You're not wrong about the legal jeopardy, but I figured we're past that point since we're likely as not going to be killing things in fights where we'd want this sort of support.
Stay spread is a problem, but I think it comes down to specifics in what we'd be allowed to build our squad of murder roombas. I mean, the smart gun plan assumes it can effectively add fire arms dots regardless of base user pool the same way a gun sight would.
Giving them amazing stat blocks would be silly, but attributes based on build quality and a few dots in the basic skill required for the device doesn't seem unreasonable.
Being able to botch seems like a weird argument to make here as well, since any minion we get is going to have that problem. Unless we'll only settle for people with world tier dots in whatever we want them for.
Getting minions, even ones that aren't as good as us, is helpful for the additional actions for our side and additional distinct hurdles for our opponents. Trying to fight Molly, Micheal, and two shotgun toting roombas out to literally shoot you in the ass is more complicated than just fighting the first two alone.
They're also to an extent disposable. It's suck to lose the effort out in, but we're just out the cost and not a person. We can even put the same devils back in the replacements.
Getting the weapons charm might be nice, but it doesn't have all of the same advantages in terms of action economy, tactical flexibility, and expendable assets as minion building would.
To go back to the flying drone example for a moment. If we're going out and think we find trouble, we can launch them with instructions to kill anyone who tries to shoot us on the spot.
At that meeting we could have left one sitting somewhere, active but not flying, with instructions to launch itself if the above conditions are met. After the first shots the machine gunner would be missing part of his face, assuming we couldn't fit anything bigger.
If we're worried about collateral then we can swap for flash bang grenades.
We would need a dot or two in tech/science to do some of this, but I view that as something we should get anyway because craft is more useful the better the IC ideas we have are. Things like that smart gun should either be gated behind or noticeably improved by technological ability.
Personally, I don't like the direct attack charms because they seem inefficient essence wise in most cases. They also can't be easily improved on or leveraged to other tasks. Feels like a better use of exp to get things that make Molly better to the greatest degree for the longest duration per mote invested that we can.
I'll acknowledge that's a fairly subjective perspective though.
I'd also like to note that I'm not suggesting this as an immediate item on the to do list. Just something to consider when we're a little more established and have our own spaces. I don't really want to leave armed death bots piloted by things born from the imprint 4chan made on hell in Micheal's workshop or something.
They'd either cause an incident with the Jawas, or get along with them way too well.
We don't need to come back after sneaking out somewhere to find Leech dealing in what appears to be the Wicked City's answer to those paintings of dogs playing poker.
-We arent past legal jeopardy.
Unless you're willing to kill a lot of hapless cops, law enforcement entanglement can cost us a lot of time and effort.
Harry spent half of Full Moon dodging a police manhunt. He and Michael got arrested and spent the night in jail in Grave Peril after exorcising the hospital nursery of a murderous ghost. In Dead Beat, Mavra blackmailed him with pictures of Murphy killing either a Renfield or BC vampire, which would have been evidence of murder.
In Changes the FBI held him in detention for investigation, unintentionally pinning him down for a strike team of vampire assassins.
Just as importantly, our family, friends and associates are not. And conspiracy charges are a thing.
There's a reason one of my considerations in Molly's choices is avoiding legal or public scrutiny; our father kills things for a living. And while Heaven is looking out for him, there's no reason to tempt Murphy.
-The smart gun is likely to be adding bonus dots to whats already there.
Automatic aim dice, for example, or negating distance penalties. But it doesnt allow the weapon operate on its own.
Think of how an assistant can make a surgeon's work better, but cannot actually act in the surgeon's place.
-The cyberdevil's attribute/ability spread is likely to be independent of its container.
Remember that these were the least of the devils of the Wicked City, the ones without the ability to be anything more than static before Molly called on them.
Hollow Mind Curse is not designed to produce combat minions to the best of my understanding.
Expecting one to operate a weapon with any facility is ambitious at best.
-Botching with software =/= Botching with firearms and explosives.
One causes a glitch thats of varying importance, the other directly kills people and wrecks property. Especially since you are employing these in Chicago, the third largest city in the US. There are reasons to worry about cyberdevil botches here.
-By these rules: [ If we're going out and think we find trouble, we can launch them with instructions to
kill anyone who tries to shoot us on the spot] they'll shoot police the moment they moved towards their gun. Or a child with a gun. Or anyone with a weapon whether its empty or not.
Careful with your RoEs. There are good reasons to prefer people who can exercise judgement.
-Our opponents are often only partly mortal.
Flashbangs are of questionable relevance for them, but does blind humans. We dont get to carry arbirtary amounts of ammo around either because ammo is heavy and illegal; only works if you have the arsenal charm.
-We are at 12/12 Essence at E2, going up to 15/15 Essence at E3. And we have Charred Sinner Renewal for Essence regen.
We can afford to spend 1 Essence for scenelong ranged damage.
Or making a smartgun with the equivalent of a Starjammer Mercy enchantment.
-You are, I think, being overly optimistic about the endurance, speed, and payload capacity of RC vehicles.
Especially RC vehicles small enough to be carried around in anything smaller than the bed of a pickup truck.
They arent military drones, even when made by an Exalt.
Building military spec drones is a different kettle of fish.
Basically, this stuff boils down to being mechanically possible without magic, but costs more than its worth either in narrative consequences, XP or both.
And it ignores most of our themes.
We are not Tony Stark, or Agatha Heterodyne, or Dexter(Cartoon Network, not serial killer). Our themes are not mad engineer, and we didnt spec ourselves in chargen to build and maintain and store large amounts of disposable murderbots in our parents house with six other children running around.
If we want combat minions right now instead of waiting for our Hell, Emerald Spirit Binding is available. Or the ghost version.
Or we could summon and bargain with the Little Folk for their services. Or get a familiar.
Thats why we have Occult 5.
Also, by the time we're established, this is all moot. Molly will be able to bounce sniper bullets off her pecs.
We'd be able to tap the local equivalent of First Teams from our inner Hell at E3. An infantry squad comprised of multiple <4-5 gift> fomor is a force to be reckoned with even if only armed with civilian weapons and no magical backup.
That does sound worth looking into. Though they are less loyal than cyber devils and have built in restrictions that make them less helpful in some regards. Having said that, making pixies doll sized elephant rifles so that they can put out people's eyes or something could be an entertaining surprise to drop on someone.
Toot Toot attacked a skinwalker to keep Dresden alive. People you have relationships with are like that.
Elephant rifles would require that someone makes them ammo. And it gives them ranged offensive capabilities that you are not going to be happy with what they use it for in their offtime, especially if someone else holds you responsible.
When dealing with Little Folk, and offering something permanent, just make them comfortable, non-iron armor.
That both looks good for flexing, is comfortable and improves their ability to survive. And is much harder to use in a way that ppl can object to. Or general household stuff.
