If anyone knows where the Exalted thread is can they post a link?
I'm quite sure they can't perfectly defend against a fucking planet landing on their head.
Yes they can. There are several infinite damage weapons in Exalted. There are multiple characters who have bodies bigger than a planet (there is one who is infinite in size).
You can use a perfect defense against attacks from them, and they will work (You are still probably going to lose though).
Whenever I saw someone suggest they'd be taken by surprise the pro Exalt response is "they have some ability or charm or whatever that auto makes them not caught by surprise and have detected the attack coming ahead of time so you can't surprise any of them with an attack ever."
That doesn't make them unbeatable, and that ability costs motes. The Exalt will run out of motes eventually, and they can't use perfects forever.
The issue is that sometimes people aren't debating a specific Solar, but rather "Schrodinger's solar".
Except that motes can run out, and they treat the barrage attack as defending against all attacks thrown, but no, that does not apply when the barrage can be several hours long.
I am not sure exactly what you are saying here. Could you explain?
Anyways, some info on perfect defenses.
Against Attacks (not social attacks) there are basically 3 types of Perfect Defenses: Soak, Parry, Dodge. Soak reduces damage to 0, the other 2 do what there name suggests.
Most Perfect Defenses only defend against 1 attack. If they attack you multiple times you have to activate it for each.
There are upgrades to some perfect defenses that allow you to spend more motes to make them last 1 tick (about 1 second), or spend more motes and a willpower point to make them last 1 action.***
There are some which have different lengths.
The Unconquered Sun's Aegis is permanently on as long as he acts in a temperate manner (which means no lying, no breaking promises, no over indulgence, etc), and he can still use it like a normal perfect defense if he has suppressed his temperance.
There are 2 martial arts charms which last the entire scene (Meaning the current fight), but they don't work on every attack.
"The Mirror Does Not Lie" allows you to change the target of an attack to someone else, but it only works if someone sees the attack and there is another target (so it is useless in a 1 on 1 combat).
"Great Thinker's Defense Maneuver" works as long as you aren't surrounded, and it doesn't work if the person attacking you has a equal or higher essence score.
***An action is basically what it says it is. It means while you are performing a action. Like swinging a sword, or such (and I think the back swing as well). It usually lasts longer than 1 tick. It isn't referring to stuff like writing a speech though.
IIRC on average an action in Combat takes 4-6 ticks. That is the basic idea about it. It is a bit more complex than this. Stuff like flurries count as 1 action.
