Essence and Health Variant
From Exaltedcursejar
[edit] Passive Essence Increase
Essence cannot be purchased with either bonus points or experience. Instead, Essence raises automatically after the character has spent a certain amount of experience points (the player should keep track of experience gained and spent).
Magical Beings:
- Essence 2 - 0-99xp
- Essence 3 - 100-299xp
- Essence 4 - 300-599xp
- Essence 5 - 600xp+
Mortals:
- Essence 1 - 0-199xp
- Essence 2 - 200-399xp
- Essence 3 - 400xp+
Once a character has spent the listed experience (regardless of what traits it has been spent on), the character’s Essence increases for free.
As a note: this means all sorcerers and immaculate monks are 100xp+ characters. If a group is amenable to variation in overall power, the ST may allow a character to start with the required experience as part of character creation for certain concepts. For instance, Immaculates played in a Dragon Blooded group would have 100xp base.
If the group is not so inclined, then characters will need to be training toward sorcery, and cannot start as monks.
[edit] Magical Beings are Tough
All beings that can purchase Ox-Body Technique (or an equivalent) can no longer buy that effect directly. Instead, they receive one application for free for each dot of Essence they have (see above). When Essence increases, they gain a new rank automatically as part of the overall increase in power.
Mortals do not gain this benefit.
If an Exalt has multiple variations of Ox-Body they can take (such as Solars, who have three options), a different variant may be selected per application.
[edit] Exalts are even Tougher
As the weapons of the divine, made to fight the Primordials, the Exalted are made of even sterner stuff.
Exalts are not killed by Lethal damage. Instead, once reduced to incapacitated by lethal, any damage (bashing or lethal) past incapacitated converts into aggravated levels beginning at the start of the health track (much as bashing levels roll into lethal).
Note that an exalt unable to take actions cannot reflexively staunch their own bleeding and thus may bleed to death if not aided by magic or allies.
