Dramatic Rules
Physical
Fighting (Archery, Dodge, Martial Arts, Melee, Thrown)
Climbing (Athletics)
Ascending a slope may be completed with a single (Dexterity + Athletics) roll at a difficulty based on the incline of the slope and the frequency of handholds. Success means the character climbs without incident, while failure means the character cannot find purchase and must start over. A botch indicates a fall, with the severity of the botch determining where in the ascent the character lost his grip. Storytellers can also choose to break a climb into an extended check for added drama. They can even use combat time to represent a high-stakes race between two or more characters. If a character is belayed, she shouldn't fall except in the worst possible botch.
Falling (Athletics)
Characters who fall onto a hard surface suffer levels of bashing damage equal to half the number of yards fallen, rounded down. This damage is considered piercing, though terminal velocity prevents damage from rising above 25B. Falling damage can be soaked normally, but a character soaks it completely, the minimum damage is simply reduced to one die rather than one level. Falling onto spikes, jagged surfaces and the like converts the damage from bashing to lethal. If the terrain is particularly soft or yielding, such as falling into deep water, halve the damage or (if the character is particularly lucky) assign no damage at all besides cosmetic bruising.
Latest Errata: Falling damage is not considered an environmental hazard, and cannot be defended against by Heavenly Guardian Defense or similar Charms (with the exception of Duck Fate); only damage negation (such as Adamant Skin Technique), effects which negate falling damage (such as the Air Aspect anima power), or not falling from a great height in the first place may protect the character from falling damage.
Players of heroic characters should receive a reflexive (Wits + Athletics) roll when their characters fall to save them from certain doom, typically by them grabbing onto the edge of a cliff or pit or snagging some outlying rock or flagpole on the way down. For a particularly long fall, a successful roll might mean the character bounces off the side of a wall and takes standard damage for falling that far but doesn't continue falling any farther.
Tumbling: If it is absolutely impossible for a character to grab hold of anything mid-plummet, every success on the roll provides an additional point of soak as the character tumbles and rolls to absorb the shock of impact. Minor characters seldom receive such protection.
Feats of Strength (Athletics)
Characters can heroically exert themselves to lift or break objects as a diceless action, comparing their (Strength + Athletics + appropriate specialty) total to the listed chart. Feats of strength involving breaking something take approximately a minute to perform or set up, so they cannot be done in the scope of normal combat time. Instead, characters who wish to break an inanimate object in battle must attack it (see Inanimate Targets). Characters can lift, pull or push objects as a miscellaneous action in Combat, enabling all manner of battlefield heroism.
Throwing a heavy object as a feat of strength requires a (Strength + Athletics) total five dots higher than is necessary to lift the object, and doing so sends the object hurtling a number of yards equal to the character's (Strength + Athletics). This action requires a Speed 5 (Dexterity + Thrown) attack roll to toss the lifted object, at a three-die Accuracy penalty. Penalties for throwing beyond range accrue normally (see Range Penalties). The base damage of a large improvised throwing weapon is the (Strength + Athletics) total in bashing dice needed to throw it, plus the attack's successes. This damage is considered piercing, as it crushes through armor. Animate objects cannot be lifted or thrown this way in combat unless they do not resist. Those who struggle must be clinched and then thrown (see Combat).
If the character uses a stunt or channels a Virtue, add the bonus directly to the total. Channeling a Virtue adds its rating directly to the total. Spending a Willpower point for an automatic success allows the player to roll Willpower and add successes to the total. Cooperation provides a limited bonus, with every assistant adding one point to the total (to a maximum of the leader's Athletics rating). All such bonuses affect only a single Strength check. In particularly gritty games, especially those involving mortal protagonists, halve the feats possible for a particular (Strength + Athletics) total, rounded up. Doing so profoundly alters the feel of the game, so Storytellers should carefully consider whether to alter the default epic tone.
| (Strength + Athletics) | Lift (lbs.) | Sample Feat |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 80 | Lift an anvil or suit of heavy armor. |
| 2 | 160 | Lift a full-grown man; break a wooden plank with a kick. |
| 3 | 250 | Punch a fist through a wooden door. |
| 4 | 350 | Lift a pony; carry a cotton bale on one shoulder; break a sword over one knee. |
| 5 | 450 | Lift a donkey; kick a wooden door to flinders. |
| 6 | 550 | Punch a fist through a heavy wooden door (i.e., oak). |
| 7 | 650 | Bend an iron bar with both hands. |
| 8 | 800 | Lift a horse; bend a horseshoe into a pretzel. |
| 9 | 1,000 | Pull a fully laden wagon. |
| 10 | 1,200 | Lift a camel. |
| 11 | 1,400 | Lift an unlocked portcullis; break down a brick wall over a half hour. |
| 12 | 1,600 | Kick a heavy wooden door to flinders; pull down a wooden bridge. |
| 13 | 1,800 | Lift a yeddim; punch a fist through an iron-shod door. |
| 14 | 2,000 | Snap iron manacles; rip a stone out of a castle wall. |
| 15 | 2,200 | Punch a fist through a stone wall; shatter an iron-shod door to flinders. |
| 16 | 2,500 | Lift a locked portcullis; smash any lock apart with a kick. |
| 17 | 3,000 | Punch a fist through a metal door; pull down heavy stone pillars. |
| 18 | 3,500 | Rip iron bars out of stone with one hand; tip over a loaded wagon. |
| 19 | 4,000 | Tear apart welded steel, such as the grating of a portcullis. |
| 20 | 4,500 | Lift a hippopotamus; punch a hole through a heavily armored fortress gate. |
Jumping (Athletics)
Heroic characters often find themselves needing to leap great distances in a single bound, whether to cross a yawning chasm, to jump between ships at sea or to snag a swooping opponent as she ascends to apparent safety. Without the aid of magic, characters can jump straight up a maximum number of yards equal to their (Strength + Athletics) total. Spending a point of Willpower adds an additional two yards, while stunts or Virtue channeling add yards equal to the bonus dice normally added. Wound penalties and mobility penalties from armor both directly subtract yards from a character's jumping distance. The distance a character can leap horizontally is double the vertical range. In gritty games, halve the number of yards characters can jump, rounded up.
Running and Swimming (Athletics and Resistance)
If it is necessary to know a character's exact speed relative to the events playing out around her, the Storyteller should force the scene into combat time (see Time) and track the movement in the passage of ticks. The same applies equally for sprinting and swimming, with the rules for unsteady terrain applying as appropriate to both forms of locomotion. In standard narrative time, characters have however long they need to reach their destination, making the issue of speed a moot point. Movement rolls based on quickness use (Dexterity + Athletics).
In contrast, long-distance running and swimming is a matter of endurance rather than speed, using a pool of (Stamina + Resistance). This is handled like any other strenuous activity.
Disguise (Larceny)
Appearing as another character or masking one's identity requires a successful (Intelligence + Larceny) roll. This is generally a dramatic action, requiring several minutes of applying costuming and perhaps prosthetics and makeup. The difficulty of the task ranges from 1 to look like someone else of the same gender, racial background, and body type (but not a specific person). Add one for each of those criteria the character tries to surpass, so looking like a specific person (+1), who is notably taller (+1), and is a different gender (+1) has a difficulty of 4. Hurrying also adds to the difficulty. Add two if the character is working without effective props and/or trying to mimic a specific person without several weeks of direct observation of the subject. For every additional month of work preparing a disguise beyond what is necessary, reduce the difficulty of the roll by one (to a minimum of difficulty 1). Players should note that mundane disguises cannot actually raise Appearance by more than one dot (to a maximum of 5 for humans), although disguises can temporarily reduce Appearance as far as to 0. If a character impersonates someone more attractive than herself (Appearance + 1), the disguise might be nearly flawless, but she cannot actually use this attractiveness as well as someone who actually has it. Spending protracted time "dressed up" in a disguise makes a perfect justification as training time to raise Appearance.
Whenever characters first encounter a disguised character, their players should roll (Perception + Awareness). If the threshold of this roll exceeds the threshold of the disguise, the observer realizes that the character is an imposter. If the Awareness check fails, the inquiring character may not reroll unless the disguised character does something unexpected or out of character (calling a lover by the wrong name, declaring a new heir, etc.). Therefore, loved ones and close friends will receive many more rechecks than acquaintances. If the character is caught without the disguise/props on, the ruse is automatically pierced.
Picking Locks (Larceny)
Opening a lock without the proper key requires a successful (Dexterity + Larceny) roll. The difficulty varies from 1-5 depending on the sophistication of the lock, and the character must have lockpicks of some kind. (Add one to the difficulty when using improvised tools.) First Age locks must be picked with First Age lockpicks or a stunt, and most First Age adaptive lockpicks are not mutable enough to mate with the crude wards of the Second Age. Characters caught with lockpicks on their person will have a lot of explaining to do. Players should remember that brute force often works as well as any lockpick for situations that do not call for stealth or subtlety.
Picking Pockets/Shoplifting/Prestidigitation (Larceny)
If one character attempts to filch items off another character's person without his knowledge, doing so requires an opposed roll of (Dexterity + Larceny) against the (Wits + Awareness, difficulty 1) of the target. The difficulty for the thief depends on how securely the item is kept: 1 for back pockets and pouches, 2 for front pockets and 3 for breast pockets/objects against the skin. Add one if the pouch/pocket is secured against theft and one if the character lacks a sharp knife for the task. If the thief obtains successes equal to the difficulty, the theft is successful. The target notices the theft immediately, however, if this threshold beats the thief's threshold. If the thief is unsuccessful and the target gets a single success, the failed attempt is automatically detected.
This system can also be used when a character grabs items from a merchant's stall or otherwise attempts to shoplift. Small objects on a shelf are difficulty 1, objects under direct observation are difficulty 2 and objects under direct observation within reach of the merchant are difficulty 3. Detection works exactly as described previously.
Finally, use this system whenever a character attempts to perform stage magic such as palming coins, shell games and whatnot. The difficulty is typically 2, but possibly higher for outlandish tricks. If observers gain a higher threshold than the prestidigitator, they see the trick for what it is.
Avoiding/Overcoming Disease (Resistance, Medicine)
In the world of Exalted, plague is a horrifying prospect. The Chosen might be virtually immune to sickness, but mortals have no such protection. See Disease and Infected Wounds. In addition, characters can also become diseased from a magical effect with a Sickness effect keyword. These diseases are sometimes conventional and sometimes sorcerous ailments with their own idiosyncratic rules. Characters who are immune to all illness ignore both natural ailments and those caused by Sickness effects, even if the Charm uses its own rules. Characters who are immune to natural ailments ignore only those diseases that use these following rules.
When a character is first exposed to a disease through its usual vector, roll her (Stamina + Resistance) against a base difficulty of the Virulence of that disease. Reduce this difficulty by as much as two if the contact is brief, or increase the difficulty by as much as two if the vector is practically unavoidable (like the stinking miasma of festering rot in a plague-wracked ruin). If the roll succeeds, the character avoids catching the disease. On a failure, she contracts the sickness.
Once a character has caught a disease, she has a period of time equal to its Incubation before it threatens her life. (She may develop symptoms much sooner, putting her at -1 or -2 internal penalty to all actions from discomfort.) Once this period is up, reroll (Stamina + Resistance) every day against a difficulty of the illness's Untreated Morbidity. If the character receives medical attention from a healer before the Incubation period elapses, the difficulty is the disease's Treated Morbidity instead. With a success, the character’s symptoms never worsen. They fade over a day as her immune system overcomes the malady.
Mortals and animals whose players fail this roll spend a number of days equal to their Stamina rating dying (during which they are at -4 to all actions from pain and exhaustion rather than the usual -2). Exalted and other similarly hardy magical beings are at -2 to all actions as a result of failure, but their players may recheck each day until the characters throw off the disease and have their full health restored. As long as the Chosen carry a sickness, they could be contagious, so they must be careful when they encounter a serious malady that they do not accidentally spread it to others. Spirits and Fair Folk are completely immune to normal disease—they resist magical diseases as Exalted. Only the Great Contagion has ever proved an exception, slaying 90 percent of the world's population regardless of Exaltation, leaving only spirits and the Fair Folk untouched.
Treating a sick character requires an (Intelligence + Medicine) roll with a difficulty rather unsurprisingly based on the disease's Difficulty to Treat. If the disease's difficulty to treat is unknown, it equals the (Essence of the character who caused the Sickness effect + 1). Physicians cannot treat a disease until they have diagnosed it (see Diagnose Patient).
Treating illness is a dramatic action, requiring a minimum of a full hour to administer poultices, herbs and/or other curative regimens (the necessary ingredients of which normally have a materials cost of Resources 1, but may be higher for rare diseases). Village healers and witches often gather their herbs and drugs rather than purchase them, requiring a successful (Perception + Survival) roll (difficulty 2-3) assuming proper ingredients can be found in the area.
For dramatic purposes, Storytellers should allow ingredient substitution so this roll has a chance unless finding a rare and exotic ingredient is a plot point. In such a case, characters might be forced to journey to strange lands or to seek magical assistance from spirits, the Exalted or even stranger beings in order to administer a cure.
If a physician actually spends a full day regularly checking in on a patient, the healer's player gains an additional die on the roll. This bonus increases to two dice if the healer does virtually nothing else but administer treatment throughout the day. Giving treatment to a character who is dying from disease after receiving no aid allows the victim's player a reroll at the disease’s Untreated Morbidity. If successful, the character recovers. On a failure, the character continues dying and without magical assistance will expire. Characters suffering from Sickness effects with no stated Untreated Morbidity automatically shake them off, without a roll, when they successfully receive treatment.
Enduring Hardship (Resistance)
Most living beings require certain basic essentials to remain healthy: air, sustenance and sleep foremost among them. The need for air is addressed in "Holding Breath" (the next entry). Characters can go a number of days without food equal to half their (Stamina + Resistance) total without penalty, rounded up. For every day that passes thereafter, characters suffer a cumulative -1 to all actions. When the total penalty exceeds a character's (Stamina + Resistance), she dies. Characters who imbibe insufficient nourishment starve more slowly, treating two (or even three) days as one for the purposes of assessing penalties. Eating a full meal removes -1 from the penalty, but characters accrue penalties automatically for periods of nutritional deprivation until they have eaten sufficient meals to reduce the penalty to zero. Thirst can kill even quicker than hunger. For each day without water past the first, a character is at a cumulative -1 to dice pools. When the penalty exceeds (Stamina + Resistance), the character dies. Drinking proper fluids for a day removes all thirst penalties.
Compared with starvation, sleep deprivation is a mere nuisance. For every day that a character goes without sleep beyond the first, she is at a cumulative one-die internal penalty to all pools. This penalty cannot exceed three dice. Furthermore, players of characters suffering any penalties from sleep deprivation must roll (Stamina + Resistance) at standard difficulty whenever their characters are left alone without anything to do. Failure indicates the character falls asleep for eight hours or until awoken. Once a character sleeps eight hours, all penalties from sleep deprivation fade.
Characters track penalties from all forms of deprivation separately, but only the highest of the three penalties actually applies. In place of deprivation, a final hardship condition of note is pregnancy. Mortal pregnancies last three seasons, imposing a Dexterity-based dice pool penalty of two during the second season and four during the third. Exalted pregnancies last a full year, with the characters not even showing until the fifth month or penalized at one die until the 13th. In the final month, Exalted increase the penalty to two. When mortals give birth, roll (Stamina + Resistance), difficulty 1. On a botch, the mother dies. Exalted are immune to death from childbirth.
Holding Breath (Resistance)
Characters can safely hold their breath for (Stamina x 30) seconds, plus an additional 30 seconds per success on a (Stamina + Resistance) roll. The difficulty of this roll is normally 1, but it may increase as high as 3 for swimming in cold water or if the character didn't have a chance to draw a deep breath. Once a character passes the safety limit, she must breathe or she begins asphyxiating, suffering one level of unsoakable bashing damage every 30 seconds. This damage cannot be healed by any means until the character is breathing normally again.
Strenuous Activity (Resistance)
Characters can perform continuous heavy exertion for a number of hours equal to their (Stamina + Resistance + pertinent specialty). Such exertion includes running, swimming, sex or any other athletic activity. For each subsequent hour of activity after that, characters suffer a cumulative one-die internal penalty to all actions from fatigue. Spending a Willpower point negates all fatigue for one action and reduces total fatigue by one. Channeling a point of Conviction negates fatigue for the next minute and reduces fatigue by a character's Conviction rating. When the fatigue penalty exceeds a character's (Stamina + Resistance), the character passes out and remains unconscious until she has slept for at least one hour (which removes one die of penalty). Every additional hour of sleep or three hours of rest removes another one die until the penalty is removed. Until the penalty is completely gone, the character automatically begins accruing more penalty dice for doing anything strenuous. Characters who are treading water will drown unless they have a buoyant object to keep them afloat while they rest.
Particularly extreme conditions of temperature (in either direction) can penalize a character's effective (Stamina + Resistance) total for the purposes of determining resistance to fatigue. Generally, such conditions do not impose a penalty greater than -3.
Withstanding Poisons/Environmental Damage (Resistance)
Although the bodies of the Chosen are supernaturally resilient, they are not completely immune to the dangers of poison and epic overindulgence. For mortals, most toxins of any severity mean certain death unless they can find immediate medical treatment from a skilled herbalist or alchemist.
(Damage/Interval, Toxicity, Tolerance/Interval, Penalty)
In Exalted, poisons have a number of statistics. First, they have a Damage value separated from a time interval by a slash. The initial value in this pair indicates the maximum damage a single dose of the poison can inflict, while the second value indicates the interval at which the poison inflicts one damage die. In combat time, an interval of one second means that damage is applied every tick. An interval of "action" indicates the poison inflicts damage every five seconds of narrative time or the beginning of every tick that a character acts on during combat time. Therefore, a poison with 5L/1 hour would inflict one die of lethal damage when it first entered a character's system and an additional one die every hour until damage had been rolled five times. (See Damage.)
Multiple doses of the same poison stack their Damage ratings, effectively prolonging the duration rather than increasing the damage suffered at every interval. The countdown is always made at an interval from the current damage, so two doses of a 5L poison would become 10L and would need to roll damage 10 times from receiving the second dose in order for the poison to fully run its course. Poison damage cannot be soaked, but it may be fought at each damage interval with a reflexive (Stamina + Resistance) roll at a difficulty determined by the listed Toxicity rating of the poison (or the number of doses the character has consumed, if higher). Mortals add two to the Toxicity of all poisons unless the Toxicity is marked with an "M" tag. Willpower cannot be spent on this roll for an automatic success.
If this roll succeeds, the damage type is reduced by one level, so aggravated becomes lethal, lethal becomes bashing, and bashing toxins inflict no damage. With double the number of successes required, the damage type decreases two categories. Some extremely deadly venoms have an "L" tag beside their Toxicity, indicating that they normally inflict levels of damage rather than dice. With such toxins, a successful Resistance roll first removes this tag, while double successes drop the damage type one category. The next poison statistic is its Tolerance, which indicates how many doses of the substance a character can safely have in her system before she starts risking damage. This statistic is attached to a time interval indicating how long it takes for the character's body to purge itself of each dose.
If the intervals of damage and dose reduction sync, the dose fades before the Resistance roll. A dash in place of the interval indicates the drug runs its course until it inflicts all damage, and then, it is completely flushed out of the system. The last statistic is the poison’s Penalty, which indicates the internal penalty imposed as a result of pain, hallucination or some other effect as long as the character has more doses of the drug in his system than the substance's Tolerance rating allows. (The penalty equals the number of doses taken, if greater than the usual penalty.) Penalties from poisons do not apply to Resistance rolls against them. If a player successfully makes the Resistance roll for an interval, the Penalty is halved, rounded down. Although not technically a statistic of the poison, each toxin has an associated Resources cost to obtain a dose.
Putting all this together, alcohol has the following traits: (2B/1 hour, 3M, Stamina + Resistance/1 hour, -1). For the purposes of these rules, a dose of alcohol is one drink, which translates roughly to a large beer, a glass of grape wine, several glasses of rice wine or a shot of harder liquor. Because alcohol has a Tolerance equal to the drinker's Stamina, a character with Stamina 2, Resistance 1 could safely hold three drinks in her body without noticeable effect. Each dose fades after an hour, so as long as she doesn't drink more than a glass per hour, she'll be fine. If she unwisely imbibes a row of eight shots in quick succession, this is five doses above her tolerance, changing the statistics of the alcohol within her to (10B/1 hour, 5M, Stamina + Resistance/1 hour, -5). Her player immediately rolls (Stamina + Resistance) at difficulty 5. (If she fails, the character suffers one die of unsoakable bashing damage.) After an hour, her body purges one dose, reducing the statistics to (8B/1 hour, 4M, Stamina + Resistance/hour, -4); another failed resistance roll would result in another die of bashing damage. This repeats each hour until her body finally purges the last excess drink. She is then sober but still at her limit until another three hours cleanses the remaining drinks from her body.
Some rare poisons do not inflict conventional damage, but instead cause some other deleterious effect on a failed Resistance roll. Some inflict no form of damage at all, but still have a Damage statistic to help determine how long they last. Many recreational drugs fall into this category.
Poisons Table
| Name | Damage | Toxicity | Tolerance | Penalty | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol | 2B/1 hour | 3M | (Stamina + Resistance)/1 hour | -1 | 1-3 |
| Arrow Frog Venom | 8L | 4 | —/— | -4 | 3 |
| Arsenic | 2L/1 day | 3 | (Stamina)/1 month | -0 | 2 |
| Coral Snake Venom | 6L | 3 | —/— | -5 | 1 |
| Marijuana | 4*/hour | 2M | —/— | -2 | 1 |
| Yozi Venom | 10A/minute | 5L | —/— | -5 | 5 (when available at all) |
* No actual damage.
Some Charms cause effects with the keyword Poison. These often use the rules for poison as outlined here but may also have more arcane effects. The rules in individual Charms supercede the rules in this section. Characters who are immune to all poisons ignore both those that use this rules section and Charms with the Poison keyword. Characters who are immune to natural toxins are immune to only those poisons that use this section of the rules and those Charms that state that their effects are the result of a natural toxin.
A variation of the preceding rules also handles conditions inimical to life, ranging from temperature extremes to acid baths. Environmental effects substitute Trauma for Toxicity and do not have a Tolerance, Penalty or associated Resources cost. By default, mortals roll at the same difficulty as Exalted, so the "M" tag is assumed. Moreover, damage is not always inflicted one die at a time, so the listed damage indicates the actual damage inflicted at every interval of exposure. Exalted characters who do take damage subtract their natural lethal soak as normal (to a minimum of one die).
Example: A bonfire has a Damage of 4L/action and a Trauma of 3. The player of a character unwisely standing in the middle of a bonfire would need to make a reflexive difficulty 3 (Stamina + Resistance) roll every five seconds of narrative time or at the beginning of every tick in which she acted. The Resistance roll would reoccur at this interval for as long as the character remained in the flames. On a success, the damage would be 4B; on a failure, 4L. In either case, the character could reduce this damage with natural soak to a minimum of one die.
Environmental Effects
| Name | Damage | Trauma |
|---|---|---|
| Acid Bath | 5L/action | 5 |
| Blistering Heat/Numbing Cold | 1B/hour | 1 |
| Bonfire | 4L/action | 3 |
| Severe Sandstorm | 1L/minute | 2 |
| Supernatural Ice Storm | 2L/minute | 2 |
| The Silent Wind of Malfeas | 6A/action | 5L |
Sneaking/Hiding (Stealth)
Assassins and thieves will often wish to creep up on their targets or set ambushes without being detected. For the combat applications of doing so, see Unexpected attacks. Outside of combat, avoiding detection requires an opposed roll of (Dexterity + Stealth) as a standard action against the observer's (Perception + Awareness) as a reflexive action. Poor conditions might impose an external penalty on the Stealth roll, such as well-lit open areas without many spaces to hide. Conversely, good conditions such as darkness and/or dense cover provide bonus dice. In general, the difficulty should not increase by more than two, nor should any bonus rise above three. If the Stealth roll wins, the character remains undetected. If the Awareness roll wins, the observer notices the character. Organized search parties or sentries gain the advantage of limited cooperation, but otherwise every observer independently compares her successes to the hiding character's. Anyone who succeeds may raise an alarm. Highly alert individuals such as those who have heard an alarm are at +2 difficulty to sneak up on. Once a character has failed a reflexive Awareness roll to notice a hidden character, he does not receive a reroll unless the concealed character does something that risks drawing attention to himself.
Social
Reading Motivation (Investigation)
After several minutes of interaction or observation, a character can try to glean the truth of a subject's mood or personality with a successful (Perception + [Investigation or Socialize]) roll made by the player, using whichever Ability has a higher rating. The difficulty is equal to half the target's (Manipulation + Socialize), rounded up. If successful, the observer knows the other character's most dominant emotion and can place that emotion in the context of the current scene, if applicable. With twice the required number of successes, the observer can learn one current Intimacy that the other character has demonstrated in the scene or establish whether any Intimacy to another selected character in the scene exists. If a relationship exists, the observer also gleans whether the relationship is positive or rooted in animosity.
Characters can also evaluate motivation with (Perception + Investigation) at the listed difficulty as a standard dice action when they suspect another character in the scene has just lied. Success discovers whether the statement was a lie or significantly deceptive omission, though the character does not discern the truth.
Example: Anoria is at a party talking to a local politician and his wife. After her player rolls twice the difficulty in successes, the Exalt discerns that the politician is bored and feels no particular loyalty to his wife. He'll probably excuse himself with the first girl to proposition him. She files this information away for later use.
Prayer (Performance)
Creation is an animistic world in which gods exist for every facet of life and every force in the universe. At the bottom, halfaware least gods hold sway over specific objects, such as individual weapons or tools or rocks. At the top, the Incarnae govern the journey of heavenly bodies through the firmament and hold sway over the Celestial Bureaucracy that ostensibly governs all gods. Anyone can pray to a deity, making an offering to get its attention so that it actually listens to the prayer rather than simply consuming the petition's meager Essence. The dramatic action to secure a god's attention is a (Charisma + Performance) roll at a difficulty of (7 – the Resources value of the sacrifice). Players of priests (those who live a full-time life of worship and commune) subtract one from the difficulty of all prayer rolls. Among the Exalted, the Zenith, Midnight and No Moon Castes are all priests regardless of vocation, as are all Sidereals. Praying can take anywhere from a moment for extremely simple requests to involved ceremonies lasting days at a time (the elaborate exercise of which typically qualifies as a stunt). For bloodier gods, a sacrifice of sentient beings has an effective Resources value equal to the combined permanent Essence of all the victims.
A successful prayer means that the deity understands the request/message and is inclined to provide aid, although such aid will usually be subtle and seldom immediate. Greater divinities might send guiding portents or good luck, the exact effects of which are left to Storytellers to implement. Terrestrial deities might intervene directly with Charms if doing so serves their purpose, but they are also comparatively weaker and can provide less aid. Botching a prayer means the deity is offended and requires an offering with a Resources value equal to its permanent Essence (maximum 5) before it will listen to any further requests.
Demons can also be targeted with prayers, the serpentine Essence of which winds it way through cracks in the world to whisper in the hearts of those banished to the Yozi Realm. Unfortunately for their infernalist slaves—though fortunately for the world—demons have no power to intervene in the world unless they are within its borders. Even then, the bindings of summoning often shackle their response.
The collective worship of many beings generates and focuses Essence almost like a manse does, as explained in the Cult Background. Unlike spirits, Exalted cannot hear the prayers of those who worship them, though they can benefit from Essence granted by any cults large enough to produce such.
Mental
Academic Knowledge (Craft, Lore, Medicine, Occult, War)
Whenever characters are called upon to know information that they have learned in the course of their experience and education, an (Intelligence + Ability) roll is required. The Ability in question depends on the subject at hand. For most conventional academic subjects, such as mathematics, history, geography and the like, use Lore. Occult governs mystical knowledge, especially pertaining to spirits, Fair Folk, the Exalted and actual Charms and artifacts. To know how something is constructed and understand the arcane trivia of forge temperatures, gem-cutting techniques, or what have you, use Craft. Medicine covers the workings of the body in health, sickness and trauma, as well as the assorted remedies for both disease and injury. War commands the strategies and tools of warfare, from the deployment of siege engines to types of formations to actual training regimens. Other Abilities can come into play for knowledge checks when characters draw upon the formal details of their expertise. For example, identifying a fighter's style from her kata requires a successful (Intelligence + Martial Arts) check.
The difficulty of an academic knowledge check depends on the obscurity of the fact, with difficulty 0 indicating that any character with a dot of this Ability automatically knows the information without a roll and difficulty 1-5 for most checks. Difficulties above 6 are possible, but such esoteric insights are generally beyond mortal understanding. These rolls and difficulties assume the character has several minutes in which to think. Characters who try to recall details and facts on the fly substitute Wits for Intelligence and add two to the difficulty.
Build/Attune Manse (Craft, Lore, Occult)
As explained on page 113, Essence does not flow evenly through Creation, it gathers in eddies and wellsprings of power known as demesnes. Each of these sites has an aspect, defining the type of power that resonates there. Possibilities include, Sidereal, Lunar, Solar, Abyssal or any of the five elements. Magical beings capable of channeling Essence may attune themselves to these locations through a simple meditative ritual (Intelligence + Lore), difficulty 1. This attunement is a dramatic action requiring a number of hours equal to the site’s rating. If the demesne already has beings attuned to it, they mystically feel the ritual regardless of their current location, but they do not know who is attempting to attune to the demesne unless they are physically present. Unless every owner gives consent, the attunement automatically fails. With a successful ritual (and consent, if necessary), a character becomes the new owner or a co-owner of the demesne and may automatically draw (the site's rating x 4) motes of Essence from the location whenever he is present.
While useful, demesnes are not portable, and their untamed energies can gradually mutate beings dwelling in close proximity like the touch of the Wyld does. For these reasons, Exalted raise manses atop demesnes they control whenever possible. Doing so is an enormously costly undertaking, both in terms of the resources required and the labor that goes into raising one of these arcane citadels. Characters must have at least 12 Ability dots divided among their ratings in Craft, Lore and Occult to design such a structure, and then, only for manses rated 1 to 3. Appropriate specialties count toward these totals. The total number of required Ability dots rises to 15 for level-4 manses and 20 for level 5. Characters cannot design a manse with a rating greater than the rating of the demesne it is intended to cap.
Designing a manse is a dramatic action requiring a month of in-game work, followed by a roll of (Intelligence + [the architect's lowest rating in Craft, Lore or Occult]) at a difficulty of the manse's intended rating. Other characters with sufficient Ability totals to build the manse may check the results, providing limited cooperation. If the roll fails, the character finds flaws in the blueprint and must start over from scratch. If the roll succeeds, actual construction may begin. In the event of a botch, the character’s designs include fatal flaws that will make the manse collapse or even explode within a month of its construction.
The construction materials and pay for 100 workers costs Resources 3 per month for level-1 through level-3 manses. Level-4 and level-5 manses cost Resources 4 per month (or Resources 3 for materials, assuming unpaid slave labor). The entire construction project takes a number of years equal to twice the manse's rating. Adjust this time proportionally to the labor pool available, so 200 workers take half as long, while a lone, maddened Exalt hauling stones into place would take 200 years of grueling daily effort to build a level-1 manse. Using supernatural labor also speeds the process, with every such being counting as multiple mortals. For instance, most First Circle demons are worth five laborers. If a completed manse has a lower rating than the demesne it caps, the excess energies produce dramatic but largely useless special effects around the manse.
Once the manse is completed, all attunements to the demesne immediately break. In the central hearthroom of the structure, a hearthstone will grow over the course of a month. The specific stone produced must correlate to the aspect of the manse, but it may be whatever one the architect planned. Characters can attune to a manse as if it were a demesne and gain additional Essence at the same rate when present at the site. Altering or defacing a manse's hearthroom in any substantial way disrupts the manse, breaking all existing attunements. The manse must be repaired before anyone can re-attune, which requires labor and materials equivalent to a month of construction. A character attuned to a manse may take the hearthstone and carry it against his skin, using the jewel as a conduit to the site. Doing so restores (the manse's rating x 2) motes per hour to the character. If it is socketed in a dedicated artifact made from one or more of the five magical materials, the stone also provides an additional enchantment according to its specific type.
Create Item/Artifact (Craft, Lore, Occult)
Mundane Items
Characters use the Craft Ability to design and execute creative projects as a dramatic action using a dice pool of ([the character's lowest rating in Dexterity, Perception or Intelligence] + Craft) for small items that are personally assembled by hand or ([the lower of Perception or Intelligence] + Craft) for larger works. The difficulty is equal to the Resources value of the object. Such projects take an appropriate length of time to complete, as set by the Storyteller. Generally, this interval is in days equal to the difficulty for small items, though extremely simple trinkets worth Resources 1 might take only a few hours to make. Larger or higher-complexity items push the interval from days to weeks, as with most forged goods. Massive projects such as the construction of houses and ships take an interval of months and possibly years for larger structures such as palaces. Truly monumental tasks could theoretically take even longer, although the Storyteller is encouraged to break such enterprises into smaller, independently resolved tasks.
Characters cannot create items with a Resources value in excess of (their Craft + appropriate specialty) without a Charm or stunt. Furthermore, they must have appropriate raw materials and tools, which have their own Resources cost—typically one dot less than the value of the intended project. In the case of large projects, this cost also includes hiring the many laborers necessary to construct the item. The Storyteller should grant exceptions based on common sense. A set of paintbrushes is still Resources 1, even if an artist intends to paint a masterpiece. Any physical item may be built using these rules, whether the process employed is carving, sculpting, forging, painting, jewelry making or anything else. If successful, the project goes as planned. For every success by which the roll failed to meet the difficulty, the final Resources value of the project decreases accordingly. If the final value could purchase an inferior-quality version of the desired item type, the project is completed according to such specifications. Therefore, an artist who sought to paint a masterpiece worth Resources 4 but whose ended up rolling a single success would produce a Resources 1 painting—pretty enough in an amateurish and trivial way. If no lower-cost counterpart for the desired item exists (large estates could be Resources 4 or 5, but not less), the project fails. The craftsman can try again over a new interval, but he requires the same Resources cost in tools and materials as if he were starting over. Fortunately, his player adds a number of bonus dice to his Craft roll equal to the dice that came up as successes in the previous attempt. He may repeat this as many times as desired, but dice bonuses are not cumulative; they reference only the last attempt. Botching a project at any point spoils it and negates any possibility of continued retry, though Storytellers can always rule that the craftsman made a worthless item that he vainly imagines to be a work of genius.
The threshold obtained on a creation attempt determines the overall quality of the work relative to the difficulty. An exceptional straight sword is worth Resources 3, and a blacksmith who obtains three successes for a threshold of 0 still makes an exceptional sword. However, if he obtains a threshold of 3-4, his work is observably better, with superior balance and elegance. Such items are called fine equipment. If a buyer has a choice between a fine blade and a threshold 0 blade, he will prefer the former and will pay more for it (though not enough to raise the Resources cost of the item).
If a character obtains a threshold of 5 on a project, the superb craftsmanship improves the final Resources value by one dot (to a maximum of 5), automatically making the item exceptional. If possible, this quality improves the utility of the item accordingly. For example, a normal straight sword is Resources 2 and requires two successes. With seven successes, the extraordinary quality makes it a Resources 3 exceptional weapon. Because three successes would also be enough to make the weapon exceptional if the character had planned to do so all along, taking three weeks and spending Resources 2 on materials, the chief advantage of producing an unexpected masterpiece is the ability to do so cheaper, more quickly and possibly with less training. Perfect goods, the ultimate expression of what is possible in a given craft without magic, have a difficulty and creation time equal to (the Resources cost of an average item + 5) and a cost in materials equal to (the cost of an average version of the item + two dots, maximum Resources 5). Therefore, a perfect straight sword would cost Resources 4 in materials and take seven weeks to make at a difficulty of 7.
Artifacts
In addition to making mundane goods, magical beings may use the five magical materials and other exotic ingredients to produce artifacts that are nearly indestructible and imbued with enchantments (see pp. 380-381 and 385-392 for examples). Building an artifact requires that characters have a Craft, Lore and Occult each rated at 3+ for artifacts rated 1 to 3. For greater wonders, the minimum Ability rating required is (the Artifact rating + 2), meaning that characters cannot build level-5 artifacts without superhuman prowess. Artifacts are not built as normal goods, but instead require an extended roll of the same dice pool at a difficulty of (the artifact’s intended rating + 2). Exalted who craft magical materials different from the one that resonates with their kind (such as Solars working with jade) suffer a -2 internal penalty. The interval is one season, and the number of cumulative successes required depends on the rating of the artifact: 1 (10 successes), 2 (30 successes), 3 (60 successes), 4 (100 successes) and 5 (250 successes). A botch at any time halves the accumulated successes, rounded down.
Artifacts require mundane ingredients costing (their rating + 1)—maximum 5—as well as access to workshops costing Resources 4 to properly stock (or Resources 5 for workshops capable of producing level 4-5 artifacts). If characters do not have adequate tools at their disposal, they suffer a -2 internal penalty. In addition to mundane costs, every artifact requires a number of exotic ingredients equal to its rating, each of which must pertain to the function of the device. For instance, a basic daiklave could be built using the bones of a legendary warrior and steel refined in an elemental's fire. Exotic ingredients need not be expensive, but they should require effort to obtain (making excellent fodder for stories).
When determining the rating of a player or Storyteller-created artifact, keep the following guidelines in mind. Level-1 artifacts are useful but have only one minor supernatural power of a utilitarian nature. They are comparable to perfect equipment with no overtly supernatural powers (such as a quill that never runs out of ink or a jewel that glows as bright as a torch when commanded). Level-2 artifacts are moderately useful. However, these relics have little effect on stories and providing enchantments that an Exalt could approximate using a Charm two or three steps into a Charm tree. (Most "basic" magic weapons such as daiklaves fall into this category.) Level-3 artifacts are powerful, greatly expanding an Exalt's capability in one area or providing a number of weaker powers. Large artifacts might fall into this ranking if they require regular upkeep, external power provided by hearthstones, or other such drawbacks. Grand daiklaves, Essence cannons and the giant mechanized suits of armor called warstriders are all examples of level-3 artifacts, despite their differences in power. Level-4 artifacts are rare and wondrous things, such as cloaks that turn into wings and the advanced power armor manufactured in the Shogunate Era. Characters with such devices will have a sizable advantage against those without, although level-4 artifacts are not quite game-defining. Level- 5 artifacts are almost exclusively relics of the First Age, such as skyships, automatons programmed as both perfect servants and deadly bodyguards, and daiklaves that drink souls. These are game-defining devices.
Predict Weather (Sail, Survival)
Only the Celestial Incarnae know the plan of weather to come, and even these designs may be altered by the rituals of thaumaturges, the spells of the Exalted, and the Charms of rogue spirits. Still, in the absence of such phenomena, enough patterns exist that knowledgeable characters can attempt crude weather predictions. Roll (Perception + Ability), with a difficulty of 2 in stable climates (i.e., Southern deserts are universally dry and hot) and 3–5 as appropriate to more tempestuous and unstable climes. The threshold on this roll indicates the number of days forward that the character can predict overall trends: clear skies, precipitation (light, heavy or torrential), overall temperature (freezing, cold, chilly, temperate, warm, balmy, sweltering) and similarly sweeping trends. Add one to the difficulty if the character uses Sail to make predictions on land or Survival to make predictions at sea. The base difficulty assumes the character uses the Ability best suited to the environment.
Noticing Details (Awareness)
One of the most useful functions of the Awareness Ability is to counter the Stealth of others (see Sneaking/Hiding and Unexpected Attacks). However, Awareness also enables characters to perceive their environment. By its nature, Exalted ordains the Storyteller as the eyes and ears of the players, making her responsible for narrating every detail of the world. Without basic narration, players have nothing for their characters to react to. From a rules perspective, all such details qualify as reflexive diceless (Perception + Awareness) checks at difficulty 0, meaning that characters automatically succeed unless they lack a particular sense with which to receive that information. If the Storyteller has additional details in the scene that she wishes to restrict to those who are more observant, she should call for everyone to make actual reflexive (Perception + Awareness) rolls at standard difficulty, establishing the successes necessary for each detail. Characters can also deliberately attempt to take in their surroundings if they believe they might have missed something. Using Awareness thus reflects situations where a sharp-eyed character notices the distant speck of a rider on the horizon and points it out to those less observant.
Vision (Awareness)
In broad daylight under optimal weather conditions, sufficiently observant characters can spot objects when they are merely specks on the horizon. However, many conditions can interfere with visibility. Exalted handles such conditions by labeling poor visibility as a -1 external penalty and no visibility as a -2 penalty. For every condition, characters face two associated values measured in yards of radius. The smaller value is the distance at which clear vision ends. Any attack or other physical action intended to affect a target beyond this radius suffers the poor visibility penalty. The second, larger radius is the distance at which murky vision ends. Targets outside this range are effectively invisible, imposing the penalty for no visibility. Without the assistance of Charms or stunts, characters cannot make any ranged attacks to a distance greater than twice the “murky vision ends” radius, unless their targets are individually illuminated (such as by carrying a torch).
Torches and other light sources supplant the regular illumination within their radius, granting sufficient illumination to read inside the clear vision area. Unfortunately, torches and other open flames are visible for several miles, alerting anyone hiding in the darkness to the location of the torchbearer and permitting ranged attacks against these highlighted targets as if they were in poor lighting.
While truly invisible characters also impose a -2 external penalty to hit them, vision penalties do not apply to blind characters. Instead, characters who cannot see clearly suffer a -2 internal penalty, while true blindness increases the penalty to -4. Functionally, blindness affords the same approximate hindrance as true darkness, but the nature of the penalty is different because darkness is an external obstacle whereas blindness impairs a character's ability to function.
Sample Visibility Conditions
| Condition | Clear Vision Ends |
Murky Vision Ends |
|---|---|---|
| Bonfire* | 10 | 20 |
| Fog, Day | 10 | 30 |
| Fog, Night | 0 | 3 |
| Full Moon, City or Forest | 0 | 3 |
| Full Moon, Grass or Leafless Forest | 25 | 50 |
| Full Moon, Snowy Ground or Desert | 50 | 100 |
| Heavy Snow, Day | 0 | 20 |
| Heavy Snow, Night | 0 | 0 |
| No Moon, City or Forest | 0 | 0 |
| No Moon, Grass or Leafless Forest | 0 | 3 |
| No Moon, Snowy Ground or Desert | 5 | 25 |
| Torchlight* | 3 | 5 |
* Indicates a light source that supplants visibility within its radius.
Evaluating Goods (Bureaucracy)
Although the Bureaucracy Ability largely concerns itself with managing governments bureaus, businesses, criminal syndicates and other organizations, it also measures a character's overall familiarity with the values of assorted merchandise. The Resources system in Exalted deliberately abstracts prices, with each greater dot encompassing a progressively wider span than those below. Therefore, the actual cost of one Resources 4 item might be as much as Resources 3 more than another Resources 4 item. Because of this increasing abstraction, characters can determine the overall Resources rating of an item with a successful (Intelligence + Bureaucracy) roll at standard difficulty. Yet knowing the exact fair market value of an item in its current condition raises the difficulty to the object's Resources value. Besides any narrative benefits, knowing the exact value of something makes haggling easier, providing one extra success if the other party is honest, and three extra successes if the other party attempts to rip the character off. For more details, see 174 (???not relevant). Pricing goods may be achieved instantly for most smaller products, though large quantities that waver with (or change) the local economy might require hours or even days of research.
Examine Scene/Conceal Evidence (Investigation)
Whereas the Awareness Ability focuses on observing sensory details at the immediate level, Investigation operates on a dramatic time scale to actively hunt for clues and draw conclusions over the course of a scene. Characters must spend at least 15 minutes actively searching a location as a dramatic action in order for their players to make a single roll of (Perception + Investigation). The difficulty of the roll depends on whether anyone has attempted to deliberately tamper with or conceal evidence. If not, the difficulty is 1-5 as assigned by the Storyteller based on the subtlety of the crime scene and the scarcity of clues. For every success, the character uncovers one detail that is most plausibly relevant to the subject of his search (or one that is most unusual, if he's searching without a particular purpose in mind). These clues could be red herrings, though the Storyteller should make at least half the uncovered clues legitimate. If the character is reconstructing the events of a crime, rather than looking for contraband or incriminating possessions in someone's house, the Storyteller should also provide the most plausible explanation based on the evidence available. The player may also designate that an investigator is considering outlandish theories, in which case the Storyteller should suggest several to spark creativity, none of which need have the slightest bearing on the truth.
By default, these rules assume that a character is ransacking a scene, pulling out drawers, overturning mattresses, moving bodies and generally making a mess. If a character wishes to be subtle, she suffers an internal penalty of -4, but the players of characters who enter the scene later must make successful (Perception + Awareness) rolls against a difficulty of the searcher's Wits to notice anything amiss.
Concealing or tampering with evidence requires a (Wits + Investigation) roll at standard difficulty and takes as long to perform as a search. The successes on this roll replace the difficulty to search the scene if they are better. Each subsequent tampering beyond the first is at a cumulative +1 difficulty. Apply the highest number of successes or the natural difficulty of the scene as the difficulty, whatever is highest.
Operate Technology/Artifacts (Lore)
In the First Age, Exalted sorcerers and artificers built wonders that dwarf the achievements of modern craftsmen, from fleets of skyships and towering warstriders to advanced infrastructures capable of regulating local weather or maximizing crop yields. Precious few of these wonders survived the Usurpation of the Solar Exalted and the scourge of the Great Contagion, leaving broken and dormant ruins scattered across Creation. Characters who come upon such wonders can attempt to reactivate them, but in the absence of instruction manuals, the sophisticated controls of most complex artifacts require a high level of education to discern. Roll the character's (Intelligence + Lore) as a dramatic action with a difficulty based on the complexity of the device. Personal weapons such as plasma tongue repeaters or minor utilitarian devices such as memory crystals are difficulty 1–2. Sophisticated devices such as flying machines and geomantic artillery emplacements are difficulty 4, and the most elaborate machines such as the Realm Defense Grid are difficulty 6 or higher. Storytellers can easy interpolate intermediary difficulties as necessary. Simple artifacts such as daiklaves or suits of basic magical materials armor do not need such rolls. Their function is innately intuitive. Having a tutor or manual obviates the need for a roll, but the character knows how to make the artifact do only what the manual teaches.
Once a character knows how to work a device, she must still take time to familiarize herself with the controls. Doing so generally takes (the Artifact rating of the device – the character’s Lore rating) hours and does not require further rolls. Until this familiarization process is complete (which might not be possible for weapons with limited ammunition or dangerous machines where the slightest mistake can prove catastrophic), characters require a standard (Wits + Lore) roll to use the device (difficulty 1–2). Botching such rolls yields consequences as dire as the object's function allows. A priceless memory crystal might "only" lose its recorded contents, while Essence munitions might detonate.
If the Storyteller generously determines that a character has a chance to operate a device despite the fact that she does not comprehend its controls, roll one die. If the result is less than the Artifact rating of the machine (Artifact N/A devices are the equivalent of Artifact 6 to 9 as appropriate), the character automatically botches. Otherwise, her player may roll the character's (Wits + Lore) for her to use the artifact at a difficulty of its rating. Once a character has made a device perform a particular function once through sheer luck, she may thereafter do so using the normal rules. Making the artifact do something new requires a new luck check, making trial and error a very dangerous way to learn.
Diagnose Patient (Medicine)
When a physician examines a patient to detect and/or gauge the seriousness of wounds or illnesses, roll the physician's (Perception + Medicine). This is a dramatic action requiring five minutes of poking, prodding and taking note of symptoms. In the case of injuries, the difficulty is only 1 for external wounds and 2 for internal injuries (such as broken bones or internal bleeding). Success allows the healer's player to know how many levels of each type of injury the patient currently suffers, which the character interprets in an appropriate in-game context. For example, a patient suffering three levels of bashing damage and a single level of lethal damage might prompt the physician to say, "It looks worse than it really is. Mostly, you're just banged up. Get some rest, and stay off that leg for a few days, and you'll be fine."
Illnesses are more variable, with a diagnosis difficulty based on the distinctiveness of the symptoms rather than the severity of the disease. For instance, the common cold, infected wounds and bubonic plague are all difficulty 1. Other examples include cholera and smallpox (difficulty 2) and yellow fever (difficulty 3). Only extremely rare and/or magical illnesses should have a diagnosis difficulty greater than 3. If it is a Sickness effect without a stated difficulty to diagnose, the difficulty is the Essence of the character who caused the effect.
Without knowing what ails a patient, physicians cannot administer treatment, so quick and accurate diagnosis is critical. Players should keep in mind that physicians risk contracting communicable diseases they encounter. Taking precautions, such as maintaining strict hygiene, can provide bonuses to avoid catching illnesses, but these might not be sufficient, particularly where such horrific maladies as plague are concerned. For all their compassion, doctors often impose quarantine where they suspect a possibility of severe contagious disease rather than get close enough to risk personal exposure.
Treat Wounds (Medicine)
Without powerful magical drugs, mortal physicians can do relatively little to speed the healing of wounds besides convincing overenthusiastic heroes to take their injuries seriously and rest. However, healers can help prevent or treat complications associated with injuries, including bleeding, infection and disabling wounds. The rules for helping with each condition may be found in the respective write-up for those states.
Actual internal surgery (such as to remove tumors or growing parasites) is beyond the skill and resources of all but the most skilled physicians. The difficulty of such feats is at least 5 and climbs rapidly with increasing procedural complexity. Moreover, such surgery takes at least three hours per point of difficulty to perform and inflicts a number of unsoakable dice of lethal damage on the patient equal to the procedure's difficulty. Only the Exalted can reliably perform such wondrous feats of medicine.
Crippling injuries, meaning those inflicted by a Charm with the Crippling descriptor, must first be diagnosed to be treated. If not stated in the Charm, the difficulty to diagnose is the Essence of the character who used the Charm. The difficulty to treat it is the (Essence + governing Ability of the Charm that caused it).
Thaumaturgy (Occult)
| THIS PAGE IS NOT FINISHED YET! |
There's a lot of this stuff (Oadenol's Codex), so all of it will eventually move to a separate page, Thaumaturgy.
The following sample Arts list a number of sample rituals according to the following format: Name (Minimum Degree, Attribute, Difficulty, Casting Time): Effect.
When casting rituals, thaumaturges spend the casting time in uninterrupted work, after which their players roll (Attribute + Occult + Degree known) against the listed difficulty. If successful, the ritual’s Effect takes place. A failure wastes the effort and components, while a botch imposes some mishap related to the intended effect. The minimum degree indicates the degree a character must possess in that Art to cast the ritual without knowing a specific Procedure to do so. Storytellers should feel free to create additional Arts and additional rituals for each Art using these examples as guidelines.
The Art of Astrology
Compile Chart (0, Wits, 2, one hour): This ritual requires access to star charts (Resources 2) and detailed personal information about the subject, or it automatically fails. Pertinent information may be obtained freely or uncovered through investigation. Success creates an astrological profile necessary for greater astrological rituals.
Lesser Divination (1, Intelligence, 4, three hours): By observing the night sky using star charts and a target's astrological profile, the thaumaturge makes a prediction about the target's future, splitting successes between duration and accuracy. Duration: 1 (one month), 2+ (one season). Accuracy generates predictions that are extremely vague (1) or vague (2+). Botches result in false predictions. (Targeting a Primordial or a native of the Wyld, Malfeas or the Underworld results in an automatic botch.) The Storyteller creates the prediction, assuming no interference from Heaven or beings that trigger automatic botches. Such interference spoils predictions.
Divination (2, Intelligence, 4, three hours): As Lesser Divination, but more successes may be applied to Duration: 3 (half a year) or 4+ (one year), or Accuracy: 3 (woefully incomplete but enlightening) or 4+ (somewhat accurate). Greater Divination (3, Intelligence, 4, three hours): As Divination, but more successes may be applied to Accuracy: 5 (mostly accurate with details) or 6+ (accurate with details).
The Art of Demon Summoning
Demonsight (1, Perception, 3, five minutes): Her closed eyes anointed with blood, the thaumaturge opens them to perceive immaterial demons with all senses for the rest of the scene.
Summon [Species] (2, Intelligence, 5, six hours): A First Circle demon of the desired species crawls through a crack in the Demon Realm and appears in a flash of green fire before the caster. Thaumaturges have no power to command summoned demons, but they may try to threaten, bribe or cajole them to do some task they are naturally inclined to do instead of immediately attacking (e.g., erymanthoi hunger for bones to crunch and flesh to rend). This ritual must be conducted entirely at night, and it involves blood sacrifice. To clarify, the summoning must begin at sundown, as with its superior, sorcery equivalent, Demon of the First Circle. Each ritual summons one and only one kind of First Circle demon. Each type of demon has its own sigil and array of plants, animals, stones, color combinations and other symbolic elements that must be used in its summoning.
The Art of Enchantment
[Least Wonder] (1, Intelligence, 3, 50 hours): This ritual may be interrupted and resumed without automatically failing, so long as the caster spends at least five hours per day working on it. The caster must have the target object on hand and own it, and the item cannot have Resources value greater that the thaumaturge's Occult rating. Each success gives the item the properties of being exceptional (see p. 365) for one decade. Each individual item that a character could categorize requires a separate Procedure, if the ritual is learned as such (e.g., swords, plate armor, blacksmithing tools, etc.).
[Lesser Wonder] (2, Intelligence, 4, 100 hours): As [Least Wonder], but an exceptional item (including an item already enchanted with [Least Wonder]) can be made perfect for one decade per success. (NOTE: errata says that Perfect Equipment doesn't exist and all perfect equipment should now be treated as Exceptional Equipment. I'm not sure whether this case should still work?)
[Talisman] (3, Intelligence, 5, 200 hours): Before beginning this ritual, the character physically builds an artifact with a rating of 1, using one more exotic ingredient than usual. See Create Item/Artifact for artifact-creation rules. Because the item is not made from one of the magical materials, it cannot socket hearthstones, nor is it indestructible. This ritual provides the magic that powers the artifact, lasting one decade per success. Such artifacts are called talismans, and they lose all magical power if they are targeted with a countermagic spell or if the item itself is significantly damaged. Every different artifact must be learned as a separate Procedure, if learned as a Procedure rather than through Degrees.
The Art of Geomancy
Essence Sense (0, Perception, 1, one minute): Needing no materials, nor required to spend Willpower, the thaumaturge handles or stares at a target object or being in rapt concentration. If the successes equal (11 – [the number of motes spent on Charms and/or spells currently affecting the target]), the thaumaturge senses the presence of Essence, but not its strength or source. Three or more successes also detect the presence of any thaumaturgical effects on the target.
Blessing (2, Intelligence, 3, three hours): The thaumaturge names a target within one mile, a sample of whose hair, blood or some other body part is part of the expended materials. Her player picks one Attribute, one Ability and one specialty for that Ability. The next time the target botches a roll of those traits in the context of that specialty, the botch is converted to a simple failure. This blessing cannot offset magically induced botches, and a character can benefit from only one geomantic blessing at a time.
Curse (2, Intelligence, 3, three hours): As Blessing, but the next failed roll for the target in the context of the named Attribute, Ability and specialty becomes a botch. A character can suffer from only one geomantic curse at a time.
The Art of the Dead
Summon Ghost (0, Charisma, 2, 15 minutes): Ghosts are frightfully easy to summon, as virtually any apprentice of the occult can tell you. At a location important to the deceased, a thaumaturge may call a ghost through offerings of grave goods and fresh blood. The roll's difficulty decreases by 1 if performed in a shadowland or the Underworld; increase it by 1 for each 100 years the person has been dead and if summoning a ghost by its qualities rather than its name. When performing this ritual in a shadowland, failure means that five (usually unwelcome) ghosts show up for each success by which the attempt falls short. Ghost summoned by this ritual manifest visibly and audibly but remain immaterial unless the ghost can materialize on its own or the summoning takes place in a shadowland.
Speak with Corpse (1, Perception, 2, one minute): This ritual requires the whole skull of a corpse; if there isn't enough meat on the bones to hold the jawbone, the thaumaturge must wire the jaw using human sinew and iron pins. The ritual itself involves a period of osculation that most would consider abhorrent. Afterward, the thaumaturge may ask and receive an answer to two questions, plus one question per threshold success. Corpses entreated with this ritual only know what their bones have seen since the day before their deaths; to learn what it saw while alive, the necromancer must seek the extant spirit.
Endure Wilderness (Survival)
While Resistance staves off injury from extreme environmental conditions, not all environments are so hostile that they actually inflict damage. However, just because a barren tundra isn't cold enough to inflict immediate frostbite doesn't mean that unprepared travelers can survive there. Away from civilization, characters must hunt or gather their own food, find or erect shelter and keep themselves protected from the elements. Characters with at least one dot of Survival can perform these tasks without any roll, assuming they only intend to procure sustenance and shelter for themselves.
Foraging
Obtaining food for others for a day requires one threshold success per character on an (Intelligence + Survival) roll (difficulty 1 for verdant forests, jungles and swamps, 2 for grasslands, 3 for dry savannas, 4 for deserts and tundra and 5 for blasted wastelands). Hunting/foraging is a dramatic action taking (the difficulty – the hunter's Survival rating) hours, minimum of one hour. Characters lacking proper tools and/or weapons are at a -2 internal penalty to checks. Players should remember that characters who do not receive sufficient nutrition will starve (see Enduring Hardship).
Finding Shelter
Finding shelter and generally staying alive in the wilderness is much easier and does not require a roll under most conditions provided characters have the proper equipment (insulated garments for cold weather, extra water skins for arid climates, etc.). Without such tools, make an (Intelligence + Survival) roll—difficulty by terrain, as previously listed. In extreme climates (those that qualify as difficulty 4-5), even players whose characters have the right equipment must make the roll at -3 standard difficulty. Only one person in a group need make this roll, provided the rest follow her directions. Success means the characters stay alive. Failure indicates that extras perish and heroic characters suffer whatever damage the Storyteller feels is appropriate for the severity of exposure.
Tracking/Evasion (Survival)
Although the Stealth Ability governs the actual techniques of hiding and sneaking, characters who wish to travel long distances without leaving traces of their passing must use Survival instead. This requirement applies regardless of the terrain the character passes through, be it urban or wilderness. Similarly, characters use their Survival knowledge to track down others.
Contests between trackers and fugitives are resolved as an extended, opposed roll of the pursuer's (Perception + Survival) against the target's (Wits + Survival). Roll twice for each day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Tracking at night requires the aid of dogs (or similarly keen senses such as Charms may provide) and grants a third roll, if appropriate. In most cases, neither party will continue at night. During any period of time in which characters do not keep moving, they forfeit the next closest roll. If one party is notably faster than the other, her player receives an additional success on each roll as the character catches up or pulls away. If the fugitive has a substantial lead, this should be represented by additional successes on the first roll. The pursuer's player may gain bonus dice on each roll (between two and five) if the character is using hounds or other tracking creatures to help. If the pursuer is notably slower, she will not catch her quarry unless she closes the distance by journeying while the fugitive rests or is waylaid by obstacles. If she wins, it simply means that she can follow without impediment and will eventually catch up. The Storyteller remains the final arbiter and interpreter of how tracking chases play out.
Whichever party in a tracking contest gains a threshold of three successes over the other wins. For the fugitive, this means slipping away so that pursuit cannot continue to follow. For the tracker, this means the character gets close enough to have an actual encounter (combat or otherwise) or simply holds the trail and gradually closes the distance as quickly as circumstances allow.