On Abyssals and balance--Ye see, me laddo, it's the Necromancy background that renders them such.  Now, I understand from an overall perspective that there are so many fewer of them, so in order to present a challenge they have to be correspondingly tougher, but...<br/><br/>Not sharing the 'undead are cool' mindset of the designers in the first place, I find Abyssals to be a pain.  Not as big a pain as the Akuma, to be sure.  And even with that I like Exalted a heck of a lot better than anything else White Wolf ever did (Ars Magica Third Ed doesn't count).