I am no mere GOD [3.5, Exaltations, PEACH and help.]

[Amechra]

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/DeathBySurfeit/Lockdown/donottauntsolarexalt.jpg (http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/DeathBySurfeit/Lockdown/donottauntsolarexalt.jpg)
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq67/Jrdstammer/AbyssalExalted.jpg (http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq67/Jrdstammer/AbyssalExalted.jpg)
http://images.elfwood.com/art/r/o/rocambe/gd2infernalhistory.jpg (http://images.elfwood.com/art/r/o/rocambe/gd2infernalhistory.jpg)
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj186/Satsujinki/ExaltedMagicMissile.jpg (http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj186/Satsujinki/ExaltedMagicMissile.jpg)

What is an Exaltation?
Fluff needed

[Amechra]

The Second Breath

All Exalts have gone through the Second Breath; a mystical event that essentially comes about when a Exalt-to-be has rejected the status quo. When they sell their soul to stop their own death from a plague, mayhaps, or defending the life of an ally against overwhelming odds.

These are the deeds that cause the ones that hold the Anima that contain an Exalt's Exaltation to grant it to this mortal.

Well, former mortal.

Exalt
"Exalt" is a template that may be applied to any creature of the Humanoid type.

Size and Type: Size is unchanged; the creature gains the [Exalted] subtype.

Speed: The base creature gains a +10 bonus to their base land speed, due to greater efficiency in both their metabolism and their musculature.

Armor Class: The base creature gains a Perfection bonus to their armor class equal to half of their HD (minimum 1)

Special Attacks: The base creature keeps all of its original special attacks, and gains the following:

Perfected Form (Ex): All exalted are just plain better than you; as such, they gain a perfection bonus to all opposed checks equal to half of their HD (minimum 1). In addition, they may ignore an amount of damage reduction equal to their HD whenever they deal damage.

Contemptuous Strikes (Ex): Even the weakest Exalt is a swordmaster by a normal person's standards; whenever an Exalted attacks a creature without the [Exalted] subtype, they may, at their option, treat their attack roll as if they had rolled a Natural 20, minus half the amount the targeted creature's ECL is higher that their own (minimum 10). In addition, they always confirm criticals against creatures without the [Exalted] subtype.

Special Qualities
An Exalted keeps all of the base creature's special qualities, and gains the following:


Flawless Form (Ex): An Exalted is not some flawed mortal; they have been made into something... more.

For the purpose of everything except qualifying for feats and prestige classes, add the ability modifier for a given ability score to itself before adjusting the roll; for example, if an Exalted has a Constitution of 24, they would treat their Constitution as if it were 31 for the purpose of uses of Constitution-based checks, HP, and Fortitude saves.

In addition, when targeted by an effect by a creature that does not have the [Exalted] subtype, they may, instead of rolling the save, treat it as though they had rolled a Natural 20, minus half the amount the targeted creature's ECL is higher that their own (minimum 10). In addition, if an effect generated by a creature without the [Exalted] subtype has no save, an Exalted may, at their option, make a Will save vs. the effect; if they succeed on the save, that effect does not affect them.

Second Breath's Sigh (Ex): All Exalted have an "Exaltation" type and a Caste.

As soon as they gain this template, they are treated as if they had taken a Major Bloodline (including the loss in benefits from levels 3, 6, and 12), and do not gain any feats from HD at 12th, 15th, and 18th levels.

However, they gain one of the Exaltations listed later in this thread.

Anima Banner (Su): All Exalted have an "Anima Banner", or a powerful manifestation of their great souls.

All Exalts have an amount of Willpower equal to their Wisdom score, unmodified by Flawless form, and a number of Motes as indicated by their Exaltation type.

An Exalt may release their Anima Banner as a Swift action, when they do so, a symbol appears upon their fore-head, and a large illusionary image appears behind them, revealing their potent nature. Their Anima Banner remains "unfurled" for as long as the Exalted chooses to leave it out.

When they release their Anima Banner, they regain a number of Motes each round equal to 1/2 their HD; this cannot be used to regain more Motes than the Exalted had in the first place.

In addition, they cannot hide their nature with their banner unfurled; any Detect spell or similar effect sees them as one more category stronger (maximum Overwhelming), and only need to observe them for one round to gain the full benefits of normally observing them for 3 rounds. The Exalted always fails Hide and Disguise checks while their banner is unfurled; even hiding behind objects fails, as the Exalted's glory is clearly visible through up to an inch of any material.

Ability Scores: +2 to any two ability scores, +4 to one other; all ability scores they have are a minimum of 10 (their ability scores may not go below this amount due to Ability Damage or Ability Drain).

CR: +You just lost.

LA: +0*

*Only is everyone is playing an Exalted; if there is one person wanting to play an Exalted, the DM must exercise discretion. After all, a Dawn Caste Monk will not be unbalanced against a party of Wizards, but a Twilight Caste Wizard might be a little much...

[Exalted] Subtype
-Immunity to Energy Drain and Negative Levels.
-Immunity to Disease and Poison.
-Uses the Vitality system for Hit Points, instead of the normal hit-point system.
-They have Regeneration 1 that is only bypassed by attacks from other Exalted.

Notes
Yes, this is strong. Very strong.

But hey, that is to be expected! You aren't some two-bit hero, you are a completely sentient super-weapon, and you should act like it!

[Amechra]

Reserved for awesome

[Amechra]

Reserved for awesome

[Amechra]

Reserved for awesome

[Amechra]

Reserved for awesome

[Amechra]

Reserved for awesome

[Amechra]

Reserved for awesome

[Amechra]

Reserved for awesome

[Amechra]

Reserved for awesome

[Amechra]

Reserved for awesome

[Mira_Man]

...This will be so cool, if it is done right.

And so maddening it not.

Good luck with the Solor/Lunar/Abyssal/Infernal Exaltion Template
And oh yeah the Autochtion and Dragonblooded Races too.

[Amechra]

I'm currently modding bloodlines/epic destinies for the Exalts; I don't think LA would fit...

And I will just in general need help with the charms.

The sad part, though, is that I will, by necessity, need to dial the power level WAY down; else-wise, a starting Solar is comparable to a 15th level Wizard in power, and goes up from there.

So yeah...

[Ziegander]

So you're actually attempting to convert Exalted to D&D...

I'm surprised no one's tried to do this before to be honest. Good luck! :smallsmile:

[Morph Bark]

So you're actually attempting to convert Exalted to D&D...

Monte Cook's World of Darkness could help perhaps. d20, based of a White Wolf product...

[Kobold-Bard]

So you're actually attempting to convert Exalted to D&D...

I'm surprised no one's tried to do this before to be honest. Good luck! :smallsmile:

You've clearly never seen The Demented One's homebrew sig-link.

[Amechra]

Alright, basic, generic "I'm an Exalted BAMF" template is up.

Note that any Exalted with access to point-buy is pretty darn sure to get at least one ability score as an effective 28 or higher.

Yes, you START with a +9 modifier. You can easily pump that up to a +17 if you know what you are doing. :smallcool:

[Mr.Bookworm]

Comparing everything to Exalted 2E and the differences between Exalted and mortals there.


Speed: The base creature gains a +10 bonus to their base land speed, due to greater efficiency in both their metabolism and their musculature.

Why? Exalted are quite a bit tougher and they can easily be incredibly fast, but they don't get any default speed boosts.


Armor Class: The base creature gains a Perfection bonus to their armor class equal to half of their HD (minimum 1)

Alright.


Perfected Form (Ex): All exalted are just plain better than you; as such, they gain a perfection bonus to all opposed checks equal to half of their HD (minimum 1). In addition, they may ignore an amount of damage reduction equal to their HD whenever they deal damage.

This seems bizarre.

Exalted are not "better than you" as a power, which is what this is. They are better than you, but that's because their skill transcends the mortal. They naturally should be able to beat someone on an opposed check because they can throw an enormous modifier at the check, not because they get an ability that makes them artificially better than the other person.


Contemptuous Strikes (Ex): Even the weakest Exalt is a swordmaster by a normal person's standards; whenever an Exalted attacks a creature without the [Exalted] subtype, they may, at their option, treat their attack roll as if they had rolled a Natural 20, minus half the amount the targeted creature's ECL is higher that their own (minimum 10). In addition, they always confirm criticals against creatures without the [Exalted] subtype.

Nooooooo.

There are plenty of non-Exalted things that pose a genuine threat to the Exalted, depending on what type and Essence they're at. They shouldn't get a game-breaking "I win" ability against every single thing not Exalted.

Hell, they shouldn't get a default game-breaking "I win" combat ability at all. Exalted are merely skilled combatants by default, thanks to stunting. One who completely blows off combat skills is going to be screwed against anything above the mortal level.


For the purpose of everything except qualifying for feats and prestige classes, add the ability modifier for a given ability score to itself before adjusting the roll; for example, if an Exalted has a Constitution of 24, they would treat their Constitution as if it were 31 for the purpose of uses of Constitution-based checks, HP, and Fortitude saves.

This is a very counter-intuitive way of saying "multiply an ability modifier by 1.5 before applying it".

I'm not sure it's necessary, either. Wouldn't the superb Exalted abilities be better represented by higher point buy or some similar method of character creation? Or give two sets of +6, +4, and +2 ability modifiers, one to Str/Dex/Con and one to Int/Wis/Cha.


In addition, when targeted by an effect by a creature that does not have the [Exalted] subtype, they may, instead of rolling the save, treat it as though they had rolled a Natural 20, minus half the amount the targeted creature's ECL is higher that their own (minimum 10). In addition, if an effect generated by a creature without the [Exalted] subtype has no save, an Exalted may, at their option, make a Will save vs. the effect; if they succeed on the save, that effect does not affect them.

Again, the Exalted don't win automatically against everything that's not Exalted, which is what this does.


As soon as they gain this template, they are treated as if they had taken a Major Bloodline (including the loss in benefits from levels 3, 6, and 12), and do not gain any feats from HD at 12th, 15th, and 18th levels.

Uh. This does not strike me as a very good way to do it. Caste/Exalt type don't provide scaling benefits as a bloodline does. A normal template as it was up to now would serve better.


All Exalts have an amount of Willpower equal to their Wisdom score, unmodified by Flawless form, and a number of Motes as indicated by their Exaltation type.

I haven't seen your system admittedly, but wouldn't Wisdom bonus work better? Willpower is supposed to be a fairly rare resource.


An Exalt may release their Anima Banner as a Swift action, when they do so, a symbol appears upon their fore-head, and a large illusionary image appears behind them, revealing their potent nature. Their Anima Banner remains "unfurled" for as long as the Exalted chooses to leave it out.

I'd make it a free action and make it last an encounter (5 minutes outside of combat). One of the points of the anima banner is that it's occasionally a disadvantage. Unfurling it means you can't hide yourself.


When they release their Anima Banner, they regain a number of Motes each round equal to 1/2 their HD; this cannot be used to regain more Motes than the Exalted had in the first place.

Uh. Why? This is counter to Exalted, where you have to spend motes to get your banner up.

Not to mention that this makes it incredibly easy to regain Motes. At the absolute least it means that they'll start almost every single encounter at full resources.


Ability Scores: +2 to any two ability scores, +4 to one other; all ability scores they have are a minimum of 10 (their ability scores may not go below this amount due to Ability Damage or Ability Drain).

Why the 10 part? Exalted can have 1 dot in a trait in 2E. You can be ugly, physically weak or clumsy, or whatever. You'll be very, very skilled in another area to make up for it, but you can do it.


CR: +You just lost.

God no.

Do I need to make an entire list of the dozens of things in Exalted that could murder an Exalt? If you're porting it over to D&D and making it incredibly overpowered, that makes it a wankfest that I quite frankly wouldn't want to play.

Exalted are amazing because they usually win in spite of their opposition. Making it easy defeats the entire purpose.

When porting it to D&D, it should keep the same mindset. Exalted shouldn't be able to curbstomp the entire Monster Manual in their sleep. A Solar should be able to fight a pitched battle against a Balor at level 10 (or whatever), almost dying in the process, but come out on top, bleeding and broken yet victorious.

EDIT: I kind of went off on a rant here, but "+You just lost" betrays a mindset I detest in the Exalted community. Specifically, the idea that the Exalted (usually Solars) can curbstomp everything in their path.


-Immunity to Energy Drain and Negative Levels.

This strikes me as something that should be a Charm, not a default.


-Immunity to Disease and Poison.

Exalted aren't immune to those things. They're resistant, but not immune. You need Charms for that.


-They have Regeneration 1 that is only bypassed by attacks from other Exalted.

Again, that doesn't model how Exalted work, at all.

[silphael]

Personnaly, I would have seen them with bigger abilities modifier than +4 +4 +2 +2. More something like +8 +8 +4 +4 +2 +2, and a lowest score of 12 instead of 10. Giving a bonus to six ability modifiers instead of 4 isn't broken: which classes need 6 abilities if not a monk or something like that?

Again, about the "i'm even better than what my abilities sayed", why don't make it for the purpose of prerequisite? Once more, the one who need some high abilities are the classes universaly known as weak. With that, you could: be a fighting guy with high strength and constitution (as you sayed, but with 30-34 in both), have really high wis and cha (19-22), and still having nice dex and int (not really needed, but that's nice to say "my character can think too).

Maybe I'm seeking the little beast? (direct french-english translation is a very bad idea...)

[Amechra]

Note to self: Write this project AFTER you are done with college applications/homework.

Homebrewing after 36 hours awake is a bad idea as well.

But, yeah, stunting would probably be better as a "roll twice, take better" option, but ONLY if the player describes it in an awesome manner.

[Garryl]

From what I've heard about Exalted from here and elsewhere; never played it), I would have thought that when compared to normal folks (level 1-5 NPCs (http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/d&d-calibrating.html)), Exalts are roughly what D&D calls 10th-15th level characters. Tremendously better than the normal human range, possessing a variety of potent skills and abilities, and quite likely to outdo an exceptional person in his specialty with only a passing interest in the subject and a bit of preparation, but still an entity within the middle of the cosmic power structure and quite mortal with respect to truly deadly threats and even strong enough responses from organized mortal-types (like a small army with magical backing, an elite Exalt-hunting task force, a secret government superweapon, or whatever depending on the setting).

[ErrantX]

I'm going to subscribe to this, as I'm really interested in seeing what you end up with.

Good start so far, albeit with a few things that I'm not sure of. Still WAY to premature for me to give any kind of a critique yet. Good luck!

-X

[Amechra]

Yeah, don't expect to see anything for a while; I didn't think this through completely before posting, and it shows in my notes.

Seriously, I haven't touched an Exalted rulesbook in so long... I'm workin' off memory here.

Expect something in a year or so.

[Amechra]

Alright, I'm going to scrap all the work on this (due to my increased knowledge of D&D's rule-set), and I'm gonna start from scratch.

And, as a retro-active answer to the whole "but Exalted don't have "I am better than you" as an ability, they just have a massive bonus!", that works (kinda; there are actually a great deal of times in the Exalted ruleset where non-Exalts don't even get to oppose the effects of a Charm.) in Exalted, but not so much in D&D, especially since massive modifiers suck for game balance (if I were to re-write the system, the first thing to go would be monstrous modifiers. For this, Excellencies will be skill tricks that work kind of like Balancing Lorecall, in that they allow you to do some things that have massive DCs at much lower DCs (such as balancing on water with a DC 20 check.))

[Agrippa]

Good, that sounds like a plan.

[Network]

a Dawn Caste Monk will not be unbalanced against a party of Wizards
And they have Tarasque-like regeneration? Totally true! :smallannoyed:

The rest of my review is... reserved for awesome. :smalltongue:

[The-Mage-King]

...Consider this being observed.

[Amechra]

And they have Tarasque-like regeneration? Totally true! :smallannoyed:

The rest of my review is... reserved for awesome. :smalltongue:

That was me from a humbler, less jaded time.

I'm not going to balance against Tier 1 with this.

I'm going to basically be balancing towards a Tier 3 versatility level, with some increase in power level. Or something.

Because really, even though the point of Exalted is that you are OMG powerful, that won't work too well with the D&D ruleset and making a balanced game.

I've gotten myself into some bad stuff right here.

(Now, to work out the best way to implement Perfects...)

[Rhyvurg]

It's been said, so much potential for awesome here.