Elder Exalts

[Kkat]

I must admit, I find the instructions for calculating beginning experience for elder exalted characters confusing. How much XP should an exalted start with if a character has been an exalted for:

• 125 years?
  
• 200 years?
  
• 250 years?

Thank you for your help on this!


--Kkat

 

[Brickwall]

Assuming a starting age of 25 (yes, it matters):


-1000 XP


-1375 XP


-1600 XP


There. I don't feel like showing my math right now, because I'm very tired. I might edit it in later.

 

[Kkat]

The age of exaltation matters regardless of the number of years exalted?


So if the person was born 150 years ago, exalted at the age of 25, and has been exalted for 125 years, then the answer is 1000 XP. But, if the person was born 145 years ago, exalted at the age of 20, and has been exalted for 125 years, the answer will be different? Even though they've been exalted the same amount of time?


Okay, how different would those figures be if the person exalted at the age of 20, but still has been exalted for 125/200/250 years?


--Kkat

 

[Kkat]

There. I don't feel like showing my math right now, because I'm very tired. I might edit it in later.

I'd very much appreciate the math. I have no idea how you arrived at those numbers, and it would be really helpful to know how to make these calculations.


--Kkat

 

[Quchu]

I think he meant the age of Exaltation in regards to whole age. If the character Exalted at 25 and is now 150 years old, they would have been Exalted for 125 years--which is what counts into long term EXP calculation.

 

[Brickwall]

Before I do any more annoying math, you have read page 275 of the Corebook and know how to do multiplication and addition, right? If so, you can really do this yourself. It's rather explicit on such matters.

 

[Kkat]

I have read that page, yes. I can do basic math, yes.


The basic math I do does not give me any of the numbers you came up with. Not even close. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong.


By my math:


A person who has been exalted for 200 years has exactly the same amount of XP as she would have if she has exalted only 125 years ago.


(Presuming age of 20 at exaltation) [ 20 + 200 = 220; 220 < 250; ((100 - 20)*10)XP = 800 XP ]


(Presuming age of 20 at exaltation) [ 20 + 125 = 145; 145 < 250; ((100 - 20)*10)XP = 800 XP ]

By my math:


A person who has been exalted for 75 years, and exalted at the age of 25, gets 750 XP. But a person who has also been exalted for 75 years, and exalted at the age of 24, gets 0 XP.


[ 75 + 25 = 100; 100 > 99; ((100 - 25)*10)XP = 750 XP ]


[ 75 + 24 = 99; 99 !> 99; "None" = 0 XP ]

By my math:


If I wanted to run a game where the five PCs all happened to exalt "100 years ago today", I would have to give the PCs radically different starting XP totals if their characters were, on the day of their exaltation, ages 13, 18, 25, 35 and 54.


[ 13 + 100 = 113; 113 > 99; ((100 - 13)*10)XP = 870 XP ]


[ 18 + 100 = 118; 118 > 99; ((100 - 18)*10)XP = 820 XP ]


[ 25 + 100 = 125; 125 > 99; ((100 - 25)*10)XP = 750 XP ]


[ 35 + 100 = 135; 135 > 99; ((100 - 35)*10)XP = 650 XP ]


[ 54 + 100 = 154; 154 > 99; ((100 - 54)*10)XP = 460 XP ]

By my math:


A person who exalted 200 years ago, at the age of 52, gets 1,230 XP...


[ 200 + 52 = 252; 252 > 250; 750 XP + ((100 - 52)*10)XP = 1230 XP ]


...while a person who exalted 210 years ago, at the age of 35, gets only 650 XP. That's almost only half as much, despite having been an exalt for ten years longer!


[ 210 + 35 = 245; 245 < 250; 0 XP + ((100 - 35)*10)XP = 650 XP ]

My math is wrong.

It's got to be.

Help me fix it! Please!

--Kkat

 

[Brickwall]

Your math...where are you getting all that from?


Okay, I'll just take care of your first two. Hopefully that should show you what you're doing wrong.


Age 20 at Exaltation after 200 years: 10(100-20)+120(5)=1400


Age 20 at Exaltation after 125 years: 10(100-20)+45(5)=1025


See? You take the first 100 years of life, minus any unExalted years, and multiply that by ten. Then you take any years beyond the first 100 of life (not Exaltation) up until 250, and multiply that by 5. One you hit 250, you start multiplying remaining years by 4. And so on and so forth, as the table dictates. Do you understand now?

 

[Kkat]

Your math...where are you getting all that from?

My book, page 275, says:


Age________________Base Experience


Exaltation to 99________None


100 to 249____________(100 - Exaltation age)*10


250 to 499____________+750


500 to 999____________+1,000


1,000+_______________+1,500


Therefore:


Someone who has been exalted for 200 years, and who exalted at age 20, would be 220 years old (20 + 200). That person would fall into the "100 to 249" catagory, so the equation would be (100 - 20)*10, for a total of 800 XP. Unfortunately, if the person had been exalted for only 125 years, 145 (that is, 20 + 125) still falls within the "100 to 249" catagory, so the equation is still (100 - 20)*10, for no difference at all.


Honestly, I like your numbers much better than what I come up with using the above. Where do you get your numbers and method from, though? That's not what my book seems to say to do (based on above chart and the example in italics above it which states that a 600 year old Solar who exalted at age 25 has 2,500 experience points (1000 + 750 + ((100 - 25)*10) = 2,500).

Do you understand now?

Your method seems much more reasonable. Was that in a later printing, or something?


If I understand your method correctly, a 600 year old Solar who exalted at age 25 would now have 2,800 XP instead.


[((100 - 25)*10) + (150 * 5) + (250 * 4) + (100 * 3)] or


[750 + 750 + 1000 + 300]


--Kkat

 

[Persell]

You get those number because you're using the BASE experience part of the table and ignoring the annual exp. The Base Xp column gives you the starting xp for the given category.


An Exalt that's 200 years old and Exalts at age 20. That gives you 180 years of exaltation. His base xp for being over 100 years in 80*10 (the annual exp he gets for being under 100), giving you 800. Now you have 100 years at 5 xp per year. This gives you 500+800=1300 xp.

 

[Kkat]

Aren't I supposed to use the base experience table? I thought the annual XP is only for awarding experience for downtime mid-game.


I suspect I'm putting too much faith in the example. Did the example in the book miscalculate?


--Kkat

 

[Persell]

The example doers in deed short change the Exalt by 300 xp.

 

[wardog]

So now that we've more or less settled the experience issue, here's a question I was wondering:


How crazy are your Elder Solars?


I had thought of using a very old Solar antagonist NPC who has found some way to prolong his life and youth, but as a consequence maybe has to sleep/hybernate for long stretches (maybe in a stable pocket in the Wyld, or something First Agey). His Valour is so high he will attack anything he perceives willl give him a good fight, but there are so few worthies in the world till the Jade Prison broke. So basically this guy pops back into Creation once in a while, rampages about starting fights with potential tough guys, finds little worth beating up and goes back into slumber before the Wyld Hunt or the Sidereals can really organize against him.


I think I kinda patterned the character off of Kenpachi Zaraki from Bleach. he had the reallllly spikey hair and the huge jagged-edged sword. Only wanted to fight anyone he though was tough, would get disappointed and leave if they weren't worth his time and couldn't be bothered with politics, and gentility.


I don't know if such behaviour is consistent with all canon manifestations of the Great Curse, but hey, whatever makes a good antagonist. Especially a guy who shows up, beats the whole party within an inch of their life, tells them they need to be stronger and just leaves. Even funnier if he suddenly shows up and trounces a Wyld Hunt sent after the characters, then asks them if they got any stronger, cause he could fight them now, if they wanna...


so, yeah, how bad a hold does/will the Great Curse have on Elder Solars for your games?

 

[Nerrin]

So now that we've more or less settled the experience issue, here's a question I was wondering:
How crazy are your Elder Solars?


...


so, yeah, how bad a hold does/will the Great Curse have on Elder Solars for your games?

I haven't managed to run anything in Exalted yet (more experience elsewhere), but I imagine that it would depend somewhat on the Solar and his/her individual background (like one who does the hibernation thing being much less crazy-tastic than one who's actually been up and around all this time). But I'd definitely start blurring the line between "normal" and "limit break," working their virtue flaw much more subtly and pervasively into their behavior at pretty much every stage of things, with limit only a clue to how severe and exaggerated their flaw gets at any given time. Get rid of the virtue flaws that involve a complete and utter break from normal behavior, like the Temperance flaw of Overindulgence. Mix it up with some divine boredom problems of being too awesome at everything to find anything interesting, and you start developing some very bent personalities.


Subtle wrongness is a bigger thing for me than full-blown whackjob craziness. While the Kenpachi-type Dawn caste (or a Twilight like the mad-scientist shinigami captain, whose name I can't recall) has its place, I find I tend to disturb other players a lot more with the person who is very calmly, quietly, rationally nuts, who doesn't throw conventional morals out the window but instead just keeps them tied up in the closet because he likes to look at them while fondling a knife. He proceeds logically from step to step in his plans and responses, but his premises are so deeply flawed that everything that grows from them is twisted.

 

[wardog]

Subtle wrongness is a bigger thing for me than full-blown whackjob craziness. While the Kenpachi-type Dawn caste (or a Twilight like the mad-scientist shinigami captain, whose name I can't recall) has its place, I find I tend to disturb other players a lot more with the person who is very calmly, quietly, rationally nuts, who doesn't throw conventional morals out the window but instead just keeps them tied up in the closet because he likes to look at them while fondling a knife. He proceeds logically from step to step in his plans and responses, but his premises are so deeply flawed that everything that grows from them is twisted.

Hmm, I think there was a character from Xena Warrior Princess who was like this. On the surface she was like Xena, all about redemption and ass-kicking, but tended to be more spiritual. Then it turns out when she defeats people she would make grandiose public speeches about redeeming them, she would offer them a chance to "see the light" and if they refused or she didn't believe their conversion, she would cold-bloodedly execute them, out of sight. Her rationale was "I walk in the light, and i defeated you, so I must be right. If you can't or won't see that, then you're better off being taken care of, but out of sight so as to not trouble the faithful." her followers started emulating her, and -being converts- got pretty fanatical about it.


So, I see your point there, it can be played a lot more subtly and at first seem merely like a difference in opinion of how to do things.