Discussions/MageInExalted

Mage has some very nice magic rules-- very flavorful and extremely flexible. Now I've always sort of thought that they might better suit some aspects of magic in exalted-- the mage who doesn't learn set spells, but molds magic to his will, on the fly. So has anyone tried putting mage powers into Exalted? If so, how did it turn out.

From discussions on the White wolf forum, it was agreed, the one to three dots would be equivalent to terrestrial circle spells, 4-5 celestials, and solar circle spells would be 6+ dots. What do others think?

Comments & Suggestions

Note that mage spells are significantly different from Sorceries, and they can oftentimes get game-breaking. Especially at high levels, and consider that a sphere can do a lot more than a single spell. In fact, if you're creative enough, you can replace three or four charms at (if you use the original game's cost for spheres) the same price of one charm. Or less. And Paradox is going to have to be utterly reworked to make it actually noticed and not a 'I can utterly ignore Paradox because it doesn't hurt at all' thing.

That would, I think be one of the appealing points to it-- mage sorcery is more flexible than traditional sorcery... which of course brings up balance issues, some of which might be adjusted by making the various spheres more or less expensive-- at the very least I'd argue that each dot in a sphere should cost about as much as a charm. Paradox is a bit of an iffy question-- obviously, nuking someone with a lightning bolt ISN'T something that people in creation would disbelieve. Maybe instead of having it be a "disbelieve" effect, it should be, like the sidereals-- a "Did you make the pattern spiders skip lunch" effect where too much blatent activity gets them PO'd. That way you can have paradox be stable nomatter where you are in creation. -- CharlesGray

One other possibility is to integrate things mechanically as well as thematically. Rather than relying on the oh-so-powerful "Arete" trait, try something where effects are based on Ability+Sphere, for example. Shooting lightning bolts might be Archery+Forces, for example. It should hopefully slow down the progression of Mages, which goes from "Oh noes, I'm a total looser!" to "Bow before me!" in only one or two well-placed dots. -- GreenLantern

Played in a game that mixed mage and exalted; it was not a good mix, at all. Also depends if you are doing old world of darkness mage (and which edition) or new world of darkness... oWoD mage spheres were occasionally insanely strong (mind 1 anyone?). nWoD is generally much better, but the dice mechanics don't mesh as well with exalted. Mage also explicitly permits several things which are explicity not permitted in exalted cosmology. Really don't recommend mixing the two, spheres (especially low level ones) break exalted in all sorts of ways... ~Capric

Sorry to respond to my own comment, but I thought I should perhaps offer an alternative: Fair Folk. Modifications to existing FF shaping rules might do more what you are looking for, and will likely be less problematic. Make a character's Avatar akin to a (mostly) controlable raksha that resides in the soul (or not, for some classic Persona style action). Make lots of places behave as the bordermarches for shaping; make shaping easier at night than in the day, gossamer acting as replacement for quintessence, etc etc. Just an idea ~Capric