Exalted – Ixiah, God of Thaumaturgy and Youngsters Playing Ninja

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Thoth

   Ixiah is a professional familiar and messenger spirit, and has been acting as a patron godling for mortal, god-blooded, and exalted thaumaturgists for some centuries now. With the development of the modern world, he’s also developed a fondness for video games, writing webcomics, and animating cartoons.

   He likes to hang around with thaumaturgists – especially Exalted thaumaturgists – live in their manses, play video games, and read comic books. He usually takes the form of a fox-boy and likes to “play ninja” (at which he is actually frighteningly good). He can be quite a pest at times since he acts like he’s about 8 years old. After all, he’s never been much for being “responsible”; as a patron of Thaumaturgy, his job has always been to teach thaumaturgy and to hang out with a powerful thaumaturgist and assist him or her – not to lead people or to guide them (outside of basic advice about thaumaturgy and its limits).

   He quite likes Charles Dexter Ward. He’s broken through into a level of Thaumaturgy that’s rarely reached.

   Now Ixiah was created back in first edition days, before there were any real rules for creating gods and spirits – and so it’s about time for an update. Of course, using a formal creation system has upped his power in several ways.

   The Scroll of Glorious Divinity notes that Spirits get inherent Soak and Body equal to some form of mundane armor and some unspecified number of “mutations” to represent their divine forms. It doesn’t say how much in either case. Ergo…

  • Spirits may take the Divine Form charm; this charm adds four dots worth of Mutations or other Merits, these can either be manifested for a scene for one mote or be permanent, in which case their base dot cost is reduced by 1 to a minimum of 1/2). If permanent, these are merely aspects of the spirits form, and cannot be removed or negated. Some Merits may not be permitted.
  • To make up for not getting any free “mutations”, they get an extra six bonus points. These have already been included.
  • By default, unless the game master wants to give them something special, spirit’s have “Essence Armor”. This grants them an inherent soak bonus equivalent to (Ess)L and (Ess+2)B and a basic Hardness rating of (Ess/2), rounded up.

   These modifications result in the following guidelines for building spirits:

  • Essence: As chosen by the game master. For an exalt-level ally, use 3.
  • Bonus Points = 21. For most spirits, assume that Cult (or some equivalent) is capped at two.
  • Attribute Total = ([Essence x 3] + [Cult x 3] + [Sum of Virtues x 2]). Unusually, these have no base score.
  • Ability Dots = (10 x Essence) with one favored ability.
  • Virtues: (Essence +5) to add to the first dot in each.
  • Base Will = Sum of two highest virtues.
  • Mote Pool = (Essence x 10) + (Willpower x 5).
  • Number of Charms = ([Essence x2] + [Cult x2] + [the sum of Virtues]).

   And now that we have the rules set up…

   Ixiah, Professional Familiar / Spirit Ally

  • Essence 3. Essence Pool 100 (with Essence Plethora II).
  • Bonus Points (21): Cult 2 (Ixiah appears in a regular comic strip that he writes, in an obscure set of children’s cartoons, and has some magical support from the thaumaturgists he helps and works for, 2), Sanctum 2 (2), Connections/The Spirit World 4 (Ixiah is a reliable spirit messenger, and has worked with a lot of different spiritual entities over the centuries, 5), and +4 Virtues (12).
  • Virtues (16 Total): Com 5, Con 4, Tem 2, Val 5.
  • Willpower: 10 (+2 temporary willpower, Charms).
  • Attributes (47): Str 2 (4) (8 for jumping), Dex 8 (10) (14 for movement), Sta 8, Cha 4, Man 3, App 3, Per 6, Int 6, Wits 7.
  • Abilities (30 +12 Charms): Athletics 4 (6) (8), Awareness 4, Martial Arts 6, Dodge 6 (8), Endurance 4, Linguistics 4, Lore 3, Occult 6 (8), Resistance 4, and Stealth 5 (7).
  • Health Levels: -0, 7x -1, 6x -2, -4, Incapacitated.
    • Soak: 4L/8B (Sta) +2L/2B (fur) +3L/5B and Hardness 2 (essence armor) +5L/3B (perfect chain shirt) for a net 14L/18B soak and Hardness 2. Dodge Value: 9 (10 with Cloak), Parry Value 8 unarmed, 10 with Chain.

   Charms (26):

  • Essence Plethora II: +20 Motes to his Essence Pool.
  • Hurry Home (5M): Teleports him back home.
  • Materialize (65M): Ixiah usually stays materialized; doing it is expensive.
  • Principle of Motion (5M, 1W): Ixiah normally has ten banked actions and five committed motes.
  • Reserve of Will II: +2 dots of Temporary Willpower
  • Benefaction* (5M): Target gets +1 to checks using the mental attributes for the rest of the scene.
  • Benefaction* (5M): Target gets +1 to checks using the physical attributes for the rest of the scene.
  • Touch of Eternity* (10M): The target is effectively under the care of a master thaumaturgic healer at all times; and can heal, expel poisons, and so on accordingly.
  • Amethyst Awareness (6M): As per All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight for the rest of the scene.
  • Host of Spirits (3+M): Ixiah may create up to four duplicates per action (with a maximum of 12 copies in existence at a time), at a cost of three committed motes each.Such copies have two fewer dots in each Attribute save Appearance, illusory equipment, no Charms, Essence motes. or temporary Willpower, Essence 1, and only a single -0 health level. Such copies last until the end of the scene under his perfect mental command. He’ll usually do this rather than fight personally.
  • Blessed Air Body (Perm): Ixiah may take a Spd 3 DV-2 action to heal one health level of damage or to regain one mote as long as long as he is in contact with the air. He may reflexively spend two motes to perfectly negate all damage from cold, sound, or lightning, and will heal a level of damage or regain one mote for every three levels of raw damage that the attack would have inflicted.
  • Domain Manipulation Scenario (Sp): Ixiah may spend 6 motes and a Spd-6 action to weave any effect possible to mortal thaumaturgy at -(Essence) difficulty and without requiring special resources OR to add his Occult skill to that of another character using thaumaturgy. For twelve motes and one willpower he may allow another character to use any thaumaturgic ritual as he can OR he can teach the occult ability, degrees in any thaumaturgic art, or any seven rituals, in a single day – although students must either pay the XP cost or go into XP debt.
  • Psychokinesis (Sp): The user may move things around within thirty feet as if handling them. This is free if Ixiah is currently material, but costs 6 motes and 1 will per scene if he’s immateria.
  • Essence Bond (2W): Ixiah may touch another character, spend two willpower, and meditate for an hour establishing a link; thereafter he may share up to one-half the motes in his essence pool with the character so linked as long as they’re within a mile – and may spend one mote to communicate with him or her at any range for one scene.
  • Skill Master x4 (Perm): Add (Ess+1) dots to skills, which may take them up to one above the usual limit.
  • Enhanced (Attribute) x2: The user may spend 4 motes to increase the chosen ability by +2 for the rest of the scene. Ixiah has Enhanced Dexterity and Strength.
  • Tuning the Dragon Lines (2W): Provides (Essence-1) dots worth of internal hearthstones.
  • Divine Form x3 (Perm): All of Ixian’s Divine Form “Mutations” and Merits are permanent, and include:
    • Poxes (½ point each): Air Adaption (immune to natural cold), Claws (can do lethal damage with martial arts and parry lethal weapons unarmed), Night Eyes (can see in the dark), Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Sight, Smell, and Touch, +2 each), and Tail (+2 Athletics).
    • Afflictions (1 point each) Thick Skin (Divine Fur, +2L/+2B Soak), Gazelles Pace (+4 Dex for movement, +4 Str for Jumping), Beast Speech (speak with animals), and Impossible Joints (+2 where relevant).
    • Merits: Acute Sense/+2 Smell (1), Luck 1 (½), Mystic Knacks (Video Game Supremacy, Who was that Masked Spirit, and Zippity-do-dah, ½), and Spirit Emissary (2).

   Equipment:

   Ixiah usually uses rather a lot of perfect gear – since he can make it perfect with a quick gesture. I’m not worrying about resources; Ixiah can easily get money via thaumaturgy – and his cult – if he actually needs any.

  • This gives him +2 dice for Athletics (great shoes), Dodge (swirling cloak), Occult (sorcerous sigils), and Stealth (sneaky outfit).
  • His Perfect Chain Shirt is normally hidden under his clothing, and provides Soak +5L/3B, Mob 0, and Fat 0.
  • His Perfect Fighting Chain is Spd 5, Acc 0, Dam +6B (10B total), Def +4, Rate 3, Tags M, R

   Ixiah may have a few artifacts, or further enhancements of his gear, in relatively short order – he is currently hanging out with a master artificer after all – but that pretty much covers what he can be assumed to be starting with.

Related Articles

Filed under: Background, Character Sheets, Game Rules | Tagged: , , , , , |

« »

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.