This really is the first thing that's got me interested(in a positive way) in D&D 4e. I like Exalted, and hope many of it's aesthetics are incorporated into D&D. In fact in another thread I commented this was the vibe I was getting from it. Now onto the coimments in this thread...
Exalted's stunts don't let you "morph" the surrounding terrain, unless you have some type of charm or sorcery to accomplish this with. In my experience they allow a player to pull of a cool move by interacting with the terrain, an opponent, etc. and instead of being penalized for it, they are rewarded. An example would be running up a wall(that has already been described) and flipping over your opponent to do a vertical slash across his back. In D&D you're DM might(because everyone runs their game different) use a move action and make a jump check(basically penalizing you for not just full attacking), which if succesful allows you to make the attack roll with a +2 flanking bonus or something to that effect. The +2 doesn't seem that great when you realize to get it you have to spend a move action and risk falling on your butt in the middle of what should be a cool fight.
In Exalted it's the fact that you're into the combat and trying to make it exciting. In the end the run up the wall and backflip serve no real purpose but to look cool, so why be penalized for it. Exalted's philosophy is more...here's a bonus die or two for keeping the combat dynamic.
As for the wuxia...Exalted isn't exactly wuxia, it certainly takes inspirations from it like for the actual names of the charms and the celestial beauracracy. IMHO it's world(especially the Blessed Isle) is closer in feel to an ancient western world setting like Rome, though I guess an argument could be made for a persian-like empire as well, at the starting decline of it's power. INn fact I would argue Exalted is like D&D in this aspect, it really is it's own type of beast. YMMV of course.
