"""Fanwork""" response: #1720 words of analysis in service of Plan Star-Blade Letrizia Conversation
[X] Speak to Letrizia
[X] Star-Blade Saint
Meditations on the Sword
What does Hunger plan to do upon returning to the camp site? This presupposes you will survive until then, which is likely for most builds but not entirely guaranteed.
Before I begin, I want to point out that the tranquil character-building vote is conditioned on the idea that we manage to return to the camp. So voters who are particularly interested in any of the Camp-votes should pick a build that is less-likely to be derailed by any random encounters that happen between Hunger's Wraith form limping away from the Soul Archer and returning home.
There are two levels of the Temple to traverse: we've got to backtrack all the way through the Middle Layer territory that we explored and then escape from the Outer Layer. In the Middle Layer, we know that there are hunting parties that drop 'Scent of Blood' as well as some sort of command-structure for the Runic Knights that we encountered before. (Conservation of Narrative momentum suggests that we shouldn't encounter another Outrider party, but it's not impossible.) There are also normal civilians whose villages we ran through like a cartoonish blur.
In the first layer we've largely transcended even organized resistance by the runic knights. The major threat there is the Dreadbeastie, as well as opportunistic raids from other adventurers. It is an outside possibility that the absence of the Magus has been noted but the possibility of coordinated response from the Inner Layer is vanishingly small. I will note however that it is not zero. (I
inflate my wordcount grind arete by enumerating the threat, and I will look like a fucking wizard if this pans out.)
[ ] Study the Blood - Though impaired by the Ring, this is somewhat compensated for by the +Progression of Chief Dominion. There might be valuable insights to be gained from practicing with the Ring of Blood's influence. Though it resists formal analysis, raw experience can produce a type of intuition that grasps at the contours of the ability, giving you a qualitative understanding of its limits and how they might be exceeded.
*May unlock further Blood-based Advancements, or modify existing Advancements with Blood-based insight
*Commune with the Ring
So "Study the Blood" has the minor advantage of coming first on the ballot. It provides a chance of unlocking blood advancements, but my understanding is that such advancements will have to be purchased at an XP spending point. This is a somewhat negligible advantage because while expanding the choice set is utility-increasing for
rational agents, the thread participants face constraints like
greed Decision Fatigue. We are already spoiled for choices.
The second clause offers a blood-themed modification (enhancement?) of existing advancements. It would be neat if our abilities had greater synergy. But the Ring's Blood theme has been noted to be (1) subtle, more suited to manipulation and growth instead of raw power, and (2) "not necessarily an improvement" as in the example where the Final Form might be bestowed with blood depending on our choices.
It's also worth mentioning that the Ring Hunger "Dramatically reduces the benefits of training." When combined with Rihaku's hedging about how the study "may" provide benefits, this makes me very dubious.
Voters who decide to Commune with the Ring should be aware that the primary benefit seems to come from advancing the plot about the captured Moon Ring. That's fine, but it lacks the mechanical shine that was what originally made me vote for this option. There's also maybe something going on with regards to a "contest of wills" between the rings (?) but it's not obvious to me that this option relates to that event.
[ ] Speak to Letrizia - Evasive before about the grand strategic situation of the Human Sphere, much less any details of her own government and her role in it. Perhaps she'd be willing to clarify such now? It could be good to get Hunger's mind off the Call of the Ring and the situation in the Temple. One cannot only unerringly pursue duty, and if it takes duty of a different kind to enforce that distraction, then so be it. [+Letrizia, +Info]
Rihaku has done a bit of shilling for this option, but as a Letrizia Partisan, I really just needed a few voters to show me that this option is, potentially, viable. Letrizia is the pilot in control of a walking superweapon. With a few weeks of travel with us, spent under the light of our cloak, Verschlengorge can
heal to a Rank higher than Lord Hunger.
How did her superweapon get so damaged? Who let her walk away with it in the first place?? There are other interesting hooks tied to Letrizia: What's the political and technological situation of the civilization we're meant to conquer? What's up with the serendipity connecting Hunger and Vers by way of Decimator's Curse? What is her favorite Anime? Lots of heavy conversation topics.
What I find most interesting is her easygoing attitude about letting Hunger into the Robot. She obviously knows more than we do about piloting, and thanks to Ring Hunger it would take a long time to learn enough to catch up. But at the same time, she couldn't know that we're a slow study. Wasn't it a big risk that we might've supplanted her as pilot and suborned a whole superweapon? A conversation with Letrizia as expert-pilot would really be fun to read, even setting aside all the plot hooks for Geas that she unlocks.
[ ] Speak to Gisena - Confront Gisena about her statement before. Though they've been through much together in this week, why would she feel such loyalty to Hunger? Perhaps the answer is as simple as this: Hunger would find the death of any companion unacceptable, so naturally she reciprocates. Or perhaps the matter is deeper than that. What are Hunger's own feelings? Perhaps it is time to dredge up old wounds. It has been over three seasons since they died... [+Gisena, +Info]
At one point I also voted for Speak to Gisena. If we give her a dress, it makes sense to follow up to collect that sweet sweet +relationship. Her infodump is a lot more personal, too; information about Hunger's history is like catnip to me. The thing that stayed my hand is the sheer size of the Temple. Since Letrizia can't come along to the inner layers, Gisena will have more screentime. The character beat is also not quite right imo. We have plenty of +relationship to justify providing the evening gown. The gown sparks a Sorcerous Evolution (whatever that is). She's got too much going on in her life for a heart to heart about some guy's tragic backstory.
[ ] Study Verschlengorge - Hunger is pretty sure he can heal Verschlengorge to Rank 5, with all the attendant consequences thereof.
In my mind this is the option that the Blood Studiers should be grabbing if they really want a mechanical boost. Rank 5 robot stronk.
But there are good reasons not to: "all the attendant consequences thereof" include raids by stronger Astral Monsters. If Hunger and Gisena are off faffing about in the temple then Letrizia is stuck fighting on her own. As an Ace Pilot she'd probably be fine, but the robot had to get damaged in the first place, somehow. A bigger problem in my mind is that the stronger Astral monsters might agitate the expedition camp which should ideally be where we are cultivating a new set of
meatshields Employees for every time we tackle the Middle layer. Ring of Blood should have been our ticket to plentiful and powerful minions. (/endless salt about wasting the Caravan's offer to introduce us to Camp.
Why even have Nightmare Praetor if we don't manipulate anybody with convoluted plans??)
[ ] Something Else - Something riskier, perhaps?
Write ins! My only write-in ideas were suggested by other people. Rihaku noted that going to the Expedition Camp in our present state is not recommended. Someone else (sorry no citation) suggested negotiating with the Archer to get paid Mercenary work. I actually like the idea of being a sort of Double-Agent and scouting / scoping-out the Middle Layer while the Moon-Imprisoners pay us. This is too risky for the thread, though. Doom of the Tyrant does seem guaranteed to proc and we aren't really in any position to back up our Tyrant-Hissy-Fit with brute force.
Alright, let's get this build finished so the story can move on! You're at 12.5 Arete so you can spend up to 14 (if taking 3 picks) without Arete debt.
The previous build discussion started at "slightly under 11 Arete." We've done a little work in the salt mines but I bet we can really improve our Arete generation
with some additional acrimony or hurt feelings.
[ ] Star-Blade Saint - Exhaustion, Echo of the Forebear, Evening Gown (+AGI, +CHA), A Thousand Cuts
*Uses the default ++++AGI, ++++STR, +30% attack speed Psuedo-Grace
*The safest overall option, though not the highest short-term power
*Large stat buffs and Thousand Cuts compensate for Exhaustion in the short term
*Has some noncombat utility with +CHA
*Finally buffs Gisena enough to get her Sorcerous Evolution!
*A very respectable increase in AGI and STR allows for a powerful Thousand Cuts
*Defensively, mostly relies on increased evasion from high +AGI
*Makes you immune to Gisena's Nullity, allowing for increased cooperation in battle
*Wow, Thousand Cuts is so good with increased stats! All builds with high +STR/+AGI and Thousand Cuts can kill a substantially larger range of enemies than before, to a degree varying on the amount of stats gained.
*Not quite as good at using immediate power to seize more power as the Bloodslayer
*Buffs disappear if Evening Sky is dispersed, though this is unlikely except against overwhelming opposition
*A build that can pursue most paths forward in reasonable safety
This is my preferred build vote, and I've said so in some other posts where my arguments were a little more concise. My sentiments are basically YAS STATS and also YAS ATTACK SPEED. But the underlying argument is sound:
- Evening Gown provides a respectable number of stat boosts, even ignoring the effect on Gisena.
- Evening Gown's pseudo-grace stacks with Thousand-Cuts in a way that finally gives us a functional offensive tactic
- Gisena was pivotal in the battle with the Magus as well as the battle with the Outriders. We are getting strong Narrative Foreshadowing that Nullity is an effective defense against the Civilization using the imprisoned ring. Sparking an Evolution of her powers will ensure that weapon scales into higher levels
- Duplicating Evening Sky's defensive boost is even more important than the offensive scaling of nullity evolution. At current levels of squishiness, Gisena runs the risk of becoming a liability. We took the Outriders despite a higher risk of injury to Gisena (compared to the Knight Commander). It would be nice to avoid re-litigating that particular tradeoff because she's in too much danger.
- Gisena Gang has produced some exemplary Art: it would be a real shame to lose their muse. (Their Arete contributions are appreciated of course but some of the artists for this quest are crazy talented. We should keep them bribed and happy.)
[ ] Bloodslayer - Lingering Paralysis, Quickening, A Thousand Cuts
*Exploits your +Progression from Chief Dominion and opens up further, even mightier Blood-based Advancements
*Has a small window of relative vulnerability while your ghost form returns to flesh, though you retain Form of Rage availability during such
*Once you return to flesh, you can farm aggressively with the overwhelming strength, speed, and resilience of your new flesh form, with physical parameters over twice as great as your previous baseline (due to increasing value per +).
*Multiplicative increase in your overall combat power due to compounding effects of greater speed, greater strength, higher damage tolerance, tripled regeneration, heightened senses / reaction speed / thinking speed, and halved wound penalties, and further multiplied by access to Thousand Cuts
*Seriously, the option offers 25 +s of stats (7x AGI, STR, CON, 4x WITS), and ++++ to a mental stat. While you don't get these stats in ghost form, as % of your total HP your flesh body would be higher since it has massive durability and regeneration now.
*However, these incredible bonuses are not available outside of flesh form. While your Flesh form now has the strength of a mini-Form of Rage, the anti-synergy may bother many.
*There are, of course, also benefits to pursuing blood-based Advancements, since they are just stronger than the alternatives due to +Progression, offering large amounts of immediate power now, and ways to resolve the Lingering Paralysis debuff in short order.
Bloodslayer is my second choice, but there are some problems with Quickening that gave me pause:
- Our 2nd form should not be a downgrade; how embarrassing if the wraith form can only creep away from a fight slowly
- Adding Blood to Final Form isn't necessarily an improvement. Conceptual weaknesses that are super effective against our first form should be avoided in later stages. Enemies should need a separate gimmick for every stage dammit!
- Quickening doesn't actually help with our exfiltration from the temple while injured: Our 2nd form doesn't have any blood!
In the interest of fairness, I will admit that the aesthetic of 'Vampire forced into cloud-of-gas form and then driven mad with Rage when chased' is a coherent interpretation of this build. But it has a weird dip in effectiveness that just doesn't scratch my Rihakuverse power fantasy, so this is 2nd tier.
Long-term synergy with Ring of Blood is objectively good, tho.
[ ] Balance - Exhaustion, Quadruple Echo of the Forebear, A Thousand Cuts
*A simple build that attempts to balance greed and immediate power
*Only spends 7 Arete, saving the rest for future prospects
*Fairly powerful in every form, reasonable Thousand Cuts synergy
*Strong Form of Rage
*Don't underestimate this build just because it's uncomplicated!
*While it can probably survive, it's not really suited to ambitious fights
*What are you actually going to spend the saved Arete on? I suppose you could search for another magic system, but since you are already at +Progression in Blood, you may be best off spending that Arete on a future Blood Advancement.
*Hunger feels that this, and stronger builds, can somewhat safely venture into the outskirts of the Middle Temple with varying degrees of success. Enemies much stronger than the Goldenrod Bowman can be felled by the combination of STATS + Thousand Cuts.
Greedy build. I genuinely think we need to spend our Arete to survive. If we'd gotten
five picks from the Knight Commander I might be willing to vote for 5 echoes + Cuts. But only 4? Preposterous.
I do think there's an important lesson from this build: Any plan you vote for should be better than just pure echoes. I'm not sure all the winning votes have met this criteria. I'm not even sure all my own votes follow this metric. We can do better at thinking about opportunity cost & risks if we keep in mind that #picks = #echoes is always the baseline option.
[ ] Heedless War - Lingering Paralysis, Double Echo of the Forebear, Preeminence: War
*An aggressive build that goes all-in on the Ruling Ring
*With 2 Echoes and +All Stats from Preeminence, can make a reasonable Balance impression but lacks the foe-slaying might of Thousand Cuts. Does benefit from +Protection, +Wits etc on the defensive end, though.
*While +All Stats is amazing, a lack of focused combat power and no Thousand Cuts makes it the weakest of the builds by a large margin.
*Still, if it works and you find a foe that drops Preeminence: Passion, you're only (3 + 6) Arete and 2 picks away from Ruling Ring!
*Form of Rage can still bail you out. A fairly strong Form of Rage due to high Rank, though this doesn't offset the lack of Thousand Cuts
*Do you really want to incite the contest of primacy while taking a build that offers less immediate power? You don't even know what the contest does or if there are any other valid competitors, let alone their potential power levels!
*May be difficult to find an enemy that drops Preeminence: Passion, though if you look hard you can probably find one within a week or so. You may have to risk the Middle Temple again.
*Not a terribly safe build at this juncture
*And yet, if you gamble and win, and if the contest of primacy doesn't introduce any devastating complications beyond your level... think of the benefits! Incredible Progression and causality warping powers are yours! Unconditional ++INT, ++WIS, ++CHA, ++Protection, etc!
Oof. I have made my thoughts of this build pretty clear and it's late so I'm gonna call it here.
What I will say is that there's a phantom-vote going on here: the complication from our Outrider fight has gone largely unremarked. If I wasn't so burnt out from grading term papers all day I meant to do some clever comparison but now i must sleep. Might be a good starting place for a rebuttal by anybody that thinks I'm
a stuck up pretentious wrong. More grist for the Arete mill!
