Dice Exalted Essence: The Young Exalts and the Sea OOC

[Psychie]

Ok, thanks for the info. I'll update my sheet accordingly.

 

[jaydude]

Psychie
Cool beans. In any case, I'm keeping a record of everyone's stats within my own posts now.

 

[EbonChevalier]

How many charms can we spend in one turn I want spend two more one for my range excellently and the other force sharpshooter charm to ensnare the battle group

 

[Random Word]

The rule in Essence is one Charm per Step in combat. So long as those two Charms activate on different Steps, you're good.

 

[jaydude]

Hmm, since the characters don't trust each other yet and Ijara is retreating. I'd like to go for anima as reaching iconic will increase all our Defense by 1 for those that can stay in short range of Sojiro. An iconic air anima should serve as a signal to the garrison as well.

6 points of excess Power boosts your Anima from 3 to 6.

Also, something I just saw in the rules; much like 3E's onslaught penalties, each withering attack against a foe in a round reduces its Hardness by 1 for that round.

 

[jaydude]

Also also, just looked back and saw that Most Assurant deactivated her Essence cannon after the previous fight and then recommitted that mote to it for this one. This brings her Anima up to 2, and thus her Righteous Scorn comes into effect (Active effects turn on when you have 2 Anima, not when your Anima reaches Glowing).

 

[EbonChevalier]

For an excellency do I add my ranged combat stats to an ordinary ranged combat roll?

 

[jaydude]

For an excellency do I add my ranged combat stats to an ordinary ranged combat roll?

Yes, you add your Ranged Combat Ability score to the roll when attacking from range.

 

[EbonChevalier]

Yes, you add your Ranged Combat Ability score to the roll when attacking from range.

So to be clear Dex + range + range?

 

[jaydude]

So to be clear Dex + range + range?

Replace Dex with whichever Essence Attribute you're using, and yes.

 

[EbonChevalier]

Whoops I meant finesse

 

[jaydude]

Whoops I meant finesse

So the roll is your Finesse rating + your Ranged Combat rating + your Ranged Combat rating again.

 

[EbonChevalier]

Got it made the roll

 

[jaydude]

Okay. Turning in for the night; will look things over tomorrow.

 

[Rykon]

Also, something I just saw in the rules; much like 3E's onslaught penalties, each withering attack against a foe in a round reduces its Hardness by 1 for that round.

Yeah, it's a big nerf to "onslaught penalties" as hardness has rarely been an obstacle or very relevant statistic in most encounters I've seen in previous editions. That said, with it being much harder to raise defense and no perfects as written last I checked, Defense itself was also heavily nerfed as untouchable strategies have become far less viable. Essence can be pretty deadly under certain circumstances, maybe more so than 2E since it had much more defense support to contrast the mega-lethality combos.

 

[Random Word]

Edit: And if multi-action starts happening, he's not a valid target for a ranged attack now that he has rushed this round.

I didn't think of this at the time, but careful relying on this. The behemoth's attacks are clearly large AoEs, and almost certainly unblockable and undodgeable if they're levelling significant sections of palaces in a single strike. It could well just target the ground in your vicinity and let you try to outrun the explosion + collapsing building.

Edit of my own: I'm honestly really surprised that effect exists - a blanket 'No' to Exalted archers is brutal, without even a rider about 'against same Essence or lower' or a way to contest the effect if you can make impossible shots.

 

[Rykon]

I didn't think of this at the time, but careful relying on this. The behemoth's attacks are clearly large AoEs, and almost certainly unblockable and undodgeable if they're levelling significant sections of palaces in a single strike. It could well just target the ground in your vicinity and let you try to outrun the explosion + collapsing building.

Are you sure such things even exist in Essence? Cause I'm not seeing either flavor of perfect attack in the text, much less defenses to circumvent them. The closest thing that comes to mind is the Devil Darting Needle effect that was built into Aramitama which I'll get to in a moment. Otherwise, perfects on both offense and defense have been edited out of the edition as far as I can tell. Even if they weren't completely thrown out, throwing something that's both out the gate at an E1 party for their first session is a bit heavy-handed even for old hats especially when any means of coping is obscured at best. Still numbers aside, I like the idea that Sojiro is more concerned with duty than self-preservation what with the whole warrior-soldier culture of his house and education.

And if this serves to soothe lethality concerns... what I am relying on is the baseline rules. Damage cannot be dealt without accruing power, which Aigaion neglected to do this first round. If he instead takes the environmental effect route in an attempt to circumvent the power-driven limitation, I think it'll be fun to contest control of the skies between Sojiro's storm and Aigaion's assault. Interestingly enough, most environmental effects outside of being dunked in magma are not terribly lethal without essentially making camp in a rockslide. Practically speaking an airborne hazard would likely resemble Supernatural Ice Storm with it only inflicting 1 damage for every 5 rounds of exposure with a difficulty 5 resistance roll.

Edit of my own: I'm honestly really surprised that effect exists - a blanket 'No' to Exalted archers is brutal, without even a rider about 'against same Essence or lower' or a way to contest the effect if you can make impossible shots.

I am a bit as well, but keep in mind this effect has a few big limitations to contest it. The biggest being that it resets at the top of each round, meaning that if you don't act first it won't apply in practicality. It also has to be maintained each round by moving at full speed each round, meaning teammates can corner the wielder by pinning them down, there's even a generic gambit for such a thing.

Our enemy already circumvented the most glaring weakness of the effect, acting first. Thus why I made the multi-action caveat. It would also be in poor taste to use each of a large creature's multi-actions (for each member of the circle) to bully the one target anyway. Not when others are also in range.

As for the misfortune of ranged opponents, there are plenty of other things in Sojiro's kit that help him make life really difficult for an Exalted archer on the attack. Outside of stacking four dice penalties, there are moving/rushing 2 range bands in a turn. So, even if they start at range, they won't keep it long.

 

[jaydude]

Random Word
Now you mention it, I should probably include Misja within the Combat Tracker.

 

[Random Word]

Oh, uh, Misja should probably Build Power as well. Maybe make a wall of fire to ward off Aigonites as Prepare Ground again. Misja has a pool of 12 and will just toss any power she creates out to whoever isn't at 10.

 

[jaydude]

Okay. I'll work out logistics, then try and post tomorrow.

 

[Random Word]

Aigaion (Commander): Size 0, Defense 4, Hardness 10/10, Soak 8, 30/30 Health Levels

Wow. At 8 soak and 30 health... Even with 10 Power and a +3 weapon, on average a decisive attack will deal 0 damage.
Okay, so if we want to hurt it we have to Reveal Weakness to drop the Soak to 4, and maybe do it again to drop Soak to 2. I'm not sure if we do want to hurt it, but Rykon at least expressed interest in giving it a black eye.

 

[jaydude]

Wow. At 8 soak and 30 health... Even with 10 Power and a +3 weapon, on average a decisive attack will deal 0 damage.
Okay, so if we want to hurt it we have to Reveal Weakness to drop the Soak to 4, and maybe do it again to drop Soak to 2. I'm not sure if we do want to hurt it, but Rykon at least expressed interest in giving it a black eye.

Like I said, Behemoths are intended to be used as foes for Essence 5 groups.

That said, my basic plan from the start was for part of this campaign to revolve around finding a way to make Aigaion a more manageable enemy. Ijara can rest assured that Heaven's working on finding a Destiny that'll allow for this.

 

[Random Word]

Like I said, Behemoths are intended to be used as foes for Essence 5 groups.

Yeah, but usually pre-made Exalted enemies are undertuned so it might say that, but it's an open question whether it's true .

Oh, but wait, extra successes on the attack roll count for decisive damage rolls. I forgot about that. That's actually not so bad. Maybe Rykon is right - we might legitimately be able to hurt this thing, if it conveniently stands in range of our weapons.

 

[jaydude]

Yeah, but usually pre-made Exalted enemies are undertuned so it might say that, but it's an open question whether it's true .

Oh, but wait, extra successes on the attack roll count for decisive damage rolls. I forgot about that. That's actually not so bad. Maybe Rykon is right - we might legitimately be able to hurt this thing, if it conveniently stands in range of our weapons.

Either way, you still need to have 10 Power to be able to use decisive attacks against it.

That said, I won't be bothered if you manage to take it down. Like I said earlier, I'm playing to find out what happens.

 

[Rykon]

Yeah, but usually pre-made Exalted enemies are undertuned so it might say that, but it's an open question whether it's true .

That sounds about right. There are a lot of things the books assert that don't align with what you'd see in play.

Oh, but wait, extra successes on the attack roll count for decisive damage rolls. I forgot about that. That's actually not so bad. Maybe Rykon is right - we might legitimately be able to hurt this thing, if it conveniently stands in range of our weapons.

Yep, now imagine that last withering attack, but as a decisive attack with Excellent Strike added. That's 40 raw damage dice with 2 free damage successes and that counts as damage boosted by magic also.