together. So far, none can tell. Though a phenomena has been noted by the most canny of scholars that all wielders, regardless of creed, station, or race, all give the same answer when pressed.
"Absolution".```ah, there is one problem with using Elemental Sheath, and it's that it costs you 15 motes just to get all your swords out of the ground
might want an evocation for that
mighty rover
let's gooooo
prisma sun
I think this also means that Korit lost his arm to the vault holding this weapon, and the eye and the rest of his face to an Infernal who wanted to claim the weapon.
"How does a one armed swordsman unsheathe a giant Daiklaive" you ask?
- Slam it into the earth with the sheathe's weight of malice, draw it upwards.
or - Hold the sheathe in your teeth and draw it forth that way.
tulip folio
```
Virescent Eyes of Division Form
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essenc...
By the way, how does this seem? I tried to make it less Directly Offensive and more of a 'Nobody gets out of a knife fight uncut'.
prisma sun
Seems good
I forget how good Cover is
so I can't really comment on it balance wise
I think mechanically I am keeping the 99 Swords similar to Stormcaller in that they instantly begin fucking everything up on drawing and can be used to explode
bleak hazel
+1/+2 non-charm def for light/heavy
normally goes both ways but can be unclear with charms
pretty sure this is one-way cover, as is the Instant parry from Thousand Blades
not sure about CMOS
tulip folio
Yeah, the intent is it's one way. Sorta a representation of 'I am focused on you, so I can parry you better'
Without having it stack with other cover
bleak hazel
also wow wings-of-steel bulwark is good
3m 1i for +2 non-charm parry, usable after the attack roll with mastery + negates onslaught if you parry
that's half as efficient as hail-shattering practice and needs five artifact weapons, still utterly incredible
mighty rover
I think mechanically I am keeping the 99 Swords similar to Stormcaller in that t...
excellent
tulip folio
'Almost a hail-shattering practice' is really high praise. XD
bleak hazel
1kblades is really good, definitely above normal MA levels and closing in on SMA
whether this is balanced to cost or not depends how many Deebs you can loot for new tetsubos, I guess
tulip folio
Or if you live in Autocthon where they have Literal Production Lines for artifacts. XD
bleak hazel
The optimal alchemical party, five tiny Alchs and 25 daiklaives made from the saved material
bleak hazel
1kblades also doesn't need the MA merit, so theoretically it costs only 8 merit points more than a normal MA + artifact weapon to get geared for, 15 total
That's only an entire solars' budget and then some
fierce star
five more than a standard solar budget actually
oh wait
and then some
i misplaced my linguistics tax dot again
bleak hazel
1kblades does a strange amount of stuff that OSOI also does, too
very similar vibe of clashes, expensive Simple charms that are reflexive on form activation and environmental hazards
it just doesn't have the half dozen nonsense capstones and instead settles for flying and solid basics
tulip folio
...actually, thousand blades is doubly good for alchs. As alchs can't buy the Martial arts merit, they have a charm that replaces it.
Having an entire Good Fighting Style that doesn't rely on charm slots is great
bleak hazel
Surely that makes it slightly more expensive than for other splats, since the others get the merit "free" but alchs don't get a discount on the punching RAM?
MA in general is amazing for alchs, though, so no harm done
prisma sun
I just realized that as built, Korit cannot get any MAs
because I don't have him with any Brawl
sucks that you need Brawl to get Shining Point...
bleak hazel
Makes more sense for Deebs because it gets you the brawl/MA Excellency and it's a really good Excellency
prisma sun
I guess I should look at Infernal melee charms for inspiration
tulip folio
```
Virescent Eyes of Division Form
Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essenc...
Pondering this one again and if the 'Harder to Clash/Good at beating Defend Other' is an interesting bonus or if it should be replaced.
tulip folio
I guess I should look at Infernal melee charms for inspiration
A big thing infernal melee did was give people Cancer. Well, Green Sun Cancer.
So maybe a sword that inflicts people with a disease?
prisma sun
Nah I don't want to hit that vibe
I kinda want to hit the vibe of "Lucifer just gave you a katana and you slowly become more like him as you engage in a Shonen battle storyline of macguffin collection"
tulip folio
...what's the sid charm where you get to pick How A Guy Dies and it becomes a lot harder to avoid that sorta death?
tulip folio
Tears of the Blade, that's it!
Looking over the ideas I have for capstones for this SMA and didn't want it to overlap too heavily with that.
The idea is basicly: If you incapacitate people with this attack, you get to dictate how he dies, some time in the next week. That death will happen (Though they can spend willpower to avoid taking actions that would impact others as they die, if you say, said the guy will go on a stabbing rampage and get killed by the guards).
A full on Death Note 'I have beaten you in this game of wits, now you will go off and hang yourself'
Tears of the Blade seems like it would synergise with it, not overlap. As tears drains the person's willpower a lot, which would make them not going along with the Planned Death harder.
tulip folio
All Things End
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Decisive-only, Shaping(Fate)
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Executioner of Divinity
When an attack from the stylist would incapacitate a character, the stylist can use this charm to prevent that damage and instead dictate an unavoidable end. She dictates a single short sentence describing the name and time of the target's death, within the next month. This can include specific actions taken as part of the leadup to that death ('In ten minutes, after writing the name of all other Immaculate Agents in the city on a note' is acceptable, as is 'When he gets home, of suicide').
His death is now certain to happen, unless interrupted. The affected target will be forced to take actions that lead to such a death, though if actions that would not directly cause his death are dictated (Such as the aforementioned writing of names) and those conflict with a Defining Intimacy, he may resist taking them by spending 2 willpower. If the death is prevented, it will attempt to happen again the next day, in an appropriate circumstance.
This can cause characters to die in highly implausible ways (Such as a Water Dragonblooded managing to drown in his own bathtub or a Dawn Caste Solar being stabbed by a Bandit) but not those that are impossible (Such as a character that does not breathe managing to drown).
To all mundane sources, these deaths appear to be entirely natural and any supernatural investigation has its difficulty increased by (Essence) to determine there was foul play. Effects that would uncover this effect without a roll instead forcing an opposed (Willpower) roll, with the stylist gaining (Essence/2, Rounded Up) automatic successes.
This effect can be broken in two ways: It can be undone by another character (Though not the affected character) using magic like Order-Affirming Blow (Exalted, p. 334). Alternatively, if other characters manage to prevent the character dying until Calibration, the ending of the year shatters this effect and reveals to the victim what had happened to them.
The intent here is 'this does a lot but if you could do this at any point, you could have just Killed Them Normally'
velvet raft
I think that would hypothetically be the only style you could mix with Earth Dra...
You know, I had been considering a Fire Deeb with Thousand Blades, but Hurricane of Goremauls sounds incredibly funny
tulip folio
Hmm...need a better name for that charm.
velvet raft
You know, I had been considering a Fire Deeb with Thousand Blades, but Hurricane...
Wait fuck it's Rosmontis
velvet raft
My hot take is that Fist of the Titans is what most of AotC should have been: it has 9 Evocations, 1 unlocked automatically, and 2 which are for Solars in particular
Still very rewarding to take as a non-solar, but with somethin' somethin' considering only Solars were out yet
velvet raft
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/128dvbQ878Iu0btjkfqYLjBg8FO3nAJlRgsAw_mvz_OQ/edit?usp=sharing This might be the perfect build for my particular flavor of madness
tulip folio
Hahahah
velvet raft
Needs more hammer
There is one other 3-dot white jade goremaul in the DB book but it's biased toward House Mnemon ;_;
bleak hazel
Hurricane of Goremauls probably wants Blades Form, but conveniently you can easily cycle earth aura to remove Terrestrial from the capstone once you get it and make one clash + one regular attack when necessary
throw on ISOB or medium artifact armour for beef
velvet raft
I was assuming Blades Form and ISOB, yeah
Dragon Bloods are nice with ISOB since their default start is at Essence 2
bleak hazel
blades form is nuts, I love it
let me just get +6 overwhelming on my weapon that has to be an artifact weapon and also double 10s on damage
overwhelming 12 whacky stick without having to spend a mote
bleak hazel
yes
tulip folio
It does, though where it falls with 'this is melee and ranged' is iffy
bleak hazel
my first thought was also "what if thousand guns"
fierce star
'close range artifact weapon' it says
I would just like to note this bit in air dragon's weapons
which lets you use chakrams as light melee weapons
tulip folio
I think you need it to be something that can also be a melee weapon at least or else all your parry boosting won't do shit. XD
fierce star
I don't know if it woudl be good or not, but Airdeeb McCloudOfChakrams would be visually appealing
tulip folio
But well, Chakrams are both
tulip folio
Huh, so you need at least 1 dot in air dragon or thousand wounds to get 'also a melee weapon' for that.
Pretty reasonable price
fierce star
yeah, otherwise they're just lethal thrown (medium), cutting and mounted
also random thing: why is the mounted tag, like... a thing
why can't my horse-mounted doctor throw needles at people on horseback?
staff sling I can kinda see not being usable from horseback but also this is exalted
apparently full-scale firewands are also unusable despite them also being pretty representative of a carbine-length weapon I'd say?
sicne carbines are going to be bigger than a pistol, definitely still two handed
oh no my history specialty is making me annoyed at RPG design again
next delta
my first thought was *also* "what if thousand guns"
I think that gets your head bitten off
Was shooting carbines from horseback not a thing?
I agree that you should be able to throw needles from horseback at people though
tulip folio
Carbines were a big thing on horseback. That's a lot of what they were made for originally.
Various Cavalry who wanted More Reach than Pistols and Mounted Infantry that had a weapon for both horseback and on-foot.
fierce star
yeah
tulip folio
(I know this due to Aussie. We had carbines for the Australian Light Horse, who were technically Mounted Infantry but often acted in a Cavalry Role)
fierce star
I guess it's just an issue of how you differentiate a carbine-sized firewand from a full scale firewand given the tag system
withotu just making it Flat Better (TM)
tulip folio
withotu just making it Flat Better (TM)
+1 resource dot 😛
fierce star
lol
tulip folio
I mean, it's what they did with 'bow (not on horse) and bow (on horse) in the core book
next delta
Oh I see the issue
I guess carbine vs full size is under the limit of dedifferentiation for 3E lol
fierce star
basically I think a mounted infantry style exalt would be really cool
fucking love mounted infantry
next delta
(I don't think Essence cares about mounted vs non-mounted weapons)
Like, dragoons?
I'm not sure how you'd make it worth it (versus just sticking on or off a mount)
I guess bonuses for dismounting and attacking and easy mounting?
tulip folio
Vague Pondering: There was a 'on horse' martial art in 2e. You could revive it for 3e and give it 'Firewands have mounted' like how Air dragon makes Chakrams into melee weapons too.
fierce star
legit
next delta
Oh random idea: after incapacitating an enemy you get to reflexively mount and do some movement action
fierce star
And the basic thought of it would be focusing on 'movement' charms for your mount over like, mounted combat charms, basically, and--yeah, reflexive mount/dismount, stuff like that
It'd probably be worse than just being On Yer Horse, but
tulip folio
...actually, you know what would be nice?
Reflexive 'If you would be unhorsed, you instead just dismount'
So you don't get your ass beat when knocked off your horse
next delta
An innate benefit of the marital art should clearly be that no one can attack your mount while you are dismounted 😆
Maybe that's the first charm: Inconspicuously Available Steed: it can't be attacked and is always in close range to you when needed
next delta
Vague Pondering: There *was* a 'on horse' martial art in 2e. You could revive it...
I think you'd want to decide if you want it to be a ranged or melee focused marital art?
fierce star
I feel like it should be switch hitting at this point; carbine or crossbow until the enemy is in range, then sabers
velvet raft
does thousand blades have to be a melee weapon?
Yes, but also the third charm is better at ranged than most ranged weapons
“Hello have you heard the good news about attacking at extreme range with a sword?”
tulip folio
```
All Things End
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5
Type: Reflexi...
Considering the trigger for it is 'You could have Just Killed Him', how does this seem? I kinda wanted the capstone to be less 'Big numbers' and more 'Cool Trick'.
prisma sun
Didn't Jenna Moran do a horse martial art
next delta
Yes. But it's more about being like a horse
velvet raft
It's a joke style, but it is a very funny joke
wise ocean
a horse your opponent does not expect is a horse that they cannot defend against
bleak hazel
was chatting on the exalted discord and apparently a) we have some new sid elders who were not statted in previous eds, Holok and Red-Handed Kijimano b) they designed many of the new martial arts to be basically fighting game combos, so we're going full stickman fight time in the sid companion
mighty rover
excellent
bleak hazel
Holok is to theological debate as Anys Syn is to beating your ass to quote Vance
we also know a) he's a big stereotypical-dorf-looking guy and b) like Anys Syn, all the new elders have combo charms
apparently they hadn't thought of doing this when they made most of the lunar elders, so even despite the fact the lunar elders tend to be a bit smaller than the sidereal elders, the lunars are kind of under par because they could only give them so many charms
Shajah Holok, apparently:
upper stratus
manse layout sketch. there's also a bunch of plants and trees and shit but i can't really draw those topdown
tulip folio
...man I was trying to work out how many charms is 'right' for a SMA but these fuckers are not consistant.
bleak hazel
I recommend you take the low end
because the high end is Prismatic and that's basically two stuck together
tulip folio
Yeah, I'm not insane enough to go prismatic big. I'm looking at...12, like Charcoal March of Spiders
Instead of Prismatic's 'Just make a fucking exalt, you've got most of a charmset at this point'
tulip folio
Man, this fucker really is the most fucking Dice Fuckery of Dice Fuckery charms.
'Turn your melee attack into a slot machine'
fierce star
I sure do love a charm with an more if/then statements on conditional use than other rules text
bleak hazel
the abyssals have a far more normal one that is basically the same in terms of actual power
it is slightly weaker but has no slots condition
tulip folio
Yeah, that's a lot more reasonable. Being just 'reroll but you can't prioritize 1s, the things you most want to reroll'
bleak hazel
not that that matters, Abyssals also have excellent strike
LSB/Rising Sun Slash basically exist to go "oh, fine, you can punch through a full-excellencied parry if you really try"
although if you blow 11-14 motes just to make your attack hit every time you're going to be pretty dry pretty soon
tulip folio
Dusty Shelf Restraint is a really cool charm. It's in melee but it's a 'generally great for everything' charm.
bleak hazel
I haven't picked that up yet on my meleesid
if it didn't start with "in combat" I would be all over it to aim at my craft projects
fifteen second bond-intro crosshair sequence
TING
Sidereal slowly raises hammer for another go
lament owl
tulip folio
Hmm...sids go kinda crazy with any source of damage rerolls...so I likely shouldn't put any sort of damage reroll in a martial art. Likewise non-sids shouldn't get damage TN manipulation...
bleak hazel
There are martial arts that provide limited access to reroll 1s, but yeah, wouldn't immediately recommend it for an SMA
Mathematically I don't think double Xs does anything too explosive, it stacks linearly with TN reduction, but it is really good with lots of TN reduction
tulip folio
Pondering something on the 'Helps do some damage but isn't just Bonus Raw Damage' front but it's currently in a sort of 'I have a vague floaty feeling of what I want, not specifics'. XD
Basicly: I've got a rider for a decisive damage booster but the rider alone doesn't feel worth a SMA charm (As similar effects turns up on cheap E1 charms as-is) so I'm pondering something that improves the decisive and also carries that rider.
bleak hazel
Honestly my ideas for SMA charms are always awful so I will fully leave this to you
Kindly Sifu’s Quill applies the double 10s rule to a decisive
damage roll, and causes decisive attacks to always deal
bashing damage. An enemy who has an Intimacy as
described in Humbling Enlightenment Commentary takes
a penalty to his Defense against the attack as though it
were his Resolve, as long as the attack is stunted in a way
that includes dialogue or actions that exploit this
vulnerability.
Mastery: At Essence 3+, exploiting an Intimacy improves
the damage bonus of this Charm based on the Intimacy’s
rating: Double 9s if it is Minor, 8s if it is Major, and 7s if
it is Defining. ```My favourite decisiving charm has to be this one though
"Your Kung Fu politics are weak!"
tulip folio
I like that it works of the enemy's intimacies.
Not the attackers.
As that's much harder to just plug in a 'My charmset always works at full power' intimacy
bleak hazel
Humbling Enlightenment Commentary is "your counterattack counts as an instill roll for a positive tie to a group or a philosophical principle, bonus if you share that principle"
so if you you know your opponent has Defining (Up the Pact) or Defining (Immaculacy No. 1) it's nuts if and only if you can stunt about it
tulip folio
It's much better design than those various solar 'Pick one of my own intimacies (I have a defining 'I am awesome' intimacy so it's always great) and get a boost based on that' charms.
bleak hazel
To be fair to Solars, Sidereals also have those
although only in the four mutually exclusive mote regen charms themed around the old Virtues
chilly sluice
"Your ~~Kung Fu~~ politics are weak!"
Crane just shit talking you while they fight you remains very funny yeah
bleak hazel
Double 7s against anyone particularly zealous, it's amazing
You can get a particularly motivated Sidereal up to 1 damage per init on average
tulip folio
Alchemical: "I do not like it, no I don't!"
bleak hazel
Kindly Sifu's Quill + Smiling at the Damned is only a valid combo with PAOC Form, but it is a great signature move
-3 defence, double 7s and -1 TN on damage, deals agg damage for 9m as long as you can find a relevant Defining
also expresses a very distinct attitude to politics
tulip folio
That'll do it
velvet raft
Mountain Folk
The Mountain Folk are the ones holding back an endless tide of monsters
wise ocean
incredible, they're even color-coded like deebs
prisma sun
since that is explicitly a thing with the Fell Stars
mighty rover
ooooh
velvet raft
Spoilsport: ||the crane corps does not feel tactically sound to me||
wise ocean
I mean. Yeah.
Yeah.
velvet raft
||And the guy shouting about "aim for the eyes" (a) shouldn't you have mentioned that before the battle, and (b) it's a target-rich environment, don't aim for anything :P||
bleak hazel
I'll be honest, you aren't aiming for shit in that environment
that is not a range at which you can aim an arrow like that
prisma sun
Skill issue
I also think this is kind of just a popular nitpick since it's not like people gave Legolas guff for "the weak point of the uruk Hai is the neck and under the arm"
In the middle of a thunderstorm
wise ocean
that is because of the stereotype of elves as supernaturally skilled archers
velvet raft
That is because I was like 14 when that movie came out
mighty rover
how long will it probably take for digital rewards to get sent out for the campaign that just ended
graceful geode
There was a campaign?
velvet raft
... am I missing something that says alchemical charm repurchases don't count against charm slots?
Because their charms have tons of repurchases, as if the idea is that these are what you'll be buying due to the slot constraints
tulip folio
... am I missing something that says alchemical charm repurchases don't count ag...
There isn't, which feels odd/like an error
Like they have charms that require 5 repurchases of the previous charm
That's 1/6 of your entire E5 charms just in repurchases.
fierce star
... which charm requires five repurchaes of a prereq?
tulip folio
fierce star
jesus christ
velvet raft
Hell, Ox-Body (Strain-Resistant Chassis)
Oh hah
But yeah even without being a prereq
Taking lots of Ox-Bodies is normal
fierce star
yeah but other exalts can afford to do so without massive oppurtunity cost
velvet raft
Aye, that's my point
So much of Alchemicals feels designed around repurchases not counting against slots, looking at the charms and then uh ... they do
Count against slots
fierce star
yeah
like I can kind get it, because you know, oppurtunity cost, you have to really consider if you want five ox-bodies or if you're maybe better off taking soemthing to kill the bad guy faster, but at the same time it doesn't feel good to teh brainmeats
velvet raft
It's also like ... okay, fewer, stronger charms upgraded by numerous repurchases makes sense
Because otherwise it's just fewer, not stronger charms
And you're throwing XP at stuff you may not use all that much
Because you're already at slot limit
At Essence 5, the slot limit is 32
tulip folio
My general adjustments to Alchs I'd make it:
-Same stat points as Lunars
-Repurchases don't cost extra slots.
Otherwise they seem fun.