First time player, questions both mechanical and referencial

[vinom]

I'm a new player and as such have a few questions about the game, and I'm trying not to strain my ST's patience since she has to deal four more new comers to the system. I'm hoping I can get my questions answered here.


1) I had read somewhere that an artifact could be made of more than one of the magical metals, but I can't seem to find reference to that again, was that just something I imagined?


2) With Dragon blooded, is their breeding based only on how strongly their ancestors was bred, or only their breeding with the element that the particular Dragon Blood is of?

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen

I'm a new player and as such have a few questions about the game, and I'm trying not to strain my ST's patience since she has to deal four more new comers to the system. I'm hoping I can get my questions answered here.

Welcome to the forums and to Exalted! You can more than hope for answers here, it's just the answers you get come from a variety of players and STs, whose mileages may vary and thus too might the answers!

1) I had read somewhere that an artifact could be made of more than one of the magical metals, but I can't seem to find reference to that again, was that just something I imagined?

This is indeed true, both Wonders of the Lost Age and Oedanol's Codex detail some artifacts that are made from multiple magical materials. On the most, these tend to be Magitech devices, such as powered armour or vehicles. The usual overall rule about artifacts of multiple materials is that none of the materials' effects apply, since they are often integrated into the artifact's powers.

2) With Dragon blooded, is their breeding based only on how strongly their ancestors was bred, or only their breeding with the element that the particular Dragon Blood is of?

Breeding comes from strong familial bloodlines, not the Elements, per se. If two high Breeding DBs have a child, chances are that child will have good Breeding too. Although many of the Realm's Great Houses have a particular Elemental tendency, these are by no means exclusive. Just because your DB's mom and dad were both wood-aspected, does not automatically mean you will exalt as a wood-aspect. Chances are your grandma might have been an earth-aspect and that makes you an earth-aspect. It all comes down to chance (i.e. if you really want to be a fire-aspect in a primarily water-aspected Great House, there's nothing canonically to stop you).


I hope this helps.


Captain Hesperus

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Would it be possible to create a weapon, or armor or bracers out of multiple materials, and having have that best qualities of they materials, or is that beyond the crafting system?

 

[Revoke]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Nothing is 'beyond the crafting system', because the crafting system pretty much amounts to the storyteller and player working together to eyeball an artifact rating to whatever you want to make. You are designing a new artifact though, and you have to pay for the extra bonuses. Off the cuff, you might be able to make a weapon made from two magical materials, which is one dot higher than normal and has both (summed) magical material bonuses. I think this makes for a pretty boring custom artifact, though.


I don't think mixing magical materials in an artifact and having them retain their qualities (rather than the 'first age alloys' used on many magitech devices, that have no discernible MM qualities anymore) is a bad thing. It's certainly an uncommon thing, though, because almost no published artifacts do so. So have a good reason for it.


For instance, I once designed some magitech prosthesis, the Hands of War and Peace. They were made of starmetal and moonsilver, and both Sidereals and Lunars could attune them fully - because they were made in the first age by the combined efforts of Sidereal and Lunar artificer.


Are you after some particular artifact here? I could help eyeball a rating for you to pitch to your ST.

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Not anything particular, since I've been drafted to play a dragon blooded, I need him to have some cool artifacts, so I'm contemplating alot of different things...


Are there any rule in buy artifacts in bulk, cause I wouldn't mind having 5 lightning boxes to play with?

 

[Greenstalker]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen

Not anything particular, since I've been drafted to play a dragon blooded, I need him to have some cool artifacts, so I'm contemplating alot of different things...
Are there any rule in buy artifacts in bulk, cause I wouldn't mind having 5 lightning boxes to play with?

You need to get artifact background as many times as how many artifacts you want. I don't remember lightning boxes stats so lets assume its an artifact 2. You need to get 5 artifact 2 (lightning box) backgrounds or 10 dots of background in total. Since DB's artifact dots count doubled however you practically spent 5 dots on 5 artifact 1 instead but your ST may rule out having that many of same artifact.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen

Not anything particular, since I've been drafted to play a dragon blooded, I need him to have some cool artifacts, so I'm contemplating alot of different things...
Are there any rule in buy artifacts in bulk, cause I wouldn't mind having 5 lightning boxes to play with?

While having 155 motes on hand for an emergency, five Lightning Boxes is a quite pedestrian use of your Artifact rating. Are you planning on creating a sorcerer or someone with an ability to tap out their Essence at a vastly accelerated rate? Also, once they are expended, you have to wait for the next big thunderstorm to recharge them all. If you wanted something to assist with mote pools, consider a skin mount amulet with a high-rated Hearthstone. With a 5-dot Hearthstone you can have an extra 10 motes of peripheral and still have a very cool effect from the stone.


I'd go for two, three at the most, then get some other fun things.


Captain Hesperus

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


that 150 extra essence (you have to spend 1 to get 31, gain of 30) would full a combo that would end in 100 Infinite Jade Chakrams at accuracy 10 to anything within range, a crowd decapitation maneuver.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


0_0


Please to name the Charms?


I'm not sure you can draw more Essence into your pools that you have the capacity for, if anyone could support or disprove this assumption. If you require all 150 motes for the combo, it may be problematic to draw upon them.


Captain Hesperus

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Heavy usage of "TORNADO OFFENSE TECHNIQUE", and a few other gimmicks.


I know I could do it once, and the essence would kill me after I'd be done (being fair to the ST) but what a stunt.

 

[Plague of Hats]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Tornado Offense Technique


When your action tick comes up, you declare the single non-reflexive action you will take. This single non-reflexive action can be a flurry, which is actually a bunch of non-reflexive actions performed at the same time. (Yes, this is kind of weird.)


You can't flurry a flurry. Tornado Offense Technique is your action; that is what you're doing with your action tick. You can't activate it again to perform another flurry on the same tick, just as you can't activate it on ticks other than your action tick to produce a flurry out-of-turn.


Essence Pools


You cannot contain more motes in your Essence pools than their given maxima, unless explicitly allowed by a given effect. Such effects are rare and, when well-written, very restrictive.


Lightning Boxes


Drawing motes from a lightning box is a Miscellaneous action; this is exclusive to Extra Action Charms that do not allow flurries of any action you choose, or do not allow the inclusion of Miscellaneous actions in them. Tornado Offense Technique is a flurry of only unarmed Martial Arts attacks.


The Lone Wolf Who Ate an Army


You can still single-handedly kill armies of dudes, but this will take longer than you're supposing at the Essence level you'll presumably be at. You will have to stagger your Tornado Offense Technique uses with activations of your lightning boxes.


At Martial Arts 5, each lightning box amounts to two fully powered flurries from Tornado Offense Technique. Maximizing your flurries to the tune you're singing would take at least 17 consecutive actions, though during the actions you drew motes from the lightning boxes you could include more mundane flurries.


But Maybe Your ST Doesn't Know or Care


You should talk to him about this, especially the lightning box thing. They're not the worst artifact published, but they could stand a good night tied to the errata chair.


If after all this you're looking for a new or different way to mow down mooks, I suggest taking a look at Elemental Burst Technique, in Lore. For further enhancement of this particular tactic, take a look at the errata for Loyal Weapon (link to errata in my signature).

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Ah... so my plan is horribly flawed... Is it so wrong I wanted to use lightning powered D20s to destroy an army in a single action?

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen

Ah... so my plan is horribly flawed... Is it so wrong I wanted to use lightning powered D20s to destroy an army in a single action?

It's not wrong at all. It shows you have a firm grasp of the potential awesome that is Exalted. Congratulations....


Captain Hesperus

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Maybe a 7 slotted skin mount amulet and an essence compass would be a more effective use of background points. Potentially upping peripheral by 70.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen

Maybe a 7 slotted skin mount amulet and an essence compass would be a more effective use of background points. Potentially upping peripheral by 70.

I suppose it all comes down to what you want your Dragon-Blooded to do. What role do you see your character taking in situations that requires such an inflated Essence pool? It's important to knw that in a standard DB game, lower-tier cooperative Charms can be far more dangerous than solo high-tier ones.


Captain Hesperus

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Ah, this wouldn't be a standard game, the ST was a little sick of the standard 5 man bands, so he had us draw starting characters out of a hat, I got the 126 year old Dragon Blooded, everyone else has Celestials, luckily no Sidereal.


I need to make him competent, and able to stand his own against the other PC's cause I think interparty conflict will be a big drive.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen

Ah, this wouldn't be a standard game, the ST was a little sick of the standard 5 man bands, so he had us draw starting characters out of a hat, I got the 126 year old Dragon Blooded, everyone else has Celestials, luckily no Sidereal.
I need to make him competent, and able to stand his own against the other PC's cause I think interparty conflict will be a big drive.

This puts you in a big heap of trouble.


1) Solo DB's, even elder ones, stack up poorly against competent experienced Celestials. The lack of PDs (Perfect Defences) is a serious impediment and, though your Charms appear more mote-efficient, they are often mote-efficient when leading a mass combat unit or as part of a DB group. To this end, consider Charms that will be Flurry-breakers (Hopping Firecracker Evasion, Dodge), that force your opponents to strike their allies (Safety Among Enemies), save you from UMI (Inviolate Dragon Spirit, Integrity) or break up potential enemy alliances (Brother-Against-Brother Insinuation, Socialize). Forget Portentious Comet Deflecting Mode, any Celestial worth their salt will be buffing their combat Accuracy rolls with the bare minimum of an Excellency making the Charm useless. Some of the Stealth Charms used with imagination can make for a scary prospect in combat.


2) You will have less Essence than most of your fellow PCs, due to the Essence Pool calculations. So a Charm that will increase the cost of your foe's Charms (Essence Disruption Attack, Awareness) is golden. Also Elemental Empowerment Concentration (Lore) will help regain your Essence swiftly.


2a) You have less health that Celestials. Ox-Body Technique offers the bare minimum for DBs, one -1 and one -2 health level per purchase. So an Essence 5, Resistance 5 DB will have a total of 17 health levels. A solar with similar stats can have as many as 22 health levels. This plus no Perfect Soak (see above) means that you can be sent to pine box territory relatively easy.


3) Backgrounds are your friends. Use them. Artifacts, Henchmen, Command. They all offer advantages in any potential combat. Namely good armor/weapons, a small troop of quality mooks or a large quantity of worthless minions to put between you and the enemy.


4) Make Friends and Influence People. The best way to defeat an enemy is to not have them as an enemy from the start. Auspicious First Meeting Attitude (Presence), Warm-Faced Seduction Style, Smoothing-Over-the-Past Technique (all Socialize) and Hidden Petal Aria Method (Performance) all work at drawing allies to you.


I'm sure you didn't need these pointers, but I offered them in the hopes that they contain something that you hadn't considered.


Captain Hesperus

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


All though I had been considering such things, getting a lay out from someone who knows the system help.


Luckily all the Celestials are resent Exalts...

 

[DasDom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Ok, getting a DB up to celestial speed isn't an easy task, but it isn't as bleak as hesperus makes things sound.


1) Make sure you use the errata charms, and the one from thousand correct actions. If you're not using both, you've got a problem.


2) Take legendary breeding from Scroll of heroes. That gives you breeding 6, which helps a lot with the motes. add a level 5 Hearthstone with skin-inset amulet to get another 10 motes in your essence pool.


3) Take Willpower 10! On the one Hand, it helps with essence pools, on the other hand your perfect defense costs Willpower.


4) PORTENTOUS COMET DEFLECTING MODE has a extension charm(CONFLAGRATION OF WARDING from 1000 correct actions) which allows to block anything blockable...you can get a true PD with another DBs help, but since you're alone, you need the UASSAILABLE BODY OF (ELEMENT) DEFENSE as well, so you dodge unblockable stuff and block undodgeable stuff. With Hearthstone Bracers+ Jewel of the flying hearth, you'll get a DDV of 13, that should help a lot.(assume you max everthing out.)


5) Use GLORIOUS BIRTHRIGHT FONT to create +7L damage on elemental charms...indefintly for a one time charge


6) use the effects of jade to lower your speed to 3 with everything including Grand daiklaves(my favorite)


7) Take up an army and make use of all those nifty Leader charms


8) remember to pick up FIVE-DRAGON Fortitude, one of the entry charms to the five dragon style.(refelexivly raising your soak is about the only thing you can do defense-wise after Dv's)


9) TALK to your Gamemaster about how he plans to balance XP's. You'll be paying a shitload more for weaker stuff. (I went and had everyone in my mixed campaign pay the solars XP costs, with exception of the stuff this didn't cover, like Celestial MA for DB, Knacks etc. That worked quite well)

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


What DasDom says.


Also, save 2 Artifact points for an Elemental Lens. So. Worth. It.


Captain Hesperus

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


I'm just thinking a bit, and I like the sound of armor made for all 12 magical metals...

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen

I'm just thinking a bit, and I like the sound of armor made for all 12 magical metals...

12?


I can only count 11 off the top of my head (five colors of Jade, Moonsilver, Starmetal, Orichalcum, Soulsteel and Adamant). ISTR that Activated Jade can only be worked into weapons to grant additional bonuses, Jade armour only gives the one bonus.


So you want an armour that has:


+4 Bashing/ +7 Lethal soak (+3 Hardness) (Orichalcum, Soulsteel, Starmetal and Adamant)


No Mobility Penalty (Moonsilver)


Reduce incoming damage by 1 to a minimum 0 (Starmetal)


No Fatigue (Jade)


This would be a very rare piece of armour and possibly exorbitantly expensive to attune to to get all the different effects. WHy not just go and get a suit of Dragon Armour?


Captain Hesperus

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Yellow jade too and don't abyssal Exalts have their own metal?


The Yellow Jade should help with the attuning cost.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen

Yellow jade too and don't abyssal Exalts have their own metal?
The Yellow Jade should help with the attuning cost.

Yellow Jade is ultra-ultra-rare, the result of a hitherto undocumented alchemical accident. Abyssals attune to Soulsteel. But regardless, many of the materials you want in the armour are either nigh-impossible to get hold of (Adamant is almost impossible to work or create in the Second Age, Starmetal is rare and you'd be vying with Sidereals just to get hold of a handful of chunks, ditto Moonsilver and Orichalcum, Soulsteel is dubious as to how you acquired it, Yellow Jade see above). As I say, Jade armour has only one mechanical effect, regardless of flavor.


Captain Hesperus

 

[vinom]

Re: First time player, questions both mechanical and referen


Give that the way this character's back story and the history of the artifact works, that it was made by a Sidereal,his grandmother, for his grandfather, it's at least reasonable.


Also, what is the magical material for infernal exalts?