Manuscript of Elite Hacks

The following charms are secretly awesome! Whether their effects are larger than they first seem, excellent value for motes/XP, or simply way better for a nation-building campaign than a typical Exalted game, these are the charms I think are well worth a second glance. This is not a list of charms every exalt should have; rather it's a map of landmarks that might otherwise be overlooked.


 * Mob-Dispersing Rebuke (197) - A rout check (169) suffers a dice penalty of (Magnitude - Drill), and being unordered adds 2 to the difficulty. So, used against a mob, this charm is essentially an auto-win, as they have Drill 0 and are thus rolling 0-1 dice with a difficulty of 3-4. Add the fact that they're all extras, and it's overkill without the killing.
 * Temptation-Resisting Stance (200) - is obviously strong, but note it's stackable. It is still capped by the normal dice bonus rules (185) but Willpower is the 'attribute' in this calculation.
 * Unhesitating Dedication (202) - aaactually, it's only uber if you have Sagacious Reading of Intent, and even then you probably want Elusive Dream Defense via Temptation-Resisting Stance anyway.
 * Terrifying Apparition of Glory (204) - warning: may contain no actual apparition. This charm is not obvious!
 * Durability of Oak Meditation (206) - less 'secretly awesome' than 'essential for every Solar', this charm comes into its own in social-focussed games where the ST has said we only need basic survival competence. Be prepared for some attacks you're meant to dodge or parry though; Shawn reads this wiki too and I can feel him plotting against us.
 * Iron Skin Concentration (207) - assuming most threats will be from mortals, this charm reads "don't fuck up your stam and you are invulnerable". Once you have Resistance Essence Flow and Resistance Essence Triumphant this charm is srz bznz.
 * Evidence-Discerning Method (213) - Understanding the Court is terrible mainly because this charm completely overshadows it in all possible ways. This is a charm that can make or break a scene. Reducing external penalties your enemies apply to you doesn't sound that nasty until you realise that, amongst other things, DV is an external penalty. There are also a range of penalties that can apply to your DV which this charm reduces considerably. Finally, it's worth noting that if you combo it with Second Investigation then every single success you get goes straight onto the stack even if your opponent has maxed out his Manipulation + Socialise. And only crazy Sidereal hax like Duck Fate could prevent someone from being tagged with this charm. In a regular campaign this charm is gold, in this particular campaign it's fucking DIAMOND.
 * Harmonious Academic Methodology (215) - my Twilight aid worker has this charm, and aside from being world-changing it can train Conviction - that is, it can make it harder to turn our followers against us. Buy it yourself if that's what you want to use it for; I have nutrition and literacy to dispense!
 * Easily-Overlooked Presence Method (230) - more like Automatically Overlooked Presence Method, amirite. This charm permits no resistance or defence, though I'm sure paranoid Exalts will have ways of seeing through it. Raises the interesting question of what the fuck a 'dice bonus from circumstance' is. A question for House Rules. I imagine 'an active charm granting bonus dice' counts as a circumstance.
 * Sagacious Reading of Intent (233) - the charm that inspired this list. Where do I start? It has virtually no prereqs, provides a flawless defence of your person and Motivation (see Unhesitating Dedication), and on top of that it has the awesome property of fleshing out NPCs without all this "talking to them" nonsense.
 * Letter-Within-a-Letter Technique (232) - With a spectacularly high ambush roll against a defense that barely anybody posesses this is perfect for converting vast numbers of people to your cause. You can also leave secret messages and carefully hide your messages so that they are visible to, say, "everyone except for Dragon-Blooded exalts". The rest of the Linguistics tree is spectacular for willpower bursting, but this is the one charm in the tree that is a must-have even for characters who don't particularly care about social combat. To repeat: all you need to do is carve one letter into a tree for your friends to be able to read an entire manuscript worth of communication through the subtleties of your handwriting.
 * Flawless Brush Discipline (232) - 3 Willpower?!?!?!1
 * Twisted Words Technique (234) - this charm is permanent. It's the reason the Terrestrials destroy or sequester all First Age literature. It is quite literally worth building a character around; even a whole campaign. Also, 3 Willpower?!?!?!1 Plainly Linguistics is this campaign's uber-ability. Comboing with Flawless Brush Discipline may or may not run afoul of the +3 MDV for 'similar charm' usage (234), probably depending on how much Shawn thinks you are cheating.
 * Wise-Eyed Courtier Method, Wild Revelry Approach and Taboo-Inflicting Diatribe (238) - Solars rule, and this is how. Incredibly strong in their own right, in a nation-building campaign these charms are indispensable. Their inclusion in this list stems from the fact that breaking them is something the group's leader chooses to do. And if that leader is you, the person who inflicted the charm in the first place, the only way for an individual or group to break the charm's effects is to leave the social group (or arguably form a sub-group; a sinister cabal certainly fits the setting).
 * Mastery of Small Manners (239) - stops you being a putz, shows you in the best light and oh by the way also allows you 3 successes worth of insight into all the motives in the room.