Trusk'our

I believe Awakening skeletons actually takes upwards of a 100 Breaths if I'm remembering the scene where Vasher explains Awakening to Vivenna correctly. It's 1 Breath Lifeless that were the big thing.

There's some variation in Koloss output based on the host's attributes.

Once you know how it's not hard. Independent Koloss from Era 1 can do it, and they're absolute meatheads. I suppose that's true, but I think they'd still feel a broader range of "human" emotions that would eventually lead to them breaking with sufficient losses. Unless we're also comparing to Era 2 Koloss, in which case their craziness advantage probably goes away. Why not use Rosharan humans to build your Koloss? Or transform Singers in Warform or Direform to become elite Koloss brutes?

Using pewter Allomancy in combination should yield similar results. Aside from that, I don't believe there's anything in the Cosmere forbidding such a power from existing, but you'd probably need to tweak Feruchemy enough that it wouldn't exactly be the same thing.

Depends on some stuff, including what Era of Koloss we're talking about. Era 1 Koloss won't retreat from a fight. They're not psychologically wired for that. Meanwhile enemy armies will often break after only like 20% casualties I think? They're also pretty dumb, and can be out maneuvered if not directed by an Allomancer or other powerful, intelligent force. Era 2 Koloss are more intelligent, but probably still on the slower side cognitively. They can subsist off of basically any biological substance, so keeping them in the field with no supply lines is quite feasible. Infections and disease don't appear to be a major issue given how torn up they get and we never hear it slow them down. You can also create more of them if you have an enemy population, iron to shape into spikes, a potent Emotional Allomancer, and no morals so speak of. Also, you don't need an Everstorm to create Koloss with spikes. An offworld Koloss force could create more in the field, but more Direforms likely would have to be converted from Singers on Roshar. Direforms are very likely more Invested, and have full carapace armor. They have minds more intact and can use their own agency to occupy captured territory without you needing to worry about them simply destroying it all. They're also not going to get mind controlled, though given how Elend and Vin couldn't do this to a Koloss army untol the controlling Inquisitor was killed (at least as a whole. They got a few beforehand by causing enough emotional turmoil in them) I think this is much less of an issue than typically assumed. Unless you're going up against a Shard or something and don't have your own to back you up. I'd probably choose Koloss for an army, but I don't know how they'd compare to a Direform 1 v 1. Probably weaker, but they're easier to get in large numbers and replace, easier to field, and easier to force into meat-grinder tactics.

I made a few threads a while ago touching on the nature of Resonances if you're interested: https://www.17thshard.com/forums/topic/199591-two-types-of-resonances/?do=findComment&comment=1900545

Same. I think you'll find lots of people here on the Shard that enjoy thinking about such things.

That's a good question. I think that they could do that and produce a metal they could burn, but it depends on which process it mirrors more- Stormlight spoilers:

That would likey not work, as metals with an Identity cannot be burned. Stormlight spoilers:

Gonna be real, I don't think we were even aware of the auto-drawing rule, we just ignored that function all together and assumed everyone's weapons were always drawn. Though, redoing multiple combats does seem a bit excessive to me. I'm more of the mind that you just accept how things played out and change from thence on. Did it really change the story that much?

True. I was (and still am) actually thinking of giving Fused the ability to spend three actions and become vulnerable in some way to recover Investiture via the Song of Prayer, but I don't think we see most Fused actually do this in canon, at least not on screen (perhaps Lezian did, though he could also have had a stockpile of spheres wherever he retreated). This still shouldn't mean Regals can regenerate or enhance their physical abilities on top of what the Form typically provides though. That would basically make every one of them a low-Ideal Radiant, and there have been plenty of opportunities for fatal injures against them to be healed (it would be a cool story beat to have Odium tweak the system during the True Desolation though. Grant more power to Regals in order to push his forces even more, and the PCs get caught up in it).

I thought it would be fun to go over some of the rulings for the Cosmere RPG I initially overlooked, and to hear from others their thoughts on those and of course if there are any other subtle rules they overlooked. • Only the Elsecalling and Lightweaving Surges appear to not require an open hand to perform the base external Surge and their talents- everything else does. The Distant Soulcasting talent is finicky as it says your Soulcasting range is now 20 feet and no longer requires touch, but it doesn't say you no longer need an open hand. I think this may have been done to help balance the power of Radiant characters versus Heroic characters, since this is a non-issue in the books (Kaladin and Bridge Four use two-handed spears but can just momentarily pull a hand away to use Adhesion or Gravitation on something, and Lift I'm pretty sure uses her feet to affect the ground the Feruchemist slips on). • Unarmed Attacks do not need an open hand to perform, and it seems that they can always be used as an offhand attack even with both hands full. This could be useful with high strength and expertise in Unarmed Attacks, since two-handed weapons shouldn't interfere with such an offhand attack as I understand it. • The second ideal for Radiants makes the enhance action is always a free action and doesn't expend Investiture (though you do still need to have at least 1 Investiture in reserve). I legitimately thought it served only to Empowered a PC for a scene and act as a necessary buffer in between the 1st and 3rd ideals. So there's something actually cool there, which is nice. • Enhanced attributes do not contribute to defenses, HP, focus, or Investiture. Singer forms do not count as part of the Enhanced condition though, so they still do. It was funny how (the people in my last gaming group) we did add these to our stats initially, and it's pretty busted. • Weirdly, on pg. 186 of the Stormlight World Guide, it says in the middle of the far top-left Using Actions paragraph "Rosharan adversaries with an Investiture pool can also use the Breathe Stormlight, Enhance, and Regenerate actions from chapter 5 of the Stormlight Handbook (though Fused and Regal characters breathe Voidlight from their infused spheres, not Stormlight)." Given that the Regenerate action can change from statblock to statblock and that it's directly put into every Fused's statblock but not Regals', I think this part was made by someone else and not aligned correctly with the actual statblocks (not to mention that Regals really shouldn't be able to do those things canonically).

Yeah, not even the hypothetical army of a million Koloss is gonna cut it this time. They'd realistically adapt and cut off Koloss growth beforehand anyways. This line of reasoning does make me wonder why Odium and Honor seemed to care about using armies in their future goals for the Cosmere though. I mean, Rayse's backup plan at the end of RoW (before being vaporized) seemed to be along the lines of sending agents out into the Cosmere from Roshar even while trapped for the next millenia, but why? If basically any opposing Shard (maybe not poor Harmony, though even Preservation could surely turn them away) took a look at them entering their domain and sneezed in their general direction their axi would be shredded and their souls unraveled. The functionally infinite power of a Shard of Adonalsium will do that, especially once you leave your own Shard's direct oversight. Maybe it's the whole "Shardbearers can't hold ground" argument, but the planet in question needs to be conquered from its respective Shard first I'd think.

I mean, if you stole Connection from someone born in Arelon or Teod as a worldhopper you should become a viable candidate for being taken by the Shaod. Might be able to steal Connection from someone adopted as an Elantrian to become one, but generally I think you're gonna want a metal that specializes in power-stealing (Connection to Arelon is also necessary to perform AonDor however, so two spikes may be necessary- one to steal power, one to steal Connection). This one is a bit trickier, since Threnodites seem to become Shades upon death because of some extra, twisted Investiture within their Spiritwebs (though the exact mechanics are unknown at this time). Probably also receiving an extra infusion upon death from the SR. I think using nicrosil Hemalurgy would be better in this situation, though honestly I'm not sure if even this is enough to artificially become a Shade- the Investiture is in the spike and is attached to the recipient's Spiritweb while implanted in the right bindpoint, but that Investiture doesn't pass with them upon death seeing as Hemalurgic spikes can be recycled (though the active use of Investiture granted by a spike or perhaps simply bearing one will leave the recipient with some residual Investiture upon death). If there is a large extra infusion of Investiture upon death and all you need is a Threnodite's Innate Investiture to make this happen, then it could probably work. These are just my own takes though, so take them with a pinch of Copper.