Editing Mnemon Explains Solar Combat

=Solar Combat=

''Mnemon Explains makes few assumptions about, or allowances for, playstyle. It's aimed at a fairly agressive level of game, and as such its advice is probably overkill for low-action games, while still being undercooked and too team-oriented for arena combat style gaming.''

''This guide does not address Power Combat directly, and sticks to the corebook when possible. Future Mnemon Explains will deal more with supplements.''


Alright you terrible little spawn of the Unconquered Sun, it seems that thanks to the incompetence of the Gold Faction, and your own souls' fixation on supplying memories more to do with your disgusting Lunar spouses than basic training, most of you Exalt not knowing much more than which end of the daiklaive is the sharp bit. Obviously a few of you have even more trouble than that, but that is of course what goremauls are for.

I'm addressing you in order to fix that problem. You see, I have a problem too. I should be Empress, but I'm not. In order for me to become Empress, an awful lot of people are going to have to die. Since most of them are likely to do foolish things like attack you, or be in your way, I think we can come to some sort of mutual understanding.

I tell you how its done, and then you carve up just about everyone into dogmeat? Deal?

Good.


==Attributes and Abilities==
''how high should my pools be?''

Okay, I'm not going to sugarcoat this for you, and I honestly don't care what your character concept is.

If you're a warrior, you need a good Dexterity - MINIMUM 3, but 4 or 5 is best, you need Dodge 5 (Favoured), and a high Dawn ability (preferably with specialties, and definitely Favoured).

There is no real excuse or reason for having low abilities in areas you're supposed to be good at - they're insanely cheap at character creation, and only represent mortal mastery. Having an ability at 5 is useful as an Exalt, but not a really big deal. The extra die or two is not THAT big a concern, but it will allow you to take more actions, and most importantly, will let you qualify for the charms you'll need quickly and cheaply. Why pay 12XP to raise an ability from 3 to 5 when you can do it for 2BP? Since it takes zero training time, and you can be sure your earlier incarnations had the ability, it's not really tough to justify in terms of character.

Less vital but very useful are Strength, Stamina, Athletics, Resistance and Endurance. Strength is damage, Athletics lets you use the terrain to your advantage, while Stamina, Resistance and Endurance help you resist the effects of being hit. Endurance in particular is needed for Ox-Body Technique, which while not as vital as corebook makes it out, doesn't hurt a bit.

Also not vital but helpful are Wits, Perception and Awareness. Wits contributes to initiative, and many different rolls that might normally be Intelligence will probably be Wits during combat. Perception + Awareness helps detect surprise attacks, which will let you use your better charms to defend yourself (the Per + Awe roll is actually pretty easy, but it never hurts to insulate yourself against penalties or hostile Charms).

As for which Dawn ability(/ies) to use, well, they all have their advantages, but in terms of raw easy-to-use power, Melee and Archery come out ahead. I'll discuss them specifically below.

Specialties in a Dawn Ability are usually more reliable than specialties in Dodge, since you can choose Melee (Swords, Swords, Swords), and rely on the specialty simply by always using swords. If your Storyteller allows specialties like Dodge (While Armoured), grab them, but otherwise concentrate on Dawn specialties.


==Defense==

===Active Defence===

With a few specific necromantic exceptions, it's pretty difficult to win a battle if you're dead. Given that we Exalts as a culture tend not to deal with weaponry smaller than ourselves, this can be a harder prospect than it might first appear.

Have you read what that ugly little blonde woman Arianna has to say about Not Dying? Good. Her advice is sufficient for those not particularly interested in battle to survive if it is thrust upon them. I'll assume that you've followed her advice and have a reflexive defence charm at the very least. If you're serious about battle, I hope that you've got at least two different defences (of whatever kinds) that you can layer.

Defence is the most powerful form of combat - since Solars have the best defence, they are the strongest combatants. Solar defence (and defence in general), has a few key aspects:

#Having more dice. Being hit can be absolutely disastrous - you have a lot more to lose from rolling poorly than the attacker does. In general, you want to make sure you can bring 2.5-3 times more dice than there were successes on the attack roll. This can be done through dice adders, layered defences, or both (as well as sneakier techniques like reducing the number of successes through shields, martial arts charms and the like).
#Creating multiple decision points. One of the key benefits of layered defences isn't extra dice so much as giving you as the defender multiple opportunities to decide what you want to do. For instance, let's say Invincible Sword Princess is attacked by a crushing 14 success attack. She has Fivefold Bulwark Stance and Flow Like Blood active. Normally she might be intimidated enough by this to use a Perfect Defence, but she doesn't need to make that decision straight away - she can use Flow Like Blood and see how it goes before making a decision. She rolls a lucky 8 successes on her 10 dodge dice, and thus has 6 successes left to go. At this point, she could choose to use Heavenly Guardian Defence, her perfect parry, for guaranteed safety, or use Fivefold Bulwark Stance and hope to get more than 6 successes on her 17 parry dice, or even use Golden Essence Block to boost her Fivefold Bulwark Parry further! She goes for the Fivefold Bulwark, and successfully parries. By layering her defences, Invincible Sword Princess has been able to make informed decisions about which defences to use, and in this case got out of a big attack for nothing. If she'd flubbed her Dodge and got only 1 success, she could still have used Heavenly Guardian Defence for perfect safety.<br>If you're curious, this is one of the reasons I, along with everyone else, HATE you people. We can swing at you for hours before getting a hit. This is why, eventually, I will just incinerate you with first age weapons of mass destruction from far away.
#Have backup defences. It's fairly obvious that active defences - parry and dodge - are superior to passive defences, particularly soak. That doesn't mean you should turn your nose up at soak, however. Soak is what makes the difference between a successful attack wounding you and killing you, and thus you should have it unless you've got a very good reason not to. Instant Soak charms in particular provide yet another layer of defence - imagine Invincible Sword Princess above flubbed her parry roll and was hit despite ample opportunity not to be. At that point she could still use Iron Kettle Body for some extra soak.

That's the core principle, but how do we actually get there? Let's look at a few specifics.

The most basic layered defence pattern: Dodge + Dipping Swallow

This tactic won't actually let you attack, but it will keep you alive when you're in real trouble, and only requires two charms: Golden Essence Block and Dipping Swallow Defence. When you're attacked, Full Dodge. If your dodge fails, activate Dipping Swallow Defence for a full-pool parry. This can be fairly cheap in motes, and will generate a lot of defence dice.

Reversing the process is a bit more expensive, but gives you a better chance to act. If you win iniative, attack once or twice, and save one or two actions for dodges. When attacked, use Dipping Swallow Defence first, then one of your dodges if that's not sufficient. If you lose initiative, use Dipping Swallow Defence when attacked, and if that fails, Full Dodge. If your initiative comes around without you having to have full dodged, take as many attacks as you feel comfortable with (probably 3-4 if you were last in the turn, 1-2 and saving 1-2 dodges if there are enemies who still haven't acted).

Remember most ranged weapons (other than Chakrams) can be used to fight with the Thrown OR Melee abilities, so Thrown users might find it worthwhile to invest in Melee and Dipping Swallow Defence.

Not quite so good: Parry + Shadow Over Water

Shadow Over Water looks pretty similar to Dipping Swallow Defence, so this should work the same, right? Not quite - Shadow Over Water has a problem, as does non-charm parrying.

Firstly, many Dodge charms, like Shadow Over Water, stipulate that they must be activated BEFORE the attacker rolls their attack. This means you can't parry first and THEN decide to use Shadow Over Water - you must use Shadow Over Water first, so you're likely to use it more often than you would Dipping Swallow Defence, costing you more motes. This isn't a huge problem if you know how to stunt, but it is annoying. Check with your GM, though, since ignoring this rule is probably the most commonly used house rule of all! Lots of GMs find the houserule useful because they forget to ask about defences before they roll.

Secondly, unlike aborting to a Full Dodge, aborting to a parry only gives you a single parry, so it's a LOT less safe when faced with multiple opponents, or a skilled opponent given to multiple attacks.

That being said, though, this is still a great way to layer lots of dice, and for anyone not using Melee, well, it's what you've got. It works well if you win initiative (in which case you can attack once or twice, and then just save a couple of parries). If you lose initiative, you'll only have one parry, so be careful which attack you use it for - it might be better to take a hit from a moderate foe to save your parry for the bone-crunching attack of a more powerful enemy.

For those of you using a bow, remember you'll need to use a good stunt in order to parry at all. However, ranged combatants can often rely on Shadow Over Water by making good use of other defence strategies, like intelligent use of the terrain, items like shield bracers or Windhands hearthstones, and other measures. See below.


====Bulwark Stance====
''don't do us the favour''

This is a terrible charm. While it theoretically might let you defend against many attacks at full pool, in the vast majority of situations, it's not going to be as good as Full Dodge + Dipping Swallow, since it'll provide less dice. Unless it's a very large number of attacks, just using Dipping Swallow is better, since you'll still get your action. You can't even combo it, so forget comboing it with Shadow Over Water for a poor man's stacked persistent. Even if you do end up using it once or twice (say, you have Flow Like Blood already up and want to parry a thousand arrows or something), do yourself a favour and buy Fivefold Bulwark Stance as soon as you can, since it's better in every way.



====My first Persistent Defence====
''Flow Like Blood''

You don't need to start with a persistent defence (in fact, it's less efficient than using your bonus points to buy high Abilities and then picking up Essence 3 and Flow Like Blood with XP), but they're so staggeringly useful that if you fancy yourself a combatant at all, you should get one as soon as you can.

Chances are, the one you'll pick up is Flow Like Blood. While Fivefold Bulwark Stance has some key advantages, Flow Like Blood is much more reliable, and is useful for every character. Flow Like Blood protects against attacks you're unaware of, and also allows you to dodge when you wouldn't otherwise be able to (for nasty fun, lure an enemy onto a narrow ledge or tight corridor where he can't dodge but you can).

Its key weakness is that as a Simple charm, it consumes an action to activate, and can't be activated before your initiative. Combined with the fact that as a non-Instant charm it can't be placed in Combo, this means you won't be doing anything else on the turn you activate it. Hence, the key is to activate the charm BEFORE combat - generally at the first sign of trouble. Even if you don't actually end up in a fight, you should be able to stunt back the WP quickly, and regenerate the motes via hearthstone or rest before the next scene.

For Melee fighters, the beauty of Flow Like Blood is that BOTH your defences can come from charms, leaving your action entirely for attacks. Generally you'll use Flow Like Blood straight away against any incoming attack, and then Dipping Swallow Defence against anything that gets through that. If your initiative comes up before you've been forced to use Dipping Swallow, you may feel confident enough to use an offensive charm instead, especially if all your enemies have already acted (otherwise, save a parry or two). Ranged fighters who aren't in melee can emulate this without using a charm at all if they have a Windhands Gem, which will give them a parry against any ranged attack made against them.

For those unable or unwilling to use Dipping Swallow Defence, remember that you can use Reed In the Wind to add dice to your Flow Like Blood dodges - which, if you're willing to invest the motes, can be sufficient to not worry about parries at all, and save your entire action for attacks. Archers and Thrown users will probably want to use the terrain and other passive defences to cut attacks down to size, and use offensive charms rather than Reed In the Wind.

Finally, this is one of the most stunty charms you dastardly Anathema have. Have you ever stuck a daiklaive into someone only to have them slip off it effortlessly, unharmed? Well, neither have I, but I had an underling do it, and he didn't look happy.



====For the Meleeists====
''Fivefold Bulwark Stance!''

Fivefold Bulwark Stance has a couple of nice advantages over Flow Like Blood - firstly, it tends to give a few more dice (due to more applicable specialties and the Defence bonus on weapons), and secondly, it's Reflexive, so it's not as vital to get it up early.

If you're attacked before your initiative, and you have your weapon ready, activate Fivefold Bulwark Stance and Full Dodge. From nothing to layered defences instantly! If you win initiative, activate Fivefold Bulwark, attack once or twice, and save a dodge or two.

If your weapon isn't ready, and you lose initiative, you're in a bit of trouble. You'll have to Full Dodge until you can get a chance to ready the weapon on subsequent turns - try stunting your Full Dodge to get a stick or other improvised weapon into your hands, and if your GM goes for it, activate Fivefold Bulwark Stance, and then switch to your real weapon as soon as you get an action. Otherwise, run like a squealing Ledaal until you're in a position where you have a hope of winning initiative and readying a weapon.

Once you've got Fivefold Bulwark Stance up, on the next turn, activate Flow Like Blood if your initiative comes up and you haven't been forced to Full Dodge. Otherwise, you can keep Full Dodging whenever an attack gets through your Fivefold Bulwark before your initiative, or attack (possibly with an offensive charm) and save a couple of dodges if your initiative comes up without you needing to Full Dodge. You can use Shadow Over Water in place of Full Dodging if you want to make sure you can attack, but remember you need to activate it BEFORE the attack, so you either need to use it on every attack, or just gamble on only using it on the attacks you think will be big ones (if your GM houserules the dodge charms to work like the parry ones, just use Shadow Over Water and don't bother Full Dodging unless you're low on motes).

Fivefold Bulwark is no good against attacks you're not aware of, however, so beware ninja. Also, particularly hardass GMs might insist that the talk of "golden arcs of essence guiding the blade" in the charm description is always true - in which case it's a poor choice for discreet battles in such games.


====Perfect Defences====

These are some of the most potent charms Solars have - defences that can stop any attack, no matter how powerful. However, they're the charms you'll want to use least, owing to their expense.

Perfect Defences, in as much as they have a definition, are defences that are not rolled against the number of successes on the attack (in the case of Solar defences, not rolled at all, they just work), and that are capable of defending against Perfect Attacks.

Seven Shadow Evasion's main advantage is that it only costs motes, so if you've got plenty of motes and not much willpower, it's an excellent choice. It's also useful in that it doesn't require a weapon (or Melee charms), and unlike Heavenly Guardian Defence, doesn't result in a broken weapon if you're using a mortal blade and you're attacked with overwhelming force. However, it's vulnerable to undodgeable attacks (though your ST might rule it works against certain attacks that are undodgeable because of their area of effect), and crucially, must be activated before the attack roll. It's likely to cost you a lot of motes (since you need to use it before you know how bad the attack is), but it's required for Flow Like Blood, and it's a lot better than NOT having a perfect defence when you need one. If your GM houserules the dodge charms, it becomes a lot more useful, especially if WP is in short supply.

Heavenly Guardian Defence is one of the best charms in the game. It costs WP, making it difficult to use often, but will defend against unblockable attacks without problem, and can be used AFTER a full dodge or Flow Like Blood fails. It still involves contact between weapon and attack, however, so try stunting the use of an improvised weapon against truly powerful attacks if you're using a normal weapon you don't want to break. This charm's main disadvantage is that it requires the atrocious Bulwark Stance.

Adamant Skin Technique is the worst of the three perfects. It costs motes, WP and a Health Level, and must be used before the attack! It also only protects against damage, so if you're hit by an attack that has an additional effect, you're out of luck (whereas the above two charms could avoid it entirely). On the other hand, it DOES save you from non-attack damage, like falling - and honestly, I can only recommend it if you're planning to leap on your enemies from an airship or somesuch. IF, however, your GM houserules Adamant Skin Technique to be useable AFTER the attack roll, it actually becomes very useful to those with persistent defences, since you can use it to save your gleaming golden hide when you just got a poor roll on Fivefold Bulwark and/or Flow Like Blood and your opportunities to use the other perfects have already passed.


====A final note on Dodges and Parries====

The most important thing to remember is that you can only dodge each attack once, and parry each attack once. The key is to have multiple dodges and parries available, and choose the right ones at the right time. The very best option is to have Flow Like Blood and Fivefold Bulwark active, using Heavenly Guardian Defence if Fivefold Bulwark doesn't look like it'll be enough after your Flow Like Blood dodge.

However, anything that lets you do more than just put your faith in one dice roll is good, especially for those without Melee, and we'll discuss some of those below.


===Passive Defence===

====Soak====
''the competitive advantage''

"But Mnemon" you say, sunlight leaking out of your golden mouth "I want to be a tough-guy, with none of this wimpy not getting hit."

Well, I have a few things to say, and you won't like many of them. First, you're whining, and I hate whiners. Secondly, the LEAST powerful foes of consequence you'll face will be my mother's disgusting brood, and they're going to be swinging half-ton magic clubs at you. You're not going be able to shrug those off indefinitely, you'll take at least one die damage from each hit. Thirdly, virtually everybody who dislikes you has attacks that cause non-damage inconvenience, so the fact you'll take ping damage by toughing it out will be moot when you're a stunned, unlucky, ugly little goldfish who nobody loves with veins that are filled with fire. Plus some goth girl will have all your essence.

So your plan isn't going to work. Go buy Shadow Over Water and stop complaining. We can't buy Shadow Over Water, and we're always having goth kids take our essence. Pretentious bastards.

I do have good news, though. See Invincible Sword Princess over there? The girl who was laughing at you while you were buying armour and soak charms? She won't be laughing when you're dragging her pretty Incapacitated backside out of combat when some Wyld Hunter gets lucky and she botches her Fivefold Bulwark parry. Soak isn't good enough to keep you safe by itself, but it's cheap, and can save your life, so why not have it?

Firstly, you need to understand that Soak has diminishing returns. It's not a dice pool, so you can't split it for extra actions, you don't roll it, so there's no randomness to protect against, it's just a total you apply against incoming damage. If your soak is equal or higher, you take one die damage. If the damage is higher, you take the difference. As your soak gets higher, there'll be less attacks that actually need that much soak to be reduced to 1 die. So when looking at what it'll cost you to get a certain Soak, try to guess how many attacks you'll likely suffer that need that much soak, and whether you've got cheaper options.

What's a good level of soak? Arianna, curse her for always summoning Alveua when I want her, recommends 10L soak if you can get it. This is just above the lowest amount of damage a Str 3 character with a daiklaive can do, and well above what most mortals will do (a 3 Str mortal with a straight sword would need 4 successes to do 10L damage). You can get that soak with an orichalcum reinforced buff jacket and Sta 2. It won't be sufficient if you're hit by a Cataphractoi's 17L+ lance attack, but it's certainly better than having only 1 soak in such a circumstance. You can also get soak in this region with slightly heavier mortal armour (like lamellar or a reinforced breastplate), and a touch of magic soak, such as from Iron Skin Concentration. The charm Glorious Solar Plate provides 10L soak, so most Solars will have 11-12L soak counting their stamina while using it.

If you're looking for heavy-duty soak, you probably want around about 15L. The easiest way to do this is get 10L as above, and then use Iron Kettle Body to add your resistance to your lethal soak when you're attacked. Alternatively, you can get an orichalcum reinforced breastplate, which provides 12L, and then have a stamina of 4 for 14L, and reinforce that with magic. Artifact plate is generally not worth the cost, unless you have access to supplements (such as Exalted: the Outcaste) that detail Dragon Armour or similar.

If you're willing to spend the motes, Durability of Oak Meditation, Spirit Strengthens the Skin and Iron Skin Concentration can let you add up to your Stamina + (Resistance * 2) to your lethal and bashing soak, as well as letting you use your full stamina for lethal soak. This (along with Iron Kettle Body for big hits) lets you add a LOT of soak, but it takes precious time - it's best used when you're sure trouble is coming, because it takes at least three turns to activate, and two of the charms are Simple - it's no good at all when you're ambushed. You also cannot use armour with Iron Skin Concentration, which is essential in this stack, since otherwise you gain only Bashing soak.

Consider Starmetal armour - the commit cost is more expensive, but it makes you effectively immune to minimum damage. That being said, Starmetal is exceptionally rare, and the GM is under no obligation to allow it (not to mention angry Sidereals turning you into a loveless goldfish).


In general, don't worry too much about mobility penalties for armour. You'll only expect to get 1 less dodge success for each -2, so penalties up to 4 are probably something you can live with. However, if you have a low Athletics, this might cause you problems using the scenery to your advantage. In that case, I recommend raising your Athletics, NOT investing in charms that lower penalties. If you’re going to use mortal armour, try to get Exceptional quality armour in order to lower the mobility penalty.

Sorcery is a fantastic source of soak, particularly Invulnerable Skin of Bronze. This spell provides 6L soak, compatible with armour and charms, and allows you to completely ignore any damage below 6L (not many attacks, but environmental damage, Terrestrial Animas and the like are common enough to make this very useful, especially if you think it's funny to lure your opponents into bonfires).

The Gem of Adamant Skin converts all incoming Lethal damage to Bashing, making any strategy relying on Bashing Soak extremely effective - for instance, wearing armour, Invulnerable Skin of Bronze, Durability of Oak Meditaiton and Spirit Strengthens the Skin for an easy 38+ soak.

The only artifact in the corebook that adds to soak without being armour are moonsilver hearthstone bracers, but supplements include many more, like moonsilver wedding rings, jade Collars of Dawn's Cleansing Light, jade Thunderbolt Shields (Book of Three Circles/Savant and Sorcerer) and Silk Armour (Castebook: Eclipse).

Tactically with soak, there's two important concerns - what punctures your soak, and using the opportunities soak gives you.

Soak from armour is vulnerable to target arrows, which halves its value, so be ready to avoid the attack with active defences, or boost soak with Iron Kettle Body. Aggravated damage ignores all soak EXCEPT armour, so if aggravated is inbound, you might just want to use a perfect defence and be safe unless your armour is quite strong.

Finally, having more soak means not dying quickly - in contrast to someone relying solely on active defences, you'll probably not go down even on a lucky hit. This means you can probably last a couple of extra turns even in a battle where you're outclassed or in a severe environment, and if the battle turns against you, you can RUN AWAY in reasonable safety.

You may also want to consider attempting to attract attacks to yourself and away from more vulnerable circlemates. I suggest questioning the breeding of enemy Dragon Blooded, and accusing Abyssals of not being very angsty.



====Ox Body====
This isn't worth spending a lot of XP on, but it doesn't hurt. It's particularly useful if you have a lot of soak, since each extra Health Level is probably three more minimum damage hits you can sustain. This is especially important if you're relying on being hit as part of your strategy, such as with Essence Gathering Temper or Snake Strikes the Heel tricks, or if you use charms with a Health Level cost.

It's almost always better to take the -1, -2, -2 option for this charm, but if you expect you may not have a lot of time to heal between combats, think seriously about the other options - a -0 that heals quickly might be more useful to you, especially if you're likely to spend it once a fight on a charm with a HL cost.

However, extra Health Levels are NEVER a substitute for an active defence.

====Shields and other difficulty-adders====

Making your enemy's attacks more difficult is a wonderful thing. Shields are the easiest way to do so, and ranged attacks are particularly vulnerable to them. Just remember that you'll be expecting to lose a dodge success for every 2 dice of mobility penalty - so don't bother with tower shields, since a Buckler will effectively do the same job. Artifact shields, such as Shield Bracers or Thunderbolt Shields (both from supplements) don't have this problem.

Cover also helps, so manoeuvre yourself into positions where ranged attackers can't get a good shot, for an extra +1 - +4 difficulty.

The Stealth charm Blurred Form Style also adds difficulty to attack, even when you're discovered, though it works best on ranged attackers.

Other difficulty adders are mostly Charms and artifacts from various supplements - in particular, Ebon Shadow Form from Castebook Night adds your Essence to the difficulty to attack you.

Note, however, that if your attacker can only see you in murky light, they add one difficulty to their attacks, and if they can't see you at all, the difficulty increased by two. Try messing with your opponents' ability to see!

====Using the scenery====

This is one of the best defences available to you - not only can it make your enemies' life very difficult, but it's almost impossible to use without getting a +2 stunt!

The key to using the scenery to your advantage is the charm Graceful Crane Stance. Other Athletics charms are good (particularly Spider Foot Style and Monkey Leap), but no matter how good your Athletics is, you don't want to have to make balance rolls - that's for the enemy.

You want two things - height, and instability. Height means your enemies have penalties to their attacks AND defences against you - from -1 for a gentle slope to -3 for anything requiring hands to climb. The fun really starts when they scramble up to meet you, however, if you've got yourself somewhere nice and unstable, like a thin ledge, a bamboo branch, a shard of broken glass, a chandelier, a boat mast etc.

If your opponent is forced to make a balance roll, then it's an action, and they must split their pool if they want to do anything else. This means that they can't Full Dodge or use a Simple or Extra Action charm. For horribly evil fun, if you know Ebon Shadow Style, use Distracting Finger Gesture on them, which prevents them from splitting their action...meaning their sole choice is to balance or fall.

If you're particularly skilled, you might be able to get into a place where melee attackers simply cannot reach you, in which case you can range attack with impunity.

Obviously ranged attackers don't suffer these problems...in which case you go for cover!




===Combos===

While I'll go into combos a bit deeper later, I thought I should mention them here because you poor Solars are so terribly disadvantaged when it comes to them, not being able to use your Reflexive charms freely and all.

What? Yes, my reflexive charms are jokes compared to yours. Go on, keep taunting the woman with the superweapon stash.

Anyway, the key advantage of putting defence charms in combo is that most such charms are Reflexive - meaning not only can you put them in combo with charms from any ability, but you can choose whether or not to use the charms freely after activating your combo. This not only allows you to layer more defences, it means you're not "locked in" when you choose to use a charm. For instance, if you use Heavenly Guardian Defence as part of a combo against a powerful attack early in the turn, yet choose not to use it on a weaker attack later in the turn and are hit, you can still use Iron Kettle Body and Essence Gathering Temper to bolster your soak and recoup some of your essence costs. You can even put two Reflexive defences of the same type - for instance Dipping Swallow Defence and Heavenly Guardian Defence - into combo, and use whichever is appropriate for a given attack.

Look out for synergistic combos such as Iron Kettle Body + Essence Gathering Temper - since Essence Gathering Temper is based off pre-soak damage, it doesn't matter if you then soak the damage down to nothing. Hence, if you've got Stamina 3, Essence Gathering Temper + Iron Kettle Body (a total cost of 3 motes) is usually free (note that Iron Kettle Body + Essence Gathering Temper, or the far superior Iron Skin Concentration + Essence Gathering Temper usually allows a large Essence *profit* when using the updated charms from the Player's Guide).


===Other tactics===

A number of charms will reduce your attackers' dice pools, such as Terrifying Apparition of Glory or Snake Style. They're very useful, but remember to remind your GM that you're using them BEFORE he rolls attacks against you.

The Windhands Gemstone is exceptionally useful for anyone planning on using the scenery to stay out of reach, since such behaviour provokes ranged attacks.

Your opponents might be clever enough to see you're putting them in a bad place, tactically speaking. The Presence and Performance abilities can taunt them into pushing ahead regardless (mock those hot-tempered Cathaks!).

Sorcery can be particularly helpful, especially if it can be cast before combat, giving the Sorcerer plenty of opportunity to stunt their motes back. Impenetrable Frost Barrier, for example, costs 20 motes for Essence x 2 difficulty added to ranged attacks made against those protected by the barrier - and since most character should be able to stunt 4 motes back a turn, most of this cost can be quickly recovered by an enterprising sorcerer.

==Offence==

===General===


Allright. I'm reasonably confident now that you're not going to die. This is good, because as much as I loathe you all, let me assure you that I find some Peleps, Cathak or Ledaal that won't shut up about their successful Wyld Hunt infinitely worse.

Now we're going to get onto the topic nearest and dearest to my heart - killing people. Pay attention, and you'll do a lot of it (and while you're at it, why not polish off the last of the Tepet for practice?).

Let's talk some general principles.

Do not, for the love of Gaia, blow your big attack in the first turn

Defence in this game is good. It's very good. It's so good, that the first time you fire up a huge attack against a Dragon Blood, it won't work. Honestly, if you pour 10 motes into Excellent Strike and have a swing, he'll Full Dodge, buy some Dodge dice on the cheap, you'll hit him with a couple of extra successes, and he'll soak the damage down to the minimum 1 die with his heavy jade armour that he got cheap with his superior Artifact background. Then, if your defence isn't well set up, his buddies will slam you into the ground. This is how Wyld Hunts operate. Don't play into their hands.

Instead, start with probing attacks. Make them spend essence on defence when your attacks are free. Learn how they defend, and the moment they're weak, punish them. Why do you think battle-poetry always describes a decent exchange of blows before any serious wounding is done? Because that's the way combat works, it's naturally dramatic.

That's not to say be too miserly with your essence, however. I strongly recommend that you spend (as opposed to commit) at least some motes as soon as you can - after all, you're going to be earning 2-4 motes a turn back from stunting, right?

NB: As a general rule, don't spend essence if your GM doesn't award stunts according to the rules. Commit it all away on scene-length charms, and only spend it when a REALLY juicy opportunity comes up, or when you need it for defence. It's boring, but it's tactically a much better idea. Conversely, if your GM awards stunts normally, make sure to NOT commit too much essence - leave yourself some room to regain motes from stunts!


The immortal question...death of a thousand cuts, or death of instant obliteration?

A frank look at combat tactics for Exalted (like, for instance, this one) might conclude that Damage is disadvantaged compared to Accuracy. After all, without a high attack pool, you'll never get to apply your base damage in the first place, attack successes convert to damage anyway, and no matter how pathetic your damage, you'll always do the minimum 1 damage, so you'll always be able to just wear an opponent down.

This is all true, but like the idea that you don't need Soak if you have a good enough Defence, overlooks just how useful Damage can be. In fact, damage is even more useful than soak because it doesn't really suffer diminishing returns in the same way; more damage is almost always more useful.

The principal advantage high damage gives you is time - less attacks to disable an opponent. While it is certainly very possible to kill virtually anyone with a long series of minimum damage attacks, it is rather time consuming. In a duel, this may not be a problem, but in the far more common situation of two or more groups engaging in battle, being able to swiftly slay an opponent - even a lesser one - takes pressure off your Circlemates and allows them to concentrate their abilities against the most formidable foes. Furthermore, it is extremely likely that you will increasingly find yourself in the position of having objectives other than killing your foes (as will they), and as such you may simply not have time for a full-length heroic duel. Being able to score a quick wound, or slay a foe's escorts and move on could be decisive.

The first critical damage threshold is 8L base damage (conveniently accessible to anyone with a Str of 3 and a daiklaive). This will allow you to automatically kill an unarmoured extra with only 1 success on the attack roll. Not only does this avoid the humiliating spectacle of having to attack an extra more than once, it allows you to guess how many successes you'll need to automatically kill an extra based upon their armour (usually the only lethal soak they'll have), and take multiple actions accordingly. For instance, if you're attacking extras with a lethal soak of 4, you'll need to do 13L to automatically kill them - 5 successes if you have 8L base damage. With an attack pool of 16, you'd want your last attack to have 10 dice (which has an expected 5 successes). 4 actions and a +1 stunt gets you 13, 12, 11 and 10 dice, meaning you're almost certain to kill 4 extras without needing to roll damage. If you're confident of getting a +2 stunt you could take the risk and make 5 attacks at 13, 12, 11, 10, 9 dice, and probably kill 5 extras. Against unarmoured extras, you'd only need 1 success, so with a +1 stunt you could take seven actions at 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 dice. In general, however, you probably want to avoid rolling less than 5 dice when you can, owing to the risk of botching.

14L base damage is another fairly crucial threshold, though more difficult to obtain (Grand Daiklave + Str 3 being the easiest method, though a Str 4 character with a daiklave, Essence 3, Increasing Strength Exercise and orichalcum hearthstone bracers can also do so). At this level of base damage, you can automatically kill any Elite Troop extra (usually clad in Lamellar) with a single success. Crucially, a single attack success will allow you to do two damage dice after soak to your average Dragon Blood clad in articulated jade plate - the heaviest armour we commonly send out into the field on our ungrateful children. It will also allow you to do four dice damage on a single success against the extremely common reinforced jade breastplate (Dragon-Blooded get six total dots of artifact (split 3, 2, 1) for Artifact 3 - a reinforced breastplate, daiklave and a minor wonder being a very common assortment). When doing this much damage, it is usually possible to swiftly kill a young Dragonbloooded either by overwhelming them with a rapid series of attacks, or by striking ruthlessly with offensive charms when their defence is weak.

Furthermore, being in the region of 14L base damage helps against certain powerful beings, such as gods and some Lunars, that can ignore attacks doing damage beneath a certain threshold (much as with Invulnerable Skin of Bronze). Powerful Gods can ignore attacks doing less damage than half their soak - so Ahlat, with a soak of 35L, can ignore any attack doing 17L damage or less. Hence, you need to do 18L just to do minimum damage against him! Such protection is extended to those wearing Warstrider armour as well, so if you plan to quarrel with powerful gods or Warstrider pilots, make sure someone in the circle can exceed 15L damage with relative ease!

Doing decent damage also tends to stun enemies, since the health levels inflicted needs to exceed their stamina in order to stun, and becomes the difficulty of the Stamina + Resistance roll to avoid stun (remember waaaay up at the top I told you good Stamina + Resistance was useful? This is why).

Now, I know what you're thinking - "But Mnemon, why do I need high base damage? Surely I can get all the damage I need with my Excellent Strike + Hungry Tiger Technique + Leaping Tiger Attack combo!"

Well, I have two answers for you. Firstly, as a domineering matriarch, I don't actually care what you think. Secondly, you're right, each Dawn ability and the Athletics ability have charms that increase damage - sometimes spectacularly. However, ALL of these charms are more effective when enhancing a high base damage than a low one, because you want as many points of damage pushing past soak to become damage as possible - you don't want to be spending lots of essence just to get past the soak. Having a high base damage might mean you only need to activate your offence combo once to kill a powerful foe, or only need a single charm rather than a combo to slay a lesser foe. It's just more efficient.

Finally, having a good base damage is less demanding tactically. You're pretty much guaranteed to do something significant so long as you can hit, meaning that if you can keep your defence up and keep attacking, you'll probably do all right. This makes it rather helpful for beginners, since it's less frustrating while you're learning to look for openings.

Defence and attack pools are more potent in combat, but damage is always useful - grab it if you can.


====So how do I get decent damage?====

Generally damage is a function of the combat ability you choose to fight with, as that dictates the weapons and charms available to you. However, there are a number of more generic means to increase the damage you deal.

*Strength. Not only through giving the Attribute a decent rating, but the charm Increasing Strength Exercise. ISE is fairly expensive in terms of essence (especially since it's committed essence), but those extra few points of damage can make a great deal of difference over the scene if you're skilful enough to hit consistently.
*Orichalcum Hearthstone bracers. While 2 artifact dots for an extra 2 damage might seem a bit much, the two damage applies to all attacks - including unarmed or ranged attacks, particularly helpful for non-Melee fighters who might otherwise struggle to reach higher base damages. Power Combat also upgrades Hearthstone Bracers of all kinds to provide 3 bonus dice to all dodges, and your GM may use this change even if not using Power Combat.
*Athletics charms. Leaping Tiger Attack and Thunderbolt Attack Prana both double damage - after soak and after it is rolled respectively. Usually Leaping Tiger Attack is more useful, as it is slightly cheaper and allows a full sprinting move, wheras Thunderbolt Attack Prana prevents movement. However, TAP is more useful for meleeists, as when put in combo with Fire and Stones Strike it results in more damage (F&S converts damage dice to automatic successes, which TAP will then double).


====Mobility and Target Selection====
''offensive movement''

Almost every time your initiative arrives, one of your opponents will be more vulnerable than the others, by virtue of poor position, having failed to reserve sufficient defence, being forced to spend a great deal of essence or simply being weaker. Circumstance can bring even very powerful opponents into this position.

Fall upon these foes and kill them without hesitation or mercy.

If no such foe presents themselves, hold your action until they do, or pick a foe likely to be vulnerable to the tactics of a Circlemate who is yet to act, and attack them furiously in order to divert their defensive resources.

Unless you plan to use social abilities to force a relatively bloodless surrender, there is no use in wounding many enemies rather than killing a few. A wounded enemy can still take actions, and can still get a lucky roll, even if down a few dice. An incapacitated foe can do nothing. Every foe you kill is one less drain upon your Circle's defensive resources, and becoming outnumbered by Solars is certain doom for nearly any foe. This does not mean you must commit to a single foe once you have wounded them; do not hesitate to abandon a foe that you have wounded if there is a target within your range that you have a better chance of killing.

In short, on your turn, identify the most vulnerable enemy within your range (movement range for Melee, Brawl and Martial Arts, movement range + weapon range for Archery and Thrown), and attack them. For hand-to-hand fighters, this usually means moving.

Moving in battle nearly always helps. Not only does it allow you to attack the foe least able to defend against you, but crossing scenery makes it easy and natural to incorporate that scenery into your descriptions - allowing easy stunt bonuses. Furthermore, it allows you to seize the most tactically viable ground for your attack - if you have the high ground, your opponents lose dice from all actions against you - especially useful against opponents who dodge and parry, as both actions will be penalised. This is even easier on attack than defence, for an attacker only needs relatively higher ground than whoever they're attacking, rather than needing to grab the highest ground in the area (since an attacker could otherwise simply move to higher ground still).

====How do you know when a target is vulnerable?====
*An unarmoured target is almost always vulnerable, since even with good defences they're likely to be badly wounded by a lucky hit. Even targets using charms for soak are usually worse off than armoured targets, since they usually need to spend essence - often a great deal - to bolster their soak, and can be quickly ran out of essence in this fashion. There are exceptions, particularly some Lunars, Solars and Earth Immaculates, but even these tend to be vulnerable while putting up their scene-length soak charms, and thus can be killed swiftly if caught unawares.
*Virtually any target other than a Celestial Exalt who has already been attacked that turn will have been forced to use defence actions, and will have few if any actions left to defend (and at reduced dice to boot). This goes doubly if they've also attacked. As a bonus, you'll almost certainly have been able to tell how skilful they were when they were attacked, and you'll have an excellent idea of how badly you'll maul them. Even if they spent essence to defend against or survive the earlier attacks, they're still an excellent target, since you can force them to spend more, moving them quickly towards being exhausted.
*Any enemy who uses an offensive charm without a combo signature is vulnerable, since you know they can't use any defence charms. The exception to this is Dragon-Blooded, who can still use reflexive charms, but don't hesitate to fall upon them like hungry wolves if they've used a Simple or Extra Action charm, since their reflexive charms simply aren't good enough without actions to back them up, or so expensive that it's almost as good as wounding them anyway. In my opinion, if they're stupid enough to not make me Empress, and then compound it by using a Simple charm in front of a Solar, they deserve to be spitted on an eight foot golden razor. Useless inbred leeches. Watch out against Earth or Water Immaculates, though, since they actually have some rather nice Reflexive defence charms.
*Enemies in difficult conditions. Prone enemies, those thigh or waist deep in water or mud, on the wrong side of scree or abatis - they'll all have defence penalties against you. Wounded enemies also count, and will be quicker to finish off to boot.
*A sorcerer casting a spell is exceptionally vulnerable. On the downside, they may explode when you gut them, so don't try this unless you have decent soak or are feeling lucky.
*Any enemy in a clinch is extremely vulnerable. Kill them swiftly.
*An enemy unable to defend against your attack mode is vulnerable. For instance, if your enemy is relying on reflexive dodges, hit them Cascade of Cutting Terror, an undodgeable attack. If they are unable to use perfect defences, use Accuracy Without Distance, which is a perfect attack - even if they get more defence successes than your attack successes, the attack will hit for base damage. As an extension of this, anyone relying on their Soak to defend is deeply vulnerable to non-damage deleterious effects of a hit (Ox-Stunning Blow, anyone?).
*An opponent who has not acted is not vulnerable, but by attacking them and forcing them to abort to a defence, you may consume enough of their defensive resources to make them vulnerable to a Circlemate.

Concentrating your Circle's attacks on a single target is usually a good way to go, since that will overwhelm and quickly kill most enemies. There's no need to concentrate on this, however, since it's quite likely that the most vulnerable target available to you will be the one just attacked by a Circlemate.

These tactics are exceptionally effective, but there are occasions where you should not use them relentlessly. When facing a group of enemies, some who you could easily kill, and some who would be difficult foes for you, but impossible for some of your Circlemates, you should probably ensure that you leave enough lesser foes for your Circlemates to fight, and engage the greater foes. Otherwise, your Circlemates will probably whine because they have nothing to do, and I think all of us hear enough whining as it is, don't you? Wishy-washy types like Arianna would probably say you're hogging the spotlight and not being a good player too. Of course, if there's plenty in the field for your less-combatitive friends to do, you won't need to worry about this too much.

Whether or not Extras (who are always vulnerable by their nature) can be safely ignored depends on your circlemates - if their defences are poor enough that massed extras (particularly archers, where more than five can attack an individual at once) pose a threat, you may want to kill the extras swiftly. Some situations somehow manage to produce limitless streams of extras, however (filthy Pattern Spiders), and if you suspect such is the case, ignore them.

===Initiative===

Inititiative's importance is largely dictated by your defences. For you horrible Anathema, that means it's often almost entirely safe to ignore, because you can manage your defences Reflexively. If you're planning on using actions rather than just charms to defend, however, having a high initiative can be quite important, since the only way you can use your dice action to both attack and defend is if you haven't been forced to abort to a Full Dodge or parry before your initiative.

Initiative is always useful, though, for two reasons. One is that a good initiative will allow you to get those crucial scene-length charms up that little bit earlier, which is helpful on those occasions where you can't put them up before the fight (when you're ambushed, for instance). The second is that it gives the option to attack foes before their initiative, which against most enemies will result in them aborting to a defence, and losing their attack.

You might note that forcing opponents to abort to a defence is actually an argument for attacking as many foes as possible, forcing as many aborts as you can and preventing their attacks. This is actually a viable strategy, ESPECIALLY if your defences are poor, but it is time consuming and a bit tedious. Solars with their excellent defences are often better served by allowing their enemies to expend their resources in useless attacks, and then counterattacking ferociously. With good initiative, however, you can simply delay your action if you wish, and thus choose whichever of these tactics best suits your fancy.

To get a decent initiative, you're best off having a good Dexterity and Wits, and then go for a weapon with a high speed. If you're particularly keen, go for Jade equipment and pay the full attunement cost (not recommended in terms of value-for-essence, but it's extremely difficult to compete in initiative with Dragon Blooded otherwise). Brawl's Thunderclap Rush Attack and Snake Style's Striking Cobra Technique are both useable with other abilities, in or out of combo, and are thus useful for all characters.

In summary, Initiative is useful, but not crucial for any Solar with good reflexive defences. Unless you're particularly fond of forcing opponents to abort, or you plan to use actions to defend, you'll probably find your resources better spent elsewhere. Many of your opponents (such as Dragon-Blooded) find Initiative to be crucial, and will likely have invested in it - let them have the victory there and invest where they are weaker.


===Universal Offence===
''Use EVERYTHING at your disposal''

Listen to the tales of the most glorious of your kind, Anathema. Do you hear of how they stood still in a blank stone corridor, trading blows with their enemy until one fell?

No - their voices rung out over their battles. They fought in places fascinating in their own right, and with their hands changed them. They used allies, tools, vehicles, and every other thing Fate put in their path.

Listen to the tales of the failures amongst the Solars - how they stood still, or ran a little, how they treated battle grounds as if they were dojos, how they thought only of their daiklaves, and how the Wyld Hunt killed them.

These Solars died with their best weapons rusting in their sheaths, wondering how they were defeated when their essence remained unspent, their most powerful charms unused.

Look to your charms. Apart from the perplexing impotence of your horsemen and sailors, your non-combat charms are far mightier than your Dawn powers. Compare Masterful Performance Exercise to Excellent Strike. Speed the Wheels to Reflex Sidestep Technique. I'd strangle every living person on the Isle for such charms, and you would put them aside just because someone draws a knife?

"But Mnemon, the Wyld Hunt is warned about our powers. They're told we're silver-tongued manipulators, so how can we usefully use social charms on them?"

Rubbish! Are they not told you are powerful warriors? Do they not attempt to parry your blows? Do you not cleave their heads from their shoulders regardless?

Is there a third party on the field? Bring them into the battle on your side. Does your enemy have followers? Shatter their morale or win them over. Impressed by an honourable foe? Show them mercy and bring them under your banner. An opponent's defences too good? Taunt him into a rage. Either side using large bodies of troops? Use Bureaucracy charms to speed or slow the passage of orders. Enemy's daiklave not yet in his hands? Larceny charm. Kill an opponent out of sight? Use Perfect Mirror and infiltrate their ranks. Trying to discern the enemy's plan based on their actions? Ten Magistrate Eyes.

Have you been forced to fight in a location without interesting, useful terrain, or does the terrain favour the enemy? Change it. Smash a hole in the earth and push enemies in - you now have high ground. Enemy fortresses are there to be torn down. A river is a weapon waiting to be diverted onto foes. Towers can be toppled to make bridges or to crush foes. If the enemy is on flammable ground, burn it. Use your Craft and Athletics to make the field just the way you want it. Scenery doesn't dodge, and how can any action changing it not be a +2 stunt?

All of these abilities can be used before the battle to disadvantage the enemy, but they do not stop being useful when swords are drawn - and not only that, but when everyone's using combat magic anyway, who's to say whether the anima glow came from defence or a social time? Etiquette demands a time and a place for everything - battle is always a good time, and if the place isn't good enough, make it so with your fists.

Use everything on your character sheet. No character with ten Solar charms is useless in battle.

===By Ability===

====Archery====

Ah...Solar Archery. Really, in my position, I should hate it, but I can't help but smile when I think of all those Tepet boys and girls lying under the Haltan redwoods, riddled with the arrows of the Bull of the North. I sent him a big box of thank-you chocolate (anonymously, of course).

Archery is the pre-eminent offence ability for the Solar Exalted. It is both the tool for punching holes in a single foe, and for killing extras en masse (I do so love the bit where you make armies evaporate. Just don't do it to mine, or I'll have Octavian eat your gizzard).

Firstly, get a Short Powerbow. Long Powerbows aren't worth the extra artifact dot, and mortal bows are totally inferior - they don't add any extra damage, and they cap your effective strength. Powerbows are fine for any strength (hello, Increasing Strength Exercise!), and have enormous range. However, their Rate is quite low - 2 - and hence this is one of the rare times you might consider a Jade version, for the extra point of rate. The accuracy and damage for orichalcum is excellent, however, so either choice is viable. Orichalcum Hearthstone bracers are also an excellent pick, allowing an easy 11L base damage before ammunition for a Str 3, Essence 3 character with Increasing Strength Exercise and an Orichalcum powerbow.

The reason why it's worth focusing on damage with archery is because in general, ranged attacks are assumed to do less damage, and tend to have charms balanced accordingly, so doing lots of damage tends to get a lot of effectiveness out of those charms. Arrow Storm Technique allows you to continue attacking so long as you don't miss or repeat a target, and hence is excellent for killing extras - automatic kills are extremely useful there. Furthermore, with Accuracy Without Distance, you have an attack that can be relied on to do at least base damage against anyone without a perfect defence - so making that base damage HURT can ruin someone's day, career, chance of inheriting the throne etc etc.

Choose your ammunition on a per-target basis, but expect to overwhelmingly use target arrows. Most of your enemies will rely on armour for their soak, so halving the benefit of their armour can drastically reduce their soak. For instance, if you did 11L base damage and hit an average Dragon Blood wearing Articulated Plate (normally a 13L soak assuming Sta 2-3), you would do 5 dice damage with a single success, since the armour's 12L soak would be cut to 6L.

Against targets with less than 6L but more than 1L armour soak, generally you'll want to use a broadhead, as it will give a slight advantage in damage over a target or frogcrotch arrow. Broadheads are also a safe bet if you're not sure of the soak situation - they don't mess with armour soak at all, and hence aren't actually a risk.

Frog Crotch arrows are best against armour soaks of 1L or less. They add +4 base damage, but double armour soak.

Nearly all the charms for Archery are excellent, though you may find There Is No Wind only particularly useful if you fight in poor conditions relatively often (or wish to lure foes into such poor conditions) and Immaculate Golden Bow only useful if carrying around your powerbow is problematic. Solar Spike does too little damage to be useful. Trance of Unhesitating Speed is worthlessly expensive, but required for Arrow Storm Technique (the Player's Guide corrects Trance of Unhesitating Speed to cost 3 motes per attack - try asking your GM to use this ruling).

Accuracy Without Distance is a perfect attack, and the most powerful offence charm available to Solars. Only perfect defences can prevent it from hitting, though some special defences can interfere with it (for instance, Dragon Blooded have a charm that burns all physical arrows that come near them - which can be defeated by Phantom Arrow - and a charm that redirects attacks to nearby targets). Generally, if you use this charm on a target, you can assume you'll do at least base damage, or force them to use a more expensive charm to defend. Use it on a foe who can't use a Perfect defence, and you're set.

Arrow Storm Technique is the best multiple action charm in the game, allowing shoot every single target within range so long as you hit each target. The key (apart from either having Inexhaustible Bolts of Solar Fire from the Dawn castebook, or be sitting on a wagon full of arrows) is the order in which you attack your foes. If your first shot is directed at an enemy Abyssal, she will certainly defend, and your charm will be over. However, if you start with the easiest targets and work up, you'll get many, many attacks - shooting first her zombies, then her war ghosts, then her nemissaries, then her horse, and then finally the Abyssal herself. She'll still defend, but she'll be down an army.

Dazzling Flare Attack is a great little damage adder, letting you add up to 2xEssence damage for Essence motes to an attack. It also throws in an extra attack die for good measure. Usually more useful than Firey Arrow Attack, but they work well together in combo.

Rain of Feathered Death is an excellent substitute for an Extra Action charm, as it's supplemental, allowing you to still take multiple actions, multiplying the damage on each one. Because each volley is defended against together, don't use this charm against opponents with excellent defence, as they'll be able to defend far more cheaply than the cost of this charm. Instead, use it to punish and swiftly kill enemies with poor defence.

Phantom Arrow Technique isn't particularly useful as a substitute for normal arrows (unless you're quite short, or don't have the right type for a particular target), but it's excellent for defeating defences that target normal arrows, such as Arrow Consuming Flame Defence for Dragon Blooded.

Sample Combo: Perfected Scourging Sunlight Accuracy Without Distance + Firey Arrow Attack + Rain of Feathered Death + Seven Shadow Evasion, 15XP. For (3+Essence) motes + 1wp per attack, perfectly does base damage + extra successes + 3xEssence damage, and may perfectly dodge any attack for 6 motes.


====Brawl====

Often considered the weakest Dawn ability, as it lacks a dice adder or any kind of defence, Brawl still has some significant advantages, and is capable of its own brand of mayhem. It's an excellent ability for those want to help out rather than be the frontline warrior (being the king of the "I hold him, you hit him" style of combat), or as a sneaky backup to Melee, Archery or Thrown. Archers will of course be kicking rather than punching.

Brawl is also recommended for social characters, since someone in a clinch has little choice about listening to you.

Firstly, get a weapon, whether it's a fighting gauntlet, a Smashfist, or whatever you find lying around. This lets you do lethal damage easily, and defend, whether by simply using Melee defence charms with the weapon (recommended), or by being able to parry lethal using Brawl without a stunt (if you insist).

Secondly, it's essential to have a good soak when using Brawl, as you simply can't defend any other way while clinching, and many of the better Brawl offence charms are Simple, meaning you won't be able to use actions to defend. Flow Like Blood is recommended.

Clinching is best done by picking an opponent whose defences aren't great, and then taking multiple clinch actions against them. You only need one to hit, and they're clinched - it doesn't matter whether it's a good hit or not, so unless you're dealing with persistent defences, wear them down in order to get a grip on them. Many enemies will be paranoid about being clinched, and may go to excessive measures to avoid it; so even if you're not successful, you can be a terrible drain on their resources. Just be careful - when in a clinch, you have no defences other than soak, and well, we've discussed relying on soak, haven't we? It's best to team up with a friend, and have them kill whoever you're clinching before THEIR friends can attack you. Voila, out of clinch and ready to defend.

Brawl's charms are split into two main trees - the general use tree, and the hurling people tree. A clinching character will want Dragon Coil Technique, and thus needs the first tree. A character meaning to rely on striking will want the second tree, as it allows unparryable attacks, while grabbing some useful charms from the first tree for comboing. Expect to make combos with Brawl, as its charms are highly synergistic.

Ferocious Jab is a must for all Brawlers, allowing extremely punishing hits against opponents with poor defences, and being extremely cheap besides! A must for a striking Brawl combo.

Fist of Iron Technique is useless, but required to progress through the tree. Move on.

Ox-Stunning Blow is an exceptionally good way to cut down an opponent relying on Soak to size. Pick a vulnerable target and hit them as hard as you can with this, and they'll be wearing huge penalties for several turns. Expect your friends to execute them during this time.

Thunderclap Rush automatically wins initiative against one opponent; it's best saved for combos designed to screw over opponents who REALLY don't like losing initiative - great for ambushing Martial Artists, fellow Celestials and others who rely on power-up time before a fight.

Hammer on Iron Technique is a bit expensive, and only worth doing when Flow Like Blood is up, as it cannot be combo'd with dodge charms.

Dragon Coil Technique is a great help in clinches - get the opponent in the clinch first, then activate it on subsequent turns.

Crashing Wave Throw is the key to the striking strategy - because it cannot be parried, target a foe with poor dodge or no perfect defences, preferably standing near a wall, and hammer them. A combo with Ferocious Jab and Heaven Thunder Hammer will maul most targets, especially if you can smash them *through* something.

Sample Combo: Gleeful Dawn Demolition Shot Crashing Wave Throw + Heaven Thunder Hammer + Ferocious Jab + Seven Shadow Evasion, 11xp. For 6 motes, make an unparryable attack, doubling successes for damage, and hurling foe Str + Successes + Total Raw Damage yards. Foe takes damage equal to yards of flight remaining if they hit an object.


====Martial Arts====
''the Odd Man Out''

"So" you say, looking at the charms available to you "What's up with Martial Arts?"

Well, MA is quite different. For a start, for mortals, there's no real difference between Martial Arts and Brawl, other than choice of weapons. They do exactly the same things. So why is there two abilities where one would do? Why are they separate charms?

The answer is - they're not really Solar charms at all. Martial Arts styles are shared amongst the Exalted. I could learn Snake Style if I felt like it. You could learn Air Dragon Style.

What does this mean? Well, for Dragon Blooded, it generally means Celestial Martial Arts charms are much better than our normal charms - that's why we get the Immaculates to fight you, since those crazy Sidereals cooked up a bunch of Celestial styles for them. For you, however, with your glorious combat charms, it generally means that Martial Arts charms just aren't as good as your normal charms.

If you wanted me to tell you how to use Martial Arts to be just as good as the Dawn with Melee and the Night with Archery, well, sorry Swan, but I'm not going to. An investment in Martial Arts just isn't as worthwhile as one in one of the other Dawn abilities. I without hesitation recommend against it for beginning players.

Still, it has its uses. For a start, Martial Arts often provides a lot of eclectic benefits that can be used well with other combat modes. For instance, Snake Style subtracts dice equal to your essence from opponents' attacks against you. There's no reason why you couldn't be using that while fighting with Melee, for instance (use one of Snake's form weapons, as clarified by the Player's Guide to be seven section staves and hook swords, and you can switch abilities seamlessly). Martial Arts also has by far the most charms for any one ability, and thus some insanely wicked combos can be constructed across styles (if you buy enough supplements to have a nice library of styles). Finally, if your GM is hostile or eccentric about custom charms, Martial Arts might be the only way to get a certain effect, since there's a published Martial Arts charm for just about everything. Indeed, without custom charms, then the most powerful charms available are the Sidereal Martial Arts.

In general, the best advice for Solars using Martial Arts is to not forget to build a bedrock of might with normal Solar charms, and then pick Martial Arts charms that exploit it. Armour Penetrating Fang Strike + Essence Venom Strike is nasty, sure, but any Sidereal can do that. Add Leaping Tiger Attack to the mix and you have something special.

The main problem with Martial Arts, however, is you need supplements. Snake Style badly needs the fixes from the Player's Guide. Then you need more books to get more styles (Violet Bier of Sorrows from the Sidereal book is particularly wicked in Solar hands). As you start, learn combat with another ability, and then you should be able to select a Martial Arts strategy that will work for you later when you understand the implications, and are resigned to paying for a few useless pre-form charms for every style you pick up.


====Melee====

Solar Melee. Well.

More Wyld Hunts than even I care to admit have ended badly when the newly-exalted child picks up, oh, I dunno, a shovel, declares "I am the Invincible Spear Princess", and proceeds to kill everyone. It's terribly humiliating when your own nephew is decapitated by a prancing thirteen year old with a garden implement.

Solar Archery is the supreme offensive ability, but overall, Melee is peerless. You have no idea how jealous the Cathak are of your charms. I've already covered the sheer excellence of the thing at defence, so let's talk a bit about using it to kill people.

For a start, Melee is where the biggest base damages are. Reaver Daikave. Grand Daiklave. Yet if you want, you have weapons of greater finesse at your disposal, such as the Direlance, or, well, virtually anything other than a bow or a chakram. Even if a weapon is nominally for another ability, you can almost always use it with Melee. The flexibility of choice is enormous.

That being said, I recommend the Reaver Daiklave, for its value on the accuracy and damage front, and because it leaves an off-hand free for Brawl or Thrown. You're Solars, you don't need the extra Speed or Defence, really. Cleave our mutual foes up and feed them to the Panic Monkeys.

Your strategy is really quite simple. Have stacked reflexive defences, dodge and parry, and then attack as many times as you have dice for. When your opponent is vulnerable, assault them with an offence charm or combo and destroy them.

Let's look at the charms.

The Excellent Strike tree is the core offence tree. Excellent Strike itself is a very basic dice-adder. It's too expensive and inefficient for sustained use, but it's a key part of combos.

Hungry Tiger Technique is an excellent charm, exactly like Ferocious Jab for Brawl. It doubles your successes for the purpose of damage, and hence can wickedly punish those with poor defences, and will never add less than 1 damage. If you're doing nothing else with the essence, put Hungry Tiger on each attack and stunt the motes back.

Fire & Stones Strike is an exceptionally good charm, especially for anyone relying on doing minimum damage. Because it converts damage dice to automatic successes, spending one mote on each attack guarantees a health level damage with any successful attack, allowing virtually any foe to be swiftly whittled down.

Of the multi-attack charms, only Iron Whirlwind is really any good. One Weapon Two Blows is too easily defended against, while Peony Blossom is too expensive. Only buy this tree if using the Player's Guide fixes (Peony Blossom 3m/attack, OWTB reduced to 2 motes).

The Retrieve the Fallen Weapon tree has some great charms buried behind some fairly useless ones. Retrieve the Fallen Weapon and Call the Blade simply aren't worthwhile - disarms are extremely difficult in Exalted, and if you don't have your weapon in reach, grab an improvised weapon, and defend with that while running over to pick up your primary weapon. Summon the Loyal Steel is very useful, however. Glorious Solar Saber is only really useful when facing an enemy who can break weapons (like an Earth Immaculate). Iron Raptor Technique and Sandstorm Wind Attack are not particularly useful - better to use Cascade of Cutting Terror with a javelin in the off hand. However, Blazing Solar Bolt and Corona of Radiance are excellent for fighting against the dead.

For offence, the Golden Essence Block tree offers access to counterattacks, with both Solar Counterattack and Ready in Eight Directions Stance. Solar Counterattack is great either in combo, or against enemies you're fairly certain you don't need to use a charm to defend against - it's an easy way to drain an enemy's defensive resources, especially if their attack makes them vulnerable. Ready in Eight Directions Stance's key weakness is its duration - it can't be put in combo - but it's a bargain at five motes, and can greatly discourage attacks against you. It's perfect for when you're ambushed - Full Dodge and Fivefold Bulwark the first turn, then Full Dodge and RI8DS each turn after that.

Counterattacks are almost always better than extra action charms, because they are similarly priced or cheaper, and as Reflexive charms, let you do whatever you like with your dice action. Iron Whirlwind won't give you more than about 5 attacks, but Ready In Eight Directions Stance lets you attack as many times as you like with your dice action, and then counterattack every single attack - you could easily get 10 attacks or more from such a strategy. Neither charm needs to be declared until you are actually attacked, so you'll never waste Solar Counterattack, and will always get at least one counter from Ready In Eight Directions. Using Ready In Eight Directions to dramatically counter and kill a lesser foe may also discourage later attackers, which could be extremely useful if you're relying on Full Dodge or Shadow Over Water rather than Flow Like Blood.

The downside to counterattacks is that your enemy chooses when you can use them. You may want to invest in Presence and taunt the enemy.

Sample Combo: Crushingly Overpowered Smite Excellent Strike + Hungry Tiger Technique + Fire & Stones Strike + Thunderbolt Attack Prana + Heavenly Guardian Defence, 13xp. Assuming Strength 3, for 19 motes + 1wp attack with +10 dice, successes doubled for damage, 3 damage dice auto succeed, total HL damage doubled.


====Thrown====

Much like archery, the key to this one is getting a high base damage. Increasing Strength Exercise and orichalcum Hearthstone Bracers highly recommended. Javelins are cheap, disposable, and provide some accuracy and 3L damage - try grabbing Flawless Handiwork Method from Craft in order to knock out piles of exceptional javelins easily.

When talking the charms, there is one that must be picked out over all. Cascade of Cutting Terror is an absolutely superlative charm. It has only one prerequisite, doubles your total Thrown pool (easily allowing 30 dice attacks), is undodgeable and supplemental. This is sheer murder against anyone lacking a perfect defence. It will fairly consistently butcher Fire Immaculates and anyone else relying on dodging, and will penetrate just about any parry pool. It's almost unfair. The doubled pool doesn't even count as being added dice, meaning you can still combo it with Precision of the Striking Raptor. This is the charm you'll use the most - just make sure your opponent can't pull out a perfect parry, and go to town.

Joint Wounding Attack isn't as reliable as Ox-Stunning Blow, but it's very useful, as its penalty is inflicted in addition to damage, making it perfect to combo with Cascade of Cutting Terror.

Falling Icicle Strike is overpriced, and only useful once a combat; however, it could be decisive, as it is MURDEROUS when in combo with Cascade of Cutting Terror.

Most of the other charms do have tactical uses for lone assassins or in combination with clever stunts, but in general, none of them pose a convincing argument for their use compared to Cascade of Cutting Terror. Bolster your base damage as much as you can and exploit that charm.

Sample Combo: Agonising Javelin-Barred Prison Cascade of Cutting Terror + Joint Wounding Attack + Seven Shadow Evasion, 11XP. For 8 Motes per attack, double thrown pool, undodgeable, adding -1 cumulative penalty per HL inflicted.


====Combined Strategies====

=====Melee/Thrown=====

With a one-handed weapon in your good hand, and a javelin in your off hand, you can maintain Melee's trademark iron-clad defence while retaining access to all the power of Cascade of Cutting Terror. Try attacking foes before their initiative with say one or two Melee attacks - this will force most non-Celestial foes to abort to a defence. At this point, unleash Cascade of Cutting Terror on them, as they will be unable to defend against it, since aborting to dodge does them no good against the undodgeable attack, and aborting to parry would have supplied them only one parry, which would have defended against the Melee attack. This strategy also works wonders against those using hopping defences (such as the Dragon Blooded's Hopping Firecracker Technique), defences that allow the user to leap away after a successful dodge, since they will discover to their extreme discomfort that they are WELL within the range of Cascade of Cutting Terror.

=====Melee/Thrown/Brawl=====

This stack of abilities is obviously somewhat more expensive to invest in, but leaves you perfectly comfortable in a clinch, and able, after using Melee attacks to probe the enemy's defences, choose either Crashing Wave Throw or Cascade of Cutting Terror to attack with, depending on the favoured defence mode of the enemy.

=====Archery/Brawl=====

Archery weapons require two hands, and thus preclude Melee. However, they don't particularly restrict the use of your feet. Since powerbows have a low Rate, try shooting close by enemies twice, and then kicking them another two times - or vice versa. Use one mode to strip defences away from a non-Celestial target, and then deliver powerful charm-enhanced blows (I recommend targeting the nether regions. Most of your foes don't deserve to breed, particularly the erstwhile spawn of my siblings).

=====Archery/Martial Arts=====

Similarly to Archery/Brawl, but with the added benefit of being able to assume and gain the benefits of defensive Form charms like Snake or Ebon Shadow, this is actually an excellent use of Martial Arts, particularly useful to archers who by hanging up the back can go a little lighter on soak. However, if you suspect your game may at any point use the Player's Guide rules (Power Combat/Form Weapons), avoid this strategy, since it's likely you'll be unable to use your chosen Form with a bow.


====A Quick Note on Dice Adders and Extra Action Charms====


Many people consider raw number of dice to be a decisive advantage in combat. It most certainly is not. While having large pools is extremely useful, having excellent charm technology that makes good use of those pools is more important - for example the size of a Solar's parry and dodge pools is less important than his ability to use both reflexively against all attacks.

Furthermore, the Solar dice advantage is not great. Lunars can add less dice, but usually have bloated pools owing to their warforms that are much larger even without dice adders. Sidereals can add extremely few dice, but can alter the probability of gaining a success. Dragon Blooded can add only a few less dice than Solars, and often more cheaply.

Do not be fooled into thinking Excellent Strike, Wise Arrow and Precision of the Striking Raptor are decisive advantages; they are not. They are inefficient, and unless your base damage is considerable, may not result in much damage at all. They are useful to brute-force past large defences, and in combo with charms that amplify their effects (such as Hungry Tiger Technique). Otherwise, however, it is usually better to attack a more vulnerable target with another offence charm that will have greater effect, such as Fire and Stones Strike or Cascade of Cutting Terror.

Similarly, Extra Action charms provide more dice than simply taking multiple action penalties to act multiple times, but consider whether those dice are necessary, for they come at two prices. The first is their mote and willpower cost, which might be better spent elsewhere. The other is their locking you into a specific type of action - almost always multiple attacks in the same ability - preventing you from mixing combat styles in the turn, or mixing in non-combat actions. Once again, a high base damage is more likely to make this worthwhile.


====How much essence and willpower should I spend?====

This is more than a little contextual. Minor skirmish with scouts just ahead of the Wyld Hunt? Go cheap. Desperate final battle with your Deathlord nemesis? Spend at every good opportunity.

In general, it's silly to die with motes left unspent, but being out of motes is a common cause of death.

If you have a Hearthstone, you can safely spend more, assuming you'll have any time at all between battles (and if you don't have time, why, it's going to be the same Scene, so rely on your persistent charms!). Likewise if the time between battles will be peaceful enough to rest, or include social scenes where you can safely stunt back essence.

If you're trying to remain roughly mote-neutral, you should be able to spend 4 motes a turn, and stunt it back with two +2 stunts. If you're under an unfriendly stunting regieme, or if you feel bland or uninspired, cut that back somewhat.

Let's look at Invincible Sword Princess, early in her career. She has Essence 3, Willpower 6, and virtues totalling 9. She has a Reaver Daiklave and an orichalcum reinforced buff jacket, for a total commitment of 8 motes. She has 15 personal essence, and 36 peripheral, cut to 28 after commitment, for a total of 43 motes.

If she's in a battle where she needs to conceal her Solar nature, she'll only have Personal essence at her disposal. After activating Flow Like Blood and Fivefold Bulwark Stance, she's committed 10 of those 15 motes, and is down 2wp. She has a total budget of 5 motes, but feels confident that she won't need to use Heavenly Guardian Defence, so she can spend and regain that fairly freely. In the first two turns of combat, she spends 3 motes using Fire & Stones Strike for 1 mote on each of three attacks, and does two +2 stunts, gaining 1 wp and 2 motes between them. She keeps this pattern up for two more turns, but takes essence from her stunts at 4 motes per turn, showing a slight profit. Finally, with 5 motes back in the bank, she makes 4 Fire & Stones attacks each turn, and stays roughly mote-neutral with stunts. After the battle, she just needs to regain the ten committed motes with some light rest and her Hearthstone.

In open pitched battle against the Wyld Hunt, she has no such concerns. In addition to Fivefold Bulwark and Flow Like Blood, she commits nine motes to Increasing Strength Exercise for a total of nineteen motes, leaving her with 24 motes. She decides she needs to reserve twelve motes spare for emergency Heavenly Guardian Defence, but is happy to fluctuate between 12-24 motes through stunting and offence charms. After holding her action in the first turn in order to act last, she knows she won't need a charm for defence in the first turn. She attacks a Dynast who foolishly used a Simple charm in front of her, spending 3 motes on Fire & Stones Strike on each of four attacks, easily killing him. She takes 2 wp for her two +2 stunts for the turn. The next two turns she uses no essence, and regains 8 motes instead. Happy with that, she spends motes when the opportunity comes from then on, usually no more than 6 or less than 2, gaining four essence from stunts per turn. When the Hunt is substantially broken, an Air Immaculate seeks to flee, and goes within sprinting distance of Invincible Sword Princess. Seeing an opportunity, and feeling fairly safe, she dips into her 12 mote reserve, and fires off a Leaping Tiger Attack + Hungry Tiger Technique + Fire & Stones Strike combo.

For a situation between a quiet "No-one here but us mortals, officer" brawl and a pitched battle, try letting your essence gradually degrade. Spend, say, 6 motes every turn, regaining four motes with stunts. You'll have a good reserve for defences or opportunities for combos, but will still be getting good use out of your offence charms. If you like to use a combo every turn, you'll probably need to make sure you regain 1wp per turn, and will likely be using much more essence, so expect this to be a sharper decline, suitable for faster battles.

In general, spend when you feel safe. Try not to spend too much willpower, and if you do, stunt it back as a priority - essence is much easier to regain between battles. Spend some essence up front to free up space for stunt essence, but otherwise look for good opportunities rather than brute-forcing the situation with big essence spends.

===Versus Specific Opponents===


====First and foremost - know your enemy====

OK, so you've got the best Investigation, Bureaucracy and Socialise charms in the game. You might not personally have them (after all, by now I've probably spent all your charms on defences and Cascade of Cutting Terror), but someone in your Circle should. Have a chat with them.

Significant enemies don't just drop out of the sky. While it seems certain locations have the ability to manufacture practically unlimited numbers of daiklave fodder, that's simply not the case for Exalts, Gods or significant monsters.

For monsters and local gods, ask around the populace - there should be legends, superstitions, and religious practices that give very important clues to the nature, habits and powers of your potential foe. While obviously villagers and farmers may not be able to tell the exact difference between highly skilled monsters striking quickly and a God relying on Principle of Motion (they're just flavours of "Oh Dragons it's killing them all!), your Circlemate with Ten Magistrate Eyes is a transcendently gifted detective, and should be able to deduce relevant information. I suggest you practice the phrase "OK Mr ST, what would Sherlock Holmes deduce from this evidence? Because Impossibly Reckless Gambler just rolled better than Holmes ever could."

For Exalts, this goes doubly so. While you can't always track every lone assassin, Exalted aren't silent nobodies. They're famous people. Rock stars. You think Abyssals strap on those revealing outfits and wacky titles so that nobody will know who they are? Lunars go to great lengths to stake out their territory, so that EVERYONE knows not to barge in. Dragon-Blooded travel with troops, servants, slaves, harems, walk around openly in superheavy plate, and constantly engage in operations requiring vast logistical support.

Abyssals and Lunars are much like monsters. Find survivors of their attacks, and question them closely. Did the Abyssal slaughter with daiklave or necromancy? What form did the Lunar take? Did they fight any actual soldiers, and if so how did they change their tactics. Again, frightened peasents aren't the best source of information, but you can learn a great deal about the capabilities and accoutrements of the enemy with Investigation charms. Finding residents of Shadowlands or members of a Lunar's tribe can get great results with Social charms. Remember Lunars and Abyssals are territorial - for different reasons, but an Abyssal is tied to her Deathlord and Shadowland - find the territories. Find out for certain if you're facing a lone Exalt or a Circle.

Dragonblooded are by far the easiest to track. Never, ever let yourself be thinking "where the hell did that Wyld Hunt come from?". Wyld Hunts are big logistics exercises - troops need to be raised, moved, fed, possibly supplemented with local levies, sufficiently equipped etc, as with any company of soldiers. Their Dragon-Blooded have servants, panoplies of magical equipment, and are extremely distinctive. If passing through a city with a Realm garrison or Thousand Scales branch, they'll probably requisition local troops and supplies, and will be obligated to dine or meet with the local Dynsatic authorities. Have contacts that can tell you when a Hunt moves through a hub point like this. Question servants, soldiers, town gossips. Bribe, use charms, stunt. Find out their names, aspects, armaments (Dynasts take their weapons to dinner), which schools they went to (Heptagram Sorcerers? House of Bells soldiers? ANYONE could be a Cloister of Wisdom graduate and know Immaculate Martial Arts, not just monks!). Find out tales of any previous Hunts they may have been on. Have they been summoning demons or elementals? Who are they bribing (there's *always* bribes)? Learn their tactics. Find out what they're trying to requisition, and hit it with the Indolent Official Charm. When they leave town and come looking for you, hit their supply train with the Indolent Official, or the entire Hunt with the Foul Air of Argument. If you can, Heart's Price a member of the Hunt and suborn them.

Watch the waters at all times. Know the local Dragon Blooded powers in your area, but honestly, we've been draining the Threshold of talent for years, bringing anyone worth a damn home for the Civil War. It's likely that if you're killing Dragon Blooded (and if you've read this far, you should be), they'll send for help from the Isle. Barring the rare intervention of the Sidereals, that help will come by boat. The Realm is a NAVAL power. In the Scavenger Lands? One of the safest civilised places from the Wyld Hunt - they're rare and paltry throughout the Scavenger Lands, owing to Lookshy and the hostility of the people. However, the Wood Fleet of the Realm has full access to the many, many rivers, which means if you're within a day of a river, you're in danger. Know where the fleet is. Find out whether nearby detachments are Dragon-Blooded heavy or not. Find out if Earth Fleet or House ships are being escorted about by the Wood Fleet. Have a high enough base damage to knock holes in Triremes.
Elsewhere? Keep your wits about you if you're near the ocean. Make contacts with sailors and fishermen. Be careful near the Lap, Chiraoscuro, Yane, Kirighast, Cherak and other costal cities that are loyal to the Realm.
In Halta? Easy. Most Dynasts in the area will be supporting the Linowan. Make friends with some Haltan Commandos, who'll be keeping tabs on them anyway.

In general, make sure your less-combatitive Circle members are using their incredible powers to full advantage. With your charmset, there's no reason a large force should ever be able to sneak up on you (barring Abyssal Labyrinth tricks). You should ALWAYS be able to turn the tables on anyone hunting you. Learn everything, then dissect their efforts, slowing and obstructing them until they are weak, dividing them if possible. Then strike without mercy.

In battle, try to identify capabilities as quickly as possible, using Awareness, Occult, Lore (Tactics) or whatever else you can stunt. Never underestimate the power of All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight for developing this information.

If you can, learn of any custom charms your enemy may have, as well as unique artifact or hearthstone powers. Obviously I can't give you any advice on what they might be, so always be ready for surprises.



====Dragon Blooded====

Dragon Blooded are substantially weaker than Solars, but they're still Exalted. If you're tactically aware, you'll likely carve them up, but underestimate them and you will regret it. Dynastic Dragon-Blooded are numerous and well-resourced, and religiously inclined to kill you on sight. Outcaste Dragon-Blooded are as varied as Solars, but you will have an advantage against them in that their equipment is no better than yours.

Loath as I am to suggest it, consider diplomacy with Lookshy. They're power-armoured thermoptically-camoflagued military ninja. I'm sure you'll get on just fine.

Dragon-Blooded have poor parrying ability (other than with actions as normal), and rely heavily on armour and Dodge. Many of their defences fail against Charm enhanced attacks, so don't be afraid to use your offence charms - the exception being a powerful charm called Defence Against Anathema Technique that raises the difficulty of your charm-enhanced attacks against them. If you meet such a foe, try unenhanced attacks or simply blow past it with Accuracy Without Distance or Cascade of Cutting Terror.

Archers will love fighting Dragon Blooded. Their reliance on armour makes them perfect for raining target arrows on.

Dodge is their most potent defence ability. While it affords them few dice, they have some particularly nasty tricks. The one that frequently trips up beginning Solars is Safety Amongst Enemies, a dodge charm that allows them to reflexively redirect any attack to an adjacent person with a relatively easy Dodge roll. In general, do NOT engage a Dragon Blooded who you suspect may have this charm (which is quite common) with more than one person, or range-attack an already engaged Dragon Blooded, unless those engaged can happily defend against redirected attacks. It is best not to enhance such attacks, but simply rain easily defended attacks upon the target until they cannot afford the mote cost any longer. Also watch out for Arrow Consuming Flame Defence, which incinerates any incoming wooden arrows (use Phantom Arrow or metal Thrown weapons), and Virtuous Negation Defence, which allows them to take the place of an ally being attacked within five yards. Finally, Hopping Firecracker Evasion lets them leap half their running distance away after a successful dodge - either pursue or switch to ranged weaponry.

Dragon Blooded Melee is simply not very good. Their best trick is their scene-length dice adder, which is the sort of thing that terrifies people who don't understand layering defence. However, at a maximum of +8 dice (4 being more common), you probably should be OK provided you're careful with your defence. Incidentally, that charm is one of many that effects multiple people, so if you can identify the one who used the charm, kill her and be done with it. They have a slightly nifty trick allowing more than five people to attack a single target, so watch your weaker Circlemates if a Meleeist drives for them with a troop of soldiers. They also have an extra action charm. Kill anyone stupid enough to use it in front of you. Don't bother disarming them, as they can likely conjure an essence-blade. Finally, they have a reflexive parry charm that will block any attack if they roll so much as one success...except attacks powered by charms. So either they're using an expensive charm and you're spending nothing, or you're spending and they have no reflexive parry. It's all good.

Dragon Blooded Brawl is awful. It improves slightly with Aspectbook Water, but honestly, either you're a clincher yourself, in which case you'll probably just out-dice them with Dragon Coil, or you'll know that you never ever want to be in a clinch anyway, and thus you don't care what they could theoretically do to you if you ever let them clinch you. Just be aware that a DB brawler who is clinching can suck more people into the clinch.

I'll only discuss one Terrestrial Martial Arts style, Five Dragon Style. It's not bad - one of the entry charms, Five Dragon Fortitude, is extremely popular, allowing the DB to buy Instant soak. This is good for the DB (they don't die), but is hardly a bad result for you, as it's more precious essence down the drain for them. The Form lets them use Bashing soak for lethal damage, so your average practitioner is quite tough. They can hit hard, including with doubled base damage or aggravated damage, but both Charms are Simple, so defend and then kill the user.

Both Dragon-Blooded ranged trees are excellent, however. Both are capable of making attacking the Dragon Blooded and her allies very difficult with ranged weapons, including a ranged counterattack in both cases. Neither Accuracy Without Distance nor Cascade of Cutting Terror are particularly dismayed by such difficulties, of course, but in general it's best to try to have your hand-to-hand fighters close with ranged Dragon-Blooded, and kill them swiftly. Of special note are two of Thrown's best tricks - Loyal Weapon, which allows them to use any weapon at all (including daiklaves or direlances) in place of a thrown weapon, and a charm that allows them to hide multiple Thrown weapons Elsewhere, reflexively releasing them as attacks. The first is the one to watch out for - apparent Meleeists could easily be dangerous Thrown users (watch Air aspects in particular). The second is surprising, but very expensive for the Dragon-Blooded, so if you survive the attacks, they will likely be easy to defeat.

In general, Dragon Blooded defence is poor. In order to take any offensive action at all, a Dragon-Blooded will need to expose themselves. Watch out for Safety Amongst Enemies, but you can usually cheerfully murder any Dragon Blooded who has taken an offensive action, ESPECIALLY those who've used a simple charm.

The Immaculate Martial Arts are far more dangerous than the secular abilities of the Dragon Blooded (though never make the mistake of assuming a given Immaculate doesn't have a backup complement of secular charms). However, do not overestimate them. Proper application of tactics will see them fold; while powerful charms, designed by the cunning of the Sidereals as a perfect fit for the Dragon Blooded, they are not the equal of Solar magic.

Air Dragon is by far the most dangerous of the Immaculate styles. It not only allows withering storms of chakrams, but it boosts the accuracy and dodge of its practitioner, and has several area-effect charms that are not attacks, and thus quite difficult to defend against. If possible, use Accuracy Without Distance and target arrows to kill the Air Dragon as quickly as possible, though Cascade of Cutting Terror will serve. If the Air Dragon uses her chakrams rather than one of her area-effect charms, maul her without hesitation or mercy using anything that comes to hand. Consider the Air Dragon a priority target.

Earth Dragon is not as dangerous, but it is deeply problematic for Melee fighters. Earth Dragons can hit extremely hard, so do not be hit. They can (at expense), reflexively parry and break any weapon used against them; only attack them with a weapon that you are prepared to lose (like, say, arrows, or essence weapons, or an exceptional weapon from the bag you're carrying for the purpose). Earth Dragon does have two non-attack effects, including an area effect (which isn't too bad, doing a little bashing damage and knocking you down), and a rather nasty attack that causes the ground to swallow up multiple targets. Both are Simple, and both require the targets to be on the ground - if possible, avoid the ground when fighting near an Earth Immaculate. The best strategy is to simply rain ranged fire down on the Immaculate and kill them as swiftly as possible, though removing them from the ground robs them of their best weapons; scenery modification and stunting are key here. Earth is also a priority to slay.

Fire Dragon is a poor style. It can create a rather high difficulty to hit, but what of it? Without armour, its practitioners are extremely vulnerable to even grazing blows. They have reasonable offences, but you would expect that. Either ignore the Fire Dragon until he runs out of essence after three or four turns, or kill him swiftly with ranged attacks or high-damage Melee blows. Obviously, don't clinch them (Fire Aspects typically being deadly to clinch).

Water Dragon is not the most dangerous of the Immaculate Arts, but it is the best - they're just so bloody hard to kill. They have good soak, can reduce your dice pool to attack, but most importantly, have a charm called Bottomless Depths Defence, which prevents all damage to them for a turn. It is a costly charm, and they can't use it indefinitely, but it is extremely annoying (in fact, the developer originally suggested an erratad cost of 3 Aggravated Health Levels a turn, and the Player's Guide changes it to all attacks doing 1 dice damage). They can create an area-effect attack by striking someone, so keep them away from your more vulnerable friends. Their pinnacle charm allows a rather damaging area-effect non-attack damaging technique, but it's not too bad if you have decent armour soak. All in all, it's best to completely ignore anyone you suspect may have Bottomless Depths Defence. Take them prisoner when the battle is over (though they do have a charm that lets them shrug out of restraints). You COULD kill them, but it's so terribly tedious.

Wood Dragon is pathetic. If in actual combat, kill them whenever it's convenient. They will slowly regenerate, so make sure to finish them. Their pinnacle charm has a chance of automatically killing you, so I suggest not being hit by it, but it glows green in obvious fashion, so it's not going to be a surprise. Outside of combat (and often during the beginning of the combat, or when the Wood Dragon is trying to escape), they have an exceptionally annoying charm called Unbreakable Fascination Kata. Ensure your reflexive defences are up early, as when they start the charm, nobody - nobody - is doing anything until the Wood stops dancing. It's extremely irritating, but it breaks whenever there's an attack, so you're unlikely to be hurt.


====Abyssals====

I have rather bad news for you here - the Abyssals are just as good at killing things as you are. Maybe slightly better. I won't go into their tactics at length here, because you'd find them hauntingly familiar. Layered defences, punishing offences, perfect attacks and defences...familiar? Only they're better resourced.

Of course, there are slight differences. Their clinching is more dangerous. They don't have your supreme army-killing Archery. Your Zenith can burn them, as can some of your Melee charms. They tend to go in more for magically summoned armour than actual natural soak.

Essentially, though, you're fighting yourselves. This likely means that you're not going to have any easy fights against Abyssals - these guys are your heroic rivals. Try to outnumber them. Try to disadvantage them. Punish any that use offence charms without a combo flare.

====Lunars====

Lunars are very frightening.

On the bright side, the loathsome furballs, like any other animal, are more frightened of you than you are of them.

The name of the game for the Lunars is big dice pools. Their war form gives them Dexterity, Stamina and Strength, and some nice side benefits (like regeneration). They have a few good charms, like a Melee cham that makes parrying difficult, an attack redirection charm, some murderous clinch charms, and some very nasty social charms that mess with your virtues. They are very likely to attack you many times with large pools, while keeping some nice big dodges in reserve. Alternately, they might go on an attacking frenzy, relying on soak and regeneration to stay alive.

Lunars are one of the few character types without really good reflexive defences - they've got a couple, but are short Perfect and persistent defences. They're too tough to do well against with a middling hit, but it might actually be worth unloading your finishing combos on them fairly early on. Waiting for an opportunity (like a Simple or Extra Action charm without combo flare), could help, but you're actually quite likely to hit with a big attack, and often it takes a VERY big attack to put a Lunar down. Coincidentally, Solars tend to be the people who can dish out the biggest single attacks. Leaping Tiger/Thunderbolt Attack Prana, Accuracy Without Distance, and Cascade of Cutting Terror are again key tools, as is a properly layered defence.

Think VERY carefully about clinching a Lunar. If they don't have the clinch charms, it might be a good move, but chances are at best they'll outdice you.

Don't bother trying to run Lunars out of Essence, as it's generally a waste of time.


====Sidereals====

In general, a Sidereal does not want to fight you. Even the most skilled Sidereal warriors have responsibilities, schemes and jobs that they don't want to risk by brawling. However, sooner or later, the manipulation might end, and a Sidereal will be forced to do the job themselves.

Sidereals style themselves the masters of martial arts. This is somewhat true; in actual fact, Solar Martial Artists can be significantly more powerful due to their superiour suite of support charms, but the Sidereals have better access to martial arts than anyone else, and far more incentive. Every non-Martial Art Sidereal tree is the sum total of Sidereal charms in that area. They cannot make custom charms. This means the handful of charms in each Sidereal tree, while often powerful in specialised areas, is a dead-end road. Martial Arts are accordingly extremely popular amongst the Sidereals.

What Sidereals ARE the unquestioned masters of is running away. They are masters of disguise, can teleport away from bad situations (with the neat side effect of convincing everyone they were never there), are exceptionally difficult to even remember, and have numerous charms in the Journeys tree that are excellent for fleeing rapidly. If you intend to kill a Sidereal, ensure that they cannot afford to retreat. Make them commit to the battlefield.

Sidereals are also fragile. Few of their charms offer much soak, and the majority of their martial arts, especially the most powerful tier, the Sidereal Martial Arts, are incompatible with armour. This means, despite the superlative nature of Starmetal armour, armoured Sidereals are very rare. Furthermore, the Sidereal Ox-Body provides only a single -0 health level, making it barely worth its XP.

Finally, Sidereals have critical difficulties with Essence. While their pools are larger than those of the Dragon-Blooded, their charms are more expensive, and very frequently committed. Even with stunts and several mote-regaining charms, Sidereals are often only refreshing a very small pool, and thus can be quickly run dry again. Sidereals have some excellent defence charms - including a 3 mote reflexive parry that automatically defends against any non-perfect parryable attack - but they usually need to use them for almost any attack, since even the lightest kiss of a Reaver daiklave could be fatal for them. This means attacking them frequently can severely wear down their resources very quickly - it is usually an excellent idea to concentrate the Circle's attacks upon a Sidereal.

Sidereals have only two perfect defences - one in Melee, costing 5 motes and 1wp, which fails if used Outside of Fate (ie in Malfeas, the Underworld, the Wyld or Autocthon), and one in Dodge (in fact the only Dodge charm worth worrying about if they commit to battle) costing 10 motes (which can dodge pretty much anything bad, including social consequences). While obviously fighting a Sidereal Outside of Fate is ideal, this makes a Sidereal equipped with a parrying weapon harder to kill than others, since Sidereals can be easily pushed to less than 10 motes in their pools. In general, Accuracy Without Distance is an excellent deal against Sidereals, since it requires more resources for them to defend than it costs you. Cascade of Cutting Terror is not generally worthwhile, since the 3m reflexive parry charm is effective against it, though using CoCT to goad the 3m parry, before a circlemate attacks with Accuracy Without Distance is an excellent tactic.

Sidereal Thrown is quite odd. Nearly all of its effects are ruinous in some fashion to someone hit by them; do not be hit, and be careful, as their attacks may strengthen as you are wounded. Ensure you are not hit by the prayer strip attack - if someone is, ensure that the Sidereal does not have a free hand, possibly by clinching. Watch for the unblockable attack - it's best to Seven Shadows evade it, then brutally counterattack, as the charm is Simple.

Sidereal Archery is generally not dangerous. However, its Prayer Strip charm allows them to fire arrows with some interesting effects, including arrows that transform into boulders, and thus are unblockable. The per-arrow cost for this is negligible, so don't expect you'll win a perfect defence-vs-arrow resource battle, but the Prayer Strip charm is a hefty commitment cost. Thus, the Sidereal can be fairly easily ran out of resources by an unrelenting attack. Kill them as priority.

Sidereal Brawl has two potent charms, though at 5 motes they are somewhat expensive for the Sidereal. They have a supplemental attack charm that is unblockable and ignores armour, and a parry charm for which excess successes are counted as a counterattack. The counterattack is probably not fearful, given a proper defence array - attempt to provoke it with repeated attacks in order to exhaust resources. The unblockable attack is problematic, though Seven Shadows Evasion at 6 motes for a Solar is probably slightly more efficient than 5 motes for Sidereal to make the attack. Attack brutally and put the Sidereal on the back foot, try not to give them an opportunity to use the charm. The Prayer Strip charm is problematic - it can cause a great deal of aggravated damage that ignores armour unless you accept a certain reversal of fortune. It's probably best to simply accept the reversal - the cost of the charm is great, and you'll likely be able to kill the Sidereal and move onto correcting the problem caused relatively quickly. Sidereal Brawl is not a clinching art; thus Martial Arts aside, they are excellent targets for clinching.

Sidereal Melee is not daunting. It is generally an essence sink. Provoke its reflexive defence as much as possible. Its Prayer Strip charm is a persistent parry, but its cost is great. It will make hitting the Sidereal difficult, but make it easier to exhaust their resources.

Other tricks to watch out for are Sidereals transferring damage from themselves to you (a perfect defence will cancel the relevant attack and the transfer), a battle strategy that forces Essence costs up (best dealt with by killing the Sidereal responsible as swiftly as possible), or using a Stealth charm to raise the difficulty of all actions against them made by a single target (in which case have your allies mob them while you ignore them).

Martial Arts, however, are the mainstay of Sidereal combat. In general, they are not powerful charms, but are vastly varied. Everything said about Immaculates is relevant for the use of those styles (including Bottomless Depths Defence, curse it - Sidereals with this charm are just bloody tedious, though thankfully they cannot combo it, and thus aren't likely to mount a good offence). Violet Bier of Sorrows, their signature sword style, is powerful, giving many dice and allowing damaging attacks and high initiative, but is extremely expensive, and should be easy to wear down.

Dealing with Martial Arts as a whole is beyond the scope of this essay. Suffice to say, however, that the most powerful Sidereal Martial Artists are exceptionally dangerous (and will be high-XP characters, so thankfully rare). Immunity to Everything Technique defeats Citrine Poxes of Contagion, but otherwise be paranoid defensively about this style and slay its practioner swiftly. Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style has various annoyances, including Charm cancelling and redirection, and the rarity of good soak, though in general the resource battle can be won against them.

Charcoal March of Spiders Style is arguably the most dangerous single tree in the game. Thankfully, the Sidereals are the weakest at using it (Lunars would be terrible beyond words, Solars might seriously consider it a viable alternative to their own combat trees). If you encounter a Charcoal March user, use Cascade of Cutting Terror and Accuracy Without Distance to kill them as swiftly as possible. If they show Bottomless Depths Defence, consider retreating.

====All the rest====
''Gods, Demons, Monsters and Raksha''

Most significant non-Exalted foes have fairly unique tricks, and invariably huge dice pools and soak. Fair Folk and monsters in particular rarely have charms (at all or of use against you), so if you follow basic defence techniques and hit them as hard as you can, you'll likely prevail.

Gods and Demons are somewhat more complicated. As always, be cautious of custom charms, as gods and demons very frequently have unique charms. They have a number of powerful charms at their disposal, including a charm that lets them hang Extra Actions for when they need them. However, in general, their charm technology is much poorer than that of the Exalted, so study them for their unique powers, and when aware of them, attack with proper mind for defence and unrelenting brutality.

Note that Gods also frequently have very high hardness ratings, meaning you need to have a high damage to even ping them.

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Original Author: Kasumi on RPG.net


[[Category:Exalted]]