Sep 20, 2021 2:34 am
Each of the Exalted had a mortal lifetime of training in a variety of different skills. Whether a laborer, a diplomat, a priest, or a career soldier, she has talents and qualities that reflect her life. Abilities cover the specific skills that characters in Creation use to accomplish their goals.
Each has a rating of 1 to 5.
This section provides examples of the kinds of challenges these Abilities might be used to overcome, as well as any special uses they might have.
Athletics
The character’s athleticism and speed. Used for evading attacks as well as moving swiftly across the battlefield.
1: Average — You’re light on your feet and sometimes win footraces.
3: Capable — You twist easily away from attacks and most people have a hard time keeping pace with you.
5: Exceptional — You can outrun a team of horses or dodge raindrops.
Special uses: Athletics is used to calculate Evasion Defense (p. XX) and maybe be used to enhance combat movement actions (p. XX).
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Dodge away from a mortal soldier’s bowshot. Climb a slick wall.
Difficulty 5: Swim against a riptide. Leap over a house.
Difficulty 7: Evade a Deathlord’s curse. Balance on a strand of Fate.
Awareness
The character’s ability to survey a scene, notice details, spot ambushes, and use their physical senses.
1: Average — You pay attention most of the time, but might miss details when it’s important.
3: Capable — You understand that situational awareness is key. Only the smallest details get past you.
5: Exceptional — Nothing escapes your perceptions. You can spot motes of dust out of place.
Special uses: Awareness may be used for big-scale investigation ventures (p. XX) such as solving a crime, or unraveling an ancient mystery.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Picking out small details in a busy scene.
Difficulty 5: Hearing the tones of an assassin’s voice over the din of a crowded market.
Difficulty 7: Tracking an enemy by scent after meeting them once.
Close Combat
The character’s ability to fight in close quarters — both armed and unarmed.
1: Average — You know your way around a weapon or can throw a decent punch, but are not a master of the art.
3: Capable — Foes think twice before engaging you hand-to-hand.
5: Exceptional — Peerless master of your chosen fighting style. Students regularly flock to you and rivals try to defeat you.
Special uses: Close Combat determines your Parry Defense (p. XX) and can be used to make close-quarters attacks in combat. See p. XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Disarming an enemy with a flourish.
Difficulty 5: Throwing your blade across a crowded room to pin an enemy to the wall.
Difficulty 7: Wrestle a creature five times your size.
Craft
The character’s ability to create items, food, structures, or works of art, including their magical counterparts.
1: Average — You’re new to the craft. You’ve made a few nice things, but are still learning.
3: Capable — A practiced craftsperson. You take commissions from important people, and can make your livelihood on your craft alone.
5: Exceptional — A master of your craft. You produce peerless works of art. There’s nothing you can’t build or fix.
Special uses: Beyond mundane craftsmanship, Craft is used to build magical items such as Artifacts or Manses. See the venture section starting on p. XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Forge a fine weapon or cook a perfect meal for your Circle.
Difficulty 5: Craft or repair an Artifact at the secondary Merit level.
Difficulty 7: Craft or repair an Artifact at the primary Merit level.
Embassy
The character’s ability to navigate and negotiate social structures, large social systems, and bureaucratic procedures.
1: Average — You know how to navigate a bureaucracy and red tape only slows you down sometimes. When you go to court, you don’t embarrass yourself.
3: Capable — An accomplished politician. You know how to network and how to leverage favors.
5: Exceptional — A seasoned diplomat. You know the ins and outs of political intrigue and no amount of bureaucratic confusion can stop you.
Special uses: In addition to being the skill of the diplomat, Embassy also covers a character’s ability to speak and read multiple languages. A player may declare they understand a number of languages equal to their Embassy at the start of any campaign, and may learn more in play through study or magic.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Convincing a clerk to grant you clearance without proper paperwork.
Difficulty 5: Restructuring the bureaucracy of a local kingdom.
Difficulty 7: Change a culture’s socially acceptable practices.
Integrity
The character’s ability to withstand mental duress, magical manipulation, and resist the influence of others.
1: Average — You can turn down a tempting desert or one more drink. You can walk away from a mediocre salesperson.
3: Capable — You easily spot the tell of a liar. Your friends speak highly of your convictions. You cannot be easily persuaded or duped.
5: Exceptional — Unshakeable in your beliefs. The shaping effects of the Wyld barely affect you. Liars and cheats fear you.
Special uses: Integrity increases the difficulty of social actions targeting you (called Resolve, see p.XX). You may always use Integrity to Read Intentions (p. XX).
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Resist the sales pitch of a Nexus snake-oil seller.
Difficulty 5: Wade through the edges of the Wyld unprotected.
Difficulty 7: Shrug off the shaping effects of a Solar Circle spell.
Navigate
The character’s ability to find her way across Creation, as well as utilize modes of transportation from riding beasts to sailing ships.
1: Average — You can read a compass and a map, and know how to handle a beast of burden.
3: Capable — You’ve charted dangerous waters and are a keen hand at controlling various vehicles, as well as leading expeditions.
5: Exceptional — Any journey you embark upon is sure to succeed. Even the flying wonders of the lost age are no challenge for you.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Lead your followers to safety through a storm.
Difficulty 5: Lead an expedition through the barren desert or empty tundra.
Difficulty 7: Journey safely into Malfeas, the Wyld, or Autochthonia.
Performance
The character’s ability to influence others through artful expression, such as oratory, prose, music, or dance - as well as poetry or other written arts. This also covers the character’s ability to influence spirits through prayer as well as work with ritual or folk magic.
1: Average — You can carry a tune and sway a few listeners. You’ve just begun to pick up an instrument, or learn to dance.
3: Capable — You hold spirits in rapt attention with your words. Powerful gods cannot ignore your prayer and offerings.
5: Exceptional — The mightiest gods turn their faces toward you when you perform.
Special uses: Besides being a character’s artistic expression, Performance also interacts with prayer, allowing characters to exert magical sway over Creation’s gods. This type of prayer can be a venture (see p. XX), depending on how the character chooses to approach it. This Ability may also be used in place of Sagacity to perform any other kind of ritual magic, or interaction with the spirit courts.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Sway an attentive crowd to your cause.
Difficulty 5: Calm a rioting mob with your music or dance.
Difficulty 7: Demand the attention of the Unconquered Sun himself.
Physique
The character’s ability to perform physical feats, from lifting prodigiously heavy objects, to toiling without stop to resisting grievous injury.
1: Average — You rarely get sick, and physical activity doesn’t wear you out.
3: Capable — Even among the Exalted, you’re impressively strong. You cannot remember the last time you’ve felt ill.
5: Exceptional — You sprinkle poison in your tea to enjoy the taste. You weight train with stone pillars.
Special uses: Characters use Physique to perform physical feats of strength as well as resist poison and disease. See p. XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Heft a sizeable boulder above your head. Run a mile.
Difficulty 5: Work all day without tiring. Shrug off a virulent disease.
Difficulty 7: Tear down a rampart with your bare hands. Survive a deadly plague.
Presence
The character’s ability to influence others by her personal magnetism and persuasion on an individual level.
1: Average — Sometimes people go along with what you ask of them.
3: Capable — Others willingly do what you say. Even your enemies pay attention when you speak.
5: Exceptional — You could demand your way into Heaven.
Special uses: Presence is used to make social actions, starting on p.XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Command a city’s guards to stand down.
Difficulty 5: Intimidate a Second Circle demon.
Difficulty 7: Demand a favor from a Celestial Censor.
Ranged Combat
The character’s ability to fight at range with a variety of weapons.
1: Average — You hit your target more often than not.
3: Capable — Your attack finds its mark even against the wind, or in the dark.
5: Exceptional — Your marksmanship is peerless; you could shoot the moon from the sky.
Special uses: Ranged Combat is used to make attacks using bows, thrown weapons, or artillery. See combat, starting on p.XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Hit your target on a moonless night.
Difficulty 5: Hit a target using only the sound of their movements.
Difficulty 7: Hit a target within your perceptions while your arms are tied down.
Sagacity
The characters ability to understand the academic/historical teachings and the ability to comprehend the mystical realities of Creation, as well as medicinal practice.
1: Average — Your peers respect you as a knowledgeable person.
3: Capable — You are a learned scholar, familiar with much of Creation’s strange workings. You may also be a sorcerer of some regard.
5: Exceptional — You are a renown sage, capable of curing any disease and well-versed in the mysteries of the world.
Special uses: It is the prerequisite for learning sorcery, as well as curing diseases. Sorcerers use Sagacity to Focus Will (p. XX).
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Identify the needs of a local spirit.
Difficulty 5: Cure a plague ravaging a city.
Difficulty 7: Solve a forgotten First Age riddle.
Stealth
The character’s ability to perform unseen or underhanded deeds from passing unnoticed to picking locks, or creating disguises.
1: Average — You’re a novice criminal. You know how to move silently, and avoid detection.
3: Capable — You can pick any non-magical lock. Your footsteps leave no trace.
5: Exceptional — You’re well-known among the underworld. You could slip into the vaults of Heaven unnoticed.
Special uses: Besides disguises and going unnoticed, Stealth may be used in place of Presence or Embassy during social interactions with criminals or criminal organizations. During a fight, a character may use Stealth to hide from her enemies, creating concealment (p. XX).
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Slipping away unnoticed from the gaze of a watchful guard.
Difficulty 5: Create a disguise that fools your closest friends.
Difficulty 7: Steal a forgotten treasure from the Forbidding Manse of Ivy.
War
The character’s ability to command others (especially in combat), as well as create battlefield strategies and understand their enemies.
1: Average — You have a head for strategy and frequently win when playing tactical games.
3: Capable — Your leadership brings decisive victories, even if outnumbered.
5: Exceptional — Enemies fear your prowess as a general, ready to surrender before the fight begins.
Special uses: War is the Ability used for any kind of mass combat or warfare. The rules for clashing armies begin on p. XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Keep a well-trained squad from routing.
Difficulty 5: Hold a chokepoint while outnumbered.
Difficulty 7: Lead an army against a demonic force.
Each has a rating of 1 to 5.
This section provides examples of the kinds of challenges these Abilities might be used to overcome, as well as any special uses they might have.
Athletics
The character’s athleticism and speed. Used for evading attacks as well as moving swiftly across the battlefield.
1: Average — You’re light on your feet and sometimes win footraces.
3: Capable — You twist easily away from attacks and most people have a hard time keeping pace with you.
5: Exceptional — You can outrun a team of horses or dodge raindrops.
Special uses: Athletics is used to calculate Evasion Defense (p. XX) and maybe be used to enhance combat movement actions (p. XX).
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Dodge away from a mortal soldier’s bowshot. Climb a slick wall.
Difficulty 5: Swim against a riptide. Leap over a house.
Difficulty 7: Evade a Deathlord’s curse. Balance on a strand of Fate.
Awareness
The character’s ability to survey a scene, notice details, spot ambushes, and use their physical senses.
1: Average — You pay attention most of the time, but might miss details when it’s important.
3: Capable — You understand that situational awareness is key. Only the smallest details get past you.
5: Exceptional — Nothing escapes your perceptions. You can spot motes of dust out of place.
Special uses: Awareness may be used for big-scale investigation ventures (p. XX) such as solving a crime, or unraveling an ancient mystery.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Picking out small details in a busy scene.
Difficulty 5: Hearing the tones of an assassin’s voice over the din of a crowded market.
Difficulty 7: Tracking an enemy by scent after meeting them once.
Close Combat
The character’s ability to fight in close quarters — both armed and unarmed.
1: Average — You know your way around a weapon or can throw a decent punch, but are not a master of the art.
3: Capable — Foes think twice before engaging you hand-to-hand.
5: Exceptional — Peerless master of your chosen fighting style. Students regularly flock to you and rivals try to defeat you.
Special uses: Close Combat determines your Parry Defense (p. XX) and can be used to make close-quarters attacks in combat. See p. XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Disarming an enemy with a flourish.
Difficulty 5: Throwing your blade across a crowded room to pin an enemy to the wall.
Difficulty 7: Wrestle a creature five times your size.
Craft
The character’s ability to create items, food, structures, or works of art, including their magical counterparts.
1: Average — You’re new to the craft. You’ve made a few nice things, but are still learning.
3: Capable — A practiced craftsperson. You take commissions from important people, and can make your livelihood on your craft alone.
5: Exceptional — A master of your craft. You produce peerless works of art. There’s nothing you can’t build or fix.
Special uses: Beyond mundane craftsmanship, Craft is used to build magical items such as Artifacts or Manses. See the venture section starting on p. XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Forge a fine weapon or cook a perfect meal for your Circle.
Difficulty 5: Craft or repair an Artifact at the secondary Merit level.
Difficulty 7: Craft or repair an Artifact at the primary Merit level.
Embassy
The character’s ability to navigate and negotiate social structures, large social systems, and bureaucratic procedures.
1: Average — You know how to navigate a bureaucracy and red tape only slows you down sometimes. When you go to court, you don’t embarrass yourself.
3: Capable — An accomplished politician. You know how to network and how to leverage favors.
5: Exceptional — A seasoned diplomat. You know the ins and outs of political intrigue and no amount of bureaucratic confusion can stop you.
Special uses: In addition to being the skill of the diplomat, Embassy also covers a character’s ability to speak and read multiple languages. A player may declare they understand a number of languages equal to their Embassy at the start of any campaign, and may learn more in play through study or magic.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Convincing a clerk to grant you clearance without proper paperwork.
Difficulty 5: Restructuring the bureaucracy of a local kingdom.
Difficulty 7: Change a culture’s socially acceptable practices.
Integrity
The character’s ability to withstand mental duress, magical manipulation, and resist the influence of others.
1: Average — You can turn down a tempting desert or one more drink. You can walk away from a mediocre salesperson.
3: Capable — You easily spot the tell of a liar. Your friends speak highly of your convictions. You cannot be easily persuaded or duped.
5: Exceptional — Unshakeable in your beliefs. The shaping effects of the Wyld barely affect you. Liars and cheats fear you.
Special uses: Integrity increases the difficulty of social actions targeting you (called Resolve, see p.XX). You may always use Integrity to Read Intentions (p. XX).
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Resist the sales pitch of a Nexus snake-oil seller.
Difficulty 5: Wade through the edges of the Wyld unprotected.
Difficulty 7: Shrug off the shaping effects of a Solar Circle spell.
Navigate
The character’s ability to find her way across Creation, as well as utilize modes of transportation from riding beasts to sailing ships.
1: Average — You can read a compass and a map, and know how to handle a beast of burden.
3: Capable — You’ve charted dangerous waters and are a keen hand at controlling various vehicles, as well as leading expeditions.
5: Exceptional — Any journey you embark upon is sure to succeed. Even the flying wonders of the lost age are no challenge for you.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Lead your followers to safety through a storm.
Difficulty 5: Lead an expedition through the barren desert or empty tundra.
Difficulty 7: Journey safely into Malfeas, the Wyld, or Autochthonia.
Performance
The character’s ability to influence others through artful expression, such as oratory, prose, music, or dance - as well as poetry or other written arts. This also covers the character’s ability to influence spirits through prayer as well as work with ritual or folk magic.
1: Average — You can carry a tune and sway a few listeners. You’ve just begun to pick up an instrument, or learn to dance.
3: Capable — You hold spirits in rapt attention with your words. Powerful gods cannot ignore your prayer and offerings.
5: Exceptional — The mightiest gods turn their faces toward you when you perform.
Special uses: Besides being a character’s artistic expression, Performance also interacts with prayer, allowing characters to exert magical sway over Creation’s gods. This type of prayer can be a venture (see p. XX), depending on how the character chooses to approach it. This Ability may also be used in place of Sagacity to perform any other kind of ritual magic, or interaction with the spirit courts.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Sway an attentive crowd to your cause.
Difficulty 5: Calm a rioting mob with your music or dance.
Difficulty 7: Demand the attention of the Unconquered Sun himself.
Physique
The character’s ability to perform physical feats, from lifting prodigiously heavy objects, to toiling without stop to resisting grievous injury.
1: Average — You rarely get sick, and physical activity doesn’t wear you out.
3: Capable — Even among the Exalted, you’re impressively strong. You cannot remember the last time you’ve felt ill.
5: Exceptional — You sprinkle poison in your tea to enjoy the taste. You weight train with stone pillars.
Special uses: Characters use Physique to perform physical feats of strength as well as resist poison and disease. See p. XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Heft a sizeable boulder above your head. Run a mile.
Difficulty 5: Work all day without tiring. Shrug off a virulent disease.
Difficulty 7: Tear down a rampart with your bare hands. Survive a deadly plague.
Presence
The character’s ability to influence others by her personal magnetism and persuasion on an individual level.
1: Average — Sometimes people go along with what you ask of them.
3: Capable — Others willingly do what you say. Even your enemies pay attention when you speak.
5: Exceptional — You could demand your way into Heaven.
Special uses: Presence is used to make social actions, starting on p.XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Command a city’s guards to stand down.
Difficulty 5: Intimidate a Second Circle demon.
Difficulty 7: Demand a favor from a Celestial Censor.
Ranged Combat
The character’s ability to fight at range with a variety of weapons.
1: Average — You hit your target more often than not.
3: Capable — Your attack finds its mark even against the wind, or in the dark.
5: Exceptional — Your marksmanship is peerless; you could shoot the moon from the sky.
Special uses: Ranged Combat is used to make attacks using bows, thrown weapons, or artillery. See combat, starting on p.XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Hit your target on a moonless night.
Difficulty 5: Hit a target using only the sound of their movements.
Difficulty 7: Hit a target within your perceptions while your arms are tied down.
Sagacity
The characters ability to understand the academic/historical teachings and the ability to comprehend the mystical realities of Creation, as well as medicinal practice.
1: Average — Your peers respect you as a knowledgeable person.
3: Capable — You are a learned scholar, familiar with much of Creation’s strange workings. You may also be a sorcerer of some regard.
5: Exceptional — You are a renown sage, capable of curing any disease and well-versed in the mysteries of the world.
Special uses: It is the prerequisite for learning sorcery, as well as curing diseases. Sorcerers use Sagacity to Focus Will (p. XX).
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Identify the needs of a local spirit.
Difficulty 5: Cure a plague ravaging a city.
Difficulty 7: Solve a forgotten First Age riddle.
Stealth
The character’s ability to perform unseen or underhanded deeds from passing unnoticed to picking locks, or creating disguises.
1: Average — You’re a novice criminal. You know how to move silently, and avoid detection.
3: Capable — You can pick any non-magical lock. Your footsteps leave no trace.
5: Exceptional — You’re well-known among the underworld. You could slip into the vaults of Heaven unnoticed.
Special uses: Besides disguises and going unnoticed, Stealth may be used in place of Presence or Embassy during social interactions with criminals or criminal organizations. During a fight, a character may use Stealth to hide from her enemies, creating concealment (p. XX).
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Slipping away unnoticed from the gaze of a watchful guard.
Difficulty 5: Create a disguise that fools your closest friends.
Difficulty 7: Steal a forgotten treasure from the Forbidding Manse of Ivy.
War
The character’s ability to command others (especially in combat), as well as create battlefield strategies and understand their enemies.
1: Average — You have a head for strategy and frequently win when playing tactical games.
3: Capable — Your leadership brings decisive victories, even if outnumbered.
5: Exceptional — Enemies fear your prowess as a general, ready to surrender before the fight begins.
Special uses: War is the Ability used for any kind of mass combat or warfare. The rules for clashing armies begin on p. XX.
Example Difficulties
Difficulty 3: Keep a well-trained squad from routing.
Difficulty 5: Hold a chokepoint while outnumbered.
Difficulty 7: Lead an army against a demonic force.