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Hogwarts Sect of Witchcraft and Wizardry

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An alternative plan could be the Jade Chit and Fire-Omen combo:

[][Divination1] Improve Fire-Omen rite
[][Divination2] Improve Fire-Omen rite
[][Chit] Improve Fire-Omen rite

This way, we'd get to see what kind of improvements there can be to Divination beyond adding dice. I'm not sold on it, but it was worth pointing out.
 
Realistically I think there's two options for how we use Divination in the short term:
1) we use it to try and avoid rolls less than ten, in which case we should put both our omens into our current technique
2) we use it to fish for rolls of more than 90 for house points, in which case we should grab two different techniques

My preference is the second because I actually enjoy the consequences of rolling less than ten, it tends to be interesting, though people may disagree with me.

-[][Divination1] Learn of another rite
-[][Divination2] Learn of another rite

On Arithmancy, I'm keen to explore what the various element combinations are. It makes sense to invest them into Humble Light Bringer personally, as our signature technique, though the mechanics specialists may disagree.

-[][Arithmancy1] The Light Summoning Technique, Wood

Wood is the element of creation, so feels like a natural match with Fire for the Light Summoning.

-[][Arithmancy2] The Light Eater Technique, Earth

Earth is the opposite of fire, so it makes sense to combine them for Light Eater.

Notably, both of this are focused on making the technique better at what it already does, instead of going for weird esoteric effects.

Edit: and now as a plan

[X][Plan] Signature Technique
-[X][Divination1] Learn of another rite
-[X][Divination2] Learn of another rite x2
-[X][Arithmancy1] The Light Summoning Technique, Wood
-[X][Arithmancy2] The Light Eater Technique, Earth

[X][Finance] Wheeler and dealer of the spiritual kind

Edit: approval vote for Epic's plan this turn, need to decide about the Chit.

[X][Plan] More rites
 
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In terms of arithmancy, I agree that we should upgrade whip shear. Beyond that I can't find any significant synergies, so unless someone else finds another one, it comes down to which technique we want to double the effectiveness of. For me that's Wing Floating as it has the best scaling

[X][Plan] Different Rites
-[X][Divination1] Learn of another rite
-[X][Divination2] Learn of another rite
-[X][Arithmancy1] The Wing Floating Technique, Metal
-[X][Arithmancy2] The Whip Shear Technique, Earth

[X][Finance] Shadowy backer of immortal business
[X][Chit] Natural springy ball II
 
[X][Plan] Different Rites
-[X][Divination1] Learn of another rite
-[X][Divination2] Learn of another rite
-[X][Arithmancy1] The Wing Floating Technique, Metal
-[X][Arithmancy2] The Whip Shear Technique, Earth

[X][Finance] Shadowy backer of immortal business
[X][Chit] Natural springy ball II
 
I know the QM explicitly said it's okay to do that, and I trust he'd be able to justify and describe it brilliantly, if it happens... but it still feels weird, in-story, to modify a technique we don't even know yet.
 
zinay said:
For me that's Wing Floating as it has the best scaling
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My issue with this is that by taking a technique we haven't learned yet:
1) we don't get any benefit from our Arithmancy level until we study Transfig again, which looks to currently be three months; and
2) it basically soft locks us into taking Wing Floating (or any other technique) as our next technique, and I think that a lot of the thread would prefer to continue to master Whip Sheer, rather than spread ourselves thinner.

For these reasons I think we should limit ourselves to techniques that we've already learnt. On that note, can I suggest the Light Creation Technique? Doubling it effectively means we're rolling our results on 1d110, which doesn't scale amazingly but it's solid by itself.
 
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FriedIce said:
1) don't get any benefit from our Arithmancy level until we study Transfig again, which looks to currently be three months;
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To be fair, I don't know if we would get any (mechanical) benefit from Light Summoning or Light Eater, either, because they might still be worse than the Brush and Whip shear, even after the Arithmancy modification. It feels like it, at least. Not 100% sure if the math checks out.

Also, I think I will advocate for 1 Transfiguration action as soon as next month.
 
My logic is that we're probably going to be doing a meridians action next month, so we get the mechanical effect earlier, because we're probably going to get enough meridians to slot everything.

Either way I think my point about it being a soft lock on our actions in future turns stands though.
Epic Bygones said:
Also, I think I will advocate for 1 Transfiguration action as soon as next month.
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I thought next month was planned as 'prepare well for the year and lower a bunch of DCs', otherwise known as Herbology/Astronomy, with maybe a Meridian or Charms action thrown in.

What's your current thinking?
 
[X][Plan] More rites
-[X][Divination1] Learn of another rite
-[X][Divination2] Learn of another rite x2
-[X][Arithmancy1] The Chroma-caller Technique, Wood
-[X][Arithmancy1] The Whip Shear Technique, Earth
[X][Chit] Natural springy ball II
[X][Finance] Shadowy backer of immortal business

@Epic Bygones I'd update the second Divination option in your plan to 'Learn of another rite x2', as right now the tally's merging both of them for your plan.

Edit: Also, I figured we'd do the below:
September- 4x Defence, 1x Meridians
October- 3x Herbology/Astronomy
November- 4x History, 1x Meridians, 1x Charms
December- 6x Transfiguration
If we save sect points to spend in Nov to use the Boon in Dec, that'll combo with the Rune of Alacrity also activating in Dec to mean we should have good odds of getting 3 milestones at once in Transfiguration, assuming my math was right.

Edit2: Another reason to order the actions this way is to help maximise the chances of winning sect points each month.
And I'd rather do Herbology before the quidditch match in Nov considering the ingredients should help our potions.
 
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FriedIce said:
My logic is that we're probably going to be doing a meridians action next month, so we get the mechanical effect earlier, because we're probably going to get enough meridians to slot everything.

Either way I think my point about it being a soft lock on our actions in future turns stands though.

I thought next month was planned as 'prepare well for the year and lower a bunch of DCs', otherwise known as Herbology/Astronomy, with maybe a Meridian or Charms action thrown in.

What's your current thinking?
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It can easily be done really. 3 actions into astronomy to prepare for a spiritual turn afterwards, 1 AP transfiguration to unlock wing floating, and 1 AP meridian to actually slot it in. We don't really need the herbology next round as herbology >> potions >> physical cultivation takes a lot of effort given the next -1 physical cultivation from potions is 2250 points away. It's easier to just get the extra AP given physical cultivation is only 1250 away and we're rolling against 11 already.

Turn 1 - 3 AP Astronomy, 1 AP Transfiguration, 1 AP Meridian
Turn 2 - 2 AP Spiritual, 2 AP Herbology, 1 AP Meridian or add a third AP to Herbology depending on math.
Turn 3 - probably physical cultivation turn + whatever we feel like at the time.

edit - wing floating not whip shear.
 
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FriedIce said:
I thought next month was planned as 'prepare well for the year and lower a bunch of DCs', otherwise known as Herbology/Astronomy, with maybe a Meridian or Charms action thrown in.

What's your current thinking?
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Last we spoke of it, we were considering training Defense so as to get a 6th action, but since we got the Rune of Alacrity, I've changed my mind on that front. Its effect will take place in December, duplicating one of those actions, but having an extra one does nothing for it, while the Transfiguration and History bonuses greatly improve it. So my current roadmap (pending the calculation of odds, of course) is:

September:
Charms x1, Meridians x1, Transfiguration x1, Meridians x1, Spiritual cultivation x1, in whatever order makes the most sense (without a program, I'd say this, and with one of the Meridian actions possibly replaced in case any of the other x1s have too low odds).
-We go from 7d23 +50 per action and 2 Meridians, to 8d24 +60 per action and enough Meridians for our current needs and then some. We also uncover the next stage milestones for Charms.

October:
Astronomy x3, Herbology x2, in whatever order makes the most sense (without a program, I'd say this).
-We discover/get their benefits and uncover the next stage milestones for both skills.

November:
A 3/2 split between Transfiguration and Spiritual cultivation, what makes the most sense and in the order that makes the most sense.
-We put a dent on the amount we need by the end of year, and we keep improving our single actions' numbers, to make our Rune as good as we can for next month. Also, this is just in time for our first Quidditch match, where, once again, an extra action doesn't help, while more techniques do.

I initially thought we'd get our duplicated action in January, so I originally had a Transfiguration x5 in November and a Spiritual Cultivation x5 in December, but it looks like I had been counting months wrong, for what concerns runes, so the 2 subjects will have to share November (or maybe just go with Transfiguration x5 anyway?).
 
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Neptune said:
Turn 1 - 3 AP Astronomy, 1 AP Transfiguration, 1 AP Meridian
Turn 2 - 2 AP Spiritual, 2 AP Herbology, 1 AP Meridian or add a third AP to Herbology depending on math.
Turn 3 - probably physical cultivation turn + whatever we feel like at the time.
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My issue with this is that splitting turns into multiple subjects basically guaranteed we won't get any Sect Points for the turn, because we're competing against people who are mono-focussing. And Sect Points are important.

Also, we already have Whip Shear as a technique. I'm objecting to us selecting a technique we don't already have to modify.
Epic Bygones said:
September:
Charms x1, Meridians x1, Transfiguration x1, Meridians x1, Spiritual cultivation x1, in whatever order makes the most sense (without a program, I'd say this, and with one of the Meridian actions possibly replaced in case any of the other x1s have too low odds).
-We go from 7d23 +50 per action and 2 Meridians, to 8d24 +60 per action and enough Meridians for our current needs and then some. We also uncover the next stage milestones for Charms.
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This is a really messy turn and is really risky. It focusses on nothing and therefore runs the risk that we don't achieve anything. My point about Sect Points above also goes double for this plan too. We learnt early on that in order to accomplish things in this quest we need to focus, and neither of these plans do that.

Also, I was persuaded to vote for your extracurriculars plan for the summer on the argument that we quickly knock out Herbology and Astronomy when school began again, so personally I'm not keen to delay Herbology or Astronomy further. I wanted to do them in July.

My suggestion for the next few turns is your plan from a bit ago.
September: 2x Astronomy, 2x Herbology, 1x Meridians (can be dropped for Astronomy or Herbology if the maths requires, or swapped out for Charms)
October: 5x Spiritual Cultivation, (or Transfiguration or Physical Cultivation if the maths works out better)
November: 5x Potions (for quidditch)

This knocks out Astronomy and Herbology quickly, gets us levels in our most powerful skill (Spiritual Cultivation, but substitute if it turns out either Physical or Transfig is actually better for us) and has us ready for Quidditch to start again in November (for the House Points). I could potentially be persuaded to delay Astronomy and Herbology by a month and swap in 5x Spiritual or Physical, but I think Potions by November is really important for quidditch as it's our best combat skill

Edit: apologies if anyone saw the first iteration of this post, it was too salty for my tastes and I've moderated it somewhat.
 
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For what concerns sect points, I just want to devote September to train all the low progress-points stuff we can, so that we can have more focused turns from October and onward. Basically, get all the one-off actions out of the way early.

Charms only needs 1 action to get Beginner 3 and reveal the Intermediate milestones, and assigning more doesn't make sense to me. A turn with more than 2 Meridian actions doesn't make sense, either, given how many slots they'd open and how many things that need them we have.

What do you do with the other 2 actions of the month? In my opinion, the answer is Spiritual Cultivation and Transfiguration, which need less than 300 points to reach their next milestones and are what affects the upcoming Rune's effect the most.

And all of those things give bonuses that apply to everything, including Astronomy and Herbology, improving their odds of reaching Beginner 3 the following month, which might be unlikely otherwise. I don't know if an immediate 3/2 Astronomy and Herbology split is enough to safely get 750 points in both, even accounting for our Bag of Holding rerolling 1s for the latter.
 
Epic Bygones said:
Charms only needs 1 action to get Beginner 3 and reveal the Intermediate milestones, and assigning more doesn't make sense to me. A turn with more than 2 Meridian actions doesn't make sense, either, given how many slots they'd open and how many things that need them we have.
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Do we need 2 meridian actions? Or could we make do with 1?

Because I could maybe see a plan which does something like:
1x Charms to see the apprentice milestones for planning purposes
1x Meridians
3x Transfig or Spiritual. Maybe Physical if the maths works out for us getting 1300 progress for the extra action?

I agree that it doesn't really feel worth it to focus with two actions when you put it that way, but if we can focus three on something it gives us a fighting chance of picking up a sect point for it.

My priorities, if it isn't obvious, are 1) get Astronomy and Herbology off the table ASAP, 2) sect points, 3) potions by November for Quidditch (and sect points)
 
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[X][Plan] More Rites
[X][Finance] Nameless financial advisor on mortal boards
[X][Chit] Natural springy ball II
 
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Epic Bygones said:
Last we spoke of it, we were considering training Defense so as to get a 6th action, but since we got the Rune of Alacrity, I've changed my mind on that front. Its effect will take place in December, duplicating one of those actions, but having an extra one does nothing for it, while the Transfiguration and History bonuses greatly improve it.
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Physical cultivation not directly boosting Alacrity's effects doesn't mean it can't indirectly boost it. Getting the 6th action in September means having 3 extra actions by the end of December, which is worth a lot more than the gains you'd get from focusing on boosting the Rune, and two of those extra actions can be spent on things to directly boost it, so it works out in the end.

Plus, assuming the mechanics stay the same the extra health would be useful for the Quidditch match. My plan would still have us going into December with higher Charms, two more Spiritual milestones, whatever Astronomy rituals get us, 3 actions worth of meridians and (ideally) two turns worth of sect points spent in Nov.

If Transfiguration seems like it's worth it we could swap two of those meridian actions for Transfiguration, get it to +60, then have Dec be 4x Trans, 2x Meridian with one of them doubled (probably Transfiguration) to end the solar year with +80 Transfiguration (or 3 more milestones total).
 
Yeah, I'm leaning towards learning another technique and improving one of them for divination to give us a mix of flexibility and certainty. And the immortal black market for finances, as both of the other options would probably hurt her credibility among other cultivators, though the spiritual one is interesting
 
FriedIce said:
Do we need 2 meridian actions? Or could we make do with 1?
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I'm not sure. What's the Meridian opening math?

We currently have 2 open and 6 "slottable" things vying for them. I strongly suspect we will have 3 more when we raise Astronomy to Beginner 3. Also considering any new charm (at least 1) and technique (at least 1, but most likely 3, 4 or even 5) we're bound to get soon-ish, that would be a total of at least 11.

Karnax626 said:
snip
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Actually, I think you're right. The math is somewhat complicated, but running the numbers again, I think I'm back on the Defense in September wagon. Can we make it a 3/1/1 split with both Charms and Meridians, using action-ordering to eke out good enough odds to justify it? I just want to go back to single-training turns as soon as possible.
 
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Epic Bygones said:
I'm not sure. What's the Meridian opening math?
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Incredibly complicated. I'm on my phone right now so I can't run the calculations, but I've pasted the formula below.

Edit: that seems to have broken the formatting, I've DIY'd a fix but might be worth checking the original post
Karf said:
After that: where x is the number of open meridians, cost is added to the previous (cumulative) cost.
using radians:

cost=⌊(200/π)(arctan(x/20))⌉⋅10​

cost = \lfloor\frac{200}{\pi}\arctan(\frac{x}{20})\rceil\cdot10 In words: get rid of the pi in the inverse tangent result, multiply by 200 and round to the nearest integer, then multiply everything by ten.
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The first three thresholds are 20/50/110, which we should be able to hit all of in a single action.

Epic Bygones said:
We currently have 2 open and 6 "slottable" things vying for them. I strongly suspect we will have 3 more when we raise Astronomy to Beginner 3. Also considering any new charm (at least 1) and technique (at least 1, but most likely 3, 4 or even 5) we're bound to get soon-ish, that would be a total of at least 11
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My personal theory is that Astronomy is going to be a mirror image of Potions, and operate on a similar limited slot mechanism, but I take your point about Charms Beginner 3, meaning we ideally want 5 meridians. Though we only need 10 meridians total to pass the year
 
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[X][Plan] Different Rites
-[X][Divination1] Learn of another rite
-[X][Divination2] Learn of another rite
-[X][Arithmancy1] The Wing Floating Technique, Metal
-[X][Arithmancy2] The Whip Shear Technique, Earth

[X][Finance] Shadowy backer of immortal business
[X][Chit] Natural springy ball II
 
So with 3 actions in defense, we have a 93-94% chance of getting the extra action depending on what exactly it's paired with. Currently, im looking at

September: 3X defense, 1X History, 1X Transfiguration
October: 2X Astronomy, 2X Herbology, 1X charms, 1X meridians
November: 6X History
December: 6X Transfiguration

The odds of getting everything in the september turn is around 60% (94% defense, 88% transfiguration, 73% History), so not great, but we can still go forward even if we don't get everything. Alternatively we can swap History for meridians which isn't quite as good, but is safer (98/93/75% for 3/4/5 meridians)
 
Epic Bygones said:
Nice! Did you also check the odds for October, both if we get everything and if we don't get one thing (History/Transfiguration)?
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With everything it's 95% for Herbology/Astronomy and 99% for charms, with 1 its (89 or 91)% for Herbology/Astronomy and (97 or 98)% for charms, with neither it's 82% for Herbology/Astronomy and 96% for charms. Didn't really feel like checking the meridian odds, but still, better than 75% chance to get 5
 
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