OctarineShrike
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1223 Words if this counts as a fanwork.
@ImperatorV I am not the kind of person who could deal with the Apocryphal Curse and would soon find myself cognitohazarded by Gisena in Real World Conditions I suspect. If it was my own life on the line though I might have no choice but to deal with it from a pragmatism standpoint though. I'd probably go for a Regalia or Seven Seals build.
I would not have the benefit of even being mauveshirt tier in Battle Mastery/Accretion/Seven Seals without a remittance
Having seen what the ring of Hunger did to Hunger's incentive structure, I'm leery of it. If I was doing on the Wish Route, I'd probably end up spending 2 Accursed Wishes with the 3 Wishes Remittance for power and altering my mind to be able to handle my new circumstances.
On curses:
Doom of Lunacy probably wouldn't make much of a difference given my circumstances/lack of psychological fitness for this role. The Berserker state may actually be useful. Given my own perceived lack of aptitude for subtlety, it's an open question how much I'd be missing if I took the Plenary Brand.
Affliction of Slumber/Brand of the Champion would be on some step below DoL/Plenary Brand
I'd like to think Decimator's Affliction and Doom of the Tyrant are bottom tier options for me, with Doom of the Tyrant being above Decimator's Affliction in terms of my willingness to take one of them due to the ability to mitigate it by hiding from people.
On Greater Remittances:
Praxis is obviously not an option and I've already explained 3 Wishes. That just leaves King's Scepter or Regalia. Intensify may actually prove to be necessary for me depending on build setups.
Build Plans for King's Scepter:
Accretion Routes
Muscle Wizard - Having done Martial Arts in the distant past, I'd be seriously considering the Muscle Wizard route(Intensify, Retinue, Relinquishment). For my Curses I'd go for some pair from Doom of Lunacy+Plenary Brand+Brand of the Champion, probably Plenary Brand and Doom of Lunacy
Plenary Brand
Doom of Lunacy
Intensify
Retinue
Relinquishment
Non-Muscle Wizard - I'm going to need a Panopoly for this one and probably a weapon too. Talon+Forebear's Blade, which just leaves my last Remittance. I'd need Retinue due to being nowhere near interesting enough to attract the companion options otherwise but then I wouldn't be able to afford a companion via Remittance. I'd probably have best social odds working with Catherine without the benefit of Retinue. So I guess I'd take Catherine, or gamble on being able to find somebody I convince to work with me with the power of Retinue. Talon's an important parts of making stuff like Brand of the Champion and Doom of the Tyrant manageable so I can't use intensify. Doom of Lunacy can fark with more stuff on a build like this, so that leaves setups like Plenary Brand+Brand of the Champion, or Plenary Brand+Doom of the Tyrant(Ugh)
Plenary Brand
Brand of the Champion or Doom of the Tyrant
Talon
Forbear's Blade
Catherine or Retinue
Seven Seals/Imprisoner Route
Prolessarch Route - My last remittance here would either be Forebear's Blade or Retinue. From a Curse standpoint, Plenary Brand seems mandatory for me to convince him I'm interesting enough to travel with. Affliction of Slumber+Plenary Brand+Retinue, get powerful fast enough to potentially get stage 1 curse mitigation without Forbear's Blade, and get somebody to guard me in my sleep with Retinue. Alternatively, I take Forbear's Blade and Brand of the Champion instead of Affliction of Slumber, do my own curse mitigation so I don't have to do as much to pay Prolessarch for his insight or can make him immune.
Plenary Brand
Affliction of Slumber(A) or Brand of the Champion(B)
Prolessarch
Retinue(A) or Forbear's Blade(B)
Non-Prolessarch Route - This setup opens up room for several scenarios. I could bribe Gisena with Retinue and use the Forbear's blade to get curse mitigation easily. She'd also be a training partner for social picks given the endgame. I could be Catherine's support mage and get involved in whatever the fark is going on with Procyon and House Amarlt, or meet whoever the mystery box armament pilots are for other curses. The Hunger Ring may be worth it on this route. It was described as providing tangible progression advantages to Seven Seals.
Plenary Brand
Doom of the Tyrant
Forbear's Blade
Retinue
Gisena
I'd also be considering Catherine Routes but Gisena probably has the strongest long term potential in my circumstances.
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Build Plans for Regalia:
Regalia has 3 Variations
A. 2 Bad End Rewinds, a superpower of moderate strength weaker than the Kings Scepter and a bonus lesser Remittance(Meaning I'd have 4)
B. 1 Bad End Rewind, 2 superpowers of moderate strength weaker than the Kings Scepter and a bonus lesser Remittance(Meaning I'd have 4)
C. 1 Bad End Rewind, a superpower of moderate strength weaker than the Kings Scepter and 2 bonus lesser Remittances(Meaning I'd have 5, I have no idea what I'd do with this many Remittances so I'm not coming up with a build for it. )
I'm not sure what kinds of superpowers I could and couldn't ask for but some perceived candidates are: Surgecraft Elements(Shadowcord, Vigorflame, Edeldross, Roilweft, Fullmight, Inksky with the Mantle Included), Lesser Soul Evocations like the Librarian or the Correspondent(I'm writing off Sten's Soul Evocation and the power of the Imprisoner as too strong to ask for in Regalia), Amplitude and Chromatic Aberration from the original AST, Some level of Chyrsopoeia development, and initiation into Findross Sorcery.
Non-Rihakuverse powers I think may be viable here - Sabrina's Grief manipulation power from PMAS with an alternative method than soul gems for generation of grief. Accelerator/Level 5-Tier Vector Control or Kakine Teitoku/Level 5-Tier Dark Matter is presumably too powerful for Regalia. King's Scepter is a maybe.
Plan A(2 Bad End Rewinds)
Chromatic Aberration
2 Bad End Rewinds
Talon
Retinue
Gisena
Relinquishment
Plenary Brand or Doom of the Tyrant
Affliction of Slumber
This route gives me a very strong safety margin, vacation time, Chromatic Aberration removing my need for food/water/air means my ability to use my awake hours after Gisena provides stage 1 Affliction of Slumber mitigation is improved, Talon gives us the ability to build up wealth and resources grinding in the Voyaging Realm. Talon also might let me render enemies into Findross.
Plan B(2 Superpowers)
Chromatic Aberration
Roilweft, alternatively some Rihakuverse analog to Kakine Teitoku or Sabrina from PMAS's power(They seem cut from a similar cloth), maybe Edeldross this one's hard to decide
1 Bad End Rewind
Talon
Retinue
Gisena
Relinquishment
Plenary Brand or Doom of the Tyrant
Affliction of Slumber
This one is basically the same as plan A but some of my safety margin gets sacrificed for more power via what I imagine to be Vista and Fujino Asagami's power mixed together and hopped up on steroids. It gives me the ability to travel through space without needing a ship either by direct teleportation or taking the semi-long way and risking my sanity. I might consider Doom of Lunacy as an alternative to affliction of Slumber on a regalia route.
@ImperatorV I am not the kind of person who could deal with the Apocryphal Curse and would soon find myself cognitohazarded by Gisena in Real World Conditions I suspect. If it was my own life on the line though I might have no choice but to deal with it from a pragmatism standpoint though. I'd probably go for a Regalia or Seven Seals build.
I would not have the benefit of even being mauveshirt tier in Battle Mastery/Accretion/Seven Seals without a remittance
Having seen what the ring of Hunger did to Hunger's incentive structure, I'm leery of it. If I was doing on the Wish Route, I'd probably end up spending 2 Accursed Wishes with the 3 Wishes Remittance for power and altering my mind to be able to handle my new circumstances.
On curses:
Doom of Lunacy probably wouldn't make much of a difference given my circumstances/lack of psychological fitness for this role. The Berserker state may actually be useful. Given my own perceived lack of aptitude for subtlety, it's an open question how much I'd be missing if I took the Plenary Brand.
Affliction of Slumber/Brand of the Champion would be on some step below DoL/Plenary Brand
I'd like to think Decimator's Affliction and Doom of the Tyrant are bottom tier options for me, with Doom of the Tyrant being above Decimator's Affliction in terms of my willingness to take one of them due to the ability to mitigate it by hiding from people.
On Greater Remittances:
Praxis is obviously not an option and I've already explained 3 Wishes. That just leaves King's Scepter or Regalia. Intensify may actually prove to be necessary for me depending on build setups.
Build Plans for King's Scepter:
Accretion Routes
Muscle Wizard - Having done Martial Arts in the distant past, I'd be seriously considering the Muscle Wizard route(Intensify, Retinue, Relinquishment). For my Curses I'd go for some pair from Doom of Lunacy+Plenary Brand+Brand of the Champion, probably Plenary Brand and Doom of Lunacy
Plenary Brand
Doom of Lunacy
Intensify
Retinue
Relinquishment
Non-Muscle Wizard - I'm going to need a Panopoly for this one and probably a weapon too. Talon+Forebear's Blade, which just leaves my last Remittance. I'd need Retinue due to being nowhere near interesting enough to attract the companion options otherwise but then I wouldn't be able to afford a companion via Remittance. I'd probably have best social odds working with Catherine without the benefit of Retinue. So I guess I'd take Catherine, or gamble on being able to find somebody I convince to work with me with the power of Retinue. Talon's an important parts of making stuff like Brand of the Champion and Doom of the Tyrant manageable so I can't use intensify. Doom of Lunacy can fark with more stuff on a build like this, so that leaves setups like Plenary Brand+Brand of the Champion, or Plenary Brand+Doom of the Tyrant(Ugh)
Plenary Brand
Brand of the Champion or Doom of the Tyrant
Talon
Forbear's Blade
Catherine or Retinue
Seven Seals/Imprisoner Route
Prolessarch Route - My last remittance here would either be Forebear's Blade or Retinue. From a Curse standpoint, Plenary Brand seems mandatory for me to convince him I'm interesting enough to travel with. Affliction of Slumber+Plenary Brand+Retinue, get powerful fast enough to potentially get stage 1 curse mitigation without Forbear's Blade, and get somebody to guard me in my sleep with Retinue. Alternatively, I take Forbear's Blade and Brand of the Champion instead of Affliction of Slumber, do my own curse mitigation so I don't have to do as much to pay Prolessarch for his insight or can make him immune.
Plenary Brand
Affliction of Slumber(A) or Brand of the Champion(B)
Prolessarch
Retinue(A) or Forbear's Blade(B)
Non-Prolessarch Route - This setup opens up room for several scenarios. I could bribe Gisena with Retinue and use the Forbear's blade to get curse mitigation easily. She'd also be a training partner for social picks given the endgame. I could be Catherine's support mage and get involved in whatever the fark is going on with Procyon and House Amarlt, or meet whoever the mystery box armament pilots are for other curses. The Hunger Ring may be worth it on this route. It was described as providing tangible progression advantages to Seven Seals.
Plenary Brand
Doom of the Tyrant
Forbear's Blade
Retinue
Gisena
I'd also be considering Catherine Routes but Gisena probably has the strongest long term potential in my circumstances.
------------------------------------------------------
Build Plans for Regalia:
Regalia has 3 Variations
A. 2 Bad End Rewinds, a superpower of moderate strength weaker than the Kings Scepter and a bonus lesser Remittance(Meaning I'd have 4)
B. 1 Bad End Rewind, 2 superpowers of moderate strength weaker than the Kings Scepter and a bonus lesser Remittance(Meaning I'd have 4)
C. 1 Bad End Rewind, a superpower of moderate strength weaker than the Kings Scepter and 2 bonus lesser Remittances(Meaning I'd have 5, I have no idea what I'd do with this many Remittances so I'm not coming up with a build for it. )
I'm not sure what kinds of superpowers I could and couldn't ask for but some perceived candidates are: Surgecraft Elements(Shadowcord, Vigorflame, Edeldross, Roilweft, Fullmight, Inksky with the Mantle Included), Lesser Soul Evocations like the Librarian or the Correspondent(I'm writing off Sten's Soul Evocation and the power of the Imprisoner as too strong to ask for in Regalia), Amplitude and Chromatic Aberration from the original AST, Some level of Chyrsopoeia development, and initiation into Findross Sorcery.
Non-Rihakuverse powers I think may be viable here - Sabrina's Grief manipulation power from PMAS with an alternative method than soul gems for generation of grief. Accelerator/Level 5-Tier Vector Control or Kakine Teitoku/Level 5-Tier Dark Matter is presumably too powerful for Regalia. King's Scepter is a maybe.
Plan A(2 Bad End Rewinds)
Chromatic Aberration
2 Bad End Rewinds
Talon
Retinue
Gisena
Relinquishment
Plenary Brand or Doom of the Tyrant
Affliction of Slumber
This route gives me a very strong safety margin, vacation time, Chromatic Aberration removing my need for food/water/air means my ability to use my awake hours after Gisena provides stage 1 Affliction of Slumber mitigation is improved, Talon gives us the ability to build up wealth and resources grinding in the Voyaging Realm. Talon also might let me render enemies into Findross.
Plan B(2 Superpowers)
Chromatic Aberration
Roilweft, alternatively some Rihakuverse analog to Kakine Teitoku or Sabrina from PMAS's power(They seem cut from a similar cloth), maybe Edeldross this one's hard to decide
1 Bad End Rewind
Talon
Retinue
Gisena
Relinquishment
Plenary Brand or Doom of the Tyrant
Affliction of Slumber
This one is basically the same as plan A but some of my safety margin gets sacrificed for more power via what I imagine to be Vista and Fujino Asagami's power mixed together and hopped up on steroids. It gives me the ability to travel through space without needing a ship either by direct teleportation or taking the semi-long way and risking my sanity. I might consider Doom of Lunacy as an alternative to affliction of Slumber on a regalia route.
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