Leibniz Clockwork

Dawn caste: With a successful 2d stunt, the Dawn may inflict aggravated damage to a Creature of Darkness. This applies to personal combat or armies, provided the Dawn is part of the unit.

Notes: This is not a charm activation and has no cost (those are independent). The attack must hit normally, and the effect is not mandatory. The damage is Obvious. Only Creatures of Darkness, as judged by the Unconquered Sun, may be so inflicted. For example, merely evil creatures such as Raksi, and automata are not viable targets. With regards to mass combat, the rule of thumb is the Dawn gets the advantage if the Dawn is in danger. An army with a Dawn Solar general in the front rank will do aggravated damage, but an army following a battle plan written by a Dawn general won’t.

Zenith Caste: A successful social attack on an intimacy left by a Creature of Darkness removes Permanent Essence levels of resilience. A social attack so enhanced is considered a supernatural social attack.

Notes: This is not a charm activation and has no cost (those are independent). The attack must hit normally, and the effect is not mandatory. Subjects who inflict intimacies of such nature on themselves are not viable targets for this effect, even if the intimacy supports a Creature of Darkness. Those who go willingly into evil are immune to this effect until they fall the final time, and become Creatures of Darkness themselves. If relevant, the player has to pick both. A social attack that is made supernatural must inflict PE damage if it hits, and a social attack that is not considered supernatural will only do usual damage (after other charms and effects) if it hits. These effects are independent of other charms and effects.

Twilight Caste: The Twilight may remove dead and inanimate flesh with a single mote. This provides appropriate bonuses to medicine actions. The ‘and’ is inclusive. The flesh must be both dead and inanimate.

Notes: This is not a charm activation. This effect cleanses wounds, reduces existing infections (but those may return due to environment), and causes corpses to evaporate in a puff of cleansed smoke. Animating effects ranging from necromancy to corpse beetles will overcome this effect. ‘Dead’ should not be interpreted too strictly. Diseased flesh that is too far gone to heal can be removed, without quibbling about the medical effects of gangrene. The guiding principal is that the flesh won’t heal and won’t come back. If an arm is purified away, the character doesn’t have an arm anymore. Later magical effects have no bearing on the act of cleansing.

The Zenith ability affects minds, the Twilight ability affects meat. Both castes have long tried to overcome this unjust and unreasonable limitation, and many fell to great tragedy in this pursuit.

Night Caste: The Night may take an action to reacquire stealth for no cost. There must be someplace or some concealing element in which to hide. At Permanent Essence 1 (note, I start Exalts at PE 1, usually in the backstory), this must be a physical object such as a tree to hide behind. The concealment must be plausible, and on an enemy’s next action, the enemy has a chance to penetrate stealth. At PE 2, the concealment can be shadows. At PE 3, the cover may be the 16+ mote level of a Solar’s anima banner. The Night need only be unobtrusive compared to their circle mates. At PE 4, concealment may be any non-hostile obvious effect, such as Sorcery illuminata. In all cases, the concealment must be plausible if improbable, though charms may enhance ‘plausibility’ as per normal.

At PE 5, the concealment may be the 16+ mote anima banner of a Creature of Darkness. While the CoD likely has means of seeing through concealment, the Night will likely have means of protecting their concealment, leaving a battle of stealth vs perception as the Night turns the tables on the CoD. Note that minions such as skeleton warriors have to penetrate stealth as normal and rarely have charms for their aid. A Night Solar fighting an Abyssal might have a battle of stealth and perception in the midst of the Abyssal’s army with the underlings unaware or uncomprehending.

Notes: This is not a charm activation and has no cost (those are independent). This does acquire an action. Bonuses to stealth or the enemies attempt to overcome stealth are situationally dependent, and left to the discretion of a Storyteller. Illumination from a Solar’s Anima Banner should could as a bonus to remain concealed, not to penetrate concealment, due to the magic of the affair. This ability really only works if the Night caste takes a bunch of stealth charms, but that’s to be expected. Charms that let the Night hide in impossible shadow should be reasonably extended to lower-levels of anima banner, though even PE 5, Stealth 5 charms should require at least a 4+ mote level or something with the Obvious keyword to work. Beyond this, mechanics start to break, and it’s not a good idea.

Eclipse Caste: The Eclipse can ratify oaths as per the book.

Notes: This ability is frankly awesome, loaded with plot, and possibly the coolest bit of OG Exalted power.

All caste abilities have charm trees descended from them that treat the caste ability as a prereq. Characters who can simulate these abilities or attain facsimiles may modify those charms to work with their own abilities with ST permission, though that should be a plot point.

All abilities have huge advantages and disadvantages associated with them. The Dawn limitation is its singular focus on Creatures of Darkness. Zenith and Twilight castes are both limited to different sides of the same coin. The Night ability allows for extremely high intensity combat at the cost of taking an action and meaning the Night is going to burn a lot of motes on stealth charms. The Eclipse ability is basically perfect the way it is. Eclipses taking other splat’s charms is allowed at the usual double xp cost and ST permission. I tend to allow/disallow based on plot more than mechanics, but it’s important to talk this out with a player before ruling.