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Focused Abilities

By Bill Garrett

Submitted on 23 Dec 2006 at 05:31:21 PM EST
Last updated on 23 Dec 2006 at 05:41:26 PM EST

Category: House Rules

Not all abilities have clearly-delineated boundaries of expertise, but all abilities should be treated as similarly as possible to maintain the game’s consistency and fun. This is an attempt to generalize some of the “Expanded (Ability)” articles in an alternate form.

This introduces a new rules concept: Abilities which require focus versus abilities which do not. The Storyteller is the final arbiter on which abilities in his game require focus, but the suggested list includes Melee, Craft, Linguistics, and Lore.

Abilities which do not require focus function exactly as they do in Exalted, Second Edition. Characters are limited to purchasing three specialty dots for such abilities.

Abilities which require focus function as follows:

The character must declare a specialty category (e.g. “Melee (Swords)”) when he purchases his first dot of the ability. He does not need to buy an actual specialty dot. What he is doing is narrowing the scope of the ability.
Characters may raise focused abilities to five dots or beyond, as per the standard Exalted rules.
Uses of the ability which fall outside the character’s declared category are rolled at an internal penalty of -3. This follows the normal rules for internal penalties. The Storyteller may declare a different penalty for different abilities.
Characters may purchase an unlimited number of specialty dots for focused abilities. However, no more than three specialty dots may be applied to any one roll, as normal.

Examples:

Eiji (Craft [First Age] 4, Lore [First Age] 5) is a Twilight Caste Solar. He uses his Craft and Lore abilities at their full rating when working with First Age materials. He has an effective Craft of 1 and an effective Lore of 2 with all other aspects of these abilities. However, he may purchase one or more specialty dots, such as Craft [First Age] 4, (Fire +2, Water +2), and apply them to offset his ability penalty.

Ratings

Submission Rating: Description: +4 | Rules: +1 | Originality: +5

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Description: +1 | Rules: +1 | Originality: +1 - Flagg (about 1 year)

I think this is a clean and simple way of narrowing the scope of some of the broader Abilities, if that's what one is inclined to do.

Description: +1 | Rules: +1 | Originality: +1 - Wordman (about 1 year)

This is similar to my 1e alternative Craft rules, but much less clunky. I think I'd add Survival to the list as well.

Description: +1 | Rules: +1 | Originality: +1 - Solfi (about 1 year)

I like it. For the same reasons as previous raters.

Description: +0 | Rules: -1 | Originality: +1 - Ker'ion (about 1 year)

Though I do not like the initial concept of your Focused Abilities design, it does have merit for those who wish to use it. Most of what I have a problem with it, as you have laid it out, is that I disagree with the severity of the internal penalty. Someone who is skilled with one particular weapon (as in your melee example) is not going to be so severely hindered in the use of another weapon as to have an imposed -3 modifier. I regularly practice with melee weapons, so I do have some footing in this subject, as well as thrown weapons (anyone who can throw a knife with any accuracy can sure as hell throw a shuriken and a chakram is nothing more than an overgrown throwing star when it actually comes to functionality).
A -1 or -2 at most would suffice, though with Craft rules, I personally believe that someone with one Craft (say woodworking) is going to be absolutely clueless when it comes to another type of crafting (First Age), therefore, I disallow using one Crafts skill on another type of Craft completely.
What this ruling is being used to cover for is the severely restricted use of specialties. If you have a problem with the restrictions, you as the ST may change it as you wish.
About the description, I believe it to be too short to properly define the original problem you are trying to patch. Try to add a bit of flavor to it, though this isn't a sales pitch, so a paragraph or so should suffice.

Description: +1 | Rules: -1 | Originality: +1 - Ledaal Kajiri (about 1 year)

It is rather original, but to my mind goes directly against the grain of Exalted as a game of epic heroism. If you prefer a grittier game, enjoy...but to my mind this over complicates things.

List

Resources for Exalted Second Edition

Focused Abilities

By Bill Garrett