Fantasy Sidereals - New Beginnings OOC

[Random Word]

Oh, wow. Dao-Cleaving Insight had exactly 35 Charms. She's sorely lacking in general utility, though, and her Backgrounds heavily lean on Yu-Shan. She is mostly a personal combat monster. With the free 2 points of WP and the extra 5 BP I might be able to add some more utility. I could change her spells to less useless ones. Whirlwind of Fate is terrible under 2e spellcasting rules, but I love it.

Dice - Exalted 2.5 Sidereals - Characters

You will start at Essence 4, and that can be bought up with Bonus Points. You begin with a complete Celestial Martial Art style for free. This is in addition to the starting Charms you get. You will also be able to get up to the Form Charm of a SMA of your choice for free. Since I am mandating...

www.rpnation.com

 

[Psychie]

You are free to make any and all edits you wish to. I've gone ahead and upped the Attributes and Ability points for start up. I want to make sure you have a good build for your sheets.

 

[Random Word]

What are you thinking Rykon ?

Dao-Cleaving Insight is basically a martial arts master first and, with the sacking of Yu-Shan, nothing second. She was written as an incredibly well connected celestial bookie taking bets on Wyld Hunts and other fights arranged by corrupt manipulation of fate where necessary. She's a jaded member of the Bronze faction. She's too young to hate Solars, but she'll keep killing them until someone can prove they aren't just going to destroy Creation again. She has been reprimanded several times for allowing Solars to escape for the purposes of setting up dramatic grudge matches with Dynasts to rake in the betting money instead of just killing them efficiently. She's pragmatic, and will almost always make deals with the devil to fight bigger devils. Solars are much better than, say, Abyssals or Infernals in her books. She calls Sapphire Veil of Passions Style 'Celestial Harem Style', and has revealed that all members of the Crimson Panoply of Victory swear an oath to ruthlessly make fun of anyone who needs a Sidereal Martial Art to get laid.

She makes a good thug/soldier, a decent general (Certainly good enough to teach at the House of Bells, but lacking much in the way of War Charms), or a fantastic bodyguard, but she can't fit much in the way of subtle or utility Charms in with all the MA Charms she needed to buy (The premise of the game was, after all, let's punch things with SMA). I was planning to fill in her utility gaps with XP over time. If you were planning to go combat heavy, I should probably create a new character who is much more utility focused, otherwise we'll be solving all of our problems by punching them in the face.

I'm not sure how much value merits about connections and pull in the Celestial Bureaucracy will have. It's the end of the world, so presumably the full arsenal of Heaven is being pulled out of storage and dusted off. The Aerial Legion is on DEFCON 1 and the Daystar's weapons are primed. Do we get to call down the wrath of Heaven if we have pull, or request major manipulations of fate? Or should we assume Heaven can't help us, and focus our merits on Creation/our own personal power?

Oh, also, I should ask the same question I asked Sherwood. If I do play Dao-Cleaving Insight, and she is still a master of Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style, should I use the weird and broken version printed in Scroll of the Monk, or one of the homebrewed versions that's sane but less powerful?

 

[Rykon]

What are you thinking Rykon ?

Dao-Cleaving Insight is basically a martial arts master first and, with the sacking of Yu-Shan, nothing second. She was written as an incredibly well connected celestial bookie taking bets on Wyld Hunts and other fights arranged by corrupt manipulation of fate where necessary. She's a jaded member of the Bronze faction. She's too young to hate Solars, but she'll keep killing them until someone can prove they aren't just going to destroy Creation again. She has been reprimanded several times for allowing Solars to escape for the purposes of setting up dramatic grudge matches with Dynasts to rake in the betting money instead of just killing them efficiently. She's pragmatic, and will almost always make deals with the devil to fight bigger devils. Solars are much better than, say, Abyssals or Infernals in her books. She calls Sapphire Veil of Passions Style 'Celestial Harem Style', and has revealed that all members of the Crimson Panoply of Victory swear an oath to ruthlessly make fun of anyone who needs a Sidereal Martial Art to get laid.

She makes a good thug/soldier, a decent general (Certainly good enough to teach at the House of Bells, but lacking much in the way of War Charms), or a fantastic bodyguard, but she can't fit much in the way of subtle or utility Charms in with all the MA Charms she needed to buy (The premise of the game was, after all, let's punch things with SMA). I was planning to fill in her utility gaps with XP over time. If you were planning to go combat heavy, I should probably create a new character who is much more utility focused, otherwise we'll be solving all of our problems by punching them in the face.

I'm not sure how much value merits about connections and pull in the Celestial Bureaucracy will have. It's the end of the world, so presumably the full arsenal of Heaven is being pulled out of storage and dusted off. The Aerial Legion is on DEFCON 1 and the Daystar's weapons are primed. Do we get to call down the wrath of Heaven if we have pull, or request major manipulations of fate? Or should we assume Heaven can't help us, and focus our merits on Creation/our own personal power?

Oh, also, I should ask the same question I asked Sherwood. If I do play Dao-Cleaving Insight, and she is still a master of Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style, should I use the weird and broken version printed in Scroll of the Monk, or one of the homebrewed versions that's sane but less powerful?

Tien also has exactly 35 charms counting general charms and Ox-Body and is present in the same thread.

Mechanically Speaking...
I built him to be capable of giving a First Age Solar pause at the thought of violence. So a Dragon's pet Dragon Super Akuma Empress is probably not quite as impressive in terms of martial potential. His approach to combat is binding the fate of his opponent with that of his associates, being able to simultaneously effect them all through one touch. To make these touch effects count, there's Snake Style's sneak attacks, armor negation, and aggravated damage, along with Scarlet Patterned Battlefield's auto-agg and Citrine Poxes of Contagion's diseases that can inflict mental compulsions or make the target bleed extra essence on every charm use. These diseases also enjoy the AoE application from the SMA's fate binding.

Thematically Speaking...
I made him a Bronze faction Sifu. Fully realized as a martial philosopher and a patron of both Realm and Lookshy factions. The way I had his connections, I visualized him being heavily involved and integrated into the operations of House Tepet, then most of those who would recognize him perished of what most could call expected causes for a Dragon-Blooded even if they were anything but natural. His attitude toward Solars is that helping them succeed is too easy. The raw struggle and necessity of comradery for Dragon-Blooded are both inherently admirable and a desperately needed example for the growth of humanity as a whole in a way that Solar dominion is not. Obviously, recent events would count as extenuating circumstances. Most Dragon-Blooded assets are compromised, most contacts in general are deceased, heaven is in full-blown panic, and good 'weapons' are hard to come by. As the player, a part of my motivation for this choice was that most of my PCs have been Celestials or at minimum nominally Gold Faction in ideology. Aside from getting into Manato's head, this path has been fairly new ground for me.

 

[Random Word]

Oh, so you're thinking a bad touch combat monster. Alright, then you're going to be way stronger than Insight, and from your sheet it looks like you had as little left over for anything that wasn't combat as she did, so if you're going with Tien, I should probably make a character to handle that whole 'manipulating things from the shadows' bit we're supposed to be doing in between the bits where you step up and touch Deathlords to... uh... death.

Edit: Missed opportunity - Insight wanted to learn Scarlet Patterned Battlefield and Tien wants to learn Prismatic Arrangement of Creation - as the last remaining Sidereals we would have had to teach each other.

 

[Rykon]

Oh, so you're thinking a bad touch combat monster. Alright, then you're going to be way stronger than Insight, and from your sheet it looks like you had as little left over for anything that wasn't combat as she did, so if you're going with Tien, I should probably make a character to handle that whole 'manipulating things from the shadows' bit we're supposed to be doing in between the bits where you step up and touch Deathlords to... uh... death.

Edit: Missed opportunity - Insight wanted to learn Scarlet Patterned Battlefield and Tien wants to learn Prismatic Arrangement of Creation - as the last remaining Sidereals we would have had to teach each other.

I think Insight and Tien as is could be doable. We don't have to be great at manipulating a lot of different people, just need to make friends with a couple of Celestials better at persuasion than us. Or perhaps conjure or conscript secretaries for that purpose.

As you say though, with the right infiltration tactics, this is the type of power that could change the leadership of a city state with something as innocuous as a brightly-flared handshake. These combos are not cheap on motes after all. So I hope Psychie is alright with this being a thing that happens on occasion.

 

[Random Word]

If we did Tien and Insight we would basically be Hazel and Cha-Cha from Umbrella Academy - very unsubtle assassins of Fate who show up out of nowhere, annihilate something, and disappear. We could absolutely do that if we're leaning into the bloody vengeance for Heaven angle, but Psychie did say she wanted some manipulation with her murder, and I am completely here for looking down from rooftops and balconies, unseen and outside fate, making Quentin Tarantino conversation while subtly ensuring everything goes according to plan without anyone realizing we were ever there.

Without a Serenity we'll be trash at Astrology, and I feel like we could use some grand ascending destinies on our side. If one of us isn't a SMA master that frees up a lot of slots for other absurd Sidereal shenanigans. Like all the weird and wonderful prayer strip Charms.

 

[Psychie]

So a pair of Bronze Faction assassin/killers walk into a bar.....

I do hope that I can pull this off to be as cool out here as it feels in my head.

 

[Psychie]

Without a Serenity we'll be trash at Astrology, and I feel like we could use some grand ascending destinies on our side. If one of us isn't a SMA master that frees up a lot of slots for other absurd Sidereal shenanigans. Like all the weird and wonderful prayer strip Charms.

If you do decide to focus less on the SMAs, I can adapt to that and adjust your opponents accordingly.

 

[Rykon]

Hmm... well, I can't say Tien is well suited to grand manipulation of any kind if memory serves. I'll have to give thought to a character that can pull off more than a token attempt at subtlety. For that, I'll probably pick up the Journey's caste again and see what brands of silly stick.

 

[Random Word]

That's why I was thinking of making something that complements Tien. Tien does the Deathlord punching, this character does the puppet-mastering. If we do Tien and Insight, we're just all about the Deathlord punching all day every day, because neither of us will be supernaturally good at puppet mastering. We'd both probably be extraordinarily good at it by mortal standards, but hardly by Celestial standards. If I make a Serenity she can cover all Tien's Astrology needs, be impossibly persuasive, heal him (She can take damage in his place, heals 2 HLs per action, or shunt up to 5 HLs off into the future), tank for him while making him next to impossible to hit with non-perfect attacks (I think I can get her resting Dodge DV up passed 20, her unarmoured soak up passed 20, and reflexively defend other you with Dodge), give him Overdrive motes, create social movements and relationships out of nowhere, etc.

It looks like, weirdly, Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style is one SMA that doesn't require you to have mastered a Celestial MA to learn its form? That might be a printing error, but if not I could get up to the super broken Form Charm to get the 1m Perfect Defense Flurry Breaker to make sure I don't get wrecked when I support you in battle.

 

[Psychie]

Those numbers are formidable. I'm glad that I'm only dealing with the two of you, instead of some random players that I don't know.

 

[Rykon]

That's why I was thinking of making something that complements Tien. Tien does the Deathlord punching, this character does the puppet-mastering. If we do Tien and Insight, we're just all about the Deathlord punching all day every day, because neither of us will be supernaturally good at puppet mastering. We'd both probably be extraordinarily good at it by mortal standards, but hardly by Celestial standards. If I make a Serenity she can cover all Tien's Astrology needs, be impossibly persuasive, heal him (She can take damage in his place, heals 2 HLs per action, or shunt up to 5 HLs off into the future), tank for him while making him next to impossible to hit with non-perfect attacks (I think I can get her resting Dodge DV up passed 20, her unarmoured soak up passed 20, and reflexively defend other you with Dodge), give him Overdrive motes, create social movements and relationships out of nowhere, etc.

It looks like, weirdly, Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style is one SMA that doesn't require you to have mastered a Celestial MA to learn its form? That might be a printing error, but if not I could get up to the super broken Form Charm to get the 1m Perfect Defense Flurry Breaker to make sure I don't get wrecked when I support you in battle.

I like the idea of the last remaining agents of war and peace being the survivors.

Obsidian Shards is certainly a solid and relatively sane choice. I'm not sure what CMA I'd pick to complement it outside of maybe VBoS or Throne Shadow though.

Have you taken a look at the virtue style of Temperance? The Art of Meditative Discussion? I don't know how many charms deep it is, but it has many defensive options including a perfect parry. Though having to max out Temperance for a Serenity sounds both tragic and ironic.

There are styles for the other virtues worth taking a look at too.

 

[Psychie]

I just added a note to the character thread to remind you guys to check the Errata for Charm and other changes that are not overridden by the game rules.

 

[Psychie]

I keep remembering stuff to add. If you get any Circle of Sorcery, you get a free Spell of that Circle.

 

[Random Word]

check the Errata for Charm and other changes that are not overridden by the game rules.

Yeah, like every second Sidereal Charm is whole text errata'd. Making a 2.5e Sidereal requires a lot of flipping back and forth. The fact that Scroll of the Monk is virtually untouched by the errata is weird. I can only imagine they took one look at SMA and decided there was no hope of salvaging it. How SMA interact with the new rules is difficult to determine.

 

[Random Word]

Have you taken a look at the virtue style of Temperance? The Art of Meditative Discussion? I don't know how many charms deep it is, but it has many defensive options including a perfect parry. Though having to max out Temperance for a Serenity sounds both tragic and ironic.

Temperance? What is this heresy? I'm pretty sure when you apply to the Cerulean Lute they administer the Marshmallow Test, and if you don't eat the marshmallow immediately and either convince the proctor you didn't or convince the proctor to give you the two marshmallows anyway, you fail.

 

[Psychie]

Mmmmm, marshmallows.

 

[Random Word]

Those numbers are formidable. I'm glad that I'm only dealing with the two of you, instead of some random players that I don't know.

You want me to tone it down a little? I can definitely make a character who isn't threatened by a small collection of mortal thugs but is also no Celestial tier personal combatant. If the enemy catches her (i.e. prevents her from Avoidance Kata'ing herself away, etc) and Tien isn't around to protect her, she'll just surrender. Then the antagonist can have a magnificent bastard scene where they invite her to dinner and exchange witty repartee while they reveal their evil scheme and invite her to join the dark side. If she's pure social+utility she's almost as dangerous in a gilded cage as free. That will simplify combat for you a little bit, since your serious combat antagonists only have to deal with Tien, and my Serenity will mostly talk her way out of situations or, if forced, fight normal instead of apocalyptic threats.

 

[Psychie]

No need to do that, but thank you for asking. I was just making the comment that these numbers you'll be able to throw down will be very impressive. You will need to be able to throw down on occasion, but it is not the sole focus of the game.

 

[Psychie]

I have been thinking on this, and I wonder, are either one of you going to start out at any less Essence than the 6 you can get with your Bonus Points? It may just be easier to start you both at Essence 6 and cap it there, and lower the number of Bonus Points to spend on other stuff.

 

[Rykon]

Given that it effects our die caps, it is rather important for us. So highly likely we'll go for E6 if we can.

 

[Psychie]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. It is almost nuts not to take E6 now. Ok, I'll start you both out at Essence 6, and 12 Bonus Points. I'll make the change in the character thread now.

Edit: Especially with so many of the fun SMA Charms that need that level.

 

[Random Word]

Whew, I forgot how brutally few 35 Charms feels like when you're trying to make a high essence character. Forget about fitting in a Martial Art and the crazy number of Charms that would consume, just fitting in some of the utility Charms I want is already running to 40 and I haven't even touched spells. I am jealously eyeing the Dreams of the First Age E6 Sidereal character creation rules with its 70 Charms. I wanted to fit in crafting just so I could use Implicit Crafting Methodology to continuously cause divine desserts (and occasionally genuinely useful items) to appear out of nowhere, but it's 7 Charms to complete the Craft tree, and I don't have that kind of money.

As it stands, this character won't be able to fight at all, but they're pretty good at not being hit and escaping. I need to somehow cut 5 Charms, then cut maybe 3 more for some extra Celestial Circle Spells so we can summon heavenly gates, fly on giant clouds, etc. I'm going to have to puzzle over that.

 

[Psychie]

You bring up a good point. I will go ahead and increase the number of Charms you can get from 35 to 50. That should help out a bit.