I do not understand the system: Can you give me a (mostly) fair breakdown of the difference between the two plans? (And banking XP on Olivia is not helping your plan IMO; at least without a reason as to why)
Okay, here goes:
++++++++++
VOTE
[X]Plan Shadow Clones
-[X]Molly: 40xp
--[X]Splintered Gale Incarnation: 20xp
--[X]Sandstrike Blast: 8xp
--[X]Countermagic 2/4(Human + Vampire): 6xp
--[X]Ox-Body Technique 3: 3xp
--[X]By Rage Recast 3: Swift Stride: 3xp
--[X]Lash raise Stamina to 5
--[X]Remaining Bank: 1xp
-[X]Lash: 11xp
--[X]Investment: Fomor Power: Numbing 1: +3HL + wound penalty negation [Lore of Flesh 5, permanent]
--[X]Investment: Special Advantage 6: Regrowth: [Lore of Flesh 5, permanent]
--[X]Investment: Special Advantage 5: Soak Aggravated Damage [Lore of Flesh 5, permanent]
--[X]Lore of Light 2: Bend Light: 5 XP
--[X]Occult Aptitude: 3XP
--[X]Countermagic 1/4(Spirit): 3xp
-[X]Lydia: 11xp + Molly 1
--[X]Occult 2: 2xp
--[X]Ox-Body 4: 3xp
--[X]Devil Fighter/Mo Kung 2: Dragon Speed: 4xp
--[X]Countermagic 1/4 (Fae): 3xp
--[X]Lash raise Stamina to 5
-[X]Olivia: 11xp
--[X]Lash raise Stamina to 5
--[X]Bank XP
[X] Plan: courtly debut v2
-[X] Molly, 37 XP
--[X] Splintered Gale Incarnation (•••••), 20 XP
--[X] Counterspell: human, 3 XP
--[X] Emergency Minion Hologram, 4 XP
--[X] Digital Possessions Management, 4XP
--[X] Shadow Spite Curse (••), 6 XP
-[X] Lydia, 12 XP
--[X] Counterspell: Spirit, 3 XP
--[X] Excellency: Wits, 3 XP
--[X] Akashic Root Methodology (••), 6 XP
-[X] Lash, 12 XP
--[X] Lore of Humanity 1, 7 XP
--[X] Lore of Light 2, 5 XP
--[X]Investment: Fomor Power: Numbing 1: +3HL + wound penalty negation [Lore of Flesh 5, permanent]
--[X]Investment: Special Advantage 6: Regrowth: [Lore of Flesh 5, permanent]
--[X]Investment: Special Advantage 5: Soak Aggravated Damage [Lore of Flesh 5, permanent]
-[X] Olivia, 12 XP
--[X] Counterspell: Human, 3 XP
--[X] Counterspell: Fae, 3 XP
--[X] Psychoportation 3, 6 XP
These are the two plans.
Yog can speak for himself, but one of my major guiding principles was shoring up our ability to survive after pulling aggro from a Yama King. Just in case Mikaboshi got one of his reckless impulses. Or any of the people we aggro'd took a swing.
Keep that in mind while looking at what I write.
Where the plans are similar:
Both have the Clone charm for Molly.
Both have the Investments for Lash, improving her ability to take and survive damage; I introduced them, Yog copied them.
We both invest in counterspelling; we both think everyone should have all 4x types of counterspelling, but we disagree on the order. Difference of opinion, but neither of us is arguing that counterspelling is bad, just who needs which type immediately.
====
GENERAL
I vote for Molly, Lydia and Olivia to all get Lash to upgrade them to Stamina 5. This is a survivability upgrade, because stamina affects Soak.
I put it explicitly in the plan because this is the only place where we get to give anybody other than Molly instructions for the turn; we have no control over how the rest spend their AP.
Which is a deliberate QM choice.
Yog does not do this. I think this is an egregious omission.
====
MOLLY
I vote for Sandstrike Blast, basically Superman eyebeams/ FSN Saber swordbeams with a range of 60 yards, in order to give Molly an ability to hit people who arent in melee or who she cant reach either because she cant move or they're fast. I also give her more HP(Ox Body) and more speed(Swift Stride) because these were issues recently.
And I give Molly both human and vampire counterspelling immediately, because I remember the Dragon almost murdering a good chunk of Vegas with vampire magic, and I dont want to take that risk again.
=
Yog doesnt think she needs more range or speed or health.
He spends 8XP on two homebrew charms. One for a inventory charm, and the other for a hologram minion charm.
I've criticized them as unbalanced before both mechanically and narratively, but I didnt have the spare time and effort to do a full breakdown for them like I did for the first one. The hologram charm is particularly unnecessary.
He spends 6xp on Shadow Spite Curse, which is a nice charm, but one whose prime utility is trying to dox Nemesis.
Now thats a very useful thing, but that has no nearterm utility.
And I am pretty sure we will never get much use out of it outside of that under these circumstances.
Its not a charm we need this turn. We're not going looking for Nemesis this turn.
And we arent yet at the point where we can survive the sort of heat we are risking there; if Nemesis or a Great Walker pulls a Cold Days in response, we're not really equipped for it.
====
LASH
I prioritized one thing: Her survival. Lore of Light 2: Blind enables invisibility, and to put up mirages/smokescreens against people trying to shoot at her while she runs away. Countermagic(Spirit) so she can counterspell any Denarian magic that was used against her by the Fallen. This also makes her good at counterspelling Outsider magic, because they are spirits as well.
And Occult Aptitude(Ability Aptitude: Occult) which makes counterspelling easier by reducing the DC.
She's got the second biggest counterspelling dicepool after Molly because she can buff herself fast, so allowing her to be good at it seemed a good idea.
=
Yog went with Lore of Humanity 1(universal translator for mortals) and Lore of Light 2(invisibility, mirage)
They arent bad choices, but I wouldnt have gone with Humanity 1 yet.
Not under these circumstances, after pulling aggro from a Yama King.
====
LYDIA
This is the one I most disagree with after Molly.
I focused on improving Lydia's combat ability.
Lydia if you'll remember was struggling to choke out a mortal in Vegas at the club. She needed to spend an Excellency to choke out a mortal at the club. So I think she needs to improve her organic abilities as a matter of urgency.
I give her more Occult, because her Occult was too low for her to permakill akuma in Hell, or to use her escape charm. Remember that her ability to permakill stuff is how she regens Essence in combat, so its a critical ability for her to be able to use it anywhere she needs to.
I also give her more HP(Ox Body) and Shih Art: Dragon Speed, which increases her Dexterity for the scene, in order to make her both a better fighter and a faster runner.
Yog does not invest in Lydia's combat ability at all. He chooses to invest in utility.
Akashic Method is a great charm, which helps you retrieve information that isnt hidden as long as you have access to a library/the internet/an expert. But its not an immediate priority right now.
And the Wits Excellency is frankly unnecessary IMO, for someone with as little Essence as Lydia, and who doesnt regen like Molly does out of combat. IMO.
====
OLIVIA
I banked because she has 11 XP, and the cost of raising a Discipline is (Current Rating*15)
To raise her Iron Mountain from 1 to 2 would cost 15XP.
There were other Sorcery Paths available, but no early consensus or suggestions then, so I saved it instead.
Yog chose to invest instead in her teleportation. Not sure why.
And Counterspelling, which she didnt need for community policing right now.
