Exalted!

I think it's a good sign that Exalted is now in a place where the houserules are things like "and the Merits to buy martial arts are gone" rather than "oh by the way I've rebuilt the combat system from the ground up".

By the merit, not by actual effect you disingenuous ass.

edited 4th Nov '15 12:29:53 PM by Adannor

But seriously, mortals are the Exalted equivalent of an NPC class. Getting archetypes for the Aristocrat class would be cool and all, but not having mechanics to make the backwoods Baron distinct from the Grand Vizier (who would of course get Sneak Attack) isn't really a big deal. Because if those guys become important to your game it's not because they have a mechanical widget but because they're your sovereign lord or the sage dispensing plot hooks and excuses to spend some XP wisdom or whatever.

edited 4th Nov '15 12:31:02 PM by rikalous

The problem is that their existence and making sense is a root of character backstories (WHY does that order of martial artists in your backstory exist when there is no sense for it to be), as well as reflecting on the system (WHY does that merit exist and costs so much).

There are also plot hooks. For example, an underground kung-fu tournament that your character infiltrates is a boring slog because none of the opponents have anything but a standard dicepool to them.

3e promised to remove the logical disparities of 2e's "Martial Arts World". They didn't. They even made it LESS possible via categorical removal of Enlightened Mortals with TMA.

edited 4th Nov '15 12:46:52 PM by Adannor

the thing is, I could totally see 4 dots being at least /more/ reasonable if techniques hadn't been Dummied Out. 4 dots of merits for something I can occasionally use without spending motes? Yeah probably a bit more worth than "I'm just a charm tree needlessly locked away"

Another strange thing someone mentioned to me. Martial Arts takes a 4 dot merit, and a separate skill for each style (which are all penalized if you try to learn more than one before mastering any of them) AND you still have to buy the damn charms. Terrestrial Circle sorcery though is an Occult 3, Essence 1 charm that you don't even need to think about ever again, boom, you're now a rare and powerful wielder of sorcery. Free spell and shaping for you!

edited 6th Nov '15 3:15:12 AM by Lanceleoghauni

Yyyup. You can't Supernal your way to early Celestial or Solar Circle sorcery, at least.

On an unrelated note, the Twilight anima familiar power is the handiest thing. No matter what your specialty is, Malfeas has spat out a race of first circles for you. Medicine-focused? Sesseljae. Bureaucracy? Aalu? Craft? Marrotte, Firmin, Heranhal, take your pick.

... I swear I remember reading that trying to train two martial arts simultaneously had an XP penalty but I'll be damned if I can find the rules that say so again...

The only "multistyle is bad for you" I recall is 2e dragonblooded learning two Immaculate Styles at once

Onyx Path, someone does a bit-by-bit review and critique of 3e: Irked Reads Ex3

Enlightening. Hrmm...

Hey, what's the name of Luna's giant monster form?

I dunno how giant it is, but the Silver-Horned Watcher is the most psycho of her common aspects.

Yeah, but she has her own version of Magnanimous Unbound.

*checks Glories*

Ah, I think this is it. The Chthonic Baara, "an ever-evolving super-predator, a conspiracy of beasts bound into a constant evolution to create an apocalyptic force that will rise in bitter defense of Gaia." That sound like what you're after?

OH hell the fuck yes.

You mean like Star Wars or The Princess Bride or a bunch of other stuff I can't think of right now? Seems like a normal thing for the genre of swashbuckling adventure.

Wrong thread?

(sigh)

Oh don't you sigh at me. That was linked a month ago and the conversation moved on since.

You mean the one question someone answered over two weeks ago? I don't really think that counts as "moving on"...It's less than a handful posts after it, doesn't really have much content, and it's basically been dead for quite some time.

Point taken though. I just don't really like having to prove what I'm saying isn't off-topic, I think if you're not sure you should just check upthread. You know, like five posts up...?

Just more easily irritated than usual lately, maybe because of winter.

's all good.

(I did look upthread, for the record. Several pages back. Ctrl-Fing for "whedonesque proved fruitless. )

Edit: And yeah, I don't see anything particularly incongruous with having both grandness and adventure. To respond to your actual point.

edited 8th Dec '15 2:52:33 PM by rikalous

Err, I was actually talking about the contrast between the style of sweeping romantic epics and down-to-earth snarky dialogue, not grandness and adventure.

Adventure was supposed to be banter. I don't know what my deal is today.