The exaltism system and how it works

Exalted Parts

This system will be primarily BESM, with a few core things stolen from exalted. Mainly the stats, rolling system, and the round system will be used.

As far as the stats go there are 9 stats divided into 3 catagories (body, social, and mental). The body aspect contains the stats of Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina. Social boasts Charisma, Manipulation, and Appearance. Lastly mental has the attributes of Intellegence, Perception, and Wits. All stats start at 1 for each player, and they take 10 character points to increase one level. To start a character may not have more than 5 in any stat.

Strength - used for most dnd strength rolls as well, minus melee attacking but still used for damage
Dexterity - as dnd dex but this is what melee attack as well as ranged attack is based off of
Stamina - as dnd constitution
Charisma - general diplomacy, sense motive, and normal dnd social skills
Manipulation - like charisma, but centered around useing people against their will or without their knowledge
Appearance - separate from charisma unlike in dnd
Intellegence - as per dnd, also what ruinic casters are based off of
Perception - spot, listen, survival, and other former wisdom based skills
Wits - thinking quick on your feet, mainly used for initiative, reflex, etc.

For each of these stats 1 point in them = 1 dice to roll when applied. Most rolls in this system will contain 1 attribute and 1 skill and add the amount of dice for the roll. For example, melee attacking would be dex + melee attack. Or a spot check would be spot + perception. Average values for all 9 attributes are 2 for a normal human.

As far as dice rolling goes each dice rolled is a d10. Roll the total amount of d10 for each roll; after adding both stats, minus penalties, and adding bonus dice (usually given by the DM). After the dice are rolled count up the number of successes, 7-9 is one success and 10 counts as two. If no successes, and ONLY if there are no successes, and there are 1 or more 1 values that becomes a critical failure. The more 1 results there are the worse the failure.

Lastly the round system from exalted will be used. Each round everyone involved gets one turn. A player may split his round as many times as he wishes. For each split he adds he gets one more action in that turn. This also decreases the number of dice you may roll for all actions in that turn by the amount of splits + current action. For example: Lets say you wish to make a spot check, trip an opponent, and then stab him while he is down. Splitting your turn into three actions makes your first action at -3 dice, second action and -4 dice, and third action at -5 dice. So four splits would make the penalties -4, -5, -6, and -7. So if you had 3 perception and 3 spot, the initial spot check would only be a 3 dice roll (excluding any bonus dice the DM may give you). Provided you still get a success on 1 of these dice you will usually succeed the roll, unless it is an opposed check. Opposed checks are very simple, if you get more successes in your roll than your opponent you win (ties are decided as per DM preference).

BESM Parts

For everything else in this system we will be using the BESM 3rd edition attributes system. This system incorporates skills, magic, special attacks, and items. Every one of these requires character points. For all mundane items (lamps, backpacks, rations, etc) use the monetary system. Since BESM does not have a well defined monetary system use dnd for mundane equipment (1 silver = 1 dollar for anyone who uses earth or other monetary to buy things like guns). For technology or earthen style goods use spycraft, like guns, and its monetary system. If anyone does not have access to those let me know. As far as any other special items use straight up character points as per the item attribute in BESM. For starting gold/dollars everyone will be allotted 100g, for any more than this use wealth attribute in BESM.

For skills use the multi-genre skills costs in table 6-1 of the 3rd edition BESM book (I will scan and post this when i can). I believe BESM is missing a few skills so i will be adding in spot, listen, diplomacy, and spellcraft. The first three will be at 1 character point / level of the skill, and spellcraft will be 2cpts/lvl. Also ignore all "specializations" rules in BESM for skills. To start do not have any skills past level 6.

I will not be explaining the entire attribute system from BESM as it is way too expansive. Also the defect system from BESM will also be used, since exalted has some weird crap with theirs but is generally the same defects. Defects are a way to increase character points you get. There are also defects specific to advantages that make each level of the advantage cheaper for various costs, feel free to use this aspect as well (use not abuse).

Last thing to know is that each person is allotted 200 character points for their initial creation. If there are any questions feel free to ask.

Magical set up:

There are 5 types of magic that exist in this multiverse. The primary 4 can not be used together, once a specialization has been chosen you are stuck with it. Also all people have a relative theme to their magic, this theme can by anything form elemental control to the ability to extend your limbs like mr. fantastic. Any abilites that can be justified under your chosen theme is fair game, anything beyond that can never be used by you. There are also little to no magic items floating around in this cosmology.

Focus casting is the most common. Essentially characters use an item to focus their power through to make it easier to controll and manipulate. These casters are manipulation based (as in the stat). A focus may be any item, and each focus caster has 4 available stages that they progress through. Stage 1 is their magic that they can control without their focus, no energy spent being in stage 1. Stage 2 is the focus working in conjuction with the characer, 1 energy point/round spent in this stage. Stage 3 is when the character takes control over the focus, 5 energy point/round in this stage. Stage 4 is when the focus is essentially allowed to act without the character acting as a middle man, 10 points/round in this stage.

Avatar casting is the next most common. With this style of casting each character essentially is a were-something, with that something being any living creature that isnt humanoid. In stage one they are in human form and can cast their weakest abilites. In stage two they are in a hybrid form of their human and avatar, 4 energy/round. Finally in stage three they are their animal form, can not talk either, 10 energy/round.

Ruinic casting is the third common method. Ruinic casting uses the writing of runes and scrolls to cast spells. All spells by a ruinic caster must be prepared ahead of time with their runes, they take energy to cast when used. A character can not have more prepared spells than 5x their intelligence stat. This represents the knowledge that they can maintain and controll at a time. When a ruinic caster uses a spell it takes energy from their energy pool as designed by the spell. There are no stages for ruinic casters. Rank 1 abilites cost 1 energy, Rank 2 - 3energy, Rank 3 - 5 energy, Rank 4 - 7 energy, and so on.

The last mortal form of casting is innate casting. Innate casters deal with raw magics and as such have to deal with the drawbacks of said magic. All innate casters have a glaring defect that becomes more pronounced the higher up in stages go. For example, loss of control telling friend from foe the more powerful you get. While possibly the most powerful of the 4 these casters usually become relativily useless when their power is needed most because of their defect. The stages for innate casters are the same for focus casters.

Blood magic is the last form of magic, and cannot be preformed by mortals. While this is common knowledge most people do not know the reason why. Since this form of magic has been used by demons, vampires, and dragons it is often referred to as demon magic. This form can be used in conjunction with any of the other four.

The stages mentioned above correspond with the relative ranks of your advantages. Rank 1 is usable in stage 1 for focus casters, rank 1-2 for avatars. Rank 2 is usable in stage 2 for focus casters, rank 3-4 for avatars. Rank 3-4 advantages are used in stage 3 for focus users, 5 and up for avatar users. Lastly stage 4 is required for Rank 5 and up skills for focus casters. Total energy for each character is 10x the average of your mental skills ((Perception + Intelligence + Wits)/3). Since energy points are already specified for each power do not take the depletion restriction for any advantanges.

In your profile for your account you have the create character sheet option. This sheet has been designed to contain virtually all you will need, baring me forgetting something important.

Okay, quick question. How are hit points determined?

I would suggest using something close to the original BESM 3rd edition rules since damage will be calculated similarly. The original calculation was 5(Body+Soul), where an average human would have 40 HP (4 in each stat is considered avg. human).

For comparison a character in your system with a 2 in strength (considered average) wielding a longsword (damage rating 3) will do 17 damage, assuming they hit.

Edit:

An idea similar to the original: 20((Strength+Stamina)/2) For an average character this produces 40 HP.

Edit 2:

Rounded down of course.

Edit 3: Simplifying equations? Why I never.

Yes I like that idea, I was going to use the stamina and strength stat anyways. So HP = (stam+strgth)*10. Dont bother with rounding this way either.

Also so far there are two defects/restrictions for advantages that i was going to get rid of. The depleted restriction you should ignore entirely, since I have already set up an energy system that is a bit more reliable. Also the detectable restriction is pretty dumb, unless you are trying to make a stealthy advantage. If you are talk to me otherwise ignore these two.

The question is, do you have an online copy of the Besm book you can point us towards?

The link is up, get the info here.

Something I noticed wasnt covered yet, Energy regeneration. Energy regeneration in BESM book is kinda null for this system, since it would be the average of 6 different stats. Thus I am going to say that Energy regerates at a rate of 2xStamina per hour.

So the skills don't have stats assigned to them, I thought I would try my hand at matching them up. Mikhael I used mostly dnd references to set the stats, but I doubt I got them all correct. Just edit my post (go admin powers) and fix them if/when you have time if they are not correct. Oh, I read the skills from besm as well to try and match them with the correct stat.

Code:

Acrobatics - Dexterity
Administration - Intelligence
Animal Training - Charisma
Architecture - Intelligence
Area Knowledge - Intelligence
Artisan - Perception
Biological Sciences - Intelligence
Boating - Dexterity
Burglary - Dexterity
Climbing - Strength
Computers - Intelligence
Controlled Breathing - Stamina
Cultural Arts - Perception
Demolitions - Intelligence
Diplomacy - Charisma
Disguise - Appearance
Domestic Arts - Perception
Driving - Dexterity
Electronics - Intelligence
Etiquette - Intelligence
Foreign Culture - Intelligence
Forgery - Intelligence
Gaming - Wits
Interrogation - Manipulation
Intimidation - Manipulation
Languages - Intelligence
Law - Intelligence
Listen - Perception
Mechanics - Intelligence
Medical - Perception
Military Sciences - Intelligence
Navigation - Perception
Occult - Intelligence
Performing Arts - Manipulation
Physical Sciences - Intelligence
Piloting - Dexterity
Poisons - Intelligence
Police Sciences - Intelligence
Powerlifting - Strength
Riding - Dexterity
Seduction - Appearance
Sleight of Hand - Dexterity
Social Sciences - Intelligence
Spellcraft - Intelligence
Sports - Strength
Spot - Perception
Stealth - Dexterity
Street Sense - Perception
Swimming - Strength
Urban Tracking - Perception
Visual Arts - Perception
Wilderness Survival - Perception
Wilderness Tracking - Perception
Writing - Manipulation

Skill/stat matchups are kind of misleading. The reason why in BESM all skills have a stat association is that the stat is used as a basis to determine the DC of the roll. In this system I'm using the stats as part of the roll, and most DC's are opposed rolls. If you prefer to think of relavent stats, yes there will be some skills that will almost always be rolled only with one stat. However, thats not excluding the possiblity of it being rolled with any others, it really depends on the situation.

On one hand you could be forging a document which would be a dex + forgery roll to make it. Identifying the same document would require a Perception + forgery roll or perhaps an Int + Political sci roll to notice differences.

Ah.