diff --git a/Lib/test/test_exceptions.py b/Lib/test/test_exceptions.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_exceptions.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_exceptions.py
@@ -9,6 +9,15 @@
                                check_warnings, cpython_only)
 from test.test_pep352 import ignore_deprecation_warnings
 
+class NaiveException(Exception):
+    def __init__(self, x):
+        self.x = x
+
+class SlottedNaiveException(Exception):
+    __slots__ = ('x',)
+    def __init__(self, x):
+        self.x = x
+
 # XXX This is not really enough, each *operation* should be tested!
 
 class ExceptionTests(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -266,6 +275,10 @@
                 {'message' : '', 'args' : (u'\u3042', 0, 1, 'ouch'),
                  'object' : u'\u3042', 'reason' : 'ouch',
                  'start' : 0, 'end' : 1}),
+            (NaiveException, ('foo',),
+                {'args': ('foo',), 'x': 'foo'}),
+            (SlottedNaiveException, ('foo',),
+                {'args': ('foo',), 'x': 'foo'}),
         ]
         try:
             exceptionList.append(
@@ -284,7 +297,8 @@
                 if type(e) is not exc:
                     raise
                 # Verify module name
-                self.assertEqual(type(e).__module__, 'exceptions')
+                if not type(e).__name__.endswith('NaiveException'):
+                    self.assertEqual(type(e).__module__, 'exceptions')
                 # Verify no ref leaks in Exc_str()
                 s = str(e)
                 for checkArgName in expected:
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@
 Core and Builtins
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #1692335: Move initial args assignment to
+  BaseException.__new__ to help pickling of naive subclasses.
+
 - Issue #17275: Corrected class name in init error messages of the C version of
   BufferedWriter and BufferedRandom.
 
diff --git a/Objects/exceptions.c b/Objects/exceptions.c
--- a/Objects/exceptions.c
+++ b/Objects/exceptions.c
@@ -37,6 +37,17 @@
     /* the dict is created on the fly in PyObject_GenericSetAttr */
     self->message = self->dict = NULL;
 
+    if (args) {
+        self->args = args;
+        Py_INCREF(args);
+        if (PyTuple_GET_SIZE(self->args) == 1) {
+            Py_CLEAR(self->message);
+            self->message = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(self->args, 0);
+            Py_INCREF(self->message);
+        }
+        return (PyObject *)self;
+    }
+
     self->args = PyTuple_New(0);
     if (!self->args) {
         Py_DECREF(self);
@@ -55,10 +66,12 @@
 static int
 BaseException_init(PyBaseExceptionObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 {
+    PyObject *tmp;
+
     if (!_PyArg_NoKeywords(Py_TYPE(self)->tp_name, kwds))
         return -1;
 
-    Py_DECREF(self->args);
+    tmp = self->args;
     self->args = args;
     Py_INCREF(self->args);
 
@@ -67,6 +80,8 @@
         self->message = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(self->args, 0);
         Py_INCREF(self->message);
     }
+
+    Py_XDECREF(tmp);
     return 0;
 }