Rise of the Immortal King [Cultivation, CK2]

[Abydon]

You are Zhang Yufei, a respected scion of the Zhang clan. Like most of the Grand Empire's noble families, you have many branch families that compete with the main line for power and position. The recent unpleasantness that was essentially a civil war within the family was the byproduct of such competition.

This has left the family with many vacancies in important positions. Some were so badly injured that they were forced into retirement, some were members of the old main line that was forced from power because of its incompetence. This has led to the unusual circumstance where a young cultivator would receive a position of power.

The fact Yufei was the youngest of four brothers of what was the new main line of the family meant it would not be the most important of posts. But it still would matter significantly to the clan's bottom line. The recent violence was a reminder that the clan could only rely on its most trusted members. Members whose lives were at stake if the main line were to fail the Emperor. Members who would die if they were revealed to be vulnerable to the rest of the clan.

Zhang Huron, Yufei's father, had summoned him to his study.

The old man, chronologically almost 100 but looked about 40, smiled as Yufei entered the modest chamber. Solid wood walls with runes of silence and privacy carved into them. A wooden desk and a pair of chair, neither of which had any joints for they were formed by someone with a wood-related techniques.

Huron took his seat on the far side of the desk while Yufei took the one closer to the door as was proper.

The story Yufei had been told was that the elders had turned their back on the clan over the infighting in disgust. That no help would come because, frankly, they had every right to be disgusted. Violence between second cousins was still frowned upon in the Empire. Even when incompetence to the point it endangered, the entire clan justified it.

The elders were the normal reserve for this situation when there were not enough clan members prepared to take on heavy responsibilities.

Huron smiled at Yufei. "Ze has told me you have hit 85 thaums on your cast benchmark, which will have to do. You have done good work in your studies, but I can no longer shield you from the harsh realities of the clan while you cultivate to prepare for your transition to Core Formation."

Yufei nodded. Core Formation was the bare minimum before one was normally tasked with duties to the clan.

Huron continued, "The reality of our situation is I must assign you to a position above your station. Stonehaven. The spirit stone mines there are critical to our clan's finances, yet output has declined for years based on the old clan head's records. The manager of the mines states no new deposits have been found in years as the cause. I suspect he is so used to the incompetence of the old clan leadership, he is unaware of my network of ninja."

Yufei smiled. To take over the spirit stone mines at his age? That was the sort of thing he had dreamed of! A position that made a real difference to the clan while giving him access to the resources he needed to cultivate.

"I will be happy to take over the spirit stone mines, if that is the position you had in mind, Father."

Huron nodded in approval. "I am glad you will take on the responsibility, but our situation is dire. You will need to take over all of Stonehaven."

That was a position for someone who was Core Formation, deep into the middle stage of it, at a minimum. Spirit beasts and other threats had to be managed by the lord who oversaw a fief. Stonehaven was on the border with the Wilds, which exacerbated the problem.

Yufei was stunned. "Are you certain, Father? I am only at 85 thaums, 15 short of what I need to enter Core Formation."

"I am certain my son. We cannot trust it to the branch families and we have 5 fiefs granted to us by the Emperor. I control the most valuable, your brothers the other 3. Stonehaven may be our least valuable fief but it still matters in the politics of the Imperial Court. Access to the Wilds is a resource for those who practice some of the darker methods of cultivation and we cannot afford to lose even those distasteful allies."

He had known the clan had allies that followed the cultivation methods that were frowned upon. They were only tolerated because the users culled the spirit beasts and other monsters that threatened the Empire's western border in the best of times. Those that preyed on humans were swiftly executed.

Yufei had a bad feeling about this. If his father distrusted even their allies in the civil war to this degree, his hold on the clan must be shaky. The fact he could not reward a single ally with a fief was a sign he did not trust them to use it as a resource for some new mischief.

"I understand, Father. I will move forward with forming my Core as quickly as practical. Will you be able to arrange for someone to help me with the transition?"

Huron shook his head. "No, son, you will have to rely on the clan's reference materials. I know the modification of your soul to form a core is dangerous but I cannot risk distracting myself or your brothers from our duties. As for the rest of the clan, you cannot trust them you understand? When you modify your soul, a single misstep will kill you or cripple your cultivation permanently."

That was bad. There was a reason guidance from a senior was the norm when one attempted to modify one's soul. A safety net of experience was always preferable to attempting it blind. The exception was when that help might be used as cover for assassination that would be both easy and impossible to prove. Fuck.

Huron smiled sadly. "I see you understand, my son. I wish I could say we could trust our relatives but the simple fact is we cannot. The fact I am an only son which has put us in a precarious position."

"Yes, Father."

You are Zhang Yufei and you had prepared to reach Core Formation your entire life. As a member of a noble clan, you had many advantages on this path. Where did you focus your efforts to maximize your potential?

You are biologically 20 and aged 20. Aging rate slows once you reach Core Formation.

Personal Abilities (Pick 5 + Difficulty, none more than once):
Note: Tactical and production options significantly affect what you can do.
Strategic Options
Note: You start with 15 in each Strategic Stat and you are rolling 1d100 vs. 50 usually. So 65% chance of project success with no changes.

[] Silvertongued (+10 Diplomacy)
[] Martial Experience (+10 Martial)
[] Student of Business (+10 Stewardship)
[] Ninja Trained (+10 Intrigue)
[] Genius (+10 Learning)

Tactical Options
Note: Affinity determines your core options. Higher = Better core bonuses. More varied = More different core bonuses. The difference between 0, 20, 40, and 60 are significant in terms of personal power.

[] Knight (+10 Personal Prowess, Physical combat orientation with a sword.)
--- [] Choose a standard element. Gain 20 Affinity with said element. (Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Life)
[] Battle Mage (+10 Personal Prowess, Magical combat orientation.)
--- [] Choose a standard element. Gain 20 Affinity with said element. (Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Life)
[] Ninja Skills (Gain Ninja oriented skills, gain a bonus to raiding and commando operations.)
--- [] Choose a Ninja element. Gain 20 Affinity with said element. (Darkness, Illusion)
[] Commander (Gain military command related skills, gain a bonus to commanding forces tactically and strategically)
[] Reaper (Gain skills related to gaining spirit energy from death. Trade Corruption for Cultivation Speed. Also Corruption for Ki Recovery. Frowned upon socially.)
--- [] Choose a Reaper element. Gain 20 Affinity with said element. (Soul, Death)

Production Options
[] Alchemist (Gain alchemy skills, increase cultivation speed by 10% without Corruption cost, gain the ability to manage the Alchemy supply chain, gain Alchemy Hall + related supply chain)
[] Artificer (Gain artifice skills, increase Treasure creation to 1 grade above your current Cultivation <i.e. Foundation Establishment creates Core Formation Treasures> for significant cost in spirit stones/monster cores/etc, gain Artificer Hall + related supply chain)
[] Beast Tamer (Gain beast taming skills, gain the ability to bond spirit beasts, gain Beast Ranch + related supply chain)
[] Cultivation Resort (Gain high density spirit energy location, increase cultivation speed by 25% without Corruption Cost, limited to 2 cultivators at a time)
[] Spirit Grain Farms (Gain farming skills, gain Spirit Grain Farms + related supply chain, increase cultivation speed by 10% without Corruption Cost)

Secret Techniques
Note: Secret Techniques are massively expensive to gain normally.

[] Mage-Knight Cultivation (Hybridize your cultivation to have all the combat options. Mage, Knight, or neither lock certain options. +10 Personal Prowess.) --- Requires taking both Mage and Knight options.
[] Horticulture (33% increased yield of Spirit Herb and Spirit Grain operations) --- Requires taking Spirit Grain Farms or Alchemist options.
[] Artifice Efficiency (33% reduced cost of Treasure creation) --- Requires taking Artificer
[] Rapid Cultivation (50% increased Cultivation Speed at the cost of Corruption)
[] Enhanced Affinities -- Requires taking 1 Affinity.
--- [] +40 to one Affinity
--- [] +20 to all Affinities

Other Options
[] Core Formation Sword (Treasure that enhances melee buffs and can be enhanced with Ki to strike harder/faster)
[] Core Formation Staff (Treasure that enhances ranged techniques and can be enhanced with Ki to block faster/stronger)
[] Legendary Core Manual (A manual that helps with forming a Core, automatic success of Core Formation attempts. Core bonuses doubled when formed, the equivalent of a crit success on the formation attempt.)
[] Sworn Knights (A squad of proper Knights sworn to you personally, roughly the equivalent of a company of common troops. Gain 10 Foundation Establishment Cultivators without the talent to reach Core Formation.)
[] Loyal Ninja Team (A 3 person team of Ninja sworn to you personally. Better intelligence/counter-intelligence capabilities.)
[] Spy Network (Access to an information gathering network that rivals that of a clan head.)

Difficulty (Pick 1)
[] Easy - The default. No pick changes, no threats outside of your weight class to manage for awhile. Imperial Civil War begins on Turn/Year 35.
[] Normal - +2 Picks. Every few years a threat outside your weight class will appear and need to be managed. (Kami, Kaiju, More Powerful Lord bullies you, etc.) Imperial civil War begins on Turn/Year 25.
[] Hard - +4 Picks. The Empire starts on hard times and things go downhill from there. Will you be an island of tranquility in the chaos? Or will you be dragged under? Imperial Civil War timeline is now starting on Turn/Year 15.

Note: Difficulty just speeds up the timeline.

Turn 10:
--- Easy: Threats outside your weight class start showing up.
--- Normal: The Empire falls on hard times.
--- Hard: Everyone is buying up mercenaries to prepare for the inevitable war.

Turn 15:
--- Easy: The Empire falls on hard times.
--- Normal: Things are pretty bleak.
--- Hard: War. War everywhere.

Turn 20:
--- Easy: Life continues.
--- Normal: Everyone is buying up mercenaries to prepare for the inevitable war.

Turn 25:
--- Easy: The Empire falls on hard times.
--- Normal: War. War everywhere.

Turn 30:
--- Easy: Everyone is buying up mercenaries to prepare for the inevitable war.

Turn 35:
--- Easy: War. War everywhere.


Plz vote by plan so synergy can be maintained.
Keep in mind the Quest Goal is to become a King (i.e. Independent) after the Empire collapses. Also Immortal. Immortal is good.

 

[Sir LagsAlot]

[X] Plan Touching Grass
- [X] Hard - +4 Picks. The Empire starts on hard times and things go downhill from there. Will you be an island of tranquility in the chaos? Or will you be dragged under? Imperial Civil War timeline is now starting on Turn/Year 15.
- [X] Silvertongued (+10 Diplomacy)
- [X] Ninja Trained (+10 Intrigue)
- [X] Genius (+10 Learning)
- [X] Battle Mage (+10 Personal Prowess, Magical combat orientation.)
-- [X] Choose a standard element. Gain 20 Affinity with said element. (Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Life)
--- [X] Life
- [X] Knight (+10 Personal Prowess, Physical combat orientation with a sword.)
-- [X] Choose a standard element. Gain 20 Affinity with said element. (Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Life)
--- [X] Life
- [X] Alchemist (Gain alchemy skills, increase cultivation speed by 10% without Corruption cost, gain the ability to manage the Alchemy supply chain, gain Alchemy Hall + related supply chain)
- [X] Artificer (Gain artifice skills, increase Treasure creation to 1 grade above your current Cultivation <i.e. Foundation Establishment creates Core Formation Treasures> for significant cost in spirit stones/monster cores/etc, gain Artificer Hall + related supply chain)
- [X] Enhanced Affinities -- Requires taking 1 Affinity.
-- [X] +40 to one Affinity
--- [X] Life
- [X] Legendary Core Manual (A manual that helps with forming a Core, automatic success of Core Formation attempts. Core bonuses doubled when formed, the equivalent of a crit success on the formation attempt.)

The thought process goes that since we're already a minor player in the grand scheme of things unlikely to be able to do much in the preparations stage of the empire civil war we should instead trade this minimally useful prep time for us for a stronger ability to survive and thrive in the civil war itself as that should be where the majority of our time as well as impact will be felt in the quest.

As such fitting into this small fish in a big pond mindset I've set up the plan so that we're a very heavily focused diplomacy, intrigue, and learning character with strong personal power but a by comparison lacking ability to directly command troops or manage an economy.

The primary thrust behind this decision was that we're unlikely to survive the civil war based on the military or economic power we can personally command in the short term of our preparations but will instead be relying on stronger allies (diplomacy and intrigue), what information we can gather about the opening moves of the civil war (intrigue), and our relative worth as an asset (learning, intrigue, diplomacy, and our personal power).

We can then use our diplomacy, and intrigue capabilities to move up within whatever faction we've aligned ourselves with during the civil war which can also be used to find advisers to compensate for our by comparison lacking martial, and stewardship capabilities who will be kept in check by the aforementioned soft power stats as well as our own extremely boosted personal strength from our massive affinity, mixed cultivation, and synergetic crafting types.

 

[Daniel14541]

[X] Plan Touching Grass
- [X] Hard - +4 Picks. The Empire starts on hard times and things go downhill from there. Will you be an island of tranquility in the chaos? Or will you be dragged under? Imperial Civil War timeline is now starting on Turn/Year 15.
- [X] Silvertongued (+10 Diplomacy)
- [X] Ninja Trained (+10 Intrigue)
- [X] Genius (+10 Learning)
- [X] Battle Mage (+10 Personal Prowess, Magical combat orientation.)
-- [X] Choose a standard element. Gain 20 Affinity with said element. (Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Life)
--- [X] Life
- [X] Knight (+10 Personal Prowess, Physical combat orientation with a sword.)
-- [X] Choose a standard element. Gain 20 Affinity with said element. (Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Life)
--- [X] Life
- [X] Alchemist (Gain alchemy skills, increase cultivation speed by 10% without Corruption cost, gain the ability to manage the Alchemy supply chain, gain Alchemy Hall + related supply chain)
- [X] Artificer (Gain artifice skills, increase Treasure creation to 1 grade above your current Cultivation <i.e. Foundation Establishment creates Core Formation Treasures> for significant cost in spirit stones/monster cores/etc, gain Artificer Hall + related supply chain)
- [X] Mage-Knight Cultivation (Hybridize your cultivation to have all the combat options. Mage, Knight, or neither lock certain options. +10 Personal Prowess.) --- Requires taking both Mage and Knight options.
- [X] Enhanced Affinities -- Requires taking 1 Affinity.
-- [X] +40 to one Affinity
--- [X] Life

The thought process goes that since we're already a minor player in the grand scheme of things unlikely to be able to do much in the preparations stage of the empire civil war we should instead trade this minimally useful prep time for us for a stronger ability to survive and thrive in the civil war itself as that should be where the majority of our time as well as impact will be felt in the quest.

As such fitting into this small fish in a big pond mindset I've set up the plan so that we're a very heavily focused diplomacy, intrigue, and learning character with strong personal power but a by comparison lacking ability to directly command troops or manage an economy.

The primary thrust behind this decision was that we're unlikely to survive the civil war based on the military power or economic we can personally command in the short term of our preparations but will instead be relying on stronger allies (diplomacy and intrigue), what information we can gather about the opening moves of the civil war (intrigue), and our relative worth as an asset (learning, intrigue, diplomacy, and our personal power).

We can then use our diplomacy, and intrigue capabilities to move up within whatever faction we've aligned ourselves with during the civil war which can also be used to find advisers to compensate for our by comparison lacking martial, and stewardship capabilities who will be kept in check by the aforementioned soft power stats as well as our own extremely boosted personal strength from our massive affinity, mixed cultivation, and synergetic crafting types.

Click to shrink...

No legendary core manual?

 

[Sir LagsAlot]

No legendary core manual?

Click to shrink...

I thought about it but at the end of the day what long-term gain would you cut for a short-term one like a legendary core manual? Because keep in mind the vast majority of cultivations system have a few things in common one of which is that there are many stages after core formation where once you arrive at them so long as your core formation was good enough to support your foundation then its quality is irrelevant to your strength at that level.

And, that presumes our learning focus as well as extreme affinity doesn't allow us to attain the same or at least similar results anyways due to how the synergies work out.

 

[Abydon]

Foundation Establishment

The first stage you are considered an actual combatant in the setting, anyone below Foundation Establishment is considered too weak to be relevant.

You are worth ~10 standard household troops at this stage. Affinity has some but limited impact at this stage.

Core Formation

The first stage where a noble clan's knowledge and resources make a significant impact. You must carefully prepare for altering your soul to form a Core and can be fatal. That said, it is forgiving enough that 90% of people survive the process with a manual and some guidance from a senior. About 75% survive with just a manual or a senior to guide them.

Affinity has a significant impact at this stage as does a critical result (100+ on a d100 for breakthrough) which will double your bonus.

0 Affinity has you choose your Core's Focus and you receive +2 to +4 when using techniques of that element.
20 Affinity chooses your Core's Focus (can be multiple Foci if you have multiple affinities) and you receive +4 to +6 when using techniques of those elements.
40 Affinity is +8 to +11
60 Affinity is +9 to +13
80 Affinity is +10 to +15
100 Affinity (the cap) is +11 to +17

Keep in mind, the max you can have for personal prowess is +45 without the core bonuses. (i.e. Mage + Knight + Hybrid + Base of 15 for foundation establishment)

A 0 Affinity is +5-9% more power.
So an 80 Affinity is 20-33% more power.

Higher numbers do not always mean better, however, as there are counters to single focus characters and their higher numbers. A Life mage, for instance, is countered by Death. Death cultivators are rare but they are out there in a civil war situation.

Ascendant Soul

This is the peak of power for most nobles, Huron for instance, is at this level. The resources required to push past this stage require a rare genius or are ruinously expensive. To make the strategic options interesting, I've given you no "rare genius" options that will make pushing past this stage easy.

Affinity is relevant in this stage and so are your core bonuses. The scaling is the same as Core formation. (i.e. 100 Affinity is a +11 to +17 result)

You will have options to improve and/or add affinities so even single focus cultivators at Core Formation become multi-focus as Ascendants. This is to give them options against strong counters (i.e. Death vs. Life) that allow them to fight seriously rather than rely on retainers.

Beyond this stage, there is no information beyond the titles. No manuals, no seniors willing to teach the next generation.

These next phases are:

Immortal Foundation
Immortal Ascendant
Immortal King

They are assumed to be similar just expensive and an Immortal King is known to be immortal. But even the Emperor has not reached this stage, preferring to stop at Immortal Foundation.

Elemental Counters

Death, for instance, counters Life.
Fire counters Air.
Fire also counters Darkness.
Fire also counters Wood.
Water counters Earth.
Earth counters Fire.
Water counters Air.
Metal is countered by Illusion.
Illusion is countered by Soul.

Soul has no solid counters but does not provide combat techniques in the traditional sense. Instead, it provides sensory techniques.
Death technically has no counters but it is not as strong as other elements so in a way it is countered by anything that isn't Life.

Clarification on Breakthroughs
Your affinity bonuses from core / ascendant soul / etc have a catch up mechanic at each stage.

So if you are a Life Mage with Affinity 80 at Core Formation. You get +10 to +15.


If you add Fire at Affinity 40 at Ascendant Soul and 100 for Life. You would have +22 to +34 in Life, +16 to +22 in Fire.

However, a Core Formation Manual (or equivalent) only applies at that stage. So you probably won't reset Life Core Formation if you got doubled bonuses.

 

[Abydon]

I added a cultivation mechanics section to clarify the relationship between Affinity, the Legendary Cultivation Manual, and the bonuses you can receive at the expected tiers.

 

[Sir LagsAlot]

Snip

Click to shrink...

Alright, well it seems that the Core Formation bonus is going to be extremely relevant for literally forever due to the mechanical bonus from each stage being a consistent flat additive based on affinity so we'll never reach the point where lacking a Legendary Core Manual is no longer relevant. I think I'll throw out Hybrid cultivation in that case then, and hope we'll be able to return to that later so long as we've kept the constituent pieces of it.

Edit: Oh, Abydon I do actually have some questions about the mechanics.

Ascendant Soul

You will have options to improve and/or add affinities so even single focus cultivators at Core Formation become multi-focus as Ascendants. This is to give them options against strong counters (i.e. Death vs. Life) that allow them to fight seriously rather than rely on retainers.

Click to shrink...

If we add a new affinity at this stage would that affinity be as strong as if we'd chosen it as one of our core affinities with the same affinity level or will it forever lack that +2 to +15 (not +17 only because 100 affinity at character creation is impossible)? And, will one of our core affinities if we improved it from say eighty to one hundred at this stage have its core affinity bonus improved from +10 to +15, to +11 to +17 or will it forever be stuck at the former?

 

[Abydon]

Alright, well it seems that the Core Formation bonus is going to be extremely relevant for literally forever due to the mechanical bonus from each stage being a consistent flat additive based on affinity so we'll never reach the point where lacking a Legendary Core Manual is no longer relevant. I think I'll throw out Hybrid cultivation in that case then, and hope we'll be able to return to that later so long as we've kept the constituent pieces of it.

Click to shrink...

Yeah part of why I clarified it now is you were trying to stack bonuses and I wanted to be clear what the rewards were.

You can gain Secret Techniques later, you just need a Technique Manual and/or Trainer. Its possible to acquire such things but it is as difficult as a legendary cultivation manual. So expect it to be a quest, not a simple purchase.

Edit: Oh, Abydon I do actually have some questions about the mechanics.

If we add a new affinity at this stage would that affinity be as strong as if we'd chosen it as one of our core affinities with the same affinity level or will it forever lack that +2 to +15 (not +17 only because 100 affinity at character creation is impossible)? And, will one of our core affinities if we improved it from say eighty to one hundred at this stage have its core affinity bonus improved from +10 to +15, to +11 to +17 or will it forever be stuck at the former?

Click to shrink...

Your affinity bonuses from core / ascendant soul / etc have a catch up mechanic at each stage.

So if you are a Life Mage with Affinity 80 at Core Formation. You get +10 to +15.

If you add Fire at Affinity 40 at Ascendant Soul and 100 for Life. You would have +22 to +34 in Life, +16 to +22 in Fire.

BUT there are important caveats.

1) Gaining affinity is hard. Much like acquiring a Secret Technique or a Trainer, you are going to need to do a Quest to gain a specific affinity granting item / technique / etc.

2) Affinity is worthless until you reach the next stage. So if you spend 5 turns gaining 40 Fire Affinity, you are also probably delaying your Breakthrough by 5 turns.

3) However, a Core Formation Manual (or equivalent) only applies at that stage. So you probably won't reset Life Core Formation if you got doubled bonuses. So you'd only get the benefits of 100 Life Affinity at Ascendant Soul. And no core 2x bonus to Fire.

 

[Sir LagsAlot]

Snip

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Damn the too do list is going to be quite long come our ascension to Core Formation then considering we're going to make acquiring a Legendary Ascendent Soul manual a top priority along with a Fire affinity boost or some other good affinity type to patch up our weakness. After that as a medium priority, we'll probably want a life affinity boost to max that out since it'll be our primary combat element unless we're facing a death user, and a hybrid secret technique at a low priority to boost our combat further.

Hopefully, being able to rush core formation without any prep will give us the time we need to at least meet our high-priority goals before we have to ascend to Ascendent Soul so that we can become an actual player among the nobility rather than merely a pawn.

 

[Abydon]

Damn the too do list is going to be quite long come our ascension to Core Formation then considering we're going to make acquiring a Legendary Ascendent Soul manual a top priority along with a Fire affinity boost or some other good affinity type to patch up our weakness. After that as a medium priority, we'll probably want a life affinity boost to max that out since it'll be our primary combat element unless we're facing a death user, and a hybrid secret technique at a low priority to boost our combat further.

Hopefully, being able to rush core formation without any prep will give us the time we need to at least meet our high-priority goals before we have to ascend to Ascendent Soul so that we can become an actual player among the nobility rather than merely a pawn.

Click to shrink...

Achieving Core Formation is not as long as a Quest with the Manual but its still a multi-turn project with a 10% cultivation boost. Right now, assuming you focus efforts in that direction, I'm probably going to peg this at ~3 actions. Core Formation is meant to be something you get to quickly since you'd be hopelessly weak otherwise.

So just so you can metagame this out for his plan you'd need to complete the following Quests (I'm defining Quests as stuff you need 5+ sequential actions to complete):

1. Legendary Ascendent Soul Manual
2. Affinity Boosting
3. Life Affinity Boosting
4. Hybrid Secret Technique

 

[Sir LagsAlot]

Achieving Core Formation is not as long as a Quest with the Manual but its still a multi-turn project with a 10% cultivation boost. Right now, assuming you focus efforts in that direction, I'm probably going to peg this at ~3 actions. Core Formation is meant to be something you get to quickly since you'd be hopelessly weak otherwise.

So just so you can metagame this out for his plan you'd need to complete the following Quests (I'm defining Quests as stuff you need 5+ sequential actions to complete):

1. Legendary Ascendent Soul Manual
2. Affinity Boosting
3. Life Affinity Boosting
4. Hybrid Secret Technique

Click to shrink...

How many actions do we get per turn, how long are turns, and how long have historical civil wars tended to last in this universe? It sounds like we only get one action per turn right now based on a three-action project taking multiple turns which would be something if turns are like a year or similarly long, and this civil war is only going to last a few decades on average due to there being a few strong factions rather than potentially up to a few centuries as these things some times went historically.

 

[Abydon]

How many actions do we get per turn, how long are turns, and how long have historical civil wars tended to last in this universe?

Click to shrink...

Alright, so I am planning to give you 3 personal + 3 strategic actions per turn to work with. Turns are 1 year.

The civil war is intended from a plot perspective to give you a chance to break off and form your own kingdom. So, "as long as it needs to be" is the relevant answer here. It won't be infinite, but it could be 50 turns if it needs to be. The important thing is surviving as a successor state to either setup an act 2 or finish the quest on a success.

It sounds like we only get one action per turn right now based on a three-action project taking multiple turns which would be something if turns are like a year or similarly long, and this civil war is only going to last a few decades on average due to there being a few strong factions rather than potentially up to a few centuries as these things some times went historically.

Click to shrink...

The reason it takes multiple turns is its sequential stuff. You can only cultivate 1x/turn. You can only pursue a particular Quest objective when you have access to the previous one and so on.

Quests / cultivation will be personal actions.

Strategic will be economy / R&D / invasions / etc.

 

[Abydon]

Maybe people aren't voting 'cause I didn't do open voting?

 

[Sir LagsAlot]

Snip

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Well that's good to know since it means we can pursue at any given time at least two quests in addition to cultivating every turn which fits right in with the high-priority objectives I noted meaning even if it only takes five turns to cultivate up to Ascendent Soul something which I doubt to be the case we'll at least have finished up the objectives that are pretty much necessary for a breakthrough giving us that panic button if need be well we pursue medium-term objectives.

Maybe people aren't voting 'cause I didn't do open voting?

Click to shrink...

Plan voting usually reduces the number of votes by around half for a new quest in my experience it doesn't flat-out erase them especially since you only offered a few choices for the normal start with no write-in options which makes putting a plan together extremely easy.

Rather I expect you accidentally just targeted a saturated niche on SV since there's a lot of xianxia content on here already, even diving deeper than that into xianxia CK2 well SV already has that as well, and going even deeper to xianxia CK2 where you play a noble aiming to move up in the world during a civil war within the empire they're living in well there's even a handful of those already.

If you were to move to SB you'd probably face a similar problem but QQ is lacking in xianxia quests last I checked, and a dead quest this one appears extremely similar to called Cultivation Quest by ShaperV* shows there's a strong base of motivated voters excited to participate in such quests over there.

I'd highly suggest just giving it a day or two though before you consider anything else since it has only been a few hours at this point, and the conversation we've been having should keep the quest visible to people browsing the forum. This should bring in more traffic as the day goes on, and people start finishing up their daily activities and logging onto the site.

*An all-time favorite quest of mine ever to be honest.

 

[Abydon]

@Sir LagsAlot

That's all valid. I guess it wasn't saturated when I ran my last one but it reminds me of a time I'd rather not think about so I didn't want to revive it.

I will give it a couple days before doing anything.

 

[Tarumath]

[X] Plan : Mage-Knight
-[X] Student of Business (+10 Stewardship)
-[X] Knight (+10 Personal Prowess, Physical combat orientation with a sword.)
--[X] Metal
[X] Battle Mage (+10 Personal Prowess, Magical combat orientation.)
--[X] Metal
-[X] Mage-Knight Cultivation (Hybridize your cultivation to have all the combat options. Mage, Knight, or neither lock certain options. +10 Personal Prowess.) --- Requires taking both Mage and Knight options.]
-[X] Legendary Core Manual (A manual that helps with forming a Core, automatic success of Core Formation attempts. Core bonuses doubled when formed, the equivalent of a crit success on the formation attempt.)
-[X] Easy - The default. No pick changes, no threats outside of your weight class to manage for awhile. Imperial Civil War begins on Turn/Year 35.

35 Turns without threats we can't deal with is a long time to develop our fief and get stronger, it's more valuable than more picks IMO.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

[] Mage-Knight Cultivation (Hybridize your cultivation to have all the combat options. Mage, Knight, or neither lock certain options. +10 Personal Prowess.) --- Requires taking both Mage and Knight options.

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This seems to imply that you can't have both Mage and Knight without this. Is that correct? Because if so Touch Grass is illegal at the moment. I'd personally replace either Alchemy or Artifice with Mage-Knight anyway, but it's more relevant if the current build isn't even legal.

 

[Abydon]

This seems to imply that you can't have both Mage and Knight without this. Is that correct? Because if so Touch Grass is illegal at the moment. I'd personally replace either Alchemy or Artifice with Mage-Knight anyway, but it's more relevant if the current build isn't even legal.

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The current build is legal. The main thing that is locked behind Mage-Knight is hybrid combat situations where you can simultaneously fight with a sword AND cast. Any situation where you want to do both simultaneously will be unavailable w/o the secret technique because Knights train to put their techniques into themselves/weapon. Mages train to project techniques long distance.

Fighting both ways simultaneously requires more training.

So as long as you are comfortable being limited to a MELEE or RANGED encounter. You are good without it.

If you want to fight in a melee while hurling fireballs at archers, you are out of luck.

 

[Sir LagsAlot]

I'd personally replace either Alchemy or Artifice with Mage-Knight anyway, but it's more relevant if the current build isn't even legal.

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High-level alchemy and artificing usually require one to attain a high level of cultivation in xianxia something which seems to be true here as well based on the line in the update about how taking artificing allows us to craft ourselves equipment a tier above our present power level meaning both should be quite the combat, and strategic benefit in the late game well being good money as well as combat boosts in the short term.

So it seems like quite the long-term waste to pass either up for a fifteen percent boost to already extremely high for our level combat strength in core formation especially when we can quest for it since it seems unlikely we'll be able to speed run all of core formation in just five years.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

High-level alchemy and artificing usually require one to attain a high level of cultivation in xianxia something which seems to be true here as well based on the line in the update about how taking artificing allows us to craft ourselves equipment a tier above our present power level.

So it seems like quite the long-term waste to pass either up for a fifteen percent boost to already extremely high for our level combat strength in core formation especially when we can quest for it since it seems unlikely we'll be able to speed run all of core formation in just five years.

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We don't have unlimited time, is the thing. Making stuff takes time and effort we could be spending doing other stuff. It's an advantage, sure, if you can afford the time and actions. IME even one form of crafting in games like this takes more actions to be properly utilized than you can always afford. Two is an open invitation to AP Hell.

 

[Sir LagsAlot]

We don't have unlimited time, is the thing. Making stuff takes time and effort we could be spending doing other stuff. It's an advantage, sure, if you can afford the time and actions. IME even one form of crafting in games like this takes more actions to be properly utilized than you can always afford. Two is an open invitation to AP Hell.

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But the thing is not taking them most likely means going without period as we ascend the ranks of cultivation within the quest since we're unlikely to maintain peer-level cultivators once we form our own faction so if you sacrifice either it's a massive loss in terms of long term combat prowess, economic capabilities, and the like. That's why it's best to take both, and at least be able to perform the high-priority actions related to both* since we'll at least have that option instead of having traded it away for a temporary combat boost at a low level of cultivation when we're already an extremely combat heavy character.

*This way we're getting the most value for our AP rather than finishing up high-priority actions, and being forced to take medium-priority actions with less return on investment per AP.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

But the thing is not taking them most likely means going without period as we ascend the ranks of cultivation within the quest since we're unlikely to maintain peer-level cultivators once we form our own faction so if you sacrifice either it's a massive loss in terms of long term combat prowess, economic capabilities, and the like. That's why it's best to take both, and at least be able to perform the high-priority actions related to both* since we'll at least have that option instead of having traded it away for a temporary combat boost at a low level of cultivation when we're already an extremely combat heavy character.

*This way we're getting the most value for our AP rather than finishing up high-priority actions, and being forced to take medium-priority actions with less return on investment per AP.

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I'm very skeptical we will simply be flatly unable to find or recruit other cultivators of our own Realm. That seems extremely unlikely. It won't be easy by any means, but I'm really dubious we need to be entirely self-sufficient or lose out on entire areas of the game in any kingdom building scenario (which this explicitly is).

So, bearing that in mind, here's my idea:

[X] Plan Knight of Life
- [X] Hard - +4 Picks. The Empire starts on hard times and things go downhill from there. Will you be an island of tranquility in the chaos? Or will you be dragged under? Imperial Civil War timeline is now starting on Turn/Year 15.
- [X] Silvertongued (+10 Diplomacy)
- [X] Student of Business (+10 Stewardship)
- [X] Genius (+10 Learning)
- [X] Battle Mage (+10 Personal Prowess, Magical combat orientation.)
-- [X] Choose a standard element. Gain 20 Affinity with said element. (Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Life)
--- [X] Life
- [X] Knight (+10 Personal Prowess, Physical combat orientation with a sword.)
-- [X] Choose a standard element. Gain 20 Affinity with said element. (Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, Life)
--- [X] Life
- [X] Alchemist (Gain alchemy skills, increase cultivation speed by 10% without Corruption cost, gain the ability to manage the Alchemy supply chain, gain Alchemy Hall + related supply chain)
- [X] Mage-Knight Cultivation (Hybridize your cultivation to have all the combat options. Mage, Knight, or neither lock certain options. +10 Personal Prowess.) --- Requires taking both Mage and Knight options.
- [X] Enhanced Affinities -- Requires taking 1 Affinity.
-- [X] +40 to one Affinity
--- [X] Life
- [X] Legendary Core Manual (A manual that helps with forming a Core, automatic success of Core Formation attempts. Core bonuses doubled when formed, the equivalent of a crit success on the formation attempt.)

So, this is basically Touching Grass with two differences: It replaces Intrigue with Stewardship and Artifice with Mage-Knight. I think that makes the character notably more focused. It reduces the number of different things we try to be good at and makes us better at those we are focused on (particularly personal combat, though it also lets us leverage our alchemy skills and worksop into money significantly more effectively).

I went with alchemy over artifice both because it's more appropriate with the Life focus and because artifice costs significantly more to make work.

 

[Sir LagsAlot]

I'm very skeptical we will simply be flatly unable to find or recruit other cultivators of our own Realm. That seems extremely unlikely. It won't be easy by any means, but I'm really dubious we need to be entirely self-sufficient or lose out on entire areas of the game in any kingdom building scenario (which this explicitly is).

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If you intend to raise other cultivators to our level or recruit them to compensate for our lack of same-tier crafting abilities that's a very large unspoken trade-off you're making by comparison I'd point out for that temporary boost in combat abilities since that introduces a significantly increased chance of internal problems among our faction hence it often being a staple of xianxia that the leader of an organization is usually a tier above those who are part of it.

 

[goable]

[X] Plan Touching Grass

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

If you intend to raise other cultivators to our level or recruit them to compensate for our lack of same-tier crafting abilities that's a very large unspoken trade-off you're making by comparison I'd point out for that temporary boost in combat abilities since that introduces a significantly increased chance of internal problems among our faction hence it often being a staple of xianxia that the leader of an organization is usually a tier above those who are part of it.

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What temporary boost are you referring to? Personal Prowess appears quite permanent. It won't help us against someone too far above us, sure, but it doesn't go away, and +10 will never realistically stop being relevant (indeed, that looks like it's usually enough to fight up a realm or thereabouts). There's also the techniques which are more nebulous but also a significant long term advantage, at least in theory.

The build I suggest is also a lot better at making money...we can buy Treasures with money if we need to.