Roll of Glorious Traps

The following character build options are broken, underpowered or otherwise not worth taking. They probably need to be house ruled. For sucking mightily, the following options are solemnly awarded the title of Trap, and stamped with the Seal of Ackbar. Follow the links for specific discussion.


 * Phantom-Conjuring Performance (202) - wait, you mean to say that once I'm essence 3, I can spend 8 XP to pick up an extremely weak version of prestidigitation? It's too bad we're not supernatural creatures in a setting whereby strange and mystical effects like essence flares and ethereal music can be happily whipped up on the spot by some sort of ad hoc system that adds dice and rewards motes, isn't it! This is probably the single worst charm in the game because it literally does nothing. This isn't even defensible by saying it doesn't cost any motes, it's an obvious social charm which means it's already a charm that you can only use about 1/4 of the time. Making it have no effect other than what you could just as easily get by stunting makes it truly Ackbar worthy.
 * In defence of this (weak, speedbump) charm, I'll note that it enables bigger and more detailed stunts than are plausible for the average Exalt. For example, displaying diagrams or maps as part of an educational performance, or a full lights-and-sound extravanganza. The sort of thing that commands a real premium because you're the only performer in the Direction who can do it, and do it ad libitum. YMMV, but if I were storytellering I'd definitely restrict unCharmed stunts to vague or rote Essence displays (a Combo whose display is the Old Realm for OWNED), and demand a charm for more detailed stuff. Think of P-CP as Powerpoint For Exalts, while most make do with a flashlight and some scrap cellophane. Or, like, IMAX compared to shadow puppetry. As you say, any Exalt can make flashy effects with just their anima, but P-CP is a step above that. Mechanically weak; setting-wise mind-boggling -- Leith
 * Unbreakable Warrior's Mastery (208) - Allows you to ignore a crippling effect BUT: Only at step 10 of the attack it hits, for a cost of one willpower, and requiring a Stamina+Resistance roll. A lot of the Resistance tree is ass though so it's not surprising that it features a dead-end charm with high prerequisites which any sane Exalt should NEVER use.
 * The entire Ride and Sail trees. I kid, but not particularly hard. The only thing in these trees that's actually worth taking is Worthy Mount Technique, and even then only barely. The tiny advantages you can gain by investing heavily in these trees are nothing compared to just gaining everything a mount or boat would give you through being self-dependent.
 * Whoops, forgot my Salty Dog Method. This is also useful, in fact it's pretty much the only reason to consider getting onboard one of those leaky deathtraps. Invincible Admiral Method is not completely useless either, though it's nothing to get excited about by any means. Ship-Claiming Stance is also not useless, though at the same time it's nowhere near as useful as it might appear. Finally, Sea Ambush Technique is pretty decent. The only problem with all of this is that Shipwreck-Surviving Stamina and Hull-Preserving Technique are built out of hate and dead babies.
 * Sail is either a trap or indispensable, depending on where your campaign is set, and whether you'll be doing naval combat. Ride is... worth it if you have like an Ally- or Artifact-5 mount. Basically if the mount is on par with you, you may as well spend charms on them rather than yourself. That's about where the break-even point is. Hmmm, it occurs to me that Sail and Ride can both be used to pilot various First-Age vehicles. Doesn't change the criteria for evaluating their Trap-hood, but there you go.


 * Sail and Ride now work due to Ink Monkeys errata charms that give you massive essence pools and other bonuses (bonii?) in exchange for specialising in Ride or Sail. Hooray!


 * Door Evading Technique (229) - For 10 motes and 1 willpower, you can WALK THROUGH A DOOR. This would be enough of a joke as it is due to obscene requirements and expenses, but insult is added to injury when you compare it with it's prerequisite. Lock-Opening Touch gives you a 3 mote perfect success on any lockpicking attempt with substantial bonuses on a roll-off against magically perfect locks. Door-Evading Technique costs more, only affects doors and grants no bonuses to roll-offs. There are few situations in which this could be useful, the prime example is if an immobile door is phyiscally blocking your path. Of course, if there is any non-door style physical object then it does nothing. And in either case, you're probably better off investing that 8xp into Athletics dots so you can just move/smash/avoid the goddamn door.