It's no secret that we have potent divination powers, so spreading information about false limits for those abilities is in our best interest.
It is a secret actually.
The list of people(not counting cyberdevils) who know about that is less than 10.
They get passives only, and I don't think they're valid targets for IDU because they're still part of Molly. She can't template stack, which she'd be doing if she got partial exalted benefits and fomori benefits.
Even if she could, fomori suck here. They're supposed to suck even.
Hypothetically if you got to build them and used every ill advised splat as a source they can get better, but they're intended to be disposable goons and ExWoD explicitly says we're not supposed to be able to design them in part to stop min-maxing.
It's not nearly enough protection for our secrets even if I'm wrong.
Take Broken Seeker for example. He was tracking us for months and managed to narrow down when we were specifically leaving town to do business with Odin. If we'd had this setup running it's fairly likely he could have snatched our clone regardless of any fomori powers and had hours to work her over.
I'd rather make arcana shapeshifters to use as proxies than do the equivalent of including some of the juiciest lore as the toy in a happy meal.
1)If they can learn Path Sorcery or Shih Arts, I dont see any reason why they wouldnt be able to harness their own(or rather, their copy of mortal!Molly's) inner darkness.
And the calculus for fomor is very different when their personal survival is not a priority.
2)Fomor are supposed to suck in terms of their personal agency, not necessarily combat power or utility.
Pentex wouldnt bother investing in them if they didnt make sense to make; they're evil, but they do keep an eye on the bottomline.
The issue is not that you cant make Gorehounds, or Normalites or Ferectoi or Hollow Ones that wouldnt be credible combat threats.
Its that generally fomor give up a lot of personal agency when they become fomor, with the Bane getting a major say in everything from their physique to their mind. The Wyrm usually isnt solicitous of their wellbeing, and neither is Pentex.
Unless they are Ferectoi.
Thats not an issue with Molly.
3)*checks*Yeah thats some vintage "you're playing it wrong" bullshit there.
Not to mention that its thematically incoherent with his training charms: Chirality Prohibition Index turns subjects into CoDs with tailored specifications that the PC gets to pick, from languages to clothes.
Or the Latter-Day Implants charm which turns you into a fomor.
The solution to min-maxing has always been the magic words "subject to Storyteller approval". Rule Zero, if you prefer.
Not "you dont get to decide because you might minmax; dump it on the Storyteller's workload to make up a new set of shit."
I dont speak for the QM, but its probably safe to ignore that declaration.
4)As for Acceptable Target X attempting to snatch a clone, we know within seconds, because cellphones with cyberdevils are a thing in this setting. And Willpower 9 victims dont make good torture targets when you are in a hurry.
The Denarians couldnt break either Marcone or Ivy during the several days they held them captive during Small Favor, and they had preptime, a defended base to apply torture and deprivation to their victims, and Lucifer's aid.
Corpsetaker held Morty for over a day unsuccessfully in Ghost Story.
Im not worried about that being a threat for a Willpower 9/Willpower 10 Molly Carpenter clone, as long as IPM is a thing.
Thats the sort of thing that gets resolved in hours, maybe minutes.
Not to mention there's
@Earth-Destroyer 's suggestion of spending anywhere from 2xp(Fortune 1, full training discount) to 7xp(Fortune 1+2+3, full training discount) to learn Fortune Path as a mortal and getting access to Death Curse(Ritual 1) as a combination fuck you and peace out for any SGI clones.
Throw upwards of 16 dice(Willpower 9/Willpower 10 + Manipulation 3 + Occult 5) of magical spite in an enemy's face as a from Hell's Heart I stab at thee move.
As Maggie LeFay demonstrated, you can make them remember you even without killing them.
At minimum it'd be deeply unwise to step into someone else's territory and then break the rules when no one actually knows any Ways out of the place.
Point of order:
The wisdom or otherwise of an action doesnt matter if you are being mindcontrolled. Or possessed.
Both of which are things we know have happened to wizards in this setting.
I generally agree with the thrust of your argument.
But I think this detail is something to keep in mind. Someone with programmed instructions from a puppetmaster does not necessarily work with the same cost/benefit calculations that other people do.
Hell, creating friction/conflict might be the point of any transgression.
After all, Turn Coat was all about starting a war between the White Coucil and the White Court.
