In Exalted 3E, can Dragon Blooded reasonably integrate with celestial exalted?

Question

As I understand the lore of Exalted 3E, the Dragon-Blooded are supposed to be explicitly less powerful than Celestial Exalted such as the Solars and the Lunars, but drastically more numerous.

I do not yet have actual play experience with a mixed group like that (which is why I'm asking the question), but a reading of the mechanics seems to generally support that. The Dragon-Blooded do not automatically gain excellencies the way for instance Solars do. They also have a much lower cap for excellencies. While a charm-to-charm examination is basically impossible because of how many charms there are and how different some of them are, the Dragon-Blooded charms on average seem generally weaker than roughly comparable Solar or Lunar charms. They neither get a supernal ability like the Solars nor anything comparable to Lunar Shapeshifting.

But, at least using default character creation rules, the Dragon-Blooded do get some advantages that seem like they could balance things out. They start at Essence 2. They get more free specialties (though with some restrictions). They get more merits, and for those with a background that supports it, a lot more merits. They start with 18 Bonus Points as compared to a Solar's 15 Bonus Points.

On an initial reading, it seems that a starting Dragon-Blooded would be reasonably well balanced against Solars and Lunars. It seems that the Celestials would likely pull well ahead at higher essence levels, but that only matters for a game that is likely to reach the higher essence levels.

Am I right that Dragon-Blooded are reasonably well balanced against the Solars and Lunars, at least in the early game?

Would a Dragon-Blooded player in an otherwise celestial game wind up feeling underpowered, or worse, ineffective?

Are there any other special considerations that are needed for a game that mixed tiers, particularly for a game that was looking at two solars, a lunar, and one dragon-blooded?

Answer 1

Third edition has fairly drastically lowered the power gap between the different 'tiers' of exalts, both by pulling down on Solars and co and making Dragonblooded more exciting and viable to play in general, but the power difference still exists.

First, let me mention that there is some small, official guidance on this in Exigents: Out of the Ashes, on Cross-Level Play:

While most games will be either entirely Terrestrial or entirely Celestial, it’s not necessary to do so if the playgroup enjoys the dramatic potential of player characters with unequal levels of power. Communication is key to enabling this style of play. At the start of the chronicle, the group should discuss their expectations: What do they find interesting about this power dynamic? How do they want to see it play out? What kind of narrative beats do they want to get out of it, and how can everyone in the group engage with that story? It’s also important to be very clear about the mechanical effects of this, especially with players new to Exalted. Celestial Exalted are often powerful enough to overshadow Terrestrial Exalted in their area of expertise. You can mitigate this disparity while preserving the narrative tension by making sure that any Celestial Exalted aren’t specializing in the same area as a Terrestrial Exalt

I'd broadly echo this advice. Most importantly, make sure the player signing up as the lone Terrestrial in your game knows what he's in for, especially if he's new to Exalted and might not know or fully realize what he's signing up for.

Similarly, it is very helpful to make sure the Dragonblooded has a niche where he won't get outshone by other Exalts. Some niches are easier to share than others, so this depends a lot on character concepts and the castes and aspects involved. But if the Dragonblooded wants to be the best sorcerer ever and is in a circle with a Solar sorcerer, who has access to three circles of sorcery to his single one, his player will probably not be very happy. Lunars can be especially guilty of encroaching on another's niche simply because of their sheer versatility, since their Attribute excellencies and universal shapeshifting lets them throw a lot of dice even at things they aren't specialized in, or do things like spy even with bad stealth by turning into an animal.

To get back to your questions

Am I right that Dragon-Blooded are reasonably well balanced against the Solars and Lunars, at least in the early game?

I'd say by default no, but you as the ST can take deliberate steps to make it work. Aside from the 'niche protection' I mentioned above, a few pieces of advice I'd offer:

• Dragonblooded have enormous social capital to draw on, above and beyond just getting a few more merits. As mentioned by Guybrush McKenzie, a Dynast in the circle can go a long way. While Solars and Lunars are regarded as monsters wearing human skin in the Realm and the Threshold, Dragonblooded are regarded as heroes and protectors of the world and lauded as spiritually superior beings by the Immaculate Faith. This is the case even beyond the reach of the Realm itself due to Immaculate Missionaries. Setting the game in a place with a strong cultural Realm influence or even a Satrapy/The Realm itself is an easy way to give a Dragonblooded a powerful leg up socially.
• Aside from being able to throw their Exalted status around, a Dragonblooded is free to flare their anima all the way to iconic without any major fear (besides some collateral damage from anima flux). Meanwhile, a Solar going iconic is a literal beacon visible for miles screaming 'Anathema here, come kill me' in a large part of the setting. Having a higher dice limit won't do a Solar much good if he has to carefully spend his few personal motes while the DB is free to spend peripheral motes. You could emphasize the threat of the Wyld Hunt to make sure your players are conscious of this risk.
• There are a few mechanical options available to Dragonblooded that allow them to 'punch above their weight class', so to say. First, there's Evocations. Dragonblooded are resonant with Jade, the most common Magical Material, and being resonant gives them full access to an artifact's evocations, the same ones even a Solar would get. That gives access to a charm-equivalent on par with that available to Celestials, though still restricted by their smaller dicecaps. Similarly, the five Immaculate Martial Arts lack the Terrestrial or Mastery keywords, allowing Dragonblooded access to fairly potent Combat Charms as well. And because they start at higher Essence by default, they have an easier time picking up Evocations/Martial Arts Charms than other Characters.
• Lastly, you can always directly boost the Dragonblooded if they start to fall behind, whether that's giving them some extra xp, more free merits, homebrewing charms or perhaps access to a bespoken artifact, perhaps tied to their House. I would be careful with not overdoing this, or the other players might suddenly start feeling left-out, though.

Answer 2

I’ve read a lot of third edition, but not been able to play it. But back in the late 1990s I played in a first edition Exalted chronicle as the only Dragon-Blooded character in a Circle of Solars. I’ve also adapted that character to the third edition rules to help myself get a handle on them.

The biggest differences that apply here are the totally revamped combat system, and the fact that players start with more inherent Exalt abilities and Charms - especially Solars when you include the free Excellencies. But from my reading, the differences between exalt types are comparable between editions: the Dragon-Blooded starts off with many advantages, and if you pay attention to this at character creation they’ll probably be the most powerful in their niche, at least at the start. This is especially true if the Dragon-Blooded character is a Dynast, and if they take advantage of those extra points to buy things like artefacts or supernatural martial arts. (Artefacts seem more powerful and expensive in third edition, so starting with one is a bigger expense that a Dragon-Blooded can more easily afford.)

This advantage fairly quickly fades as the characters gain experience, and the third edition Essence rules means that gap eventually grows much wider as they are slower to reach 4 or 5 Essence (and it’s more of a limitation for them as well). A Solar or Lunar with similar areas of expertise will easily outshine them before long, so you’ll want to make sure the Dragon-Blooded has particular talents that the others do not. My character was an Air-Aspected Magistrate of House Ledaal (a concept that doesn’t quite work in the revised setting of third edition), which meant he had good investigation, perception and knowledge of the Realm - not things covered by the other characters, who were warriors, mystics and sorcerers. He also had good family and government connections, and a position of authority that the Solars could never have; and started with some basic but magical artefact armour, a weapon and even a few hearthstones. (These were outshone by the orichalcum relics we eventually found for the others, but that was okay by me.)

And while Dragon-Blooded charms are less powerful, again there are areas in which they can do things Solars can’t. They have unique Aspect powers, including the Anima Flux which can damage enemies a little each turn. Their Charms have all kinds of cool elemental effects that Solars can’t emulate, like increasing the weight of an opponent’s weapon or armour (Falling Mountain Fang). And even though their Excellencies aren’t as easy to get or as powerful, some are more reliable or useful in certain situations; a Solar with only a dot or two in Sail might still fail a roll even with Salty Dog Method and a free Excellency, but a Dragon-Blooded with Fine Passage-Negotiating Style can buy automatic successes, and both re-roll 6s.

While most of these benefits are on the character sheet, there’s plenty else that a carefully chosen Dragon-Blooded character might bring to a Circle that means they can pull their weight, at least story-wise. In most of the Realm, and much of Creation besides depending on their background, they are afforded at least grudging respect. In most places Solars and Lunars are anathema to be destroyed at best, and dangerous unknown creatures at worst. Being able to hide behind a Dragon-Born will help them avoid suspicion, and also open doors that would otherwise be closed to them. In my game, the Solars posed as Archons working with my Magistrate, and this worked well enough for a while that we could travel pretty freely.

In modern Creation there are places where the opposite is true - Lunar domains and cities where Exigents or other Exalt types are revered generally are no fans of Dynasts, for example.

Really, the most important thing is to talk to your players and make sure they get it. If you’re mixing Solars and Dragon-Blooded then you ought not to prioritise mechanical balance in the sense of everyone having equal power according to the dice. Instead, get on the same page about the story you want to tell, make characters who have a reason to need each other and work well together, and embrace it. Characters are not meticulously balanced in ability in fiction, and they needn’t be in your game for it to work either.

Story-wise my character needed some convincing that the Solars weren’t dangerous anathema, but once he was he had to reconcile this knowledge with what the Realm had taught him. He felt he could do good steering their actions, and they fought (and defeated!) a Deathlord together. But the story also became about his family worrying if he had gone astray, and trying to work out what to do about the conflict of his duty to them and to the greater good. All of this worked in well as an extra level of drama and complication to the choices the Solars had to make, as well, even if after several sessions the Solars could all wipe the floor with enemies I couldn’t touch.