Exalted

[velvet raft]

As a dynast this is just assumed

[buoyant summit]

That point has been made already lol

[velvet raft]

How much do you know about V’neef, btw?

[buoyant summit]

I assume most Dynast parents still don't have them fight them in single combat full contact sparring with sharp swords

xD

And very little, why?

[velvet raft]

No they definitely would

So the Scarlet Empress was an awful mother

[buoyant summit]

I

looks at the Dynasty

[velvet raft]

She pitted her kids against each other in order to keep control

[buoyant summit]

Yeah

[velvet raft]

Memnon in particular got fucked up by her mom’s extreme “you are not good enough”-ness

But V’neef, youngest matriarch V’neef, was the golden child

[prisma sun]

Mnemnom was also nearly assassinated by her brother like 4 times before she was 16

[velvet raft]

The Empress favored her in a way she had never favored any of her kids

She genetically engineered her, gave her the best of everything, and elevated her faster than her considerable talents warranted

And the other matriarchs hate her for it

[prisma sun]

Meanwhile

My Fire Deeb is Berit's child

Genetically engineered to have a chip on his shoulder

[buoyant summit]

Are you just bringing up a cool element of the setting or is this related to my character in some way?

[velvet raft]

It’s not clear if V’neef was truly the Empress’s intended heir

Or if she was just fucking with the minds of her other kids

[buoyant summit]

Man

Big E levels of parental fuckup tbh

[velvet raft]

But now that she’s gone, V’neef is squarely in everyone’s crosshairs

[prisma sun]

Berit is one of the Big E's children who accomplished the most but never got any recognition

[velvet raft]

I mention all this because dynastic families are just kinda like this

[prisma sun]

She dueled a lunar to death

Like full on soloed

[velvet raft]

You are doing it right, such as it were :D

[prisma sun]

Yeah

[buoyant summit]

Oh I was asking gk mainly, but fair enough lol

[prisma sun]

Oh gotcha

[chilly sluice]

the average Dynast is far more familiar with their tutors and servants than their parents

[buoyant summit]

Holy fuck he was not given a great shot at being well-adjusted was he

[chilly sluice]

in fact, actually having a good relationship with one's child is often seen as an overly sentimental indulgence

and it's probably implied you're neglecting your other duties for it

[dense verge]

one thing i like about 3e's various setting touch-ups is that Mnemon has a legitimate interest in how her children and descendants in her house are doing or coming along

[prisma sun]

Korit has every complex and every disease

He also lost his Hearth and his arm so genuinely "protecting the Realm/world" is the only thing he can think of doing with his life anymore

He's 30 and he has a demon sword

[buoyant summit]

Oh fuck

[prisma sun]

This is a winning combo what we call in the biz

[buoyant summit]

That's

Fucking sad

[chilly sluice]

many such cases with the Dynasts

the Realm needs you to have Deeb children, not be nice to them 😛

[buoyant summit]

Oh one of my char's circlemates is at the Heptagram on a fucking bet

[prisma sun]

If you get too attached to your nanny your parent has a cultural expectation to kill them in front of you

[buoyant summit]

Which really grinds their gears

Cuz them?

They wanted to go to the fucking Cloister

This bitch gets to pick, and decides to come to the Heptagram on a bet?

Are you fucking kidding me?

xD

[buoyant summit]

knowing ooc who my mentor is the idea of my character's mom trying to do that is extremely funny

||Dancing Wildflower Meadow is a Battles Sid, good fucking luck moms||

[bleak hazel]

I have found that of all the splats, Sids are the most tempted to go wild and take like 50-60% of their XP budget in combat charms or strongly charmlike objects

they combo stuff so well

[chilly sluice]

I also love how the Realm is totally trans inclusive, but vaguely homophobic
entirely just because same sex couples have a harder time having kids, though they still can (and it is of course expected of you)
and a gay couple will get gossiped about like "ooh, they married for love instead of duty didn't they"

[prisma sun]

Only homophobic if they AREN'T Trans which makes it even funnier

[chilly sluice]

yeah

you just gotta have kids

just marry for kids and have your gay lover on the side like everyone else, jeez

[buoyant summit]

My character is, spitefully, intending to never marry

They're going to become a Shikari and otherwise disappear

[velvet raft]

I think this is a bit of a thing for martial artists of any ability-based splat, too

[buoyant summit]

Yeah over half of Midura's charms are combat charms

[velvet raft]

Because there's so much good stuff one might want to take

[buoyant summit]

yeah 9/15 are combat charms lol

[velvet raft]

I am somewhat protected by my efficiency obsession

Because all of those Weird Little Charms from non-combat abilities that I don't want to favor and don't have as caste end up being cheaper to take at character creation

Oh, Rhi, which Even Blade style were you doing?

[buoyant summit]

Immanent Steel

Flavor modified that it isn't the iaijutsu style just extremely sudden and coming from weird angles

Aided by Midura's artifact being conceptually based on black ice, and thus having a perfectly transparent blade save if it catches the light correctly

[velvet raft]

Gotcha

[bleak hazel]

more so for Sids, because they have Versatile combat abilities and guaranteed SMA access

[buoyant summit]

you wanna see a funny combo?

[velvet raft]

Sure

Yeah, since sids are the martial arts splat ...

[buoyant summit]

"I start casting Doob in your face, what do you do?"

[velvet raft]

They also have charm trees that are pretty easy to dip into for really excellent stuff without investing heavily, which lets them focus more on MA unless they want to lean into Shenanigans Powers

(Which are generally amazing)

[nova yew]

It was so fun reading deebs and getting to see in real time how much worse It was growing up for them.

Like my assumed social traumas I gave my character paled compared to the shit in the book it was great

[buoyant summit]

"now I am two range bands away from you and still casting Doob."

"What say you?"

[velvet raft]

Oh this is cool, yeah

[bleak hazel]

currently I'm trying to assemble Rival's build without dumping 10 charms into combat at E1

[buoyant summit]

Do it

Beat my face in!

DO IT!

https://tenor.com/view/do-it-rorschach-watchmen-ginger-gif-9657032

[bleak hazel]

I think Melee/Crane is still the way, even if there will be a bit of an awkward spot around Essence 3 where I can't get PAOC yet because I need to buy up all of Crane or go to Melee Enlightenment

[buoyant summit]

also, while a stretch

[bleak hazel]

I have a combo that lets me go from a standing start to operational crane form and full defence in a single turn, while still attacking

so even without Ways of Exaltation or Five Jade Fury there's some power there

[buoyant summit]

If I use Breath and Essence Control with my artifact, which lets me gain the benefits of a Full Defense on Aim

That might count as using a charm to defend myself

maybe

[bleak hazel]

grumble grumble Core artifacts

[buoyant summit]

XDDDDDD

Indeed Misc

[bleak hazel]

let me just get my bow that can make a decisive killshot round 1 out to deal with this

[fierce star]

sick bones, etc

[velvet raft]

Depending on how you count, Red Evening Sky has either 8 combat charms at start or 12

[fierce star]

hmm. Responder has seven and she's a combat-secondary character (3/4/1 instead of 5/5/1)

[bleak hazel]

Rival needs a lot of random extraneous bullshit so the count is higher than you'd expect

starting list is 2 crane charms, 3 melee charms, WSAV, Holistic Arsenal Methodology and an Ox-Body

then two more melee charms ASAP because I need MOTS Form to combo into Crane Form at E2

[velvet raft]

I should probably not have Ascending Destiny Mien and Delighted Maiden Mien. I could drop the latter to grab Avoidance, which seems extremely on-theme for her.

[bleak hazel]

at which point I am well and truly Online

Crane Form has such a solid power budget by itself

[fierce star]

I need to actually make a sidereal at some point

[buoyant summit]

It's very cool but also is it like

[fierce star]

probably a banana, I find bananasids to be terminally underplayed compared to the other four

[buoyant summit]

any good? XD

I'm mostly doing this cuz it's fucking funny

[velvet raft]

I think so, yeah

[coral wraith]

Grinning Mask has 1 combat charm at chargen

[velvet raft]

You get initiative, you get to make a counterattack

You get to keep casting your spell

You get to turn your sorcerous motes into regular motes, which is strong

[buoyant summit]

what does unbalancing do?

Also I have asked my GM if since my artifact gives me defense on Aim, using Breath and Essence Control would be an applicable use of Sorcerer-Prince Mantle

I fully expect no

However

If he says yes

Say hello to literally my entire build

'Fuck you, make a Sophie's Choice between my spells and my sword.'

Oh my god if it works that also lets me reflexively enter Form if the gambit lands

Fuct Up

[fierce star]

Hmm. I see a lto of sidereals who take journies stuff as favored, admittedly. I guess it's just the specific combination of ride/sail/survival, you probably only need one of those three

for any given concept

[buoyant summit]

found another synergistic charm

[coral wraith]

@velvet raft hey, any chance I could get the text of those new spells in DMs or something? I'm making a sorcerer for an upcoming game and I'd love to check em out

[velvet raft]

If you ping me again in 15 minutes I’ll just send you the chapter

[coral wraith]

roger dodger

[velvet raft]

O7

[coral wraith]

@velvet raft bwuh

[tulip folio]

Here's an odd pondering: We have symbols for various infernal castes but has there ever been a symbol for Malfeas as a location? Like you'd see on a flag or such

[wise ocean]

Not that I know of, but if I had to make one up, a green sun rising over and occluded by a black spire sounds on brand

[next delta]

"Close-Enough Assassination Method" is a great Charm name

[lament owl]

I learned about Dragon Kings and Mountain people today

[tulip folio]

The Jadeborn are a favorite of mine. They're very Tuatha De Danann.

A friend of mine is thinking of doing up a thing with Dragon Kings and Jadeborn. @tranquil badge

[tranquil badge]

Hehehe. Very early stages, tinkering with a pulp sci-fi inspired alternate setting out in the wyld, populated by species that predated the creation of Humanity.

[tulip folio]

Basicly: An alternate 'what could happen with Autocthonn'. Where rather than returning to creation, it crashes into some 'initial prototype stuff' for creation.

With various groups who ended up 'nah, not this' in favour of humanity, including the First and some Jadeborn who escaped before the shattering of the first age.

[fierce star]

hmm. I like legitimate ownership benefit but i'm not sure how easy it would be to own buildings and ships all across creation when most people forget you exist.

[tulip folio]

hmmm?

[fierce star]

oh, I'm looking at journies stuff

because I realized when people talk about sidereals in here generally it's... any of the other castes

[buoyant summit]

I think Exalted has become my new main hyperfixation...

<XD

[tulip folio]

...hmm...do any books have any banner or other army-leader-specific artifacts? Pondering doing up an artifact and want to check any that already play in that area.

[fierce star]

none come to midn as alread published

[tulip folio]

Sunset Blaze has been found. It's a direlance but it's got army-leader stuff.

[mighty rover]

many such cases

[coral wraith]

i knew this would happen when you first mentioned it in the w&g server :p

[buoyant summit]

...hey

xD

[buoyant summit]

I'll still run WanG don't worry xD

[coral wraith]

hehehe

its not a bad thing! exalted rules

[buoyant summit]

I applied to a Mondays cross-splat game just now

While in a Deebs pbp

While in an Abyssals pbp

xD

While running a cross-splat Wednesday game

[coral wraith]

lmaooo

[buoyant summit]

look man

I'm fiendin'

[tulip folio]

Hahahah

[buoyant summit]

I need my fix

[buoyant summit]

This Deebs pbp has been started by a player in the Abyssals pbp

By the way

XD

So I am not alone in my fiendin'

[fierce star]

you're fiendin', eh? t--wait shit that doesn't work anymor they changed the caste names fffffuuuuu

[buoyant summit]

l m a o

[bleak hazel]

I need to get my deeb game going properly

tomorrow I need to sweat out a job interview but after that it's just travel and Xmas

[buoyant summit]

Hell yeah

Also I have gotten past step one of applying to Monday, wish me luck 🙏

[fierce star]

Hey Misc what's your opinion of Journies as a caste?

[bleak hazel]

Fine (tm)

[fierce star]

i just realized that most siddies talked about in here are, uh

any other caste

[bleak hazel]

some good stuff, some meh stuff, not a huge fan of Thrown myself but it is a very fun tree if you're into it

[fierce star]

so i"m poking at making a Journies lol

[bleak hazel]

I personally end up making many combat monkeys and at that point you kind of want the xipe totec fit

of red and purple

nerds gravitate to Secrets, socialites gravitate to Serenities, Journeys ends up a bit odd-man-out by default

I did have a very straight down the middle build sketched out that used Thrown, Oedanol's Wheel, a dash of Ride and Falcon Style

[fierce star]

at least in part because sail-survival-ride is often a 'pick one, one and a half at most' for character specialities

at least IME

[bleak hazel]

Survival is very dippable, 2 charms for change-the-weather would be my pick

so much you can do with that

but I'm not a huge fan of that trifecta so I don't make many yellowsids

[fierce star]

legit

[bleak hazel]

nuts Greater Sign but you can get it from PAOC on any other caste

[wise ocean]

yeah, when reading I just didn't get an idea of what a journeysid wants to do

[prisma sun]

I am resident Journeys enjoyer

They are fun and good and aesthetic

I have never made a character that went hard into every ability anyway, but even just dipping a little into charm trees as a sid is so much fuckin fun

[mighty rover]

journey, i imagine

[prisma sun]

Drifts can do boogie woogie, punch people from a mile away, ride a flea, and bless and curse people to his hearts content

Because anyone doing anything has to go places to do it

[fierce star]

hmm

[wise ocean]

I suppose I can see it, I'm used to going deep down charm trees so anything that goes "well, I'm spread across three or so trees of Stuff" makes me raise an eyebrow

[prisma sun]

Solaroid

[wise ocean]

These martial arts won't learn themselves

[prisma sun]

Also the yellow of Journeys lets you do a softer and cooler Solar anima imo

https://youtu.be/ezMouYfwPKg?si=CuD9UBXlEHNvIVMX

This is what plays when Drifts goes sicko mode

A field of flowers that never ends

Onto the horizon

[bleak hazel]

I end up hitting both these beats because my Sids tend to want two or three entire combat trees

Rival is Melee + Crane + bits of PAOC

[limpid badge]

siddies are rewarded for Building Wide aren't they?

[wise ocean]

I've been informed I should make a Lei Heng repeatedly, so I'll need to put him somewhere eventually, on the Limbus themes note...

[fierce star]

thematically wath i'm looking at is a character who was born into the lookshy gens that maintains their airships and is still really big into airships and air transportation, so is trying to be in the good graces of the Aerial Legion and Vanileth and maaaaybe pushing a little more resources towards her mortal family than is TECHNICALLY legal

[bleak hazel]

in their actual ability trees, yeah

but if you want to get to SMA you want to go deep in at least something fighty

[fierce star]

you know, for air, and shipping, and airshipping

[bleak hazel]

and so that's two combat trees at least

[limpid badge]

also journeys is weird because, to me, a lot of the meat of what Journeys does is setup and logistics for everyone else

[bleak hazel]

the archetypical Elder Journeys is Gandalf

movie Gandalf, that is

[limpid badge]

you're about the Journey, you're setting them up, getting them going

dragging these idiots by the nose to Heaven's Will

[bleak hazel]

he's running around getting into shit, fighting, scheming and so forth but he's basically spending three books kicking the plot really hard so that it lines up

even if he has to get into a telekinetic wizard duel to do it

[limpid badge]

he goes off screen for a couple of chapters to go beat the plot into shape and get his circle where they need to be, that's the Journeys experience

[prisma sun]

To me Drifts is like

Shanks from One Piece

The inspiration to go on your own

To leave the shore behind

Also you forget that mountain bandit totally just got shot in the back of the head

First kill of the series

[wise ocean]

come to think of it, what would Lei Heng be

I'm not sure I've ever seen a gunsword artifact in the game yet

[prisma sun]

Hmmm

[wise ocean]

I kind of want to say Abyssal and use the Thumb as Death's Chivalry, but...

[prisma sun]

Hes a brute that uses the hierarchies he inhabits as clear sign off to brutalize those beneath him

Yet he is undoubtedly one of the most powerful people around

I think Solar tbh

That man is a Dawn

[wise ocean]

📝

local man with Cult (The Mafia)

[prisma sun]

Local Crime Syndicate led by Inexplicably Powerful Man

[bleak hazel]

crime exalts are always fun

Crimson Rain runs a cultivation auction house but also ends up doing enough larceny to need 3 dots in it

just because of the kind of Trazyn the Infinite stuff that presents itself when you're in that line of work

[prisma sun]

To be fair also

Lei Heng could be a battle sid

A secret organization compels him to deeply inhabit a role

He has a red aura

Still works tbh

Though Sid melee is less "I hit you so hard you die"

[wise ocean]

Yeah, I can see a Solaroid version that makes and inhabits a hierarchy or a Sid version where the hierarchy is literally fate and heaven

[bleak hazel]

Sid Brawl is what you want for sudden and incredible violence

hard to get more I Hit You And You Die than Horrific Wreath + Someone Dies Strike

[prisma sun]

Yeah but the guy has a gunblade

[fierce star]

... actually hrm. what does lookshy's sky navy even look like, given the only artifact airships we have rules for are, uh.

[wise ocean]

indeed, and I can't seem to find one in any of the books I have on hand

[fierce star]

not particulalry impressive imo

[wise ocean]

that'd have to be a custom artifact, probably

righteous devil + sid brawl?

question mark?

[bleak hazel]

lookshy has a few real deal fantasy airships

[prisma sun]

https://youtu.be/MswUN-k_x84?si=t9dSe5sTZ-FXXsnx

[fierce star]

yeah i'm just htinking how the only airship that's been statted (artifact one, anyway, alchemicals does have generic autochthonian ones) is the chariot of aerial conveyance which is

err, contest

*conquest

I can type

'flying as high as thirty yards off the ground'

[bleak hazel]

I always assume they are Extremely Ghibli although part of it is just this thingy

in some otherwise quite dumb art of Lookshy

[fierce star]

oh we have one in lookshy's chapter art in heirs to the shogunate I think

[bleak hazel]

there it is, I was looking for that one

[tulip folio]

That looks very much like a ship in the air.

[fierce star]

I was just concerned it might have been... H+Hified, if that makes sense, lol

[tulip folio]

...what sorts of utility artifacts were cool in 2e and havn't turned up in 3e yet?

We've not got many 1-2 dot artifacts right now

[wise ocean]

@tulip folio Is your Brawl street fighting MA Sid-compatible?

[tulip folio]

I don't see why it wouldn't be.

[wise ocean]

📝 excellent, I'll see if I can dig up a copy from gdocs history.

From what I recall it works for the aesthetic I'm shooting for

[tulip folio]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hz0AYxSD7MulgBWoJVnQSBx1JxoXRgs5bbKM722_rcI/edit?usp=sharing

[wise ocean]

I should definitely be able to fit this into E3 Battles Sid, which is kind of funny to think about form switching from RD to First Pulse depending on whether you're using a gunblade or a table leg

[tulip folio]

Blood Splattered Streets and Heels on Cobblestone Echo have the advantage there they work even if you're not actively using the style.

They're entry level utility charms

And they lead into Street Shifts Underfoot, which is an anti-surprise charm that works fine as long as you've got a free hand.

So even if you don't use the whole thing, those 3 fit very naturally in alongside another style

I do like Street Shifts as just a 'You can't bullshit a bullshitter' charm. It can't clash every attack but if the other guy tries to cheat, you can get his ass because you're better at cheating than he is.

I also tried there to make Orgiastic Fugitive Style, another old Terrestial Style more of a...it's not respectable but it's a Real Martial Art.

While many 2e terrestial martial arts had an element of 'this is barely a martial art'

[buoyant summit]

The deeb heptagame is finally startiiiiiing

[wise ocean]

I especially like synergizing that one on a narrative level with Fate stuff from Sids, I think

There's a certain charm to it

[buoyant summit]

charm

hehe

badum-tish

[wise ocean]

[buoyant summit]

Oh, I have a conversation with the GM of the cross-splat Monday game I'm applying to, so that's exciting

Gonna play either a Sid or a Deeb, dunno which I should pick

The current Solar and Lunar are both non-warriors, so a Battles Sid tempts me...

[fierce star]

pacifist battles sid who will obtain peace by any means necessary, including beating the shit out of you

[buoyant summit]

Of the two it's the splat I've not played

l m a o

I think I'm gonna Sid™

"Your job is to guide this Solar and Lunar to great deeds of heroism."

"Lady they are both older and more experienced than me, what the fuck?"

[fierce star]

Mars: "You heard me kid, now get to work" goes back to snorting celestial cocaine playing the games of divinity

... huh. Liminal exalted have higher essence pools than dragonblooded despite both being terrestrial tier

like, a notably higher one

going by the core book anyway

[buoyant summit]

Damn

lol

[tulip folio]

I'ts entirely in personal but then, DB barely grow at all in terms of personal.

[buoyant summit]

They do indeed barely grow in personal, damn

[fierce star]

DBs are, being fair, designed to flare early and flare often, though not as much as sovereigns (sovereigns my beloved)

Sovereigns have a Personal essence pool of (essence + 4)

that's it. Single digit personal motes.

[chilly sluice]

whoof

[buoyant summit]

That

Fuckin blows, damn

[tulip folio]

To be fair: They also scale on anima hard

The Sovereign excellency is Skill + Anima level iirc

They are the glowiest exalts

[buoyant summit]

lmao wtf

[tulip folio]

They also have a special level of anima banner no one else can reach

[fierce star]

nope, not skill

[bleak hazel]

yeah, they have "fuck you my anima banner is the entire sky"

[fierce star]

it's four plus anima

[tulip folio]

Right

[fierce star]

so like, no matter waht you're rolling, if you do it while shining you're gonna be alright at it

[bleak hazel]

Sovereign

the sky-wide aurora borealis is just him, at Anima 4

[fierce star]

He is him, he has always been him, he will always be him

[bleak hazel]

also they make a bunch of stuff out of glowy glass anima banner, which basically means they have hardlight charms

[fierce star]

Some of their charms in miracles of the divine flame let them do shit like make temporary stairs from it

their capstone war charm is 'make a hardlight mechsuit to fight in'

sovereigns alone make exigents worht it in my not very humble and extremely biased opinion

A lot of their stuff costs anima levels too, so you're constantly moving up and down in combat with it

they also get access to a single celestial circle spell if they're a sorcerer!

[bleak hazel]

embrace killsid, sweat over martial arts compatibility

or just go Bear/Brawl and enjoy suplexing everything to death

[buoyant summit]

You have sold me lol

Hi I Am Going To Master All The Sword Styles

[bleak hazel]

Sid Brawl includes Speared Boar Struggle, perhaps the single most powerful grapple charm in the entire game outside of Solars

Sid Melee is just good

[buoyant summit]

Misc I don't think you understand how deep my crippling addiction to swords runs

[bleak hazel]

I recommend going straight melee then

and then adding an SMA to that

[wise ocean]

ah, misc, good you're here

I have been Developing a brawl - righteous devil / first pulse (iki's homebrew improvised weapon / brutal street-fighting MA) e3 battlesid

you can do some really fucked-up things with TN modification

[bleak hazel]

Melee + Charcoal March with dual shortswords would be my preferred Sid build if I wasn't already wedded to doing dumb shit with Crane

and it's a hell of a lot more efficient than aforementioned dumb shit

[wise ocean]

figuring out the artifact continues to elude me somewhat but I am confident I will figure out how to do cartridge build/spend mechanics (checks notes) Eventually

[fierce star]

Hmm. What do you think a boathook would be, weapon wise? Spear, but disarming instead of piercing?

[wise ocean]

at the moment it's mostly gain cartridges on successful withering - expend on decisive-only

[fierce star]

hrm but using a 'new' weapon type means 'motehr may I'-ing with MAs

[bleak hazel]

Charcoal March is just the smoothest SMA IMO

PAOC has many good gremlin moves but nothing can really match the wonders of dual knives clash spam with Nest of Living Strands for straightforward beatdown

and due to the insane amount of skirmishing power it gives you you can always just not close

[fierce star]

Suppose I could do slashing swords and just Have A Cutlass

[buoyant summit]

what how're you swording with Charcoal March?

[bleak hazel]

embrace Enlightenment

sids are capable of developing such profound sword autism that it attaches an SMA to the top of their melee tree

[buoyant summit]

Is this you making an elaborate joke about my obsession with swords?

[bleak hazel]

note: you need 10 melee charms to take this, since it's not counting the 4 melee charm prereq for Maiden-on-the-Shelf Form

no, it's just a charm they get!

they have the same one for punching, throwing and shooting

[prisma sun]

Yeah

[fierce star]

sidereals really do give a new meaning to weaponized autism, huh

[bleak hazel]

also with CMOS you could just use knives since it takes knives but shortswords are better

[prisma sun]

Drifts can roundhouse kick people from the horizon

By combining CMOS with Thrown charms

[fierce star]

oh right journies, so throwing. Knives probably then, which does open a lot

... staff slings are fun though

[bleak hazel]

oh yeah, Sids can messatsu people from the horizon in such a way that it can ambush people staring right at you

[prisma sun]

This isnt "he leaps from the horizon to kick you" btw

[buoyant summit]

...

[prisma sun]

This is he just kicks in front of him and someone a mile away gets hit

[bleak hazel]

casually approach [ANATHEMA]

[prisma sun]

He can ALSO do that

[buoyant summit]

I'm going to McFreakin' Lose It

[bleak hazel]

PAOC is literally four martial arts rolled into one and has 1.5 times the charms of any other SMA

[fierce star]

sidereals are fucked up, rhi

[prisma sun]

Sids get silly with it

[fierce star]

it's great

[bleak hazel]

CMOS keeps up with it in power

CMOS is fucking nuts

[prisma sun]

Also importantly

Let's you Spiderman

[fierce star]

i need to double check on what knife martial arts work with throwing

since I believe a lot specify melee in their charms

[bleak hazel]

underrated CMOS feature: lets you play footsies

[prisma sun]

Post march of a thousand spiders

Or whatever its called

The big aoe

[bleak hazel]

if you're a Sid, you can footsies so hard that you can step out of this dimension for free every round and they need a ghost-hitter to hurt you

[buoyant summit]

THE GROUND-BASED FOOTSIES GUILTY SIDEREAL GEAR IS KNOWN FOR

[fierce star]

... I'm sorry shadow piercing needle says 'fuck your soak it's resolve plus temp willpower now, eve if you're wearing artifact armor'

[prisma sun]

Thats the one

[bleak hazel]

this lets you make a downright implausible number of attacks

[fierce star]

shit I think I might like ex3 siddie thrown

[prisma sun]

Note that with Siddie thrown

You can thumbnail out to extreme range

[buoyant summit]

Next thing ur gonna tell me a Sid can just

[fierce star]

love everyone to hur them better

[buoyant summit]

make you shit your pants, as a discrete ability

[fierce star]

*hurt

I think that's in Medicine

[bleak hazel]

since it hits everyone within range, if you use this with a bow or thrown you can death blossom

[fierce star]

rhi

[buoyant summit]

Fuck you

No

No

You can't

[bleak hazel]

a Sid with thumbnail spider could plausibly one turn the Siege of Gondor

just pewpewpewpew every single guy

[prisma sun]

I wrote up drifts doing the combo

[bleak hazel]

I don't think Medicine has "I'm Going To Shit Yourself" but you can always pattern spider touch them into a pair of already shat pants

which is unusually crass for a Sid but totally within the remit of the ability

[fierce star]

omae wa mou shitderu

[bleak hazel]

you can also give them a hyperfixation so powerful they forget to eat and die from it with Citrine Poxes

[buoyant summit]

I wanna die

[prisma sun]

Thrown and CMOA also has the ultimate tech

Fall damage

[buoyant summit]

I'm gonna throw up from laughing I swear to god

[prisma sun]

You can fly to extreme range directly above someone, hit them, and swap places

[fierce star]

oh life-gets-worse approach is fun

[buoyant summit]

I need to leave this chat for five minutes or I will actually vomit from laughing holy fuck

I'll be back in like

[prisma sun]

If you Prismatic on top of that you can then hit them falling down with Jumping Spider

[buoyant summit]

10 minutes

[bleak hazel]

I eagerly await Crimson Panoply Style because it has a whole ton of form weapons

and lets you do ultrakill juggle combos on a motherfucker with a bow, a spear and a shield

[prisma sun]

And a coin

I do think Sids are probably the best splat

If only due to their design being a near infinite well of bullshit

Theres so many silly combos

[bleak hazel]

they are squishy

but "squishy" is really not the worst weakness

especially if your enemies' head disintegrated from a horizon-distance flash step ambush kick before he knew you were there

[fierce star]

you can force you and your opponent into the chungian fight space

[bleak hazel]

Lunar Jon Chung is waiting in there with five friends holding sledgehammers

Chung was kind of a dick but he was quite funny sometimes

[fierce star]

okay I think I do in fact heavily fuck with sidereal thrown

[prisma sun]

Its so good!

[fierce star]

essence 1-2 it's kind of Generic Combat Stuff but it starts getting really juicy at 3 and up

[prisma sun]

The only thing that disappoints me is that is isnt actually a domain expansion

[fierce star]

I've never watched JJK so I have avoided that disappointment

[bleak hazel]

sadly Infernals have taken on all the domain expansions

they have so many

[fierce star]

domain expansion is just like, reality marbles thoguh right

[prisma sun]

Basically yeah

But slightly cooler

[chilly sluice]

The last line of this is slaying me
"Such is her hypothetical sorrow" is hilarious

[prisma sun]

Thrown and dodge are especially hilarious

In combination

[fierce star]

nods

[prisma sun]

And of course my favorite sid thrown charm

https://youtu.be/VO8ZEVT3TdM?si=tpcf86xY00TLYRJ3

Combine this with nightengale style to call someone a bitch an hour in advance and have that hit them like a truck when they try to start shit

[fierce star]

[velvet raft]

Sids are the best

[fierce star]

I have a question for people with the Infernals pdfs

how would dreaming pearl courtesan's capstone/gazellecarp charm interact with like

infernal devil body bullshit

[next delta]

I think it should work just fine?

[merry arch]

it would work fine

u could just call it more transformation for your transformation

[next delta]

I am not sure if Enhanced Attacks are compatible with MAs though

[fierce star]

I might be doing something stupid, but it's going to be fun regardless I think

but basically I was looking at dreaming pearl courtesan style, which uses improvised weapons as form weapons

... and so does iki's update of first pulse to ex3.

[velvet raft]

Honestly, the answer to a lot of questions like this re: devil body as of the draft is "nobody actually knows"

[buoyant summit]

stupid, stupid question I am only asking to stir conversation cuz I'm bored

Nerevarine, what Exalt, go

[next delta]

Classic

[next delta]

A devil-body style using improvised weapons is kind of funny

<turns into a horrific monster but still chokes people to death with the curtains>

[bleak hazel]

all Elder Scrolls characters are siddies because they literally have skyrim speedrun strats as canon charms

[buoyant summit]

lmao

[fierce star]

Misc is correct

[buoyant summit]

I was thinking of them as a Sid too but wanna see someone argue Lunar cuz of Azura being the Goddess of the Moon and Star

[lament owl]

exigent
But sidereal feels right for Neravarine, Azura even has star theming

[fierce star]

The Nerevarine is specifically... I want to say Endings

Hero of Kvatch is Battles, so is the Dragonborn

[bleak hazel]

stop you violated the law

[lament owl]

I could see the dragonborn being a martial arts Solar

[fierce star]

I don't think solars can achieve CHIM

[buoyant summit]

Dragonborn is a Sid who's a master of Nightingale Style and somehow combined it with elemental blasts

Why is CHIM relevant here?

[bleak hazel]

Sids also have getting-married-speedrun-tech in Craft and Socialize

[buoyant summit]

Did the Nerevarine achieve CHIM?

[fierce star]

canonically I think every elder scrolls protagonist does the minute you install mods or open the console

[buoyant summit]

Ah, this is some C0DA justified stuff then

I say this without malice

or annoyance, I subscribe to the idea that ES canon is

Malleable, at best

I think the strongest argument for nonSid Nerevarine is being a Solar, yeah

They have an artifact weapon their previous incarnation wielded, the God of fate is conspiring for them to do her great and terrible work of unraveling the current myopic order, an order that was literally instilled through their previous incarnation's death

etc

[lament owl]

Solars are just very good at the elder scrolls protagonist “get really good at everything really fast”

[fierce star]

this is fair

[lament owl]

Too

[merry arch]

yea I think you could make an argument for Nerevar being pretty much any of the solaroids depending on the roleplay you're doing

[bleak hazel]

as soon as anyone starts speedrunning you're into Sid territory

[wise ocean]

abyssal nerevarine would be very funny

oh. huh. vivec might've just been right

[bleak hazel]

Sids are in-universe loadwarping and hacking and so forth even if it's still on Solar power tier at the very highest

[buoyant summit]

Okay the more I think about it the more the Nerevarine reads as Solar to me

[lament owl]

Like you can get great at magic or martial arts or normal forms of combat or persuasion just by kinda locking in

[buoyant summit]

From their story perspective

Like their incarnational backstory is kind of just a version of the Usurpation

[merry arch]

making potions good enough to give you infinite alchemy for a second or two so you can make the best potions ever conceived of? yeah thats solar shit to me

[buoyant summit]

Exalted Flow Moment

[fierce star]

how about the hero of kvatch, then? I thinkyou could actually make a (slightly disgusted) arguement for lunar, with Martinb eing their solar mate. Hmm, but then there's teh whole 'becoming sheogorath' thing.

hero of kvatch as a raksha? 🤔

[buoyant summit]

Nah, Martin would just

Be a fucking Avatar of Sol Invictus

Which

feels like more than an Exalt

[bleak hazel]

I don't know, Exalts get pretty bullshit

"gank Sol" is not anything 3e will ever have stats for but is not an impossible activity for a group of sufficiently angry and old celestials

[fierce star]

also man, mantling is a really cool concept

I dont' think it fits into exalted's cosmology at all, though

[buoyant summit]

Sorry, what?

[velvet raft]

I think it might be by default, but elder exalts sorta go above and beyond

It's like uh

[bleak hazel]

he's not like, transcendental capital-G god

he's just a really really big god

[next delta]

What definition of mantling is this?

He didn't even make the world

[velvet raft]

He's Zeus

Well, no

He's Jove

Slightly different

[bleak hazel]

the yozis arguably were that kind of transcendental being and the Exalts kicked the shit out of those pretty well

[velvet raft]

"Infinitely powerful" from a mortal perspective, but

[bleak hazel]

with some minor cosmological consequences, granted

[fierce star]

Elder Scrolls, sorry, that was kind of an aside tangent to the conversation of 'what exalt type would various elder scrolls protags be'

[bleak hazel]

we didn't need that reincarnation system anyway

[velvet raft]

Okay in PFWotR's vidya, you end up hanging out with Iomedae's herald, the Hand of the Inheritor

When you meet him, he is much stronger than you

Herald of a god and all

But, WotR being the mythic AP, you do eventually outclass him handily

[bleak hazel]

the thing about Exalts is that the way they work kind of forces things to deal with them Their Way

they never get to "fuck you I rewrite reality" levels but they have kind of in-universe protagonism defence against any attempt to do that to them

shaping defence, psyche defence, perfect parry, resist uncountable damage, etc.

which is why Ligier going "eat green sun wasting" is basically the height check for the actual battle, which is a sick-ass swordfight rather than him solar flaring you to death

[next delta]

The Primordials had a really poor showing. They messed up what? A single Incarna (related to an apocryphal exalt though). Whereas a bunch of Primordials died and most of the rest got turned into Yozi

[chilly sluice]

Exalts be like that

[bleak hazel]

they presumably killed a fuckton of exalts

but exalts respawn

[next delta]

I'm assuming lots of foot soldiers died on each side

I guess if you are winning a war it's hard for your comment structure to be targeted. The gods also couldn't be directly involved

[bleak hazel]

back in the mists of 2e, the war started with the Exalts invading Heaven to gank determinism yozi's fetich soul

so unsure where all the gods were

but the war is left deliberately undetailed

[next delta]

At their desks studiously doing their work. Alternatively, they all took a vacation at the same time

[fierce star]

so I was asking af riend who has the pdfs where kimbery charms were at for an infernal idea i'm hashing together, and they tell me she has charms in archery

I say, huh, archery? That's surprising, I wasn't expecting her to have archery charms

And their only response

was 'Milf's Acid Arrow'

[buoyant summit]

bruh lmao

[bleak hazel]

Mother of Infinite Lake Fiends, presumably

[fierce star]

(a classic DnD spell is 'Melf's Acid Arrow', named after the player character of one of Gary Gygax's players, Melf, the Male Elf Magic-User.)

[prisma sun]

I feel like other Incarnae died

In the divine revolution

But theres a decent chance they are only remembered as memorials in the manses of the surviving ones

[fierce star]

I am still curious as to what Nebiru's intended Exalts were like ,the 'by design' soulsteel-attuned exalts.

[chilly sluice]

Aren't Umbrals only resonant with soulsteel because they're also so edgy dark and tortured?

[fierce star]

I mean, possibly, but like. Soulsteel caste alchemicals were prototypes for someone.

[next delta]

Oh. Lmao, I didn't know what last part of the Etymology

[fierce star]

yeah, lol

"So what's your character's name" "Uuuuh um, fuck uh. Melf."

[buoyant summit]

Is an Endings sid gonna require much finagling to make into a Fighty Bitch?

[chilly sluice]

Nah

[bleak hazel]

nah, Endings and Battles are about equally fighty

Endings does more damage and has a better caste ability spread, Battles has more support and defence

[chilly sluice]

I feel like I see more people build their fight-y Sids with anything but Battles tbh lmao

[fierce star]

it's mostly the dawn problem there I think?

idly does anyone know if baidak, radeken, or eristrufa have been statted out in ex3 yet anywhere?

[bleak hazel]

none that I know of and I've probably read every NPC section

[fierce star]

damn, alright. Time to find my ex2 books so I can remember what the fuck they were like fluffwise then lol

[buoyant summit]

Making my Sid's concept in the sheet 'In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King.' because I am insufferable

[chilly sluice]

Just like a real Sidereal already 😛

[buoyant summit]

lmao

[ruby geyser]

'as soon as you stop engaging with the story the way it wants you to, and start fucking around and breaking things on purpose, you're into Sid territory'* the average video game protag does not actually speed run, even if there are players who have figured out how to do so

i say average because there are some games where speedrun tech is 100% intentional and expected

[bleak hazel]

well, yeah, they are professional narrative surgeons, that's their job

[ruby geyser]

yeah im just trying to point out that 'speedrun tech exists' doesnt equate to 'the protag is a sid'

unless the game actually expects the tech in question

[bleak hazel]

in this case it's because Sids have Elder Scrolls-specific speedrun stuff rather than vice versa

in actual charm form

[prisma sun]

Power scaling discussion

One sid circle of each caste that owns 2 scrolls of icarian flight

Can they beat the deathlords

[buoyant summit]

like

The Morrowind item, Scroll of Icarian Flight?

[nova yew]

Holy shit

Congrats

[buoyant summit]

It is not a sure thing yet

[prisma sun]

Yes

[buoyant summit]

I have that convo with the GM today but our schedules line up, they want to chat like, at all, and we have the common basis of liking the same milieu of fantasy media as inspo for Exalted

[buoyant summit]

Amazing

And no, the Battles and Journeys Sids use the scrolls immediately upon receiving them and splatter on the ground

[lament owl]

they are resonant with Soulsteel, with a gesture to also being resonant with a special Nebiru based thing

[buoyant summit]

Kind of a stupid idea probably

Sid whose previous incarnation is their own thought to be deadbeat parent

[velvet raft]

Probably wouldn't work given that the Maidens choose Sids long, long before they actually get Exalted

Possibly even from birth

[prisma sun]

probably before birth

[velvet raft]

's the kind of bullshit one gets up to when they literally control fate

[prisma sun]

one of them controls all the cum in the world and touches specific spermazoa and says "You're gonna be a special guy one day"

[buoyant summit]

Why did you have to word it this way

<XD

I think I wanna ask the GM of the Monday game if I get in if I can try the idea anyways cuz there are many fun ways to screw with identity like that

Also fuck the Division of Endings is depressing

[prisma sun]

how else do I word that

[buoyant summit]

That one of the Maidens chooses who's gonna be a special snowflake without referring to cum lmao

[nova yew]

What

[prisma sun]

what

[nova yew]

Sorry I scrolled up

Nevermind this makes perfect sense

Which maiden is this?

[prisma sun]

Venus duh

[nova yew]

Cool cool I just wanted to check

[velvet raft]

Mars, that's why it's called the war of the sexes

[nova yew]

Ohhhhh

I see

[fierce star]

No, it's endings. Le petite morte, right?

[ruby geyser]

one could make an argument for any of the maidens

journeys for the path to the egg, endings for le petit mort, battles for the battle of the sexes, serenities is obvious, secrets because most people aren't into public exposure or coitus interruptus

[velvet raft]

What you're saying is that it's not just Venus who creates constant headaches for the Bureau of Destiny's HR department

ic ic

[fierce star]

conky has the most HR reports against them

They keep insisting he has to marry all of them but it never goes through

[fierce star]

... Ir ealize this is probably a stupid question to ask but just to be sure Infernals are still creatures of darkness right

[fierce star]

damn, they are

so much for this lol

[tulip folio]

What's wrong with the 'No Abyssals/Infernals allowed' stone? XD

[fierce star]

I'm looking at hearthstones for an infernal character :P

and of course a kimbery infernal needs to enter the dwelling with her children. How else will she show them how much she loves them?

[tulip folio]

Her Children: "We'll take the stone please!"

[buoyant summit]

As an exercise in character creation; how does combining knowledge of different MAs that use the same style weapon work?

[next delta]

You can the different styles' charms with a common weapon on the same action with said weapon

But you still have to have buy the different MA skills separately iirc

[buoyant summit]

Okay so I can use, say, both Joy-In-Adversity Stance from Violet Bier of Sorrows and Stumbling Inconvenience Attack from Even Blade at the same time

Cool

[nova yew]

;w;

[marsh garden]

i'm having a bit of a struggle plotting out initial charms and mechanical focuses for a toon, so i have come here to request aid

does anybody have suggestions for like

a passive/melancholic Abyssal

i'm struggling to find enough things to plan out in the pre-character development phase for someone that isn't a grandstanding gloryhound

[lament owl]

Resistance and awareness charms are a classic

[marsh garden]

or at least like. confident in themselves

that's a fair shout, i think i just keep trying to find support tools in a splat that's not really designed for...unaggressive support tools

i should probably grab more resistance

thank you

[lament owl]

Well if your own charm trees aren’t suiting you well

There is always martial arts and artifacts

[marsh garden]

artifacts are probably the other place i'm going to pick from initially

[lament owl]

Oh! Also! Crafting!

[marsh garden]

i've made a bit too scraggly of a rat, and pigeonholed myself a bit lol

[lament owl]

Survival or ride to have a fucked up pet

[coral wraith]

there's also sorcery or necromancy

which both have fantastic utility

[marsh garden]

the problem with crafting, as with martial arts, is that my toon is a shellshocked servant child without much in the way of tradecraft...and in a party with two sids

i think i'm gonna rely on artifacts and necromancy before i can pry this little fuck out of his shell, thanks

[lament owl]

Maybe pick up Nyraxes

[marsh garden]

i don't know that name! it sounds like an abyssal artifact?

[lament owl]

Yeah it’s a an abyssal a soul steel lantern in the abyssal book

[marsh garden]

reading it now

the other thing is that i'm trying to balance An Amount of artifact-and-brawl investment...but not too much yet

and being new to the system, it's hard to get a good grip on how best to enact what i want

[lament owl]

I am also new to the system

Tbh I just built around my supernal

“I am a dodge supernal” “I want this particular dodge charm”

And then I picked up Huskflayer

And some melee charms to go with

[marsh garden]

my supernal is one of the things i keep bouncing around on

initially i had it locked on occultism, but once i was corrected that magic is one of the two things you can't cheat on, it was mostly for uh

picking a four-node-deep essence 2 charm

[lament owl]

Occultism suoerbal still can do a lot

Keep in mind

If your own backstory cant necessarily explain why a character has a skill, but you still wanna be good at it

Past lives do exist

[marsh garden]

they're something i want to ease into tbh

otherwise they'd provide too much comfort for the specific neuroses i'm picking at

[lament owl]

That’s fair

Its just something I am using to explain why my peasant boy gets socialize 5 and a deep knowledge of both etiquette and fashion

So I thought it was worth being up lol

[marsh garden]

i don't want the memories of being beautiful and glorious and grand, however painful. gotta shake this rat in the mud and make it find its own footing

i appreciate it!

i think the funny thing is that i've had to pare way down to 15 charms, it's just the mid and high-end stuff that i'm trying to think about to engage with my supernal's value best, and my early level progression as a mechanized emotional arc

[nova yew]

“The divine juice gave you instincts for it”

[marsh garden]

i'm also starting with major megrims, which will be fun

[lament owl]

Nice

[lament owl]

Asking mask of winters why my resurrection superpowers also came with deep knowledge of how to look hot and make people like you

Get the reply “its just like that sometimes”

[nova yew]

There is a tiny little noblewoman in your soul that is giving you fashion advice

[lament owl]

Yeah

[velvet raft]

Ye, and you use the highest of your various MA scores for all dice pools and calculations to which any of them could be applicable

[fierce star]

so I was looking through infernal sail for reasons, and it's a pretty tightly self-contained charm tree, huh? I like the idea of combining dreaming pearl courtesan and iki's first pulse but infernal sail also just has... like. All the tentacle charms that feel rather self-contained.

[coral wraith]

@velvet raft is the new chapter with new demons out yet 👀

[velvet raft]

Infernal Sail is a great total package, yeah

[velvet raft]

I think it's on the 12th

[coral wraith]

dang

[velvet raft]

They've been every 3 days or so

But yeah, really looking forward to that

[fierce star]

realistically how much power do you think is lost in being a sail primordial nadir that doesn't pick up the tentacle fight charms in sail?

[velvet raft]

I think probably not tons

Sail is an adequate and effective combat package but it's still not a combat ability and isn't capable of doing everything melee or brawl does

The big loss imo is the charm that gives the tentacle its own initiative

Since that lets you mix it with other combat abilities which may be broadly stronger

I also really like the charms that work underwater, and turn water into acid, in combination with Impervious Sphere of Water

Just run up to people in your acid sphere

(You'll need it as a control spell, but you can also summon with it, and make tentacles with it)

[fierce star]

Yeah, I was looking at that

[velvet raft]

Sail Primordial Nadir may have the best complete set of Caste abilities in the game, since it also gets Integrity

[fierce star]

the character in question owns a floating pleasure barge/pirate ship on the dreaming sea so I was looking at dreaming pearl courtesan + first pulse for that gap moe for her combat suite

[velvet raft]

Aha

That seems pretty cool, and if you were to go for extra-Initiative charm it'll work alongside Dreaming Pearl Courtesan

For me, I was pondering mixing it with Mind-Hand

[fierce star]

there's another pc going heavy into mind-hand so I was gonna let them have that, lol

[velvet raft]

Yeah, my character idea is Excessively Reasonable Lintha, so for favored I'm taking Occult, Lore, Resistance, Bureaucracy, and ???

Caste is the obvious Awareness, Athletics, Dodge, Integrity, and Primordial Sail

Might cut Athletics

Investigation, Socialize, Survival, Linguistics, and Larceny are all under consideration

I genuinely do not remember if Mind-Hand can be used with Brawl charms, but maybe that

There is a sorcery initiation that lets one do feats of strength with telekinesis, so I could probably cut Athletics given that

[fierce star]

The current idea for the character as I'm going kimbery themed, but not LIntha, is a Ysyri slave who was captured by a Raksha raid, but caught the captain of the ship's eyes for some reason, and worked her way up from 'bed slave' to 'bodyguard' to 'first officer' to 'wife' onboard his ship, had a lot of kids with him who were still part of the crew, then when he got bored of how her story was going divorced her and took the ship and the kids

and then the YOzi found her

[velvet raft]

Yeah, I don't even think my guy is Kimberry themed

He pissed everyone off in the Lintha by being too logistics-brained

So they said they were gonna human sacrifice him or something

And he ran away

So his favorite yozi is probably None Of Them, but he gets along great with first-circle demons

[fierce star]

lol

"So who's yoru boss?" "Fuck 'em, me"

[velvet raft]

He had first-circle coworkers as a mortal and it really annoyed the bosses how casually he treated them

Used to drink a bunch with the blood apes on staff

[fierce star]

nice

[velvet raft]

But therein lies the problem, demon pirate cults don’t tend to like it when you call the summoned demon wasps “staff”

It feels very pedestrian

[fierce star]

I mean what are you gonna do, not pay the agatae for services rendered? They're so cute! Look at those waspy pouts

[velvet raft]

Blood Apes don’t even expect payment other than plunder, they really go above and beyond when you add actual money to the mix

Unrelated: Abyssal who uses Hungry Ghost, Thousand Blades, and Devil Prince while sitting in the Seat of Deadly Splendor

[bleak hazel]

Devil-Prince + Sid Melee + Even Blade seems like a fun life

the only thing that I've been limited on so far for sword styles is a half-decent onslaught negator

[knotty island]

On the matter of last night's session:
Sid (..Misc's?): "You have to be the stupidest Lunar that I have ever met."
Young lunar (me): "But you have met me."

[velvet raft]

lol

“What exaltation type is Jack Sparrow?” the greatest thread in the history of forums, closed after 7 pages

[velvet raft]

Definitely, hopefully the SMA sword style allegedly incoming is compatible with chopping swords

[knotty island]

(To note, her introduction to the other two party members was evesdropping on the court, as a(n accidentally) blatantly shapeshifted fox, and being fed jerky.

Guān Bǎihé | System at 63 ↩️

[Reply to:](#1161699000836165714 message) On the matter of last night's session:
Sid (..Misc's?): "You have to be the stupidest Lunar that I h…

Oh, and yapping at the other party members. From said foxform.

[buoyant summit]

lol

[velvet raft]

Foks

[buoyant summit]

fops

[buoyant summit]

Also the game I applied to has already accepted a player playing a fighty Endings Sid so now I need to go back to the drawing board l m a o

I may make an older version of my Heptagame character

[velvet raft]

Huh, where is this game btw? Are they still taking applications?

[buoyant summit]

It is on the Exalted server and I don't know?

[bleak hazel]

do bear in mind that Sids are force multipliers for other Sids

[velvet raft]

I guess I should start actively looking for a game

[bleak hazel]

battles sid and endings sid anima powers layer on top of each other extremely well, for instance

[buoyant summit]

They haven't taken the post down but I seem to be among the last batch and they're making their decision tomorrow

[velvet raft]

Aha

[bleak hazel]

+Essence overwhelming + 1 non-charm defence for the whole party is a great combo

[buoyant summit]

Or 'by tomorrow'

[velvet raft]

Battles is amazing

[buoyant summit]

They are but I also semi-promised that I wouldn't repeat splats <XD

[velvet raft]

Shame about the charm list

I need to think of a good battles sid concept

[bleak hazel]

really? the more splats there are the more annoying it generally gets to run

especially if you mix celestial and terrestrial splats

[buoyant summit]

Oh that wasn't a promise they asked me to make

[bleak hazel]

since you either need to accept being extremely puny or ask the GM for an arbitrary boost to get your deeb up to the level of everyone else

[buoyant summit]

I made it myself so as to not steal other players' thunder

[velvet raft]

I have journeys (Wise Songbird) and endings (Red Evening Sky), I should make one of each maiden

[bleak hazel]

a second Siddie will not steal the thunder of the first siddie

it's normal to play Exalted with a whole party of one splat

[buoyant summit]

fair point

[velvet raft]

Especially given how different sids can be

[bleak hazel]

also have you seen the number of different fancy tricks Sids have

[buoyant summit]

You and Briar are very different, this is true

[bleak hazel]

I'm not sure Grinning Mask and Rival share a single charm actually

maybe an ox-body

yes, the ox-body is it

eventually we might share like, 3 charms

[buoyant summit]

lol

[bleak hazel]

but I could pump 30 charms into fight tech and still not have all of the convenient E3 picks, and vice versa for nerdsid stuff

[buoyant summit]

What's a good SmackSid that isn't Battles or Endings

Is there any or is that answer just

any Sid that's built to fight that isn't Battles or Endings

[bleak hazel]

Journeys is fine-ish at it but I'd take the other one of the killy two

they work really well together

[buoyant summit]

But Battles Caste abilities are... meh for what I wanna do <XD

[bleak hazel]

throwing up the Greater Signs of Mars and Saturn like the heavy metal horns just melts things

[velvet raft]

Journeys gets very nice Caste Abilities

[prisma sun]

The thing about Exalted is that it's actually more fun to do combat the worse you are at it.

[velvet raft]

The anima powers are not fighty

But they are very useful

[bleak hazel]

I feel there's a sweet spot where you have cool combat tricks but haven't become a physical god yet

[velvet raft]

Battles caste abilities definitely hurt, though

[bleak hazel]

Sids tend to win high-level fights by drawing every card in an MTG blue deck and slapping their opponents around the face with them, so you keep the fun part going longer

[prisma sun]

Yes but the Exalted Combat Overton Window is firmly on the side of Invincible Sword Princess

Rather than John Eclipse

[velvet raft]

Like, okay, Presence is good for everybody

It has some great stuff

[bleak hazel]

yeah it's a bitch, I'm really not sure why they left the Dawn problem on them

[velvet raft]

One of Brawl, Melee, or Archery is probably useful

[bleak hazel]

they should really have moved archery to a different caste

[prisma sun]

Thrown is fun and cool

[lament owl]

Yeah I was gonna say

What about thrown

[velvet raft]

And then War might be interesting to certain builds

[prisma sun]

Fie! I say! Fie!

[velvet raft]

Thrown is on Journeys

[lament owl]

Ah ok

[velvet raft]

Battles has Archery, Melee, Brawl, Peresence, and War

[lament owl]

Too used to the dawn layout ig lmao

[buoyant summit]

Either Journeys or Serenity seems to be calling my name tbh

[prisma sun]

Keep in mind that any Sid can be fighty because they all get Martial Arts.

[velvet raft]

I love Sid ride and Sid survival and Sid resistance

[prisma sun]

For free

[velvet raft]

And Journeys gets all of those

[bleak hazel]

Rival is annoyingly Dawn Problemed by the battles abilities because he doesn't use War

although he could, I might do a bit of war in the future

[buoyant summit]

you might fuckin need it

[velvet raft]

I think if I did a Battles I might do the whole Rat Style + Burn Life bullshit

Without armor, Burn Life gives you an incredible soak boost

+(Strength), including Burn Life bonus dots

Maybe skip Dex entirely and pick up the Appearance to Evasion charm from Performance alongside the strength and stamina charms from battles

... could be funny to skip the stamina-to-parry from the starter charm and start with Stamina 1

Battles with Strength 5, Dex 1, Stamina 1, Charisma 5, Manipulation 1, Appearance 5, Perception 5, Intelligence 1, Wits 3

"I lift stuff"

[fierce star]

Hmm

on the one hand, one of the MAs this infernal is taking wants you to have high STR, and infernals have--well, actually, shit. str for unarmed and heavy, isn't it, so I'd only get it with like. Chairs, not teacups or this beer bottle I found hitting the side of your head

[velvet raft]

Yeah

Not great for Dreaming Pearl Courtesan

[prisma sun]

Stam 1 is the devil talking

[velvet raft]

Bear Style, get Strength to soak a second time

[buoyant summit]

How feasible and not stupid is knowing multiple MAs at Sid chargen?

[prisma sun]

You should have at least one

[velvet raft]

Perfectly feasible if you don't intend to invest in a bunch of other stuff

[prisma sun]

Having multiple is fine tbh

[buoyant summit]

'Hi I know Even Blade and VBOS'

'b*tch'

[velvet raft]

VBOS is notably high-investment in charms, but yeah that'll work great

[bleak hazel]

remember you only need one at 5 + spec if you are using the others for support

so pick a main one and only boost the others to the minimum you need for their charms

[buoyant summit]

She will be in an Even Blade stance 100% of the time

[bleak hazel]

so even blade 5/5/1 and then everything else as needed

[velvet raft]

Just remember, Sids only get Mastery if:

• They're in the Form charm
• They've finished the style completely
• They're in an SMA form

[bleak hazel]

Melee also has good versatile support in the form of Harmony of Blows

[velvet raft]

Melee versatile is really good, yeah

Some amazing stuff nice and early

[bleak hazel]

just remember that there is no way to use Even Blade with an SMA so you are stuck at normal tier unless you want an entire second tree's worth of stuff that's incompatible with your main style

[velvet raft]

Now, this may change before you hit Essence 3

We are given to understand a Sword SMA is coming

[bleak hazel]

however it is coming in Get book which hasn't even been announced yet

[velvet raft]

But I forget if it's coming in the Sid companion or in Gets

[bleak hazel]

so don't get your hopes up

[buoyant summit]

I don't care too much

[bleak hazel]

the only one in Sid companion is Sapphire Veil, which is whips

(unsurprisingly)

[velvet raft]

Oh nice, good for Live Wire style

[prisma sun]

I do think that if you wanna go Sword Guy

Daiklaives tend to have the best evocations

[bleak hazel]

also compatible with CMOS which is nice

dual whips go pretty hard

[prisma sun]

https://tenor.com/view/double-whip-trever-belmont-richard-armitage-castlevania-dual-wielding-gif-4033733259653677304

[bleak hazel]

my only gripe with Live Wire is that it's armour-yes and so you have to discard your incredible heavy artifact armour to pick up SMAs

[velvet raft]

CMOS has incredible compatibility in general

[bleak hazel]

but that's not a huge deal

CMOS is just so fucking good

[velvet raft]

Yep

[bleak hazel]

sadly Rival cannot go for it

[velvet raft]

I think it's probably Wise Songbird's first pick

[prisma sun]

CMOS is what makes Thrown as cool as it is for me

[bleak hazel]

CMOS is the iconic SMA and it absolutely earns it

it's also one of only two that aren't expensive as all fuck

very usable combat suite

any sid combat ability + CMOS goes hard, as does almost any MA

now that I think about it, what MAs work with knives

a lot

[velvet raft]

Lots

VBOS

Ebon Shadow

Rat

[prisma sun]

the one that doesn't exist iirc

btw

[velvet raft]

Swaying Grass Dance

[bleak hazel]

Sid Knifeman has the potential to construct some fucking abomination of OSOI + CMOS + Melee + SGD + Violet Bier

[velvet raft]

CMOS, Obsidian Shards

[prisma sun]

There's no actual rule anywhere that Godblood are restricted to Essence 1-2 right?

[bleak hazel]

I too can read down the compatibility table in a straight line 😛

[velvet raft]

Hm, that's fewer than I thought

[prisma sun]

So you could have ann Essence 5 Godblood if you wanted

[bleak hazel]

yeah, they get one charm per essence level but their mote pool stays puny

[velvet raft]

Still, some very good ones

[fierce star]

mote pool is ess*10 for non-exalts I think?

[bleak hazel]

CMOS + OSOI + Melee is already one hell of a suite

[fierce star]

50 motes isn't bad

[bleak hazel]

because you can layer OSOI Form with Nest of Living Strands and plunge the world into a black vortex webbed by mirror-wire

and incidentally get the equivalent of like, +5 non-charm defence ongoing

most of which is in the form of hit penalties so it lets you utterly brutalise people with clashes

guess what CMOS and Melee have a ton of

[buoyant summit]

I think Arya Stark from GoT is probably rly good inspo for a rogue Sid

The whole 'rejecting being faceless and only seen through the various masks she can slip into' schtick

[bleak hazel]

importantly, being a rogue sid helps not a bit there

[velvet raft]

Hm, maybe Battles Sid With Shitty Everything is a knives user

[buoyant summit]

lmao yeah

I was gonna append

Sadly in Exalted, Arya is Wrong

[velvet raft]

Rat is knife compatible

[bleak hazel]

it just means you never hang out with any of the few hundred people who can actually remember you exist without a feat of mental acuity that would be beyond a peak human most of the time

[velvet raft]

VBOS as the focus, Rat and Ebon Shadow on the side

Leading into the two knife styles for SMA

Since I'm taking 5 perception already that's great for OSOI

[bleak hazel]

OK, peak human recall (5/5/1, spending willpower, level 1 stunt) fails against arcane fate 35% of the time without supporting intimacies

so the best you can do without hanging out with highly specific supernatural buddies is everyone forgetting everything about you like a third of the time you show up to talk, and that's if all your friends are Rain Men

if Rain Man has a defining tie to you they're still going to whiff 1 in 8

[velvet raft]

Sids are extremely fuckin' isolated

I love it

[buoyant summit]

Oh yeah is Baihe gonna forget who you and GM actually are?

[bleak hazel]

even exalts fuck it up regularly, especially not all of them are straining at the excellency trying to remember the background character

[buoyant summit]

Like every time you leave a room

xD

[velvet raft]

Oh, actually, 5 Charisma helps Hero's Iron Skin too, that's great

[bleak hazel]

circlemates are immune to make the game remotely fucking playable

NPCs aren't though

[buoyant summit]

l m a o

[velvet raft]

Yeah, it's explicitly noted that there's a Circle Exemption, not for any strong in-universe reason but because like

[bleak hazel]

everyone else remembers the merchant prince but if the two celestials down there had noticed Birdrival he would have just slipped out of mind a few minutes later if he left

[velvet raft]

Fuck that

This is also what Resplendent Destinies are for

[bleak hazel]

you are explicitly allowed to keep a resplendent destiny of "The Sidereal" on you in case you need to go talk to a Lunar or a senior Immaculate or something who knows what a Sid is

you will be Undefined Sidereal who needs to act like a stereotypical sid to avoid fraying it, not yourself

also if you blow a resplendent destiny it's gone, every memory people have of that guy gets Arcane Fated

Rival has a red masque ball mask and a big hood on his robe in case he needs to dress up as The Battles (TM)

[velvet raft]

But gods, speaking of fucked-up Exalts (we are always speaking of that) one of the comics in 2e Sids shows the iconic Serenity suddenly kissing a guy who has no memory of who she is, with the implication that she's been showing up to seduce him and then bugging out for a while now

[bleak hazel]

I was unaware Iron Siaka swung that way

[velvet raft]

It might not be the Serenity

[bleak hazel]

then again she is Iron Siaka so I would be unsurprised

[velvet raft]

Skinny woman with funny hair is what I remember

[bleak hazel]

(the previous iconic Battles, for reference on the stereotypes)

[velvet raft]

Wearing a robe I think

[bleak hazel]

May Blossom, perhaps

let me look at the book

[velvet raft]

Journeys?

Secrets?

See if I ask about all of them I'll be right eventually

[fierce star]

that's the trick isn't it

[buoyant summit]

btw do I need to caste or favored every martial art I learn at chargen or is Cas/Fav ing Martial Arts enough?

[bleak hazel]

OK the 2e sidbook comics were quite fun

Sids get all MA as caste for existing

also the merit's free

[velvet raft]

Oh yeah that was the Journeys

[bleak hazel]

on any other exalt it's just one ability for all of 'em

[next delta]

You just need caste/favor brawl for the general case iirc

[fierce star]

anyonew ho castes/favors brawl also castes/favors MA, inninit?

[velvet raft]

For other exalts they get it with Brawl for Caste, although IIRC not for supernal

[knotty island]

I am. Starting to realise that I Iook.. Quite strange for a Lunar, appearing mostly human.

[velvet raft]

Most lunars look human a majority of the time

It's really down to preference

Sids get Caste martial arts even without Brawl

[fierce star]

yeah, supernal coutns seperate

[velvet raft]

Should I add Thousand Blades to this I think I should

[bleak hazel]

hey it's that guy from Marvel Rivals

[velvet raft]

No that's a DC character I'm pretty sure

He was in The Suicide Squad and the animated Harley Quinn show

[bleak hazel]

ah, found it

[velvet raft]

Very different portrayals

[bleak hazel]

May Blossom was the one with the arcane-fate susceptible fling

I do like the 2e chapter comics

[velvet raft]

Yeah

They were good

[bleak hazel]

perhaps the one thing I wish they'd kept because the art is good vibes inspiration

[velvet raft]

Helped convey the vibe

I just feel like not even using an RD for it is thoroughly scummy

Was she Secrets, btw?

[bleak hazel]

yes, May Blossom was the iconic secrets and also a huge gossipmonger

(all the 2e sids are puns, May Blossom - hasn't yet)

dynastic princess turned sorceror, uses VBOS + Wood Dragon's Claw

[velvet raft]

"This is my boyfriend. I show up in his office and seduce him whenever I'm free, then leave and he forgets me immediately. This is not at all fucked up, I swear."