Best compounded Metal?

[Tglassy]

Pewter/Pewter is almost too tempting to pass up.  You get all the affects of Pewter, but can literally increase your strength to infinite levels whenever you need to.  We're talking stand-in-front-of-a-freight-train-and-stop-it-with-your-face strong, assuming you had a way of keeping it from just taking you along with it.  And if I'm not mistaken, we've heard that strength stored from Pewter doesn't make you grow big when you tap it, because Pewter doesn't do that.  Think of all the times in your life when you just wish you were stronger. 

Tin/Tin is also good, though I can't see how much it would help in real life.  It would help with spying, I suppose, knowing where everyone was and what they were doing and saying.  But I'm not a spy.

Gold is cool and all, but unless you are in a situation in life where you need to heal all the time, like military or police, then it is kind of redundant.  We go through most of our lives not injured, so the gold would go to waste.  Not to mention, that's an expensive power to have.  You'd have to continually burn your gold reserves, and therefore continually buy gold.  No thanks.  Pewter is much cheaper, and gives you increased healing as well.

Steel is the other superhero power.  Flying, shooting and speed.  If you lived in a city, I suppose this could be a great power to have for getting around, but even if you can run all that way really fast, you still have to run all that way.  For someone like me, who is out of shape, I can run pretty fast for a short distance before getting out of breath.  All Steel would do is allow me to go that same distance MUCH MUCH faster.  I'd still be out of breath, so unless you're a marathon runner, there's no running across country.  Though, I suppose, you could just walk it and tap more speed so your walking speed is sped up to the speed of sound.  It would definitely give someone some incentive to build up their endurance, as doubling your walking speed would cost the same feruchemically as doubling your running speed, and you can run many times faster than you can walk.  I'd still rather the Pewter, as it would grant that endurance and still make me faster than normal.  Not Flash fast, but still fast.

 

The others are definitely awesome, but I'm going to stick with Pewter/Pewter and become a superhero.  

[MECQEMA]

1 hour ago, Tglassy said:

Pewter/Pewter is almost too tempting to pass up.  You get all the affects of Pewter, but can literally increase your strength to infinite levels whenever you need to.  We're talking stand-in-front-of-a-freight-train-and-stop-it-with-your-face strong, assuming you had a way of keeping it from just taking you along with it.  And if I'm not mistaken, we've heard that strength stored from Pewter doesn't make you grow big when you tap it, because Pewter doesn't do that.  Think of all the times in your life when you just wish you were stronger. 

Tin/Tin is also good, though I can't see how much it would help in real life.  It would help with spying, I suppose, knowing where everyone was and what they were doing and saying.  But I'm not a spy.

Gold is cool and all, but unless you are in a situation in life where you need to heal all the time, like military or police, then it is kind of redundant.  We go through most of our lives not injured, so the gold would go to waste.  Not to mention, that's an expensive power to have.  You'd have to continually burn your gold reserves, and therefore continually buy gold.  No thanks.  Pewter is much cheaper, and gives you increased healing as well.

Steel is the other superhero power.  Flying, shooting and speed.  If you lived in a city, I suppose this could be a great power to have for getting around, but even if you can run all that way really fast, you still have to run all that way.  For someone like me, who is out of shape, I can run pretty fast for a short distance before getting out of breath.  All Steel would do is allow me to go that same distance MUCH MUCH faster.  I'd still be out of breath, so unless you're a marathon runner, there's no running across country.  Though, I suppose, you could just walk it and tap more speed so your walking speed is sped up to the speed of sound.  It would definitely give someone some incentive to build up their endurance, as doubling your walking speed would cost the same feruchemically as doubling your running speed, and you can run many times faster than you can walk.  I'd still rather the Pewter, as it would grant that endurance and still make me faster than normal.  Not Flash fast, but still fast.

 

The others are definitely awesome, but I'm going to stick with Pewter/Pewter and become a superhero.  

F-pewter does make your muscles bigger. (see: sazed any time he uses it) 

[Isilel]

20 hours ago, Scion of the Mists said:

Steel compounding may not gain you reality-bending speed, but it does allow you to move so fast that you can fire a gun from multiple points around a room and it seem as if they are happening at the same time.  That's still really fast - like a bystander may or may not see a blur fast. 

Well, a kandra did it. Whether a human would have been able to as well is still an open question. I hope that Sanderson does limit F-Steel somewhat, because otherwise it is really OP and can't be defended against.

19 hours ago, Tglassy said:

Pewter/Pewter is almost too tempting to pass up. 

But F-Pewter only stores strength, not agility, grace and healing of A-Pewter. As far as we know only  F-Nicrosil could do that. So, IMHO double Pewter is a bit of an underwhelming combination, even if, as you claim, tapping strength stored from an allomantic pewter burn wouldn't produce the awkward huge muscles. 

Quote

Tin/Tin is also good, though I can't see how much it would help in real life.  It would help with spying, I suppose, knowing where everyone was and what they were doing and saying.  But I'm not a spy.

Double Tin, OTOH, is probably the most broadly useful compounding combination. Heightened senses and particularly the  ability to dial down and up specific senses as needed is very helpful whatever you do. A-Tin mainly helps to fill the metalminds quickly and without the hassle of unaided Feruchemy.

You have to deal with people a lot? Tin would allow you to accurately gauge their emotional states and eventually to become a living lie-detector. From a businessperson to a detective, a plethora of professions would profit very much from something like that.

If you are a medical doctor, heightened senses would help you diagnose better - noticing and hearing things that normal person wouldn't or would need to use equipment for. If you are a surgeon, the ability to selectively enhance the senses of vision and touch would be godsend. Ditto being able to shut down your sense of smell.

You are a mechanic? You'd be able to detect the slightest changes in the sounds and vibrations of machinery and catch on to developing defects before they become a problem, as well as perform what we call non-invasive material science checks, with  practice.

You are a chef or a perfumer? Well, the heightened senses of taste and smell would allow you to reverse-engineer any  dish or scent that you come across, as well as help you with your own creations.

You are a hunter or an explorer? The benefit of super-sharp senses is self-explanatory.

You are a criminal or a covert operative? Your ability to see in very low light conditions (you can go full  Spook, without the drawbacks of being a savant, using F-Tin), superb hearing, huge advantage in opening locks of all kinds, etc. would make you exceptionally successful if you are not a complete fool. 

Etc, etc.

Also, just think how storing senses could be used to avoid distractions or unpleasant sensations! You need to study for an exam? Store hearing and it doesn't matter how loud your environment is. You have to eat something you don't like? Store taste. You have to deal with stinks? Store scent!

Heh, now I kinda wish for a main or at least an important character with a PoV who is either a Tin compounder or even just a Tin Ferring in the future Cosmere books by Sanderson. It is my favorite kind of ability - you can achieve so many different kinds of things with it, but you have to be practiced and clever.

Edited October 16, 2018 by Isilel

[itsmeaddof123]

I feel like being able to compound mental speed would be the most practical for a majority of life. There are definitely others that would be more powerful in a fight, but having the ability to compound mental speed could also be powerful in a fight by giving extremely fast reflexes, reaction times, and tactical decisions. In everyday life, it could be used to basically enhance all your interactions

[Tglassy]

On 10/15/2018 at 0:45 PM, MECQEMA said:

F-pewter does make your muscles bigger. (see: sazed any time he uses it) 

Yes, but Allomantic Pewter doesn’t. And Brandon has said that you can store Allomantic Pewter Strength in a Pewtermind. He said it would be simpler to compound, but I’m thinking if you store Allomantic strength, then burn and compound that, it should do the same thing without having to increase your body mass. 

 

So, increased reflexes, balance, speed, endurance and healing, and then an infinite amount of strength. Yeah, I’d go for that. 

 

Also, you could compound normally to increase your muscle mass pretty much permanently, thus always walking around jacked as all get out. 

[Leyrann]

20 hours ago, Isilel said:

Well, a kandra did it. Whether a human would have been able to as well is still an open question. I hope that Sanderson does limit F-Steel somewhat, because otherwise it is really OP and can't be defended against.

Except we saw Wayne defending against it with a speed bubble.

Keep in mind that allomantic technology will become more and more common. (also I just spent several seconds wondering whether I had misspelled "allomantic" because there was a squiggly line under it...)

Edited October 17, 2018 by Leyrann

[Calderis]

Wax is the third known Crasher in the history of Twinborn being a thing. Compounder are ridiculously rare. Miles may have been the only living Twinborn  for all we Know. 

Typically, steel is going to be insanely limited by the need to store. A compounder removes that limitation, but should be rare, at least pre-medallion tech. 

Medallions will change this, but you can bet that when the Arts become more pervasive, counters will be designed. Have no idea how that will work, but I trust Brandon to balance things out. 

[Isilel]

3 hours ago, Leyrann said:

Except we saw Wayne defending against it with a speed bubble.

Well, it helped that Paalm didn't really want to hurt him... we don't know how the things would have gone if she had been serious. And also, Wayne was forewarned that he was dealing with a Steel Ferring. But bodyguards trying to protect somebody from a hired assassin wouldn't necessarily have such luxury. 

3 hours ago, Leyrann said:

Keep in mind that allomantic technology will become more and more common.

Which is why F-Steel needs to be limited, lest it become unstoppable as compounding becomes easier due to the medallions. IMHO, increased likelihood of severe injury, even death, when operating at higher speeds, as well as the rising difficulty of timely thinking and reactions should prevent human compounders from replicating Paalm's stunts.

3 hours ago, Calderis said:

Typically, steel is going to be insanely limited by the need to store.

Insanely? I prefer to believe that Paalm used her victim's metalminds, filled over the years, rather than managed to store so much speed during the 2 weeks that she had the spike before the massacre, but criminals can prep for months between heists. If humans can replicate Paalm's performance, then the opportunity to have months of leisure between jobs would be all it would require for a  Steel Ferring  to become an unstoppable thief or assassin reliably pulling off big scores. Train a couple of hours a day, store speed at the highest rate possible for the rest of it while reading or planning or whatever, since your mind is not affected. 

[Leyrann]

6 minutes ago, Isilel said:

Which is why F-Steel needs to be limited, lest it become unstoppable as compounding becomes easier due to the medallions. IMHO, increased likelihood of severe injury, even death, when operating at higher speeds, as well as the rising difficulty of timely thinking and reactions should prevent human compounders from replicating Paalm's stunts.

What I meant to say with that is that speed bubbles, therefore, will also become more common. So allomancy becomes more common, but the same holds true for it's counter (other allomancy). Not to mention society being on the cusp of discovering electrolysis and, therefore, cheap aluminium.

[Calderis]

2 hours ago, Isilel said:

Insanely? I prefer to believe that Paalm used her victim's metalminds, filled over the years, rather than managed to store so much speed during the 2 weeks that she had the spike before the massacre,

And I personally think she was compounding based off this

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Kurkistan

If you spiked out Miles' Feruchemical gold, would he be able to burn his Allomantic reserves [read: Feruchemical reserves using Allomancy] and heal it back?

Brandon Sanderson

If you spiked out his ability to heal gold and somehow left him alive?

Kurkistan

Yeah, but still having Allomancy.

Brandon Sanderson

Still has Allomancy...

Kurkistan

And he’s like in the middle of burning a goldmind.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that would still work. It'd still have a Spiritual Connection to him.

Kurkistan

So if you're a Coinshot and you get [spiked] to have Feruchemical steel, and then you lose the spike after making a store, you can still Compound that for speed?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes... Yeah, that should still work.

Kurkistan

Was Paalm doing that?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO.

source

I think the "empty" metalmind she drops was a ruse. Without a spike for steel Feruchemy she'd have no way to store what she burns. All or nothing speed. And we only ever see her move normally or as a blur. Once she runs out, it's get out of sight, drop the fake, fly away with steel Allomancy. 

[Quantus]

Random thought:  Can a Subsumer store ingested Metals?  As in swallow a bunch of metal, store that in a metalmind, then tap that metalmind and retrieve an instant store of (otherwise mundane) allomantic metals ready to be burned?  That would let them have a secondary store at the ready that would not be used up by the Enhancement Allomancies. 

[StarrFall]

41 minutes ago, Quantus said:

Random thought:  Can a Subsumer store ingested Metals?

On that train of thought, could they use the ability to purge themselves of an ingested poison?  Dump the poisoned consumables into a small metalmind and then just pitch it or sell it to an Allomancer, whom couldn't tap the poisoned reserves, for burning?

[Scion of the Mists]

1 hour ago, Quantus said:

Random thought:  Can a Subsumer store ingested Metals?  As in swallow a bunch of metal, store that in a metalmind, then tap that metalmind and retrieve an instant store of (otherwise mundane) allomantic metals ready to be burned?  That would let them have a secondary store at the ready that would not be used up by the Enhancement Allomancies. 

Metals are generally not considered nutrition, so I don't think that'd work.  

[StarrFall]

13 minutes ago, Scion of the Mists said:

Metals are generally not considered nutrition, so I don't think that'd work.  

There are some that are vital to organic processes.  Iron is absolutely essential for blood oxygenation.

[Isilel]

On 17.10.2018 at 1:53 PM, Calderis said:

And I personally think she was compounding based off this

I don't think that Paalm with the Steel feruchemy spike would have the same Identity as Paalm with A-Steel spike, since the spikes are derived from different people. It is a different situation from Miles where there would have been an intrinsic connection between him and the natural, in-born ability being spiked out of him. This is supported by the WoB that bearer of the spike can use the metalminds previously made by the spikee. I.e. that the Identity that the storages are keyed to is contained in the spike itself.

For that matter, I think that it is fairly likely that if some time passed between F-Gold being spiked out of Miles - supposing a virtuoso surgical spiking that didn't kill him, and his attempt to burn his storages, there would be a threshold beyond which the F-gold stores would become inaccessible to him

Spoiler

just like people who have accepted their injury can no longer be healed in SA. 

 

On 17.10.2018 at 1:53 PM, Calderis said:

I think the "empty" metalmind she drops was a ruse.

What would be the point of it, though? It really doesn't matter for her purposes whether Wax and the constabulary understand the exact mechanism of how she is doing her stuff or not.

[Calderis]

6 hours ago, Isilel said:

I don't think that Paalm with the Steel feruchemy spike would have the same Identity as Paalm with A-Steel spike, since the spikes are derived from different people. It is a different situation from Miles where there would have been an intrinsic connection between him and the natural, in-born ability being spiked out of him. This is supported by the WoB that bearer of the spike can use the metalminds previously made by the spikee. I.e. that the Identity that the storages are keyed to is contained in the spike itself.

Frankly I just disagree. You're not going to convince me that a trait that you stored yourself because of a spike is ever going to somehow be more different Identically than a trait that someone else stored and then you received a spike from. 

In the first instance, you have a trait stored with the entirety of your spiritweb containing almost a single Identity, tainted by a small section that bears a different one, used to create a storage. In the second, you have a trait completely made with someone else's Identity that you only have access to because of a small portion of Identity compared to the larger portion that is you. 

Basically, I don't think the identity in a spike is ever assimilated into the whole. That's why you have to anchor a chunk of metal into the body to keep it in place to begin with. It is and always will be foreign. 

6 hours ago, Isilel said:

What would be the point of it, though? It really doesn't matter for her purposes whether Wax and the constabulary understand the exact mechanism of how she is doing her stuff or not.

Because Wax is being used by the Kandra. As long as they believe she's limited to a single power, she has abhidden trick up her sleeve that would allow her to escape in a pinch. 

It's not like it actually changes the story for a dead character anyway.