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The Streetwalker's Guide to the Hierarchy

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@Birdsie Given how Attributes scale, I'm going to assume that killing the Lions actually yields greater combat power in the immediate term?

What does Dorian think of slaying the lions and Hammering their bodies into the Crimson Hunter, creating something like the King In Crimson? Would that augment either its Potential or its fundamental essence?
 
Hammer specifically works on items, which Lions are not.

But yeah it is just Rank. Other upgrades are great too, and we can amp Lions with custom made masks.
 
Rihaku said:
@Birdsie Given how Attributes scale, I'm going to assume that killing the Lions actually yields greater combat power in the immediate term?

What does Dorian think of slaying the lions and Hammering their bodies into the Crimson Hunter, creating something like the King In Crimson? Would that augment either its Potential or its fundamental essence?
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Both of the builds have some potential, otherwise Dorian would've auto-selected the objectively better one.

For dealing with Veronica, killing them makes you strong enough you'll probably be able to solo the encounter unless she's prepared some egregious trick. However, the Lions' roars can liquefy mortal flesh and so can probably achieve a similar result. This is more of a choice as to which path of development you prefer.

You can do that to the more solid parts of their bodies, such as the teeth and claws, sure! It'd probably have a different name and theme than King in Crimson, though; it'd gain some Potential and maybe some lion-related powers.
 
I stand corrected.

Actually, i just realised very obvious synergy between Rank and Contamination. We will be able to fiat much more relevant outcomes, which would mean that we can do stuff like experimenting on Fixation or Dreamlessness much easier, to say nothing of general combat use.
 
Crimson Lord has lower combat power and broader utility, which is less valuable now that we have the swiss army knife of the Nameless Mask - it boasts something like five dozen Masks' worth of utility at the Potential 50-60 level. However, its overall themes are less problematic long term and it's implied to slowly heal Dorian's creativity, so I'll throw in a vote for

[X] Mercy
 
If we are looking to exploit the Taure Doorknob to the utmost, the Forest supernal of Crimson Hunter will likely let us get away with a lot. But that's rather antisocial behavior for those left on Taure.

Something to consider! If we get 8-12 dwindlings out of this I'd rate it worthwhile. But that also requires us to successfully heal Japhris to a functional level. Too many unknowns…
 
[X] Mercy

I felt bad about hunting a teenager. I feel good about leaning into Kingship and Dorian's increasing network of magical effects. this is an easy vote for me.
 
Rihaku said:
If we are looking to exploit the Taure Doorknob to the utmost, the Forest supernal of Crimson Hunter will likely let us get away with a lot. But that's rather antisocial behavior for those left on Taure.

Something to consider! If we get 8-12 dwindlings out of this I'd rate it worthwhile. But that also requires us to successfully heal Japhris to a functional level. Too many unknowns…
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Yeah I kinda want to argue for Mercy since I prefer it more, but Hunter makes it very difficult. It's not even stats, skills plus its own Rank are just so unbelievably powerful.
 
[X] Mercy
I simply don't want to keep evolving a mask in the direction of hunting and killing sapient beings, that's not a good direction to go.
 
Rihaku said:
If we are looking to exploit the Taure Doorknob to the utmost, the Forest supernal of Crimson Hunter will likely let us get away with a lot. But that's rather antisocial behavior for those left on Taure.

Something to consider! If we get 8-12 dwindlings out of this I'd rate it worthwhile. But that also requires us to successfully heal Japhris to a functional level. Too many unknowns…
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What does the street have to say about independent interdimensional travel? I expect it's at the very least going to count as "going very, very far away from the allotted area"
 
Agreed, we probably can't do the Taure Doorknob personally. Though once Japhris wakes up, or maybe just via Nameless Mask and a patsy to use the Hunter, using Taure isn't totally out of the question!

I vibe with lord more, though both options are valuable. And there's not really a need or good reason to kill these sapient lions.
[X] Mercy
 
Given that Mercy is in a lead, lets break the option down and see if we can get additional insight.
  • We get 80 Rank-equivalent to start with. We don't know yet what that actually does in relevant terms, but we saw that 150 Lions rocked was quite noticeable in our superhuman battle. Our own Rank is "Master orientated" which I assume has to do more with lordship and such. This has an obvious synergy with Kingship, although less so in combat. In immediate terms this will hopefully let us resolve Japhris situation, and perhaps even diplomacy our way out of Lieutenant. Overall just getting Rank of any kind is just a huge step for Dorian, since we are entering big boy leagues
  • We gain additional Pawns and upgrade our Kingship. This Mask in general will put a lot of onus on our Kingship, and this is how it starts. The upgrade we have been offered is quite powerful, and Pawning Lions would allow us to immediately boost them. It is likely that we want to Pawn them in similar ways we did Linneas, to create a overlapping buff field between all of us. I suspect that this would be the build going forward, just circlejerk of buffs
  • Speaking of Lions, we get Lions. 150 Rank each, excellent platforms for Visc buffs, excellent platforms for Masks. Besides their combat capabilities, fact that you just have awesome looking golden lions that radiate pride and honor is pretty relevant from PR standpoint. We can also enhance them by letting them consume human Rank users, which may or may not happen
  • Mask itself changed a lot. Overall combat should be higher, although not as much as it could've been, but you get a couple of really powerful upgrade. Most obvious one is FIFTEEN FUCKING CHARSIMA which is just fucking insane of course, and you get a decent amount of other stats(around 75 physical stats, which is still quite a lot). Granting more of a conceptual blood manipulation is something I've wanted for a long time, and it finally allow us to translate Visc from mundanity into magic. And finally the conceptual healing, which should let us start working on Dreamlessness, but also let us experiment a bit more freely with Contamination
Truly an impressive haul. One upside Mercy has over Cut is that it is much less Mask reliant, as your build is not fully reliant on wearing Crimson Lord. Plus we can keep calling it CL!
 
[X] Mercy

Even ignoring the potential of Lord, the direction it takes Dorian - less towards selfish, immediate empowerment and more towards cooperation with others - seems necessary. I'd prefer to avoid too much motive decay.
 
[X] Cut

Simply kill them. Seems like a bad idea to not just deal with one injured person in the party, but to add two more. Cut also heals us. I also disagree that Mercy is necessarily less selfish: to empower our lions we would need them to eat defeated prey which encourages us to hunt further prey.
 
Birdsie has allowed this potential upgrade if we spend Import:

"what about a 5 Import upgrade to Crimson Lord <The King in Crimson> that provides a large flat bonus to Viscerality (enough to resemble a mid-tier Resident Evil boss in versatility) and significantly enhances future Visceral gains?"

He also said there'd be an equal upgrade for Crimson Hunter.

[X] Mercy
[X] Upgrade Crimson Lord to the King In Crimson (5 Import)
[ ] Cut
[ ] Upgrade Crimson Hunter to The Huntsmaster (5 Import)
 
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