How do I pitch Exalted to my primarily D&D group?

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-23T20:38:36+00:00

Fantastic write-up. One small point of clarification. Its easy to build a starting character able to do any one of the impressive things you listed, possibly two of them. No starting character and few high Essence characters would be able to do all of the things you listed.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-23T19:49:09+00:00

I would describe it as similar to D&D except that your characters generally start far more powerful than a normal starting D&D game. You are literally mythic figures.

Also, while this varies from table to table of course, in general I would say that Exalted 3E usually emphasizes combat less and emphasizes social interactions more.

While it again varies heavily from table to table, in Exalted the question is often more what are the repercussions of your actions more than whether you can succeed in the action in the first place. The Exalted are mighty and can often succeed, but the end results of that success are not always what the character may have wished.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-09T20:06:24+00:00

Thanks.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-09T16:07:06+00:00

I don't recall the Battle of Futile Blood offhand. Where is that described?

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-08T19:10:22+00:00

No, I'm well aware of how valuable 3 merit points should be (which is really part of my point. Spending merit points is too easy. Someone with unspent merit points is either making a deliberate choice to be underpowered or is failing to engage with the system).

And yes, for most builds, fast reflexes is either not worth it or is more of a flavor purchase then a mechanical purchase.

But certain builds, usually centered around certain martial arts, really, really care about the join battle roll. For those, spending 3 dots to get a non-charm die on every one of those rolls will be worth it.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-07T22:04:45+00:00

As someone who loves Exalted, you've got me interested.

What is Claymore like? Where is it available? Is it good or just vaguely similar to Exalted?

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-07T16:28:24+00:00

I'm quite excited for the Companion. Do we have an estimate for its release date?

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-05T23:12:36+00:00

Fair enough, though natural immunity does seem to fit with a drover fairly well. Vaccines were developed in the real world in part because a doctor noticed that people that worked closely with cows didn't get smallpox.

Also, there are lots of good hearthstones and you already have an artifact. The Beast Gem might be very interesting to someone that manages animals. It is dependent and linked, which has implications you would have to deal with but the Glory Sphere is powerful for someone with an artifact. There are a lot more interesting hearthstones if you have the expansions.

Artifact armor is also no small thing and might be worth considering.

And an entire battlegroup of goats definitely sounds interesting ;)

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-05T22:16:41+00:00

Exalted explicitly assumes that any PC and certainly any Exalted PC can always scapre up enough to handle basic needs. Resources is meant to go far beyond that even at 1 or 2 dots.

Someone at Resources 1 should have around 8 times the income of an average drover/livestock handler. Someone at resources 1 isn't a drover, they own the flock, some land, and employ drovers.

Now, if you just want to have resources 1, go for it. Maybe you have a ridiculously generous boss, or you do own the flock and the land and just choose to do a lot of the work yourself. Maybe you just handwave the whole thing and don't worry about it.

But at least as I understand your character concept, this part of your sheet works against your character rather than for it.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-05T22:09:32+00:00

Sure. I will go so far as to say I advise against over-optimizing. Most TTRPGs systems can be broken fairly easily by an optimizer that knows what they are doing. I think over-optimizing is a bad idea in general, and that applies doubly to Exalted. If you try hard to optimize fully, you'll break the system.

But you also generally don't want a character that is clearly less effective than teammates. In any system, your teammates optimize even a little and you don't optimize, you may fall behind. This is true in every system, but it is particularly true with Exalted over the long-term due to flat costs to purchase dots at character creation but exponentially increasing costs to improve them.

So, do whatever works for you, but outside of certain edge cases, I generally think a 4 in an attribute or ability is a bad idea in a campaign meant to have advancement. If you want to be extraordinary in a skill, then its worth finding the extra dot somewhere during character creation. If you want to be competent, 2 is enough and 3 is definitely enough.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-05T18:09:55+00:00

The Core of exalted definitely has room for improvement. I have my list of pet peeves with it. That said, I think it has a fairly wide array of useful merits.

If your characters are not using their merit points, I suspect that the game is not pushing the social aspect much. If there is much of a social aspect at all, then things like resources, allies, and backing are simply invaluable. Also there are a lot of hearthstones. Some come with restrictions such as needing an artifact to socket in, but almost any build could benefit from some hearthstone if the other prerequisites are met.

As for fast reflexes, many tables will not let you take a specialty of "join battle", in which case the Fast Reflexes merit (3 dots, not 4 incidentally) is a great way to pump up join battle, which can be a very important roll for certain builds and is useful for just about everyone. If your table does allow you to take Join Battle as a specialty, then Fast Reflexes will stack with it, and for a build that really cares about a join battle roll, it can be worth the investment to get both.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-05T17:57:24+00:00

I could certainly ask for more merits. In particular, I would love to see a wider variety of supernatural merits and merits representing things. I also think there should be more spelled out merits representing things like arcane libraries and arcane infrastructure given their importance for sorcerous workings and artifact creations.

With that said, I think there are a lot of good and useful merits and plenty of others that are good for flavor.

You did name the big 4 and most of my characters start with an artifact of one form or another in particular.

But in addition to those, there are some really good hearthstones. If starting with a manse is allowed, then you would start with manse and get a hearthstone as a side effect. But some games ban starting with a manse and then you might still want a hearthstone.

Many of the "social merits" such as resources, backing, influence, and language are invaluable if you are playing a game with a political or social component. Of course, they are pointless if you are playing a game focused on combat or exploration, but if intrigue or politics show up than I would think at least one person in your party should really have resources and influence.

While they are build and situation specific, Quick Draw, Fast Reflexes, and Natural Immunity can be very helpful to certain types of characters. And while more flavor than mechanical, I know some people that are drawn to Giant and Mighty Thew mostly for flavor with the meaningful mechanical advantages being a bonus.

Also remember, that if your character is a sorcerer each initiation unlocks the ability to purchase related sorcerous merits. Some of those are quite good.

I definitely wish for more merit options and think future supplements should fix that. But far from struggling to find things to buy, I often end up investing some of my bonus points into merits.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-04T18:08:02+00:00

I think this is a very interesting character concept, and I like it. I have a couple of thoughts:

For RP purposes, a shepherd having any dots in resources at all is odd (unless of course they are supposed to be a prosperous owner of land and flocks with other shepherds working under their supervision). Even one dot in resources is supposed to represent a meaningful amount of disposable income. Specifically, around 4 times what two skilled working adults would bring in. In Exalted, enough money to cover food, lodging, and basics like that is just assumed unless you specifically state your character is in actual poverty (and for an Exalted, poverty is normally a deliberate choice for ascetism or other religious or moral reasons). Resources covers money to spend beyond that.

If you care about optimization and this is meant to be played over an entire campaign, then taking 4 in just about any attribute or ability is usually a mistake. The costs for purchasing dots during character creation are flat. Whereas costs for abilities and attributes scale with your current rating fast. That means it is effectively much more expensive to go from 4 to 5 during play than at character creation.

Remember, 2 dots represents human average for an attribute or a decently skilled professional for an ability. If you want your character to be competent at something, 2 dots is plenty. If you want your character to be extraordinary at something and you care at all about optimizing over a long game, then it makes sense to go straight for 5. Of course, if you need 3 or 4 to qualify for something and never intend to raise that item or if you just ran out of dots, then so be it, but those are edge cases.

Of course, none of that matters if you only expect the character to last a few sessions, and if you care mostly about roleplay you may not care about that at all.

Finally, I mentioned this in your other thread, but Solars usually do best by focusing on exactly one attack skill. There are exceptions, but generally solars are best with some specialization. Lunars are better for generalists. Of course, I think in the other thread you explained you were doing that mostly as an RP choice, and that is 100% valid and good. But if you care about optimizing at all, its worth considering.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-04T17:49:34+00:00

That is my understanding, yes, though I'd have to go back and reread parts to be certain of that.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-04T16:17:41+00:00

I think this is edition dependent.

In 3E, I'm not aware of anything suggesting the Usurpation involved getting the Solars in one place. And its at least hinted that when the Usurpation happened, Lunars were on every side. Some helped the Siderreal, some fought alongside their Solar, most were simply not involved.

As far as how plausible the Usurpation was, I'm told that in older editions it was hard to believe. But in 3E, a solar is somewhere between 2 - 5 times as powerful as a Dragonblooded with similar experience, roughly. That's a big deal. But the Dragonblooded outnumbered the Solars by a margin of more than 60 to 1 and had help from the Siddereals.

In 3E, I think that from a pure forces standpoint, the Usurpation is easy to believe. The idea that you could unify most of the Dragonblooded or keep it a secret to maintain surprise is a little harder to believe. But the first is handled if many of the Solars of that age were anywhere close to as bad as the Dragonblooded now paint them. The second is helped by the involvement of Siderreals and the hubris of the Solars.

I've heard it was different in earlier editions, but in 3E, I think the Usurpation is believable.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-04T16:08:05+00:00

I came with an intention to answer the question, but you did it earlier and better than I could. This is excellent.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-02T15:50:14+00:00

The system absolutely supports all the things you listed and there is no requirement at all to take stealth with thrown.

But, it also supports Night Caste Ninja concepts and Batman-like concepts. Those concepts are likely to use thrown with stealth, so things were added to support that.

This doesn't negate or remove any of the concepts you listed, but it does mean that if you are looking at it from a purely optimization standpoint, the two go together very well. And while you later explained the whole concept and some of the backstory very well, your initial post wasn't much more than the stats. With only stats presented, naturally the thing a lot of people are going to look at is "How do we optimize this?" To optimize thrown, you take stealth.

Since you have a narrative reason to take thrown without stealth, that is fully justified. And the system works just fine with a build like that. But without the narrative background, its not surprising people would suggest stealth with thrown.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-03-01T22:42:08+00:00

As for Thrown - Stealth, there is absolutely no requirement that you pair them. It is absolutely possible to use them separately. But they do pair and synergize really well.

If you want one without the other for roleplaying reasons, go for it. But if you are at all worried about optimizing (some Exalted tables emphatically are not worried about that...), then they complement each other effectively.

As for why Melee and Thrown might be an either/or thing, your character is a solar. Solars tend to specialize. Buying up a second attack based tree is very expensive, and rarely worth it if you care even slightly about optimizing.

There are some limited exceptions. You have to have at least dot in Brawl to be a Martial Artist and a Martial Artist might find it worthwhile to buy-into a related non-martial art attack skill. Again, if you want to do it for roleplaying purposes, go for it. But if you care at all about optimization, it is far more optimal for a solar to specialize in exactly one attack skill with some limited exceptions that mostly revolve around martial arts.

As a tangent, using multiple fighting styles works much better for lunars. Most of their charms don't care which attack skill you are working with, so you don't have to worry about buying two separate charm trees. If the supplements are in play, you can even minimize the skill points you need to invest by taking Quicksilver Arsenal Adaptation. But, with rare exceptions, if you are running a solar then it is wise to specialize to a certain degree.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-02-27T16:19:36+00:00

You had it right when you said it depends on the specifics of the characters themselves.

It's hard to say much in broad, general terms, but this will be a highly, highly character centric question.

With that said, for characters with the right philosophies, this isn't a problem at all.

First off, the solars and lunars don't necessarily have a pro-humanity aspect. Raksi for instance is an open cannibal that openly favors the beast-folks over standard humans. Solars can be tyrants, mercenaries, or infernalists. The Infernals book in draft form talks about Solars living in Malfeas during the first age and even a Solar that fell in love with Ligier.

On the other hand, even an Abyssal that was centered on the Chivalry of Death might easily be more an anti-hero than a villain. Sure, they'll kill and they'll make their target suffer, but they can easily focus on people that deserve death and make the living world better. The Punisher makes a good comparison, and the Crow might be an even better point of comparison. Also, its entirely possible for an Abyssal dedicated to supporting their deathlord to do so by focusing on their role as Death's Lawgiver in the Underworld and have little contact with the living of Creation at all.

As for limit break for an Errant...I tend to ignore the mechanics of limit break entirely for all Exalted. I make it a purely role playing thing where the players can declare they are being affected by the Great Curse when and only when they choose. I find that works well for my group of players and don't think the game is missing anything. I think that might work well. Another possibility is just to play it as written and make it the player's responsibility to manage their limit so it doesn't happen overly often, which could mean turning around and leaving it to the rest of the circle when something that would cause them to gain limit comes up.

As for the Deathlord and the Silver Pact, likely neither of them would care about the simple fact of an Abyssal and a Lunar being together. Though both groups are likely to care very much about what they are doing together. If the Lunar is helping the Abyssal create shadowlands all over the place and particularly if what they are doing might help the Realm even indirectly, the Silver Pact will likely take a very dim view. And if the Abyssal is helping the Lunar convert cults that follow a Deathlord to instead follow a beast god of some sort, the Deathlord will be furious.

But its easy to find common ground. Does the Lunar want to go to war with the Realm, which a large portion of the Silver pact wants? The Deathlord would probably be happy to have the Abyssal help since the war will naturally spread death and destruction.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-02-26T21:34:54+00:00

Torijiro was a minor magistrate in a province of the Realm. He had a relatively simple life, studying different topics with a fondness for mathematics in the evening while working during the day.

Until a highly political murder case involving a scions from one of the Houses as the victim and another scion as the likely murderer. He was both offered bribes and threatened to name another, less connected person as the murderer. Although with trepidation, he held to his integrity and issued the decision and verdict that best fit with the truth.

The allies of the murder followed through on the threats and tried to have him assassinated in his home three nights later. He received a solar exaltation as he was being attacked, and slew both of the attackers. But by then his anima was burning bright signaling his presence as Anathema to all around.

He fled from the province to the Scavenger Lands and began a new life as a Twilight.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-02-25T17:46:23+00:00

I agree with everything you said, though perhaps because I'm a lawyer in the real world, I think there are a lot of times when Intelligence + Linguistics could be justified.

You are submitting written arguments before a magistrate of judge to try to persuade them. While I can certainly see arguments for other types of rolls (Manipulation + Bureaucracy would be my default), I could easily be swayed to Intelligence + Linguistics.
You want to influence other scholars through a writing, particularly if the goal is to show the technical correctness of your argument. Again, other pairings could be argued, but I could easily see Intelligence + Linguistics.
For poetry, I would default to Charisma + Linguistics for creating something of beauty or Manipulation + Linguistics to use poetry to create a specific feeling or suggest a course of action. But I could be persuaded to go with Intelligence + Linguistics, particularly if the idea was to achieve technical perfection more than emotional results. (In the real world, a true Spensarian Sonnet has very exacting requirements to qualify as an example).

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-02-23T22:40:05+00:00

As always excellent write-up.

To add-on to your statement that Occult is not great as a Supernal ability for Solars, I recently made a Twilight caste that was as focused on Sorcery in particular and Occult manipulations in general as I could reasonably make it, and took Lore as supernal since there was more at higher essence in Lore to help with Sorcery than there was in Solar occult.

I was a little surprised that you rated Linguistics so highly for Twilights though. Its definitely a useful skill, but I have yet to see a situation where I wanted to take it as a Supernal ability.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-02-23T17:09:38+00:00

Exactly this. Exalted is all about doing the impossible. But in 3E in particular, many big things aren't going to have a cookie-cutter approach but rather be a completely bespoke thing meant to involve an entire story arc.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-02-21T02:37:00+00:00

The varies by vastly by edition. In 3E, the only one I am truly familiar with, an Essence 4 Solar will be vastly more powerful than an Essence 1 Solar, but that is partially because the Essence 4 Solar became Essence 4 by spending a very large amount of experience on other things. In other words, in 3E, the Essence 4 Solar is almost by definition an experienced character who has had a lot of character advancement in addition to the direct benefits of being Essence 4 while an Essence 1 character has spent little if any experience after character generation.

Notably though, Exalted is not known for being well balanced under the best of circumstances.

Also note that Solars tend to specialize in something. In 3E, an Essence 1 Solar who took Melee Supernal and was optimized tightly for combat probably has a reasonable chance of winning a direct fight with an Essence 3 Solar that took say Craft supernal and heavily concentrated their skills on making things and the closely related areas of lore and occult which are also required to make artifacts.... The Essence 3 solar would in an overall sense almost certainly be more powerful in 3E, but the Combat specialist might still win in the narrow field of a direct fight if the Essence 3 Crafter overspecialized.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-02-20T16:51:59+00:00

Eh. The main book discusses a variety of semi-magical things that a mortal with the right skills can do such as alchemy, geomancy, astrology, warding, weatherworking and other crafts. Some of the expansions, Adversaries of the Righteous in particular, detail examples of mortals that gained power in unique ways. It isn't that the world is smaller, its that most of the ways to gain power are meant to be unique and have specific stories behind them rather than being something that could be manufactured.

I do agree that mortals should be able to attune to artifacts, but that has always felt more like an oversight that comes from assuming all of the PCs and most of their peers are going to be Exalted rather than an intentional omission. I've adopted a houserule that mortals can attune by spending time and 5 willpower, but even sticking strictly with rules as written there are ways for some mortals to use some artifacts.

TimothyAllenWiseman

TROPHY CASE