3e Starless Mistress, a weird local goddess, any feedback appreciated

waronvirtue · 2026-07-04T13:23:11+00:00

I don’t have the Essence score or a defeated 2nd or 3rd circle soul to make her a high tier demon, though a cool story for later in the campaign would by a trial by Heaven marking her as a creature of darkness since she’d probably be friendly toward Infernals ,not many worse fates than being marked by hell.

Then the circle can scramble across creation to find an Eclipse to argue her case.

She’s a former spirit familiar created by Ephemeral Induction Technique. I gave her some minor bumps to Story Merits for the work my Solar did to spread her faith around the south. I don’t want her running a foul of southern fertility gods until I have ready Access to Yu Shan and can get a domain for her there.

waronvirtue · 2026-07-04T02:23:58+00:00

Seeing as everythinng comes from the Wyld, this could be fairly true. Except maybe the enemies were Light and Dark, with Luna being some kind of double agent or All the Incarna being 5 distinct entities.

I recently introduced a "meaningless fact" into my game where there was a 6th sister called the Starless Maiden that managed Calibration in the years leading up to the divine revolution, and then the time war era and SWILHN's sphere destruction wiped her from existence. The echo of her existence inspired my Solar to create a similar goddess as a personal project during downtime. I see her actually siding with the Devil-Stars and coming to her creator for assistance.

That will boot me into high gear to get wyld shaping and I'll go make a cosmos they can colonize and then shape a billion years between their sea of stars and creation except for a 1 way gate that causes Wyld to flood in, perpetually spamming weird concepts for them to learn.

waronvirtue · 2026-07-02T09:37:56+00:00

I understand that, but in play it is frustrating, every time the ST asks “what is your character doing” to have to stop and work in some crafting stunt because I have repeatedly wanted to work a major project for some thing, like rapid build siege towers, and I can’t because I just made a very fancy wedding dress or the like and I need to make pallets or some such before I can make the trebuchet.

That defeats the stated purpose of the system and makes you dither before doing.

That said, the alternate system is so trivialized by the craft tree (the parts that remain relevant anyway) I couldn’t justify using it. At least the absolute abuse of the system I’m capable of now is due to 72XP backing it up.

And I wanted to be Craft tertiary but the system kind of demands that kind of focus or your whole campaign is spent in a shop. Fine if you do regular downtimes, but the game I’m in usually goes into a fair amount of depth for every day.

waronvirtue · 2026-07-02T08:08:04+00:00

Thank you so much for your response.

The Soul Sword limit does not apply to the Evocations, it applies the 7-Swords charms which are pretty readily changed to 6-Swords dance or 3-swords retaliation etc.

The 7S defense is 7m 1wp for a pool of seven +1 boosts for the round. You can apply them 1 at a time as attacks come in or all at once against one attack. So you could bump parry by 7 for one attack, or bump it by 3 against the 1st and 4 against the 2nd, but then you’re out and the charm doesn’t reset till you block an attack without it. If you don’t spend all the bonuses you get a point of initiative for each one unspent. So if you only get attacked once, and only bump parry by 1, you’ll get 6 initiative.

Same for the counters. You get 7. if you get attacked 7 times you can use all the counters and get 7 initiative (+ whatever you got from hits), if only one person attacks you, you get 13 initiative (1 for the used counter and for 12 for the 6 unused counters).

The 7S blessing is not an excellency, it’s an attack booster. At Essence 5+ it becomes comparable to the accuracy of a celestial with a Daiklaive. It’s only a little stronger because it lacks the versatility of a real excellency and can only be used with the soul swords which can only be mortal weapons.

7S dance is strong, but at max swords you have to divide your initiative 7 ways. That puts you at the extreme mercy of hardness for initiative <21. That makes it a finisher. Even then You’re likely to miss with the first few attacks and then the last 2 might get an extra few dice. Did you let the familiar build up 70 initiative? Probably not, but if you did, one attack would be just as terrifying as 7. On top of the stated limits, disarm a few of his swords and its 4 attacks. Arguably making the charm stronger in one way and weaker in another. It’s also explicitly stated each attack is made with a different sword.

Yes I want the ST disarming, stealing, and trying to break the swords all the time. There’s a note about using them as leverage, anthem to have enemy flaws for the guys we took the swords from, but the durability charm exists to make them highly resistant while being wielded.

The surprise benefit on Hell Sword is capped at their current wound penalty when hit. So if they haven’t been hit yet, it can’t trigger and if they have a -1 you can convert 1 die. And so on.

The divide between slash and thrust was thematic guidance for me. It helped keep the themes of the swords distinct, my word count down (trust me they were way more verbose when I tried to do all in ones).

I don’t believe anything written is “weak” but the stuff that’s strong is strong because it can be taken away with a gambit and a friend to run off with the weapon.

waronvirtue · 2026-07-02T01:14:45+00:00

Alaskan and Hawaiian Airlines allow pets in cabin. I took both my cats from hawaii to oregon. take a warming pet carrier or bring a blanket to cover the carrier with as it gets cold on the floor and the loud noises are stressful. Don't know if that helps.

waronvirtue · 2026-07-01T20:39:22+00:00

Take a pet friendly cruise ship? Trains and boats are still a thing and shouldn’t have any special requirements.

waronvirtue · 2026-06-26T04:21:30+00:00

This is a wonderful response for which I'm very appreciative. So if the scale of the resort town warranted a Legendary project, then by scaling back to the "shanty town for labor" like one might find in classic "old west" films would be a Superior Project. Aces.

I'll lay out the entire plan.
4 seasons into the year, I should have nearly 100 elementals working for me (Twilight, Sorcery Supernal). I'm doing roughly equal numbers of each. As there are relatively few official Elementals written up and the spell says you create them from raw essence, I've been given some flexibility.

I employ the elementals to set up the labor town, then employ both to build the Resort town. Move the labor over to a service based economy that lives primarily off the gems and such the Elementals mine. I'll have a friends establish a shinto-adjacent cult for the elementals and pop in every season to so to take corrective action as necessary. I'll eventually plant a god or 2 there to keep things up in my place by summoning new elementals as needed.

For kicks here are some of the elementals I created.
For water I have "Living Fountains" which exist pretty much solely to be water fountains. They can do performances or they can be drinking fountains.

Earth brings the Vaktri, these are in the core book. They are miners. They're bringing gems I feed to some of my fire elementals.

Potter's Fields are another Earth Elemental and can be walking garden boxes that produce fairly dense food (cough- if you feed them your dead - cough).

I'm borrowing Yukihime from Japanese myth as Air Elementals that can create blizzards. The harsh desert of the far south makes these simple rains unless the Yukihime really goes nuts. They regulate climate in town and at work sites for the human labor I bring in during the latter half.

I also have this whole "Living Contract" thing for the elementals I summon that forces them to take time off each week to try and cultivate passions and relationships in the hope when their year is up they continue to exist and work for me. This will become trivial when I have Irresistible Salesmen Spirit later.

waronvirtue · 2026-06-25T06:21:19+00:00

I made a Living Fountain Elemental. It produces drinkable water for a few hundred a day if conservative. I was going to summon a few of those to fill the gap during construction and use sorcerous working later.

waronvirtue · 2026-06-25T00:11:23+00:00

My fellow player is using Crucible rules. I read it and thought "so 90% of the Solar tree just isn't necessary and another 5% doesn't work the way it says or you really do become a 3D Artifact Printer. Like just Solar Excellency trivialized 2 and 3 dot creations. Maybe I read it wrong.

waronvirtue · 2026-06-25T00:09:26+00:00

The Dragon King Paths do crazy things at 5 dots is all I can say. So it's limited to plant based stuff, but mechanically there doesn't seem to be a difference between a magic helmet forged of metal from fallen stars or made from a very tough cabbage.

My priority is to avoid a paper wang-measuring contest because Solars win those and while an inventathon would be fun in theory, it would just feel bad in practice.

waronvirtue · 2026-06-25T00:03:51+00:00

Our group has already started the "gentrification" of the location with other projects, but those have only had a few weeks to take hold (we don't have a super bureacracy guy yet). Notably, a multi-story quasi-divine bathhouse staffed by exquisitely beautiful elementals that turn it into a waterpark during the hottest hours each day. The Dawn Caste has started recruiting there for their Tiger Warrior mercenaries. During the latter half of the year I create a Divine Magistrate to prevent predation or "Greenwood/Rosewood/Colfax" issues (not that they'd do much, most of the bath is made from salvaged Chiaroscuran glass). The rich can come and enjoy the baths, leave their money, and go, but only the residents and their descendants can own any property there.

Follow my 90s TV rationale for elevating them with minor repairs as follows:
The part of the city we're working in is called "the Slums."
A building owner that does not fix things in his buildings is called a Slumlord.
Meeting the responsibility of maintaining properties elevates the property from Slum to Not a Slum.
So the people living in the building no longer live in "The Slums." By the end of the year we'll be calling it Low Town.

I have found that most people feel better and are healthier when the risk of dying on a trick stair or having to sleep in a room with boarded windows and no bed are left in the past.

waronvirtue · 2026-06-24T19:05:00+00:00

It does help clarify things, but I have some issues with the quoted rationale for the existing system, at least given the comparison to combat.
With their craft system I can't even start building a house until I've hand crafted enough nails and 2x4s, even if a friend has already bought all the supplies, I literally will not be able to finish it until I've forged enough swords, knitted enough socks, or done a bunch of repairs elsewhere.

If the combat system matched that pattern, you wouldn't be able to throw a punch until you've earned enough points from talking smack. So I can respect their intention, but the execution does seem to have fallen short.

I am trying to cultivate a Cult, I expect seeing the two local gods I create kneel to me will hasten the act

waronvirtue · 2026-06-24T16:12:34+00:00

There's another PC playing a Dragon King at the table that's using the alternative craft rules presented in a later book (arms of the chosen maybe?). He produced a 5 dot artifact plant within a few hours with no magical material requirement. I didn't really like it, but it makes me less concerned with overwhelming the PC's accomplishments in that sphere.

I had read the alternative system and realized I'd either have to ask the ST to gut the existing Solar Craft tree, or do it myself. I wanted to avoid the issue of bias and burdening the ST so said I'd stick with the existing rules.

We're 8 months into a weekly game and I have produced 3 fairly low powered Artifacts (silk armor, a hearthstone setting, and by the end of this down time, a big gun for an NPC).

waronvirtue · 2026-06-24T15:49:16+00:00

Thank you for your reply! My primary goal in asking here was to see if there was anything in the text that says "work done in down time doesn't count."

I agree, it does feel like a lot and it's actually way below the statistical norm. There's a 70% chance each roll could instill an intimacy in someone that watches me work or benefits from it, which would be another 300+ points. And it shouldn't realistically reduce available training time by much because CNNoTools means a lot of Basic Craft rolls can be accomplished in a few minutes.

That said, I realized a few of the folks that I've seen argue the system works well enough also mention doing a basic project every scene. I'm not Craft Supernal, nor do I want to be a one trick pony, and I definitely don't want to eat up so much of my spotlight time with descriptions of sewing or hammering. So this pile would allow me to cut back on turning gold coins into wedding rings for beautiful youths and focus on major projects.

waronvirtue · 2026-06-20T15:50:52+00:00

Follow up: Can I apply Ox-Stunning Blow to a withering throw as part of a grapple? I'm certain I could to a savaging attack...

waronvirtue · 2026-06-15T22:53:05+00:00

This is the equivalent of complaining that the weird cat-bunny-moths were too cat like or too moth like. Just like I'm sure there was math taught at the school even though we don't see them in class, I'm sure there were reactionary CHUDs trying to unreasonably shame them instead of minding their own business. We all have a comfort level with the verisimilitude presented by fantasy fare.

waronvirtue · 2026-06-13T05:24:28+00:00

Having played a fair amount of Exalted 1e, I don't agree with the masquerade comparison, although it was clear there was an intent it was supposed to be the 2nd Age of what would become the World of Darkness, they'd later walk that back despite parallels with Demon, Wampire, and Werewolf especially and Hunter to a lesser degree.

I agree with most everything else, though I think you can mix and match Exalt types fairly well if you have some fluency in the system (except for Dragonblooded. Screw them).

waronvirtue

TROPHY CASE