Re: A question about bless effects
 

Yep, there just aren't enough points to do that and not mess yourself up in every other way.

I was testing the demo Last night with a Vampire Queen who was leading Arcocephale. I was able to give her Death 10 and Blood 4, but had to take a few negative scales and a lower Dominion strength than I like. I did get a fairly decent fortress, but the points had been stretched pretty thin. If I had gone for a cheaper pretender (The Vampire Queen is quite powerful and, thus, rather costly) then I would have been able to have a higher second path or possibly added a third path without sacrificing so much, but to get two 10s with a Pretender means draining away from everything else.

It can be an interesting strategy, and I'm not saying it isn't worth it to go ahead and try it, but the penalties to everything else certainly balance your blessing power.

I often take a lower-cost Pretender and equip them with one level 9 and two level 4 paths. That's powerful but not overwhelming, and I don't have to take too cheap a dominion or fortress.

Re: A question about bless effects
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Stop. You have said enough! When our suffering will end, at Last! when, Ô Gods of Mercy, will you look upon your lost child and give them the Holy Mana!

nice post anyway. Is it level 9 or 10 to get this Last bit of blessing power btw?

Re: A question about bless effects
 

10 will get you the fullest power from the first level blessings as they go up either by +1 for two levels (i.e. you get another bump for each even level of power reach) or +5% for the Air blessings. The second tier is composed of things that you have or you don't. They arrive with power 9 and, unlike the "lesser" blessings, don't get stronger if you go up to 10.

Re: A question about bless effects
 

Wasn't it so that empowerment doesn't affect blessing effects?

Re: A question about bless effects
 

So a Dominions I blessing is equivalent to a pretender with Fire 6 & Blood 6? That's high for Dom I but... what was that about a Demo?! :-)

Re: A question about bless effects
 

I must say I like these blessing effects. They add a variety of abilities that can be used strategically and none of them are so powerful that pretenders will need to be designed based on particular bless abilities in competetive games. It actually seems to make bless much weaker overall...unless you have a plan for bless effects + sacred troop + other spells that combine effectively.

Things I can see definite use for
Air 10 (35% air shield and 75 lightning resist) used with battlefield spells this could be nasty even without wards.

Earth 9 and ulm...troops that don't get tired and have another +4 armor? those would be some really tough black templars.

Nature 10! You get a -4 defense but +4 prot, attack, and strength is nice. And if your protection IS penetrated you regenerate anyway. Also your troops won't rout and they will be hard to poison. I can't resist but think of REALLY REALLY tough black templars. This one seems maybe a bit too strong even, but I'm going to wait for the *demo* to pass judgement on it.

Also...it's probably been covered, but does ermor get these blessing effects too? I can see some really nasty unholy troops with all the magic ermor gets from its negative scales. Maybe death and astral for really frightening almost unbanishable elite undead. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

I must say to Illwinter...you seem to be making dominions 2 signifigantly better than the first. It's always good to judge the quality of a game by the number of people demanding minor improvements and changes...it means they have no major issues. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: A question about bless effects
 

Seeing that my first post in this topic was ignored, I ask again. Does empowering your god in some magic path also raise the bless effect of your priests? For example, if you give your pretender 3 air and later empower him to 4 air, will you receive the additional air shield effect to your blessings?

Re: A question about bless effects
 

The effect is initial, dying or empowering makes no diffrence.

Re: A question about bless effects
 

"Earth 9 and ulm...troops that don't get tired and have another +4 armor? those would be some really tough black templars."

Think "Communicants are sacred" and this could be very impressive. The Protection +4 might even make Battle Vestals reasonable... nah.

Nature would appear to rule, which makes me wonder what Pangea got for sacred troops. Anyone?

Re: A question about bless effects
 

Other than White Centaurs?