Editing Solar Exalted (section)

===Charming your way through life=== 
A starting Solar character begins with ten charms. That is at least 80 experience points worth of charms, or put more clearly, a fair amount of bang out of the box. So what do you do with this bang to make it as loud as possible? 

Well, it is a good idea to have a broad selection of charms; being really, really good in one area, like the best in creation (which could be just possible if you sink all ten charms into something, maybe) might seem like a good idea, but when you face some competition in anywhere except that area, especially if it is Exalted competition, you are going to wish you?d generalised a bit more. 

Assuming you are not into [[Exalted Martial Arts]] or [[Exalted Sorcery]], a 5/5 split between direct combat and non-combat charms is a good way to divide up your charms. At least three of the combat charms should be defences of some kind, whether soak boosts (e.g. Iron Kettle Body), dodges (e.g. Reed in the Wind) or parries (e.g. Dipping Swallow Defence). The defensive charms should be taken from two different abilities if possible as well. This is because you can parry an attack once, dodge an attack once, then boost your soak to take any remaining damage, hopefully reducing it down to ping damage. For offensive charms, picking two from the same tree isn?t a bad idea, since it gives you good combo possibilities, and more importantly, options for attack. Lets, for example, take brawl charms. You could pick both Fist of Iron technique and Thunderclap Rush Attack, meaning you could pre-empt your enemies, or hit harder than normal. For the five non combat charms, a range of abilities is important. There are several trees which are worth picking up for almost any character build. For example, athletics charms are always useful, whether increasing your mobility, or boosting your strength. The initial athletics charm from the acrobatic side of the tree is known in many groups as the ?wire-fu charm? for good reason. It allows you, without dice rolls, to perform actions which wouldn?t be out of place in a Jet Li or Jackie Chan movie. 
The Solar social charm trees are also well worth getting a foothold in, since they are the most efficient and powerful charms available to Solars, especially at the top levels. Ox Body Technique is a very good investment for starting characters, and it is a good idea to take one level of it regardless of concept, since it improves your survivability dramatically. Overall, taking almost any of the non combat charms is useful, with only Ox Body being close to necessary. 

====Martial Artists and Sorcerers====
Martial Artists and Sorcerers require somewhat different charm picks from regular exalted; the unusual way their abilities and/or charms work merits special attention. 

''Martial Artists'' 
Solar martial artists are in something of a strange situation when it comes to picking abilities and charms: Martial arts provides both unarmed and armed combat options (in this, it is similar to Brawl) and the charms have effects commonly associated with several other abilities (notably Lore, Occult, Dodge and resistance, depending on the martial arts tree). Also, a solar martial artist has the problem that their non martial arts charm options are often more attractive, as they tend to be more powerful or wide reaching in effect. However, the wide range of effects available within a single tree makes up for less directly powerful charms. 

Overall, martial artists still want to have a broad selection of defensive charms, with the three charm guideline still applying. Another good guideline for the dedicated Martial artist is to buy all the charms up to and including the form charm at character creation; the pre form charms tend to be slightly underpowered, while the form is dead on power level, and the post form charms are slightly overpowered. Buying up to the form gives a wide range of effects for a starting martial artist, and generally provides at least two charms to combo together early on. It?s also worth noting that taking much more than the form at character creation tends not to pay off in the same way as taking a large number of melee charms; you sacrifice flexibility for domination of a single niche. It is important to remember, however, that a very competent Solar martial artist takes time to build, usually 20-30 exp points, by which point you should be deep enough in your chosen tree to have access to good abilities, and powerful combos. Remember too, to factor in whether your chosen martial arts style allows armour to be worn with it, when choosing defensive charms: A naked (comparatively) martial artist may need a stronger active defence than an armoured one. It?s also worth stressing again that a Solar martial artist who picks only Celestial level martial artists will not have the same raw power of a solar Brawler or Meleeist, but will have far, far more flexibility in the effects of his charms. 

''Sorcerers''
Sorcery is the area where the Solar Exalted excel best, their large essence pools make them more capable than other terrestrial and celestial level sorcerers, and only they have access to the most powerful magic in creation: Spells of the Solar Circle. 

Overall, as a starting Sorcerer, a 4/3/3 charm split between sorcery/combat/non combat charms is a good guideline: It gives you Terrestrial Circle Sorcery and three spells, three combat charms to be split between offence and defence, and three other charms to be used to broaden your abilities. 

As far as spell picks go, the only spell which is really necessary is Emerald Countermagic: It is the spell to take sorcery to get: The ability to shut down enemy sorcerers as they cast is not to be underestimated, especially when you consider how powerful even terrestrial spells are. As far as other spell picks go, check what you want out of sorcery; want to be the best battlefield sorcerer of a generation, take Storm of Obsidian Butterflies. Sorcerer-savant who searches for ancient texts; The Eye and the Mouth. It is also important to consider how your spells interact with your other charms: You don?t necessarily need a powerful defensive charm if you can cast Invulnerable Skin of Bronze against powerful opponents. From your three combat charms, taking two defensive and one offensive is a good rule of thumb if you want to be effective in a fight aside from sorcery. For the non combat charms, naturally the non sorcery occult charms are very useful (especially All Encompassing Sorcerers Sight) and social charms will help overcome the in setting stigma associated with sorcerers in some areas of creation. Overall, specialising in the broad area of -the unusual and occult- isn not a bad idea, as this vague area includes most of the abilities associated with the Twilight caste, except Craft.

This brings up another benefit of sorcery: the knowledge of magic to craft powerful artefacts: If you decide to take Crafts as a sorcerer, the combination of high crafts and the high occult needed to buy sorcery gives an excellent starting dice pool for artefact creation. 


====Are You Experienced?==== 
Once you have experience, you are going to want to spend it. Early in your career as a Solar, where you sink your experience can make a big difference to the effectiveness of your character. As you start to reach middling experience levels, where you sink your points into matters less and less until you reach the point where no matter what you buy, you will be deadly in one way or another. So this experience guide is broken into three stages: New exalts, experienced exalts, and masters of the universe. This guide doesn?t really apply to dedicated marital artists or sorcerers, who will be covered separately 

''''New exalts (0-40 exp)'''': As a new exalt, there are two things you should be spending your experience on: Basic combos, especially defensive ones, and heading deeper into your favoured charm trees. 

''Combos'': Combos are what set competent exalted apart from their peers, and having a good range of basic combos sets you in good stead for later advancement. A powerful defensive combo, or a combo with an attack and a powerful defensive element are virtually essential, and are not expensive to build, most costing about the same as a new charm. 

''Charms'': Favoured charms are cheap, you should be able to afford one every other session, give or take. They are also very useful, heading partially into one or two trees is a good way to spend your experience, and it gives you a wide range of options for combos. Defensive charms are always a better choice than offensive ones, since a good defence is stronger than a good offence in Exalted. 

''''Experienced exalts (40-90 exp)'''': Experienced exalts have a few more options open to them, but one thing should dominate your exp spending, as it will make life as an exalt far easier: Persistent defences. That is defensive charms that last a full scene, and allow a free action to defend yourself. A good persistent defence frees you of using a defensive charm every turn, so you can act more effectively, using a wider variety of charms. It?s also worth noting that stacked persistent defences (that is more than one active at the same time) make you very very hard to hurt. 

Other things to spend exp on at this level are; improving your abilities, it?s cheap if they are favoured, and it makes your charms more effective. Solar social charms; this is the time to get a foothold on those social charm trees, as they are the most powerful charms the Solars have access to. If you picked some up before, now?s the time to get the more powerful ones. Essence: This is a prerequisite for persistent defences if you didn?t buy essence three at character creation, so you may want to pick this up. More combos. Wide ranges of combos are always good. Perfect effects: As you gain access to persistent effects, you also gain access to perfect defences. As the big strength of the Solars, picking these up is no bad thing. 

''''Masters of the Universe (90 exp plus)'''': Now it is time to either buy up the last few charms in your favourite tree, or make your own custom charms. Either that, or finish off the social trees. You can also up your essence to four or five, if you feel it necessary, or up some of your abilities. By now, you are powerful enough to pick and choose whatever you like to spend exp on.