78 replies to this topic

[cardz1992]

Maybe we should of named this forum "What would you actually do if you had Jee-Han's power?" instead of "What would you actually do in Jee-Han's situation?" that way we wouldn't have people debating about the situation!!!

[Inuzuka]

Well, with Jee-Han's current situation, sitting on 25 unused stat points, I'd be trying to figure out how to assign them.

 

Personally I'd up all my stats to 15, then put the rest in Int, which would end up as... 63? Not really sure why his Str dropped by 1.

Mostly only saying 15 for all stats because the healing skillbook he had needed 15 in Vit and 15 in Int.

Also, the increase should help him realize what it is that each stat actually boosts.

[CaptainVinegar]

To Agonal:

Spoiler

 

 

1) Why do you keep putting levels on stuff?  Mana affinity does not have a level; it simply is.  I perceive acquisition of this information (physics & etc) to be more of "unlocking" of skill tree branches rather than acquiring "level 7 mouth-breathing".  By doing so, he simply expands upon his potential.

This is being optimistic and against everything we've read, only his intrinsic ability of Gamers Mind Gamers Body and Mana Affinity(obtained through not any skill book or knowledge but as a result of his high int stat) are set up this way, and this is because they cannot level up by their very nature, learning physics from a text book will not give you instant absolute expertise in that field(and so by very definition would be able to level), it would take the reading (absorbing) of several high tiered materials (not available cheaply and certainly not available in a local book store) to provide a usable base. And considering 50 ish int is apparently not abnormal for the smartest person in school style character then top tier physicists would be in the 100s or above so the information they release would probably have int requirements of 70 or something to understand.

2)It was a headlock.  That's hardly the pinnacle of practical combat prowess. Ok I admit I was reaching and being a bit facetious with this reference, however no grappling skill is particularly difficult aside from perhaps the really exotic jumping armbars that are impractical anyway, I'm just going from a gut feeling that someone with low level grappling skills would not be able to suddenly have a significant or even minor advantage in close quarters with someone trained in the Chunbumoon style, and that in a world of 50 strength being mid tier wrestling techniques aren't useful unless you have that sort of strength anyway. The eight trigram skill seems to involve some aikido esque style maneouvers so we really have no idea what

3)Who has since been identified, and now owes Jihan a solid favor. You claimed that he wasn't in danger from the start, he almost got killed from the start, there is still a big unknown around the black summoner from a cautious perspective. The fact that there was such a precedent for quick death means that yes time has always been a factor for survival, he is being saved and threatened by external, unreliable forces and is at the mercy of these forces until he gets significantly stronger.

4)As the AH guy mentioned, they found him quite my accident while watching Chunbumoon - and presumably discovered his abilities later when he was grinding in those illusion barriers. That isn't the point at all, the point I was making was that there are external forces in the abyss that Jee-han doesn't even have a CONCEPT of until they are explained to him. He is fighting enemies with scrying abilities that we don't know how they work. If they have something like a LEVEL 1 OBSERVE then they can see the average power/potential of everyone they come across, one such enemy in a crowd looking for targets could see Jee-Han and have a shadow squad take him out. This is just one example of how the Abyss might search for prey, his life was in danger from the day he had his ability- whether he realised or not.

5)"Their world is our world.  Its based out of South Korea, and otherwise takes place on Earth in all its facets.  Only difference is the addition of ability users, and the fact this is imaginary." Not all facets, it has Gaea changing the world by very definition. The fact that these abilities often ignore several physical laws due to comic logic -not just magic but literally ignoring physical facts due to their complexity for writing and how they would affect the story negatively. The fact that humans can even become ability users through training or how even non ability users can have stats that are 3 times normal just through natural studying or training is one such example. Another example is that stats can be raised to such a level without involving mana or needing reinforcing showing that human physiology is operating off of manga logic.

6) I've ignored nothing.  If he were to manipulate its shape/dimensions as a tunnel, from point A to point B, he would already exist inside of it with the time factor already in play and his adversary on the outside - showing all outside as frozen, as in the instance of the classroom.  Even if not instantaneous, it would be several times faster than he could move otherwise.  1/10 time = 10x faster = ~200 mph (20 mph base), or roughly 2/3 the speed of human thought - faster than someone can perceive and react.  (just another example of useless knowledge i got from books you don't read - psychology). 

-This would require a LOT of ID levelling to get this sort of manipulation, which I said was a priority skill for training, though for different reasons.
-Reaction time of abyss users and humans is very likely to be VERY different, with Sun-Il saying combat experience could make up for not having 50 dex or whatever crazy number he has.

-Popping in and out of such portals requires time, as soon as he comes out the other end he will be subject to normal time and people can react.

-Your workaround still obviously doesn't work for long range teleportation of convenience, and the magical teleportation we've seen does not seem to work under this principle. I'll concede that it is a situational workaround, but considering it is standard for people to be able to run 50m in 3s without the need to activate and deactivate a specialised ID create, during which time you may very well get sniped it doesn't seem like it's *that* broken for combat.

7)Unless you mod your game.  He has a gamer ability.  Its feasible, and worth trying.  Yes if he could mod his game and get god mode and all that shit it would be broken as hell, I'm working under the premise that it's not that sort of game as implanting your own "code" into the universe makes no sense and would be horribly OP in the manwha, he doesn't seem to have a lot of basic game features like save, load, pause or all of which would be ridiculous as well.
A few games even have a customizable HUD. which would involve his visual options not hoping to add stuff through skills.

 

8)There you go again with that bullshit. First, bones heal back stronger than before.  Wolff's law doesn't really take into account compound fractures, which anecdotally do NOT heal properly, if they were all clean breaks then maybe they could be as good as before, but not better.
You probably associate permanent disability with professional athlete careers.Ever sprained/strained an ankle/muscle?  Were you crippled from it?  No?  OH I SEE!  FASCINATING!!! YOU MUST BE AN ABILITY USER! This is retarded, abyss characters are said to be even more elite than professional athletes and absolutely rely on their physiques.
And yes I have severely strained my wrist and despite rehab it took 6 months to heal to where I could do planches again, in the first month I couldn't even hold a pushup position without excruciating pain. The bloodflow and recovery ability of tendons is pitiful, it is probably only 95% of being perfect even now, which at top tier levels and involving the whole body would be significant.
Again you've conveniently ignored that Sun-il was recovering inside a recovery illusion barrier, and that "one month" would really have been closer to 2-3 on the outside - easily a typical recovery timeframe for fractures and most internal organ damage (with appropriate treatment).

Actually I just forgot about the recovery illusion barrier, my bad, but I find it strange that someone could recover completely fractured bones head to toe or even be able to be moved/survive in a presumably worse state initially before treatment, presumably unconscious without ki actively saving his life, leading to some leeway needed for plot reasons. And 3 months would not be typical for the full recovery and rehab of such a case and any snapped up joints may very well never heal properly.
I suppose all of this can be reasoned away due to his high VIT which is 4-5 times normal so I suppose I'll concede that Sun-Il should be able to recover from injuries that no human could ever hope to.

 

9)Right, so I needn't mention the resulting kidney failure as the 4th potential cause of death I didn't mention previously - another irreversible result of such profound tissue damage. Again ignoring the vastly restorative and protective healing abilities of "ki" or even being in this manwha, if you can punch holes through concrete without breaking all the bones in your hand something is wrong, let alone being able to take such a punch without insta-dying.

That's a strange concept, what with ability users who use firearms still rating on the higher-end of Sun-il's lethality scale.  But if they're immune to 'minor' injuries like life threatening injuries, regardless of the mechanism, then... wait. I'm a little confused right now.  Physics...ballistics... trauma... human physiology... if they're immune to these "minor" things, what with their Ki and rapid healing, then if they can suffer fatal damage to a vital organ, like the lungs, heart, kidneys, and they just heal it off, just what does that say about getting punched in the face?  Oh! So by that logic martial arts are useless as shit, then?  Awesome.  Thanks for clearing that up.  /sarcasm  Ki is just another form of energy; please don't assume its mechanism on human physiology is profoundly different than heat, eletricity, or mechanical energy. The main character has a gamer's body which is directly immune to all of the "minor" forms of damage I listed, given that a Ki based ability is able to do this in ABSOLUTE terms, is it unrealistic that Ki training can provide similar benefits if not absolute? I.e. if lung takes partial damage that would kill a normal human, high VIT prevents that, ki speeds up healing/ functioning of lung to allow proper functioning of the body. Ki is a mystical force that allows Jee-Han to create ID barriers, Shoot laser beams, create force fields, increase his foot speed, increase his STATS (this is largely the mechanism by which I'm proposing the resistance to damage feats, someone with 50 VIT is superhuman). Again the fact that Sun-Il can casually block a savage Zombie through ki is proof of principle that things like damage resistance exist, regardless of how the world works in the real world. Unless you are thinking Jee-Han's barrier only works on vanilla damage, but not fire etc. that is proof of principle that other damage types can also be defended against with ki. I see no reason as to why Ki based defense wouldn't translate to other "damage" types, and someone with 50 VIT should have 5 times the resistance to trauma as a normal human.

10)Back to that "martial arts are useless" argument.  I'd be just as worried, if not moreso, about the anatomy pierced/destroyed prior to its arrival at the spinal column (assuming the spinal column was my target).  But if it's that easy to defend yourself, then again, I return to my previous statement of how everything else becomes useless in the face of this impregnable defense.  I've stated previously elsewhere that the damage from Jihan's spinning mana arrow is actually akin to a .50 caliber machine gun - that this was probably an oversight by the author is my only logical conclusion because of its devastating implications to Jihan's destructive capabilities.
It's not martial arts are useless, it's low leveled human world martial arts are useless. Make the distinction in your mind between BJJ technques that can ruin a normal human's body and casual punches that can bust through concrete (much more destructive than even a bear).
I wasn't very clear in my description, I used the spinal column as an example as it is bone rather than purely soft tissue and that it's destruction is significant, I imagined a back shot rather than a front shot. well I was running under the  the assumption that the arrows are as destructive as shown, fists have the ability to casually smash through concrete as well, it doesn't make sense for their defenses to not be equally as good through mana reinforcement, Sun-Il casually nullified all damage from the savage zombie. Sun-Il himself said his ENERGY BOLT was broken, let alone being able to fire off 3 more penetrating rounds for less energy, it is pretty clear this is a good technique for damage as it one shots high levelled creatures frequently.

Sorry if I missed anything or was jumbled in my presentation

 

[sidneythelawyer]

In reference to the bookstore idea, there is a possibility that certain books wouldn't teach him new skills, but would give him passive buffs.

For instance, what if a psychology book gave him an automatic level increase to his observe skill? or if having Lvl 1 psychology from the book gave a synergy bonus to Observe while observing people?

 

Much like having all the Chunboonmoon (sp?) skills gave him a set bonus, it would probably be possible to find books which would augment skills he already has.

 

And, to stay on topic, that is what I would do. I would raid the bookstore, copy any books I got from drops and do lots of experimentation to find out the limits of what can be done with mana.

I'd probably quit my job, or use my skills to easily learn a fun/easy one so I could spend time training and killing zombies!

[Agonal]

Captain V. 

Spoiler

Ok I admit I was reaching and being a bit facetious with this reference, however no grappling skill is particularly difficult aside from perhaps the really exotic jumping armbars that are impractical anyway, I'm just going from a gut feeling that someone with low level grappling skills would not be able to suddenly have a significant or even minor advantage in close quarters with someone trained in the Chunbumoon style, and that in a world of 50 strength being mid tier wrestling techniques aren't useful unless you have that sort of strength anyway. The eight trigram skill seems to involve some aikido esque style maneouvers so we really have no idea what

Perhaps if you already know them, they're not exotic, but you'd be surprised how much there is out there.  These skills tend to work off of leverage, which as we know affords one individual an advantage over the other and, not mentioning you're able to break/dislocate/cripple limbs at the same time, means you can fight on equal terms with a stronger adversary.  Ridiculous scenario of being faced against an adversary you've no hope of achieving victory over aside, you cannot tell me rationally that this would not be effective and worth learning.  Moreover, wrestling isn't all about physical domination with strength; alot of it is about positioning yourself in the most advantageous position - controlling area/space, and controlling your opponent.  Other martial arts have similar concepts with space and range, but ultimately this was what I had in mind when I mentioned it.

 

You claimed that he wasn't in danger from the start, he almost got killed from the start, there is still a big unknown around the black summoner from a cautious perspective. The fact that there was such a precedent for quick death means that yes time has always been a factor for survival, he is being saved and threatened by external, unreliable forces and is at the mercy of these forces until he gets significantly stronger.

His "danger" at the beginning was fundamentally no different than him walking into traffic and almost being struck by a car.  After that single episode, the danger had ceased, and he was 'educated' as to the presence these newfound dangers and to be cautious.  That was my point, but to say that he was and has been in imminent danger, true is at may be that the abyss has long been in existence, is proposterous in that at the time his existence as an ability user had still remained a secret - even from his best friend who was adept was sensing ki since birth.  Now, some ficticious asshole finds him with some hypothetical scrying ability, then he is in danger.  Until such a time, he was not in mortal danger, and spending an afternoon in the library wouldn't have sent him to his certain death.

 

That isn't the point at all, the point I was making was that there are external forces in the abyss that Jee-han doesn't even have a CONCEPT of until they are explained to him. He is fighting enemies with scrying abilities that we don't know how they work. If they have something like a LEVEL 1 OBSERVE then they can see the average power/potential of everyone they come across, one such enemy in a crowd looking for targets could see Jee-Han and have a shadow squad take him out. This is just one example of how the Abyss might search for prey, his life was in danger from the day he had his ability- whether he realised or not.

Jihan is an idiot who, for some reason, doesn't ask questions and choose to remain ignorant of everything around him.  However, to say he has been, and is in, perpetual danger is like saying that we should all be afraid to leave the house because terrorist may live in our neighborhood.  Every threat you propose is hypothetical.  Yes, we've been told of a mana factory, but since his best friend couldn't sense him, then any other argument to say he'd be found and kidnapped would be like saying you're going to use water dynamite to catch some guppies - too much effort for too little payout.  Mark him, monitor him for growth?  Maybe.  But again, utterly hypothetical.  (In regards to this snapshot in time.  He's been discovered at present, and now that is a very real threat)

 

Not all facets, it has Gaea changing the world by very definition. The fact that these abilities often ignore several physical laws due to comic logic -not just magic but literally ignoring physical facts due to their complexity for writing and how they would affect the story negatively. The fact that humans can even become ability users through training or how even non ability users can have stats that are 3 times normal just through natural studying or training is one such example. Another example is that stats can be raised to such a level without involving mana or needing reinforcing showing that human physiology is operating off of manga logic.

Adding another religion to the mix changes nothing.  Scaling of stats is questionable as we've little frame of reference to make a relative comparison, and indeed, physical laws are being bent or broken;  much to the detriment of no small deal of logic, IE - "martial arts become useless".  But the fact remains that there has to be a rationalization, and knowing what and where these laws have been influenced would serve in, essentially, a pseudo-science whereupon we can understand this world.  ANd once we do that, we know exactly what it is we must do to reach full potential.  That is why it's worth it to learn this "useless" stuff.

-This would require a LOT of ID levelling to get this sort of manipulation, which I said was a priority skill for training, though for different reasons.
-Reaction time of abyss users and humans is very likely to be VERY different, with Sun-Il saying combat experience could make up for not having 50 dex or whatever crazy number he has.

-Popping in and out of such portals requires time, as soon as he comes out the other end he will be subject to normal time and people can react.

-Your workaround still obviously doesn't work for long range teleportation of convenience, and the magical teleportation we've seen does not seem to work under this principle. I'll concede that it is a situational workaround, but considering it is standard for people to be able to run 50m in 3s without the need to activate and deactivate a specialised ID create, during which time you may very well get sniped it doesn't seem like it's *that* broken for combat.

Humans have yet to stop being humans, despite their modified condition with the advent of Ki and Mana.  And your argument that they get sniped upon exiting only surmises certain death, with or without this 'teleport'.  But there are other applications whereupon you could essentially strike an assailant with a faster-than-light series of attacks.  Imagine the same tunnel, rules = 1)nothing living may enter, 2) time = 1/x, piercing through an assailant with a barrage of mana abilities.  Macro that ID Create with a series of mana arrows and, voila.

Yes if he could mod his game and get god mode and all that shit it would be broken as hell, I'm working under the premise that it's not that sort of game as implanting your own "code" into the universe makes no sense and would be horribly OP in the manwha, he doesn't seem to have a lot of basic game features like save, load, pause or all of which would be ridiculous as well.
A few games even have a customizable HUD. which would involve his visual options not hoping to add stuff through skills.

Other games allow for functional modification, for example World of Warcraft and Asheron's Call, to name a couple.  There's no reason to believe that he cannot acquire abilities that do the same thing.  ANd I'm not talking about cheat codes, hacks, or god-modes.

There you go again with that bullshit. First, bones heal back stronger than before.  Wolff's law doesn't really take into account compound fractures, which anecdotally do NOT heal properly, if they were all clean breaks then maybe they could be as good as before, but not better.
You probably associate permanent disability with professional athlete careers.Ever sprained/strained an ankle/muscle?  Were you crippled from it?  No?  OH I SEE!  FASCINATING!!! YOU MUST BE AN ABILITY USER! This is retarded, abyss characters are said to be even more elite than professional athletes and absolutely rely on their physiques.
And yes I have severely strained my wrist and despite rehab it took 6 months to heal to where I could do planches again, in the first month I couldn't even hold a pushup position without excruciating pain. The bloodflow and recovery ability of tendons is pitiful, it is probably only 95% of being perfect even now, which at top tier levels and involving the whole body would be significant.
Again you've conveniently ignored that Sun-il was recovering inside a recovery illusion barrier, and that "one month" would really have been closer to 2-3 on the outside - easily a typical recovery timeframe for fractures and most internal organ damage (with appropriate treatment).

Actually I just forgot about the recovery illusion barrier, my bad, but I find it strange that someone could recover completely fractured bones head to toe or even be able to be moved/survive in a presumably worse state initially before treatment, presumably unconscious without ki actively saving his life, leading to some leeway needed for plot reasons. And 3 months would not be typical for the full recovery and rehab of such a case and any snapped up joints may very well never heal properly.
I suppose all of this can be reasoned away due to his high VIT which is 4-5 times normal so I suppose I'll concede that Sun-Il should be able to recover from injuries that no human could ever hope to.

 

I think you meant comminuted fractures, where bones are broken in several places/pieces.  Compound fractures are when they've pierced the skin, and while healing may be more difficult it is due to the potential for presence of infection.  Even more ridiculous is Jihan's instantaneously healing Sun-il - a feat that the entire Chunbumoon clan regarded as something godly in-and-of itself.  This leads me to believe that the presence of "super fast healing" is even less as common a phenomenon as you've proposed, and only serves to diminish your argument.  "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," is something that comes to mind, and leads me to my next argument...

 

9&10:  -In summary, possession of Ki should make you invulnerable to damage that most 'normal' humans would otherwise succumb to, IE - BJJ & other "normal" martial arts, Fire, and etc. - and that the only way to overcome this is with more Ki-empowered abilities.-

As I previously mentioned, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and that is the philosphy by which humans have adapted to survive in combat.  Defense is not taking shots to the face and shrugging them off through sheer grit; it is preventing damage to vital areas by either avoiding, deflecting, blocking, or through equipment.  That being said, as with your "ki protected sun-il from a ravenous/savage level 7 zombie bite", Ki-empowered bodies are closer to having protective equipment on, like chainmail or a bullet-proof vest, that an attack must first bypass before rendering harm to its wearer.  This ability would not protect lungs from superheated gas, nor empower lungs once damaged to function beyond their normal capacity;  The defense lies in preventing the damage.  So unless you believe ki has sealed him off from the surrounding atmosphere completely, (in which case he should die of exfixiation once he's run out of his finite supply of oxygen), inhalation of fire/hot air will damage lung tissue, and they will die, regardless of the Ki present in their bodies.  So when you say, "there is a difference between 'normal' martial arts, in that it is inferior, and 'ki empowered' ability users, whose bones and vital organs are strengthed geometrically by ki" I can only shake my head and reply, "they are still normal people, but with a fancy rocket-fuel-powered-bulletproof-skin-suit, but ultimately still susceptible to the same life-threatening processes as we mere mortals."

 

With that said, I understand that this is a work of fiction, and nothing reifnorces that fact like Jihan's A Gamer's Body ability.   This single ability places him outside of the human race, in the regards that in that it denies all the arguments I've previously mentioned, turning damage to HP.  Whether or not it'd be fatal hp damage, or not, from his receiving one of these injuries is hard to say.  Given what we've seen, I'd have to say the answer would be 'no'.  And in addition to that, I wouldn't be surprised to find he have longevity with eternal youth, as is the norm that game characters do not age.  Honestly, I half expect him to go to the bathroom and discover he as anatomically correct as a Ken doll at some point due to this ability.

Instant healing, time manipulation, space manipulation... and especially anything that fucks with passage of time (more besides that escape me at present) - these things are a mistake to tamper with, IMO, because of the snowball-effect it has with 'the universe' the author has created.  By that I mean it is only too easy to unintentionally screw up a dozen other things from short-sightedness.  (Magic 8-ball is tired;  can't think of a specific example at present.  Ask again tomorrow). 

-->The fact that these abilities often ignore several physical laws due to comic logic -not just magic but literally ignoring physical facts due to their complexity for writing and how they would affect the story negatively.<--  Proofreading; yes.  This is my point exactly, but its stuff like that that drives me nuts.  "You just broke the entire system, dude.  Nothing works right anymore."

Edited by Agonal, 06 April 2014 - 06:26 AM.

[jmccrimson]

If I was Jeehan, I would just put the rest of my points into VIT, become super smart in school, work out a lot to level up strength and vit and go to Sun-Il's house every day after school to train till night, and then level my VIT to like 50. Also I would ask the demon/dark summoner guy to give me books on how to summon things, and ask the girl who controls fire to have some of her books, and basically have a wide variety of powers. Also mastering observe, and mana manipulation, and the breathing technique.

[Seraphim]

I'd focus on a melee build that emphasizes speed, attack, evasion and critical attacks.

 

I'd invest skills primarily in Int, Wis, Luck, Str, Dex and Vit, in that order, until getting 50 in each and then focus my stat points in Str, Dex and Luck.

 

For combat skills I'd look for books on MMA, Kendo, archery and knife throwing.

After that I'd start doing MMA, Kendo and archery to raise the skill with the help of an instructor.

Getting the skill through the books first would mean less time and effort is wasted trying to gain the skill through practice.

I'm unlikely to get many active skills this way but I've always preferred passive builds in RPGs.

 

Even if I had help from the Chunbumoon I would still learn MMA and Kendo even though I would probably never need to use them and thus wouldn't level them up much.

 

For defense I'd get a books on parkour, acrobatics, camouflage and any other stealth related skills.

Not being hit is one of the best defenses.

 

For utility I'd go to a book store that specializes in university level textbooks and look for books on programming, maths, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, medicine, statistics, finance, psychology, and as many languages as I could get my hands on and then learn them.

I'd also look for books on lock-picking, cooking and repairs from a normal book store.

This would give me a good basis for a wide variety of future careers and I would be able to level most of them just from attending school or university.

 

The programming, once leveled up, could be used to develop software that I could then sell and with the finance skill I would be able to invest the money and earn even more helping to ensure that equipment isn't a problem.

Additionally botany, zoology and medicine would probably enhance most skills by providing a passive boost when used against animals, plants and people respectively.

Chemistry and medicine could be used along with the crafting skill to create healing, mana restoring and buffing items.

 

The languages would of course be useful for reading and watching in the original languages *cough*raws*cough*.

Edited by Seraphim, 07 April 2014 - 12:53 PM.

[Purple Library Guy]

Hmmm . . . something just occurred to me.  I'd need to learn how to launder money somehow.  Come up with a front business.  I mean, once I started grinding, and my Chunbumoon pals explained to me how valuable some of this stuff that just dropped off the things I killed was, the clear conclusion is I'm not actually going to need a career because money drops out of the sky just from training in my IDs.  What I need is some real-world excuse for having that money, so I can become a prosperous respectable citizen without actually having to hold down a regular job at the same time as my "Get tough enough to be sure I won't get grabbed and turned into a mana battery" job.

[Locomoto]

He learnt martial arts, passive skills, ranged skills and now cc skills. He just lack aoe skills. He's unstoppable! He might as well pour all his stats evenly.

[Purple Library Guy]

Well, he's got some of all those things, sure, but the problem is if others are better at them.  As to what he just lacks . . . subtlety.  In terms of the "game engine" as it were, he's like an online game character.  But the environment does not have the limitations and game-balancing effects of a MMORPG.  Especially when it comes to dealing with human opponents and maybe-opponents, rather than standard categories of damage-dealing he needs sophisticated stuff like you find more often in a tabletop game:  Informational abilities, deception, mind-reading, abilities to shape and defend against magic itself.  Everything from spell shields to little tricks like being able to appear to be ten feet to the left of where he's actually standing.

If I were him I would definitely be working on such things.  There's always someone with a bigger energy blast who can blow through your shields; I can beat that someone if I'm sneakier and more versatile.

Edited by Purple Library Guy, 08 April 2014 - 02:20 AM.

[deyone5]

I would go on the nuna route since my gamer ability would allow me to see affinity points like in sim dates and harvest moon.

[yajibei]

without going on nuna's route (for now) I would try to create passive skills to convince, debate, seduction, ...
why fight if you can talk around people ? It can be more effective than being really strong.

[bowen]

If I were in Jee-Han's situation I would probably do the following:

 

1)  As others have stated I would look for other menus particularly a Tutorial and/or Player's Manual.  I think it best to get the most information about my abilities from Gaia as I can as that information would be the most accurate for me in my situation.  I probably would have been looking for this after I gained my first level, possibly before throwing all my points into STR.  For example, finding a Tutorial might lead to a way to save which would be game-braking-ly beneficial.

 

2) If after I exploited every menu, guide, or text I could think of from Gaia, I would start to focus on INT till I was smart enough to figure out what the most efficient direction to raise stats for my case.  I would probably make another attempt to think of new manuals/menus/skills/tutorials that Gaia might give me for free at about every 20 INT as I might be smart enough to think of it then.

 

3) If even after getting my INT maxed (assuming that 100 is the max) I still didn't know what direction my stats should go, I would probably focus on LUCK next as the old saying goes that, "It's better to be lucky than good."  And then WIS (since by this point I'm definitely a mana character anyway) WIS should also help with mana and might help me better figure out how to apply my knowledge correctly.  Again, at every benchmark of 20 toward the given stat I would go over again what I might have missed with the  manuals, menus, skills, tutorials, and etc.  Who knows, I might get lucky.

 

4) As the story has already unfolded IF learning a skill would cause conflict with another skill I would be warned, then I could judge weather that skill is worth learning or not.  As many others have already pointed out, I would spend some time in Libraries and Book Stores looking for skill/stat books.  As I wouldn't want to cause a scene I would buy them from bookstores or check them out from the library and copy them since I know already that those books don't just disappear, but do so in a spectacular way (people would probably worry about a fire in a library), and I don't want honest librarians/book dealers to be put out because of the loss.  I never know what skill might come in handy (though dish-washing skills sound pretty useless), but I know it's better to have and not need than to need and not have.  I figure that as long as learning the skill doesn't conflict, then there is no harm is at least learning the basics of it.  If I bought a book that turned out to be in conflict, and I didn't want that skill more than the conflicting skill I would just try to sell the book again (maybe get some sort of mercantile skill?)

 

5) Once I've determined what skills I have available I would prioritize which ones seem most useful and focus on their grinding.  Prioritization might get easier as my INT and WIS eventually increase so I would reevaluate about every 20 points in stat or every 5 levels of skill.

 

  a.  I like the idea another poster mentioned about going to hospitals as an entertainer in an effort to help kids and other people who are in one way or another infirm.  I would again want to do this on the down-low as I don't want to draw attention to myself as that might gain Gaia's wrath.  But I doubt Gaia would mind if I helped others using my abilities unselfishly.

  b.  I would also be sure to work on seemingly useless skills a little here and there to see if increased levels didn't improve their use.  In most games I've played Observe skills are usually a waste of time in a fight, but most games I've played don't have additional levels of the skill.  Maybe with a high enough observe skill I could determine which mobs are going to have Item drops and what they might drop.  

  c.  Despite being a mana character by this point I would continue to train martial skills also.  I never know when I might need to fight in close range (walk into a building or other enclosed space only to be ambushed for example).  Perhaps with enough INT/WIS I would finally see the light of how I should be spending my stat gains and take the focus in another direction creating a more balanced hybrid type character.

  d.  I'm honestly a bit surprised that Jee-Han didn't get any notable skill increase in crafting when he developed the mana arrow or the mana rope, but maybe that is because the mana objects don't last indefinitely.  Either way, I would be sure not to forget about crafting as a grinding priority because eventually I would want equipment specifically tailored to me.  It appears that the crafting skills requires recipes as guides so again I might find those in Libraries and book stores, or maybe if I just try crafting anything and everything I can think of out of clay, then use the recipes I've acquired to build things like swords, shields, etc out of better materials.  Eventually, I imagine I could craft enchanted items or at least items worth enchanting if I could learn enchanting skills to go with it.

 

6)  I would try experimenting with the item drops.  I can't imagine what use a zombie tooth would be, but it specifically said it was useful for crafting. Those bigger souls stones may be able to help the summoner's daughter better than those little ones so I would see if I could enlist her in experimentation with my soul recovery skill perhaps with the summoner present to observe what I might miss (If it were my daughter, I'd want to be present anyway for the sake of my piece of mind).  Being open with the summoner about what I can and can't do with the recovery skill might be a good idea anyway as he knows I did something to help his daughter (he'd be less likely to do something rash like kidnap me for interrogation if I was openly willing to help him with her condition).

 

7) I would see what drops I've already collected are worth on the Auction.  Maybe other people lacking in moral compasses would find zombie teeth more valuable for some necromantic gain.  Either way if I don't need it I'm not hanging onto hundreds of them... maybe five or so in case I think of a need later but not hundreds.

 

 

I know already that other people think their ideas are better than mine, and to them I say, "Good for you."  I honestly hope you think your ideas are better than mine since they're your ideas.  Try to remember though, that I'm going to feel the same way.  This topic isn't about how to min/max a character as much as it's about what you would do and since I'm not you I wouldn't do what you would do.  All of us are entitled to our opinions based on what we personally have experienced.  That being said I don't care to read your opinions about my stupidity, short-sighted-ness, etc.  I would rather just find out what you would do, not what you would do differently as that would become obvious from your post about what you would do.

 

There's my two-bits.

 

~Bowen

[StoicGuard]

If I were THE GAMER, I'll tell you what I'd do...

 

I'd begin by setting an attribute floor of 25. Next, I would raise each attribute as little as possible to gain a passive bonus from each, which may or may not require the same value for each. Then, I would raise INTELLIGENCE, and WISDOM together to the next passive bonus, or to 50/75/100, depending on how I feel the points are aiding my development. Once I reach 100 of both, I'd focus on DEXTERITY and LUCK, then VITALITY and STRENGTH.

 

I'd spend all of my time manipulating mana into anything I could think of, and reshaping it, and doing so as quickly as I could. I would focus on condensing the mana, creating dense, ever-present items which I believe would allow quicker formation of anything I would need. (Instead of gathering, forming and condensing the mana to create what I need, I reshape it from extremely dense reserves I carry on my person.) With these mana reserves, I would have an EFFECTIVE MANA POOL much larger than my base MANA POOL. Also, I would attempt to store mana within items, enhancing them with increased density, or perhaps granting the item special effects based on affinity or something that arose based on how I manipulated the mana.

 

Essentially, I'd strive to become an artificer/enchanter/warlock. Imagine facing a member of the Abyss who seemed to have unlimited mana and was able to conjure anything they could imagine nigh instantly.... Now imagine they could control inanimate objects in which they've stored mana... Wow.

[Agonal]

If I were THE GAMER, I'll tell you what I'd do...
 
I'd begin by setting an attribute floor of 25. Next, I would raise each attribute as little as possible to gain a passive bonus from each, which may or may not require the same value for each. Then, I would raise INTELLIGENCE, and WISDOM together to the next passive bonus, or to 50/75/100, depending on how I feel the points are aiding my development. Once I reach 100 of both, I'd focus on DEXTERITY and LUCK, then VITALITY and STRENGTH.
 
I'd spend all of my time manipulating mana into anything I could think of, and reshaping it, and doing so as quickly as I could. I would focus on condensing the mana, creating dense, ever-present items which I believe would allow quicker formation of anything I would need. (Instead of gathering, forming and condensing the mana to create what I need, I reshape it from extremely dense reserves I carry on my person.) With these mana reserves, I would have an EFFECTIVE MANA POOL much larger than my base MANA POOL. Also, I would attempt to store mana within items, enhancing them with increased density, or perhaps granting the item special effects based on affinity or something that arose based on how I manipulated the mana.
 
Essentially, I'd strive to become an artificer/enchanter/warlock. Imagine facing a member of the Abyss who seemed to have unlimited mana and was able to conjure anything they could imagine nigh instantly.... Now imagine they could control inanimate objects in which they've stored mana... Wow.

Enchanting and stat focus aside, density reminds me a bit of ETOL from Veritas. Of course they said "purify ki" rather than "condense mana", but it sounds like the same principle. +1 sir.

[demonzabrak]

Ya know, a lot of people have had some pretty good ideas in here, and I am a fan of the "learn all t3h skillz" road, but honestly, that would all take the backseat for me, cause I'm a bit (super) paranoid.  As of now in the story, particularly after hearing that I might get hunted for a mana farm, I would immediately do the following:

 

Turn on my active buff skill, from Chun-Breathing.  It gave, at level 1, a total of 60% bonus stats (30 in STR and DEX), for 15 mana.  I would take the feeling of the move, and recreate it with mana instead of Ki.  Then, I would run through EVERY POSSIBLE COMBINATION of mana-based active buffs.  Assuming my thoughts on the Breathing Meditation are right, and it's a 250% increase instead of a flat 30 point recovery, I would turn on every buff with an INT bonus, and then sit and meditate.  Eventually, I'd run out of mana, but then I'd just keep meditating till it's all back.  Turn em on again.  As they level, they'll give larger boosts for the same cost, giving me more INT, and thus more mana, and I'll also gain about 2 mana per minute spent mediating.  Eventually, I'd "break even," where the costs of the buffs are less then my regen.  As that happens, you start adding new ones to the active training list, until eventually (maybe not to long with the new rooms), I could manage to have them all running at all times.  When everything is said and done, I'd be about 15 times stronger then my level would suggest, stat wise, and assuming luck is something you can't buff, all my points would go into that from then on, as I'll just naturally get stronger just by, you know... existing.  I'd also look into making skill macros, so I can just throw all my buffs on at once in the morning, or make multiple skills and name it "Panic Button," resulting in some absurd combo of Knockback, AoE damage, Healing, Shielding, and Invisibility.  Cause you never know, might need it some day.

[StoicGuard]

I'd also look into making skill macros, so I can just throw all my buffs on at once in the morning, or make multiple skills and name it "Panic Button," resulting in some absurd combo of Knockback, AoE damage, Healing, Shielding, and Invisibility.

 

Actually, to be a panic button, I'd probably include a physical knockback, a mental challenge such as disorientation/blindness or a combination, a physical snare, a variety of damage sources, a variety of self-targeted aid to include status cures and healing, a shield, invisibility coupled with a combination of physical and visual clones as well as additional auditory illusions, and I'd complete the coup de grace with some sort of immediate spacial relocation (not necessarily very large, just enough to avoid anything targeting my previously known position.

[Popcorn01]

 I'd also look into making skill macros, so I can just throw all my buffs on at once in the morning, or make multiple skills and name it "Panic Button," resulting in some absurd combo of Knockback, AoE damage, Healing, Shielding, and Invisibility.  Cause you never know, might need it some day.

That kinda reminds me of a spell called "Ocato's recital" in a skyrim mod. With it, you're allowed to 'save' three spells which automatically activates for free when combat starts. I don't think Jee-Han will be able to do anything like that (at least not anytime soon) but setting macros is probably one of the top-priority things he should look into.

[ThinIceOwl]

I'd go full-on white mage. Invent a Raise skill. Fighting is cool, but the prospect of resurrecting the dead is a bit too much to pass up.

Edited by ThinIceOwl, 13 April 2014 - 12:12 AM.

[adel]

Straight to the bookstore to see if I can find books that qualify as skill books, be it cooking, handycrafts, sailing or whatever.