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View Full Version : C-C-Combo Maker? [Exalted 2e]



Reynard
2010-04-06, 10:50 AM
Okay, I need help with making a couple of Combos for my two-weapon melee Night Caste that's applying for Sanguine's game. Please help, I have very little idea what I'm doing. And if you think different charms would be better please suggest them.

Current Charms.
First Melee Excellency

Second Athletics Excellency
Second Awareness Excellency 8xp
Second Dodge Excellency
Second Integrity Excellency 8xp

Third Awareness Excellency
Third Stealth Excellency

Easily Overlooked Presence Method
Graceful Crane Stance
Shadow Over Water
Seven Shadows Evasion
Thunderbolt Attack Prana

The Second Dodge and Awareness Excellencies cost a total of 16 xp. So I've only got 4xp left for combos, but I might get rid of a Charm (Graceful Crane Stance?) so I have more xp to spend on this stuff. Please help, I'm confused.

Kylarra
2010-04-06, 11:15 AM
Well, you'll need more exp for your combat combos if only because adding SSE to everything is 4xp on its own.

tonberrian
2010-04-06, 12:25 PM
Honestly?

I don't think you need a combo. You're just starting out.

However, in the interest of providing a helpful answer, a basic combo is an offensive excellency (first or second), a defensive reflexive charm (second or third excellency, or a perfect defense), a surprise negating charm, possibly an extra-action charm, maybe a simple charm, and perhaps a supplemental charm (or charms). Attacking with Martial Arts or Melee means you can use their excellencies for defense, too, and Infinite (Ability) Mastery can remove them from the combo completely. The perfect defense is much more useful against more powerful attackers, and is relatively cheap and easy to use for Solars - thus it is recommended. This is a basic setup, and it's difficult to go wrong with.

However, remember combo drawbacks: (1) combos are expensive, both in purchasing and using - combos require 1 Willpower to use, in addition to the sum total of the necessary motes and Willpower of the component charms (which will get expensive if you include an extra-action charm); and (2) you can't add charms to an existing combo - since you don't have a surprise negating charm right now, that would be an entire new combo to purchase later if you don't move your charms around to get it now.

On Excellencies: Exalted's dice pool mechanic means that the number of successes in a given can vary very widely, so I much prefer the Second Excellency over the First - any decrease in randomness is for the benefit of the player. Furthermore, using the Third Excellency would be fine, except for it's incompatibility with the First and Second. On the defensive, the Second Excellency pretty much outclasses it entirely (same mote cost for the same benefit half the time, other half the Third gets an extra point, but Second can scale).

The Demented One
2010-04-06, 01:28 PM
The most basic combo structure in the world is [Excellency] + [Perfect Defense]. It's what's called a "battle stance combo," the kind of thing you can use every single turn in combat. The excellency boosts your attacks, the perfect defense lets you defend. Consider this the root of every combo you make.

Next, there's the Paranoia Combo. This is an expansion of the basic battle stance to encompass all possible defenses–your archetypical paranoia combo will be [Excellency] + [Perfect Defense] + [Perfect Soak] + [Surprise Negator] + [Flurrybreaker] + [Shaping Defense] + [Crippling Defense] + [Mental Defense]. Don't think of the Paranoia Combo as something you need to have, but something you work towards. As you get more and more of the parts, your defense becomes harder and harder to beat.

Next comes offensive combos. There are two main kinds, and each one can just be built up on the basic skeleton of a Battle Stance or Paranoia Combo.

The Extra Action Combo just adds a single extra action charm, but nothing else–any supplemental or simple charms will bleed your motes dry, unless they're super-cheap like Hungry Tiger.

The Death Attack Combo will add multiple supplemental charms to increase damage or make the attack harder to defend against, and sometimes an appropriate simple charm. These are risky, though, due to the fact that perfect defenses shut them down. Great against behemoths and other monsters without perfects, almost useless against the Exalted.

So looking at what you've got so far, you have a few options, although you'll need a bit more XP to put them together. You can go with a simple Battle Stance of 1st Melee Excellency + Seven Shadow Evasion, and once you have that develop a death attack combo of 1st Melee Excellency + Thunderbolt Attack Prana + Seven Shadow Evasion. Something you should ask your Storyteller is whether or not you can add charms to combos once you make them–if you can, then go ahead and get started, just adding in whatever defensive or offensive charms you want later. If you can't, you're probably going to want to save up XP until you can get at least a simple paranoia combo, something like 1st Melee Excellency + Seven Shadow Evasion + Reflex Sidestep Technique + Leaping Dodge Method.

Reynard
2010-04-06, 01:34 PM
Thanks for the info.

Would it be worth getting rid of Graceful Crane Stance and spending the XP on something else, like Abilities or Willpower?

The Demented One
2010-04-06, 01:34 PM
Also, a general run-down on excellencies. The 1st Excellency is great in cases where more successes=more effect, such as combat or crafting. The 2nd Excellency is the opposite, most useful when all you need to do is succeed. The 3rd Excellency is wonky, and is actually most useful for cases where you have to calculate a static value, due to the way it adds dice in. Here's a basic rundown by ability:

Archery: 1st Excellency
Martial Arts: 1st Excellency
Melee: 1st Excellency
Thrown: 1st Excellency
War: 2nd Excellency

Integrity: 2nd Excellency/3rd Excellency
Performance: 2nd Excellency
Presence: 2nd Excellency
Resistance: 2nd Excellency
Survival: 2nd Excellency

Craft: 1st Excellency
Investigation: 2nd Excellency
Lore: 2nd Excellency (1st Excellency if you want to Wyld Shape)
Medicine: 2nd Excellency
Occult: 2nd Excellency

Athletics: 3rd Excellency
Awareness: 1st Excellency/2nd Excellency
Dodge: 2nd Excellency/3rd Excellency
Larceny: 2nd Excellency
Stealth: 2nd Excellency

Bureaucracy: 2nd Excellency
Linguistics: 2nd Excellency
Ride: 2nd Excellency
Sail: 2nd Excellency
Socialize: 2nd Excellency

The Demented One
2010-04-06, 01:36 PM
Would it be worth getting rid of Graceful Crane Stance and spending the XP on something else, like Abilities or Essence?
If you're getting rid of something, I'd drop the Dodge Excellency (always worse the SSE) or one of the Awareness Excellencies. Crane Stance is just too awesome to give up.