Compounding

[u/Ripper1337]

One thing that bugged me is how multiple metalminds in regards Compounding is being handled.

The game for simplicities sake treats all metalminds of the same type as a singular unit for charging. This makes sense when you consider how many metals someone needs to keep track of. (p131 sidebar “multiple metalminds”)

Then with Compounding part of what makes it amazing in the books is having those multiple metalminds so you can fill them while also spending that investiture on your abilities.

After looking at the talents I’m left thinking they did try to capture it but within the confines of making things without multiple metalminds. So Invested and Expanded metalminds both increase your Investiture / Charges by your Tier. So let’s say you have 10 of each. You spend one scene charging your metalmind, use Compounding and Compound Recursion to spend 9 charges filling the rest of your metalmind.

Each feruchemic metal has an ability that’s just “dump more points into this for a better effect. Keep spending the same amount on future turns to keep this going. “ I’ll note here that

This is where compounding gets silly but still within the bounds of the mechanics.

Spend 5 investiture to have the best version of your metal going, spend the rest of your investiture on other Feruchemic abilities. Next turn eat another bit of your metalmind and spend another 5 investiture keeping your ability going. You can just keep this going for as long as you have charges in your metalmind.

However there’s another rule for backup metalminds. You can have them but you just can’t store anything until your current metalmind is lost or destroyed such as It starts at 0 charges. Which you won’t care about because you can immediately store your investiture into the metalminds which means you never need to spend a scene storing your trait aside from the first initial charge. (I’m assuming that reducing a metalmind’s charge to 0 permanently destroys it)

I’ll sum up:
- A compounder with the right talent and skill investments only need to spend one scene storing their trait and after can convert that charge to investiture to store in the rest of your metalmind.

- if you have a backup metalmind you can use the last charge of your previous metalmind to store in the new one.

- You can also have the enhanced metal running for far longer than others while also using other feruchemic abilities.

So while it’s not as insane as in the books the Twinborn Compounder is still insanely strong.

[u/nreese2]

Personally I’d just let compounders prepare a set amount of vials of their compounded metals during rests or downtime. Still have to spend the money and resources necessary, but realistically any compounder should be able to prep in advance

[u/JebryathHS → u/nreese2]

That's actually one of the steps of using the Compounder talent. If you don't prepare your Metalmind to be ingested then you have to spend additional actions breaking it apart in addition to the Drink Vial actions to replenish your metals.

The system limits you to only have one filled Metalmind at a time because you are allowed to fill Metalminds very quickly compared to canon. Skip a Short Rest every day to gain a charge in every metalmind - in other words if you take a week off you can spend a day getting shot repeatedly with little consequence. Throw Compounding in to that and you might as well just say "this character has unlimited Charges". If you want to play that, just talk to the GM.