What the?!!!
 

How do you deal with a nightmare where it says the souls of all you've killed are coming after you? They killed my pretender! Who sends these? And how can you beat them unless you are a priest with banishment?

Re: What the?!!!
 

Hehe. You just ran into Vengeance of the Dead, a spell that anyone with 3 astral and one death (and thaumaturgy 4) can cast. And you can't really beat them, at least not forever. You see, if you beat them once, then twice as many will come after you the next time it's cast (unless Illwinter has seen fit to make that change, which I think is reasonable).

Re: What the?!!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Look at "Vengeance of the Dead" in the spellbook.

And next time, think twice before killing innocents unnecessarily with the leaders you want to keep safe. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: What the?!!!
 

What the Hell? Why is this spell in the game then? It is ridiculous. Am I bound to lose my pretty Arco prophet then? How often do they come?

Any counters, please?

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Re: What the?!!!
 

Come on; there must be something I can do. Any items that will make me stronger v. these guys?

Re: What the?!!!
 

Counters? Not really. Some that will help temporarily. The spell is in the game as one of the counters to supercombattants IMO.

You can try giving your pretender a Lifelong Protection or a Skull Talisman - something to ensure he has allies, even though he must face the souls of all he has killed alone. You can also arm him with things that do well against undead - a Flambeau for instance. Skill in death magic can also help - there's no one so good at destroying undead as a necromancer, somewhat paradoxically.

Re: What the?!!!
 

How does a skull talisman help?

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Re: What the?!!!
 

Also what are life protection & skull talisman? I can't find it on the manual.

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Re: What the?!!!
 

Skull Talisman would just give you some bodyguards during the fight.

The only complete protection, is to not kill anyone. Nice cuddly stay-at-home pretenders don't have to worry about such nightmares. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Or, you can be so mighty that you enjoy the experience. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Or, you can pile on the magic resistance, with items and/or by empowering in Astral (right?). My pretender got attacked by this a bunch of times, and he just resisted it, and he didn't have any special protection, except for being a level-3 dragon in his own dominion.

Or, you can surround yourself with decoys, and/or hide in a province your opponent doesn't know about or doesn't suspect you are in. IIRC, the spell is targetted against provinces, so if you are in a province they don't decide to target, you won't get attacked, and if they do attack, and you have a bunch of patrolling scouts or other cheap leader/major units, you're less likely to be the target of the dream.

PvK

Edit/P.S. - This is a really neat and imaginitive spell. Very cool. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[ November 18, 2003, 23:47: Message edited by: PvK ]

Re: What the?!!!
 

Surrounding yourself with decoys won't help against this particular spell. It targets "the greatest butcher in that province".

Magic resistance does in fact help, but being a nice cuddly stay-at-home pretender is the only complete defence.

Love your enemies to death!

Re: What the?!!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hahaha... I just lost mine to seeking arrow, 1 turn after I read that=) Poor thing.

No units are forever in Dominions...

Re: What the?!!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If you're a real BBB (big badass butcher), it's indeed the best defense.

Quote:

but being a nice cuddly stay-at-home pretender is the only complete defence

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Don't know if it's still true in D2, but in D1 undead leaders were unaffected by VOTD. One of the many reasons why I liked the Prince of Death.

Re: What the?!!!
 

What level item is skull talisman?

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Re: What the?!!!
 

ummm...this dosn't count what you killed with ritual spells does it...cause my pretender has killed hundreds that way...but just in battle...right? right?!

Re: What the?!!!
 

I don't know about ritual spells, but it does count undead which you banish, at least in Doms I. The only guy I've lost to the spell so far is a priest who had banished a bunch of undead. So if that's still the case, you might want to build up a veteran banisher - go banish a bunch of Ermorian armies, and then stack them with the units you want to protect from the spell, including say some armor and maybe a summoning item - not only would he probably count as the biggest butcher, but he might be able to re-banish the hordes... or at least, he'd be relatively replacable. I guess in practice it might not be so simple, but it's an idea, anyway. I might do that with my priest who won the Death Match, for instance, although in that game, I'm sure my dragon pretender is the bigger butcher so far.

As for the skeleton talisman, I think it's Death 1, with zero research requirement.

PvK

Re: What the?!!!
 

LOL, please tell me what level artifact the skull companion is. I will look it up.

Re: What the?!!!
 

Skull Talisman requires 5 death gems, and I believe it requires level-one Death magic, and no research. It lets the wearer animate skeletons, and has one skeleton guard him/her at all times. Must be hard to get used to, at first. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

PvK

Re: What the?!!!
 

Its a mere magic trinket. To save you the trouble, it's on page 33 of the maual http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: What the?!!!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Rituals did count wrt VOTD in Doms 1.

Re: What the?!!!
 

I had one of the AI opponents cast this spell where I had all my spellcasters researching... anyhow one of them had that nightmare. There was only two weak opponents that showed up in the nightmare! LOL
Needless to say she woke-up saying, "Yeahhh ! I kicked some butt while sleeping! "

_____________

Still from what I'm reading looks like that spell is kinda spooky now.

Re: What the?!!!
 

As for Lifelong Protection, it's a misc item that requires blood magic to construct, and costs something like... 20? blood slaves. It's unremovable and horror-marks you (but not severely it seems; compare with Gift of Kurgi. Attacks seem very rare, and most likely from lesser horrors). In exchange, you get "free" imps during battle, which can be useful for burning off enemy gems and otherwise distracting them.