[RPG] Exalted Paranoia Combat

exalted-2eterminology

Having spent some time reading, and occasionally posting on, the official Exalted forum, I've come across a number of people talking about "paranoia combat" What does this mean? They also generally seem to view it as bad, why is this?

Another term used in relation to this whose definition would help is "2/7 filter".

Best Answer

"Paranoia Combat" is largely the brainchild of Jon Chung1, a poster on rpg.net. You can see some of the basic implementations (and rationales) at this link. These solutions were established in response to the notion that Second Edition Exalted, as written, is too lethal — that is, there are enough things that will kill a non-maximized Solar in one action that the only reasonable combat tactic is to use Perfect Defenses to turtle up, using motes as a kind of video-game lifebar.

The key piece is the paranoia combo: Excellency + Shadow over Water [or Seven Shadow Evasion] + Reflex Sidestep Technique + Leaping Dodge Method. This combo costs 10 XP to purchase, is friendly with Infinite Mastery, allows the character to perfectly defend against any attack, allows the nullification of unexpected attacks and allows the character to break most flurries. Invoke this combo for every single action in combat, using a 2-die stunt to restore the expended Willpower.

It's considered "bad" because it turns the Exalted combat system into a sort of solved problem. In the face of an intricate mechanic with literally hundreds of charms to choose from, there is one correct solution, and it's one that renders all the action and strategy mostly irrelevant. That's disappointing, and points to flaws in the game that make Tactician players unhappy.

The term "2-7 Filter2" is a way of referring to these combos more specifically, in regard to the phases of combat where they are applied:

Step 2 perfect defense + step 7 perfect soak. Seven Shadows Evasion, Heavenly Guardian Defense, Iron Skin Concentration (may not be viable post-errata), Adamant Skin Technique, etc. Most efficient defense in the game.

1 - As the White Wolf Forum closed down way before 2015, this is (now) an archived version on the Wayback machine.
2 - This page could not be found by the Wayback machine.

Related Topic