I am a relative newcomer to Exalted. I was captivated by the setting at introduction, but was more than a little bit intimidated by task of character optimization in the 3e ruleset. In my early attempts to build a murderblender martial artist Dawn, I found myself stymied by the incompatibility of Melee Charms with armed Martial Arts. Building the most perfect swordsman in Creation becomes a rather daunting prospect when you're leveling two redundant Combat Abilities in synchrony to keep your dice pools and static values equal.

Thankfully, the Sidereals book provides an out in the form of the Versatile keyword, which reads as follows:

Versatile: Combat Ability Charms with this keyword can enhance attacks and parries with Martial Arts if the Sidereal uses a weapon compatible with that Ability. Versatile Charms from multiple Abilities cannot enhance the same action. (Sidereals, p.156)

For the community's examination, I present my first attempt at a custom Charm, inspired in large part by Maiden-on-the-Shelf Enlightenment (Sidereals, p.241). In honor of the Solars who dedicate themselves to mastery of a particular weapon above all others, and let its Essence shape their every expression of violence.

Sublime Weapon Understanding
Cost: -; Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: any five Melee Charms
Choose a type of Melee weapon (eg. knives, staffs, or chopping swords). This weapon type (and its artifact equivalent) becomes the Solar's Chosen Weapon. When used with her Chosen Weapon, the Solar's Melee Charms gain the Versatile keyword.
This Charm may be purchased any number of times.

Hello,

Im looking to see about bringing Exalted 3ed into the 90s for the setting. Like the world kept developing Thorns wasn't taken over yet. Has anyone done this and what did you find worked for you? And what big 90s historical events can use to help shape the politics of Creation in the 90s? Its overly ambitious and I am not the brightest so any help would be great.

I'm looking to make a sleep-based character and looking through the core rulebook, there isn't a lot of features to interact with sleep. I already have Mists of Eventide and Silent Words of Dreams and Nightmares, but was curious if there was anything else in another book I missed.

Here is a more comprehensive Poll on your favorite/least favorite Exalt type without Reddit's 6 option limit and more questions splitting between Mechanics and lore, along with some other questions about Non-exalt player types.

The results of everyone else should be visible after you have placed your own choice. Please message in comments if there is any issue with that/permission to access.

Link to Spread sheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Q8r5R-fHZ_mX5TDPUvgmBL4dkVB6k8m2qVXUtktUVuc/edit?usp=sharing

An inverse of the previous poll, unfortunately only size choices can be taken so Alchemicals and Exigents are not on the board.

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I’m mainly interested in the lore/fluff side. Were there any significant changes to the Lunars between 2nd and 3rd edition?
I’m a longtime 2e player and I got curious about how the setting and their approach changed in 3e.

My current ST has ruled against Tiger Warrior Training Tech being able to uplift Dragon Kings to sentience.

For game purposes, his ruling is the authority and is therefore accepted as right and true.

For academic purposes discussed at a distance from the table, I think it's a reach to think it wouldn't explicitly function for that purpose.

Let me know what you think: Can a Solar Exalt awaken a large number of juvenile Dragon Kings with Tiger Warrior Training (3rd Edition)?

The entirely acceptable rationale I was given by the ST is summed up as follows:

1. Tiger Warrior Training doesn't work on animals.

2. Survival Charms would work better on young DKs since they are essentially animals.

As far as our table goes, you need sorcery to speed run awakening a Dragon King. Again, right and fine and true. Here's my counters to the logic:

1. nothing in 3e's Tiger Warrior charm says it doesn't work on animals. Since it works on units, I should think it would apply to a Cavalry and can't imagine a way to train a Cavalry without training the mounts.

1a. Lord of the Apes is a pretty straightforward concept bound up in literary history. I don't think Solar Tarzan should have to know Sorcery to lead a pack of ape elites into combat.

2. Does this mean you could make a Feral child your familiar? How about a baby. Can I increase the size of a baby with Saga Beast virtue or whatever?

2a. The theme of Tiger Warrior Training synergizes with DK life cycle. Perfect subjects for this specific magic. Survival isn't about making your beast a warrior, it focuses on making it a great beast, physical modifications like health, size, and soak and then supernatural potential like fire breath and Iron Wings Carry. I'm not saying these couldn't work on a juvenile DK, just that that would not be a means to awaken their potential for consciousness.

Here's some text from Ruins of Rathess, the 1e book that originated the Dragon King lore.

"...they were given extensive physical training through various hunting games but were not allowed to run wild and possibly harm civilized beings. After many years of special training, the spirit within the beast awakened and the creature could slowly be trained to civility, returning both sentience and personality to its new body."

I don't want mass awakening DKs to be easy, but I do think TWT should make it much faster.

Any insight into community rationale is appreciated!

Couldn’t fit Alchemicals or Exigents in unfortunately.

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Hello all! The idea for this popped into my head the other day so I wrote it up as a worldbuilding contribution for my gaming group, and figured I'd share it here in case it's useful for anyone else.

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The Morning Manse

Earth Manse •••••

The Morning Manse is part of a large estate, located in a rural part of the Blessed Isle, to the north of the Plains of Rusted Iron. Although Realm scholars believe it may date to before the Uprising, the Manse is a fortified manor harmonious with the style of early Shogunate architecture, and its sprawling layout encircles a massive training yard in its centre. The manse itself is flanked by a bevy of outbuildings and the estate as a whole can house a significant number of troops.

The Scarlet Empress came into ownership of the Morning Manse early in her reign, and the nature of the hearthstone has been unknown ever since. However, she does permit occasional use of the Manse by others, including various of her children and grandchildren, and prominent scions of the Realm, particularly the militarily-inclined. Access to the Manse is granted only for a set time, anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of seasons, and is typically considered a sign of her favour or her inclination to invest in a promising officer. In her absence, the Manse has lain silent.

The Manse features all the trappings and geomantic capabilities one would expect of a manse of this type, but its main value to the Realm lies in the vast training area encircled by the manor’s perimeter, modestly referred to as ‘the Courtyard’.

The majority of the Courtyard is open terrain, although several areas nearest the manor are paved plazas. It contains a significant number of training dummies which can be configured like sparring partners, a dojo training yard, or a mock battlefield; they are sculpted of white jade and accented in soulsteel, and mimic the shape of armoured warriors.

The training dummies are functionally indestructible and, when activated, will perform rudimentary ‘animations’ in a simulacrum of real warriors. However, their true benefit is that they count as valid targets for any charms or spells which require a living being as a target; multiple activated dummies can be deployed together to count as a valid subject for charms affecting mass-combat units (i.e. groups or units with a Magnitude). This, combined with the typically indestructible manse construction, creates an environment where Exalts can fully practice their Charms, including those that normally require a person or people as valid targets for the Charm to activate.

As well as providing an opportunity for an Exalt to come to grips with what a Charm can do, reducing unfamiliarity and uncertainty in the field, the manse confers another advantage: training times to learn or develop a new Charm are halved for Exalts who do their training in the Courtyard, provided there is at least one person in residence who is attuned to the manse.

Hearthstone

The Awakened Warrior Stone (Earth, •••••)

This hearthstone augments the use of the Terrestrial War charm, Phantom-Warrior Horde. This Charm allows a Dragon-Blood to fill the area around her with phantasmal soldiers made of pure elemental essence matching her own Aspect. The Awakened Warrior Stone allows the holder of the hearthstone to summon these troops as physical beings with the ability to engage in combat, rather than phantasms for psychological warfare alone. This is an optional choice and the hearthstone owner may still choose to use the Charm in its normal form instead.

The summoned physical troops form a unit of standard soldiers with a Magnitude equal to half the Essence of the Dragon-Blood who summoned them. They last for a scene and will engage in combat or other military actions (such as guarding or defending), before dissolving in a showy but non-damaging display of elemental essence. Phantom soldiers who are killed in combat similarly disappear in an Essence display.

The Dragon-Blood cannot activate further uses of the Phantom-Warrior Horde charm while any of the summoned troops from the hearthstone-enhanced activation remain.

If the Dragon-Blood has already developed any subsequent custom Charms building on Phantom-Warrior Horde which have a similar effect to this Hearthstone, use of the Awakened Warrior Stone instead adds (Essence/2) to the Magnitude of the unit summoned by the Charm.

Optionally (at the Storyteller’s discretion) the Hearthstone may also augment Celestial charms with the same metaphysical basis/fundamental function.

Just out of curiosity

Okay obviously mechanically wise the two upper tiers of sorcery were designed for certain subsets of exalts. But like why can't you just study super hard as a Dragonblooded and learn celestial or why cant some elder sidereal figure out solar. Im not counting artifact tricks or using terrestial workings to jump a level. Do they just not have enough oomph to power it or like do they simply lack something to tap into the higher levels of sorcery. Whats the deal?

I’m a filthy casual who wants to learn more about the world of exalted, I discovered this game purely through wiki diving through the world of darkness wiki and I challenge you to lore dump me anything and everything from the lore, the races, important figures, small stories or facts that you enjoy and anything else about exalted to educate this filthy casual, there is no level of crazy bullshit my brain will not consume and understand.

Example: What would Homelander be like if he were an Exalted in Creation?

Hey everyone,

For many years I've fantasized about running an Alchemicals-only style exalted game, set in a Transformers/Cybertron-esq setting (i.e. Autochthon is a planet, cities are mainly on the surface, Gremlins and bad shit originates from the void of space, and the PCs engage in some spacefaring exploration ala the Shards of the Exalted Dream book). This setting would have nothing to do with Creation other than converting some main setting material as the story seemed appropriate.

I was just curious if anyone had ever tried anything comparable, where you created an alternative setting just to showcase a particular exalt type you liked? If so, what did you make? Were you able to run it successfully?

Realistically, I don't think I'd ever be able to play it, but I've also pondered how an Infernals-only setting might look. Maybe one that takes its inspiration from the CAIN ttrpg, Hellraiser, or anime like Chainsaw Man, etc.

Thanks!