Translated:
Every stat does a good thing and a bad thing as it goes up.
More Hostility makes the Forsaken lose less motivation when deployed, BUT the bad temper makes them damage your other forsaken at higher motivation numbers.
More Deviancy makes Forsaken able to suffer higher training levels without stat changes, BUT they also gain less combat experience/expertise when training.
More Obedience makes the Forsaken more likely to consent to training actions, BUT they regain stamina slower when idle.
More Disgrace makes the Forsaken cost less EE to deploy, BUT they do less damage of all types.
Motivation and Stamina are both checks on whether you can deploy that Forsaken. You can't deploy a Forsaken if it would bring Stamina or Motivation below 0. Motivation < Hostility means the Forsaken will throw a tantrum, hurting the Motivation of other Forsaken but restoring their own.
Generally, very high stats are generally bad as they are emblematic of a Forsaken with no free will or independent thought. Extremely low stats are emblematic of a Forsaken that's difficult to control. which can also be bad.
Plans do nothing without a Forsaken assigned to the Trainer position. If you have a Trainer, the Trainer does not recover Stamina each day, and instead makes Forsaken that were idle that day and at full Stamina follow their chosen plan (if they have one).
The first 4 plans increase the stats above by 1% per day. You are generally correct that there are quicker ways to raise a stat that you want higher through training personally, however, you may not always have a day to spend training a single Forsaken, or since training actions mostly affect more than one stat, you may not have another way to raise a stat that you want higher without.
Other plans raise battle experience, which raises your damage and may cause changes to your Forsaken's damage types.
Sort of. Most Training has three effects: raises the associated damage type expertise (possibly changing your Forsaken's damage types), raises the stats if the intensity level is higher than the current corruption stat + something I'm not sure of, and restores Motivation. So if your intensity is higher than the associated stat on the Forsaken, you can have that Forsaken gain in that stat. Whether or not this is a good thing depends on what you are training that Forsaken to do.
Expertise is a damage multiplier on that damage type, which is relevant only if your Forsaken deals that damage type. For instance, if your Forsaken doesn't have a damage type that includes HATE, HATE expertise doesn't matter. It is a straight multiplier to damage that comes from the Forsaken's experience in that damage type.
That means that their Expertise is 1.000 in all damage types, giving no modifier.. Giving them training that increases their experience will also increase their expertise.
Combat style tells you what types of Circumstance damage that Forsaken will deal. More types of Circumstance damage == a lower damage multiplier.
One damage type: 1000% multiplier (10x)
Two damage types: 100% multiplier (1x)
Three damage types: 15%(?) multiplier (0.15x)
Four damage types: 1% (?) multiplier (0.01x)
I would say the prevailing wisdom is to build around 1 or 2 damage types per Forsaken. Once you're at 3 or 4 types of Circ damage, you're going to be much more efficient using a Demon instead of a Forsaken.
To change damage types/combat style, keep training the Forsaken in the associated stat for that damage type. Hostility-HATE, Deviancy-PLEA, Obedience-INJU, Disgrace-EXPO.
If this is your experience, try using a Forsaken somewhere in the high 60s-low 70s for Disgrace, that is specialized to deal a single type of damage. I posted a guide walking through the creation of one such Forsaken
here.
Not last time I checked. It's just something fun to do.
Sacrificed Forsaken give you extra EE at the start of your loops. it's not much, but as you go through a long campaign you'll likely find a whole lot of Forsaken that don't do anything valuable.
The four Punisher positions allow the Forsaken in that position to perform the T4 break on the Chosen. In so doing, either they or the Chosen that they affected will get the listed bonus.
Nope. This is determined pretty much entirely during the time they're Chosen, and they only check 1) Do I have a defined family relationship with this Forsaken? and 2) How did I feel about this Chosen during the final battle?
Nope, you nailed it. The major issue that is created by this is a kind of "failure cascade" where a Forsaken is angry, so she lashes out, so that makes the other Forsaken angry, so they lash out, which makes the first Forsaken angry again... if you're in this situation you can generally fix it with some Grand Concert training. Or just sacrifice the bitch, that often works.
This post lays out a real strong general framework for thinking about Forsaken. I'd add to this that the most important thing to think about Forsaken is their cost, which is determined by their Disgrace. Some Forsaken you'll want to use to deal damage and you'll want a moderately high Disgrace for those. Some Forsaken you'll want to use for their powerful Defiler bonuses and those you'll want to keep a low Disgrace on. Some you might want for a special purpose. Basically, you build a Forsaken to do something that a Demon can't do (because otherwise, you would just use a Demon). So the simplest Forsaken type that's useful has Disgrace somewhere in the 70s and deals only one damage type. Cheap and you summon it a few times to break everyone's T2s, using that energy to rocket past the 4/2 and 5/2 Commander phase where you might normally be fumbling around to reach Networked Consciousness. There are some other ones that are useful:
The almost completely corrupted Forsaken with around 90% Disgrace that costs only 2EE to send out can keep the Chosen extremely busy once you first summon them, helping other Chosen come out sooner (the time before Chosen come out is dependent on the number of combat rounds)
The Advanced Species Forsaken with Disgrace in the high 50s/low 60s that focuses on HATE damage to start Orgies as quickly as possible and can Release them so that they don't explode once they hit their T3 INJU break.
The extremely low Disgrace Forsaken who costs a bunch of EE to send out but has insane Punisher bonuses to creating other Forsaken.
