FrivYeti/Difficulties

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Standard Difficulty Charts

Exalted is an epic game. But, and let's face it, the description for tasks in the core rulebook becomes a bit wonky if you really stop to think about it. As written, five successes is sufficient for truly legendary behaviour. What this means, frequently, is that the scale stops long before the Exalted really hit their stride. Furthermore, the game designers seem to have realized this, given the preponderance of Difficulty 4 to 7 tasks in many books.

As such, I thought I would note down my own general rules about how Difficulty in my games is determined. The following are my personal interpretations, and can give players an idea of how hard I am going to generally make something.

For all the following difficulties, I use a number of terms to refer to people making the attempts. For simplicity's sake, they are outlined here.

• An average person is one with only basic training: Attribute 2, Ability 1-2, for a total of 3-4 dice. This is about as weak as mortals can get while still being able to roll dice.
• A skilled person is one with 6-7 dice in their pool, usually representing Attribute 3, Ability 3, and a Specialty or equipment bonus. Elite soldiers and NPCs typically fall into this range, as do Exalts in a wide variety of their non-specialized fields.
• An expert is a highly skilled character; one with 9-10 dice in the pool, representing Attribute 4-5, Ability 4-5, and potentially a Specialty or equipment bonus. This is a rare and skilled character. Exalts typically reach this level in their areas of expertise very easily.
• A paragon is a character at the peak of mortal potential: Attribute 5, Ability 5, three relevant specialties, and a +1 equipment bonus, for a total of 14 dice. Exalts need special effort to reach this level without Charms; with Charms, they do so fairly easily.

Difficulties

• Easy (Difficulty 1): This is a challenge that most people can handle. Even an average person can succeed four times out of five; a skilled or better character doesn't even need to roll. These challenges exist primarily as flavour, or to catch those without the relevant Ability at all. Examples include climbing a tree, hitting an unmoving target, or getting on a horse.
• Standard (Difficulty 2): There is still a good chance that average people will be able to handle it, and a skilled person will have to do badly to fail. Experts and paragons don't need to roll. Examples include keeping your balance when struck, calming a spooked horse, or setting a dislocated joint.
• Challenging (Difficulty 3): These feats generally require advanced training for a character to reasonably succeed; average people need exceptional luck, but skilled people are usually successful. Experts consider such tasks easy, while masters do not need to roll for them. Examples include climbing a stone wall, performing surgery, or hitting normal soldiers in combat.
• Very Challenging (Difficulty 4): At this point, you are out of the range of what average people can reasonably accomplish, and reaching the point where skilled people, while they still have a good chance, fail more than they succeed. Experts and paragons still find these tasks relatively easy. Examples include escaping manacles you are locked inside, climbing a stone wall in the rain, or piloting a ship through a storm.
• Incredible (Difficulty 5): These are feats that skilled people can't accomplish, but which experts will usually succeed at and masters scoff at. Enacting magical rituals, solving complex ciphers, or climbing a dangerous mountain in a snowstorm fall under these feats. They are always good tales to tell, as most people will be very impressed.

• Legendary (Difficulty 6-8): By this stage, you are at the level where most mortals hang up their hats and go home. Even an expert will not usually succeed at these tasks, and paragons consider them to be appropriate challenges. Legendary tasks are such things as plotting a navigation course through the Wyld, juggling with knives that enemies are throwing at you, or bypassing First Age security systems. Even Exalts are generally impressed by those who can easily handle these impressive feats.
• Mythic (Difficulty 9+): Tasks such as these are beyond the reach of any mortal; even a paragon needs amazing skill in order to accomplish them. Finding food to feed a group travelling through Malfeas, surviving a dip in an acid bath, or climbing a glass-smooth wall during a snowstorm are all mythic feats. Even Exalts need to be approaching the master level and have access to their Excellencies to stand a reasonable chance of success. Even the eldest Exalts will usually use their Charms when approaching such challenges. Succeeding at one will likely win the character renown.