Thanks for the link :O
Really excited now.
I've pledged for the deluxe core book, which IMHO looks great.
Even if it's not really the focus of this KS (but then, it sorta is) I'm also really exited to see the new system they are putting together for EX3.
I've been going through the preview of the new rules and there are a lot of interesting changes. They ditched Virtues and expanding on Intimacies as you main personality traits.
Combat is very different. We are back to a round by round system but there is a focus on gaining advantage and intitive.
Initiative reprisents how much of an advantage you have over your opponent. A lot of your attacks aren't to do damage but to gain initiative and reduce your opponent's initiative
So things like "I feint left", or "I force him into the corner" or "I push him down to his knees with a series of powerful over head blows", are all attacks that change the intitative for the fight not not inflict any actual damage.
When you have a Lot of Initiative you go for a Decisive Blow. IE: I cut him down and leave his corpse to rot.
If this hits you covert your current intiative into your Damage pool, and then drop down in the initiative rating.
So the main part of the fights is going to be about describing how you gain that opening for the single heavy blow that takes your opponent's head off.
Better than:
I hit you! *whiff*
I hit you back! *whiff*
I hit you again! *whiff*
...
I hit you! *whiff, opponent goes down*
Yeah, it makes a bit of sense for the style of the game, very anime-esque, opponents facing off against each other and holding each other at bay while searching for the perfect opportunity to end it.
Still flipping through the PDF. No index or table of contents or bookmarks, plus I don't like reading off screen so I'm just hopping around a lot getting bits and pieces.
Getting dropped to 0 Initiative looks pretty bad, but recoverable from. More than 1 round at 0 initiative is probably getting you killed.
Several of the defense charms involve spending initiative instead of motes.
Only 1 type of Excellency charm now, and they are free for all your Caste and Favored Abilities. Plus a starting character starts with 15 charms on top of the free excellencies. But starting Essence is 1 and no option to buy higher with background points. Going Essence 1 to 2 is 50 xp
You also have a Supernal Ability. IE:the one skill you are going to be most famous for. Your Essence counts as 5 for meeting Charm prerequisits.
Backgrounds and Merits appear to have been combined
Flaws exist but don't get you points. Instead you get bonus XP when your flaw actually has an impact on the story.
Essence Motes recover faster in Combat than they do out of combat. 5/combat round vs. 5/hour normally.
Dammit, I am running low on motes... Big fight upcoming too... Wasn't there a band of robbers somewhere around here?
Yeah, it makes a bit of sense for the style of the game, very anime-esque, opponents facing off against each other and holding each other at bay while searching for the perfect opportunity to end it.So unlike realistic Western combat where people stand five feet apart scratching each other with great-axe swings until someone suddenly collapses and starts dying while there opponent carries on unaffected by any injuries. [/sarcasm]
Well you do only have about 7 Hit Points in Exalted unless you start stacking Ox-Body. I get my initiative up to 10 or so I stand a good chance of knocking you down or at least doing some serious injury. Even a little bit of damage starts giving you penalties on your rolls.
I should see if I can find the new rules on Extras
Ok so the old Extras rules are replaced by a new version of the mass combat rules.
Essentially an army of gumbies is statted out like 1 Gumbi and then gets bonus dice for numbers. They only do intititive damage attacks until you get reduced to 0 initiative, then they start in on your Health Levels. In contrast all damage you do to them shreads their Health Tract and reduces their magnitude. Each time you kill a magnitude of guys they check to see if they break and run for it.
Attacks by a Mob of Gumbies count as Area Attacks so they can get multiple PCs at once
They can neither gain nor lose initiative. All damage on them reduces their magnitude
So if I take on say 100 bandits. That's a Size 3 group
GM stats out 1 Bandit
Gives him 3 extra dice on everything for being a size 3 group of bandits.
When the Bandits attack me I lose Initiative but they don't gain any. If they drop me to 0 Inititive all damage now is Health Levels.
When I attack them I don't damage their Intitiative and don't steal any. All damage I do is directly to their health track.
If they have a Health track of 7. Then for every 7 damage I do their Size drops by 1 and they have to check to see if they break.
I wade into these poor saps swinging my Grand Daiklave (base damage 16dice) and I'll have killed close to a hundred of them in a couple of rounds.
Yeah, it makes a bit of sense for the style of the game, very anime-esque, opponents facing off against each other and holding each other at bay while searching for the perfect opportunity to end it.So unlike realistic Western combat where people stand five feet apart scratching each other with great-axe swings until someone suddenly collapses and starts dying while there opponent carries on unaffected by any injuries. [/sarcasm]
Jesus dude, want to tone down the attitude a bit?
Exalted is an incredibly anime styled game, and I was referring to the fact that a lot of anime with uber powerful beings fighting use that kind of stand-off fight, where each of them is using their specialty to try and gain the upper hand. I never said that Pathfinder and other games like it are realistic, but they don't emulate the same feel that Exalted has always gone for. The martial arts in Exalted are, if anything, an inversion of the Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards trope, because the power caps that apply to magic don't apply the martial abilities (If I recall correctly, in previous editions you could learn martial abilities more advanced than your exaltation, you can't do the same for magic), and those martial abilities are pretty much magical in their own right.
I realise that the parry, riposte, parry kind of fight goes beyond anime, but I was talking about a very specific style of it. I'm thinking scenes like in Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust where D and Meier Link are fighting in Carmilla's castle, and each slash cuts through massive pillars and brings the building down around them, while they just continue to block each others blows. Not something I see a whole lot of in Western literature except for comics, and even then it's not as common unless you get the big hitters like Superman involved. When it comes to influences on this game I think anime is the far more obvious one.
Heck we had a whole circle modled after the Norse Gods once. Battled Ice Giants in the frozen North
Ok this is an interesting new thing
Crippling Injuries
Once per story when you take a lethal hit a player can choose to accept a Crippling Injury instead and negate some of the damage.
Negate 1-2 health levels of damage = Lost some fingers on one hand or maybe an eye.
3-4 Health Level: Lose both eyes, or a Hand
5 Health Levels: Lose and arm or a leg.
The choice is entierly up to the player but it can save you from death
Another interesting thing is Clash attacks
When two opponents go on the same Initiative, instead of attacking each other's Defense Value their attacks become an Opposed roll with the winner getting the hit and a bit of bonus Initiative/Damage depending on what kind of attack he made.
Hmm.
Odin, Twilight caste sorcerer
Thor, Dawn caste warrior
Freya, Zenith caste priestess-queen
Loki, Eclipse caste, the guy who makes deals with everyone
Nott, Night caste
I think we had Tyr as our Zenith and Helmdale as our Night.
Well sort of anyway, Names were a bit different from the actual myths but we all knew who we were prentending to be