TechNo Prisoners


Character Creation Guide

Character Creation

A Step-by-Step Guide

By Mad Dwarf

The Big Rule Book (BRB) begins the Character Creation chapter by getting you to think about what sort of campaign you will be taking part in. I know my GM pretty well, and he will be running a relatively serious game, with political intrigue, lots of combat, and many ways to exploit our weaknesses. We'll try to combine seriousness with over-the-top stunts, and be meeting an array of well-prepared, believable characters, and getting into may sticky situations. For the purposes of this article, I shall be assuming our campaign will be set in the Scavenger Lands.

Next, we are asked to think about what type of character we want to play. Write a paragraph about what type of larger-than-life Epic Hero you imagine playing, and what sort of high-jinks they'll get up to. For the purposes of this article, I'll be creating Bert Bateau, knife-man.

A Guild Enforcer from Nexus, Bert is an unparalleled knife-fighter. His quick eye and quicker hand have brought many a foe to 'justice'. This has made him a few friends, and many enemies. He spends little time in the company of others, and prefers to work alone when he can.

Now we know roughly what we are aiming for, we move to Character Creation Proper!

Step One - Concept and Caste

The Five Solar Castes cover each of the Archetypes likely to be met in Exalted. Being primarily a Warrior, Bert will Dawn Caste (it is possible to go against type, and a Warrior could be of any Caste. With the Favoured Skill system, it is relatively easy to pick up a few out-of-caste skills). I print out a copy of the Dawn Caste powers onto an index card, and move to the next stage.

Step One

Step Two - Attributes

Attributes are split into Physical, Social and Mental, each containing three Attributes. Rated on a 1-5 scale, 2 is Average. I have to choose which group to prioritise. As a Dawn-Caste warrior, I'm going to go with Physical first. Mental covers Wits and Perception (as well as Intelligence), so that will be second. Bert is not a Social character. That can be third. I now have to split my points.

Each Attribute starts with one Dot, and can have a maximum of five. I get 8 Dots to put into my Primary, 6 for Secondary and 4 Tertiary. As Exalted has not managed to fully address the fact that Dex is King, I shall put four extra here, taking it to 5! Now, do I favour Strength or Stamina, or keep them balanced? Ah, I'll not fall for that "balance" trap again! I can't really justify keeping STR or STA at 1, so I'll go for "tough, resilient", and put 3 here, and 1 in STR. Secondary Mental Attributes are (as mentioned) Wits, Perception and Intelligence. 2 INT is enough. He's not a learned man, but no fool. Do I throw 4 into WITS? It will be very handy, acting earlier in combat, and being able to think on my feet. It would leave PERC at 2, and I would like Bert to be quite perceptive ... I think I'll raise WITS only to 4 (3 extra Dots) and put the last 2 in PERC. Tertiary Social: 4 Dots (plus each starting Dot) can give a spread of 5/1/1, 4/2/1, 3/2/2 or 3/3/1. Appearance is not the dump-stat that it is in some games, but I'm going to put 3 Dots in Charisma, one in Manipulation. Charming, but no silver-tongue. Ugly as Sin.

Step Two

Step Three - Abilities

Now we have to make some serious decisions! Each Caste has list of Abilities from which to choose 5 that are classed as Caste Abilities. These will for the base of your skill-set, and take less to improve (lower XP costs, significantly quicker training times). Also, I must pick a Supernal Ability. This is my Prime Speciality, and I may buy Charms as though I had Essence Five!

The Dawn Caste Abilities are: Archery, Awareness, Brawl (and Martial Arts), Dodge, Melee, Resistance, Thrown, War. Knives use either Melee or Thrown, as appropriate, so I will want both of these. I can ignore Archery, Brawl (I'm hoping to always have at least a make-shift knife to hand!) and Martial Arts. Although Melee covers Parry defence, some attacks might ignore this, and so Dodge will come in handy. I've said Bert has a sharp eye (and I know it is used to determine Initiative in combat), so Awareness is chosen. That leaves Resistance or War. Is Bert tough and hardy, shrugging off blows that would fell a lesser man, or does he have a keen tactical mind, understanding the ebbs and flows of battle? I'm going to go with the former. Now, which of these is his Supernal? It's a choice of Melee or Thrown, really. I think Melee (I do know that there are some Melee Charms that allow ranged attacks! And I'll not be short of Thrown Charms). So:

Now I must choose five more Abilities that are Favoured. They can be any Ability not already chosen as Caste, and will be as easy to improve, in play, as Caste Abilities. (I must also start with at least one Dot in each of these. More on this later). I definitely want Athletics (swinging from chandeliers, climbing) and Investigation (spotting clues). I could use this opportunity to take War, but I think there are other things Bert will need. Larceny would give him some useful skill for interacting with the criminal classes. Socialise, Presence and/or Performance for when the knives are not needed? Stealth? Survival covers tracking, animal handling and foraging. I'm guessing that Bert will need to sneak around sometimes, so Stealth is taken. Remembering Bert's Guild background, I think Bureaucracy would be appropriate. It won't start too high, but being Favoured means it can progress quickly as the campaign goes on. For his last Favoured Ability, I'm going to take Presence. As a Dawn-Caste warrior, being able to radiate authority and intimidate people could be useful.

To summarise:

Step Three

I now have to split 28 Dots between all of my starting skills (including non-Caste, non-Favoured). None of these may be taken to above 3 Dots (Later, Bonus Points may take them to 5 Dots). As noted earlier, each of my Favoured skills must have at least 1 Dot. The BRB also notes that this is the best time to buy non-Favoured skills. They will be more difficult (expensive, time-consuming) to buy later. But I also want to make sure my main areas are good enough. There are some non-Favoured Abilities I will want to start with. One Dot in Linguistics is required for basic literacy, so I'll take that. Knowing my GM's tendency to throw Wyld-Tainted challenges in our path, I'd like to buy the Integrity Charm "Integrity-Protecting Prana". This requires Integrity 3. A point of Ride qualifies me to buy the basic Charm (which also gives access to the free "Excellency" Charm). I think I will need this eventually and I suspect Lore and Socialise will creep into my "really aught to buy a Dot" list, so I might as well get them now. And to finish, a Dot in Occult, so I have some basic knowledge of Spirits etc.

Lastly, I have 4 Specialities to assign. These are focused areas within Abilities, that give an extra dice! As his main areas, I will add a Speciality to both Melee and Thrown. I could have "Trick Shots", or "in the dark", but I'm going to take the easy option and say "when using Knives". It won't help when he finds that Legendary Chakram, or Daiklaive, but he is a knife-man! Athletics can have "Urban", good for parkour but no bonus in forests. And the last one on Awareness "spotting hidden people".

Step 4 - Merits

Step Four

Another time-consuming section, Merits cover many differing areas, including personal improvements (Ambidexterity, Eidetic memory, Pain Tolerance), possessions (Hearthstones, Artefacts) and socio-political (Allies, Contacts, Followers). With 10 Dots to spend, it takes a good long read to decide. I eventually decide upon some local support. He is in good standing with The Guild, particularly one Merchant-Prince (let's call him Akzad The Blue). His work has brought him into contact with many of the merchants that pass through, and his name is recognised amongst them. Over the years, Bert's reputation has brought him a loyal group of guards, who would follow him to the ends of Creation (Bert pretends to dislike the attention). He has also built up a small set of investments that, while far from lavish, bring him enough funds to live well.

Step Five - Charms

Step Five

This is the bit we've all been waiting for! What powerful abilities has Sol seen fit to bless our intrepid Hero with? The BRB says we get to choose 15 Charms.

First I'll see what Melee has to offer. Being Supernal, I don't need to worry about Essence requirements! The main defence tree starts with Dipping Swallow Defence, so we'll have that. Hail-Shattering Practice is a nice bonus. War Lion Stance sounds like the sort of Charm a bodyguard might have, and is very cheap to use. But the real meat is in Heavenly Guardian Defence (requiring Bulwark Stance). Onto Offence, we start with Excellent Strike, and Fire-And-Stone Strike. I am also a big fan of Summon the Loyal Steel. I think that's enough Melee for the moment (9 of our 15)!

Thrown Charms can be quite effective, so let's see what we can do. We are limited to Essence 1 Charms, but it is worth looking what will be available later. As a start, Triple-Distance Attack Technique, and Cascade of Cutting Terror look useful. Precision of The Striking Raptor gives a good bonus, and leads to many more Charms.

Integrity-Protecting Prana will hold back the ravages of The Wyld. Master Horseman's Techniques will allow Bert to Ride better than most mortals. Our last Charm goes on Spirit-Detecting Glance (Occult)

Step Six - Intimacies and Limit Trigger

A character must start with at least four intimacies, so let's define those:

We'll do more with these later, and they will almost certainly change in play, but it gives us something to work with.

Limit Triggers are the conditions that bring forwards The Great Curse, that dogs all Solar Exalts throughout their long lives. From the suggestions provided, Bert will take The Solar is hindered or defeated by the self-indulgent and intemperate behavior of those around him.

Step Seven - Bonus Points

15 Bonus Points are used to round out the character. These can take Abilities up to 5 Dots, so are very useful for gaining those super-human levels of skill that Solars are renowned for.

Bert will want to take his Knife skills to maximum. Other Abilities will want raising, too. I am always in favour of increasing Willpower, so at least one Dot here (default is 5, so raising it to 6).

This gives Melee, Thrown and Awareness at very high level, Ride and Occult at low level but with some Tricks, and lots of room for growth.

Step Eight - Finishing Touches

This stage is about recording default values for Health Levels and Essence Motes. I also record information about Knives, and fill in the derived Stats. This done, we are finished.

Final Final

So there we have it. Bert Bateau, knife-man. I hope you've taken some inspiration from this, and gained insight into how the character creation system works. The main structure is not too difficult, but there are some tough choices to be made along the way. It is always very tempting to choose lots of Charms from your Supernal Ability, but this can leave you as a one-trick pony. Your Caste- and Favoured- Abilities all come with a free Excellency Charm, but you can only double your dice-pool, so raising the number of Dots will help here. Buying a Charm in a non-favoured area gives access to Excellency, so this is a quick'n'easy way to medium levels of skill.

And, as always, more things will become clear in play. XP tends to come reasonably quickly, allowing you to fill in gaps and raise needed Traits.

Why not let me know what characters you have come up with?