Exalted - Crafting Notes

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House Rules:
To make things easier I've reduced the number of craft skills down, so that you don't have to spend quite as much to become good at something.

First House Rule:
You only need to buy the first dot of crafts once. Any further purchases you can get the first dot of crafts for free when you buy it.

(So for example if you have Craft as a caste or speciality skill and you have Craft: Fire (Weapon smithing) 4, and Craft: Earth 0, you would normally need to spend: 3 exp to get the first dot and 1 exp more to get the second dot. However under this system you could get Craft: Earth at 2 dots for a total of only 1 exp.

Second House Rule:
There are a limited number of craft skills these are the ones usually available to Solars:
 * Craft: Air (Calligraphy, small precision or decorative items as well as gasses)
 * Example specialities: Calligraphy, gem-cutting, Perfume making, lens cutting, Mosaic or Origami
 * Craft: Earth (Masonry, stone cutting, creating earthworks)
 * Example specialities: Civil Engineering, Architecture, Sculpture, Earthworks or Sapping
 * Craft: Fire (Forging and casting large metal objects and creating objects using fire.)
 * Example specialities: Blacksmithing, Weaponsmithing, Armour making, Pottery or Silversmithing.
 * Craft: Water (Boiling and cooking plants, chemicals and animal materials)
 * Example specialities: cooking, brewing, leather working, pharmacy. alchemy or poison-making.


 * Craft: Wood (Carving, weaving and manipulating natural materials without water)
 * Example specialities: carpentry, weaving, paper-making or flower arranging

When you buy one of these skills, you get a speciality for free (representing your primary focus) and can buy additional specialities at 3 exp each. If you have the appropriate speciality you can use the full value of the skill +1 (as normal for a speciality). However if you don't have the appropriate speciality you use it at a -1 penalty instead. You ignore this penalty if you have craft specialities in that skill equal to your rating. (For example if you have Craft: Water 3 (Cooking, leatherworking and ink-making), you could make a roll against Craft Water to do brewing without penalty)
 * Craft: Essence (Making things with magic) - Geomancy, Artefacts, Genesis, First Age tech or Warstriders
 * Example specialities: By magical material (e.g. Orichalcum, Jade, Soulsteel, Moonsilver or Starmetal) Manses (AKA geomancy), Warstriders, Airships, Genesis (i.e. Designing living things)
 * Note: Craft Essence works with other crafting skills and when making magical things you normally roll the lower of the two craft skills.

There are also some other craft skills which are more specialised which PCs will not generally have access to.
 * Craft: Glamour [Not generally available to PCs]
 * Craft: Destiny [Not generally available to PCs]

Third House Rule:
I may reduce crafting exp requirements to what the PCs can afford at GMs discretion if the crafting project is explicitly being used to address a plot point and is not being kept by the player party. (Because I don't want to stop the PCs from enacting a brilliant plan to make the local nobles kill each other over a perfect golden apple inscribed: "To the fairest" because you don't have enough silver exp for the project).

Fourth House Rule:
Some charms will be changed because of the above rule.

At the moment the only major change is that the charm:

Arete-Shifting Prana
If used on a craft within the same crafting skill, it allows you to convert one craft speciality to another for the duration of a project (e.g. Craft: Fire 4 (Weaponsmithing) can become Craft: Fire 4 (Armoursmithing)). This has the normal cost, but does not cost a silver crafting experience.

It can however be used as normal if a closely related art belongs to another skill (e.g. if you have Craft: Fire (Blacksmithing) but want to make a delicate piece of metal jewellery you could use this as per the book to convert your Craft: Fire in to Craft: Air (Jewellery).)

Crafting Cheat Sheet:
These difficulties can be adjusted due to circumstances such as tools, materials or time being either lacking or abundant or due to environmental conditions.

Craftsman needs no tools shifts the time required to complete an objective down by 1 increment (Days becomes hours for example)

Glorious Solar Chef

 * Cost: 4m 1wp;
 * Mins: Craft: Water (Cooking) 2,
 * Essence 1
 * Type: Supplemental
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: One day

This Charm supplements an attempt to cook something. If the attempt succeeds, it allows the Solar to make an attempt to instill happiness with (Charisma + Craft), targeting everyone who eats what they cooked. Anyone other than the Solar who's affected by this regains a point of willpower, up to a limit of half their normal maximum, once per day.

With a suitable stunt, the Solar may attempt to instill something other than happiness with this Charm. Those affected by attempts to instill other emotions may or may not regain willpower, at the ST's discretion.

Normally this Charm may only enhance enough food to feed five people. At Essence 2+, the Solar may spend an extra 3m to enhance enough food for a few dozen, and at Essence 3+ they may spend an extra 6m to enhance enough food for hundreds.

Perfect Gemcutter's Art

 * Cost: 5m, 1wp
 * Mins: Craft: Air (Gem-cutting or Jewellery) 4
 * Essence 1
 * Type: Supplemental
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: Instant
 * Prerequisites: Flawless Handiwork Method

This Charm supplements an attempt to cut and polish a gem. If the attempt is successful, the gem shines with light from within. The brightness of the glow depends on the value of the gem; a flawed quartz might only glow visibly in the dark, while a large and flawless diamond might be painful to look at. Gems cut this way glow until destroyed, and can easily become famous treasures or precious heirlooms.

Lock-Opening Touch

 * Cost: 1m or 5m
 * Mins: Craft: Air 2 (Mechanics)
 * Essence 1
 * Type: Reflexive
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: Instant

This Charm is identical to the Larceny Charm, and is interchangeable with it as a prerequisite. The Solar uses Craft when rolling to defeat a sorcerous lock, though.

Cloth Of Steel

 * Cost: 5m, 1wp
 * Mins: Craft: Wood 5 (Tailoring)
 * Essence 1
 * Type: Supplemental
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: Instant
 * Prerequisites: Object-Strengthening Touch

This Charm supplements an attempt to make a set of clothes. If the attempt succeeds, the clothes benefit from the effects of Object-Strengthening Touch and count as light mundane armour. They look almost identical to normal clothes; a difficulty 5 roll is needed to notice their supernatural durability. When making unusually heavy clothing, the sort that might incur a mobility penalty, the Solar may instead have them count as medium mundane armour.

Arrows Of The Dawn

 * Cost: 2+m
 * Mins: Craft: Wood (Fletching) 2
 * Essence 1
 * Type: Simple
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: Indefinite
 * Prerequisites: Any archery charm

For two motes, the Solar creates a magical arrow which flies truer and pierces deeper than any normal arrow. As long as the Solar keeps their motes committed, an arrow enhanced with this Charm adds 1 die to any attack roll made with it. A withering attack made with it also adds 2 damage and 1 minimum damage, while a decisive attack or gambit made with it doubles 10s on the Initiative roll.

A Solar who knows Phantom Arrow Technique may add 1m to this Charm's cost to create the arrow without tools or materials. Once per story, if they can use the Adamant Arrow Technique, they may apply it to an arrow enhanced with this Charm. Once the arrow has been fired, it then remains inviolate even after the Solar removes the motes from this Charm.

A Solar who knows Wise Arrow, Fiery Arrow Attack, Force Without Fire, or There Is No Wind may add the effects of those Charms to arrows enhanced with this Charm. Doing so also adds the cost of the Charm or Charms in question to that of this Charm.

Instantaneous Architecture Technique

 * Cost: 12m
 * Mins: Craft: Earth (Architecture) 5
 * Essence 2
 * Type: Simple
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: Indefinite
 * Prerequisites: Words As Workshop Method

The Solar conjures an entire structure from their Essence. A house, a bridge, a wall - all can be created in a moment with this Charm. Structures created this way resemble the products of Words As Workshop Method, and disappear when the Solar withdraws their mote commitment. Roll Intelligence + Craft to determine the quality of the created structure if it becomes relevant.

This Charm is sometimes used to create walls in battle. A wall created this way may be climbed with a miscellaneous action and a difficulty 2 (Dexterity or Strength + Athletics) roll or smashed down with a Strength 10+, difficulty 15 feat of strength. Going around one takes two reflexive move actions. If the Solar chooses to wrap the wall around themselves, they may form a cell that can't be entered without breaking through. This often ends a fight, but it's a delaying strategy only.

A Solar who knows The Art Of Permanence may spend 1wp when activating this Charm to create a permanent mundane structure instead of a glowing structure of Essence.

Structures created this way cannot be larger than an average house or a narrow bridge across a wide river. With a repurchase at Essence 4+, however, the Solar can spend an additional 13m to create something as large as a palace or a wall that encircles a town. Such structures cost 3wp to make permanent with The Art Of Permanence.

Twilight Chemistry

 * Cost: 10m;
 * Mins: Craft: Water (Alchemy) 5
 * Essence 2
 * Type: Simple
 * Keywords: Agnostic, Stackable
 * Duration: Instant
 * Prerequisites: Flawless Handiwork Method

This Charm is a two-hour-long action in which the Solar brews a magical chemical from ingredients found in any respectable alchemical laboratory. With multiple activations of this Charm, the Solar may create multiple chemicals or multiple doses of the same chemical at the same time. Chemicals produced this way last for (Essence) weeks or until used.

Upon learning this Charm, the Solar gains access to three formulas. They may purchase more for 3xp apiece, selecting from the list below or inventing their own.
 * Sovereign Glue: A nearly perfect adhesive. It's waterproof, heatproof, lasts forever, can stick anything to anything, and requires a Strength 10+ difficulty 15 feat of strength to pull apart.
 * Alkahest: A universal solvent, capable of eating through any nonmagical material except glass. The amount produced is enough to destroy a finger-sized amount of matter. Being exposed to it is an environmental hazard with damage 5L, difficulty to resist 5. It may be delivered to an enemy with a difficulty 2 gambit. However, unless stored in packaging that takes a miscellaneous action to open, the vial will break and expose its carrier to its effects whenever that carrier takes falling damage or more than six dice of bashing damage.
 * The Spit Of Hesiesh: A potent incendiary that ignites when exposed to air. It burns for only a few seconds, but gives off as much heat as a bonfire. If used in combat, it has the same statistics as Alkahest.
 * The Philosopher's Stone: A grey rocky substance that, when rubbed into base metal, transforms it to gold. One dose can produce about an ounce of gold.
 * Adorjan's Blood: A foul-tasting liquid that fills its drinker with a strange mixture of rage and glee. A character who drinks a full dose has a Major Principle of "violence is wonderful", feels no fear whatsoever, reduces their wound penalties and defenses by 1, and adds 1 to their withering accuracy and damage. A dose may also be diluted, giving a Minor Principle to up to twenty people. A battle group can't hold together under the effects of a diluted dose unless it has Elite Drill, in which case it gains Perfect Morale at the cost of Poor Drill. It's pretty difficult to dose an unwilling target with Adorjan's Blood, but if it happens resisting a full dose is difficulty 3 and resisting a diluted dose is difficulty 1 using (Stamina + Resistance or Integrity).
 * Powdered Death: A tasteless and odorless poison with the following traits: damage 3L/hour, duration 5 hours, penalty -1, vector ingestion. Add 2 to the duration against a mortal. It's surprisingly painless to die this way.
 * Knife-Ice: A weapon poison that makes the affected area feel very very cold. It has the following traits: damage 3i/round (B in Crash), duration 6 rounds, penalty -3, vector damage.
 * Solar Ink: An ink/paint (it works as either) that glows in the colour or colours of the maker's choice. It adheres to any surface and, once used, will never fade or leak from the page. One dose is a full liter of fluid.
 * Liquid Peace: A silver liquid that causes pain to be felt as a pleasant numbness. It doesn't remove wound penalties, though: the numbness is fairly debilitating. Liquid Peace lasts for about a day for someone who weighs 150 pounds, and can be quite addictive.
 * The Kiss Of Venus: A genuine aphrodisiac. Anyone who takes a doze gains a Minor Intimacy of lust towards everyone. It lasts for about four hours, assuming a 150-pound subject, and can be resisted with a difficulty 2 (Stamina + Resistance or Integrity) if the person taking it isn't willing to experience its effects.

Painted Truth Prana/Philosophy Carved In Stone

 * Cost: 10m, 1wp
 * Mins: Craft: Air (Painting) 5 or Craft Earth (Sculpture) 5
 * Essence 2
 * Type: Supplemental
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: Instant
 * Prerequisites: Flawless Handiwork Method

This Charm supplements an attempt to create a painting or a sculpture. If the attempt succeeds, the Solar may roll (Charisma or Manipulation + Craft) as a social influence roll that targets anyone who takes some time to examine the artwork. If the Solar wishes to play on an Intimacy with their art, they must name it as they work. Apart from that, they may deliver any form of social influence in this way.

The influential nature of artwork created this way is obvious. Everyone can tell what the message is as long as they're familiar with the relevant characters and concepts. The social influence effect lasts as long as it remains relevant; a painting that instils sadness will remain effective as long as it's intact, but a sculpture that portrays Chejop Kejak as a bumbling fool will lose its effectiveness when Chejop Kejak is dead and nobody remembers what he looked like.

Living Statue Genesis/Clockwork Menagerie Technique

 * Cost: 8m
 * Mins: Craft: Air (Mechanics) 4 or Craft: Earth (Sculpture) 4
 * Essence 2
 * Type: Simple
 * Keywords: Agnostic, Stackable
 * Duration: Indefinite
 * Prerequisites: Flawless Handiwork Method

The Solar touches a statue of an animal, or a (possibly non-functional) mechanical imitation of an animal, that they've created. It springs to life and remains animate for as long as the Solar keeps their motes committed. An animal created this way is in all ways like a normal animal, except that it can understand its creator's speech, it reliably obeys its creator's instructions, and it looks obviously inanimate. Animals imitated this way must be at least as large as a mouse and no larger than a dog.

Miraculous Mapmaker Method

 * Cost: 6m, 1wp
 * Mins: Craft: Air (Cartography) 3
 * Essence 2
 * Type: Supplemental
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: Instant or Indefinite
 * Prerequisites: Flawless Handiwork Method

This Charm supplements an attempt to draw a map. If the attempt is successful, the map has details ten times as fine as it normally would. More supernaturally, the map changes as the area depicted does. A destroyed city disappears, a renamed mountain is relabelled. The map never loses its accuracy over time, though it's sometimes slow to update. The speed of the changes depends on how close the map is to its subject: a map of Creation stored in Nexus will quickly account for a change to Nexus's name, but it might take a while for it to note the sinking of an island in the far West.

The effectiveness of this Charm depends on the accuracy of the information provided. A false map will update falsely, preserving its errors. However, a Solar using this Charm has a near-perfect sense for the consistency of the geographical information they're working with. Tricking them into drawing a false map has a difficulty of their Perception + Craft.

A Solar may activate this Charm with Indefinite duration to draw a map of an area while exploring it. This removes all penalties for drawing on the move, and gives the Solar or their guide(s) an automatic success on all navigation rolls.

Glorious Solar Arsenal
The Solar shapes their Essence into a weapon with the traits of an artefact weapon. This Charm may create anything from smashfists to a dragon sigh wand, but if used to create a weapon that uses ammunition it doesn't provide any. The Solar may create the weapon in the hands of another character within Close range, if they so choose. Weapons created this way shine like a torch in the colours of the Solar's anima. They have no Evocations.
 * Cost: 5m, 1wp
 * Mins: Craft: Fire (Weaponsmithing) 4
 * Essence 2
 * Type: Simple
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: One scene
 * Prerequisites: Words As Workshop Method

Glorious Solar Armoury

 * Cost: 10m, 1wp
 * Mins: Craft: Fire (Armoursmithing) 4
 * Essence 3
 * Type: Simple
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: Indefinite
 * Prerequisites: Words As Workshop Method

The Solar shapes their essence into a suit of armour with the traits of light, medium, or heavy artifact armour. The armour forms around the Solar or a willing character within Close range, and may replace the traits of any existing armour with its own. Armour created this way glows brightly in the colours of the Solar's anima. It has no Evocations, but a character who knows Armoured Scout's Invigoration may activate that Charm for free upon being armoured this way.

Life From The Workshop

 * Cost: (+7m); Mins
 * Craft: Air (Mechanics) 5 or Craft: Earth (Sculpture) 5
 * Essence 3
 * Type: Permanent
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: Permanent
 * Prerequisites: Living Statue Genesis/Clockwork Menagerie Technique

This Charm enhances its prerequisite. By committing an additional 7m, the Solar can animate a human or an animal up to the size of a horse or tiger. Human machines/statues are intelligent and can talk, but are totally uncreative. They use the statistics of the Walking Statue for humanoids. Animals use standard animal stats.

Stone Legion Construction/Mechanical Legion Construction

 * Cost: (+17m)
 * Mins: Craft: Air (Mechanics) 5 or Craft: Earth (Sculpture) 5
 * Essence 4
 * Type: Permanent
 * Keywords: Agnostic
 * Duration: Permanent
 * Prerequisites: Life From The Workshop

This Charm enhances the Solar's ability to create beings further. By committing an additional 17m, the Solar can animate a size 3 group of imitation humans or a single imitation animal up to the size of a tyrant lizard. Artificial battle groups have Average Drill and Perfect Morale.

Dual Magus Prana
The Solar creates a duplicate of themselves. The duplicate is controlled by the Solar's mind and animated by their Essence, so it's not really possible for both original and copy to act simultaneously. But the Solar can use all of their abilities through their duplicate, and telling the difference between original and copy is difficulty 10. The duplicate is good enough to fool almost all magical tests, but not the Eye of the Unconquered Sun.
 * cost: 15m
 * Mins: Craft Essence (Genesis) 5 and Air (Mechanics) 5 or Craft: Earth (Sculpture) 5, Essence 5
 * Type: Simple
 * Keywords: Stackable
 * Duration: Indefinite
 * Prerequisites: Stone Legion Construction/Mechanical Legion Construction

Most of the time, the Solar's player need not specify whether they're playing themselves or their duplicate. They can essentially be in two places at once, sharing a mind and an essence pool between two bodies. They may at any moment declare that one body or the other is the real one. However, when subjected to a successful attempt to determine whether they're really them, they must decide whether the body being examined is the real one.

The Solar may create more than one duplicate when activating this Charm, by simply paying 15 motes multiple times. However, they may only create one batch of duplicates per story.

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