Krendal/ExaltedMath

Hypothetical Excercise

Exalted math problems...

My Issue

I love combat in Exalted. It's crunchy enough to be fun with lots of 'kewl powerz' and plenty of room for tactics, but once players and STs are used to it, it can go pretty fast and smooth. I've long had this idea/fantasy about running a one shot (possibly at a local mini-con) where the players are allowed to take pretty much any flavor of Exalted, given a fist full of xp and/or bonus points to spend to make a combat oriented twinked out war-beast of a character to pit against those of the other players.

This would all be fine and dandy, except for the math. In theory, Solars and Abyssals are of realtively the same raw power level, so if all the PCs were of such types and given, oh say 100 exp, they should match up fairly well and the winner of the fight should be determined by the luck of the dice, and the tactics of the players, both in actual combat and how they chose to create their characters. The same (theoretically) could be said if all palyers were using "Celestial Level" Exalts (i.e. Lunars, Sidereals, Alchemicals).

So the question is... how much experience is necessary to make a DB equal to a starting or young Solar? Or a Lunar? Can this math even be worked out to player's satisfaction? Is it even worth the effort?

Anyone interested in sharing their opinions, feel free to do so.

Responses

To get things started, an Exalted ST I have a lot of respect for once told me that a 150 XP Dragonblood is worth about a 100 XP Abyssal. -Seraph

In my opinion, that's not a good comparison. At starting-level, the Abyssal has more artifacts, more troops, more and better Charms. As they develop, the gap is just going to widen. - David.

I would say... enough XP for -10- or -20- unfavored/non-caste charms. So solars and abyssals get 100 or even 200 (if 20) xp each, while lunars, sidereals, alchemicals and dragonblooded get more for their mileage.

As for backgrounds, restrict the artifact rating to Dragonblooded levels or alchemical levels (if you want to go hog-wild), and state the proviso that the followers are staying of this... gotten slaughtered or even are in a circle around both exalts... as they KNOW they'll just get slaughtered in a fight of this epic proportions. Allies would be permited, only if of starting level (in that each dot in ally, rates 1 starting level exalt with 0 xp) OR if you're willing to split your xp evenly with them.

Granted, in such a set-up, the dragonblooded might take quite a beating ~ Haku

I've seen this run before. The Abyssals win, largely cuz of their artifact background. I would reccomend running this with Bonus points instead of experience, because its just easier to use. Anyway, I would do Abyssals 30 points, all other Celestials 40. Lunars will be ok. Sidereals, you really need to ban WSAV, or at least change it. (RSB had some comments on this somewhere in the quote section.) Alchemicals, um, I think 60, but I dunno. They're funky. For the Dragon Blooded, I would probably let the player have two or three DB who fight in a team, each with maybe 50 BP. Consider changing Safety Among Enemies so that it can be used as Seven Shadow Evasion. -MeiRen

Ahhh, but you see... I'm saying that certain backgrounds would have to be by their nature equal... say a common artifact rating, followers/command/henchmen rating and allies rating would be severally modified, only allowing starting exalts or however much xp you're willing to share with them.

In which case, the game is on a different ball, as it's NOT artifacts, followers or even allies that matter... they are there, but you've got access to it on an equal level. It then becomes a matter of how you apply your tactics using, charms and the backgrounds ~ Haku

Hmm, while this discussion is interesting... what I had intended with the original question was a combat where any given player would only have one person at his disposal. No allies or followers or command or what have you. Obviously yes, artifacts would have to be equalized. If I was actually running this, I would either pick an artifact background scheme to use, or (more likely) just say, "Okay, everyone gets X points of artifacts". The idea is this should be a contest based on skills and tactics, not toys or troops. So assume for the moment that any given amount of XP or BP would be spent on basic stats, probably primarily things like attributes, abilities, willpower, essence, and obiviously charms and spells. Things of that nature. -Krendal

Then it's all up to the players and their tactical skills... unless of course a sidereal/solar/abyssal comes by with a spanking sidereal ma style and everyone gets made into tang. ^_^;;; ~ Haku

Ok, then Abyssals should recieve the same points as Solars. (they might still win, their combat Charms are pretty scary.) I wasn't reccomending more than one character except for the DB. Cuz their schtick is fighting in teams, and there are tons of 'em. -MeiRen

well then, let me pose a similar, but different question. assuming the same amount of xp (lets just say starting for the sake of argument) how many DBs are a fair match against one solar? again assume that all are pretty much twinked out for combat and nothing else, and put aside weird stat issues like background peculiarities. -Krendal

The bare minimum would be 2.... no seriously, that's where their group die-adders kick in. Deadly wildfire legion might not buy alot of die... BUT it's -cheap- and can affect a number of allies for a whole scene. And when you get tag-team of 5 or more in there, the celestial exalted is in BIG trouble. ~ Haku