Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
It is a good deal - a very good deal, in fact, if you go solely by XP.

Power stat from 1 to 3 would cost (2+3)*8=40 XP.

6 merit dots can buy a 5-dot merit (30 XP) and a 1-dot merit (2 XP), or any other combination of X+Y=6, but none of them beat 32, so if you're starting with bonus XP and plan on being Power 2+, it's cheaper to buy with merit dots.
Aye. And in Mage at least, I don't really care quite so much because if you're an experienced wizard (35 xp) you've gotten around 20 XP off the books that can only be used on Gnosis. Using merit dots on gnosis and Xp on merits is abou the same.

It's a guy coming out of a vision quest with maximum power and no life, no friends, no house, no job, and no distinguishing quirks because they were all swept away for Gnosis that bothers me.