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Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

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Attribute/Ability Progress Report:
1 XP away ==> Politics 3, Socialize 2, Resilience 3, Swords 1
2 XP away ==> Composure 4, Empathy 5
3 XP away ==> Investigation 2, Throwing Knives 4
4 XP away ==> Craft 2, Occult 3, Animal Ken 2, Intimidation 2, Archery 4
5 XP away ==> Persuasion 5
6 XP away ==> Resolve 4, Survival 4, Subterfuge 3, War 2, Heavy Polearms 2, Spear 2

I've gotten into the habit, so I might as well. Ling Qi's actually gotten to be a pretty capable person socially - her personality isn't really suitable, perhaps, and there might be some elemental issues wrapped up in there, but she's getting to be reasonably adept - Empathy and Manipulation in particular have risen dramatically over the past six months.

I actually wonder what happens when an ability caps and Ling Qi continues to exercise it - does it just stay static or, particularly if she uses the ability in the same way frequently, she'll develop a specialty for it. It looks like she just might get the chance with a couple of her more heavily used abilities, actually...

Things Ling Qi might cap before Green/Bronze: Dexterity (10 left), Manipulation (45 left), Athletics (21 left), Stealth (18 left), Expression (28 left), Dodge (16 left)

(weeks left x1.5 for attributes, x1 for abilities)
 
Hangwind said:
I want to use the meeting time to suggest attacking the Inner Disciples' area. A hit and run there could net us some serious cultivation resources.
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No.

Just no.

Everyone there is CRX level or higher.

Plus the severe risk of elder smackdown.

I will engage in tactical voting to prevent such utter idiocy, assuming the QM doesn't just ignore such moronic write-ins.
 
Hangwind said:
I want to use the meeting time to suggest attacking the Inner Disciples' area. A hit and run there could net us some serious cultivation resources.
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And probably get our faces kicked in.

Given the requirements to get into the Inner Sect, I'd expect everyone there to be fully Yellow/Silver at minimum. Green/Bronze is probably also about as common in there as Yellow/Silver is in the Outer Sect. There's probably also at least a few monsters at Cyan/Iron running around.
 
TheLastOne said:
Much of the value of an art is at the initial investment and second level. For FVM that got us dark vision and +2 to all perception rolls. At the third level that's only improved to +3 to perception.

The first level of Zephyr's Breath got us +1 on all ranged attacks and defenses. The third level raised that to two.

And so on. Due to the action economy, new arts give us more choices, but that ony sometimes translates into more power. Sometimes into a lot more power, but sometimes not. Passive bonuses on the other hand are constant, free, and always awesome, and on average are more appealing at low levels.

The first level of Zephyr's breath was 5 successes. The third level took another fifty.

Learning lots of arts at a low level can be worth a lot more then learning one to a high level. For instance, I bet you another archery art would add more bonus dice to either archery or all ranged combat, add more distance to all our ranged attacks. The arts are almost secondary.
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The passives given by an art are largely focused on the earlier levels, yes. Not entirely focused on the low levels by any means (see SCS3, which doubled our bonus to stealth, doubled our bonus to first-strike, and let us apply 2 dice to sneak attacks other than the first strike), but largely so; it is fair to say that if we are going for passives only, the best policy is to max out what the art can do with its initial meridians and then leave it there.

However, active abilities are very much part of the picture, and I think your analysis unfairly discounts them.

First and foremost, when we are training our current arts, we aren't just getting new actives; we are also improving our current actives. Having more choices, especially when the choices aren't especially varied, is of limited use - but upgrading the effectiveness of the choices we do have translates to a direct increase in combat power. So to use your example, while another archery art could add dice to attack or range, upgrading FSA directly has gotten us increases to the difficulty of passing the Disruptive Star check, as well as increases to direct damage from Luminescent Star. Those are extremely valuable. Similarly, while FVM3 may not have given us that much in terms of passive upgrades, it does neat things like saving us an action every time we use it by making Dissonance/Diapason usable instantly on the turn we start the mist - and given that the average fight lasts only a handful of rounds, an extra action is ridiculously valuable.

Second, we can and often do pick up abilities that don't compete with what we do already for actions. The purest example of this is Instants, but abilities like Discerning Gaze that are used outside of combat are a pretty good bet as well. There are some in-combat abilities that this would fall under, but generally that is a matter of competing less with our current action than not competing at all, so I'll leave them out here. The point is, such abilities would be quite valuable to fully cultivate, if not as valuable as upgrading the actions we already do.



You are right in that our actions do cost more as we go up in level, but we'll also seen some hint of the bonuses getting better as we go up in level. Look at AS4 and AS5, SCS3, and FVM3 as references. Admittedly, I'm not sure how representative those are, but they certainly hint at the benefits getting pretty rick at higher levels, if nothing else.


In any case, we haven't actually hit truly diminishing returns with our arts. Something like SCS4 would require 3 actions, which is comparable to unlocking a 2 meridian art and learning it. For something like SCS5, I think I could be convinced to kick the can down the curb and fill some meridians that are in easy reach with something lower-leveled instead; but we won't be at that point for weeks, and I wouldn't be surprised if we found ourselves with at least one art by then.
 
Out of curiosity, did we ever get an answer as to when Ling Qi's military service would begin? I know it said "when her training was over", but I still don't know what exactly that means. Is just when the Elder's think we're ready? Or after a set amount of time?
 
Floom said:
Out of curiosity, did we ever get an answer as to when Ling Qi's military service would begin? I know it said "when her training was over", but I still don't know what exactly that means. Is just when the Elder's think we're ready? Or after a set amount of time?
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I think about three years was spitballed? Possibly less if events conspire/we get swole too fast.
 
I vote for meeting up with muscle bro! And honouring our baby's parent!

[X] Plan All-Encompassing Shadows

[X][Name] Ling Ko

That said, I guess I won't be too sad if Zhengui wins. Pity that the gui in zhen gui doesn't sound the same as the gui in turtle. Gui in zhengui uses the fourth tone, while gui in turtle uses the first tone. At least zhen for both Zhengui and genuine sound the same, even if they're written different.

Also, since I've got my Chinese dictionary right here, I decided to look up the individual meanings of the symbols in Zhengui.
Zhen: 1) treasure 2) precious; valuable; rare 3) value highly; treasure
Gui: 1) Expensive; costly; dear 2) Highly valued; valuable; precious 3) of high rank; noble

Hmm... On second thought, I think I'm not too enthused about zhengui winning. Zhengui means precious, but it also means valuable, like valuable ingredients, precious historical relics, stuff like that. Precious object basically, not person. Sounds a bit like what Ling Qi thought her mom was raising her as. This has strengthened my conviction to name our baby Ling Ko.
 
Hah, Ling Qi totally choked.

[X] Plan Back to the Basics

I like Li Suyin, but this isn't a terribly interesting action. That said, I think it's important to cultivate SCS with Bai Meizhen seeing as it's an art she benefits from seeing in action and the foundation of our training agreement. Also, it has the benefit of probably not taking too much writing focus, and there's a number of socials heavy with that on the docket.

[X] [name] Dong Fu Junior
 
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Yeah, also I'm inclined to agree with Su Ling when she says we're being overly nosy here. There's no reason to think that Li Suyin is having any kind of difficulty here. She just has a somewhat eccentric teacher.
 
Erebeal said:
Yeah, also I'm inclined to agree with Su Ling when she says we're being overly nosy here. There's no reason to think that Li Suyin is having any kind of difficulty here. She just has a somewhat eccentric teacher.
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It's also an action that doesn't give us much benefit, and Li Suyin doesn't seem to need us and certainly hasn't asked for help.

She's not our girlfriend. She can go an do things without us.
 
Kai Merah said:
That said, I guess I won't be too sad if Zhengui wins. Pity that the gui in zhen gui doesn't sound the same as the gui in turtle. Gui in zhengui uses the fourth tone, while gui in turtle uses the first tone. At least zhen for both Zhengui and genuine sound the same, even if they're written different
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True, but plenty of Chinese puns go across (transcend?, ignore?) tone. Like the famous four equals death.
 
Alright guys, I've got the best name here: 竜亀. That's right. Dragon tortoise. Could there be a more perfect name?

No one ever said Ling Qi was good at naming things :p

... How would that actually be pronounced? Long gui?
 
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