Fifth of Daybreak

Judging by the poll, Lifeless need all the help they can get.

If there's enough force to send people upwards of 175 lbs flying, I fail to see how that same force can't damage Shardplate. Hammer blows from a common soldier can damage Plate. The coinshot is only pushed back if they continue to push. You can let go of the coin, and the energy will be pushed into the coin, and the plate.

Lurchers are able to embed the coins into their shields. I also think it would be incredibly out of character for Kelsier to try and block a 6 foot sword with a glass dagger. He avoids direct combat when he can, and certainly would against a big ol' scary sword. He also could detect investiture from the plate and blade by burning bronze. He'd know further that something was off about them by not being able to push or pull on the plate or blade.

Drew as in sketched. I'm hypothesizing that the Cryptic was following King T to observe, not to bond, and she was able to draw the Cryptic in the scene because of her past experiences with them. In the same way they are observing King T, the Cryptics might also be observing Elhokar, without intending to bond with him.

I could downvote ya if you want

Could Tien's fascination have anything to do with this?

I really regret posting that comment. I meant it to be lighthearted and flippant, but every time I read it it seems condescending and mean. I think Nightblood is going to be an even more interesting character in the next book. I know we have WoB that he's considered doing a chapter from Nightblood's perspective, and I think a scene where Zahel meets Szeth would be the perfect scene to do that, so that we can see the inner conflict inside Nightblood. Also, congrats on 666 reputation and being a Torturer of Heralds. I almost don't want to give you anymore upvotes. Almost.

I'm not saying it was the first time she attracted the Cryptics. In fact, in that scene, I doubt they were there for her at all, she could just sense them. That was the first time she drew the Cryptics. It isn't until later when she starts trying to soulcast after having stole Jasnah's fake, that she attracts them to herself.

Having the coins in a large pouch does change the size of his projectile. Now instead of shooting a bunch of smaller missiles, he can use the pouch to fire an allomantic cannon at Dalinar. Why does his movement change the effectiveness of the coins? Aiming with coins is a mental task, not a physical one, so movement doesn't have as much effect on it, and Kelsier was skilled enough with pushing a pulling to manipulate a cloud or irregular objects in a vortex of death, while flying above it all. Dodging a giant sword that was thrown really shouldn't be an issue for him, and would actually give him the advantage until Dalinar summons it back. The only way I could see it not working in his favor is not realizing that the sword can be summoned, but I assume that he would see Dalinar call it into existence at the beginning of the battle, and wouldn't make that mistake. Also, cutting up the coins wouldn't have much effect. Kinetic energy equals 1/2mass times velocity squared. Coins are already small enough that their mass isn't adding much to the attack, but rather, it's the speed that's doing the damage. Cutting the coins would only give Kelsier more metal to work with, allowing him to create a more effective shotgun blast radius on the shardplate.

I think this makes Gaz Mr. Smee.

I had to wade through Tvlakv bad puns to find one that works. Kinda. If you go with the audiobook pronunciation.

I just couldn't bring myself to make my last point in the post in your favor, so I went ahead and beat the dead horse some more.

I was going through WoK again, and I noticed that the first time that Shallan drew the Cryptics was when she was drawing Taravangian. Then, they're gone until she draws Kabsal, right before she soulcasts for the first time. There's a pretty large chunk of time between the two when they are absent. Then we have the death rattle where the subject mentions that "head of lines." We know that they watch the death rattles, and we know they watch King T. Elhokar might be important enough to be watched as well. I wonder if they'd be in the picture if Shallan sketched Elhokar.

Smoking Sigzel give you cancer.

Very good points, and I'm sure you're about to get a squeal out of Aether for the list. I however, have a few points in to contradicting points in your list 1: Coins don't have pointy ends, thus less piercing power. This is actually an advantage for the coin. You aren't going to pierce shardplate. Period. The only time we see that happening is when Szeth lashes himself down multiple times in succession and lands shardblade point down. This is partially why the arrows won't inflict damage, the smaller surface area is redirecting the force back into the arrow, instead of penetrating. If the Rosharan's would create a flat point arrow, it would be much more effective. The coins are able to push more of the energy from the shot into the shardplate because it will contact with more surface area. 2:Arrows are better designed for traveling through the air Arrows are designed that way because of the need for flight stability. Allomantically propelled coins will have a much more stable flight path because of the nature of the continual push, unless the allomancer is moving. The way allomancy affects the coin eliminates this as an advantage the arrow has. I do want to say, begrudgingly, that I was not able to find the section (that I'm sure exists) where the arrow harms the plate, but I did find a section where arrows are bouncing uselessly off of it. Definitely a point in your favor. But I still think a coinshot is almost a perfect weapon against a shardbearer. Sure, one hit isn't much, but a storm of 100 coins all hitting with the same force as an arrow, but most likely higher; it would be enough to make them stumble at the very least. The only reason I could see for why they weren't effective on Scadrial is because coins were easy to deflect by another allomancer.

Argh! Super mega confused. That's exactly how I had them. Still not working. I appreciate the help though.

Good luck with that. What is one thing that Scadrial absolutely doesn't need? Mo-ash

I made sure to use my pewter enhanced punch lines.

I travelled through the Marsh, but I wasn't trying to Rayse! I wanted to make sure my pun had Rysn to the challenge. Nothing like a bad pun to Kel the mood.

I'm a little late to this Shin-dig. What do you call a battle between two coinshots? A boxing match

Unless anyone objects, let's change it to all Lifeless have edged weapons. I was hesitant to give them blunt weaponry at first anyways, as it would limit them to the point of uselessness. You can assume that for this fight, they do have a commander, one that cannot assist in the actually fighting. (I had tried that before, that leaves the title, but it doesn't link it to the pages, as you can see from the edit I just made.)

Exactly! Along with this, it's not just one coin hitting at a time, it's dozens of speeding coins hitting in a relatively short time span, over and over again. How long would a shardbearer last if there was an entire contingent of archers firing shaft after shaft at him at close range? The time it would take to push on the coins, impact, pull them back, and push again has to be exponentially faster than an average archer shooting as fast as they can. Combine this with the fact that he can push on dozens of coins at once, I don't see how steelpushing can be discredited.

The allomantic acceleration. The same way an egg can go through a brick wall during a highstorm hurricane. In this case, there also isn't just one point of impact, but dozens, all hitting in close proximity in both location and time. The added momentum is surely enough to make up for the less penetrative properties of the coins. Besides, blunt force is better at attacking plate than penetrating.

If an arrow is enough to crack a plate, coins would have to be.

I'm not saying he's going to break the plate, not at all. Arrows have enough force to crack plate enough to leak stormlight, and Kelsier can rain coins on Dalinar like nobody's business. This would lead to widespread cracking across the entire plate, leaking stormlight on a macro level instead of a micro level. Kelsier doesn't need to shatter a single piece in order to win, just damage the plate enough, even just small cracks, to have him leaking stormlight like a broken teakettle that's been glued back together. I also don't think the coins would stick. Kelsier would use them as projectiles only, pushing on them to accelerate, but the letting them do their damage before pulling the back for another pelting. He could potentially be hitting him with hundreds of coinshots every few seconds.