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[Ozarck]

Naturegirl, don't forget to mark your stheet with a -1 next to your nerve stat. Your Dive lost you one nerve point.

This is a temporary loss, though - it can be recovered through a day's rest, or through worm's blood, which restores more than one nerve point (i forget if it's got a set limit per dose though).

[Naturegirl1999]

It’s dine

[Ozarck]

Naturegirl, I suggest you rethink your dive action in Dig, for a few reasons.

First: The explosion elemental isn't biological, so it's unlikely that Biology Sphere will have an effect, though it's p[ossible. I'd ask PW on the Discord about that.

Second: Es is for moving things, not controlling them. You wouldn't be making this thing your friend, you'd be pushing it around, like trying to wrestle a pitbull or something. If you want to control something, Gesh is the action Sphere you are after.

Third: You have 7 Strength and 2 Diving skill, you are rolling against a 9 in the plane of elemental forces - giving you a 60% chance of failure. Additionally, you are rolling against a 10 (8 endurance + 2 diving) for the biological sphere, giving you a 55% chance of failure there. So, between these two, you have roughly an 82% chance to fail the dive.

Fourth: you now have -2 on your Nerve, not -1. That means you are operating at an effective nerve of 11. Add your diving skill, and you are rolling each nerve roll against a 13. This means each nerve roll has a 40% fail rate. With advantage, this number drops a bit though, and can be eliminated with a proper sacrifice, but I don't thin you want to make a sacrifice for something like this. But:

Fifth, and most importantly: You just failed on both your final material roll, AND your final Nerve roll. The final material roll is why you made an explosion elemental (congratulations on that, by the way, it's awesome). The Final nerve fail means you went a litle mad or got a little possessed, as a result of that Dive. your character is the one that suddenly started screaming in the back of the group. You are in no condition to Dive, and in fact are the reason most of the other characters' actions got interrupted this turn.

When an event interrupts a whole bunch of combat related actions, something significant is happening.
Your action this turn should probably be along the lines of "fight against the madness, attempt to regain control," or "try not to hurt anyone while I'm insane."

p.s. welcome to the Dive Fails Club.

[Naturegirl1999]

Thank you. I will edit my action accordingly.

[Devastator]

Aww.  I was hoping for a successful taming of the explosion elemental.  It might want to cuddle.  ;-p

[Naturegirl1999]

Ashul could try it, Koste lost 2 nerve, is possessed, and so far failed every Dive she tried

[syvarris]

Divers, much like amp users, have a amusing propensity to die in spectacular fashions.  Especially if they aren't max nerve Abominations.

Being able to warp reality by force of will is balanced by the fact that reality hates your guts and will happily warp you by force, if you try to screw with it.

[Devastator]

The benefit is largely that failures can be as good as successes.

[Ozarck]

The benefit is largely that failures can be as good as successes.

only insasmuch as failures often remove a given threat to the team - the Diver.

There are two types of failure in idves: the material fal which means hte Dive doesn't do what you want, and the Nerve Fail which render you insane or possessed in some way. You can have a successful Dive with a failed nerve roll, getting the effect you want but losing your mind in the process - this was the final Dive of our lizard abomination Diver, for example.

Ashul could try it, Koste lost 2 nerve, is possessed, and so far failed every Dive she tried

Your first Dive succeeded. you got a 12 on the material sphere and a 15 on the Nerve roll.

you have 13 knowledge +2 dive, so that beats the 12 of the knowledge roll, and 13 Nerve and 2 dive for the nerve roll, which apparently Bones re-rolled to a 4 (or maybe, as paris says below, this was the fate roll?). The Dive wasn't a fail, it's just that you couldn't tell what effect it had.

[Parisbre56]

There is a web page that can be used to calculate the odds of failing the final nerve roll of a dive. Here's the odds for your previous dive: https://parisbre56.github.io/spheres.html?path=Balarim,Yengenze,Es,Hel,Zon,Zon&nerve=14&sacrificeRecoup=0&state=adv

Do note that things aren't always that bad with a failed insanity roll. Piecewise also rolls the fate die to see just how bad things go.

[Naturegirl1999]

Is there a limit to how many times a sphere can be reinforced/strengthened?

[Gentlefish]

Theoretically no. Practically?

I wouldn't want to be next to someone who did that.

[Naturegirl1999]

How many times is practical? I plan to reinforce a shield around myself as many times as can be done to protect against whatever attack the angels are preparing

[Ozarck]

reinforce a shield associated with which sphere or spheres?
the more spheres, the less reinforcing is practical.

let's use a simple example, and Paris' Dive calculator to check it out.

Spoiler: Dive maths inside (click to show/hide)

say you want to make a shield (Jal) against "elemental forces" (Tzimzvot) to protect from lightning, light, and so forth.
you have a path of 3, so 3 nerve rolls for the basic, simplest shield.
Right now you have 11 nerve and 2 dive, so you roll against a stat of 13.
You are rolling at advantage, unless your Silent Night runs out this turn.
You would roll a final material check against strength + Dive skill (7+2=9) so you already only have a 40% chance to succeed in the Dive itself.

Checking the website, it says average nerve penalty: .5. This means you have a ~50/50 chance of losing one nerve during this dive, leaving you rolling against a 12 for your final nerve roll. It says you have a ~57% chance of success against the final nerve roll. That's already a bit risky, eh?
now let's talk reinforcing:
1 or 2 reinforcements seem to raise your fail rate by less than a single percent, so they seem a trivial additional risk. By 3 reinforcements, your average nerve loss rises to 1, meaning you are quite likely to lose at least one nerve before the final roll.
at eight reinforcements, you are losing an average of 2 nerve per Dive, which would put your final nerve roll against a 10 target, giving you under 50% chance of succeeding.
at 11 and 14 reinforcements, your average nerve loss rises to 3 and then 4, and your chance of not going crazy or being possessed drops to ~40%
by 18 reinforcements you have a 1/3 chance of not going crazy
at 22 reinforcements you have a 1/4 chance of not going crazy
at 25, it's 1/5

So, to sum up, you can get away with a fair amount of reinforcing while under the influence of Silent Night, or otherwise rolling at Advantage, but practically speaking 10 reinforcements is a lot. I tend to keep my large, Silent Night fueled Dives to around 12 Nerve rolls total (and I am rolling against a target of 19). as you can see from the Dive I made recently to throw rocks at the enemy, this is usually sufficient for quite a large effect.

FINALLY
You have a much higher chance of success to protect yourself from the enemy's attacks right now by running away, squealing in terror, than you do by Diving a shield. And making a shield loses you a round of retreat time, while it doesn't make the enemy any less able to attack you. Mobility before magic, in this case.

[Naturegirl1999]

Thank you