Re: How do you get Level 5 Priests?
 

Not sure of the Communion math specifics.

If you have multiple communion masters, they all use the entire pool of slaves. Try not to make your poor communicant slaves explode, as all that fatigue can pile up.

The spell power boosts don't show when you right-click, but I'm pretty sure they only affect the paths the mages already have, and it's pretty clear something's up when they toss WAY more orb lightning than they otherwise would. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

When the communion masters cast personal-benefit spells, these seem to affect the communion slaves as well. At the very least, things like Body Ethereal, Fire Shield (!), Elemental Fortitude, Summon Earthpower (now your communicants get reinvigoration!), Phoenix Pyre, Astral Shield et al seem to. Oh, and Pythium Communicants are sacred, in case you want to abuse them even more with Earth 4 (yet more reinvigoration!).

Communion + Relief is a powerful combination because of the fatigue redistribution.

Re: How do you get Level 5 Priests?
 

So I take it that communion cannot raise a priest's level?

In that case, isn't it unfair that only some nations can get level 5 smiting priests?

Re: How do you get Level 5 Priests?
 

LOL, did you say "unfair"?

Every nation has strengths and when they employ strategies to maximize them, this process creates weaknesses in other areas. If you want Smite, you might have to try a different nation to get it. Or you could “steal” enemy commanders with a wind ride/charm ambush.

The nations with weak priests were an endless discussion point in DomI.

There are sites that allow you to recruit High Priests (although I think you may need a high level priest to find them!). You could always let an enemy uncover such a site and take it from them.

You may have more fun in your quest for smite then you would playing the “regular” game.

Yo

[ November 14, 2003, 11:44: Message edited by: Yojinbo ]

Re: How do you get Level 5 Priests?
 

How effective is wind ride/charm?

And isn't it unfair as well if that is too effective? LOL.

And are there any counters to wind ride/charm?

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">

Re: How do you get Level 5 Priests?
 

ROFLMAO. I got Bartholomeus on my 2nd turn. So I have 2 smiting level 5 priests. The way they mow down units is outrageous.

Re: How do you get Level 5 Priests?
 

Communion/sabbath does pump priest levels.

Wind ride is very potent. However it cannot pick up large targets. Also I think that it cannot pick up ethereal targets. The text claims that earth mages get some protection as well.

Re: How do you get Level 5 Priests?
 

Unless you play me or Gandalf you probably will not have your commanders stolen this way. (grin) It's expensive and time consuming. However, it is a way to "recruit" some diversity into your ranks.

Smite is cool, but it's just another tool in the box. That's the beauty of Dominions; there is no "tank rush". Everything has a cost. Dominions is not balanced perfectly (I or II) but the players balance the game out with tactics and planning.

Yo

Re: How do you get Level 5 Priests?
 

Speaking of priests, what ever happened to level 1 holy priests? Did they exist at some point early in the creation of dominions? I notice that there are now spells and such for level 1 unholy priests but it seems that if you made a level 1 holy priest all he could do is preach badly.

Re: How do you get Level 5 Priests?
 

Even normal Ulm gets level-2 priests, but perhaps there's an independent level-1 priest I've not noticed.
As for Charm (or its blood equivalent, Hellbind Heart), if memory serves the range isn't all that great on them, and they are resistable using MR.
Wind Ride was (probably still is) rather expensive to cast -- 20 Air gems or so in Dom I, requires good Air magic as well. It can be blocked using dome spells (can be expensive, not guaranteed), or mitigated by using cheap commanders as spell-fodder. At least in Dom I, I think the victim also gets to know where the Wind Riding mage was, because he gets the battle replay incl. province identification, so it opens up the possibility of retalliation.

Re: How do you get Level 5 Priests?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Are there such spells? I think they're Ermor / Desert Tombs specfic, if they do exist. But the point is not preaching badly, it's reanimating. If Ermor recruits indy Holy-2 priests, they become Unholy-1 priests. But I've never seen a Holy-1 priest.

And a correction on communion - it's not 1 level per 2 slaves, but rather an additional level per log(base 2) of the number of slaves; so 8 slaves give a bonus of 3. The number of slaves may be divided by the number of masters first; I'm not sure.