<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=57625.msg2637760#msg2637760">Quote from: Ryvaken on 15-01-2010, 05:58:20</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Something like this should have a hefty cost, I'd think. That's a serious ability. And really, if you can't get that statue, you're not thinking creatively. Yeah, the Isle isn't accessible, but there are other ways to get stone quarried there. Like buy it. Unworked stone isn't that expensive. Then, Craft(Earth) is all you need. You don't need to <em>pay</em> to get a high resources outcome.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>IMHO, starting with Celestial sorcery is a heavy cost in and of itself.   I mean, you almost literally can't do anything else.   You're talking three charm slots plus all of your bonus points plus almost all of your flaw points just to get to essence 4.<br/><br/>I've bent over backwards trying to use the spell, but I've also had a series of ST's who've been of the opinion that I should a) Quest for the material given its rarity and b) haven't given me the time to quest for the material because they didn't want their story sidetracked.<br/><br/>As mentioned before,  the book states that the Stone you need is at least Resources 4, which means you'd either have someone with resources 5 in your group, or have resources 4 yourself and be willing to sacrifice it all for a one-time use.    That rules out buying it from a starting position in most games.    Your options are then left fundamentally to Wyld Shaping it or procuring it yourself (Ie: Questing).    Procuring it yourself involves a.) Locating it and b.) taking it.  Option A.) relies on storyteller whim, no matter what you do, and difficulty of b.) also relies on ST whim.<br/><br/>You won't get to use this spell freely until mid-game at the earliest due to the above reasons.    If you dedicate your entire character to it, and you get a lax GM who decides that the stone is just lying everywhere to buy, then perhaps you could make it work, but you do it at a staggering cost to your character at creation.<br/><br/>More than likely ST is not going to hand the item over to you, and it doesn't matter how creative you are if the ST wants to finish his plot before giving you time to quest.     Given the slow nature of PBP, and the short-lived nature of internet games before they fizzle out, you'll be fortunate to be able to use the spell once.    Honestly, Imbue Amalgam isn't really *that* powerful from just one use.    Anything you make with it can be easily killed in any one battle.    The real power it offers comes from multiple uses, and from being able to have an enterauge of supernatural beings at your disposal.    Given the sacrifices that you'll have to make during character creation to get your character to be able to use it, you'll need them, and given the way that most GM's rule about it, it makes it simply not worth it in the cost/benefit analysis for an early-game spell.   During mid-to-late game, however, it's most definitely worth it provided you can find a way of learning it.<br/><br/>Now, with SoM, I can create my small hoard of moderately powerful bodyguards in a few months game time if I only use my sorcerer as a Atytoxl tank, and provided that she's socially capable of getting laid.    If she's willing to sacrifice others, she can do it much faster.   Fortunately, she's not *evil*.   Birthing's a no biggy.   You can pass any difficulty one roll simply by expending willpower.    We've tagged on the same crafting roll that a Neomah has to make, which means at conception, I'm always going t have to make a diff 3 crafting roll.   Hence, 2nd crafting excellency.      This spell's weaker in that the creature can't perform on an exalted level of performance, given that any offspring will be god-blooded, but there's the off-chance that children with high enough breeding will be able to exalt as dragon blood.    (By the way, the manse is a Dragon's Nest).<br/><br/>Yes, my character is sorta crippled in terms of what she can do.   She Crafts and does sorcery, and that's about it.   However, she has a functional array of spells that don't require super-questing and that don't require hi-jacking the plot in order to use them.