leaving this here for reference
#Exalted
bleak hazel
prisma sun
What's the difference between Raptor and Elemental Blast
coral wraith
The bonfire I assume
prisma sun
Is that much different than just being In Bonfire for a fire deeb
tulip folio
Do you mean Elemental Blast Attack?
bleak hazel
bonfires are very mean, yeah
coral wraith
The bonfire environmental hazard is a lot more deadly, yes
bleak hazel
diff 5, 4L/round
winged swallow
i wanna say it was like Courage/Conviction and Summer or something?
prisma sun
Something like that
bleak hazel
it's harder to tank than Adorjan
prisma sun
Man why does the Deeb Bonfire have to suck
bleak hazel
(at least, Adorjan just kinda hanging out, rather than trying to murder you)
what, anima flux?
prisma sun
Yea
bleak hazel
it's pretty good considering it's totally free
prisma sun
Yeah but it's just sorta a massive divide between fluff and mechanics
"A pillar of fire erupts that shoots into the sky, visible for miles"
"A velociraptor is unaffected"
prisma sun
Yeah
bleak hazel
it's as bright as a bonfire, I think it's not as flamey
and yeah, tons of animals have hardness
tulip folio
I think that one might be an issue with the raptor more than the anima flux. XD
prisma sun
That's why it was gonna be my deebs mount
bleak hazel
the thing about "only magic stuff has hardness" is clearly the corebook just Being Wrong
bleak hazel
OK, yeah, so be a fire deeb, take Suzerain of Endless Flame for 3 motes off the cost, 6 with DSP and fire aura. The deeb occult excellency is really good, each 10 is basically +1 non-charm die, so you cast efficiently.
average roll is going to be 14 dice with one mote spent on the excellency to trigger the thingy, so 7.7 sux from that
just need a little more
full excellency would do it but is very expensive
tulip folio
Offscreen friendly Sid going 'I predict he's going to burn the shit out of things' 😛
bleak hazel
this shaping ritual does it if you manage to start a bonfire with excellency-boosted Raptors
lets you chain
yeah this is a very solid build for a thinky deeb who wants to blast stuff
doesn't need many charms at all
tulip folio
'Throw fire bird at problem'
bleak hazel
shame deebs can't get a second shaping ritual out of the box
I guess that's what Dragon-Sorceror Puissance is for, it's at E3
assuming you're willpower 10 because you really love burning you can just keep chucking 12 dice decisives all day, which is extremely strong for a dragon-blood
you just need something cheap and reflexive to get you into Fire Aura
prisma sun
yeah this is a very solid build for a thinky deeb who wants to blast stuff
or if you want to emulate the average Ryu player
chilly sluice
you just need something cheap and reflexive to get you into Fire Aura
Worst case you can always pay a mote into anima effects if you are Fire aspect
bleak hazel
blow smoke ring, fire your birb through it for style points
tulip folio
And being rather efficient, I guess you've got plenty of motes for 'staying alive' purposes when someone gets angry at you repeatedly fireballing them. XD
bleak hazel
your first round doesn't get +3 from Dragon-Sorceror Puissance because you only enter aura at end of your turn, so you may as well find a nice big Fire Simple to use
you will still be throwing large excellencies at the Per+Occult roll to aim the bird, but conveniently you get exploding 10s on that, which is superb
deebs love capbreaking accuracy boosts
prisma sun
blow smoke ring, fire your birb through it for style points
The Vapor Emenating Box is a 2 dot artifact that allows the user to inhale and blow water vapor, flavoring it to their preference-
chilly sluice
Damn, they got vapes
bleak hazel
I guess you could go for this
and just scramble up a tree to fire birds from a branch
tulip folio
Perception 1 Dawn: "Huh, garuda swooping season is early this year."
bleak hazel
the Dodge excellency is also Fire, which helps here
bleak hazel
huh, Abyssals actually do have a get-out-of-jail-free card for the Obsidian flurry, they have a Simple charm that turns them into a cloud that can dodge undodgeable just by stunting among many other things, but it also makes you unable to attack and has to be activated beforehand
Solars have this, which is one of those charms that's on the overpowered-as-hell list because a) turned off all your basic charms, lmao and b) a lot of fairly serious NPC enemies have Excellencies formatted as Charms, like Octavian and Ahlat
winged swallow
fucken core, man
coral wraith
bleak hazel
Abyssals, funnily enough, do not mirror Hundred Shadow Ways
tulip folio
I wonder why
winged swallow
sometimes Abyssals have mirrors of wacky charms and then sometimes, mercifully, they do not
bleak hazel
dodge solars are, to quote one of the Ex3 playtesters, a great way to win any fight by dealing initiative damage to your opponent's *player * rather than their character
winged swallow
real
bleak hazel
I looked this up in the Exaltedcord and at least one conversation was had where Vance was informed that this turned off the "attack with strength" charms and and then promptly facepalmed in a Picardian manner
tulip folio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvFBeFBiB0M&ab_channel=EthanP Preview of Infernal Dodge Charms from upcoming books.
(Danger 5 is a very funny australian show. Not sure if non-australians know it)
bleak hazel
I have never heard of this in my life
HSW is also Stackable, so hope you didn't need like, three or four of your best charms
prisma sun
HSW known as Hitler Shooting Window
tulip folio
(I've actually met hitler from it, he's a relative of one of my coworkers. It's real weird to see his family photos and just have 'wait, is that hitler?' in the corner)
winged swallow
HSW is also Stackable, so hope you didn't need like, three or four of your best ...
if the solar turns off most of my melee charms, i'm simply gonna throw the fucken thing to the side and beat the shit out of em with my bareknuckles and an excellency
prisma sun
They dodge it
bleak hazel
Solars (and to a slightly lesser extent Abyssals) basically don't die until they run out of motes
luckily motes go quick if everyone's really going at it
tulip folio
Is this why water dragon invented the ability to punch your motes out?
winged swallow
They dodge it
not if i have anything to say about it
bleak hazel
I've had to adjust a few of my endurance boxer builds to go a little bit towards "more health levels, more decisive damage reduction", since I have occasionally been ox-body checked, but I have seen 3.5 exalts burn 120+ motes off a juiced up Octavian in like, two rounds
bleak hazel
oh yeah totally doable
was just using that as an example of how quickly motes go when people are trading full excellencies + charms
tulip folio
The Alch excellency is nothing weird itself but man I love Transpuissient for giving Alchs a really fun unique area of getting some Constant Efficiency.
bleak hazel
yeah, nobody goes for Tyrant Lizard Full Moon because they want to be mote efficient
prisma sun
King Hu isn't efficent anything
bleak hazel
I haven't actually tried trying to beat Octavian with a chargen Sid
I think it's doable but it probably requires more combat investment than I generally like on my actual PCs
Anything over 50% combat charms starts feeling somewhat bad to play outside a fight
fierce star
the abyssals game I'm in right now has a ride-supernal abyssal with a tyrant lizard zombie familiar
has invested like... 13/14 charms into it? (E2 start so 20 starting charms)
prisma sun
King Hu is a "veteran" Lunar though
tulip folio
Yeah. I like when characaters are broad rather than turbofocused. It's sorta why I don't super like Supernal, as it promotes monofocus.
prisma sun
so he's not just chargen
winged swallow
Yeah. I like when characaters are broad rather than turbofocused. It's sorta why...
i hope in this respect, the supernal changes from the reforging satisfy
bleak hazel
Sometimes I wish Tyrant Lizards were slightly more expensive than 3 dots
They really don't feel like they're in the same price bracket as a unicorn
prisma sun
Problem of making the scale 1-3
bleak hazel
Lunars also make them go completely insane but that's the perogative of Lunars
Corebook animals weren't amazingly well calibrated for Lunar dice pools in some cases but mega t rex mode is pretty much intentional
Mega pestletail and instant death bear less so
prisma sun
Pestletail being able to apparently teleport
is the funniest fucking thing
also fly?
since there is no directional limit on Heaven Thunder Hammer
tulip folio
They really don't feel like they're in the same price bracket as a unicorn
I am still looking forward to that lunar of mine with a Unicorn Familiar/The charm that lets you take other fae as familiars.
fierce star
one day I'll get to actually be in a lunar game
for someone who's favorite splat is lunars I've never gotten to play one in Ex3 lol
bleak hazel
hellboars are one of my favourite mildly overpowered creatures to turn into as a lunar
15 damage, Overwhelming 5, Soak 12, Hardness 5, so that's artifact gear right there
wound penalties instead add dice to your attack rolls, which is great with Lunar Ox-body, and then you get these nonsense powers
you have Lunar dice pools, so if you ever spike kinda high on a decisive hit roll you just delete your opponent's dice pool for the entire scene and turn their legs off
fierce star
I like how people in creation can just Toughness themselves into a functional spine after massive traumatic injury
it's not even magic creation folk just built different
prisma sun
Aren't Hellboars nuts because they're like the only combat platform that can work with like
bleak hazel
they're not even Legendary Size, you get this for like 4 motes
prisma sun
75% of the Berserker tree
bleak hazel
and yeah they go wild with the zerker stuff
raw owl
i like playing pigs.....
bleak hazel
I would play Big Pig Lunar
raw owl
🥺
bleak hazel
that sounds fun
bleak hazel
besides I can chimera the pig
behold, pig monkey, eventually I will be the entire cast of Journey To The West
(do monkeys have a statblock?)
prisma sun
ye
raw owl
theres a schlocky superheroes web serial im reading rn and one of the main team is named Pretty Pink Warthog and she is very much on the Full Moon Lunar lifestyle
tulip folio
I am a boring person who picked a cat for their Lunar's main form instead of anything big and impressive. XD
bleak hazel
most of the Core animals hit like fifteen trucks taped together and are balanced by having pathetic attack pools, so Lunars make them go completely wild as they shoot up to 23-24 dice on full excellency
an then Deadly Thrash you to death without resetting init
an actual hellboar is not really a threat to any deeb who can fight even a bit and has a daiklaive, because it can never roll more than 12 dice to hit you even on death's door
next delta
I wonder how many Deebs die when their glory hunt runs into a Lunar disguised as what they are hunting and now the trivial combat isn't so trivial
bleak hazel
probably a good number outside the Blessed Isle, but I also imagine that a few Lunars have tried that and then been ganged up on by the deeb equivalent of a bunch of wine-swilling fortysomethings in tweed
which is a very embarassing way to die
bleak hazel
your average murder lunar can absolutely doomcombo a deeb from ambush, annihilate him and then fuck off very quickly, but more than two deebs gets really dodgy
tulip folio
Anti-Ambush charms in general seem a lot weaker in 3e. Mostly because in 2e they were 'fuck it, no effects at all' in many cases.
bleak hazel
Ambush is extremely strong
even the Solar Dodge one is probably not going to save you if you have a decently high dodge
tulip folio
The solar dodge one is weird.
fierce star
this is why that alchemical charm that is 'reflexively ambush a guy with lower init than you at the start of combat, any combat' is, uh, really good
tulip folio
Threat Anticipation Matrix requires you be really good at it to get full defence.
Though the upgrade helps a little.
bleak hazel
almost all of them work on the Solar Dodge principle where the worse your dodge is, the more likely you are to be able to apply your charms
bleak hazel
Sids have some of the best ambush negation in Expected Pain, although Prior Warning's mechanical effect is very lame
winged swallow
tis true
bleak hazel
Expected Pain works the same way as Threat Anticipation Matrix, but also gives you one action's worth of precog against bad things that aren't ambushes, which is just wild
tulip folio
1 action for sids is enough to do a lot.
Including go 'wow, that sounds like it sucks for people who are here. Which doesn't include me'
bleak hazel
yeah, you have a spectrum running from "Avoidance" through "I make an extra perception check" to "Burn Life -> Crane Form, reflexive defend other on my pal the Dawn here, let's do this"
tulip folio
It doesn't work vs ambush but I rather like one of the Alch defensive charms for 'urg, well that's just a fucking pain to deal with'
Autonomous Defensive Drones
Cost: 4m, 2i, 1wp; Mins: Dexterity 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Perilous, Uniform
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Celerity-Enabling Module
Polyhedral drones deploy from their housings in the Alchemical’s back, orbiting the Champion to shield her from attack.
The Alchemical must use this Charm on her turn. The drones provide the benefits of a defend other action, with an effective Parry of (Dexterity + 1). The drones’ orbital formation leaves few gaps for an assassin to strike through — their Parry isn’t penalized by surprise attacks.
The drones are immune to withering damage. Against decisive attacks, they have Hardness 4 and (Essence + 5) −0 health levels. If all health levels are filled, this Charm ends. It can’t be used again for the rest of the day, as the damage to the drones is repaired.
This Charm ends if the Alchemical is crashed.
This is honestly likely one of the best places to have a mage in-team, especially if you can argue to the GM that a cluster of drones should totally count as a battlegroup for obsidion butterflies. 😛
bleak hazel
yeah this is prime territory for either sorcery or throwing adds at their adds
although 8 health levels is a fair amount, as is parry 6 if you're having your various chumps beat on them
deebs basically don't have Ambush negation, they just explode
bleak hazel
it's not Augmented, I think it literally has to be 6
bleak hazel
they might as well have just written 6
fierce star
well, there can be other things that boost dex than transpuissant
is probably the logic
bleak hazel
no ambush negation is one of the biggest solar/deeb asymmetries, especially since the Solar Stealth tree is so absurd that the gap in excellencies + a couple of basic stealth charms mean that the solar can just walk up, explode someone, resume stealth and leave
admittedly the same goes for everyone else, even other Solars can't spot Solars without just walking around everywhere mashing Eye of the Unconquered Sun
tulip folio
Eye of the UCS is a charm that irks me. A lot. Like I know why it is what it is but it's still very much a 'no, I autowin' charm.
fierce star
man, solaroids.
I'm glad abyssal sail is kind of not just about Do Boat Good, but I vaguely regret misunderstanding my GM's map and thinking there'd be a lot more water in the campaign I joined than there is.
tulip folio
I'm glad abyssal sail is kind of not just about Do Boat Good, but I vaguely regr...
Clearly should have changed it from a ship to an airship
Then the GM's map won't matter!
bleak hazel
you can actually dodge EOTUS, whereas you cannot dodge the Abyssal variant
which lasts for one tick rather than one turn and doesn't unshapeshift lunars
apparently one of the Lunar writers got so annoyed at that part that he put a whole extra charm in the Lunar Shaping Defence section specifically to go "no, I stay Tyrant Lizard"
fierce star
unfortunately airships are very limited in ex3 and I'm not from the Haslanti league, lol
on hte plus side I do have most of hte social charms out of it, which are fun
tulip folio
apparently one of the Lunar writers got so annoyed at that part that he put a wh...
Understandably so, considering while Lunars are not without tricks if they can't shapechange...turning off a splat's Entire Cool Deal is a Dick Move.
tulip folio
See: 2e Sid Prophesy being a Shaping effect and therefore useless on Anyone That Mattered.
bleak hazel
Lunars do have "roll diff 10 to infiltrate literally any scene wherever, in stealth, you cannot be found out and if you Join Battle it's valid for ambushes" at E4
they are not without bullshit
spring lynx
ah yes, the black pajamas method
tulip folio
Oh shit, I didn't actually realize Alchs had their own version of Maiden In The Pot.
'Look, no. You can't fail. The worst you can get is Interesting Times'
bleak hazel
yeah, that's fairly normal larceny tech
slightly downgraded version of the Solar one, which is 5m to autosucceed against anything mundane, 1m for essence autosux and double 9s against magic, where failing only causes Interesting Times
tulip folio
Fair but I guess unlike the solar one it's only 3 exp
bleak hazel
yeah, and Maiden-in-the-Pot doesn't care about whether the lock is mundane or magical as long as you could roll
they both have upsides
tulip folio
Right, they just Get The Nonsense (Approvingly)
bleak hazel
Alch dirt cheap charms are just absurd though
spring lynx
'Look, no. You can't fail. The worst you can get is Interesting Times'
oh, i love that book!
bleak hazel
you just get so much stuff so quickly
high Essence Sids don't really need to bother to use stealth to set up ambushes, although they can
bonus points for flying around in crow form until your target pops outside and gets hit by the Glorious Sidereal Railgun Kick
tulip folio
I also love Alch stealth including the MIB Memory Flash Stick.
bleak hazel
Alchemicals figure out drone strikes, Sidereals turn themselves into drone strikes
I also kind of love the enlightenment effect allowing you to set up a kung fu snipers' nest based purely on how much you hate someone
bleak hazel
I also love Alch stealth including the MIB Memory Flash Stick.
I like how it just throws blinding in there for kicks
"is he blind"
"yeah pretty sure"
"OK, it worked, bye"
tulip folio
Alchs have also learned the secret anti-organization technique of 'go have a montage about how you're personally foiling all their schemes'
fierce star
you know what's really fun
abyssals can make ghosts remember how to breathe, purely for the purpose of drowning them
prisma sun
Sids have some of the best ambush negation in Expected Pain, although Prior Warn...
My favorite Sid ambush negation is still
bleak hazel
that doesn't negate Ambush but it definitely creates them
the funny part is that you can check out your enemy's future location, leave and then throw on a brand new resplendent destiny before using this, which should survive the enemy glancing at the knife you just threw after it killed Deeb McCrimes
will probably fray, but what can you do
hmm, 17.6 init on your average maxed Join Battle at E4, what decisive boosters can we put on this
you can bonk them into the wall for 3 more, -1TN from Pain Amplification
so you probably won't kill anyone with any ox-bodies but hey, they really won't be happy
wait this is a Sidereal we can throw SMAs on here
+6 damage from Five Jade Fury if we enter Soulfire Form before popping this, although that does mean we'll be glowing suspiciously when they get visions of us, and we can prophecy or have a friend horoscope us for -2TN instead
so you can probably kill someone with one ox-body if you go hard enough
throw knife, augment it with 41m 5wp's worth of nonsense, avoidance immediately, get rid of your anima somehow and then swap resplendent destinies
prisma sun
that doesn't *negate* Ambush but it definitely creates them
It can if you enhance it with some things
For instance "You ambush me, I roll to hit you this kunai, I swap our places before I even realize you're ambushing"
bleak hazel
It's a Simple charm, so you need to not explode to the ambush first, they're annoying like that
unless you use your extra action from Expected Pain on it, anyway, not sure how that works
bleak hazel
Wandering Axe Foresight doesn't have a setup->trigger structure, you use it as a simple charm that makes an attack
it's just narratively a weapon you threw forty minutes ago
Ambushes also don't permit any response whatsoever without charms that specifically say they work on ambushes, they're brutal
prisma sun
Is the Out of Combat rule not explicitly a setup-trigger?
tulip folio
I find it very funny that the Autothonians in 2e were shocked to find that someone liked them when they turned up to the Jadeborn.
"...we're kinda just used to everyone in creation being assholes..."
bleak hazel
Is the Out of Combat rule not explicitly a setup-trigger?
No, you press it and it starts a fight, roll join battle (despite the fact I'm on the other side of the Imperial City and retreating at speed) which resolves like normal
prisma sun
Huh
bleak hazel
It's just limited in its triggers to places you've been lately
prisma sun
The art kinda sells it as an anti-ambush tool
bleak hazel
The art is a golden shining axe, pretty sure that's Unrelenting Torment Technique
prisma sun
This feels like "This WoW Blood Elf just negated an ambush with Wandering Axe Foresight" to me
Wait it's a golden shining axe
the Charm is Wandering Axe Foresight
that's definitely Wandering Axe Foresight
tulip folio
Undiminished Kintsugi Spirit
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Wits 6, Essence 4
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Internal
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Hard-Wired Loyalty Circuits
It was not just oaths to the Great Maker that drove the Jadeborn to stand against the primordials but compassion towards their younger Kin, Humanity. Unshaken by betrayal by the Exalted host, the Jadeborn rejects any that would ask her to betray them in turn.
The Jadeborn rejects an influence roll against her that would cause her to gain Divergence as unacceptable, perfectly defending against it.
Reset: Once per story, unless reset by upholding a Defining Positive Intimacy towards a community.
Jadeborn Capstone Social Defence Charm (As the Alchemical one doesn't work for them)
prisma sun
At the very least
it still lets you do the funniest kidnapping ever
Be within a football field of someone
bleak hazel
Unrelenting Torment Technique explicitly attacks people who charge you with "hatchets of golden essence"
prisma sun
Teleport to the other side of the world
throw weapon at them 40 minutes ago
swapsies
bleak hazel
Oh yeah that one's great
tulip folio
Unrelenting Torment Technique explicitly attacks people who charge you with "hat...
Which does make 'charms are not a specific thing' kinda funny in 3e.
bleak hazel
Sid charms are, no issue there
prisma sun
Sid charms are explicitly specific things yeah
tulip folio
Fair
So they avoid 'No, there is no specific glowing golden axe technique. That just Kinda Happens'
bleak hazel
Anyway, ambushes are extra fucked up because almost nobody has ambush defence tech that gives you your full defence pool, there are like two martial arts that can clash ambushes and Sid Melee's capstone which only lasts a scene and that's about it
and a successful ambush denies all charms and responses other than ambush negation and raw beef, you can't perfect dodge or fire off a bunch of resistance charms
(you can use heavenly guardian defence because it's written terribly, but the Abyssal mirror doesn't do that)
tulip folio
I'll admit, ambushes being so bullshit is part of why I made sure to translate the First Pulse anti-sneaky fucker trick pretty beefily.
Street Shifts Underfoot
Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Dual, Terrestrial, Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Heels on Cobblestone Echo, Blood-Spattered Streets
One of the best things a back-alley warrior can do when attacked from surprise is to whip the attacker out of hiding, especially when she can toss him into a circle of her friends.
This Charm allows the Martial Artist to make a reflexive Clash with a Grapple Gambit against an incoming Unexpected Attack, Gambit, Savage or Slam. If the Martial Artist cannot reach the attacker (Such as a slinger attacking from range), a successful Clash will still negate the attack but will not Grapple the attacker.
Terrestrial: This counts as the Martial Artist's attack action.
Mastery: The martial artist can reflexively move one zone towards the attacker before attempting the gambit, allowing them to grapple targets attacking with some ranged weapons.
(it's also basicly what it did in 2e. Nasty fucker)
prisma sun
and a successful ambush denies all charms and responses other than ambush negati...
Wait where does it say that?
It just says "your defense is zero for that attack"
bleak hazel
Clarified in sidebar in Exigents
bleak hazel
In core you had to reverse engineer that from the wording of Reflex Sidestep Technique rather than the system section for unexpected attacks, because core
tulip folio
Dammit Core
As an aside: Man, Hold At Bay doesn't get used much despite being Pretty Damn Good.
bleak hazel
RST says you can only use other charms to defend against ambushes if you jump through hoop X, therefore you can't normally do that
tulip folio
Though I think ambush-boosting charms would boost hold at bay, as core describes it as a permutation of ambush.
But it's not super clear because 'core'
bleak hazel
It's a different action entirely, I'd probably rule that you can't Jumping Spider Hold At Bay or something, but all other stuff that works on or against ambushes work there too
HAB is also just weird, because it has no included facility for any uninvolved characters doing anything or any other ability changing relative init
Serves a highly specific purpose of showing up to jump and interrogate someone or similar
tulip folio
HAB is very funny if you plan to use it for the very clearly intended social aspect with that reduced resolve and guile.
As it doesn't have any limitation on what social actions it affects.
prisma sun
It also seems to be "Encourage people to talk first before immediately killing to give people a chance to respond"
tulip folio
"Hey, we're friends now. Kay?~"
"Normally I'd not want to be your friend but since you've got a knife to my throat, I genuinely think better of you now!"
bleak hazel
3e ambush is often considered A Bit Much, the no resistance charms part especially
On the same page as HAB is Go To Ground, which I don't think anyone has done ever
bleak hazel
I'm not opposed to the way Exalted is trying to do this, where the assassin strikes and chunks you to -2 wound penalty or whatever before starting a real fight, but it's rather too good at just atomizing things, especially with stuff like Ebon Shadow Style
chilly sluice
you can also just force an ambush with White Veil
don't even need to be unseen for that one
tulip folio
I think part of it, and I could be wrong, is that the game kinda assumes that an assassin isn't also going to be the Killiest Motherfucker once the ambush is over.
But anyone doing ambushes is 100% going to be a combat nutter because players are going to optimize worth a damn.
So it's less 'You get the ambush and that evens the odds against the dawn'
It's 'the dawn gets an ambush and then Does Dawn Things even once it's a real fight'
If that remotely makes sense?
bleak hazel
Yeah, especially since the default way to make ambush good is to stack as many decisive boosters as possible, which means you have many combat charms
tulip folio
I think if I was going to adjust stealth stuff? I'd perhaps make it so that rather than defending with def 0, the guy getting ambushed has a penalty to his Join Battle. He's off balance and slow off the mark relative to the guy prepared for this.
Though that wouldn't work with stuff that allows mid-battle ambushes.
prisma sun
though it's a video game I'm posting it here since a friend just showed it
The vibes seem really Siddy
(though the actual game seems VERY jank)
tulip folio
Okay, just got to finish these last few lines and I'm done Jadeborn.
I made their 'oh fuck' limit problems a bit more double edged. So even a Jadeborn who's just Entirely Okay With Automaton Bullshit won't like the results.
You could get Impositions, which is the great geas getting way too strong and affecting things around you.
But if you're already cool with being the Biggest Buzzkill, you could get the other end.
Where Distortions are where fragments of Old Fae Power are revealed by the curse.
And everyone starts going 'OH FUCK, THAT'S A RAKSHA!' as you furiously try to go 'Wait no, I'm a Jadeborn. Yes. Technically all Jadeborn were Fae but it's not really fair to categorially call us Raksha and...oww, you're stabbing me'
So no matter if you're on 'I'm happy with how things are' and 'I want the Jadeborn to be free of things', there's always options you hate 😛
velvet raft
behold, pig monkey, eventually I will be the entire cast of Journey To The West
Spider pig, spider pig ~
winged swallow
oh my god i forgot divine mantle just let you learn non-eclipse spirit charms
what were they thinkin
bleak hazel
memory hole for that one, one of the most agreed-upon charms to remove from existence
velvet raft
Wait what
That's so
But
Why
Why would they print that
The entire point of Eclipse charms was to prevent the problem 2e had with that 😩
fierce star
winged swallow
memory hole for that one, one of the most agreed-upon charms to remove from exis...
yeah we are consigning this one to oblivion
fierce star
Good, it deserves to be there
winged swallow
truly an act of morkery
quiet garnet
Gotta work on an Abyssal pc this week.
So far leaning Dusk Caste, though Daybreak (I think that’s the assassin, etc one?) is tempting. Trying to play against my usual type of character in TTRPGs.
Thinking they were originally from Lookshy either as an escaped Helot, or serving in the foreign legions.
fierce star
Day is the assassin one
quiet garnet
Day is the assassin one
Ahh, Daybreak was the alchemists, sorcerers, etc?
fierce star
Yeah, Nerd Caste
winged swallow
what do we think of the present tiger-warrior training upgrades? we still like em?
two of em make a return in the abyssal mirror
but there's also the "beat up legendary size nerds" one
bleak hazel
no problems with them
winged swallow
cool
oh also
so tiger-warriors can get +2 might fighting creatures of darkness (essentially) for 2xp
but hardened killers get +1 might against mortals/the living, or +2 if they're at might 0. for 3xp.
anything need to change for that costwise?
or is that also cool
tulip folio
My only issue with tiger warrior training is that I kinda wish more other exalts had charms for changing up the statline of troops under their command. There's a good number of that 'Get a bonus to might' but not a lot of 'Hey, you can train guys into having their base stateline be Elite Troops'. XD
winged swallow
i mean, if you can think of a way to fit that kinda thing in with another exalt's themes and such, then go nuts y'know
prisma sun
The only problem I have with tiger warrior training is that it's a single charm to basically skip having to do anything regarding training or raising troops
Solar core problem of "Oh you want to be good at a thing? You're so good you take away half of what's actually fun about it"
winged swallow
so what are the mechanics about training and raising troops normally then
fierce star
There's not really any, honestly, other than stuff about xp debt. I imagine 'mulan basic training montage', when not done via tiger warrior et al, would be using hte leadership rules, which are
uh
'the GM decides' at literally every step
tulip folio
I think my general thoughts is that I'd take the tiger warrior training times and extend them a degree. Instead of getting untrained guys to basic legion conscript competency in a week, I'd make it a month if you don't have charm support etc.
prisma sun
so what are the mechanics about training and raising troops normally then
It'd be the training period to get the merit up
winged swallow
which is time and xp essentially, no?
or maybe even just the former
maybe some rolls
prisma sun
winged swallow
right, so
dense verge
is like, being A Battlegroup a merit?
prisma sun
Yeah
Command
So Tiger Warrior goes "you can get a 5 dot merit for free instantly"
winged swallow
nothing in tiger-warrior/hardened killer says it raises troops for you. so you still have to spend the time to get the merit, and then you're spending extra time to Make Them Cooler
fierce star
I legitimately always forget you can buy social merits with xp.
wait
oh you can't
though I guess using the purchased merit training time as like
a guideline isnt' ab ad idea, compared to the leadership rules
which have noreal guidelines on a quick read-through, lol
winged swallow
https://i.imgur.com/jOhOYxC.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/jOhOYxC.png
spend a month to upgrade their average drill to elite
compared to
spend four weeks on recruiting a size 4-5, might 0 battlegroup with elite drill```i don't think this is obviating anything if we play it like this
bleak hazel
there are various Bureaucracy powers that let you summon merits but I don't think many if any of them work on Command
bleak hazel
anything need to change for that costwise?
I think it's chill, you could reformat it to +2 at 0, +1 otherwise if you want to keep neat parity with Abyssals but I don't think the differences matter much
"fighting the living" is also more generally applicable than "creatures of darkness", there are a lot of things a Solar might fight that aren't doomoids
winged swallow
yeah i think it's fine as a flat +2 against CoD
tulip folio
Solar: "Hahah Mr Abyssal, I have Might 2 against CoD, can your army match that?"
Abyssal: "I'M FROM SKULLSTONE, BEHOLD A CONVENTIONAL MORTAL ARMY!"
bleak hazel
abyssals can mirror that and then add giant stompy zombie monsters
if you have to actually fight Thousand-Corpse Goliaths they're terrifying
the Solar either takes or draws Strat Maneuver though, opposing double 7s w/ bullshit
I'm not actually sure even Tiger Warriors can actually kill TCGs in anything approaching a reasonable time
fully loaded it has 17 soak, 10 hardness, 40 health levels and swings at 17 dice/20 damage every round
tulip folio
My vague thoughts? The +2 might vs big fuckers is pretty nice but it I'm not sure how it stacks up to how legendary size kinda puts a cap on how much harm they can do.
bleak hazel
size 5 group of might 2 Tiger Warriors have 15/0, 11 magnitude, 18 dice/19 damage, parry 8
so without orders the tiger warriors can literally only hit the thing for 2 dice of damage every round and can't crash it
it will just sit there hitting the battlegroup roughly half the time slowly chipping them down, unless they roll 8+ extra successes against parry 7 to actually crash it so they can deal decisive damage
admittedly mega battlegroup vs mega stompy is the most boring fight you could possibly arrange regardless of the exact stats, both of these are modelled in system as huge inert walls of meat that you need massive offensive juice to smash through
if you start throwing Solar Exalt order actions at the battlegroup they will absolutely murder the goliath but it will still take ages
winged swallow
i'm wondering then if we should replace the "+2 might against legendary size" with something else
trying and failing to incentivize slog-fights seems kinda unfun
bleak hazel
+1 might and ignore the defensive benefits of Legendary Size would probably be better, because then your chip damage crashes the thing and they can actually start dealing real damage
winged swallow
oh yeah that might work
bleak hazel
there are many legendary size things that are way less scary than TCGs, though
like, if you're fighting elephant cavalry you will fairly easily chop them up
which seems fair enough
the main thing about battlegroups is that they have area attacks, so Order actions by nature can get kind of multiplicative
winged swallow
Titan-Felling Tactics: For three experience points, the Solar grants a battle group +1 Might when facing enemies with Legendary Size, and allows them to ignore the benefits of Legendary Size.?
bleak hazel
you have one mega battlegroup with a big boy exalt behind it, they throw a zillion charms at an order action, the battlegroup stabs everyone for infinity raw withering damage, the entire party is crashed
they do it again, everybody dies
not a charmset issue, just a linear programming fail-state of the BG system
which works fine for providing meat walls and support for real enemies
bleak hazel
`Titan-Felling Tactics: For three experience points, the Solar grants a battle g...
hang on let me check the Engage rules
yeah, this works
although I'd say "defensive benefits" just to clarify things
they can now Engage big monsters and swarm it with ropes and such to get autohitting attacks, which is extremely mean with BG damage pools
so test that out, see if it soups things too hard and if it does maybe stop them doing that, but if it doesn't then that's cool, Gullivers' Travelsing kaiju is fun
winged swallow
yeah this is one of those things that i'll need lab rats for
good thing bees is running that exalted game where we have a War Supernal Dawn
tulip folio
Hmm...hmm...pondering what would be some interesting effects for a 'I am doing Monster Hunter Stuff' form charm. It's going to have 'ignore the defensive effects of legendary size' as part of it but pondering other interesting effects.
tulip folio
Inescapable Volcano Stance
Cost: 8m; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: (Stuff, Things)
She gains the following benefits:
-The martial artist may flurry Rush with other actions, without the usual flurry penalties.
-Each time the martial artist successfully defends against an attack or stops it with by her Hardness, the attacker loses one initiative (or Magnitude, if the attacker is a Battle Group) and she gains 1 Initiative.
-Creatures gain no benefit defensively from Legendary Size against her. She can grapple a Tyrant Lizard or shatter a Warstrider's plating with a blow from her pickaxe.
Special activation rules: Special activation rules: Whenever the martial artist begins her turn in close range of a Legendary Size enemy, or in the space filled by a battle group, she may reflexively activate White Reaper Form.
Vague Ponderings but not 100% on it
The idea is that it's designed to be very Monster Hunter 'I am an Endurance Fighter. The more we fight, the weaker you get and the harder it is for you to run away'
fierce star
copy errors aside it looks good to me, I think? Flurry rush is good stuff. My worry is that it's very specialized, more or less, there's a lto of juice in the third ability on it. I guess it does have a very easy special activation, hm
bleak hazel
grappling Legendary Size is usually E3 by itself, judging by Dragon Coil Technique and Loom-Shifting Nudge
winged swallow
and Titan-Murdering Grasp, of course (even if it’s a slightly different Dragon Coil Technique)
light olive
Is, "The Self Effacing Mirror" a good title for an unquestionable?
tulip folio
grappling Legendary Size is usually E3 by itself, judging by Dragon Coil Techniq...
That's fair, though I think Dragon Coil is priced up in essence by being 3m for 'Essence automatic successes' + 'stealing your opponent's successes' + 'increasing the damage of the grapple by essence'.
In other news: Fucking Solars. That's like 2 discounted excellencies before you even get the big grappling.
...then again, Loom-Shifting Nudge is just the 'grapple big things'.
winged swallow
hm, it is a lot, i suppose
tulip folio
Hmm...this is tricky, as this Stance is supposed to be Anti-Big Fucker (Hence the Monster Hunter inspiration).
But well...engaging with 'Legendary Size has a lot of defensive benefits' is kinda important for fighting them.
winged swallow
hm
what should i call the archery "banish weapon elsewhere" charm..
the melee version's fucken easy because it has one glaringly delightful word to use
"sheath"
bows don't have sheaths or scabbards
prisma sun
what should i call the archery "banish weapon elsewhere" charm..
String-at-ready Capability
winged swallow
i've since changed my mind about "storm of arrows"
we can have little a arrow-storm, as a treat
bleak hazel
going through the list of eclipse charms in Adversaries to find cool stuff
obsidian shards stylists realising they can pull some bullshit with this
winged swallow
oh no
tulip folio
That's pretty cool
45 is a lot of motes but I guess it stops 'scry + ambush'
Still pondering what to do with that monster hunterish form...
limpid badge
String-at-ready Capability
Following this Ever-Ready Draw of Dawn
winged swallow
hm, yeah maybe...
bleak hazel
oh this is a beautiful evocation
enemy comes at me, I tap Instructive Riposte + Mournful Crane's Cry + Sidereal Shell Games + Name-Pilfering Practice, spend like half my mote pool (19m 2i 1wp) and relieve him of his weapon, his physical prowess, his name and his dignity with one move
he takes my offered hand to help him back up afterwards and I steal his dreams as well
tulip folio
I wonder if any other exalt can benefit from this, as it is an artifact
bleak hazel
I would imagine a fae could
winged swallow
it does say "The Sidereal"
bleak hazel
yeah, but loads of artifacts are like that
almost everything in AOTC says "the Solar"
winged swallow
alright but wasn't that made before DB book came out
bleak hazel
many-faced stranger's artifacts also say "The Lunar"
I am reasonably confident saying that this is just shorthand that defaults to the book's relevant splat
winged swallow
it says that on Evocations that stem from Lunar Charms iirc
bleak hazel
this is true
winged swallow
oh this is a *beautiful* evocation
the prereq for this is "Any one Charm this Evocation enhances" also
and the Charms mentioned are Sidereal Charms
bleak hazel
still, I would allow Jimmy Fae with his pride-stealing wyld charm or whatever to learn that one
I'm not sure if any other splat has them
Lunars would be the most obvious candidates, but they don't have Larceny charms at all
winged swallow
souls are easy to steal
bleak hazel
nothing applicable in Abyssals
not going to bother with Solars because Solars
so exigents, gets or infernals
was rereading part of the Autobot book and was reminded how the privileged elite of Autocthonia get their own bedrooms and a choice of food as their decadent privileges of rank
tulip folio
Ended up putting giving Wanderers two training charms. One for social, one for medicine.
Social can raise abilities and hooks into social. If someone goes along with your socialling, you can boost an ability of thiers that's relevant to it. So if you convince someone to dance, you can make sure they're competent at it.
Medicine one can boost attributes and let them go into exp debt buying physical merits. Celestial Steroids Time. XD
bleak hazel
do Autocthonian spirits still have spirit sanctums? because I now really want to stick a custom sanctum-opening charm on an Alch and run around bullying the local supernatural denizens into opening their sanctums for more space
Blessure of Bloody Respite necro spell to create more optional
tulip folio
do Autocthonian spirits still have spirit sanctums? because I now really want to...
Machine spirits are material by default so I THINK not? You could 100% break into an afterlife though.
Made the social one a bit beefier. If the target is a mortal they also get +1 automatic successes on thier first use of that ability in this story. It's not a full excellency or something but it's still a nice boost to the dice pool of people not normally super great at stuff.
tulip folio
Do you think Impale is tempting enough to make Lances worth using for a mounted character? Being a heavy weapon kinda sucks.
fierce star
that's the ignore 4 points of soak at the cost of -1 def and 1i on the attacker?
bleak hazel
fighting mounted does give you an extra die for beating on non-mounted characters as well as +1 defence
so the heavy weapon penalties are somewhat attenuated
it's not the worst tag, but most things pale in the face of the almighty Smashing tag
tulip folio
that's the ignore 4 points of soak at the cost of -1 def and 1i on the attacker?
Nah that's piercing
Impale is +5 damage if you moved 2+ zones
It's not a tag
Because reasons
Corebook being weird reasons
bleak hazel
I had considered a lunar with the centaur mutation that fought with a big spear but I abandoned that idea purely because I couldn't come up with a cool animal to use for the body
tulip folio
Makes sense
fierce star
man why is ex3's corebook so baaaad
tulip folio
Clearly you just make an Uma Lunar. 😛
...I'm not sure exalted has any cool horses for a lunar to be
All the cool horses are fae
bleak hazel
well, my first thought was "spider"
scorpion maybe
there are a group of scorpion-men
besides, uma lunar is clearly a sorceror who knows Brilliant Raptor, so they can be the umabomber
I can't get to the corebook right now, what's the exact wording of Impaling?
If it's just "move two range bands" I have an idea
tulip folio
I'm away from books. @fierce star?
bleak hazel
Technically it's "optimal" to spend all your time in a chariot, because it gives you all the benefits of being mounted plus light cover
I don't think anyone has ever actually bothered to use the chariot rules in Sids though
fierce star
sec
To impale an enemy, the
character must make a withering or decisive attack with
a fixed lance after moving two consecutive range bands
toward her target; this adds +5 to the attack’s raw damage
if withering, or +3 if decisive.
Thoughts: Down is a range band.
wise ocean
exalted lets you dragoon jump, yes
bleak hazel
Aww, consecutive
fierce star
I would also note that technically the uh
bleak hazel
I was wondering whether Dance of the Hungry Spider + Rain of Unseen Threads could let you dance between medium and short range while poking repeatedly with a spear
fierce star
impale attack only works for 'fixed lances' that are mounted to a saddle./barding
and is done by the mount, not by the rider, RAW.
I think?
hmm, it says the character.
but it's in the section on 'giving your mount equipment so it can fite better'
tulip folio
I'd allow it for a centaur or horse lunar. XD
Though yeah there really isn't any good thematic warforms for a horse lunar is there? You'd think a warhorse would be pretty beefy but they're not great.
Horse Lunar Warform
tulip folio
Heh. Hmm...I wonder for a 'blast stuff with spells' Lunar what the best initiation to go with is.
Pack with an Ifrit Lord would really empower 'Throw Fire Hawks At People'
But only that spell
tulip folio
In other things related to that Lunar - What's people's thoughts on the Resplendent Dream Brush? Page 119, Many Faced Strangers.
I really like its capstone but it's also an expensive fucking capstone.
I also think I like Cloak of Forgotten Midnights for her sorcerous initiation.
Sorcerer's Mantle is a pretty simple but pretty solid 'Fuck it, More Motes'
tulip folio
In Unrelated Things - I have a pondering of how to make Firedust grenades work, since the devs seem to be mostly avoiding them on the mechanical front.
Basicly: Don't have them hit multiple targets. Instead what you do is make them a Medium Thrown Weapon with:
Concussive: This weapon is treated as a Heavy Thrown Weapon against Battle Groups and targets of Legendary Size.
As we have a mechanic for 'a lot of dudes, who would really hate grenades, all stuck together as one target'
Like how Crossbows are treated as Heavy Archery Weapons at shorter ranges despite normally being medium archery weapons..
tulip folio
Medium Thrown
Alchemical Grenades
Vials containing firedust, powerful acid or any number of powerful alchemical concoctions and prepared for aerodynamics. A favourite of Jadeborn Mercenary companies and Autocthonian assault teams, they shatter formations and hardened hide easily.
Cost: •• (in Jadeborn Cities and in Autocthonia) ••• (Aboveground Creation)
Tags: Thrown(Medium), Crossbow, Slow, Special
Alchemical grenades can be adjusted by any character with at least 1 dot in craft(alchemy) or a similar skill over a few minutes, changing the compounds or reinforcing the vial itself. Doing so grants the weapon the adjuster's choice of Bashing or Lethal, along with one of the following tags: Smashing, Balanced, Piercing, Concussive. These last until the weapon is next modified.
New Tag: Concussive
This weapon is treated as a Heavy Thrown Weapon against Battle Groups and targets of Legendary Size.
There isn't any Slow thrown weapons right now but between 'draw another large bottle' and 'light a fuse' it seemed fitting.
bleak hazel
I would be careful of Smashing ranged weapons, that's asking for brutally zoning people
Otherwise, neat
winged swallow
trying to think of how to implement the sniper nest-esque charm
pay a cost, gain ??? benefits until you move or are moved by someone else
but then the question is, what benefits? it's easy enough to throw some dice enhancers on there but surely there's something else we can throw on that's Interesting
prisma sun
Well if it's a nest you should get cover
I imagine the vibe is the ability to quickly identify/construct a bunker from whatever's nearby
like flipping tables or kicking up rocks
winged swallow
i used nest but really i always just meant "hunker down and stop moving" but a cover-creating thing in there could be something, i suppose
fierce star
automatically get light cover, a bonus to stealth rolls while in it, let you do it to retroactively insert yourself into a scene but only to make an ambush with an archery weapon?
maybe a repurchase for the latter
bleak hazel
I would imagine this was more "heroically plant my feet and repel all comers" than "sneaky snipers nest" but I could be wrong
prisma sun
Well if it's an archer you're hoping there's no comers in the first place
bleak hazel
also if anyone ever writes a non-E5 charm that lets you teleport into a scene to get an auto-ambush I will hit them with a bat
Lunars have that as a capstone, although you still need to roll to infiltrate and win Join Battle
(jumping spider kick is on thin ice, despite the lack of retroactive appearance)
prisma sun
You can combo Jumping Spider with some kind of retroactive appearance I bet
bleak hazel
I think the only one of those Sids have is the War charm that lets you reveal that you were secretly on the way with the troops the whole time and appear like Gandalf at Helms Deep
admittedly comboing those so that Gandalf just slides in from the top of the hill in the messatsu pose and then explodes someone is quite funny
winged swallow
I would imagine this was more "heroically plant my feet and repel all comers" th...
yeah this was the original idea
really it was just a way to reinforce "stay still and Very Far Away, but you don't get to move because fuck kiting builds"
i have not really settled on details beyond this
but i was probably not going to allow "retroactive ambush" no, this isn't gonna be an e5 charm
we need more stuff filling out the lower essence levels
bleak hazel
("I was here the whole time" is absolutely Solar sneaky charmspace, but probably actually in Stealth)
winged swallow
i believe there is an abyssal stealth charm that does something like that
Dread Eye Sees All
Stealth 5, Essence 5
fierce star
fair
winged swallow
i might contemplate a second Interesting essence 5 charm for archery but presently it is not on the priority list
prisma sun
I do think my favorite thing in the Sid thrown package is still the ability to swap places with anyone at extreme range
I just feel like that alone is an entire kit
I just wanna do Boogie Woogie shit
tulip folio
The big issue I always have when building characters - I get caught in 'Oh but if I max out the things I picked as favored that's leaving future exp on the table because they'd be cheaper to raise in-game'. XD
fierce star
obviously you just always put favored stuff at minimum and maximize your non-favored
chilly sluice
you save way more XP by just maxing stuff immediately though
fierce star
every dusk caste should be a socialize-nerd, nto a fighter
spring lynx
but then what do the moonshadows get to do
bleak hazel
My Battles is actually going that way because he's actually an Ally 5 and besides. Crane Style doesn't get the good stuff till E2
spring lynx
socialize actually makes a lot of sense for battles imo, you get to be The Big General Guy
wise ocean
but then what do the moonshadows get to do
ride
bleak hazel
So he's started with all support stuff + basic sorcery and will proceeded to never look at any purple or green tree again except maybe buying Celestial Sorcery and the E2 shaping defence
by E3/4 he will be gloriously choppy
He's also kind of a mid sorceror
will eventually end up with Occult 5 for various things but nothing's getting that man's Int above 2
tulip folio
Exalt as a battles but it turns out your just one of those 'rich guys who goes to parties' generals...heheheheheh
@fierce star Lyran General Battles Sid
spring lynx
i wish lot-casting atemi had like, a chargen mode that told you how much you have to spend
bleak hazel
"I was going to go to war but it turns out Cash and Murder Games at the embassy party made the entire enemy general staff terrified of me and now they don't want to invade"
winged swallow
my love-hate relationship with LCA
winged swallow
"I was going to go to war but it turns out Cash and Murder Games at the embassy ...
"wait hang on, this conflict was destined to happen, fuck."
velvet raft
The big issue I always have when building characters - I get caught in 'Oh but i...
It's always more exp efficient to max favored abilities and attributes, and the only real reason not to is merits that can't be gotten for XP.
bleak hazel
Sid Socialise is one of those charmsets that really leans on the Shaping keyword so using it on other Celestials can be a bit pot luck
tulip folio
But man if it doesn't make you the Biggest Fucking Asshole whenever you get to use it. XD
bleak hazel
shaping defences aren't standard issue any longer, though
bleak hazel
No idea what this is referencing
fierce star
if only sids still had salary instead of base resources
battletech, misc. the Lyran Commonwealth is... uh... not known for strategic or tactical acumen among their generals. They have a lot of generals. You can buy the rank, you see.
the ones they have that are good are excellent
but most are a nepo baby's nepo baby
bleak hazel
They do get many free resources dots if you want to start with Res 5
tulip folio
The Lyran Commonwealth also has a bit of an infamous streak of basicly going 'what if we dramatically overweighted our troops?'. The joke is that the Lyrans will send Heavy Mechs for Scouting Patrols.
And a Sid could actually do that. XD
bleak hazel
Ah, this is a great place for my favourite subtheme of Sid War
"you go to war, I'll be over here"
tulip folio
'I've got scouts in the area' warstriders appear
'The fucking fuck?'
bleak hazel
You can give someone an immaterial stardust banner that lets them use your question asker and some war charms remotely
and a second charm that lets you autobotch enemy strat maneuver via trash talk
and then a third charm that lets you use Yellow Path to show up in the nick of time with the warstriders you recruited at the satrap's party last week
(somehow)
tulip folio
Hahah, nice.
...this would unironically work really well. Presence it a Battles Favored so you go heavy on Presence + War...
bleak hazel
Rival is mostly going for those since he's supporting a War Dawn
so actual combat stats are largely superfluous
winged swallow
i'm genuinely afraid of what the combat's gonna look like once you and the great khan get online
the strategy rolls..
bleak hazel
he can use the Sid recruitment charm to put together Might 1 godblood forces, since they're near Nexus, which Tiger Warrior Trainingcould get to elite troops elite drill might 3
I'm barely doing strat maneuver stuff, I don't need it, Solar War is too cracked
tulip folio
...okay but I've also had a funny idea: Since the identities a sid wears are broad and general, not specific you could make one of them 'General' and basicly any party you turn up to is 'Oh yeah, that's The General. We can trust him with forces.' regardless of the side they're on.
bleak hazel
If I need to roll for some party I'm leading as an ally offscreen then War Lots + Sid excellency will do against anyone but a stacked exalt general, I think
tulip folio
Sid General walks up, requests usage of troops and proceeds to walk away from the upcoming fight since he was actually on the other side.
bleak hazel
You would need a disguise to be a particular force's officer
Since you can't be particular guys
but you get a big bonus to that so it works great if you're high Larceny
tulip folio
Sid Larceny: Fucker stole our army.
bleak hazel
Once you become an elder you get the Socialize capstone and then you can just run around playing out sitcom plots with the generals on either side
that thing's wild
tulip folio
Yeah, that thing is 'fuck it, I define your relationships, not you'.
bleak hazel
again Shaping, but an E5 Sid with (presumably) WP10 will be quite good at the essence/WP rolloffs common to shaping defences
tulip folio
Man you know the one issue I have with the Lunar books?
They give so many cool artifact weapons and armour options then I go 'wait, I'm a Lunar who plans to mostly be in animal form, I can't use these' XD
winged swallow
When a Lunar enters animal form, any items she’s wielding, wearing, or carrying that she can’t use in that shape vanish Elsewhere. This includes almost all artifacts although moonsilver armor can reshape itself to accommodate any form the Lunar takes if she wishes, and some other artifacts possess comparable powers. Banished items return once the Lunar takes a shape that’s compatible with them.
if i were a dog, i could still use a sword
if Sif Dark Souls can
i can
bleak hazel
There is a charm somewhere (something something Unity?) that lets you use artifact weaponry in animal form
merges it with your form so you can be a pterodactyl with firewand breath or something
tulip folio
That would be very fun/funny.
winged swallow
Last Warrior's Unity?
bleak hazel
Sounds about right
winged swallow
Strength 3, Essence 1
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Strength 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Stackable
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Ferocious Biting Tooth
The Lunar’s hands flow over and around her weapon, melting and merging until warrior and weapon are one.
She fuses a weapon to her body, making it impossible to disarm, but rendering the hand or hands holding it unable to take other actions. This Charm can be stacked to merge with multiple weapons, waiving the Willpower cost of subsequent activations.
If the Lunar shifts into an animal shape unable to normally wield the weapon, it’s banished Elsewhere as usual (p. 133) unless it’s moonsilver. Moonsilver weapons assume compatible forms, and can merge with extremities normally unable to wield weapons — a grand daiklave might become a massive stinger extending from a scorpion’s tail; a dragon sigh wand might fuse with an eagle’s beak. These don’t count as natural weapons; she uses her own dice pools instead of the animal’s to attack with them. In shapes with the Tiny Creature or Minuscule Size Merits, such weapons’ base withering damage is capped at (Strength) against larger foes.```nods
That's fun. Still, might put that in the 'maybe later' category. As while I really want several artifacts they're ironically not for the 'Being A Weapon' part. XD
I'm staring at Weirdflame and Fond Remembrance.
And going 'Man, being able to do the sort of shit their charms do would be very fitting for this Evil Witch Vibe I'm going for'
But then I go 'But you're not a fighting character and they want gambits'
winged swallow
oh im treadin new abyssal territory, compared to my usual types
i'm gonna fucken take Sail charms and shit
Daybreak time
fierce star
abyssal sail has some fun stuff in it
winged swallow
it sure does
fierce star
I keep going back to it but you can make ghosts drown
tulip folio
Hmm...Shadow Moth Raiment is really good for Moonsilver Alchs if you can justify having your own version of it.
Stance Concealing Camoflage lets you reflexively enter martial art forms if you're resonant with it.
bleak hazel
ah, very nice
tulip folio
Stance-Concealing Camouflage
Cost: —; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Resonant
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Any two Form Charms
The wearer’s technique is a lie, concealing one style behind the semblance of another.
To use this Evocation, the wearer must be in a Form Charm. She reflexively activates a different Form, changing between them as she reveals that her enemies have misread her fighting style.
Resonant: With an Essence 4 repurchase, the wearer can pay a one-Willpower surcharge to use this Evocation even when she isn’t in a Form, her style concealed behind seemingly ordinary movements.
Reset: Once per scene, unless reset by using a different Form Charm.
Awakening: This Evocation awakens for free if the wearer meets its prerequisites.
oh, that's very neat
unfortunately you cannot grab the repurchase with Four Magical Materials Form due to the nature of the beast
but honestly I'd put this on Rival despite it being moonsilver
because you can adopt Maiden-on-the-Shelf Form really easily and then use this to transition it to Crane Form for free
or later on, MOTS into PAOC Form to really overdo it
wouldn't need to invest into any of the actual evos
tulip folio
Somewhere there is a Solar being an asshole with the fact he has both SMA access and resonance with moonsilver.
bleak hazel
my reply to this is L + Inner Eye Strike + Deadly Starmetal Offensive + 20 dice decisive at TN4
tulip folio
On that topic: Am I right in that sids fucking hate dice penalties? Since they're all about squeezing the most value out of each die?
bleak hazel
oh yeah penalty stacking fucks them up
it's why they've got good penalty negators
Meditation on Violence is their version of Fire and Stones but you can also use it to excellency through a good chunk of possible attack penalties without counting twards your cap
tulip folio
nods
Nice
I got pondering it due to this Lunar's big artifact looking to be Cloak of Forgotten Midnights.
bleak hazel
stacking penalties that they then have to negate with this is still a very good way to force them to spend many motes
but they can do it
tulip folio
Mostly this is what I meditating on.
A -3 vision penalty that can't be reduced by light.
bleak hazel
honestly I may take that form-shift evocation and move it onto Rival's sword, since his mentor's legacies are teaching him both the styles he knows
would seem appropriate
tulip folio
Veiled in Midnight in general just seems Really Good Ally Support.
'All you fuckers? -3! All my friends? No penalty!'
bleak hazel
yeah, that's very solid, although it is fairly expensive
tulip folio
It's got an upgrade that makes it cost nearly as much as a Greater Sign. XD
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.
wow, Thousand Twilit Wings Form is some bullshit
flight, half a hail-shattering practice with no cap for free that also works on damage, -3 sux to spot them and you can just flick it on reflexively
tulip folio
The scary thing?
it's the only form that works while shapeshifting
As it's not a martial art charm
It's an Evocation
Imagine the frustration of trying to kill a Cat Lunar in Thousand Twilit Wings
Cat: 2 Success Penalty to be Spotted
Twilit Wings: 3 Success penalty to Spot them.
"IF YOU DON'T HAVE EYE OF UCS, FUCK OFF."
Considering they're part of the process to get there: What's your thoughts on Moth Shroud Feint and Shadow-Wing Escape? They seem...okay? My concern is they hinge off Fluttering Step which has big bonuses but requires you to take actions that are not super common actions.
bleak hazel
both pretty decent
lots of XP poured into the repurchases though, which might be a bit steep
tulip folio
Yeah. I'll admit I'm staring at this and going '...there's only one charm here that cares about Being a Martial Artist, as that's how you get forms. I could take this on my sorcerer'
velvet raft
They do get many free resources dots if you want to start with Res 5
One more reasons Sids are the best Witch-Beast Pact users XD
tulip folio
Hmm...hmm...Fire Burd or Obsidian Butterflies for Control Spell? It feels like Obsidion gets a lot more from it, getting (Essence) non-charm dice on the attack roll.
Pondering control spells for this Lunar Sorcerer who wants to well, Blast Things.
Or maybe Thunder Wolf Howl?
Not sure. They all seem pretty cool.
winged swallow
hey misc, what's your fucken bureaucracy abyssal called again
i've developed a bureaucracy user myself
tulip folio
Oh, Unslakable Thirst of the Devil-Maw is also there.
Any thoughts from people about good choices for 'General Blasty Spell'? I suppose there's also everyone's favorite necromantic wall of flesh stripping, as Lunars do necromancy just fine.
fierce star
I'd probably go with obsidian butterlfies, it's a classic for a reason
winged swallow
yeah fr
tulip folio
Fair
The others don't get quite as much from being a control spell.
(Though to be fair, you need non-control spells so I don't nessesarily have to have a control spell that blasts)
fierce star
yeah
my other choice for a combat sorcerer controls pell would be devil-maw, especially if you want top ick up MA charms
tulip folio
...oh, that's the weakness of obsidian butterflies.
It's (essence) + extra success to start
While Flesh Sloughing starts at Intelligence + Extra Success.
They'll end up equal in the end
But for most of the game that's a notable damage edge for flesh sloughing
...hey, here is a query:
The Abyssal book clarified that necromantic motes are not the same as sorcerous motes in the final version.
...do you think it would be unreasonable for some pre-abyssal effects to become 'necromantic or sorcerous motes'?
I'm looking at the No Moon Anima
Which gives a burst of sorcerous motes
But like...No Moons Invented Necromancy.
But the Lunar book came out before the Abyssal book did
bleak hazel
the bureaucracy Abyssal is Crimson Rain Augurs Fell Tidings
and yes, I'd go with Obsidian Butterflies, it's very solid
winged swallow
Which gives a burst of sorcerous motes
hm
i'm unsure
what's the text for that anima power?
fierce star
actually looking at the finished book
winged swallow
the bureaucracy Abyssal is Crimson Rain Augurs Fell Tidings
The Black Veiled Captain Drowning In Enlightenment is interested in working together.
i have boat, and i am a bastard with zero scruples
fierce star
the specific wording is "Sorcerous and necromantic motes are tracked seperately and cannot be spent interchangeably. In all other respects, sorcery and necromancy interact as if they were parallel. Charms that enhance shaep sorcery actions apply their effects to shape necromancy acitons nad vice versa. Likeways, necromancy can be used instead of sorcery for first age artifice."
Given that charms go across the line, I'd say anima powers would as well
bleak hazel
yeah, I think the rationale here is that you can't cross your shaping rituals over
so it's not mechanically optimal to be both just so that you can carve an effigy, bathe in some blood, eat some interesting flowers and refuse to sleep with anyone for a year just to get +100000 sorcerous motes on your Magma Kraken
tulip folio
Yeah, that's my thoughts.
bleak hazel
(this sounds like a Ymfah video's boss fight buff rotation)
tulip folio
It's to make RiRi with her 2 shaping rituals have to actually put them towards diffent things
Instead of Instant Casting Skeleton Army
Because she has 2 sources of banked motes
Instead RiRi will have Skeleton Army and Water Sphere
For 'I don't want to fight but I'm willing to let other people fight for me'
bleak hazel
unsurprisingly, Crimson has Baptized in Royal Crimson and the effigy ritual (that I have self-nerfed, or he'd have UNLIMITED POWER)
bleak hazel
I am tempted to stunt his first appearance in the campaign as him reclining in his pool of blood carving statues with Abyssal Mind Powers, just to get both out of the way
seems like his style
winged swallow
man, having Resources, Abyssal Bureaucracy, and Abyssal Thrown..
tulip folio
I am deeply tempted by that Effigy Ritual for this Lunar, just so I can go Full Blair Witch 😛
winged swallow
i throw a knife at you
Talon-Point Parley
oooh you want my money so bad, do what i say
"okay please don't throw knives at me, ooh loadsa money"
tulip folio
'The Lunar has put weird stick dolls with bones in them in the trees, this makes her necromancy more powerful'
winged swallow
Captain 🤝 Crimson
bleak hazel
his necromancy is mostly summons, but he does have Forest of Ivory Razors to provide artifact weaponry
winged swallow
The Black Veiled Captain, Daybreak Caste Occult Apocalyptic Necromancer-Pirate
bleak hazel
also he has like 4 attributes at 1, I really need to boost this idiot's stats once I get some splat XP
he doesn't need much more necromancy
admittedly he looks like he has Str 1
tulip folio
Man even just that one extra dot in each category makes lunars feel so stat heavy. XD
bleak hazel
the placeholder art I'm using for him right now is this excellent rendition of Annatar, although he has no hair at all, so that particular part is slightly off
his men wear half-cloaks of magpie feathers, his is full-length but somehow the iridescence is blood-red
(no magic bullshit involved, he just found a bunch of interesting ghost birds in the underworld and threw knives at them)
bleak hazel
Man even just that *one* extra dot in each category makes lunars feel *so* stat ...
admittedly he is a touch minmaxed, in the literal sense of the word
once he has Perception 2 and Stam 3 I'll be quite pleased with where he is
tulip folio
Now you might think that Charisma 1 and Manipulation 1 is powergaming. That may be so. But it's also 100% character. This character's kinda an asshole who's really not good at Dealing With People. XD
bleak hazel
classic ISP spread
honestly the most powergaming thing is what I'm doing here
since Charisma has no derived stats, if you have no magic hanging off it it's a complete dud
winged swallow
da captain's startin' off with death of obsidian butterflies and summon ghost
bleak hazel
Rival attaches everything to charisma - crane style effectiveness, war charms, command, presence, craft rolls, Bureaucracy
winged swallow
bleak hazel
but on any character short of that I'd just tank it
tulip folio
I think my only big concern with this character's starting stats is the mediocre wits but it's cheap for her to raise and a Blasty Spellcaster needs Perception and Intelligence so even Mental Primary, something needed to give.
winged swallow
giving them resources 5 for a laugh
bleak hazel
actually richer than Crimson, he's only 4 because he doesn't control the riches of a large threshold empire yet
winged swallow
exorbitant wealth of stolen grave goods and regular goods, and shipping contracts for more mundane things
a lil' bit of deathlord stipend too
as a treat
tulip folio
RiRi is broke-ass next to these rich people. She's resources...2 ;-;
winged swallow
if it makes you feel any better
Harrow has 0 Resources
when you're a wandering dark knight, you don't really get anything more than Enough To Subside
not that she needs to anymore
tulip folio
I'm kinda tempted to give this Lunar a high resources and have the justification be that she's got a Fey Bag you can just Pull Gems From.
Less 'she's got wide ranging economic power' and more 'Oh, she's gunna give a Sid a headache with that some day'
coral wraith
since Charisma has no derived stats, if you have no magic hanging off it it's a ...
I mean, a lot of Social checks are gonna use it too, if you go down that path
bleak hazel
yeah, but there are very few social situations that you cannot get away with rolling manip or appearance for if you stunt 'em right
they're vibes-based stats, bit like the old Yozi excellencies
coral wraith
I don't think the ST should let you get away with mono-statting like that
bleak hazel
the alternative is that every socialite needs three pools at 5 because the GM is obligated to hammer on the weak one, which is really goddamn annoying
but in general if you have Big Manipulation you will be a sneaky little bastard and if you have Big Charisma you will be giving inspiring speeches
it is quite easy to accomplish most social goals through either route, give or take a couple of penalties
the exact nature of the split between those two stats has been long quibbled over by Exalted players and a lot of other versions of the game just compress them into one
tulip folio
I don't think the ST should let you get away with mono-statting like that
I think there's a good middle ground of 'mostly allowing them to use their prefered one but sometimes hammering the weaker one'
coral wraith
bleak hazel
also if the ST says, straight up, "you cannot use Manipulation to talk to this guy, you must be this pure of heart to ride" I'm walking away and planning an assassination because come on
what low cha high manip high app gets you is the Saruman "To War!" speech, which isn't very good at being a morale boosting speech but does look very impressive
tulip folio
The distinction becomes a lot more notable if you're playing a Lunar or Alchemical though as 'what charms can hook into this' becomes a factor.
bleak hazel
the fact that Saruman is the definition of a charismatic and manipulative character in fiction and is thus obligated to have 5/5 is part of the reason I think this split is silly
tulip folio
Though Lunars and Alchemicals sorta then run into 'Look, we don't super care about the distinction between presence and performance'.
bleak hazel
like, you bully someone for low Cha by throwing stuff that is resisted with Cha + Whatever, which would be way easier if Cha had a derived stat
but it doesn't, so you're looking for bespoke effects there or else throwing random penalties at your players based on what pool they back an almost identical stunt with
tulip folio
...ooh, Lunars can get charisma-based resolve. That's nice.
winged swallow
there is, in my mind, space for Charisma to be the- yeah
attribute base for resolve
as opposed to wits
bleak hazel
yeah, by all rights there should be many swaps for it
bleak hazel
Cha-based socialites get completely folded on the derived stats, yeah
tulip folio
Wits is a weird one as I think in terms of 'things that by default hook into it', I think it's got some big ones but the book could do a better job talking about some of the smaller things it hooks into.
bleak hazel
Rival has the thing that lets you calculate Guile + Resolve with Big Brain stats purely to make them not-awful
tulip folio
Like it hooks into Join Battle and Resolve.
bleak hazel
despite sky-high cha and presence
tulip folio
Which are two things a character can't ignore
But wits outside of that often runs a bit into 'when would I use wits instead of intelligence or perception?'
bleak hazel
Wits is the second godstat mostly due to derived pools
but Wits rolls generally come up for mental effects and quick reactions stuff in combat
winged swallow
i simply feel like the "force of will" attribute can fit for Resolve. just like. for anyone.
bleak hazel
like not looking a basilisk in the eyes
tulip folio
Something I really liked in L5R 5e is they set up a chart that literally just listed common uses for each stat. Was great for GMs getting more of a vibe of 'when to roll X'.
bleak hazel
yeah, the listed distinctions here are not great
I suppose it's no more unnatural a split than "I am jacked as hell, I can throw a Yeddim, but I'm stam 1 so I fold when gently tapped a few times"
but that's a fairly unnatural split
tulip folio
It also resulted in one of my favorite things ever in an RPG. As it was also the difficulty chart (So it would list actions of each difficulty level for each stat) and it had:
Near Impossible
Void: Convince a noble to reflect on his common humanity with someone of lower class.
The favored attributes really help too, it's not hard to get to really excessive levels without costing that many bonus points.
tulip folio
I understand why they don't get martial arts + shapeshifting but man it's weird to look at a character and go 'Huh, I guess martial arts are not really an option if I wanna do my splats main thing' XD
bleak hazel
well, not quite true
DBT and MA is wild
walking around with 20 soak and +5 damage with my bare hands, murdering people with Dreaming Pearl
tulip folio
Hmm...is 9 soak too little for a Mage Lunar? Stamina 4 + Artifact Light Armour. Cat won't add any because my base natural soak is better than the cat's soak. XD
winged swallow
i fear no man.. but that thing (Changing Moon Black Claw Stylist)... it scares me
bleak hazel
you'll be fine, you have permanent def boosts from being a cat
tulip folio
My def is huge
bleak hazel
you're no Death Kitty but Death Kitty is, and I quote, "17 on a character optimisation scale that goes to 20"
tulip folio
I'm a cat sitting on the back of a unicorn, my base def is very big. XD
bleak hazel
(this statement occured after someone said "yeah, Volfer is about a 5 on the scale of Dawns" and someone else said "that only makes sense if it's out of 20")
bleak hazel
I'm a cat sitting on the back of a unicorn, my base def is very big. XD
what's that, eva 6, +2 cat, +1 mounted, +1 stunt, 10 resting?
excellency to 13
not too shabby
Rival is pretty similar, 7 base parry, +1 Crane, +2 full defence, +1 Lesser Sign of Mars
tulip folio
I don't really fight outside of magic but I'm plenty hard to hurt.
And eventually my 'I want to fight' solution will be 'Throw a Cataphract at the problem.'
bleak hazel
cataphracts are odd creatures
tulip folio
As at E2 she'll get 'can make any Fae a familiar'
bleak hazel
they're like tiny thousand-corpse goliaths
big attack pool, a zillion health levels, big soak, no excellencies whatsoever
1000 years of clash farming
tulip folio
1000 years of clash farming
about that
Lunars have a charm to let their familiar clash an attack for them.
Which seems really good if you've got a cataphract familiar
bleak hazel
I can see one problem with that in your case
You're Def 10, cata has a pool of 16, so if it was likely going to hit you you are likely to lose the clash
tulip folio
Hahahah, fair enough
bleak hazel
It's still great though
since you can declare reflexive clashes after the enemy fires off a small attack
Clashing someone who thought they could go low on the Excellency today is a mean and effective tactic
velvet raft
It makes me very sad that there's no way to get Berserker on DBT ;_;
Forced to be a bear and/or pig ;_;
... oh I guess Lunars can technically start with 6 attributes at 5 dots
It's probably not something they should do, but they can.
And have 3 bonus points left over
tulip folio
Hmm...it's kinda amusing how Lunars don't really want to start with mutations, since they won't bring them with the form. XD
velvet raft
Do they not for DBT?
tulip folio
I think for DBT they would yeah. It's animal and human shapes that don't keep mutations
winged swallow
they do if it’s tell-related
but i would not recommend taking a mutation for your tell
unless you’re not planning on much impersonation ig
or you take Subtle Silver Declaration (i think?)
either that or it’s a charm that uses SSD as a prereq
tulip folio
That and honestly I don't have too many mutations I can think of that fit her theme. XD
velvet raft
So, near as I can determine, non-excellency bonuses to Soak from different charms stack. Is that accurate?
tulip folio
Yep
bleak hazel
yeah, no cap there
unless you houserule one, which a few groups do
the newer splats are rather better at dealing with John Megasoak but if you get two standard issue soakbeast Lunars fighting each other you will be there all week
tulip folio
Endings Sid who wanders up and goes 'both sides are my ally' just to get it done faster
tulip folio
'All things must end, INCLUDING THIS FUCKING SCENE'
bleak hazel
got to actually test out LSOS in a real fight a bit ago and honestly the +1 level on decisive damage is pretty neat too
cut out Octavian's eyes because he didn't want to take 8 agg damage while his Hurry Home was warming up
tulip folio
Honestly, endings seems pretty great if you want to make a blasty mage.
Being able to go 'Butterflies, 1 autosuccess on damage for all you fuckers' is pretty sweet.
bleak hazel
Endings is just good, they're kind of vanilla Sid but it's the nice vanilla with the seeds
the Greater Sign is not my favourite but the rest is great
tulip folio
It's a little more specialized than most
Like -1 TN to damage rolls? Nice, generalist!
bleak hazel
goes great with Mars
tulip folio
-2 instead if they're enemies of fate? Okay, a bit more specific.
Mortals get a whole list of things that they can't resist? Ehh...I guess?
Everyone goes to Lethe? ...I think you're just padding now.
Like I don't dislike any given part of it
But it doesn't seem to quite have a mechanical identity, just a thematic one and so they gave it a grab bag of mechanics.
bleak hazel
yeah, the big one is -2TN to kill doomoids + ignore hardness
but honestly everyone getting +16 init and a bunch of other stuff is going to replicate the effect of that pretty well
nobody has that much hardness
even Aegis of Invincible Might is only H20
tulip folio
I'll freely admit I kinda included a 'turn someone into an enemy of fate' charm in that SMA I made in part to make Ending Sids more tempted by Ending-Themed SMA 😛
Greater Sign of Venus is cute. It's situational but it's the final word in 'no, we're not doing this' at least.
bleak hazel
the fun part is that nothing stops you immediately starting shit with somebody else
the dark lord deploys his giant doom army and you tell them to come back next week
tulip folio
...you're not wrong. If I'm reading this right if you like...walk into a throne room and the royal guard attack you, you could Greater Sign of Venus to have them stand down and then walk over to the 'I wasn't fighting, just cowering' king and stab him.
bleak hazel
"Peace be upon you, serenity all around you, forgiveness in your path, now let's go find Winters so I can feed him his ghostly entrails." - Iron Siaka, Probably
I can think of three Joybringer NPCs and other than the signature bluesid this edition they're all really into violence
tulip folio
You can't spell slaughter without laughter!
bleak hazel
Shajah Holok is just Kuroki Gensai right down to the hairstyle and the choice of kung fu
winged swallow
well it’s gonna be real peaceful all of a sudden when the mask of winters is ko’d
so
bleak hazel
(this is good, Gensai has style)
winged swallow
block this overhead
bleak hazel
good Sid line actually
I am pondering Rival's sword and I have come to the conclusion that I have accidentally written a weapon that would be better off as moonsilver
maybe I can alloy them
going for "paired hook-swords, each of which can reflexively wind themselves around your arm to produce a parrying-bracer thing with the Shield tag"
stealing that form-swapping evo from the moonsilver thing and then presumably having a bunch of fate stuff about what form you pick
winged swallow
maybe I can alloy them
always a proponent for alloyed artifacts
i made my redsid player’s silken robes from starmetal/moonsilver
shift between constellation-inspired demeanors
tulip folio
Alloys are fun. I ended up scrapping it but for a while RiRi was going to have an Ori/Soulsteel alloy weapon.
winged swallow
moonsilver/soulsteel’s a fun one too
i made a crown from that combo
for a necromancer-prince Lunar
bleak hazel
I could do this as a send-up to the old way Blade of the Battle Maiden worked, actually
where they're wound-metal-strip bracers but when you "draw" them you can cut things as if you were holding a daiklaive
tulip folio
If someone says 'you can't alloy magical materials', you just hit them with the Four Magical Materials Form.
prisma sun
good Sid line actually
That series feels like it fits what low level exalted is like
bleak hazel
I haven't watched the series, only seen snippets of the manga
it's been on my list to get to for cool grappling inspiration, since I know my next sid is going Bear Style
I'm thinking Journeys
bleak hazel
the art style is still Mildly Deranged, which I don't dislike
tulip folio
Great Maker's Champion
Cost: 8m; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: (Stuff, Things)
She gains the following benefits:
-The Jadeborn may flurry Rush with other actions, without the usual flurry penalties.
-Each time the Jadeborn successfully defends against an attack or stops it with by her Hardness, the attacker loses 1 initiative and she gains 1 Initiative.
-She may inflict Onslaught Penalties and deal damage to creatures with Legendary Size normally, ignoring its effects.
Special activation rules: Whenever the Jadeborn begins her turn in close range of a Legendary Size enemy, she may reflexively activate Great Maker's Champion
Submodules:
Tunnel Skirmisher Training (3xp): The Jadeborn may flurry Withdraw or Rise Prome Prone without penalties instead of Rush.
Assault Quarreller Training (3xp): The Jadeborn may flurry Take Cover or reloading a Slow weapon without penalty instead of Rush.
Heel Cutting Blade (6xp): The Jadeborn reduces the difficulty of Special Warstrider Gambits by 2 and may make them against any Legendary Size target with applicable body parts. She may block the sight of a Lesser Elemental Dragon or knock a Undead Titan off balance.
God-Monster Grip (6xp; Essence 4): The Jadeborn may ignore all effects of Legendary Size, allowing her to grapple or knock back creatures of Legendary Size normally.
Made it so that you can't grapple them without a higher essence upgrade.
Basicly: Giving the Jadeborn an Anti-Legendary Size form they can pick up as a replacement to them not getting the Alchemical 'Time to Go Colossus Size'. XD
tulip folio
To help with the 'make them feel a bit more unique', I'm actually grabbing one of the old traits of them - The fact they can't do martial arts worth a damn and making it so that while they can learn martial arts, they're worse at it than normal Alchemicals and have got a few them-specific forms. So using a martial arts form will limit their access to their own 'Do a Cool Thing' forms. XD
bleak hazel
hey, convenient thing - my Sid doesn't need three arms to use all the Crane stuff he has going on, he can just swap his shield out for mundane a war fan reflexively to use Fluttering Wing Flourish and then swap back on his turn
admittedly Fluttering Wing Flourish is not the most clearly worded move so in the interest of smooth play I may prefer to not do that
light olive
Ideas related to OC yozi for charms that will never be written
-A charm that forces people to forgive past transgressions.
-A terraforming charm that somehow screws around with the underworld and shadowlands. Number of possibilities come to mind.
-Makeup charms.
-Charms that make social attacks on yourself.
-Ice, frost, and snow charms that work best to disable, trap or imprison enemies.
mighty rover
oooooh
winged swallow
having a little fun with how i'm gonna do up capstones
the flavor text will be very short summaries of Stories, perhaps even in rhyme. tales of solars long past who performed similar feats of mythic excellence
velvet raft
The stylist adds (Wits) to her effective Initiative to determine when she takes her turn. For a one-Willpower surcharge, she can reflexively aim at anyone who hasn’t acted yet on her turn and use her reflexive move action to move toward them without ending her aim.
Jebus
I think they made it specifically incompatible with hook swords just to stop the obvious snake combo.
The stylist doubles 9s on an attack that benefits from aiming.
ffffffffffffff
Most of the Sid Melee Aim stuff isn't Versatile, IIRC, but
Hypothetical E5 Sid Melee -> PAOC -> Even Blade seems like a fun theorycrafting exercise.
Weren't there also whispers of a sword-based SMA?
bleak hazel
in the Get book, yeah
and more of Sid Melee is versatile than you might think
I think it goes just fine with this, and the Form is a lot more directly aggressive than MOTS Form
like this goes insane for Sids
velvet raft
It does miss some of the really nice Aim tech, I think? I was looking at one point because I was thinking about the combination of Sid melee and Wood Dragon, since the latter has auto-aim.
bleak hazel
because a) they love clashing, even if they can't use Fateful Exchange and b) winning triggers Harmony of Blows
velvet raft
Immanent Steel (Zu Rat Te): The stylist draws her sword only to strike, sheathing it between attacks. Her sword gains the Reaching and Flexible tags. Dealing 3+ damage with a decisive attack resets Close Your Eyes and Look.
Guys you didn't need to give Single Point a companion style >_>
bleak hazel
It does miss some of the really nice Aim tech, I think? I was looking at one poi...
you miss a bit of it, but Inner Eye Strike is versatile, so your reflexive aims work regardless
Death Between Heartbeats is superb in itself, because now you have double X and TN reduction, you can just batter people
wise ocean
Is this melee-only or can you use it with guns?
next delta
Close Your Eyes and Look is neat
bleak hazel
Winter Songbird in general is the Sid Melee expansion pack
although sadly Loving Heart Stance isn't easily used with Indomitable Shieldbearer because you'd need three hands
very small mastery bonuses on this style in general, actually, I think it's pretty great for Lunars/Alchs
velvet raft
This + some Sid melee + VBoS means sids have an incredibly solid package for swords even prior to the upcoming SMA.
next delta
Nesting Sparrow Defence is hilarious
Man, why does Exalted have to be so cool but so hard to run
winged swallow
you have to cultivate freakish energies and a specific kind of brainworms, and then it gets easy
velvet raft
The stylist waives the Initiative cost of a full defense. The first time she blocks an attack from close range before her next turn, she can counterattack with a decisive attack or gambit. If her target is prone or if she has disarmed him during this scene and he has not yet retrieved his weapon, she adds (higher of Essence or 3) bonus dice on the counterattack.
Yeah, they definitely excluded hook swords to keep Crane and Snake far away from this style.