Screw it, I haven't been following the updates at all, but I've kept my head poked in here to see all the cool CYOAs that get posted. But hey, it's the final stretch of the Quest, if there's any time to help generate Arete it's now. So my thanks to everyone who's made a CYOA, and here's some builds which are, unless otherwise mentioned, separate from each other. These definitely aren't all the CYOAs, and they're not in order, but here goes.
First build is for Rihaku's own The Furthermost Reaches.
I've got 8 Copper, 3 Platinum, and 1 Jade without dipping into Drawbacks. My build is thus:
[ ] Resilient [2 Copper]
[ ] Gold [1 Platinum]
[ ] Red [1 Jade]
[ ] One [1 Copper]
[ ] Step Up [8 Copper or 1 Platinum] (Payed 1 Platinum)
[ ] Stitch in Time [1 Platinum]
[ ] Sigil [5 Copper or 1 Platinum] (Payed 5 Copper, Stitch in Time Selected)
And that uses up my budget. Sure, I
could take drawbacks for more points, but do I really need to? I'm already set up to become plenty powerful with this build, sure I could become even more so, but it just wouldn't really be worth the risk.
Resilient's lack of need for food or water means I can survive being isekaied somewhere, and One's daily full heal further boosts my surviveability in those early stages. Gold is chosen for the boost to luck giving increased quality of life as I grow stronger, and Red allows me to snowball my way to godhood. Step Up's spatial manipulation and mental boosts are very welcomed, and Stitch in Time gives the other half of that with some temporal manipulation. I chose to Sigil Stitch in Time because it wouldn't otherwise grow.
That said, if I were to chose to risk it via drawbacks, I think I'd add:
[ ] Tarnish - +2 Platinum or +4 Copper (+2 Platinum chosen)
*The Hunted
[ ] Blight - +1 Jade or +8 Copper (+1 Jade Chosen)
*The Madman
[ ] Ten Thousand [10,000 Copper or 1 Jade] (Payed 1 Jade)
[ ] Plate [10 Copper or 2 Platinum] (Payed 2 Platinum)
The drawbacks are chosen because they both have an endpoint: The Hunted ceases to matter if I grow beyond this realm, and The Madman is finished if I win that confrontation. Sure, I will almost assuredly die taking both of these, but that's why I specified my man build didn't take any drawbacks.
Anyway, the extra Jade gets spent on Ten Thousand, as a whole 10,000 extra mental instances of myself is very helpful in surviving what I've brought upon myself. Plate is needed, both with the mitigation that it offers and the early-game surviveability that it grants.
Now, I actually do have a plan to hopefully survive what I've taken upon myself. It hinges on the countdown for The Madman being frozen while time is stopped. There are 86,400 seconds in a day, and A Stitch in Time can freeze time for 9 seconds. Disregarding the initial 9 uses per day of A Stitch in Time as a rounding error, and assuming that each mental instance of myself can only cast the time-freeze aspect of A Stitch in Time once before needing a subjective 24-hour recovery period gives me a nice round 10,000 potential casts of A Stitch in Time per subjective 24 hour period.
Dividing the 86,400 seconds in a day by the 9 seconds in a time-freeze gives me 9,600. So it'd take 9,600 continuous casts of A Stitch in Time's time-freezing effect to give me a subjective day, which is less than the estimated 10,000 uses per subjective day I described above. As such, it is possible for me to keep time perpetually frozen and still dedicate some of my mental processes to mental-only verse research, thus vastly stretching out the practical amount of time I'd have before needing to face Dr. Apocalypse.
Again, this only works if the timer to having to face Dr. Apocalypse is based on time within my own universe, not his.
Next up is A Wish Upon A Star CYOA, because it's the next one I had in my tabs.
I honestly wasn't certain about taking Drawbacks, but with them trying to give me a decent (after)-life even as their realm which my wish gave form to is mercilessly ripped apart, I pitied their plight enough that I'm willing to risk it for the biscuit. If a drawback-heavy build is necessary for saving the Evertree, then so be it.
Starting budget of 1 Spark, with some drawbacks chosen to increase that:
[ ] The Conflux [+5 Sparks]
[ ] Quest: The Hero Synthesis [+1 Spark or +3 Sparks] (3 Sparks Chosen)
[ ] Quest: Striking Them Down [+1 Spark or +2 Sparks] (2 Sparks Chosen)
The Conflux spawns me in an almost-entirely eaten realm, flush with devourers. Luckily, the place where I arrive is guaranteed to be safe for a few seconds, which'll hopefully be enough for what I plan to do. The 3 Spark version of The Hero's Synthesis is chosen, which is going to be a pain to complete. Still, hopefully I'll be able to give the Hero enough character development that they succeed, and the fact that they and their retinue join me after the fact is very, very welcome. Went with the 2 Spark version of Striking them down for the extended deadline; I feel like a couple hundred extra years for myself and allies to snowball is worth having to destroy a vastly increased number of devourers.
That gives me 11 Sparks to play around with for my build, and here it is:
[ ] Sunlord [3 Sparks]
[ ] A Wish [5 Sparks]
[ ] Manifold Scroll [1 Spark]
[ ] Elixir [2 Sparks]
-Elixir of Mastery
[ ] Kefas Haedox [2 Sparks] (Free from Sunlord)
My Wish is thus: Apply the effects of To Shatter Heaven to Sunlord, or if this is impossible grant me as much of an expansion to my progression in and conceptual remit of Sunlord as possible. Essentially, boost my potential for the Sunlord powerset as much as possible.
Sunlord provides a very broad base of empowerment, giving both physical stats, increased charisma, and access to magic. My Wish is aimed at improving that as much as possible, so that ideally I'll have charisma enough to sway the Hero and magic enough to leave the Conflux. But wait, I hear you ask, how am I even going to survive the Conflux in the first place?
Well I'm glad you asked. That's where the Elixir of Mastery comes in. In addition to the very welcome +0.1 ISH boost to all parameters and 25 stat points to freely distribute, the Elixir of Mastery gives me both a 200% increase in power and versatility of one of my other choices here alongside training in a magical discipline equivalent to me spending 100 years training, as I am when I drink the Elixir.
So in the few seconds of guaranteed safety I have entering The Conflux, I double the potency and versatility of my Sunlord powers before getting 100 years of training. Sure, it specifies "as I am now" so I can't take advantage of any training boosters I learn to use during that time, but a full century of training in an art where I Wished for as much potential as possible should still pay enormous dividends. Ideally, I'll have grown enough that I can use Sunlord's magic to escape The Conflux, and from there I go to the Hero, hopefully get them to accomplish their goal satisfactorily, and then just train to go on a devourer killing spree once I'm reasonably certain I can accomplish Striking Them Down.
Manifold Scroll is chosen so that I can apply another 200% boost to Sunlord down the road, as well as the eventual boost to progression that it'd unlock. Kefas is just a nice freebie, with his mastery of Exalted Spirit hopefully offering future empowerment options for myself down the line, as well as his child-wrangling abilities hopefully helping with my job of teaching the Hero.
Next up is A Winter Dynasty, and I actually have two builds for this one, each of them very straightforward:
Magic Man Build:
[ ] Return [0 Gifts]
[ ] The Heir [3 Gifts] (Energy Chosen)
Literal Paradise Build:
[ ] November Sky [4 Gifts]
[ ] The Duchess [+1 Gift]
I don't really like the look of any of the drawbacks, so I'm fairly constrained by the 3 Gift starting pool. Still, these builds are pretty comfy. Magic man lets me get back home, and with a few decades spent developing my domain of Energy, I can introduce magic to the world. My power over Energy could also let me rule the world, if I so desire.
Literal Paradise is simple: this place is amazing, why would I leave? As such, take Duchess to afford November Sky, and then just live in utmost comfort for a timespan none of us re capable of comprehending. Plus, there's nothing in the option text itself that forbids you from leaving (and presumably as an official citizen I wouldn't run into things preventing unauthorized entry if'when I came back), so I might just be able learn all the magics I could ever want, get one that lets me leave+return, and then go wherever I want to. Maybe go home, maybe go to another universe I'd enjoy slumming it in, maybe find somewhere where I can make a difference in the world... who knows?
So yeah, simple builds, but quite comfy, I think.
Next is Elemental Interest!
[ ] Purity
[ ] Power
[ ] Determination
Purity is chosen for the very nice boost to survivability and quality of life that it's absolute defense grants.
Determination allows me to boost potential by slotting souls into things, and souls both can have souls of their own and can grow, based the text of the option, so I start by giving myself a soul, and then giving my soul a soul, and then that soul a soul, and so on in an ever-deeper layer of souls within souls, each expanding the potential of whatever is above it, and each capable of growth.
Furthermore, Power allows me to magnify the effects of my actions, of which slotting a soul within something should qualify. So the soul-empowerment ladder should grow even stronger.
Moving on to An Unkindness Untolerated! Starting with 12 Bronze, 6 Silver, and 1 Gold, here's my build:
[ ] Dragon's Mien [1 Exalted Gold]
[ ] Socket Magic [3 Refined Silver]
[ ] Socket Push [3 Mundane Bronze]
[ ] Stone Push [4 Mundane Bronze or 1 Refined Silver] (4 Bronze Spent)
[ ] Void Amber [1 Mundane Bronze]
[ ] The Perfect Diamond [1 Exalted Gold]
[ ] The Raven's Whistle [1 Mundane Bronze]
[ ] Cloak of the Balanced King [1 Exalted Gold or 6 Refined Silver] (6 Silver Spent)
[ ] Quintessential Spirit [3 Mundane Bronze] - The instincts of a true warrior.
Debilitation (+6 Mundane Bronze or +3 Refined Silver) (+3 Refined Silver Chosen)
-The Crimson's Debilitation
Curse (+8 Mundane Bronze or +1 Exalted Gold) (+1 Exalted Gold Chosen)
-The Faustian Curse
With the ability to contact the shop again, and the shop's ability to take drawbacks from people, it turns the decision of whether to take a drawback from "Am I willing to deal with this for the rest of my life?" to "Am I willing to deal with this until I can pay it off?", which is much more palatable to me. As such, my build is taking the maximum number of drawbacks allowed.
Dragon's Mien gives progression in every axis even as I do nothing, which is very helpful. I can completely focus on other things and still grow exceedingly mighty, what's not to like?
Next, I went all in on Socket Magic, purchasing access, an increased ability to use Sockets, an increased ability to refine Stones, a way to unslot things, and the ability to refine the Perfect Diamond itself. Even if this Perfect Diamond is still a fragment of the real thing, it still paves the way for gaining that power, in time. And I've got a potential plan for making that easier...
The Raven's Whistle is a must pick, as it allows me to both offload my drawbacks once I can buy them off and purchase more magic later on.
Cloak of the Balanced King is very nice, the ability to induce such a huge upgrade in a power I possess is pretty sweet. That said, I'm going to assume that it has at least some limitation; going by the blurb specifying "a power" and the example given being a single spell, my understanding is that it boosts one specific ability, not an entire discipline. So, it could boost an aura technique, but not Battle Magic as a whole, or in my case a Stone that I can refine, but not the whole of my Socket Magic.
Equating the Stones of a Socket Mage to the spells more orthodox mages might learn, my application of the Cloak is thus: The reason for the existence of Void Amber is to absolve regret; if a Socket Mage were to decide that an object or person they had previously imbued with Stones were to better served with a different loadout, Void Amber facilitates that change. Yet, another means of avoiding an unliked loadout is to simply ensure that there can be no better choice made. A slot containing Void Amber induces benefits as if every single other type of Stone the Socket Mage was capable of refining was simultaneously existing within that slot. If the Socket Mage should become capable of refining a new type of Stone in the future, every instance of Void Amber they have Socketed also gives the benefits of that new Stone. Should the Socket Mage desire, they may revoke the slotting of any Void Amber at any time, returning it to their personal storage (or resulting in the destruction of that Void Amber if their personal storage is full).
Crimson Debilitation is chosen as a drawback because I think I can handle it better than the others of that tier. It'll only occur sometimes, and I just need to not go conquering long enough to buy it off. I'm confident I can procrastinate that long!
Faust is, well, on the one hand it's gotta be pretty bad to be worth an Exalted Gold. On the other hand, a weekend of anime, yugioh, and whatever other diversions might amuse Faust sounds pretty fun, honestly. So yeah, I know this is probably gonna be pretty bad, but hopefully I should be able to bear with it long enough to buy it off.
Speaking of buying it off, that's why I went all in on Socket Magic. Given that Socket Magic excels in creating magic items, and my purchases and Cloak-boost mean I am capable of refining four Stones that grants the boost of every type I have access to, simultaneously, I should hopefully be able to create enough items that I can work off my drawback-debt relatively quickly.
Admittedly, this build suffers a bit in the early-game, having no means of integrating into a life after being isekaied, but hopefully the boosts from what I can Socket into myself in those first few hours can help get my feet under me.
Status Screen CYOA and it's DLCs! I'll be honest, I went full meme here that'll probably get myself wrecked in relatively short order. That said, it's a short path to Godhood:
Drawbacks first, because whew boy are there a lot of them:
Contractual Boss Stupidity - +1 Byte. Can only be taken once.
No Backwards Compatibility - +1 Core Feature. Can only be taken once.
[+1 Byte] Urthros
[+1 Core Feature] Attention of The Void
[+1 Byte] Dawnbringer
[+2 Core Features] Opposer of Gorefield/Gargyas/Godfield/Garfathoth
[+1 Bit] Goblin Commander.
[+1 Bit] Missingno.
[+1 Byte] Dr. Wily.
[+1 Byte] Error Sans.
[+1 Core Feature] Sonic.Exe.
[+1 Core Feature] The Dark Master.
[+2 Core Features] Ultra Instinct Shaggy.
[+2 Core Features] The Scarlet King. Khahrahk. Crimson Monarch. True Red Demon God Emperor. King of the Darkness Below.
[+2 Core Features] Shards of Enlightenment. (+2 Extra Core Features from the 2nd level)
Combined with the 4 Bits, 2 Bytes, and 1 Core Feature from the initial budget, I have 6 Bits, 7 Bytes, and 13 Core Features. Unfortunately, uh, whew boy that's a lot of eldritch abominations I'm facing, but I think I have a plan to survive and win.
Here's my build:
[-1 Bit] Barrier x6
[ ] Three Actions - 1 Byte. x7
[ ] Prestige- 1 Core Feature. x13
So yeah, all in on progression. Cribbing notes of a post that someone made, the plan is to first go into Minecraft or some other game where gold or other items of value are easily accessible, then go into a game with a) a finite leveling system, b) a means of purchasing levels, and c) a place that will buy the valuable stuff you got in the first game. From there, speedrun the progression in that system, and then reset it via Prestige. Under ideal conditions it should be possible to achieve within a few minutes, at which point the huge number of times I've chosen Prestige should show their benefit.
On resetting a capped level system, Prestige gives 100 base units off advancement. It gives a linear boost for each time the option was purchased, meaning that I get 1300 base units of advancement. Notably, the rewards are multiplied each stage. So I cap my first system, getting 1300 units. Then I reset those to get (1300/100)x13 = 169 of the second tier units. Reset the second tier units to get (169/10)x13 = 219.7 third tier units. Reset the third tier units to get (219.7/10)x13 = 285.61 tier four units. Given tier four is the highest the blurb goes to, I'll stop there, although potentially this keeps going until I hit another 100->1 breakpoint. Anyway, each tier 4 unit translates to... 285.61% boost to ontological coherence for this omniverse, 28.561% boost to ontological coherence for reality as a whole, and a personal +2.8561 ISH boost.
Needless to say, that's a lot of growth potential. Just Prestiging something twice, and bringing the benefit up to the fourth tier, means I've outscaled No Backwards Compatability. Even just a day spent farming this should make me incomprehensibly more powerful.
Technically Barrier only has blurbs up to the 4th level, but it says you can purchase it multiple times so I'm sinking all my Bits into it. The fourth tier of barrier guards against the complete collapse of reality for a few minutes, and the tiers of Barrier increase in magnitude and scope quite a bit with every upgrade, so hopefully 6 purchases is enough to keep me safe from all the enemies I incited for the first few minutes before I hit godhood.
Went with all my Bytes spent on Three Actions because with my purchases, even one extra me slotted on to continuously Prestiging gives an absurd amount of benefit.
Part of my hope is that with the 4 Core version of Shards of Enlightenment, the other empowered will prove strong enough to hold off the myriad cosmic apocalypses I've incited for the small time between the start of this build and it's ability to beat them.
So yeah, full meme build with a huge amount of drawbacks, but hopefully it can survive that small period of initial vulnerability, whereupon it proceeds to stomp on everything.
On to the Once & Always CYOA! Got a couple builds for this one:
Taking my Superpowers and Going Home:
-Always: Ace of Cups
-Once: Horn of Evocation x2
-Once: Nine (Applied to Horn of Evocation x2)
I've Come to Bargain:
-Always: Ace of Cups
-Once: Spirit Telephone
-Once: Nine (Ace of Cups)
-Once: Nine (Spirit Telephone)
The first build is relatively simple: I get 18 superpowers that can then be boosted by whatever effects come out of drinking a whole bunch of Azoth. Not much to say there, it just gets power. Ideally, at least one of the powers can be bent towards immortality and/or traveling the multiverse/getting more power, but that's just a bonus.
The second build tries to take advantage of being able to call literally anyone to strike some deals for power. I've got 8 extra cups filled with Azoth, so I just gotta contact someone who'd be interested in trading for a cup and capable of reaching across dimensional boundaries. It'd be a risk contingent on you being able to strike bargains effectively, but you can probably get quite a bit of power out of this.
Next up is Hatred Internalized! With an initial budget of 4 Petty Grudges, 2 Serious Grievances, and 1 Absolute Hatred, my build is below:
[ ] Dragon of Night [1 Absolute Hatred]
[ ] August Sophos [1 Petty Grudge]
[ ] Mastery of Errant Possibilities [1 Serious Grievance and 2 Petty Grudges] (Crystalline Perfection: Planeswalking)
[ ] Shimmering Mandorla [1 Petty Grudge]
[ ] Elemental Circle of Animosity [2 Serious Grievances]
[ ] Dream of Betterment [3 Petty Grudges or
2 Serious Grievances] (Payed 3 Petty Grudges)
Remain Here (Receive 3 Petty Grudges and 1 Serious Grievance)
Becoming a dragon makes me much more likely to survive whatever I face with its huge boost to physical attributes, and the other benefits are very nice as well. Definitely a Hatred well spent. I mainly chose August Sophos for the capability to practice all magics, both because going around and collecting magical systems sounds like a great way t increase in power and because I needed it to open up my Crystalline Perfection choice.
Speaking of which, Mastery of Errant possibilities was a very nice choice. I would've gotten it for the learning boost alone, but the skill boost choice was icing on the cake! Went with the Crystalline Perfection suboption, to gain complete mastery of a fairly narrow discipline. And wouldn't you know, August Sophos makes me capable of practicing any single kind of magic I want, so long as I can accrue the skill to do so. I feel like the ability to hop dimensions via magic is a narrow enough discipline to qualify for perfection.
Shimmering Mandorla was picked because I just had the one Petty Grudge left, but the multiplicative boost to stats while active is appreciated. Went with Elemental Circle to give myself an initial set of magical effects that I could use to not be a total scrub, giving me a bit more oppurtunity to start learning other magics when I go dimension-hopping. Dream of Betterment is just very nice in general, the boost to Mandola and Elemental Circle it gives is already amazing, and as I'm planning to collect magics from further afield Betterment just gets more and more valuable.
Remaining Here just because I've got my own methods of travel via Planeswalking, so I might as well take the increased budget. I'll be honest, I wanted to try and snag Greatness + Avenging Fist, but I couldn't quite fit it in.
Time to take a Vacation with Galaxia!
Spring
[ ] Goldenvale
-[ ] Activity: Feast with Thunder and Sea in the Immortals' Longhouse
-[ ] Activity: Practice the air-dance with the young Samarites
-[ ] Souvenir: A divine creation from Fate or her nameless brother
--Weaver's Cloak
Summer
[ ] Three Circles
-[ ] Souvenir: A flask of Perfecting Elixir
[ ] The Shining City
-[ ] Activity: Have your potential unlocked at the Ministry of Possibility
Fall
[ ] Labradoris
-[ ] Activity: Dine on miracles and blessings with knights of the High King's court
[ ] Sunsleep
-[ ] Activity: Find a tutor and achieve superskill in a field of your choice
--Airdancing
Winter
[ ] Hall of Echoes
-[ ] Activity: Resonate with the song of a fallen hero
---Hatred Internalized CYOA
[ ] Star-on-Horizon
-[ ] Activity: Learn to navigate the Star Ocean by eye and ear and hand
Spring is all about getting myself set up. The Feast is in a sense a boost to every other Activity here, as they all expand my Mythos. That plus it granting advancement via epic feats later on made me want to pick it up. Nabbing air-dancing was necessary because it opens up a combo enabling future travel through the Star Ocean. Then I just get the Souvenir for free, but a powerful artifact that grows alongside me is sure to come in handy. Decided on something called The Weaver's Cloak, with the property of providing increasing levels of defense towards indirect sources of harm. So it might only give a moderate amount of protection from a melee attack, but an increased protection towards ranged attacks or poisons, and a greatly increased protection from environmental factors or hostile contortions of fate.
Summer is all about getting more potential. The Perfecting Elixir gives me a greatly increased ability to learn skills, and getting my potential unlocked means I don't have any skill caps. Combined, they should mean I can get a plethora of quite potent skills fairly quickly. I'll be honest, I had a difficult time choosing for Summer. I really wanted everything except the Contract and The Classic, which while nice to have aren't exactly necessary. Still, I ended up going for the skill boosters.
Fall is all about getting maximum unga bunga. Dining with the High King is just a really nice buff. Airdancing could benefit from my increased physique letting me move faster, but even if it doesn't the Earth Power boost means I'm no longer super squishy. Getting superskill in Airdancing, combined with my previous potential unlocked, means I've got Infinite Airdancing skill. The speed is quite beneficial in either straight combat or retreating from combat, plus it's the second step of being able to travel the Star Ocean.
Winter's picks are looking forward to the future beyond this trip. Getting access to another CYOA build is definitely the most potent benefit here, even if it'll take time and effort, so it's slotted in. Learning to Navigate the Star Ocean allows me to traverse it via Infinite Airdancing, so I can go back previous destinations or explore further vistas. Sure, without Galaxia paying my way some doors will be closed to me, but with all the benefits from this trip I should be able to manage all right.
Can't forget about The Lost Realm CYOA! Rolling the dice has given me 73 Insightful Inklings, 1 Informative Opinion, and 5 Inherent Memories.
[ ] Non-Existent. [2 Informative Opinions]
-Fake x2: TSH True Non-Existent: (Cost payed with 1 Informative Opinion and 70 Insightful Inklings)
[ ] Nihilus. [1 Inherent Memory]
-Fake x3: TSH True Legendary Nihilus (Cost payed with 4 Inherent Memories)
[ ] Battle Magic. [1 Inherent Memory] (cost payed with 1 Inherent Memory)
[ ] World's Cutest Teddy Bear. [2 Insightful Inklings]
I'll admit I waffled a lot on what to choose here, I was
very tempted to get some Colors, but ultimately decided against it due to not wanting the contamination. The mental contamination could've been avoided by mainlining White, but the physical 'dye stuff in colors' offers no means of avoidance. Although I suppose I could've used Gray illusions for that but meh, oh well.
Non-Existant's general defense buff is quite nice, and boosting it's potency via True and providing growth via TSH should mean I'm pretty safe. Likewise, a Fake x3 on Nihilus gives me a huge amount of reality manipulation ability, which should ensure I can dish it out along with taking it. Battle Magic is more of the same, a large boost to offensive and defensive ability, albeit one that only functions in a straightforward battle. Still, that kind of situation is when I'm going to want it the most, so that's fine. The Teddy Bear was just something to spend the last of my points on.
Five Wishes CYOA is up next! First up is my joke/meme build:
[W] Growth x4
[W] Free the Genie.
-[3] Growth x3
It said you could make the same wish multiple times, so screw it, let's just get the maximum amount of growth. Getting 5.5 +'s per year to distribute is pretty powerful. Even limited to the attributes that humans initially have access to, I should be able to invest enough in stats to prevent my own death via aging, and from there it's smooth sailing. The increasing conceptual remit for attributes as they grow larger should ensure I'm capable of whatever I set my mind to, in time. Not particularly happy with this choice because it's pretty boring, but the power of attributes can't be denied.
Starting from this, every choice needs to be weighed against the boon of gaining one attribute point per year. Of those, I think only Superpower and Thirteenth Hour are comparable, and I don't think Thirteenth Hour gives you enough time to be worth giving up a charge of Growth. If we focus on Superpower as a means of power acquisition, I have two potential builds in mind:
[W] Growth x4
[W] Free the Genie.
-[3] Growth x2
-[3] X
[W] Improvement x4
[W] Free the Genie.
-[3] Improvement x2
-[3] X
If we assume that the superpower needs progression outside of itself, then going for 5 charges of Growth still nets you 5 attributes per year with which to strengthen your (half-strength) power. If we assume that the superpower can grant attributes on it's own, then you take 5 charges of improvement to give you 50 +'s in one attribute immediately, thus letting your (half-strength) power begin scaling as fast as possible.
Although, hmm. There might be variations of this where you take multiple superpowers via X to either strengthen one superpower or create combos that are better than the builds above. Something that gives you nigh-endless blood comboing with something that burns blood to achieve effects, for instance. Yeah, I suppose a synergistic build of superpowers might be the best, if you operate under the asumption that your chosen superpower would be able to grant you stats.
To help me actually narrow down to one build, I'm going to impose a little restriction on myself: wishes can only be chosen once, with the exception of split boons gained from Free the Genie. Creating a build with this in mind, I end up with:
[W] True Immortality.
[W] Growth.
[W] Needless.
[W] X
[W] Free the Genie
-[6] Improvement (Willpower)
-[6] Improvement (Protection)
-[6] Improvement (Charisma)
-[6] Improvement (Manipulation)
-[6] Improvement (Composure)
-[6] Improvement (Prowess)
Pretty comfy. Immortality and Needless are both good quality of life, Growth gives me eventual scaling, X gives me a power to help leverage said scaling further than it'd ordinarily go, and splitting the Free the Genie Wish up to unlock a whole bunch of attributes. I'll be honest, I'll probably end up making an even spread with the +'s I get from Growth, just to satisfy my 'Numbers must be the same!' urge.
Time to get isekaied with Demon of Dreams!
[ ] The Arbor
I guess I'll choose to be inserted here, as it should provide the greatest resources for advancing Tree Magic.
Starting with 7 Earthly, 4 Heavenly, and 1 Empyreal Toke, I'll go with:
[ ] Ring and Rod Magic (2 Earthly Tokens)
[ ] Tree Magic (3 Earthly Tokens)
[ ] Seed of the World Tree (1 Empyreal Token)
[ ] Blood Magic (1 Heavenly and 2 Earthly Tokens)
[ ] Blood Scion (3 Heavenly Tokens)
Ring and Rod Magic were chosen primarily as a means of those two Earthly Tokens, but the choice does help my build a fair bit. It gives me a means of employment while I'm growing the World Tree, and being able to equip myself with an array of artifacts is pretty nice. Tree Magic is chosen to help boost the Seed of the World Tree, although the ability to create magical trees is nothing to scoff at. Who knows, maybe with the benefit of my other choices I'll be able to create trees with fruit that has permanent beneficial effects, or maybe create potent artifacts out of wood harvested from those trees.
The Seed of the World Tree is a potential pick, the option itself notes that combining this with Tree Magic is sure to yield great power. Blood Magic and Blood Scion are pretty great on their own, but each should combo pretty well with my other choices. One synergy I can see is imbuing artifacts created with Ring and Rod with my own blood to strengthen them. Additionally, trees have blood codes as well, so my ability with Blood Magic should combo quite well with my purchased Tree Magic. And what's even better than raising a World Tree with Tree Magic? Guiding it's growth with Blood Magic as well!
All in all, I think I'm pretty well set up here. I had looked at the drawbacks, but the only one I was really willing to take was reincarnating as a child for a Heavenly Token with which to purchase Clay Magic. Except Clay Magic is noted to be fairly common in setting, so instead I could just not do that and convince someone who already knows Clay Magic to teach me. The reincarnation is noted to give powers as you grow up, presumably taking at the very least several years, so it feels like just inserting as normal is more time efficient. I'd get my purchases right away and could begin growing the World Tree immediately, and so long as I'm able to convince a Clay mage to induct me within the next several years I still come out ahead time-wise. So yeah, not taking any drawbacks.
As for an omen to look into, I might try and see what's up with the dragons? They're going to be attacking where I'm living, so I suppose I have a vested interest in figuring out their whole deal.
Genesis CYOA, in which I'm not sure if this is an original setting or not, so I guess I'll treat it like it is! Three coins, with potentially up to five more via drawbacks!
[] The Untethered League:
Seems like a decent place to start from, I guess.
[] Reincarnation (1 Coin)
[] Heir of Cradle (1 Coin)
[] Exalted (1 Coin)
[] Backdoor to Akasha (2 Coins)
[] A Ring (3 Coins)
[] Nemesis (+1 Coin)
[] Slow Burn (+1 Coin)
[] Genesis Protocol (+3 Coins)
Reincarnation, at it's very least, ensures that I won't have to waste my initial time after being inserted learning the language and culture or searching for employment. It
might offer additional development in my choices here, in which that's great, but given I've taken the Slow Burn drawback that's probably unlikely. Went with Heir of Cradle because I didn't like the action constraints imposed by the other two choices in this category. Exalted is a simple boon that makes everything just that little bit better, which is great.
Backdoor to Akasha offers both growth and survivability. The chance to access other magic systems is wonderful, hopefully synergy between what I can gain and what I have now makes things greater than the sum of their parts. The Library presumably also contains info on how to achieve Honours and/or which are the best to get, which'd be nice to peruse. On the survivability side of things, I'd presumably be able to look up info on my Nemesis and whatever the heck the Genesis Protocol is, which should hopefully help me get through them. The Ring is just a nice boost to being the Heir of Cradle, plus some other powers and the promise of more down the road.
As for drawbacks, I don't think Slow Burn hurts me too badly. My picks are fairly focused on future potential over immediate power, so hopefully I'll be able to regain what's lost in relatively short order. I should be able to snoop on my Nemesis via Backdoor to Akasha, which hopefully allows me to defeat them before they can get me. Genesis Protocol is something I should have a few decades to deal with, and ideally close to century, during which I just gotta grow as much as possible to try and outscale it along with doing research in the Akashic Library to figure out what it actually is and how to best go about surviving it.
Fairly risky, but I think I have a decent chance of coming out on top.
I'm the Prophesized Hero for the Otherworld But the Adversary Managed to Hit Snooze on my Alarm Clock and Win While I Was Asleep, Now the World is Covered in Darkness, How Unexpected.
[JK] Greed Mode
I mean, if it's an option.... Nah, but for real though:
[ ] Standard Mode
I'll play as intended.
[ ] No Immortality (Gain +1 Mantle)
Chosen out of a desire to Win More. I want something that'll stick with me forever, not something that goes away the moment I leave this universe. Although if the "you're no longer immortal after leaving" effect only removed the direct immortality and not the progression from Bet Seal or the boosted Artifact from Amulet of Unlife, I'd change my tune.
[ ] Mantle of Heroes
[ ] Mantle of Mobius
[ ] Mantle of Joss
It's Mobin' time.
Heroes grants a temporary boost in Progression, and then crystallizes into a Mantle that should combine favorably with my other choices here. Mobius might grant an increase in prep time if we assume it lets you make time-dilated realms, and even if not it offers the chance to potentially infinitely stall the Adversary via making ablative worlds faster than it can consume. Plus there's whatever loot you can find in the already created areas, which is a nice bonus. Joss seems like the most powerful thing on offer here, and what might eventually let you defeat the Adversary.
[ ] Divine Sorcery
No strong feelings on this or Artifacts, so taking a combo build.
[ ] Soul Eater
[ ] Wind Waker
[ ] Thunder Runner
Speaking honestly, the only thing I really care about here is the progression offered via Soul Eater. Wind Waker and Thunder Runner combo pretty well to give me a significant bump in initial attributes. Maybe I could use Mobius to create pocket worlds filled with monsters to slaughter for progression?
[ ] Spirit King's Crown
As I said earlier, no real strong feelings on this and Sorcery, so I might as well make a combo build. Spirit King's Crown gives me 13 spirits that are decently powerful by my standards and will continue to grow alongside me, and Divine Sorcery lets me contract with them to gain powers. So just have them give me however much they can without draining themselves while I reap the rewards of 13 contracts that scale to my power level.
[ ] Po the Pretender
No real opinion here, but his ability to grow stronger is pretty nice.
Scenarios.
I'm tempted to take The Fog of Ages, as it seems like it'd be possible for me remove it in the early stages if it was the only Scenario I took, but I don't want to risk it potentially snowballing beyond my ability to counter so I'll abstain.
My guess as to the Final King's Weakness is that he has a phylactery, something keeping him anchored to this world which while by no means easy to find and destroy, is certainly easier than try to take him in straight combat. My reasoning is thus: The Dark Lord is pretty much entirely powered by Darkness, The Six Beasts directly get their form from Darkness, the Fog of Ages boosts other scenarios by giving them more darkness to slurp up, and the two Archmages are literal liches. Thus, my theory is that too maintain the enormous boost the Final King receives, the Darkness had to crystallize a portion of itself into a power source. Destroy that phylactery, and the Final King is weakened as he can no longer draw power from and reinforce his form with Darkness. Just a guess, though.
[ ] Apocryphal Curse (Gain +1 mantle)
It's noted to not be as bad as the normal Apocryphal, only scale imperfectly, and the option gives you the possibility of outscaling it, so I'm willing to take it.
Time to learn magic!
[ ] Powerful - Your spending cap for Powers is 5, but your spending cap for Skills is 3.
[ ] Unbreakable (1)
[ ] Trinity (3)
[ ] Familiar Bond
-[ ] Ideal Spirit (1)
[ ] Negotiation
-[ ] Special: Conservator (3)
[ ] Conservation
Mental Enhancements ho! Unbreaking was chosen or the immunity to soul attacks. Both Trinity and Ideal Spirit provide boosts to cognition, which is further enhanced by Conservator. No clue what it is they want to be remembered, but I'm curious!
Oh boy, time to die! Starting out with 12 Picks, 4 FB, and 2 EFB.
Enhancements:
Shenzhou, the Divine Land
Gods of Empire
Wakanda Forever
Hearts of Darkness
Two different selections of choices here:
[2 Picks] Mutant Healing Factor:
[3 Picks] Air Element:
[3 Picks] Earth Element: (Cost increase to 1 FB)
[3 Picks] Fire Element: (
Cost increase to 1 FB)
[3 Picks] Water Element: (Cost increase to 1 FB)
[3 Picks] Wood Element: (Cost increase to 1 FB)
[3 Picks and 1 Even Further Beyond; requires at least 1 standard Element] Void Element:
[4 Picks] Deadly Sinner:
-[1 Even Further Beyond; requires Deadly Sinner] Deadlier Savior:
Buying every single element is quite expensive, but it should hopefully be worth it. My base elements are roughly 5x as strong as their base form having purchased all of them, with conflux elements thus sitting at a 10x boost. My hope here is to try and get as much out of Void's Rite of Absorption as possible. Deadlier Savior facilitates that goal, as Greed's Obsession can hopefully be put to use strengthening my Void Element to gain more out of each kill. Or if that's not possible, boosting a facet of my elemental magic so that I can kill more foes quicker. Mutant Healing Factor is just a nice early game boost that hopefully stacks with Wood Element.
Not too sure how I like this one though. The combo of the elemental effects is fairly powerful and broad, but it lacks the higher tier effects or true versatility of some other options. Deadlier Savior does help a bit in that regard, but I'm still feeling the lack of versatility keenly. This build's main means of advancement is defeating foes in battle, and all that advancement does is make it better at defeating foes in battle. I'm not entirely sure I want to give up the chance to gain esoteric abilities or grow via training timeskip. At the same time, the idea of being in a Wood Element boosted Rage Warform and punching out Kaiju is a pretty cool one, I'll admit.
[4 Picks or 1 Further Beyond] Fortunate Son: (Spent 1 Further Beyond)
[4 Picks or 1 Further Beyond] Born in It, Molded by It: (Spent 1 Further Beyond)
[1 Even Further Beyond] The Good Doctor:
[4 Picks] Diagrammatic:
-[1 Further Beyond; requires Diagrammatic] Diagrammatic Master:
[4 Picks] Well-Versed:
-[1 Further Beyond; requires Well-Versed] Thoroughly Well-Versed:
[4 Picks] Bright Spark
[1 Even Further Beyond; or, 1 Further Beyond if you have taken Interestinger Times under Terms and Conditions] Sponsorship Deal:
Hi, nice to meet you, I'm a cultivating Vampire with a body made of pure energy. Fortunate Son gives me backing and talent for initiating into a very powerful set of abilities. Born in it, Molded by It gives a very healthy dose of immediate power, ensuring I don't die at the very start. I'll admit, the only knowledge I have of what The Good Doctor gives is from looking at the wiki page just now, but it seems like absolute bullshit.
Diagrammatic, Well-Versed, and Bright Spark all offer powers that scale at least somewhat with intelligence/mental boosts, so they should combo fairly well. Bought the initial Diagrams/Verses because having them at the very start should improve my scaling: I can pick 3 Diagrams that help boost training, and you discover Verses quicker the more of them you have.
I'll admit, I'm a bit leery about Nix pulling the rug out from under me with the Sponsorship Deal, but I suppose it's been shown that even a temporary period of Fate bending to support you as much as possible can pay huge dividends, so I'm willing to spring for it. If I really needed to, I suppose I could use my question on something like: "Is there a long-term project/goal that I would be willing to work towards which would both make me amusing and provide me a means of growth?" or something of that nature.
Of the Drawbacks listed, only the mitigated Batman Code one is semi-agreeable to me. And even then, I don't think +3 picks is worth introducing such a glaring psychological vulnerability. Rival is out because you never ever take a scaling enemy drawback, and Apocryphal is out because it will kill you.
Let's eat! 28 Arete, 4 picks, let's see what's cooking:
[ ] Player Mode (Not Recommended) (+1 pick)
[ ] Vegetables
-[ ] Sign of the Ur-Carrot [7 Arete]
[ ] Eggs
-[ ] Omelette
[ ] Milk
-[ ] Butter (???)
[ ] Meat [7 Arete]
-[ ] Roast Beef
-[ ] Dragon Meat [14 Arete]
[ ] Sugar
-[ ] Eggs
--[ ] Mayonnaise (Roast Beef)
[ ] Sugar
-[ ] Vegetables
--[ ] Fungal Growth
[ ] Salt
-[ ] Butter
[ ] Salt
- [ ] Omelette
[ ] Salt
-[ ] Sign of the Ur-Carrot [7 Arete]
Ur-Carrot and Omelette were chosen for the boost in percent value of stats, as that stays relevant forever. I dunno what to choose for Butter, but it'll probably be good. Roast Beef gives a whole heap of stats and it's free, and I was already planning on buying Meat to get Dragon Meat, as Might's Repose is great.
Use Sugar twice to get Mayonnaise and Fungal Growth. Mayonnaise applied to Roast Beef gives me even more stats, and Fungal Growth is actually pretty powerfu, given it gives an additional 102 stat points. Using Salt to boost Butter, Omelette, and Ur-Carrot because a better Advancement is nice, and a boost to the increased value of stats is also nice.
Done with builds now, so time to actually vote!
[X] Vendetta
-[X] Perfect Merger [50 Arete]
I have
very little idea what's happening, but this apparently gives Curse Mitigation, and so it's got my vote.
SV wordcounter gives 7676 words, disregarding this sentence.
