Exalted Essence Questions

[Greyman]

Shapeshifting, as per Ten Thousand Forms seems easy but requires a bit of adjudication. You spend 1 mote to assume any shape you know as a...ah simple action, I'm guessing. You use your own dice pools to make rolls but you do get bonuses or penalties that are deemed narratively appropriate; whatever your table decides what that is. And you also gain the animal's special qualities; suggestions for which are listed in the animal section of the antagonists chapter.

So, yes, shifting into a fox gives bonuses (or penalties) for doing foxy things -- being small and sneaky and such. The suggested quality is as you found, listed as doubling 9s on their cunning rolls.

Meanwhile, I can't find anything to indicate how the shifted Lunar's equipment is too be handled in ExEss. I mean, we can assume how it is supposed to work, but it really should be included.

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Now Double Down for Chimera-Soul Expression adds 2 dice to rolled to your animal type's benefit, or doubles the effect if it is not rolled. So... yeah,... many of the animal special qualities for the listed types interact poorly with this; having neither rolls nor anything to double. Which, meh, just means you have no incentive to double down on those critters. {Though the wording does suggest there may be a versioning issue.}

However, for the fox and other 'double 9s' special qualities, I'd rule doubling down gives the two extra dice to those rolls.

[adambeyoncelowe]

I must say the Anima levels are a bit too much, I'd much prefer only 3 of them or something simpler.

Me too. The Anima effects should map exactly with the Anima levels. It's fewer things to remember.

[Distant Choir]

The dice/automatic benefit successes from Shapeshifting would be a little weird to arbitrarily decide on without a guideline. I was expecting that from the Lunar Shapeshifting section later on but it didn't deliver.

[The Wizard of Oz]

Me too. The Anima effects should map exactly with the Anima levels. It's fewer things to remember.

Yes, exactly. I have always felt that Anima Powers should be connected to Anima Banners anyway.

[squidheadjax]

Supremacy of Ability means that excellencies don't generate Anima, yes.

Edit: Deleted because it was incorrect.

...I just keep finding new reasons to hate this design choice, argh.

[Chausse]

...I just keep finding new reasons to hate this design choice, argh.

Solars have other way to generate Anima through their Charms

[The Wizard of Oz]

Yeah it's overall an advantage because it lets Solars use excellencies all over the place without flaring.

It does mean if you want to build anima to get your Active and Iconic powers, you can't do it with excellencies, but as Chausse says, many of the Solar unique charms generate extra anima.

I don't like the Anima rules (as I already said, I think they are over-complicated and require too much bookkeeping) but that part I am okay with.

[Whiskey Jack]

I think I'm definitely going to be tweaking the "flare" levels. My tentative plan is;

• Anima 0-3: Dim. Your caste mark appears with essence expenditure, but this can be covered as normal.
• Anima 4-9: Bonfire. You're wreathed in a visible aura of essence that grows gradually brighter the higher you climb (no need to be specific here. It's mostly for flavor anyway). You gain your active anima benefit.
• Anima 10: Iconic. The bonfire of your anima can be seen burning on the horizon, and an iconic image of your anima banner swirls around you or hovers overhead. You gain your iconic anima benefit.

That seems to hit the important milestones. This does mean that it's harder to activate your second anima effect, but I think that's generally balanced by being a bit more free to use a couple of charms without immediately glowing. I'm also removing the distinction of "glowing, but not immediately obviously so to people who aren't looking for it". That's just not a dividing line that I think is super meaningful, and it cleans up the scale a lot. It does mean that Guarded Mind Meditation needs to be tweaked, but I don't see that as a huge loss.

[Flare]

Does the statement about using Personal Milestones to repurchase charms include Ox-Bodies?

It seems like Exalts will very quickly cap their Ox-Bodies if they start with one if they can.

[Greyman]

Does the statement about using Personal Milestones to repurchase charms include Ox-Bodies?

It seems like Exalts will very quickly cap their Ox-Bodies if they start with one if they can.

Yes. Ox-Body is a repurchasable charm. (So to is Excellency.)

Spending Personal and Exalt Milestones, and increasing Essence is how to acquire more.

Ox Body can quickly be repurchased up to the Exalted's Physique.

(You may also spend Minor or Exalt Milestones to increase Physique.)

Of course, in the meantime, these will not be spent on anything else. It is your choice, so chose wisely.

[Chausse]

I think I'm definitely going to be tweaking the "flare" levels. My tentative plan is;

• Anima 0-3: Dim. Your caste mark appears with essence expenditure, but this can be covered as normal.
• Anima 4-9: Bonfire. You're wreathed in a visible aura of essence that grows gradually brighter the higher you climb (no need to be specific here. It's mostly for flavor anyway). You gain your active anima benefit.
• Anima 10: Iconic. The bonfire of your anima can be seen burning on the horizon, and an iconic image of your anima banner swirls around you or hovers overhead. You gain your iconic anima benefit.

That seems to hit the important milestones. This does mean that it's harder to activate your second anima effect, but I think that's generally balanced by being a bit more free to use a couple of charms without immediately glowing. I'm also removing the distinction of "glowing, but not immediately obviously so to people who aren't looking for it". That's just not a dividing line that I think is super meaningful, and it cleans up the scale a lot. It does mean that Guarded Mind Meditation needs to be tweaked, but I don't see that as a huge loss.

Good idea. I was also thinking of putting the DB elemental aura at 4 for simplicity, instead of it being randomly at 5 where it's on a whole different threshold from every other effect.

Greyman You sure about the Personal milestone for Excellencies ? I don't think the Charm is considered as "repurchase able" in the traditional sense (of upgrading the Charm) used for repurchases. Considering the wording of ox-body, I'm not sure for this either.

[Flare]

Yes. Ox-Body is a repurchasable charm. (So to is Excellency.)

Spending Personal and Exalt Milestones, and increasing Essence is how to acquire more.

Ox Body can quickly be repurchased up to the Exalted's Physique.

(You may also spend Minor or Exalt Milestones to increase Physique.)

Of course, in the meantime, these will not be spent on anything else. It is your choice, so chose wisely.

Wait, buying new Excellencies is also a Repurchase instead of a full purchase?

where in the book does it say that, that's such a huge stretch to assume that just out of the basic book.

And I'm not talking about using Minor or Exalt milestones, I'm talking about using Personal Milestones, which have extremely limited use outside of apparently these two specific edge cases.

[Whiskey Jack]

Yeah, I'm definitely not convinced that ox-body and especially the excellency count as "repurchases" for personal milestone spending. It'd be nice, in some ways, but there's a fair bit of ambiguity in the language. Of course, this is the problem with more "casual" language in game mechanics, because the difference between "repurchase" and "may be purchased multiple times" is up for debate.

[Flare]

with Ox-Bodies, the concern to me is more that it makes every Exalt look the same; you always take Ox-Body at Chargen and you use your first personal milestones buying every single Ox-Body, and whenever you can buy a new one you instantly do, and there's not really any penalty to it (since there aren't really many Modes or Repurchases in the book outside of DBs and Liminals)

Getting to buy actual Excellencies on every personal milestone means every Exalt is gonna have every Excellency they want within a dozen or so sessions.

[JohnDoe244]

I am pretty sure [ x ] denotes shorthand. "Close Combat Excellency" and "Ranged Combat Excellency" are two different Charms.

You could buy Close Combat Excellency, then repurchase Close Combat Excellency with a personal Milestone. But there's no benefit to that.

Ranged Combat Excellency is a different Charm, not a repurchase.

Ox-Body Technique is a clear repurchase. And given how... lackluster Ox Body Technique remains, I have no issue with spending personal to buy it.