Lunars - Keeping Your Charecter Alive

[Moonsilver]

I noticed 2nd Ed Lunars had nothing like the "Keeping your Charecter Alive" section in the main Exalted book.


What do you think of this as a list for new charecters to pick 2 or 3 from before they allocated their remaining Charms


Lunars


1. A First Excellency in a combat Attribute.


2. A health level increasing Gift. Ox Body Technique (requires Resistance level 1, p. 156).


3. A defensive charm. Impressions of Strength (Strength 4, p. 144), Secure Cat Stepping (Dexterity 3 p. 150) Golden Tiger Stance (Dexterity 3, p.151), Steadfast Yeddim Meditation (Stamina 3, p. 156).


4. The knack Deadly Beastman Form (Stamina 3, p. 136).


5. The charm Relentless Lunar Fury (Stamina 3, p. 158).


6. A soaking charm. Hide Toughening Technique (Stamina 3, p.160).


7. A healing charm. Bruise Relief Method (Stamina 2 and a Stamina Excellency, p. 159).

 

[Quchu]

1. Take Ox-Body Technique 8 times.


2. Take First Dexterity Excellency 8 times.


3. Take Relentless Lunar Fury 8 times.


...well, I'll first have to re-read the Lunar book to see if they have 8 Charms to start with or not, though.

 

[Persell]

Even if they do, you can't have 8 Ox-Bodies without 8 dots in resistance, and you can't get those other charms 8 times.

 

[Jeppe]

1. Take Ox-Body Technique 8 times.
2. Take First Dexterity Excellency 8 times.


3. Take Relentless Lunar Fury 8 times.

I like it. Simple. Easy to remember.

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

Easy to remember doesn't mean viable...either within the rules or as a build.


A better method would be:


Take at least one Physical Excellency...Dex is a very good choice. Take Ox-Body at least once, twice is better. When taking Ox-Body, take the 4 -2s... there are ways to ignore wound penalties...and more healthlevel is never a bad thing. Relentless Lunar Fury...it is your friend. Love it, live it. If you don't take it at chargen...well, remember to take it sometime...it is a highly useful charm for most Lunars in the 'not dying' department...more so when activated with charms that don't allow you to die while it is up. Take a few charms directly related to your combat style. Take a Knack that suits your concept. Take some charms or knacks directly related to your character concept outside of killing things...unless that is your concept. Soaks Charms are often a good choice. Consider War Form. If you fight unarmed, whether in animal forms or human, get Claws of the Silver Moon as quickly as possible.

 

[Persell]

Lunar armor charms. There is a reason all the solar fans bitch and whine about them.

 

[Flyck]

The Lunar Armor Charms are pretty badass!  1 gives you natural soak, the other armor soak.  With those powers combined, you are Captain Planet.

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

Don't forget how one of them removes minimum damage too... so no ping, and TONS of soak. Scary.

 

[Dracogryff]

That would be the pinnacle one, m'dear. Not likely obtainable at chargen, what with the Stamina 5, Essence 4 requirements. Mostly the Essence 4. However, the one that sets your Hardness to your total natural soak is quite gettable at chargen...yeah, gotta love Lunar armor charms. *chuckles*

 

[Moonsilver]

Final version. In my Character Creation guide I have drawn up a list for my players to point them in the right direction as to which Charms to pick for “staying aliveâ€

 

[Vanman]

3. A defensive gift. Impressions of Strength (Strength 4, p. 144), Secure Cat Stepping (Dexterity 3 p. 150), Golden Tiger Stance (Dex. 3, p.151), Steadfast Yeddim Meditation (Stamina 3, p. 156).
Anything I have missed? Other Charms etc?

Impressions of Strength isn't a defensive charm. Read it again. It only supplements an attack the character makes. It does nothing to protect the character. It's a really nice charm but, if you're looking for defensive charms, this one isn't it.


:-)

 

[Persell]

Not sure what you are going for here, but if a solar goes the soak route, then he should go to iron skin concentration, because honestly, durability of oak meditation is a crappy charm.

 

[Haku1]

May I suggest Hyrid body knack? Mutations get armoured hide! or wings... wings are REALLY good, when you can pop it on or off for 1 mote.


And it applies to ANY form you have. Fly-by attack? Death from above? Yeddim crusher! ^_~

 

[Haku1]

Double-post?

 

[Moonsilver]

Impressions of Strength does have defensive value, but only for soak. I have moved in to the relevant line thanks.


Hybrid Body Knack requires Essence 3; I am limiting them to Essence 2 at Character Creation.


Iron Skin is the direction a soak Solar would go, depends on if the player wants to spend that many picks. I will have one or two or I know will say "We have to spend 3 Charms on combat"?


Thanks for the ideas guys.

 

[FluffySquirrel]

Err.. really.. are you even looking at the same charm?.. Impressions of Strength has NO defensive value... at -all-

 

[Vanman]

Impressions of Strength does have defensive value, but only for soak. I have moved in to the relevant line thanks.

I don't mean to be rude, but what book are you reading? Nowhere in Impressions of Strength does it mention soak in a defensive manner. In fact, here's the text, quoted from the rulebook:

The blows of the Lunar Exalted possess an unparalleled raw power. This Charm supplements an attack, to which the character applies one of the following edges.
Ogre’s Loving Caress. Damage dice that show 10 count as two successes.


Rock-to-Pebbles Attitude. Increase pre-soak damage by three dice for each time this edge is activated.


Undeniable Might. Increase post-soak damage by one die for each time this edge is activated.


Birth of Flight. Add (Strength) to the difficulty of any knockdown or knockback check caused by the attack.


Mighty Ram Practice. Targets of this attack must check against knockback; this edge increases knockback distance (from a potential base of zero) by one yard for each activation.


The Charm provides one edge initially. Characters may acquire additional edges for one bonus point or two experience points each.


At Essence 4, a character may apply two edges at once (or the same edge twice) for four motes. An Essence 5 char

Where is defensive soak mentioned anywhere in that text? Maybe you're thinking of another charm and mistaking it for Impressions of Strength, but Impressions of Strength is strictly an offensive charm......

 

[Moonsilver]

No I had the right Charm but in my haste to tie it all up I missed the word "damage"


Thanks again for steering me right.

 

[Krellian]

The magic number 8 is how many potential charms lunars can start with. So I making a list of my top 4 charms or knacks for a starting lunar. No lunar should have to dedicate the entirety of their initial charms just to remain alive. Also missing from this list are excellencies because of their broad natures, and DBT/RFL.


1) 4x-2 oxbody. When you get hit, you'll never regret having 4 extra health levels. An added bonus is the extra dying levels. 2x-1 isn't bad either because theres several charms out there that reduce wound penalties by one making them just as good as 0 levels. However, for just sheer survivability, the extra 2 do matter.


2) Hide Strengthening Essence or Armor forming Tech. If you don't want to use armor, grab the latter. If you do, grab the former. Its scene long, reflexive, and dirt cheap. Highly efficient. You can also grab both and gain quite a bit of soak for not being armored.


3) Secure Cat Stepping or Golden Tiger Stance. Unless your opponent is exploiting terrain, or levying penalties to your own DV, SCS is a better bargain most of the time, letting you retain your full DV until your next action. Against many attackers, SCS also shines better unless theres enough for you to be surrounded.


4) This one is a bit based on the characters style.


4a) Grappler: Roused bear throw. Seriously underrated charm. This charm lets you put your damage on your opponent, and then release from the grapple thus restoring your DV towards other attackers. In addition, its just a fun charm to use with the proper terrain.


4b) Generic warrior: Bruise Relief Method. Needs no explanation.


4c) Ranged: Finding the needles eye. Very group friendly when you hit three ess.


4d) Anti Creature of Darkness: Outward Forsaking Stance. Incredibly versatile and good against creatures of darkness. Of course, its just limited to CoD's though.


A combo of..


Str ex+ Dex ex+  Category (3) and Category (4).


Will last a very long time. At least until its time to move onto perfects.


In addition, theres one thing all lunars must have. A hearts blood with a flying form. Sometimes, the best way to survive is just to fly away very very quickly.

 

[Haku1]

Essence 2 only... *whistles*