Twinking out Abyssals for combat

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Heh, my previous post hit a bit of a singularity, so I'll try and be more
specific this time.

I'm trying to find a build I like for the Exalted Kombat boards. Basically,
any Exalt type, and you have 200xp to spend to build for one-on-one combat.

I'm pondering an Abyssal at the moment, and trying to pick out the good
combat Charms. It seems to me (unless I'm misreading savagely, which is
possible) that Insensible Corpse technique combos rather well with Ox-Body,
in that after you buy ICS once, your -0, -1 and -2 health levels are all
effectively -0s, so that you'd pick one -1 and two -2s with OBT and get 3 -0
health levels. Further to this, could you, as a Moonshadow Caste, take the
Lunar Ox-Body and get 4 -0s from their 4 -2 option?

If that works, I'm then thinking about combining it with the various Charms
that spend health levels - I'm eyeing up the Resistance Charms at the
moment, particularly Flowing Wound Defense.

Am I going down the right track? How do you build your Exalted for combat?

Cheers,
Grant
 
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Grant Anderson wrote:

>
> Am I going down the right track? How do you build your Exalted for combat?
>
> Cheers,
> Grant


No, you are not.

First of all, Moonshadows can't buy "other" exalt's Ox-Bodies. You buy
an Ox-Body, you buy your own.

Second, ... Abyssals are mook-killers. I mean, they can hold their own
against a Solar, but really, they're there to wipe out hundreds of
extras. Abyssals put up 1v1 against Solars tend to come out slightly
behind.

Only slightly, mind you - if you're counting every last mote and every
last .5 of a success. But, the Solars do come out ahead.

Now, me, if I were going to go with a 200 XP killing machine ... I'd
definitely go with a Solar. Specific strategies vary, but definitely
Solar.
 
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James Stein <JamesSpamtein@si.rr.com> wrote in message news:<emEhc.37339$Nn4.8266699@twister.nyc.rr.com>...
>

> Second, ... Abyssals are mook-killers. I mean, they can hold their own
> against a Solar, but really, they're there to wipe out hundreds of
> extras. Abyssals put up 1v1 against Solars tend to come out slightly
> behind.
>
> Only slightly, mind you - if you're counting every last mote and every
> last .5 of a success. But, the Solars do come out ahead.
>
> Now, me, if I were going to go with a 200 XP killing machine ... I'd
> definitely go with a Solar. Specific strategies vary, but definitely
> Solar.

Huh.

Today, while picking up new comics, I overheard a guy asking if the
store had the Exalted Player's Guide. They didn't, but I told him
where he could pick it up, and we had a nice (and, for me, a rare
face-to-face) talk about Exalted. The above was one of the points that
came up, when he claimed that a Dusk can take out, like, *3* Dawns at
once!

This doesn't sound quite right to me...Maybe you know what
circumstances he was talking about? ^^

Dex
 
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Hand-of-Omega wrote:

>
> This doesn't sound quite right to me...Maybe you know what
> circumstances he was talking about? ^^
>

Yep. The same situation in which a starting sheet immaculate can take
out a fully-decked Dawn.

That is, when you stack everything you possibly can in favor of the
non-Solars.
 
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"James Stein" <JamesSpamtein@si.rr.com> wrote in message
news:emEhc.37339$Nn4.8266699@twister.nyc.rr.com...
> Grant Anderson wrote:
>
> >
> > Am I going down the right track? How do you build your Exalted for
combat?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Grant
>
>
> No, you are not.
>
> First of all, Moonshadows can't buy "other" exalt's Ox-Bodies. You buy
> an Ox-Body, you buy your own.
>
> Second, ... Abyssals are mook-killers. I mean, they can hold their own
> against a Solar, but really, they're there to wipe out hundreds of
> extras. Abyssals put up 1v1 against Solars tend to come out slightly
> behind.
>
> Only slightly, mind you - if you're counting every last mote and every
> last .5 of a success. But, the Solars do come out ahead.
>
> Now, me, if I were going to go with a 200 XP killing machine ... I'd
> definitely go with a Solar. Specific strategies vary, but definitely
> Solar.

OK, this being the case, how would you tweak a Solar out for fighting other
Exalted? There seems to be, at last check, a few Immaculates, a few Solars,
a few Sidereals (with Sid Martial Arts) and the occasional Lunar or Abyssal
duking it out in Exalted Kombat, so that's the sort of opposition I can
expect.

(Equipment-wise, basically, only out-of-the-book artifacts/Hearthstones, and
only up to 3-dot. You can take such a background at higher than 3, you just
have multiple whatever-it-is, with 3 being the cap.)

When I think of Solars, I think of perfect attacks/defences, and scene-long
charms. How do you buy the time to put up those scene-longs? (As perfects
tend to chew through Essence and Willpower like crazy)

Cheers,
Grant
 
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> > Am I going down the right track? How do you build your Exalted for
combat?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Grant
>
>
> No, you are not.
>
> First of all, Moonshadows can't buy "other" exalt's Ox-Bodies.
>You buy an Ox-Body, you buy your own.

That would be your opinion (do you have a page reference to back it up?), a
reading of the text would suggest otherwise. Reread Time of Tumult page 169,
specifically the section under Strain Resistant Chassis Modification, which
states Eclipse's can buy out of type Ox-Body, secondly many lunar charms
state "Members of the Eclipse caste may not learn this charm," however lunar
ox-body does not have this restriction, thirdly Eclipse and Moonshadows can
learn the charms of other types of exalted, other than where specifically
noted, there are no restrictions on this ability.

Certainly there's a far greater case for this than there is for lunar with
"28 hardness"

Is this broken? Well look at the table below (hopefully this will display
correctly):

no. of solar/abyssal
no. of lunar
health levels XPcost(cost if favoured) health levels
XPcost
1 -1x1+-2x2 10 (8) -2x4
20
2 -1x2+-2x4 20 (16) -2x8
40
3 -1x3+-2x6 30 (24) -2x12
60
4 -1x4+-2x8 40 (32) -2x16
80
5 -1x5+-2x10 50 (40) -2x20
100
6 -1x6+-2x12 60 (48) -2x24
120
7 -1x7+-2x14 70 (56) -2x28
140
8 -1x8+-2x16 80 (64) -2x32
160
9 -1x9+-2x18 90 (72) -2x36
180
10 -1x10+-2x20 100 (80) -2x40
200
11
-2x44 220
12
-2x48 240
13
-2x52 260
14
-2x56 280
15
-2x60 300
16
-2x64 320
17
-2x68 340

Notes:
If your character concept involves having this many health level you should
probably take endurance as favoured.
I went up to 17 because there are a number effects that can increase stamina
e.g. Legendary Attribute; Various Mutations.

Look at it this way a zenith or someone with endurance favoured pay's 40XP
and gets -1x5+-2x10, in order to approximately equal this the Eclipse will
have to pay double the xp (an extra 40!) he'll have an extra HL but they'll
all be -2 where as a third of the zenith's will be -1. Basically the Eclipse
will have to pay double the xp to approximately equal the zenith at any
level, the only benefit of paying this much is the fact that one day when
the zenith has eventually maxed out you'll be able to continue you ascent
and eventually equal then surpass him. But for this privilege you'll be
paying approximately double the xp per health level.

And all this is before you factor in the fact that regular ox-body is taken
with endurance but lunar ox-body is taken with stamina, making it even more
of a bad deal.

endurance XPcost Stamina XPcost
(cost if favoured)
(if prodigy)
Dots
1 3/3 (3/3) (7/7) 0/0
2 2/5 (1/4) (0/7) 4/4
3 4/9 (3/7) (2/9) 8/12
4 6/15 (5/12) (4/13) 12/24
5 8/23 (7/19) (6/19) 16/40
6 10/33 (9/28) (8/27) 20/60
7 12/45 (11/39) (10/37) 24/84
8 14/59 (13/52) (12/49) 28/112
9 16/75 (15/67) (14/63) 32/144
10 18/93 (17/84) (16/79) 36/180

The number after the slash is cumulative cost. I added exp to the prodigy
cost to allow for the merit cost see EX:pG p.

As you can see the XP gap only widens.

It's not game breaking at all.
 
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Daniel Tompkins wrote:
> As you can see the XP gap only widens.
>
> It's not game breaking at all.

I think what's really scary about this is that since it's Stamina based,
you can technically buy Lunar Ox-Body Technique *and* a regular
Endurance-based Ox-Body Technique (such as Solar Ox-Body).

Of course, having the Health Level God passes the Rule-of-Cool for me
personally, so I'd allow it. ^.^;
 
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"RedFox Whiteruff" <rwhiteruff@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:w76dnTpAHoL0zhXd4p2dnA@adelphia.com...
> Daniel Tompkins wrote:
> > As you can see the XP gap only widens.
> >
> > It's not game breaking at all.
>
> I think what's really scary about this is that since it's Stamina based,
> you can technically buy Lunar Ox-Body Technique *and* a regular
> Endurance-based Ox-Body Technique (such as Solar Ox-Body).
>
> Of course, having the Health Level God passes the Rule-of-Cool for me
> personally, so I'd allow it. ^.^;

I'd be inclined to cap it at the higher of Stamina and Endurance, really.

On the other hand, I'm still pondering a Moonshadow Caste with Insensible
Corpse Technique, so Lunar Ox-Body would go down well there. 4 -0 health
levels for each Ox-body? Yes please.

Cheers,
Grant
 
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James Stein wrote:

> First of all, Moonshadows can't buy "other" exalt's Ox-Bodies. You buy
> an Ox-Body, you buy your own.

Yes they can. But you are better off taking your own type. Why take one Lunar
4x-2 if you can have 4x-2 AND 2x-1 for about the same price with much less
troubles.


Michael Dracon
Ex Libris Nocturnis Forum Moderator
http://www.nocturnis.net

"Maybe there is just a lot of full moons out there, somewhere,
lined up, beaming bozo rays into everybody's brains."
- Zack Allen, Babylon 5

http://home.wanadoo.nl/members/michaeldracon
 
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"Michael Dracon" <MichaelDracon@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2uki801v3j9hf8j58199vbqgej62nfa3n5@4ax.com...
> James Stein wrote:
>
> > First of all, Moonshadows can't buy "other" exalt's Ox-Bodies. You buy
> > an Ox-Body, you buy your own.
>
> Yes they can. But you are better off taking your own type. Why take one
Lunar
> 4x-2 if you can have 4x-2 AND 2x-1 for about the same price with much less
> troubles.

To get more total health levels under the same absolute cap, I think.

- Sir Bob.