Exalted

[bleak hazel]

I don't think there's anything to accelerate prophecies right now

you can pay for prophecies with white XP in Sid Craft, which is neat, but you need to do 'em the same way

[velvet raft]

My hot take is that the ideal things to do with Rat and CPOC are Toad and Ebon Shadow

[prisma sun]

Do you think Sids talk about martial arts like this

[bleak hazel]

absolutely

every argument about Sid charms is in-character

[wise ocean]

indeed, but now that experience debt exists and is a formal construct, it'd be cool to

[velvet raft]

Any chance these are ones we've seen previews of?

[bleak hazel]

nope, I only know of two previewed ones, the PAOC form enhancement and the Five-Dragon Form

[fierce star]

.... wait a minute

Sovereigns have a unique rider on their MA stuff I think?

'nor to actions other than attacking', so they can use defensive native charms as well as MA charms on the same defense? or is that common and i'm stupid

[wise ocean]

that's common iirc?

it's just that things like your Parry are calculated with a MA, so I'm under the assumption you can't do things like adding parry boost from two MAs to a parry you're calculating with one MA

[velvet raft]

You can normally do that

[wise ocean]

Huh. Wild.

[fierce star]

wow I've been nerifng my martial artists my entire ex3 career

hrm

actually per core (lolcore) it looks like it's total, attack nad defense>

then again the sidereal book doesnt' say one way or the other

[coral wraith]

?

what are you referring to?

[fierce star]

how the marital arts writeup for sovereigns specifically states they can combine MA charms with native defensive charms--they only can't combine on attacks

[wise ocean]

actually, was this agreeing with me or stating that you can double up on boosting Parry with multiple MAs?

For example, could I use Revolving Crescent Defense from White Reaper and Joy-in-Adversity Stance to boost my Parry?

[velvet raft]

You can use multiple MAs on an action or a defense so long as they're all compatible with the weapon in question

[fierce star]

yeah

yeah UI think that callout for sovereigns is uique

[wise ocean]

indeed wild, compatibility is the only thing holding me back there

[fierce star]

actually no

architects have that too

janest doesn't though

[velvet raft]

And if, hypothetically, you were unarmed, you absolutely could use both

That's a lot of the highlight of unarmed builds

Free compatibility between a whole bunch of bs

[fierce star]

does dragonblooded have a thing to say on it, maybe it's a terrestrial thing...

[velvet raft]

I think it might be called out because attribute exalts

Because normally attribute exalts have the beautiful BS of being able to freely mix their combat charms with martial arts

So a lunar or an alch can't get mastery, but they can throw in Dex charms

Or whatever

They may want to limit that on terrestrial attribute exalts

[fierce star]

right, which makes sense for achitects since they're restricted like that

but sovereigns are ability exalts

[velvet raft]

Huh, maybe they just copied it over as boilerplate?

[fierce star]

lesse, puppeteer has it too, but she's essence-based terrestrial

[velvet raft]

Because on Sovereigns it does literally nothing as a piece of rules text

That is just normal for ability exalts

[fierce star]

dream-souled have it, hearteaters do not, neithe rdo umbrals

[velvet raft]

This is also why MAs will say (Strength + Martial Arts) or whatever in calculations, rather than (Strength + Bear) — you get to use your highest MA for stuff like that

[fierce star]

fox-binder does not, god-admirals do, thousand venoms mistress does not, torchbearer does, bleak warden does, essential silence does not, masks does not, reaver does, willow specter does not

[velvet raft]

Which makes MAs a lot more dippable

[fierce star]

the fact that some across both terrestrial/celestial, and across ability/attribute/essence exalt lines have it and other sdon't make me thinks this is an actual thing that is not standard and is a balance point

being able to combine MA with native charms for defensive purpsoes

[velvet raft]

For ability-based it's just the normal can't-use-charms-on-wrong-ability rules

You can't use an MA charm on a brawl attack the same as you can't use a melee charm on a brawl attack

[fierce star]

Right, but it's not the attacks we're talking about here, it's defensives.

Reading core, it seems to imply that you can't combine MA with othe rabilities for defensives either, but many (mostly exigents) have a callout specifically allowing that

which, right, it's just core, nothing is clear there, but

[velvet raft]

Same principle applies with parry defense, since you're still deriving it from one value or another. With Dodge, AIUI, we cop an exception because Martial Arts normally cannot be used as the basis for our Evasion. So I guess it would matter to that?

[bleak hazel]

you can normally combine MA + Dodge or MA + Resistance

combat ability charms cannot be used with MA under any circumstances unless they are Versatile or otherwise specifically mark themselves as MA-OK

[velvet raft]

And while this may seem a bit odd, it's functioning on the same rules that let you, say, use an occult charm that affects attacks alongside melee charms. If a charm effects something the ability/attribute doesn't normally touch, we can mix it with the stuff that normally does touch that thing

[fierce star]

but I couldn't use, say, a solar melee parry charm to effect parrying with, say, golden janissary and a spear.

Though I guess

no wait I'm also stupid

it's entirely sperate parries, one MA based one Melee based, but then why would they have...

oh

it's becuase their limited, of course

they don't have charms for every ability

but it's still a little bit of a unique power thing?

[bleak hazel]

complaint of the day while I write an impromptu patch for Sail combat - I hate this sidebar

"this doesn't work on gigantic foes unless you use a bunch of Athletics charms that do not say anything about the combat engine to boost it, just kind of keep popping them until the GM says yes"

[fierce star]

corebook.png

[tulip folio]

You ahve to crash the GM to let him use your charms.

[marsh garden]

why must core

[tulip folio]

Terrestial Spell

God-Sword Mudra
Cost: 5sm, 1wp
Keywords: None
Duration: Until dismissed
The Sorcerer forms a shard of her own soul into a rainbow blade that rings like a bell. She may wield this Soul-Sword as an Artifact sword of her choice (Chosen when the spell is learned). It is compatible with Martial Arts styles that may use its chosen form of sword. 

The spiritual nature of the blade allows it to hit dematerialized characters (Though she suffers the usual -3 penalty if she cannot see them) and possessing spirits without harming characters they are possessing. In addition, instead of adding Strength to damage, the wielder instead adds (Permanent Willpower/2, rounded up) with the Soul-Sword.

The Sorcerer cannot put the blade down without it dissolving into essence, with it likewise dissolving if disarmed.

In addition, characters with an Essence pool gain access to the following powers while this spell is active:
• Sword-Soul Incarnation (3m; Simple; Instant; Uniform): The Sorcerer makes a withering or decisive attack. This attack is unblockable unless her target defends with an artifact weapon, defensive magic, or a stunt.
• The Blade Within (3m; Reflexive; Instant): Shifting the shape of her blade, the sorcerer may grant it one of the following tags for the rest of the scene: Bashing, Balanced, Chopping, Flexible, Disarming, Piercing, Reaching, Shield, Smashing, Two-Handed. She might extend them into a lash of blade-shards to grant it the flexible tag, refine it into a needle point to gain piercing etc. Only one tag can be granted by this power at a time.

Control: The very soul of the sorcerer is iron and blades. Automatons and Spirits of Blacksmithing or War are considered to have a minor intimacy of Respect for the sorcerer who has honded her soul in such a way.

Distortion (Goal Number: 10): The Soul-Sword's rainbow facade shifts, revealing a truth about the weilder she would rather avoid. All who see the blade learn an Intimacy of the wielder, chosen from those she would most want to keep hidden. All characters learn the same intimacy.

Made a spell for the Sword Nuts of exalted

[wise ocean]

it feels a bit underwhelming compared to just having an artifact sword and also casting spells

[tulip folio]

It's more or less in the same area as Wood Dragon's Claw.

[fierce star]

Maybe let the control effect also let you develope additional evocations?

[velvet raft]

Huh, I think Crushing Claw Technique from Mantis Style may be the only way to initiate a grapple with Dexterity instead of Strength, with is funny since the rest of the style really wants Strength

Still, very good dip

Do we have anything that lets one defend against grapples with something other than Strength?

[tulip folio]

...not that I'm aware of, though it feels like something that would be a very natural fit.

[velvet raft]

Even without strength, you can definitely use Crushing Claw offensively and then do a bunch of mean stuff with Falcon or Centipede or other grapple-friendly styles

Poisonous Fist lets you initiate with Stamina, but alas cannot be used defensively either

[tulip folio]

...do we have anything that increases the difficulty of gambits?

We have various things that make gambits easier to initiate

But now I'm pondering if we've got anything that makes it harder to do gambits to you.

[velvet raft]

Don't think so

Anyway, afaict, no, there is no martial art that lets you defend against a grapple's control roll with anything other than strength

Having done a scan

I think Crushing Claw Technique is very good on dex-heavy martial artists fwiw, just for opening up the option

[tulip folio]

This is giving me some fun Ponderings for homebrew charms.

[velvet raft]

Dance of the Hungry Spider does give immunity to grapples (twice, at least), so that is at least a strong defense where applicable

[lament owl]

I love being an abyssal

[wise ocean]

REAL

Guys Named Grave Thought Unity

[lament owl]

context on what I was saying to this girl

[limpid badge]

i would say you're abyssaling correctly

sometimes you have to be chatty about death!!!

[marsh garden]

good news to herald it

[bleak hazel]

hmm, I am reaching new levels of martial arts synergy

previously I was using MOTS Form purely as a start-up engine for Crane Form, using SCC to essentially enter Crane using the MOTS reflexive condition

but I can change back by aiming, which reflexively triggers MOTS Form again and resets Stance-Concealing Camouflage

so I flow melee -> Crane, do my crane counterattacks until I want to make a big decisive and then pay 2 motes to reflexively change back to MOTSE Form by reflexively aiming and then flurrying attack and full defence, getting me the extra success overflow on my big decisive

then use SCC to swap back to Crane again

this also resets Deadly Starmetal Offensive, which lets me pay 5 motes for my full excellency including TN4 at E3

so at the moderate cost of 4m over the usual aim-decisive price tag I can go from TN5 to TN4 and add up to (Perception) sux to damage while still using stuff like Five Jade Fury or Sequential Essence Disruption

not an every-time pick but a good move to have in the back pocket since normally that would be 3m 1wp and lock out PAOC charms

[fierce star]

Local Martial Arts Sicko Becomes Even More Sicko

[bleak hazel]

Exalted builds are good like that because in most systems this would require getting three levels in a multiclass or something

whereas Exalted is complicated enough that you can develop a new way to use your existing toolkit by idly pondering it for fifteen minutes

normally you wouldn't use this, you'd just reflexively aim and let Kindly Sifu's Quill take care of damage, but sometimes you can't find a defining intimacy to trash talk

and this also lets you do blind swordsman stuff because Inner Eye Strike ignores visual penalties

[marsh garden]

every time you post about deranged martial arts shit i regret not taking MA at character creation, no matter how narratively discordant it would be

[bleak hazel]

this is my most deranged martial arts build

every other character I have is just like "I took the punching tree and I use the punching charms"

"sometimes I dip for onslaught negation"

[marsh garden]

MA is just such a painful-looking merit to take later

[bleak hazel]

Four Seasons Rival has Crane + Sid Melee woven together via silken armour evo and then stacks PAOC on top of them

[fierce star]

just be an alchemical and buy it for 8 XP instead

or be a sidereal and get it for free

[marsh garden]

is it a custom one or the serene sashes?

the silken armor, i mean

[bleak hazel]

and then to fight Ligier I had to dip 1 in White Reaper and am considering Even Blade to form and 1 in Fire Dragon for a different combo

it's the Shadow Moth Raiment

for the evo in the image I just posted

[marsh garden]

ahh

[bleak hazel]

crane instant spool up is a tiny bit deranged, that martial art normally has two turns of setup if you do it the hard way

[marsh garden]

i thought that MFS artifacts were a different color, for some reason

[bleak hazel]

but Rival reflexively assumes crane form and then flurries an attack with full defence using a Sid Melee charm and a shield so you're still putting out damage while you wind up

[marsh garden]

is he doing that the painful way?

i.e. like

16 motes worth

or whatever the cost of your two stances are

[bleak hazel]

so when you swap forms the motes committed to the old form shift to the new form committment where possible

[marsh garden]

or do you have a cheaper way to sneak it in?

oh huh

[bleak hazel]

as a generic rule common to all martial arts

so he assumes 10m MOTSE Form and then swaps to 8m Crane Form reflexively

[marsh garden]

i assume he has reflexive Aim somewhere?

[bleak hazel]

which uncommits/spends 2 motes of the prior commitment but doesn't require me to use any more

[marsh garden]

from sid melee

[bleak hazel]

Inner Eye Strike, Sid Melee E2 versatile

[prisma sun]

I wonder how Rival does against Drifts who is basically a combat build because I gave him a lot of Thrown charms

[wise ocean]

tbh one form sometimes just costs that much anyway

looking at you, graves immediately burning 15m when he decides to get serious

[bleak hazel]

I think drifts wrecks him at least until Rival is E3

[marsh garden]

oh? what form is that

[wise ocean]

vbos + add-on Form Encoolener

[marsh garden]

i assume e3 is the Sids Now Win tier because of SMAs?

[bleak hazel]

Rival can't handle aerial kiting until he gets E3 of Crane or E3 of PAOC, where you get enhanced range counterattacks, flash step or double jump

[marsh garden]

or was it just other stuff

[bleak hazel]

so Drifts just stands on top of him and kills him with knives

probably takes forever

[marsh garden]

ah, crane

is crane e3 the ranged counters?

[wise ocean]

SMAs are very powerful, but at the same time at E3 my build gets, for example, "here's a button where I reflexively clash you and your attack spawns against yourself"

[bleak hazel]

at E3, damned if I know, I think Rival might have it if he could stay on top of Drifts but he spends a ton of motes to stay in the air in comparison to CMOS just having it ongoing

so it would be close

[wise ocean]

and some SMA stuff is outright countered by other stuff - emerald gyre vs. white reaper RCD, for example

oh, my onslaught penalty doesn't fall off and is drastically increased? thanks!

[marsh garden]

oh right, emerald gyre is the infinite onslaught one

[wise ocean]

everyone gets more powerful at E3, dramatically so
is the gist

[bleak hazel]

E3 is when Sid martial artists generally catch up to or surpass Solaroid martial artists at the same investment because they get SMA and perma-mastery from completing their styles, as well as their E3 excellency upgrade

but it's a big power spike all around

[fierce star]

hmmmm

I just had a stupid idea for a set of evocations for either a weapon or like

some misc thing

[prisma sun]

Drifts does hard kite pretty good

[bleak hazel]

yeah

I really like this one because it works on battlegroup attacks

so you can do insane xianxia stuff where you leap up and spread your arms wide and a thousand arrows reverse course matrix style

[marsh garden]

lol

[bleak hazel]

Crane E3 also has limited flight for 4m per round

[marsh garden]

oh huh!

[fierce star]

'whenever you win a clash, you may forgo the extra damage normally offered to instead spawn a Memory inspired by one of the opponent's intimacies that you are aware of. The Memory immediate rolls join battle (numbers based off strength of the intimacy). It has one health level and attacks the opponent that it spawned from with a (thrown long) withering attack at X die (based on strenght of intimacy' as the start point, with further evocations enhancing the Memories and letting them do Wierd Stuff

[marsh garden]

white reaper can't be used with halberds?

wild

[bleak hazel]

yeah, of the Sids in your server I don't think Rival could take Drifts and I'd be worried about Guolin

because clash builds with attack penalties do well into Crane and that's basically what he's got going on

[wise ocean]

I wish

[marsh garden]

this is also neat

"manifest intrusive thoughts to kill the opps" is great

[wise ocean]

misc's been telling me to pick up a stave for some time, but a stave simply doesn't vibe with my deal at base, which means I'd have to fulfill my intimacy of killing someone and taking their shit first

[marsh garden]

it's kind of weird

staves, scythes, spears

but no halberds?

[fierce star]

with the thematic thing being these 'memories' are like. Inverse versions of the intimacy. If you have Wife (love) then it's an image of your wife that hates you, if you have 'I enjoy charity' you get a bunch of poor people who want none of what you have to offer

[bleak hazel]

Crimson could just make you a proper warscythe with a straight blade that uses staff stats if you prefer

[fierce star]

yeah. Self-doubt based intrusive thougths.

[bleak hazel]

reflavouring weapons is pretty easy

[fierce star]

'but ID what if I don't self doubt' we'll work willpower in somehow?

[wise ocean]

[wise ocean]

this is fair, however, I'll consider it

my current concept was literally "upgrade the weapon I already have" by using it as the core of a New Weapon for familiarity and semantic weight

[marsh garden]

what's your current gubbin?

[bleak hazel]

works with the crafting stunts I have lined up

we're going to do cultivation blood magic in the essence font of the old shogunate manse, which, because of how shogunate engineering works, is basically a reactor core that spools power onto a wide, infinitesimally thin flywheel of white jade

[marsh garden]

"spooling" stone and metal to weave always goes hard

love it every time i see it

[bleak hazel]

the Shogunate didn'thave first age bullshittium essence batteries any more so they're back to using unfathomable cosmic power to spin large lumps of stuff and boil water

[fierce star]

Hmm. This artifact concept feels very abyssal. Do I have an abyssal concept asshole enough for Clash You Until Your Intrusive Thoughts Kill You For Me.

[bleak hazel]

the Shogunate has this great Fire Nation crossed with Jin-Roh industrial magic vibe in the 1/2e stuff that I've always liked having around in ruined pieces

[wise ocean]

everybody loves the Abyssal's war scythe of pure and clear glass, made only visible in the space of its movement and revealed in the eventual crust of blood and gore it acquires in the press of close combat

[marsh garden]

thank you the Abyssal's war scythe of pure and clear glass, made only visible in the space of its movement and revealed in the eventual crust of blood and gore it acquires in the press of close combat

i love it too

[wise ocean]

it loves you too, citizen

[marsh garden]

maybe love me from a bit farther away please

[fierce star]

No, you'll wake up with it right next to you in the bedroll and you'll like it

... Ex3 still have grave goods, right? stuff buried with people manifesting in the underworld along with them.

[marsh garden]

yeah

[wise ocean]

in all seriousness, I really liked the idea of a glass scythe for white reaper because, to an observer watching Graves kill his way through a battlegroup, it looks like people are just dying in a circle around him with no discernable weapon visible

[marsh garden]

and they're almost always more of themselves

make perfect artifact mats, even

[bleak hazel]

Crimson has a lot of philosophy about grave goods

[marsh garden]

just spawncamp the dead and then re-slaughter and steal from them

[bleak hazel]

hmm, Guolin doesn't actually have Snake Strikes The Heel, just all the prereqs for it

[fierce star]

Shattered Adorei, Orichacum Grave-Good Short Daiklaives

A memory of a memory of love.

[bleak hazel]

so Rival's in-universe assessment of him probably matches my out of universe assessment of the build, which is "this kid will be really goddamn mean in a year or two"

(Rival is a year or two older than Guolin, tops)

[marsh garden]

...hm

okay looking again

[fierce star]

just a ghostly, amnesiac version of Adorei shattered into two swords by underworld trauma

[marsh garden]

Varan's Ruin (the Lion's sword) and Arm of Shades Below (the Walker's axe) are both mentioned, but neither has a material mentioned immediately, other than the lion's reforging

so Varan's sword is implicitly but almost certainly grave goods

and the walker's axe could also maybe his own grave goods weapon in life, assuming there's no Entrenched 2e Lore™ about it

do any of the other deathlords have explicit signature weapons?

i imagine they all have a whole host of artifacts somewhere or other, but i'm not seeing any named for the others

(other than the Prince's ship, that is)

actually, related question, does Anys Syn have any artifacts she's known to use or is she pure comfy robes and killing hands?

[wise ocean]

Wasn't Varan literally a guy forged into a sword?

[marsh garden]

yeah

but

Varan was the guy

forged into his sword

[wise ocean]

okay, so you're - yeah I get what you mean

yeah I don't think we know where the sword itself came from, but varan is the soulsteel

[marsh garden]

so Varan's Ruin is made from Varan's sword and Varan's soul(steel)

and the sword is probably his grave goods, since he was a solar ghost

[wise ocean]

what's her face's mirror

[bleak hazel]

Anys Syn has silken armour and fists

the armour has nothing written about it

[wise ocean]

I believe it's the Lover who has the big mirror

[bleak hazel]

she also almost certainly has Auspicious Implement for Strife x2 or Sword-Queen's Foretold Blade because she beat up Sublime Danger with a stick

so either she is so built different that that was literally an ordinary stick or she gave it artifact stats

[marsh garden]

she's a battles sid, right?

[wise ocean]

considering her essence she probably just has Combat Charms: Yes

[marsh garden]

i imagine she's purchased auspicious implement at least a few times over her long-ass life

[bleak hazel]

and Sublime Danger has like fifty daiklaves + thousand blades so I suspect a regular stick would not in fact do the job

[marsh garden]

does Syn have some Weird Age Fuckery going on herself, or did she just uh

win the lottery on "assigned end" at Exaltation?

[bleak hazel]

no she's just a regular elder

nowhere near end of the clock either

CK is built different and is old by Elder standards

[marsh garden]

CK?

[bleak hazel]

Chejop Kejak

[marsh garden]

ah right

[bleak hazel]

the Usurpation was only about a thousand years ago

and CK is like, 4900

[marsh garden]

oh huh, that's an "only" here? i thought most sids' alotted lifespans were like somewhere between 500 and 1k

considering the chapter fiction of mantle transference

[marsh garden]

ahhh

[bleak hazel]

Sids are the longest-lived Celestials but can't extend their lives (Rakan aside)

[prisma sun]

How long ago was the Divine Revolution?

[bleak hazel]

about six thousand years, probably a bit more

Rakan is from the very latest stages of it

[marsh garden]

right yeah because thulio was there for it, right?

does he have any artifacts he's known for, or is that something without much focus?

[bleak hazel]

we have barely any lore on him beyond his rebel deal

[marsh garden]

makes sense, hopefully that changes in gets

[bleak hazel]

he is the greatest master of Quicksilver Hand of Dreams and has his own renegade SMA, that's all we know about his fight suite

[marsh garden]

quicksilver hand isn't one statted up yet, right?

i assume it's an SMA, unless it's like VBoS, so do we know if it's coming with sids 2 or with gets?

[bleak hazel]

Gets

the Sid companion only has Sapphire Veil of Passion

[fierce star]

and god I cannot wait, it's what I'm looking forward to the most out of gets

QHOD is my favorite SMA thematically

[marsh garden]

ah huh, it's all regular MA stuff otherwise?

[bleak hazel]

yeah

[marsh garden]

and the sorcerous MAs

[bleak hazel]

I am interested to see what Sapphire Veil looks like

in 2e it was the best-balanced of them and had a terrifying capstone where you banked a ton of reflexive attacks and unleashed them whenever

affectionately known as "Shrikes" after the first charm to do anything like that

[wise ocean]

I was about to say, what is the big serenities SMA if the serenities MA is also coming

[bleak hazel]

http://ninjasensei.wikidot.com/ma:sapphire-veil-of-passion-style

2e version

[marsh garden]

is that referring to "banking attacks" or large multiattacks in general?

[bleak hazel]

banking attacks

[marsh garden]

gotcha

[bleak hazel]

an effect we already have in 3e in the form of the Alchemical Transfinite Ultraviolence Drive

[marsh garden]

that's a pretty incredible name

[bleak hazel]

since other high essence Alch charms are sidegrades to certain SMA moves I would expect it to work similarly

oh yeah, SVOP has the funniest gapcloser in 2e

This Charm may be activated in response to any social or physical attack. The martial artist vanishes in a swirl of collapsing sapphire ribbons, appearing one yard away from her attacker. In the case of long-range social attacks (such as those delivered through sorcery), the Charm’s maximum allowable range of movement is (Essence x 20) miles.

As long as the martial artist does not voluntarily move away from the individual whom she activated Eternal Infatuation Dance to approach, she may stay within one yard of him at all times, regardless of his movement rate or any exotic movement abilities employed.

[marsh garden]

"heard you talkin shit" is pretty great

oh my god it's the T-posing hallway dude

incredible

[wise ocean]

The martial artist immediately terminates the effects of all Poison and Sickness effects from which she suffers, transferring them to her target.
this is really fucking funny with burn life

[bleak hazel]

Eternal Infatuation Dance also allows you to have insane aerial fights without actually knowing how to fly

just stick yourself to your target and combo them

if you knock them back you automatically chase, so you can keep slamming people away from you and controlling where the fight goes

hopefully it still does that

[fierce star]

the best anti-kiting tech: yandere nature

[bleak hazel]

it is the sex martial art, after all

Its masters weather the ribald jokes and off-color commentary of their younger contemporaries with patience and good humor. Those who face them in battle discover that these martial artists have turned their focus inward upon the hottest of flames and have tempered it into an exceedingly fine weapon.

[wise ocean]

They do not make jokes afterwards.

[bleak hazel]

also in 3e it uses whips

which means it's compatible with Live Wire

Live Wire has some great accuracy and damage boosts as well as ranged grapple

adrenaline junkie MA combo

[fierce star]

Is it bad I kind of miss Laughing Wounds?

[marsh garden]

that's the Lover's one that was dropped for being an awkwardly edgy depiction of bdsm, yeah?

[fierce star]

yes

the capstone was tearing the target's heart out with your bare hands and squeezing it to either control or kill them

[bleak hazel]

I feel Black Claw has that one handled right now

[marsh garden]

damn, glad i hadn't started the evocation i had planned to do exactly that lmao

i should look at black claw for social violence more

[chilly sluice]

It's fun

[bleak hazel]

I would not use Black Claw as a template for homebrew

[velvet raft]

Dropped the game I was about to get started in because I'm pretty certain a night-time session is impossible for me right now due to sleep issues D:

[marsh garden]

It's My Birthday I'm A Sad Princess is great

[marsh garden]

oh, why not?

[velvet raft]

Black Claw is very, very strong

[bleak hazel]

it plugs the social system's numbers directly into the combat system in a way that causes some broken stuff

[marsh garden]

aw, i'm so sorry to hear that :(

[velvet raft]

Yeah. And I hate to spring this on them right before session but like

[marsh garden]

do you at least vibe with the group?

[velvet raft]

I can feel, physically, that I'm too tired to be up for another 3-4 hours

[bleak hazel]

the "modern" way to do that is to use stuff like Hungry Ghost or Crane's tech that gains benefits based on intimacies without directly saying "fuck you, my social stats are my combat stats now"

[marsh garden]

maybe you can get into another game with em later if your body or their schedules cooperate

[velvet raft]

I thought I got along pretty well with them, but I think something earlier is unlikely

[marsh garden]

[velvet raft]

Anyway, Black Claw has Doe Eyes Defense, which imposes a penalty on an incoming attack equal to Guile

So that's like ... a -6 penalty, in many cases

Bit strong

[fierce star]

ehh... black claw's different enough thematically that it doesn't hit the same vibe for me

black claw is ultimately about betrayal, laughing wounds is more unhealthy relationships ing eneral

[bleak hazel]

also Torn Lotus Defence, which easily vampires off 5 init per counterattack without really going through the usual attack logic

[marsh garden]

ah. christ

i see

[bleak hazel]

it's not unusably busted or anything but it is a tiny bit jank

[velvet raft]

It's a lot

[bleak hazel]

so feel free to run it but don't take it as precedent for brewing stuff

[chilly sluice]

Really increasingly feel they need to do a core book rework at some point

[bleak hazel]

(also Sids with it can use Slick Essence Replenishment as a fucking mote reactor, so be wary of any Sidereal who attempts to gaslight gatekeep girlboss too hard)

[chilly sluice]

With the amount of core stuff that gets brought up as "It's too strong/jank to be used generally"

[marsh garden]

i wish that was likely in any way :( they keep saying "nah we're never gonna"

[tulip folio]

I do kinda wish Black Claw was a bit easier to dip into but it's such a specific martial art with requirements socially that it's tricky.

[chilly sluice]

Unfortunately yeah

[velvet raft]

It would actually be perfect for RES if not for the manipulation requirement 😩

[bleak hazel]

Black Claw + PAOC + Slick Essence Replenishment is a deeply unpleasant build to go into because you eat a -6 penalty on everything and then they regen as many or more motes as they spend on it

then they hit you in the face for overwhelming 13

[chilly sluice]

It's unfortunate I didn't get to play my Black Claw Iselsi

[velvet raft]

Ye

She seemed fun

[bleak hazel]

(Terrestrial black claw is way more reasonable)

[chilly sluice]

I was probably doing too many MA crimes with Soha, but maybe it would have worked

Black Claw, White Veil, Water Dragon up to form, and I was gonna grab some Ebon Shadow later

[velvet raft]

A Lot

[bleak hazel]

White Veil is a personal favourite purely because it lets your social character roll one giant fuckoff socialize ambush and I do love having the ability to Kingpin people

[chilly sluice]

It would also eventually let me do the funny thing of inflicting three poisons at once

Dragon Dies Screaming, Flexing the Emerald Claw, and a regular poison applied to unarmed (I was gonna make an armor evo for that)

[velvet raft]

I think my ideal version of RES somehow fits Centipede, Crystal Chameleon, Somehow-Appearance-Based-Black Claw, a teensy little bit of Mantis, and a bit of EGOA in before doing PAOC.

[marsh garden]

i cannot help but deeply respect the triple poison punch

[bleak hazel]

maxed Rival has Crane, PAOC, Sid Melee all full, then any sword style to Form, then small dips in Fire Dragon and White Reaper

Even Blade as the sword style, probably

Fire Dragon + Even Blade Form + Crane + soulfire shaper form provides a combo that a friend affectionately named Infinite Fusion

[tulip folio]

oh?

[chilly sluice]

You can probably do even more, but that would require stacking even more MA

Like Toad

[velvet raft]

Toad does some lovely stuff with poison

[wise ocean]

maxed Graves is a horrible creature that has full VBOS + White Reaper and then dips Snake, Hungry Ghost, and Toad

[velvet raft]

Oh, @tulip folio, someone on the Exalted discord found a hearthstone evocation that lets you anti-grapple with Dex + Dodge!

[wise ocean]

I begin the fight
Wrong, I act before you and instantly teleport from Long Range, attacking you twice
Can I take my turn n-
I take my turn now, attacking you four times
Can I take my turn now? Thank you. Okay, I attack y-
I counterattack. Your attack is reflected back at yourself. I attack you

[tulip folio]

Oh? Cool

[wise ocean]

core rulebook water hearthstone, iirc

[velvet raft]

Yeah, the Freedom Stone

Which, incidentally, was a hearthstone in earlier editions and also the name of a NSFW exalted fan-forum

[wise ocean]

I - NSFW Exalted?

never mind, thought about that for three seconds. makes sense.

[velvet raft]

Yeah I was kind of baffled by that reaction XD

[prisma sun]

Exalted is already NSFW

[wise ocean]

I was in mechanics brain, which made me think wait, are we - what would you roll for - huh

[bleak hazel]

so you go into PAOC Form, you take

• Soulfire Shaper (+2 effective essence, turn init into motes 1 to 1 when you gain it)
• Even Blade Form (gain +1 init from hitting people and +2 overwhelm, also pose weirdly)
  Draw a shortsword, artifact status optional, or just punch
• Get attacked
• Enhance your withering counter with Empowering Justice Redirection (+1 autosux to attack and damage, +2 if they hit you) and Searing Edge Attack (if your withering damage roll results in any sux, delete Essence enemy init without gaining it) for 6 motes
• hit, enemy loses 8 init + whatever you roll, you gain 3 init + whatever you roll, balanced mundane shortsword has overwhelm 2
• convert that 3 init into motes, gain an average of 2 motes from Heroic Essence Replenishment and 1 more mote from converting the init from your 4 overwhelming, total 6 motes and 1 init refunded on average
• mote neutral fusion blades that ignore enemy soak + postsoak reduction because it's all flat levels

[tulip folio]

Christ.

[bleak hazel]

Combos to Fight Ligier With

[velvet raft]

That's why you gotta take Shield Of Mars

Mean charm. Wonderful.

[bleak hazel]

you can also just use fire dragon form or your bare hands but it's not quite as good and doesn't quite get to the funny mote neutrality threshold

[velvet raft]

Tragic that one of the prereqs requires Charisma to perform at full strength

[bleak hazel]

upside is that it doesn't require you to do iaijutsu

[fierce star]

I mean, there was a Ex2 april fools half-supplement.

[coral wraith]

I gotta make a white veil character

[marsh garden]

whomst the fuck is contributing the two turns

[bleak hazel]

oh yeah there is the Sex Supplement that had surprisingly good mechanics for some reason

[wise ocean]

solaroid charmset

[velvet raft]

We all know the reason

[bleak hazel]

what's the actual combo here that gets you 2 attacks into 4 attacks

[velvet raft]

Oh, here's a question that I'm sure has been answered: are any exalt types capable of effectively always succeeding on Arcane Fate checks?

[bleak hazel]

something and then Metal Storm?

[wise ocean]

hold on, have to check

[marsh garden]

i thought thunderclap rush attack made you take your turn immediately, not just ass-blast somebody off-turn

is there an upgrade tree in (i think abyssals?) that i missed?

or is turn 2 coming from the MAs

[wise ocean]

ah, I had it right in my flowchart but not when making the meme. yeah, TRA just speeds up your turn

shame, the meme combo was going to be using that to set up Metal Storm (since assuming you got to take a first turn, you can transit having great starting init and vampiring more init with hungry ghost into a decisive, into VBOS+approach, which wound penalties them into Metal Storm range)

[tulip folio]

Artful Perfection
Cost: 3m; Mins: Dexterity 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Wanderer is a master of Legerdemain, lesser tricksters falling when they try to compete.

The Wanderer increases the Difficulty of a gambit against her by (Essence/2, Rounded Up). This can increase the cost of the gambit enough to crash the attacker.

Vague Pondering. Not really a lot of easy comparisons for this.

[velvet raft]

See this is why I love Crystal Chameleon

[wise ocean]

wild

[bleak hazel]

extremely funny into Crane because you both unleash an absolute flurry of withering punches at each other and end up just about where you started

since it's hard to get more than 6 init from a single withering damage roll anyway

initiative randomisation technique

[velvet raft]

https://tenor.com/toYLxyO8j4z.gif

[wise ocean]

https://tenor.com/view/star-platinum-gif-18007371

[marsh garden]

where's metal storm from?

looking at the MAs i can't guess off name alone lmao

[bleak hazel]

VBOS

[marsh garden]

goootcha, thanks

[marsh garden]

oh shit anima scaling? 👀

that's really neat

[velvet raft]

Crystal Chameleon is all about anima

[bleak hazel]

CC is a really fun martial art

also uses spears

[marsh garden]

...also

that's...surprisingly not a crippling terra penalty for deebs

it sucks, sure, but it's still a double-hit

[fierce star]

post-core terrestrial needs to not be as shitty

[velvet raft]

It's a mix of stealth tricks for hiding in one's anima and explosive attacks and defenses that use the anima as fuel

[lament owl]

Hey should I get Better Read Intentions or Better Guile

I wanna purchase a socalize charm but I am not sure which one of those two

[wise ocean]

what's your existing pools for 'em + what's your character role

[lament owl]

I'm a day caste, I am kinda the combat guy but I don't wanna let my social stuff slack too much

I have 5 guile and and a 7 die read intentions pool

[wise ocean]

7 read intentions can beat 4 guile on average, so that's probably the first to touch up

[marsh garden]

5 guile is already a fuckton for a combat boi, ain't it?

[wise ocean]

depends on the combat

[lament owl]

I have 3 wits, 5 socalize and a Very Applicable Defensive Socalize Specality

[marsh garden]

nice

i have 3 wits :D

oh yeah, do defenses round down?

the character sheet does i think

it kept dicking around with my...Parry?

[lament owl]

its the average of your Attribute and your Ability+Specality

[marsh garden]

but i thought they rounded up

[lament owl]

but I tthink they round up

[wise ocean]

wits Good for combat since it's also JB

[marsh garden]

also wait sorry i thought guile was off manip

is it an either/or?

or do you have a charm

[lament owl]

ya knw

its probably basedd off manipulation

my manipulation is also 3

[marsh garden]

heh

[lament owl]

yeah
though I am like.... gonna get a dex+stealth join battle soon

[bleak hazel]

bad Join Battle is frequently an issue for new players making combat characters

[marsh garden]

i noticed that one...

[bleak hazel]

you're in kind of a rough spot if you have 6 init and your peer opponent full sends his excellency and starts with 15

[lament owl]

right now my JB is 8 dice

[marsh garden]

3 wits 3 awareness was rough

[bleak hazel]

Blinding Battle Feint?

or are you not a Solar

[marsh garden]

in both combats so far

[lament owl]

I am an abyssal

[marsh garden]

nah he said day

[bleak hazel]

ah, mirror of then

Flawless Assassination Style

[lament owl]

yeah

I am gonna purchase it Soon™

[bleak hazel]

it's extremely mean, one of the keystones of Solar Stealth killing everyone instantly

[lament owl]

but right now we are in the Slice Of Life Dimension though so I don't feel the need to purchase it

[wise ocean]

I simply gave up and intentionally gimped Gravesbuild for Performance over Awareness, which doesn't matter as much because lmao vbos moment

but damn do I feel it

[bleak hazel]

you also grabbed solar-grade join battle tech anyway

[wise ocean]

exactly

am I pressed against the window going "I could have 11 dice base" anyway? yes, because I'm a combat goblin.

[bleak hazel]

neglecting it is when you start with like, 5 dice and no excellency because you didn't realise it was important for a Lunar or what have you

[marsh garden]

is that violet bier or one of your other things?

[wise ocean]

ah
y'know, fair

[marsh garden]

you're in uhhh

[lament owl]

these are the two I am trying to decide between rn

[wise ocean]

what's your perception + do you plan to buy more wits later

[marsh garden]

consolidating ability dependencies is always good

in every system

[lament owl]

my perception is 2 and my wits is 3

[wise ocean]

hm

[marsh garden]

oh, not huge then

are you gonna go to 5?

[wise ocean]

okay, so it'd bring your read intentions to 8 double 9s

very respectable

and no one outside of serious social combatants is going to be punching through guile 5 + excellency anyway

[lament owl]

I need Both

as Prequsites

[marsh garden]

oh, what's the thing they're gating?

[wise ocean]

so it goes

but the second one is definitely less impactful since all it's doing is making your excellency cheaper, in practical terms

[lament owl]

the Yandere Tree/hj

[marsh garden]

2 motes cheaper...

ah based

[wise ocean]

2m cheaper + Mute for those first two pips of Guile, which is nice but hardly world-shattering

so yeah, I'd say #1

[lament owl]

Broken Ivory Dirge Resonance needs a hobby

so why not stalking

[marsh garden]

really wish the early solar soc charms had any sauce to em

[wise ocean]

what's the meme...

[coral wraith]

Cerulean Lute's JB tech is hilarious, on that note

very strong stuff

[wise ocean]

indeed so

[lament owl]

my other big thing to get my social build going is False Heart Mein

so that he can pull off a dress better

[wise ocean]

abyssal hobbies dot jpeg

[coral wraith]

what if i gave you -5 to your join battle pool, and your first round of attacks, and i rolled JB with (any social attribute + martial arts)

[one charm btw]

[marsh garden]

what the fuck

whymst

oh wait that's an SMA isn't it

[wise ocean]

nope

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1

Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Mastery

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: None

Cautioning against the futility of violence, the martial artist unnerves her opponents with carefully chosen words before they err. 

The stylist makes a special influence roll with (Social Attribute + Martial Arts) against the Resolve of one or more characters to warn them against fighting her, ignoring the multiple target penalty. If they then initiate hostilities this scene, they suffer a penalty on their Join Battle roll and attacks in the first round equal to (1 + extra successes, maximum 5). This can’t be resisted with Willpower.

She can use this Charm in combat at the end of turns in which she hasn’t attacked, rolling against the base Resolve of within short range and causing him to lose (1 + extra successes, maximum 5) Initiative on success. If this crashes him, she gains the Initiative Break as though it was a withering attack. This doesn’t count as an attack for the purpose of Cerulean Lute Charms.

Mastery: The stylist can Join Battle using (Social Attribute + Martial Arts) if violence ensues after using this Charm.```

[coral wraith]

nope

[marsh garden]

oh

[wise ocean]

incredible, we even used the same word

[coral wraith]

to be fair this doesn't really work against ambushes or anything

but if you're squaring up to your opponent

[fierce star]

https://tenor.com/view/gif-gif-19492600

[bleak hazel]

rare case where your opponent is heavily encouraged to use MDV Fist

[marsh garden]

oh and you can't be the one to pick a fight, i see

[coral wraith]

you can goad them into a fight

[marsh garden]

ah right

[coral wraith]

that still counts as them initiating hostilities

[marsh garden]

pacifism through bloodthirsty technicality

[wise ocean]

any social attribute on Mastery is wild, too

you can just completely dump the usual JB stats

[marsh garden]

the xianxia mc way

[bleak hazel]

interestingly if they just instantly pop out of nowhere and Join Battle before you have time to yap it works fine

strong murderhobo incentive

[marsh garden]

by "it works fine" do you mean the mugging?

[bleak hazel]

yes

[marsh garden]

ambush or get talkmogged into getting murdered by the "pacifist", hmmm

[wise ocean]

... huh.
I just realized it's incredible combat exalt tech to be completely deaf.

[coral wraith]

look sometimes you gotta bring someone in for interrogation and you can warn their buddies that doing anything is stupid

[wise ocean]

Get a load of (hooks thumb over shoulder) this idiot, I ain't even learned to read lips so I can't tell what they're trying to say at all. I'm going to kill them now.

[fierce star]

Engineer: Twilight Solar
Heavy: Azimuth Infernal
Spy: Changing Moons Lunar
Medic: Endings Sidereal
Scout: Journies Sidereal
Pyro: Fire Dragonblooded
Demoman: Dusk Abyssal
Sniper: Summer Getimian
Soldier: Dawn Solar

I am not taking any questions

[marsh garden]

so it's in my best interests to turn into a tyrannosaur and shoot evocation lasers at every Immaculate

[bleak hazel]

making naruto hand signs at the start of the fight and everyone assumes I'm about to do a big move but I'm actually signing to the Dusk that he should reconsider his violent ways and take deep breaths

[wise ocean]

cerulean lute practitioner that has 10 dots of language investment, all of which are nonverbal communication

[fierce star]

this is of course the TF2 version of them, TFC's mercs would be mildly different

[merry arch]

i fucking love cerulean lute. what a silly martial art

i will kick your shit in if you try anything followed by i hit you with the punch of pacifism. good luck fighting anything for a week dumbass

[coral wraith]

me when i ANIMUS-EXTINGUISHING PALM

[chilly sluice]

the pacifism punch is very funny yeah

also knocking someone down and just squarely planting your foot on their chest

[wise ocean]

delightful cacoethes steps on people canonical dot txt

[merry arch]

correct

between greater sign of venus and animus extinguishing palm she has so many fuck you buttons to people trying to kill her

wanna keep fighting? pay up buddy. 3wp.

[fierce star]

you know

it says something about other games that I was like 'you know, maybe I should port some of the stuff I like from Anima: Beyond Fantasy to exalted' (Iki's already done one thing, the Rex Frame martial art) but then I went to think and I was like 'no, no, I think this is too gonzo for exalted'

[wise ocean]

how?

[fierce star]

DELEVI DEUS ANIMA, DESTROYER OF THE SOUL OF THE GODS is the capstone of ANIMA, THE SONG OF FALLEN ANGELS and involves... well. Let me pull up the book

[merry arch]

at first blush that feels very in line with the sort of sobriquet an elder exalt might have

[merry arch]

ah an attack

[fierce star]

yeah it's a capstone ki technique

the crunch for it matches the fluff

[wise ocean]

ah, it's a dragon ball power scale

[fierce star]

that entire technique set has great names, though. DEDISCO DEUS CRUX, THE CROSS OF THE FORGOTTEN GOD. SHERAPHIM IANUA, THE DOOR OF THE SERAPHIM. ANGELUS ULTIMA, THE LAST ANGEL. QUESTUS RESEDI MUNDUS, THE LAMENTATION OF THE WORLD THAT WAS LEFT BEHIND. and the aforementioned DELEVI DEUS ANIMA, EXTERMINATOR OF THE SOULS OF THE GODS.

[coral wraith]

that's maybe only a tiny bit out of scale with the highest level exalted stuff

Citrine Poxes has a mass extinction charm at E5

like, incredibly brutal stuff

[merry arch]

yeah i mean if you rein in the top end just a little bit it seems fine

[wise ocean]

well, SMA is SMA

[fierce star]

legit, could probably make it an SMA

[bleak hazel]

blast radius of an E5 fuck-everything-in-this-general-area technique like Citrine Poxes or Neighborhood Relocation Scheme is generally set at 5 miles regardless of where that technique is from

[coral wraith]

sure, but Solar Circle can get there too pretty easy

[merry arch]

idk what exalt type it is but cant you fucking move a nation

[bleak hazel]

same limit on Void Circle tsunami and freezy spells

and I believe the Abyssal Occult shriek of doom

[merry arch]

exalted is very silly, the powerscaling at high end is stupid

[fierce star]

Delevi's range is 3 miles radius as a sphere

so it's actually within limits there

the big thing is it does massive damage and ignores all forms of defense, so it just auto hits for You Die to everything in that area. Though a Rex Frame + Nemesis user might survive, I'd have to run the math on that

[coral wraith]

indefinite duration btw

[marsh garden]

Essence, rather than explicitly 5

but yeah it's 5 lol

[bleak hazel]

yeah, that's the usual way it works

Anys Syn can explode slightly more shit with Citrine Pox than most people and so on

[marsh garden]

ah, i would've sworn some of the spells specified 5

[bleak hazel]

the only AOEs I can think of with more range than that are Benediction of Archgenesis and other big area modifiers that can be good or bad but not apocalyptic like Sid Prophecy, Rain of Doom ("the size of a small city" and can slowly move around) and the Devil-Body torment apocalypse (exploit)

[marsh garden]

3e is shockingly rather smaller scale than the top end of...a lot of other systems, actually

[bleak hazel]

(combine devil-body "instakill every trivial character you hit with social influence" with Solar Circle "make a social influence roll against everyone within Ess x 50 miles, can't be enhanced by charms, because DBA technically isn't a charm)

Exalted generally holds back on the fuck-you-worldbuster charms because it's generally assumed that people have slung around top-end magic before and the world's still here

you don't need four teenagers with attitude to stop every villain killing the world with their big jrpg attack

[fierce star]

There's As In the Beginning as well

IIRC we mathed that out to like, a 21 mile radius?

if maxed out

[bleak hazel]

you can seriously seriously fuck it up, as shown by the ongoing devastation of all of Creation, but it won't get fingersnapped out of existence because you missed a guy

yeah, by default a maxed pool gets you about the usual 5 mile radius

but you can do some shenanigans

still, that one is a giant nuke with a timer written on the sky and a five hour chargeup time

[fierce star]

yeah, legit

[marsh garden]

what book's As In The Beginning in?

[bleak hazel]

Heirs to the Shogunate

[marsh garden]

ah neat

[bleak hazel]

dragonblooded spirit bomb

[marsh garden]

ohh, it's a deeb charm, not a spell

okay this goes hard

[bleak hazel]

it's very fun

[chilly sluice]

Yeah it's the Deeb combination nuke

[fierce star]

It's one of my favorite db charms

[bleak hazel]

that's very relaxed for "protrudes out of the atmosphere" level doom aura

[fierce star]

yeah I guess it's not quite up to the fluff now that i've refreshed myself adn tempered my hype

one's memory has a way of exaggerating

[bleak hazel]

Total Annihilation is "ten range bands" but the outer five don't get exploded nearly as hard

[marsh garden]

oh huh

drowning in the endless dark has a 10 mile range

because it's 5m in all directions

or wait no

i don't know why i squiggled myself in a circle thinking that would apply twice to all directions

that's how they all work lol

[bleak hazel]

yeah

if you also know Soulfire Shaper Form you can push a lot of them up to 7 miles

since it increases your essence by 2 for magic calcs

but generally Exalted big kaboom tops out at "whoops, where's my Manhattan" unless you do something more dramatic than pop a power that you personally can just throw out

[bleak hazel]

If there's anything notable about Exalted it's not really that the explosions are particularly big or small at the top end, it's that the size of the explosions are extremely uncorrelated to the scariness of the combatants

you can beat the radioactive sun in a swordfight without necessarily being able to tear up much of the landscape at all, although Ligier can very easily if he wants

[prisma sun]

Use neighborhood relocation technique to flip the idea of The Muppets Take Manhatten

[wise ocean]

come to think of it, what would happen if we just took nexus and moved it somewhere else

I will have to contemplate.

[bleak hazel]

and a sorceror could level a city but not be able to do a damn thing to a dedicated fighter because they just Perfect or resistance roll through the AOE and deck him

N.R.S at least has a "this was always here" history rewriting effect built in

[prisma sun]

I don't think you can take all of Nexus

only one borough

[bleak hazel]

It's mentioned that using it a lot means you owe an entire heavenly department drinks for a while because they have to update all the records despite said effect

it does have a five mile radius, I think you could take a reasonably large bite out of Nexus

Probably misses some suburbs though

[fierce star]

move lookshy up north near the sanctum of the god of powered flight, watch their airships stop sucking

[wise ocean]

move the imperial manse into the underworld

this can have no consequences

[fierce star]

I

can you move mount meru? I guess nothing says you can't move parts of it...

[bleak hazel]

Mount meru is definitely too big

My personal take here is that if you move the pole of earth nothing happens because everything else just gets reference frame shuffled along with it

"I moved all of Shaped reality fifteen miles to the right"
"Mein gott, I feel the exact same but a process has occurred"

[prisma sun]

Ligier: "Cool, I will now make the Sword of Creation green."

[bleak hazel]

He's not in the underworld, but Eye and Seven might get hold of the damn thing

[tulip folio]

Artful Perfection
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Dexterity 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: To Live In Interesting Times
The Wanderer is a master of Legerdemain, lesser tricksters finding nothing but empty hands when they try to compete.

The Wanderer clashes a Decisive attack with a Disarm Gambit, with each 10 on the attack roll adding a non-Charm die. If she rolls 3 or more 10s, she also adds a non-charm success. On a successful disarm, she may grab the weapon instead of knocking it away.

If the Wanderer cannot reach the attacker (Such as a slinger attacking from range), a successful Clash will still negate the attack but will not disarm the attacker.

Reset: Once per scene, unless reset by returning the successfully disarmed weapon to its owner.

[marsh garden]

wait, where's the Eye?

i thought they were loitering in an afterlife

[bleak hazel]

They're a deathlord, so presumably wherever in the underworld they like

[marsh garden]

don't most of them have bases of operations, though?

and the Eye is like, the one that dicks around crafting usually?

[bleak hazel]

Oh yeah

[marsh garden]

i didn't realize they were super mobile

[wise ocean]

ROTSE but it's the Malfeas vs. Underworld hyperwar as Ebbypress tries to get her crib back from the deathlords squatting in it

[marsh garden]

i just kind of assumed they'd stick to their workshop

[bleak hazel]

I'm not sure where their secret supervillain bunker is this edition

They do, but if the Imperial Manse popped up I figured they'd be motivated to go poke it for mad science reasons

[marsh garden]

gesturing at mnemon

[bleak hazel]

They're not Munaxes, they can go on a road trip

[prisma sun]

Is there any law saying the dead can't go to hell and hell can't go to the underworld

[wise ocean]

not to my knowledge

[marsh garden]

or wait, there's a male matriarch isn't there

which one's that? he'd be a better target without having to edit

[wise ocean]

is there? I forget whether cathak cainan is house head

[fierce star]

Once per Scene unless you return the disarmed weapon to the original wielder, as a cheeky little bit? cheeky idea aside it looks good to me!

[bleak hazel]

Demons can't just decide to go to the underworld because Malfeas is a prison, no particular reason ghosts can't go to Malfeas

(although there's no night there so they'd probably find it pretty unpleasant)

[wise ocean]

ah, you'd have to have the infernals do all their summonings etc inside the underworld then

[tulip folio]

The idea is 100% 'How can you stab me if I stole your sword?'

[fierce star]

lol

[bleak hazel]

Cathak Cainan is the glass ceiling breaker and Matriarch of Cathak

He's many many decades into being a second century warlord and sufficiently hypercompetent at imperialism that people have stopped making girlboss jokes

[tulip folio]

Reset: Once per scene, unless reset by returning the successfully disarmed weapon to its owner.

[marsh garden]

yeah, just checked

[fierce star]

yesss

love a cheeky reset

[marsh garden]

that's a great reset

[marsh garden]

i think you can get away with being quite a bit more lenient with this one

i don't think it needs both 1/scene and a wp cost

[tulip folio]

Note to self: Wanderer disarm upgrade that lets you disarm people's unarmed attacks by stealing their skill.

[bleak hazel]

Do note that clashing with non attack pools is often slightly worse because people don't tend to have them at 11 as a matter of course

otherwise yeah use the Sid one as a template and upcharge them for keeping hold of the sword

[marsh garden]

sta + resist in the resist tree is pretty straightforwardly synergistic tho

[bleak hazel]

I think there's a good template for that in Cerulean Lute

[marsh garden]

most resistance goobers are going to also be stamina goobers, yeah?

[bleak hazel]

Yeah, but a lot fewer of them are going to be Stam 5 with an applicable specialty than will have 5/5/1 to attack, and since you're opposing an attack pool the exact dice count is quite important for clashes

[marsh garden]

makes sense

[bleak hazel]

It's still a very good charm, it's just that the nature of clashes as "everyone go all out" makes pool size, non charm dice and withering attack accuracy really impactful

withering clashes are stupid good

[marsh garden]

what even has withering clashes?

i don't think i saw any in lunars, i assume solaroids and sids have one or so each?

[bleak hazel]

Snake

[marsh garden]

ahh, mas

[bleak hazel]

Sid Melee clash is decisive only, as is all SMA I know of

I'm pretty sure there's a withering clash in Lunars somewhere but I could be wrong

[tulip folio]

Artful Perfection
Cost: 5m; Mins: Dexterity 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: To Live In Interesting Times
The Wanderer is a master of Legerdemain, lesser tricksters finding nothing but empty hands when they try to compete.

The Wanderer clashes an attack against her with a disarm gambit, with each 10 on the attack roll adding a non-Charm die. If she rolls 3 or more 10s, she also adds a non-charm success. Ranged attacks and unarmed attacks can be clashed, but attackers aren’t disarmed and the Wanderer doesn’t pay Initiative.

If a weapon is disarmed this way, the Wanderer can reflexively take it herself, store it on her person or smugly return it to the attacker.

Reset: Once per scene, unless reset by returning the successfully disarmed weapon to the attacker.

Okay, it lost the 1wp cost but it kept 1/scene as it does have the bonuses to it/it's got a way to reset it if you lose some of the benefits.

[marsh garden]

huh, i might've missed it

[bleak hazel]

Are these non charm dice from the enemy's 10s or yours, and are they on the attack roll, the init roll or what

[tulip folio]

Oh, whoops. They should be on your attack roll, to your attack roll.

[bleak hazel]

Seems straight better than the Sid equivalent at present

[marsh garden]

i also think that "reflexively take the disarmed weapon" is e3, yeah?

that one might need to be part of a key

[bleak hazel]

And I would not give it a significant non-charm accuracy boost without making it significantly more expensive

[marsh garden]

unless i'm misremembering, which is always possible

[bleak hazel]

because clash

[marsh garden]

OH, I MISSED THAT THE DICE WEREN'T CHARM

OOPS

[tulip folio]

Exploding 10s are a very minor overall boost but yeah, that's fair. I can strip that out.

[marsh garden]

it makes sense, because i think that's how that shit usually goes

but i didn't realize it was non-charm

[bleak hazel]

Aha, azure crane even blade has basically this exact charm

use that as template instead

[tulip folio]

nods

[marsh garden]

holy shit 1m

[tulip folio]

The 1WP is most of the cost there.

[marsh garden]

yeah

[tulip folio]

I think they just didn't want to make a 0m charm in it

[marsh garden]

lmao

i think all the other disarm clashes are at least like 4-6m though

so it's a little bit of a waow when i'm looking for more efficiency

[bleak hazel]

1wp is generally priced at around 5 motes but with added can't-spam-this function

[marsh garden]

oh, sorry

what i mean is that they're all 4-6m+1wp

so this is a pretty schwifty discount

[tulip folio]

Artful Perfection
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Dexterity 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: To Live In Interesting Times
The Wanderer is a master of Legerdemain, lesser tricksters finding nothing but empty hands when they try to compete.

The Wanderer clashes an attack from close range with a disarm gambit, adding 10s on the attack roll as bonus dice on the Initiative roll. Ranged attacks and unarmed attacks can be clashed, but attackers aren’t disarmed and the Wanderer doesn’t pay Initiative. If she disarms a weapon she can take it herself.

Keys:

Taunting Generosity: Instead of knocking a disarmed weapon away or taking it, the wanderer can return it to the attacker. If she does, the attacker loses 2 initiative and she regains the willpower spent on this charm.

Lost Knowledge(Essence 3): The Wanderer can attempt to disarm unarmed attacks, natural weapons and other weapons (Such as an Essence Pulse Cannon) that cannot normally be disarmed. If successful, she cannot take the weapon but the attacker themselves cannot use that weapon until the end of their next turn, forgetting how to make use of it. This is a Psyche Effect and can be resisted by paying one willpower.

Made the 'I gave it back' a key.

So it's an upgrade where you trade out 'I get your weapon' for 'Hahah, ain't I a stinker?'

[marsh garden]

i really like that it drops initiative

it just

takes the wind right out of their sails

[fierce star]

"... Thi sis bullying :<" I like it

[bleak hazel]

going back through this channel: I really like this one, marking it down as one of the two spells Rival is allowed to actually learn

he's an awful sorceror, he can learn Invulnerable Skin of Bronze, Thing That Makes Swords and nothing else

just can't get into the right mindset for any other spells unless it's by consulting his big book o spells

if the Stations of Sorcery were still a thing I'd have him sacrifice his desire to become a great sorceror to become a sorceror at all, because it's really not going to happen

[tulip folio]

I wanted the 'can hit spirits' part because A) Charm-wise that's generally a really cheap effect so it felt okay to add B) It means even if a mortal sorcerer can't use the fancy tricks, a mortal exorcist with a spirit blade can still go Beat A Warghost's Face.

[bleak hazel]

I assume I can't give it to someone else

oh yeah says so at the bottom

[tulip folio]

It's part of the intended 'cost' to make keeping it active between fights not impossible but a little awkward.

You've got a hand that is constantly Full of Sword.

[bleak hazel]

I think this is actually best in slot (ha) since it's the only way I can get a Balanced hook-sword, which seems fitting

I assume you've seen Rival's slightly silly inventory tab

[tulip folio]

Likely in the past!

[bleak hazel]

there's also a sling, which he sucks with compared to his other weapons and keeps around solely to fuck with people

the batons are solid silver cylinders about the shape of a lightsabre hilt that he just uses to weight his fists in order to punch people harder, and also as travelling materials for his silversmithing

[tulip folio]

This man missed his calling as a D&D fighter with a golf-bag of weapons.

[bleak hazel]

I found this nifty little permanent in Battles

and if you have a ton of weapons you basically never need to pay the mote surcharge since you can just keep juggling MA and Melee weapons

it's a good gimmick

if I do say so myself

but until now I didn't have a way to hide an artifact weapon in my soul, so I can now go up to twelve weapons

[tulip folio]

Nice

...I wonder if there's a place for one of those 'when you put a point into a craft, get a point in another craft' charms but like for...weapon skills. So when you buy a point of melee, you can also get a point of archery or something.

[bleak hazel]

that's actually a Lunar charm

[tulip folio]

Oh, is it? Whoops. I remember it as a 2e Dawn charm when they were trying to unfuck dawns for a bit.

[bleak hazel]

Quicksilver Arsenal Adaptation, in MFS

I am willing to let it stay their thing because frankly Jimmy Sid does not need any more encouragement to take fifty different MAs even if it would be a nice XP discount, they're already doing that

[tulip folio]

Yeah. Was pondering effects like that for Wanderers to let them go like 'I'm an attribute exalt, I can use most things i get my hands on'

[bleak hazel]

they don't have any particular affinity for martial arts, right?

can probably just steal the Lunar one

[tulip folio]

Yeah, they're in the same boat as Alchs and Lumars there

Where they don't suck at martial arts, they are an attribute exalt after all.

But they're not outstanding beyond a general desire for things they can combo with dex charms

They don't have SMA or something (Though with how weird some of their charms can get, I imagine someone could mistake one for a Sid if they didn't know better)

I also had a fun idea on how to do some temporal shenanigans that isn't breaking the timeline.

They get a charm to inflict a disease 'Autumn's Passing'. It basicly Enforces The Pains Of Old Age on a guy without like...actually making him X number of years closer to dying.

[velvet raft]

EGOA suggests that slowing, stopping, speeding, and to some very limited extent predicting are all at least okay-ish

[tulip folio]

Unless it hits the 'death' level, of course (Which it can't do for exalts)

I hope that seems okay? Inflicting a Magical Withering as you Enforce Age upon a guy?

[bleak hazel]

yeah totally fine

the only thing that is super-mega-permabanned is going back in time

(even with the 5 days to malfeas thing, stuff only truly breaks if you have a way to get out faster than the time limit since you can already relay info five days into the past with a demon-summoning relay, that just can't have effects outside Malfeas without the five day trudge out again)

also handy malfeas image I found

[tulip folio]

I am pondering a penalty-based one that is Fucking With Time but not in a time travel way. More in a 'hey, everything's going a bit wonky' way. Distorting people's perception of time passing.

So they might feel like a minute passed in a couple of seconds, then the next minute took an hour

But as far as Reality Is Concerned, everything is still on track

This guy is just having a Bad Fucking Trip through a normally moving timestream, which takes the form of a penalty to actions once it's inflicted on him.

...weird design fact: Changling: The Dreaming fucking loved time fuckery but a lot of it wasn't in the Chronos art. Chronos got some yeah but basicly all four of the 'Season' arts got some of it too.

Spring could heal by speeding up time, winter could lock things in stasis etc

But I'm rambling.

[buoyant summit]

WHY DO I, THE MOONSHADOW, HAVE MORE STAMINA AND RESISTANCE THAN OUR GROUP'S WHITE REAPER NECROGENERAL DAYBREAK CASTE

[wise ocean]

you don't really need stam/res if you're warlordmaxxing, especially on white reaper where the usual reasons to have giga soak (not dying to battlegroups) are mostly irrelevant

just toss 3 stam 1 res in the pot for a good first ox-body and leave

[buoyant summit]

He is 2 stam 1 res

[wise ocean]

ah, well that's just a mistake in understanding ox-body bracketing lmao

[dense verge]

its 1 resistance, all 1 resist

[velvet raft]

Everybody's gonna have to make a resistance roll sooner or later

[dense verge]

he turned on resistance

[wise ocean]

Do they? The average poison can't kill an exalt, and at low essence I'd rather kill a guy faster than stop his debuff tick

[buoyant summit]

🐮 I, our literal squishy diplomat have 5 more HLs than he does I am crying laughing

[wise ocean]

well, soc-men exalts desperately need soak and HLs because they can't kill anything

this seems about right

[velvet raft]

It may or may not be in combat, but it'll happen eventually

[buoyant summit]

🐮I mean I'm not an utter pushover, still Melee 5

Just, not

One of our main combatants

[velvet raft]

Lots of charms invoke a resistance roll, and there's always weird shit that's gonna require a fortitude save :P

So I say, anyway

[wise ocean]

avoidance 👍

(I kid)

[velvet raft]

Just don't get hit, ez mode XD

[bleak hazel]

the two kinds of exalted table

"the Dawn has Melee 5 Dex 5 and four combat charms, everyone else has 3/3 and two charms"

and
"the Dawn has three individual combat trees and four ox-bodies, the squishy diplomat merely has 5/5/1 and a single MA taken as far as possible"

[velvet raft]

... yeah, that's true

[buoyant summit]

🐮I HAVE MORE CORPSE-BODY THAN THE DUSK CASTE I FEEL INSANE

[bleak hazel]

Days are sneaky, they don't get hit, it's fine

(probably)

[buoyant summit]

Not the

The Dusk, I misspoke

Our literal, textually intended and built as tank character

[wise ocean]

still makes sense, honestly - ah

well never mind

[buoyant summit]

what the fuck is happening?

[marsh garden]

how many ox bodies do you have?

because it sounds like you're not squishy at all

[buoyant summit]

I HAVE TWO

I ONLY HAVE TWO AND 3 STAM 3 RES

And no apparently the fuck I am not squishy!!!!!!!

[wise ocean]

acceptable standard deviation

e2?

[bleak hazel]

two is plenty

[velvet raft]

Man, fitting two whole ox-bodies? What a luxury

[bleak hazel]

only my dedicated combat specs have 2+

[marsh garden]

two and 3/3 is i think the average for a robust combat exalt, i think?

i'm at one and 3/3 lol, which i gotta fix

[wise ocean]

I need to acquire more ox-bodies

[marsh garden]

but i'm slowly building up all my attributes

[buoyant summit]

feels like I am going insane

[wise ocean]

Graves only has one and my other two have none because they have so much other stuff they needed to fit

[buoyant summit]

E: Do... do we overbeef our builds???

E: Our combat Exalts have more than this????

[marsh garden]

i went 3/3/3 mentals as a sorcerer, and 5/3/3 physicals, so i've been maxing that dex and then will be on int

[prisma sun]

Drifts only has 2 i think and even that might be too much considering his goal is to never be hit

[wise ocean]

yeah, I'm alright with my sid having no ox-bodies for a moment because he's lobbing shots from Extreme

[velvet raft]

... huh, sids don't have any join battle charms

[marsh garden]

i wish i could've stuck with 1 dex

[wise ocean]

first prio after arc 1 is getting torchlight an ox-body because it'll instantly give her like double her current HLs

[marsh garden]

but literally every defensive feature i have access to is dex-based

[wise ocean]

1 dex is... a non-option unless you're running a very specific build (or using a solaroid str replacer on a heavy artifact combat build, and even then)

[buoyant summit]

🐴 Is my E3 combat water deeb having 3 Ox... too much?

[wise ocean]

dex is a god stat for too much

[wise ocean]

deebs like Many Ox because your "not getting hit" tech is worse

[buoyant summit]

I mean

This particular build's not getting hit tech is

'I have reskinned Shining Ice Mirror and Even Blade 5 in the subschool about giving people I hit penalties'

[bleak hazel]

Shining Ice Mirror is quite enough on its own, that thing is nutso

[merry arch]

3 ox-bodies is fine for a combat-focused exalt. I don't think spending 3 charms at that number of XP is really that big of an issue, especially since Not Exploding And Fucking Dying is, well, as they say; Good

[buoyant summit]

I cannot wait to be one of the first Terrestrial combatants on a field of what's solely been Celestials and proverbially whip my dick out

And be like 'sup fuckers I have a build'

[bleak hazel]

for instance, compare: 3 motes committed and 2 per round to flurry FD + attack, Celestial charm

[marsh garden]

lol

[bleak hazel]

2 motes committed, every aim now provides all that benefit with no flurry penalty

[buoyant summit]

dabs CB artis baby

[marsh garden]

i am regretting not having a build

but it is on-theme

[bleak hazel]

there is one funnier corebook artifact

[marsh garden]

i think that we should push every artifact that explicitly references solars into a locker

[bleak hazel]

slams down one single willpower on the counter
15 reflexive init please

[marsh garden]

i don't even care if they're orichalcum anymore, i'm so tired of looking at AotC for references and getting 60 solar charms and nothing else in a nartifact

[marsh garden]

i'm sorry what

[buoyant summit]

'a moment of near-release' man whoever wrote these was horny

[bleak hazel]

amazingly it's about as horny as the actual sex martial art

which is merely making wink wink jokes all the time

[buoyant summit]

lol

[bleak hazel]

this is the only evocation that artifact has

[marsh garden]

lmao

well, i assume it's not banned from unlocking more

and olddevs just didn't give a shit and went "yeah sure, here's the only one that matters"

[buoyant summit]

So

🐮 My GM in the Abyssal PBP just introduced my Moonshadow's Lunar mate

Who remembers

quote

"when Ma-Ha-Suchi was forming the foundations for his "self-defense option"

Referring to my circlemate's use of White Reaper

remembers

[marsh garden]

👀

[wise ocean]

this is also extremely funny because it's e2 but "two full stories"

you're going to be e4 by that point

also hits you with the "primarily wielded" so you can't just have it hanging around and use it as your 1WP init bomb battery

[buoyant summit]

WHICH MEANS SHE'S MET HIM

SHE'S OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE KNOWN HIM WHILE HE WAS DEVELOPING THE NOW CENTURIES OLD STYLE

THIS IS MAYBE THE MOST DANGEROUS CHARACTER WE'VE ENCOUNTERED BARRING A DEATHLORD

[marsh garden]

have fun!

[buoyant summit]

OH

AND HER REFERENCE ART

TOMIE

[marsh garden]

who's that?

[buoyant summit]

Junji Ito's Tomie

She uh

[marsh garden]

ohh

[buoyant summit]

Okay you know her deal

I am fucking terrified

[marsh garden]

yeah uh, i can definitely see her as a lunar

now that i think about it

immortality through regeneration, madness, ghastly and esoteric forms

[buoyant summit]

🐮I am terrified lmao

[marsh garden]

time for shaping defenses

[marsh garden]

are there any decent tools for giving a 0 combat ability character okay Defense?

[chilly sluice]

Have good Dex and some Dodge

[marsh garden]

ah right, dodge technically isn't a combat ability

i'm including it there

any artifacts or (non-Sid, any other splat is fine) charms that offer replacement effects?

[chilly sluice]

5 Dex and 3 dots of Dodge gets you to 4 Defense, 5 if you get a specialty

[tulip folio]

Some exalts can mess about with what gives defence but generally you want some amount of defence.

[marsh garden]

i assume sids have em, but they get to break too many rules for that to help

[marsh garden]

that's...the reason i am asking this question, yeah

[chilly sluice]

Sids have a Dodge stat replacement, but I forget where it is exactly

[marsh garden]

non-sid

[chilly sluice]

I did see that yes

It's relatively rare outside of them
Alchemicals have a few

But don't remember if Defense is one of them

[marsh garden]

thank you, i'll look there

[tulip folio]

They can get Strength Parry but the Ability remains the same.

[chilly sluice]

Yeah there aren't any ability replacements for values usually

But just getting a few dots in Dodge shouldn't be that much of an issue

[marsh garden]

it is, unfortunately

i guess defense of shining joy is the only thing that does it, then

expected, but unfortunate

[coral wraith]

i do think any given character should at least have the ability to defend themselves should it come to that

[marsh garden]

that's why i was looking for ways to do that, yes

[coral wraith]

what Exalt type?

[marsh garden]

i was looking for examples in any other than sids, to see if it was something that could be lifted for evocations

but at present the actual character would be any of deeb, alch, or abyssal

based on where i have to compromise

[prisma sun]

The best way to not die is to thusly never be in combat

Just leave

Alternatively just get a bodyguard

Its ultimately cheaper to cover up shortfalls with a merit than with charms tbh

[limpid badge]

Tomie is always good juice

[buoyant summit]

🐮GOD ACK THE PAIN (positive)

We love a bitch in denial, chat

[coral wraith]

junji ito do be writing good horror

[buoyant summit]

🐮God I am fucking terrified

[buoyant summit]

I am

Attempting to Do My Job

Which is

Make Bitches Respect Me

And also

erect an archetype they think they're dealing with

In this case, falling into the mold that I am yet another of her mate's blustering reincarnates where now I am instead a patient spider

[tulip folio]

Notion-Invoking Despair
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Charisma 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: A couple
Nearly as terrifying as cold iron, notions are a bane of the fae, wielded against any who step beyond what they should be.

The Wanderer makes a (Charisma + [Presence, Performance or Socialize]) shame-based threaten or persuade roll against a single character. This roll is automatically supported by her target’s strongest Intimacy based on Shame. She doesn’t need to know her target has that Intimacy. If the Wanderer does know the target's strongest intimacy based on Shame, the cost to resist increases by one Willpower.

Keys:

Tall Poppy Cut Down: This charm can also use Intimacies of Pride as well as Shame.

[velvet raft]

Sids can get Appearance + Performance for Evasion

[marsh garden]

i mentioned non-sid

i remember defense of shining joy

and sids are the universal exception, so looking for precedent in them for things outside of starmetal artifice seems like bad etiquette

i was referred to both mind-hand manipulation and a deeb power, though

[velvet raft]

There’s also Sword of Virtuous Flame

Which summons a sword that does defend other

[marsh garden]

oh, where's that? is it a deeb spell, core, or something celestial?

[coral wraith]

deeb book 313

[marsh garden]

thanks

that's pretty close to what i was looking for in the first place, actually

much more fallible, but still (close to) ideal

[tulip folio]

Does this seem fun btw?

[marsh garden]

i assume the abyssal one is what you based it off of?

i'm not sure it should get its bonus non-charm dice unconditionally, since No Greater Terror only applies extra gubbins if she's already leveraging her own tie

and likewise it should probably get the WP refund

in case you don't ping any

although i guess being a Simple charm and the +2m pay for those dice in part

oh! or is there an alch charm you're patterning off instead?

i've gone through their physicals and mentals by now, but not much of their socials yet

[tulip folio]

It's actually based off the Alchemical version, as that's celestial-tier.

Panic Impulse Harmonics
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Manipulation 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Internal
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Infrasonic Dread Projector, Rogue Cell Isolation Protocols
Soulsteel transducers in the Alchemical’s voice box lace her words with undertones of dread beyond the range of human hearing.

The Alchemical makes a (Manipulation + Presence) threaten roll against a single character. It’s automatically supported by her target’s strongest Intimacy based on fear. She doesn’t need to know her target has that Intimacy. If the target’s Intimacy is a Tie of fear to the Alchemical, the cost to resist increases by one Willpower.

If the Alchemical’s target doesn’t any fear-based Intimacies, she’s refunded this Charm’s Willpower cost.

Though I missed the refund because it's literally the single line on the next page for the charm 😛

Layout!

[marsh garden]

anguish

[tulip folio]

I gave it a hair more as intimacies based on shame are a lot less easy to Just Set Up/Less Likely To Already Have than fear-based ones, was my thoughts.

[marsh garden]

those can't come soon enough

i think 10s add NCD/NCS is more than a hair, but i'm not going to raise a fuss, since i def agree

fear is a pretty general emotion that happens and can be applied in pretty broad circumstances, both heavy-handed and wordlessly subtle

shame demands a few extra social contexts and, in Exalted, i'm assuming another intimacy or specific background

it's funny though, i didn't remember any charms outside of abyssals that did that but i made sure to double-check literally every splat other than alchs to make sure i wasn't missing any lmao

even though i should remember by now that you've been taking a lot of alchs to template

[tulip folio]

I also just had way too much fun giving the fae the power to inflict the horror of Notions on people. XD

[marsh garden]

and then i checked alchs anyway and...used the abyssals wording for "strongest tie" and not "strongest intimacy" and so pinged no results

[fierce star]

"For shame!" "Do I have to"

i'm nto sure where I was going with that

charm looks really fun though

feel shame for daring to have the idea of

"the idea of what" yes

[velvet raft]

Fuck, I just realized how to describe how I imagine the Walker In Darkness fighting

Like Stark from Frieren

[buoyant summit]

🐮I am getting All-Consuming Obsession used on me by my Lunar mate I don't like this x3

[buoyant summit]

🐮I'm still not over my fucking GM taking me joking about one of our Lunar mates being an Elder and deciding 'fuck it, I'm making you suffer'

[light olive]

Hermit crab people primordial race. Whose knowledge and identity was closely tied to the shells. They are extinct now but the shells remain

[velvet raft]

It's a classic move for solaroids

[buoyant summit]

They're an associate of Raksi and Ma-Ha-Suchi (as much as anyone can be now) from the old days

[fierce star]

Hmm. I can't quite remember offhand and don't have access to my books immediately, but iirc all the 'regrow a limb' tech in ex3 is body shaping effects, right?

[tulip folio]

It doesn't generally list it as, no

[marsh garden]

the infernal one is shaping (body), at least

but that's because it's tied to its mutation shenanigans

[fierce star]

nods

[marsh garden]

actually, how much "regrow a limb" tech is there?

there's the infernal acid bath, alchs can pretty trivially regrow their own limbs