Rule of 10's vs. Minumum Essence Damage

[Persell]

Ever since I started playing Exalted back in 1st edition, my group has used the rule of 10's for damage (10 on die counts as 2 successes) rather than using an Exalt's Essence for minimum damage.


What do you guys think about the power differentials between the two rules? The way I see it, minimum damage as Essence super powers fast characters (low speed, low damage, but lots of attacks) and makes having high soak matter a lot less... Rule of 10's on the other hand, makes taking a lot of damage at once much more dangerous and high soak much more useful, and significantly increases the usefulness of the Overwhelming tag on weapons as well as making high damage characters more dangerous.


Input greatly appreciated on this one.

 

[Persell]

I used the same house rule in first ed.


In second ed I don't use minimum damage or rule of 10's for damage. I think it helps with character surviability and gets the player to try stupider things more often (which is always amusing for the storyteller).


Really I think it all depends on what type of feel you want on your characters mortality.

 

[Brickwall]

I think it's a good rule. I'd like to see multi-dimensional strategy emphasized over "look, I have Speed 2 attacks and can make 20 of them an action!".

 

[Persell]

"I think it's a good rule. I'd like to see multi-dimensional strategy emphasized over "look, I have Speed 2 attacks and can make 20 of them an action!"


The thing I'm concerned about is that, now that you can't do very much damage with a fast character like that, doesn't that just mean that the giant guys with speed 5-6, 12L or more damage weapons with the overwhelming and piercing tags, are always way more powerful?

 

[syys]

I use (raw damage)/10, rounded up, as the minimum damage instead of Essence. It increases survivability, makes soak useful and flurries less overwhelming.


I also don't like the metaphysics of Essence giving a minimum damage. I should say that I also don't use the rule of penalties not being able to reduce any dice pool beneath Essence, or add Essence to the Dodge pool. This makes the Essence rating in itself less important, which some people may not want. (In my group of PCs, the Essence ratings vary from 3 to 7, so this balances things a bit.)


I like 10's on damage dice giving only on success. It keeps damage more predictable, and makes it a bit less likely that characters will die because of bad luck.