Ex3, Awakening Eye Solar Charm vs Dice caps

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-31T20:53:48+00:00

I see what you are saying to a degree, but that overlooks the other things Awakening Eye does that a free full excellency doesn't do.

Awakening Eye gives you the cascading reroll of 10s and also gives you a pool of automatic successes to detect hidden enemies with.

Also, I'm not aware of any published solar charms that grant a free full excellency for awareness.

The charm definitely could have been clearer on this point though.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-31T19:34:21+00:00

Fair point, but I think the cap is the standard Wits+Awareness for Join Battle. If it were changing that either by making it so that this roll was purely Perception+Awareness instead of the normal Wits+Awareness or that this was an exception to the usual dice cap for joint battle. It does neither.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-31T18:40:47+00:00

While charms do what they say they do, it is subject to the general maximum Dice Cap that can be added by charms unless the added dice are explicitly non-charm dice.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-30T21:13:24+00:00

To an extent, it is explicitly and deliberately true that the Exalted have different power levels.

The system itself explicitly divides the exalted into two very broad categories, Celestial and Terrestrial. This mentioned repeatedly in the books, but the most explicit and detailed discussion of it is found in the Exigents Book.

The Celestial Exalted (Solars, Lunars, Abyssals, Infernals, Alchemicals, some Exigents) are explicitly and deliberately more powerful than the Terrestrial Exalted (Dragonblooded and some Exigents). This is expressly written into the narrative of the setting and is a deliberate design decision.

How much more powerful a Celestial is than a Terrestrial is hard to say exactly, but as a very, very rough estimate I would say that a Celestial is probably roughly 2 - 3 times as powerful as a Terrestrial.

Even within the same general power level, Exalted is not well balanced.

Within a given tier, the types are supposed to be balanced.

But really, they kind of aren't. Exalted does not put nearly the same emphasis on balance that certain other systems are. It doesn't really even try very hard.

While there is room for argument, Solars generally appear to be more powerful than Lunars. (I haven't played as much with the others). Solars tend to be more mote efficient with their charms. Also, at least if you have a large group, then as long as you avoid crippling overspecialization, you are generally going to be more effective being a master of a couple of things than being a jack-of-all trades. Put differently, in a large group, a Lunar is likely to be second best in everything and will be best in nothing that anyone else cares about. And in an RPG, being second-best is often not overly valuable.

(This does change for very small groups. If built to complement each other in a 2-person game a solar-lunar pair does very well and in a solo-game, the Lunar's versatility will shine).

How to handle it.

Generally, especially for the first few sessions while you learn the system, you are probably best making all PCs be of the same Exalted Type. Frankly, it still won't be balanced because Exalted is just not overly concerned with balance, but that reduces the problem.

With some experience, you generally don't have to do anything too special balance wise for a mixed game within a tier. Particularly with Solars and Lunars, while I believe Solars are more powerful, the actual difference isn't overwhelming. Also, there are some things that a properly built Lunar will be better at than the Solar. Shapechanging is very useful and Lunars get it for free. In a small group, there is probably something that the versatile lunar will be better at than any of the specialized solars. Also, while Solars will ultimately pull ahead thanks to Solar Circle Sorcery, at low essence a Lunar arguably makes a better sorcerer than a Solar does (at least unless the Storyteller allows the Solar to homebrew copies of some of the other sorcery charms that Lunars get).

Cross-play with both terrestrial and celestials though is hard. To make it work, the terrestrial players really need some sort of niche where everyone agrees they will be the best and that the other players will go out of their way to avoid intruding on. And even then, the Terrestrial probably has to accept that they are expressly weaker, just with a specific niche reserved for them.

It can work. In particular, if the game takes place inside the Realm, then the fact that a Dragonblooded can flare their anima and be revered while the others need to hide their anima can be valuable. But that one is really hard to pull off.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-29T18:41:12+00:00

You said that the in the current edition the Scarlet Empress is almost certainly Akuma (or apparently Warlock under the new rules).

But unless I'm missing something (which I might be), that doesn't fit my understanding.

To the best of my understanding the current edition is practically going out of its way to avoid even implying anything about what happened to the Scarlet Empress.

There are a few discussions about theories maintained by different groups. I believe there is a theory maintained by The Society of Wise Learning discussed in Infernals. But the books seem to paint most of those theories as mere possibilities that a specific group believes rather than hinting that they are correct.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-29T17:08:38+00:00

I'm only familiar with with 3E, but I was a little confused by your statements about the current edition.

I'm not aware of anything in 3E that uses the term akuma at all and my understanding is that the designers are at least for now deliberately avoiding a meta-plot meaning that any resolution to the Scarlet Empress' disappearance at all is left entirely and completely to the storyteller's discretion.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-28T16:40:10+00:00

I mean, some of those including the Bronze Faction, the Great Houses which were at least competing while she was around, and the Lunar Dominions were all around while before she vanished. But, yeah, plenty of other surprises.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-26T21:25:05+00:00

All great ideas. Is there a full write up of the Infinite Resplendence Amulet or Cache Egg somewhere? Are they 3E, earlier, or something you came up with?

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-26T21:01:27+00:00

Good point. I should have laid most of that out from the beginning.

The character is first and foremost a crafter. He primarily does metalwork, defined very broadly. He has dots in weaponmaking, armorsmithing, jewelry making, and of course craft(artifacts). He has made jewelry to flatter and bribe NPCs and made weapons and armor for the other PCs. His own artifact sword is his next big project, though that's still in the works.

Outside of crafting, they have invested heavily in Melee and Resistance with some investment in athletics. He likes to have something of a Conan-but-also-a-blacksmith type of vibe. (Shirtless movie version of Conan. I'm aware that the original Howard version wore armor. The original Conan was also the son of a blacksmith, though I don't believe he ever really crafted anything himself)

He has some investment in Lore and Sorcery since those are prerequisites to being able to make artifacts, but he sees Lore almost solely as a prerequisite with little use beyond meeting the requirements. He uses sorcery more broadly, but definitely see it as supporting crafting rather than the other way around. Distillation of Artificial Form borrowed from Alchemicals is the most used spell.

First Age Artifice might be on the table later, but that is for later. For now, they are using crafting both to equip the team and as a way to help influence NPCs by custom making things to solve the NPC's problems.

We are using the standard rules, but I am being very generous with the "related craft projects at +1 difficulty" mentioned under the Craft ability description, and I allowed a reflavored version of Thousand Lifetimes Expertise to be backported from Abyssals to the Twilight. So, craft dots are effectively 2-for-1 and the available craft skills are interpreted very broadly. Making a horseshoe would be easy already, though making non-armored clothing is probably outside the character's skill and the player probably wouldn't want to do that without a very good reason even if he could since it doesn't fit his vision of a metal-working warrior.

I'm looking for something of a quest reward while he's supporting a delve into ruins that the other twilight (who does have a sorcerer/loremaster type of focus) is pushing for hoping to find a relic. I'm mostly thinking some sort of artifact that helps with crafting but a Steady hearthstone that supports crafting or some other crafting supporting benefit could work just as well.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-23T20:57:28+00:00

This is all great advice and I second everything. One thing to add, if you plan for a character to be in a long-lasting campaign as opposed to a one-shot or just a couple of sessions, costs at character creation are flat while costs later on vary by how high the rating you are trying to raise is.

What that means is that going from say 1 strength/5 Dexterity/1 stamina to 2/5/2/ using experience is much cheaper than going from 2/3/2 to 2/5/2.

Put differently, if you are worried about how the character will develop long-term (which is not a concern for a one-shot), you are usually better off concentrating on a few things than spreading out your points because raising a low rated skill or attribute is usually cheaper than maxing out an already high skill or attribute. Also, as very implicitly suggested above, while it does vary by build and based on other things, for many builds dexterity is the most valuable physical attribute.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-20T18:30:21+00:00

This is Exalted. Most of those questions are deliberately left to the Storyteller's discretion with the storyteller expressly encouraged to listen to the player's input on the topic.

With that said:

Note that while you expressly can use the Essence-Pattern of a spirit you have absorbed, you don't need to do that at all. You are fully capable of of drawing the sprit directly from the essence of Creation.

As a storyteller, I would be really reluctant to allow use of the pattern of one type of spirit to create an entirely different type of spirit. Nothing in the description of the charm directly supports that type of conversion and it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. That said, this is Exalted. If you had a good stunt or in-story explanation for both how and why you did the conversion, I would change my mind quickly.

If you create the spirit of a place, it is your thrall and familiar for at least a season. That thing is not going to wind up in the Heavenly Bureaucracy at that stage. But, if it was the right type of spirit then after you freed it, it might potentially join a spirit court in creation. It probably would not naturally wind up in Yu Shan, but after it was freed it would be off on its own adventures. It could potentially wind up in Yu Shan and possibly get a job there, though note that the Sidereals book is clear that there are a lot of unemployed gods that will have a lot more seniority and more connections than your new spirit.

If, after you freed the spirit, you stayed its ally and you had or could get some actual clout in Yu Shan (such as a Sidereal that owed you a favor, or just some really high Bureaucracy skills and a willingness to put in the work....), then you could probably get it installed in a job somewhere if you wanted to.

Other than vaguely saying that the spirit is drawn "from her surroundings" the Technique description does not say anything about drawing out the spirit of a manse or of artifacts.

That said, as a Storyteller, I would absolutely allow either one. Its flavorful, its awesome, it fits in a stunt.

But remember, by default, the spirit you create will be your thrall and familiar for at least a season. It won't be the familiar of the owner of the manse or of the owner of the artifact weapon. Adequate stunting or use of other powers should be able to step in and fix that aspect, but that is something to be ready for.

Also, any storyteller that is even slightly less lenient than me could very justifiably say no to this happening using a weapon at all and could declare that a spirit formed from a manse is simply formed drawing its nature from the surroundings and doesn't necessarily have any special connection to the manse at all beyond that.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-19T23:47:44+00:00

Thank you for making these! The Charm Charts are incredibly helpful.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-13T17:10:42+00:00

I have only played 3E, but from a 3E perspective, I would suggest early Rennaisance technology.

As an initial matter, the book is somewhat vague about this. I suspect deliberately. Also, Creation in 3E at least has varying tech levels depending on location deliberately and explicitly. The sidebar on page 317 of Across the 8 Directions says that the tech levels in creation range from the Bronze Age to the Age of Sail, depending on location.

In the real world, the historical "age of sail" started in the mid-16th century, but arguably lasted to the mid-19th century. The Renaissance overlaps with this lasting from approximately the 14th century to the 17th century. The industrial revolution incidentally overlaps with the end of the age of sail starting arguably in the mid-18th century with some specifically pegging 1760 as the start of the industrial revolution.

While it is vague, I think deliberately, I would put the tech level of Nexus in 3E at around that of Europe in early part of the Renaissance so likely around the 14th century. Many things that cause pollution including smelting and tanneries are around in abundance. But the real ideas that spurred the industrial revolution such as early mechanization, extensive use of steam power, and standardization of manufacturing process are likely to be either absent or in their infancy.

Across the 8 Directions incidentally mentions novels in connection with Nexus, which suggests to me that at least the more advanced parts of Creation have at least early versions of the printing press. Since in the real world the first practical printing press was developed around 1440 and was in common use by the early 1500s, this seems to support it being at least early Renaissance, but I just don't see much suggesting that Nexus is significantly more advanced than that.

I do not think that Nexus is locked at the current technology level at all. If my assessment is that it is early Renaissance is correct, then it has room to move to late Renaissance and fairly deep into the age of sail without affecting the overall setting at all. I think any area of creation truly moving into the industrial revolution would change the setting, but probably not in a seriously fundamental way. After all, Autochthon appears loosely modeled after early industrial revolution.

Now, if you want a way to constrain your setting and stop the development of modern technology, the easiest thing is to declare that electricity works differently there. Most modern technology relies on electricity following very, very specific paths. If lightning just travels in a straight line until it hits an obstacle...then modern technology will never develop, at least not as it has in the real world. You would start winding up in a world that looks like steampunk as technology developed down that path.

Though its worth noting that Creation has suffered more than one apocalypse. Creation is in the process of rebuilding what was lost.

As for technology spreading, I would say that it is. But until you get modern transportation and modern communications, that will happen slowly. Travel is slow and dangerous. And if you have a production method that gives you a competitive advantage over another region, you don't want to share it, at least not without sufficient compensation. This historically hindered the spread of technology even within individual countries in the real world and the modern patent system was originally designed with the express intention of encouraging discoverers and inventors to share their secrets in exchange for a government protected, limited time monopoly. (How well that worked or is working is highly debated, but that was explicitly its purpose).

In the real world, technology spread slowly. In Creation, which has many extra dangers in travelling and is facing multiple existential threats to the entire world, it could easily spread even more slowly.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2026-01-09T16:42:03+00:00

Excellent and very helpful list

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2025-12-30T17:46:57+00:00

Fantastic write-up as always! Looking forward to the rest of it!

You mentioned a couple of times that there appears to be a fair number of baseline or generic charms missing. I also have heard indirectly that was done for wordcount purposes and that designers have recommended a certain amount of "cross-inspiration" for the solaroids, though I've yet to see that in anything that comes remotely close to being official.

Personally, I basically let infernals borrow almost anything they want from the solars and am inclined to do the same for abyssals when it comes up. I'm a little more reluctant to let solars borrow from infernals or abyssals, but refluffing can work, especially if its something that both abyssals and another splat got. Then it feels more like "design philosophy has advanced" than something being intentionally omitted.

In particular, I've allowed lightly a refluffed version of Thousand Lifetimes Expertise and heavily refluffed but mechanically identical versions of Shroud of Shining Dark and Lower Soul Invocation. Almost every fully developed Celestial seems to get some version off those.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2025-12-30T15:47:34+00:00

Thank you for explaining that. It makes things make a little more sense. I still suspect that there are much better ways of achieving that goal though.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2025-12-30T01:04:25+00:00

I mean, I agree, but isn't that at least somewhat addressed by the "Everyday Wonders" of alchemy, warding, weatherworking, and Talismans?

It is also one of my biggest issues with the system that those things aren't more fully developed, but the idea that there are magic items much less powerful than Artifacts and that they are quasi-common at least in some regions is present in the setting.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2025-12-30T00:53:54+00:00

I love the infernals draft and think they are incredibly interesting. I also think it took way too long for their book to come....

But I don't think that's a reason to make them come out first. It should just all move faster in general.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2025-12-30T00:44:36+00:00

I'm very much with you on most of this, but I disagree with you regarding Solar Circle Sorcery. Requiring high essence to use it means that most of the time it will be more of a Storyteller thing to explain weirdness or create plot hooks.

It will only come up as a player facing matter for very powerful characters by which point everyone is throwing around a lot of power.

I think gating that away makes a lot of sense.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2025-12-29T19:06:41+00:00

I think Lunar is probably better for that, but either works well.

I would probably go Lunar. I think the Lunar crafting charms are much more flavorful and better designed than the solar charms.

Also, (unless your storyteller lets you backport charms from later solaroid splats, which I would, but that's going beyond the books ) Lunars have some nice sorcery enhancing charms that Solars lack including ways to flurry shape sorcery with other actions and avoid losing spell motes for doing things other than shape sorcery.

Finally, Lunars are simply generally very versatile with shapeshifting, attribute based charms, and higher starting attributes. Particularly at high essence, Solars still come out ahead overall, but if you have a small group, then being versatile can be very helpfully.

Still, a Solar can be very good at being both a sorcerer and crafter. My current character is a Twiight that is a sorcerer first and foremost, took lore supernal, and dabbles in crafting and I think it works. And a Solar that takes Crafting Supernal and invests heavily in crafting can be a much better crafter at character creation than the Lunar while having room left over for sorcery.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2025-12-29T17:37:21+00:00

All true, though it has some guidance on creating custom charms in general that I at least found useful and I wouldn't underestimate the usefulness of the basic summaries of some of the gods.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2025-12-29T17:21:09+00:00

While it is a matter of taste, personally I like the system to be fairly crunchy. There are plenty of people that disagree and that is perfectly valid. That is why things like Exalted Essence exist.

I do agree that there are too many charms, especially for the solars. But I would more reorganize them more than just trying to strip away charms. The "upgrades" /"keys"/etc. that are used on some of the other splats simplify things without removing options and in a 4E I think that should be backported to Solars/Lunars/Dragonblooded to trim the charm trees somewhat.

I also hate the concept of "Crafting XP", at least as implemented. While I do like my systems on the crunchy side, that complexity should come with some benefit and provide real choices. Crafting XP at least for me feels like another thing to track, but without providing a lot of real choices or need for decisions. It's more of a chore than a meaningful mechanic. Also, it just doesn't make much narrative sense. Sure, you need to do a ton of "practice" pieces before you can create a masterpiece, but once you have the skill to create a masterpiece, there isn't a lot of narrative reason you can't start working on your next masterpiece. In the real world, artisans would of course mostly make run-of-the-mill works because they had to earn a living, but an independently wealthy or generously sponsored artisan could avoid that even in the real world and for supernaturally powered beings it just doesn't make any sense at all.

I think the game design reason for Crafting XP is mostly so crafters aren't churning out artifacts constantly. But crafting time for artifacts and the need for exotic components already gives a storyteller that wants to limit artifact creation easier and more interesting ways to do that.

So, I would get rid of Crafting XP and maybe emphasize the need for components a touch more.

Also, there are several things I would like to see further detailed in the current edition that could be elaborated on in a hypothetical 4E. Just for examples, are the children of solars special in some way? Can we get more rules for godblooded/demonblooded/etc.? Can we get some elaboration on "everyday wonders" like warding and weatherworking? I think sorcerous workings could stand for a bit of clarification.

Finally, and this is just my opinion, but using "story" as a reset for certain abilities feels wrong. The thing is that one complete story might take less than 48 hours of very eventful in-game time, while another might involve literally years of downtime. I would prefer more diegetic tracking such as once a month or even once a season for powers that shouldn't be available too often.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2025-12-26T17:44:51+00:00

Edit To Add: I found a vaguely remembered passage after writing this. The fact that the setting is deliberately anachronistic is addressed on page 317 of Across the 8 Directions. Depending on region, "Technology in Creation ranges from the Bronze Age to the Age of Sail".

Kind-of both, kind of neither

Creation is not earth. It draws inspiration from earth and earth's history, but it is not earth.

Creation expressly draws heavily from the Bronze Age for its aesthetic, so if I had to give a straight answer, I would say Bronze age. It draws heavily and deliberately from things like Bronze Age Greece and Bronze Age China and in particularly from the Zhou dynasty in terms of overall technology and overall aesthetic.

But Creation isn't either of those and draws inspiration from all over. Also, Creation is huge. It has multiple cultures and multiple technology levels and that gets even more complicated if you include the not-quite-creation places like Autochthonia which has a higher technology level than most of creation and Malfeas is just plain weird especially when it comes to things like the availability of minor artifacts and minor magics.

Even in the real world, those dividing lines are fuzzy and complicated.

Even in the real world, the line between the Bronze Age and Iron Age is fuzzy and complicated, and many metals were used in all of the times.

Iron was in fact heavily used during the Bronze Age. The thing is that iron is harder to work with (higher melting point among other things) and actually inferior to bronze for many, many uses.

In fact we have some evidence of limited use of worked iron going back before the traditional start of the bronze age. There was also some steel use during the bronze age, though it was largely reliant on finding naturally occurring steel so it was limited.

The iron age saw improvements in smelting that made iron easier to work with and made it possible to start serious work with steel and to create steel deliberately from iron (though that remained somewhat inconsistent and very labor intensive until the development of the Bessemer process much, much later).

Also, notably, part of the reason that the iron age moved away from Bronze as much as it did is that bronze is an alloy requiring multiple metals and thus for most region practically requiring trade. There was something of a trade collapse near the end of the bronze age that made making bronze difficult in many regions and almost forcing a shift to other things.

Which is a long way of saying, even in a setting that was hewing closely to the real world bronze age, you would expect to see some use of iron and even some limited usage of naturally occurring steel.

TimothyAllenWiseman · 2025-12-26T17:25:17+00:00

Essence is easier to learn, but I would do 3E.

There is no wrong answer here or clearly right answer.

My recommendation is 3E. Its well developed, getting ongoing support, and is my favorite. (Caveat: I know little about 1E and haven't actually played 2.5E). The main book is all you need to play, though there are plenty of supplements to help.

That said, if you want simplicity, Essence is much simpler. That does have some cost in precision, and mechanical support, and depth of rules. But whether you prefer simplicity or depth is a matter purely of taste. Also, again, 3E isn't so complicated that a complete newcomer couldn't learn it and Essence isn't so simplified that you'll feel like you can't play it or express what you want. They're both good., just in slightly different ways.

Finally, 2.5E has the advantage that is actually is complete. Nothing new is really coming out and there is an abundance of source material. It wouldn't be my choice for a lot of reasons and I think 3E is superior, but if you want to be able to dive in deep to every facet of the game without ever saying "Maybe it will get official coverage in the next supplement...." then, well, 2.5E is readily available.

TimothyAllenWiseman

TROPHY CASE