I was less thinking in terms of any knowledge he might have and more the experience dealing with him on a semi regular basis will give us.
As meianmaru pointed out most of the goodies in Jeager tech tree that I (and some others) think are essential to get us to an equal level are at least 6 years away like Psionic Amplifier. So I don't think we will concentrate year after year on raising the SL. So we have time before our other arrows make it into our quiver for dealing with New Heaven.
There is also the fact that SL raising rewards happen in other actions. Just this turn there were actions that had the side effect of raising SL for Greta, Euphie and Milly in Martial and Diplomacy. So if we will be keeping Xiaobao close then there is a chance that his SL could raise with actions not dedicated to him. Just because he will be close and observing our actions and choices. There might be a small chance of raising his SL on other personal actions as he would be our ward so we might take him with us on good rolls.
As for training for Lelouch. First of all if Xiaobao will be close then the psionic aura of power will be something that Lelouch will read as a base level. Right now he can be comfortable because of his own power. But that is against an untrained high level psionic. Going up against a trained psionic on that level who has a technique to project a "battle aura" could be distracting in combat. Until he felt him approaching Lelouch didn't even realize how powerful psionic auras could affect others.
There is another learning experience ahead. Xiaobao is around 7 years old. Puberty is coming. Puberty for a very powerful psionic. Combined with learning how to deal with not being a sacrifice. Just dealing with emotional very high powered outbursts will be a learning experience and should give Lelouch experience with that level of power. If we just outsource his upbringing then instead of dealing with such outbursts up close when they happen we might at best be stuck dealing with their effects. Super psionic teenager tantrums can be a learning experience.
Also who would we chose to do the raising in our place. The only people who might have experience with psionics are Jeager, Aleister or our shinobi. The joke about having Euphie raise him wasn't really funny. Especially as there will most likely be a risk of loosing Diplomacy actions if something happens. Remember that we had to wait a year for her to finish her studies which was somewhat personal. Raising a high maintenance kid might cause background rolls to happen. And if they are low we might end up with a distracted Euphie (a penalty to rolls or even loosing an action for some time). While Slayer won't be killing characters of screen there was nothing said about them being indisposed by background rolls.
Yes, we have some time if we wait for all the psionic tech to be build going by the timetable we were given. Going by our normal rolls and the activity of the factions involved I am not sure we will have so much time or everything will go exactly as envisioned. Who did foresee the attack of NH on the Conference? I think such curve-balls will come again and again.
Furthermore, without this knowledge about the duel Lelouch would approach the NH differently. When he knows he needs to prepare for a duel, we will most likely get options to do just that. Meaning the later we get the knowledge, the less time we have for direct preparation compared to us trying to use metagaming in hope to succeed.
Xiaobao is a kid, with no knowledge or skill in anything. Look at the action which allow for an increase in SL, all of them involve actors doing something important. What can a seven-year-old do that matters on the scale of our actions? Can he help in research? Would Lelouch want to have a child that fears his presence be involved in such things? After he has been cultivated as an asset and trained he can certainly help, but at the start? No way! Sayoko is our bodyguard and head of the shinobi under our control, and we do not just irregularly get a bonus to her SL, because she is looking over our shoulder. We get that for no one. Every increase in SL is shown through the rewards, only exception were extreme triple crits and using something like that as a basis for an argument is weak. First there is no guarantee of it happening, then there is no guarantee for it including him and lastly we would not choose our general actions with a look towards that. Making such a point worthless, because no one votes for something hoping a secret triple crit reward will bring what they want.
I am not quite sure if I understand the next point right. Lelouch needs someone powerful to give him a wake-up call? Lelouch recognizes the power of Xiaobao and I am not sure he is that arrogant about it.
I already said Xiaobao could help him if he is trained, so if that is what you meant. D'accord. My point against that is not the usefulness of it, but the massive time investment to get there and then take advantage of it.
I am not sure how dealing with such things could be a learning experience, on anything else than a personal level. It is not like psionics just destroy things around them when they get angry. That is X-Men. To use psionics, we were shown, that it needs training and then focus to accomplish such things. That is not something an emotional teenager would just fabricate on the by. If strong emotions would lead to something like that, I would think Xiaobao's trepidation before meeting Lelouch would have resulted in something. It did not. Therefore, I see no basis for this line of thought.
For your last point you make several mistakes. First you confuse raising someone with teaching one specific skill-set. These things are not the same. Parents raise their children all the time without teaching them everything. Piano teachers, private tutors, arms instructors, such a list can go on forever. Lelouch learned things from different people, without having to be raised by them. He learned from the Shinobi not because he grew up among them, but because he went through their training regimen. Same thing can be done with him. He is a child and wll need teachers either way.
Then the notion that somehow Lelouch would not lose actions, but Euphemia would. If bad rolls can happen to her, they can also happen to him. Making it a moot point. It would actually be even worse for us, because Lelouch modifiers and actions influence far more things. Additionally, Euphemia is not only doing diplomatic work, but also does other things. Good example is Nunally. She got a girlfriend without any input from us. Euphemia would then not be hindered or troubled in her own work, but have reduced personal time. And if she would face problems, I see no reason why she would not go to us. The big troubles Xiaobao faces are emotional and not psionic in nature. He is indoctrinated and has no idea of the outside world. With him being unskilled in psionic skills, there is no reason to fear him doing anything with it. He was taught to not use his inherent skills. Remember he was just a sacrifice, nothing else. A sacrifice does not need to be stubborn or skilled.
Due to the nature of his upbringing, he has little strength of will or desire for himself. Is approximately seven years of age.
Well, there are at least one reason to use our Personal Actions for his SL. That being this trait:
Through our good rolls in several key moments, Lelouch has reached pretty good ability to connect with people. And while I do agree that we wouldn't likely get anything out of Xiaobao in the short- or even medium-term for the reasons you said, long-term I think it is absolutely vital that we have his personal loyalty. Depending on how he grows, he might end up being one of our advisors or combat personel, depends on his personality and own choices. Or the opposite, if things go worse enough. Like him ending up leaving our faction by running away, leaving on mutual agreement (if Lelouch thinks its both beneficial and safe enough for himself, which I kind of doubt will happen) or some other form "bad ends" for the SL.
Also, I think you are underestimating the power of SL bonuses. There is sure to be some form of rewards there relating to psionics, explained by Lelouch learning while teaching or something like that. Though again, these will likely be a long term thing with that admitedly intimading -5 SL. Not sure though if it will be strickly roll-based and single +1 SL point per time. We could see conversational choices that can better/worse results, and we could see more rapid gains while he is still a child. Not sure Slayer Anderson will model it, but being a child and surrounded by people who are solely on Lelouch's side might grind down even the kind of strongly enforced cultural norms he was grown inside of.
Still, I will also admit that a lot of depends for me on what the next Personal Action -vote will contain. There is the opportunity for finally advancing that Jaeger SL to get him moved towards our inner circle, the need for Lelouch to interact with Kallen and Jeanne to keep their relationships from turning sour, potential time-sensitive one-turn events, etc. So in the end, I guess I will keep my options open until we reach the next turn's Phase III again. But I still think that letting Lelouch raise the kid is a stronger option than you say it is.
The trait was given as a goodie to signify the good rolls Lelouch got and does not provide any further increase in rolls for interaction except the +1 for diplomacy. Compare that to Euphemia, our Diplomacy Advisor. Sweet, caring, empathetic, beautiful Euphemia. Are you seriously suggesting Lelouch starting out as -5 SL could compare to that? The trait is fluff and I doubt it outweighs in any capacity Euphemia. Who can easier bond with a scared indoctrinated child? There is no contest.
I have not disputed that getting his SL would bring rewards, just that the time invested will not be worth it. Any SL-Bonus only comes into play from rank 4 onwards. That's nine levels! We have currently one person with such a high rank, indicating a similar commitment, our sister. I do not think the thread would dedicate the attention needed towards it. You yourself acknowledge how many other options are out there in the personal category. I don't want to reiterate you, but you get it. If someone, that seriously considers this a good option, has troubles committing on such a path, how will the rest of silent questers feel.
With it turning out so bad, that the QM has considered changing things and giving us another personal action every so-and-so turns. Personal actions is always a massivel contested vote. Therefore, thinking that we can dedicate to a long-term SL project is madness in mind.
Every vote is about weighing the alternatives against each other. Thinking about cost and benefits. You want to dedicate or essentially lock in one of our action for a long-time. Going by simple math we would need him up towards 4/5 in ranks. Means roughly ten actions (-5 - 5) if we get him to raise his rank every time. Take a step away from this argument and think about it. Do you really think the thread would vote consecutively for this? If you are honest, I don't think you can answer that with a clear yes.
I am not saying it would not be worth it, I mean his high stat alone shows how useful he could be and SL-Bonuses are always nice. But stats are not the only thing that matters. There are two posts for which he could prove useful in the future. One as an agent and the other piety adviser. I don't see the loyalty problem either way, because Euphemia can inspire loyalty on a similar level as Lelouch. If we have her loyalty, we would get his. Delegation is not something bad.
His use as an agent would be his enormous stat granting a high bonus and therefore allowing him to tackle tasks others could not. Kind of obvious.
Now piety adviser would be another thing. I can see two ways. First is the groundwork path for the "religion" we would need for another action. Through winning the duel we would have a divine mandate for the commoners of the NH faction. I could see things going similar with him. With enough time investment, he could become our first apostle. Especially, with Aleister spouting such things all the time. His focus would be more on the side of growing the cult around us and taking the doctrine from NH and applying it towards us. Such things.
Other is he takes to alchemy and our skills like a fish to water and becomes Lelouch skillwise. Therefore allows us to double down on our current path.
Personally, I don't see him walking some new paths that we have not already walked upon. With us teaching him, how could he. Therefore he would just be an upgrade for getting some more stat bonus towards our options. Another action would not be coming from him becoming adviser, because we don't technically need one according to the QM. Else we would not have gotten the third personal actions for filling all adivsor posts.
But here is the important thing, I don't see such a path automatically blocked through giving him to Euphemia. The religion angle would most likely be gone, but I could still see her asking Lelouch for training in psionics for him. Her peaceful focus would most likely stop him from becoming a bloodlusty agent, but not like we have a dire need of them.
TL
R: Strongly doubtful towards utterly disbelieving that the thread will dedicate 8 actions upwards(generous estimate!!) to get the rewards on which we roughly agree.
