This started as a question in Ask a Question, Get an Answer but figured there was enough meat on the bones to warrant its own thread.
Since 1st Edition the books have made it abundantly clear that items made of the magic materials, particularly arms and armor, are significantly heavier than their mundane counterparts. Even the Chosen are incapable of weilding or wearing them without first attuning. A problem I've always run into as an ST is that I really suck at being consistent with it. What could a group of mortal aides present on a display and what would even the most wily Night Caste be unable to whisk away without supernatural aid?
Thanks to a couple replies (shout out to Greyman and JohnDoe) there's at least a little bit of a foundation we can work with here.
Wyld Shaping Technique (EX3, pg 337) says it takes approximately 5 talents of an MM to make a Grand Daiklaive. Earlier in the book a talent of jade is listed as 68lbs, so very, very roughly 340lbs of materials. Assume a third left behind as metal shavings, still looking at a 226 lbs sword. Using a completely arbitrary cold steel two handed greatsword weighing in at a rough 7lbs, we're looking at a grand daiklaive 32 times heavier than it's mundane counterpart.
Second reference is the attunement description describing "40 pounds of golden sword" feeling "as light as a dagger". Our arbitrary weight equivalent will be the cold steel hand-and-a-half dagger weighing in at a smidgen over 1 pound, giving our daiklaive a factor of 40 for our weight increase.
I figure split the difference, call it an increase of 35 times. Which, honestly, seems suitably unreasonably unwieldy and appropriately gonzo.
Has this been addressed anywhere else in Exalted's 20 year history? Got a preferred, less silly method of narratively describing it? I'd love to hear it.
Since 1st Edition the books have made it abundantly clear that items made of the magic materials, particularly arms and armor, are significantly heavier than their mundane counterparts. Even the Chosen are incapable of weilding or wearing them without first attuning. A problem I've always run into as an ST is that I really suck at being consistent with it. What could a group of mortal aides present on a display and what would even the most wily Night Caste be unable to whisk away without supernatural aid?
Thanks to a couple replies (shout out to Greyman and JohnDoe) there's at least a little bit of a foundation we can work with here.
Wyld Shaping Technique (EX3, pg 337) says it takes approximately 5 talents of an MM to make a Grand Daiklaive. Earlier in the book a talent of jade is listed as 68lbs, so very, very roughly 340lbs of materials. Assume a third left behind as metal shavings, still looking at a 226 lbs sword. Using a completely arbitrary cold steel two handed greatsword weighing in at a rough 7lbs, we're looking at a grand daiklaive 32 times heavier than it's mundane counterpart.
Second reference is the attunement description describing "40 pounds of golden sword" feeling "as light as a dagger". Our arbitrary weight equivalent will be the cold steel hand-and-a-half dagger weighing in at a smidgen over 1 pound, giving our daiklaive a factor of 40 for our weight increase.
I figure split the difference, call it an increase of 35 times. Which, honestly, seems suitably unreasonably unwieldy and appropriately gonzo.
Has this been addressed anywhere else in Exalted's 20 year history? Got a preferred, less silly method of narratively describing it? I'd love to hear it.
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