BogMod/CombinedHouseRules

Character Creation

Lunars

The Lunars may not put the time in like the Dynasty, or have the magical knowledge to brain powers of the Sidereals but they possess the most exaustive and intensive training one can hope for at the edge of the world where you must either excell or die.

Attributes: Lunars pick 4 favored Attributes, 2 of which at least must come from Caste.

Abilities: Lunars now get a 30 point spread to put into abilities. Of those at least 1 point must be put into each Favored Ability of which the Lunar picks 3 one of which must be a combat ability. Trained Lunars must have a minimum of 5 points(before bonus points) put into Survival and one combat ability. Those not trained by the Pack but trained by paticular Lunars have their own requirements. Additionally the Lunar gets 4 free dots of Specialties and get 18 bonus points to spend.

Lunars get 11 Charms. Of these at least 1 must be a Knack and at least 5 must come from favored attributes.

Lunars get 10 background points. No longer do Backing, Followers, Command(if allowed) or Influence cost double for the 4th and 5th points. If the Solars aren't penalized by it and they are hunted just as much then neither should the Lunars be.

The factions of the Silver Pact don't accept just anyone. Those who follow their tenants must possess certain traits worthy of it. If a character does not belong to a Faction consider their mentor. A Lunar mentor who belongs to a Faction will teach their pupil the skills to be part of it even if they do not join it. Independant Lunar mentors should have their own criteria that should be considered by the Player and the Storyteller.

The Crossroads Society: As the premier organization involved in sorcery, artifact creation and such arts any Lunar hoping to join must have at least •• Occult, •• Lore and • Linguistics(Old Realm)

The Seneschals of the Sun Kings: These require the least talent from those who join and rather just a willingness to help the Solars rule once more. Still the Solars will need to make sure they have wise advice this time to prevent the mistakes of the past. Lore •• and Presence ••.

The Swords of Luna: The Swords face one of the most dangerous challanges at the worlds rim and so demand traits capable of fighting the Fair Folk and the Wyld. Integrity •••, Occult •, Lore • and any one combat skill at •••.

The Wardens of Gaia: Their goals and means are complex and pull at young lunars in many ways. Socialize ••, War •, Occult •, Lore • and Bureaucracy •.

The Winding Path: To create a civilization capable of truely surviving and flourishing is no simple feat. Socialize •••, Stealth •• and Larceny •.

Abilities

Crafts
This ability is now treated like Linguistics. Each dot gets you one craft. Your skill in them is your total dot rating. This way of doing crafts is for Exalted only or just Celestial Exalted depending on how you want to run things. This skill should not be an xp sink compared to every other ability.

Backgrounds

First Age Breeding
X +2 Personal Essence pool and +3 to Peripheral Essence Pool.
• +3 Personal Essence pool and +5 to Peripheral Essence Pool.
•• +4 Personal Essence pool and +7 to Peripheral Essence Pool. -1 mote from the cost to activate your anima banner; +1 on the roll to see if your child Exalts
••• +5 Personal Essence pool and +9 to Peripheral Essence Pool. -2 mote from the cost to activate your anima banner; +2 on the roll to see if your child Exalts.
•••• +6 Personal Essence pool and +11 to Peripheral Essence Pool. -3 mote from the cost to activate your anima banner; +4 on the roll to see if your child Exalts. This is the equivilant of Legendary Breeding from the Players Guide
••••• +7 Personal Essence pool and +13 to Peripheral Essence Pool. -4 mote from the cost to activate your anima banner; your children will exalt as Dragonblooded overriding the chance to be half caste or god blooded. They might have flavoring from such unions but your children will be Dragonblooded. This is a 100% pure blooded Dragonbloods rating.

A Dragonblood and a mortal with no blood or almost no blood of the Dragons in them will find their children exalt 3 in 10 times. A Dragonblood and a mortal with a good deal of Terrestial blood in them will exalt 4 in 10 times. Two Dragonblooded will find their children exalt 6 in 10 times. For any child roll a 1d10 and should the number equal or be lower to the numbers above the child Exalts. A roll of a 10 is always a failure unless it is either two Dragonblooded and one has Breeding 4 or one of the partners has Breeding 5. There can even be very bad match up which reduce the chance a child Exalts. Children should, unless proper breeding pairs are arranged, always drop a breeding level towards the lower partners breeding. Properly arranged pairs can avoid this but only if the Breeding difference is no greater then 2. Carefull eugenics can increase odds of Exaltation or help raise the level.

Familiar
Its a simple fact that as far as backgrounds go Familiar is fairly weak. To most beginning Solars a Familiar is of 0 challange to kill in a fight. A 'dangerous' animal like a tiger is actually no real threat to any Exalt. In fact in any fight where the character could be threatened the Familiar has no hope to survive. This means to me the entire area needs an edit. So here is my try at it.

First of all the Familiars are so bonded with the character's essence they gain a form of immortality. A familiar heals one level of damage an hour regardless of source. This happens even if a familiar is killed. Familiars do not age and while they can grow hungry they will never starve or die from such normal means. To kill a Familiar permenently requires one of three ways. First of all is seperate the Familiar from the character. If you can put a mile of distance per level of Familiar between a Familiar and its master and slay the creature they will not heal and rise up. Second method is to kill the character first and then slay the beast. The third way is to use god-killing charms to finish it off. With the first two ways a Familiar can be revived by a character finding its body and letting it slowly restore to life. In fact a Solar could potentially find an old tomb or ruin, find a long forgotten set of bones and watch as an ancient ally and friend springs to life to rejoin them. Second of all Familiars are all able to understand and communicate with a character. Weaker Familiars will think in basic animal terms but more powerful ones are easily as intelligent as your average human if not smarter. They have a short telepathic bond of about 100 yards. They can communicate by telepathy or by facial expressions, natural animal noises and postures as well that the character and character alone can understand. All Familiars grant an additional 5 motes of Essence that a character can draw on when in contact with the familiar. Finally there should be a scaling effect available with charms. Just as a level 5 artifact is never going to be obsolete neither should a level 5 familiar.

• This level of familiar is something like a loyal and intelligent tiger companion.
•• Familiars of this level are either more intelligent then the norm or have some small and minor powers in the form of appropriate charms to the type of character exalt or god Charms.
••• Familiars at this level are likely full on Godblooded or minor dieties or elementals.
•••• Familiars at this level are credible threats to young Exalted who are not heavily invested in being skilled in combat. Alternatively they should provide great aid in some area outside of combat. A supernaturally wise owl who serves as a tutor in sorcery or charms as well as being able to carry a character around the world for example.
••••• This is a level of Familiar oftentimes created more then found. Always unique at this stage many were forged of the First Age Sorceries or technology of the time. These should be the perfect companion to a character granting useful powers able to be used in tandem. Familiars of this level are often times famous in their own right and those who see you with one will know you are a being of power.

Solar Bond
Solar Bond will now work slightly differently. The dice it grants is changed so that now you get twice your rating in dice and they can be used whenever. They regenerate at a rate of your rating a game session either at the very start or very end whichever the Storyteller decides.

System

Social Attacks
For each multiple of a characters MDV a social roll beats it by the social attack is that much more effective. Take your successes rolled and see how many times you can subtract their MDV from it without going to 0 or less then 0. That is how much WP it takes to resist it. Or if accepted that is how many points is taken from or away from an intimacy. A character can always spend all their remaining WP to resist a social attack and be counted as if they had spent the two WP to resist natural persuasion.

Social Weapons are now available. Clothes give twice their resource cost in points that can either improve one abilities social attack pool or social defense pool. For example an expensive set of resources 4 Priest robes might give you +4 dice for performance social attack rolls and +4 dice towards your DV as a social presence parry.

Hardness
Hardness is being completely changed. Normal artifact armor and charms no longer provide Hardness. Instead Hardness is a trait possessed by things like giant monsters and warstriders. They reflect a maximum damage that can be inflicted on them. Hardness 5 for example means at most 5 dice of damage can be inflicted on that target. Even where ping damage would be higher Hardness beats it. Large sized weapons like the Grand Daiklaives and such will have a level of Hardness piercing.

Big Weapons
-2 Accuracy accross the board and penetrates Hardness 4.

Charms, Knacks, Spells and Caste Powers

Combos
When you see the example of Combos in the corebook and the guy going down 17 xp or whatever and having a completely useless combo it makes me sad. Thats a horrible idea. Thus I propose the following way to make upgraded combos which are really just as much a part of the idea of secret techniques as normal combos are. A combo with additional charms in it on top of one you have allready made costs you xp for the new charms + 0.5x the cost(round down) of the old charms.

Dragonbloods

All changes here are after considering the changes put in place with the Thousand Correct Actions pdf.

Elemental Bolt Attack: Page 133. Additional purchases of this charm cost only 2 xp.

Lunars

Half Moons Anima Power: This no longer adds to Join Battle, Join Debate and Join War rolls. Instead it now proves a bonus of Essence to rolls to detect unexpected attacks and also it reduces by the character's Essence the DV penalty from coordinated attacks. This power costs 5m and activates automatically when a Lunar has spent 11+ motes of Peripheral Essence.

Deadly Beastman Transformation: A change in how the Small mutation works. In DBT the Lunar is normal human size. There is no strength or stamina modifier and she keeps all her health levels. In cases where the Lunar has a Dodge or Parry DV that is an even number before halving add one to it.

Terrible Wolverine Onslaught: Lunars page 196 - Duration is now scene long. Cost is 5m, 1wp, 1 lethal health level. The health level is part of the committment cost. Triple move and dash actions in distance and add plus one success to all Dexterity actions including the Lunar's DVs. The character can make 3 attacks without penalty a turn. Doing more actions causes multiple action penalties but doing less does not.

Bruise-Relief Method & Halting the Scarlet Flow: Lunars page 159 and 160. In light of certain Solar healing charms these charms are being combined into a single charm. No Prerequisite Charms, Mins of Stamina 3, Essence 2. Gift effect costs 3m and heals Stamina bashing and 1 Lethal an action.

Sidereals

Secrets of Future Strife: This charm no longer just flatly doubles your Join Battle dice pools. Instead it makes it so that any Excellency used to improve your Join Battle dice pool does not count as charm use.

Abyssals

Redemption: An abyssal who somehow achieves this no longer suffers from the Great Curse.

Ebon Lightning Prana: This charm is now not always unexpected. Charms such as Surprise Anticipation Method will work and those with superhuman levels of perception can make a Perception + Awareness roll at a difficulty of the Abyssal's Essence +4 to see the attack coming.

Soul Iron Frame: This charm is the mirror to Iron Skin Concentration. The costs and effects are the same.

Soulsteel Hardened Discipline: This charm is the mirror to Iron Kettle Body. The costs and effects are the same.

Void Avatar Prana: Just removed.

Solar Impersonation Style: Upgraded in the following ways. First of all it is not an Illusion effect anymore. Second the Abyssal can change their anima banner to mimic any other Exalt(though knowledge of what their anima banners are like does not come free) when they activate this charm. As well they can change what their totemic display is. Against Essence sight charms such as All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight the Abyssal adds 4 successes to the rolloff to deceive that charm. If the Abyssal chooses to imitate the appropriate Solar version of themself the effect is considered to always succeed and if a charm contests it add double the Abyssal's Essence to the rolloff. The Abyssal's charms do not seem to be of the right type to whatever they imitate however. Those who see the Abyssal use Resplendant Shadow Blade will not think it is a Fire Aspect's flaming sword even if the Abyssal has the burning anima flux of a Fire Aspect. In the case of duplicating the appropriate Solar version however they can make observers believe it is so as an Illusion effect costing 5 points of Willpower to resist.
Vile Anathema Shroud: Works the same as above except for imitating Abyssal's instead of Solars. A Solar who was once an Abyssal loses this additional bonus. Their ability to mimic it comes from the bit of darkness in them from the Great Curse with with its loss they can not duplicate that darkness as well anymore.

Equipment Changes

Weapons

Grand Grimcleaver Speed 5, Accuracy +3, Damage +16L/4, Defense 0, Rate 2, Min Str 3, Attune 8, Cost 3, Tags 2, O, P, R, 2 Sockets

Grand Grimscythe Speed 5, Accuracy +3, Damage 16L/4, Defense 0, Rate 2, Str 3, Attune 8, Cost 3, Tags 2, O, P, R, 2 sockets.

Armor

The description of 5-dot Artifacts in the Core book and Oedanel's Codex both describe them as something which give you world shaking power or an almost unbeatable advantage in its area. That said they don't do either. This will mostly focus on level 4 and 5 Armors that are not-magitech based. As a general rule all suits should also have Hearhstone Sockets equal to their level divided by two rounded up. These are basic powers. As level 5 artifacts they should all be unique and have something special to set them appart from other level 5 armor suits. Level 4 Artifact armor should incorporate dual Smashfists into its design of the appropriate metal. Furthermore Essence Ping and Damage dealt should be reduced by one against users of this armor. Finally Soak reducers should be half as effective.

Level 5 Artifact Armor should incorporate dual Smashfists and Godkicking Boots into it of the appropriate metal. Reduce essence ping and damage dealt by three. Charms which bypass soak should be inneffective against this armor if used someone with lower essence, terrestial circle magic, or terrestial charms.

Alternate Jade Material Bonuses as honestly I have never seen fatigue used. Ever. Assume though that Jade armor still eliminates the Fatigue penalty from armors.
White Jade: Add 2 to both soaks.
Green Jade: Attacks that do no damage to you restore one mote to you as the energy of the blow is absorbed.
Red Jade: Increases the damage of the anima flare power and anima power of Fire Castes by 1 die. Clinches do lethal damage from the heat.
Black Jade: Black jade ignores one point of Mobility Penalty.
Blue Jade: Blue jade is light as clothing. Even in Superheavy Plate they can easily walk along ropes, weak bridges, and the like.