Exalted 3rd Edition

[Thorn Darkblade]

So, it's out. many of us have the PDF's.


Whatcha think?


Comments? Accolades? Complaints?


Anyone had a chance to test anything yet?

 

[Mei]

Well, as a playtester I have played a good bit already.


But! I must say that the social influence system is a pleasure. I never did anything with it myself, but a few others in my group have taken to it nicely. Combat is pretty fun, and doesn't take all day like it did in 2E.


And my favorite subsystem is Feats of Strength. Once you have a good number of Athletics Charms, you can do truly insane things. Like toss a beached ship back into the ocean. Or win a tug-of-war with a Siaka-form Full Moon.

 

[Greenstalker]

I have a couple of complaints but other than these minor details that can mostly be houseruled I find new system appealing to be honest.


Most of my complaints are around martial arts. I just don't see appeal to pay 1 dot in brawl and 4 dot in merit (which is expensive by any standard) to get half of an abilities (for some abilities and martial arts 1/3rd or 1/4th even) of charms not to mention need to buy each MA separately. Not to mention at least two martial arts (I admit i didn't look all of them but I guess there might be one or two more but I am talking about new styles the fast-drawing one and two sword one) can't be even used with unarmed yet it still requires brawl dot instead of melee which these two styles basicly based off. Also for ebon shadow stealth would make a better choice for prerequisite and for a couple others there are better abilities fits in.


My second complain about martial arts is only dawn caste can get it supernal. As a matter of fact any physical attack related ability can be only got as supernal by a dawn. Noone else can get archery, brawl (and Martial arts), melee or thrown as supernal. Now maybe it makes sense for most castes but at least for night who was supposed to be nightwatch among solars this is a huge let down. Even if it could be ok with other abilities martial arts being gated behind brawl thus being only supernal for dawn while ebon shadow was created solely for nights, dreaming pearl courtesan being more focused on social interactions and some others which does not come to my mind at the moment is a major let down for myself.


my other complain is about how dual-wielding handled. Ok instead of one attack with each weapon they went with different tags applies whenever they can be used or in similar situation there is more withering damage but in the end this means off-hand weapon is just some sort of attachment to main one. I can live with that my problem is with ambidexterous merit. Since you can stunt always using your main hand for anything there is literally 0 chance using off-hand unless you lose a limb (and it wouldn't be whole arm for me even if I lost a limb which would be turned into a hook or sword or something like that) so 1 dot of this merit is useless and 2 dot only makes sense if there was something like 4 sword style (One Piece anyone?) Furthermore out of 10 case 9 dual-wielders will be using steel wind style (or maybe two gun righteous devil) but steel devils form charm already get rid of off-hand penalty (which does not exists as i stated)

 

[Mei]

Ummm... Martial Arts are crazy strong, man. The 4-dot merit is warranted with some of the crazy crap they can do. The Brawl over Melee thing is actuallu because the Martial Arts merit unlocks ALL styles to you, most of which involve unarmed combat.


And giving non-Dawns combat Supernals is not smart because that would cause the whole problem Dawn Castes have had two editions in a row. How useless they were at what they do: combat. Nights and Zeniths were the better options to make combat monsters before... And now it is rightfully in the Dawn's hands to be the master combatant.

 

[Greenstalker]

Ummm... Martial Arts are crazy strong, man. The 4-dot merit is warranted with some of the crazy crap they can do. The Brawl over Melee thing is actuallu because the Martial Arts merit unlocks ALL styles to you, most of which involve unarmed combat.
And giving non-Dawns combat Supernals is not smart because that would cause the whole problem Dawn Castes have had two editions in a row. How useless they were at what they do: combat. Nights and Zeniths were the better options to make combat monsters before... And now it is rightfully in the Dawn's hands to be the master combatant.

Okay for first point without actually playing I can't make a proper comparison and like i said most of my complaints are little things that can be house ruled it still feels wrong gating an ability, that was advertised as universal and even mortals should be able to use when kickstarter first started, behind a 4 dot merit it also reduces martial arts being chosen as an option my friends recently started a game and when i asked how it was going none of the 8 or so of them (two different group) started with martial arts solely because there were more useful merits mind you at least 3 of these guys were very expecting and excited about 3rd edition martial arts but when i talked with them all the gating it behind dawn, brawl and merit disappointed them as much as it disappointed me. I would never bother with putting those two martial arts in the book if I knew they were going to get gated like this.


For brawl-martial art thing. Like i said there is at least two (well counting righteous devil three) martial arts on the book that is explicitly stated that does not use unarmed so I am also not convinced why each martial arts couldn't get a linked ability instead of easy way of just gating them behind brawl which in essence solar hero style itself.


Third point is even more redundant all exalteds were created to fight against primordials in the first place so each caste should at least get one (at most two) of the four(melee, archery, thrown, brawl) to their caste ability list. Also leaving other castes aside night caste is a nightwatch caste even after war ended it is night caste job to protect creation from enemies in shadows but he does not get a proper ability for the job as caste ability is something that does not fit well with me. Mind you I am not saying dawn shouldn't be top combat dog and with current additions to its ability list it is more than enough for the job it does not justify to cripple other castes combat capabilities however.

 

[Mei]

Okay, for one thing you're wrong in thinking that you must be able to Supernal Combat abilities to be competent in combat when in reality Solar Essence 1 Charms are terrifying. Hell, Heaven Thunder Hammer is the scariest and is Essence 1. Excellent Strike in Melee is godly useful. Wise Arrow for Archery is as well. I think my Brawl Dawn only had... One non-Essence 1 Charm at Chargen. And Zeniths and Nights are not losing out at all in combat abilities. Dodge Supernal Night NPC wiped the floor with my Dawn. Resistance and Survival are amazing options to Supernal and have combat utility to them... And finally, Athletics. So underrated but soooo good. Thunderbolt Attack Prana and Leaping Tiger Attack are so good.


And for the Martial Arts Merit behind Brawl is because it unlocks the ability to learn all martial arts. Not just whichever you take first, so being competent unarmed is more broadly encompassing martial arts as a whole than Melee. Like, for every non-unarmed Martial Arts, I assure you there will be 3-4 unarmed-OK ones.

 

[Greenstalker]

And for the Martial Arts Merit behind Brawl is because it unlocks the ability to learn all martial arts. Not just whichever you take first, so being competent unarmed is more broadly encompassing martial arts as a whole than Melee. Like, for every non-unarmed Martial Arts, I assure you there will be 3-4 unarmed-OK ones.

This still does not make it awkward when it comes to those minority martial arts. To begin with since every martial arts need to purchased seperatly there was no need to gate them behind a single ability. For example each martial art could have a prerequsite ability section like to get steel devil you need at least melee 1 dot with either sword or dual-wielding specialty or to get ebon shadow you need stealth 1 dot etc.


I am just going to agree to disagree on this matter however since it won't be going to anywhere you made your point I made my own.


For other mater as I said before I didn't play yet it just feels wrong for me and if what you say is true than system is more hollow than it looks. I will not start an argument in here however until I at least played a game and see for myself.