[Jason]

Originally Posted by Acolyte

I'm not a huge fan of names being definitely linked to certain concepts, if only because a large number of name "meanings" have no basis in fact, and because so many names mean the same thing. I like a conceptual link for angel PCs, but considering that demons who become full demons after being demonlings had names like "Snorkle" or "Flubby", and that there are so many demons made to be dispensable by their Superiors...I don't think their names have that much meaning.

This raises the question of just how much of a hardliner you really want to be with this kind of approach, and basically, I'm kind of crazy in this regard. In my game, every True Name is truly meaningful, even if the "meaning" isn't what you'd find by looking it up in a baby names dictionary.

If a mundane's true name is Joseph Smith, for instance, a Seraph of Destiny would only detect the etymology of the name "Joseph" if Joe's parents chose the name because they liked what they read in the baby name dictionary. If Joe's named after his grandpa, though, the Seraph might instead understand that the person was named in honor of someone else. If a demon's true name is "Flubby," knowing the True Name means not just knowing how it's spelled, but actually understanding that the name was meant to be nonsensical and demeaning.

Admittedly, this does overstep the True Name rules offered in canon, which just say that the name is how a person understands him or herself. You might not know why your parents named you what they named you, but a Seraph of Destiny potentially would.

Originally Posted by Acolyte

Angels of Dream are shortchanged in corporeal service, but the books in numerous places specifically mention that while Beleth is expanding her operations into the waking world, Blandine isn't. And they do shine in the Marches. Any extra corporeal powers of angels of Dream should be minimal, and probably focused directly on dreams or dreamers.

Yeah, my take on this is heretical. It's just very hard to integrate servitors of Dreams into a group that doesn't hang out in the Marches, and that seems kind of a waste to me, given that the Word has a lot of potential for interesting uses in the waking world (as years of Neil Gaiman's Sandman demonstrate).

Originally Posted by Acolyte

Angels of Fire aren't as limited as you seem to suggest, to me.

I don't mean to imply that angels of Fire are actively handicapped so much as that many wouldn't automatically start the game with an actively helpful Choir attunement like everyone else does. Rather, their attunement is an obligation, and one that means one more thing (potentially unrelated to the central story) for me to worry about as a GM. If there were any reward whatsoever for punishing the cruel to whom they are attuned (e.g., a Rite), at least then my players would consider taking it.

Originally Posted by Acolyte

HOWEVER, angels being forced to babble prophetically is pretty awesome. However, the only way to get a resonance roll's CD above 6 is to have a target number above 12, which means your Perceptions+the Essence you spent has to be above 12, which is pretty insane. I don't really like that method of triggering--perhaps you could explain more what you mean?

I would be happy to babble further about prophetic babbling!

One way to get a CD over 6 is to have a target above 12. Another (which my players are quite fond of doing) is to use proximity modifiers: +2 when making direct contact, and +1 if within a yard. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but my group's PCs exceeded CDs of 6 on resonance rolls maybe two or three times (among six players) in the first meeting of our new campaign. That's infrequent enough that you wouldn't necessarily have a prophecy in every meeting, but you'd probably get at least one or two per adventure.

Ofanim don't have an option to get resonance roll check digits over 6, however, and can get Area Knowledge or Agility check digits over 6 far too easily. I can't leave them out when Gabriel is an Ofanite herself, though! I'm thinking maybe that the effect for them might occur when the unmodified check digits on the resonance roll and modified Area Knowledge roll align. The prophecy would be something about the locale itself, or whatever the Ofanite is trying to find, and perhaps the pair of numbers could be worked into the details of the babbling somehow.