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Old 11-26-2020, 07:07 PM   #1
Plane
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default can you drop a benefit of an Ally to drop a drawback of a Dependent?

DF9 Summoners 25 highlights that casting zombie on random ordinary corpses does not require you to buy it as an Ally... yet clearly you're getting something ally-ish, kind of like when you have wealth or material possessions.

The effect of Ally always rounds up to at least 1 point (perk) so the only way to get it to zero is to pair it with Dependent.

Allies have a major benefit similar to "Signature Gear": points you spent on an ally who is slain and it's not your fault can be spent on a new ally.

This is one benefit which doesn't seem like it would apply to Zombie: if your Zombie gets slain, you don't just have a new zombie happen along: you need to put in work to make a new ally.

So I'm wondering if it would seem reasonable to trade away this expected benefit of an Ally perk to mitigate an expected drawback of a Dependent quirk.

A big downside of Dependent (B131) is if they're killed you need to make up the bonus points for them, either by getting a new Dependent or a disadvantage of the same cost.

That's something which also seems off for zombies: you shouldn't get depressed or need to care for an abandoned orphan if your zombie gets killed, yes?

So instead: maybe it just cancels out?

a) you don't get a new Ally (you just lose the points spend on the social advantage)
b) you don't get a new Dependent (you just gain the points spent on the social advantage)

This should of course only apply if the cost of Ally is greater or equal to the refund you would get for Dependent, which I'm taking for granted you would design this way when working it out to a 0pt feature.

Other drawbacks of a Dependent would of course still apply, but you should probably define zombies as "acquaintance" to minimize the help you need to give them. ("may weigh risks in a rational fashion"). The demands of Friends / Loved Ones are too high!

It seems like the half-cost version of Dependent may not as strictly require going to immediate rescue or docking bonus CP for not immediately aiding? Seems like you'd just have to aid as it demands.

Not being able to earn bonus CP when a dependent "is killed" is an interesting thing to think about for zombies since they're already dead and you might just be able to bring them back later. "Badly hurt" certainly has a higher threshold for things with No Blood and IT:Unliving...
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ally dependent, ally group, dependent ally, dependent group, zombie (spell)

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