Re: Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread
 

Here's my SC idea: Void Lord with Earth 9-10, Water 9-10, armed with blood thorn, shield of gleaming gold, Wraith Crown, ring of regeneration, bear claw talisman (or whichever misc. item grants berserking), boots of stone, and hydra skin armor. Alternately, you could exchange the ring for an amulet of anti-magic or an elixer of life, and replace the blood thorn with a rat's tail whip or demon whip.

Along this same line, you could use a Destroyer of Worlds chassis and equip him the same, only with two hellswords for 2 life-draining attacks, +6 berserk, and 100% fire resistance, but I'd try to give him as much starting fire magic as possible in this case. My other idea for a 4 armed pretender is the Devi/Kali with 10 Dom for awe +2, 10 fire magic for the bonus to attack, and 4 rat tails, for 8 attacks, all of which cause fear.

Regeneration from forged items is cumulative, which is very very sweet, and which gives me an idea for a cheap (in terms of forged items) SC-namely to take that fertility goddess with regeneration and trample, give her nature 10 and equip her with a ring of regeneration and hydra-skin armor. Add boots of long strides for extra speed. Total cost is something like 20 nature gems and 5 earth gems. You can do the same to any large commander-the best is probably Basalt King with their size 5, sacredness, and fear +3, replacing the boots of long strides with boots of the behemoth.

A couple of questions though-is adding boots of the behemoth to a trampling unit cumulative in any way? Also, I haven't tried this yet, probably will tonight, but does anyone know if the Shroud of Saints' Blood can be equipped by pretenders, thus making them sacred?

Re: Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread
 

Shroud doesn't work on pretenders.

Re: Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread
 

Well, it offers a bit of zero encumbrance protection cheaply if you can't get anything else.

Re: Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread
 

Also remember that weapons with lifedrain (not natural lifedrain though) have been nerfed alot in dom3.

Re: Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread
 

I'm testing out something in my current game, more along the lines of gang thugs, and wanted to see what some more experienced players think of the setup:

I came across some independant Lizard Shamen (1S1N), recruited a group of 8 and I equipped each with Thistle Mace, Rune Smasher, Starshine Skullcap, Rainbow Armor, Boots of the Messenger, and Moonvine Bracelet, making them 2S3N. I script each of them to cast Communion Slave, Communion Master, and then one of each casts a buff to be spread across the communion (Power of the Spheres, Twist Fate, Eagle Eyes, Personal Luck, Elemental Fortitude, Resist Magic, Personal Regeneration, Astral Shield). I also bring along a priest with a Banner of the Northern Star (scripted to bless), so after the buffs and everything, I should have 8x 4S4N Shamen, each with +7 Reinvig in communion, which should bring their magic skills up to 7S7N for spellcasting and fatigue purposes. Then, depending on the situation, I script the last two spell slots to either Soul Slay or Charm.

So, other than the expense in gems to make all the equipment (75 gems for each! Less since I used Dwarven Hammers and have Forge of the Ancients active), is there anything I'm missing that is horribly wrong with this setup? For the Charm setup, I figure keep the Shamen up front with some body guards and a bunch of chaff troops set to Attack Closest, and for Soul Slay keep them behind a decent army.

Re: Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread
 

The slave+master on each dosnt work, for one iirc when one of them casts a spell the rest (being slaves aswell as masters) wont cast that turn.

Re: Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread
 

Hmmm, well, I guess that throws out all the buffs spreading across all. I suppose I could switch them all to just do, say, Eagle Eyes, so at least that will go through and they will have higher precision for the Charm/Soul Slay spam.

Re: Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread
 

You don't need eagle eyes for Soul Slay or Charm really.

Also you've made some very interesting 110g units, with no resistances, so if you get blasted by artillary, or flying screens to disrupt casting, you might be wondering why they are so fragile.

Re: Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread
 

Most importantly though, if a comunion master casts a spell, each comunion slave takes fatigue equal to their encumberance. So outfits like Rainbow Armor actually bone you if you are a comunion slave.

-Frank

Re: Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread
 

Rainbow Armor is Enc. 1, +3 Reinvig. The messenger boots would also help with the fatigue. Communion would reduce the extra casting fatigue because of path skill boost. I haven't tried it out yet, but I would think that the +1 casting encumberance would be more than offset by reinvig and reduced casting fatigue. I would think that it would result in less fatigue than there would have been with each casting the spells individually.

Besides, I decided to equip with Rainbow Armor more for the +MR, and if I cast Elemental Fortitude (since Zen tells me now that Eagle Eyes isn't going to really help), then I should have decent coverage in fire/cold/shock/poison/magic resistances. This could be augmented by other mages in the army casting battlefield resistances.