Heaven's Reach Max Essence 5 Rule

[Darkon]

I read this shard for the first time last night, and I am wondering what the reason was for this rule. I recall reading that the Essence reboot the Solars could/would experience upon death would limit them forever. The Solars would never be as awesome or epic as they were previously. However, the Essence reboot would cure the Yozi infection. Does this mean from a game mechanic perspective that Solars from Heaven's Reach cannot exceed Essence 5 but are cured of the Great Curse? Why make those changes? Thanks.

 

[CactusAir]

My impression was that all the Shards settings had the Essence 5 cap (even GS Autobot, where it makes little if any sense), because the writers didn't want to bother figuring out how to integrate any E6+ stuff into them.


EDIT: nvm, GSA allows E6+

 

[Darkon]

I know the Modern Shard has the E5 cap too, but I don't recall if that was applied to GS Autobot as well. I could look it up...but I'm really lazy

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Partly because the E6+ material provided is mostly lame number-stacking so Solars can show off how heavy their dicebags are. It's exceptionally hard to balance around, and the mechanics and setting assumptions of Exalted are already being adjusted considerably in each Shard.

 

[Taliesin]

Yeah, pretty much. Not just E6; A Solars ability to access E7 stuff at E5 did terrible things to balance.

 

[Green Sun Prince]

E6 and plus is pretty ridiculous for Solars. There aren't many things that can stand toe to toe with an optimized Solar at this level.

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

And anything that promotes optimization in Exalted even more needs to be taken out behind the woodshed and shot.