-
NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
D&D 4E 4E and Exalted: Use the setting
- Thread starter Engilbrand
- Start date
Oh... then no. No that is pretty much their entire schtick. A false religion set up by the illuminati to keep creation stable without the Solar regime and to bring all the gods and spirits under a new hierarchy.hong said:
How can anybody get in a fight over that? I mean, if you don't like it you don't like it, but it is pretty straight forward.
Mal Malenkirk
First Post
It could work very well.
The daily / encounter mechanics would be used for the truly inhumane feats that represent essence expenditure (and make your Aura flare) while the at-will power would be more standard heroic fare.
IMO every caste should be a class.
That way you can worry only about balancing the five Solar caste against each other, the five dragon aspect against each other etc.
And you can maintain the 'Balance' of Exalted breeds against each other:
Solar / Abyssal of equal level are the most powerful Exalted (i.e. A 20th level Solar/Abyssal should have more power in direct confrontation than a 20th level anything else)
Dragon Blooded have bonuses for working together.
Lunar can all shapechange to some degree
Sideral have astrology and better martial arts options.
---
Challenges :
Technically, every caste could use every power. Especially Martial Arts and Sorcery.
Possible solution : Every power tree designed is potentially available to everyone of the same breed of exalted, except Sorcery and Martial Arts who are available to everyone within the same limitations as in Exalted (Only Solar can do Epic (Solar Circle) sorcery, for example).
Every caste would give access to a certain number of power trees but you could choose a certain number of power trees from other caste, akin to the favoured skill system.
A lot of powers in Exalted actually give extended options. With the right power, a character could run on branch trees, Hidden Dragon styles, for example. These probably should be treated like wizard cantrip.
A lot of powers are used for 'social combat' or mass combat (The War charms).
But since the idea is that you should increase your combat options every level, probably there should be a dual progression in which you learn non-combat option in parallel so you don't have to sacrifice either.
The daily / encounter mechanics would be used for the truly inhumane feats that represent essence expenditure (and make your Aura flare) while the at-will power would be more standard heroic fare.
IMO every caste should be a class.
That way you can worry only about balancing the five Solar caste against each other, the five dragon aspect against each other etc.
And you can maintain the 'Balance' of Exalted breeds against each other:
Solar / Abyssal of equal level are the most powerful Exalted (i.e. A 20th level Solar/Abyssal should have more power in direct confrontation than a 20th level anything else)
Dragon Blooded have bonuses for working together.
Lunar can all shapechange to some degree
Sideral have astrology and better martial arts options.
---
Challenges :
Technically, every caste could use every power. Especially Martial Arts and Sorcery.
Possible solution : Every power tree designed is potentially available to everyone of the same breed of exalted, except Sorcery and Martial Arts who are available to everyone within the same limitations as in Exalted (Only Solar can do Epic (Solar Circle) sorcery, for example).
Every caste would give access to a certain number of power trees but you could choose a certain number of power trees from other caste, akin to the favoured skill system.
A lot of powers in Exalted actually give extended options. With the right power, a character could run on branch trees, Hidden Dragon styles, for example. These probably should be treated like wizard cantrip.
A lot of powers are used for 'social combat' or mass combat (The War charms).
But since the idea is that you should increase your combat options every level, probably there should be a dual progression in which you learn non-combat option in parallel so you don't have to sacrifice either.
Stone Dog said:
You're new to this Internets thing, yes?
Back to the original question: One thing that comes to mind is starting solar PCs at 11th level (paragon tier). DBs could be high-level heroic tier (6-10), and ordinary humans 1-5. This differentiates the races according to their power level, but a powerful DB (or group of DBs) could still have a decent chance of taking down solars.
Engilbrand
First Post
If we get too out there, we might as well just play Exalted.
I'll attempt to mold the Exalted setting to the new ideas of D&D.
For whatever reason, the other Exalts are gone. Maybe they never existed. Servants of the Elemental Chaos decided that they wanted control of the Material plane, but they didn't like the Chosen of the gods. They created their own Exalts (the Dragon-Blooded) to overthrow the Solars.
Designate each of the core races as a different Caste and have them all appear Human. Have the Human or Half-Elf Castes be the only options for the Dragon-Blooded. People can choose a class that doesn't go with their Caste, but they won't be as good as they could be. And, why would they be a part of that Caste if they weren't going to follow its precepts?
Encounter and Daily abilities cause the anima banner to flare. These abilities can be worked out later.
The cross-class training feats take care of being able to learn a spell if you've spent most of your time fighting.
I just read the idea of Solar starting off at level 11. The only problem is that I like my idea from the get-go. We're nowhere near the crazy power levels of Exalted, but some of the same ideas are there.
I'll attempt to mold the Exalted setting to the new ideas of D&D.
For whatever reason, the other Exalts are gone. Maybe they never existed. Servants of the Elemental Chaos decided that they wanted control of the Material plane, but they didn't like the Chosen of the gods. They created their own Exalts (the Dragon-Blooded) to overthrow the Solars.
Designate each of the core races as a different Caste and have them all appear Human. Have the Human or Half-Elf Castes be the only options for the Dragon-Blooded. People can choose a class that doesn't go with their Caste, but they won't be as good as they could be. And, why would they be a part of that Caste if they weren't going to follow its precepts?
Encounter and Daily abilities cause the anima banner to flare. These abilities can be worked out later.
The cross-class training feats take care of being able to learn a spell if you've spent most of your time fighting.
I just read the idea of Solar starting off at level 11. The only problem is that I like my idea from the get-go. We're nowhere near the crazy power levels of Exalted, but some of the same ideas are there.
Atlatl Jones
Explorer
I'd agree with that. While I would wholeheartedly welcome a d20 exalted based on 4e rules, that's way more effort than I'd want into designing a game, especially one with unfamiliar mechanics.Engilbrand said:
You don't need the other exalts to be gone. Since 4e removes the artificial symmetry of having to make all monsters playable as PCs, you only need PC race & class stats for the actual PCs. If they're all one type of exalted, like all Solars, then solar stats is all you need. You can create any exalted opponents the PCs face with 4e-style exceptions based design.
So, I've been thinking about Exalted some more.
The new 4E cosmology maps neatly on to Creation, for the most part. The Shadowfell is the Underworld (and the shadar-kai will make WONDERFUL Abyssals). The Elemental Chaos sits outside the borders of the physical world in some non-Euclidean manner, with the Abyss at the bottom. The 5 elemental poles can be portals to the EC, instead of being part of the EC themselves.
The Feywild is way better than Rakshastan, and the eladrin and assorted fey can stand in for the fair folk. The Far Realm is the Cthulhuoid side of Rakshastan. The Astral plane leads to the dominions of the gods, who have been mysteriously distant and not directly contactable since the end of the First Age.
Obviously the topology is somewhat different, but noone here except me cares about Exalted one way or another, so that's not a problem.
The dragonborn are dragon kings (as detailed in the Players Guide), the eladrin are fair folk, the elves and half-elves are fair folk who have gone native, and the tieflings are... hm. Dragonblooded?
I'm banning halflings and dwarves. None of my players will miss the former, and I should be able to fast-talk them regarding the latter. If they must have dwarves, well, Creation is big enough to slot in another demihuman race.
The only thing I'm missing is an Underdark, but I think I can do without. Drow are rather overdone IMO, and most of the other Underdark monsters are obscure enough that people won't notice they're gone.
On the matter of Solars... I'll assume from 1st-10th level, the PCs are regular mortals. Powerful, maybe, but not qualitatively different to the mass of humanity. Then, at 11th level, I'll find some way to exalt them into Solars (which won't have any mechanical impact, except for letting them break the level cap for mortals). If the game ever gets to 21st level, it's time to head off to the dominions of the gods, take out Chejop Kejak and his Sidereal Illuminati, and restore things to the way they were meant to be.
When druids and barbarians come out, they can be Lunars.
Obviously this is more of a thematic reinterpretation, as opposed to a straight conversion. I'm not going to bother with castes, limit breaks, or factional squabbling for the most part (although the Scarlet Empire's hate-on for exalts is fine).
The new 4E cosmology maps neatly on to Creation, for the most part. The Shadowfell is the Underworld (and the shadar-kai will make WONDERFUL Abyssals). The Elemental Chaos sits outside the borders of the physical world in some non-Euclidean manner, with the Abyss at the bottom. The 5 elemental poles can be portals to the EC, instead of being part of the EC themselves.
The Feywild is way better than Rakshastan, and the eladrin and assorted fey can stand in for the fair folk. The Far Realm is the Cthulhuoid side of Rakshastan. The Astral plane leads to the dominions of the gods, who have been mysteriously distant and not directly contactable since the end of the First Age.
Obviously the topology is somewhat different, but noone here except me cares about Exalted one way or another, so that's not a problem.
The dragonborn are dragon kings (as detailed in the Players Guide), the eladrin are fair folk, the elves and half-elves are fair folk who have gone native, and the tieflings are... hm. Dragonblooded?
I'm banning halflings and dwarves. None of my players will miss the former, and I should be able to fast-talk them regarding the latter. If they must have dwarves, well, Creation is big enough to slot in another demihuman race.The only thing I'm missing is an Underdark, but I think I can do without. Drow are rather overdone IMO, and most of the other Underdark monsters are obscure enough that people won't notice they're gone.
On the matter of Solars... I'll assume from 1st-10th level, the PCs are regular mortals. Powerful, maybe, but not qualitatively different to the mass of humanity. Then, at 11th level, I'll find some way to exalt them into Solars (which won't have any mechanical impact, except for letting them break the level cap for mortals). If the game ever gets to 21st level, it's time to head off to the dominions of the gods, take out Chejop Kejak and his Sidereal Illuminati, and restore things to the way they were meant to be.
When druids and barbarians come out, they can be Lunars.
Obviously this is more of a thematic reinterpretation, as opposed to a straight conversion. I'm not going to bother with castes, limit breaks, or factional squabbling for the most part (although the Scarlet Empire's hate-on for exalts is fine).
Last edited:
Engilbrand
First Post
I just made everyone human and used the racial stats for the different castes. The only other things was the question of how to differentiate the Exalts from the rest. You still need a way for people to recognize them when they start throwing down with crazy powers.
For Solars, being 11th+ level alone will differentiate them quite well from the mass of 1st-5th level humanity. Anima flares can be used if necessary.Engilbrand said:
For Dragonblooded, a 1st-5th level DB can be deemed to be a youngling, and not powerful enough to merit special mechanical treatment. A 6th-10th level DB (what most DBs the players encounter are likely to be) will, like Solars, be powerful enough that they can stand out from the crowd.
Similar Threads
