Re: Beginner Questions
 

You should also note that a character needs at least one level in a path in order to benefit from an item bonus for it. For example, a thistle mace (grants +1 nature bonus) will only work for mages who already have at least 1 level in nature magic (taking them to Nature 2). Mages without nature magic won't gain the bonus (though they would still benefit from any other abilties conferred).

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Has anyone found a liking to Blood magic? I know that Mictlan practically relies on it, but how about with other races? Sacrificing and gathering virgins makes people angry and I'm killing off the population as I patrol it. Should I take Growth when using Blood magic? Or should I just let them suffer and die?

Also, has anyone ever found a Blood magic site? I think I've seen an Arena one day, but it gave like +25 gold.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

I've found the Blood Citadel and Vale of Infinite Horror. The first one is nice, the second one...well, is not nice. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif There are some blood magic sites but they aren't very common. Some of them are very, very nice (Mountain of Power, Devil's Den) while others are just lame (that Villains site).

Blood magic was considered overpoweringly good in Dominions 2. I don't play that much with blood nations, so I don't know how strong it is in Dom 3.

Growth can nullify the poploss a bit, but it won't stop it.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Growth will allow population to grow back it you stop bloodhunting in that province. Ideally, you will use 2 neighboring provinces, one resting and getting population up and other for bloodhunting (it's like farming http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif)

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Ideally, you'll use <font color="red">ALL PROVINCES YOU OWN LET THE BLOOD FLOW! </font> http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Mount Chaining, if memory serves, is a blood site which offers a 40% discount on... conjuration, IIRC. The minor blood sites tend to give just unrest, or a little gold; but some do offer devils, discounts, et al. Damned Merchant is convenient, although the impact is minor if you've got even a couple of teams of blood hunters.

Turn off auto-tax, drop taxes to 0, use a couple of B1+ hunters with Sanguine Dousing Rods, move 'em along when pop drops a lot or make 'em pause when there's high unrest.

Blood got a couple of nice new high-level combat spells, and some high level ritual eeeeeeeevil (Horror Seed http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif), and there are some fun items to forge... but it's still a summoning school at heart.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

For public information, Disease Demon is 267% Evil.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Blood magic is probably the most interesting school/path (with blood magic, they're basically the same) there's a lack of stunning battle magic, although the best buff in the game is probably blood vengance. But blood has tons of cool summons, and gets some of the best, if rarest sites in the game. Summoning Circle? 60% blood discount? Lets cast Infernal Forces for twenty slaves! A somewhat related blood magic question? Am I the only one that is finding blood hunt to be way, way more effective? I'm having blood 2 mages getting about 10 slaves a turn, without a dousing rod. Seems like more than it used to be.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Lack of battle magic? What about hellbind? life for a life? claws of cocytus (well... maybe not)? Bloodletting? (I like it).

And call horror is cool too.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

I have a question about blood slaves:

Since they show up in battle as units, can they be killed by sorcery spells that target units in the map, like Fires From Afar or Wrath of God? That might be interesting if they could.