Exalted

[marsh garden]

i love the eyes

[next niche]

:D
Thank you!
A friend of mine kinda came up with the idea and then I put my own weird spin on it lmao

i should defs doodle more freaky Exalted shit
... including actually turning that into a finished piece I wanna make a portfolio and submit it to opp

... anyway sorry i derailed things didnt i lmao my apologies.

[coral wraith]

not at all! you gucci

[marsh garden]

there is no such thing as a derail on this screeching train

[next niche]

pffft fair

[marsh garden]

it just explodes and then hatches into another one, like a matryoshka doll of careening hyperfixation yaps

[velvet raft]

Hm what would abyssal melee grapple even be like …

[next niche]

then i shall occasionally dump art on the tracks and
idk
ramble about this abyssal melee rework im like half done with at some point maybe

[marsh garden]

i think you first want to ask what it looks like

since there aren't really any Melee Grapple options that exist except even blade

[velvet raft]

Ye

[marsh garden]

where garda talon like

gets the opp into a noogie

[velvet raft]

I wonder if the way to do this would actually be evocations

[marsh garden]

prolly

[velvet raft]

Via Wraith-Forged Plate

[next niche]

Evos are the way to go esp. if you wanna combo it with MAs

[marsh garden]

makes it much less messy as to MA combos

and lets you do bespoke combos with C&A

also lets you combo with like, this part of it

you can dinkle with evocations that tie into that, bear, and/or your melee counterattacks

[velvet raft]

Of course if dicking around with evocations there’s also Option 2 where we just turn the chains into heavy weapons or something

[marsh garden]

heavyblade, perhaps

what does heavy weaponing it do? just the brawl str compat?

[velvet raft]

Ye

[marsh garden]

or thinking about smth else

gotcha gotcha

hmmm

comparing this to a thousand-corpse goliath, i'm not sure whether i've erred on the side of too much or too little

[next niche]

oh?

[marsh garden]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tlirUjTxjfg6AhL04DA_H9LeqLecCUJEoG808glsrRY/edit?tab=t.b17figo5pwxv

requesting some eyes

not the elementals, although those probably need more work again

[bleak hazel]

I think the nest could maybe do with having less health beyond its -0s and more damage potential beyond the one big explosion attack

right now it's going to do its one really cool thing and then sit around getting punched for a prolonged period of time

maybe 8/3/3/2 and something that makes Trample more accurate while the shell is closed, to incentivise actually hitting it to begin with

that way it takes one big hit, explodes, flails around in an intimidating way, eats another decent decisive and then breaks into the chaff bonesiders, giving it two decent moments in the fight with less of a gap in between

[marsh garden]

huh, that makes sense, thanks

maybe an animal charge that flattens

bowling ball bullshit technique

[next niche]

hmmmmm
yeah Im gonna echo Misc on this now that ive gotten a chance to look

[velvet raft]

I’m enjoying this characterization

The reflex I’m fighting is to have the Walker speak in an incredibly self-important way, but I like the idea that when not actively sermonizing he’s a little more relaxed

Especially with Lu, who he trusts absolutely

[marsh garden]

i like to think that he Just A Guys it sometimes in contrast to the Bishop and the Lover, who can't turn themselves the fuck off

and in contrast to the Dowager, who apparently used to be an entertaining sarcastic asshole

and can't be anymore

[velvet raft]

The thing about the Walker’s characterization that captures my attention is how much he’s in it for the love of the game

[marsh garden]

gives a split on the true believers' presentation and self-delusions

[marsh garden]

the Heron's even more in it for the love of the game, and he does respect that about her, but i do think that means he has to be a tryhard sometimes

however

it's definitely part of my mental image of him

[velvet raft]

He doesn’t like that he enjoys being this Lucifer archetype, but he totally does enjoy it

[tulip folio]

Some day I hope we get a 'can be used in armour' SMA.

I feel bad any time I want to make a sid that doesn't use silk armour because I end up going 'I guess this character won't get SMA'.

[prisma sun]

I feel like in the average game its not actually much of an opportunity cost loss

Like most games arent going to to E3 let alone E4

[velvet raft]

Does this seem fair for a Wraith-Forged Plate evocation, considering that the entire summon-chains-and-armor combo costs 20-22 motes?

Cost: -; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Chain-and-Armor Mortification
The cost of Iron Tomb Imprisonment is waived when used with Wraith-Forged Plate. In addition, the chain weapons created by Chain-and-Armor Mortification while using Wraith-Forged Plate count as both heavy and medium weapons, and gain the damage bonus and OVW value of heavy artifact weapons.```

[next niche]

Hmmm
The thing is C&AM already has a clause for artifact traits when used with wraith-forged plate. Letting them count as medium or heavy seems fine but keeping the accuracy bonus of a light artifact weapon but the damage and overwhelm of heavy seems a bit ehh?

[marsh garden]

you don't have to list that last clause, it's part of -

sniped

and yeah this is functionally just "waive ITI's cost, +2 non-charm acc on chains"

[next niche]

Pffft

[marsh garden]

very respectable workhorse, just not super exciting

[next niche]

Yeah Idk I'm skeptical of it myself. Discounting a cost for that one charm seems kind of underwhelming for an evo and I am kind of leery of "I get the best parts of light and heavy weapons"

[marsh garden]

while i'm guilty of doing exactly that kind of permanence on some evocations myself, it's like

the flavor here doesn't sing to me

if you want to make iron tomb free, i'd make whatever else is part of the evo try to sell that as a fantasy

instead of just +2 NCA

[marsh garden]

(also it'd be med, not light)

(but your point stands)

[next niche]

Yeah it's kind of lacking in drip

[next niche]

oop must have misread

[velvet raft]

They’re medium by default, not light

[next niche]

In my defense I got 5 hours of sleep

[velvet raft]

Mainly I don’t want to just make them heavy, which feels almost like a downgrade

[marsh garden]

it would be, for sure

[next niche]

Yeah

[marsh garden]

other than just keying into brawl, heavy is strictly the worst category

[velvet raft]

As is it’s only adding some damage and overwhelming

[marsh garden]

if you want an evo to make em heavy, i'd like

[next niche]

Take heavy weapons only for the drip

[marsh garden]

make that the centerpiece of an evo, and make the rest of it compensation

it's heavy and you get non-charm dice/sux/penalize the target on x or y flavorful abyssal condition

[next niche]

Yeee
Think of how you'd wanna narrate this in a scene for maximum cool factor and then figure out how you'd implement that in a flavorful way lik-
Yeah that

[marsh garden]

as opposed to just resting +4 dmg +1 ovw on your medium

I'm tired so this might be ass, but you could make it stacking to simulate medium states sneakily like

[velvet raft]

I’m specifically imagining these chains as being absurdly huge, with links big enough to use each one individually as a grip

[marsh garden]

"When you thing this round, the writhing chains inflict a -1 penalty on attack rolls and Defense against them. This penalty increases by 1 for each of:
-The target has an intimacy of fear towards you or death.

• You/They have a -2 wound penalty
• You are outnumbered

or some such

[velvet raft]

Hm, that might be interesting

[next niche]

The melee rework I've been doing uses a lot of onslaught penalty stuff which can be fun but
actually you know what for this I like the wound penalty thing more do that

[velvet raft]

It would fit with brawl

[marsh garden]

some kind of condition set that quietly affects the benefits of medium's bullshit +1 def and less bullshit +2 acc on your now-heavy, and increases it further, without like

[next niche]

Gives you good brawl synergy too

[marsh garden]

giving up the game

but instead making you act out being big chain bastard

[next niche]

big chain bastard would be a great stage name

[marsh garden]

and ofc abyssals have plenty of in-splat ways to get cheap wound penalties on themselves and others, to inflict fear or awe or lust, etc.

they're often outnumbered but also are necromancers, so if you want to be a bully and outnumber your enemies that's highly feasible too

[velvet raft]

Aye, and Chains specifically does Fear Stuff as well

What do we think about the Iron Tomb Imprisonment portion? It seems overcosted to me as a charm but I’m not sure just waiving it is the way to handle that

[marsh garden]

other condition options could be "you're grappling them/anyone" or "your victim thinks their cause is righteous " or "you aren't who they think you are"

[velvet raft]

Maybe just make the chains good enough to be worth it

[marsh garden]

or similar typecasting bullshittery

ITI's 6m right?

[velvet raft]

For heavy armor, yeah

That’s on top of 10m for Wraith-Forged and 6m for CAAM

[marsh garden]

yeah iron tomb is like

[velvet raft]

And I mean those are good charms, but ITI’s benefits are … modest, by comparison

[marsh garden]

paying a lot for a: +2 hardness

[bleak hazel]

they all synergise quite well, it's absolutely worth

[marsh garden]

which is a lot on your 10 hardness artifact heavy

and b: no mobility penalty

[prisma sun]

If you were to make an Iron Maiden into an artifact weapon, what would it count as

[bleak hazel]

mobility penalty 0 is worth 5-6 motes on any splat

[marsh garden]

which doesn't matter if you have native artifact light with your wraith plate

but does elsewise

[bleak hazel]

improvised grand goremaul, I think

[marsh garden]

heavy improvised bashing w/ smashing

bespoke like oadenol's wheel

[velvet raft]

Although Wraith Forged can get no mobility penalty on its own if it merges with existing armor, note

[bleak hazel]

or like, the wording from oedanol's wheel that makes it trigger Improvised-related stuff

[next niche]

It's artifact armor with an evo that it opens up and lets you drag someone inside with you as a grapple

[bleak hazel]

jinx

[marsh garden]

attunement benefit is a charm

that opens it up for a piercing attack that always bleeds, even exalt/spirits

as red revel has

gets the twofold "this is a giant Thingamafucker" and "iron maidens scrongle people" effects

without having to make them both one thing

since they're kind of kludgy to one-thing

[bleak hazel]

the thing about the chain build is that it takes multiple turns to get spooled up unless you are E3 or Supernal resistance for Indefinite WFP, but the juice is absolutely worth the squeeze motewise

[velvet raft]

You can actually reflexively get it all on

[bleak hazel]

I would not make evos that just give it a bunch of passive benefits considering it's already "what if I walked around wearing two DBTs on top of each other"

[velvet raft]

The repurchase of Armor-Calling Phantasms makes WFP reflexive

[marsh garden]

do you need to double-buy it for anything else in the tree?

[velvet raft]

No

It just lets you use it reflexively

[bleak hazel]

I was unaware there was any way to reflexively deploy the chains

[marsh garden]

cool cool, so it's superfluous on res apoc but handy elsewhere

[velvet raft]

The chains come from ITI, iirc

[bleak hazel]

and at E3 or with Supernal you get Indefinite Duration WFP anyway so you can just walk around in your super armour

[velvet raft]

And ITI is reflexive

[bleak hazel]

they do not, they are a Simple that you use when ITI is up

[marsh garden]

yeah it's just c&a that takes an action

[velvet raft]

Ah, you’re right

[marsh garden]

that one could be an evocation, to reflex it if you trigger applicable conditions and get a bonus to doing that on turn 1

but it's def shifty

otoh it's basically a stance

so stancing it up would be cute

[next niche]

iirc I made a Soulsteel prosthetic that did something similar at one point but yeah it's a bit messy there

[marsh garden]

sick

i also have soulsteel prosthetics for my poor son

[prisma sun]

why you guys gotta turn guys into arms c'mon

[marsh garden]

i will show him once more because there is a new person to inflict him upon

[next niche]

artifact prosthetics are greatly slept on tbh

[velvet raft]

It’s funny

[marsh garden]

dusklet

[next niche]

Oooooh

Plain doll vibes

[marsh garden]

yeah, plain doll and violet evergarden were part of the refs lmao

[next niche]

I like 👀

[velvet raft]

Alright, I’ll write a bit more while I stew on the chains

[next niche]

... I should finish that sketch of a moth Lunar missing an arm I was working on a while ago

[prisma sun]

https://youtu.be/DMiWjXKmG8U?si=HHKxjH1ouXjfP6b6&t=11

This was what I was thinking of for the iron maiden

ftr

[marsh garden]

i still need to get a real balance pass on his, but i think the vibes are appropriately rancid

[prisma sun]

(warning flashing lights)

[marsh garden]

also hell yeah moth time

yeah if it's all about Hitting Someone With A Coffin (or iron maiden, as the case may be), i would highly recommend using Oadenol's Wheel as a template

[next niche]

actually lemme
u give me pretty Abyssal so I offer you one in kind

[next niche]

👀

[marsh garden]

which isn't improvised, but is iirc a bespoke weapon and its framework has it as benefiting from all improvised-compatible MAs and magic

[next niche]

Yeee

[marsh garden]

and then you just make the evocations, including the attunement bonus, involve whatever grapple-based scrunching you want to get people into the maiden with

[marsh garden]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LORJVisLnk3vbbdJ_8_SvRGd28ExwlZoVb1ZgvmOOV8/edit

it got away from me, and so there are like 10 evocations for the regular artifact and Hope Without Kings' extra personal list, so it's got a uhhh. list, and i need to reword the capstone evo's spacing

it's hard to precisely define "make range bands stop existing" and right now it's kinda got two colliding forms of spatial resolution

but the essence level is a ways away, and i haven't really had the energy to think about it in a bit

[next niche]

Lunar Exalts with a Solar bond are resonant with Oizys. A Solar mate does not need to be the focus of Oizys's power, however; the mere presence of one such bond is fuel for the other.

Oizys thrives on possessive bonds, and stokes a vicious envy in its bearer.
Lunar elder who's incredibly possessive of some dumbass e1 solaroid when

[marsh garden]

:)

[next niche]

I like this a lot though it looks cool!

[next niche]

And look
Setting aside my fondness for Lunars and comparative distaste for non-Abyssal solaroids... inversions of expected power dynamics? Fun as hell.

[velvet raft]

Duke Lu is eating the abyssal that Chains killed 😌

[wise ocean]

https://tenor.com/view/mark-cuban-shark-tank-notes-taking-notes-remember-gif-15073512

[prisma sun]

This is, factually, most of the lunar bonds I have seen in this channel.

[buoyant summit]

Cost: -; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Evocation 1, any Charm this Evocation enhances

The Mountain-Song is a marching cadence, an earthen bellow buoying esprit-de-corp.

This Evocation enhances the following Dragon-Blooded Charms as described below:

When she uses Uneating Earth Meditation (Dragon-Blooded, p. 247), she may spend a Willpower to grant its full benefits to a battle group she commands.
When she uses Inviolate Dragon Spirit (Dragon-Blooded, p. 247), if the Intimacy called upon for the Decision Point is her strongest positive Intimacy related to a cause she shares with her troops, the Willpower cost of the Charm is refunded.
When she uses Excellence of the Dutiful General (Dragon-Blooded, p. 279), she may add (Essence) non-Charm successes on a strategic maneuver roll instead of converting them from situational bonus dice, up to a maximum of the roll’s situational bonus dice.
When she uses Tireless Footfalls Cadence (Dragon-Blooded, p. 279), she may use the strenuous terrain her battle group travels through to mask its true size or strike from unexpected angles. She gains situational bonus dice on the strategic maneuver roll equal to the penalty movement through strenuous environments would normally inflict.```

[buoyant summit]

Our Abyssal's Lunar mate isn't... possessive of the character herself, but is very possessive of the extremely certain idea in their head that said Abyssal is a piece of shit they'd rather be free of.

In fairness, most of our Abyssal's previous incarnations were kind of terrible!

[next niche]

?

[next niche]

🙏
bless

[next niche]

oh dear

[prisma sun]

I should make an abyssal based on Glados

[buoyant summit]

Their first mate Mother Gothel'd them into taking a Caste...

it was not pretty...

[next niche]

oh dear.

[bleak hazel]

I think it's definitely going to skew in that direction because there are a bunch of old powerful weirdo lunars around and all the solaroids are ickle

[wise ocean]

"taking notes," as it were

[next niche]

ahhhh

[buoyant summit]

But now they're an E7 Elder who is taking revenge on their mates' immortal spark by... being a piece of shit to her and being all Tomoe at her

[bleak hazel]

and the solars no longer have Lunar Enslaving Technique to reverse the natural result of Lilith showing up and deciding to be extremely weird

(more weird than the Lilith baseline, that is)

[buoyant summit]

🐮My Abyssal's talked to Lilith!

Because my Abyssal's mate was her shahan-ya!

It got very awkward

"Aww it's great that you love your master and feel a romantic bond towards your mate. It's a good thing that you don't like how much pain the bond causes your former shahan-ya."

"CAN WE MAYBE TALK ABOUT HOW THAT PAIN IS CAUSING THEM TO WANT TO TURN ME, A PERSON WHO HAS MET THEM ONCE, INSIDE OUT LIKE A MEAT SOCK?!"

[velvet raft]

Oh relax, you’ll be fine. Maybe.

[buoyant summit]

XD

Cost: -; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Evocation 1, any Charm this Evocation enhances

The Mountain-Song is a marching cadence, an earthen bellow buoying esprit-de-corp.

This Evocation enhances the following Dragon-Blooded Charms as described below:

When she uses Uneating Earth Meditation (Dragon-Blooded, p. 247), she may spend a Willpower to grant its full benefits to a battle group she commands.

When she uses Inviolate Dragon Spirit (Dragon-Blooded, p. 247), if the Intimacy called upon for the Decision Point is her strongest positive Intimacy related to a cause she shares with her troops, the Willpower cost of the Charm is refunded.

When she uses Excellence of the Dutiful General (Dragon-Blooded, p. 279), she may add (Essence) non-Charm successes on a strategic maneuver roll instead of converting them from situational bonus dice, up to a maximum of the roll’s situational bonus dice.

When she uses Tireless Footfalls Cadence (Dragon-Blooded, p. 279), she may use the strenuous terrain her battle group travels through to mask its true size or strike from unexpected angles. She gains situational bonus dice on the strategic maneuver roll equal to the penalty movement through strenuous environments would normally inflict.```

[prisma sun]

I need to do more with my Abyssal and Lunar mates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSwgPeF_Wq0

every time I listen to this shit I think about them and stare wistfully out the window

[next niche]

bondmate shenanigans are incredibly fun

[prisma sun]

The vibe between Waking Smith of Scrimshawed Bones and Red Rivers Rapid is that their last bonded incarnations had a psychosexual relationship regarding sieges with Smith creating endless castles only for Rivers to take them so he could find the flaws in his designs and improve them.

All for the goal of creating a Perfect Fortress, which he nearly did and locked himself in when the Great Curse set in

Red Rivers Rapid, on the advice of her Sidereal advisor, took her circle into the fortress to try and cure him of whatever magical malaise had overtaken him (which was actually an assassination plot, as a trinket that was given to her by said Sid actually contained a squad of assassins)

[buoyant summit]

Incredible, the Addams' of demigodly warfare

[prisma sun]

basically yes

[buoyant summit]

Also this is a brutal twist, well done

[clever steeple]

Moe...

[prisma sun]

https://tenor.com/view/travis-touchdown-moe-no-more-heroes-poster-anime-gif-25651998

[prisma sun]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/limbuscompany/comments/1new0fz/burning_duchess_ryoshu_art_by_ehooooooost/

Abyssal

[marsh garden]

i don't know the context of this ryoshu

why isn't she deeblish

[chilly sluice]

This is a fan design

[marsh garden]

ah

[prisma sun]

This is the same EGO as Iridiscent Trial Rodion iirc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggljLs_fHD4

[next niche]

... i thank you for this offering.

this will be added to my inspiration bucket for drawing the Pyre

[fierce star]

oh shit ante's in here

[next niche]

Yeah Misc dragged me in here yesterday

[fierce star]

hello ante

[next niche]

hello ID

[fierce star]

lol

[next niche]

i am definitely not familiar with u before and this is our first time meeting

man i need to do more art

gotta finish this exigent lady fight...

[fierce star]

yay art

[wise ocean]

the eternal struggle

[prisma sun]

You should probably check all the EGOs from Limbus tbh

[next niche]

u already saw the thumbnail dweeb

[next niche]

the eternal struggle ;-;

ive been trying to decide between opponents for her too smh.

[prisma sun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha_dXjWqLBE

Journeys Razor Parasol User

[next niche]

a friend's deeb or ang's abyssal
i asked around and there was no consensus smh.

[wise ocean]

oh, huh, what is she an exigent of

[next niche]

I
dunno anyhing about limbus i confess

[prisma sun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8AWi-G4Oec

Don't gotta, just look up EGOs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIe9vM4iB2E

[next niche]

Killing blizzards and gentle rain :3
sooo... imagine if u will you have a nice friendly god who governs some seasonal rainfall pattern that at one point brought life-giving rain to a specific region then over time (and partly because corrupting influence of the Lover on the north or something) becomes this biting lethal winter storm that wipes out a society that had previously flourished there and the god in question doesn't fully realize what's happening to them until they're a step away from becoming the deathly equivalent of Yukino-Takka or something
and then uses the last scraps of themself they have to exalt the only person they can find, a traveler near death from hypothermia, with a spark of exigence they'd held on to from loooong ago

[next niche]

noted noted

[wise ocean]

📝 noted. very good

[next niche]

:D

tfw you're a patchwork exigent but the patchwork is your own singular patron god being completely unrecognizeable from himself

[wise ocean]

surely you can fix this, because I sure can't

[next niche]

LMAO
I mean that's pretty much what it was! Along with "You're gonna die otherwise anyway"
The main thing is I'm just not sure what her like Central Thematic Power is
i.e. Lunars with shapeshifting or Sids with destiny manipulation

[wise ocean]

Yeah, that's a rough one for exigents because they're just much narrower than everything else

[next niche]

yeah

I did manage to come up with one for my painter exigent but yeah

[prisma sun]

I feel like you give them Anima Flux-Lite and then you make their dualist nature the forefront

[tulip folio]

Could bake 'weather fuckery' into thier base. Plenty of use for rain, storms, blizzards and mist.

Like how sids get prophecy

[wise ocean]

yeah, I was thinking you'd end up somewhere around waterbender territory but in a different way

[prisma sun]

Oh I was thinking like "You take a lot of Deeb charms"

"And some Stormcaller charms"

[next niche]

I was gonna probably steal some Abyssal survival charms actually

But yeah some kind of stormcaller "blizzard building up around her" type thing is the best I've been able to think of so far

[next niche]

I was gonna give her charms a keyword giving them a thematically inverse effect under the right conditions!

[tulip folio]

I think my query is if you're looking more for in-conbat or out of combat for the unique trick. Anima flux vs prophesy sorta stuff.

[next niche]

Hm maybe yeah

[next niche]

That's what I'm torn on but I lean towards cool narrative powers that I can use as thematic grounding and maybe some mechanical basis for her combat charms

So prophecy lol

[tulip folio]

In that case I'd lean a more broad 'I can change the weather over a wide area' with smaller scale stuff more on charms like the Abyssal Survival stuff.

[next niche]

yeee that's what I was thinking overall

Generally only capable of bringing blizzards and making it cold but under specific circumstances (defense of a major or defining positive intimacy or something) she can go the other way

[tulip folio]

Yeah, though i think there's solid variety WITHIN cold weather.

[next niche]

Oh?

[tulip folio]

Mist, Hail, Rain, other environmental effects that pokemon didn't tell me. XD

Mist blocking sight is very different to hail raining down etc

But both are icy weather

[next niche]

Truuuuu

Freezing rain covering someone in ice

[tulip folio]

Mind if I sketch up something quick?

[next niche]

Oh? Sure?

[spiral cosmos]

you may find it useful to reference some of the freezing mechanics on a terrestrial spell called chains of mela

might be good to rip for a charm or two

[next niche]

oooh good idea

Thanks!

[wise ocean]

there's also that mist sorcery in mfs

[tulip folio]

Snow Warning
<Exigent Name> can shape freezing ice and healing rain. Doing so uses the rules for sorcerous workings (Exalted, p. 483), with the following changes:

• She can only perform workings that are based in icy weather or healing rain. She could freeze a river solid, raise mist to hide a town or cure a plague but not invite a second circle demon into creation unless it is tied to those themes.
• The <Exigent Name> rolls ([Charisma, Intelligence, or Manipulation] + [Survival, Lore, Occult, or Performance]) to perform the sorcerous working.
• She ignores the penalties for working beyond the boundaries of her initiation.
• She treats up to one applicable tie of each level (Trivial, Major, Defining) as a Means for this working, as her wild emotions fuel her magic.
• Once per story, she can ignore the experience cost for performing a sorcerous working within the boundaries of her initiation.

After all, Prophesy is based off a heavily modified Sorcerous Working framework.

'Hey, you can do Big Cool Things based on your themes with some downtime to whip it up'

[marsh garden]

what book's chains of mela in?

i thought it was deebs but

[next niche]

yeah ive been trying to find it might be looking in the wrong area?

[next niche]

oooo
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
iiiiinteresting...

I think I can have some fun with this
or something based on this
or yeah
hm...

[tulip folio]

I'll admit, I'm a firm believer in 'if there's an existing framework, hooking into it is good'.

[buoyant summit]

Oh shit vixen is here

Cost: 5m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Instant

The General bellows with Mountain-Song, exhorting her troops to charge with a rumbling war-cry

The wielder’s command action to order a battle group converts an amount of her successes on her roll, up to (Charisma/2), into successes on all actions that battle group takes on its next turn, as opposed to extra dice on those actions.
```unrelated, good evo?

[tulip folio]

My concern is that order is already very good at giving 'yes' dice.

Adding even more is kinda...a hat on a hat.

I don't think the charm is bad, it's quite good.

[buoyant summit]

fairrrrrr...

Your concern is it being too good

X D

[tulip folio]

I just think it kinda doesn't do anything order doesn't already do a lot of.

If that makes sense?

[buoyant summit]

Yeah..........

lkashdofihasoifdhoawh

[next niche]

yeeee
I made a painting exigent who hooked into the craft system

[buoyant summit]

Wartifacts haaaaaaard

[tulip folio]

Vague Pondering: This is about war + asymmetrical combat, right?

[marsh garden]

what're you looking for out of this one, by the way?

[buoyant summit]

indeedsch

[buoyant summit]

If that's to me, I'm making an arti for a Tengese rebel Earth Deeb who has the sword of Kanviti Mountain-Song, one of the two who freed An-Teng from the Realm for a decade

[marsh garden]

ye

so async

[buoyant summit]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o2CV-L_Q6Y7ffwcyXAgFVf2nLVEghaI3KY_QOMt7Ds4/edit?usp=sharing

Here is the thing so far

[tulip folio]

Vague Pondering: When your opponent is picking strategems, you pick one before them and increase it's threshold by (Higher of Essence or 3) for your opponent.

So you go 'Hey, I'm controlling this battlefield enough/have enough local knowledge you can't do X easily'.

[buoyant summit]

oooooooooooo~

That's cuuuuuuuute~

[tulip folio]

'What do you mean Ambush has been locked out? No fair!'

[buoyant summit]

So what should the cost be?

Also do you mean you pick a stratagem to enact, and then make that same strat harder for the enemy?

Or do you just mean 'pick a strat and make it rly hard for them to do?'

[tulip folio]

You basicly get a pre-roll 'No, not that one', yeah. Like banning a character before a competitive match of a game 😛

[buoyant summit]

lol

Should that be instead of Avalanche's Rumbling War-Cry?

I think I shall do that and rename it to Rockslide & Clifftop Method

XD

i.e. 'cutting off the foe's escape by setting off a rockslide' or 'gunning them down from a ridge'

[tulip folio]

Makes sense

[buoyant summit]

Also funny haha rocks fall everyone dies

[spiral cosmos]

https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/general-exalted-thread.44/page-2742#post-36061516

[next niche]

Ooooh
Thanks!

[wise ocean]

the sufficient velocity thread is the exalted library of alexandria

[next niche]

Pffft

[marsh garden]

oh!

i knew i'd seen it somewhere, but i thought it was in a book

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Assume 3 evos that in turn have their own prereqs

The general reveals what her opponent thought was her army was in truth an outcropping, sunlit mirage, stand of trees, or the unconscious babbling of a brook.

While adjacent to a battle group the wielder is leading, she may roll (Intelligence/Manipulation+War) against the opposing general’s (Intelligence/Presence+War) roll. If she succeeds, she and the adjacent battle group may reflexively move up to two range bands, though not adjacent to another hostile character or battle group.

Reset: 1/scene.```Hi this is a White Jade asymmetric warfare daiklave, I get to move my army around like earthenware chess pieces

[tulip folio]

Hmm...pondering a charm for a style I made as I feel like I made it too undertuned.

Sword-Stunting Methodology
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Uniform, Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
As the undisputed center of narrative focus, the Warlord is unconcerned with the lesser dances of her foes. Those without the narrative presence to make themselves stand out are doomed, their blades failing in the face of her quicksilver speed.

This supplements an attack, doubling up to (Appearance) 9s on the attack roll and making it Unblockable without a Stunt. 

The target does not lose initiative or health levels from this attack, though it is still considered to deal damage for other effects, such as charms, poison or magnitude. The stylist still gains full initiative for a withering attack supplemented this way.

Mastery: If this supplements a counterattack, it can double 8s as well as 9s.

Death between heartbeats is cheaper, can double more theoretical dice (Though in practice 5 9s is beyond waht you'll see in most dice pools) and doesn't have the big downside of not hurting the other guy

It does require you aim but aiming is A) Great B) Something you often want to do with a reflexive charm anyway because it's awesome.

[fierce star]

Hmm

what if you bumped the cost a bit and made it double nines reroll 1s? or is that too much dice trick in one charms?

[marsh garden]

that seems pretty ridiculous for a martial art

[spiral cosmos]

not yet

[marsh garden]

one day

[tulip folio]

I worry it might be a bit overcomplicated. The intent of the charm was 'really good for Gaining Init/Tagging with On-Hit effects but doesn't actually hurt the other guy'

But I was so focused on the 'does a cute downside/upside thing' that I think the upside ended up not enough.

[buoyant summit]

holy fuck my sorcerer-shikari is taking this spell Jesus Christ

Or wait what circle is it

I'm about to be sad ain't I

TERRESTRIAL LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[tulip folio]

The attack roll uses (Wits + [Archery or Thrown]) with (Occult) Accuracy dice, but her dice limit and applicable Excellency are determined by the sorcerer's (Intelligence + Occult).

This bit feels a Bit Awkward but it's otherwise very cool.

[marsh garden]

if it talks about an immaculate dragon it can't not be terrestrial

would be cruel otherwise

[wise ocean]

goddamn, now that I actually look at it, that's a very spicy damage spell for terrestrial

[fierce star]

... what if does no damage to uh

one seconds, words

[marsh garden]

+5 acc and using wits instead of dex is v respectable, for sure

[buoyant summit]

My shikari has no Archery or Thrown dots noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fierce star]

what if it does no damage to trivial opponents and only half to normal, iki? so it's just for stunting on weaklings and it's worse against real opponents but you still get the bennies

[marsh garden]

it's a bit unclear to me whether it's As An Action

or whether you could make a reflexive thrown attack with a worm

but i imagine that'll be cleaned up in print

[wise ocean]

da woims are back.

[buoyant summit]

I hate how well this spell fits my character

A character with no archery or thrown

[marsh garden]

and also it's a teaser for rime-worms as a statted elemental

[buoyant summit]

Fs in chat

[marsh garden]

obv they won't actually be in, but it's a nice hook for homebrew

[marsh garden]

tbh that is what the rest of the clauses are for

uses int + occ for excellency

has light attack accuracy

[buoyant summit]

that's tru

[marsh garden]

and gets piercing+1, so not having a ton of extra sux doesn't screw you over

[spiral cosmos]

expending a rime-worm is just like, making An Attack with one

simple action

[marsh garden]

otoh it means that a sorcerer with thrown can do schnasty shit with it

ah gotcha

would've been neat to do that with Devastating Avalanche Barrage

[spiral cosmos]

the withering multi was the hard thing to manage

[spiral cosmos]

this is correct

it's inherently kind of crazy to make a strong withering spell like this so there's some hoops to jump through and the multi is rly gated, but it's still really usable for most any sorcerer

[marsh garden]

yeah i imagine a sid fully specced for this just magdumping the full three and then like

dropping a harmony of blows

will be scary with the crazy cheap excellencies

[tulip folio]

...here's an odd pondering: I'm guessing this 'dice limit and applicable excellency' are only for splats with a Stat + Stat or Stat + Ability excellency...

[marsh garden]

well yes

because those are the only splats that care about Wits and Archery/Thrown in the first place

others don't care about the original or the replacement

[wise ocean]

I'm contemplating taking this on one of my Infernals and magdumping the withering spell into the decisive spell

[spiral cosmos]

"dice limit and applicable Excellency are determined by the sorcerer's (Intelligence + Occult)" isnt a trick sentence

you get the full shit whatever you are

[tulip folio]

I was thinking more for Sids, who's dice cap is (Essence or 3, whichever is higher).

[marsh garden]

a sid will scan for occult, not archery

[spiral cosmos]

if you're a Lunar or Alchemical it routes to the Intelligence Excellency

[marsh garden]

a sovereign will scan for nothing, because they're a sovereign

[spiral cosmos]

That sentence is so annoying honestly

[marsh garden]

occult matters for sids because of the TN reduction

which still works

because it says it works

[spiral cosmos]

accursed linear time ouaough

[marsh garden]

lmao

do you have a new way you'd phrase it?

[spiral cosmos]

no

I mean id take another pass at it if I could

[tulip folio]

nods
So my Int 1 Sid could make solid use of this spell because 'Int' is at no point part of her cap and her occult isn't bad.

Heheheh, this seems fun.

[spiral cosmos]

maybe I will still

[spiral cosmos]

i think sids do very well with it

id prefer we didnt have a fucking withering spell at all tbh

but it came out well

[wise ocean]

the curse of game design is that someone will point something out three years after you published something and then you go wait. oh. goddamnit why and it gets stuck in the back of your mind for all eternity until you Fix It

[marsh garden]

i appreciate that it has like

[wise ocean]

I still stay up at night thinking about the one typo I didn't catch in my book

[marsh garden]

an actual cost to it

because you can't just take a swing with the woims immediately

[tulip folio]

Oh man, Liminal Space has this small bit where the formatting guy got 'heat' and 'burn' icons mixed up and it still haunts me.

[buoyant summit]

Oh that would kill me inside lmao

[marsh garden]

but the woims don't have a listed duration

so you can just have them forever

[tulip folio]

I do think it works very well for 'Hey, so you want the spell that the Lover is using to yeet ice spears at you'

[spiral cosmos]

woerm

[tulip folio]

As I know I've had players go 'hey, what spell is the Lover using there/can I learn it? I want to throw ice spears at people with magic'. So now I can point them to this and go 'behold, icy zapping'

[buoyant summit]

I Learned Sorcery And All I Got Were Worms

[marsh garden]

did a working to steal the breath of the north wind, drawing it into her lungs and under her skin and beneath her nails, and now she can blast a fool with ice spears

and radiates that horrible cold

[buoyant summit]

Not me taking two years to realize Vi's fight scenes in Arcane are great Smashfist stunt inspo

[tulip folio]

Hmm...my usual brainstorming methods are eluding me. Maybe I should go read some martial art entry charms and E1 evocations to get me pondering a good offensive effect here.

The idea is 'offensive charm for a counterattack heavy defensive style that cares more about making itself look good than hurting the other guy'

[buoyant summit]

Sunset Blaze just having a 'make your attack better with how sexy your voice is' charm is

So funny

to me

[tulip folio]

...maybe rather than an attack boost, make it a 'on hit, prone' charm. counterattacks would like that.

Sorry, just brainstorming out loud.

[buoyant summit]

ur gooood

So was I

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 4m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Cause, Dual
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Plain & Clifftop Method

The General shoots a look at the opposing force, their nerve crashing like infirm waves against the rocky shore of her gaze.

When the wielder crashes or incapacitates an enemy, she may force the nearest battle group to immediately make a rout check. If they fail, they suffer Magnitude damage equal to the Strength of her Cause.

If she incapacitates that battle group’s General, it adds Difficulty to its roll equal to (the wielder’s Appearance/2), and if it fails it suffers dissolution as normal for a rout check, regardless of its Magnitude track.
```How's this as the asymmetric warfare combat bonus evo?

[tulip folio]

I'm guessing 'cause' is highest intimacy?

[buoyant summit]

I mean if you're building to wield this sword, Probably™

[buoyant summit]

The Cause keyword indicates that the Mountain-Song’s wielder draws upon her Cause to use or enhance that Evocation.```The Cause Text™

I can probably cut out 'battle groups' from the phrase 'battle groups of mortal troops'?

Oh, wait

Nope

fuck

Cuz then the language is vague enough for like

socialize rolls to inspire a garrison

or some shit

[tulip folio]

Hmm...I'd make it 'non-trivial' enemy.

Just to stop you killing a Random Fire Nation Civilian to break the Fire Nation Army

[bleak hazel]

The magnitude damage thing is basically fine, if potentially a bit spammable if there are chump officers around. 4 mag damage to a BG usually isn't a gamechanger.

"General" is a bit undefined - does it have to be the character who made the strategic maneuver roll for that side at battle open, or can it be the extremely common lone mortal officer whose job is to spam Command for more attack dice?

+3 diff to a rout check is closing in on an auto-fail, and 4m to delete target BG might be a little cheap against opposition where the general isn't a giant doom monster like a combat exalt

[tulip folio]

Sword-Stunting Methodology
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Uniform, Terrestrial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
As the undisputed center of narrative focus, the Warlord is unconcerned with the lesser dances of her foes. Those without the narrative presence to make themselves stand out are doomed, driven to their knees in the face of her quicksilver speed.

The stylist’s attack becomes Unblockable without a Stunt. If the attack deals damage or successfully inflicts a gambit, her target is knocked prone and suffers a (Stylist's Appearance) die penalty to movement actions until the end of their next turn.

Terrestrial: This charm can only be used on the stylist's turn.

Ended up going 'What if I made it a variant of Rotten Leaf Arrested instead of an accuracy booster'.

Reflexive vs Supplemental is for 'Hey, you can use this On The Style's Several Counterattacks'

The intent is 'less directly good for Boosting Your One On-Turn Attack' than Rotten Leaf but gets versatility in being usable off-turn and on decisive attacks/gambits.

[marsh garden]

i feel like "general" is used somewhere or other for battle group charms

or maybe just commander

[buoyant summit]

🐮My Abyssal is possibly getting sapphic with her Circle's emotionless Integrity apoc Midnight

[buoyant summit]

What the fuck is happening

[buoyant summit]

@marsh garden

[velvet raft]

Where do you find all these pbps Rhi

Incidentally I enjoy the inverted italicization

[bleak escarp]

yeah, inquiring minds want to know

[next niche]

I would also like to know this

[wise ocean]

I desire to put Graves in more Situations

[tulip folio]

I hope this seems okay? Not 100% sure on it, trading specific effect for general usage.

[next niche]

not sure about supplemental (not as in the keyword) unblockables at E1 tbh

[tulip folio]

That's fair. It's sorta why I went with 'unless stunted', so it won't really tag anyone Of Note. It's mostly 'unblockable by mooks', intent-wise.

One of those frustrating areas where I've got this martial art 99% done but the two sticking points are an Entry Charm and the Form, which are...kinda key. XD

[buoyant summit]

@bleak escarp @next niche I found the Abyssals pbp on the fancord like 8 months ago and the ST for that also just started the Infernals one I'm in

[next niche]

ahhh

[tulip folio]

Thanks for the thoughts btw. The last few steps of tinkering are always the hardest for me.

[next niche]

yeee I totally understand

like this abyssal melee rework ive been doing is a pain

and the exigents...

[buoyant summit]

Cost: -(+8m); Mins: Essence 4
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Cause
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisites: Mountain-Cracking Discipline, Earthenware-Gateway-Set Tactic

The Rebels’ very home joins them on the field; the enemy finds themselves facing a line of forested spears, held in hand by soldiers risen from the crag. The land itself is in rebellion.

When the wielder uses Mountain-Cracking Discipline, she may pay a further 8 motes to continue to be able to rally for numbers with the battle group she is leading. She adds (Cause) non-Charm dice to her rolls for this command.

[spiral cosmos]

abyssal melee rework you say

[buoyant summit]

lol hi borb

[spiral cosmos]

hemlo

[next niche]

oh hi borb

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 6m (+1wp); Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Cause
Duration: One scene
Prerequisites: Assume prereq of 1 Charm

The General’s troops adopt the demeanor of stone; implacable, unflinching, unyielding as a mountainside and unstoppable as an avalanche.

A battle group the wielder is leading gains Perfect Morale. If she is leading troops which share her Cause, she may spend 1 Willpower to increase their Might by 1.
```For context as to what evo that first evo enhances

[spiral cosmos]

am borb

[next niche]

Yeah I've been working off and on on one! (with Misc's help lmfao)

[buoyant summit]

(Cause is her chosen intimacy related to military victory, revolution, and liberation)

As someone pointed out to me last night

I am making a white jade daiklave for people who play white in Magic the Gathering

XD

[tulip folio]

On the plus side, the form has perhaps my favourite 'you can reflexively enter this' I've written.

Special activation rules: When the Stylist wins Join battle or the Stylist resists a social influence or psyche effect that would prevent or end a fight, she may reflexively assume World-Devouring Warlord Form..

"I heard you wanting to stop a fight. That only makes me want to fight more!"

[next niche]

'cause I was... disappointed with the prevalence of mirrors and wanted more cool abyssal juice

[buoyant summit]

Hm

I am realising this arti

has no resonance or dissonance so far

[next niche]

oh interesting

[buoyant summit]

That is

perhaps a problem

<XD

[tulip folio]

Out of interest, what sort of themes are you going with for the Abyssal Melee stuff?

[next niche]

Lemmeeeeee

these charms weaponize fear and desperation to augment an onslaught of carefully calculated violence. Step by step, their enemies are worn down and weakened until they’re vulnerable to a powerful finishing blow, leaving no room for survival.
Lion and Walker main influences
Lion: Grim executioner. Bonuses against crashed enemies, maybe some aiming type stuff, perhaps something to boost your defense after a successful attack, reflexive clashes/attacks... generally building up to a big decisive finisher.
Walker: Exultation in slaughter? Maybe some fear instills and such, some environmental damage kit?

some of the ramblings from the design doc

Dracula/Darth Vader shit
iirc a good bit of stuff using onslaught penalties?
E2 is the main thing unfinished currently
all charms should be used with your choice of either doom soundtrack music or toccata and fugue in d minor

Essence 1 stuff is mooostly unchanged?
and yeah
I can go find some of the ones I'm most proud of if y'all want lmfao

[tulip folio]

Sure!

nods
That first bit feels very 'those who have never known hunger and pain cannot hope to oppose one who has'.

[next niche]

Yeeeee

[spiral cosmos]

That's fun

[next niche]

the uhhhhh tweak I did to the heavenly guardian defense mirror

Oblivion Devours All
Cost: 4m; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Decisive-only, Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Death Well-Remembered
The Abyssal is an unstoppable force of the apocalypse, warded from her own demise by her victims as spectral chains shield her with their bodies.

When the Abyssal incapacitates a non-trivial enemy or reduces the size of a battle group she may save any excess levels of damage inflicted. For battle groups she may opt to forego extra damage rolling over into the next magnitude track of a battle group. After a decisive damage roll against her, she can pay this charm’s cost to spend levels of this damage, subtracting one success from the damage roll for each stored damage spent. This stored damage is emptied at the end of the scene.

The Abyssal may use this charm to parry against unblockable attack. The Abyssal also pay a one-Willpower surcharge to perfectly parry a source of uncountable damage, like a detonating First Age superweapon. If the damage is recurring, she becomes immune to it for the rest of the scene.

stuff i replaced the multiattack kit with

Charnel Empress Onslaught
Cost: 8m, 1lhl, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Withering-only, Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dunno Yet Uhhhhhh, Unfurling Iron Lotus
Her orn blood or her enemies, it matters not to Death’s Lawgiver as the Abyssal’s strikes are accompanied by a flurry of crimson blades.

The Abyssal makes (higher of Essence or 3) withering attacks against one or more enemies, adding (highest negative tie towards the Abyssal) to attack and raw damage. Battle groups suffer (Abyssal’s Essence) additional damage. The highest damage roll awards her full initiative, and all other damage rolls award damage/2 initiative.

If the Abyssal has reduced the size of a battle group or incapacitated a non-trivial enemy in this scene she waives this Charm’s health level cost.

Bloodied Abattoir's Embrace
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Charnel Empress Onslaught
The Abyssal's blade moves like a scythe among the wheat, each terrible blow bringing her enemies one step closer to annihilation.

The Deathknight makes (1 + highest onslaught penalty of any enemy within close range, maximum 5) decisive attacks against one or more enemies. She divides her initiative evenly between all these attacks, rounded up, and adds her enemy's onslaught penalty as bonus dice (maximum 5) on each attack and damage roll. She resets to base Initiative after completing all attacks if any of them hit, or loses two initiative per attack if they all miss.

Special activation rules: If the Abyssal crashes an enemy or reduces the size of a battle group using Charnel Empress Onslaught she may pay a 4m 1a surcharge to reflexively use this charm.

magnanimous-villain-points aura farming that I wrote at the start of this and really need to go rework tbh

Emperor-in-Chains Pact
Cost: 5m, 1wp, Mins: Mins: Melee 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Decisive-only, Whispers
Duration:
Prerequisite Charms: Corpse-Marionette Dance
The Abyssal's dread majesty extends beyond the mercies granted at the tip of her blade, offering the vanquished their lives in exchange for service.

When the Abyssal would lethally incapacitate a non-trivial opponent she may activate this charm to offer them a choice; either he accepts the damage and its effects - or perhaps tries to survive with a crippling injury, or he makes a bargain with the Abyssal and swears fealty to Death’s Lawgiver. If he chooses the latter, he negates up to (Higher of Abyssal's Essence or 3, x2) levels lost from her attack. For every 2 levels negated, they gain or increase a Tie of "Unshaking loyalty" to the Abyssal to a maximum intensity of major.

An Essence 3 repurchase strengthens this charm, infusing him with a fragment of the Deathknight's own apocalyptic Essence. He gains the Ghost-blooded merit, a mote pool, and (Abyssal's Essence) Eclipse charms befitting his new master. If this target dies, their oath still binds them and they become a ghost in service to the Deathknight, with their Tie of loyalty to the Abyssal increasing to Defining.

Whispers: If the Abyssal has Whispers, they may choose to force her Whispers onto the target as a part of the process of this pact.

etc etc etc

... that was a wall of text and a half my apologies for that

[tulip folio]

Oooh, that's very fun. You Overkill A Guy and get some Health Barrier to save you.

[tulip folio]

Wait, towards the abyssal? Not the abyssal towards them? Intriguing.

[tulip folio]

Is the essence 3 repurchase designed to only affect mortals or can you beat (Essence) Eclipse charms into a fellow exalt?

Sorry for many queries.

[wise ocean]

threaten hook

[next niche]

it's for tying in with "All I am surrounded by is fear and dead men" aura farming stuff I'm figuring out how to add.

[wise ocean]

the more scared people are of you, the more damage they take

[next niche]

Yeeeeee exactly!
You massacre an entire battle group? When the shining hero tries to strike you down the bodies of the slain throw themselves in front of the blow :3

[next niche]

Hmmm that's a good question. I think I was primarily envisioning it affecting mortals, I'll add something to specify that.

[next niche]

Exactly!

[tulip folio]

Makes sense but does make me want to play the Most Annoying Abyssal 😛

[next niche]

LMFAO

the idea was for if they hate or fear you it works against them.

[wise ocean]

I'll take Mandatory Presence Charm That Lets Me Reflexive Social Every Turn with the melee rework, lol

[tulip folio]

"The 'I'm not touching you' gestures are an essential part of making myself more effective."

[next niche]

LMFAO
Yeah that's the main thing I'm not sure how to account for
Except ig if you're using it a lot you're draining your tanks pretty fast iunno

[next niche]

pffff
Should I specify hate/fear? :P

[tulip folio]

Nah, nah.

[wise ocean]

nah, it's fine as is and Negative Intimacy hooks correctly into the rest of the charmset

[next niche]

yeeee that's what I figured lol

[tulip folio]

'Players might be a bit silly' is something rules can never overcome.

[wise ocean]

yeah, it's 5m or something and I'd prefer to be spending those motes on the COMBO THAT KILLS YOU (albeit melee has less of that than MAbyssal)

[tulip folio]

And negative intimacy gives variety

[next niche]

but yeah
...
I also did have a fun one earlier on inspired by dead spouse defense actually but unfortunately doesn't really have a ton of wiggle room considering oblivion devours all already fills the perfect defense thing

[tulip folio]

One I could really see? Beuro + Melee Abyssal who feels on Envy.

Play with the 'I am richer and cooler than you' Beuro charms to fuel the 'And they don't like me' melee charms

[bleak hazel]

I gave advice on this so long ago and as such much of that advice was Probably Bad

[next niche]

All Dreams Die
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 4
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Idk yet
The Deathknight cuts loose the fleeting hopes and dreams of mortality as an offering to the Neverborn, consigning them to Oblivion in her stead.

The Abyssal can use this Charm after an attack roll against her or other roll to resist damage or when she would suffer uncountable damage, but before damage is rolled. She silently states or names one of her Major or Defining positive Intimacies. She automatically defends against all damage from it, including recurring uncountable damage. The Intimacy she offers up is permanently destroyed, and can only be restored by another character accomplishing a legendary social goal.

Reset: Once per story unless reset by achieving a legendary socialgoal.
this fucker
mostly included because it popped into my head during the shower one day
Probably will recycle it as an evocation somewhere eventually

[next niche]

naaaaah your advice still holds up i think

[next niche]

LMFAO
God that would honestly be funny as hell I support this

[bleak hazel]

I forgot about flunkie creation technique, that might need a slight adjustment so you can't just butcher your normal people to get super minions

[next niche]

Yeeee

Imma add an xp cost i think

[tulip folio]

https://img-hades-2.game-vault.net/8/87/CodexPortrait_Charon.png

Pictured:

[next niche]

LOL

[bleak hazel]

I think the Sid and Abyssal Pyreflame variants on chump w/ mote pool are 2xp each, first one free

[next niche]

yeeeee that's what I was thinking myself.

[bleak hazel]

I'm not sure "loyalty" qualifies as a hopeful intimacy but it might, in which case you have the funniest possible situation

which, to be fair, is insanely cool on both parties' part

[next niche]

one idea I did have for building on it further is an E4 charm that lets you bind an exalt you kill for a scene or a year and a day to fight for you
for maximum evil overlord aura farming.

Y'know

"You may be able to best me. But can you stop your friend?"
stabs the funny one in the group everyone loves

[next niche]

LMFAOOO

[bleak hazel]

actually aww fuck you need that to be a Defining

so you can't accept maximum servitude and then blow it up

[next niche]

could always voluntarily increase it to defining ig?

[bleak hazel]

honestly considering the choice is to take the special crippling-injury-bond or die you may as well let it go up to defining, they always have the choice of "nah I'd die"

[next niche]

but that would be funny as hell and appropriately sid-bullshit-y

[bleak hazel]

stuff that you inflict in lieu of killing people can be pretty juiced

[next niche]

yeeeee exactly

i'm gonna give the charm a whole rewrite it was one of the earliest I did

[bleak hazel]

oh yeah I need to write crimson's fucked up needle artifact

did I ever mention that one to you?

[tulip folio]

I would laugh so damn hard at an Abyssal doing the Whole Evil Overlord Serve Me Or Die Thing to a Sid and then the sid going 'Wow, sucks for that guy' and Dead Spouse Defencing it.

[next niche]

it would be peak exalt bullshit tbf

i wouldn't even be mad

it'd be too funny to be mad about it

[tulip folio]

Sid charms are either 'Loony Tunes Bullshit' or 'Heartbreaking Wuxia Bullshit' and it's a coin flip on a given day

[spiral cosmos]

im working on my own abyssal charm revision so im not reading this stuff too closely, but it looks cool af

props

[next niche]

Thank you!

[tulip folio]

The other silly bullshit there I'd love to see one day is someone using their Big Stealth 'I was here all along!' ambush charm and then a Sid Avoidancing away.

"Hahaha, you didn't know that I was with you all al...wait...why am I here again?" Stares at empty room

[bleak hazel]

I seem to remember the discussion over those charms being like five seconds of "evil minion technique!" "sweet, send it" and then five million years of discussion over how exactly to tune the multiattacks and perfects

[spiral cosmos]

I've got a wish list for like every Ability

[next niche]

I am reminded of the time in a game I was in with Misc we had the perfect confluence of sidereal bullshit

I don't remember the specifics you'd need him to relay it but it was incredible

[next niche]

oooooh?

[bleak hazel]

hang on I put it in the highlights channel of the Exalted discord once

[next niche]

I focused on melee mooostly 'cause it was the one that most frustrated me with all the mirrors but I am curious

[bleak hazel]

My detective Sidereal was infiltrating the local satrap's palace in his best Indentured Servant resplendent destiny to eavesdrop on a local deeb's meeting with a Lunar PC the Sid was trailing. A hostile Bronze Sidereal was hunting for infiltrators and moved to stealthily observe the blip on her Supernal Awareness radar in order to hit me with a Descending Secrets Horoscope, which would obviously be a bad thing, so the good detective's Expected Pain pinged.

Because of this I turned on Supernal Awareness looking for people trailing me and started heading around the corner to find her, which would have been a bad thing for her because I'd blow her cover, so her Expected Pain pinged, at which point she Avoidanced out and wiped the incident from my Sid's memory (with Avoidance) and her memory (with Self-Annihilating Discretion). Detective Sid and his partner only deduced roughly what might have happened about a week later while putting together other pieces, and that was several days after they'd met the Bronze sid over tea.

The two sides of the Sidereal espionage ops in this city fought an entire spy duel without either party ever perceiving the other with their normal human eyes and then memory holed the entire thing, I love this splat.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fBoqMMPoU9k

[next niche]

YES THAT ONE

[bleak hazel]

this was maybe my third session of playing Ex3

certainly left me feeling favourable towards it

[next niche]

mfw I haven't had a real game since that'un ended smh.

but yeah that was absolutely a highlight.

[tulip folio]

Hahahahah, nice

[bleak hazel]

also a few months after that game ended the ST told us that the reason Evil Milfsid had known what we were up to was because she was using Everywhere And Nowhere Technique to hide... where was it, on the back of your sid's neck?

which explained a lot of things, in hindsight

[spiral cosmos]

i mean i just don't like most of them

structurally, i've got reservations but in general i think the mirror focus elides that Abyssals have always been cunty vampire-knights and the mirrors come out in that and in evil bitch versions of some basic ideas, rather than strictly just an equaling in competency and mechanical expression

but generally i think there's a lot of archetypal misalignment, like Socialize is fun for the doppelganger tech but i actually would like to be the scary lady showing up to whisper in the king's ear and disquiet his entire court, bringing strange gifts and riding in a chariot drawn by skeletal horses, leveraging the norms of high society to insulate myself in power

and then the lunatic stuff can come out of that the way the black heron comes out of the princess magnificent

not just "here is the side for when you want solar mirrors, here is the side for forgeting your lithium"

[next niche]

yeahhh

[tulip folio]

Abyssal Socialize as a concept feels very 'hello, I am vampire princess, watch me drink blood from my crystal glass in the middle of my deathly hedonism party'

In terms of 'what it should promote'

At least imo

[spiral cosmos]

mhm

[next niche]

we need more vampire princess representation in our demigodths

[spiral cosmos]

the Deathlord stuff is cute but it's a little cart before horse, sometimes

[next niche]

but yeah fully agree with both of you on that

[spiral cosmos]

they are the chosen of the deathlords, collective

the collective does actually matter

it's not just individuals

[next niche]

Yeeeee absolutely

honestly can't add much to that

[spiral cosmos]

i think people way overindex on the neverborn honestly

it's there in Whispers and stuff like Occult and Lore, and sort of staining (heh) the Charm set, and that's great, actually, but it's like. okay who are they the chosen of here again

did the screaming meat continental shelf pick me out of the gutter or was it this evil goth mommy ghost

because of the two of those i know which one i care about more

[tulip folio]

As an aside: I do kinda wish more charms cared about whispers. There's some but they're mostly focused on a couple of abilities.

That said: Too much focus would make whispers basicly mandatory so I can see them playing lean with it.

[next niche]

ye whispers is best as cool flavor/sidegrade stuff

[tulip folio]

I do keep intending to write up some Alchemical charms with the Whispers Keyword. Apostate Charms, where you're heading the voice of the Blight and the Dying parts of Autocthon.

[wise ocean]

honestly, I like the screaming meat continental shelf more

for my abyssals, they've been influenced most by the revelations of the Neverborn / the cosmic cycle / Guess What Buddy Everyone's Dying than by their deathlords, in terms of personal philosophy

wrote that as "political philosophy" at first and then thought "well I don't think they have many politics above Sword"

[next niche]

Eh the difference is the deathlords are actual characters with actual personalities that can provide cool vibes

[bleak hazel]

Mine has weird grave good focused death utilitarianism but is way more Prince flavoured

also stealing "screaming meat continental shelf"

[next niche]

same lmfao

[tulip folio]

The Neverborn don't really have the identity of even the Yozi (Who are themselves a step away from 'can directly interact with'). Like they're conceptually cool but they're also more 'high concept' than 'things you deal with'.

[spiral cosmos]

It's not that the Neverborn don't matter and can't be favored over a Deathlord to inform a character, but as a categorical statement they are less important to the splat than Deathlords

There's just not a way around that unless you're going full 2e

[next niche]

They're the image filter you apply over the splat to turn it goth and vampire and then use the deathlords to provide the actual structure otherwise you're just going 2-

yeah

[tulip folio]

That said: I do love when big non-deathlord death stuff gets a good fluffing up. The Twin Monarchs piledrivering the Dowager through Death's Sundial is eternally fun and I love the boatman-priests.

One of these days I kinda want to run a campaign that deals heavily with the underworld but isn't all about the Deathlords. There's all these undead kingdoms and afterlives you could do so much cool stuff with even outside of their touch.

(That and I will take any excuse to steal liberally from oWoD Wraith for Undead Kingdom Stuff)

[next niche]

stealing every good idea (and several bad ones) not nailed down and doing your own version with blackjack and hookers is just honoring owod's traditional cultural practices anyway

[tulip folio]

My current plan there is me basicly stealing some Necron Stuff, some Autocthonian Half-Forged Stuff and oWoD Wraith Qin Shi Huang then shoving them in a blender.

[spiral cosmos]

have your fun with it

i enjoy the Blake of stygia a lot

the Dual Monarchs are transparently the four zoas twisted thru egyptian myth

[tulip folio]

Sorry, I'm rambling a bit overmuch.

[spiral cosmos]

i don't think you are

[next niche]

I think this is the designated exalted rambling zone unless I was misinformed

[limpid badge]

that’s true

by the powers vested in me by, idk winged, i tell you now @tulip folio ramble more

[next niche]

ramble more, or else

[tulip folio]

Fine. Vague Pondering: Do you think it's silly for a permanent charm to (Among other effects) mess with if an exalt is considered an Enemy of Fate/Creature of Darkness.

[buoyant summit]

It is Silly*

*Cool as fuck

[tulip folio]

Pondering for the Wanderers, my Wyld-themed exalt and I had an idea for a charm that is basicly 'You've sworn an oath to end the Sin of Shape, which gives you some bonuses but also makes you a Creature of Darkness, as you've sworn an oath against creation itself'.

[buoyant summit]

And as Exalted is the Silly* (*Cool as fuck) game, you should do it

[tulip folio]

At least 50% just because using the term 'Paladin of Uncreation' would be a very fun charm name.

[buoyant summit]

Iki this fucks

[next niche]

i mean there is stuff like that iirc?

sids at least get a couple charms to de-enemy of fate someone

[bleak hazel]

defrauding Balor by having my Wanderer friend sign up for the crusade, splitting the salary between us and then stitching them back into fate anyway

[next niche]

but if you mean like an abyssal permanent charm to no longer count as one nah I think that'd feel more outta place unless there were some suitably weird hijinks you had to get up to to maintain it

[bleak hazel]

discount Conning Chaos Technique

[tulip folio]

Yeah, this was to make you one as a small negative alongside several bonuses.

[next niche]

ahhh

[buoyant summit]

The wielder may make effective Slaughter attacks against a battle group she routs this way, regardless of its size.
```Is this effect worth a willpower?

[next niche]

yeah that'd be fine I think?

it does raise the question of if you accept a sid uses Untangling Snarled Strands on you or something do you lose the benefits of that charm

would be funny if it just removes the charm and refunds the xp

[next niche]

nah I don't think that needs a wp

it seems like more of a small supplemental thing rather than Big Flashy Move and the effect doesn't seem crazy or anything?

[buoyant summit]

This is the Charm it augments```Rebellious General’s Glare
Cost: 5m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Cause, Dual
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Plain & Clifftop Method

The Rebel shoots a look at the opposing force, their nerve crashing like infirm waves against the rocky shore of her gaze.

When the wielder crashes or incapacitates an enemy, she may force the nearest battle group to immediately make a rout check. If they fail, instead of suffering dissolution they suffer Magnitude damage equal to the strength of her Cause.

(Cause is an intimacy you have that the artifact hooks into)

[next niche]

hmmmm
I'd maybe make it a like 2m 2i surcharge instead of a wp?

[buoyant summit]

yeah, I think that's fair

[next niche]

killing their commander then pausing to aura farm with "Flee and I might spare you" is fun as hell but the effect isn't anything hugely splashy so yeah I wouldn't say it merits a wp

You're just adding 1 or 2 difficulty which is the same bump you'd get just from hitting them with a DOOB or something?

[next niche]

you might wanna specify non-trivial enemy and/or their commander but yeah

though it is funny to imagine just murking some random dude and making an army flee.

[buoyant summit]

nah, clarified it to non-trivial lmao

[tulip folio]

Paladin of Uncreation
Cost: —; Mins: Manipulation 3, Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Wanderer has sworn an oath deep within the Wyld to end the Sin of Shape. She has assumed the mantle of a knight in the service of Prince Balor's memory. She will break the chains of iron that bind creation and bring true freedom to all.

The Sidereal gains the following benefits:
• The Wanderer gains a Major Principle of 'All deserve to be free'. She cannot voluntarily weaken this principle and it is restored at the start of each story if weakened below Major.
• Once per day, she can reduce the Willpower cost to resist an influence that would go against this charm's principle by one.
• The strength of her oath can be felt by creatures of the Wyld and of Heaven (Including Sidereals). This is treated as a minor tie of Kinship for creatures of the Wyld and of Nervous Awe for creatures of Heaven.
• Once per session, the Wanderer's player may invoke a stroke of narrative convenience, making a dramatic edit related to locations, creatures or magic of the Wyld. She may, for example, have the roiling landscape of the middlemarches form a path for her or reveal she has met a fae before in her travels.

Swearing an Oath against creation has however made the Wanderer a Creature of Darkness, as she has marked herself as one who would finish Balor's work.

[velvet raft]

I would love to do a rogue abyssals who work for the dual monarchs game

Freedom for Stygia etc.

[buoyant summit]

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[velvet raft]

Hell in Voy’s server Chains was returning to Creation after spending a while doing exactly that

[bleak hazel]

what's the current wording for "Dawn caste anima doesn't work on this" now there's also Dusks?

it it still just "The Dawn Caste anima power cannot reset this evocation"?

[prisma sun]

"This evocation can only be reset by (x)"

[limpid badge]

Cannot be reset by a Dawn's Anima, including Dusk and Azimuth Animas?

[bleak hazel]

oh, it just adds "or similar effects", wonderful

got there in the end

Do Unto Others
Cost: - (5m/i per round, 5m/hour); Mins: Essence 5
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: [Placeholder]
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: [All of 'em]

The wielder of the needles turns them upon her own heart; she will not die until or unless she allows it.

Resonant: Only characters resonant with Salvation's Needles can awaken this Evocation.

Upon suffering decisive damage to her Incapacitated health level, or becoming incapacitated in any other fashion, the wielder runs herself through with one of the needles, possessing her own insensate corpse.

She gains a secondary health track, equivalent to her own. Any damage dealt to her body is applied to this health track, which cannot be healed while this Charm remains active. She ignores fatigue, deprivation, or wound penalties, as well as any penalties caused by crippling effects or that are otherwise tied to her body's physical condition. At the end of each round (in combat time) or each hour (in narrative time), she must pay five motes or five initiative or this Charm ends. She cannot regenerate motes by any means. If she fills her secondary health track with damage, this Charm ends.

Once this Charm ends, the wielder suffers the consequences of her body's temporarily suspended injuries as normal. If she dies, her souls are immediately destroyed.

Reset: 1/Story. This Evocation can't be reset by the Dawn Caste anima or similar effects.

first draft of a thing for Crimson's 5-dot needles that you run people through to neverbornify them

needs to be resonant only

this is an edited version of something Sokarera was working on as a hypothetical Sid charm in the Exalted discord, so credit there for the great mechanical framework

[wise ocean]

what's the consequences of getting the shit kicked out of you equal to 1.99x your basic health track

since it has the Consequences line

[bleak hazel]

oh, that's just "if you don't heal your body it dies/goes to GM decision like with normal incap", I need to clarify some stuff

[wise ocean]

if you hit 2x, well, your souls explode, but 1.99x doesn't seem to have a defined result mechanically - ah

[bleak hazel]

but I think the basic framework works for "aha, Crimson second phase"

the reverse Gundyr technique

there we go, that seems neater

[mighty rover]

hey essence ST guide
that's fun

[wise ocean]

looks good, makes sense now

[velvet raft]

After considering, I may just steal this outright

[bleak hazel]

OK, speculative evo tree:

E1 autounlock - stab incapacitated characters with the needles, they stay in a half-dead incapacitated fugue until you remove the needle, at which point they die. Up to [Essence, min 3] targets at once. Exalts or similarly powerful beings can choose to reject the needle and die during Calibration, everyone else is stuck there. Needs some kind of benefit so you're not just dragging around a wannabe corpse.

Subtree 1 - pump them for information:
E1 - Sid style question asker that can be used on each target once.
E2 - Appear in their fugue and question them properly as if in a dream, they must answer honestly
E3 - Can communicate with your victims telepathically, use one social roll per [week/month/session] to adjust their intimacies while they're on the floor? Maybe get auto-read-intentions?

Subtree 2 - go my minions:
E1 - Victim's bodies get up and shamble around like Mindless zombies you can give orders to. Can use E1 evo on Trivial characters as many times as you like so you can have battlegroups of zeds.
E2 - Expensive indefinite. Can see through a victim's eyes and telepathically order them and other nearby victims around.
E3 - Nontrivial victims get up and fight with the stats they had in life, minus charms. Ignore wound penalties, can attune ghostly versions of artifacts if buried in a grave dug for them as if they were grave goods.

E5 capstone of both trees - when incapped, stab yourself with needle to possess your own corpse, gaining second health track. Drains motes over time, ends when you're out.

I am missing E4 stuff for both and am kind of out of ideas

[buoyant summit]

What's a good artifact that isn't the distaff for a spider-themed Sid?

Or should I just punch people with spider-flavored snake or rat into CMoS?

[marsh garden]

...okay, hear me out

you reflavor the Frost-Thorn Knuckles

it's got a bunch of things for "attack at range" and "freeze people over" and you can just make it all webs

[buoyant summit]

...hmmmmmmmm...

[wise ocean]

e1 autounlock benefit: can read intentions once each day for free with a significant bonus of some kind, the e3 subtree 1 bit is worded as an upgrade to this so it autosucceeds

e4 subtree 1: something like those white veil needles where you can hop another degree of kevin bacon over in the social relationship and get something from them
e4 subtree 2: when your victim kills someone you get the choice to auto-raise that new dead guy as a zombie or summon its skeleton as a bonesider or something

[bleak hazel]

infinite zombie works would admittedly be a fun Crimson theme

"oh yeah my zombie deeb massacred a village while we were out, now I have 100 new labourers"

I suppose if you do that you can add "can always telepathically link to nontrivial targets" so you can have your 4-5 zombie LTs going around doing stuff

[velvet raft]

Reflexively summoning the CAAM chains is probably worth an evocation on its own, right? That sort of upgrade usually is.

[wise ocean]

yep

[buoyant summit]

I have come up with an even more fun MA for this character to use to get to CMoS

Laughing Monster

[bleak hazel]

I would say that "getting my extremely strong build's activation time from 1 round to 0 rounds" is probably not something you casually want to stick in an evo below like, E4

where DBT gets its "can reflexively MA form" clause

[marsh garden]

ehhhh

i think that one's kinda just bad

shadow moth raiment's version gets to do the same thing with fewer restrictions

and ofc with the e1 version

[bleak hazel]

The E1 one just lets you swap forms, the free form version is also E4

[marsh garden]

oh, i see that was really unclear

by "with" i meant "it also has the e1 version"

[south spade]

I am once again exalting all over the place

This time with some kinda

Third

Edition

[velvet raft]

It's the best edition so far!

[mighty rover]

emily you have to at least finish core so i can introduce you to my personal fandom beef

[velvet raft]

Oh, @south spade jsyk, the best places to actually learn most of the rules is the quickstart adventure, Tomb of Dreams

Which just has a lot of them but infinitely better written

[south spade]

Ough

[velvet raft]

You don't have to play Tomb of Dreams

[south spade]

So should i read that BEFORE the core rules?

[velvet raft]

Probably after/in parallel? As clarification? You could do it before, I guess

Just like, its rules section is Actually Well Written

[south spade]

Scary

[merry arch]

3e is kind of a mess. but exalted rules so I forgive some of the mess

some is a very key word there

[fierce star]

Never forgive natural language

As Needs Must
Cost: 3m. Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Scene-Long
Prerequisite Charms: None
Your backup is minutes away. Your steam-pack is out of charge. Your grenade pouch is empty. Time to get to work.

This charm supplements an improvised melee weapon attack made with a ranged weapon with the Flame or Steam tags. The stylist treats the ranged weapon as a melee weapon for the supplemented attack and for the rest of the scene. Light weapons use the statistics of a Baton, medium a Staff or Shield, and heavy a Sledge. If your steam or flame weapon is an artifact, the melee weapon uses artifact traits as appropriate.

I'm pondering addign Mastery: Ignore the Perilous keyword to this. Feel appropriate?

[south spade]

I cut my teeth on 5e and read fangames for fun, so i think ill probably be fine

I might just need to come in here and ask how jumping works

[prisma sun]

Exalted 3e is the worst implementation of Exalted barring all those that came before

[south spade]

So

Squints

You like essence more

[prisma sun]

Essence isn't real

[mighty rover]

^Voy when he's a relational materialist

[fierce star]

Essence is real but it is also not really exalted in a mechanical sense. You can see the line between ex1 and ex2, and ex2 and ex3. Exalted Essence is an entirely different beast that doesn't hit the same general feel, mechanically, as the 'mainline' Exalted games. It is exalted thematically but it is not exalted mechanically, is how I approach it.

[spring lynx]

juuuust like shadowrun anarchy

[fierce star]

^

[light olive]

Sesseljae that is depressed surgeon but for some reason hasnt drunk self to death

[south spade]

“120 Pages until Character Creation” ouuuugh

I think im just gonna skim the lore chapters since ive read them before

So is everyone in a group supposed to be the same caste

?

[spring lynx]

far from it

a circle is theoretically supposed to have (at least) one of each caste represented

you are generally assumed to all be the same flavour of exalt though (so like, all solars, or all lunars, etc.)

you can mix and match but the power disparities can get pretty wacky

[south spade]

Oh soery

Thats what i meant

I thought caste was solar/lunar/etc

[spring lynx]

no, caste is your class (kind of)

so dawn, eclipse, all those

dawns are for straight-up brawls, twilights are your mages and crafters, nights are your rogues, etc

again, in theory. in practice they can all do everything but they get bonuses to their caste's role

[south spade]

Okay but everyone is supposed to be the same type

[spring lynx]

that's the easiest for the storyteller, at least

[south spade]

Also very amused

That solars dont have to BE good people

They just need to think they are

[spring lynx]

in some capacity, solars can't be good people

[south spade]

Wah?

[spring lynx]

the Curse actively drives them to hubris

and hubris oft drives one to cruelty in the name of one's vision

[marsh garden]

there is no such thing as a good person with an Exaltation

this is only half a joke

[spring lynx]

even without the curse they'd still be people selected solely for their natural talent, or unwavering dedication, or whatever, and then given godlike power with carte blanche to use that power to bring about their designs

because exalted were created to be weapons, not rulers. they're certainly capable of ruling, but the process that selects them was designed to find the most suitable candidates for a war against the creators of reality itself

[spiral cosmos]

i guess

dont rly like that framing

[lunar magnet]

Arguably Alchemicals?

[spring lynx]

a not-insubstantial number of alchemicals turn their jurisdictions into brutal police states

[south spade]

Okay so caste is like ur subclass

If your type is your class

Its how your powers express?

[spring lynx]

more or less

your caste is ostensibly your "role" as an exalt, like i said before. dawns are for fightin', nights are for spyin', zeniths are for preachin', twilights are for summoning demons, and eclipses are for talkin'

[buoyant summit]

your caste imo matters less depending on the splat (splat is the term for 'what exalt you are' because they are released in splatbooks)

[spring lynx]

*not every splat has the same caste spread as solars either

[buoyant summit]

For Solars, Infernals, and Abyssals it matters more because you also pick a Supernal/Primordial/Apocalyptic ability from your Caste abilities

[spring lynx]

lunars only have three and a half castes

[buoyant summit]

And RAW for whatever ability you pick

You just

ignore their Charms' Essence prerequisites

With exceptions for sorcery and sidereal martial arts

[spring lynx]

not even Solar Bullshit can let you punch all of creation into chickens without training for it

(as in, punch you so hard you turn into a chicken. sidereal martial arts get real conceptual.)

[south spade]

Wait can

Can lunars forcibly shapeshift OTHER people

[buoyant summit]

Aaaaaat hiiiiiiiigher Essence, yes?

[spring lynx]

they can turn their familiars into people

not like, physically, but they can give them sapience

[fierce star]

yeah, the lunar 'make supersoldiers' charms are about turning people into beastmen mostly

[spring lynx]

oh yeah, beast-soul awakening crucible

oh, and there's Insidious Lunar Transformation, that can be used forcibly

[fierce star]

yeah

lunars are the witchiest exalts and I love that part of them

[tulip folio]

They have a charm to just turn an enemy battlegroup into animals

For all your 'Circe curses your sailors' needs

Generally I've seen GMs be pretty lenient on what's a 'battle group' there is you want to curse a village yelling at you even if they've not drawn pitchforks yet.

[feral cipher]

having the very funny situation where our three abyssal stooges are being sent to go harass a city for tribute and maybe fuck over the rebellion it's caught up in

[south spade]

Okay thats fair but i kinda love treating game stipulations like that into like

Nen power ass restrictions

Trying to goad a group of people into drawing weapons because your power only works on hostiles lmao

[feral cipher]

The other two are infiltrating to do subterfuge shit
I am rolling up and knocking on the door as economic and diplomatic pressure

[tulip folio]

They hurt my feelings, that counts as hostile! 😛

[feral cipher]

Which is really funny, because imagine you're the poor city hoping the rebellion wins so they'll annex you and protect you from The Actual Literal Underworld

[south spade]

So like

[feral cipher]

and the evil ass skeleton named The Grave Calls For Its Due shows up asking about your three month late taxes

[south spade]

Hm

[wise ocean]

there are two graves. one of them is an evil ass taxes skeleton. the other is an evil ass smug sword saint. problems caused for all involved

[feral cipher]

My Graves sucks so bad, it's been so great

[south spade]

Im trying to figure out what a session and party oooks like

[feral cipher]

Eternally playing this guy and going 'god is he really that pathetic and awful? i think he is'

[chilly sluice]

That's gonna vary wildly

[south spade]

Like is everyone supposed to be able to do one thing really good and then all other kinda of encounters they CAN do but wont be as good at

[chilly sluice]

That's often the case yeah

[south spade]

Like

Obviously everyone is supposed to invest a little into like

Something to do during combat

I assume that applies to other stuff as well like everyone should be able to do a little bit of social stuff

[chilly sluice]

Its useful to have social defenses at minimum, or you're gonna get manipulated by everyone

[south spade]

Mhm

My submissive and manipulatable combat monster

[spring lynx]

and having a smattering of trade skills helps too

[south spade]

Im also aware that for combat this game has a genuinely staggering amount of like

Fighting style and weapon options

Over the course of all its splats

Which is exciting

[chilly sluice]

Correct, yeah

[south spade]

Idk why but im feeling a whip guy

[buoyant summit]

Me when a new player makes an Invincible Sword Princess from first principles

[south spade]

What

I understand those words individually

[tulip folio]

Invincible Sword Princess is a slang term in the exalted community for a dedicated combat monster.

No thoughts, head empty of anything but swords

[buoyant summit]

Ye

[south spade]

I know it means

If you want this as a player

But all the others being positives and then that fucking killed me

DO YOU WANT TO BE THE COOLEST GUY EVER?!!?!??! ALSO EVERYONE HATES YOU AND YOU HAVE INHERITED SICKLE CELL ANEMIA

[spring lynx]

if only the great curse was as simple as anemia....

[south spade]

Sorry

EVERYONE HATES YOU AND YOU ARE A BAD PERSON

[chilly sluice]

Tbf, the Great Curse also affects the others, just in different ways 😛

[spring lynx]

if only the great curse was as simple as being a bad person....

[wise ocean]

I have Guile 1 Resolve 3. Your challenge for today is to survive within three miles of me long enough for any of that to be relevant.

[south spade]

LMAO

[chilly sluice]

There is a whole state religion about why you are the devil

[south spade]

You spend 1 willpower to negate a manipulation and then instantly go hostile

[prisma sun]

I love how an actual strat as ISP is to be illiterate

since letters can kill you

[south spade]

“I detect you just tried to lie to me”

“I am going to fucking kill you”

[wise ocean]

one of my combat freak's favorite little quirks is that he just doesn't think people are real unless they can beat him in combat

[spring lynx]

i roll manipulation+bureaucracy to convince you that it is your patriotic duty to leave me alive and in fact wipe out your own illegally-raised army

[wise ocean]

so people keep trying to socially manipulate him and he keeps going wow. that sure is a lot of words. unfortunately, l+ratio+you aren't an actualized being+no sword law

[spring lynx]

...

i roll charisma+dodge to make you think it was the guy next to me who said all that shit

[wise ocean]

exalted's intimacy system is genuinely one of the best ways I've seen of forcing people writing their character sheets to go "what is wrong with this guy, anyway"

[wise ocean]

lmfao

one sid actually managed it in his current wm game

[spring lynx]

wait shit i should have rolled charisma+bureaucracy and manip+dodge

[wise ocean]

pointed to the guy he was trying to kill, went "this guy is DEFINITELY the one you want" using the charm that makes everything you say sound like a lie, (my, not derp's) graves went that's a lie. tell me the truth and I'll kill you quickly and then the sid bullshit his way through the conversation tree for long enough to grab the target and Duck Fate out

incredible instance of playing around the very large explosive barrel labeled DO NOT SOCIAL

[feral cipher]

genuinely

[south spade]

Guy next to you gets instantly misted

[feral cipher]

lemme pull up Grave Due's intimacies

[tulip folio]

Unless you're an Alchemical! Clarity isn't a curse from the Yozi, just How They Are.

[south spade]

“Wow thank god i got him before he could manipulate anyone else”

[tulip folio]

And it's notably - the one 'great curse' equivelent that's just differnt versions of 'yeah, that's fine' rather than screwing you over.

High clarity isn't 'bad', just 'different'

[spring lynx]

ideally this takes enough time that i can put some distance between myself and the human blender

[feral cipher]

defining bonds: fuck you, get mine

[tulip folio]

I feel like that first one could be done as 'More, More, More!'

[wise ocean]

bag status: being held, looking towards next bag

[south spade]

So my understanding is that every solar is salami dave

Is that right

Am i getting anywhere with that

[feral cipher]

Yeah kinda

[prisma sun]

https://i.imgur.com/kdg7esI.png

[wise ocean]

yeah solomon david is a solaroid creature

[south spade]

Up to and including pasting a bunch of guys in like 2 seconds?

[wise ocean]

yep

[feral cipher]

Pretty much

[south spade]

I actually am not sure the power level this game operates on

[feral cipher]

Solars really embody being the Great Man in Great Man theory

[wise ocean]

extremely

[feral cipher]

Oh, cartoonish

[wise ocean]

there's a combo one of my characters can theoretically do that kills several hundred fully armored and armed warriors in like. three seconds

You Can Just Do That [gestures at ksbd panel]

[feral cipher]

I can genuinely just rout an entire mortal army for not much cost

[wise ocean]

as one of the Exalted you are a Dangerous Freak in some measure

[prisma sun]

King Hu at character creation can throw elephants at people

[south spade]

Oh okay

[spring lynx]

this ranges from the relatively mundane "i have avatar powers!" dragonblooded to "i am the avatar of an unknowable terror and it is my sole purpose to draw all that is into being not, and i am very good at my job"

[south spade]

I mean even a dragonblooded is like

King Bumi

Right

Like the absolute peak of atla bullshit

[spring lynx]

so in 3e, every db can use all five elements

they're just like, better at one

[south spade]

Oh!

Well, my question still stands to be fair

[feral cipher]

Things that Graves's Due is capable of or will be able to later:

Make an organization do projects that would take months in only a matter of days
Convince somebody to do genuinely anything via being rich and powerful
Rout an entire army through sheer Fear Aura
Kill said army and then turn the corpses into more zombies to tack on to his already quite impressive undead army

[tulip folio]

The Dragonblooded brings out a Warstrider.

[spring lynx]

honestly bumi would probably get the shit kicked out of him in exalted

[south spade]

stupid nerd voice
Homelander vs the exalted universe

[chilly sluice]

It's no contest, John gets folded

[buoyant summit]

Benders in Avatar would all be deebs with basically the same specific build across elements

And that build, in Exalted

Sucks

[chilly sluice]

I'm actually not sure how much bending style stuff Deebs actually get

[buoyant summit]

It is the 'I literally only attack with my bending that costs motes every turn' build

[south spade]

I mean he does in p much every verse

Where the average powerlevel is anything higher than Low Street

[chilly sluice]

I guess there is the elemental bolt yeah

[feral cipher]

Due to the way Intimacies work, you can genuinely just instill beliefs like 'the world must end' in people that they just can't do much about

[spring lynx]

can deebs still deathstar their elemental bolts

[feral cipher]

if you can throw enough dice at them

And you can Always throw enough dice at them if you're specced for it

[tulip folio]

I am thinking I might need more definings for my characters. I've only got 2 definings on RiRi. XD

[south spade]

Making myself unable to understand language

Before i go and fight legendary diplomat

[feral cipher]

That third Defining I have? An NPC gave that to me because I'm a sucker and got socially alpha striked

And then they persuaded me with it to go wage war on the Realm

[wise ocean]

yeah, two definings is a good spot imo

[spring lynx]

"sorry, i only speak a very specific dialect from a single tribe in the northeast that died out in the middle of the high first age."

"i'm also illiterate, so don't even try, you fucking lip-flapper"

[feral cipher]

We haven't actually done combat yet but fighting me would be awful because I'm behind a small army of dead people that i can order around And constantly yell out bargains and persuade you to betray the world

[south spade]

You fool i gave myself a lobotomy before this battle

[spring lynx]

you don't even need to go that far, you just need zero dots in linguistics and boom, illiterate

yes, literacy is locked behind a single point in a skill that mostly exists to write poetry

[marsh garden]

ehhhhhh

my circle infernal has mostly used linguistics to write subversive religious propaganda

[spring lynx]

does the subversive religious propaganda rhyme

[marsh garden]

the sid (second sid has just dropped ) does reports

and my abyssal is illiterate and too pathetically awkward and passive to do anything about it

[spring lynx]

the mind boggles at this circle's composition, ngl

[marsh garden]

nah, it's a mix between openly heretical political theses and plausibly deniable parables

[feral cipher]

reposting this as illustration of how much this guy sucks

[marsh garden]

that she passes off very tenuously as abstract fantasy

[feral cipher]

rip

[marsh garden]

it's very simple. the infernal is mostly just a burnout dynast who posts anti-Immaculate propaganda and is extremely insistent on education and freedom of expression

sid #1 is a gold that doesn't really see anything wrong with this

sid #2 (rip) Exalted in the area like last month and understands very little of the office politics

[spring lynx]

and neither do their superiors evidently, if they've been writing reports and not been told to scrub the whole thing

[tulip folio]

Does this principle make sense for an Endings for people: 'Life is for Living, Death is for Rest'.

[marsh garden]

there is a lunar scholar that's cordial with the infernal (also a scholar, met talking about sorcerous esoterica) and malds about the Silver Pact

[spring lynx]

i think that'd be more stereotypically a Serenity thing but i could just be interpreting it wrong

[marsh garden]

and my Dusk is a sad passive loser that got handed off to the infernal by another one of her friends, and who the sid hasn't really done anything with because so far he's only Fucking Lost It a couple times, and killed like

two mortals, both on accident

the sid has conspicuously left out the details on who her, ah. "local assets" are

there's at least one unaccounted solaroid or sid running around, because a local monk had white sun fever

[tulip folio]

It's supposed to be very 'enjoy life while you have it, don't try to cling on past that'

[marsh garden]

after getting the shit kicked out of him by what we thought was another lunar, but evidently isn't

[feral cipher]

Fascinating

We're just playing Abyssal Three Stooges for the mask of winters

(Red Iron Rebuke is an honorary stooge)

[marsh garden]

excellent

there's another Abyssal dicking around, who's part of another mixed Circle in the city, which is why uh

there's been rather a lot of panicking

we mostly just commiserated over people not understanding why we want to kill Creation

dunno why the other one hasn't gotten on it, though. i think she might be bonded to one of the circle's lunars

[feral cipher]

morose and very polite urchin boy who just kind of wanders around the streets stalking people with his scary ass meatscythe
rich skeleton asshole with a horrendous envy complex running mostly on spite for everybody and everything
scary ass sadist noblewoman necromancer with dependency issues and dealing with The Horrors

[marsh garden]

Skeleton Asshole is peak character design i think

also god i love huskflayer

once Agents comes out i'm going to play a character with huskflayer + moonreaver

crimson killing field, maybe white reaper, and either tblades or the giant merit that lets you dual-wield heavies

[feral cipher]

yeah Broken Ivory Dirge Resonance is our combat and stealth guy

[marsh garden]

...i say as if i have something lined up

i'm going to make a character that dual-wields scythes

[feral cipher]

Huskflayer is there and scary

[marsh garden]

like a fucking tryhard