I am partial to the *make reality cry uncle* perfect defense, as before.
Do we have enough for those two plus VEE? I think at this point we really ought to get this one too.
Sandtrike blast... I am not against, but even the last guy with artillery didn't show us having a problem with the lack of ranged attack so I am still not sure it's the most pressing matter.
My beef with SSB is that it doesn't scale well. If so inclined we could get a weapon just as effective and keep it with us in the digital inventory we never seem to really use.
It's 20 exp each for the defense and VEE, then 12 more for SBS. So yes, with one exp left over.
That's literally not worth worrying about I'm sorry. I normally try to take a more like nuanced than that but honestly a solar that's expends any level of their starting Budget on a perfect attack it is going to die trying to fight us
The solar isn't the concern there. The serious business defenses going off on us again, outside interference, some other nonsense taking advantage of the situation. It could be a lot of things.
We ended up with three ancient exalts
going dog shopping. You can't seriously tell me you think this is a quiet day trip to board up some windows and go home. If it ended that way it would be an extreme outlier from everything else we've done for the last few months.
You also aren't addressing the attack. Even for targets we can beat in melee we can do so faster and with less risk if we can fry them with a glare. It's entirely possible we could have killed that Abyssal before he tattled on us to the Neverborn, leaving us with a pretty substantial advantage in that we could have just found the damn shard immediately afterwards.
I mean the bolded is just not true in either Dresden Files or Ascension. Every big ritual we see in Dresden Files gets disrupted like flat out it's not even a question mark that that happens it happens every single time from Chichen Itza to the Dark Hollow to the fear storm over Chicago no matter how many people get sacrificed no matter how much preparation is done they all get interrupted. Systemically rituals and Mage the Ascension are the same people knowing that you're doing rituals can just try and stop you both with magic from without and attempt to stab you
Usually by people killing the ritualists and messing with their stuff. Not by squaring up to wrestle for ambient power. The reason they approach ritual disruption by shooting the mage is because it's easier than rolling to counter.
Chichen Itza involved some of the best mages on the planet being forewarned of a major ritual targeting a senior council member. One that even the best wards on the planet couldn't stop. McCoy and the grey council showed up to murder everyone involved instead of fighting them for control of the spell.
Shape Mana is exactly the kind of effect like the prime sphere that you would use to attempt to destroy someone else's ritual when it takes affect especially ritually casted. Tearing away at it is literally its purpose. That's like saying a younger wizard shouldn't be able to tear away at a ritual cast by an older one despite them being fully capable of knowing how the older one did it while having the spheres necessary to do so.
Ritual versus ritual is literally the exact setup you would need to try and contest rituals
A gun is made to kill things. This does not mean that every gun ever made is suited to kill every target in the field. The on the spot casting work of a mid grade sorcerer is as suitable for the example you're giving as a pistol is for anti armor duty.
That isn't to say it can't be elevated by circumstances or additional effort; if we have our own tools set up, access to special resources, or help from others it could add value. This is not equivalent to what you're describing.
) so this is what between half and what one third looks like
