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captrory1

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I looked it up: according to the mod tools the emotion strikes when you are over 3 stress unless you have 5 or more confidence. Reaching 5 confidence can be done fairly easily and in the meantime the penalty isn't usually something that will hurt you.

 

Don't be too worried about money, you can earn a decent sum through adventures and if you get just 1 Amphibian skill you can, if you have around 9 observation find 1 rare frog per timeslot worth 300 each consistently.

 

I think the best way to reduce stress is either the athletic field to unlock stuff like running, or usually Eating at Alice's Tavern which trains both conversation and wit which are both useful in many situations, unless you are dead broke the cost isn't really an issue.

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thanks again :) all of you!

 

Stress is still an issue for me though ... I really do want to take the History: Descended from Heroes background, but with Fitness 2 (1 base + 1 from Family:Sport) only gives me a max of 4, which leaves me with only 2 then x_x Do I lose all my actions ON or ABOVE the maximum (i.e. at 2 or 3) ? (Either way I'd at least not risk running in to the debuff from graverobber :D that's a plus ... I guess)

 

I do hope to get Silke to join my clique, which would basically solve that problem (and I'd like to get Honors too) but it's probably not a good idea to build a char who would really NEED clique members, is it?

And if I do I should probably get the 2% Social CoS from Prodigy: Social, right?

 

The other options I see is raising Fitness with my last point or getting either

Apprenticeship: Student at Arms - +1 Logistics, +1 Tactics, +1 Famous Battles, +1 Maximum Stress, +1 Maximum Vitality
or
Exploits: Shipwrecked! - +1 Maximum Stress, +1 Patience, +1 Temperance, +1 Leadership, +2 Composure

but I guess the point in fitness would be worth more, right?

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Well your stress problems are a mostly temporary thing as you will probably end up with a lot more fitness and some abilities increase the max as well so you wouldn't be permanently relying on Silke.

 

You fall sick from stress only if you surpass your max after the day is over. My current character started with a zero stress max and trained 2 times crippling running followed a rest action during the weekend and got a fitness point. Even though she surpasses her max during the day her resting meant she ended the day at zero stress, so no nervous breakdown.

 

Prodigy: Social isn't necessary to get friends if you have charm and get the befriend skills (the first friend also usually can be gained with zero befriend skill, so just grab her early). I prefer Prodigy: Center of Attention instead.

 

Anyway for the two options you mentioned you'd indeed get a bit more from fitness as you'd get 2 max stress and 2 max vitality instead, and there is no upper limit.

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If you take friendships..bitter hatred then you get either a free point or Joanna - several Morvidus students will blithely ignore a -5 relationship and I've had gains where random boosts eliminated the penalty without the other student once taking an action against me, Joanna otoh is brutal, sadly the game lacks a lethal duel or assassination option.

 

Is there any reason why you aren't considering History: Artisans of Skill (+1 Finesse, etc) ?

 

I wouldn't worry about opening stats too much, I generally pump strength as its harder to raise (1 extra in insight would speed up the early game but be redundant in the long run), but I would note that black sheep appears to be forever - it isn't -100 or even -200 parental approval it is - infinity, while one could say that money is irrelevant in the game given income from RE's and adventures, so much as I like the RP side of it if powergaming I'd avoid it.

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Just watch out.

 

Descended from Heroes + Bitter Rivals (Joana or Phillipe) = lots of missed days due to unproductive weeks.

 

And honestly, Bitter Rival is a great background- because while there's a 2/11 chance it will end in tears, there's a 9/11 chance that you will get absolutely no consequence for your background pick. I have Bitter Rivaled every student in poor Morvidus by now, and the only ones who care are Joana and Phillipe. And if you really want to make friends, getting ten points of relationship with someone to get them up to 5 from -5 is terribly easy.

 

Likewise, I choose History of Traitors over Black Sheep every time (unless I'm roleplaying, anyway), as a 50 or so pims a month is nothing to sneeze at, while a bunch of people being at -2 or so with you is easily fixable.

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I often intentionally provoke Joana and Philippe as I like having enemies and dislike bullies (even if my character sometimes is), but tangling with them is a lot easier mid-game than right from the outset. I once simply restarted a few days into a game with Joanna as an enemy.

 

Black Sheep will never be worth it from a powergaming perspective, but it should be fixable in later years though by then the effort invested in that far outweighs the benefits of an extra point. The Descended from Traitors background is usually pretty trivial, though I once got a bit of trouble from having Joana at -2.

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I did consider taking History: Artisans of Skill for my Finesse-Background, but I'm kind of thinking about creating a real crafter in another playthrough and the spy one informs me of Observation which I would need for the trick with finding the rare frog *g* and taking both is a bit hard on my points. Would it be the 'better one'?

 

Hm ... so money is that useful? The few times I started a playthrough (never really did get far :/) I never really needed money for anything. And since there's ways of earning money IG I just figured blacksheep is basically a freebie.

 

Hmmmmm ... mah *G* ok, maybe I'll just start again right away (this is what happened to me like at least half of the time with the playtroughs I started! Found out something new, stopped playing to research and ... didn't have the time to start again >.<) with ... bitter rivals and history of traitors? It just ... feels so ... dangerous I guess *G* I'm afraid!!!

Could I just start the game with both backgrounds, check if I rolled Phillipe and/or Joana as a minus relationship and if I did start again with the same backgrounds, but a chance of getting somebody else?

 

Ah, but if I don't take blacksheep I'd have to reconsider taking Tutoring: Grifter, right? Though I REALLY like the 5% social CoS.

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I'll tell you right now: Apprentice: Spy is good not just because the +1 Finesse, but because it informs you of the Blackmail and Espionage skills. The main way to train skills is to visit a library/Sphinx and choose to train that skill, but if you don't know the skill you can't very well choose it, or train it. This is why I recommend Apprentice: Local Wizard if you're not in Incantation - getting Theory of Incantation 1 is really, really easy. Getting informed of the skill so that you can train it is significantly harder.

 

The main way to become informed of skills is to cast a spell that increases that skill, adding a Pheme to it if you need to (for example, Glow of Victory + 1 Fierce or Foresight Pheme to unlock Planning). The other way is to randomly stumble into a location, random encounter or adventure where you're asked to roll that skill, and try to roll it. Succeed or Fail, you'll be informed of the skill, although given that you'll be rolling dry attributes that method tends to will result in something that can kindly be called "slapstick comedy".

 

Money is useful, because shops exists and some have very, very nice stuff. Don't underestimate the value of shops, or what some are selling. I managed to kit one character out with enough stuff to pump her Negation up to 17, and man did I crush that Negation final.

 

You can reroll random stuff during character generation, it's necessary if you want a specific exotic animal, but starting with that many minuses is...painful. To give you an idea, here's what I use:

 

Astrology: The Comet
Omen: Shattered Mirrors
Family: Sports
History: Artisans of Skill

Station: Well-to-Do
Prodigy: Center of Attention
Prodigy: Spiritual
Apprentice: Spy
Tutoring: Grifter
Familiar Bond: Platypus

 

Not the most efficient, but it provides a nice, stable base from which to play a character. And I go with Platypus because, again, it's pretty much a +1 Luck plus half-decent Familiar package deal.

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Allright, I'm rerolling *g* but a few more questions:

 

if I don't really plan to ... well "do anything" with my familiar (as in raising the bond and training him) the familiar package doesn't really apply, right? (Yes, there's still the +1 Luck :D and a really cute starting adventure ^^ just, for my understanding)

 

But why would you choose

Station: Well-to-Do - +2 in three Random Skills. Allowance of 25 pims per two weeks, start with 50 pims.

over

Station: Wealthy - +1 Courtly Fashion, +1 Court Hairstyles, +1 Perfumes, +2 Etiquette, +1 Art Appreciation. Allowance of 50 pims per two weeks, start with 200 pims ?

Are the skills from wealthy 'that bad'?

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Partially for roll-playing purposes, partially because I use a grand total of 0 of the skills Wealthy provides whereas Well-to-Do has at least a 3 in 308-some chance of rolling something not useless, partially because the tutorial requires you to pay 50 Pims at some point which I don't want to work for, partially to offset the penalty from Grifter so that maxing out study levels will quickly start the passive income. It's probably more efficient to take the Spy's Stealth inheritance for over 1K Pims worth of goods, but eh, I usually enroll in Incantation so I don't care about having to scrounge up money at the start.

 

And yes, the Familiar Package won't really help, but it's still more than just a dry +1 Luck.

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It's easier to train the familiar once you get 5 Zoology, then you can train 4 skills at a time, which can make it actually useful.

 

If you've no interest in using your familiar at all (which would have few consequences) then it's not important of course. You might want to try picking the Mr. Pebbles for a familiar then, it'll give you an extra point and he's pretty amusing. Also useless of course, but he can be gotten rid of in later years.

 

Not sure how your feelings are on save-scumming (loading when things go wrong), if you don't mind a fair amount of loading then Apprenticeship: Page is one of the best traits in the game as it gives you an action that grants you 3 relations once a week with an instructor, which you can then trade in for a favor at 10 and gain an attribute point or a few abilities. There is also the possibility that he rewards you with crap, but that's where the loading comes in.

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Well I think I'll keep the Platypus for my future familiar-playthru. Does Mr. Pebbles come with any disadvantages? (The 'depressing side-effects' mention in the description? As in the emotion?)

 

I'm open for 'save-scumming' (that's why I was considering taking Deed: Negated - hoping you could just reload there as well?) but Apprenticeship: Page and Spy are mutually exclusive, I'll have to think about it I guess.

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Not sure, you don't start the game with anything bad but, eh, wouldn't put money on that staying that way.

 

The ability unlocked with Page isn't overly useful. You can also train up Infiltration to 5 (which is a skill that Spy informs you of, since it's an Espionage skill) to get Weasel Words. It does the exact same thing, it just requires some Phemes and a roll, except there's no "once per week" limit. I'd say the attribute and skill information from Spy is more worthwhile than Page.

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If the Mr. Pebbles in game is the same introduced here in the forums ... then he does come with disadvantages which made me decide against him.

 

And I'll stay with Spy for this playthru :) (since I allready had started one and .... well ... it's like the 10th time now :D)

Is there a way to check which backgrounds I did take once the game has started? (just to check if I loaded the right one >.<)

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Not sure, you don't start the game with anything bad but, eh, wouldn't put money on that staying that way.

 

The ability unlocked with Page isn't overly useful. You can also train up Infiltration to 5 (which is a skill that Spy informs you of, since it's an Espionage skill) to get Weasel Words. It does the exact same thing, it just requires some Phemes and a roll, except there's no "once per week" limit. I'd say the attribute and skill information from Spy is more worthwhile than Page.

The Page ability's main virtue is NOT the spying part (which is mostly useless), rather it is that it gives you an ability point every 3 weeks, in exchange for 4 time slots (provided you save-scum at least) through cashing in favors. That's a pretty strong trait.

 

Edit: Seems I misread your post, they are pretty similar after all. Elegant service allows you to distribute the points so you don't waste excess relations when trying to hit 10 though.

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Where is Weasel Wors not the same as 4 cast of this spell allows you also to take a level 10 Favor!

Right, but you'd need to cast it 4 times and use a timeslot for the favor itself so it'd be 5 actions. At any rate I misread the post and they are pretty similar though Elegant Service allows you to distribute the last points to avoid waste.

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Okay, so I stand corrected on Weasel Words being the "exact" same. Still, the difference is not worth a background point to me and especially not the Spy background. Favours are far too random to really exploit, anyway, even with save-scumming.

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks to Freespace2dotcom for the tips on how to post an image, and Metis for the nag. Further to the earlier discussion I have come to the conclusion that the DLC 16 bug somewhat makes the starting attribute choice academic from the outcome of my recent game from which the above screenshot is taken.

 

I'd go for a reasonable spread at the outset (to cut down time lost on excessive skill slots) and stick an extra point into insight to make unlocking the libraries easy, but otherwise it's entirely open - as noted in an earlier post I beef strength but that's purely personal and not a munchkin decision.

 

For those interested, 106 of the above attribute points are base, 8 are from abilities, 3 are from items, 1 is from my clique, and the other 3 are from emotions.

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