Template:Character Creation Summary Abyssal Exalted

Step One: Character Concept

• Choose concept, caste, and Motivation.
• Note caste's anima powers.

Step Two: Attributes

• Note that all Attributes start with one dot before you add any.
• Prioritize the three categories: Physical, Social, Mental (8/6/4)
• Choose Physical Attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Stamina
• Choose Social Attributes: Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance
• Choose Mental Attributes: Perception, Intelligence, Wits

Step Three: Abilities

• Note Caste Abilities.
• Select Favored Abilities (5; may not be the same as Caste Abilities).
• Choose Abilities (28). You may raise any of your Abilities to five without spending bonus points.
• Distribute four Specialties amongst your character's Abilities. You can have up to three specialties per Ability - even the same specialty three times.

Step Four: Advantages

• Choose Backgrounds (7—none may be higher than 3 without spending bonus points)
• Charms (10-any Charms you meet the prerequisites for)
• Virtues (5—none may be higher than 4 without spending bonus points)
• Select your Flawed Virtue.

Step Five: Finishing Touches

• Record Essence 2.
• Willpower: Exalted characters begin with Willpower rated at 5 and it can be increased at a cost of 1 bonus point per dot, up to 8 points at character creation.
• Calculate your Personal Essence: [Essence x 3] + Willpower.
• Calculate Peripheral Essence: [Essence x 7] + Willpower + [the sum of Virtues].
• Record Health levels (7, plus any gained from Charms, most often Ox-Body Technique).

Bonus Points

Bonus Points Table

Trait	Cost
Attribute	4
Ability	2 (1 if a Favored or Caste Ability)
Background	1 (2 if the Background is being raised above 3)
Specialty	1 (2 per 1 if in a Favored or Caste Ability)
Virtue	1 per dot (Willpower is independent of Virtues)
Willpower	1
Intimacies	Characters may begin with up to (Willpower + Compassion) Intimacies without spending bonus points.*
Essence	7
Charms	4 (3 if in a Favored or Caste Ability)*

*Latest errata

• You get 18 bonus points, which may be spent at any time during character creation.
• You may raise your Abyssal's Essence to 4 at character creation, but no higher.
• Note that as an Abyssal's Essence increases, his appearance changes. At Essence 4, an Abyssal must have an Appearance of 1 or less, or an Appearance of 3 or more. At Essence 5, an Abyssal must have an Appearance of 0 or an Appearance of 4 or higher.
• A tip: check out the Taint Charms. Some of them can be bought with bonus points.

Sample Concepts

• Airship Captain turned Dreaded Pirate
• Embittered Ex-Lover
• Obsessed Hunter of the Fair Folk
• Priest of Darkness
• Repetant Monster
• Vegneful Former Dynast
• Vicious Swordsman

Castes

• Dusk: The Dusk Caste wields the arts of murder in all their forms and leads the armies of the Deathlords, spreading carnage across Creation.

Caste Abilities: Archery, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown, and War

Anima Powers: May use their animas to appear dreadful and terrifying for a scene.

• Midnight: As priests of Oblivion, the Midnight Caste spreads the Whispers of the Neverborn to the dead and the worship of the ancestor cults to the living.

Caste Abilities: Integrity, Performance, Presence, Resistance, and Survival

Anima Powers: May use their animas to slay mortals or to animate corpses.

• Daybreak: As the savants of the Underworld, Daybreak Caste deathknights wield the powers of necromancy and the secrets of the dead to further either the aims of their masters or their own ambitions.

Caste Abilities: Craft, Investigation, Lore, Medicine, and Occult

Anima Powers: May use their animas as shields.

• Day: As the unseen spies of the Deathlords, Day Caste deathknights mingle with the living, destroying their enemies' resolve with assassination and treachery.

Caste Abilities: Athletics, Awareness, Dodge, Larceny, and Stealth

Anima Powers: May use their animas as cloaks against detection and/or mute their anima banners when using Essence.

• Moonshadow: As the emissaries of the dead, Moonshadow Caste deathknights wield the powers of ghosts and Exalted alike, traveling from nation to nation to forge dark contracts at the behest of the Deathlords.

Caste Abilities: Bureaucracy, Linguistics, Ride, Sail, and Socialize

Anima Powers: May use their animas to bind oaths and contracts.

Motivation

• Choose a driving and epic goal for your character.

Virtues

• Compassion—The desire to end suffering.
• Conviction—Emotional endurance and loyalty to a cause.
• Temperance—Cold detachment and self-control.
• Valor—Courage and unholy fury.

Backgrounds

• Abyssal Command—Zombie swarms, undead legions and mortal soldiers (loyalist only)
• Allies—Companions and talented servants.
• Artifact—Soulsteel armaments and powerful trinkets.
• Backing—Standing and rank within an organization.
• Contacts—Information sources and mortals who owe the deathknight favors.
• Cult—Mortals or ghosts who worship the deathknight directly.
• Familiar—An animal companion.
• Followers—Undead minions, ghostly servants and loyal mortals.
• Influence—The deathknight's pull on the world around him.
• Liege—The esteem and generosity of the Abyssal's Deathlord (loyalist only).
• Spies—Informants a deathknight's Deathlord places at his disposal (loyalist only).
• Manse—A place of power and Essence.
• Mentor—A patron and instructor.
• Resources— Material goods and money.
• Underworld Manse—Manse access and hearthstones on loan from one's Deathlord (loyalist only).
• Whispers—The deathknight's attunement to the fathomless knowledge of the Neverborn.

Intimacies

• Start with a number of Intimacies up to your (Willpower + Compassion).
• Intimacies can be anything your character cares about on a meaningful level—a cause, an ideal, a place, a person, a nation.
• Don't worry if you can't come up with them, they are easy to gain and change.
• See Intimacies for more information.