Editing Exalted Power Combat 101 (section)

=== Dice Pool Penalites For Essence Users ===

Sadly for the young hero, however, the spear was but one of the mechanism's organic assaults.  A hideous cloud of spores seeps into the chamber, filling his lungs and forcing him to cough uncontrollably.  This is of particular note as he stumbles forward, and the next flagstone grinds beneath his feet, eloquently speaking of a second mechanism...

<i> The horrible spores levy a 2 dice penalty to all of Alakra's pools.  How sad!  Even worse, there is another trap on the next flagstone, and the ST calls for another Perception + Awareness roll.  Surely this time Alakra will fail--with a 2 dice penalty from his Perception of 3, he'll have only one die--right? </i>

<i>Actually, no.  As an Essence User, Alakra is attuned to the world, and thus there is a limit to which his ability to affect it may be diminished.  No Essence User can have their dice pool reduced beneath their Essence by dice pool penalties.  As such, Alakra rolls his full 3 dice, since his Essence is 3. </i>

<i>He scores one success--luckily. </i>

<i>Note that wound penalties are explicitly an exception to this rule.  Multiple action penalties are also an exception (though not explicitly stated in the Player's Guide).  Note also that this rule applies to all beings with access to their Essence pools--unlike the unskilled penalty rule above, which is the exclusive purview of the Exalted. </i>