I think this isn't taking into account that Feldrake isn't just a +12 to Occult, he gives Phenomenal Cosmic Power, which allows using Occult for combat rolls. When applied to Malifishmertz, for instance, he'll go from a +5 on combat rolls to a staggering +57. That doesn't include any bonus from the avatar.
malf in particular's probably a bad call due to his instability and high levels of power/evilness unfortunately. the stats are strong but it'd mean giving him a bad influence, giving him power with which he could cause more problems, and asking him to do something he might not want to do
at the very least would seriously warrant managing him this+future turns in order to have him not blow up, which i don't think people want?
I assume that issues like that can be solved through narrative, it's probably not actual shackles. However, let's say that he can't be convinced to go back to Janna. That Feldrake doesn't want to go back. That's a price I'm willing to pay, right of association, free will, and stick slavery aside. We're in a situation where combat magic will be very, very necessary so our heroes don't die. Normal guns don't work all that well against water. Magic does.
eh, there may be something we can do to fix problems but i doubt it'd be in any way close to time-efficient to do and has risk of failing/being to expensive so not being done in future turns. seems better to not get into problems in the first place, or at least to give malf character growth before handing him more power (since it'd be easier to do so without a crutch+bad influence+obvious motive for having him become better)
meanwhile, while this may be obvious, feldrake is evil and we shouldn't trust him? like respect people's wishes, but at some point one person's well being becomes multiple people's suffering, at which point there's no obligation to go along with things. especially since in this case his desires are definitely selfish (give him more power/ability to do evil) and may be harmful to janna long-term
I believe we have Councilor descriptions, and those do list when a character has a special trait for the Council.
if you mean stuff like monnogram lowering (crit?)fail chance/dennis making people more likely to vote in our favor, those traits are more "special things they bring to the table"? so sort of different. I'd still be somewhat confident feldrake could boost a councilor's stats?
though there is the issue that they'd lose out on a lot of their advantages in direct combat when placed there, so isn't as good a deal as you may think.
besides, the councilor +6 bonus isn't actually as strong as you might think. it boosts two actions, but if we place it on someone who's doing an occult action we'd get the same amount of stats (and with more ability to focus it on a specific high DC action), so someone like kitsune might be a good call tbh
as for conversations regarding the avatar
@Olivebirdy , while it has stats you need to at least consider factors like
1: the avatar's probably not the best at harming liquidator, seeing as how it's a big golem or whatever and liquidator can't be permamently harmed with physical attacks
2: the person using the avatar is probably going to have their hands too full to do combat normally, which if they're a spellcaster means less attacks hitting liquidator that can bypass his invulnerability. using someone who isn't particularly good on their own may be desirable, even.
3: liquidator can probably break the statue after a bit or even just go past it, adter which it's likely too slow to be a particularly relevant factor in the fight? so it's not like a +25 to every roll
4: messing with the statue has costs. both need to spend an action on it that won't be *super* useful long-term (since it's only relevant in defenses/might need managing to use again), and a need to let the operator spend time off to recover afterwards (note that this isn't nescesarily free if it's malf, we could end up losing their councillor bonus for the turn or something which could suck even more than losing a hero)
