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A Simple Transaction I

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I think Brute Force is the best choice here.
-Immediate power boost, enough to let us cut through knights much more easily.
-Doesn't cost Arete, allowing us to take a 7-Arete option next vote.
-Synergizes extremely well with form of rage (as form of Rage triples stats and this gets us lots of stats).
-Unlike Slayer Knell, it's not weak against new enemy types. We rolled a 37 out of 100 on enemy strength, what if while wiping out knights we get another random encounter roll? Slayer knell does NOTHING to help with that.

As for the other half, I'm undecided between Pick off Stragglers and Vanquish. Pick off Stragglers costs time, but we gained time by taking quickest route. OTOH if we spend too long in the Temple isekai idiot might come after our allies who are sitting ducks outside. It may be prudent to get done fast.

Pick off Stragglers is safer though, which is important. As long as we live we keep getting stronger.
 
[X] Wait and Hope
[X] Brute Force
[X] Buy Undying Vanguard

Wait and hope gets us an extra arete and gives us time to leave second form putting a safety net back in place. Brute force gives us more strength and speed for no arete since we were just outstatted in both of those by a low roll monster. Undying Vanguard gives us some backup so we can get some help and I can prevent myself from turning into a salt pillar.
 
[X] Brute Force
[X] Look for Others

yeah, if people want to save for an seven point option(which might be necessary given how hardcore this place is), this is the way to go. Find an party so that we have safety in numbers and simply increase our stats, which is pretty worthwhile.
 
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Current vote count?

ImperatorV said:
So, first impressions of the build vote: I'm inclined towards Vanquish with either Swift as Death or Peerless Shroud. Pick off Stragglers is also pretty good, although it takes a lot of time. I think Wait and Hope is a waste and Look for Others won't get us anyone worth the effort, although with Undying Vanguard it could be alright. Slayer Knell I'm not a big fan of, but it'd get the job done here. It uses two picks and is useless against singular boss fights unless those boss fights are super versions of normal enemies.

...Brute Force might honestly be the answer here. It costs no Arete and upgrades our combat abilities by quite a bit, which snowballs into further upgrades when we kill knights with it.
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Brute Force Good.

Thomasfoolery said:
Could've been worse, but not great. This voice is reminding me of my SOS bottle thought.

[ ] Vanquish The Pursuers
[ ] Slayer Knell

I have to say that this is tempting. I don't like the idea of waiting around much in the temple, feel like something worse will happen if we delay too much.
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Hm... your instincts give you the impression that waiting in the antechamber is pretty safe. For now. And +1 Arete would take you very close to a 7-Arete option. You could take Brute Force here and be well-equipped to benefit from any form of power multiplier.

Dark Lord Bob said:
Would, for example, orcs constitute a type? Or are types narrower?

Basically I'm interested in whether killing all of the skeleton soldiers on your way through a dungeon would provide any help with the lich-king at the end of it.
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It seems fairly narrow, yeah. Killing knights with different weapons would work, but not different creature types. On the other hand, if humans are a type... but surely that would be too easy. Still, all mages of a certain magic school might fit, or knights of a certain order.

runeblue360 said:
[X] Brute Force
[X] Look for Others

Getting really good at killing these guys doesn't matter because they're chumps. The real danger is encountering something outside of our weight class while we're killing them or potentially being forced into our Rage Form this early. Better to instead get a party; for people weaker than us to survive here they must have some measure of intel or skill to allow for that. What do we have ++++Charisma for, if not this?
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I wouldn't say they're chumps, individually they're about as powerful you were just were without accounting for Form of Rage. They are fairly weak compared to most other inhabitants of this place, but not the dregs.
 
[X] Brute Force
[X] Vanquish The Pursuers

My instinct was Peerless Shroud, but I'm wary of over-optimizing to fight the first set of mooks that we found. Brute Force will help to kill anything we encounter.
 
You guys are wrong in thinking that Slayer Knell is going to help us that much with Vanquish. It's charging into a group of Knights who are about our level. It's probably only possible with Swift or Peerless, or a lot of luck.
 
Rihaku said:
Vanquish is surprisingly popular! You should realize that fighting twelve of these things is fairly likely to pop Form of Rage, as the blurb notes! Do you really want to do so this early?
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Well, that kills Vanquish for me. We'll need Form of Rage for later when we hit more dangerous enemies.

[X] Pick Off Stragglers
[X] Brute Force

Remember everyone, Brute Force powers up our Form of Rage and Slayer Knell is useless if we encounter a new type of enemy that significantly outclasses us! Which is likely, given knights were a 37 out of 100! Slayer Knell uses two picks on something that may end up useless in a situation we're very likely to encounter.
 
if we're still gonna proc Form of Rage with swift as death if we go after the crowd I'd rather save the Arete and get STATS while taking medium risk
[X] Pick Off Stragglers
[X] Brute Force
 
Or, perhaps we can look for other people so that we actually have an chance against stronger opponents and some information about the denizens of this place so that we can prepare appropriately? In a place like this, they should be very willing to work with us.
 
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We can only summon people even weaker than ourselves. Assuming Tyrant doesn't proc, they'll be just cannon fodder against the knights and should some of them survive in the aftermath, we'll have to decide whether we abandon them or cart them around - or worse, leave them with our companions.
 
LordOfMurder said:
[X] Wait and Hope
[X] Brute Force
[X] Buy Undying Vanguard

Wait and hope gets us an extra arete and gives us time to leave second form putting a safety net back in place. Brute force gives us more strength and speed for no arete since we were just outstatted in both of those by a low roll monster. Undying Vanguard gives us some backup so we can get some help and I can prevent myself from turning into a salt pillar.
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You do have Form of Rage, so you don't need a safety net quite so badly... though there are things in here that can challenge even that.

DkArthas said:
[X] Brute Force
[X] Look for Others

yeah, if people want to save for an seven point option(which might be necessary given how hardcore this place is), this is the way to go. Find an party so that we have safety in numbers and simply increase our stats, which is pretty worthwhile.
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A party could also slow your rate of advancement, though... if they can't keep up with your movement speed or speed of growth they'd swiftly be obsoleted. And then you guys would have to vote to abandon them, do you think the voter base has the grit?!

Zampano said:
[X] Brute Force
[X] Vanquish The Pursuers

My instinct was Peerless Shroud, but I'm wary of over-optimizing to fight the first set of mooks that we found. Brute Force will help to kill anything we encounter.
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Peerless Shroud is actually really good here, the improved coverage against exotic magic types would help your survivability immensely. And it would make your Form of Rage nigh-invincible against most opponents. You have Fell-Handed Stroke to bleed powerful enemies so focusing on defense is a viable strategy that helps maximize your chances of survival.

ImperatorV said:
Well, that kills Vanquish for me. We'll need Form of Rage for later when we hit more dangerous enemies.

[X] Pick Off Stragglers
[X] Brute Force

Remember everyone, Brute Force powers up our Form of Rage and Slayer Knell is useless if we encounter a new type of enemy that significantly outclasses us! Which is likely, given knights were a 37 out of 100! Slayer Knell uses two picks on something that may end up useless in a situation we're very likely to encounter.
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Form of Rage loves increased stats! But +Protection would even better than +Might!

Shard said:
[X] Wait and Hope
[X] Brute Force

Recuperate and return to fleshy form.
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Swift as Death yields full healing in an hour, which would let you farm much more aggressively... that's 24x the theoretical amount of HP to play with in a day!
 
Unelemental said:
We can only summon people even weaker than ourselves. Assuming Tyrant doesn't proc, they'll be just cannon fodder against the knights and should some of them survive in the aftermath, we'll have to decide whether we abandon them or cart them around - or worse, leave them with our companions.
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Well, maybe. Or perhaps they have synergistic abilities that allow them to fight above there weight class and appropriate knowledge of the weakness of fucks in this place that they exploit.
 
Sickul said:
We won't because we have the insane agility to dance through them.
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I did slightly misremember but 'substantially lower' than 'fairly likely' doesn't exactly sound safe and we need to escalate our power in all forms to progress in the temple
Rihaku said:
Vanquish is surprisingly popular! You should realize that fighting twelve of these things is fairly likely to pop Form of Rage, as the blurb notes! Do you really want to do so this early?

If you take Swift as Death the chances of requiring that are substantially lower, but that's a 2 Arete investment that takes you further from 7 Arete... and it doesn't improve Form of Rage or your flesh body at all!
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Yo guys, why would you want to risk using our extremely loud and tiring kick ass transformation on these relative mooks? Moreover, the end of this update was just Hunger complaining about how much his stats suck; I'm not sure he could get less subtle about telling us we should take some. Slayer's Knell is neat and all but haven't we done enough gambling for now?

Unelemental said:
We can only summon people even weaker than ourselves. Assuming Tyrant doesn't proc, they'll be just cannon fodder against the knights and should some of them survive in the aftermath, we'll have to decide whether we abandon them or cart them around - or worse, leave them with our companions.
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The fact is, if they're inside and not dead, they probably have something that let's them survive. It probably isn't combat power but that just makes our negotiating better. Extract what knowledge we can out of them, use their support to make our initial growth safer and then ditch them in a safe place while we take care of the Temple.
 
Hunger seems to gain power directly proportional to that of his enemies: one way to power level, it seems, would be to pick Slayer and then just go to town on stragglers until Hunger is so powerful against these foes he can take groups on with impunity...
Still, the dream of stats must never die!

[X] Pick Off Stragglers
[X] Brute Force
 
Doesn't change the fact that they couldn't possibly keep up with us. I'm not doubting their initial usefulness - be it knowledge or bodies to throw in front of us - but the question comes what we do afterwards. I'm not sure we can unattach ourselves easily from characters after getting to know them.
 
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