Re: Newbish question
 

Thank you both!!!

I can now take my nightly whoopin but make it last longer (somehow that doesn't sound right).

Seriously, That was a big help and push in the right direction.

I have never really played magic (being the THUG that I am) games so I am a little behind everyone else.

this Forum is every bit as good as Ageod ACW for helping prople and I/we appreciate it!!!

Re: Newbish question
 

OK (sigh) my whoopin came a little quicker than normal so I will ask the one question that has been bugging me every since I started this game.

What spell can I use to check for magic sites without having to travel to each province.

IF I have a pretender (Ghost King) who is 5 death 4 earth 2 air and have him search for sites....shouldn't he find ANY of the above type sites if he travels there (i'm talking about sites that have a white sunburst and say they have stuff? (cause mine does not find anything....I think hes Drunk half the time anyway)

BTW Is that a good spread for my pretender in the 'magic' paths? Or should I have like a death 3 Earth 9 ect?

Thanks agian

Re: Newbish question
 

Hope this helps
Fire - Augury
Water - Voice of Aspu
Air - Auspex
Earth - Gnome Lore
Astral - Arcane Probing
Nature - Haruspex
Death - Dark Knowledge
Blood - Blood Bowl

Some are Thaumaturgy (Level 2), Evocation (Level 2), Conjuration (Level 3). If you order a mage to cast one of those spells with the monthly casting command (shift+m) he will do this every turn for another province.

There are 3 special Spells for Site Searching:
Voice of Tiamat - Detects all Elemntal Sites in a Water Province (Conj 4)
Acashic Records - Detects all Sites in a Province
Arcane Strands (hope I remmebered right) - The Caster detects Magic Sites in your dominion randomly, up to his paths

The sites have different Levels (0-4), If you use the command "Search for magic sites" your mage can only find sites up to his levels in magic paths. I.e. a Nature 3 mage can find only up to Nature 3 sites. If you searched a province, you can always check at the upper screen or the overview (F1), what level and paths already have been searched for - small colored icons with numbers in them. Maximum needed mage level is 4 to find everything of that path. The spells above all do a "9" search.

First, did you instruct him to "Search for magic Sites"? You do have to do this every time you want him to search a province.
There is just a probability for magic sites. So it is possible to have no magic sites in a province. The Sun Symbol normally shows an increased chance, but still there is the possibility of no sites. Even, if there were 4 (the maximum) sites in that province, those can be sites from magic paths not available to you.

There are some strategies picking paths:

You pick your paths for bless effects. These are good for any sacred units. Those can be blessed by priests in battle. If your nation has strong (either in number or raw power) sacred units, then this is commonly used Strategy. Bless effects start at 4 in any path and a second effect comes with 9.
Bless strategies commonly use 2 or 3 blesses at 9. This is very expensive, because you get only those bless effects, your pretender starts with (no booster increases bless effects). So a pretender wit 3 paths all at 9 is cost intensive.

rainbow
you give your pretender as many paths at levels 1-4 as you can afford, so he can site search for a lot of sites. Level 2 is often enough, because most sites are 2 or lower.

caster
you have some casting strategy. You want some spells available to your pretender. Then you can pick your paths accordingly. Often used for special spells not avalable to your nation.

SC (Super Combatant)
A martial pretender. You pick the paths to be able to cast effective combat spells.
Or sometimes you don't pick any paths and invest in good scales (order, luck etc.)
An example for the later is the Great Wyrm. He is quite effective even without speels. If you choose dominion 9(10) your pretender gets Awe(+4), a very effective defensive power.

Any combination of the above.

Re: Newbish question
 

> Arcane Strands (hope I remmebered right) - The Caster detects Magic Sites in your
> dominion randomly, up to his paths

Strands of Arcane Power doesn't detect up to the full value of the caster's paths.
I think it's up to at most half his magic levels, and boosters don't seem to count.

Re: Newbish question
 

Fire,Air,Earth and Nature are in Thaumaturgy 2, Astral in Evocation 2, Death in Conjuration 2, Water in Conjuration 3, Blood in Blood 2.
There's nothing in Enchantment.

Re: Newbish question
 

If you want to try just magic, Ghost King with few picks in paths your nation doesn't get is a good pick. As LA Man, Death, Fire, Water and Nature would fit well.

You could also choose a pretender that helps your national mages by forging path boosters. Page 282 of your manual lists various items that boost magical powers of a mage, and both non-unique Air boosters require Air 4. Your national mages won't get that good without help, so having Air 4 on your pretender would really help them.

Re: Newbish question
 

Yes, you're absolutely right, shame on me;) I edited it accordingly.

Re: Newbish question
 

Hmm, just noticed I forgot to mention this, but another big disability for immobile pretenders is that they tend not to have any item slots (beyond 2-4 misc slots), so you can't give them quite a few of the path-boosting gear, which can really weaken their potential for magic.

Re: Newbish question
 

WOW....all I could ask for and more!!!

Thanks guys...

Last night I was motoring along and actually kickin some Ai booty for a change.

And then....I decided to let my best Champion (and Prophet) fight in the Death Match arena.

Now I did give him a winged boot, ring of Lighting Protection AND Ring of missle protection.... he had heroic (was 2nd in the hall of fame) and then, and then....he got his little Butt kicked (and of course killed) in 6th round.

But being the smart gamer I am I SAVED the game BEFORE the battle (pretty smart huh!!)

Except that after I reloaded and hit turn it rewrote my save and NOW I still have a dead Prophet!!

So now I know what the warning about saved games meant (and BTW I think its a GREAT rule).

What a GREAT game!!

Thanks agian everyone and maybe someday I will let you guys whoop up on me instead of the AI (if I EVER figure all this out)!!

Re: Newbish question
 

well if you like you could join some of the newb games, because in those games everybody is inexperienced