Alright, finally going to look at training plans, had been hoping to be able to avoid this until next voting period but here we go. I'll assume the current four leaders of the jutsu vote will win. That means Ghost Scales, Hammer, Flash, and Earth Armor. None of these provide additional utility. Additionally, Flash is unavaliable to all our genin at the moment, and Earth Armor is unavaliable to everyone aside from Hazou. The Hammer is only really useful at high levels, and only for people with both a lot of chakra and high physical stats (jutsu is already maxed by chakra boost at skill/3), and it isn't until we've leveled the jutsu to 10 that we start to get returns on chakra investment. So, for now, at the levels our genin are at, Hammer is not a useful technique for pretty much anyone, unless they invest both significant amounts of XP into leveling it and want to boost everything fully all the time (for right now, this is not very doable with our XP counts). This brings us to Ghost Scales, which is a nice stacking defensive jutsu, and includes a Taijutsu buff. As the technique provides extra Taijutsu dice while only requiring a Quick Action to sustain, it is definitely worth it to get for Hazou, though I am not yet convinced on its benefits for the others (I'll be investigating it more throughout this post). I'm unsure on the benefits of leveling it significantly though (for Hazou), as we don't really have the chakra to use it much as a defensive technique.
For utility, Jiraiya mentioned that he had a less efficient earth jutsu similar to the Pangolin tunnelling technique. While we don't have the exact stats on it, it's almost certainly worth having Hazou level that, as it grants additional mobility options for anybody traveling with Hazou.
Hazou
So, for Hazou, we probably want a level in Earth Armor (effectively to replace the Pangolin Training Jutsu if it pops), a level in Ghost Scales (for the +3 Taijutsu dice), and a level in Jiraiya's Earth Tunneling Jutsu (for additional utility). Beyond that, we need to think about what to level for each situation. First, let's consider combat with a random enemy. If Hazou goes all out in the combat and hasn't been injured yet (spends both quick actions to improve his taijutsu score and has Ghost active) Hazou will be rolling Taijutsu (29 + 3) + Roki (12) + Boost (8) + Ghost Scales (3) + Macerator Rings (6) = 61 dice. This seems sufficient for winning close combat, and will increase by 3 once we get Strength and Stamina increased by the training jutsu (which should happen by the time we get an additional 159 XP ~ 1.5 months in game, if we also increase Dexterity). Additionally, if Hazou takes damage and pops his conditioning jutsu, he can put on earth armor (if he can disengage), which would effectively replace the Ghost Scales Taijutsu dice (since he couldn't use three quick actions), though that requires a disengage (which we have for free a combat action with Hiding Like a Mole).
So, I think Hazou's Taijutsu levels are fine as is (assuming one level in the above stats). Additionally, we should be able to cheat our way around the Tac Move roll if we can use Hiding Like a Mole to pop us right next to an enemy and begin attacking them, if they don't have the ability to see underground.
Hazou's high Taijutsu level should also let him defend against targetted ranged attacks. However, AoE attacks will be a bit harder. I *think* he can auto avoid these by just using Hiding Like a Mole (then move to his enemy and unleash hell). This means on his own, a his low Tac Move is a relative non-issue (assuming he has tunneller's friends active and is on the earth).
However, if an enemy attacks him before he gets a turn and uses AoE, Hazou's only recourse is to use Tac Move and (likely) tank a hit. His odds of tanking go up significantly with Ghost Scales and the Pangolin Jutsu, but are certainly not guaranteed. To mitigate this risk, we need to increase Tac Move (to both help avoid going later in the initiative and add dice to dodge rolls) and Awareness (to help avoid going later in the initiative).
It's also worth noting that Hazou will not be able to move at all with his current Tac Move, Hiding Like a Mole, and Earth Armor active at the same time. This suggests that we want to level Tac Move.
So, to help Hazou with combat, I think the best move is to level Tac Move, with Awareness being the second most important, and Chakra capacity and regen being even more important now that we have additional things to use chakra for.
Now, looking at Hazou with respect to information gathering, we will likely need to roll high deception and/or awareness and/or have utility options. Straight deception may be required for some of the coming challenges, and both Awareness and Living Roots have synergy with our combat options (high living roots is necessary to beat enemy stealth rolls after we retreat into the ground, Awarness helps our initiative). Honestly, with the XP we have available, it's unlikely additional deception dice will help us. So, I suggest we level either Awareness or Living roots to deal with information gathering challenges.
Alltogether, this means that aside from the single point buys for Hazou, we want to level Tac Move, Awareness, Living Roots, Capacity and/or Regeneration. Next, we'll look at how likely it is Hazou will need additional chakra.
In a single combat, it sounds like we may need to cast Ghost Scales (18 CP), Hiding Like a Mole (10 CP), Taijutsu boost (40 CP), and Tac Move boost (for dodging) (30 CP). Doing all of this would use up pretty much all of our chakra (98/100), and then take ~30 hours to recharge. This suggests that we currently should be very selective about how we use chakra, and should level both Capacity (for singular fights) and Regeneration (for time between fights/events). For being selective, one way to mitigate costs is to effectively always keep Ghost Scales on, saving 18 CP, since Ghost Scales doesn't have an upkeep cost (aside from a quick action), and I'd suggest we do not full boost Taijutsu unless we are confident we won't need to fight again for a while. It may also be worth investing more heavily in Ghost Scales instead of boosting Tac Move, though I do not really know the maths of if that is worth it or not.
So, this brings us to my suggested Hazou build, which is very similar to Armor Up:
[X] Training Hazou: Underground
Ghost Scales 1 [1]
Living Roots 10 [35]
Earth Armor 3 [38]
Jiraiya Utility Earth Tunnelling Jutsu 1 [38.5]
Regeneration 8 [46.5]
Save 1.5 XP
This takes full advantage of the various jutsu we can put a point into (Jiraiya's tunneling jutsu, Ghost Scales, and Earth Armor), increases our underground sensing ability to the point we get a discount (also getting us effective 50 Awareness dice against people we are a meter away from, which likely will be enough to find them from underground), takes full advantage of the discount by leveling Earth Armor to 3 (also gets us very close to being able to use Earth Armor while Hiding Like a Mole and still able to move), and increases our Regeneration.
Noburi
Next, let's look at Noburi. He'll clearly want at least a level in Ghost Scales, since he's got huge chakra pools. I don't think he should spend any XP on the Hammer though, because jutsu are unable to be boosted more than normal with it, and Noburi's got plenty of Chakra to spend, so the XP to chakra tradeoff is clearly not worth it yet. With the "clear spend one XP on" techniques out of the way, let's look at an appropriate response of Noburi to individual combat and information gathering challenges.
In combat, Noburi can use Water Whip at close and mid-range, and Syrup Trap at far range. Water Whip he'll roll Water Whip (34) + Boost (12) = 46 dice. This is barely acceptable, though will likely lose to many other combatants if Noburi doesn't have additional bonuses to his attack. Noburi's other option is to use Syrup Trap to incapacitate enemies. Here, he can roll TacMove (21) + boost (6) + Syrup Trap(22) + boost (8) = 57 dice against enemy's Tac Move. If the enemy is not a mobility based opponent, this may help Noburi maintain a desired range, and/or use hiding in the mist and mist drain to finish them.
Finally, if Noburi needs to escape, he can use Hiding in the Mist, and roll Stealth (15) + Tac Move (21) + boost (6) = 42 dice to escape. If the enemy has already been caught in Syrup Trap, this is likely to work. If the enemy avoided Syrup Trap, this is unlikely to work.
Noburi's most likely path to victory is casting Hiding in the Mist to maintain range, casting Syrup Trap to prevent their movement, and then wearing them down with water whips (while draining them into unconsciousness). The dice rolled to achieve this in dependant on the levels of Tac Move (for Syrup Trap & maintaining range), Stealth (for escaping while Hiding in the Mist), Water Whip (for wearing down the opponent), Syrup Trap (for blocking their movement), and Awareness (for winning initial initiative). Additionally, Ghost Scales is likely useful, as it may buy him a turn by preventing injuries.
Now, looking at Noburi's information gathering capabilities, they are largely through Mist Drain and diplomacy (likely including medicine and medical ninjutsu). His stealth and awareness dice aren't really good enough on their own to win challenges (and they are unlikely to reach that point in this leveling). So, skills important to Noburi for information gathering (right now) are diplomacy, deception, and stealth. None of the avaliable justu will really grant him additional information gathering options. Unfortunately, all of these abilities are both expensive and not terribly high.
This leads me to my suggestions for Noburi's leveling:
[X] Noburi: Mobile Tank
Ghost Scales 2 [3]
Dexterity 8 [19]
Tac Move 22 [41]
Save 1.5 XP
This lets grants Noburi an additional dice for his Syrup Trap roll, escape rolls, movement rolls, and initiative, and lets him put in an extra point into the Ghost Scales. The other suggestion I have for him leveling is:
[X] Noburi: Tanky Tank
Ghost Scales 8 [36]
Save 7.5 XP
This lets Noburi tank additional hits from Ghost Scales, using the fact that Noburi has lots of Chakra to make it better.
Keiko
Finally, I'll be looking at Keiko's build. Keiko's combat options are weapons, Pangolins, and Tac Move. Pangolins are not a skill which can be inproved. With our explosive tags, she can make her weapon attacks be AoE (mandating a tac move roll to defend), She would roll as Weapons (33) + boost (9) = 42 vs Tac Move. This is mildly useful, but a little low. Unfortunately, with the XP avaliable, we aren't going to boost that number any higher. Alternatively, she defends against attacks via Tac Move, which is currently 27 (plus 7 boost for a total of 34), and escape combat with Tac Move (27) + boost (7) + VS (12) = 46. The biggest glaring weaknesses of her build to me are her regeneration and low defense - especially when we consider that she will likely be using pangolins to attack. While she has 170 CP, which seems like a reasonable amount, it takes her about three and a half days to regain that once she's spent it. Ghost Scales is a purely defensive technique for Keiko which costs a quick action. Given that Keiko needs to use quick actions to arm and draw kunai, it is likely not worth keeping up during fights all the time, especially at low levels. This means that for combat, I believe that Keiko should either level Regeneration, Tac Move, or Ghost Scales.
For information gathering, Keiko now has the Echolocation jutsu, Pangolins, and diplomacy + deal making. When exchanging information under agreeable terms, she can roll Diplomacy (21) + Deal Making / 2 (8) = 29 dice. This is ok, but not great. Unfortunately, it's a bit costly to level it now. Ultimately, Pangolins are going to be the way Keiko finds out information. Echolocation however is likely useful in that it lets her spot stealthy combatants or hiding informants. This suggests that leveling Regeneration and Echolocation are best for improving Keiko outside of combat.
So, this brings me to my suggested Keiko build:
[X] Training Keiko: Recharge
Regeneration 11 [51]
Ghost Scales 1 [52]
Echolocation 5 [59]
Save 0 XP
This reduces Keiko's full recharge time from 3.3 days to 1.2 days, and grants her an ok ability to see things in the dark.
