Oneiromancy Novice

[Vintervalpen]

So, reading through the rules on Oneiromancy, I get the feeling that this is one of those things where once again you want the very highest dice pools to become a skilled Oneiropomp. In order to gain the Dream Infiltrater/Intruder/Assailant conditions, you need to score exceptional successes, which the Dreamweaver merit and the Changing Fortunes contracts can help with (and in some situations, your Kith's bonus also helps). All dices pools are innately penalized by the dreamer's composure. In addition to this penalty, interacting with Eidolons give you further dice pool penalties depending on the Dreaming conditions you have gained (bigger penalties the further up you go), and so I just wonder, how do you become an effective Dreamshaper?

Clearly, social attributes are important (I would assume primarily presence and manipulation), but what else can you do to reliably overcome the challenges met when invading dreams? What skills, specializations, merits, contracts etc were particularly useful to your Oneiropomps? Which ones were not so good? I would be very appreciative for some advice on how to make a talented Dreamshaper.

[espritdecalmar]

The various bonuses from Mantle can be pretty helpful. Having a Skill Specialty of Dreamweaving, combined with Area of Expertise and/or Interdisciplinary Specialty, is a little cheesy, but there you go. Kith Blessings are definitely a godsend, doubly so if you're an Artist or some variant.

The penalties from Shift Conditions only apply when interacting with Eidolons peacefully or sneaking around, so the more you shake things up, the more aggressive you'll probably end up being. Having some combat skill (as well as the Defensive Dreamscaping Merit) is useful at this point; by the time you get to Dream Assailant, you're most likely in a bit of a scramble to find the right Eidolon/Prop you need to interact with in order to accomplish whatever it is you've entered the dream to do.

Any Contract or Skill could feasibly be useful for Oneiromancy, depending on the context of the dream itself. Mask of Superiority will give you a bonus to interact with certain Eidolons, while Mastermind's Gambit is great for when you're planning out a particular Dreamweaving in advance. The Royal Court might buy you some time when you have Dream Assailant, but you might have to roll quite a few Clashes of Wills. Riddle-Kith with the Darkling boon means being able to change your Kith Blessing on the fly. Dreamsteps bypasses the need to find a Bastion in the Hedge.