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puppyavenger
2010-05-23, 11:39 AM
Okay, since the RL group I'm in should be finishing or D20 modern campaign up soon, and it's my turn to GM, I figured I might as well try out a new game and bought a bunch of PDF's for Exalted.

After reading a few of them, I've got a few questions that people who are much more knowledgeable then me about Exalted might be able to answer.

First, the only question to do with actual rules, do Fair Folk have any perfect defenses? Because I can't find any. If so, what are they? and if not, how are Fair Folk supposed to be a real threat to Exalts with them?

The Rest of the questions are more nit-picks of flavor that I'm sure I missed something about.

First of all, the Incarnae gave the gods free will so that the Primordial's couldn't just order them to order their troops to stand down, but there's a god of exaltation who can keep exaltation's in Yu-Shan, and I believe it said they require the patron gods approval before they are released in the world. So couldn't the Primordial's just have ordered them to not release the Exaltations back in the world, meaning that after a few victories the only enemies left would be dragon-blooded?

Lastly, in the Fair Folk splat book, it says that the Primordials were the same as the proto-Rashaka before they reforged themselves with each others help, gave themselves forms and so on. But the book on the Five Maidens says that the Primordial's already had forms when they met each other..so which is it?

thanks in advance for any help, especially to the first question.

Ganurath
2010-05-23, 11:44 AM
First of all, the Incarnae gave the gods free will so that the Primordial's couldn't just order them to order their troops to stand down, but there's a god of exaltation who can keep exaltation's in Yu-Shan, and I believe it said they require the patron gods approval before they are released in the world. So couldn't the Primordial's just have ordered them to not release the Exaltations back in the world, meaning that after a few victories the only enemies left would be dragon-blooded?This is the only question that I can answer, and the answer is rather simple: Your assumption that the Solars would inevitably die facing Primoridials is inaccurate. Dreams of the First Age has several examples of Solars that survived the entire takeover. You also assume that the Primordials could contact said deity without running into a small army of Sidereals.

Sanguine
2010-05-23, 11:51 AM
I can't answer the first question as I don't have Graceful Wicked Masques but as for the others...

Lytek the God of Exaltation did not have that duty until Autchthon left Creation as Autochthon himself pruned the Exaltations. Also it's not so much that they can't go on without Patron approval so much as after there hosts die they fly off to miniature Jade Prisons and they aren't released until Patron approval. However Autocthon was under no compulsion by the Geas that affected the gods so he could release them even if the Incarnae or Primordials ordered him not to.

As for the Primordials. All origin stories on them are complete speculation on the part of the Narrator and the true origins of the Primordials are left to the ST.

Now...*Sits down and prepares to be killed by Sidereal Ninjas.*

The Rose Dragon
2010-05-23, 11:56 AM
If I recall correctly, raksha don't have perfect defenses. Even if they do, they are probably effective only against creatures of the Wyld. And you don't really need perfect defenses to be a threat, as a raksha can easily get a DV around 15.

BobVosh
2010-05-23, 11:57 AM
First, the only question to do with actual rules, do Fair Folk have any perfect defenses? Because I can't find any. If so, what are they? and if not, how are Fair Folk supposed to be a real threat to Exalts with them?
I don't know if they do for 2ed, but they didn't for the first one. Basically the fact that there is literally infinite ones is why they are threatening. Also some of the charms they get are incredibly powerful.


First of all, the Incarnae gave the gods free will so that the Primordial's couldn't just order them to order their troops to stand down, but there's a god of exaltation who can keep exaltation's in Yu-Shan, and I believe it said they require the patron gods approval before they are released in the world. So couldn't the Primordial's just have ordered them to not release the Exaltations back in the world, meaning that after a few victories the only enemies left would be dragon-blooded?
Why would they obey that order? Also I should imagine the god of exaltation, the maidens, luna, and the unconquered sun were quite difficult to find as they were really needed to keep the fighting going.


Lastly, in the Fair Folk splat book, it says that the Primordials were the same as the proto-Rashaka before they reforged themselves with each others help, gave themselves forms and so on. But the book on the Five Maidens says that the Primordial's already had forms when they met each other..so which is it?

thanks in advance for any help, especially to the first question.

They also hadn't forged time itself yet, why would the timeline make sense? I don't know the answer to this one, anyway.

Sanguine
2010-05-23, 12:05 PM
Why would they obey that order? Also I should imagine the god of exaltation, the maidens, luna, and the unconquered sun were quite difficult to find as they were really needed to keep the fighting going.


Because Gods had to obey any order given by a Primordial. This is partially why they couldn't knock off the Primordials themselves.

Yuki Akuma
2010-05-23, 12:11 PM
First, the only question to do with actual rules, do Fair Folk have any perfect defenses? Because I can't find any. If so, what are they? and if not, how are Fair Folk supposed to be a real threat to Exalts with them?

No. Raksha crumple before the might of... pretty much everything. They're on the same level as God-Blooded - better than mortals, but worse than practically everything else.


First of all, the Incarnae gave the gods free will so that the Primordial's couldn't just order them to order their troops to stand down, but there's a god of exaltation who can keep exaltation's in Yu-Shan, and I believe it said they require the patron gods approval before they are released in the world. So couldn't the Primordial's just have ordered them to not release the Exaltations back in the world, meaning that after a few victories the only enemies left would be dragon-blooded?

Autochthon was the one in charge of the Exaltations during the Primordial War. He's a Primordial himself and is udner no compunctions to listen to his siblings.


Lastly, in the Fair Folk splat book, it says that the Primordials were the same as the proto-Rashaka before they reforged themselves with each others help, gave themselves forms and so on. But the book on the Five Maidens says that the Primordial's already had forms when they met each other..so which is it?

No one knows the origins of the Primordials - except possibly the Primordials themselves, and they're not telling. Anything writtin in the books is pure in-universe conjecture.

The Rose Dragon
2010-05-23, 01:42 PM
No. Raksha crumple before the might of... pretty much everything. They're on the same level as God-Blooded - better than mortals, but worse than practically everything else.

In my experience (which is admittedly limited), raksha have a power level similar to that of Dragon-blooded, but without any of the flexibility, since to have that power they have to assume a pretty rigid set of Charms and mutations in Creation.

puppyavenger
2010-05-24, 10:54 PM
Re: Flavor questions. That makes sense, thanks.



No. Raksha crumple before the might of... pretty much everything. They're on the same level as God-Blooded - better than mortals, but worse than practically everything else.

Really? that's..somewhat depressing as it kind of makes the idea for a game I had rather impractical. Seems kind of weird, considering that they can be pretty much immune to negative effects for a level five background, but I guess I'm just bad at eyeballing power level.


Just one more thing, the in Compass: Yu-Shan book, it mentions that Balor had the power to kill anyone, exalts included, with his gaze, and that the power was on the same level as the Unconquered Sun being invincible in battle. Is it at all possible for PC Rashaka to get something like that?

Draxar
2010-05-25, 05:54 AM
By the Fair Folk book: The primordials already had something when they met each other – they were points in the whirling, shifting wild.

The Primordials gave themselves definite form before they created Creation. They wanted similar things before even they did that, so it's possible when they came together they started changing the local wyld in particular ways. But their mere encountering wouldn't cause what's described.


... however...

The bit in Graceful Wicked Masques about the Primordials and the creation of Creation is emphatically and specifically not written in third-person omniscient mode. It specifically says:


[This] is not necessarily the true, verifiable origin of the primordials and the Raksha. It is, rather, a philosophical parable the raksha choose to understand about their origin and that of their bitterest enemies, No Raksha believes in the literal truth of this parable, but it frames the context of the opposition between the denizens of the Wyld and the Creation-born. Ultimately, it's only a story – one designed to amuse those who would ponder the unknowable.

So, it's entirely possible that the Fair Folk are wrong, and the Primordials were created differently to the other unshaped/proto-Raksha that were in existence at that time, or that they each individually reforged themselves before they met each other.

On the matter of the strength of the Fair Folk – depends on your group. Those that are heavily optimised, are used to perfecting till the other guy runs out of motes, those will easily kill Fair Folk. Less optimised folks will be still challenged by them, even without perfect defences.

Edit: Balors Eye – it's a bit of a plot device. Possibly as an Essence 10 Fair Folk charm. Essentially, it's up to your ST.

Deca
2010-05-25, 06:15 AM
First, the only question to do with actual rules, do Fair Folk have any perfect defenses? Because I can't find any. If so, what are they? and if not, how are Fair Folk supposed to be a real threat to Exalts with them?



It's kind of like how the Dragonblooded took down the First Age Solars. The Terrestials were far weaker but they won because there was so many of them.
It's the same for the Fair Folk, only more so. They're even weaker than the Dragon-blooded, but by god, their numbers are nigh-infinite. I seem to recall the Lunar splatbook mentioning that the raksha army in the Balorian Crusade was so vast that the single host circled all of Creation, allowing for the Fair Folk to attack from every Wyld border at once and overwhelm the Lunar defenders by sheer weight of numbers.
That's how they're a threat to Exalted.

Plus, some of their charms are pretty nifty, if somewhat situational.