[Exalted] Badass Normal

[Tengu_temp]

How would you build a heroic character powerful enough to at least pull his own weight in a group of low-level Exalted, or offer a fair challenge in a fight with a starting Exalt? No need to post the whole build, just the elements where your character really shines. Bonus points for using no experience, just the starting points available for a heroic mortal (via Scroll of Heroes), bonus bonus points for not having awakened Essence.

[Evil DM Mark3]

No awakened essence?! Good luck.

Unless you are going to have him operate as a non-combat threat. A mortal can make a useful obstruction in the form of a bureaucrat or a lawyer.

[Tengu_temp]

You can take awakened essence. You just get extra Internets if you make an effective character who doesn't have it.

[Ganurath]

Pulling one's own weight in a group of low level Exalts: There are two routes that one can take in this direction, both of which can be readily expanded upon with the Esoteric Knowledge background from Scroll of Heroes. One option is to be a thaumaturge. While you won't be crafting artifacts, you can turn perfectly ordinary items into Perfect Tools with enough time. The other option is picking up mutations from power questing, but that's potentially dangerous: If the sum point value of your non-derangement mutations (treating negative as positive) exceeds your Willpower, it becomes dangerous for your character to not be in the Wyld. Unlike thaumaturgy, though, it doesn't require awakened Essence.

Standing up to an Exalt in a fight: Aside from the above mutation path, there's the classic Yasal Crystal route where you keep a summoned demon in a Yasal Crystal for Charm use. This tends to involve cutting a deal with the demon, such as letting the Erymanthoi out to eat whatever opponent you kill using their Charms, or letting him out to participate in the fight after you activate Principle of Motion. Of course, that route requires enlightened Essence, but anyone going into a fight without Essence 2 is going to have crippled DVs.

Final note: There are a lot of Merits that generate Charm-level benefits, such as the 4pt version of Innocous. There's also a thaumeturgic ritual in Oadenol's Codex that allows the user to attune to a manse and benefit from hearthstones without being an Essence user, and the Blood Ritual from Arts of the Dead would let an unenlightened mortal attune to hearthstone amulets to benefit from the abilities in the Hearthstone. Be mindful of mortal healing time if going this route, though.

[Drascin]

The problem is that, well, from the vibe I get from the books, having an actual competent mortal goes against the whole "tone" of the setting as intended - which can be summed up as "If you're not Exalted, you don't matter for ****". So annoying as it is, you'd be playing against years of contrariness in the mechanics.

Still, while you won't be winning any direct fights anytime soon, Taumathurgy would still likely make you a beloved member of an Exalt team - the whole imbuing stuff and such is pretty useful and everyone loves having improved stuff.

EDIT: Yeah, so Ganurath ninja'd me with my idea and half a dozen more .

[Ganurath]

EDIT: Yeah, so Ganurath ninja'd me with my idea and half a dozen more .

You expected the creator of the Jin Sahkin to ignore this thread?

[Xefas]

Here's my try. I won't be using any experience points, and won't be spending any bonus points on awakening Essence. The only Merit I require is one purchase of Extra Favored Ability. No Flaws.

First, make sure you have at least 3 Strength and 3 Stamina.

Then have Martial Arts as your Favored Ability, and put 3 dots in it.
(Also spend 2 bonus points to receive a second Favored Ability; put it into Occult and get that up to 3 as well)

Put 1 background dot in Backing, 3 dots in Mentor, and 1 dot in Artifact.

You now qualify for the Thug Profession, which gets you a free dot in Martial Arts, Dodge, and Athletics (this can raise those to 4 if you set them to 3 with your initial ability dots).

For bonus points:
Spend 10 on Willpower 10 (Assuming your virtues are spaced with three 2s and a 3)
Spend 4 on raising your Mentor to 5
Spend 2 points to raise your Artifact to 3
Spend 2 points to raise your Artifact to 4
Spend your last 1 point on a separate Artifact 1

So, notes on Backgrounds In Play:
Your Artifact 4 will be a set of First Age Gunzosha Commando Armor
Your Artifact 1 will be a pair of Orichalcum Smashfists

Your Mentor is a Malefactor Infernal (This can be done even if she's only just-out-of-CharGen; she doesn't need anything outside of what you can get there) who you're about to sell your soul to. Because she has nothing to lose from the arrangement and everything to gain, (plus you spent a 5 dot background on her) she agrees.

First, she uses Scoured Perfection of Form to grant you the Creature of Darkness, Awakened Essence, Exalted Healing, and Aura of Power mutations. This adds up to +0 mutation points, so it costs you no experience debt.

You now have a Personal Pool of 11, and a Peripheral Pool of 23, so you can attune to that armor for 4 motes and attune to that Smashfist for 12 (unfortunately, because of not resonating with any magical materials).

Then, she uses Gifts of Greater Glory to grant you a Terrestrial Martial Arts charm of your choice (I suggest either Ill Lily, Jade Mountain, or some other style that allows fighting in armor - since you have armor).

You're now in Experience Debt for learning a charm. But, your mentor has Miracle Gift Mastery, which allows her to give mortals trait dots even if they're in Experience Debt. So, she spends the next day granting you 5 dots in all of your Attributes and Abilities, as well as +3 specialties in all of your abilities.

You're now in a horrible Experience Debt well from which you will most likely never recover. And your Mentor basically owns you, body and soul, for the rest of your (badass) existence.

But! You have crazy stats, some nice artifacts, and a martial arts charm.

EDIT: Just did the math. The minimum EXP debt for this character would be 972, if his attributes and abilities were arrayed optimally. Though, remember that you only have to pay half of all experience you receive towards paying off the debt, so you can eventually buy additional terrestrial martial arts charms, or raise your essence score or what-have-you.

[Tengu_temp]

Eh, depending on an Exalt to grant you powers misses the spirit of the exercise, I think. Not sure about using lots of mutations - on one hand, you're still mortal, but on the other, you're not really normal anymore.

Let's see what can I cook up myself.

EDIT: Okay, here's what I came up with:

Dexterity 5
Melee 5 + 3 specialties (Hammers)
Artifacts: 2*Skin Mount Amulet, Moonsilver Goremaul, Orichalcum Thunderbolt Shield
Manse 3
Manse 5

Skin Mount Amulets, combined with the hearthstones of your manses, provide the motes needed to attune to the other artifacts. Combat stats: 16 attack, 16+strength bashing piercing damage, 11 PDV. This is before the bonuses from hearthstones, they should be able to provide extra bonuses on top of that.

Character requires a lot of stunting when faced with ranged attacks (since his PDV is much higher than DDV). Make sure the enemies don't remove your Hearthstones, or you're humped. I haven't counted the cost of all those artifacts yet, might be too high for a starting character.

[The Rose Dragon]

You now have a Personal Pool of 11, and a Peripheral Pool of 23, so you can attune to that armor for 4 motes and attune to that Smashfist for 12 (unfortunately, because of not resonating with any magical materials).

Only 3. Mortals cannot force attunement to magical material bonuses, even by paying double the motes. And one Smashfist only has a attunement cost of 3 motes.

[a_humble_lich]

Another option is the social route. Use your bonus points to insane levels of Resources, Influence, and Followers. You may not be Exalted, but you are ruler of a nation and have a sizable army at your command. As few Exalted (outside of Dawn Castes) bother to buy many points of War, you (and your army) could hold your own with many starting Exalts. Also, even without charms that level of influence can help a party out. Alternately, you could do something similar with backing and be a Guild Factor. Stupid levels of contacts wouldn't be a bad choice too.

Granted an Exalt could do the same thing, but most starting Exalts waste their points with things like higher essence, artifacts, charms, etc. On the other hand, the rest of the party might get annoyed at having to travel with an army all the time...

[Tengu_temp]

Mortals cannot force attunement to magical material bonuses, even by paying double the motes.

Remind me, where is this written? I remember other people claiming to the contrary.

[The Rose Dragon]

Remind me, where is this written? I remember other people claiming to the contrary.

It's not written anywhere except by omission of anything to the contrary. According to the core rulebook, only Exalts can attune to magical material bonuses and force attunement to wrong materials. Any other being that has a similar capability specifically points it out in their write-up.

[Xefas]

Only 3. Mortals cannot force attunement to magical material bonuses, even by paying double the motes. And one Smashfist only has a attunement cost of 3 motes.

Ah, you're right! I completely forgot.

Remind me, where is this written? I remember other people claiming to the contrary.

For one, I believe there is a mutation (Material Resonance) that specifically grants mortals the ability to attune to and gain the benefit from Magical Materials (even though I think they still have to pay double the cost). If they already could, that mutations wouldn't exist.

[Tengu_temp]

Roight. That makes my build slightly less powerful - let's go for something else instead.

[Ganurath]

It's not written anywhere except by omission of anything to the contrary. According to the core rulebook, only Exalts can attune to magical material bonuses and force attunement to wrong materials. Any other being that has a similar capability specifically points it out in their write-up.

Actually, the Fair Folk Errata has it explicitely stated that they can't force attunement. This implies that the default is "no natural magic material, but cross-attunement is an option."

Of course, it's not an option when using thaumaturgy to attune, since it doesn't say you can do that in the ritual, but for an Essence user...