Regarding the builds and discussion for future Assembly members, some critical data to keep in mind:
- Shard-Charms will always take up 3m of the Personal Essence pool, and one Dedicated slot. They're fuck-massive resource hogs, but they're OP as all get-out so whatever.
Totally worth it, but also worth keeping in mind.
- Taylor gets to pick the new Assembly member's PRIMARY role, not any sub-roles as those are dictated by their personality and Autobot's motivations (example: Marrow).
- For your next assembly member, PR is going to be a Big Deal after all this if we don't want to just go to ground for a bit after some the shit that's going to go down at the end of the Arc. So, we can either go Social, Sneaky, or Scheming, with valid paths for each - just remember that we have about 3 months to go and each conversion takes a week off that time limit.
Right, Social definitely a thing given how we've been playing so far. We're TERRIBLE at the applied socials, due to missing key factors, misreading the situation, working from OOC prejudices, having absolutely terrible timing, trying to do multiple things at once, approaching from a completely wrong angle, etc. We only got anywhere with socials by throwing 110 xp in social skills, specialties and backgrounds, discounting Allies and exploiting that we just plain have better roll systems. We basically brute forced the problem with omakes, and bending over backwards to let the PRT media engine do it's magic. All those backgrounds are omake power.
We need social expert next more than anything else, and the favorite Scheming and Sneaky candidates need socials to ward off disaster.
- Cauldron/Eden Shards will usually veer towards replicating existing charms (and thus counting as prerequisites) since Autochthon is mostly rebuilding ("Repurposed") the broken creature/tool from the ground up to work within his themes. Scion Shards will usually work as more stand-alone creations as Autobot is converting a functioning creature/tool.
Interesting, so Eden shards will be better for stacking onto Alchemical charms, and acting as a hyperefficient Alchemical, while Scion shards would be better at providing an OCP solution to both Exalted AND Worm issues after the conversion.
Also that means Eden shards don't get unlocking hidden fun stuff I suppose?
- If an Alchemical has augmentations for all three of a class of attributes (Physical, Social, Mental), their IEU allows Earth-Bet meatrobots to play by Exalted rules for actions of that class instead of OWoD, as well as allows for them to perform minor Stunting. (For reference, Bladedancer wouldn't have been able to keep up with Marrow in the slightest without the all-Physical IEU that Marrow gave her during that whole debacle.)
Nifty, if not critical, since we're working on motonic conversion, it'd eventually be less valuable as time passes.
- IEU only has goofy interactions with Nowhereverse Shard powers, not Alchemical Shard-Charms. For example, Vista was warpin' space like a baus with Taylor's IEU, but if we converted her and Taylor hit Alchemical!Missy with IEU, then MissyBot wouldn't gain the same leap in power. This is one of the weird cases where Nowhereverse/Motonic Physics interactions favors Nowhereverse, so keep this in mind when considering whether we want to convert someone only for their powers.
Makes sense, though Autochton would no doubt optimize their shard functions somewhat.
The base Personality Override Spike charm draws both individuals to the mindscape of the subject, where they may talk without physical distractions. Additionally, the mindscape usually reveals subject's subconscious emotional/mental scars in a way that can be brought to the conscious mind's attention... which is pretty much the initial goal of mundane therapy sessions. If you need a visual, this is effectively the "Talk no Jutsu" cut-away effects seen in the seminal Naruto fights (Sasuke, Gaara, Obito, etc.).
Okay, that is good, we need some of that. Also Missy is a fairly good candidate to get the Spike, since she's more likely to use it responsibly. More than us even.
Here, there is a mix of interacting rules. How successful Alchemical can be in social situations? In oWoD stats and skills meant much less for social interaction than in Exalted. Taylor have little charisma and manipulation. Still, during the course of the story (both canon, and this one), she had no problem gaining friends, convincing peoples, gaining popularity, and being strong, effectively charismatic leader. I assume it was possible due to Nowhereverse physics.
It's possible because we're NOT charismatic, we're competent, and we only take leadership when everything has already gone to hell and they'd go with the person they need, not the person they want. If we were more charismatic we'd have control before things went to hell.
Also, when I look at Taylor and influence she gained in form of various types of reputation, I have a feeling, that it my be more
worthwhile way to influence general population as a whole, than charm use. Charms usualy are limited in scope, and works best for single target. Also, after Simiurg, society have allergic reaction to any attempts of mind manipulation. Social charms are form of mind manipulation. It may backfire badly.
This is completely wrong, as has been reinforced repeatedly. There is no special prejudice against mind affecting powers.
And Alchemical social charms in fact work best for large populations, unlike other Exalted. Their personal charms, aside from the Happy Fun Spike, mainly rely on exploiting or leveraging an individuals relationship to an organization or nation. They're far better at groups of people than single persons.
Worth noting is that even without using their charms superhuman appearance and charisma will do the trick.
I didn't realize Happy Fun Spike was THAT level of hax.
