So, gonna want some Buster Sword time, some magic as a secondary, likely one or two of the leadership classes, some social time.

[X] Plan Leader
-[x] Strategy and Logistics
-[x] Tactics and Command
-[x] Trade and Commerce
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Tome
-[x] Social Time


I generally hate plan votes, because it makes it so hard to switch when someone else comes up with a better idea with reasoning.

What's the logic WRT 'Trade and Commerce.'
 
Neianne is literally terrifying with her buster sword, but I do not yet believe she would stand up well to a lot of her contemporaries.

However, she definitely needs another weapon she can carry around all the time because she's been left waiting too often.

My first thoughts were to advanced unarmed combat, but that wouldn't count for a weapon. So, duel daggers. Though I suppose a suppose a small crossbow might do as well.

Otherwise, Neianne has expressed interest in squad tactics and needs to learn it.

She has been taught some basic politics and economics, but I don't know if she has any real academic interest.


...okay.

[X] Plan Beast Slayer

-[x] Alchemy and Botany
-[x] Bestiary Studies
-[x] Tactics and Command
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Dual Daggers
-[x] Social Time

Social time because Neianne wants to be a social butterfly.
Duel Daggers because it takes her forever to unpack her buster sword.
Buster Sword because I really want Neianne to be utterly unstoppable with it.
Tactics and Command because Neianne is squad leader.
Bestiary Studies because Neianne has suffered two of the Squirrels attacks.
Alchemy and Botany because Neianne (and I, mostly I) wants to know what Forest Spice is.
 
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[X] Covering our bases
-[X] Strategy and Logistics
-[X] Tactics and Command
-[X] Bestiary Studies
-[X] Buster Sword
-[X] Advanced Unarmed Combat
-[X] Social Time

I think everyone seems to agree on Tactics & Command/Buster Sword/Social Time x1, so I'll not bother explaining my reasoning for that. Strategy and Logistics ties in with the former, so even if she doesn't end up making the plans Neianne can at least understand the overall situation where she is.

Advanced Unarmed Combat I chose over Knives for those situations where we don't have a weapon for whatever reason, though I understand that for some people that'd be outweighed by the utility knives also bring.
Bestiary Studies is there because I wanted at least one other course, it makes sense for Neianne to want to know more after both the wyvern and the direwolves, and it's not at all due to Monster Hunter.
 
What's the logic WRT 'Trade and Commerce.'
Knowing the interactions between the different cities and regions of the nation, to help inform the costs of certain tactics and strategies, to have interesting discussions with Elizabeth and Sieg.
Like, a big part of the big political meetup we attended was "Yo, we are running out of money to cover our war".
 
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[X] Plan The Littlest Leader
-[X] Strategy and Logistics
-[X] Tactics and Command
-[X] Buster Swordx2
-[X] Advanced Unarmed Combat
-[X] Social Time
 
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[X] Plan The Littlest Leader
[x] Strategy and Logistics
[x] Tactics and Command
[x] Buster Swordx2
[x] Advanced Unarmed Combatx2



This seems good.
 
[X] Plan Fist Based Leadership and Networking
-[x] Strategy and Logistics
-[x] Tactics and Command
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Advanced Unarmed Combatx2
-[x] Social Time

I will do a reaction post at a later date, just wanted to get this in for consumption before votes get settled like last time. =/

Basically, y'all voted Neianne as leader, so she needs to get whipped into shape for leader-y things. Other than that, continue to sword better and I am otherwise committed to my belief that Fists+Feet is her best subweapon.

-However-, making sure Neianne doesn't explode from stress and continuing to get good info and relationships with the other mercenaries is vital. (And, uh, also some of the most interesting bits)
 
Basically, y'all voted Neianne as leader, so she needs to get whipped into shape for leader-y things. Other than that, continue to sword better and I am otherwise committed to my belief that Fists+Feet is her best subweapon.
Except unarmed doesn't count for graduation. Just pointing that out as I doubt most will want to go Unarmed twice.
 
I'm just going to come out and say it; this is a terrible vote and odds are everyone is going to regret it. In the literally hundreds of quests I've participated in not once has a vote with this complex a set of choices and such a profound impact upon our character ever gone well. Not even once.

To make matters worse there isn't even a moratorium on voting so people are already diving head first into votes without discussing them. That alone is a recipe for disaster since once massive flaws are noticed and pointed out it is already too late to stop the bandwagon.




[X] Plan Reinforcing Strengths
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Staff
-[x] Social Time
-[x] Tactics and Command
-[x] Bestiary Studies
-[x] Stealth


Getting another year of training in our Buster Sword is crucial since I'm pretty sure everyone here agrees that will always be Neianne's primary weapon. Since Buster Swords mean heavy combat getting good there is vital.

I went with the Staff as our secondary weapon since I honestly just don't like the idea of dual daggers. They do add in close combat capabilities but I don't really feel they synergize well with Neianne's capabilities and if we want to be covered in close combat I think getting some unarmed training would actually be the way to go. Dryad strength makes it a lot more viable then normal, is even stealthier then daggers since there is literally no weapon to find, and shy little Neianne punching someone's head off is a cool idea.

As for the Staff itself; magic is one of the areas Dryads excel at and the support opens up a variety of new possibilities not covered by our existing skill set of "hit things until they die". I'll admit there is some temptation to go for the offensive magic of the Tome but our Buster Sword is an amazing offensive weapon so I feel that would be a bit redundant. Plus on top of the combat considerations I really do like the way learning the Staff would play into character interactions. It provides an angle for closer time with the noble Dryad whose name I don't recall, fits with all these cute girls who keep talking magic at Neianne, and gives Neianne the ability to contribute in the aftermath of a disaster like the academy raid rather then just standing about with nothing to do.

At least one Social Time is pretty much mandatory since characters are the best part of this quest. I thought about throwing in a second but there is just so much to do and Neianne is going into a life of combat not politics so while building up some connections is a good idea there is on point going overboard.

Following up that I immediately decided Tactics and Command was a must have since if we're going to be Squad Leader we do need to put the time and effort into learning just how to be the best we can. That it provides fodder for her discussion with Sieglinde about leadership is just a nice bonus.

Bestiary Studies seems like a bit of an oddball choice but there are some good reasons behind it. Part of the reason we chose the Buster Sword is that it is a good weapon for combating giant monsters like the Wyvern we faced last year. So knowing how to fight monsters seems rather relevant to Neianne's future career. Both because the Empire uses monsters as minions and because we know the war will be over by the time we graduate so we need to be thinking about how we'll make money post graduation. I expect that after the war there will be plenty of giant monsters running around both due to the Empire letting them lose willy-nilly and due to so many of our soldiers being busy fighting the Empire rather then controlling their populations.

Finally I was a bit conflicted over the last choice but I ended up going with Stealth. The Buster Sword does interfere with stealth yes but we've already seen just how amazingly effective Neianne can be in forested environments at stealth. This will help us greatly with monster slaying since odds are they are going to be living in the more wild areas where Neianne's stealth will be effective. It also synergizes well with the use of the Staff since we can sneak in, apply debuffs via Staff, and then close in for the kill with our Buster Sword. Plus it does fit with one of Neianne's defining character moments last year; sneaking past the Wyvern.


Basically the overall theme of my plan has been building upon what we've already got while using that reinforcement to create an even wider base for us to build upon next year.
 
I'm just going to come out and say it; this is a terrible vote and odds are everyone is going to regret it. In the literally hundreds of quests I've participated in not once has a vote with this complex a set of choices and such a profound impact upon our character ever gone well. Not even once.

To make matters worse there isn't even a moratorium on voting so people are already diving head first into votes without discussing them. That alone is a recipe for disaster since once massive flaws are noticed and pointed out it is already too late to stop the bandwagon.
Yeah, the more I think about it, the less I like the vote. There are so many options that most people will likely just bandwagon on whichever was the most recent plan they saw, and everyone is throwing out their own plan as fast as possible to get the bandwagon going.
 
[X] Plan Leader
-[x] Strategy and Logistics
-[x] Tactics and Command
-[x] Trade and Commerce
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Tome
-[x] Social Time
 
[X] Plan Reinforcing Strengths

I'm not going to try and make a separate plan that's closer to my own preferences, because UberJJK has quite the point about votes like this. Good enough is good enough.
 
[X] Smol Magic Murderblender
-[X] Tactics and Command
-[X] Bestiary Studies
-[X] Buster Sword
-[X] Tome
-[X] Advanced Unarmed Combat
-[X] Social Time

Tactics because leader time, Bestiary because that's a main strength of our main weapon, Buster because that is our main weapon, Tome because Smol Dryad with huge magic enhanced sword and also because magic is a Dryad strong point, Unarmed because it synergizes with Buster and gives us a weapon when we don't have a weapon, and Social because all work and no play makes Neianne a sad cinnamon roll.
 
[X] Plan Reinforcing Strengths
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Staff
-[x] Social Time
-[x] Tactics and Command
-[x] Bestiary Studies
-[x] Stealth


Updated vote
 
[X] Plan Walking WMD
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Buster Sword
-[x] Buster Sword

don't kink shame me bro
 
[ ] Social Butterfly
-[ ] Social Time
-[ ] Social Time
-[ ] Social Time
-[ ] Social Time
-[ ] Social Time
-[ ] Social Time

Seems fine to me :thonk:

Ahem, that said, while I'm not sure I'll at any point have the time I'd need to make/pick a vote here, there's one thing I do wanna rep. Crossbows. They hecka good, come in both big and small models (possibly allowing us an indoor and outdoor set) and we come pre-equipped with our very own pavise. Mostly though I just like the look of buster sword + crossbow and also buster sword as shield. Admittedly not sure how we'd actually carry everything but considering our sword we'll have that problem with most options anyway.
 
I think staff just makes the most sense as our secondary. We don't have a dedicated healer and one of the two primary weaknesses of our buster sword is that it can only really be used in short bursts (the primary weakness obviously being it's too big to use in tight quarters). Focusing on magic gives us something to do while we're resting physically. We also don't have a dedicated healer on the team, though Elizabeth might go that route to stick with magic. We expressed some interest in magical theory over the summer. Most importantly, healing magic is useful outside of explicitly combat situations. In terms of metaknowledge, we know the war is going to end, leaving a glut of skilled fighters for the "main body" of the quest. Staff would open our options up there. If it really comes down to it, we can always take something more close range next year if we feel we need it.

And I feel like "Littlest Leader" makes a mistake on focusing on advanced unarmed combat, considering it doesn't count towards graduation and doesn't involve any of our preexisting interests.

[X] Plan Reinforcing Strengths
 
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