Those Blessed with Talent

Yeah. This is a fantasy.

 

(Caught in a landside )

 

(our escape from reality)

How "giant" are you talking about here? I was imagining one the size of, say, a pit-bull. People would pay attention to that.

If you're talking about one the size of an actual this-world insect, then the problem is that it's ridiculously fragile, and can't really contribute in combat. "Healing spells" and "Enemy kills it with a single swat" don't mix all that well. At that point, *all* it gives you is the skill unlocks, and maybe some spying ability, once you get high enough level to borrow its eyes. It's impressively unintelligent, even for an animal companion. Also worth noting that the blood-bond ritual requires that the animal be wounded but not dead, and that there be some sort of blood-like substance to mix. That gets pretty tricky with hornet-sized hornets.

Hives are a no-go. We handle single animals at a time, at least with our partner-bonding ability. There might be an ability we could learn at some poitn that would let us temporarily gain the allegiance of a hive, but that's not the same thing.

 

(open your eyes, look up to the skies and see...)

Hmm. Is insect swarm counted as single animals? ...or rather, can we even bond insect? Tagging Darkened!

 

Do hornets have queens? If so then if we bond the queen would the other hornets from that nest follow us as well, even if they technically aren't our partners? If they would it is defiantly worth looking into- 1 giant hornet may have problems with being fragile and or not contributing much to combat, a swarm of giant hornets solves both those with numbers.

 

Depends on the insects. There's relatively little (besides humans) that you can't bond.

 

When I said "giant hornet analogue" I meant something large enough to ride. Think on that then get back to me when you're done trembling at the horror.

Queen Fuckhuge Hornet? Best tactical decision. Yes.

 

In games the Queen types can always spawn smaller versions.

Usually after you just fought through the hive to get to her.

 

No trembling detected.

Okay. Rideably large hornet analogue. Analysis go.

- Even the existence of such a thing depends fairly heavily on videogame logic for a number of reasons. As such may or may not be available in-world.

- Fills "rideable flying critter" tactical slot. As such, assumes "get a rideable flying critter" plan. That's not in and of itself a bad thing, but it does have implications. As is the nature of that slot, it synergizes poorly with any other mount-sized companions - particularly nonflying mount-sized companions. Do we know how large Autumn Shadow is likely to get?
- As a clearly threatening mount-scale companion, it will not be available to us most of the time except when we are in transit, in the wilderness, or specifically expecting conflict in relatively open areas.
- Exoskeleton likely to be pretty tough at that size. Still fairly vulnerable to any damage that pierces the shell, but healing magic can moderate that. As such, significantly increases the priority of healing magic - though healing is already valuable enough that that's more of a strategic adjustment than a built-in cost.
- Hornet sting may or may not qualify as spear-based. My guess is that it would not - I've not seen the thematic connection explored all that much in literature. Darts seem more likely, particularly if she's a swarm-deployer.
- Can be pretty much guaranteed to be poison-based. As such, there's a decent chance that we could get a poison add to weapon attacks - and it's reasonably likely to be stamina-based, which is good. Problem is that this requires us to break skin. If this si a game that has ping damage, that's okay, but if its the sort where a sufficiently durable foe can simply ignore your attacks, then it may be that we'll be hard-pressed to deliver the poison in the first place. Most other elemental attack ads would not have this problem. Again, this is a question of game mechanics.
- She's going to take mount levels of food, which is expensive, and grains and grasses aren't going to be enough, which is more expensive. As a flying mount, she probably needs even more than that. On the bright side, she'll probably be fine with fruits and veggies or equivalent for the most part rather than meat, which means it's not as expensive as it could be.
- As a queen or swarm generator... it depends on how much the game runs on CRPG mechanics and how much it runs on real-life mechanics. If it's CRPG enough that she's literally creating tiny minions out of thin air, that's all good, and it gives her the equivalent of a homing ranged attack. That's a skill that we might well want to develop for ourselves, and would also give *us* a non-str-based homing ranged attack (if a somewhat creepy one). If it's a situation where we need to set her up with an actual hive, and she'll slowly spawn semi-friendly giant hornets... well, that's going to take a lot of space and a lot of food, and the neighbors might get upset.
- Assuming she doesn't have a "generate swarm" attack of some sort, her attack vectors are going to be fairly limited for her class. She'll be able to grab things (about one thing at a time), and sting whatever she's grabbing, and probably sting things that are directly below her that she's not grabbing. That's not terrible, from a utility standpoint (grabbing boulders and dropping them, grabbing foes and carrying them off to drop *them*, etc) but it's not as good at handling groups of enemies as many of the comparable mount-scale companions would be, and the limited arc of attack may give her more problems in dogfighting than many of the comparable flying companions.
- with a combination of minion-spawning (in whatever form) and poison, we're not hugely likely to get another element on top of it.

Overall, I'd say that if she gets the CRPG version (You can call up swarms of normal-sized hornets on command and give them simple orders as a ranged attack. No particular complications involved in establishing nests.) then she's a solid contender for the slot. At that point the only note of concern would be in whether or not we ourselves want to be part hornet, and whether, socially speaking, we want to be a living hive. (If we choose not to be a living hive, the usefulness goes down a notch or two). If she gets the psuedo-realistic version (spawn are not instant, but mist be fed and raised, and come out vaguely friendly but no more) then it's really not worth it unless for some reason we decide we need to go heavy into infrastructure, and want to add "trained hornet warriors" as a troop type. Of course, at that point we suddenly want to reconsider *all* of our companion picks in light of "how will this fit into the infrastructure" and it becomes a very different game. Doesn't really seem like our style. If it's somewhere in between the two... it depends on where, I suppose.

So... not so much "best" as "Could be worthwhile... depending."

Mind you, it's not a point of immediate concern. We're not at the "I want a mount" stage just yet, and we probably want to keep a companion slot free for serendipity for the moment. Honestly, I'd say the next companion we should go for is one we could hide on our person, under our clothing/armor, with a decent or better short-ranged attack, and possibly some stealth abilities. Nice-to-have poachable skills would include mobility tricks (flying/climbing/tunneling/aquatic) and stackable defenses (tough skin/dodgy/immunities). The image in my mind is a serpent spitting acidic venom and/or some form of smallish dragonkin, but there are any number of things that could fit the bill. The idea would be to get us a companion that could go with us wherever we go, contribute whenever we got into a fight without us having to think about it much, and give us a skill that we could learn that we can actually do damage with.

 

[X] You were sent into the forest to gain experience on your own, instead of just through lessons. You haven't had much luck though. Nothing you've encountered could trouble Autumn, let alone you.

[X] Buy Tracker 1

 

[X] You were sent into the forest to gain experience on your own, instead of just through lessons. You haven't had much luck though. Nothing you've encountered could trouble Autumn, let alone you.

[X] Buy Tracker 1

 

...Does Peach Blossom have a negative Intelligence rank as well?

 

[X] You were sent into the forest to gain experience on your own, instead of just through lessons. You haven't had much luck though. Nothing you've encountered could trouble Autumn, let alone you.
[X] Buy Tracker 1

 

[X] You were sent into the forest to gain experience on your own, instead of just through lessons. You haven't had much luck though. Nothing you've encountered could trouble Autumn, let alone you.

[X] Buy Tracker 1
​

 

There is no indication whatsoever that negative ranks actually exist.

 

[X] You were sent into the forest to gain experience on your own, instead of just through lessons. You haven't had much luck though. Nothing you've encountered could trouble Autumn, let alone you.

[X] Buy Tracker 1

 

[X] You were sent into the forest to gain experience on your own, instead of just through lessons. You haven't had much luck though. Nothing you've encountered could trouble Autumn, let alone you.
[X] Buy Tracker 1 for Autumn Shade

I like the vote going so far, it is truthful without telling them exactly what we are doing. That said I specified that tracker 1 is for autumn shade since for a couple of minutes I was trying to figure out where people were getting it from. We might want to get presence concealment as well if we get more exp ourselves, but I don't know if it would be enough to let us sneak up on foxes that apparently have high perception.

 

Out best bet is to get a glimpse, try and see if Comprehend will tell us what it wants and then give it to the fox to capture it.

 

Darkened Will we still be able to take the phoenix mission ?

 

Okay. Now I get it. The phoenix quest is because (at least by his highly improbable character sheet) the idiot qualifies as a high-level scout. As for whether we'd go for it? It really doesn't seem in-character. Also, I don't think we'd be allowed to acquire the phoenix as a minion at this point in the game, and it would seriously warp the game if we did.

[X] You were sent into the forest to gain experience on your own, instead of just through lessons. You haven't had much luck though. Nothing you've encountered could trouble Autumn, let alone you.
[X] Buy Tracker 1 for Autumn Shade

 

So, I was looking through the tutorials and I found this:

But The Idiot is level 724..... just what the fuck did he do to get that high of a level? Especially being as lazy as he is.

Actually this makes me wonder, did we ever get his name out of him? Cause I'm having trouble believing his name is actually Mu Thoughtless

 

If you didnt notice, he's a Lucky SOB.

He probably solves boredom by finding incredibly dangerous things to try to kill... only to wind up surviving the experience having learned nothing that should actually contribute to his personal survival skills... while getting all the EXPS for the kills. (Which likely were also facilitated by his insane luck.)

 

If that sheet's real then he clearly couldn't find anything anywhere within 200 or so levels of him, so he'd have no means of earning even a single point of XP, so clearly he'd become lazy!

 

[X] You were sent into the forest to gain experience on your own, instead of just through lessons. You haven't had much luck though. Nothing you've encountered could trouble Autumn, let alone you.
[X] Buy Tracker 1 for Autumn Shade

It's obviously a clerical error.

Either that, or his code name is Pun Pun.

 

I actually asked about this just after it was posted, since his sheet seems to go against a couple of things the available info says. Darkened responded pretty much like he did to you, but I for one think the sheet is a fake. I just can't believe that that sheet is accurate, especially given that it has been changed since it was posted (level 725 now, was 724 before), which would imply that he is still leveling somehow, in spite of never doing anything, nor having anything in his weight class to fight.

And found my post and Darkends response:

My being wrong about his class was pointed out, no explanation for how he could ever survive to be level 700 with no growth in multiple stats was ever given. Seriously, for all that people generally prefer being specialists over generalists if you overspecialize it pretty much guarantees that you die the first time your specialty fails you for some reason. He is a luck specialist, and no matter how high your luck it will go against you eventually, so believing that he has survived 254 years on it is absurd to me.

 

Maybe he has an ability that fools analyze? They're mentioned to exist in the prologue chapters.

 

I just thought the sheet had been posted as if someone had asked him about the info. Given his personality that would explain why everything is so exaggerated. That said it being a skill that fools analyze is just as possible.

 

That or we are now secretly apprenticed to Sun Wukong.

 

I agree that I think it's pure fabrication but... Luck is specifically called out as influencing both defense and HP, and as affecting *all actions*... so a stupidly high luck does actually make you an effective generalist even if you have nothing else.

Also, as for how he got up that high... well, a good sparring partner or few would do the trick. As long as they keep leveling when you level....

Still, I don't buy it. The 27 stars worth of luck is conceivable, if absurd. The negative four stars of intelligence is even more absurd... to the point of making no sense. The real kicker, though, is that even with the 27 luck, and the level 725, he only has three digits worth of HP. given this sheet, his luck growth is not just "How the hell?" levels. It is literally *three times* "How the hell?" levels. As previously noted, HP is based at least partially on luck. Having him not break 1000 HP with that level and that stat is just silly.

...wait.

*that's* interesting.

Last time I looked, his charisma was listed as 0. Now it's NA. Perhaps it is somehow like our intelligence?