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It was a surprisingly long post, a lot of it centered on basic math regarding DVs in Exalted. You may recall that I'm months away from a Sidereal game and I was anticipating playing a Chosen of Serenity. There was some speculation on gender roles, some waffling on mechanics, but at the end of it, there wasn't too much to say. I had statted my proposed character out to see if there were any obvious issues once I saw the PC on paper, and there weren't. My mechanical speculation may have gotten out of hand, but I was so frustrated at how awkward my Abyssal was, mechanically, that I'm going to know what I want and go get it going in.
DV math. There's a Performance charm that allows you to add Performance to Dodge for the purposes of determining DV. It can be taken a number of different ways, but as I understand it, the implication is that static defenses imply an action, so Stunts apply (as listed in Kasumi's excellent primer PDF) and per the rules, so do Excellencies of different stripes. Stunts and Excellencies apply dice which are rolled to add to DV. That further implies, depending on the reading, that the anima banner of a Sidereal, which adds Essence in successes to a Performance roll, may be added. That depends on the reading.
Banner aside. My speculative PC had 5 in the two abilities, no specializations, 5 Dexterity, and was Essence 3, which put me at DV 9. Not astounding, but very solid. My best case scenerio, without Excellencies, at character creations, without hearthstones or Artifacts, puts me at DV 15, which is very solid. During the Abyssals game, a DV 7 after I switched my anima on, made me very difficult to hit.
That whole thing is dependent on just one Performance Charm which, arguably, is just doing what it says on the tin. Last game, we had a guy with Artifact 5 battle armor equipped with Oblivion's Panapoly which put his Hardness at 21, so I don't feel like my DV is killing the game, anyhow. I'm not even trying that hard. Everything else is Charm purchases. I want Sifu 3, so that my Sifu knows Air Dragon, Water Dragon, Violet Bier, and just whatever Sidereal MAs that he'd be expected to know.
Mechanically, I have two goals. Become a Water Dragon master and get my prayer strip Charm for Performance, which is part and parcel of my character concept. Harmonic Completion, the capstone, actually makes my DV even more ridiculous and starts ladling out auto-successes on checks. But what's really cool is that I get a starmetal and jade blindfold and Creation thinks I'm so great that it labors to keep me unharmed. That's cool. And Air Dragon's first Charm lets me see while blind. Which is tres thematic. Blah blah blah, Charms. Performance, Martial Arts, and a few others designed to stop me from biting it - including Duck Fate (Dodge), Serenity in Blood (Violet Bier), and Harmony of Blows (Melee). My ST has a habit of seeing one excellent defense and throwing another avenue of attack at us, but it's going to be difficult to tag me.
I like mucking about with the system. I mean, I do. I'm guilty. I'm tired of being a chump and hemorrhaging XP to keep up with Darth Hammer, and I think system matters. The ST thinks it's kind of lame, but I think it's fun, and I hate playing a game like Exalted and finding out I can still get hammered by mooks. That happened to at least two of our PCs in Abyssals. It's not cool. But the real question I've got has to do with Exalted and gender identity.
The character concept's a woman from the West who opted to become Tya at the first available chance. It's not the kind of thing most people would notice since she's typically going to be wearing reinforced breastplate the majority of the time. It's far enough away from the lesbian stripper ninja archetype that I doubt anyone'll give me trouble, except that I might be referred to as a girl more often by my friends, which already happens fairly regularly at this point.
DV math. There's a Performance charm that allows you to add Performance to Dodge for the purposes of determining DV. It can be taken a number of different ways, but as I understand it, the implication is that static defenses imply an action, so Stunts apply (as listed in Kasumi's excellent primer PDF) and per the rules, so do Excellencies of different stripes. Stunts and Excellencies apply dice which are rolled to add to DV. That further implies, depending on the reading, that the anima banner of a Sidereal, which adds Essence in successes to a Performance roll, may be added. That depends on the reading.
Banner aside. My speculative PC had 5 in the two abilities, no specializations, 5 Dexterity, and was Essence 3, which put me at DV 9. Not astounding, but very solid. My best case scenerio, without Excellencies, at character creations, without hearthstones or Artifacts, puts me at DV 15, which is very solid. During the Abyssals game, a DV 7 after I switched my anima on, made me very difficult to hit.
That whole thing is dependent on just one Performance Charm which, arguably, is just doing what it says on the tin. Last game, we had a guy with Artifact 5 battle armor equipped with Oblivion's Panapoly which put his Hardness at 21, so I don't feel like my DV is killing the game, anyhow. I'm not even trying that hard. Everything else is Charm purchases. I want Sifu 3, so that my Sifu knows Air Dragon, Water Dragon, Violet Bier, and just whatever Sidereal MAs that he'd be expected to know.
Mechanically, I have two goals. Become a Water Dragon master and get my prayer strip Charm for Performance, which is part and parcel of my character concept. Harmonic Completion, the capstone, actually makes my DV even more ridiculous and starts ladling out auto-successes on checks. But what's really cool is that I get a starmetal and jade blindfold and Creation thinks I'm so great that it labors to keep me unharmed. That's cool. And Air Dragon's first Charm lets me see while blind. Which is tres thematic. Blah blah blah, Charms. Performance, Martial Arts, and a few others designed to stop me from biting it - including Duck Fate (Dodge), Serenity in Blood (Violet Bier), and Harmony of Blows (Melee). My ST has a habit of seeing one excellent defense and throwing another avenue of attack at us, but it's going to be difficult to tag me.
I like mucking about with the system. I mean, I do. I'm guilty. I'm tired of being a chump and hemorrhaging XP to keep up with Darth Hammer, and I think system matters. The ST thinks it's kind of lame, but I think it's fun, and I hate playing a game like Exalted and finding out I can still get hammered by mooks. That happened to at least two of our PCs in Abyssals. It's not cool. But the real question I've got has to do with Exalted and gender identity.
The character concept's a woman from the West who opted to become Tya at the first available chance. It's not the kind of thing most people would notice since she's typically going to be wearing reinforced breastplate the majority of the time. It's far enough away from the lesbian stripper ninja archetype that I doubt anyone'll give me trouble, except that I might be referred to as a girl more often by my friends, which already happens fairly regularly at this point.
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In this case, if he wants to get to Sidereal MA, he's probably not going to give us enough time. We play games over months, not over a year or anything. The setup I've made here is solid for a starting character, but Sidereal MA or Solar Melee still overshadow it without trouble.