Exalted Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master EltonJ

Given the remaining I would either go for Night or Changing Moon.

Hmmm. Okay, that's a valid inspiration. What about the Ultraman mythos attracts you?

A 'transformation sequence' is best accomplished with Whirlwind Armor-Donning Prana+Hauberk-Lightening Gesture, possibly in conjunction with a b@$#!in' set of artifact armor. The best of those for doing an 'anime' feel come from Oadenol's Codex, and if you don't have the book I'd be happy to work with you to work out which one would be best, perhaps on Discord.

Firing energy beams is a little tricky within Solar thematics, which are usually more 'my powers are supernatural extensions of mundane competencies: where others lift a heavy stone I lift a struggling elephant, where others' sword strokes are swift and sure mine can cut through my enemy's very soul, where others' archery can hit a man at five hundred paces I can take the wings off a fly at the same distance' than they are about more direct D&D mage expressions of power by tossing off energy bolts. That's more of a Dragonblood schtick. Still, Blazing Solar Bolt from melee could do it, so long as you don't mind on the power depending on a weapon in-hand: it's the 'send out an energy wave from swinging my sword' Charm more than 'firing a beam' Charm by default, but Stunts can change that. It also has the unusual virtue of allowing you some ranged combat ability based on the Melee skill, reducing the number of Charms you need to be effective both up-close and at range, though it *is* kind of short-ranged and actual archers will still be able to outrange you. It could either be an unusual way to flavor Immmaculate Golden Bow from Archery or Spirit Weapons from Thrown. If EltonJ is feeling really generous, he might let you take and reflavor Crypt Bolt Attack from the Abyssal Charmset, which is a more straightforward 'energy blast' Charm. Or you could retool your concept to an Eclipse and pick up Crypt Bolt directly, since they can Mega Man other Exalts' Charms, but that'd be...difficult from a number of perspectives.

Superhuman strength is very easy: that's Increasing Strength Exercise from Athletics. And fisticuffs of the unrefined, brute-strength sort favored by Ultraman would be Solar Hero Style- though keep in mind that Solar Hero and the investment in Thrown, Archery, or Melee for your beams will leave you few resources to do anything else.

Size-changing is also tricky within Solar thematics, because size-changing and physical transformation is solidly within the Lunar theme. The closest I can think of would be using the Celestial Circle Sorcery spell God-Forged Champion to summon a warstrider/giant mecha out of thin air or using Invincible Armor Invocation to be able to do the Whirlwind Armor-Donning Prana with a warstrider, but the former is only barely in reach for a starting character if you sink most of your starting resources into it, and the latter is the next thing to flat-out impossible. If you're really sold on size-changing being a central part of your mythos, I would consider playing a Lunar instead.

If you're interested in the 'I'm an unassuming mortal by day but gain lots of cool powers and channel a distant, benevolant alien being when I go through my power-up sequence, the Past Lives merit (representing an unusual connection to past bearers of your Solar Exaltation that allows you access to their memories and occasionally a full-on 'voice in your head', possibly in conjunction with the Throwback Flaw (which occasionally gets you 'overwhelmed' by a past life and forces you to carry out their plans and priorities for a scene) might be nice. Tie it to your 'transformation sequence' such that the Merit and Flaw are only effective when wearing your cool power armor (perhaps a past life had an unusual connection to that armor)- I'd say a single-point discount for the value of both the Merit and the Flaw for that would work fine.

Lastly, it's worth noting that a 'masked hero' concept is a very sensible one within the campaign setting, given that there are many NPC organizations with a mad-on for Solars and stuff that makes it harder to connect Ultrasolar with Shin Hayata is almost always a good thing.

You almost certainly will not be able to pack all these things into a single starting character, but if you're inclined to try, I can see if I can help you pack ten pounds of Ultraman into a five-pound bag.

And yes, artifacts are each purchased individually with separate Background dots, unless you have somehow managed to convince a powerful Dragon-blooded member of the houses of the Realm that you're one of their own and can finagle access to the Arsenal background from MOEP: Dragon-Blooded, normally locked to them. (There's a Hearthstone that lets you emulate a Fire Aspect pretty damned well, so that's not as difficult as it seems, but it will put you on a pretty precarious tightrope of constantly interacting with supernaturally perceptive family members who will, as a rule, be religious fanatics who want you dead for being a Solar.)

Heh, I wasn't even aware that all of what you listed were even possible options to make, Toptomcat. Still, it's good to know that they even exist at all though. ;p

I'd say that I'm more going for the broad, general strokes of the Ultraman mythos rather than a faithful one-to-one recreation of Ultraman's powers.

One example being the artifact weapon, Skycutter- that definitely maps well to Ultraseven's Eye-Slugger power [wouldn't be surprised if Skycutter took inspiration from that particular power]; for those unfamiliar with Ultraseven, he has this headcrest that he could remove from the top of his head to either use a cqc weapon or a boomerang style thrown weapon. Guess it'd have to be orihalculm to be usable with a Solar [mebbe using it in conjunction with an artifact armor as it's housing sheath?].

I figured for any beam attack parts, either something which expands on a zenith's anti-undead attack by anima [reads like a PF cleric's positive energy damage channel to me] or utilizing a weapon as the beam's focus [Ultraman Max's stylized wing-shaped Max-Galaxy attachment comes to mind] will do fine.

The size-changing aspect wouldn't be all that necessary to have or it could be kept secondary/tertiary at best. Same with the transforming aspect with artifact armor although if it helps with disguising oneself, it might be okay to look into [probably will be rated much higher than the size-changing aspect for my own tastes].

The past-life stuff sounds intriguing with the more recent inclusion of Ultraman X's, Taiga's, or Z's respective bantering between the Ultra energy-aliens and their hapless/bemused but helpful Human users. I'm not sure if I got enough background information to pull it off or it would have to be the Storyteller "speaking thru" an appropriate NPC?

The past-life stuff sounds intriguing with the more recent inclusion of Ultraman X's, Taiga's, or Z's respective bantering between the Ultra energy-aliens and their hapless/bemused but helpful Human users. I'm not sure if I got enough background information to pull it off or it would have to be the Storyteller "speaking thru" an appropriate NPC?

Well, firstly, it doesn't necessarily have to be a whole NPC, just fragmentary memories and urges that come to you. The first level of the Merit has no mechanical effect, and just serves as a player-GM contract that you'll occasionally get hazy hints and clues relevant to your current situation. The second level grants a one-die bonus on all rolls to use First Age technology, the third extends the bonus to roll pertaining to First Age society, customs and history.

Anything past the first level also grants a one-die bonus to a single Ability roll once per 'session'- whatever that means in PbP, you'll have to work it out with the GM- as you get a flash of insight from your past lives about how to handle the current situation.

The fourth and fifth levels are the 'I have entire past incarnation(s) living in my head in a more-or-less-intact state' levels of the Merit. They increase the die bonuses you get for First Age stuff to +3 and +5 respectively. This would actually be very useful to you, for reasons I'll get into when I mention armor.

Similarly, Throwback is mechanically a second Motivation and set of Intimacies inconveniently opposed to your own that can threaten to force you to act in accordance with them at inconvenient times...not necessarily a full-fledged alternate personality with complete memories of their prior life, it can be flavored as a 'pull' your past life exerts on your own actions and motivations without a full understanding of why.

And the First Age is both fairly sparsely detailed and pretty multifaceted, and Creation was a huge place: current Creation has about twice the livable land area of Earth, and this is after great catastrophes at the very tail end of the First Age chopped it down from something on the order of eight times the size of Earth.

This means you could plausibly fit someone with memories of growing up, living and dying in a lot of different settings. There's the very early First Age, the Primordial War in which all of the Exalted were engaged in a desperate rebellion against the great, terrible and alien architects of reality. There's the early High First Age, in which the veterans of the Primordial War started to sort out how they were to be the rulers of Creation in the Solar Deliberative, with other Celestial-tier Exalts like Lunars and Sidereals kind of in a theoretically separate-but-equal status. There's the middle High First Age, where you start seeing some pretty crazy magitech schenanigans, with power shifting away from the central Deliberative and towards an equilibrium of each Solar or small group of Solars getting their own personal pocket of Creation to rule, with Sidereals and Lunars getting increasingly politically marginalized. Some serious abuses due to Great Curse-related madness and regular old power-corrupts stuff going on, but also a lot of shining-golden-age stuff with spectacular standards of living and economic prosperity and what have you, and plenty of Solars doing stuff like 'hey, I want to create a society of aeronauts on a floating continent' and making it happen. Then there's the late High First Age with rather a lot of decadence, power-madness and other psychological strangeness on the part of Solars, Great Curse-related or no, eventually leading to the Usurpation in which the Sidereals conspire with the Solars' Dragon-Blooded lieutenants to overthrow them and entrap the Exaltations of all but a handful so they can't reincarnate. Then there's the Low First Age or Shogunate, in which the Dragon-Blooded tried and failed to maintain the infrastructure and living standards of the High First Age, presiding over a slow decline punctuated by periods of quick decline when they decided civil war was more important than governance. The scant few Solar Exaltations with memories of this era will mainly be memories of constant flight and getting swiftly and efficiently offed, to repeatedly reincarnate and get killed again with only rare periods of respite and temporary success.

So, basically, so long as your Past Life identity broadly fit the Solar pattern of being a hero-king of legend processed of incredible power and all that, they could be any one of a number of very different people. Want them largely ignorant of broader First Age political and historical trends so you don't have to be a lore expert? Maybe they died shortly after the Primordial War, maybe they were a hermit-king of the middle or late First Age who chose to bugger off to their own little corner of Creation and do as they saw fit without interacting much with other Exalts, maybe they were a hunted target of the Shogunate who Exalted in their mid-teens and spent much of their short Exaltation on the run, maybe they simply decided to spend most of their time protecting Creation from Story-Beings from Beyond Reality or engaging in artistic or religious pursuits rather than reading the contemporary equivalent of the CIA World Factbook.

And, of course, Eltonj could help fill in the gaps where there's something your Past Life would reasonably know and you would not.

I'd say that I'm more going for the broad, general strokes of the Ultraman mythos rather than a faithful one-to-one recreation of Ultraman's powers.

One example being the artifact weapon, Skycutter- that definitely maps well to Ultraseven's Eye-Slugger power [wouldn't be surprised if Skycutter took inspiration from that particular power]; for those unfamiliar with Ultraseven, he has this headcrest that he could remove from the top of his head to either use a cqc weapon or a boomerang style thrown weapon. Guess it'd have to be orihalculm to be usable with a Solar [mebbe using it in conjunction with an artifact armor as it's housing sheath?]

[...]

Same with the transforming aspect with artifact armor although if it helps with disguising oneself, it might be okay to look into [probably will be rated much higher than the size-changing aspect for my own tastes].

Okay, so let's talk about armor. The core book's artifact armor is very basic does-one-job-and-does-it-well stuff. (It's worth noting that the Exalted 2.5 errata compressed the cost of core artifact armor from 1-5 dot artifacts to 1-3 dots, such that artifact Superheavy Plate is only Artifact 3.) This will do a bang-up job of protecting you and will serve well enough as a means of concealing your identity.

Then there's powered armor. These have all kinds of interesting gimcracks, at the cost of two drawbacks. Firstly, they tend to be not quite as good at just plain dealing with damage as plain artifact armor of equivalent cost in Background dots. Secondly, they are intricate magitech, and by default they require maintenance of a sort that very few people in modern Creation are equipped to provide: the technologies and infrastructure that was used to create them is long lost. This is where high levels of the Past Lives background can really come in handy: the five-dot version of Past Lives can more or less make you capable of maintaining First Age powered armor even if the current you doesn't have the first clue of how to hammer out a breastplate. (You can get around this by purchasing High First Age versions of a suit of powered armor that require an additional dot in Artifact to purchase.)

Options include:

Artifact ••:

Ashigaru Skirmish Armor: Designed for mortals aiding Exalted armies. Night vision, gas mask, stealth system.
Tiger Shark armor: Lighter Ashigaru armor, permits movement and breathing without penalty underwater.

Artifact •••:

Gunshoza Commando Armor: The extreme high end of military power armor built for mortals. Night vision and vision boosting, strength and ground-speed boosts, targeting and combat boosts, stealth system, enhances Resistance.

Sentinel Defense Force Armor: The extreme high end of law-enforcement power armor built for mortals. Not as tough as Gunshoza, but can create energy shields on both a personal and a 'create huge barrier' scale.

Yoroi Rapid-Response Armor: Night vision and vision boosting, strength and ground-speed boosts, stealth system. Not as feature-heavy as others, but naturally doesn't require upkeep rather than needing to bump the Artifact rating by a dot.

Artifact ••••:

Armor of Elemental Inurement: Comes in five variations that grant powers over or defenses against the elements of Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Wood. All share night vision and vision boosting as well as a SCUBA equivilent. The Air version permits 'airbending' stuff with somewhat difficult Wits+Lore rolls. The Earth version lets you be selectively intangible to soil, rock, sand, metal, etc: notably, this constitutes total immunity to all nonmagic metal weapons. The Fire version grants total immunity to environmental energy hazards and huge bonuses to defense vs. fire or energy attack. The Water version is super-Tiger Shark Armor. The Wood version makes you utterly immune to poison and nearly as resistant to disease, and able to nullify poison in a wide area.

Armor of the Immaculate Dragons: Optimized for Terrestrial Exalts of a particular type and only available in jade (but there's a separate Artifact • that lets you ignore that). All share night vision, vision boosting, strength and movement-speed boosts, reinforced gauntlets and boots that enhance Martial Arts attacks, gas masks, advanced cloaking systems that work against both vision and magic that seeks to learn stuff about you, and a system that enhances any Charms that fire energy beams.
The Air version has lightning blasters and flight.
The Earth version has a scanner that points out flaws in inanimate objects, making it easier to damage them, and can quickly make changes to the landscape to make pits, trenches, etc. or even toss boulders in the environment around as missiles. It also has the highest Strength boost.
The Fire version can project white-hot fire claws around the gauntlets and has rockets that make your ground speed amazing, as well as enhance the speed of other actions in and out of combat.
The Water version can let you percieve immaterial/spiritual objects and beings and interact with them as if they were solid, as well as create a spiritual disruption barrier that hinders ghosts, spirits, etc.
The Wood version can project a field that interferes with almost all supernatural powers within its radius.

In addition to not requiring maintenance, the Artifact ••••• version includes a 30-mote Essence battery to fuel its powers with. (A lot of the powers I've been mentioning both here and with other items aren't free, requiring motes of Essence to activate.)

Deadly Transformation Armor: Feature-light and not terrifically protective compared to artifact armors of a similar level. No sensor enhancements, gas mask/breathing apparatus, or built-in ranged weaponry. But its strength enhancement is the single highest offered by any artifact armor, and it comes with a built-in pair of artifact razor claws. This is the 'I am a close-combat terror' option. Also, unlike most other powered armors, its bonus to movement speed also applies to jumping distance.

Artifact ••••• (Can't be upgraded to the maintenance-free version without permission from Eltonj!)

Armor of the Unseen Assasin: Modest protection, strength enhancement, vision enhancement- and really, really good stealth systems against visual and magical detection. Be Predator.

Celestial Battle Armor: The top-of-the-line, custom-made option. All of them offer significant protection, bonuses against poison and disease, 1 hour of fresh air, vision enhancements including the ability to see flows of magic and immaterial spirits, strength and movement enhancement, stealth systems, and gauntlets and boots that enhance kicks and punches. All of them also get a choice of three options from a menu that RAW includes regeneration, heavier protection, drastically improving the statlines of the gauntlets and letting them fire energy bolts, an energy shield, an expensive and temporary but really fast movement-booster, an area explosion attack centered around you, energy whips, an enhancement to the gauntlets that lets them attack immaterial beings, a magical loudspeaker that improves your ability to make inspiring or persuasive speeches, or flight. If you spend another background dot on the item that lets you attune to artifacts of a non-orichalcum magical material without penalty, more options open up: illusionary disguises, the ability to dematerialize yourself and any allies you touch, total immunity to magical information-gathering, vampiric regeneration when you damage an enemy in melee, or (as two customization options, and requiring a highly unusual backstory involving having somehow yoinked it from the dread lords of Death who scheme endlessly to bring oblivion to all that lives) a cold aura that drains Dexterity from those who hit you in close combat, a life-draining aura that drains motes from Essence-users you hit in close combat, and a simply ridiculous amount of extra protection from physical attack.

Almost surely, one of these customization options could be replaced with an integrated Skycutter. It's actually slightly beneath the power level of the other customization options that offer integral weapons.

Thank you very much for your continued input, Toptomcat, they've been very helpful; those powered armors that you mentioned, they really give off that Netflix's The Ultraman vibe, since the titular [legacy] hero utilizes a powered armor-form [lent to him thru his ties to his allies] for fighting off his largely human sized foes. :)

Looking through some of the Zenith caste stuff, it seems kind of funny that they'd roll in some of the PF ranger's schtick in addition to the more preachery type of stuff but I can roll with that.

No problem. Let me know which of the armors you're most interested in and I'll PM you the exact stats.

Re: the wilderness-survival stuff in the Zenith charmset: it is kind of odd, yes. I think the idea is the historical association of holy men as hermits in the wilderness. Still, plenty of Exalts have kind of an odd match between Caste Abilities and concept: Nights, the 'stealthy ninja' Exalt, has almost everything in their Charmset necessary to be Superman. Twilights are omnidisciplinary mad scientists and Sherlock Holmes. And Eclipses are kind of a hot mess: the diplomat is also the horseman and sailor, but they *don't* get arguably the most rolled-against social skill because Presence is a priest thing?

The jank is a byproduct of collapsing every human skill ever into 25 categories and giving five of them to each kind. Just don't think about it too hard, and remember that Favored Abilities are exactly as defining as Caste Abilities and you get just as many of them. And also that everyone can buy Charms even from Abilities that *aren't* Caste or Favored: Exalted is really not a character-classed system like Pathfinder.

Well, since scorched is looking at night I am going to go said hot mess and build an Eclipse. Might take me a couple days to get it put together.

I didn't mean that the Eclipses themselves were a hot mess so much as their Caste Abilities. They have easily the most character-defining suite of Anima powers: the oath thing, the 'diplomatic immunity' vs. huge classes of enemies, and especially the Mega Man schtick are both strongly themed and each individually about as powerful and interesting as the anima powers the other Castes get, which more than mitigates their Caste-Ability-potpourri issue.

That was supposed to be tongue in cheek, but the internet is not great for such things. Still figuring out backstory and build right now, trying to make all the little pieces fit.

I can't wait to see what you have to offer!

Decided to go through with an attempt at character creation;

Going with the attribute choice, I'll go with 8 on the physical stats, a 6 on the social stats, and a 4 on the mental stats.

If I'm reading things correctly, all attributes start out at one dot with the points being a 1 to 1 increase per dot?

If so, I've got a 3 Str at 2 points, 4 dex at 3 points, and 4 stam at 3 points with the physical stats.

For the social stats, I went with 4 cha at 3 points, 2 manip at 1 point, and 3 appear for 2 points

For the mental, went with 2 percep and int for 1 point each plus 3 wit for another 2 points.

If I got things wrong, just let me know...

Decided to go through with an attempt at character creation;

Going with the attribute choice, I'll go with 8 on the physical stats, a 6 on the social stats, and a 4 on the mental stats.

If I'm reading things correctly, all attributes start out at one dot with the points being a 1 to 1 increase per dot?

If so, I've got a 3 Str at 2 points, 4 dex at 3 points, and 4 stam at 3 points with the physical stats.

For the social stats, I went with 4 cha at 3 points, 2 manip at 1 point, and 3 appear for 2 points

For the mental, went with 2 percep and int for 1 point each plus 3 wit for another 2 points.

If I got things wrong, just let me know...

So far it looks good.

Dubois Iscarian, Merchant Captain from Coral.

Caste: Eclipse

Concept: Sailor and smoot talker. Inordinately lucky.

Motivation: Wine, women, and song... and gambling... lots of gambling. Oh, and something about the free market enriching the world and bringing peace... yes... that too I guess.

Anima: The clatter of dice fills the air as two golden white cubes fall to show snake eyes.

Caste: Bureaucracy, Linguistics, Ride, Sail and Socialize.
Favored: Athletics, Awareness, Integrity, Presence, Resistance

Attributes:

Secondary
Str **
Dex **
Stam *****

Primary
Char ****
Manipulation *****
Appearance **

Tertiary
Perc ***
Int **
Wits **

ABILITIES:

Archery
Martial Arts
Melee *
Thrown *
War*

Integrity *
Performance *
Presence ***
Resistance **
Survival

Craft
Investigation
Lore *
Medicine
Occult

Athletics *
Awareness *
Dodge ***
Larceny
Stealth

Bureaucracy [Commerce] *****
Linguistics(Native: Sea tongue[Coral], Low Realm) *
Ride
Sail ***
Socialize [Lying] *****

BACKGROUNDS

Resources ****
Followers ***

Virtues

Compassion *
Temperance *
Conviction ****
Valor ***

Virtue Flaw:

Benevolent Tyranny
Virtue: Conviction
The character can no longer tolerate people's stupidity, cowardice and callousness. He knows what's good for them, and he won't let something as simple as free will get in the way. He will respect no authority but his own, brook no arguments and accept no compromises. If persuasion is not enough to achieve the ends of justice and the greater good, he will use force as required. Woe be to those that challenge the absolute authority of the priest-king.
Partial Control:
The character can moderate his disregard for others' opinions and beliefs. He may pursue compromises that are favorable for him rather than ideal solutions. He may recognize the legitimacy of other authorities, ideals or values which are not opposed or antagonistic towards him.
Duration:
One day
Condition:
The character witnesses others choosing the easy and wrong path despite his best efforts

Intimacies: My Crew [Protective]

Willpower: 7
Essence: 2
Personal: 13
Peripheral: 30

Charms:
Dodge
First Dodge Excellency
Shadow Over Water
Reflex Sidestep Technique
Leaping Dodge Method

Bureaucracy
Second Bureaucracy Excellency
Frugal Merchant Method
Insightful Buyer Technique

Presence
Second Presence Excellency

Sail
Salty Dog Method

Socialize
Mastery of Small Manners

Merits:
Luck 5pts
Carouser 2pts
Silver Tongue 3pts

Gear:

BP spent: 10pts merits, 4pts abilities, 1pt for 2 specialties.

Background:

Not everyone has some fantastic story about adversity and a crummy childhood. Nothing majorly bad ever happened as I was growing up, no heart breaking loves, no heroic moments of triumph, no soul crushing defeats. Just a boy from Coral who managed to gain his own ship the hard way, hard work... and a little bit of luck. Now I got money, money makes the world go round after all. And hey, if people get a better life because they are trading with me, well all the better. Always know how much you can afford to lost, be it on drink, on a pretty girl, or at some back alley dice game. Then, don't ever pay more than that to get that drink, girl, or into that game.

Appearance:
Iscarian is not what one would think of as memorable on his own. A young merchant with a small ship and a constant stream of vices to feed. But, there is something about the way he speaks, the way he greets you as a friend, the easy way he effortlessly makes you feel as if you have known him all your life...

Personality:
Sleazy used chariot salesman and social butterfly.

This character reads to me like they might work as a decadent Dragon-blooded, but there are setting issues with them being a Solar as written. Solar Exaltations are attracted to grand, epic heroism: the core book on p. 88 goes into a fair amount of detail about appropriate Motivations for the kind of people who get Exalted.

Also, your Virtue Flaw is kind of odd given that it's triggered by frustration at witnessing those choosing the easy, wrong path, but they don't seem like all that much like the disciplined, driven fellow who would have strong opinions on what the 'right path' for others is. Their favored lifestyle would get labeled as 'the easy, wrong path' by many of those around them.

There's a lot that can work here- the ship and loyal crew, the emphasis on luck and gambling, the appreciation for the finer things in life, the generally roguish vibe you have going- but they need ambition. 'Wine, women and song' and 'gambling' work better as Intimacies than a motivation.

Also, the errata gives every starting character four free Specialties that it looks like you don't have, and decouples Willpower from Virtues: rather than (sum of two highest) it just starts at 5 and takes 1 BP to boost, up to 10.

True, the Solar exhaltations are given to grand heroism, but I would say that grand heroism can come from unlikely sources. How do you bureaucrat or trade grand heroism?

But, that being said, I think I misunderstood the answer farther up about an origin story. I was under the impression we would exalt as part of first adventure, but I reread that and realize it was in reference to us as a circle and not us as exalts. Language is funny some days. The motivation was written more in character, which was truly my fault I should have written it in a standard format to read "Working to open a free and fair exchange of goods and services through all of creation. Wishes all to have the same access to technology and prosperity as the realm and its dragonblooded rulers."

The flaw I pulled from a site that had a lot of well-made flaws, meant to tinker it around so it was more in line with the character and just skipped my mind after I took a break and came back to it. I need to putter around with the wording but for him the easy path is just accepting what you have and not working for that next great haul. He loves to party, is very flippant about his life, but underneath their is a pure and unwavering entrepreneur who truly believes trade makes the world better and wealth is only good if you spend it. Those experiences and creature comforts don't just fall into his lap, and he can't stand lazy people who are not willing to put in the work to make their lives better, so the benevolent tyrant is supposed to kick in and make him into a Stalinesque dictator, but the more I go over the ideas in play the more it sounds a little wonky so I will probably look it over and come up with something different.

Completely forgot there was errata, going to look that over and fix were needed, thanks for pointing that out.

Remember, the Solar Exalted are heroes, first and foremost. They are like Rama from the Ramayana. So, I agree with Toptomcat. There are some revisions needed.

Wait, figured out the heroic issue. Cultural issue there, I am thinking Noah, David, basically every hero I grew up with. Deeply flawed people who end up doing right when the time finally comes. I think I can better get that idea across in an exaltation story. Please bare with me.

Alrighty.

Also, I might consider dropping Thrown for Archery- firewands are the setting's gun-equivalents and have the appropriate 'yarrr, matey' vibe, as well as using the spare BP you have (another errata change is that Solars start with 18 BP, not 15) to pick up a melee or ranged Excellency. Even if you *are* mostly socially-focused, having four defensive Charms, no artifacts, and no offensive Charms will make you basically a difficult-to-tag mortal in combat, which is a rough place for an Exalt to be.

And yeah, 'deeply flawed' works just fine- is in fact an excellent driver of the kind of stories Exalted works well for. David works fine as a Solar. It's just that 'reluctant hero' who has yet to firmly decide on goals of a heroic scope does not. 'I was a humble shepherd boy anointed by God for greatness in battle and to lead His Chosen People' is your backstory.

Thrown and melee is so he can use knives and hatchets effectively, which felt like an interesting choice for the character. I actually did not want to go "yarr me buckos" as much as a happy go very lucky merchant traveling from city to city. Of course, with us starting in the east the whole sailing bit might be pointless depending on where we are. I also notice that essence ping is no longer a thing, so that does make it a bit harder to be useful in that. I will shift around a few things just to make this work a little better early on.

Exert from the life of Iscarian:

Everyone worries about the soldiers, the warriors, everyone sees the hero in the man who pummels his way through the post and frees the prisoners on his way to fight the king...

Few see the heroics of the man who purchases a slave caravan only to return them to their people and sell arms to their populace at a discounted rate. The man who hides those wanted by the realm and smuggles them out to lands beyond the Legion's reach. Sure there were benefits, the ladies can be very appreciative to a man who rescues them, but this world needed set right even if there wasn't such rewards.

"Of course, it is not without its risks... and now we find ourselves here. Ship sails ruined, pirates preparing to board, and an ultimatum. They want me to hand over half the crew and all of our hold. It would be easy to do so, cast lots and decide, but I know each of you. You are my crew, my family, and I say we take that hold full of firedust and give it to those pirates with a lit spark. Are you with me?"

Later, ears ringing, heart pounding, and body feeling ragged he finally thought about what he was doing. The enemy crew had been crippled by the initial explosion, their ship listed to the side. It had cost him five brave sailors, and maybe his own life... a good trade for the lives of his people. He could feel the battle moving across the ship, his men would be making short work of the enemy now that they were in disarray. The look on the captain's face when he realized what was in the barrel... priceless. He prepared for the inevitable end, his blood slowly trickling out... and then he breathed in...

It is some times hard to translate the idea of Moshe or David into a character when they are supposed to already be a hero in game. Well, Moshe would be much easier honestly from the point right before his return to Egypt. Wanting more Schindler and less Bar Kokhba.

It is some times hard to translate the idea of Moshe or David into a character when they are supposed to already be a hero in game. Well, Moshe would be much easier honestly from the point right before his return to Egypt. Wanting more Schindler and less Bar Kokhba.

The idea is not a direct translation. More of an inspiration. Moses, or Moshe, is such an inspiration. So is David.

David was called to be the King of all Israel by the Lord. Although he had his first military victory when he was younger, he became a General and a Warrior for King Saul later on.

Moses was called as a prophet of the Lord, despite his weaknesses. But the aim should be inspiration. What Exalted can I build after Moshe's or David's example? That should be your aim. There isn't anything wrong with your concept, Toptomcat and I are here to guide you.

Appreciate that. Like I said, trying a little more for Schindler (The businessman that slowly realizes there are major ills and has to fight his conviction and belief to finally do something about the problem he lives in in the way he can, not by being a bad ass fighter, but by being the businessman and talker.) I'm hoping to slowly build up his compassion over the course of the game, though probably not his temperance. As we go on he sees more and more that the dragonblooded are destroying creation, and maybe, just maybe, it will take a strong market force to bankrupt the realm and rebuild from the ashes.

The Dragon-Blooded aren't equal to the challenge of preserving Creation against the incoming multi-freight-train collision of terrors cruising towards it, but 'destroying' is a mite strong. That's more a political/philosophical conversation to have IC than OOC, though.

Definitely digging the improvements made: it reads a lot more like an Exalted character and I think they can definitely fit in to the developing Circle.

How familiar are you with the setting, Havocprince?

@Havocprince: Mebbe Iscarian had lots of dealings with the Dragon-blooded from before which led him to be very unhappy with them [very one-sided dealings against him and his crew when he was still mortal]?

=====

Continuing on with character creation, for the initial abilities, I went with 5 favored abilities not in Zenith: Thrown weapons, Martial arts, Melee, Athletics, and Dodge.

Initial choice of Abilities [before any bonus points]:

Thrown weapons=3 [favored]
Martial Arts=3 [favored]
Melee=3 [favored]

Integrity=3 [caste]
Performance=1 [caste]
Presence=2 [caste]
Resistance=3 [caste]
Survival=1 [caste]

Athletics=3 [favored]
Dodge=3 [favored]
Awareness=1

Lore=1

Linguistics=1

for a 28 pts total [10/18]

Can I ask why you went for Melee and Martial Arts? Generally, picking one of the two and investing strongly in it beats splitting your attention.

Also, keep in mind that the bit in the core book about needing to spend bonus points to get an Ability above 3 has been errata'd away.

Thrown weapons=3 [favored]
Martial Arts=3 [favored]
Melee=3 [favored]

Why thrown weapons at the same strength as Martial Arts? Why Melee?

Can I ask why you went for Melee and Martial Arts? Generally, picking one of the two and investing strongly in it beats splitting your attention.

Also, keep in mind that the bit in the core book about needing to spend bonus points to get an Ability above 3 has been errata'd away.

Why thrown weapons at the same strength as Martial Arts? Why Melee?

Good to know about the errata'd parts, Toptomcat; Heh, and it's also good to know that splitting focuses are both as bad in Exalted and PF. ;p

As for the melee/martials arts/and thrown, EltonJ, it was mainly due to the fact that many Ultramen were depicted using all three types of combat style. ;p

That and one of my prospective artifacts would be a Skycutter in the thrown weapon category. ;)

Usually, they'd default to unarmed hand-to-hand combat, then either pull a weapon attack or a thrown attack if the situation calls for it [and depending on if they got that capability]. Their beam attacks are usually used as finishers; same with the weapon and thrown attacks.

However, in light of this new info, I'm probably going to focus on Martial arts [4 or more] and Thrown [3] with a dot [or two] in Melee [my character would have to know their way around some of the more common weaponry before their exaltation].

I'll rework the initial and favored abilities [trade out Melee for something else?] for a bit and repost the revised choices in a later post.

Just out of curiosity, would taking a point in occult necessitate in having to know spells? I was looking at it as a way to identify "creatures of darkness" more than anything else; although it may make much more sense just to leave it until they are encountered more regularly in-game [using xp points].

Going next to base Virtues [skipping Background/Charms for now, pending some info on powered armor], I'm going with an initial scores of:

Compassion=1
Conviction=3 [2 dots]
Temperance=1
Valor=4 [3 dots]

Also will take a Valor Flaw of Foolhardy Contempt.

PS. Toptomcat, I've decided on the artifact power armors; specifically the 3 dotted Gunshoza Commando Armor or Sentinel Defense Force Armor; possibly might bump up 1 extra dot for "non-maintenance" if needed. Mebbe drop stealth mode or wide shielding/huge barrier for the Skycutter integration? How much lore minimum would be needed for maintaining such powered armor? Come to think of it, with the Past Life stuff and flaws, how much is the cost for those?

Heh, and it's also good to know that splitting focuses are both as bad in Exalted and PF. ;p

Not quite as bad. Basically everyone eventually wants Integrity to deal with mind control and weird stuff like hostile shapechanging magic, some ability in both social and physical combat, a smattering of Occult for its See Invisibility equivalent, etc. But yes, the central truth that depth beats breadth is still there.

As for the melee/martials arts/and thrown, EltonJ, it was mainly due to the fact that many Ultramen were depicted using all three types of combat style. ;p

Here's where you use some system jank: Martial Arts, as written, actually lets you use a lot of weapons: gauntlets, iron boots, punch daggers, shields, deer-horn knives, strap-on Wolverine claws, sai, multi-section staffs, rope darts or weighted chains...

And if you take a single Charm in a martial-arts style that involves a particular weapon you're not ordinarily permitted to use with MA, it thereafter lets you use Martial Arts to wield that weapon.

Just out of curiosity, would taking a point in occult necessitate in having to know spells?

Absolutely not, and in fact knowing Occult but not knowing anything that could reasonably be described as a 'spell' is the default state of 95-99% of people in Creation who have dots in Occult. Occult is the 'theoretical knowledge about spirits and supernatural powers' skill, the 'I live in a place with a lot of Exalted/spirits/ghosts/Fair Folk and have an idea of their powers and nature' skill: something recognizable as 'spellcasting' requires either thaumaturgy (like one-in-a-hundred rare among people who know Occult in the first place) or sorcery (like one-in-a-thousand rare for people who know Occult.) Though multiply both of those rates by perhaps ten and fifty respectively for Exalts with dots in Occult, since they tend to be exceptional people.

(There are really simple thaumaturgical things you can do without a thaumaturgical Degree, like using a line of salt to keep ghosts out, performing a ritual that allows a door to act as if stoutly barred, foretell the weather a short distance into the future, etc. Anything listed here as a canonical 0th-degree thaumaturgical procedure. The format- (2, Intelligence, 1, one action)- is dots of Occult required to even make the attempt, attribute the Attribute + Occult roll is based on, number of successes required for the ritual to work, how long the ritual takes to perform.)

PS. Toptomcat, I've decided on the artifact power armors; specifically the 3 dotted Gunshoza Commando Armor or Sentinel Defense Force Armor; possibly might bump up 1 extra dot for "non-maintenance" if needed. Mebbe drop stealth mode or wide shielding/huge barrier for the Skycutter integration? How much lore minimum would be needed for maintaining such powered armor?

Celestial Battle Armor has customization options because they're one-off, custom works of art. While they're still rare, precious and powerful relics of a bygone past, Gunshoza or Sentinel armor don't tend to have customizations by default, because when they were in common use, they were mass-produced to a standard pattern. At Eltonj's discretion, maybe you could have a four-dot version of Gunshoza armor that was owned by a mortal who later Exalted and, rather than move on to another kind of armor entirely, chose to customize the suit of armor that he knew and loved, one that gets one or two of the customization options of Celestial Battle Armor.

Gunshoza Armor is Repair 2, requiring Lore 4, Occult 3, and Craft (Magitech) 3, which also requires two dots each in Craft (Air) and Craft (Fire) and one in Craft (any other). You can get away with just Craft (Fire) with use of a Craft Excellency: it just increases the difficulty of the roll rather than making it impossible. Also either the Charm Craftsman Needs no Tools, or light use of a Craft Excellency and a set of tools requiring Resources 5, or heavy use of a Craft Excellency and a set of tools requiring Resources 4.

Given that Past Lives 2-3 gives a one-die boost to rolls with the relevant Lore, Occult, and Craft, 4 gives a 3-die, and 5 gives a 5-die, and bumping an Ability by one also bumps the roll you're making by one, it would be a reasonable house rule to decrease the required skill mininimums by the equivilent in Past Life bonuses. It's one my past two Storytellers used, and something I previously assumed was actually official, but reading over the rules as written I was mistaken. Eltonj, your input?

(Another option would be just spending one bonus point on a one-dot Ally who's a sorcerer-engineer, or the least god of that particular suit of armor*, to do the maintenance for you.)

*Exalted is an animistic setting. Everything has its own god, right down to (non-sentient) gods of individual grains of rice. For the god of an artifact to be powerful enough to manifest into the material realm and do the maintenance of its own item would require it to be somewhat unusually powerful, which would necessitate some kind of background reason for it: perhaps some past Exalted owner of the armor bribed the Celestial Bureaucracy to grant its god rank and authority beyond its typical station. They will probably want the occasional prayer and sacrifice to help you.

Come to think of it, with the Past Life stuff and flaws, how much is the cost for those?

One dot of Past Life costs one bonus point, one dot of Throwback grants one. Five is the max in both cases.

The mechanics of Throwback: when you find yourself in a situation that would tend to evoke your past life's Motivation or Intimacies, you roll your Willpower against a difficulty of your Essence. If you fail, you're overwhelmed by your past life and must act in accordance with their motivation and Intimacies for a number of scenes equal to the rank of the Flaw, from 1-5. You can ignore this compulsion for a scene by spending one Willpower, and throw it off entirely by spending a number of points of Willpower equal to the value of the Flaw. And the Past Life has to be sufficiently opposed to, or alien to, your present set of goals that this would be a serious inconvenience.

Another thought that occurs to me is that *Simon* could serve as the fellow who does your maintenance, with only a bit of rejiggering things. I've got the Occult and Lore, as well as the Resources to buy an incomplete and janky set of First Age tools: picking up only three dots in Craft (Fire) would get me into the territory where I could use tricksy Charm and Thaumaturgy stuff to get the job done. Want to take that route?

Hmm, a dot in allies would represent Simon.

I don't think it's typical for PCs to buy each other on each others' sheet as Allies, otherwise every group would spend most of its Background dots buying each other as allies.

I don't think it's typical for PCs to buy each other on each others' sheet as Allies, otherwise every group would spend most of its Background dots buying each other as allies.

You're right.

Toptomcat. T-rex in an f-14 right? But seriously, I know the primordials created creation and the gods, gods created exhalts and fought the primordials, dead primotdials became the neverborn, most other became the Yozi. The major gods start playing the games of divinity and neglect creation.

A bunch of wars later, Autochthon creates his own pocket world which is now sending out scouts to creation. The fae keep trying to unmake creation. The things that used to be primordials have their own plans. Dragon blooded rebel against the solar and win. They have 700 good years and then a plague hits that nearly ends everything. Realm begins, has issues from the outset, and solar come back about 700 years after that.

Many many rebellions and "peace actions."

In the minutia I am lightly read on the lore but by no means an expert.

Yeah.

I think they did a good job with the lore.

There are two things you should specifically know about Exalted lore, given your character concept and the game's location.

The first is the nature of the Guild. The Guild is a multinational institution and trade organization: its caravans are the lifeblood of trade throughout Creation and especially the East, the single most powerful force connecting the world's economies, they're meritocratic in a world of kings and fiefdoms, they promote standardization of weights and measures, they promulgated the currency standard of silver coinage that we're likely to be using. In all likelihood, the IC Rivertongue word that we translate to 'capitalism' OOC when playing Exalted comes from the writings of the Eastern merchant-philosophers who inspired its founder.

They are also utterly amoral traders of drugs and slaves. Large, powerful, stable states with laws against the same see them grudgingly respected, but everyone else gets leaned on hard to permit it- and they have deeply impressive amounts of leverage because, among many other things, they are also the single largest trader of medicine in the setting, including working anti-aging drugs that absolutely everyone in the upper class wants to be on. (Incidentally, slavery is treated as a fundamental and unchangeable fact of life by almost everyone in the setting- not like the racialized European institution of the 16th through 19th centuries, the classical-world kind of slavery where slaves are war captives, criminals, and debtors.

One of the exceptions is important, though, and I'm getting to it shortly...)

So the Guild is a mixture of very positive and very negative things about capitalism, and given your character's Motivation, they probably ought to have an opinion on them. Possibly also Plans for them, though they will be complicated by the fact that they try pretty hard to keep interactions with Exalts and gods at arm's length and keep it a mortal-controlled organization as much as is (heh) humanly possible.

The other thing you ought to know about is Nexus, the economic heart of the East, the largest trade city in Creation, the love child of 1400s Venice, 1800s London, early 1900s Shanghai and Ankh-Morpork, and the site of Simon's manse and martial-arts school, and...

Er.

It occurs to me that I may be getting a little ahead of myself. Eltonj, when you said the game was set in the East, I assumed you meant the near East, i.e. the Scavenger Lands, probably the most common setting for Exalted games- Nexus, Lookshy, Great Forks, Thorns, Greyfalls and all that. But it occurs to me that 'the East' is more often used to refer to the farther East, to the extent that there are five Compass of Terrestrial Directions books- North, East, South, West, and Scavenger Lands. Is this a game set in the East proper- Halta, Linowan, Raness, Chaya, Metagalpa, the Hundred Kingdoms, Raksi and her little baby-eating wonderland, all that? If so, I probably ought to change my background's location so I don't have intimate ties to somewhere 2,000 miles and half a year's journey away from where all the action is going to be.

If we are in the Scavenger Lands and Nexus is a sensible place to be, then I'll give Havoc the Nexus-in-a-nutshell I was going to make the second half of this post.

Going next to base Virtues [skipping Background/Charms for now, pending some info on powered armor], I'm going with an initial scores of:

Compassion=1
Conviction=3 [2 dots]
Temperance=1
Valor=4 [3 dots]

Also will take a Valor...

With a bit of further closer reading on the 4 virtues, I think I'll revise the Virtue scores to keep a bit closer towards the usual Ultraman ideals.

Hence, the new points will be as follows,

Compassion=3 [2 dots]
Conviction=2 [1 dot]
Temperance=1 [no change]
Valor=3 [2 dots]

The Valor flaw remains the same. ;)

Another thought that occurs to me is that *Simon* could serve as the fellow who does your maintenance, with only a bit of rejiggering things. I've got the Occult and Lore, as well as the Resources to buy an incomplete and janky set of First Age tools: picking up only three dots in Craft (Fire) would get me into the territory where I could use tricksy Charm and Thaumaturgy stuff to get the job done. Want to take that route?

I don't mind doing so but is there anything I could do on my end to help you keep your additional point costs down by me purchasing some points in something that can help out?

(Another option would be just spending one bonus point on a one-dot Ally who's a sorcerer-engineer, or the least god of that particular suit of armor*, to do the maintenance for you.)

*Exalted is an animistic setting. Everything has its own god, right down to (non-sentient) gods of individual grains of rice. For the god of an artifact to be powerful enough to manifest into the material realm and do the maintenance of its own item would require it to be somewhat unusually powerful, which would necessitate some kind of background reason for it: perhaps some past Exalted owner of the armor bribed the Celestial Bureaucracy to grant its god rank and authority beyond its typical station. They will probably want the occasional prayer and sacrifice to help you.

I do like the idea of a least god for the powered armor [semi-sentient?] much more than all that past life stuff- especially if that least god is allowing my zenith character to utilize it by permission [how many dots should I purchase for that?]; if possible, maybe both Simon and this least god have to cooperate for maintenance [if you still want to go that route, Toptomcat, in such an event?]

At Eltonj's discretion, maybe you could have a four-dot version of Gunshoza armor that was owned by a mortal who later Exalted and, rather than move on to another kind of armor entirely, chose to customize the suit of armor that he knew and loved, one that gets one or two of the customization options of Celestial Battle Armor.

EltonJ, would you be fine with a four dot version of the least god Gunshoza armor that allows for those customization options? I don't mind spending the extra point needed for this; most likely it'll go towards integrating the Skycutter into or as part of the armor itself. I'm also okay if you prefer not to worry about the customization part and just keep things at the usual 3 dots.

"Zenith Gunshoza" or "Gunshoza Zenith"; does have a nice ring to it though. ;p

I don't mind doing so but is there anything I could do on my end to help you keep your additional point costs down by me purchasing some points in something that can help out?

The easy way would be for you to buy Resources 4 or 5 and me to drop to 1. You're minor/serious nobility, or the only son of a very successful merchant/merchant prince, or you just dug a collection of art objects/a fortune in jade out of the same First Age tomb you found the armor in, or something similar: I'm an eccentric so indifferent to material wealth that I own practically nothing of my own despite the huge variety of valuable skills I have, and I depend on your or your family's patronage for much of my lifestyle and the vast majority of the equipment on my sheet.

...

We are in the Scavenger lands.

Yeah, I looked into the guild because of the merchants. They are an interesting bunch.

Okay, then, on to the second half of stuff Havocprince ought to know: Nexus in a nutshell.

Five centuries ago, a robed, masked being calling itself the Emissary, claiming to speak for a group called the 'Council of Entities', proclaimed a set of six inviolable laws from which deviation would not be tolerated, collectively called the Dogma:

No taxes shall be raised, save by the Council.
None shall obstruct trade.
None shall bring an army into Nexus.
No one shall commit wanton violence.
None may falsely claim the Council’s name or sanction.
None shall harbor a fugitive from the Council’s wrath.

Those who violate the Dogma almost invariably meet gruesome and very obviously supernatural ends. The same happens to anyone who attacks the Emissary.

The Council of Entities is, apparently, not mysterious: they are a collection of Nexus' eight most powerful, wealthiest and influential citizens, motivated principally by the desire to keep Nexus prosperous and stay on top of the heap. The Emissary is: no one's ever seen their face, or seen them wounded. It isn't even particularly clear if the current Emissary is the same being from half a millennia ago who kicked the whole thing off, or if it's an identity shared by a succession of beings. Similarly unclear is whether the Emissary is merely an instrument of the Council's will, its unquestioned leader, or something in between.

Other than the Dogma, there is a second, lesser kind of law within Nexus: the Civilities. In theory, any Counselor may issue a Civility and it will have the full force of law. And Counselors are definitely bribeable, and this is often employed to unfairly benefit powerful individuals or groups. In practice, because more recently-issued Civilities always override older ones, Civilities that grossly disadvantage one power group over the other tend to be swiftly countermanded by a second Civility issued by another Counselor, and only Civilities which suit the interests of all or most of the major power groups of Nexus tend to last for long. Most of them are prosaic and sensible- ”No one shall interfere with the workmen building the new library,” or “Corpses shall not be flung into the canal system." Some enduring Civilities, though, are seemingly frivolous and yet endure, creating strange customs seen nowhere else in Creation- no single person may eat alone after dark, for instance, so teahouses must seat at least a pair of strangers with each other before beginning to serve them. (Many of the strange Civilities, both permanent and temporary, eventually end up making sense, if only in hindsight, suggesting that there's some method to the madness.)

Civilities are not, generally speaking, enforced by the Emissary, but by mercenary companies in the pay of the Council. There are, officially, only two penalties under law- exile or death- but in practice what frequently ends up happening is that you get the tar beaten out of you until you've coughed up enough to pay for your crime- or, if you haven't got much to give, the mercs then tie you up and give your victims a chance to bid on getting to beat the hell out of you a second time. In such cases there is a very great deal of latitude concerning how much violence is 'wanton' and what kinds of informal attempts to get criminals to make their victims whole count as 'trade'.

The overall effect is that of a brutal and bizarre, but on the whole rational and functional plutarchy. Taxes are low and business is booming, but few travel the city without both arms and armed friends.

One enduring and curious set of Civilities are those dealing with slavery. Technically, slavery is illegal within the city itself, yet the slave trade is one of Nexus' biggest industries. They square that circle through the legal fiction of 'hiring' each slave as a three-day contract worker and ensuring that the process of entering city limits, selling them, and having the buyer leave never takes more than three days. On the very rare occasion that it does, the slave is manumitted.

The easy way would be for you to buy Resources 4 or 5 and me to drop to 1. You're minor/serious nobility, or the only son of a very successful merchant/merchant prince, or you just dug a collection of art objects/a fortune in jade out of the same First Age tomb you found the armor in, or something similar: I'm an eccentric so indifferent to material wealth that I own practically nothing of my own despite the huge variety of valuable skills I have, and I depend on your or your family's patronage for much of my lifestyle and the vast majority of the equipment on my sheet.

That I could do, Toptomcat. Had originally planned on taking 2 in resources but it'll be no issue with bumping things up to 4 or 5. :)

=====

I'll rework the initial and favored abilities [trade out Melee for something else?] for a bit and repost the revised choices in a later post.

For the revised abilities, I went with 5 favored abilities not in Zenith: Thrown weapons, Martial arts, Occult, Athletics, and Dodge.

Revised choice of Abilities [before any bonus points]:

Thrown weapons=3 [favored]
Martial Arts=4 [favored]
Melee=1

Integrity=3 [caste]
Performance=1 [caste]
Presence=2 [caste]
Resistance=3 [caste]
Survival=1 [caste]

Athletics=3 [favored]
Dodge=3 [favored]
Awareness=1

Lore=1

Linguistics=1

Occult=1 [favored]

for a 28 pts total [10/18]

With all that outta the way, I'll skip the four free specialties for a later post and start on getting the Background part of Advantages squared away [at least the initial points with added bonus points to be factored in later]...

With 7 Initial Background points:

1 point in Allies: Least God [tentative if not really needed]

2 points in Artifact: Skycutter; Orichalcum

3 points in Artifact: Gunshoza Armor; Orichalcum [more to be added with permission from EltonJ with 2 bonus points for customizing]

1 point in Resources [base, will get the rest in bonus points; 4=4 bonus points/5=6 bonus points]

Anything else Artifact-wise that I should look into [such as powerfist or godkicking boots?]?

With 7 Initial Background points:

1 point in Allies: Least God [tentative if not really needed]

2 points in Artifact: Skycutter; Orichalcum

3 points in Artifact: Gunshoza Armor; Orichalcum [more to be added with permission from EltonJ with 2 bonus points for customizing]

1 point in Resources [base, will get the rest in bonus points; 4=4 bonus points/5=6 bonus points]

Anything else Artifact-wise that I should look into [such as powerfist or godkicking boots?]?

I want to talk about these. Any of these sound like Ultraman to you? A power fist should work artifact wise. So, no Manse?

The Least God definitely isn't necessary if you're bumping your Resources so I can afford to dump it and buy Craft (Fire) and be the one to maintain your armor.

I want to talk about these [Backgrounds].

Again, Eltonj, would you be fine with the four dot version of Gunshoza armor I've been discussing with halp that allows for a magical material bonus and some of the customization options offered by Celestial Battle Armor?

Sure, Toptomcat. I can allow it. I'm surprised that no one has a manse yet. A sort of home base, if you will.

I want to talk about these. Any of these sound like Ultraman to you? A power fist should work artifact wise. So, no Manse?

The Least God definitely isn't necessary if you're bumping your Resources so I can afford to dump it and buy Craft (Fire) and be the one to maintain your armor.

Heh, when compared to just the original 1966 Ultraman by itself, I guess there might be a slight drift there but things should well be in the wheelhouse for the background choices in terms of the greater Tsuburuya Ultraman universe; the Skycutter being more of an Ultraseven/Ultraman Max/Ultraman Zero thing plus the powered iron-man-like armor being something more along the lines of the Netflix CGI the Ultraman anime/manga involving Hayata's teenaged kid. ;)

@EltonJ; Thank you for the permission on the Gunshoza power armor custom mod and the powerfist/manse suggestion. :)

@Toptomcat; Will do then by changing the 1 pt Ally for 1 pt powerfist and thanks for your input. :)

I've no problem with getting a manse [unless someone else wants to go for it]; how much should I put into it?

I've got a manse, it just isn't a *habitable* one. I've got mundane quarters in halp's place a quarter-mile away. If you like, I could tweak the Blazing Heart to have living quarters after all, but halp's Resources 4 or 5 will make for ownership of a pretty swanky place as it is.

@Today is a good day to... halp: There's no need to buy a separate artifact smashfist if we get three picks from the Celestial Battle Armor customization list. One of them gives your punches and kicks the statline of a Power Mace, which should be plenty.

Hmmm. The Power Mace never got a rebalance to be in line with the changes to the 2.5 core weapons, which lowered damage across the board, removed the P tag from everything but clinch weapons, adamant weapons, or polearms used in thrusting mode, and made the O tag universal for artifact weapons.

Melee: Speed 5, Accuracy +2, Damage +8L/2 or +9B/2, Defense +1, Rate 2, Tag O
Ranged: Speed 5, Accuracy +2, Damage 9L or 13B, Rate 2, Cost 2 motes/attack, Tag O

That seems in-line with the rest of the 2e artifact weapons. We can flavor the ranged version of the attack to be a Slugger-type blade that comes from the helmet. That's one of your three customizations. Flight would make an obvious choice for the second.

What would you like for the third, halp? To remind you:

[Options include] regeneration, heavier protection, [...] an energy shield, an expensive and temporary but really fast movement-booster, an area explosion attack centered around you, energy whips, an enhancement to the gauntlets that lets them attack immaterial beings, [or] a magical loudspeaker that improves your ability to make inspiring or persuasive speeches.

I still am here and can get a manse should that be needed. I hadn't begun making the character so I am still exceedingly flexible.

Glad to hear scorch. We could always chase clues and maybe earn a manse later too.

I've got a manse, it just isn't a *habitable* one. I've got mundane quarters in halp's place a quarter-mile away. If you like, I could tweak the Blazing Heart to have living quarters after all, but halp's Resources 4 or 5 will make for ownership of a pretty swanky place as it is.

ScorchedOne wrote:

I still am here and can get a manse should that be needed. I hadn't begun making the character so I am still exceedingly flexible.

Havocprince wrote:

Glad to hear scorch. We could always chase clues and maybe earn a manse later too.

Sounds good to me, Toptomcat, ScorchedOne, and Havocprince. I'll leave off with all that manse stuff for now. :)

@Today is a good day to... halp: There's no need to buy a separate artifact smashfist if we get three picks from the Celestial Battle Armor customization list. One of them gives your punches and kicks the statline of a Power Mace, which should be plenty.

Hmmm. The Power Mace never got a rebalance to be in line with the changes to the 2.5 core weapons, which lowered damage across the board, removed the P tag from everything but clinch weapons, adamant weapons, or polearms used in thrusting mode, and made the O tag universal for artifact weapons.

Melee: Speed 5, Accuracy +2, Damage +8L/2 or +9B/2, Defense +1, Rate 2, Tag O
Ranged: Speed 5, Accuracy +2, Damage 9L or 13B, Rate 2, Cost 2 motes/attack, Tag O

That seems in-line with the rest of the 2e artifact weapons. We can flavor the ranged version of the attack to be a Slugger-type blade that comes from the helmet. That's one of your three customizations. Flight would make an obvious choice for the second.

What would you like for the third, halp? To remind you:

I wrote:

[Options include] regeneration, heavier protection, [...] an energy shield, an expensive and temporary but really fast movement-booster, an area explosion attack centered around you, energy whips, an enhancement to the gauntlets that lets them attack immaterial beings, [or] a magical loudspeaker that improves your ability to make inspiring or persuasive speeches.

That's pretty awesome, Toptomcat; thank you for all your suggestions- the Power Mace equivalencies [Ranged and Melee] and Flight will do very nicely. :)

For the last choices for that last customization, is the Energy Shield more of a wielded type, like the one Marvel's Comics US Agent used to use [a hand-held energy disc activate from a wristband] or more like a full-height barrier-type of shield that isn't carried but materialized instead?

Both the Energy Shield or the Immaterial Gauntlet Enhancement attack [certainly fitting in with the Zenith caste thematics] seem like solid choices to me. ;)

PS. Believe it or not, speaking of Energy Whips... one of the Ultraman enemies has got an (honest-to-goodness) energy whip attack. ;p

I'll keep that in mind.