Latest revision as of 22:52, 8 June 2010

Dragon Blooded Tactics

Dragon Blooded are, by far, the most common Exalted in the world. They are, if you will, the standard amongst exalted. They are the measure by which all other Exalted must be tested, at some point. And usually, as the Dragon Blooded tend to hunt down other Exalted, this test is inevitably combat. So anyone who plays a Dragon Blooded must know how to survive the field of battle in Exalted.

Despite their lofty status, it is commonly known that Dragon Blooded are the weakest. Do not let the moaning of a few disbelievers give you a false arrogance. You will not slay armies with a Dragon Blooded as you can with Solars. In fact, it is a bit of a struggle to take down a few extras with a Dragon Blooded. What you must understand is that, despite their free reflexive, Dragon Blooded fight primarily as mortals do. You need a good weapon, a good set of armor, and you need that iniative. You will not regenerate those blows, you will not get free parries. Every weakness and strength mortals have, you have, only more so.

Fortunatly, Dragon Blooded are flooded with Ability dots, great attribute scores, and drip with Jade. Use these advantages to the best of your capability. Having a high dex, a high melee, Jade Articulate plate, and a Jade Daiklave, goes along way to allowing you to beat some serious ass. As a result of this similarity in power, however, I recommend that any Dragon Blooded bone up on his mortal tactics, as they translate well into a Dragon Blooded.

Every Exalted has their unique feature and feel. I have already discussed the first: the Dragon Blooded are much closer to the mortal powerlevel than any other Exalted. A competent mortal will give a Dragon Blooded a very close run for his money. The other, commonly known feature, is the free reflexive. Most Exalted can only use one charm per turn without the costs of a combo. Dragon Blooded are spared this. As a result, they must put less thought into which charm they use, which is good, since they need to put enough thought into what to do with their action. But the most ignored feature is the Elemental Surcharge. As a result of this rule, Dragon Blooded are more effecient when using charms from their own element. An Air aspect with the same dodge and melee charms as a Fire aspect will be spending far more essence to fuel his battle, making him an inferior fighter. Many dismiss the single mote cost, but it quickly builds up, especially if you rely on out-of-aspect charms.

This isn't the problem it seems. Many Dragon Blooded charms are very flexible, and broadly useful. Further, charms from your aspect are emmenintly suited for your aspect. This combines to allow and encourage an Air Aspect to use charms like thrown and lore in conjuction with his Melee to become a great warrior. Because of this, each aspect "works" differently.

Please note that this isn't to say that Dragon Blooded should never purchase out of element charms. Many charms from other elements are very useful, and highly recommended. An air aspected swordsman is well advised to purchase Dragon Graced Weapon and/or Stoking Bonfire. My suggestion is only that you rely on charms from your own aspect where possible, and look there before looking to other aspects for your magic.

Also please note that just because you're not taking charms from another ability doesn't mean you can't take DOTS in that ability. By all means, give your air aspect some dodge! But realize that his defensive charms are perhaps better purchased from his own aspect. A great swordsman, of any aspect, will have a Melee of 5... he just might augment that with charms from other abilities, depending on his aspect.

Jade

No discussion of an Exalted can take place without speaking of his metal. Jade, while clearly the weakest of the metals, seems tailor made to aid the Dragon Blooded.

For weapons and Bracers, it produces very high iniative totals. It isn't out of the question to have a Dragon Blooded with a base iniative of 16+. This is important. Unlike other Exalted, the Dragon Blooded must rely on their action for defense. Dragon Blooded, as a result, are as reliant on their iniative as mortals. A Dragon Blooded who focuses on parry as a defense is as helpless as a mortal if he loses iniative against multiple attacks.

For their armor, Jade is without fatigue penalties. The result is that a Dragon Blooded can afford to wear his armor all day. While of little advantage to most other exalted, in the torrid, assassination ridden Realm, it's a life saver. Further, this eliminates the need to "dress for battle," one of the biggest disadvantages of armor.

And for the Collar and the Thunderbolt Shield (Bo3C), less common, but still useful equipment, the bonuses to soak only augment the armor that they already have wearing.

Tactics of Mela

Air aspects are lofty, ethereal creatures. They dance on the wind, and battle like a storm. A master Azure Dragon attacks with the fury of a lightning bolt, raining blows upon his enemy while Mela snatches him away from harm with her invisible fingers.

The Anima Ability

No Dragon Blooded description could be complete without a discussion of their anima ability. While they seem weaker than those for other Exalted, their offer, none-the-less, a significant advantage to the exalted if worked properly. For Air Aspects, of course, are allowed to leap 3 times their normal distances, and fall any distance without damage. The result is a Dragon Blooded who can easily put a GREAT deal of distance between him and his opponent. This is important, because many of this combat abilities focus on ranged combat, both defending against it, and attacking from a range. If your air aspect ever needs an escape, this is it.

Azure Techniques

Air aspects have many weapons at their disposal, but the charms that offer them the greatest combat potential are Thrown and Lore. Linguistics and Stealth have their benefits as well, and Occult can be used against spirits. Sorcery, of course, is always a way to go, but sorcery is not what I will discuss in these tactical essays.

Lore and thrown both offer a great deal of ranged attacks, emphasizing one of the largest Tempestous Knife advantages: range. It is easy enough to leap high and away from your attackers, and then pummel them with directed lightning or savage chakrams. Elemental bolt allows you to have ranged attacks so long as you have essence, and maxing out at 10 damage, it isn't a crappy attack either. Elemental Burst is great for extras. Seeking throw ensures that you will hit with your attacks, and loyal weapon lets you put that Daiklave to a whole new, deadly use as you sail through the air.

Another good defense for Air Aspects is environmental modifiers. Whirlwind Shield means that while your character is far from his opponents, they'll still have a tough time taking him down with arrows. Vengeful gust only makes this advantage even more extreme, threatening to strike your opponent back. Feeling-the-Air Technique encourages the DB to disappear into darkness. While your opponent is at -2 successes to hit you, you're only at -1.

Lore also offers to unusual advantages. With Elemental Empowerment and Elemental Succor, an Air Aspect can easily heal and regain essence, so long as he has the will power and the air to power them. The storm, if you will, fuels itself, making this an all around useful charm for ANY Air Aspected warrior (indeed, I recommend these for ALL Dragon Blooded... but it's strongest with Air).

Thrown also offers a decent, all around soak charm. It won't give you MUCH soak, but it will help. An excellent choice for Melee fighters.

Air Aspects have several techniques for assualt. The primary is a flurry of blows. Invisibly Hidden Chakram and Wind Weapons allows for an astonishing number of attacks against your opponent. This is an excellent way to slip past soak and parry style defenses. The other favored attack technique is to harry your opponent. Dragon Vortex and Persistent Hornet both ensure that your opponent has to be careful where he steps, making him worry about things OTHER than the Dragon Blooded himself.

And so, as stated previously, our Master warrior is sailing through the air as vortices of lightning and whirling knives surround you, with lightning crackling from his finger tips as blade after blade of air slices towards you. Your arrows are swatted away from him by the air, which occassionally snatches them back up to fling at you, and all the while, the howling wind recharges his stores of essence for that next assault.

Tactics of Pasiap

Comments

This is pretty keen. Please notify the main page when you have a new update, if you would. hplovescats

Very nice indeed! I hadn't noticed that Elemental Succor charm ... and I love the descriptions as much as the combat suggestions. ^_^ - BrokenShade

As inspired by this page, and partly out of disappointment that you didn't continue it, I went ahead and did write-ups for the tactics of Pasiap and Hesiesh, which you can take a look at (and hopefully, revise or comment upon) here. - Miedvied

This is really cool, but are you planning to continue it? I'd really like that. I'm not quite sure of the best tactics for Water aspects and could really use some help.
--BrilliantRain