Exalted 2.5 Under Review!

We are currently reviewing the new Errata published yesterday, thinking of how to best implement it and if we will! Please watch the wiki for updates!

Main things to note:

• Charm use per action is likely going to confuse people until they've played with it for a while.
  
  
• The only benefit Alchemicals get from their Arrays now is a tiny installation discount. This isn't worth the XP cost, so it's expected to be clarified that there is no cost, getting the installation discount as a trade off for losing a little flexibility, but no official word yet.
  
  
• The 'no equipment stacking' is almost an absolute. All those things that say they stack with armour (IRA, Silken Armour, etc.) no longer do. This is really harsh for Dragonbloods unless you're pretty relaxed on the alternate Jade types from Oadenol's, in which case they're better off than pretty much everyone.
  
  
• Overdrive is intended for all Exalts (but not implemented across them) and is designed to be a major part of combat in the 2.5 paradigm, so it's probably not a good idea to implement it without them (the writers recommend using the Overdrive charms they requested Revlid and Reminiscent Oasis to write on the forums for Abyssals, Lunars, Sidereals, and Solars. Revlid recommends using the Dragonblood Overdrive Charms posted by EarthScorpion, and the Alchemical Overdrive Charms posted by TDO (one of the writers) and ChainsawXIV. Plus Sidereals got some Overdrive goodies in the errata (as the Admiral pointed out in the other thread). It's probably something that's going to be drip-fed to the other splats throughout future releases, as the line devs have stated no more errata for quite some time, so using these (which have been scrutinised for balance with a fine-tooth comb) is a better idea than running 2.5 without any overdrives at all. Since it's explicitly stated as a cornerstone of the combat paradigm now, you'll essentially be running a system with one arm amputated, and all the future books are being written with this system as a core assumption.
  
  
• You will get a headache trying to figure out the up-side to attunement motes. There is none. This is widely regarded as one of the bigger WTF?s of the errata.
  
  
• Overall, the errata works to push Solaroids even further out ahead of the pack, and Solars firmly at the front of those. This may or may not be desirable in a mixed splat game, depending on how you believe the splats should stack up.

Also, as a general errata related note, not a specifically 2.5 one, I noticed the comment on the site about Martial/Martial-Ready not being used until the rest of the splats get theirs? I'm pretty sure there is no plan or need for non-Solars/Abyssals to get those keywords, as they were designed for, and address, a Solar/Abyssal specific problem.

Just my $0.02. I hope it's somewhat helpful, and if not, at least a little informative.

Incredibly helpful actually. Thank you

Sitting here reading through it again now, trying not to pull my hair out. I hate that they errata'd some stuff, but not their errata. Then gave the solaroids the over drive/martial ready stuff but not the others. I hate that drip fed solution as you so put it. It makes me want to track the Exalted Errata team prime whoevers down, tie them up in my basement and force them to play on my chat as STs for punishment. >: |

I'm leaning towards ignoring it because basically, I'd have to rewrite a lot of crap and submit my own errata for my players in PDF format. I don't want this place to become too intense before it gets started!

And why use incomplete errata on a chat? Raaaaaaaaghhh

Admin wrote:
And why use incomplete errata on a chat? Raaaaaaaaghhh

Unfortunately, the answer here is 'because everything written from now on will be using this errata as its base'.
Either patch this, or take a hatchet to everything that comes after. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, in short.



My personal belief is that the first option is the better one, and I'm willing to help with that any way I can. I spend probably unhealthy amounts of time talking mechanics with a whole bunch of other people who've been likewise unhealthily obsessed since the game was published.

Yay upside to over-the-top nerddom?

Id personally be very upset if 2.5 was ignored, Combat as it is now is really broken and unfun, and 2.5 seems to actually fix alot of those issues.

As for Overdrive, Throne posted some people working on semi-offical ones for other, so people could just put those through whatever custom process you'd have.

As for Martial/Martial Ready, as Throne said its intended to fix a problem with Dawns and Dusks, the former have a problem in that their intended to be masters of all forms of combat, but because of the narrow function of their charms (I.E Based on Ability), a Lunar or Infernal who's charms are more open in application would outshine them fairly easily in overall versatility.

Im willing to help with mechanical problems if it could help, I just think acceptance of things would be easier/better then ignoring or hacking the errata apart and leave awkward house rules.

To me, it seems like Overdrive isn't needed at all. If you go with the errata and kill combos (hooray!), then Overdrive is really unnecessary. I don't see any problem with just removing overdrive completely, and possibly adding it in later when the concept is actually implemented for everyone.

It's been covered here and in another thread, but to summarise;

• The combo fix doesn't negate the benefits of overdrive (remember, you still can't use other charms if you use one without the combo keywords. Charms paid for completely from the Overdrive pool still don't count as charm activations, so could be used).
  
• The changes to in-combat mote regen leave Overdrive as the main focus for regaining motes usable to fuel your fun stuff.
  
• The rest of the Errata is written on the assumption that Overdrive charms are available. Even for the splats that don't have canon overdrives yet. Reference the change to Essence Shield Projector on page 96.
  
• All material from here on out is being under with the assumption that overdrive is being used. Things are being balanced around everyone having Overdrives. Simply removing them from the system could have unforseen and undersirable effects on game balance that we can't really predict yet. It'd be like trying to dig up that tree that's throwing the rest of your garden into shade, only to find out that the roots spread under the whole yard.
  It's potentially problematic in a way that simply adding in some custom overdrives to balance things out isn't.

Hopefully that makes sense. Apologies if not; it is nearly 2am.