/cofd/&/wodg/ Chronicles of Darkness and World of Darkness General

I've always loved Greco-Roman Mythology, so the Theoi all the way for me.

Have you been huffing 2hu's wank posts about Prime again, boy?

I think Touhou's approach is dumb. But I do wonder what Prime CAN do Re;Truth

>Polynesian Atua

All I've ever wanted. Now I can be that awesome Scion of Maui.

If Promethean won't give me a volcano sacrifice Lineage, then maybe Scion: Demigod will hook me up.

>I think Touhou's approach is dumb.
That's the spirit. Can we drive him out of these threads yet?

Honestly? People keep shitting on me for complaining about him so much, but he's been gone for the last few days, so I doubt it matters. He might turn up when the errata is out, but for now I'm going to enjoy the calm.

Add Slavic.

Is there really enough known to go off of?

Isn't that in Dark Eras 2?

???

The Promethean setting with the volcanic eruption is about the birth of the Frankensteins.

Boo. I wanted volcanoes .

Is Astral adept worth it?

tzchernobog is a scary skeleton man from the tundra. boom we got it.

There was a fan thing I had downloaded a copy of that had Rus gods. We know bits, but not a lot, and there have been some various issues in uncovering the past. The Slavic people had no writing system whatsoever, so only small bits of oral tradition came through. An interesting example of the problems in discovering Slavic gods happened when one of the scholars investigating was told of Chernobog, the Black God. He seems to have been a minor god only referred to by Western Slavs, what's really interesting is that this researcher assumed he was simply a counterpart to a Belobog, or White God. Many successive researchers saw his mention of Belobog and used that as a source to reference him. Turns out, once they did more research, there never was a reference to Belobog before this researcher.

youtube.com/watch?v=4CAwi-Y--fQ

Paranoid delusional schizophrenic... or poor soul exposed to the God-Machine?

Tuatha de Dannan forever

Add Abrahamic :^)

My first character will probably be Manitouk, if Raven is a god.

I bet he'd be fun to be a Scion as

re: scion, did you guys see that one guy on the forums write up of a Lovecraft pantheon?

it was pretty cool

>tfw feel contractually obligated to come up with a Kemetic Scion but have literally zero ideas

Maybe it's time to dust off transgender Azar?

No.
All it does is let you leave your group behind.

Definitely Tuatha. Can't wait to Riastrad.

So the Veeky Forums band is a Tuatha, a Netjer, and a Manitouk

Is a band the Scion equivalent of a coterie/throng/meret/etc?

I know fuck all about Scion, and I'm not gonna bother reading 1e if 2e seems to be throwing much of it out the window. Still very excited, though.

Their theme can be that they're a band.

Yeah Band is the colloquial for team.

Oh you play Mage with cabals?

I would have assumed that was the default, as until now (and in the case of one guy playing an an Archmaster) I have never heard of people playing Mage one-on-one.

Doesn't make the merit any less potent for NPCs however.

I played a one on one game

If you have 3 or 4 dudes cabaless games are possible.

>I have never heard of people playing Mage one-on-one.
I play in a one-on-one game of Mage: The Awakening 2e using only its lore, under an entirely different system. I play an Acanthus with a Spirit Ruling Legacy who spends most of their time in the Shadow, entreating spirits and casting subtle spells into the material world to help people with their everyday lives.

>Doesn't make the merit any less potent for NPCs however.
Astral Adept does not prevent you from having to leave your unconscious body behind in the material world. It also costs 3 Experiences in a game wherein raising an Arcanum costs only 4 Experiences, and improving Gnosis costs 5.

What are the best 2e merits? What are only worth it in character creation?

Does True friend also count as an allies *** merit?

As in, the 3-4 players do not have some cohesive reason to organise together, splitting your session into tiny fragments where you focus on each of them independantly to the exclusion of the others?

How on earth do you ever get anything done.

However it also permits access to the Astral regardless of access to certain areas, uses Willpower instead of Mana, and is accessible to Sleepwalkers.

It has its benefits.

No they work within their own orders. Magic kind of makes distance moot. They hardly come together in one place to meet.

Just noticed Matter 2 can inflict the earthquake tilt.

Does that mean the Shaping spell is the lowest prerequisite highest damage over time ability in the entire game?

Mystery Cult Initiation is by far one of the strongest Merits in all of Chronicles of Darkness, because it gives you *more* Merits for taking it, along with Status in a cult. Mystery Cult 5 gives you 10 XP's worth of benefits on top of Status 5, making you cult leader.

If you are a vampire, the best way to make use of Mystery Cult Initiation is to take it all the way to 5, be a member of the Ordo Dracul, and take Secret Society Junkie 1, effectively giving you Herd 5.

Mystery Cult Influence is a mage-only Merit that is essentially Mystery Cult Initiation with none of the downsides. You cannot take two instances of either, but you can, if you so wish, take Mystery Cult Influence chaining into Mystery Cult Initiation, for Status 5 in two cults.

Consilium/Order Status, also exclusive to mages, can confer upon you *more* Merits as well. You can requisition a startling amount of Merits with these, and they last for an entire story.

Professional Training is yet another Merit that objectively gives you more XP worth of benefits than you spend on it. It is a must-have for any mortal.

Area of Expertise 1 + Interdisciplinary Specialty 1 arguably gives you a flexible +2 bonus on many applications of Skills, though the RAW here is questionable.
Eye for the Strange 2 is essential for any mortal investigator of the occult, for mortals have very few other methods for reliably identifying the supernatural.
Good Time Management 1 halves all extended action times. All of them.
Indomitable 2 helps protect you against the ubiquitous mental influence powers of all supernaturals, though sadly, it does not improve Withstand against a mage's spells.
Virtuous 2 combined with a high base Willpower can give you a tremendous influx of Willpower.

Quick Draw 1 is mandatory for anyone with a weapon.

Allies is fairly useful considering that you can extend your influence for major favors without much consequence (the dot returns at the end of the chapter anyway).

You're still splitting your attention as GM.

That they're predominatly working with their own Order of NPCs rather than alone with limited Order support is irrelevant.

Did anyone make a D&D style lich legacy for Mage: The Awakening second edition yet? I'd prefer to find one online before trying to make it myself.

Do you build merits around character instead of power gaming?

Fast-Talking 1-3 is a cheap source of benefits on Social rolls.
Resources is, as always, quite useful considering the sheer breadth of equipment it opens up. Granted, it can also be substituted with other dots (e.g. Allies, Larceny) due to Availability not necessarily calling for Resources.
Retainer is quite an effective Merit because of the dice pools and action economy benefits it offers you. Remember that Sanctity of Merits applies, and your Retainer can always suffer a heroic death on your behalf.
Striking Looks 1-2 is another low-cost source of bonuses on Social rolls.

Fighting Finesse 2 allows for fully Dexterity-based melee combatants, and works even for grappling.
Firefight 1 provides a potentially huge bonus to initiative for a gunslinger, and Firefight 2 has shoddy wording that arguably allows Defense to be applied against firearms attacks at all times.
Light Weapons 1 is an initiative boost at no penalty for a knife-wielder.
Martial Arts 1-5 is the single best unarmed combat-improving Merit in the game.
Clinch Strike 1 ( docs.google.com/document/d/1bH4XMrM7iovLQGBLJGVXHDTGXUrNc0JMy22wc-5MxZ8/edit ) offers a great action economy advantage for a grappler.

For mortals, Biokinesis 1 halves all healing times.

For mages, Shadow Name 3 makes for an incredibly useful and versatile Yantra, and it helps you resist being discovered in your "mundane" persona too.

>it also permits access to the Astral regardless of access to certain areas
I would expect that from a three-dot Merit.

>uses Willpower instead of Mana
Not that much of a benefit, considering how easy both Willpower and Mana come to a mage given Praxes.

>and is accessible to Sleepwalkers
This is not a selling point to a character who is a full-blown mage.

As written, no. You must purchase such separately. True Friend is very overpriced for what it does, particularly considering that the Willpower point comes only once per *story*.

Another excellent Physical Merit is Parkour 3. The one- and two-dot benefits are solid enough (I wonder, considering how loose and ambiguous page 69 of the Chronicles of Darkness core rulebook is concerning sources of modifiers, does a penalty for poor equipment count as an "environmental penalty"?), but the third dot:

>Wall Run (•••): When climbing, your character can run upward for some distance before having to traditionally climb. Without rolling, your character scales10 feet + five feet per dot of Athletics as an instant action, rather than the normal 10 feet.

Is nearly physics-defying. With Dexterity 3 and Athletics 5, no specialty required, you can use an instant action to automatically run 35 feet up a wall.

Yes. Matter 2's Shaping is a *very* versatile spell and absolutely should be placed on Rote, but it is somewhat impractical for creating Environmental Tilts, which cost two Reaches. Even if you do pay that cost, you will have to pay another Reach for instant action casting, another Reach for Advanced Duration (either that or take penalties for Duration spell factors), another Reach for Advanced Scale (either that or penalties for Scale factors), and yet another Reach for sensory range (unless you want the epicenter to be right where you are standing). Even then, nothing prevents the earthquake from being ally-friendly, or even self-friendly, short of another spell.

>another Reach for Advanced Scale (either that or penalties for Scale factors), and yet another Reach for sensory range (unless you want the epicenter to be right where you are standing). Even then, nothing prevents the earthquake from being ally-friendly, or even self-friendly, short of another spell.
Base scale is roughly a circle with a size of arms outstretched, enoguh to encircle a person.
You can throw it at someone to tag them, and for the duration the area around them out to arm's reach will be affected by the Tilt.
You don't even need to spend much on Duration, base Duration with the Advanced factor is one scene, enough to inflict a few hundred levels of damage.

Considering the sheer amount of trap options across the list of Merits, and the number of Merits which are simply *better* than most others, yes. Have a look at one of the worst Merits in the game, Small-Framed:

>Small-Framed (••)
>Effect: Your character is diminutive. He’s not five feet, and it’s easy to walk into him without noticing. He’s Size 4, and thus has one fewer Health box. He gains +2 to any rolls to hide or go unnoticed, and this bonus might apply any time being smaller would be an advantage, such as crawling through smaller spaces. Available only at character creation.
>Drawback: In addition to the lower Health, your character might be overlooked or not taken seriously by some people.

Why would you ever take this for 2 XP, considering the drawbacks of being a manlet at Size 4? Taking Area of Expertise (Small) 1 and then Interdisciplinary Specialty (Small) 1 costs the same XP-wise, and offers the same benefits (and more) with no downside.

Here is another poor Merit:
>Fixer (••)
>Prerequisite: Contacts ••, Wits •••
>Effect: Your character is people that knows people. She can not only get in touch with the right people to do a job, but she can get them at the best possible prices. When hiring a service (see p. 100), reduce the Availability score of the service by one dot.

Why would you take this when you could simply increase whatever Skill or Merit you normally use to acquire goods and services? The only time I could ever see this being useful is if you have Resources 5 and absolutely *must* have the best services available (not goods, only services), and even then, that provides diminishing returns compared to increasing Resources from 4 to 5.

Matter spells can only affect Matter, if you want to create one that's centered on an individual person and follows them around, that's a self-modifying spell which migrates between Matter to follow them.

Which would be Matter 6, Practice of Dynamics.

>Is nearly physics-defying. With Dexterity 3 and Athletics 5, no specialty required, you can use an instant action to automatically run 35 feet up a wall.
It's worth noting that Athletics 5 is Usain Bolt levels of athleticism, and thus something achieved by a very small number of people.
But, yeah, that is pretty ridiculous.

Because some people build around a character, rather than an xp cost.
Again, though, yeah, those merits are kinda trash from a mechanical standpoind.

Do you have a mega of your images or something? I really love 2hus in casual clothing.

>Basing a discussion of 2e mechanics on a 1e understanding of the rules

>, if you want to create one that's centered on an individual person and follows them around
It's not a self migrating effect, it's a spell that was anchored to a target to affect the area around it.
If that gets disallowed lots of spells break apart. Web of life for example is cast on yourself, but the range to which it can detect stuff is limited by its scale factor.

If the Area for Shaping is left at default, then the target can simply step outside of it. It would be good against, say, a building's foundation though.

Two Reaches for the Earthquake Environmental Tilt, a Reach for instant action casting, and a Reach for sensory range already fills out your free Reaches.

Speaking of Environmental Tilts, it is a little frustrating that Matter 3's Windstrike and Prime 3's Aetheric Winds fail to specify the strength of the Heavy Winds.

>It's worth noting that Athletics 5 is Usain Bolt levels of athleticism, and thus something achieved by a very small number of people.

White Wolf/Onyx Path has always had the despicable habit of listing down dot levels for Skills and telling you that "at 3 dots, you are awesome; at 4, you are very awesome and can do this; and at 5, you are extremely awesome and can perform mind-boggling stunts."

Unfortunately, these are and will always be deeply misleading, because the difference between 2 dots in a skill and 5 dice is *one* success on average. A character needs to back up a high rating in a Skill with Attributes and Merits; Usain Bolt certainly is not going to have just Athletics 5, but high Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina and Merits like Fleet of Foot.

Five dots in a Skill, on its own, absolutely does not make you near-superhuman.

I simply search for tags like "casual," "contemporary," "cityscape," and "city" on Danbooru. I use such images in these threads because they are modern, although if there is a more thematically appropriate image for what I am currently speaking of, I will use that instead.

Matter 2's Shaping speaks of affecting matter, not a living subject.

>Fixer
you know in the last thread I had the idea of playing a Mehket fixer that travels abroad helping journalists. Basically as a way to do a lot of investigating himself without being famous enough to have people looking at him.

>Web of life for example is cast on yourself
It most certainly is not.
It is cast with an individual or area scane, the information is merely received by the Mage due to the Practice of Knowing.

It cannot be used to create a mobile area of detection for the Mage.
That would be a different spell endowing the target with such an ability, not the Practice of Knowing.

>If the Area for Shaping is left at default, then the target can simply step outside of it.
The target is the target, it stays the target no matter where it goes.
If you cast at a large ship and use enoguh scale to affect the entire ship (say, the large warehouse scale), the ship can't move out of the area because it's the target of the Area.
Dave gabe the example related to targeting Area effects:"Yes, but "affect everything in an area I'm touching" is valid, so you could touch the *house* and the area of effect would hit everyone in it. "
If someone in that example moved the *house* while the spell (maybe teleporting it somewhere else) was still in effect, the house in everyone in it would still be affected. Because the target was the house, and the spell doesn't care if it moved somewhere else.

>It would be good against, say, a building's foundation though.
Buildings don't take damage from the Earthquake tilt.

>The target is the target
Matter spells can't target things which aren't Matter.
Same as Life spells can't target something which isn't alive, e.g. you can't use Life to create a rock which causes everything around it to regenerate.

There is a get-around with Prime and Imbuing targets with spells, but that's hardly combat applicable.

>The target is the target, it stays the target no matter where it goes.

Mage 2e is extremely poorly written with respect to actually naming the specific target of any given spell. For most spells, one has to carefully watch out for any mentions of "the subject" or "the mage" to see how targeting works.

Matter 2's Shaping is ambiguous on what a valid target is, but I am inclined to believe it to be, well, the matter to be shaped.

Have a look at Matter 3's Windstrike and Prime 3's Aetheric Winds. These are spells that can unambiguously, directly target a creature. For a Reach, they can create Environmental Tilts such as Heavy Winds, but they remain in "the immediate vicinity" rather than anchoring themselves to the target.

>Buildings don't take damage from the Earthquake tilt.
I suppose that is true.

Alright /cofd/, I have just drafted up a Mage 2e character and want to shore up obvious weaknesses in more core strategy.

My plan, which thanks to GM discussion will be fully implemented at chargen, is to construct an immense statue out of components I have cast Alter Integrity on, and then Golem it, using my own 2 dot ghost familiar as its core intelligence.

Now, with Size 10, Durability 9, and Structure 21 this thing has considerable resistance to most save or die equivalents a mage can pull on objects. But it does still count as a physical object for the purposes of spells and thus has a few vulnerabilities.

Chief amongst these are, as far as I can tell, are Ghostwall and Transubstantiation. The Ghost itself as a controlling entity doesn't seem to be a major weakpoint since it is difficult to target hidden inside the golem. Anyone with active Death sight will be able to intuit there is a ghost in there somewhere because it's anchored and manifested as a familiar, but they can't actually perceive it near as I can read.

The question is, what kind of Imago could I use to create a shielding spell that protects a material against Ghostwall and Transsubstantiation? Mainly concerned with instant casting as I ritual cast maintenance and upgrades on the thing. (Would it sound reasonable to you guys if you were GMing to have some kind of "non-newtonian pattern" imago that resists attempts to alter an object in instant action casting time?)

I also need to consider that the imago needs to be compatible with the imago for Golem itself, which is presumably flexing material in real time to move the statue. That last fact is making this far harder than it otherwise would be.

>Matter spells can't target things which aren't Matter.
Cite?
Because if that was a rule that would mean you cannot cast Machine invisibility on a person you want to veil from machines.

Seriously, "Matter spells can't target things which aren't Matter."??
How fucking dumb is that?

>Matter 2's Shaping is ambiguous on what a valid target is, but I am inclined to believe it to be, well, the matter to be shaped.
That would be a way to make it more balanced.
If the earthquake tilt wasn't as utterly brainfuckingly stupid as it is, you wouldn't need to make that ruling though.
So in this specific case I am more inclined to blame the rules for that Tilt than the ambiguousness of Shaping.

I thought he was a walloping great demon man.
youtube.com/watch?v=SLCuL-K39eQ

Talk to a Prime Mage about hitting it up with a High Potency "Wards and Signs" inscribed with a Rune on an obscure part of the Golem.

Then when you need to modfiy it further, either wait for the Spell to subside or fudge that Rune, then get them to reapply it.

I had a strange idea for a Bloodline Curse, to put it simply, the mind of the Embraced remains the same no matter the current state of their body.

It's sort of an inversion of the "1000 year old Vampire in the body of a 16 year old girl", it's more "16 year old girl in the body of a 1000 year old vampire when said body is still subject to the affects of decay."

>chargen
>Golem
>4 dot spell
lel

>chargen
Not everyone wants to start at the same level.
Last game I had started with the equivalent of an extra 21 experiences.

That might be interesting. A lot of embraces usually tend to be young because of the sire sensing potential and also because its easier for a young person to go missing or change their live drastically as apposed to someone in their late 30s doing the same thing.
It sounds like a Ventrue Bloodline. One that admires prudence,maturity and patience. Think of all the Incidents that would happen with a room filled with vampires who never grew out of their early 20s with eternity to fuck eachother over.

>this thing has considerable resistance to most save or die equivalents a mage can pull on objects
Exceptional successes (especially via Praxis) still ignore all Withstand, and Advanced Scale with a -2 spell factor penalty can affect ten subjects each of Size 10 or less.

>what kind of Imago could I use to create a shielding spell that protects a material against Ghostwall and Transsubstantiation?
An imago analogous to Mind 2's Mental Shield or Spirit 2's Ephemeral Shield would do, seeing how, with +1 Reach, either spell can shield against its own Arcanum.

You will want a Veiling spell to conceal it from mundane senses as well.

Earthquake is indeed a very silly Environmental Tilt.

Mage 2e could, in general, use something along the lines of D&D 4e's "Target" line, such as "Target: Subject matter," "Target: Subject creature," or "Target: The casting mage."

it works if he has 2 dots in Death and 4 in Matter...I think.

Yeah I've had 1 in the last 15 games of nWoD or CofD that I've played use 0XP starts. It's just kind of lame. And for especially restricting in Mage 2e given the ghosts requirements for arcana.

This one is starting at 18xp, IE by spending everything I have, I can start at matter 4 / death 3 / space 1.

Well yeah, you're fairly spot on, I guess what I mean is it at least forces an attacker to spend 1 more reach, take another -2, and then get an exceptional success on top of whatever they normally need for their (already spending a reach for instant) spell. Good point about just enlisting a prime mage for shielding, and veiling it sufficiently is going to be very tough. Mainly planning to use it for sanctum defence and in rural areas, but you make a good point that it's not out of the question to render it mundanely silent and invisible.

>Touhou considers WoD as having trap options
That's because you don't understand the game, and only think about the mechanics. Fixer is bad because *obviously* you can just buy another dot of the MONEY Merit. It's not like money might not fit your concept, it's not like the ST might not allow you to buy another dot. It exists, so that means it's okay.

Yes, we're all aware that mechanically, the game does not have enough gradation for the difference in rolls between 1 and 5 to matter much. But the RATINGs on the other hand say that a character with 5 dots is going to be near-superhuman. Which is why a character with Parkour and Athletics 5 is going to be nearly superhuman.

You always do this thing where you ignore anything but the mechanics. You think that a character should be able to become Firearms 5 by simply going to the shooting range on their lunchbreak, because you think you should be able to put your dots wherever you please, regardless of what they mean.

>Buildings don't take damage from the Earthquake tilt.
I fail to see why they wouldn't. Structures can also take damage.

Shhh, Aspel. Just shhhhh.

Even without abusing Mystery Cult Initiation/Influence, 18 XP is enough to start with Gnosis 5 (starting Gnosis 3) and 5/2/1 for Arcana, using your free Order Status 1 for any Social Merits you might need.

>Good point about just enlisting a prime mage for shielding
This will work against only Awakened magic. It will not save you from any other supernatural creature using object-affecting abilities.

>you make a good point that it's not out of the question to render it mundanely silent and invisible.
Sending the robot to Twilight via Death 3's Ghost Gate and then using creative thaumaturgy to apply a reverse version of Death 2's Touch of the Grave (allow Twilight to affect material, rather than the other way around) may be a good idea.

>Disagreeing with Touhou is against the rules

I'm just tired of the argument being constant. And Aspel is the one constantly flinging mud.

>Only one person ever disagrees with Touhou

TEN DOTS IN CULT

That one is decidedly Aspel, no second guessing.

>And Aspel is the one constantly flinging mud.
I thought that was Tohou? Well it seems that if we're lucky we can go half a thread without the two of them flinging poo at each other .

I'm Aspel. I'm just pointing out that you're being dumb. People were criticizing Touhou while I was out. I'm not constantly flinging mud, I'm pointing out that the game is not meant to be played the way that Touhou treats it as being played.

Most STs are not going to say "okay, sure, you can buy Athletics 5 even though your character is an MLG Gamer who solves mysteries.

Pointing out the flaws in someone's advice/way of looking at things isn't "flinging poo". Besides, the last thread or two was fine, except for people worshiping at Touhou's alter and complaining about a spell that's going to be changed before it can be changed.

So assuming I go through with the suggestion to use ghost gate and twilight touch effects to render the holes invisible, what do people think would occur?

IE when you bind a ghost or spirit to a golem, does its twilight form cease to exist? Because if not, ghost gate may in fact telefrag it.

Like yeah, yeah depends on the GM because the spell is vague about a very niche interaction, but I'm interested in getting a net of opinions.

>holes
Golem. For fucks sake autocorrect.

That said just filling a place with ghostwalled pits is also a neat trick for the civilised matter 4 mage.

>I fail to see why they wouldn't. Structures can also take damage.
Because a) the tilt specifies that it does damage to characters, and b) buildings have Durability that reduces damage, and the Earthquake Tilt doesn't actually deal enough at each interval to pierce that for anything but the weakest structures.

Hurt Locker when

Link?

It also says that the reason it does damage to characters is due to debris. Not everything needs to be spelled out for you in strict mechanical terms.

What if I want someone to be a true friend/lover bit not pay the steep cost? Would Ally be enough?

>Most STs are not going to say "okay, sure, you can buy Athletics 5 even though your character is an MLG Gamer who solves mysteries.

Dexterity 5 and Athletics 5 for my mage character (when we were still using Mage 2e as opposed to another system altogether) were approved under the logic that one hereditary property of their Proximi Dynasty an extreme natural limberness at the cost of ineptitude in other physical fields.

There is nothing stating that a ghost or a spirit absolutely has to be "within" a material golem, so presumably a golem sent to Twilight could be operated by a ghost or a spirit riding atop it.

Additionally, note that by RAW, Retainer can only go up to five dots, so even a Size 10 golem will still have, at most, 10 dice for its combat pools.

If anything, the ideal method of utilizing a golem would be to have it be roughly human-sized (perhaps slightly more or less), and then give it a firearm, so that it can at least bypass Defense.

Explain to your GM that True Friend is overpriced and should cost only one or two Merit dots, or simply take Ally 5 and explain that your friend has both very high competence and a "lotta loyalty."

Im more interested in loyalty rather than competence.

Also I want my character to have an infamous mentor is the merit worth it though?

Allies 5 gives your allies (or ally, seeing how the Merit explicitly points out that it can be represented by a single individual) the willingness to perform remarkably risky tasks on your behalf, which is certainly a sign of loyalty.

Infamous Mentor's value depends on how harsh your GM is with "but will later look down upon the student for leaning on the Mentor’s reputation." If you are simply looking for more Merit dots for the sake of more Merit dots, consider Mystery Cult Influence (which lets you acquire Infamous Mentor anyway).

The real benefit of True Friend is that it gives you Willpower. Although I will agree with Touhou on this. A Touchstone is only 1 dot.

>Dexterity 5 and Athletics 5 for my mage character (when we were still using Mage 2e as opposed to another system altogether) were approved under the logic that one hereditary property of their Proximi Dynasty an extreme natural limberness at the cost of ineptitude in other physical fields.
Yes, but the person you're playing with is also someone who's willing to put up with you abusing the system. That was the entire reason you were kicked from the group and had to do a one on one in the first place. That's hardly "most STs".

As for Golem, there's no reason you couldn't make it go above a 5 dot Retainer. The merit is related to Potency, which isn't limited to 5.

A spirit or ghost (I'd also allow a goetia) being bound to it is also essentially Geisting, not controlling it in a little cockpit. It would be fine in Twilight, though.

Most STs aren't going to have your Allies betray you anyway. True Friend is for players who are paranoid.
Infamous Mentor is basically just a Mentor, but infamous.

You know, most STs are not going to allow the kind of Mystery Cult shenanigans you pretend they will. A mentor that cares about you specifically is not a benefit befitting an entire cult, and Mystery Cult represents the cult's benefits, not you personally.

>Yes, but the person you're playing with is also someone who's willing to put up with you abusing the system. That was the entire reason you were kicked from the group and had to do a one on one in the first place.
The original ST of the game had also allowed the Dexterity 5 and the Athletics 5. It was only when I laboriously explained the breaking points of Fate and Time that I was booted from the group, at which point another player left as well and offered to ST for me.

>You know, most STs are not going to allow the kind of Mystery Cult shenanigans you pretend they will.
They really should acknowledge it as an issue and offer to repair such via a house rule, but if they do not, that is their metaphorical burden to bear.

>A mentor that cares about you specifically is not a benefit befitting an entire cult, and Mystery Cult represents the cult's benefits, not you personally.
In page 52 of the Chronicles of Darkness core rulebook, both cults' benefits can include Retainers. It hardly seems unthinkable that a cult can provide a Mentor.