All the Infernal CHarmsets have some redundancies with others though.
We have 4 ways of making Formor.
I wouldn't have any issue with our Five Courts Charmset having some overlap, not like we have to buy all its Charms.
These are home brew charms though. Limiting ourselves to the same number as the other hells seems fair, but what purpose is there for charms we won't buy?
They just soak up slots in a set where the conceit is that Molly is designing/learning these to solve her problems. Creating improvements to what we have or better alternatives for what we don't is one thing, but a 3 dot for a travel effect who's only advantage over what we have is the ability to go to places that don't have water is a lot.
Especially since Molly has significant flight ability and will probably get RtF soon for other reasons, meaning that the useful extension is actually to places with no connection to external water sources that are also further than 6 - essence level hours of flight away from a place that does.
The charm set should be Molly trying to solve her problems within the limitations of her themes and the path of ascension she's on, not a collection of abilities that technically fit but aren't suited to her purpose.
Yes, but some potential weakness isn't so bad.
Realistically, any foe would have very limited time to invade our shadow's mind (against high Willpower) before Molly can just shut it down.
Some weakness yeah, but I'm concerned about foundational data loss. Look at how much we've profited from doing this exact thing to Nemesis, which was possible because it couldn't immediately call back its shards when caught.
We should learn from its failings instead of emulating them.
If we are making a five court training charm why not just make it a special building in our kingdom?
… This is a brilliant idea, and might be a fun "if you also have king and kingdom X happens" effect for a lot of our charms.
Charms are soul organs, and the FCF are a significant part of Molly's spiritual biology now. Having charms physically manifest there with special effects within that area would be really neat, and provides built in balance for better effects.
I mean, things like BSM get away with a lot based on how game balance is tuned around a terrestrial environment, so being a sea monster takes a bit of prep work to really benefit from.
A charm effect that requires you to be in a specific area within the exclusive domain of the infernal from pretty much every perspective should be a buy in for some nasty stuff.
It is highly situational, like how most of Infernal charms are supposed to be. In this situational niche the charm is very powerful. Also, it's supposed to be minion recruiting, and aimed mostly at mortals
Highly situational sure, but this particular situation is really hard to arrange and trying will get you into some shit. Recruiting by holding someone's name over their head isn't a good way to keep in business.
As to being helpful with clones - there's being cautious and there's being overly paranoid, I feel. Our clones should be able to prevent our secrets from being leaked for one scene no matter the circumstances. Willpower-provided successes, passives, suicide contingencies, etc. At the next scene we should have motes to spare for their discorporation.
I'm not trying to be excessive here. It's just that if you give the devil a smack on the ass maybe don't moon him right afterwards?
I expect anything we put up to be tested rigorously, with potential months of effort directed at the first shot taken. Not knowing what nemesis and its peers can do is not the same as knowing they can't do something.
Perfect safety is impossible; but when I look at the problems it had, outside of the crown that is, not being able to leave on the spot without outside intervention or to stop people from raiding its mind once they had it were significant points of failure.
So in my mind the minimum bar is:
1) It must at least have a build option leaving or destroying itself as an internal feature.
2) It must be able to resist mental effects of any kind
3) We must have some level of awareness on their status so loss of communication is noted immediately.
What you've got is close*, but point 1 is very important to get right. Look at what we've done in the course of a scene in this quest. It's not trivial, and we aren't the only ones with bullshit to throw around.
* The glyph charm does at most 5 Agg, if they have our passives this won't kill them. Even if they didn't they'd just be crippled in enemy hands.
When we're talking passives it's probably also a good idea to name specific ones we'd want to have. REPP should definitely be bought at the same time, and UFI wouldn't be out of place.
That's true, yes. I didn't want to tailor the charmset exclusively to our needs, and wanted to make it a bit more organic. Something that follow-up infernals can get access to in the future. Still, ok, I might remove it.
It shouldn't be list of effects labeled "Molly Wins" but the conceit is that she's growing from simply uncovering to actively learning/designing ways to do things. So there should be limits and weaknesses, but they should in general be the results of the best she can do within her themes.
My view is basically that the trailblazer for a charm set is building it for themselves; limited by their nature, informed by their perception, and oriented towards their purpose. Not that our charm sets were specifically made as we see them, but they are stolen from the tools the hells have made using their own resources.
They're well tailored clothes, and it takes some messing around if someone else wants to wear them. Another infernal who somehow got us as a patron should have to juggle that*, but Molly is the one they're fitted to.
* Incidentally that might be one of our big draws if more get loose. If the world soul charm is off the table custom charms, especially those that bring in new themes, probably are as well. They can get them other places, but something built for an infernal will almost certainly suit them better than what they can pick up from say Mab.
Maybe add "the shadow can choose to discorporate at any time on their own will"? But in general I like this. It's a bit of a double edged sword of a charm, but I like the idea in general. It's multi-purpose, and sufficiently weird to be an Infernal charm.
I think it'd be a good idea. I also think that if this is a clone charm replacement we should define an interaction now in the form of the existing explicit synergies in the book. Something like shelling out for both charms gets you multiple shadows instead of clones.
I also like the resurrection mechanic, so if we don't do that here I might make a different charm for it; or maybe reskin a seven burning seas charm.
This one seems very interesting given everything about Molly:
The Infernal consecrates a vessel with the fires of her heart, helping facilitate proper devotion to the gods among the faithful — and proper respect to the Infernal among the gods.
System: Spend 5 Essence while touching an open vessel filled with water (such as a large bowl or chalice) and dedicating it to a person or spirit. If it is to be dedicated to someone other than the Infernal, the subject or a priest of the subject must likewise touch the vessel. Afterwards, a flame alights atop the water.
As long as the vessel stays intact and the flame stays lit (and it will, so long as the vessel contains any amount of water) the vessel bestows the following effects:
- While they are at rest and free from distraction, the subject can directly speak through, see through, and listen from the flame for a scene with a Stamina + Occult roll at difficulty 6. Anyone viewing or touching the flame during this time is a valid target for abilities requiring eye contact or touch (respectively) from the subject.
- The subject benefits from effects similar to the Hear Prayers charm or discipline, but with a radius centered on the vessel. This is in addition to the effects of the actual charm or discipline, should he know it.
- The vessel can substitute as the subject's person for the Prayer-Eating charm or discipline, allowing him to benefit from it without being physically present at the ceremony. The ceremony must be performed by a priest of the subject.
- The Infernal lowers the difficulty of all social actions and mind-affecting charms against the subject by 2.
- Finally, should the Infernal die, the flame on the nearest vessel briefly expands to the size of a bonfire before dying back and revealing her unmarred body and a shattered vessel. Reincarnating in this fashion reduces the Infernal's Essence rating by 1. If this would reduce her to Essence 0, then reincarnation is impossible.
The Infernal can maintain up to her Essence rating + Cult rating in vessels. No person or spirit other than the Infernal can have more vessels dedicated to them than their Cult rating
I'm really curious about how this might interact with the white god. He has a lot of rules, some of which are about choice and some of which come from his nature. So if we set something like this up with him would it let him cheat without contradicting himself?
Maybe engineer a situation where some Denarians end up in the next best thing to physical contact with him, just to see what happens.
Even without that we can set some up in our hell dedicated to Molly for prayer stuff and resurrection stations supposing it gets approved.
