Editing Exalted Combos (section)

===Pay to Play===

''''OK, so how do I figure out what a combo costs to use?''''

Sometimes combo costs are listed in confusing fashion. Don't be confused!

Here's what a combo costs to use: 1 willpower. That's it. You pay your WP, and the combo is activated for the rest of the turn.

After that, each activation of a charm in the combo costs what it normally would.


''''When can I activate my combo? When should I?''''

You can activate a combo the first time you use a charm in a turn. For instance, if you're attacked before your initiative, and you have a combo with a defence charm, like Dipping Swallow Defence, you can activate the combo then, and use Dipping Swallow Defence, even if your combo also has many other charms in it. You would then use the other charms later in the turn when your initiative came around. You should probably describe the signature in your stunts throughout the turn. Shouting the name of the charm is strictly optional.

Note, however, if you've already used a Charm that turn, you can't later activate a combo, even if the combo includes the charm you used. So if you used Dipping Swallow Defence to defend yourself early in the turn, you can't activate a combo containing Dipping Swallow Defence on your initiative to get access to other charms. You missed your chance, silly!


''''Help! I killed the Abyssal half way through my combo, but the rules say I still need to use the rest of my Extra Actions for the Simple Charm in the combo!''''

That's right! You'll just have to attack rocks and trees and the rest of the scenery.

There's no explicit rules for it, but your ST might be nice enough to rule that you don't need to take extra attacks if there's no sensible reason to do so.

It's generally considered bad form to attack your friends or their followers just so you don't "waste the combo".



''''Can I combo charms from different Martial Arts styles together?''''

Yes, that's one of the best parts of being a Martial Artist! Be careful, though - comboing charms doesn't ease weapon restrictions, so you while you CAN combo Armour Penetrating Fang Strike (Snake Style) and Spine-Shattering Bite (Tiger Style), you wouldn't be able to use the combo with Tiger Claws - you'd have to go bare-handed.


''''Don't some charms break these rules?''''

Yes they do! Examples include Leaping Tiger Attack and Ghost Eating Blow. Those charms explicitly state how they break these rules, however, so don't worry about it unless you're using those charms, and then simply follow the rules in their text.


'''My crazy friend told me you can't take multiple actions ("split your dice pool") while you use a combo - is he crazy?'''

He sure is! Actually a lot of people get this idea due to an errant example in the core book. The fact of the matter is, using a combo doesn't stop you from taking multiple actions - CHARMS stop you from doing that, in particular Simple and Extra Action charms. And as we know, if you use a combo with those charms in it, you must use them, and hence can't take multiple actions.

You can, however, take multiple actions normally and use a combo with only Reflexive and/or Supplemental charms. Yay!

Of course, this means you can't take multiple actions, or abort to a defence, or use your action in any other way, and then activate a combo with an Extra Action or Simple charm in it. If you use such a combo, you MUST reserve your action for those charms.