TheHoverpope/SunAndIron

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Sun-And-Iron Orbit Bound</b>
Speed +3 Accuracy + 1 Damage +6B (Piercing) Defense +1 Rate 5
Artifact <b>•••</b>; Requires: Dexterity <b>•••</b> Strength <b>•••</b>

This artifact flail consists of a solid black iron handle, a gleaming and unbreakable steel chain approximately two feet long with an inch wide disc of steel at each end, and a completely unmarked and polished sphere of orichalcum about six inches across. Although the parts do not actually touch, the chain does bind the two end pieces together. In its normal state, the steel discs sit about a half inch from the handle and the sphere. However, the wielder of the Sun-and-Iron Orbit Bound may make a normal melee or martial arts attack with the weapon up to fifteen yards away. In this case, the chain floats in the air between the wielder and the sphere as it strikes, and the weapon will return to its normal state at the end of the attack. Additionally, any successful parry made by this flail grants a free disarm attempt as the weapon wraps around the enemy's weapon, and all disarm attempts made using the weapon gain an additional three dice.

I need to rebalance this at a time that is not 4 AM.


I would slightly disagree. I'm often of the theory that custom Artifacts are to be slightly higher-powered than their book counterparts, and what you're discussing isn't too bad. The ranged attack thing is almost trivial, and has such cool flavor text behind it that it's completely free. The issue really is that you're exploiting the disarm rules, which (as explicitly noted in the book) far too generous towards the one doing the disarming. Thus, the problem is not one of balancing the artifact at all - it's the far-too-lenient disarm rules. If you could find some other cool thing for this artifact to do, or a specialized disarm mechanic that wasn't so horrible, I think it'd be fine.
-- GregLink

I figured when I was making it that by making the actual stats fairly bad, it would balance out; I am thinking if I lower the rate some it might balance out better. Although on the other hand, I do really quite like disarming to work well. - TheHoverpope

disarming in exalted is broken. Which -way- it's broken, however, is still up for debate. Also, nearly every exalt-type has a sword-caller for a reason.
-- Darloth

What do you mean, Darloth? When you say "Which -way- it's broken", are you implying that it is possibly broken in favor of the defender? Or are you implying that the mechanic, as is, is inappropriate, but no one knows what to change about it to make it better? - GregLink
Situationally, disarming is -either- far too hard, or far too easy. It never seems just-right, at present. Typically, in my games, it was too hard, but then sometimes it's too easy. Usually, it's too hard, and I shall explain why. It's an attack as normal, with a higher difficulty than normal, which is fine. It may be parried or dodged as normal, also fine. But then, the target gets a reflexive roll against whatever successes are left. Against anyone that's about equal with you, you'll almost never succeed if you attempt to disarm them, they have the equivalent of a potential THIRD layer of defense. However... Against dramatically inferior opponents, or in special cases, it's sometimes reduced to triviality, which can be very bad. It should be a part of the system, otherwise, why so many weapon-retrieval charms, but it shouldn't be so... unbalanced, I guess is the correct term.
-- Darloth