Basically you guys without fleshed out concepts/backstories are in a race against time. GOGOGO!
I'll be running Preludes throughout early February when I have spare time and you guys are around, so bug me to figure out a time to do it, I'm thinking we can try for a start date of Thursday the 14th.
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INeedNoSaltwith blood on my teethRegistered Userregular
edited January 2008
Well I already told you I'd not be able to commit to the time slot anyway
Slight alterations to make COMPLETE CIRCLE (Read: I am eclipse caste)
Name: Chorus of Storms, but goes by "Root"
Caste: Eclipse
Concept: Wandering Diplomat
Motivation: [lemme get back to this]
History:
In the deep East, there are many tribes that live their lives without seeing the ground for weeks. Some of these tribes co-exist peacefully, some war with each other, and yet others live in total isolation. The Barkdancers were one such tribe. They lived their lives simply, in the trees, feeding off the bountiful fruits that grew there, and eating of the great birds that dared to fly low enough to be subject to the traps and bows of the Barkdancers' skilled hunters. They appeased the nearby spirits with offerings of food and dance. The Barkdancers earned their name for the wild dances they performed on the outstretched limbs of great trees to appease lords of these woods. And all went well for many generations.
At least once a generation, when twins were born (which strangely always seemed to happen just once a generation), the first-born would be trained to be the speaker for the tribe. He would be called Root, and he would learn from the best dancers, and be trained in the words of the ancients in order to make accord with the gods.
So, it was a great surprise when Leaves in Repose gave birth to septuplets, all identical, without, apparently, a father. Being the first of the line, Chorus of Storms was granted the same accord as the first twin, so that the tradition would be upheld. Chorus learned the great dances, spoke the great language, and when it was time, went on his spirit quest.
All previous Roots had gone out deep into the woods, far from the territorial boundaries of the Barkdancers; often, they would come back with tales of other peoples, of meeting great spirits, or powerful shapeshifters, or fighting great beasts. Always they would come back with the vigor to be a great medium for the spirits. As before, Chorus of Storms was different. He crafted his spirit-mask, gathered his dancing staff, and went off into the woods.
What he found were terrible nightmares. He saw a world of twisted gold wherein the men led with fire and brimstone, and the people followed, smiling at the same time as they worked themselves to death. This terrible throwback lasted for three days, replaying the horror of the first age in Chorus of Storms' head. When he awoke from this, his castemark was burning and he was glowing. All around him, spirits had gathered to determine the cause of the commotion. Many wanted to kill him, and spoke openly of it, referring to the horrors the Solars had wrought in ages past. But none could touch him, due to the ancient pacts they had signed.
Seeing how the spirits loathed him, he ran. He ran West, leaving his tribe and his six brothers to wonder what happened.
Eventually, of course, he ended in the West, and picked up the trade of sailing fairly easily.
Physical Description:
Root is about 6'0", and has naturally tan skin. When he wears clothes, he wears some furs, and he is rarely found without his spirit mask (which is just regular wood, if well painted). On his arms and legs he has bangles of brass, which rattle when he dances. His eyes are a strange violet in the irises, and his hair is dark green. He always seems to be moving or tapping or gyrating to some rhythm that no one else hears. He has two small drums at his side, and is often idly tapping out a beat on them. I'll draw this up later, prolly.
Stats:
Physical
Str 2
Dex 3
Sta 2
Social
Cha 4
Manip 3
App 4
Mental
Perc 4
Int 2
Wits 3
Abilities: (x) = favoured
Dawn: MA - 5 (x)
War - 1
Eclipse (all).
Linguistics 2 (Forest Tongue [native], Ocean Tongue, and Old Realm)
Ride 2
Sail 2
Socialize 2
Bonus points:
2 - MA +2
4 - Perf and Resistance to 5
6 - Temperance +2
1 - Performance Specialty - dance (+2)
2 - Ride 2
Virtues:
Compassion 1
Conviction 3
Valor 2
Temperance 5
Permanent Essence: 2
Willpower: 8
Backgrounds:
Artifacts (3 total)
Resources 1 (dances for money and helps sail ships. This does not make too much cash but it does make some.)
Familiar 3 (working on this)
Charms:
Striking Cobra Technique
Serpentine Evasion
Snake Form
Mastery of Small Manners
Judge's Ear Technique
Salty Dog Method
Sagacious Reading of Intent
Durability of Oak Meditation
Iron Skin Concentration
Second Performance Excellency.
Character, spoilered for convenience - Realm Brat, even though you probably will love me forever. (Whee 50% cover, healing, a Ship, and fortune telling for everyone!)
Name: Mnemon Gemini
Concept: Astrological Thaumaturge turned Solar
Caste: Twilight
Motivation: Gemini is on a quest of introspection in a search for meaning, and is living life one day at a time
Anima: Twin helixes of rainbow energy currents ring Gemini, and his clothing ripples and glows, as though blowing in a divine wind.
Willpower: 6
Essence: 3
Personal Essence: 15/15
Peripheral Essence: 36/36
Specialties: Occult - Astrological Thaumaturgy
Linguistics: High Realm, Old Realm
Charms:
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
First Occult Excellency - 1 m per die, Instant, - Add dice, Max = Attribute + Ability
Infinite Occult Mastery - 2m+, 1 wp, One scene, - Excellency cost reduced by 1m per 2m spent
Wholeness-Restoring Meditation - Touch - Cure any crippling effect
Flawless Diagnosis Technique - 1 m, Reflexive Instant - Accurately diagnose any condition
Salty Dog Method - 3 m, Reflexive (1/2), One scene Combo-OK, Social, War - Removes penalties up to character's essence from actions in naval environments.
Calling the Wind's Kiss - 10 m +2 motes per additional hour (Maximum: +20), Terrestrial - Sailing vessel - Fills a target ship?s sails with a powerful wind sufficient to drive it forward at its maximum speed without Sacrificing handling or safety, and also ignoring currents or small storms.
Personal Tempest - 15 m, Terrestrial, One scene - Cut movement rate in half, but give 90% cover to sorcerer against all attacks, and can give 50% cover to unit magnitude no more than the caster's essence.
Shadowy Simulacrums of Smoke - 15 m, Terrestrial - All in cloud other than sorcerer get -1 to sight and hearing, all attacks must attempt (Perception + Awareness) roll (-1 penalty still applies) at difficulty of Sorcerer's essence to hit, botches hit allies, flurries make 1 roll and always hit same target.
Thunder Wolf's Howl - 10 m, Terrestrial - 20 yards in diameter, up to 100 yards away, shock smashes fragile object, pulps internal organs, cannot be parried or dodged, ignores armor, Caster rolls (Occult + Intellegence) to inflict bashing damage (Essences + Successes), inanimate objects and the undead receive half damage, all living creatures in effect are deafened and disoriented, (-2 on all actions for 5 ticks/success on casting roll) all exalted or essence wielders may attempt reflexive roll (stamina + resistance) to reduce disorientation by 5 ticks/success.
Background:
Born an unexalted bastard child as a consequence of an short-lived romance between a member of House Mnemon and House Ledaal, both families were equally embarrassed and decided to hush up any scandal by fostering the baby off to a professor who owed them a favor at the House of the Heavenly Guided Path. There, it was discovered that some strange talent must have manifested itself in his bloodline, for in his youth he mastered the art of Astrological Thaumaturgy, at first besting students years of study ahead of him, and soon afterwards succeeding where many of the professors would fail - performing greater divinations and even gaining some minor control over the direction of the winds.
When war broke out between the Realm and the Haslanti League, he was conscripted and trained as a Medic, though when the military found out about his abilities with divination, he was assigned to a squad with five of the best archers, swordsmen, and sappers pulled from the ranks. Covert missions become downright simple, once you know beforehand which guards will fall asleep, which patrol routes will be taken, and when your arrows wound never be blown off course. His squad quickly became a sort of family for Gemini, a replacement for the brothers he had never had.
However, one fateful night six years into the campaign during a covert mission in one of the nine cities, they were ambushed by the one thing that could not be predicted - A Lunar mercenary who had been tracking the unit for the past few months. Just as Gemini willed every ounce of his energy into an attempt to shift the air currents in some futile move of desperation to throw off the Lunar's aim and balance, a great and uncontrollable power filled him, and instead of the expected short gust of wind, the air around him rapidly compressed and exploded around him in a massive shockwave that crushed the life out of the Lunar, as well as levelling the city and pulpifying any living mortals, including his comrades, leaving only the Lunar's Moonsilver gear.
Distraught at having caused the death of the only family he had ever known, Gemini fled the scene of the disaster and headed west, where he purchased a ship with all of his military savings. Calling it the Constellation, he passed the next three years sailing the trade routes, a skill that came naturally to him, being already grossly proficient in the reading of star-charts, in addition to his newfound power of control over the wind.
Physical Description:
Gemini is a medium-height twenty-something, and although being in the military kept him in a fit condition, he didn't seem to bulk up in the least, and almost can be described as spindly. His brown hair seems permanently in disarray, like he had just come indoors from a storm, and his dark eyes seem even darker, with deep rings around them, apparently from a lack of sleep.
Plutonium, a character who isn't focused around combat is perfectly viable in Exalted, however one that doesn't have any combat abilities whatsoever really isn't. Right now, a single Dragon-Blood could *easily* kill your character in one hit. I highly recommend getting a perfect defense (Seven Shadows Evasion). Also, don't you need essence 4 for Infinite Ability Mastery?
Also, you should seriously consider some sort of offensive combat ability; there may be times when you don't want to reveal that you're Exalted.
Rainfall, I'm sorry I didn't respond yesterday. As some may remember, I currently live in a trailer out in the woods, and the wiring did something funny, and being, well, uhh, about twelve miles or so from anyone in a Maine winter, I was fairly isolated. *L*
Anyway.
The concept I was working on was a combination sorceror and martial artist. it's funny, I was writing his history yesterday when the power goes out, so let me give you an abbreviated history and concept here, and I'll write it out again when the pain of losing something that long isn't quite so fresh in my mind. *L* Also, when I'm not exhausted from having rearranged all the plugs in my house.
Name: Kiarn
Age: 34
Caste: Twilight
Motivation: To find both new and old methods of using Essence to help in bringing back the First Age's glory.
Essentially, he was a mortal savant who stumbled on a manse, and while he was studying the library there, a Dragon-Blood sorceror who'd been tracking possible Manses and Demenses arrived with an entourage and took the Manse away. At the prospect of losing his life's work and being killed for "daring" to study within a Manse without "permission", Kiarn went berserk, Exalted, and killed the sorceror. He fled before the rest of the entourage could organize against him, and decided to go west, to the great ocean, where he knew great treasures would be buried under the waves, waiting for someone to find them and put them to good use. He snuck back to the Manse under the cover of night, and stole several of the texts he considered the most valuable, and killed, one by one, the rest of the sorceror's entourage, to prevent anyone from finding and stealing the Manse. He puzzled out how to attune himself to the Manse, armed himself with the texts and the Manse's hearthstone, and left for the West.
His previous incarnation had been a powerful martial artist, and he remembered bits and pieces of the styles he had mastered in that previous life. He has mastered the most bare rudiments of the Mantis Style in addition to his study of sorcery. In addition, his memories had also led him to find a Serpent Sting Staff, which he keeps hidden most of the time.
He'd be happy to work with other Solars, so long as their cause would eventually benefit the restoration of First Age glory in some way or form. He wouldn't make an issue out of it, unless he truly felt that the others were betraying their Exalted nature... which is dramatically unlikely in any Exalted game... *L*
Anyhow, that's an abbreviated history, and I'm working on the sheet right now. If this for any reason doesn't sound like it'll work, tell me and I'll work on something else ASAP.
Here's the quick and dirty version of my characters backstory, as I'm still working on the sheet, but wanted to get something up here.
Name: Bramha the Bold, God-King of the Ajit.
Age: 33
Caste: Dawn
Motivation: Glory
"I see it in your eyes stranger. You do not believe in our Lord, do you? You see a man, a mighty man you will grant, but still just a man. Ha ha ha... Yes stranger, you blasphemy makes me laugh. You are not the first that has denied our Lord, nor do I think you'll be the last. Even our Lord did not know who he was at first. His first 30 years on Creation where spent as but a man, a leader of a small nation in the South. He lived like any King would, he had a Queen, children, and ruled his people well. But eventually one of his many rivals invaded, and thought he fought with great skill, he was greatly outnumbered, and soon his army fell. The thrice cursed invaders slaughtered everyone, yet in their cruelty the left our Lord alive, finding it more amusing to loose him in the desert, alone and empty handed, to wander alone until his grief drove him mad or the desert itself killed him. But our Lord did not find death in the desert, he found truth, and he emerged not as a half dead madman, but as the the mighty God we of the Ajit worship.
What is it boy? You wish to join the Ajit, the chosen warriors of the Mighty Bramha? Where it that simple child. First you must stand before our Lord and let him judge you. He will see in to your very soul boy, and you will feel the majesty of him threaten to destroy you. But maybe, if your body and spirit are strong enough, he will allow you to attempt the training. Yes boy, I said attempt, as we Ajit are the finest solders in all of Creation, and we fight at the side of a God. We allow no amateurs to take up the shield and the spear. You will work and train and fight and train until you can no longer move, and then you fill fight some more. It is not an easy road, most fail before the first year, but if you are strong enough, smart enough, then our Lord may deem you worthy to fight at his side.
Bah, the night grows long and my Lord wills that we move on, so I shall bid you all farewell. Were do we go? That is for our Lord to descide, but for the time we head West. I once asked my Lord where he was leading us of the Ajit. His reply was simple.
I'm done with the sheet. I kinda ran out of places to put my Background dots, so I added a single dot of Allies. I figure, with ST permission, that'll be a Water-aspected Outcaste Dragon-Blood who's been Kiarn's chief traveling companion since he fled the East. If not, I'm sure I can find somewhere else for the dot to go. *L* The Resources score comes from treasures taken from the Manse that can, if necessary, be sold.
I have a significantly cleaner version of this sheet in Microsoft Word, and would be happy to send it should it be required.
abilities marked with a * are Favored.
Name: Kiarn Race: Human Caste: Twilight
Player: Krata Height: 6’1” Motivation: Learn about Essence
Chronicle: Silver Seas Weight: 175 lbs Anima: Gold and Violet Mantis
Artifacts and hearthstones
Hearthstone: a Freedom Stone (cannot be restrained) (Manse 3)
Hearthstone Amulet: Inset stone, +1 essence per hour (Artifact 1, 1m committed)
Orichalcum Serpent Sting Staff “Scholar’s Sting” (Artifact 2, 5m committed)
Charm descriptions
First Lore Excellency: 1m per die, may double dice pool
First Occult Excellency: 1m per die, ,may double dice pool
Second Melee Excellency: 2m per success, each equals two dice
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery: May learn and cast Terrestrial Circle spells
Description of Mantis Style
Leaping Mantis Technique: 3m, leap up or toward opponent, add MA to Join Battle and yards of distance or move.
Iron-arm Block: 3m, add MA to parry DV, can block lethal attacks unarmed.
Mantis Form: 6m, add MA to Join Battle and Bashing and Lethal soak, parry lethal without a stunt, does not suffer onslaught penalties, unarmed inflicts lethal damage.
Spells
Death of Obsidian Butterflies: 15m, Perc+occult +automatic successes equal to Essence, 8L damage plus successes, 30 yards wide, 100 yards long, 10 yards high
Emerald Countermagic: 10m or 20m, counters Terrestrial spells
Summon Elemental: 10+m, may summon Elementals
Those of you using Appearance as a "dump stat" should be warned that it's incredibly important to social combat. Like, if you want to be a social combatant, or be able to defend at all well against one, it's the best attribute.
Character, spoilered for convenience - Realm Brat, even though you probably will love me forever. (Whee 50% cover, healing, a Ship, and fortune telling for everyone!)
Name: Mnemon Gemini
Concept: Astrological Thaumaturge turned Solar
Caste: Twilight
Motivation: Gemini is on a quest of introspection in a search for meaning, and is living life one day at a time
Anima: Twin helixes of rainbow energy currents ring Gemini, and his clothing ripples and glows, as though blowing in a divine wind.
Willpower: 6
Essence: 3
Personal Essence: 15/15
Peripheral Essence: 36/36
Specialties: Occult - Astrological Thaumaturgy
Linguistics: High Realm, Old Realm
Charms:
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
First Occult Excellency - 1 m per die, Instant, - Add dice, Max = Attribute + Ability
Infinite Occult Mastery - 2m+, 1 wp, One scene, - Excellency cost reduced by 1m per 2m spent
Wholeness-Restoring Meditation - Touch - Cure any crippling effect
Flawless Diagnosis Technique - 1 m, Reflexive Instant - Accurately diagnose any condition
Salty Dog Method - 3 m, Reflexive (1/2), One scene Combo-OK, Social, War - Removes penalties up to character's essence from actions in naval environments.
Calling the Wind's Kiss - 10 m +2 motes per additional hour (Maximum: +20), Terrestrial - Sailing vessel - Fills a target ship?s sails with a powerful wind sufficient to drive it forward at its maximum speed without Sacrificing handling or safety, and also ignoring currents or small storms.
Personal Tempest - 15 m, Terrestrial, One scene - Cut movement rate in half, but give 90% cover to sorcerer against all attacks, and can give 50% cover to unit magnitude no more than the caster's essence.
Shadowy Simulacrums of Smoke - 15 m, Terrestrial - All in cloud other than sorcerer get -1 to sight and hearing, all attacks must attempt (Perception + Awareness) roll (-1 penalty still applies) at difficulty of Sorcerer's essence to hit, botches hit allies, flurries make 1 roll and always hit same target.
Thunder Wolf's Howl - 10 m, Terrestrial - 20 yards in diameter, up to 100 yards away, shock smashes fragile object, pulps internal organs, cannot be parried or dodged, ignores armor, Caster rolls (Occult + Intellegence) to inflict bashing damage (Essences + Successes), inanimate objects and the undead receive half damage, all living creatures in effect are deafened and disoriented, (-2 on all actions for 5 ticks/success on casting roll) all exalted or essence wielders may attempt reflexive roll (stamina + resistance) to reduce disorientation by 5 ticks/success.
Background:
Born an unexalted bastard child as a consequence of an short-lived romance between a member of House Mnemon and House Ledaal, both families were equally embarrassed and decided to hush up any scandal by fostering the baby off to a professor who owed them a favor at the House of the Heavenly Guided Path. There, it was discovered that some strange talent must have manifested itself in his bloodline, for in his youth he mastered the art of Astrological Thaumaturgy, at first besting students years of study ahead of him, and soon afterwards succeeding where many of the professors would fail - performing greater divinations and even gaining some minor control over the direction of the winds.
When war broke out between the Realm and the Haslanti League, he was conscripted and trained as a Medic, though when the military found out about his abilities with divination, he was assigned to a squad with five of the best archers, swordsmen, and sappers pulled from the ranks. Covert missions become downright simple, once you know beforehand which guards will fall asleep, which patrol routes will be taken, and when your arrows wound never be blown off course. His squad quickly became a sort of family for Gemini, a replacement for the brothers he had never had.
However, one fateful night six years into the campaign during a covert mission in one of the nine cities, they were ambushed by the one thing that could not be predicted - A Lunar mercenary who had been tracking the unit for the past few months. Just as Gemini willed every ounce of his energy into an attempt to shift the air currents in some futile move of desperation to throw off the Lunar's aim and balance, a great and uncontrollable power filled him, and instead of the expected short gust of wind, the air around him rapidly compressed and exploded around him in a massive shockwave that crushed the life out of the Lunar, as well as levelling the city and pulpifying any living mortals, including his comrades, leaving only the Lunar's Moonsilver gear.
Distraught at having caused the death of the only family he had ever known, Gemini fled the scene of the disaster and headed west, where he purchased a ship with all of his military savings. Calling it the Constellation, he passed the next three years sailing the trade routes, a skill that came naturally to him, being already grossly proficient in the reading of star-charts, in addition to his newfound power of control over the wind.
Physical Description:
Gemini is a medium-height twenty-something, and although being in the military kept him in a fit condition, he didn't seem to bulk up in the least, and almost can be described as spindly. His brown hair seems permanently in disarray, like he had just come indoors from a storm, and his dark eyes seem even darker, with deep rings around them, apparently from a lack of sleep.
Plutonium, a character who isn't focused around combat is perfectly viable in Exalted, however one that doesn't have any combat abilities whatsoever really isn't. Right now, a single Dragon-Blood could *easily* kill your character in one hit. I highly recommend getting a perfect defense (Seven Shadows Evasion). Also, don't you need essence 4 for Infinite Ability Mastery?
Also, you should seriously consider some sort of offensive combat ability; there may be times when you don't want to reveal that you're Exalted.
Infinite(ability) Mastery is an Essence 3, Ability 4 charm. I do agree about defenses, though. You almost certainly need more of 'em, since I'm not going to be pulling much in the way of face-punches, unless I grossly underestimate the capacities of my antagonists.
Krata, it looks pretty solid, and I like the backstory.
Just waiting on Powerslave, IC, and DE?AD for their sheets now, although concepts have been received for all of 'em.
I wish I had the charms for the Lunar perfect defense. If only it didn't have four prerequisite charms, and me only starting with seven charms to place. But oh well.
On another note: The Direction Mastery Technique Charm puzzles me, perhaps you can help me figure this out Rainfall. On the one hand, it has an essence cost of 6 motes. On the other hand...the duration is INDEFINITE. Logically I would think therefore that it means I have to commit six to maintain the effect, but makes no such mention of doing so in the description. And yet it obviously can't mean I pay six motes one time to get the effect foreverz.
What, Personal Tempest and Shadowy Simulacrum aren't enough to stay out of harm's way?
Anyways, I'm also wearing some pretty strong moonsilver armor.
Krata: A single dot for your personal Dragon-Blood ally? I would figure it would be a little more expensive, considering a single dot goes towards my crew of weakliing sailors that will without a doubt die to the first demon attack.
Directional Mastery is a bit silly like that, Fiaryn. It has indefinite duration, mentions nothing about committing Motes, and nothing in the main rulebook says that you HAVE to commit motes to an indefinite charm.
So yeah it's pretty much free until you decide to dispel it.
What, Personal Tempest and Shadowy Simulacrum aren't enough to stay out of harm's way?
Anyways, I'm also wearing some pretty strong moonsilver armor.
Krata: A single dot of allies for your personal Dragon-Blood ally? I would figure it would be at least four dots.
An Ally dot is equivalent in power to a Solar Exalted. The thing with allies is that they're not just followers who do what you say, they're an actual person who is just a really good friend/is tied politically/has other obligations to the PC. Said Dragon-blooded probably isn't going to follow you guys when you head into The Sea That Marched Against The Flame, while IC's warrior-cultists probably would, provided he hadn't treated them like shit throughout the rest of the game.
Oh, and sorcery isn't going to give you much defense against a surprise attack, or perfects, or someone deciding to blow up the ship, or Emerald Countermagic, or someone who is really really fast and stabs you before you cast.
I was actually planning to bring this up at a later point, but yeah. Swap out a spell or something for a couple of Dodge charms, at the least.
Directional Mastery is a bit silly like that, Fiaryn. It has indefinite duration, mentions nothing about committing Motes, and nothing in the main rulebook says that you HAVE to commit motes to an indefinite charm.
So yeah it's pretty much free until you decide to dispel it.
And I have no clue why you would do that.
...Permanent water breathing it is then, I'm cool with that!
I will be so hard pressed not to do Sea Serpent Attacks! on ships at every possible opportunity.
What, Personal Tempest and Shadowy Simulacrum aren't enough to stay out of harm's way?
Anyways, I'm also wearing some pretty strong moonsilver armor.
Krata: A single dot of allies for your personal Dragon-Blood ally? I would figure it would be at least four dots.
An Ally dot is equivalent in power to a Solar Exalted. The thing with allies is that they're not just followers who do what you say, they're an actual person who is just a really good friend/is tied politically/has other obligations to the PC. Said Dragon-blooded probably isn't going to follow you guys when you head into The Sea That Marched Against The Flame, while IC's warrior-cultists probably would, provided he hadn't treated them like shit throughout the rest of the game.
Oh, and sorcery isn't going to give you much defense against a surprise attack, or perfects, or someone deciding to blow up the ship, or Emerald Countermagic, or someone who is really really fast and stabs you before you cast.
I was actually planning to bring this up at a later point, but yeah. Swap out a spell or something for a couple of Dodge charms, at the least.
Yeah, you should look up how long it takes you to cast a spell. You're basically a sitting duck.
And breastplate (especially Moonsilver breastplate when you're a Solar) isn't going to do shit for you.
Ok, I'm dropping Shadowy Simalcrulums of Smoke, and picking up:
Easily Overlooked Presence Method - 3m - Makes character difficult to notice unless circumstances or battle-readyness make it obvious. All Awareness and Investigation checks on my character fail unless I'm joined in battle, or the observer has a minimum 2-die bonus from relevant circumstances.
Ok, I'm dropping Shadowy Simalcrulums of Smoke, and picking up:
Easily Overlooked Presence Method - 3m - Makes character difficult to notice unless circumstances or battle-readyness make it obvious. All Awareness and Investigation checks on my character fail unless I'm joined in battle, or the observer has a minimum 2-die bonus from relevant circumstances.
You realize that in order to cast a combat spell, you have to Join Battle, right?
Yeah, won't be doing that until all the other's have already engaged.
I only took two spells actually used in combat, the rest of my points go into charms for other things.
I think the point is that I'm going to be playing is a insanely powered astrologist bordering on psychic, so (I'm actually not sure how Rainfall will interpret this) it's going to be incredibly tough to take him by surprise.
Yeah, won't be doing that until all the other's have already engaged.
I only took two spells actually used in combat, the rest of my points go into charms for other things.
I think the point is that I'm going to be playing is a insanely powered astrologist bordering on psychic, so (I'm actually not sure how Rainfall will interpret this) it's going to be incredibly tough to take him by surprise.
Okay, I play the archer in my current group. You know what my job is? "Oh, hey, look, there's the spellcaster. He looks like he needs four arrows in him."
Don't get me wrong: sorcery is fucking awesome. And there are absolutely situations where it's great in combat. But aside from spellcasting, what do you plan to do in combat? Stay out of the way? Obviously, it's your character, and you can do what you want, but pretty much every Exalt has some form of combat ability. The game can be very deadly, and very unforgiving. You should also look at how joining battle works. Say you decide to cast a spell after everyone else has acted: well, you're still most likely going to have to sit there spellcasting while your enemies get a chance to act. It's not a guarantee that you'll be hit, but a clever enemy is going to know that you're a vulnerable target, and go right for you. It's better to spend more of your initial abilities on stuff to keep you alive, then buy the cool shit you want later, because the abilities you've got keep you alive long enough to do it.
Quick question for those with better knowledge of the game.
I'm planning Bramha going un-armored, and I was wondering if I should take any of the Resistance charms to help him survive, or if his Melee charms should be enough most of the time.
Yeah, won't be doing that until all the other's have already engaged.
I only took two spells actually used in combat, the rest of my points go into charms for other things.
I think the point is that I'm going to be playing is a insanely powered astrologist bordering on psychic, so (I'm actually not sure how Rainfall will interpret this) it's going to be incredibly tough to take him by surprise.
I think his point was that once you Join Battle, you immediately cancel the benefits of Easily Overlooked Presence Method, and to use it you effectively have to accept that anyone who sees through it will be able to screw you hardcore because you don't have a weapon out, a spell ready to go, or that sort of thing. iyt says anyone with a +2 bonus to see you will do so. Essentially that means if you're out of place socially and wearing armor, bam, doesn't work anymore.
If you're fine with that, cool, but don't expect it to increase your survivability much, since speaking to us or otherwise drawing any attention to yourself by doing much of anything but standing there while we kick ass is going to cancel it, much of the time.
I'd STRONGLY suggest investing in either Oricalc armor (yes, I know, mobility penalty gone is nice, but since you're not a Lunar you don't get that benefit anyway...), or better armor, or bump the hell out of your Dodge DV more. Right now it's 4, that's not bad, except that any Dragon Blood with the first or second Melee excellency is going to jam a daiklaive into rather unpleasant places because a DV of 4 is nothing.
My character isn't even particularly scary, and he's got a DV of 6 in combat IF he's using his primary weapon... and that's before he loses DV points from little things like "casting spells" or "attacking" or "doing much of anything except stand there and take it like a man."
Remember, almost every action you take in combat lowers your DVs at least a little. So, effectively, if you attack someone, your Dodge DV of 4 suddenly becomes 3.
And if you should, god forbid, cast a spell! Terrestrial Circle spells would reduce your Dodge DV to 2! That means a normal mortal will hit you, often as not, although he won't be likely to roll more than one die of damage (since anybody with a bloody dagger can penetrate your hardness). That means a troop of five to ten soldiers with straight swords might theoretically kill you. And if they're led by a Dragon Blood with the First Melee Excellency carrying a standard Daiklaive and who has a Strength of 3 (a fair average for a young Dragon Blood), you're going to die inside of three rounds, period.
I STRONGLY reccomend, as a player who'll potentially be in your crew, that you either invest in either better armor or Dodge charms. The problem with your breastplate is that it does very little for you (against the enemies you're likely to care about anyway), and since it has no Mobility Penalty anyway, having it be Moonsilver is both unnecessary and dangerous (since misattuning an object can be unpleasant).
A single traded spell for one of the two Dodge excellencies would increase your survivability immensely. You could, with just the stats you have, double your Dodge DV with any of the Excellency charms, for a very low price in terms of Essence. You could even MORe than double it, if you rolled well with the First Excellency. Or take the Third Excellency and just straight up double it without rolling.
Quick question for those with better knowledge of the game.
I'm planning Bramha going un-armored, and I was wondering if I should take any of the Resistance charms to help him survive, or if his Melee charms should be enough most of the time.
If you're going un-armored, Resistance charms would be a very, very good idea.
Quick question for those with better knowledge of the game.
I'm planning Bramha going un-armored, and I was wondering if I should take any of the Resistance charms to help him survive, or if his Melee charms should be enough most of the time.
If you're going un-armored, Resistance charms would be a very, very good idea.
I agree.
I'd've taken Resistance charms myself, but I'm hoping to rely mostly on my Martial Arts, my insanely high defense weapon, and possibly a Martial Arts Excellency (if i trade second for first, which I'm considering doing for the DV booster) to keep my surviability up. That and a Dawn Caste big scary guy blowing my enemies apart with his pure awesome.
Edit: add a For Now onto the end of that.
Obviously I hope to find really nice artifact armor and the like later.
It's also kind of worth pointing out that a Moonsilver Breastplate is worthless seeing as there's no mobility penalty to cancel out on Artifact Breastplates ANYWAY. Moonsilver is only of any use on Lamellars and above.
Were I a Dawn Caste big scary kill-you-with-my-awesomeness sort, I probably would've invested in one. As it is, were I to attempt to invest in one, I would be forced to sacrifice pretyy much everything that makes my character's powers fit who he is. *L* Including all my magic spells and my martial arts style.
On the other hand, I get a weapon that deals +10 bashing that, depending on Rainfall's answer to a certain question, might well do lethal damage.
Rainfall: Martial Arts Form Weapons generally are weapons that are "considered unarmed" when using a Form, so normally I would be able to say that Mantis Style lets me deal lethal unarmed damage.
However, the description of Mantis Form's "weapons" is a little vague... it just says I can use any martial arts weapon with it. Does this mean my Serpent Sting staff is considered an unarmed attack for the purpose of my Mantis Style abilities? It's not specific, and it's certainly not a dealbreaker (honestly, the serpent-sting staff is awesomeness incorporated anyway), but I figured I should ask!
It being moonsilver is more a thematic thing than of actual use.
This whole "Build your character like this or the DM will Laugh and kill you because you thought you could get away with being unique." is kind of getting to me.
Anyways, do you think I could take Elemental Defense Techniques?
It being moonsilver is more a thematic thing than of actual use.
This whole "Build your character like this or you will die/The GM will kill you" is kind of getting to me.
Anyways, do you think I could take Elemental Defense Techniques?
If you're referring to the Lunar charms that were mentioned above... and you might not be, I might be misremembering and such, but if you are, you'd have to be Eclipse Caste.
Only Eclipse Caste Solars and Moonshadow Caste Abyssals can learn Charms (OTHER than MArtial Arts styles) from outside of their Exaltation type. It costs double the cost of a favored charm to do so, and it costs 2 extra motes to use them.
Also, I'm not tellking you "build your character like this or you will die." I'm telling you that in a world where violence is commonplace and an entire nation exists to kill people like you, you're going to want to be able to defend yourself.
It being moonsilver is more a thematic thing than of actual use.
This whole "Build your character like this or the DM will Laugh and kill you because you thought you could get away with being unique." is kind of getting to me.
There are a thousand different ways to build viable characters in Exalted. However, there are certain things that a lot of them are going to have in common. Just because you have the same defense charms that a bunch of other people do doesn't make your character any less unique, and the more powerful you get, the more different you're going to get, as you buy vastly different stuff from your compatriots with your experience.
And if you're going with the Moonsilver for thematic reasons, you should ask for a discount on the cost for it.
exalted is very different from the other ST games in that Exalted is quite crunchy. mechanical effectiveness is a big part of Exalted 2e, which seems strange but there you go.
if you find people raising an eyebrow over your choices, it's because you're hamstringing yourself for no discernible benefit and you might get upset when you realize that the double motes you have to commit to your breastplate could have been spent on more charm use in combat.
exalted is very different from the other ST games in that Exalted is quite crunchy. mechanical effectiveness is a big part of Exalted 2e, which seems strange but there you go.
if you find people raising an eyebrow over your choices, it's because you're hamstringing yourself for no discernible benefit and you might get upset when you realize that the double motes you have to commit to your breastplate could have been spent on more charm use in combat.
That's pretty much it, yeah.
I don't want to see you swear off Exalted forever because your harbinger of ultimate awesomeness got offed by an upstart Dragon-Blood or a troop of standard mortal "extras". An ounce of prevention is a lot better than pounding a cure into someone.
Posts
Basically what I'm saying is that there's no more room, sorry.
By my list, the interested parties are:
Fiaryn(sheet&concept)
Plutonium(sheet&concept)
CynicJester(sheet&concept)
DE?AD(concept)
Powerslave(concept)
IngloriousCoyote(vague concept)
Anaximander(vaaaague concept)
KrataLightblade(vaguer)
Basically you guys without fleshed out concepts/backstories are in a race against time. GOGOGO!
I'll be running Preludes throughout early February when I have spare time and you guys are around, so bug me to figure out a time to do it, I'm thinking we can try for a start date of Thursday the 14th.
Caste: Eclipse
Concept: Wandering Diplomat
Motivation: [lemme get back to this]
History:
At least once a generation, when twins were born (which strangely always seemed to happen just once a generation), the first-born would be trained to be the speaker for the tribe. He would be called Root, and he would learn from the best dancers, and be trained in the words of the ancients in order to make accord with the gods.
So, it was a great surprise when Leaves in Repose gave birth to septuplets, all identical, without, apparently, a father. Being the first of the line, Chorus of Storms was granted the same accord as the first twin, so that the tradition would be upheld. Chorus learned the great dances, spoke the great language, and when it was time, went on his spirit quest.
All previous Roots had gone out deep into the woods, far from the territorial boundaries of the Barkdancers; often, they would come back with tales of other peoples, of meeting great spirits, or powerful shapeshifters, or fighting great beasts. Always they would come back with the vigor to be a great medium for the spirits. As before, Chorus of Storms was different. He crafted his spirit-mask, gathered his dancing staff, and went off into the woods.
What he found were terrible nightmares. He saw a world of twisted gold wherein the men led with fire and brimstone, and the people followed, smiling at the same time as they worked themselves to death. This terrible throwback lasted for three days, replaying the horror of the first age in Chorus of Storms' head. When he awoke from this, his castemark was burning and he was glowing. All around him, spirits had gathered to determine the cause of the commotion. Many wanted to kill him, and spoke openly of it, referring to the horrors the Solars had wrought in ages past. But none could touch him, due to the ancient pacts they had signed.
Seeing how the spirits loathed him, he ran. He ran West, leaving his tribe and his six brothers to wonder what happened.
Eventually, of course, he ended in the West, and picked up the trade of sailing fairly easily.
Physical Description:
Stats:
Physical
Str 2
Dex 3
Sta 2
Social
Cha 4
Manip 3
App 4
Mental
Perc 4
Int 2
Wits 3
Abilities: (x) = favoured
Dawn: MA - 5 (x)
War - 1
Zenith: Resistance (x) 5
Performance: (x) 5 (7 dance)
Survival 2
Integrity 3
Twilight:
Investigation 3
Occult 1
Night:
Athletics (x) 2
Awareness (x) 3
Dodge 1
Eclipse (all).
Linguistics 2 (Forest Tongue [native], Ocean Tongue, and Old Realm)
Ride 2
Sail 2
Socialize 2
Bonus points:
2 - MA +2
4 - Perf and Resistance to 5
6 - Temperance +2
1 - Performance Specialty - dance (+2)
2 - Ride 2
Virtues:
Compassion 1
Conviction 3
Valor 2
Temperance 5
Permanent Essence: 2
Willpower: 8
Backgrounds:
Artifacts (3 total)
Resources 1 (dances for money and helps sail ships. This does not make too much cash but it does make some.)
Familiar 3 (working on this)
Charms:
Serpentine Evasion
Snake Form
Mastery of Small Manners
Judge's Ear Technique
Salty Dog Method
Sagacious Reading of Intent
Durability of Oak Meditation
Iron Skin Concentration
Second Performance Excellency.
Planeswalker
Will of the Council - Starting with you, each player votes for death goblin.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
No seriously this is why I was thinking about not doing this.
Planeswalker
Will of the Council - Starting with you, each player votes for death goblin.
I may have to settle just reading the thread and experiencing the awesome
"Well we don't have any women to offer their Chieftain...think they'd be able to tell the difference if we gave them Root?"
;-)
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
"Some makeup and a pair of melons and we'd be good I reckon."
Also, you should seriously consider some sort of offensive combat ability; there may be times when you don't want to reveal that you're Exalted.
Anyway.
The concept I was working on was a combination sorceror and martial artist. it's funny, I was writing his history yesterday when the power goes out, so let me give you an abbreviated history and concept here, and I'll write it out again when the pain of losing something that long isn't quite so fresh in my mind. *L* Also, when I'm not exhausted from having rearranged all the plugs in my house.
Name: Kiarn
Age: 34
Caste: Twilight
Motivation: To find both new and old methods of using Essence to help in bringing back the First Age's glory.
Essentially, he was a mortal savant who stumbled on a manse, and while he was studying the library there, a Dragon-Blood sorceror who'd been tracking possible Manses and Demenses arrived with an entourage and took the Manse away. At the prospect of losing his life's work and being killed for "daring" to study within a Manse without "permission", Kiarn went berserk, Exalted, and killed the sorceror. He fled before the rest of the entourage could organize against him, and decided to go west, to the great ocean, where he knew great treasures would be buried under the waves, waiting for someone to find them and put them to good use. He snuck back to the Manse under the cover of night, and stole several of the texts he considered the most valuable, and killed, one by one, the rest of the sorceror's entourage, to prevent anyone from finding and stealing the Manse. He puzzled out how to attune himself to the Manse, armed himself with the texts and the Manse's hearthstone, and left for the West.
His previous incarnation had been a powerful martial artist, and he remembered bits and pieces of the styles he had mastered in that previous life. He has mastered the most bare rudiments of the Mantis Style in addition to his study of sorcery. In addition, his memories had also led him to find a Serpent Sting Staff, which he keeps hidden most of the time.
He'd be happy to work with other Solars, so long as their cause would eventually benefit the restoration of First Age glory in some way or form. He wouldn't make an issue out of it, unless he truly felt that the others were betraying their Exalted nature... which is dramatically unlikely in any Exalted game... *L*
Anyhow, that's an abbreviated history, and I'm working on the sheet right now. If this for any reason doesn't sound like it'll work, tell me and I'll work on something else ASAP.
Name: Bramha the Bold, God-King of the Ajit.
Age: 33
Caste: Dawn
Motivation: Glory
"I see it in your eyes stranger. You do not believe in our Lord, do you? You see a man, a mighty man you will grant, but still just a man. Ha ha ha... Yes stranger, you blasphemy makes me laugh. You are not the first that has denied our Lord, nor do I think you'll be the last. Even our Lord did not know who he was at first. His first 30 years on Creation where spent as but a man, a leader of a small nation in the South. He lived like any King would, he had a Queen, children, and ruled his people well. But eventually one of his many rivals invaded, and thought he fought with great skill, he was greatly outnumbered, and soon his army fell. The thrice cursed invaders slaughtered everyone, yet in their cruelty the left our Lord alive, finding it more amusing to loose him in the desert, alone and empty handed, to wander alone until his grief drove him mad or the desert itself killed him. But our Lord did not find death in the desert, he found truth, and he emerged not as a half dead madman, but as the the mighty God we of the Ajit worship.
What is it boy? You wish to join the Ajit, the chosen warriors of the Mighty Bramha? Where it that simple child. First you must stand before our Lord and let him judge you. He will see in to your very soul boy, and you will feel the majesty of him threaten to destroy you. But maybe, if your body and spirit are strong enough, he will allow you to attempt the training. Yes boy, I said attempt, as we Ajit are the finest solders in all of Creation, and we fight at the side of a God. We allow no amateurs to take up the shield and the spear. You will work and train and fight and train until you can no longer move, and then you fill fight some more. It is not an easy road, most fail before the first year, but if you are strong enough, smart enough, then our Lord may deem you worthy to fight at his side.
Bah, the night grows long and my Lord wills that we move on, so I shall bid you all farewell. Were do we go? That is for our Lord to descide, but for the time we head West. I once asked my Lord where he was leading us of the Ajit. His reply was simple.
'To Glory.'"
I have a significantly cleaner version of this sheet in Microsoft Word, and would be happy to send it should it be required.
Name: Kiarn Race: Human Caste: Twilight
Player: Krata Height: 6’1” Motivation: Learn about Essence
Chronicle: Silver Seas Weight: 175 lbs Anima: Gold and Violet Mantis
Attributes
Physical Social Mental
Strength: 3 Charisma: 2 Perception: 3
Dexterity: 3 Manipulation: 3 Intelligence: 5
Stamina: 3 Appearance: 2 Wits: 3
Abilities
Dawn Zenith Twilight
Archery - Endurance 2 Craft -
Brawl - Performance - Investigation 2
Martial Arts 4 * Presence - Lore 3
Melee - Resistance 2 Medicine 2
Thrown - Survival 2 * Occult 3
Night Eclipse Specialties
Athletics 1 Bureaucracy - Martial Arts (Sepent-Sting Staff) 2
Awareness 2 * Linguistics 3 *
Dodge 2 * Ride -
Larceny - Sail 1
Stealth - Socialize -
Backgrounds
Allies: 1
Artifact: 3
Backing: -
Contacts: 2
Familiar: -
Followers: -
Influence: -
Manse: 3
Mentor: -
Resources: 2
Advantages
Charms Martial Arts Styles
Lore Excellency (First) Mantis Style
Occult Excellency (First) --Leaping Mantis Technique
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery --Iron-arm Block
Martial Arts Excellency (Second) --Mantis Form
Attacks Speed Acc Damage Defense Rate Attunement cost Tags
Serpent Sting Staff 5 +1 +10B +5 4 5 M, P
Martial Arts Punch 5 +1 +0B +2 3 N
Martial Arts Kick 5 +0 +3B -2 2 N
Martial Arts Clinch 6 +0 +0B 0 1 C, N, P
Defense Values
Dodge DV: 4
Parry DV (staff): 6
Parry DV (unarmed): 4/2
Essence: 3 Personal: 16 Peripheral: 38 (32)
Willpower: 7
Virtues Limit: 0
Compassion: 2
Conviction: 4 Flaw: Heart of Flint
Temperance: 3
Valor: 2
Artifacts and hearthstones
Hearthstone: a Freedom Stone (cannot be restrained) (Manse 3)
Hearthstone Amulet: Inset stone, +1 essence per hour (Artifact 1, 1m committed)
Orichalcum Serpent Sting Staff “Scholar’s Sting” (Artifact 2, 5m committed)
Charm descriptions
First Lore Excellency: 1m per die, may double dice pool
First Occult Excellency: 1m per die, ,may double dice pool
Second Melee Excellency: 2m per success, each equals two dice
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery: May learn and cast Terrestrial Circle spells
Description of Mantis Style
Leaping Mantis Technique: 3m, leap up or toward opponent, add MA to Join Battle and yards of distance or move.
Iron-arm Block: 3m, add MA to parry DV, can block lethal attacks unarmed.
Mantis Form: 6m, add MA to Join Battle and Bashing and Lethal soak, parry lethal without a stunt, does not suffer onslaught penalties, unarmed inflicts lethal damage.
Spells
Death of Obsidian Butterflies: 15m, Perc+occult +automatic successes equal to Essence, 8L damage plus successes, 30 yards wide, 100 yards long, 10 yards high
Emerald Countermagic: 10m or 20m, counters Terrestrial spells
Summon Elemental: 10+m, may summon Elementals
Infinite(ability) Mastery is an Essence 3, Ability 4 charm. I do agree about defenses, though. You almost certainly need more of 'em, since I'm not going to be pulling much in the way of face-punches, unless I grossly underestimate the capacities of my antagonists.
Krata, it looks pretty solid, and I like the backstory.
Just waiting on Powerslave, IC, and DE?AD for their sheets now, although concepts have been received for all of 'em.
Weeee-haaaw!
On another note: The Direction Mastery Technique Charm puzzles me, perhaps you can help me figure this out Rainfall. On the one hand, it has an essence cost of 6 motes. On the other hand...the duration is INDEFINITE. Logically I would think therefore that it means I have to commit six to maintain the effect, but makes no such mention of doing so in the description. And yet it obviously can't mean I pay six motes one time to get the effect foreverz.
Puzzlement. O_o
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Anyways, I'm also wearing some pretty strong moonsilver armor.
Krata: A single dot for your personal Dragon-Blood ally? I would figure it would be a little more expensive, considering a single dot goes towards my crew of weakliing sailors that will without a doubt die to the first demon attack.
A Breastplate is the weakest artifact armor there is. :P
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
So yeah it's pretty much free until you decide to dispel it.
And I have no clue why you would do that.
An Ally dot is equivalent in power to a Solar Exalted. The thing with allies is that they're not just followers who do what you say, they're an actual person who is just a really good friend/is tied politically/has other obligations to the PC. Said Dragon-blooded probably isn't going to follow you guys when you head into The Sea That Marched Against The Flame, while IC's warrior-cultists probably would, provided he hadn't treated them like shit throughout the rest of the game.
Oh, and sorcery isn't going to give you much defense against a surprise attack, or perfects, or someone deciding to blow up the ship, or Emerald Countermagic, or someone who is really really fast and stabs you before you cast.
I was actually planning to bring this up at a later point, but yeah. Swap out a spell or something for a couple of Dodge charms, at the least.
...Permanent water breathing it is then, I'm cool with that!
I will be so hard pressed not to do Sea Serpent Attacks! on ships at every possible opportunity.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Just need to take a look at the dodge charms.
I would drop Infinite Occult Mastery, since it's not going to be super-ultra-mad useful at starting levels anyways, and maybe dump one spell.
Also, getting Emerald Countermagic might be a very very wise idea.
And breastplate (especially Moonsilver breastplate when you're a Solar) isn't going to do shit for you.
Easily Overlooked Presence Method - 3m - Makes character difficult to notice unless circumstances or battle-readyness make it obvious. All Awareness and Investigation checks on my character fail unless I'm joined in battle, or the observer has a minimum 2-die bonus from relevant circumstances.
I only took two spells actually used in combat, the rest of my points go into charms for other things.
I think the point is that I'm going to be playing is a insanely powered astrologist bordering on psychic, so (I'm actually not sure how Rainfall will interpret this) it's going to be incredibly tough to take him by surprise.
Don't get me wrong: sorcery is fucking awesome. And there are absolutely situations where it's great in combat. But aside from spellcasting, what do you plan to do in combat? Stay out of the way? Obviously, it's your character, and you can do what you want, but pretty much every Exalt has some form of combat ability. The game can be very deadly, and very unforgiving. You should also look at how joining battle works. Say you decide to cast a spell after everyone else has acted: well, you're still most likely going to have to sit there spellcasting while your enemies get a chance to act. It's not a guarantee that you'll be hit, but a clever enemy is going to know that you're a vulnerable target, and go right for you. It's better to spend more of your initial abilities on stuff to keep you alive, then buy the cool shit you want later, because the abilities you've got keep you alive long enough to do it.
I'm planning Bramha going un-armored, and I was wondering if I should take any of the Resistance charms to help him survive, or if his Melee charms should be enough most of the time.
I think his point was that once you Join Battle, you immediately cancel the benefits of Easily Overlooked Presence Method, and to use it you effectively have to accept that anyone who sees through it will be able to screw you hardcore because you don't have a weapon out, a spell ready to go, or that sort of thing. iyt says anyone with a +2 bonus to see you will do so. Essentially that means if you're out of place socially and wearing armor, bam, doesn't work anymore.
If you're fine with that, cool, but don't expect it to increase your survivability much, since speaking to us or otherwise drawing any attention to yourself by doing much of anything but standing there while we kick ass is going to cancel it, much of the time.
I'd STRONGLY suggest investing in either Oricalc armor (yes, I know, mobility penalty gone is nice, but since you're not a Lunar you don't get that benefit anyway...), or better armor, or bump the hell out of your Dodge DV more. Right now it's 4, that's not bad, except that any Dragon Blood with the first or second Melee excellency is going to jam a daiklaive into rather unpleasant places because a DV of 4 is nothing.
My character isn't even particularly scary, and he's got a DV of 6 in combat IF he's using his primary weapon... and that's before he loses DV points from little things like "casting spells" or "attacking" or "doing much of anything except stand there and take it like a man."
Remember, almost every action you take in combat lowers your DVs at least a little. So, effectively, if you attack someone, your Dodge DV of 4 suddenly becomes 3.
And if you should, god forbid, cast a spell! Terrestrial Circle spells would reduce your Dodge DV to 2! That means a normal mortal will hit you, often as not, although he won't be likely to roll more than one die of damage (since anybody with a bloody dagger can penetrate your hardness). That means a troop of five to ten soldiers with straight swords might theoretically kill you. And if they're led by a Dragon Blood with the First Melee Excellency carrying a standard Daiklaive and who has a Strength of 3 (a fair average for a young Dragon Blood), you're going to die inside of three rounds, period.
I STRONGLY reccomend, as a player who'll potentially be in your crew, that you either invest in either better armor or Dodge charms. The problem with your breastplate is that it does very little for you (against the enemies you're likely to care about anyway), and since it has no Mobility Penalty anyway, having it be Moonsilver is both unnecessary and dangerous (since misattuning an object can be unpleasant).
A single traded spell for one of the two Dodge excellencies would increase your survivability immensely. You could, with just the stats you have, double your Dodge DV with any of the Excellency charms, for a very low price in terms of Essence. You could even MORe than double it, if you rolled well with the First Excellency. Or take the Third Excellency and just straight up double it without rolling.
I agree.
I'd've taken Resistance charms myself, but I'm hoping to rely mostly on my Martial Arts, my insanely high defense weapon, and possibly a Martial Arts Excellency (if i trade second for first, which I'm considering doing for the DV booster) to keep my surviability up. That and a Dawn Caste big scary guy blowing my enemies apart with his pure awesome.
Edit: add a For Now onto the end of that.
Obviously I hope to find really nice artifact armor and the like later.
perfect defenses are mandatory
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Unfortunatly, I do not.
Were I a Dawn Caste big scary kill-you-with-my-awesomeness sort, I probably would've invested in one. As it is, were I to attempt to invest in one, I would be forced to sacrifice pretyy much everything that makes my character's powers fit who he is. *L* Including all my magic spells and my martial arts style.
On the other hand, I get a weapon that deals +10 bashing that, depending on Rainfall's answer to a certain question, might well do lethal damage.
Rainfall: Martial Arts Form Weapons generally are weapons that are "considered unarmed" when using a Form, so normally I would be able to say that Mantis Style lets me deal lethal unarmed damage.
However, the description of Mantis Form's "weapons" is a little vague... it just says I can use any martial arts weapon with it. Does this mean my Serpent Sting staff is considered an unarmed attack for the purpose of my Mantis Style abilities? It's not specific, and it's certainly not a dealbreaker (honestly, the serpent-sting staff is awesomeness incorporated anyway), but I figured I should ask!
This whole "Build your character like this or the DM will Laugh and kill you because you thought you could get away with being unique." is kind of getting to me.
Anyways, do you think I could take Elemental Defense Techniques?
If you're referring to the Lunar charms that were mentioned above... and you might not be, I might be misremembering and such, but if you are, you'd have to be Eclipse Caste.
Only Eclipse Caste Solars and Moonshadow Caste Abyssals can learn Charms (OTHER than MArtial Arts styles) from outside of their Exaltation type. It costs double the cost of a favored charm to do so, and it costs 2 extra motes to use them.
Also, I'm not tellking you "build your character like this or you will die." I'm telling you that in a world where violence is commonplace and an entire nation exists to kill people like you, you're going to want to be able to defend yourself.
And if you're going with the Moonsilver for thematic reasons, you should ask for a discount on the cost for it.
if you find people raising an eyebrow over your choices, it's because you're hamstringing yourself for no discernible benefit and you might get upset when you realize that the double motes you have to commit to your breastplate could have been spent on more charm use in combat.
That's pretty much it, yeah.
I don't want to see you swear off Exalted forever because your harbinger of ultimate awesomeness got offed by an upstart Dragon-Blood or a troop of standard mortal "extras". An ounce of prevention is a lot better than pounding a cure into someone.
...Albeit admittedly less fun.