BraincraftRemakeofExalted/Skills
Skills
Skills aligned with a character’s caste or aspect, as well as all favored skills, start at a rating of one. Solar exalts have three caste skills, and may favor a further three. Sidereal and Terrestrial exalts have three caste skills, but may only favor a further two. Lunars have no caste skills, but may each favor any four skills. Solar and Lunar Exalted start with 15 ranks’ worth of skills, while Sidereal and Dynastic Terrestrials have 14, plus 4 ranks of automatically assigned skills based on background. Heroic Mortals, sadly, start with a mere 12 ranks of skills, and favor only a single skill at most. Skills may only be raised up to a maximum of rank 3 with these points, but may be increased further with bonus points (and often are).
By comparision, a normal human has at most five ranks of skills, and seldom more than two ranks in any.
Frequently, more than a single skill might me appropriate for a given task. While only one may be rolled in a given pool at one time, different skills reflect different approaches and applications of knowledge, and certain circumstances or charms might make it advantageous to have access to all of them.
Rank Scale for Skills: 0 – Uninitiated. The character has no knowledge of this skill. 1 – Familiar. The character has some facility with the skill, and is able to perform basic tasks or assist with more advanced ones. 2 – Professional. The character has a comfortable grasp of most of the skill’s applications, and should be able to practice it for a living. 3 – Expert. The character has a high level of proficiency with the skill, and is likely to be particularly talented or well-trained. 4 – Master. This rank of skill generally only comes from long experience and solid effort. Few can achieve this level without great devotion to study and practice; though the Exalted can attain with relative ease heights mortals struggle to reach. 5 – Grandmaster. At this point, the skill ceases to define the character and the character begins to define the skill. Others may seek the character out to benefit from their knowledge. Exalted, especially celestial exalts, tend to reach this rank in several skills by the time they outlive a mortal lifespan.
SolarBraincraftRemakeofExalted/Abyssal
DawnBraincraftRemakeofExalted/Dusk Marksmanship – Combat at a distance, with projectiles or thrown objects Melee – Close-quarters combat, with weapons or one’s own body Warfare – Leadership and tactics suitable for bringing groups into battle
ZenithBraincraftRemakeofExalted/Midnight Presence – Influencing others through sheer force of personality Resistance – Toughness and general health Survival – Knowledge of and attunement to the world around you
TwilightBraincraftRemakeofExalted/Daybreak Craft – Making and fixing things Lore – Education and research Occult – Aspects of both Lore and Craft, as applied to the supernatural
NightBraincraftRemakeofExalted/Day Athletics – Fitness and body control Awareness – Alertness and sharpness of senses Subterfuge – Stealth, and the capacity for less scrupulous arts
EclipseBraincraftRemakeofExalted/Moonshadow Culture – Knowledge of the arts and other civilized pursuits Ride – Controlling beasts or vehicles Socialize – Understanding and manipulating groups and individuals
Terrestrial
Air Awareness Lore Marksmanship
Fire Athletics Presence Socialize
Earth Craft Melee Resistance
Water Culture Subterfuge Warfare
Wood Occult Ride Survival
Sidereal
Journeys Athletics Ride Survival
Serenity Craft Culture Socialize
Secrets Lore Occult Subterfuge
War Melee Presence Warfare
Endings Awareness Marksmanship Resistance
Specializations
These skills are necessarily broad; within every skill, there are many different applications and areas of study. However, not all practitioners of a skill have mastered all of these purviews equally. For each point of rating in a skill, you must choose one specialty within that skill. You may not take the same specialty multiple times, but multiple specialties may apply to the same task.
These can be broad or specific, as you like; it is considered poor form to choose a specialty that covers all applications of the skill, or even a vast majority. Mind you, specialties have certain advantages for those that have them:
- Certain advanced or uncommon applications of the skill may require specialization to use - For each specialty that applies, you may ignore a single die of penalties - In ties between opposed skill rolls, the narrower specialty wins
Examples of specialties:
- (Melee) With Swords, With My Father’s Sword, While Wounded - (Culture) Sculpting, Jade Sculpting, Dancing, Singing - (Craft) Metalworking, Orichalcum Forging, Rush Jobs, Taking My Time
