Abilities

• Archery
• Athletics
  • Feat of Strength
• Awareness
• Brawl
• Bureaucracy
  • Evaluate Goods
• Craft
  • Rewards
  • First Age Wonders
• Dodge
• Integrity
• Investigation
  • Case Scene
  • Profile Character
• Larceny
  • Conceal Evidence
  • Disguise
  • Lockpicking
  • Pickpocket
  • Prestidigitation
• Linguistics
• Lore
  • Academic Knowledge
  • Introduce a Fact
  • Challenge a Fact
• Martial Arts
• Medicine
  • Diagnosis
  • Treat Wounds
  • Treat Disease
  • Treat Poison
• Melee
• Occult
• Performance
  • Prayer
• Presence
• Resistance
• Ride
• Sail
  • Predict Weather at Sea
  • Pursuit
  • Navigation
• Socialize
• Stealth
• Survival
  • Predict Weather on Land
  • Tracking
• Thrown
• War

• Exceptional success: 3 or more successes over the difficulty.

Archery

Archery represents your ability to fight with non-thrown ranged weapons. It determines attack rolls with weapons with the Archery tag, like bows and flame pieces.

Athletics

Athletics represents your ability to perform feats of physical fitness and agility.

Feat of Strength¹

Action Dramatic
Requirement You have Strength 3+.

Roll (Strength + Athletics). You can achieve a feat of strength of the given difficulty, but only if you have the required Strength.

If your dice pool is (difficulty × 3) or greater, you automatically succeed without having to roll.

If you’re destroying an object and have an appropriate tool to aid in the job, you get +1s. If it’s an artifact, you get +2s instead.

Some specific uses of Feat of Strength might use a different ability than Athletics.

Awareness

Awareness represents your ability to immediately notice details and hidden enemies. It determines the Join Battle roll that generates your starting Initiative in combat.

Brawl

Brawl represents your ability to fight with your body and natural talent for violence. It determines attack rolls with weapons with the Brawl tag, like unarmed attacks, gauntlets, and improved weapons. It also determines your Parry with those weapons. Using unarmed Parry against weapons that deal lethal damage requires a stunt.

Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy represents your ability to understand and manipulate organizations and to perform the activities of a merchant.

Evaluate Goods²

Action Dramatic

Roll (Intelligence + Bureaucracy). If you get 1 success, you know the overall Resources rating that an object is worth.

If you get successes equal to the object’s Resources value, you know its exact fair market value in its current condition. This gives you +1 to influence rolls for Bargain when dealing with an honest merchant, or +3 when dealing with a dishonest one.

This action is Reflexive for small or simple objects, takes items for large objects or large quantities, and may take up to days for large quantities with uncertain market values.

Craft

Craft represents your ability to create objects and structures. Every purchase of Craft is a separate Ability, such as Craft (Architecture), Craft (Blacksmithing), and Craft (Cooking). Each Craft has a separate rating and is bought and increased separately. Craft Charms can be purchased based on a character’s highest-rated Craft, but the appropriate Craft must still be used in rolls depending on the work at hand. You can use a broadly-related Craft at +1 difficulty, like using Craft (Architecture) to design plans for an underground mine.

Craft projects come in four categories: basic, major, superior, and legendary.

Crafting experience represents inspiration and effort used in crafting, and comes in three types: silver (sxp), gold (gxp), and white (wxp). Usually, sxp is spent on major projects, gxp is spent on superior projects, and wxp is spent on legendary projects.

Most projects use project slots, which represent the attention and resources that a crafter can devote to projects. Basic projects use no project slots, but other projects each use 1 project slot of the matching category (major, superior, legendary). You start with 3 permanent major project slots, and no other project slots. You can create temporary project slots by satisfying the cost and requirements shown in the table. They last for the duration of the project that uses them.

The minimum time needed to work on a project, and the Ability requirements and other requirements for a project, depend on the project’s category, the type of project, and the Artifact or Manse rating (if any) of the project. The physically larger the project, the more manpower you’ll need to work on it, but you still make all the rolls yourself as long as you’re in charge.

Once you’ve worked on the project for the minimum time, you can attempt to complete it. The roll to complete an Artifact always uses the lower of the appropriate Craft or Craft (Artifacts), and the roll to complete a Manse always uses the lower of Craft (Architecture) or Craft (Geomancy).

Completing a basic project requires a successful (Attribute + Craft) roll against a difficulty set by the ST.

Completing a major project works like completing a basic project, except if you fail the roll, you can add a few more hours of work and spend 10sxp to roll again.

Completing a superior project requires a successful (Attribute + Craft) extended roll, with difficulty 5, terminus 6, and a goal of 30 for an engineering project or Artifact 2, 50 for Artifact 3 or Manse 3, 75 for Artifact 4, and 100 for Artifact 5 or Manse 5. If the superior project is to repair an Artifact or Manse rather than create a new one, or the superior project is an engineering project, the extended roll has no terminus. Instead of having an interval, you pay 10gxp each time you want to make a roll for the extended roll. If you botch on any roll, or if you fail the extended roll, all costs spent on the project are wasted and you can never attempt to build exactly the same Artifact again.

Completing a legendary project works like completing a superior project, except that the goal is 200 and you pay 10wxp for each roll for the extended roll.

Rewards

If you successfully complete a project, you get a reward if the project satisfies one or more of the basic objectives for crafting projects:

• The project causes another character to gain or strengthen an Intimacy toward you.
• The project results in a clear gain for you, whether in physical resources, social connections, or other benefits.
• The project resonates with one of your Intimacies.

The reward you get depends on the type of project.

If the project was to repair something rather than build something new, you get a smaller reward.

If you successfully complete one or more projects, you also get a second reward at the end of the story. You get (number of Craft Abilities at 3+ used in the story to complete a project × 3)sxp, (number of Craft Abilities at 5+ used in the story to complete a project × 5)sxp, and (number of Artifacts or Manses created in the story × 5)gxp.

First Age Wonders

A project that’s a First Age wonder is a special case. These projects work like other projects, except:

• You must use Craft (First Age Artifice). To buy any dots in this Ability, you must have Lore 5, Occult 5, Craft (Artifacts) 5, and Terrestrial Circle Sorcery.
• You pay wxp for each roll on the extended roll.
• Each roll on the extended roll requires a sorcerous working first to magically prepare the components or to create impossible magical components.

Dodge

Dodge represents your ability to avoid attacks. It determines Evasion, which is used against attack rolls.

Integrity

Integrity represents your sense of self-assurance and self-resolution. It determines Resolve, which is used to resist social influence.

Investigation

Investigation represents your ability to uncover hidden details through search and analysis.

Case Scene

Action Dramatic (15 minutes)

Choose one:

• Roll (Perception + Investigation) against a difficulty set by the ST or by Conceal Evidence. If you succeed, you find anything of interest that’s been hidden.
• At a location relevant to something you’re looking for, roll (Perception + Investigation) against a difficulty set by the ST. If you succeed, you find a clue that advances your search.

Profile Character

Action Dramatic (5 minutes)

Choose one:

• While interacting with or observing someone, roll (Perception + Investigation) against a difficulty of their Guile. If you succeed, you learn basic non-obvious facts about the.
• While interacting with or observing someone relevant to something you’re looking for, roll (Perception + Investigation) against a difficulty set by the ST. If you succeed, you find a clue that advances your search.

Larceny

Larceny represents your ability to perform the activities of a criminal, including both physical tasks, like picking locks or sleight or hand, and social and mental activities, like creating disguises or hobnobbing with crime lords.

Conceal Evidence

Action Dramatic (15 minutes)

Choose evidence to conceal and roll (Intelligence + Larceny). The result becomes the difficulty of Case Scene to find the concealed evidence.

As a rule of thumb, the GM can assume that NPCs roll an average of their Larceny rating for this action.

Disguise

Action Dramatic (5 minutes)

Choose a disguise to construct and roll (Intelligence + Larceny). You get a cumulative -2 on this roll for differences in sex, race, or body type. If you’re imitating a specific person, you get -(4 - weeks spend studying that person) on this roll.

Characters who interact with you for more than five minutes can roll (Perception + Awareness) at a difficulty of your initial Disguise roll result to notice that you’re in disguise and get a sense of what you really look like.

If you’re imitating a specific person, a character observing you knows that person, and you act inappropriately for the role, that character can make an additional roll to see through the disguise, at +1 to +3 depending on how drastically you mis-acted.

Lockpicking

Defense -1
Action Simple³
Keywords Flurry⁴

Roll (Dexterity + Larceny) against a difficulty set by the lock you’re trying to pick. If you’re using improvised or unorthodox tools, the difficulty gets +1.

Pickpocket

Defense -1
Action Simple³
Keywords Flurry⁴

Make an opposed (Dexterity + Larceny) roll against a target’s (Perception + Awareness). If you succeed, you steal an item from the target’s person or immediate surroundings without them noticing. If you fail, you don’t steal anything and the target notices that you tried.

You can’t steal an item in active use, or an item too bulky to remove without its wearer noticing.

Prestidigitation

Defense -1
Action Simple³
Keywords Flurry⁴

Make an opposed (Dexterity + Larceny) roll against a target’s (Perception + Awareness). If you succeed, you perform a bit of stage magic or other prestidigitation that the target can’t see through.

This action can be enhanced by effects that enhance pickpocketing, if appropriate.

Linguistics

Linguistics represents your ability to compose informative or persuasive written works.

If you don’t have at least one dot of Linguistics, you’re illiterate.

Lore

Lore represents your education and your general knowledge of the world.

Academic Knowledge²

Action Reflexive; Duration Instant

Roll (Intelligence + Lore) at a difficulty set by the ST. If you succeed, you recall relevant facts about a topic at hand.

You can use Wits instead of Intelligence, but if you do, the difficulty gets +2.

Some topics may require use of other abilities instead of Lore, such as domain-specific knowledge of Occult or Martial Arts.

Introduce a Fact

Action Reflexive (1/scene); Duration Instant
Requirement You have Lore 3+.

State the fact you want to introduce and roll (Intelligence + Lore) against a difficulty set by the ST. If you succeed, the fact is retroactively added to the campaign.

Challenge a Fact

Action Reflexive; Duration Instant
Requirement You have Lore 3+, or Lore 1+ and a relevant specialty, and the ST allows you to challenge a fact.

Roll (Intelligence + Lore). If you get at least 1 success, you notice that the fact is false, but not how. If you get enough successes to meet a difficulty set by the ST, you also notice why the fact is false.

Martial Arts

Martial Arts represents your ability to fight using a specific formalized martial arts style. Every purchase of Martial Arts is a separate Ability, such as Martial Arts (Snake Style) or Martial Arts (Crane Style). Each Martial Arts has a separate rating and is bought and increased separately. Martial Arts Charms usually require a specific Martial Arts rating to purchase and use that Martial Arts for any rolls they generate.

Martial Arts determines attack rolls with weapons with the Martial Arts tag, like unarmed attacks, hook swords, and the rope darts. It also determines your Parry with those weapons. Using unarmed Parry against weapons that deal lethal damage requires a stunt.

You can’t select Martial Arts as a Caste or Favored Ability, but it’s automatically a Caste or Favored Ability if Brawl is one for you. To take any dots in Martial Arts, you must have the Martial Artist Merit (see page 163 of Exalted 3).

Medicine

Medicine represents your ability to treat wounds and ailments. This may be with surgical instruments, or with more unusual or mystical methods like acupuncture or herbal incense treatments.

Diagnosis¹

Action Dramatic (several minutes)

If the reason for a character’s ailment isn’t obvious, you can attempt to diagnose it. Roll ([Perception or Intelligence] + Medicine), with the Ability chosen by the ST. If you succeed, you diagnose the ailment.

You can use this as a Simple action with -1 Defense and the Flurry keyword, but the difficulty gets +1 or +2.

Treat Wounds

Defense -1
Action Simple³
Keywords Flurry⁴

Roll (Intelligence + Medicine) at a difficulty of the current wound penalty of the character you’re trying to treat (minimum 1, maximum 5). If you’re trying to treat yourself, the difficulty gets +1. If you succeed, you prevent the treated character from bleeding out.

Treating a non-obvious ailment without Diagnosis gets a +2 to +4 to the difficulty.

Treat Disease

Action Dramatic (one hour)

You must repeat this action once every day of the interval of the disease you’re trying to treat. When you use it on the last day, roll (Intelligence + Medicine). The character being treated can use your roll result instead of his own roll result to resist the disease for this interval.

Treating a non-obvious ailment without Diagnosis gets a +2 to +4 to the difficulty.

Treat Poison

Action Dramatic (one hour)

Roll (Intelligence + Medicine) at a difficulty based on the severity of the poison.

Each threshold success reduces the duration of the poisoning by one interval. Treat Poison results don’t stack.

You can use this action as a Simple action with -1 Defense and the Flurry keyword, but the difficulty gets +2.

Treating a non-obvious ailment without Diagnosis gets a +2 to +4 to the difficulty.

Melee

Melee represents your ability to fight using hand-to-hand weapons (but not unarmed). It determines your attack roll and your Parry with these weapons.

Occult

Occult represents your knowledge and intuitive understanding of the mystical world, gods, spirits, and other, stranger things. Occult determines rolls for magical rituals and for Sorcery.

Performance

Performance represents your ability to influence people using artistic performance and through rhetorical speaking. It determines your social influence rolls when using these methods of influence.

Prayer²

Action Dramatic

Roll (Charisma + Performance) at a difficulty of (7 - the Resources value of any sacrifice you offer). If you’re a priest, the difficulty gets -1. Zenith, Midnight, and No Moon castes and Sidereal Exalts always count as priests. For some gods, you can use the sacrifice of sentient beings, which count as having a Resources value equal to the Essence of each victim added together.

If you succeed, the god or demon you’re praying to understands your prayer and is inclined to help. This is no guarantee that any help will be immediate or obvious, and help may not be possible at all in the case of demons or weaker gods.

If you botch, the god or demon you’re praying to is offended, and will only begin listening to prayers from you again if one is accompanied by a sacrifice with Resources value of (god’s Essence, maximum 5).

Presence

Present represents your ability to influence people through force of personality. It determines your social influence rolls when using this kind of influence.

Resistance

Resistance represents your ability to withstand physical punishment and deprivation.

Ride

Ride represents your ability to handle a mount and creature-pulled vehicles.

Sail

Sail represents your ability to navigate a vessel, to handle duties aboard the vessel, and to direct the vessel and its crew in the stress of combat or dangerous conditions. It’s used for both ships on the water and more exotic vehicles like balloon airships.

Predict Weather at Sea²

Action Dramatic

Roll (Perception + Sail), at a difficulty of 2 for stable climates or 3 to 5 for more unstable climates. You can predict the general trend of the weather and temperature for (threshold successes) days.

You can use this action to predict weather on land, but the difficulty gets +1.

Pursuit

Action Dramatic

You guide your ship to catch up with, or escape, another ship. Make an extended opposed (Wits + Sail + Speed) roll against the captain of the other ship. The first captain to get 10 more successes than the other wins, and accomplishes their goal. If you catch the other ship, you begin naval combat against them.

Navigation

Action Dramatic

Navigating through or past a hazard requires (Wits + Sail) rolls, with a difficulty depending on the danger of the hazard and a number of rolls depending on the scale of the hazard. If you fail, the ship is blown off-course, is caught in the hazard, or takes 1 Hull damage.

Socialize

Socialize represents your understanding of social contexts and decorum, as well as your ability to influence people using the standards of formalized social situations, and your ability to read the intentions of others and disguise your own. It determines your social influence rolls when using this kind of influence, your rolls to read the intentions of others, and your Guile.

Stealth

Stealth represents your ability to stay hidden and silent, whether passively or in the middle of intensive activity.

Survival

Survival represents your ability to navigate and survive in the wilderness.

Predict Weather on Land²

Action Dramatic

Roll (Perception + Survival), at a difficulty of 2 for stable climates or 3 to 5 for more unstable climates. You can predict the general trend of the weather and temperature for (threshold successes) days.

You can use this action to predict weather at sea, but the difficulty gets +1.

Tracking

Action Dramatic

Choose one:

• You follow someone else’s tracks. Make an opposed (Perception + Survival) roll against their (Wits + Survival).
• You evade someone else following your tracks. Make an opposed (Wits + Survival) roll against their (Perception + Survival).

Thrown

Thrown represents your ability to fight with thrown weapons. It determines attack rolls with weapons with the Thrown tag, like knives and javelins.

War

War represents your ability to plan and execute large-scale strategy and small-scale tactics, as well as your ability to directly command soldiers in battle. It determines your rolls for commanding battle groups.