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This is something of a thought excercise that I'm posting here for a few reasons. First, I wanted to re-do Kilroy and this is my journal. Since I'm doing this anyhow, I'm posting it here. Second, it's basically knocking around in the 2nd Ed. rules set before 3rd comes out. Since I've talked a lot in general about BP versus EXP spending and static versus scailing costs, it's relevent if you're interested in that kind of thing as a case study. Third, Exalted powers tend towards exception-based mechanics and character creation is full of pit traps. Players who are experienced with any system will often begin to navigate that system with what they assume is intuition, but Exalted (and many other systems) are not particularly intuitive. Checking what a system incentivices is a step towards building in better incentives.
Anyhow, step one's the concept. It's going to include a little character conceptual and mechanical information about Kilroy from 1E (that I still remember, anyhow), a little of what tends to be understood about the mechanical situation of Exalted 2.5, and where that leaves me conceptually now, before I break into the mechanics of the building process.
Since this is long, I'm putting these all under cuts.
Like I've mentioned before, Kilroy was my first character in our first big campaign. He got written up before all of the game tendancies we'd develop (and this the character group where Brent kicked off David Bowie-themed character names when he named his dude Eight Line Poem, making him patient zero for that one). I knew some stuff from hanging out on RPG.net, so I was generally aware that the Twilight shield anima banner was weirdly useful for combat characters and that there was little that made a Dawn Caste actually better than any other caste at combat, but that was pretty much it. I actually didn't intend on making him a sorcerer or anything like that - I planned on a martial arts sage character dedicated to unlocking the secrets of personal essense flows. I gave him a Medicine specialty with "fevers and chills" to refer back to yin and yang chi in the healing process, not really realizing that it was both a pretty useless specialization and totally unrelated to how essence worked in the game universe.
He was kind of a pacifist, and didn't really like the idea of hurting people, so I gave him the Martial Arts specialty "fighting defensively", which only kicked in when trying to deflect attacks pretty much. I think he had like, Lore 3 and Occult 2, and a pretty okay Wits+Alertness roll. He used Snake Style, because that was the only Martial Arts in the 1E core book and every other person at the table was packing Melee so I didn't want to be Melee Dude #4.
We know now that Solar Melee is king in both 1st and 2nd Ed. and Killroy'd probably be rocking Melee in this new build except that I'm keeping that kind of at the core of his identity (and since I'm making a few pretty big changes, I might as well keep him recognizeable). His big defense is probably going to come from some sorcery later but a few Resistance and Dodge Charms, here. I'll be swapping Snake Style out for the Solar Hero Style because it lets you add on after 5 Essence with Solar-power level Charms and that pretty much makes it inherantly better until you hit Sidereal-level Martial Arts, which just hit pairity with Solar level Charms I can create custom if I wanted, and Sidereal MA's aren't a great deal EXP-wise. I feel like, by that point, Killroy won't be relying on Martial Arts as much anymore, though.
One of the things that happened in 1E was the Lore-Bolt. Solars didn't get one, but Dragon-Blooded did and that seemed okay. But then Abyssals came out and they got Crypt Bolt. I thought, "that's a great tool for Kilroy, and it makes sense that if Abyssals can do it, Solars can too". Our ST agreed, and I ended up with a custom Solar Bolt Charm (which isn't really a great name) and a few extensions that created bursts and that did Agg. to the undead or creatures of darkness, or whatever. Since it ended up being Kilroy's hallmark attack when he wasn't forced into a corner, I'm going to assume he'll get that later and probably plan accordingly.
The last conceptual bit is probably focusing on Essence as part of his internal development. It'll be the focus of his initial character goal, and I'll want to build accordingly. We know that chi isn't a concept here, and we know how essence works in the setting - Martial Arts for mortals is undeniably the way to get ahead in terms of power, but in terms of Solars, power, and essence pools, it's Essence rating first, willpower and virtues second. And, that's it. We know that for combat, you want Awareness for Initiative and ambushes, Dodge and/or Martial Arts (or Melee for anyone else) for Dodge and Parry DVs, and Integrity for Mental Influence Dodge (which I've never had my ST roll against me, but I know it's a thing). Resistance is good for a lot of stuff, but I'm struggling to think of a static defense it tends to apply to. Occult lets you use Sciences (even though that rarely comes up) and I know Kilroy is eventually going to be a sorcerer and - in for a penny, in for a pound - if you're a Solar sorcerer, you're probably either buying it only for countermagic and travelling or going Solar Circle. (Kilroy ends up being Solar sorcerery and Labyrinth necromancy, if only because I could.) If it's that critical, might as well go big fast. Lore's important too, but I don't need much for the Bolt, so I can probably keep it at three initially. (Or 4, but let's see what happens.)
That sounds like a lot, but it's skill intensive but probably not that Charm intensive. Biggest costs are Essence rating, Willpower and Virtues are 1 BP per, now, which is a great investment at creation but tedious any time after that. So those are probably my biggest concerns right out of the bat. I'll probably go big on Occult, Martial Arts, and Dodge primarily. Lore, Resistance, Awareness, Linguistics (he's a calligrapher and scribe as his core occupation, which I'd left out, but that's how he makes money), Athletics, Medicine, and Integrity are secondary. I had Survival and Investigation initially, but he's already loaded pretty heavily. He's kind of isolated, so Backgrounds are not an issue for him (Allies in his sister, Mentor, a few dots in Resources, 1 dot of Artifact) and his upbringing is really narrow which explains his large scores in some things and lack in things like social graces.
To that end, I'm looking at this and thinking that Kilroy totally makes sense with only some modest conceptual tweaking. My plan to buy into Sorcery Charms and initiation once the game begins is actually not that strange from his characterization or mechanically unviable for reasons I'll get in to in part two. Going Martial Arts with a defensive lean in Dodge and Resistance is pretty okay for a tier two combatant and general utility character (utility found in sorcery). The other end of that is that I'm aware he's not a particularly optimized character, but I can do my character concept without losing experience points down a hole, and that's what I'm interested in.
What I'm not doing is indulging in the whole paranoia-combat scenerio, because if you're up to that you might as well cash in your fun chips and go home. Looking through the book, Solars do get to do a pretty good amount of generally fun things really well, but they're optimized simply by buying up the chain in any particular tree. Occult's weirdly boring be being mostly about fucking up spirits and Lore's boring unless I'm in the Wyld, which I have almost no interest in. So, it's all about what combat shit you're buying. I don't know why there's not a Lore-bolt for Solars in the 2nd Ed. book, because it's not especially game breaking, but it is hella fun. Basically, Kilroy buys some combat shit, All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight, some Excellencies, and basically alternates between "save my life" powers and spells - where his high essence pool comes in handy.
Anyhow, step one's the concept. It's going to include a little character conceptual and mechanical information about Kilroy from 1E (that I still remember, anyhow), a little of what tends to be understood about the mechanical situation of Exalted 2.5, and where that leaves me conceptually now, before I break into the mechanics of the building process.
Since this is long, I'm putting these all under cuts.
Like I've mentioned before, Kilroy was my first character in our first big campaign. He got written up before all of the game tendancies we'd develop (and this the character group where Brent kicked off David Bowie-themed character names when he named his dude Eight Line Poem, making him patient zero for that one). I knew some stuff from hanging out on RPG.net, so I was generally aware that the Twilight shield anima banner was weirdly useful for combat characters and that there was little that made a Dawn Caste actually better than any other caste at combat, but that was pretty much it. I actually didn't intend on making him a sorcerer or anything like that - I planned on a martial arts sage character dedicated to unlocking the secrets of personal essense flows. I gave him a Medicine specialty with "fevers and chills" to refer back to yin and yang chi in the healing process, not really realizing that it was both a pretty useless specialization and totally unrelated to how essence worked in the game universe.
He was kind of a pacifist, and didn't really like the idea of hurting people, so I gave him the Martial Arts specialty "fighting defensively", which only kicked in when trying to deflect attacks pretty much. I think he had like, Lore 3 and Occult 2, and a pretty okay Wits+Alertness roll. He used Snake Style, because that was the only Martial Arts in the 1E core book and every other person at the table was packing Melee so I didn't want to be Melee Dude #4.
We know now that Solar Melee is king in both 1st and 2nd Ed. and Killroy'd probably be rocking Melee in this new build except that I'm keeping that kind of at the core of his identity (and since I'm making a few pretty big changes, I might as well keep him recognizeable). His big defense is probably going to come from some sorcery later but a few Resistance and Dodge Charms, here. I'll be swapping Snake Style out for the Solar Hero Style because it lets you add on after 5 Essence with Solar-power level Charms and that pretty much makes it inherantly better until you hit Sidereal-level Martial Arts, which just hit pairity with Solar level Charms I can create custom if I wanted, and Sidereal MA's aren't a great deal EXP-wise. I feel like, by that point, Killroy won't be relying on Martial Arts as much anymore, though.
One of the things that happened in 1E was the Lore-Bolt. Solars didn't get one, but Dragon-Blooded did and that seemed okay. But then Abyssals came out and they got Crypt Bolt. I thought, "that's a great tool for Kilroy, and it makes sense that if Abyssals can do it, Solars can too". Our ST agreed, and I ended up with a custom Solar Bolt Charm (which isn't really a great name) and a few extensions that created bursts and that did Agg. to the undead or creatures of darkness, or whatever. Since it ended up being Kilroy's hallmark attack when he wasn't forced into a corner, I'm going to assume he'll get that later and probably plan accordingly.
The last conceptual bit is probably focusing on Essence as part of his internal development. It'll be the focus of his initial character goal, and I'll want to build accordingly. We know that chi isn't a concept here, and we know how essence works in the setting - Martial Arts for mortals is undeniably the way to get ahead in terms of power, but in terms of Solars, power, and essence pools, it's Essence rating first, willpower and virtues second. And, that's it. We know that for combat, you want Awareness for Initiative and ambushes, Dodge and/or Martial Arts (or Melee for anyone else) for Dodge and Parry DVs, and Integrity for Mental Influence Dodge (which I've never had my ST roll against me, but I know it's a thing). Resistance is good for a lot of stuff, but I'm struggling to think of a static defense it tends to apply to. Occult lets you use Sciences (even though that rarely comes up) and I know Kilroy is eventually going to be a sorcerer and - in for a penny, in for a pound - if you're a Solar sorcerer, you're probably either buying it only for countermagic and travelling or going Solar Circle. (Kilroy ends up being Solar sorcerery and Labyrinth necromancy, if only because I could.) If it's that critical, might as well go big fast. Lore's important too, but I don't need much for the Bolt, so I can probably keep it at three initially. (Or 4, but let's see what happens.)
That sounds like a lot, but it's skill intensive but probably not that Charm intensive. Biggest costs are Essence rating, Willpower and Virtues are 1 BP per, now, which is a great investment at creation but tedious any time after that. So those are probably my biggest concerns right out of the bat. I'll probably go big on Occult, Martial Arts, and Dodge primarily. Lore, Resistance, Awareness, Linguistics (he's a calligrapher and scribe as his core occupation, which I'd left out, but that's how he makes money), Athletics, Medicine, and Integrity are secondary. I had Survival and Investigation initially, but he's already loaded pretty heavily. He's kind of isolated, so Backgrounds are not an issue for him (Allies in his sister, Mentor, a few dots in Resources, 1 dot of Artifact) and his upbringing is really narrow which explains his large scores in some things and lack in things like social graces.
To that end, I'm looking at this and thinking that Kilroy totally makes sense with only some modest conceptual tweaking. My plan to buy into Sorcery Charms and initiation once the game begins is actually not that strange from his characterization or mechanically unviable for reasons I'll get in to in part two. Going Martial Arts with a defensive lean in Dodge and Resistance is pretty okay for a tier two combatant and general utility character (utility found in sorcery). The other end of that is that I'm aware he's not a particularly optimized character, but I can do my character concept without losing experience points down a hole, and that's what I'm interested in.
What I'm not doing is indulging in the whole paranoia-combat scenerio, because if you're up to that you might as well cash in your fun chips and go home. Looking through the book, Solars do get to do a pretty good amount of generally fun things really well, but they're optimized simply by buying up the chain in any particular tree. Occult's weirdly boring be being mostly about fucking up spirits and Lore's boring unless I'm in the Wyld, which I have almost no interest in. So, it's all about what combat shit you're buying. I don't know why there's not a Lore-bolt for Solars in the 2nd Ed. book, because it's not especially game breaking, but it is hella fun. Basically, Kilroy buys some combat shit, All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight, some Excellencies, and basically alternates between "save my life" powers and spells - where his high essence pool comes in handy.
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