Exalted

[marsh garden]

all helpful advice!

do you have any suggestions on where to look for wording?

[south horizon]

not off the top of my head but if ur ever looking for like

good references for charm making

exigents is the book to find

aa it has a section that breaks things down by effect and also other charms(and the books theybare in) to serve as examples

very good resource if u want to dip ur toes into charm design stuff

and, alternatively, u can judge buff effects by treating them as self-focused buffs then convert themnto teammbuffs by making them either a bit more more expensive or restrictive

[tulip folio]

I'm doing up an alternative to Summon Demon and Summon Elemental that gives you Essence-Fueled Automatons of various sorts.

And I'm using the power of subtypes to help with the issues I have right now with 'I'm one person, I can't do as many options as a the actual books have for demons and elementals'

So you go 'I will make a puppet soldier: Blademaster subtype'

[marsh garden]

god damn, that is fast flight for a random robot

[tulip folio]

Jump Good 😛

[marsh garden]

does it do a superhero landing into a smoking impact crater?

before standing up with spooky noises and glowing eyes

[tulip folio]

Up to the user. Doll Judgement is to sorta A) Give a cool offensive option B) Give this particular automaton its own replacement for Hurry Home, an iconic charm that makes demons such a good summon.

Hurry Home (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant): The demon vanishes on its next turn, drawn instantly to the summoner’s side. First Circles cannot use this Charm while unbound.

Where it just Instantly Teleports To Master

[marsh garden]

i do constantly see mentions of that!

[tulip folio]

Doll Judgement (15m, 1wp; Simple; Essence 2): The Puppet Soldier’s strings curl into shapes like wings, before it takes to the sky. Moments later it arrives at its destination, razor-sharp strings lashing around it. In combat, this can deposit the Puppet Soldier anywhere within long range. Outside of combat, it can travel up to a mile as long as it is traveling to its master. Enemies within close range of its point of impact suffer a one-time environmental hazard with difficulty 4, Damage 4L. Once per scene.

Also made some slight adjustments. It can only do the super huge out of combat leap directly towards its master and its AOE is ally friendly as I realized it's going to turn a mortal master into paste pretty quickly by accident otherwise 😛

[velvet raft]

Ooh, good entry for EGOA

[tulip folio]

Honestly, not really for pretty basic reason - It's one of those martial arts that goes past E3, like the Immaculate ones.

So it's awkward to get 'I completely finished this martial art' for SMA access.

Sorry XD

[marsh garden]

oh, do SMAs all start at e3?

[tulip folio]

Three Sphere Impact
Cost: 5m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-Only, Terrestrial, Mastery, Shaping(Fate)
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Lots
Those who refuse to accept their place are outliers, aspects that must be removed from the experiment. It is not enough to simply destroy them, their taint must be removed in its entirety, like they never were.

If this enhances a Decisive Savage or Slam, gaining Double 10s on the damage roll. 

If the target is incapacitated by this attack or accepts a Crippling Injury to reduce the harm suffered, knowledge of her is annihilated from the world. This is treated as Arcane Fate, though it applies against characters that are normally immune to it.

Without the power of the Mask behind it, this false annihilation can be removed by magic such as Order-Affirming Blow and other effects that can cure Shaping Effects.

Terrestrial: The difficulty to resist losing memories this way is Difficulty 5.
Mastery: The Martial artist ignores all penalties on attempts to disguise as the annihilated person, stepping into the void that the loss of knowledge has left. If the Martial Artist can craft Resplendent Destinies, she may reflexively form a Resplendent Destiny for this purpose.

On the plus side - It does have a mastery that directly ties into Sid Bullshit.

You can Powerbomb A General and then reflexively form a 'Oh hey, it's the general!' RD

[velvet raft]

I tend to like entries through multiple MAs anyway :D

Unrelated: that's a hella good shaping ritual

[marsh garden]

wait damn, they don't even go away at the end of the day??

[velvet raft]

Nope!

There are some other similarly good ones, tbf

[marsh garden]

waog

[tulip folio]

That's a real solid one as long as you can find Tall Places regularly.

[marsh garden]

or make them

[tulip folio]

And it's a very easy dice pool. XD

[velvet raft]

But most are slightly more onerous than "hang upside down like a bat for an hour"

[tulip folio]

Like it's not asking your sorcerer to exactly go outside his expertise.

[velvet raft]

I think there's one from Wanasaan Exorcist which is on the same level

But that does at least require you to take a bath in salt water >_>

[tulip folio]

Ah, the 'go dunk your head in a bucket of water' one

[velvet raft]

The Witch Beast Pact one is pretty nuts if you have 5 resources

[marsh garden]

what book is this one in, anyway

[velvet raft]

Infernals

[marsh garden]

ah ic

[tulip folio]

The Alch math one I think is my favorite of them. Requires a little outside your wheelhouse but it's also a dice pool that has a lotof potential bonuses.

Infinite Theorem Recitation: The sorcerer retreats into meticulous calculations, repeating a litany of esoteric formulae and ineffable proofs. After spending eight hours performing these calculations, she rolls (Intelligence + Lore), banking sorcerous motes equal to her successes. She need not perform all eight hours of study consecutively. These sorcerous motes last until the end of the story or her next use of this ritual. The sorcerous mote can add a non-Charm die on the roll by doubling the amount of time required. She can additional non-Charm die by doubling that time, and so on, up to a maximum of five dice after 256 hours

A high clarity alchemical is getting +3 non-charm dice on this because it's Math Shit, alchemicals have charms to be better at doing math shit...

[marsh garden]

god, yeah these look so much better than the "gain +1 mote when you Shape Sorcery ^w^" ones

[marsh garden]

i'm sure those are plenty strong in pitched battles, but

i don't want to spend three of my turns casting, i want to drop something on demand

[tulip folio]

Oh right, I forgot that the same initiation that gives Infinite Theorom Recitation also gives this.

[marsh garden]

lmao

[tulip folio]

So it's just 'HEY, TIME FOR MATHAMAGIC!'

[marsh garden]

even more free dice

hm, actually

would the E or 3 standard be super broken when applied to some of the "add E" shaping rituals?

[tulip folio]

The 'make a magic wand' one is also kinda disgusting if you're a crafter.

[marsh garden]

i assume so, since it'd make an E1 caster just pump out magic like a machine

[tulip folio]

I actually really like this one as one of those 'once a scene, get some free ones'

As it keeps refreshing every time someone shoots you with a laser.

[marsh garden]

oh, this is cute

i like "just randomly say shit until your dumbass wizard soul guesses right, then go nonverbal"

i will definitely be taking this as my initial ritual if i pick up sorcery on my extremely whispers-prone abyssal

[fierce star]

I'm still fond of the homebrew initiation I made for my alchemical when she picks up sorcery, which can be summed up as 'hey kids do you wanna cut people up, but like, medicinally?'

it also let me name a merit for using surgical implements as weapons 'Hypocritical Oath' and, honestly

i fuckw ith it

[marsh garden]

heh

[fierce star]

Hypocritical Oath * or ** (Requires Martial Arts): You may use scalpels as light weapons with the lethal, melee, piercing, poisonable and thrown (medium) tags; it is your skill with them that makes them weapons, and unless someone is aware of your reputation with them, they will not be recognized as a weapon in your hands. At two dots, you may treat scalpels as knives, chakrams, darts, and hand needles for martial arts. Artifact scalpels have the same tags as their mundane variants, but use light artifact weapon stats, and can be separate artifacts or provided by equipment such as a Resplendent Satchel of Healing. Scalpels from artifacts such as a Resplendent Satchel Of Healing do not require additional attunement, but cannot have Evocations awakened.

[marsh garden]

waow

[tulip folio]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gtCOddPlkDDgIWg9o1iJdWi0XxmCYW9j6Py1GBFE3vw/edit?usp=sharing Okay, this is provisionally being in a state for people to look over. Right now it's only got Puppet Soldiers (and 2 of them are still being worked on) but the basic shape is taking form.

[bleak hazel]

The format there is that the number indicates raw withering damage and the letter indicates type of decisive damage, then the second number is Overwhelming. The hippo still hits for (Initiative) decisive damage base like everyone else, it just hits for artifact weapon levels of withering

[tulip folio]

Alright, all the puppet soldiers are done. How do they look as 'Getting this instead of an Elemental or First Circle Demon'?

[fierce star]

are they only bound for a year and a day or does their bidning last indefinitely?

[tulip folio]

I should make that clear. The intent is year and a day but you can refresh the duration by doing the ritual again.

[tulip folio]

At the end of the year and a day's binding, or when its task is complete, the Automaton becomes nothing but an object again. The duration of the binding can be refreshed by performing the ritual again before the end of the initial binding.

Added

[fierce star]

Hmm

it's inherently less versatile than either DOTFC or Summone Elemental, but the automatons look balanced against them, and they'll definitely be less argumentative

[tulip folio]

Yeah. I plan to do up a couple more supertypes of construct, when I have some particular ideas for it.

[fierce star]

you could steal ideas from the sovereign's Eidolons, maybe?

check their craft tree

[tulip folio]

Maybe! Pondering some iconic sorta 'construct' enemies that isn't just 'call it a golem', as that's a cultural term. XD

Maybe some sort of walking battering ram?

Dunno, happy for any thoughts people have.

[tulip folio]

Vague Pondering: Training Construct. It's good accuracy and block but ratshit damage because it's using a training weapon but sparring with it reduces the time required for training associated skills

[fierce star]

oooh, sounds fun

not a lto of people use training times to my knowledge but the rules do exist

[tulip folio]

I was thinking of also letting you use it for those 'train battle group' charms like Training Mandate of Celestial Empowerment or Fury Brought Forth. Though you'll need more of them the bigger the battle group being trained.

[fierce star]

oooh

makes sense

[bleak hazel]

training times should be standard for every game, honestly

they're basically the downtime rules and without them John Dawn is bored as hell and keeps agitating for faster play while Jane Twilight and Jimmy Eclipse are sitting around waiting for timers

or more likely Jane and Jimmy don't get to do shit because everything is already paced for John Dawn

[tulip folio]

Something like

Training Dummy: Training Automatons are designed to help learners improve, demonstrating moves carefully, then probing weaknesses in testing. A Training Automaton halves the training time to improve Physical Attributes, Brawl, Melee, Martial Arts and Specialities for those abilities. They lack the understanding of how others manipulate essence to reduce the training time of charms, however.

A battle group of training automatons can also halve the training time of charms that resolve around training battle groups such as Fury Brought Forth and Training Mandate of Celestial Empowerment by supporting the training. A battle group of Training Automatons can support the training of a battle group up to 2 size larger than themselves, with a single training automaton able to support the training of a battlegroup up to size 2.

Halves the training time of attributes and skills but not charms as it's not smart enough to teach you how to Duck Punch faster, just normal punch 😛

This seem okay?

[lament owl]

That’s looks good to me

[tulip folio]

I think statwise I'm going to make them have very good accuracy and parry, moreso than you'd normally see...tied with an absolutely bottom tier base damage.

They get stopped by soak really hard

Because they're trying to beat you with a non-lethal training sword despite how skilled they are.

And hey, it's a pretty useful 'I want a half-decent bodyguard'

As while it's not very deadly, it's primary actions do include senses and read intentions.

It's good at noticing things

Gentle Lesson (5m, 2i; Reflexive; Instant; Essence 2): The Training Assistant brings its extensive expertise to bear, adding +2 Parry against an attack. A successful block against an attack from within Close Range has the attacker fall prone.

Maybe?

[marsh garden]

sorry, what's block? is that just synonymous with parry?

[tulip folio]

That is 'iki forgot what word to use' 😛

But yes

[marsh garden]

reasonable

[tulip folio]

Playing with it not really being a combat automaton with its combat charms.

Instructive Tap (5m; Simple; Instant; Withering-Only): The Training Assistant makes a Withering attack that doubles any Defense penalties its target suffers against an attack, to a maximum of -3 additional penalty. A successful hit deals no damage but prevents the onslaught penalty to her target’s Defense from refreshing on the start of his next turn.

'Nope, bad block'

It's combat plan is basicly 'block you, go "Nope, that wasn't a good attack", knock you prone and then gentle whap you on the head with a soft wooden stick going "And you're blocking like shit too."'

[velvet raft]

I've been struggling to put this character together, so I am pleased to have gotten the details worked out https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aYumM7EqliH0AtMCL9C7M3LtYnxz282Wg-CTtKMfQJw/edit?usp=sharing

[fierce star]

hell yeah embarrassment combat

[tulip folio]

'Let's all calm down and discuss this rationally'

Are you sure this is an Exalt? 😛

[velvet raft]

This is Reasonable Infernal :D

[marsh garden]

MY GOD

BRO HAS THE CONTEXT HAT

i think i love them

[tulip folio]

Finished up the Training Assistant. Ratshit at killing people but it's very frustrating to fight.

[fierce star]

nice

[velvet raft]

The funny thing is that a significant portion of Infernal Archery is about hatred and fury

[tulip folio]

I mean it when I say ratshit. It's got a good dice pool but that's a bad damage. A militia short sword is 11 damage.

Though the militia also has no charms and 4 less dice on the 'actually hitting people' 😛

It's going to be going minimum damage on all but the most fragile of people.

[tulip folio]

God, fucking sick bones

Trying to find out 'how far can you travel overland in a day in exalted'

Corebook does not have!

Trackless Region Navigation is 'oh yeah, you can go 20 miles/day if it's not notably hard terrain' but from my research that's...not really notably faster than an army could actually march (According to Vegetius, recruits did that loaded with gear)

So if you take a solar charm

You can march as fast as a Roman Recruit did IRL

[prisma sun]

Crucible

https://i.imgur.com/EEeVIxV.png

[tulip folio]

...god humans are slow in exalted.

[prisma sun]

I mean I think this is describing walking

[tulip folio]

Oh sure but Vegetius has roman recruits managing walking 20/day carrying heavy gear.

I think the devs just picked a number without research

[velvet raft]

This may just be yeah that

[buoyant summit]

That is like

aaaaaaaaaalllllllll day

sunup to sundown

eating on the move

that's a forced march

[prisma sun]

That's hustling your buns yeah

[velvet raft]

The TTRPG classic of "devs don't actually know the capabilities of the human body very well"

[prisma sun]

Keep in mind that it's not like there's Good Roads in most of creation

[buoyant summit]

Romans also built fuckin

[tulip folio]

There isn't but that's also lower distances than my lazy-ass hiked in scouts carrying a backpack over wilderness. XD

[buoyant summit]

Goated roads, this is true

There was also the matter of keeping thousands of men in marching cohesion

[tulip folio]

(This came about because I was pondering how much faster a mount that never tired could travel in a day)

[bleak hazel]

ten miles a day is about normal if you have a really big group walking

I believe it's the standard rate for most US civil war columns

[dense verge]

Yeah, the ten/day or 25/day if youre roman is when you need to worry about baggage trains and marching columns, i kinda remember an ACOUP blog post on it. The man in the front of the column doesnt start marching until the man at the back passes him iirc, is one of the things

[dense verge]

ok i misremembered, closer to 20

average human walking speed is 2.5-3mph though

[tulip folio]

Steel Strider
Sorcerers have attempted many times over centuries to create artificial mounts. A tireless mount that will not find itself harmed by the Anima Flux of a Prince of The Earth would be very valuable. Most, however, soon find the same flaw - Without the soft flesh and the give of muscle and bone, these creatures are abominably unpleasant to ride to such a degree that they are practically worthless.

Steel Striders are one of the few examples that have lasted. While not common, they are popular in the south and in the scavenger lands as mounts that can keep walking all night even as the master sleeps and will not require water or food. To make them more comfortable, they resemble a camel or giraffe with a large soft howdah on the back more than a traditional horse.

The reason for pondering - Adding another automaton to the list of ones that can be made.

This one is a mount!

[dense verge]

Oooh

[tulip folio]

It won't ever be 'demon' versatile but I want some cool options to tempt people.

So the 3 I have planned right now:

Steel Strider - Mechanical Mount
Silver Dragonfly - Flying Mechanical Spy
Dreamwarden - A tiny teddy bear that can eat people trying to invade its master's dreams.

Peaceful Rest - Sleeping characters within Short Range of the Dreamwarden have +2 Resolve and Guile.

Protector of Innocence (5m, Reflexive, Instant, Decisive): Those who attempt to invade the sleep of those under the Dreamwarden's charge find themselves torn apart by dream claws that leave all too real wounds. 

The Dreamwarden clashes any attempt to enter or alter the dreams of a character within short range of it, regardless of the attacker's range with a Decisive Attack. Against unrolled effects, the opposing character rolls a dice pool of the Storyteller’s choice. If the action occurred outside of combat, the Dreamwarden may immediately roll Join Battle to generate an initiative for this attack. The Dreamwarden does not suffer reduced damage for being smaller than the attacker when Clashing this way.

[lament owl]

Behemoth idea: Big Nice Smelling Ooze monster that is great at social stuff but can only communicate through taste

[tulip folio]

Dreamwarden
Sleep is often no refuge to children of powerful dynasts, sorcerers and demons attempting to manipulate or harm them in the dreaming realm. Dreamwardens are automatons who dwell halfway in the land of sleep, watching over it at the same time as they guard the physical form of their ward. In order to placate children, Dream Wardens often take the form of soft toys or small marching soldiers, able to entertain and befriend their charge so that they will be trusted to protect their dreams.

Those who attempt to invade the sleep of those under the Dreamwarden's charge find themselves torn apart by dream claws that leave all too real wounds. 

Dream Warden Fluff!

The Anti-Freddy Kruger.

[lament owl]

Hype as fuck honestly

Love the idea of a demon of wyld entity trying to invade someone's mind and they just Already Have A Guard

[tulip folio]

Not done yet (Needs more charm stuff) but it's taking shape.

I'm very happy with the Primary/Secondary Actions.

It's not really a deadly foe most of the time but if you're a very specific problem, it will eat you.

Hmm...did some adjustment.

Protector of Innocence (5m, Reflexive; Instant; Decisive; Eclipse; Essence 2): The Dreamwarden clashes any attempt to enter or alter the dreams of a character within short range of it, regardless of the opposing character's range, with a Decisive Attack. Against unrolled effects, the opposing character rolls a dice pool of the Storyteller’s choice. If the action occurred outside of combat, the Dreamwarden may immediately roll Join Battle to generate an initiative for this attack. The Dreamwarden instinctively senses such perils in time to use this Charm, even against unknown foes.

The Dreamwarden does not suffer reduced damage for being smaller than the attacker when Clashing this way. An Eclipse who learns this charm can use it even while asleep though not while otherwise incapacitated.

This gained a new keyword!

[tulip folio]

Miscellaneous Charms
Warm Artificial Heart (5m; Supplemental; Instant; Essence 1): The Dreamwarden rerolls 1s on a roll to weaken a negative intimacy. If the negative intimacy is based in Fear, it instead rerolls 1s and 2s.

Okay, gave the Dreamwarden a final charm. It's not much of a combatant unless you are very specifically trying to fuck with someone's dreams but it's a good fluffy friend.

Honestly pondering making that not a dice trick.

[tulip folio]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gtCOddPlkDDgIWg9o1iJdWi0XxmCYW9j6Py1GBFE3vw/edit?usp=sharing Alright, they're done until I get some more automaton ideas. How do these seem?

[tulip folio]

The Automatons:

Puppet Soldiers - Versatile Combat Automatons with a variety of weapon option subtypes.
Training Assistant - An automaton designed for sparring. Skillful but not deadly, it helps speed up training.
Steel Strider - An automaton mount, tireless and durable.
Dreamwarden - A soft toy automaton that guards people's dreams from those that would attack them.

[tulip folio]

Pondering more automatons to add:

Dragonfly Repair Automaton. Like a smaller, faster, less deadly fix beetle.
Mantis Melee Assassin. Tiny But Stabby.
Sniper Assassin, Form Currently Undecided. Make it do almost no damage but it delivers poison at long range

[limpid badge]

Hrmnn

what about a spider for the poison assassin?

doing the classical "a wire you drip poison down into someone's mouth while they sleep"

[tulip folio]

That could be fun...wait...wait...I could combine the two ideas and give it poisoned razor wire

It's not so sharp it's severing limbs or something but it only needs a small cut for the toxin to be delivered

[nova yew]

exalted is a funny game

[nova yew]

yea

[tulip folio]

Cobwebs Across Face (6m, Simple, Decisive-only, Essence 1)
The <Name> makes a Decisive attack with its Razor Spinnerets against a target within Medium Range. This attack deals no damage and does not reset the <Name> back to base initiative but does deliver the Razor Spinneret's poison.

Noticing the attack requires a (Perception + Awareness roll) from all onlookers, including the victim, against
a difficulty of 6. If it attacked from concealment, it doesn’t break stealth as long as no enemies or bystanders succeed on their Awareness roll.

[limpid badge]

yaaaaay yaaaay~

[chilly sluice]

Funny play on Birdsong over Blades with the name

[tulip folio]

100% the charm I had open on my monitor while writing.

[chilly sluice]

Yeah I assumed

[tulip folio]

I also might let it mix up a few unusual toxins. That seems fun for messing with people.

Simple action, add a new additive to your toxin. Adds an extra effect to it.

Ghost Flower: Poison infused with Ghost Flower can affect undead, despite their usual immunity to poison. A living creature killed by this poison always rises as a ghost.

Stuff like this.

Also steal some of the alt toxin types from the lunar mutation list

Like Halucinogenic and such

[tulip folio]

Hmm...this read okay? Pondering something for those automatons I'm doing up:

Sidebar - If Mindless, How Intimacies?
Obviously a mindless character, like these automatons, cannot have emotional connections. It does not know love or hate. It doesn't really 'know' anything. Despite that, however, automatons are advanced creations more complicated than a simple wooden hobby horse. They are designed with processes they follow and approaches they default to. For example: An automaton designed for Assassination will default to a stealthy, underhanded method rather than a direct assault when ordered to kill a target. 

As such, while they may not have emotional ties, these automatons do have intimacies that give storytellers a clear understanding of their priorities. These can also come into play when a being can ignore the usual mindless immunity to influence, such as an Alchemical's Automaton Override Array. Even a champion of the Great Maker finds it harder to order an automaton into doing something it was actively designed never to do.

[velvet raft]

Today in cool infernal things: infernal Socialize lets you do a group social defense by making a snarky comment

[tulip folio]

Oh wow, a snarky comment. How impressive. /s

😛

More seriously: It's a very good social defence. Alchs have one like it and it's a real strong tool.

It doesn't auto-cancel it for everyone but it also acts as an AOE Instil to oppose it for everyone who can hear you.

[marsh garden]

i love the phrasing on that

"letting her generate effective counterarguments" just oozes that exact Intj Simulating Potato Chips shitpost energy

[coral wraith]

charismatic rebel: "don't you see? you have to fight against the powers that be!"
infernal: "ooo YoU hAvE tO fIgHt aGaInSt ThE pOwErS tHaT bE"
charismatic rebel: "what was that"
infernal: "nothin"

[tulip folio]

Defensive Charms
Heart-Stopping Toxins (6m, Reflexive; Instant; Essence 2)
Up to 3 points of penalties from Crippling Effects, Wound Penalties and Poison subtract successes instead of dice on an attack against the Alchrachnid.

Pondering interesting defensive tricks for a poison-based NPC.

[bleak hazel]

about a day left on Infernals feedback if anyone has some they haven't got in yet

other than "this shit rocks"

[velvet raft]

I got in my complaint about Adorjan

[bleak hazel]

I did my grumbling about torments and 2cds being too cheap

obviously they can't be that expensive if you need that many of them to progress down the devil-tiger path but 2xp just makes everyone who invested in minor X-blooded servants or buffed pets feel miserable

[velvet raft]

Yeeeeeah

[mighty rover]

anyone have a Dead Spouse Defense screencap

[mighty rover]

🙏

[marsh garden]

for anybody that's used the exalted foundry module, do y'all have any idea what could be doing this visual nightmare?

i cannot see anything to pick

it's so painful to squint at these words

[ruby geyser]

do u have any ui modules enabled

[marsh garden]

none that i'm aware of, no

[ruby geyser]

yeah idk then, my advice would be turn modules off one at a time and see if it fixes anything

[marsh garden]

well, not the GM so i'll have to ask them

[limpid badge]

hi chat i love infernals so much

[tulip folio]

I am concerned about a player's response when making an abyssal to getting to the Lover's writeup is 'please give me a necromancy book and step on me' XD

[merry arch]

they're right

[merry arch]

I stan the lover I get it

[lunar magnet]

I also had that reaction to Lover back in 2e.

[tulip folio]

I added a new automaton and it's An Asshole. Thanks @limpid badge for the spider idea, it blossomed into something I hate (Approvingly)

Hate Weaver
Large mechanical spiders of pitted iron and stained brass, Hate Weavers are animated by vitriolic and poisonous thoughts of their creators. Where most automatons can only be created by deliberate actions, there are stories of these spiders being called to life by artificers smithing metal with malice in their hearts.

Along their backs are roiling vials of toxins that drip down into spinnerets and fangs. The weaver is more than capable of mixing its own poison, creating deadly admixtures by blending it with exotic substances. These mixed toxins are incredibly painful, with those targeted by them dying horribly.

These automatons are illegal beyond their danger in Yu Shan for twin reasons: The vitriol that flows through these shapes confuses and terrifies Pattern Spiders that look into a soulless and hate-filled imitation of their own form. The Bureau of Destiny opposes them in turn because something about this mixture of shape and substance allows them to slip through lesser webs of fate, disrupting the plans of seers. 

Abominable Imitation: The Hate Weaver is an Enemy of Fate and is immune to thaumaturgical divination, which cannot predict it or its actions. Pattern Spiders have a Minor Tie of fear towards Hate Weavers.

Full on Sidereal Divination works fine on it. It's not that powerful but mortal thaumaturges can't see it.

[fierce star]

oooh

[velvet raft]

Pondering past lives for my alchemical

I think the most recent one was effectively a ranger out in the Autochthonian wilds

[fierce star]

alchemical past lives are fun

[velvet raft]

This is an adamant

Ranger and … wait okay this is good

The most recent incarnation was basically Steve Irwin

[fierce star]

my alchemical's past lives keep being martyrs. In rough chronological order of the four most important for her:

An Archmagos from what is effectively a group of tunnel folk wizards that sacrificed himself in a sorcerous working to become the foundations of the game's metropolis
A factory worker in a water factory who was the last one who didn't fall sick to ash-fever, who begged the tripartite to help the water purification factory for just one shift so people didn't die to bad water, then worked himself to death to provide for the city.
A tunnel folk doctor who's tribe had become overtaken by body-snatching gremlins, who escaped them and warned the nearest metropolis, then assisted in the attack against her former people and studying their bodies afterwards.
A Luminor on patrol with a group of militia who had them seal the tunnel behind her while she used her experimental technology to hold them off for a full day before reinforcements could arrive; all that was left was her soulstone, her jade hand, and her hat, but gremlins still can't enter that tunnel to this day.

autochthonian steve irwin

you have my attention

[velvet raft]

But with more archery

Basically a wilderness educator

In addition to being a ranger

[fierce star]

"Ah you don't gotta be afraid of the machine spirits here, look at 'em, they're friendly! You do gotta respect 'em, though, make sure you're carrying some scrap copper going through here to offer to 'em as you pass."

[velvet raft]

Bits of Steve Irwin and maybe also Carl Sagan in there

[fierce star]

I like to come up with 3-6 important past lives for my alchemicals

[velvet raft]

I think another incarnation might be a factory shift supervisor who also taught martial arts, a sort of Jigoro Kano figure who rehabilitated esoteric practices for modern use

[marsh garden]

...how about Tommy Karate

except, y'know, less of a serial killer and maybe more of a vigilante or something

...are literally the only strength rolls in 3e Feats of Strength and withering damage (and accuracy with the str-to-hit charms)?

wack

[coral wraith]

There are a decent few Sidereal charms that use Strength

[fierce star]

I've called for str+various skills before on occasion

but i also tend to offer players like

Pick An Option on rolls

like if someone's trying to right a ship's mast mid-fleet battle I might ask for str + athletics, sail, or craft (shipbuilding) for example

[marsh garden]

sorry, i will specify: generic rolls, not bespoke charms (since i'm sure sids and the att exalts have plenty)

i was just looking at foundry and trying to parse the exalted module's fuckass formatting

and thinking about how Rushing is dex, Disengaging is dex, Standing is dex, Taking Cover is dex, attack rolls are of course dex, and then a lot of athletics example rolls are dex

and athletics is the only ostensibly default-strength stat

with stealth, larceny, parry, dodge, and (according to foundry) sail and ride all keying off dex as well

[fierce star]

Sail is mostly wits by the book

[marsh garden]

i was just wondering if i was missing something or if there was only a single default action type (feats) and damage rolls that strength applied to by default

[marsh garden]

ah, thanks

[velvet raft]

I’m a big fan of Kano, his life story is outrageously cool

[marsh garden]

he lived relatively recently, yeah?

like up to the 1950s or something

[velvet raft]

Yep. Very academically talented young man who got into some very socially stigmatized martial arts when he was 18

[fierce star]

but yeah dex being a god stat is a known problem

I just wanted to point out sail because i've made two sail supernal equivalents lately so I had to learn the system lol

[velvet raft]

Approached them intellectually, and eventually extracted out all of the supernatural elements and developed his own pedagogy to make them much more teachable

And that’s judo

Jujutsu but with an underlying educational structure

[marsh garden]

such is the state of tabletoppery

[velvet raft]

The uniforms, the belts, etc.? All that is from Kano

He designed the jacket to give students something to grab and to defend grabbing

He developed belt color in order to distinguish students by expected proficiency

I feel like that makes him ideal as the basis for an adamant’s past life

[velvet raft]

Hey, uh, were the rules for immaterial beings ever actually written down anywhere, or do they exist entirely in the form of implications?

[tulip folio]

They are themselves immaterial, yes.

[marsh garden]

OH

something i keep forgetting to ask

when you gain a story-based merit, do you have to pay for its dots as a purchase anyway, or are they just...things/people that you now have access to, as with the equipment and allies in any other system?

it's not quite clear to me whether story is "you still have to pay for it, but it's also gated by story stuff" or "no, we're not going to make you pay xp for the six dots of friends that you've made"

[tulip folio]

You Just Get It

The real exp value is the friends you made along the way.

[tulip folio]

The infernal charm that can just Grant People them is an exception

You do need to pay for them.

[marsh garden]

oh, the mutations one?

[tulip folio]

Because you didn't earn them, you just magic'd it up

[marsh garden]

yeah i think there are a few of those, right?

[velvet raft]

[tulip folio]

This one still makes you pay the exp

As you just went 'bam, have them'

Instead of Doing Story Stuff to get them.

[marsh garden]

right right

[tulip folio]

When she is finished, the weapon gains one new Emerald, Sapphire, and Adamant Evocation.
...what the fuck are Emerald/Sapphire/Adamant evocations?

[marsh garden]

w-wha

what book is this from?

[tulip folio]

Core Book

[marsh garden]

oh god

[tulip folio]

I'm gunna assume 'not a thing, sick bones'

[marsh garden]

of course it is

i uh

i guess maybe you could decide to interpret them as E1/E3/E5?

[wise ocean]

that does seem most logical, I guess

just map them directly to the sorcerous circles since those are hard essence-locked too

[marsh garden]

that was my thought, yeah

tiers of play, basically

[nova yew]

I love her

[next delta]

My recollection (which I might be confusing with a different, similar game system) is that you don't have to pay XP for them. But it does mean you can potentially lose them without recompense. If you do spend XP on them, it's harder for said merits to go away, and if they do, you get stuff (the XP back at a minimum)

[ruby geyser]

idk if Ex3 explicitly says that anywhere, but that is how it works in CofD/nWoD, Sanctity of Merits(granted i think in cofd, any lost merit dots remain as merit dots, you can just reassign what merits they're for, instead of regaining the cost as xp)

[lament owl]

Sancititty of merits/xp refunds aren't a thing in exalted o my knowledge

[tulip folio]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gtCOddPlkDDgIWg9o1iJdWi0XxmCYW9j6Py1GBFE3vw/edit?usp=sharing Okay got a lot more of them done, including a little Spy Automaton in the Silver Dragonfly.

[next delta]

It's at least sometimes a thing. Notably for Sorcerous Workings. But I think a few other places say it

[tulip folio]

The Silver Dragonfly is garbage offensively but on the plus side - It's sneaky enough that even an exalt needs to work to spot the little fucker. Not so sneaky that a exalt good at spotting won't see it but enough that it's very good at avoiding notice and letting people know what's going on. It's basicly a Exalted-Era Spy Drone. XD

[lament owl]

question: are ogres a disttinct thing from No-Moon Lunars?

[tulip folio]

Ogres are a type of Fey! Buck-Ogres are the full name.

[lament owl]

Oh ok!

that makes sense

[tulip folio]

The guy with two heads here

[lament owl]

nodding

[lament owl]

this is a really nice selection of like, generally useful automta

like the only Offical automoton I can think of is Lodestone and that guy is like, a specifically named charecter

[tulip folio]

I've got 2 more planned but I need to sleep first. XD

1) A little melee assassin Praying Mantis with Stabby Blades
2) A pretty musician. An expensive toy for very rich dynasts but good at helping defuse tension around it.

As right now there isn't really a 'social option' for them. Being mindless there's only really so much you can do socially but 'background musician that defuses tension' seems viable.

[tulip folio]

Yay. It's never going to be as Versatile as Summon Demon or Elemental as I'm one person, not a full dev team writing them but I wanted a wide enough swathe that there's generally something useful for a given area of play.

[lament owl]

you also just provide the base template so if anyone needs something else they can make it

[tulip folio]

Yeah. My current plans before calling it good are do up those two automata, see if anyone has something they'd really like to see done up, then do up a Celestial Circle spell that gives you a Big Automata. As if the Thousand Zombie Titan can exist, you can make a giant automata that's not zombie powered too 😛

[limpid badge]

finally read these, they're so cute

[buoyant summit]

Is Solar Archery as busted as every other solar combat tree?

[fierce star]

Yes

[buoyant summit]

God damn it

xD

[merry arch]

sick bones

[fierce star]

chosen of the god of sick bones; just uses the solar charmset

[buoyant summit]

How similar is Golden Calibration? Is it the same charms just toned down?

[merry arch]

i like golden calibration, some things got toned down, other things made Functional, trims off some of the fat in solar's charm trees iirc

[bleak hazel]

it does add some new busted stuff and doesn't nerf anything

so nicer solars, not better balanced solars

[limpid badge]

it makes their bones less sick

[velvet raft]

But they're still sick in the sense of snapping the game over their knee

[buoyant summit]

God Fucking Damn It

[coral wraith]

It's still perfectly playable, you just need to acknowledge that Solaroid power do be Solar'ing

[merry arch]

yea and if its for voys server i think you should be fine, like yea solars are fuckin buuuuuuuuusted but it's narrative first so you can scale things back accordingly so you're not the Best Guy Ever To Do Everything Ever

[buoyant summit]

Tru

Is Voy using Golden?

[merry arch]

i don't think he's made any statement on that, but i don't necessarily think it'd be an issue

[buoyant summit]

I wanna make a very like

'Culture Hero' type character, and Solars seem like

That Is The Splat

reads wise arrow in core

'sorry what'

[coral wraith]

wise arrow :)

[mighty rover]

yeah

[buoyant summit]

P a i n

[prisma sun]

Imo I think terrestials make better culture heroes

Since they dont really outgrow their boys the way solars do

[buoyant summit]

Is there a Terrestrial Exigent that could be a Culture Hero?

[velvet raft]

FWIW, given we're not actually using full game mechanics, that seems like an excellent opportunity to do it without having to worry about everything being sick

[prisma sun]

Any of 'em

[buoyant summit]

Fair point...

[velvet raft]

I get the psychic struggle over it

[prisma sun]

Just like Don't make a broken build

[buoyant summit]

I will admit most of what I have been told about them is they are fundamentally broken

[mighty rover]

"Solars do OP stuff" is like, the whole point, not a bug
that's not being broken that's just the power fantasy

[velvet raft]

The issues with solars are largely that they have a lot of charms that just sort of ignore the game as written

And they have a ton of bloat

[merry arch]

they have a lot of issues because of the power fantasy being pursued so fucking hard but beside that solars are like genuinely fucking cool to play with conceptually

[velvet raft]

But the thematics of the charms are fine, generally speaking

[merry arch]

like yeah it's kind of impossible to avoid them being mechanically broken but the best way you can offset that is by building wide rather than tall at character generation

[velvet raft]

It does help

[wise ocean]

e+1 is a genuine help in enforcing that, yeah

[velvet raft]

But also, this is a context where the thematics matter a lot more than the actual broken mechanics

[wise ocean]

also just don't take hth

[merry arch]

yeah

[wise ocean]

(amusingly enough infernals has an explicit hth counter charm tree)

[coral wraith]

Solar Brawl is absolutely batty

[buoyant summit]

hth?

[chilly sluice]

Heaven Thunder Hammer

[velvet raft]

There's at least a half-dozen charms in Solar Brawl that just don't engage with the actual game

[buoyant summit]

Oh nah this person would be bow and sword (in accord)

[velvet raft]

But again, this feels like an opportunity to do that without worrying

Also, bow and sword + culture hero now I'm imagining Link as a Solar

[chilly sluice]

he tracks as one

[wise ocean]

agreed

[buoyant summit]

You're not wrong

Link is on there lmao

Mostly because they (fight me) are the posterchild of the 'noble hero with bow and sword'

[tulip folio]

Yay! Glad to hear it

[velvet raft]

Typically also a ton of other artifacts

[buoyant summit]

Tru

But like

[lament owl]

Had the thought recently of a brawl solar who goes around holding a weapon but the moment they actually need to lock in and fight do or die they just stab their weapon into the ground and leeave it there

Hourah Loux Shit

[buoyant summit]

The Hero's Bow is their most iconic item barring the hookshot, possibly, after the Master Sword

[velvet raft]

Oh yeah, I’m just saying Link is big on evocations

They have that adventurer thing going on where they are covered in magic gear

[wise ocean]

The Hoarah Loux intro cutscene goes indescribably hard - I'm absolutely stealing vibes from it for when my Abyssal goes loud

that said, there's no topping Have it writ on thy meagre grave.

[prisma sun]

King Hu is on that Horah Loux shit

https://tenor.com/view/elden-ring-kiecaburn-animation-fan-animation-action-gif-25444195

[velvet raft]

Sudden thought: one of my adamant’s past lives is a guy who purely by chance worked with multiple elder Alchemicals to become metropoli

[prisma sun]

I thought Alchemicals didn't reincarnate?

[spring lynx]

in 2e at least their soulstones keep the whole history of them

[dense verge]

Alchs have their soulgems passed down i think?

[fierce star]

Alchemicals have mortal past lives

and they need a good half dozen or more of them to have been the sort of person who would have earned an exaltation in creation

you can't just use any soul to catalyze an alchemical

it's gotta have vintage

my Alchemical's flaw is actuallyi that it hasn't been long enough since her last mortal incarnation and her birth, so her past live memories are abnormally strong

[buoyant summit]

I Have Now Read Architect

It Is Now My Favorite

[buoyant summit]

In a world where aura farming is key to kingship, like the Lands Between

Morgott is Godfrey's truest successor

[marsh garden]

his smoke too tough...

[buoyant summit]

Morgott is maybe my favorite character

Extremely misguided

But he is locked in

[fierce star]

When Kings rise against, have it writ on their grave: The old gods were slain by a mortal unnamed.```

aviators is a good band

... Is M-R-L still a thing in ex3 or has she not been mentioned at all?

[bleak hazel]

completely unmentioned as far as I know

we have about 0.5 facts about the First Age and long may it stay that way

[prisma sun]

Other than "robots and monkey nannies"

[fierce star]

Also the forest witches

[tulip folio]

...hmm...pondering if an effect is too potent to put on the equivalent of a First Circle Demon, as it is an exalt charm.

'While I'm performing, people have penalties to awareness due to distraction'

[fierce star]

Maybe take off the double nines?

And or the flurrying?

[tulip folio]

That's fair.

Working out some cool effects for a Performing Automaton that does have an essence pool (As these automatons are designed to be on par with a first circle demon).

I'm also dangerously tempted to steal the Infernal Melodrama Charm but that's also a Solaroid Charm.

Maybe remove the increased WP cost to resist?

[tulip folio]

Set The Scene(8m, 1wp; Simple; One performance; Essence 2): The <Name>'s music flows through the world around it, setting the scene for all who hear. It chooses one of the following, rolling Music and affecting characters with resolve lower than its successes:
  -Passion: Affected character respond to their emotions in an overt, dramatic, and potentially excessive way.
  -Headliner: Affected characters suffer a -3 penalty to awareness-based rolls to notice anything but the performer.
  -Accompaniment: Affected characters cannot notice the performer unless it rolls Join Battle or takes an overt action.
  -Serenity: Affected characters treat time listening to this performance as restful sleep for all purposes, unless they are engaged in hard physical actions (Such as Fighting or Laboring).

A character may choose to be affected, even if their resolve is higher than the number of successes rolled or may resist the effects by spending a willpower. Trivial characters can't resist. The <Name> can take other actions while continuing the performance by flurrying them with a miscellaneous action to continue performing.

[buoyant summit]

So

idfk how Exigents work

Is there a like

'general Terrestrial/Celestial charm list'

[mighty rover]

no

[buoyant summit]

That Exigents of that type have

Okay

So the Architect charms are all their charms

Got it

[tulip folio]

Yep. Most Exigents are kinda like...2/3s of an exalt charm-wise, if you go into a full game. There's a bit of an expectation to make up extra stuff for them.

Hmm...need a good name for 'Automaton performer'. It's likely to be one of the More Humanoid Ones.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Bv6SLWnZTe0/maxresdefault.jpg

[spring lynx]

stringless puppet

[tulip folio]

Forgot Malifaux has an automaton performer that's pretty close to what I was imagining. XD

[lament owl]

so the thing about exigents as a book

is that its the "so you wanna make a homebrew exalt" book

also happy new year exalted thread

[buoyant summit]

waow

Was Thorns noted for its Martial Arts or nah? <XD

[lament owl]

sadly no

[buoyant summit]

Damn

No Neutral MAs for this Architect

Tho

I guess that would make less sense for them than Melee and Archery

[limpid badge]

I was trying to think of something useful but the only name i came up with was Sagacious Doll which sounds better for a like, automaton bureaucrat

[tulip folio]

I'll figure something out. Thanks for thinking about it though. XD

[wise ocean]

Mechanical/Brasswork Virtuoso?

[tulip folio]

That could be fun, yeah.

Also: Do you think it would be bad form to steal and slightly modify Verdant Emptiness Endowment for an exalt I'm tinkering with? I'm going to strip out the 'YOU OWE ME PART' and adjust the themes.

Basicly, rather than 'deal with the devil', it's much more 'Fairy Godmother', as the Wanderer is a Wyld-Based Exalt

[velvet raft]

Hm, so I want 5-6 past lives that my Adamant remembers. What I've got so far is:

• Worked with three separate alchemicals on their metropoli transformations
• Kano Jigoro but a foreman teaching wood dragon to factory workers
• Steve Irwin but autochthonian
  This is hard.

[velvet raft]

Yeah, I think that's fair

As is, Verdant Emptiness Endowment can be played as much for The Grace Of God as for Deal With The Devil

[tulip folio]

Keys
Pumpkin-Carriage Blessing (Essence 2) The Wanderer can also grant the target up to five objects with a resources cost no more than (Essence) that reflect the nature of the wish. A ballgown spun of morning dew or a weapon made of the stars itself, these objects are visibly ephemeral and vanish when the Wanderer ends this charm, even if he purchases the traits permanently.

Wyld Ball Mask (Pumpkin-Carriage Blessing) The Wanderer can weave a tale around those they bless, allowing him to step into an archetypal role. While blessed this way, the difficulty to recognise him as his previous identity is (Essence +3), unless it would otherwise be higher. Trivial characters cannot oppose this, regardless of difficulty. This effect vanishes when the Wanderer ends this charm, even if he purchases the traits permanently.

The two keys I have noted down are both...well, let's be honest, they're for Doing Cinderella Shit.

But Wyld Ball Mask giving you a 'I don't know who you are but I don't recognise you as bob' is pretty generally useful for wanted people and such

[tulip folio]

Something I like to do is work out a past life they wouldn't have gotten along with.

[velvet raft]

Hm, makes sense

[tulip folio]

RiRi's got an Estacian Captain as one of her previous lives. They were part of Estacian Purge Teams. The guys with the flamethrowers and sealed suits who get brought out when they think there might be blight.

She was also kinda...not a good person. She was very 'hero(historical)', not 'hero(modern)'. Brave, Devoted, Loyal. Brutal, Ruthless, Ambitious.

[velvet raft]

I'm kinda using these as part of working out who this character is, which I have unfortunately not quite figured out yet

[buoyant summit]

Making an Architect of Thorns is

Fun

[velvet raft]

Wandering adamant, comfortable in the wild unknowns, sent to Creation almost 800 years ago as a scout because of said comfort

Frantically entered a Kryptonian Healing Coma due to the Great Contagion

[tulip folio]

I keep being tempted one day to make an Architect of Yu Shan.

[buoyant summit]

pfffff

[tulip folio]

Though it would likely require 'working out how to push an Architect to Celestial-Tier'. XD

[marsh garden]

what are architects? a spirit, or a type of exigent?

[tulip folio]

Exigent. Chosen of Cities

[marsh garden]

gotcha

[buoyant summit]

I'm making one for The City The Mask Took

L m a o

[marsh garden]

well, i suppose that's about the right scale for a celestial architect then lmao

OH

ARE THEY A WACK-ASS FUCKED UP DEATH EXI?

LOVE IT

[buoyant summit]

Sadly no

They're roving about the Scavlands gathering support to retake the city, Aragorn style

[marsh garden]

or were they for pre-mask Thorns?

neat

...i imagine the desecration has done something to them, though

[buoyant summit]

That will have to be discussed between Voy and I and like

[marsh garden]

but aragorn city-god goes hard

[buoyant summit]

They Are Busy

[buoyant summit]

Aragorn, the Inquisitor from Dragon Age: Inquisition, Link, and Wander from Shadow of the Colossus are all inspos so far

[marsh garden]

yeah i have like three pcs that i've been working on but i suffer from The Fucking Goblin (impulsive terror of creative engagement or putting anything i do in any place anywhere), so

i have mostly stared quietly at other people doing things there

[velvet raft]

jsyk, Here With The Chains fuckin' hates the Mask of Winters and everyone who works for him

[buoyant summit]

Are you

offering me a ghost army? smirk

[velvet raft]

This is a "and my chains" moment

[buoyant summit]

Currently debating if having both Melee and Archery is

Worth It

At chargen

[wise ocean]

not really

[buoyant summit]

or if I should just take Dex charms at Chargen with Melee and raise it between chargen and making them E3

What's more efficient?

[velvet raft]

If you want to be a generalist, attribute exalt is 100% the way to go

[wise ocean]

that said, I will also be forward with you: I think that you'll be best-served by focusing on the characters and plots you already have instead of adding more, especially since Thorns isn't a focus of this arc

you don't want to hit burnout once things kick into gear

[buoyant summit]

Fair

I will think about bringing them in once Thorns is relevant

[wise ocean]

this is wise

[buoyant summit]

Still gonna make 'em tho cuz like

Thorns Architect goes hard

[velvet raft]

Man, for a second I thought the Athletics prayer-strip charm would be nutty with EGOA form

But the EGOA form text is (wisely) too specific for that

They're still very good together

[buoyant summit]

What arti sounds best for

Sword of the City

[velvet raft]

Since EGOA form removes all flurry penalties and the prayer-strip charm lets you flurry three things

[buoyant summit]

Adorei?

Also Jesus

[velvet raft]

It's an Essence 5 charm, so

[buoyant summit]

fuckin

yeah, ain't it

XDDDDDDDDDDD

[velvet raft]

But for a moment I was hopeful they combined to let you flurry three simple charms (this would be ridiculous and it's good that they don't)

[marsh garden]

you can't flurry (full action) charms at all, yeah?

unless otherwise specified ofc

[velvet raft]

One of the other effects of EGOA form is that you can flurry two simple martial arts charms

[marsh garden]

ahhh

[velvet raft]

And if they're both attacks, you can even combine them into a single one

[velvet raft]

Hm, maybe some sort of old hermit mystic type who selfishly pursued their own enlightenment

[buoyant summit]

Wow

Beloved Adorei is like

Legitimately cool

And making her into a Master Sword-like

With a spirit who awakens, and returns to sleep once duty is done

Is a vibe

[wise ocean]

I mean

(gestures at Skyward Sword)

[buoyant summit]

I

Yes

I am indeed making Fi, lmao

[marsh garden]

https://tenor.com/view/mlfiresoul-my-beloved-fi-legend-of-zelda-the-legend-of-zelda-gif-4460253302444816371

[buoyant summit]

Is there a chocobo-like creature?

Like a terror bird big enough to ride?

[marsh garden]

tyrant lizards

[tulip folio]

Yep, let me get the name!

Huh, corebook forgot to give the Death Moa a speed.

Corebook!

[velvet raft]

I'm shocked

[tulip folio]

But yeah, Death Moas are a giant flightless bird that's as ridable as a tyrant lizard would be but less busted.

[velvet raft]

Shocked that someone would object to the core book

https://tenor.com/bWoAb.gif

[tulip folio]

Looking over the stats they're better than a horse but not that much better. i'd list them as like a 2 dot, ridable familiar if a player wanted a Choboco

It's very good at Beating Up Crashed People but is otherwise not that crazy

[velvet raft]

I like Sky Titans

They're cool

[velvet raft]

I like the idea of using Sid Ride to turn a sky titan into a god

[marsh garden]

are sky titans bigass whales?

[velvet raft]

Naw they're quetalcoatlus

But bigger and meaner

[coral wraith]

it's a titanic quetzalcoatlous basically, yeah

[velvet raft]

They're in Hundred Devils Night Parade

Somehow they are three-dot familiars

[coral wraith]

wingspans larger than 50m

name ain't lying

[velvet raft]

I'm just saying, Sid Ride with one of these assholes

[marsh garden]

holy fuckles

[velvet raft]

Alternately: use a slightly modified version of the statblock to have an extremely large bee

And think about how big that bee is

[marsh garden]

how big dat bee

bee it great and terrible?

[velvet raft]

BEEG

[marsh garden]

beeg...

[velvet raft]

If you froze it you'd have an ice beerg

Also: alchemicals can store 3-dot familiars in their anima with a wits charm

Which means they can store an entire robot sky titan in there

[tulip folio]

'Go Grimlock!'

As an aside: They don't have to be animals. So you could put a Robot Unicorn in your Anima

Or a Robot Barrow Hound

[bleak hazel]

a discarded framework for how evos work that only Core mentions, Arms of the Chosen explicitly scrapped the two charms that depend on it so that one isn't real

[buoyant summit]

They're a valid familiar?????

[velvet raft]

Yeah, like Tyrant Lizards it is actual nonsense

Three-dot familiars include Tyrant Lizards, Sky Titans, Armored Krakens, and ... dolphins.

[buoyant summit]

Wack

[bleak hazel]

Familiar should really go to 5

[velvet raft]

It really should, yes

And just be better-defined in general

[bleak hazel]

or, my preferred option, taming a goddamn dinosaur should require a mid-essence charm

[tulip folio]

They're not the most powerful but Unicorns are my favorite 3 dot familars becasue they A) Have really cool tricks B) Are not as bullshit as the aformentioned terrors.

[buoyant summit]

Unicorns are familiars???

I thought they were fae

[tulip folio]

They are both!

[velvet raft]

They can be both

Unicorns are noted in their descriptions to take debts of gratitude extremely seriously.

Honestly, I'm so perpetually frustrated by the weirdness and ambiguity of the familiar rules that I'm almost inclined to do a homebrew rewrite

[tulip folio]

I'm always kinda annoyed that we have this divide with familiars of 'animal familiars only/works on any familiars' with charms and yet, the most powerful familiars are not the non-animals XD

[velvet raft]

Yeah

And then there's witch-beast pact

[tulip folio]

You'd really think that limitation is there for balance but...not really.

[velvet raft]

Which is my favorite initiation

But also it's entirely unclear what it's meant to work with

[tulip folio]

...wait...

RiRi Likes Rats
Clockwork Companion Template can do any 3 dot familiar
Mice of the Sun are a 3 dot familiar

[velvet raft]

I think stuff like a Barrow Hound or Mouse of the Sun is sort of what witch-beast is aiming for except

Technically those are Not Animals

The whole Strange Beast classification is a problem

[tulip folio]

Barrow Hound with a Necromancy-Shifted Witch-Beast would be really cool.

[velvet raft]

That's my sid on Voy's server

They are explicitly based on my Nobilis character Robin, who has the ghost of Laika the Space Dog as their constant companion

So I grabbed the barrow hound stats

I dunno, my take would just be Let Animals Be Magic

[tulip folio]

Yeah. The mist-swimming sharks are imo Just Animals

They are weird animals

But they're just 'a shark that can swim in mist, not just water'

...Mouse of the Sun feels like it could do some real nonsense with its magical ability.

Resplendent Solar Avatar (Magical): The mouse may reflexively gain a radiant aura emulating its master’s anima banner at the burning level. Its master may extend his anima banner benefits to the mouse for free, or pay the usual cost to grant those effects to the mouse separately. It can’t gain benefits that bestow permanent traits, such as the Eclipse’s ability to learn spirit Charms.

[velvet raft]

Oh holy shit

[tulip folio]

Endings Sid: "Here is my good friend, mouse of the sun. He does 2 damage, overwhelming 6."

[velvet raft]

Can you imagine like

A zenith

Mouse just runs through a crowd of undead, they all explode

[tulip folio]

I'm right now kinda brainstorming which exalt would be the Most Nonsense there. XD

[bleak hazel]

rat gets the whelm from sid animas anyway, they're all team buffs

go rat go

[tulip folio]

Ori Alch turns your familiar into Pikachu but isn't super powerful.

Radiant Glory Nimbus (5m or 0m; Reflexive; Until next turn): Crackling with electric Essence, the Alchemical adds (higher of Essence or 3) to the raw damage and withering attacks and doubles up to (Essence) 10s on a decisive damage roll. This is free at bonfire

"MOUSE OF THE SUN, USE VOLT TACKLE!"

I think Adamant Caste is a really good contender there.

Inspiring Guidance (5m or 0m; Reflexive; Until next turn): Allies within close range of the Alchemical gain +1 non-Charm Resolve and add (Alchemical’s Essence/2, rounded up) non-Charm dice on attack rolls and influence rolls. The Alchemical doesn’t gain this bonus. Outside of combat, this lasts long enough for each of the Alchemical’s allies to take one action. This is free at bonfire.

As the alch doesn't get the bonus themselves

So putting it On The Mouse instead helps a lot.

[velvet raft]

... holy shit yeah that's a hell of a combo

[bleak hazel]

at bonfire anima, it's on the mouse in more ways than one

free dice

[velvet raft]

Yeah I might raise that with my ST in the game where I'm playing an adamant

Because wow

[tulip folio]

I'm kinda tempted just to get RiRi a Cool Mouse friend with her love of mice and rats 😛

Even if Ori's not really a great user of it.

[velvet raft]

Fuck, yeah, it even works fluffwise in autochthonia

[tulip folio]

...wait...

[velvet raft]

Mouse non-Charm dice field, gods

[tulip folio]

Sun’s Shadow Companion (Magical, 1wp): The mouse can learn to use effects equivalent to the Solar Charms Invisible Statue Spirit, Lock-Opening Touch, and Stealing from Plain Sight Spirit, paying one Willpower each in lieu of mote costs. Each requires a separate application of Beast-Mastering Behavior to learn.```
These are magical abilities, anyone can teach these. The master doesn't need to be a solar.

[velvet raft]

This is so funny

oh no

Apparently mice of the sun are amazing?

[tulip folio]

They're not great combat familiars but they're really good little support/stealth guys

[velvet raft]

Thinking about a five-dot familiar system, I think a lot of strange beast types would remain at 3 dots: your barrow hounds, unicorns, etc

Except Mice of the Sun, they get to be 4 dots >_>

[tulip folio]

Also: God I forgot how much of Solar Larceny just decided it didn't want actual rolls involved

And was just 'oh yeah, just perfectly steal shit'

[velvet raft]

Man, eventually getting a Mouse of the Sun as a familiar would be extremely fitting for my adamant ...

[marsh garden]

"magical beast" of any sort as a category always sucks and is dogshit

every game

without fail

[velvet raft]

I think what I'd do is like

[marsh garden]

any time a ttrpg tries to separate mundane and magical animals

it fucking sucks ass

pf2e is...fine, usually

because it's literally just "beasts are animals with 3+ int"

which makes sense

but there are deranged stinkers in there sometimes

and in exalted, where everyone and their mother is 10% wizard? tyrannosaurs and and lightning shaped like a cat should just be the same kind of beast

if you can pet it it's a dog

if it's a dog it's an animal

shrimple as

[velvet raft]

1-dot: literally just a horse or a raccoon or a raiton or a dolphin or something
2-dot: slightly more useful stuff like riding hawks, still not much magical firepower but cool and striking
3-dot: your barrow hounds, pattern spiders, mice of the sun, unicorns, etc
5-dot (requires GM permission or a charm): giant fuckin' monsters

[tulip folio]

My thoughts on 1-dot is mostly 'shit you could easily buy with resources and minimal training'

[velvet raft]

Ye

[marsh garden]

oh, are raitons that weak? i thought they were like

[tulip folio]

A 1 dot familiar is fancy for the bits 'familiar' gives rather than the base creature.

[velvet raft]

Raitons are more-or-less lizardy crows iirc

[marsh garden]

a little bit more useful (if not less common) than shit like a housecat

ic ic

[fierce star]

also let's talk about 'do you buy demons as retainers or familiars'

because up until infernals came out I was always under hte impression more utility/animalistic demosn (agata as the usual example) would be three do tfamiliars

[velvet raft]

We also have weird shit where taking a 1CD or machine spirit as a familiar is explicitly allowed, but we have no information on dots of familiars for them

Honestly that might be 4-dot

Since those charms already exist

[fierce star]

well 1cds are explicilty allowed for infernals, and so implicitly disallowed for anyone else

(which annoys me becuas eone of my favorite Deeb characters had a three do tfamiliar agata who was her husband)

shew as a house nellens battle sorcerer who exalted late (while she was in secondary school), but had obtained sorcery while sitll a mortal under her great-grandmother's tutelage, and the first demon she ever bound was an agata who basically grew up alongside her. They weren't like, de jure married

but they were basically married

[prisma sun]

The only reason I think its implicit is because everyone else isnt assumed to play games in hell

So they explicitly have to summon a demon with a spell instead of spending xp on it

[marsh garden]

speaking of summoning

are any splats explicitly barred from taking 1C necromancy?

i assume not, since mortals can hit 1C in both sorcery and necromancy, yeah?

(other than alchs having to choose one at a time)

[prisma sun]

None of the major ones

Unless deebs can't?

[marsh garden]

looks like deebs can, and i assume just hit 1c like sorcery

[tulip folio]

Yeah, Dragons of Another Colour are rare but nothing stops a PC learning it

Infernals are ironically I think the Most Banned and even then, they can get it.

They just need to jump through hoops to get there

[marsh garden]

oh right because their charm forces them to be In A Fugue

[buoyant summit]

Yeah they need to take Ag levels before casting

[marsh garden]

(which doesn't actually like, cost anything after they've taken a nap to wear off the bloodletting, right?)

(since they can just dick around in it forever)

[tulip folio]

It's aggravated, so it takes a lot a while to heal but yeah.

Alchemicals are socially forbidden from having it.

But the charm to learn it...exists.

It's just Heretical Knowledge

[marsh garden]

who all can hit second circle?

i assume solars, i remember infernals, i know lunars are explicitly called out

can sids hit shadow?

[prisma sun]

I don't think so?

[buoyant summit]

Nope

Sids are Ivory only

[marsh garden]

ah

[prisma sun]

Solars shouldn't be able to do Necromancy imo

[buoyant summit]

I... actually agree lol

[marsh garden]

doesn't that go against the "solars can do everything, and always better than non-specialists" bit?

[buoyant summit]

Yes, I suppose

[marsh garden]

admittedly, i absolutely do not care one whit for that gimmick, but

[prisma sun]

Yes and also I hate that bit

[marsh garden]

it's what i understand theirs to be

[buoyant summit]

I mean that's also where I'm at

The Bit Sucks

The Bit Is Stale

[tulip folio]

Alchs can hit Second Circle but again - Turbo Super Heresy. XD

[buoyant summit]

Get New Material

etc

[tulip folio]

I'd limit them to First Circle personally, not 'not at all'. So basicly, you get 'mortal' level of necromancy.

[buoyant summit]

That might be where I end up on that point yeah

[sacred olive]

Terrestrials have “first circle of one or the other” as their limit

[tulip folio]

It would also really help Lunars to be the only guys who can get second circle in both at once.

[velvet raft]

Deebs can learn one or the other

[marsh garden]

sad

[velvet raft]

Ah, Ru beat me to it

[tulip folio]

Like, that's not 'third circle in either' but it would give lunars a unique place of 'We can do both very damn well'

[velvet raft]

I like that

[marsh garden]

i assume this would restrict infernals to ivory and abyssals to terrestrial, then?

[fierce star]

don't forget, the group that invented necromancy was, at least in previous editions, mostly lunars

[tulip folio]

I'm assuming Abyssals got a similar restriction in sorcery that solars got in necromancy, yeah

[marsh garden]

that's still mentioned in the abyssal book, at least

[tulip folio]

I'd let Infernals keep the fugue thing but make the fugue lock out sorcery access while active.

So they have 3|2 but not both the 3 and the 2 at the same time

[marsh garden]

ah, which makes the AHL cost like

a real mechanical cost for swapping

and not a mostly narrative thing

[prisma sun]

This is also in 3e yeah

Lunars invented necromancy

[marsh garden]

would be another area infernals are the best solaroid, though

[lament owl]

Architects can only do necromancy if their city is in a shadowland

[marsh garden]

oh, that's a really neat restriction

exigents seem so cool in every way lmao

[prisma sun]

anything is cool when you gotta make everything

[marsh garden]

that's my least favorite part

[fierce star]

Sovereigns are oen of sorcery or necromancy

[marsh garden]

i like having the ability to make things, but making it an obligation gives me anxiety

[fierce star]

limited to terrestrial/ivory but they can get ONE celestial or shadow circle spell

despite being terrestrial tier exigents

also their sorcery is craft charms

[lament owl]

Dream souled get one of sorcery and necromancy, but in universe whichever one they can get is determined when they exalt

[fierce star]

fucking love sovereigns

[tulip folio]

Being able to Cough Up A Battlegroup Of Hungry Ghosts or Summon Second Circle Demons is a big fucking deal when 99% of people are limited to terrestial.

[lament owl]

Heart Eaters straight up can’t do necromancy actually

I needed to double check the book

But yeah they get up to celestial sorcery and no necromancy

[fierce star]

despite being solar-tier Janest only gets 1:1 but can get both

[marsh garden]

oh that's cute

[tulip folio]

That remind me. I'd been planning on making Wanderers Not Able To Do Necromancy At All. Make them 2:0.

[marsh garden]

what are wanderers?

[tulip folio]

An exalt I'm working on.

[fierce star]

iki's ongoing megaproject

[marsh garden]

i assume like. mostly unbound exigents?

[buoyant summit]

Iki's Faeboys

[marsh garden]

oh sick!

[tulip folio]

Wyld/Travel Wanderers.

[marsh garden]

are they explicitly Exalts or a fae alternative?

[tulip folio]

Basicly: They're creatures of the Wyld and...things don't die in the Wyld. They warp and shift and stories change but the power of Iron is beyond them.

[lament owl]

Umbrals have the Sidereal Layout, I kinda expected them to have reverse sidereal layout though, and if I ever include them in a game I might give them that

[tulip folio]

They're exalts but they get there very sideways.

Basicly: Autocthon being Autocthon had a whole heap of Tests and Prototypes laying about.

[marsh garden]

ahhh

[tulip folio]

And when a lot of creation was lost to the wyld during the war, some unfinished exaltations were also lost.

Those unfinished exaltations eventually bonded with that Wyld Energy, becoming the Wanderer Exaltation

[marsh garden]

(sorry to ask yet another question with zero non-question input, but what are umbrals?)

[fierce star]

They're Nebiru's chosen, an apocryphal exalt from exigents

[marsh garden]

ahhh

[fierce star]

their thing is being oWoD wraiths with a shadow that is telling them to do self-destructive bullshit becaus ethey're afraid of everything

[marsh garden]

nebiru is i assume a low-focus primordial?

[lament owl]

Umbrals, Heart Eaters and Dream Souled are apocryphal/non-canon exalts

[marsh garden]

like the heart-eaters' goober

[lament owl]

Traitor Incarna

[fierce star]

Incarna, yeah

[marsh garden]

ahh

[fierce star]

they couldn't convince him to side wit the other incarna during the war (IIRC he was going to remain neutral but they didn't trust he would) so they sealed him away forever, then he committed suicide by law of diminishment

[marsh garden]

and Incarna are the divinity "step" of Luna and the UCS right?

[next delta]

Also the maidens

[marsh garden]

(but not gaia, yeah? she's a primordial?)

[lament owl]

Heart Eaters had a incarna as well, proper celestials, she just got defiled/desecrated by the primordials and it fucked them up real bad

They went from “the dnd bards of exalted” to “Cult Leader Exalted”

[marsh garden]

thanks for all the answers

[fierce star]

He, but yeah

eeryone forgets Aurora is male

[tulip folio]

Heart Eaters actually share an Incarnae with the Sovs.

[next delta]

And then the Dream-souled is some weird wyld-entity patron iirc

[lament owl]

Oh damn

I forgor

[fierce star]

it's no big deal, givne Aurora's a female given name (and I kow like 40 transgirls named Aurora...)

[next delta]

Oh huh. That's weird

[fierce star]

and yeah Aurora's corpse is one of hte things empowering the Sovereigns

along with Cantata-of-the-Depths

[tulip folio]

Aurora's twin children are Heart Eaters (More directly linked but corrupted) and the Sovereigns (The Children of their Heart, more closer to his actual themes)

[marsh garden]

aurora is a super fem name, helped not at all by sleeping beauty being aurora

but good to know

[lament owl]

The reason there are so many sovereigns is that they are made with what is left of aurora instead of flames of exigency

[fierce star]

well, they have the flame of exigence too

[marsh garden]

i always enjoy against-gender-role names

[tulip folio]

They're far from done but right now I'm pleased with the nonsense Wanderers do. Their thing is they are profoundly based on Hopes and Dreams and, to a lesser extent, madness.

Darkest Sky Deception
Cost: 3m; Mins: Manipulation 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Lies spill from the Wanderers tongue with all the appeal of water to one dying of thirst.

The Wanderer doubles 9s on an instil or persuade roll based on deception or illogical premises. She converts bonus dice from Stunts to automatic Successes. Her targets can't use Intimacies based on common sense, enlightenment or logic to bolster their Resolve against her influence or resist it in a Decision Point.

I'm just very pleased with 'Can't use intimacies based on common sense, enlightenment or logic to resist this'

[lament owl]

Oh they do?

I completly missed that

[fierce star]

Cantata-of-the-Depths, their other patron, used an Exigence along with the Font of GLories to make the Sovereign exaltations

so you'e got a terrestiral god + an exigence + the still living dead body of an Incarna

it's explicilty why Sovereign limit is so fucked up

[marsh garden]

are there any plans for the apocryphal Exalts to get full books, or would "real" acknowledgement be contrary to company philosophy?

[fierce star]

So the apocryphal ones were SUPPOSED to get full books under the original devs but they didn't get enough interest in the first kickstarter for full books to be promised

[marsh garden]

ah rip

[fierce star]

and the new/current devs are somewhat cool on them, and elected toj ust include them in Exigents as a 'if you're interested, here's how to start' thing

because there's enough exalted in exalted already

[lament owl]

Instead we can simply fantasize/make them yourself with what is provided

[fierce star]

they are contractually obligated to provide us smallsplats for Gets and Liminals, and well, you've heard the discussion around them by now

[marsh garden]

"do it yourself" is not what i look to content books for

[lament owl]

Exigent, is, to be fair

The book about how to do it yourself

[marsh garden]

if it was i would still (have considered, if only briefly) be playing dnd 5e

[fierce star]

I still need to actually play a sovereign one of these days. I love them so much.

[next delta]

Exalted is, somewhat unfortunately, fairly heavy on the do it yourself side of things

[lament owl]

Storyteller games in general are really fascinating to me on this actually because they tend to be pretty mechanically dense but have dedicated Playground developer space, sometimes even obligating you exist in it

Like, Mage asks so much of you on the homebrew side

Mostly for the purposes of making gnosis 2 legacy vs gnosis 3 a meaningful distinction

Sorry

[next delta]

Mage is probably another extreme example. I don't think the other splats are as bad on that front?

[marsh garden]

i've done enough homebrew to accept this (eventually), but

nonetheless, it still makes me sad

[next delta]

Yeah, totally fair

[marsh garden]

i like having Defined Things I Can Look At at basically all points, even and especially when that defined thing is "this is a narrative storygame, this segment of play deliberately has no rules because it is important to us that it remain freeform"

[next delta]

It definitely makes me reluctant to run a 3E game (though the complexity in general also does that)

[marsh garden]

on the topic of brewing, i have

[lament owl]

Honestly, while I understand this sentiment

I already like rooting around in a games guts because I enjoy it

Like mage put a lot of work on me, but my only regret is that my game fell apart before I finished all the legacies I needed to make for when they hit gnosis 2

[marsh garden]

decided to 5-dot my previously 4-dot Character Defining Artifact, and so i've been dinkling around with possible axes for its passive

which is hard

in no small part because it's also surprisingly easy

but then i have to go "okay dipshit, stop circlejerking and make this something that can tie into evocations"

and then "okay dipshit, stop circlejerking and make it something that you can stop investing in eventually so you can actually get your normal charms"

[marsh garden]

i like rooting around in a game's guts too! i've rooted around a decent amount in a few places

i just like for it to be something that is enabled, as opposed to something that is demanded

[tulip folio]

I'd really love to see Hearteaters and Sovs get a combined book one day. Possibly with a 'this is how you combine them to make a true Auroran again'

[lament owl]

Ohhhhh that would be lovely

[marsh garden]

my sweet spot is when a system is "feature complete" on its own, but has levers that are clear and accessible enough to play with yourself in homebrew, and there's plenty of room to dick around and fill out specific niches

it's one of the things i enjoy about lancer homebrew

but i'm just repeating myself

i am really excited to play ex3 lmao

charms are just such fun looking toys

and i always prefer incremental progression

[next delta]

To be fair, Exalted is that way on the player side I think? But I definitely feel the pressure to make bespoke artifacts because of the nature of, hmm, the way they are discussed and how personal they are supposed to be?

[fierce star]

I mean... that's my aurorals project, basically.

[tulip folio]

Shhhh 😛

[fierce star]

ah

I can cancel the project then

[lament owl]

Your aurorals project is very cool

[tulip folio]

whaps ID

[fierce star]

I will fade bak into the background where I belong

lol

[tulip folio]

I was shouting it out, dumbass XD

[fierce star]

please you know shouting doesn't work, I have to be dragged into the spotlight to do anything there

but yeah the one charm I have made for them so far is one every auroral gets, and is uh, basically Campaign Should Be POinted THis Way, The Charm

Opaline Rebirth
Cost: 10xp, 20m, 2wp. Mins: Ess 1, App 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Auroral must use this charm while touching the opal bones of a heart-eater after it's exaltation has been sealed into them. It does not function on a heart-eater who has any pawns remaining. The heart-eater's opaline skeleton crumbles into dust, and the exaltation within them is inverted again, turning into a new Auroral exaltation that immediately returns to Heaven. As part of this process, an Aurora can be seen for the next month, centered on the location this charm was used and visible out to five hundred miles.

Special: All Aurorals know this charm by default, until all Heart-eater exaltations have been saved. Should that occur, all Aurorals immediately gain a point of essence (up to essence 6), a point of willpower (up to willpower 10), and two free charms they qualify for.

[lament owl]

I like to pick up a prexisting artifact because I felt like “your artifact almost always has a history way outside of you” was a big thing

[marsh garden]

i would love to do that, it's just that mine is by nature and necessity completely bespoke

[next delta]

Fair! I guess I feel like it's one of those things where it's like "this artifact has a history way outside of you but also just happens to perfectly complement your character" lol

[lament owl]

However I am also a freak and have my artifact be its own little thing I RP where I have it emote in scenes and stuff

[next delta]

No, that's great

[marsh garden]

...i'm kinda sad that many-faced strangers already came out

because i can't really imagine anywhere we'd get more necromancy other than the abyssal companion

which is uhh

not gonna be for a couple years, yeah?

[velvet raft]

@tulip folio You know, it's interesting that Autochthon has 8 divine ministers, when the normal number of 3CDs seems to be 7.

[lament owl]

Liminal book could add some more ivory circle stuff

[marsh garden]

unless the liminal/get book(s?) are coming sooner than i think

[nova yew]

i will say in the new internals book there uh

there's variance on how many 3cds there actually are? described as "dozens" sometimes.

though i also remember that there being 8 3cds is because the 8th is the fetich soul but i dont know where that came from

[velvet raft]

I might be misremembering

[buoyant summit]

Hmmm

Would Exalted!Link ride a horse

or a simhata?

[marsh garden]

he's gotta at least have epona

but SS link has a loftwing, and BotW/TotK gives him weird fuckass special horses, including a skeleton horse and the ganon-horse

[buoyant summit]

OH SHIT I COULD MAKE SKYWARD SWORD LINK

[marsh garden]

SS link is one of my favorites for many reasons, not even just Fi

[buoyant summit]

Tho

hmmm

That would perhaps make Voy require I pick the city the giant hawks come from

[marsh garden]

i love the digging claws and the time travel gimmick of lanayru (especially the sand sea), the fire earrings, Fi my beloved, sky islands are, of course, an objectively correct setting detail

i have a fondness for the beetle

[marsh garden]

i envy y'all's ability to just go in and do shit

there are so many people in that server now, scares the shit out of me

[prisma sun]

Its purposefully vague

So they dont print so many as to make making new ones pointless

[nova yew]

yeah

which seems like a solid decision

tbh

[buoyant summit]

So... what you're saying

Is

This Thorns Architect... could?

[lament owl]

yep!

[buoyant summit]

Is there literally any capacity for 'enemy of my enemy' with the Dead?

Maybe they've tried and now failed to gather the Thorns refugees as A Leader of Men

And to retake Thorns, at the increasing insistence of the City-God

They resort to being A Leader of the Dead

[lament owl]

I think so

The Deathlords/Neverborn/Specters etc are a major undead political body, but I don't think your average ghostt on the street believes in death's chivalry and the doom of reality

[buoyant summit]

What are Thorns' ghosts opinions of the regime?

Are they fleeing, those who are capable?

OH SHIT LOOKING AT DRAGON AGE CONCEPT ART MADE ME REALIZE MY FAVORITE CONCEPT ART IS BY THE SAME ARTIST DOING DEAD GODS

HOLY SHIT!!!

[marsh garden]

👀

nice

[lament owl]

I think the restrictions around being a ghost encourages you to stick in a shadowland

However, there is a lot of Thornish dead outside of Thorns proper, the previous rulers were also pretty big on Necropolitics

If you will forgive me the pun

[buoyant summit]

lmao

So ripe for dealings with the dead

[buoyant summit]

They fuckin are now lmao

[tulip folio]

Is there anything that works with Abyssal armour chains? Not a surplus of martial arts there

[buoyant summit]

HOLY SHIT ARCHITECTS GET CELESTIAL CIRCLE WITH THEIR MERIT???

HULLO?

[lament owl]

YEAH

[marsh garden]

i think centipede stance works with light armor?

[buoyant summit]

Does this work with necromancy for a city in a shadowland???

[fierce star]

if you take the merit, yes

antyhing that grants sorcery stuff that came out pre-abyssals has a necromancy mirror

I did a Sijanese architect once using such

[velvet raft]

Assuming they have the same allowances as fighting chains, centipede is the big one, and the chains do work with silk armor

[marsh garden]

OH

LIVE WIRE

the chains seem to be uh

pretty similar statistically to a whip

[velvet raft]

Here With The Chains combines the silk armor with wraith-forged plate

[marsh garden]

and live wire works with both whips and all armor

[tulip folio]

nods
Mostly pondering what to go with alongside resistance if i wanna use the cool chains.

[velvet raft]

My lukewarm take is melee or brawl

[fierce star]

live wire uses whips, not fighting chains, so you could argue it doesn't

[marsh garden]

i guess it's medium, not light

but it's basically just a bigass whip

[fierce star]

fighitng chains are just medium whips you can't use with melee

[marsh garden]

ah, fair

[fierce star]

however

[velvet raft]

Brawl is probably preferable if using dexterity

[fierce star]

I personally would allow overlap there becuase, quite frankly, I think MA are cool and hate the buy-in and restrictions on a lot of them

OTOH yeah abyssal brawl is strong

[velvet raft]

Melee if using strength

(If adapting a martial art for use, strength also works)

(By using the melee charm)

Here With The Chains is a 1-dex build who uses Melee but also knows Bear style for its very many savaging moves

Since savaging is, per RAW, always unarmed

[tulip folio]

I should check out Abyssal Brawl/how well it does things that are not just 'instantly evaporate a guy you touch'. XD

[marsh garden]

i want to do both brawl and athletics apoc

brawl looks strong, but temple shattering is just too cool

[chilly sluice]

it probably still does that
but they don't have Titan Straightening Method or a few of the other extremely egregious ones

[tulip folio]

Working out cool weapons for this dusk is tricky. XD

[tulip folio]

I maek Demon

Third Circle of Qaf: Lujaine, Liquid Silver Delegate
In many ways, Lujaine is archetypal. Like many souls of Qaf, Lujaine seeks enlightenment and guides others towards it. Much like other inhabitants of Malfeas, they do not believe one can learn without pain.  However, these beliefs have together placed them in the unique place as hell's judge of sin, providing his own brand of judgement not to Punish The Guilty but to Enlighten Them to the nature of their sins. Through his judgement they will understand and be remade.

Lujaine is both court and judge within it, a massive courthouse complex that fills a significant area of one of Malfeas' spheres. Within these walls walk endless torturers and lawyers. When he focuses his attention on any individual within him, he takes the form of a tall man with stony skin and robes of flowing silver. His speaks quietly and politely, seeming more like a bureaucrat than an Unquestionable...until it is time to pronounce his judgement.

Under his dominion, sinners cannot die. Endless screaming prisoners have been cast into the molten silver of his courthouse, death denied them as they are forced to examine the path of their life and the nature of their soul. There are few brought before him that are without sin and those that are will be found guilty of wasting the time of an Unquestionable.

Sorcerers call upon Lujaine for his keen legal insight and his ability to look deep within the soul of others; finding each crack and flaw. He is entirely happy to provide this service, to spread his judgement beyond the confines of Malfeas. It is said that he can be called into creation if a truly repentant sinner prays for judgement on a night with no moon or stars, where he will take them for the judgement and enlightenment they so crave.

Infernals and other Demonologists seek the court of Lujaine to help refine themselves. They seek tonics of his liquid silver, which are said to destroy all impurities. Through screaming agony, Lujaine will fill their flaws with silver and make them whole. He believes, futilely, that when there are no sinners left in Malfeas the gates will be flung open and the reborn lords of creation will return.

Well, not stated but third circle statlines are...a lot.

[buoyant summit]

I'm buying Arm Like A Catapult on this Architect

both for bow attacks and, with a Strength 4 E2 repurchase

Shield Throwing

[lament owl]

Been brainstorming stuff for a playable Niborian splat and I’m stuck on how on earth their excellency should work

Or their rolls in general tbh

[lament owl]

Speaking of excellencies

Before actually checking their books I had a completely made up version of both the lunar and sidereal excellency in my head

The sidereal one gave automatic successes for 3 motes, and the lunar one let them temporarily increase an attribute by committing 2-1 motes

I have no idea where those came from

I asked in here and apparently they never even worked like that in other editions

[prisma sun]

today in the server

The Infernals are informed that they are hosting a Ranked PvP Competitive match

[tulip folio]

Malfeas: "League of Legends." Is somehow turned inside out again making a new double hell

[merry arch]

that is what playing league feels like, yes

[wise ocean]

You can't steal a city in League, just kills