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In Short

Exalted 2nd is so loaded with ideas that even those who would never run this highly involved game system will still leave the book with a host of fresh ideas. This fantasy setting is a pleasant deviation from the quasi-European middle ages settings so many fantasy games use. Divinely imbued beings, strict social classes, world shattering threats, heaven, hell, mysterious prophecies, this game seamlessly incorporates a wide range of interesting ideas into one fantastic product.

The only downside is the sheer level of complexity involved in the rules system. Normal combat, social combat, mass combat, maneuvers for each of those, special powers (Charms) for each type of combat, spells, and large dice pools lead to a very mechanics heavy RPG.

The Physical Thing

Both the front and back covers have large, detailed, full color maps of the entire game world. A table of contents, detailed index, and character sheet make the book easy to use and assist with understanding the game system. The formatting is fantastic and the book is very readable, though the font is a little small.

The Ideas

The religion that has spread over a considerable amount of creation has cast the Solars as being evil devils called anathema, ensuring that should they return many common folk within the Realm would fear them. Outside the Realm the political geography is as varied as can be imagined. Regardless, the return of people possessed of both great passion and power beyond imagination is enough to make them outcasts wherever they travel.

In Exalted players take on the role of these Solar Exalted and imagination is the ultimate limit of their abilities. With a heavy anime influence characters are strongly encouraged to attempt over the top action sequences and to think big with everything they do. There is no default metaplot for the Solar Exalted, so what path they follow is ultimately up to you and your friends.

Under the Cover

As with the Introduction section of other White Wolf products, this part of the book explains what Exalted is all about while providing information on all the nifty setting jargon that is used through the book. Don’t know what a hearthstone is? Flip back to the introduction for a solid one paragraph explanation. The Lexicon of terms is top notch and concisely explains these concepts for the Exalted novice. A suggested fiction section rounds out this chapter.

Chapter 1 Setting 48 pages.

For many readers this will be the best part of the book. The sprawling setting of 1st edition Exalted has been concisely laid out for the new reader, and it’s incredible. Forty eight pages of solid writing spins out an innovative and interesting fantasy setting that is sure to offer something fun for everyone. This first chapter offers more setting material than many other setting books, and though there is a lot of setting here it does not limit the creativity of the GM. Instead, just enough detail is provided to give Creation a unique feel while leaving the details of much of the world up to the GM or later setting products.

Unlike 1st edition, the approach of the 2nd edition book involves all types of Exalted. While there is a focus on Solar Exalted, information on Dragonblooded society and households is provided as well. The Dragonblooded are a lesser form of Exalted, called Terrestrial Exalted, that are often used as adversaries for the Solar Exalted. They control the Realm and play an important role in all of Creation.

The geography of creation is based around the five Elemental Poles. Earth is located in the center of creation, Wood to the East, Water to the West, Fire to the South, and Air to the North. As one approaches each of these Poles the landscape begins taking on the property of that element until nothing else remains. It is said that if one sails West far enough, for example, they reach a point where there are no more islands and the sea stretches off into eternity.

Of course, with such a magical world as Creation the peoples that inhabit it are extremely diverse. Ethnicities, cultures, religions, and ways of living differ sharply between different parts of creation. While Exalted only supports playing human types of characters, make no mistake that there are all manner of spirits, monsters, and gods scattered across the landscape.

Whether you’re new to the setting or an old hand this is a powerful resource. With the setting clearly spelled out in a very readable manner, this is a section that many folk will turn to again and again as they plan out their adventures across creation.

Chapter 2 Character Creation 18 pages.

Chapters 2, 3, and 5 are all used extensively in character creation. That makes for 130 pages of character creation information. Fortunately, Chapter 2 breaks all this down for a player and explains how to go about creating a character for Exalted. The most important part of this, especially for those new to Exalted, is to come up with a character concept before delving into the myriad combinations of abilities

The entire character creation process is laid out, and most importantly a detailed example of character creation is provided. This example includes everything, including calculation of derived stats and a discussion of why various abilities might be selected for the concept.

Chapter 3 Traits 30 pages.

This chapter focuses exclusively on character creation and is more mechanics focused than chapter 2. It begins with a discussion of Motivations and Intimacies, two new mechanics introduced in Exalted 2nd. Motivations are exactly what they sound like, the character’s current goal cast in epic proportions. Characters may receive certain small mechanical bonuses for following and fulfilling their Motivation.

Intimacies are a little more complex. The character has a certain number of points to distribute among things that are important to them. Instead, Intimacies gain a certain amount of protection from social attacks and can be affected by certain Social Charms (more on Charms below). They likely also exist to provide targets for social abilities and to further flesh out a character.

In Exalted every Solar belongs to one of five Castes. Each of these five Castes represents the general role the character fits into and is loosely similar to the traditional fantasy classes found in Dungeons and Dragons and other products. The Dawn Caste represents powerful martial ability and war making. The Zenith Caste encompasses the holy people of the Solars with an Eastern monastic flair. The Twilight Caste focuses on sorcery, knowledge, and intellectual pursuits. The Night Caste focuses on stealth, archery, and thievery. Finally, the Eclipse Caste focuses on diplomacy and social abilities. Each of these Castes has a unique ability that further strengths its niche. The Eclipse, for example, may magically seal bargains between people.

In addition to the unique Caste ability, choosing a Caste designates certain skills as being easier to advance than others. Indeed, characters are required to put a certain number of their starting points in the Caste favored skills. This, combined with the Caste ability, offers a strong degree of niche protection. While there are many varied types of Dawn Caste out there, all of them will have a strong focus on martial ability.

Next, the chapter focuses on Attributes. Attributes are the basic inherent capabilities of a character, while Skills are learned abilities. Attributes include Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance, Perception, Intelligence, and Wits. Players prioritize Physical, Social, and Mental attributes and are given a pool of points to distribute to them. Each Attribute will range from 1 to 5. For clarity, know that many tasks are resolved by using a combination of Attribute + Skill and rolling that many d10s. A conniving politician might roll Manipulation + Subterfuge to spin a lie.

After buying Attributes a player spends Virtue points. The four Virtues present in the game include Compassion, Conviction, Temperance, and Valor. Solar Exalted are beings of great passion, and may call upon their Virtues for small to large in game bonuses when faced with situations that implicate a given Virtue. So, when defending a slave from her master’s whip a character might be able to add her Compassion to her roll to wrestle away the whip.

The downside to Virtues and the reason that the Solar Exalted were overthrown (in part) is that they suffer from the Great Curse. As a character acts contrary to their Virtue they build up Limit which results in a Limit Break. When this occurs they are forced to act in extreme ways, taking their Virtue to the most horrible absolute. A character focused on Valor, for instance, may select Berserk Anger as his Curse. When his Limit Breaks he goes nuts, killing all enemies and then everyone else.

For those familiar with 1st edition I will say that the 2nd edition flaws feel less extreme than some of the 1st edition ones. Personally, I find the entire Virtue system to be an artificial way to enforce roleplaying. My past players have typically disliked the mechanic as it takes some or all of their control over the character completely out of their hands and forces actions on the character that they resent. Fans of Exalted, however, point out that the mechanic encourages heroic actions and is an important flaw to the otherwise extremely powerful Solars.

Skill points are assigned to the character next. The skill list is of moderate size, with a much larger focus on social skills than that found in many games. Skills range from 1 to 5, with 1 typically being an extremely skilled normal person and 5 representing god like ability. For example, Awareness at five ranks is described as “Someone… can tell the number and location of a band of assassins waiting in a pitch black room by listening to the sound of their breathing.” Given the size of a typical Solar’s dice pool after using Charms and the like there is every reason to believe the Night Caste would also know what weapons and armor were being used by the assassins based upon how heavy or shallow their breathing was.

Next, points are assigned to Backgrounds which are exactly what they sound like. Allies, Contacts, Resources, and other such support abilities may be purchased to further flesh out a character. Ratings range from 1 to 5 and many have significant jumps in potency between those ranks. Of all the things purchased in character creation these tend to be the easiest to gain and lose during the course of roleplay.

Essence and Willpower are two additional, important stats. Permanent Essence has a variety of benefits for a character, including determining the character’s Essence Pool from which they power their abilities. Willpower represents a character’s mental fortitude and ranges from 1 to 10 (as does Essence). Willpower also creates a pool of Temporary Willpower Points which may be spent to gain automatic successes and regenerate over time.

Finally, Bonus Points may be spent to increase any aspect of the character a player likes. The only downside to Bonus Points is that they use an entirely different system from how Experience Points work so some players may manipulate character creation so as to produce characters that have the equivalent of significantly more experience than other characters.

Chapter 4 Drama and Systems 60 pages.

Dice pools of d10s are used in Exalted, typically derived from Attribute + Skill + Equipment + Modifier + Charm. This can lead to extremely large dice pools. In 1st edition it was not unusual to watch 20+ dice rolled on a single skill or attack roll, and from all appearances it remains the same in 2nd edition. Indeed, I once rolled over 80 dice while having one NPC defend against one PC in a combat round in 1st edition. Unlike 1st edition, however, the NPC is likely to at least be hurt after such an exchange. If you do not like dice pools you will not like the mechanics presented in this chapter.

Dice are rolled against a Target Number of 7 and an action is trying to match or beat a Difficulty Rating, which is the number of dice that must turn up as 7 or greater. 10s give double successes and 1s can create a botch (a very, often ridiculously bad, failure) if no other dice appear that are 7 or higher. So, a Challenging task in the system has a Difficulty Rating of 3. If a player rolled four dice and got 5, 7, 9, and 10 then they would get four successes, beating the DR of the task. Penalties and bonuses can modify the number of dice rolled and the Difficulty Rating of a task.

Many players in 1st edition used an optional rule for automatic successes, and that same rule appears in 2nd edition. Put simply, if a dice pool starts becoming very large then the character may just automatically succeed on an action instead of rolling. However, the rules still recommend making all rolls that involve consequences for failure.

Extended rolls are used to represent ongoing tasks, such as weaving a basket (ok, an epic basket) or fleeing the magistrate on horseback. These are resolved by calling for a roll every x time increment and requiring a certain number of successes to succeed at the task. A character trying to flee the magistrate on horseback might roll Wits + Ride every 2 minutes over a 10 minute period, with a total of 10 successes needed to escape.

Unlike basket weaving, fleeing the magistrate involves the magistrate’s abilities too so the roll becomes a Resisted roll. Basically, the PC and magistrate are each rolling their Wits + Ride to see who can get the advantage over the other.

In combat things occur in Rounds and characters that wish to accomplish more than one task in a round suffer a penalty. The total penalty for the first action is equal to the number of actions the character will take in that round, so a warrior who attacks three times will suffer a -3 penalty to his first attack. Every action after the first suffers a further -1 penalty, so the second attack would be at -4 and the third at -5.

The chapter includes a lengthy list of ways in which skills can be used, from picking pockets (Larceny skill) to Tracking (Survival skill) and any other special rules that are involved in that application of a skill.

Combat, Social Combat, and Mass Comb are all run in the same way. Characters join combat, take actions, and deal damage of one sort or another. That this mechanic is mostly uniform is a great choice as the game is already very involved. The biggest difference is what attributes, skills, and charms are applied in each of these three types of combat and how damage is determined. A farmer will not be killed by a powerful social attack, but he may be dominated to such a degree that he might as well be a slave.

Combat of all sorts in Exalted begins with characters rolling to join the combat. Joining also determines initiative (when the character takes their actions). Actions are resolved using a “tick system that involves weapon/action speed to determine when things are happening in a combat round. This results in characters with a fast weapon or lightning reflexes being able to act, perhaps repeatedly, before other characters. It also gives fast weapons a strong advantage.

Characters in Exalted also have a Defense Value (DV) which is used to resist attacks. As they act during a round (on their “ticks”) their DV decreases. This means that characters who want to launch a furious assault with their weapons, or otherwise perform multiple actions, are much more likely to be harmed by their enemies.

Attack rolls have to overcome defense, then the left over successes become damage which must deal with armor and soak. Whatever is left over gets through, making the actual damage process much simpler than Exalted 1st.

A friendly chart is provided to keep players abreast of how combat functions in Exalted 2nd. The Order of Attack Events states combat progresses like so: 1. Declaration of Attack. 2. Defender Declares Response. 3. Attack Roll. 4. Attack Reroll (based on Charms). 5. Subtract External Penalties/Apply Special Defenses. 6. Defense Reroll. 7. Calculate Raw Damage. 8. Apply Hardness and Soak, Roll Damage. 9. Counterattacks. 10. Apply Results.

While there is a lot more to talk about concerning combat, that can be said for most of this product. The information is really packed in, and great attention to detail has been exercised. I hope you have a flavor for combat based upon my discussion so far. Combat is very involved, strategy can be very important, and a lot of dice rolling and simple math occurs during every exchange. I suspect there isn’t a lot of middle ground here in terms of player tastes. Either you like that level of detail or don’t.

Chapter 5 Charms, Combos, and Sorcery 82 pages.

Charms are special powers the Exalted use that may invoke a variety of effects, from incredible martial arts attacks to Sorcery to all manner of anime and wuxia inspired abilities. All Charms have prerequisitives, typically requiring a certain Skill at a particular rating as well as a minimum Essence rating. This is done to encourage specialization and to prevent newer characters from gaining access to the most powerful abilities. Charms are mostly grouped by Skill, so Archery Charms are all in the same place.

Typically, Solar Exalted may use one Charm every action and must spend temporary Essence points to activate that Charm. This allows for Solar Exalted to do incredible things over a shorter period of time, but still necessitates mixing in normal rolls as well. Special combinations of Charms, called Combos, may be purchased with XP to allow multiple Charms to be used in the same action. Combos also require the expenditure of temporary Willpower points, likely cutting down on the frequency with which they will be used over normal Charms.

More so than in 1st edition, the Charm Trees are laid out in a reader friendly manner. Each Charm is clearly written and the trees use yellow and red dots to quickly clue the reader into how much Skill or Essence a Charm requires before it may be purchased.

Those who disliked Charms in 1st edition because they tend to add too many specific abilities for a GM to keep track of will be sorry to learn that, if anything, there are more charms to keep track of in more circumstances now. With Social and Mass combat additions to the core book, many Charms have been altered and some new Charms have been added that have effects on these two types of battles.

Chapter 6 Storytelling 18 pages.

This is a fairly standard GM chapter involving campaign advice and roleplay suggestions in addition to more mundane GM concerns such as travel times between various parts of the world. Travel rules are actually rather involved, which makes sense since travel in Exalted is meant to be limited. If you’ve ever read a GM chapter before then you know all of this, though the Exalted specific campaign suggestions and considerations are a nice addition.

Chapter 7 Antagonists 78 pages.

This is more than just monsters and menaces for PCs to consider. This chapter closely resembles Chapter 1 as it strongly focuses on the setting material. Every type of Exalted – Terrestrial, Sidereal, Abyssal, and Lunar – from the previous core material is included along with the Fair Folk. By included I mean they have extensive, detailed write ups that let the GM know what that group is right from the start. I think this is great because it makes the Exalted core book much more complete. If you want to include Sidereal Exalted in your game as NPCs you now have a much better idea of who they are, what they’re doing, and how they work than you would if you just read the 1st edition book. Sadly absent are the Autocthonians (magitech beings from another world), though there is a very brief mention of Autocthon in Chapter 1. This is likely due to the split that developed between some 1st edition Exalted fans. Many folk strongly disliked the magitech elements of Exalted, while others tolerated or fully embraced them. This book is structured such that very little magitech is included, and Autochtonians certainly fit the bill as magitech. Magitech is instead being handled in separate publications this time around.

In addition to the other types of Exalted, written in clear detail for new players, many interesting monsters of various types are included. Undead, in particular, have a strong presence in this section but there is still a diverse number of creatures. From mundane extras like local town guards to gods to elementals of all sorts, this chapter is certain to stimulate the imagination and present something for everyone. Full stated NPCs of all types, from monsters to other types of Exalted, are included for ease of play. Frequent use of great illustration really makes these creatures come to life.

Chapter 8 Panoply 38 pages.

Chapter 8 wraps up by presenting extensive information on how money works in creation, followed by an equipment section complete with illustrations of all the different types of weapons and armor. Both of these are welcome additions. The economic information can add fun flavor to any game, and the illustrated weapons and armor allow players to point at something and say “My character has that!” The equipment list is of a good moderate lengthy, providing plenty of interesting weapons without endless lists of swords for players to evaluate.

Magical items of various sorts are also included, and they are illustrated as well. These can range from magical gems that fit in armor and weapon sockets, granting incredible powers, to weapons made of magical metals that possess phenomenal destructive power.

My Take

I don’t like the Exalted system. I didn’t like 1st edition due to various problems, some of which White Wolf attempted to correct with the Player’s Handbook. Ultimately the whole thing felt messy, and combat resolution could take considerable time. Exalted 2nd improves on many of 1st edition’s problems, but the game is still extremely complex by my standards. The lengthy Charm lists alone involve a lot to keep track of, and the technical strategy involved in combat does not appeal to me. However, my personal preferences are my personal preferences. This is a really great product, and I know for a fact that many folk love the way the system works. Just keep in mind that it is an involved game and you will need for your players to pay attention and learn the system well. I’m sure many folk run the system quickly, but I suspect they have devoted a lot of time to learning the game and teaching it to others.

The setting is just fantastic. The monsters alone are interesting enough that I could run a whole game session around any of them, and everything monster-like in Exalted has a human spark that makes a person realize there’s more to it than something to kill. Except the mindless undead, of course, but they tend to have necromancers and Deathknights controlling them – people. While it can be run as a hack and slash game, Exalted can easily provide the sort of fantastic adventure and social intrigue that makes so many groups happy.

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