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This is a rough overview of how I intend to work social combat within the game, and a discussion of rough strategy that you might find useful within the game. Throughout this discussion, we'll use the example of a Solar convincing a Dragon-Blooded Immaculate Monk that he is "a good person, a worthy ally, and a potential friend".
Start Small, and Work Your Way Up
Don't just lay all your cards on the table, start off by laying the groundwork for what you really want to accomplish. In other words, our Solar shouldn't open up his social attack with a direct "I'm not an Anathema, I'm a good person!" type of arguement. Start smaller; even allow counterarguements, as long as you get your 'beachhead'.
One of the best ways to do this is via scene-length persuasions. These have the benefit of providing immediate benefit, in the form of convincing someone of something for a short period of time or getting them to take a certain action. Plus, since they only last a scene, there's less incentive to resist!
Our example Solar thus opens up his arguement with trying to convince the Immaculate that "This Anathema has accomplished a few deeds that could be described as 'good'. He's protected his hometown from threat, defeated a Lunar bent on Conquest, averted a war, broken up a Ravager band..." If the Immaculate insists on something like, "Your outward actions cannot disguise your inward intent, demon!" let him!. While this stunt might raise his MDV a bit, he's also admitting that you did these things. If you get through that MDV, he'll almost certainly accept your words.
Now that you've begun your arguement, up the ante a bit. Work on your intentions, trying to give the Immaculate the Scene-length belief that "This anathema didn't just do these good deeds, he did them because he feels they were right and he wants to help make Creation a better place." The Immaculate will probably not accept this, he'll dig in, and he'll spend willpower... You might drain 2 willpower from him, at which point he's "immune to your social attacks for the rest of the scene".
Kinda.
Switch up your tactics, to get past Defense
Once you've drained two points of willpower from someone, you've hit your "limit". Further natural persuasion attempts won't have any further affect, and can be freely ignored. There is a way around this, though. The first is unnatural influence, but that has risks, and we'll talk about it later. The better way, for P Cs? and Important NP Cs?, is to use stunts to change your angle of attack.
Previously, our Solar was arguing that he didn't just commit those Good Deeds that the Immaculate already agreed he undertook but he did them for Good Reasons as well. He was doing this, we'll say, by telling the Immaculate of his motives and reasonings behind those actions. Now, he whips out a stunt, changing his angle of attack. He instead goes all dismissive, stating that it doesn't matter what he does or how much good he does, no one will ever trust him because he's Anathema. A bit angsty, but it serves it's purpose -- a +1 stunt that makes it so that the Immaculate has to spend another willpower to resist.
After the fourth round of social attacks, the Immaculate finally gives in -- he doesn't want to waste four willpower on a simple scene-long argument! He accepts that the Solar commited Good Actions with Good Intentions.
This is a major victory for the Solar, but a short-lived one. It lasts for the rest of the scene. You've built a fair sized foundation for further arguements. The next step is critical...
Once you've got a beachhead, up the Ante
Now, at this point, you might want to start getting into some "heavier" arguments that start to cross lines that your opponent doesn't want to cross. This is often a good point to break out the heavy guns, but you also have to be careful in a lot of ways. The Solar, in our example, might want to break out Respect Commanding Presence for example to keep our Immaculate in the arguement. Since the Immaculate has accepted that this Anathema does Good Deeds with Good Intentions, he might just succumb to the charms effect. If not, well, he wastes more willpower!
A charmless alternative involves using a last scene-length command to keep the Immaculate talking, but this is somewhat more risky and might involve the expenditure of more willpower and the Immaculate leaving the field entirely or forcing it into combat.
Even without a guarentee though, it can't hurt -- especially with the scene-length groundwork that you've already begun to lay -- to make some real meaningful attacks. So let's say our first attack for this stage of our "Social Combat Endgame" is an attack on the Immaculate Philosophy!
You're using a, "If you admit that I'm Anathema and I'm Good, then the Immaculate Texts must have flaws! If they were completely correct, it wouldn't be possible! They don't explain me, thus they must be incomplete...or maybe even wholely fabricated." This is an attempt to wear down an existing Intimacy. Don't be surprised if the Immaculate spends his willpower to resist this; he's now spent 4 willpower. That was probably your real goal, and you've at least opened the door...
Now, one risk with the above is that the Immaculate might have a /motivation/. In addition to MAKING him spend that willpower, it could very easily override everything you've worked for. You're not working small scene-length flaws in his armor, your challenging his basic beliefs. That could prompt a disengagement from the field, or even a Join Battle roll depending on the opponent!
But lets face it, if this Immaculate had "Kill Demons and Defend the Immaculate Order against all Heresy", you probably wouldn't have gotten this far...
So you're opponent has spend 4 willpower. You can keep picking at him, but at this point most Exalted opponents are going to be down a significant portion of their "mental defenses". As low as half power! This is when you might want to bring out what you REALLY want to work for. "I respect your faith, but it saddens me that it puts us at odds. I truly am a good person, and in different circumstances, we could work together or even be friends," as part of a social attack to form a new intimacy. An intimacy that you and this Immaculate could work together, or even potentially be Friends!
You've laid the groundwork; the scene isn't over, so this Immaculate accepts that you do good deeds for good reasons. If you didn't screw him too much with an attack on his motivation, he very well might //accept// this command at which point you've made a dent in his armor...
You have to be Patient
In order to erode an existing intimacy or create a new one, you need to successfully foster or erode it a number of times equal to the persons Conviction -- and can only collect one such action per scene! So, let's face it, this Immaculate probably has a Conviction of 3 or even higher. You're not done yet, but you've made progress. This Immaculate is perhaps as much as 1/3rd of the way toward accepting that you are not evil.
Now at this point you could continue to try to hammer him down. This is another point to be cautious. You've accomplished your goal, so you might want to back off and do the rest later, so as not to push the Immaculate or whomever too fast too soon.
Just two more conversations like this, and you'll have opened up a REAL hole in his armor, that you can then brutally abuse. Once you've gotten him to accept that you are a good person, you can (if it doesn't hit on his Motivation) start trying to tear apart his relationship with the Immaculate Order (and maybe you even made some progress there prior to earning your new intimacy). Once that's gone, you can replace his old Intimacy for the Immaculate Faith with a belief in what the Solar Exalted actually are and what their return means about the Order.
At this point, you have a Dragon-Blooded Immaculate Monk lackey. I hope you have Martial Arts favored!
Unnatural Influence
The charms of the Solar Exalted are very powerful. They have many uses, but I didn't focus on them overly in this discussion of baseline social combat. This is not to say that they are not useful -- in particular, once you've reached the point where you're ready to Up the Ante...it can be useful to whip these out!
In many cases, resisting such an unnatural influence can drain huge chunks of the subjects willpower. After a prolonged period of establishing a beachhead, the subject might not even be able to mount such a defense. He also might not choose to, depending on what you try to do. There is a danger to using such charms, however. Unnatural Influence is not always obvious, but it can be noticed. Especially if its resisted, the subject might realize that you were using some horrid influence on him and choose to leave the field or take other drastic action.
A failed attempt at unnatural influence that was mishandled can easily ruin trust, making a particular subject less likely to respond to future effects. Such attacks are very powerful, but much like whipping out with a massive combat combo of utter doom, there are weaknesses to using such power.
In other words, be as crafty and sneaky in using unnatural influence as you are in using natural persuasion on the opponents that really matter. You can bend mortals to your will, but if you really want to win the support of someone important, be a sneaky manipulative bastard THEN whip out your uber fu.
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