Exalted’s mechanical backbone is the Storyteller system, which uses dot ratings and points to describe a character’s skill and aptitude.
Dot ratings work something like the 1-5 star rating system used in book and movie reviews. In general, a rating of one dot is poor, a rating of two dots is average, a rating of three dots is above- average, a rating of four dots is exceptional, and a rating of five is masterful. Dot ratings above two are important, and dot ratings above three are key elements of a character’s concept. Dot ratings are permanent, and typically only change with the expenditure of bonus points (p. XX) or experience points (p. XX)—though certain supernatural effects may provide a temporary penalty or bonus.
Points, on the other hand, measure your character’s available resources, such as his reserves of mental fortitude or the numinous energies that power his Charms. Your character spends points when the circumstances dictate—such as when he employs a Charm to guide his aim in combat, or when he shrugs off the magical wiles of one of the Fair Folk. Once spent, points may be regained through specific means. All of these traits are explained in greater detail in Chapter Four.
What about other Exalts?
The rules in this chapter will show you how to create one of the Solar Exalted, a long-lost champion returned to reclaim his ancient birthrights. Future supplements will give you all the rules you need to play the other types of Exalted described in Chapter One.
Step 1: Concept and Caste
Take some time to think of heroic archetypes you enjoy, and thumb through the setting information in Chapter Two to see what jumps out at you. Would you like to play a prideful swordsman, a silver-tongued spy, a scholar of forbidden lore? What corner of Creation does your character call home? The world is vast, but sometimes the Exalted have reason to venture to its farthest reaches; if your character is from another part of the world, why is she here? You should also sketch out your character’s personality. What would she be like if you sat down to talk to her? Whom does she call family, friend, or enemy? Once you’ve thought all this out, try to boil it down to a few informative sentences—a sort of capsule description of your character.
Once you’ve got a solid concept, pick the Caste that suits it best. Some concepts can easily fall under more than one Caste, but keep in mind that your character’s Caste is as much a measure of her methods as it is her strengths. Each Solar is chosen for her Caste because it fits her, one way or another. Chapter Four explains the five Solar Castes in full detail.
Step 2: Attributes
Once you have your concept, it’s time to flesh it out with numbers. Attributes represent raw potential before skill and training come into play—grace, force of personality, and intellect, among other things. Exalted divides Attributes into three categories—Physical, Social, and Mental—and few heroes develop all of them in equal measure. Pick the category that’s most important to your concept, and mark it down as primary. Next, pick the category that’s slightly less integral, but still important, and mark it down as secondary. The remaining category
becomes tertiary. Each Attribute begins with one free dot. From there, distribute eight dots among your character’s primary Attributes, six dots among your character’s secondary Attributes, and four dots among your character’s tertiary Attributes.
While distributing Attribute dots, keep in mind that a rating of two dots is average, and a rating of five dots is the pinnacle of human development. Solars may not start with more than five dots in any Attribute, nor can they raise an Attribute above five dots during play. Don’t be afraid to play against type if it fits your concept—many Dawns have primary Physical Attributes, but your Dawn could just as easily be a genius scholar-tactician with primary Mental Attributes. Your ratings should make sense for your character concept, as well. Keep in mind that a rating of one dot is as significant as a rating of five dots, and that poor ratings can provide as many opportunities for character development as excellent ones.
Step 3: Abilities
Abilities measure a character’s knowledge, training, and skill. As paragons of human endeavor, the Solars possess remarkable depth and breadth of competence, represented by Caste and Favored Abilities. Your character’s Caste Abilities are the skills and talents that led to her Exaltation as a member of her Caste. Traditionally, each Caste has a wide range of duties, and few Lawgivers—especially freshly-Chosen ones—show talent in all of them. Find your character’s Caste on the list below, and pick five associated Abilities. These are her Caste Abilities.
• Dawn: Archery, Awareness, Brawl (and Martial Arts), Dodge, Melee, Resistance, Thrown, War • Zenith: Athletics, Integrity, Performance, Lore, Presence, Resistance, Survival, War
• Twilight: Bureaucracy, Craft, Integrity, Investigation, Linguistics, Lore, Medicine, Occult • Night: Athletics, Awareness, Dodge, Investigation, Larceny, Ride, Stealth, Socialize • Eclipse: Bureaucracy, Larceny, Linguistics, Occult, Presence, Ride, Sail, Socialize Now, pick five Favored Abilities. These Abilities represent skills and talents that don’t
necessarily fall within the duties of her Caste. A demon-hunting Night Caste might favor Occult thanks to his knowledge of the signs and portents that herald the arrival of demons in Creation. If you want, you can select some Favored Abilities from your Caste’s Ability list, but you can’t take the same Ability as both Caste and Favored. Your choice of Caste and Favored Abilities is important to your character’s development—it’s less expensive to improve selected Abilities, and to learn Charms associated with them.
Once you’ve picked your Caste and Favored Abilities, select one of your chosen Caste Abilities to be your Supernal Ability. Your Supernal Ability is the emblem of your character’s legend, the thing she is the very best at. You have an easier time learning powerful Charms with your
Supernal Ability than any other Ability— Charms in your Supernal Ability treat your Essence rating as 5 for the purpose of meeting the prerequisites to purchase and upgrade them, allowing you early access to very powerful Charms in that Ability.
Note: The Martial Arts Ability cannot be chosen as Caste or Favored—instead, any character with Brawl as a chosen Caste or Favored Ability treats Martial Arts as Caste or Favored as well. A player may choose Brawl or Martial Arts as her Dawn Caste character’s Supernal Ability, but applies the benefits of that choice only to one or the other. Also, characters with Martial Arts dots
must possess the Martial Artist Merit (p. XX) —see the description of Martial Arts as a skill on page XX and also Chapter Seven for more information.
Once you’ve selected Caste, Favored, and Supernal Abilities, divide twenty-eight dots among your Abilities. Each Ability starts with zero dots, and no Ability may be raised above three dots without spending bonus points. You can’t begin play with more than five dots in any one Ability, nor may an Ability be raised above five dots during play. Favored Abilities must have a rating of at least one dot—if your character isn’t any good at them, they’re hardly Favored! Zero dots in an Ability means that your character has no skill in that field, which is hardly a black mark against her—the Exalted have strengths and weaknesses, just as mortals do. One dot means your character’s a beginner, two dots means she’s competent, and five dots means she’s at the pinnacle of human endeavor. As with her Attributes, you should explain any of her Abilities rated at three or more dots. Did your character train under a great master to achieve her five-dot rating in Melee, or is she a self-taught martial genius?
Lastly, choose four Specialties for your character. Specialties describe specific focus within an Ability.
Final tip: If your character is going to have any dots in non-Caste, non-Favored Abilities, it’s best to buy them right now, rather than later when you’re customizing your character with bonus points. Caste and Favored Abilities are much cheaper to buy with bonus points.
Specialties
Abilities represent broad knowledge of a given field, but few people go through life without acquiring unique talents and special interests. In Exalted, these areas of expertise are referred to as Specialties, and come into play when your character has a chance to benefit from his special talent. Each Specialty is attached to a specific Ability. When you make a roll with an Ability with an associated Specialty, you can add one die to that roll—if you can justify why your character’s training gives him an edge.
Specialties can be as broad or narrow as you like, but there must be notable situations where they can’t apply. Melee (Swords) is perfectly acceptable, but Melee (While Armed) or (While Breathing) are not. Sure, your character can try and keep fighting while asphyxiating, or literally have his breath stolen by a Sidereal attacker, but those are edge cases. The Storyteller has the final say in whether or not a Specialty is acceptable.
Only one Specialty can apply to a single roll, even if your character has more than one that could be useful—if your character is trying to carve an insult into his foe’s flesh and has both Melee (Swords) and Melee (Humiliate Opponents), he could apply one or the other, but not both.
You can buy as many Specialties for your character as you want, but you can’t purchase Specialties for Abilities rated at zero dots.
Step 4: Merits
Merits represent a character’s assets and quirks, encompassing everything from vaults full of gold to a stomach that can handle all but the most rancid food and drink. As with Attributes and Abilities, Merits are rated from one to five dots—some of them can be improved during play,
while others cannot. For example, a Solar might gain the adoration and worship of a small village (Cult •), and work at spreading her faith until the whole region venerates her (Cult •••). On the other hand, a character of enormous stature (Giant ••••) can’t work to become even taller over time.
When selecting Merits, keep in mind that some of them—namely, those tied to other characters, objects, and organizations—might wax and wane as the story progresses. Your character might brave the demonic guardians of a former life’s tomb to recover his long-lost daiklave, gaining the weapon as an Artifact •••. Your character’s Cult ••• might be targeted by the worshipers of a jealous god, becoming a Cult •• as the faithful are killed or forced to forswear their Solar patron. For more information on Merits in play, see page XX.
Assign up to ten dots to your character’s Merits. As with other traits, Merits can shape your character’s background and circumstances, and they can also be consequences of your
character’s past. Be sure to tie them into your overall concept. Did your character earn his Ally through a previous act of selflessness? Has being Hideous shaped the way she sees others?
Step 5: Charms
A Solar’s Charms are natural expressions of her heroic legend, powered by the very Essence of Creation. Think about the sort of feats your character’s skill can make possible. Can he run for miles without tiring? Can he shoot a diving swallow at a hundred yards? Once you’ve got a mental picture of your character’s legend, pick out fifteen suitable Charms, keeping in mind that each has prerequisites of enlightenment and skill. Don’t be afraid to rearrange your Ability dots if your character doesn’t qualify for a Charm that would liven up his concept!
If you took the Artifact Merit and selected an artifact with Evocations, you can select those as well, trading in one starting Charm per Evocation desired. Keep in mind the artifact’s history, legend, and ultimate purpose—its powers should make just as much sense for its legend as a Solar’s Charms do for theirs. See pages XX-XX for more information on Evocations. The same principle applies to martial arts and sorcery (see Chapter Six). You can begin with Martial Arts Charms and sorcerous spells (assuming your character has the Terrestrial Circle Sorcery Charm—see p. XX), trading them for starting Solar Charms on a one-for- one basis.
Step 6: Intimacies and Limit Trigger
Intimacies describe the important parts of your character’s life, from long-held beliefs to feelings toward loved ones or mortal enemies. For more information on Intimacies, see page XX. Unlike other traits, there’s no limit to how many Intimacies your character can start with. You must start with a minimum of at least four Intimacies, of which at least one must be Defining, one must be Major, one must be in some way negative (a thing the character opposes or dislikes), and one must be positive (a thing the character supports or likes).
Additionally, all Solar Exalted labor under a Great Curse spoken by the enemies of the gods as the Exalted slew them. As a result, your character has a Limit Trigger, a circumstance in which the lingering curse of the dead ancients may rise to trouble him. Select a Limit Trigger from the choices on page XX or work with your Storyteller to design your own.
You have 15 bonus points to spend on anything that makes sense for your concept. Bonus points can purchase almost any trait, but different traits have different costs.
[BEGIN TABLE] Trait Cost
Primary or Secondary Attribute 4 per dot Tertiary Attribute 3 per dot
Caste/Favored Ability 1 per dot
Non-Caste/Favored Ability 2 per dot Specialty 1
Merits 1 per dot
Caste/Favored Charm 4
Non-Caste/Favored Charm 5 Spell (Occult Caste/Favored) 4
Spell (Occult non-Caste/Favored) 5 Evocation 4
Willpower 2 per dot [END TABLE]
Bonus points grant you flexibility to match your concept. If you don’t have a solid idea of what you want to spend bonus points on, it’s generally most cost-effective to use them to raise Caste and Favored Abilities; new powers such as Charms and spells give the lowest return-on-
investment. Tertiary Attributes are a little bit cheaper to buy up than primary or secondary Attributes to make it easier to shore up unwanted shortcomings in your character. Finally, Merits are very affordable so you won’t feel pressured to cut out parts of your character concept in order to meet a point budget.
Note: You’re allowed to spend bonus points at any time during character creation. For example, if you want to buy a Charm during Step 5 but don’t have a high enough Ability rating, you can go ahead and spend bonus points to bump up the Ability then and there.
Step 8: Finishing Touches
You’re almost done! Only a few fields remain to be filled in. All Solars start play with a default Essence rating of one dot, a default Willpower rating of five dots, and seven Health Levels (-0, -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, and Incapacitated). A Solar’s pool of Personal Essence is ([Essence x 3] + 10), while their Peripheral Essence pool is ([Essence x 7] + 26). These traits are explained in further detail in Chapter Four.
Everyday Heroes: Playing Mortals
Though they lack the might of the chosen, mortal heroes have their own stories to tell. If you’re new to Storytelling, you might want to get your feet wet by running a game where everyone plays a mortal. Alternately, you might want to run a
chronicle where your players’ characters start off mortal and Exalt during play. Creating a mortal is similar to creating one of the Chosen:
Step 1: Concept. Think of a compelling character concept, and flesh it out with history, goals, and dreams. Figure out what your character’s life is like, and what led him to take part in your Storyteller’s chronicle. Mortal characters have no Castes.
Step 2: Attributes. Select primary, secondary, and tertiary Attribute categories. Assign 6 dots to your character’s primary Attributes, 4 dots to his secondary Attributes, and 3 dots to his tertiary Attributes.
Step 3: Abilities. Divide twenty-eight dots among your character’s Abilities. Mortal characters don’t get Caste, Favored, or Supernal Abilities.
Step 4: Merits. Spend seven dots on Merits.
Step 5: Intimacies. Select your character’s Intimacies. Mortal characters do not suffer under the Great Curse, and have no Limit Trigger.
Step 6: Finishing Touches. Mortal heroes begin play with a default Willpower rating of 3 dots, 7 health levels (-0, -1, -1, -2, -2, 4, Incapacitated), an Essence rating of 1, and no Essence pool. Spend 21 bonus points, using the same chart as for the Solar Exalted.
To convert a mortal hero into one of the Solar Exalted during play, select the Caste that best fits the character’s concept and skills. Assign Caste, Favored, and Supernal Abilities as normal, keeping in mind his existing Ability ratings and previous development in play. Each Favored Ability must possess at least one dot. Select ten Charms that your character qualifies for. Choose your character’s Limit trigger and calculate his Essence pools. At the end of the current story, add five more free Charms and two dots of Willpower, and assign two dots among Primary Attributes, one dot among Secondary Attributes, and one dot among Tertiary Attributes.