Talkin' bout Exalted

[The_Matthew]

Alright, I've been trying to get a good build together but school has been an evil time killer. By the way you want to be an eclipse so that you get to take advantage of getting Siderial stuff that lets you change target numbers, which is awesome.

I'll try to get the build up by Sunday.

[User3]

Well? Are we going to see the build or not?

[Avoraciopoctules]

NECRO, because I hate making new threads when old ones cover the same ground.

I hear that there's a new edition of Exalted coming out. Does it look like it will be any good? I've been feeling like trying out a fantasy RPG where you can play super-durable mage-warriors who can do setting-changing stuff in their downtime, and in theory Exalted sounds like it might be good for that.

Then again, all I know about Exalted comes from reading forum discussions about ways 2E is terrible and collective games/webcomics loosely based on the setting.

[Schleiermacher]

It looks like it will be a huge improvement on 2E, but 2E had so many problems that might not actually be enough to make it to "good".

I really want to like Exalted, and I fought with 2E for years until I realized it wasn't going to let me. The stuff that the developers have been saying (and showing, for the 5 seconds they were giving out previews) about 3E has mostly been exactly what I want (except for adding several new kinds of Exalted to the setting, what's up with that?) but I remember thinking much the same about the 2.5 errata release, and that turned out to have been massively overhyped, so my optimism is cautious.

On the other hand, this time the developers have a clean slate to work on that they didn't have when making 2.5, and it looks like they're taking advantage of it, so bottom line, optimistic.

[Silent Wayfarer]

NECRO, because I hate making new threads when old ones cover the same ground.

I hear that there's a new edition of Exalted coming out. Does it look like it will be any good? I've been feeling like trying out a fantasy RPG where you can play super-durable mage-warriors who can do setting-changing stuff in their downtime, and in theory Exalted sounds like it might be good for that.

Then again, all I know about Exalted comes from reading forum discussions about ways 2E is terrible and collective games/webcomics loosely based on the setting.

2E was built on 1E which was built on the foundation of shit that is the storyteller system. It was never meant to handle Exalted.

The thing about being an Exalt is that for the most part you're basically a mundane human + your Charms; if people ambush you or catch you off guard, you fucking die. There's ways around this but those require significant investment into Not Dying. So it's more productive to be a ninja sneakmaster rather Sir Glorious Suncock who immediately gets targeted by all the powerful people in the setting (this is a big part of Sidereals' power). If you want to play a glorious magewarrior with setting hax, I think you'd be better off with D&D 3.X. No, really.

Exalted 3E looks to be helmed by Holden Shearer, one of the few freelancers who actually understands how the math should work, and it'll involve Geoffrey C Grabowski, the original creative mind behind Ex1e. However, not all the devs are wondrous and perfect and my friend is going to wait for me to buy it and pirate it to him in case it is tainted.

[Avoraciopoctules]

That's a little disappointing. 3.x is a nice system, but it's really difficult to play someone durable enough to be a multi-stage boss monster without major fiat.

Pathfinder's done it in a few modules, but always with a large amount of handwavium to help things along. I think the standout was a cleric who is possessed by a demon and has a bunch of monster larvae incubating inside him. So you kill him once, he turns into a demon. You kill him twice, he explodes into a bunch of little monsters that attack. He takes at least 3 rounds to take out, probably more, since save-or-dies don't affect stage 2 or 3 until they actually get activated.

[Silent Wayfarer]

That's a little disappointing. 3.x is a nice system, but it's really difficult to play someone durable enough to be a multi-stage boss monster without major fiat.

You can blame one-shotting spells and the impetus to crank out insane damage to compete for that.

Pathfinder's done it in a few modules, but always with a large amount of handwavium to help things along. I think the standout was a cleric who is possessed by a demon and has a bunch of monster larvae incubating inside him. So you kill him once, he turns into a demon. You kill him twice, he explodes into a bunch of little monsters that attack. He takes at least 3 rounds to take out, probably more, since save-or-dies don't affect stage 2 or 3 until they actually get activated.

Bastion of Broken Souls was good with that too.

The final boss was a great wyrm red dragon with a demonic heart (made of an actual demon, granting it the half-fiend template) which also had fast healing because you fought it in a pool of concentrated positive energy. After you killed it, the demon heart turned back into an advanced balor (with the half-dragon template) laden with tricked out bling.

I preferred the Cathezar, though.

[Josh_Kablack]

Exalted 3E looks to be helmed by Holden Shearer, one of the few freelancers who actually understands how the math should work, and it'll involve Geoffrey C Grabowski, the original creative mind behind Ex1e.

IIRC, such involvement is pretty much "yeah, I'll churn out some fluff for you so you can invoke my name".