Which would you rather?

[Jace21 he/him]

1 hour ago, Drake Marshall said:

Nor would a single mistborn be capable of turning the tide in a big war.

Pretty sure Vin would disagree with that.

But I actually picked Lord Ruler and Elantrian (Mistborn a close 2nd)  both for the sheer versatility offered.

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

1 hour ago, Jace21 said:

Pretty sure Vin would disagree with that.

But I actually picked Lord Ruler and Elantrian (Mistborn a close 2nd)  both for the sheer versatility offered.

Okay, but if your average shardbearer shows up on the battlefield, and the other side doesn't have one, it's pretty much game over (unless Kaladin is there).

If the average, non-Vin mistborn shows up on the battlefield, that doesn't spell instant defeat to the other side. A handful of trained hazekillers could actually give a mistborn a run for its money.

The fact that Vin was a one-woman army was quite exceptional for a mistborn. It's the norm for a shardbearer.

 

Not all the radiants were so developed in their oath to manifest plate, or even a blade. Some orders were less numerous. The Windrunners were populated with squires, who were not as powerful as a full radiant.

I would imagine that a fully developed Knight Radiant was actually a bit rarer than thousands upon thousands of them. The radiants had a heirarchy. Probably a lot of them were not quite at that level.

 But still.

The Knights Radiant were scary.

 

I'll also note that something like the surge of transportation or transformation is very useful for things other than fighting.

While allomancy does absolutely have some versatility in this regard (tin, brass, and zinc come to mind), I would find some of the surges more useful.

 

But honestly, my favorite system is feruchemy. TLR is absolutely me answer to the second question. Feruchemy is fantastically versatile, and compounding makes it even better.

Edited August 15, 2017 by Drake Marshall

[Brightlord M. Alhstrom he/him]

17 hours ago, Drake Marshall said:

But honestly, my favorite system is feruchemy. TLR is absolutely me answer to the second question. Feruchemy is fantastically versatile, and compounding makes it even better.

Yea. I still stand by my choice as a Radiant if I'm in-world, but if Feruchemist was an option, and it was in the real world, I would totally choose Feruchemist. But then, I would mostly just want to copperminds.

I mean, a full feruchemist, with training and some stored up abilities would be able to turn the tides of almost any battle. I mean, Sazed, (who isn't a warrior) was able to fight Inquisitors for a short period of time, as well as hold a gate against a horde of Koloss for a long time. The only reason I choose Radiant is that as a Feruchemist, unless you figured out worldhopping, you'd be spending your entire life running from TLR. Plus, the whole "Honor" thing appeals to me.

Edit: As for the whole Vin is too OP to count as turning a battle, lets remember that all of the Mistborn we had seen before then didn't have Duralumin, or a bunch of other metals. A mistborn with access to all 16 metals would be able to turn the tides against any army, Hazekiller or not. Especially with Bendalloy and Pewter. And even just assassinating generals would be enough to demoralize and confuse an army enough to turn the battle. History tends to say that when a general dies, his army has very little chance to pick itself up and win.

All in all, one of the reasons Vin was so much more powerful than her counterparts was that A, she was a double seeker (hemalurgy) and B, she had Duralumin. Take those two things away, and most any mistborn with proper training would be a match for her. As for her killing TLR, she was burning mist at the time, so I don't think it counts.

Edited August 15, 2017 by Lord Maelstrom

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

I think a common issue I see in this forum (and maybe occurs everywhere this discussion appears) is that the skills which radiants and mistborns have are meant for two very different things. While I believe a mistborn with all 16 metals could do a lot more damage on the battlefield than many seem to think, several of the KR orders are specifically meant for battle. As such, obviously a full radiant would be an amazing asset in a battle, its what they are built for. But mistborns thrive on shadows, confusion and assasinations, as such, saying radiants would do better on a battlefield as such they are superior is like saying mistborns could assasinate anyone as such they are superior. The two have too different competencies to easily compare side by side. 

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

Being a Skybreaker or Dustbringer Radiant would be pretty cool.

As for highest power, TLR all the way. 

[StormblessDave]

15 hours ago, WhiteLeeopard said:

I think a common issue I see in this forum (and maybe occurs everywhere this discussion appears) is that the skills which radiants and mistborns have are meant for two very different things. While I believe a mistborn with all 16 metals could do a lot more damage on the battlefield than many seem to think, several of the KR orders are specifically meant for battle. As such, obviously a full radiant would be an amazing asset in a battle, its what they are built for. But mistborns thrive on shadows, confusion and assasinations, as such, saying radiants would do better on a battlefield as such they are superior is like saying mistborns could assasinate anyone as such they are superior. The two have too different competencies to easily compare side by side. 

This thread isn't asking about which magic systems are more powerful, it's asking what would you like to be.

As to their abilities, I totally agree with you.

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

5 hours ago, StormblessDave said:

This thread isn't asking about which magic systems are more powerful, it's asking what would you like to be.

As to their abilities, I totally agree with you.

Fair enough. I picked mistborn and TLR. Although for our world I would have most likely picked feruchemy if it were an option . I do however think my opinion could change as we find out what other radiant orders could do. I do like the lightweaver powers and ideals, but unfortunately I cannot draw anything more complex than stick figures, as such I always feel that seems like an impossibility for me . RK orders have far too many requirements.

Edited August 16, 2017 by WhiteLeeopard

[Calderis he/him]

10 minutes ago, WhiteLeeopard said:

Fair enough. I picked mistborn and TLR. Although for our world I would have most likely picked feruchemy if it were an option . I do however think my opinion could change as we find out what other radiant orders could do. I do like the lightbringer powers and ideals, but unfortunately I cannot draw anything more complex than stick figures, as such I always feel that seems like an impossibility for me . RK orders have far too many requirements.

Drawing us a requirement for Shallan, but according to pattern it shouldn't be. You should be able to lightweave by forming a picture in your mind. 

I can't honestly believe that the only Lightweavers in history were accomplished in the visual arts. It's more about personality type and values then it is about ability. 

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

2 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Drawing us a requirement for Shallan, but according to pattern it shouldn't be. You should be able to lightweave by forming a picture in your mind. 

I can't honestly believe that the only Lightweavers in history were accomplished in the visual arts. It's more about personality type and values then it is about ability. 

Yes...but at the same time most records say Lightweavers were often dedicated to arts and music. Then again, there would always be the outliers, like Lift most likely will be for the Edgedancers. Fully an Edgedancer, but still very different from most in her order.

[Calderis he/him]

12 minutes ago, WhiteLeeopard said:

Yes...but at the same time most records say Lightweavers were often dedicated to arts and music. Then again, there would always be the outliers, like Lift most likely will be for the Edgedancers. Fully an Edgedancer, but still very different from most in her order.

Even among the "artists" I'm sure there were poets who were much more skilled at painting pictures with words than visual arts. 

If you can picture it in your mind you can make the image. Just because you lack the ability to physically draw it doesn't mean you can't hold the image in your mind. 

[Erandeni he/him]

I chose Mistborn for the silly reason that I'd like to experiment with some metals like gold/electrum, with twinborn in second place for the same reason.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

For what I would rather be, I've essentially got a three-way tie between Feruchemist, Elantrian, and Awakener. Simply put, they are the most versatile [single magic system] skill-sets in the Cosmere.

• An Elantrian can do quite literally anything with the right Aon chains(and inscribed plates make things both repeatable and quicker).
• Given enough breath, an Awakener is pretty much only limited by their own imagination.
• For Feruchemy, there is no limit to experimentation: several extra senses to work with, creative interactions between the powers, etc..

I ended up picking Elantrian, because Feruchemist wasn't an option, and Returned have the "breath per week" issue, whereas a normal Awakener wouldn't.

Edited September 10, 2017 by The One Who Connects

[StormblessDave]

10 hours ago, The One Who Connects said:

For what I would rather be, I've essentially got a three-way tie between Feruchemist, Elantrian, and Awakener. Simply put, they are the most versatile [single magic system] skill-sets in the Cosmere.

• An Elantrian can do quite literally anything with the right Aon chains(and inscribed plates make things both repeatable and quicker).
• Given enough breath, an Awakener is pretty much only limited by their own imagination.
• For Feruchemy, there is no limit to experimentation: several extra senses to work with, creative interactions between the powers, etc..

I ended up picking Elantrian, because Feruchemist wasn't an option, and Returned have the "breath per week" issue, whereas a normal Awakener wouldn't.

Sry, I tried putting in the more prominent magic users from each system.

Btw I can see why you wanted to choose feruchemy, congrats on being a full feruchemist 

[EmeraldPaladin he/him]

On 8/13/2017 at 11:03 PM, phoenix2563 said:

Elantrian since their magic is so overpowered, and also one of the systems most difficult to obtain via world hopping (see: Hoid).

its also only effective on their planet (and really mostly only near elantris itself), completely useless everywhere else.

[EmeraldPaladin he/him]

It was close for me between radiant and mistborn, however i ultimately chose mistborn just because metals are much more common than stormlight on other worlds, and we don't know enough about how magic systems interact to know if radiants could power themselves on other things yet.

And TLR, cause duh... i mean, come on.

[Aon Ati he/him]

I choose to be a mistborn for the combat abilities it gives, and the god king because of how much investiture he has. I would then have power to manipulate time, emotions, and the physical world plus be immortal and bring inanimate objects to life.