Lunatic Stirring B
Duration: Short
With dream qi thick in the air, the rules of the waking realm begins to blur. Creates a distorted realm in a Near radius to Ling Qi in which the muse may manifest for a time. Enemies within the field receive a half rank down debuff to one of Physical Hit, Physical Penetration, Physical Avoid, Physical Armor or Speed, at Sixiang's discretion which may change each time they take an action. Allows Sixiang to use techniques which require manifestation. While manifested, SIxiang acts as if they have physical cultivation one rank lower than their spiritual cultivation, and physical statistics equivalent to their mental counterparts at one rank down. While manifested Sixiang remains impervious to entirely physical damage.
When attempting to Dispel, if Sixiang fails to dispel an effect the targets Resist is penalized by 5, this effect stacks up to 5 times. Stacks are removed upon a successful dispel.
you are right, formally a decade starts at 1 and ends at 0. However, common language use where I come from tends to have decades start at 0 and end at 9, so by that definition 2020 is the next decade. I suppose that is true for quite a few others here too, so I guess we will just get the 'end of the decade' jokes two years in a row
The revel may move with them or remain still at their volition. The user may freely move to any point within the confines of the revel instantly and without crossing the intervening distance, and is immune to any physical obstacle or barrier or constraint of a rank lower than A(Adjusted for potency). To move the revel, the user must move normally, or with another technique.
My first question is whether Ling Qi can move the Revel to her current location (A) after having it remain still at another location (B)? Next, what is the max distance between A and B for the revel to move to Ling Qi? Is it close, far, very far, distant, or something indeterminate? Furthermore, how would the Revel travel to Ling Qi, does it cross the space between A and B or does it just appear at A?
Speaking of the new IPF, there has been some uncertainty on how it works @yrsillar
Ling Qi can certainly teleport herself within IPF when she is already in it, but, say, she moves the revel away and is no long within its confine. Could she teleport herself to it?
So, she was hardly surprised when Gu Xiulan approached her at the stones. She had seen her coming after all. Still, the saddened expression on her face was worrying.
She would have to try and help her friend out, naturally.
@yrsillar I have a couple of questions for clarification regarding PLR's next level.
Emphasis added.
My first question is whether Ling Qi can move the Revel to her current location (A) after having it remain still at another location (B)? Next, what is the max distance between A and B for the revel to move to Ling Qi? Is it close, far, very far, distant, or something indeterminate? Furthermore, how would the Revel travel to Ling Qi, does it cross the space between A and B or does it just appear at A?
Ling Qi was silent as they danced, and Sixiang considered their thoughts, still, peering closer at her, Sixiang rippled in amusement. "...Ling Qi, are you still cultivating?"
So, she was hardly surprised when Gu Xiulan approached her at the stones. She had seen her coming after all. Still, the saddened expression on her face was worrying.
She would have to try and help her friend out, naturally.
Is it bad that since we learned that Ling Qi can now use Dream qi, my first thought was about creating a FVM like art but even more nightmarish?
Just imagine the possibilities!
That made me think, can we at some point make an illusion feel so real that our enemies doesn't know they are in a illusion? Something Sosuke Aizen or Shisui Uchiha level?
EDD however is a bit iffy. 50% chance to simply fail would at least tell us how effective it is (short duration kind of mean it would only be useful against multiple opponents as it's impossible for a single to attack us 6+ times during that time), but... B rank perception is 35% to fail, and A rank is 20%. Considering peers are going to have A rank perception minimum, this is very much a punching down technique at PLR6.
It was funny, so many of this girls human friends regarded her with mild exasperation. It wasn't unkind, but words like oblivious and air headed came up sometimes. Yet to Sixiang, she stood out in sharp relief, her colors were vibrant in a way that few were. To someone who had known only the misty realm of dreams, Ling Qi was a great contrast. She was easily distracted from some things true but her core drive was as sharp as a blade. When they looked upon her they saw a core of absolute black that greedily drank in everything it touched. It lay shrouded in mist and breeze, tinged with silver and colors beyond count. Cords of that blackness shot through the whole extending in a web that went beyond sight. One such cord was bound to them.
As Sixiang's avatar began to lead them through the first twirling steps, sending ripples through their dreamstuff, Ling Qi hummed to herself. "...What actually changed your mind Sixiang? I know I'm not that good of a speaker."
They were silent, their mind's eye flickering back through their own experience. Not just looking out through Ling Qi's eyes, but truly immersing themselves in that perspective. It had hammered home the truth of their differences. Through Ling Qi's eyes the real meaning of fear had been hammered home. Through Ling Qi's eyes, she had learned the truth of attachment. Their own feelings seemed truly insubstantial, and half formed. Through Ling Qi's eyes, she had learned that those things were two sides of the same coin. In the waking world, one came with the other.
It had shown her how wrong they were, to imagine that they had drifted far from their roots. They had taken a single step, and thought to run back to clutch grandmother's skirts. "Does it matter? I made up my mind." Their avatar said cheekily.
This goes right back to the Yellow breakthrough insight: Fear of loss stems from having things you value. If you have nothing you can lose nothing. Free to be nothing.
And Sixiang was nothing in truth till they found something they valued.
Ling Qi gave her an arch look as the steps of the dance took them apart, and replied as they came back together. The shore grew further away with each step. "It matters to me. Are you really alright?"
"I am," their avatar reassured her. "Really Ling Qi, I just… got some perspective is all."
Ling Qi gave them a suspicious look, but subsided. Sixiang was glad, they weren't sure they could put the truth of their realization into words that would not alarm her. They weren't afraid anymore because there was nothing to be afraid of. They weren't human, even if this incarnation ended, it wasn't their end. Even if Ling Qi…
Well it would hurt, but Sixiang would make sure that her song echoed through Dream afterward, that way it wouldn't be her end either.
To think that cranky ice spirit had been more in touch with the truth of the world then they had. That was the benefit of age they supposed. They still came at it from different angles. If Zeqing had been [Endings] then their nature was [Impermanence].
Hmm, so the conflict was reconciling being transient with character development? Like, you don't have to be either wholly permanent or wholly transient. You can change how you look and present yourself without changing your core, or vice versa.
Everything that lives is impermanent in its own way.
You can wait a little. Eternity is a long time.
Ling Qi was silent as they danced, and Sixiang considered their thoughts, still, peering closer at her, Sixiang rippled in amusement. "...Ling Qi, are you still cultivating?"
Sixiang snorted with laughter, the sound echoing from the waters all around. "Really Ling Qi, I found my perspective… and worked out what I valued more, can't you leave it at that?"
"I left things be the last time and look where it got us," Ling Qi replied, their dance was interrupted as the girl stepped forward to poke their avatar in the chest. "Just… talk to me before it gets bad next time, alright? I know I'm bad at noticing some things on my own… Talk to me," she pleaded, and the cord that bound them thrummed along with two others, the ones binding her other spirits.
Sixiang turned their avatars head down but the words they spoke came not from it's lips, but from all around. "...I promise," there was no reason to worry about Ling Qi tiring of them now, they would speak their mind more often and clearly in the future.
"Good," Ling Qi huffed, taking their avatar's hands back up as they began the dance again from the beginning. "Now I just need to figure out how to have the same conversation with Zhengui," she grumbled.
"Convincing the lil' big guy his Sis is fallible might take some doing," they teased, but Sixiang squeezed her hand anyway. Their words were at least half true.
"Well, lets set aside the heavy stuff for now. Do you think I've been cultivating the art your grandmother gave me wrong? Looking through your eyes… I feel like I've made a mistake somewhere."
Sixiang considered the threads of moonlight that Ling Qi had woven throughout her legs and lungs, turning them into channels of liquid silver. Before today, she would have said no, that Ling Qi was doing fine. However, they had realized how they had blinded themselves now, had seen the waking world as less malleable, more different than it was.
Hmm, given the feats of cultivators, spirits and formations...yeah.
The difference is mostly that the waking world has a nice comfortable default its resting in. If the Dream is water, the waking world is clay. Just need to make it wet and you can mold it in ways that water would never support.
So Sixiang's avatar smiled mischievously, and before Ling Qi's eyes could do more than widen in alarm. They stepped.
Dead and withered leaves spun up in a miniature cyclone as the world rippled. Where one moment there had been a silently mediating girl seated upon a stone, there was now a pair of girls, dancing through the leaves.
Ling Qi's eyes widened as she glanced around, disoriented, and she almost stumbled as Sixiang released her hands.
Sixiang could not help but smile even as they dissolved back into moonlight and wind. Even if she understood the trick, manifesting was certainly rough.
Before she could dissolve wholly, Ling Qi met her eyes. "You are showing me how to do that," she said firmly.
"Of course," Sixiang laughed, once more at home in Ling Qi's mind. "Just make sure to clear your schedule."
If the target spirit(s) are two levels of cultivation or less below the user, they will cease acting with hostility until their next action giving a chance for negotiation to begin. This effect may be resisted by spirits in the thrall of a greater one
Thats a pretty specific band of results.
Does it work on those as strong as you are or stronger?
Also why doesn't it work on those more than 2 levels below?(or is this because with that big a strength gap you don't need the technique to force them down?)
The user may attempt to look upon an unfamiliar location or person(such as one merely described or seen in passing to the user), however the user receives two ranks down on their Perception when doing this, and only receives visual information even on success. Targets are not considered familiar until seen in person.
The user may freely move to any point within the confines of the revel instantly and without crossing the intervening distance, and is immune to any physical obstacle or barrier or constraint of a rank lower than A(Adjusted for potency).
Woosh. This is a bloody nightmare to interdict. Once she gets in close she could pop out anywhere inside a Close range sphere without any additional effort. Limited for now, but I expect the Festival radius will grow as we advance it, since basically no form of physical barrier could stop her if it can't stop the party.
To move the revel, the user must move normally, or with another technique.
--Lunatic Whirl: B
Duration: Persistent
Activates automatically at no additional cost when Illustrious Phantasmal Festival is activated. The ghostly dancers gather around an intruder in the festival, laughing, singing and demanding a dance, forcing them to join the revelry. The dancers seize their arms and hands, dragging them through the chaotic revelry. Though the dancers will do no harm to their captive, the frenetic pace of the revelry is highly draining, and victim finds their qi dribbling away(D rank qi drain), siphoned to the user while the sights and sounds of the revel cloud their minds and steal the strength from their limbs. So long as their hands lie in the grasp of the dancers, they will also find the meridians in their arms blocked and unusable. Each usage of Lunatic Whirl may target up to four targets at a time. Willing targets are not drained nor are their meridians blocked.
Once per target, the user may choose to pull them along when the revel moves, moving them through dream rather than physical reality. Unwilling Targets may attempt to escape or dispel when this effect is activated.
Sable Crescent Step lets us drop it onto a target.
Lunatic Whirl lets us 'equip' Zhengui onto the festival, where he can replicate his dancing tortoise feat from the party, and then Sable Crescent Step over and YEET a couple tons of Big Boy onto the attacker's head when we pop the party out in midair...
...or we pop him somewhere and he uses Stealth Rock under the cover of the Festival.
Lunatic Stirring B
Duration: Short
With dream qi thick in the air, the rules of the waking realm begins to blur. Creates a distorted realm in a Near radius to Ling Qi in which the muse may manifest for a time. Enemies within the field receive a half rank down debuff to one of Physical Hit, Physical Penetration, Physical Avoid, Physical Armor or Speed, at Sixiang's discretion which may change each time they take an action. Allows Sixiang to use techniques which require manifestation. While manifested, SIxiang acts as if they have physical cultivation one rank lower than their spiritual cultivation, and physical statistics equivalent to their mental counterparts at one rank down. While manifested Sixiang remains impervious to entirely physical damage.
Say...if Sixiang can disguise as Ling Qi(Shapeshifter, shouldn't be a problem), it might be very funny to have people waste their attacks on a Physical Immune projection.
Whirlwind Revel C
Duration: Short
Usable while manifested. Song, wind and lunatic abandon washes out all else as Sixiang focuses their attention on a single enemy in melee range of their manifestation. Using their derived Dance Skill, Sixiang draws the enemy further still into the shallows of Dream. If successful the target becomes unable to move in the physical world and may only target Sixiang with any attack or technique. Area of Effect skills may still hit multiple targets however, although their potency is reduced by one rank if physical. Similarly, any physical effect affecting the trapped target is reduced by one rank in effect. The targets own physical attributes are also penalized greatly.
On failure the target is merely impeded by the dreamlike mealstrom while they remain in range, receiving a penalty to Combat Perception, Physical Avoid, and Physical Hit.
When attempting to Dispel, if Sixiang fails to dispel an effect the targets Resist is penalized by 5, this effect stacks up to 5 times. Stacks are removed upon a successful dispel.
Something that had even odds of hitting LQ now has 40% odds of hitting LQ. It isn't "20% less chance to hit LQ", it's "If it hits LQ, it has 20% to not hit us". So 20% of 50%, rather than 50-20=30%.
The way it currently works, it's a anti-group mook skill, as it can't work against either non-mooks or non-groups (as a 1vs1 against a mook still won't have it spend more than 1/2 charges at most and be generally useless). I really expected EDD to either begin at like 80% chance to fail or/and to have "When opponent's perception is greater than Ling Qi's stealth".
We can totally expect everyone to have B+ and likely A+ perception:
Green 1 challenge targets already had ~B baseline perception, with some peers like Kang running near A.
We're now green 3, soon to be green 4. In terms of potential foes we already know the barbarians have strong perception focus.
EDD in practice is gonna contest effective perception, which means with enemy techs up, and guess what, PLR just lost the perception filter and debuff (and BKSD doesn't have one thanks to @AbeoLogos complaining).
Your math is wrong, 20% miss rare on top of 50% hit means 50% x 0.8 = 40% actual hit rate, and 10% chance of using one of the charges.
Arkeus' idea of starting the scale at 80% or keeping it at 50% but giving better/worse odds based on the perception vs stealth gap instead of a fixed C rank is sorely needed for EDD to be of use beyond the small avoid buff stacks. Plus, at avoid+speed it's competing with wind thief where it will just lose, better give the some of its own identity by making it about the difficulty of distinguishing LQ from the phantoms and attacking the right one.