[Nightmares of the Second Age] The Daily Scribe

Agreed on the requirements, but I do think they're equally applicable. Perhaps not qualitatively - you're not going to use the 3rd excellency on that Difficulty 10 Lore Check to decipher an arcane text written by SWLIHN herself when your base Int+Lore+Specialty pool is 13, nor does it make sense to immediately use the 1st or 2nd excellencies on the Difficulty 2 Lore Check required to match the name of a well-known god in that text to her station. However, quantitatively speaking, I certainly believe you'll experience equal opportunities for use of both in most games. Perhaps 'equally applicable' wasn't the most accurate way of describing that in that situation, but I think you catch my drift now :P .
 
That has not been my experience. The scenarios that you describe as requiring the 3rd excellency have been exceedingly rare. The third is, however, extremely useful in combat (social or physical) where it can be used to increase your DV after you have seen your opponent's roll. Something that does wonders for your mote economy.
 
I guess you've had different experiences than me. Dice are like fickle sprites - sometimes they favor you, and other times it's as if they hate every cell in your body.
 
@Sherwood, can we take Henchmen or Retainers to have had NPC Dragonblooded/spirit servants frozen down with us?
 
Fair enough. Sometimes I'd rather not spend the motes on what appear to be frivolously easy rolls, and it's always good to have a backup, IMO.
 
I personally prefer to just stick with the 1st Excellency, as it has a higher upper limit for successes. That said, I always forget how useful the 3rd excellency is for DVs, so I think I'll swap out my 1st excellencies for Dodge and Integrity for the 3rd.
 
1st Excellency is generally best in offensive combat since it's easier to stack up on automatic successes in defense (IE: DV) than in offense, so you care about getting a lot of successes, not just a good amount. 2nd Excellency is generally good for more drudgery tasks like Lore, Occult, Crafting, etc. Cases where success is more important than huge success. 3rd rocks defense as described above.
 
It's a numbers game, really. With the 1st excellency I can pay 1 mote to get one extra die and potentially have one or two successes, depending on if I roll a 10. With the 2nd I pay 2 motes and get one flat successes. The higher potentiality for successes with the 1st excellency makes it more attractive to me.
 
It's not a numbers game, it's a statistics game. Sometimes it's important to be able to succeed exceptionally, and sometimes it's important to be almost certain of succeeding fairly. You are of course allowed to pick your preference, but when rolling for (say) translating an ancient manuscript, you don't get any points for beating the difficulty by 10, and you might actually get something for missing it by one or two. In combat on the other hand, you get extra damage for your extra successes and loose everything if you fail to hit the DV.
 
Hey JayTee, does your character have Backgrounds somewhere? I can't seem to find them... Not that I'm snooping or anything. Hehe. Heh. Heh.


>_>
 
Even a complete ascetic would still have Reputation (complete ascetic) ;) Possibly even some unwanted cult. Sifu/Mentor/Ally may also be used to describe people who set him on the path he walks, or who followed him onto it.
 
Yeah, but they're all dead now thanks to the Usurpation and a thousand odd years in stasis :P
 
Gods, Sidereals and people who started a martial arts school based on your philosophies don't need to be.
 
Agreed. And not even a Manse? Shame, Tiger would have been beyond destitute by FA standards. I doubt that even the most ascetic of celestials lacked a Hearthstone. That's just beckoning ridicule. :P
 
Nah, the character is very much "Nothing but my own power". Officially he's not really "tied" to the party, so he can be used as a deniable asset if need be. Even social backgrounds would give enemies a target for a retaliatory strike.
 
I could be wrong (ST correct me!), but I'm not sure we ever really were a "party" or "circle" in the first place - just a rag-tag assortment of Solars sequestered away to survive the inevitable murder frenzy.


But still - is it even legal not to spend the background dots? I mean, I'm all for the ascetic thing - my first Solar only ever had one artifact ( one-dot charm that glowed faintly in the presence of CoD's) and a single pair of clothing - but I'm fairly certain you are required to put those points to use. Maybe Sherwood doesn't mind/care, and in that case none of this babbling here really matters, but maybe you could put the points towards a fund for the circle to use as group goods? (ie. travel, secondary suits of armor, maybe a warstrider or three >_>)
 
I go to sleep and not only is the game thread created but three pages worth of OOC discussion occurs. Is anyone setting aside points for the group airship? (Artifact N/A -squee-)


I have kept 5 background points for such a purpose.
 
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