Notes on Rules Problems

This page exists solely to point out the design flaws of Exalted. It is intended as a concise guide for new and experienced players alike, to give an overview of problems and possible solutions. Discussion of solutions should be placed on house rules and linked to. Detail in general should be placed on other pages or on the talk page.

Not all problems really need solutions, though everything in the Major Problems section adversely affects most games, and Ambiguous Rules need to be settled.

This page is largely a set of notes to work through in the long term in an attempt to redesign the game.

Excellencies are not excellent
They are super-boring, and take up HEAPS of character build points. To be supernaturally good at everything requires 25 charms, or 9 if you're a Lunar.

Solutions:
 * Excellencies are half-price.

The generic defensive combo tax
All Exalts need to include a full suite of defensive charms in every combo they create, or invite destruction the instant they drop their guard.

The converse problem, encountered if this problem is solved, is that uber-attacks become useless as all worthy targets always have a full suite of defences available.

Solutions:
 * Allow unlimited use of Reflexives by Celestials
 * Allow some or all combos to be comboed with combos in a combo-combo

Exalted aren't very powerful
Starting characters are either supernaturally good at one thing and terribly overspecialised, or they possess basic competence at demigodhood. More powerful starting characters is the obvious solution, but invites further min-maxing and overspecialisation as the higher charms in each tree are just tastier.

Join Battle and Sorcery
As you reroll Join Battle each time you Cast Sorcery, and cannot use charms to benefit this reroll, your position in the initiative order can get mucked up by an abnormally high Reaction Count - even if it's your high Join Battle that established it!

Timing of actions
The rules go once over this, lightly. Actions occur on the tick in which you act. They may occur at any point during that tick, but not at any other point until your next action. You can move your movement allowance for the tick, then attack, but that is the limit of your repositioning. That means that maneuvering in and out of melee range can be a powerful defensive strategy against a less-mobile opponent.

There are several ways to soften the advantage of a kiting opponent:
 * you can dash, increasing your movement speed.
 * you can leap, allowing a massive burst of speed in your action tick.
 * you can aim or guard as you close on your target, or as you wait for them to engage you, giving you extra ticks of maneuvering that you can abort to an attack any time they come within range.

Unarmed martial arts attacks
I'm pretty sure these include clinches! And I haven't found anything to say otherwise.

That is, you can use many Martial Arts charms to enhance clinches. This might not be news to you, but I only just twigged. Many MA charms were apparently written without this in mind, and might not make sense with clinches, or require stunts to make them plausible. Uncoiling Serpent Prana and Heaven Thunder Hammer for example.

The rest of Solar Hero Style works really well with clinches. Thunderclap Rush Attack, for example, acts as a half-Speed clinch.

Extra-action charms, as far as I can tell, allow you to perform multiple clinches on your action. Initiating a clinch and maintaining a clinch use different rules, so you aren't risking them breaking the clinch if you stack multiple clinches on one target. Failing an attempt to perform a clinch "accomplishes nothing" (157), while it is only on subsequent actions that participants struggle for control of a clinch.

Additionally, extra clinches can be turned to different purposes. You could, for example, knock someone prone with your first clinch, reducing their DV by 1, then crush them for (piercing) damage a couple of times, then throw them (still prone).

Surprise Anticipation Method vs. Reflex Sidestep Technique
By strict RAW, RST does everything SAM does, only cheaper. RST implies, however, that it only allows the application of dodge DV and dodge charms, while SAM allows any response.
 * SAM allows you to auto-succeed on Awareness rolls to notice any immediate mortal danger. RST only lets you remove the unexpected tag from attacks. It's a small distinction, but it seems to be the advantage that SAM is hinging on.

Stunt bonuses on unfailable actions
I don't believe any FAQ or rule directly addresses this matter, but iirc a 1E FAQ ruled that you don't get any feeling of fulfilment from a stunt that you know is going to succeed, thus no stunt reward. In 2E, it works like that if you're sufficiently anal about the reading of "If an action enhanced by a stunt succeeds, the character receives..." (123, my emphasis). It's not enhanced if there's no bonus dice. I'd say that taking the element of risk out of stunts probably unbalances the mechanic.