Blaque/LunarSoak

Lunar Soak

This probably should of been talked about in one place in the book, but since it wasn't, I'll define it here for the purposes of convenient reference, before we get to anything.

• The maximum natural soak a Lunar Exalted can have from any given source, such as Stamina, Charms, or gifts in Deadly Beastman Transformation is 12L/12B.
• Any soak in excess of this becomes oversoak. Oversoak is a type of hardness, and functions as detailed in the Lunar book and the Exalted Player's Guide. Any raw damage that does not exceed the Lunar’s oversoak does not ping at all. It instead just straight-out ignored. Oversoak is capped at 12L/12B.

Now the main issue with this system is that it gives Lunars a really low soak cap compared to other sorts of Exalted. While Lunars got a good offensive boost in Power Combat with flyby attacks and the clinch rules, their main defense - soak - has suffered a bit. Any Exalt worth his salt can penetrate the 7 or 8 oversoak/hardness that a Lunar might have. As such, I have thought of the following two house rules. Whether or not to use them at all still requires some playtesting.

• Oversoak is a special sort of hardness unique to Lunars. It stalks with any outside form of hardness, adding to the total pool. So a Lunar with oversoak of 6 in armor that provides a hardness of 4 usually just takes the 6 of her natural hardness. However, with this house rule in use, they stack, rather then become exclusive, giving the Lunar a hardness of 10 instead.
• Lunar soak is now capped at (12 + Permanent Essence), rather then just twelve. This helps with the fact that as is, Lunars really don't get much in the ways of soak compared to some monsters like Solars and whatnot.
• Oversoak still rolls over at 12 natural soak, however. So a Lunar with Essence 3 and 15L/15B soak will also have 3 oversoak. This is the simplest way I've found to keep the soak rising and oversoak's rollover at a reasonable place. Oversoak itself is now capped at (12 + Permanant Essence), like it is with natural soak.

The issue with these possible rule changes is that they give Lunars a massive boost in power. However, I'm of the opinion that a Lunar soaker should be just as hard to kill as a Sidereal parrier or dodger. Due to the Chosen of the Maidens’ ready access to effects that give them easy active defenses, I think this balances out.

Once again, it needs some playtesting, so we'll see here.