But, I just couldn't see the free-spirited, Chaotic Neutral Ling Qi, whose most significant mentor was a sapient blizzard, and who got along with spirits and demihumans far better than she did with her human peers, submitting so unreservedly and irrevocably to the Lawful Neutral boss. (Once she agreed, my first thought, "So, when's CRX gonna order her to play her flute at a party?")
I would disagree with CN interpretation of Ling Qi. She's TN through and through in animal interpretation of alignment. She react on circumstances and seek her basic needs without much thought of a bigger picture. She may inevitably fuck somebody up in her quest of survival (and in fact did so) but it's not because she's think herself more important that them, but because such is life and it's what everybody does for survival as far as her experience go. She don't do it because it's easy, she do it because it's what she have.
While her leanings when she can afford to think about situation are Good and arguably Lawful. It just before she joined sect she neither had ability nor example of such possibility. She's not good nor lawful as while she likes those concepts in theory she's not ready to trust them. But she hates alternative even more. So while she don't trust Cai to make things different, she trust her at least to try. But her joining Cai while influenced by it is not because of that. It's because Cai offered place to build home and people she can turn back to. Ling Qi despite her short life is enormously and thoroughlytired of this shit and "here we go again" of Thunderdome exemplified how much she don't want that shit any more.
PS. And while Sect could also offer such it's also "this competitive shit again" so it really grates on Ling Qi trust issues. Other options aren't even worth talking about at the stage decision was made.
Since Naths seems to be offline and isn't within poking reach about modifying their plan, here's one with minor adjustments to reflect the allowed change, essentially 1 less SSC AP to bring a spine meridian earlier, plus epc drip to ssc first to cover the xp gap.
The only real alternative would be phys but we're not getting B4 as-is, but we'd be better off spending it next turn when it's benefiting from enough drugs to make up for the 50% efficiency hit past 4 AP.
Skill plan-wise, I'm not happy with Erebeal's, here's some reasoning:
int needs 2 dice at most (need to roll 1,1 to not level), getting rank B at all by turn 18 is looking like a stretch goal since we're no longer getting event xp
dex needs 26 dice, doable even at 0 this turn; resolve and other A>S stuff needs ~17ish, though all are far enough away that a few dice won't really swing breakpoints, especially since we can spend more dice/turn on a specific thing.
government 3 is fine (74% to softcap)
survival needs 6-7 dice to softcap, 4 dice puts it at 9% (3 is at 0%).
vanishing needs 2 turns to cap, no reason to do 1 die at low efficiency when we know wind thief gets moon at some point (and we'll have 2 more SSC turns soon enough)
sincere negotiator is inefficient, even at 4 dice there's only 16% of getting next rank; still, it's narratively appropriate, potentially within omake range, and would likely cost an extra die regardless, so it's probably fine.
beast handling 2 dice gets C with 72%, 3 for 99%; softcap needs 7-8 dice total; considering SSC is still our only art with that keyword other than MoSS which isn't planned for a while (though that's probably something we'll want earlier given how good level 3 is), might as well go for the better odds
art lost a lot but we're getting fairly good effect from the mandatory dice so perhaps it's fine still; though certainly something we can reduce; if we get 10 points again then 3 dice gets us rank C with 74% which is reasonable enough.
with no attributes close to breakpoints, no reason to train social ones
As such, here's a skill plan:
[X] Turn 11 Plan: Making Do
-[X] Intelligence 2, Resolve* 1 (6/30)
-[X] Government 3*, Survival 4, Beast Handling 3*, Art 3*, Sincere Negotiator 4* (27/30)
-[X] Gardening: Art 1*, Woodwind 1* (30/30)
differences compared to erebeal's:
- drop 1 vanishing, 1 manip.
- gain 2 survivial (to 4), 1 resolve.
I suppose there aren't that many ways to make a plan that's both reasonable and fits the upcoming narrative huh.
Guys, in one of the last updates, it said LQ wore her hair up to show her new earrings. Therefore she already has them equipped. So the bit un the plans about equipping the studs is redundant, right?
Guys, in one of the last updates, it said LQ wore her hair up to show her new earrings. Therefore she already has them equipped. So the bit un the plans about equipping the studs is redundant, right?
It's more about actually having a vote where people can object and propose alternatives instead of the math cabal getting to chose in discord without any thing being said on the forum.
Yeah, a lot of people peg CRX as Lawful Neutral (The less charitable call her Lawful Evil), but the truth is that she's Lawful Good to the hilt and most of her problems boil down to "Most people aren't as good as I am, and I struggle to proactively determine when they aren't"
She's a good girl, by far one of the goodest in the cast, and it always give me a sad when people go "ACKTUALLY IT'S A CUNNING RUSE"
I was using D&D alignments as a shorthand; that said, we won't know whether CRX is LG or LE until she has real power over others. The standard example of a Lawful Evil character is Darth Vader. Yet, did he ever consider himself evil?
In the long run, I think that one of the best case scenarios for Ling Qi's role in CRX's court is that of a memetic court jester: someone whose job it is to tell the ruler when she's full of it and thereby prevents her from going full tyrant.
I was using D&D alignments as a shorthand; that said, we won't know whether CRX is LG or LE until she has real power over others. The standard example of a Lawful Evil character is Darth Vader. Yet, did he ever consider himself evil?
In the long run, I think that one of the best case scenarios for Ling Qi's role in CRX's court is that of a memetic court jester: someone whose job it is to tell the ruler when she's full of it and thereby prevents her from going full tyrant.
One of their talks I enjoyed the most was when CRX was beating herself up hard over nuking the scrubs in the tournament and Ling Qi's attempt at cheering her up basically amounted to "Well, sometimes you turn some folks into collateral, don't worry about it, lol".
I don't think LQ is ever gonna be a real morality chain, because CRX is just way more moral a character than her.
Her role seems to be far more one of reminding CRX that it's okay for her to be human too and that she doesn't need to be impossibly perfect for everyone else.
[X] Plan: More Meridians
[X] Turn 11 Plan: Making Do
On the one hand, I will admit that I haven't really looked into and will probably never fully understand the optimization and opportunity costs and art synergies that the math cabal takes into account. On the other hand, their decisions have led to Ling Qi's meteoric rise in the Sect and being capable of handling (or at least surviving) most threats that we encounter, so I will trust their judgement.
