Character Creation

So for ranged combat, canonical options are either thrown like infinite chakras, sky cutters (ie war boomerangs), longfang daggers or power bows and flame pistols and firewands (think flamethrower but individual gouts of flame rather than one continuous stream)

There's examples from 3e and other editions we can adapt or mine for ideas. I'll try to pull some examples. Google is also your friend. Lots of people have posted their artifacts on forums and stuff.

Do you have some thoughts on the kinds of stuff you would like it to do or themes?

I thought that it could be some kind of ancient longbow artefact of House Tepet, gifted to him as a "gift of departure" before he was sent away from the Realm. Supposedly to be used as a symbol of power and wealth to impress commercial and political partners, but powerful nonetheless. Considering the roster of players we have here, maybe it could have been an ancient solar artifact won in battle by one of the old members of the family, during the uprising ?

About its power, and considering its Solar origin, I was thinking of a "Longbow of Retribution". A symbol of Justice whose powers would increase depending on the target's evilness/bad deeds, by having a number of arrows fired equals to the number of persons killed by the target, for example. It could be situationally very strong, but also totally useless on peaceful/good persons, which may explain that its power was underestimated/forgotten with time.

Of course, the power would depend on whether the artifact is my primary or secondary merit, which brings me to another question: as the recent exaltation of my character would have made him one of the two primary heir of House Tepet, would that "require" a level 5 of Influence, or could it realistically still be at level 3 ?

@Gnome I wasn't saying drop the concept, just that the circus background would possibly be a link between the characters.

A Solar Artifact would generally be an Orichalcum weapon which you would not be resonant with which would have issues. What do you think about the Blue Jade Powerbow that Tepet Arada used to fell an Anathema by the name of Jochim? Tepet Arada has gone on an hermitage after the decimation of the Tepet Legion under his command by the Bull of the North. He left the bow behind when he resigned from command and withdrew from Dynastic society. Perhaps you can bring honor back to this noble and powerful weapon. Or maybe he'll find out that some upstart has taken his weapon and come looking for it... :)

We can work on the evocations as I pull some examples.
So Tepet Ejava ("The Roseblack") is very much the primary heir to House Tepet. Though Tepet overall has been diminished relative to the other Great Houses, it is not bereft of Dragon-Bloods and many of those have been around for hundreds of years. It's unlikely that someone so young would be immediately put forth as an heir.

The fact that your Exalted is not rare among the leaders of the house. Dragon-Blooded exaltations are far more common than any of the other Exalt Types. Where there are only about 100 Solars/Abyssals/Infernals at any given time, there are thousands of Dragon-Bloods. You would immediately outrank nearly any mortal member of the House, but not the elder Exalts in the House.

Returning to your question about Influence. Influence 3 would be plenty to cover influence within a city which we will primarily be in for the story. You could probably even go lower since Tepet is somewhat disgraced and may not even have that much sway in places it used to. It's all up to you on how you'd like to play it.

If you want to be able to name drop Tepet and it mean something, go with Influence 3. If you want it to be occasionally helpful, make it lower.

The Blue Jade Powerbow sounds good ! He would just need a good reason for such an object to be gifted to him in particular, however.
Maybe simply because no one else from the House wanted it, considering it's previous owner and the many men it killed ? My character not being really fit for combat and far away from the Realm could be a good way to get rid of that embarrassing but nonetheless powerful weapon.


Ah sorry, I didn't know about the size of a Great House. I guess something more similar to what I had in mind then would be for him to be an heir of one of the "branches" of House Tepet, if there such a thing ? Or the equivalent of a family line. Still an important noble, but far from one to have a literal army behind them. Depending on what influence this would imply, I may lwoer it to Merit 2.

How dare you not know the thousands of pages of setting lore this game has?!!!! :)

As for justification of the bow it could be just that there's more artifacts available and fewer hands asking for them and this bow in particular has some stigma so I agree that maybe no one wanted it.

Here's a little House Tepet backstory for you that could help inform things and maybe give you some names or other setting pieces to attach to your character. HERE is a little more.

Nice ! I'll just wait for the evocations you have on hand when you'll have the time to show them to me, then.

I've already seen that House Tepet's members were wiped out, and I think it could be interesting as my character would suddenly have become a new asset they were lacking of, while he only as a clubfooted diplomat before, sent away to avoid being a disgrace to his line (at least I'd guess that's how a Great House could treat a lame mortal among them ?). Him being sent far away would also make sense as I've read that House Tepet is seeking any kind of exterior opportunities to grow back its wealth and power.

I've just seen that House Tepet has what's called lines here. Would it be possible for Zefir (that's my character's name) to be an heir of one of them, then ? I'd guess that would be Marek, Vergus or Tilis, but if those seem too powerful to you, maybe he could be from a minor one instead ?

Here's something I found for artifact.
http://exalted3e.wikidot.com/ae:harmonious-savant-wrackstaff

You can totally be a member of whatever line you want. I was only pushing back at the concept of being the primary heir to House Tepet. As far as this game is concerned I think it only matters in terms of informing your character and their motivations and goals. Maybe Zefir is driven to become the primary heir after having been kinda dismissed by the House. Maybe he (she?) Is driven to bring the house back to prominence as their way of elevating rank.

That's cool ! I think since my character only has exalted recently, he wouldn't really know yet what he'd want to do with or without his House, but they would clearly want to get more control over him fast. Figuring how he'll react to all that will be part of the play, at least I hope so !

Would you want me to send you the current uncompleted character sheet before you give me the Blue Jade evocations ?

Go ahead and submit your character. I can see it there and you can continue to edit and add as we go

Thanks, I've just sent it. It's still missing Equipment and Defense/Soak/Hardness however, as I didn't find how to determinate Parry/Evasion.

Parry will be (an attribute of your choice + close combat) / 2. Evasion is Athletics instead

I see, thanks !

Apologies if this has already been asked, but how do you determine Will and Power?

My character is about 75% finished. Just need to figure out Virtues, Intimacies, and equipment.

Will and power are values you develop when casting sorcery and in combat, respectively

I think Zefir is mostly done. All that is left is the artifact and the equipment part. More specifically, I searched the pdf, but couldn't find any armor equipment mentioned. Did I miss something ?

Basic armor stats are discussed on p 391. There's one example of artifact armor: midnight thorn on p 402.