Editing Mnemon Explains Solar Combat (section)

==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.