Exaltation

[BobChuck]

so... does anyone have any idea what *things* (artifacts, hearthstones, etc, as opposed to powers) they want their character to get after Exalting?

The sooner you let me know, the sooner you are likely to get them.

[Measure Zero]

What will the deal be with getting Hearthstones/Artifacts after exaltation?  Will we just find them and pay essence for attunement, or will we have to "buy" things like this with experience?  What about other backgrounds like contacts, backing, etc.?

In any event, I hope to have my character ditch his armor soon, which may necessitate switching from Melee to Martial Arts.  I was hoping that you would allow me a partial rebuild to switch his Melee dots over to Martial Arts, since he has only ever used a weapon which happens to be a Martial Arts weapon (the sword was intended to be most for show anyway) and no one else seems to want to do the Martial Arts thing.  Either way is okay with me in the end.  Besides that, I will be leaning getting my character an appropriate artifact weapon, probably hearthstone bracers, or something to boost Presence (an artifact robe or hearthstone maybe?) or Medicine.

[BobChuck]

partial re-builds are perfectly acceptable. And yes, I expect you to 'buy' such things with XP if you want them later on, because I don't want to screw over people who buy them with starting backgrounds / bonus points.

Starting next week, I will be applying the -1 DV penalty when attacking. I apologize for not knowing the rules completely.

Also, I have a house rule: motes use on any active charm with a non-instantaneous duration are considered committed for the duration of the charm. It just makes thing simpler, and balances some of the more ridiculous charms (like that nasty free action spirit charm, something something motion).

[Measure Zero]

Speaking of which, you should mention combos and why they are almost essential in combat.  Are you going to do any house ruling on them or use the rules as-is?

[BobChuck]

Well, I think I'll use the rules as-is, but I'm somewhat fuzzy on combos.

Combos are important because you can only use one charm a turn. In other words, if you use Super Attack Prana to hit someone really hard, you could not use Immunity To Everything Technique to prevent the person's friend from hitting YOU really hard.

Combos are a way around this. You take two or more charms that you know and pay some XP to put them together in a combo. You then have the option of activating the combo instead of activating a single charm.

Combos have an increased cost to balance their utility. In addition to paying the XP to learn the combo and the motes for all charms in the combo, you must also pay one willpower.

Is this correct? Am I missing anything?

[Measure Zero]

When you activate a combo, you pay the willpower point.  You don't need to activate any of the charms in the combo, but you can activate any or all of them.  Normally, once you activate a charm, you don't get to activate another until your DV refreshes, which could depend on the charm speed (usually 5), your weapon speed (whatever that is) or other factors.  What a combo does, for instance, is let you activate an attack charm while still keeping the ability to activate one of your reflexive defense charms (or even a perfect defense charm).  All of this applies to social as well as physical combat, by the way, so social charm combos are also useful.

[BobChuck]

aha! I wasn't sure about that.

[Measure Zero]

partial re-builds are perfectly acceptable. And yes, I expect you to 'buy' such things with XP if you want them later on, because I don't want to screw over people who buy them with starting backgrounds / bonus points.

Starting next week, I will be applying the -1 DV penalty when attacking. I apologize for not knowing the rules completely.

Also, I have a house rule: motes use on any active charm with a non-instantaneous duration are considered committed for the duration of the charm. It just makes thing simpler, and balances some of the more ridiculous charms (like that nasty free action spirit charm, something something motion).

What about sorcery?  Would I need to commit all of my character's essence for an entire day to use Invulnerable Skin of Bronze and Wood Dragon's Claw?  That's 30 motes for something I could get much cheaper (in terms of experience cost and in terms of essence cost) with artifacts and some hidey-hole charms.  Please consider not extending this rule to sorcery, or lowering the essence cost of some of the spells.

[Thomas Kerwin]

I don't think that's a very way to deal with Principle of Motion.  The errata says the new actions granted can't be used for flurries.  There's supposed to be a new spirit and god book that addresses the limitations of the charm in more detail, but I figure one way to fix it is to just make a cap on the number of extra actions per turn you can get from the charm.

[BobChuck]

hmmm... good points. Okay, instead of this committed cost I will just ban PoM. It's not a Solar charm anyway, so this only effects NPCs and possibly Eclipse Caste, as they lose potential access to one charm.

[kenada]

I plan on taking some martial arts charms (among other things), but I don't expect to post the details until tomorrow evening.

[Measure Zero]

My character's mentor happens to be a dragon blood who was formerly a member of the Immaculate Order.  He was kicked out (and nearly executed) as a heretic.

He ended up living as a fop in Nexus, with his bad habits partially funded by my character.  The Wyld hunt might go after him if he ever made his presence known outside the Scavenger Lands, but as of right now his most important goals are partying and partying and they don't really care to find him.  He is looking for a way to get back at the Immaculates for banishing him from the Realm (and also for trying to kill him), and so the fact that my character is exalting as a Solar will be a great thrill for him.  If he does try to use my character to go after the Immaculates, there is a good chance that he will end up as one of their targets, if only because of geographical proximity.

As a 2 dot mentor, he will not be too concerned with my character.  He will, however, sell my character some of his old jade artifacts (that I still buy with experience, bonus points, or whatever) and give him access to a hidden manse he controls a little ways outside of the city (again, I will pay for the merit, but this gives an explanation for how I might have it legitimately).  In the future (i.e. with more mentor dots) he might be able to teach my character a few basic Terrestrial Circle Sorcery spells or instruct him in the Serpent Style (the style he learned when he was still a monk).

I plan to start with Jade Hearthstone Bracers, a Jade Serpent-Sting Staff, and some 2-4 dot Hearthstone that I'm still thinking about.

[BobChuck]

Excellent. I particularly like the fact that you have a pre-existing reason to hate the Immaculate Order, as that will make things fun for me.

[Measure Zero]

Well, my character doesn't have a reason to hate the order, it's just that his mentor does.  Also, I might decide I need armor of some sort; I'm not sure yet.

[BobChuck]

Of course.

I should describe how gaining artifacts and other backgrounds is going to work. My policy is once you've paid for it, its yours and I'm not going to touch it unless you get stupid. Until you've paid for it, it's not really yours and I can do anything I want to you.

In theory, nothing prevents you from picking up the gear of a defeated Wyld hunt person and using it, without getting any dots in artifact. Of course, it probably won't be exactly what you want (it certainly won't be oraculcum), and Dragon-Bloods don't always get along. Maybe someone thinks your gear is shiny, and would like to take it for themselves.  Likewise, the brother of the Wyld Hunt person you killed might just so happen to recognize your weapon as belonging to his sister, which will leave you with some questions to answer. Finally, nothing prevents the NPCs angry ghost from rising up and coming after you, possibly with undead or Abyssal Exalted allies.

If you want something and have the XP or nearly the XP to pay for it, let me know ahead of time and I can get it to you the next session. If you tell me Friday or Saturday that you want your character to have something that you can buy with XP right now, you'll probably have to wait a week.