TonyC/SolarsVsLion

To see the background of this fight, see /SolarsVsLionContext

"It is time," a five-note harmony chorused.

The Contest

Owing to the nature of the wiki, this is going to take a bit of organization to pull. I think it's best if FrivYeti rolls init and award the stunt dice. I trust he won't cheat. :) We can have either have Friv do all the rolling or each of us roll his own side. I'm cool with either.

So, init is determined. Whoever goes first describes his action(s). Stunts are awarded, and the first roll made. If this is an attack, we wait for the opponent to react. If this isn't an attack of some sort, keep going until the end of the character's turn. If the other side can interrupt and wants to interrupt (e.g., somebody has been holding an action, or has a Reflexive charm that is appropriate), he may do so, but at that point ALL actions and dice rolls after the interruption are invalidated and after the interruption is resolved, the interrupted guy does not have to follow his plan through anymore.

This thing will move slowly. It will probably take a night to finish one character's turn because I think what will happen is I will log in, do my side, and rather than clicking refresh all the time, I'll just log out and come back the next day. Same thing with FrivYeti.

But hey, that's more time for you peanut galleries to fill the comments section.

Is that cool with you, Friv?

I think that once a turn has been resolved, I'll make a new page and move all the system stuff over there. This means this page will have just the cool descriptions. People then can click on a link and get behind the scenes and see all the nitty gritty mechanical numerical alphabetical blow-by-blow details.

Sounds like a plan to me. The Lion will be posting contingencies, but that shouldn't be a problem (i.e. launch attacks at Person A; if Person A should happen to fall, attack Person B.) - FrivYeti

The Good Guys

Here we have a perfect circle of 5 Solars. Supposedly they have 500 XP, but since I can't be bothered with all those Abilities and Traits and Charms that would make sense in a regular campaign but is completely irrelevant for this fight, I limit myself at the low 400 XPs. Oh, and if you are wondering, they have Essence 5. While there's nothing stopping me from going all the way to Essence 10, I just thought that the Essence 5 limit will make these builds and their tricks reachable by the average Exalted player.

/StoneMonkey (Dawn caste. Brave, impetuous, headstrong. Based on Sun Wu Kong. Altogether more befitting the name than Overly Combative Monkey. Yes, FrivYeti, pbbhbpt.)

Ocean-Striding Tiger (alternate Dawn Caste concept. Because Water Dragon, Hungry-Ghost, and Tiger styles produce powerful synergies. Key in this concept is the counterattacks granted by Angry Predator Frenzy Style.)

/InvincibleSwordPrincess

Righteous Preacher (the other side of Invincible Sword Princess. My initial concept is to basically rape Righteous Devil style, but I decided instead to stick with Invincible Sword Princess, except with some tweaks.)

/BurningMandala (the Twilight Sorcerer. Because Solar Circle Sorcery and Sidereal Martial Art are about the two strongest powers in Exalted.)

/StudentToTheSunAndStars (the Night with Sidereal Martial arts. This is one of the keystones in my approach. Because Prismatic Arrangement of Creation is powerful, and Soul Fire Shaper Form is UBER. You can do really sick things with that active.)

/FiveRealmsDiplomat (the Eclipse. There are two ways I can use his special ability. One is buy going the Spirit Charms route. The other by going Sidereal route. The Abyssal charms are basically the same as Solars. The DB charms are too weak. The Lunar charms I'm not familiar with, but from a quick look, it seems the really good ones are quite deep in the trees and therefore too expensive. For the moment, I'll be using Spirit Charms.)

The Bad AND Ugly

Mr. First And Forsaken Lion. Nuff said. He makes Mask of Winters look like a kitten. You can't go wrong using this guy as your campaign's final boss.

• COPY AND PASTE BY FRIV YETI - note: Slightly different Artifact / Hearthstone setup*

Up against the Solars, however, is the titan of combat, the monster of mayhem, the First and Forsaken Lion! Armed with unique artifacts, deadly hearthstones, and thousands of years' experience, can even this group take him down? Hopefully, you know the Lion's stats from Exalted: The Autochthonians. If not, well, they're good. For the sake of this battle, no customized Charms are being used; however, it is assumed that the Lion has access to all Abyssal Charms, all ghost Charms, and has Abyssal equivalents of pretty much all the Solar Charms listed to date, too, as well as any comboes that he might need in the fight. He uses Brawl and Melee primarily, so be ready for some nasty tricks.
The Lion's artifacts for this fight are: Varan's Ruin, Armor of the First and Forsaken Lion, Soulsteel Hearthstone Bracers, Soulsteel Hearthstone Amulet, and a Perfect Talon Dagger (Time of Tumult, page 23).
The Lion's hearthstones for this fight are: A Gemstone of Perfect Mobility and Underworld Gemstone of the Revolutionary Dog in his bracers, Underworld Freedom Stone and Jewel of the Flying Heart in his sword, and a Stone of Conviction (Stone of Temperance, CB:E, page 79) in his Hearthstone Amulet.

The Place

The location of the battle is the Palatial Courtyard of the Despot of Gem. Did we mention that Gem has been destroyed and is now a shadowland? Well, duh. But amidst the backdrop of volcanic rock and ruined palaces and burnt vegetation, our heroes duke it out against Oblivion's strongest champion.

The Time

The pale ghostly sun is rising over the volcanic caldera of Gem. The high officers of the Sanguinary Legion, the Exalts of Autochtonia, and the Dragon-Blooded Dynasts of the Realm's Legions (and who knows how many spies) have gathered to observe the battle. At the foot of the volcano, their respective forces hold to the cease-fire, for the fate of the South will be decided at high noon.

The Set-Up

The Alchemicals turned in unison to face the Solars. "It is time," a five-note harmony chorused. The Dragon-Blooded princes murmured as they made way for their Anathema allies of convenience. On the opposite side, The First And Forsaken Lion's honor guards raised their swords and banners in eerie silence as their liege-lord stepped forward.

A group of five entered the courtyard. Catching the eye immediately is the young lady dragging a coffin with a rope. It seems far too heavy for her small frame and from the marks it made on the ground, it is not empty, yet pull it she does. Once she reaches the center, she stops. "The stars say that I'm fated to die today. I've even for that eventuality. But..." and with that she jumps behind the coffin and kicks it upward. As it flies up, she jumps after it, draws a daiklave from its scabbard on her back, and made three quick slashes before sheathing it back. The coffin breaks in mid-air and its contents, a dozen greatswords, rain down the courtyard. She lands amongst the pieces of wood and naked steel and smiles prettily, "Ooops. Looks like it broke. I guess I'll have to postpone that fate."

Behind her, a handsome young man rolls his eyes. "She's been talking to Righteous Preacher again," Stone Monkey mutters. "This kind of theatrics is soooo him." He twirls the staff that he's been carrying on his shoulder and smashes it on the ground. Made of solid orichalcum instead of the usual alloy, the staff's increased weight causes it to leave a small crater where it strikes the ground. Yet the man lifts it like it was made from bamboo. He raises his voice and addresses First And Forsaken Lion, "We meet again, old friend. Looks like today is going to be fun."

Student To The Sun And Stars looks the part of an Immaculate, a man with shaven head and monkish robe, and somehow his aura is not that of an Immaculate monk. He nods slightly to indicate respect for his opponent and starts performing a series of kata to open his chakra points. He ends it with a series of five strikes on himself to reroute the flow of his essence and drops into a martial arts stance.

Meanwhile, red and orange light races through the sky as Burning Mandala ignores the minor distractions and concentrates on shaping a spell. A vague shape starts to form before him as his hands grabs the strands of light and sound and add them to the cloud of energy before him.

The last of the five though, did not exactly enter the arena. Rather, she made a slow circuit over the arena, climbing on air as if it's a solid stone stairway. Each step she takes brings her that much higher up the air. Looking down, she draws her bow and takes aim, a terrible goddess in shining battle-armor.

Across the courtyard, the earth grew cold as the First and Forsaken Lion strode out onto the field, looking around with a calculating eye. His armour almost seemed to absorb the light, and he smiled grimly as he looked at his opponents. Settling backwards into a Form that he used but rarely, he drew only his small dagger, a wonderous artifact of soulsteel and orichalcum, but a weak one nonetheless. Varan's Ruin, he left Elsewhere, to summon when the time was right. Darkness gathered around him as he took on a horrific, deadly mien, and the onlookers gasped in fear. Finally, he reached within himself, unleashing the anger and hatred that he kept inside. A mask of rage and cruelty, he waited for the battle to start.

Want to know what actually went on? Go to /SolarsVsLionSystemSideSetUp and see.

The Fight

Hmmm, I need a better notation system to I can remember what's spent, what's committed, and what the effects are.

At this point, Stone Monkey has Strength 15 and has 25m+1w committed, Princess Str 10 and a MA pool of 20 (23 with specialties) with 35m+2w committed, Mandala is still casting and won't be finished until Turn 2 of the fight and he's down 25 motes (the other 15 comes from the Gem, emptying it out), Student has Essence 10 and 10 MA autosuccess and has 25m+1hl committed, and Diplomat, with 10m+1w committed, is 24 yards up the air and if Lion wants to do anything about it, he needs to make a Valor roll and even if he does, he's still at -5 dice to do it.

Student: 1HL down (committed to charm), personal 0/15 (24 committed), peripheral 56/91(1 committed), wp 9/9.

Turn 1

The First and Forsaken Lion smiled grimly as he looked across the ruined and twisted landscape. A good place to fight his longtime rivals - they should be a greater challenge than that pathetic crew that challenged him just weeks before. He saw Invincible Sword Princess settle into the Flowing Mirror of Opposition technique. A wise beginning. Then the Student flicked his hand in an unmistakeable gesture, and the Lion frowned. This should not be tolerated.

The rest has been moved to an 'errors' subpage, for the curious. The proper continuation goes here.

/SolarsVsLionOops1

Moving with the frightening speed granted to him by the Charcoal March of Spiders, the Lion flicked his hand three times, letting three small bone darts formed. As he raised his hand to throw, he let out a wail of unholy fury, a wail so powerful that it rattled even the magics holding the Charms of the combatants at bay from the spectators, causing them to cover their ears in pain. As the wail screamed across the battlefield, the Lion followed it with a series of throws, each needle multiplying a score of times in the air, until the sky seemed to be blotted out by ivory death, falling towards the Student.

Lion's soul-tearing wail is highly effifacious. All those within earshot are affected. The weakest amongst the observers found their way to the Underworld, despite distance and protective charms. Yet Solars are made of sterner stuffs. Although Diplomat is coughing blood, and Student's bleeding from his ears, all five press on undaunted.

As soon as the first bone needle leaves Lion's hand, Student moves. So fast, mortal eyes and the less martial exalts only see him disappearing from his spot and appearing right behind Stone Monkey. With a glance of contempt, Lion adjusts, and the storm of bone needles rushes to Student's new location, as if it has been aimed there all along. But Student isn't intending to escape the storm. Rather, he puts his left arm on Stone Monkey's shoulder blade like so. His right hand pushes Stone Monkey's right elbow up as he kicks Stone Monkey's knees and causes him to kneel slightly. By the time Student's done, he has made Stone Monkey turn his orichalcum staff like a giant windmill, swatting the incoming storm down while Student matches his movement behind him perfectly, letting no part of his body exposed.

Having barely survived Lion's poisonous assault, Student does not feel it's time to press the attack yet. He shouts, "Stall!" as he, Stone Monkey, and Burning Mandala shortens the gap between the group and Lion.

Still running towards Lion, Invincible Sword Princess hears Student's shout and frowns. Surely when it comes to blade against blade, she is a match to Lion. Yet as she looks at Lion, her heart leaps to her throat. Terrible describes First & Forsaken Lion as the word cat describes a tiger. With an act of will she commands, "Fly, Silver Dream! Defang him!" Heeding Student's shout, she continues by flicking her fingers at five directions instead of at Lion's heart as she wished. Invisible threads shoot from her fingers and tie themselves to the greatswords scattered across the courtyard. She finishes with a knotting motion and five greatswords stand from the ground.

Diplomat meanwhile climbs ever higher, senses alert for trouble.

The Lion smiled slimly as the flying daiklave moved towards him. For a moment, he considered trying to bat it out of the air, but as it dove instead for his knife, he chuckled softly. "I think not, child." Shadows coiled around him, even as his knife shot out to defend himself, and as darkness surrounded him, pulling the blade off-course, he spun and struck back.

Lion easily turns Flying Silver Dream aside but the essence-sighted may see that Invincible Sword Princess is absorbing some of the essence flux. She laughs softly as Flying Silver Dream swiftly dodges Lion's riposte. "Bring out your true blade, Lion. That paltry thing belongs in the kitchen, not in a battlefield. Or are you saying that's where you belong too?" With that, she slashes at Lion's back, silver daiklave shimmering into existence in tune with the motion. Yet at the last moment, she turns her grip so that instead of striking, she merely caresses Lion's back with the flat of the blade.

The Lion chuckled, through his anger, at the mocking tone of her voice. "For you, my sword will be drawn, once your... friends... have been dealt with. They are not worthy of so much as seeing Varan's Ruin. For them, a kitchen knife is all that is required - for they are no more than food to me." He spins at her leap, bringing his knife around to block her blow, twisting it to counter-strike.

A casual flick of her wrist and she lets Flying Silver Dream hovers by itself. She makes mystical slashes in the air with her fingers instead as she slides around Lion's counterattack like silk caressing the skin. "A lady asks you to dance and you jilted her. Truly, Lion, you are no gentleman," Invincible Sword Princess responds.

/SolarsVsLionSystemSideTurn1

Turn 2

The First and Forsaken Lion leapt forwards and upwards, curving in a vast arc straight over the Solars, as he let out another heart-piercing shriek. The breath of his passing, as his cry curdled blood, ruffled the robes of the Diplomat in the air. "You fear to face me, I see. Do you truly think that you have anything that can oppose me? Come, show me your might!" Dark Essence gathered around him as, under his mask, he grinned with dark anticipation, landing far away on the other side of his foes.

Student's anima flares bright, suffusing the entire place with golden light. Around him, five colored orbs circle slowly around the halo of his sun. Lion's supernatural fury is dampened, and his shriek is just that, a voice.

Landing, the Lion grinned again, spinning as a cloud of dust raised from the force of his descent. Flipping his knife up, he shrugged, letting it fall to the ground. "Well, I didn't really think it worth the bother, but I suppose, if you insist..." He grinned again beneath his mask, and swept his cape back, and, reaching into the darkness within its folds, drew forth Varan's Ruin, its edge flickering with purple light. As he does, Princess feels power coil around her, weakening her. Moments later, the cloak rippled again, and ten great iron spikes shot from it, chains still connecting them to its shadows. The Lion struck a pose, and his voice echoed from the depths of his armour. "Come and get me, if you dare."

Invincible Sword Princess's expression turns grim as she feels her essence being taken away. With her Ghost Seeing Blindfold, she sees it flows into Lion. The greatswords hovering around her fall clattering as the essence threads holding them up collapses. She turns to the others and yells, "Essence!" warning the others. Stone Monkey cares not though. After all, what has Lion done to him so far? To the other two, he says, "Let's chase him!" Burning Mandala shakes his head and runs toward Princess instead, intending to lend his essence to her. Normally he wouldn't lift a hand, but at this point, her survival could mean his. Student, though, nods and Stone Monkey scoops him over and leaps toward Lion. As Stone Monkey lands, Student sommersaults off him and breaks into a sprint as soon as he touches the ground. Up in the air, Five Realms Diplomat cautiously stops above Stone Monkey, waiting for her chance.

Student steels himself and steps into Lion's sword reach. Grimly, he lets all the essence he commands loose. His hands pummel the air, his feet sweep and stomp the earth, and his anima flares and flickers against Lion's, but none of this touches Lion himself, as Student's true target is not the Deathlord, but rather his command of essence. "NOW!" he yells, "Hit him with everything!"

High above, dressed in battle armor instead of her usual silk finery, Five Realms Diplomat delivers her judgment. "First & Forsaken Lion! Your crimes are too numerous to count, yet instead of repenting, you continue to flaunt your disregard of the Will of Heaven. This shall not continue. Your goals shall be frustrated and each and every crime you committed shall be punished, starting now. For the crime of violating the boundary between the living and the dead, for refusing to enter the cycle of reincarnation, for serving the ancient enemies of gods and mankind, for hastening the end of those whose time has not yet come and preventing those whose time has come to start a new beginning, you are found guilty. For your punishment, your mind shall be as weak as a newborn's, so that your arrogance may turn into humility and your passion into submission, and perhaps, repentance. This I decree, and so shall it be!"

On the edge of the courtyard, Burning Mandala sees and understands immediately what Student To The Sun And Stars is doing. "The haughty princess can wait. If I take this chance, I shall be famous as the one who defeated Lion," he thinks to himself. His hands unknots the first spell captured in the Cord. Streams of bright essence fan out from it and converges on the ground First & Forsaken Lion is standing on. The earth rumbles, and the onlookers gasp as one voice when a pillar of rock propels Lion a mile up in an instant and just as quickly, flips and slams him down with great force.

The Lion growls in surprise as Student begins to block his Charms, one after another spiralling into the Void. The slightest hint of concern enters his mind as he realizes that he may have underestimated the reserves of this young Exalt, and he finds himself seriously thinking that he should have brought along an Essence-Containing Gem of his own. Regardless, it is too late for concerns. As his initial attempt to counteract the Student is prevented, he braces himself for the fury of the Gaia's Rebuke.

"As the smoke cleared, everyone stared. Could it be? Could the Lion truly have been bested? A single claw slammed out of the ground, over a foot in diameter, and silence reigned as everyone waited, breath hushed, to see what would happen.
In an explosion of dirt and rock, the Lion burst forth from the ground, over ten feet tall, his armour twisted and still smoking from the force of the blow that had smote him down. His mask was twisted into a sneer of hatred, and his arms and legs, now quadruple-jointed, jutted with wickedly curved spikes, ready to rend and tear the flesh of any who might still oppose him. From his mouth, a deep, ominous voice issued. "I am quite impressed, little Solars. None have ever fared so well against me. But if you thought that this battle was at an end, you will be most disappointed. Your bones will be made into the walls of my new temple when I build it here to commemorate my victory." The mask's face twists into a sneer of hate as the Lion spun Varan's Ruin, now grown to a great monolith of soulsteel and dark Essence, and prepared to fight.

/SolarsVsLionSystemSideTurn2

Turn 3

The Lion growled deep within his armour. Although his power was greater than ever before, his reserves were almost tapped out, and he knew it deep within his advanced frame. Delaying tactics would have to be used.
Moving as quickly as possible without losing his focus, Lion moved away from the Student and his hateful magics. In the instant before the Student could close the distance, Lion struck at Burning Mandela with his energy, reaching out to rip away his Essence in the spare seconds before Student could close again. Energy gathered around him, golden light streaming out from the sorcerer's nose and mouth, transforming into black energy as it poured into the twisted thing that was the Lion. He focused everything he had, trying to gather every last mote. It was not much, but perhaps it would do. Perhaps.

"Lion, you overgrown weenie! Come here and face me!" Stone Monkey yells as he makes another mighty leap after Lion. "All that talk and you keep running away!"

Meanwhile, Invincible Sword Princess, rebuffed, says, "I shall remember this, Burning Mandala" as she turns and sprints toward Lion. Mid-stride she commands loudly, "Flying Silver Dream! Bring his head to me!" and throws the moonsilver daiklave at Lion. Spinning, it flies to attack Lion.

Ever cautious, the beautiful Diplomat nocks a target arrow to her bow and waits for another opening. She knows she can't cast another curse right now, but she still has her Heart Piercing Arrow and Reality Fixing Caress. Perhaps -

"Again! Don't let up!" Student shouts as he races to chase First And Forsaken Lion. With supernatural speed granted by his hearthstone, he's catches up with Lion and wheels to a stop behind him. "It's time, Lion," he says as he resumes his martial art stance. Then he becomes a blur of light and motion.

Hearing that, Burning Mandala unknots another Gaia's Rebuke just as Five Realms Diplomat lets loose her arrow. The earth shakes again while Diplomat's arrow splits into three, all aimed at Lion's heart.

As the second Gaia's Rebuke struck home, there was another hush. This time, however, when the smoke cleared, nothing remained of the Lion but scraps of broken metal and the cracked remains of Varan's Ruin. The game was done, and in the years it would take the Lion to return, the Solars could set about destroying his empire with ease.

/SolarsVsLionSystemSideTurn3

Friv Yeti's Comments

So, a couple of bad rolls and a couple of good rolls turned the tide, along with a truly brilliant stunt by Tony at the beginning.
Overall, I'd say I made three big mistakes. Two of the three, however, can be easily justified by the Lion's overconfidance.
The first mistake was the tactic I used against Student in Round One. A better choice, in hindsight, would have been to sap his Essence down to about 0 in the first super-combo, allowing it to be countered. But that's less arrogant, and the canon way to deal with the Lion is to goad him into showy displays of Essence. ;)
The second mistake was not having an Essence-containing Gem onhand for the Lion, but I didn't think I'd need it, and I'd bet the Lion didn't think so either.
The last mistake was that Reaping the Bloody Wheat only requires Thrown 4. ;) The Lion could have launched his uber-combo at Student AND Monkey AND Diplomat AND Mandela, which would have been a mite more effective and would have prevented Student's cunning dodging behind Monkey. Still, a very well played group of Solars by Tony, and I am very impressed.
- FrivYeti

TonyC's comments

I learned a few things in this fight.
1. Stunting is your friend. It's your bestest friend. I can't stress this enough. Screw WP and essence recovery and bonus dice. Those are nice, but at this power level, the reason you stunt is because it lets you break the rules. No, really. You can recover WP and essence motes some other way, and when you're throwing 20 odd dice, a couple more dice really doesn't matter, but there's no substituting the ability to bend and break the rules at will.
2. All action-oriented characters should get Athletic charms.
3. Deathlords are scary. I said a circle of five 500 XP Solars can take any Deathlord. Yeah, I guess I'll have to eat those words.
4. When Exalts really cut loose, fights are big, flashy, and short. A mortal describing this fight would probably say "There's this blinding flash of light and a big boom and by the time my vision recovered and my ears stopped ringing, there's this crater on the ground and the fight's over. What happened?" But I guess we all know that already.
Kudos to FrivYeti for playing First & Forsaken Lion in character, because otherwise the Solars would have had no chance at all. Lion's overconfidence is really what gave the Solars the opening they need. - TonyC

Mistakes

/SolarsVsLionOops1 - The Lion uses an illegal combo.

Sequential Charm Disruption Vote

There was quite a bit of disagreement on how Sequential Charm Disruption is supposed to work. FrivYeti listened and decided, and the result is as above. To read all about it in the first place, follow this link.

/SolarsVsLionSCDVote

Comments

/SolarsVsLionOldComments

Okay, earlier last night I noticed that Student has Striking Serpent Speed, an Extra Action Charm, in his combo. This puzzles me, since I was pretty sure it's not supposed to be in the combo. In fact, the combo of SSS & SCD is just daft. I must've missed taking out between my early drafts and the final one. It's been corrected. Also corrected a charm name. - TonyC

So, permanent WP. Lion has 0/10 WP. Can he cast Sanity's Sorrow? I usually play it that if you need to pay Permanent WP, you need an actual WP dot. So 0/10 WP doesn't count, but 1/10 WP becomes 0/9 WP. BUT this is my guess, since there's no actual rule for it as far as I know. Is there one? - TonyC

Not that I know of. However, wouldn't an analog would be loosing a point of permanent Essence? Seems like someone with no motes left in his pools could still spend a permanent Essence point to power something that required it. Seems to me like spending temp is consuming something that you have, while spending permanent is consuming something that you are. These seem mutually exclusive to me. - Wordman

Makes sense. Unless Friv says otherwise, I'm using this for my calculations. - TonyC

*nods* Quite correct. And, le sigh. One more mote and the Lion would have been able to withstand this turn. - FrivYeti

Since it's bound to come up, let me be the first to suggest a rematch, but with Friv controlling the solars and Tony controlling Lion. In essence, doing so would force you both into taking the opposite side in the debate. - Wordman

Hmm... I was just noticing page page 84 of the Abyssals book... the Deathlord Innate power sidebar (that takes up the top half of the page). "Feed on the Dead"'s wording states that Deathlords can devour permanent essence from "Ghosts and other Denizens of the Underworld". Look further down the page, and it says "Can the Deathlords ever be Destroyed?" immediately followed by "The Deathlords are dead..." Were I running this, I'd let FaFL burn 1 perm for three motes. Would that let him survive the round? ~ BrigandRansom

Hey, he's (or whatever) got a point. That kind of self-destructive tendancies do fit very well with the whole theme of oblivion...
-- Darloth

It won't help Lion any. Feed on the Dead is a dice action. No roll, but a dice action. Lion's prevented from taking multiple actions at all times. If he wants to Feed on The Dead on himself, he must take a full action. At the point where Feed might be useful, he doesn't have any actions left. - TonyC

Just out of curiosity, what was stopping the Lion from using a Spell Capturing Cord as well? He knows that he has a slight disadvantage against Solar Circle Sorcery and I think it likely that he knows they have a solar circle in the group. Also, why the assumption that the Lion would be so overconfident? He was a Solar, and he knows what they are capable of, he assisted in killing the primordials. He is ancient, and has had experience in being humbled, albiet by his Malfean master. As near as I have been able to tell he is also very patient and cautious, never overdoing it, not making himself known, building up until he is unstoppable. I wonder what it would be like if he was played with that in mind as opposed to the idea of his character presented here, where he is interpreted to be the overconfident flashy one. Whatever happened to that cool brawl combo BTW, it was crazy insane good. The thrown one was amazing too, but the brawl one gave more options on later turns, and if I remember right did not require as much Essence. As the other idea, are we going to get Sids vs Lion? I think they could do it. Especially with Greater Signs. I don't know how the Lion would get around the limit of damage equal to his Ping. If it specifies attacks he could go with using the poison needles again, that might work. Just an interesting idea.

I tried to reply at work, and it devastated the page. So here's my response...

Alrighty, let's see...

The Lion wasn't using a Spell-capturing cord because I was trying to be more or less reasonable with artifacts. Technically, sure, he could have 5-pt artifacts out the yin-yang, but I decided ten pts of Artifacts and ten dots of Hearthstones was enough.
The Lion is assumed to be overconfidant because it's repeatedly stated that the Lion is overconfidant. Canonically, the only way to have a chance at beating him is to use that character flaw to your advantage. He's patient, yes, but also very certain of his power. If he thinks he has a shot, he'll take it (compare his brash actions in Round One with his increased caution in Rounds 2 and 3, which almost saved him). In fact, a specific quote in Exalted: The Autochtonians says that players can lure him into massive Essence displays early in a fight.
The Brawl combo is crazy for its damage-dealing capabilities, and has good accuracy, but it's built around a more offensive-based team; lacking perfect attacks, it wouldn't have done nearly as well against this particular group of Solars (I considered it). One of the Lion's advantages is that with massive scores in Melee and Brawl and high scores in Archery, Martial Arts, and Thrown, he can alter his tactics completely based on the situation.
Siddies versus Lion would be very interesting. More SMA would be an advantage; however, the Lion's artifacts and strategies would probably change again. - FrivYeti

A repeat of the comment I made on the first fight: as is mentioned breifly at the start of the page, there was an agreement that only officially published charms would be used during the fight. This is significant, because it limits one of the Lion's key advantages: his high essence. His essence is 10, but there are few published charms requiring an essence above 6 and I don't think any that require more than 7. - Wordman