Really high magic levels
 

I once had a Pretender who had level 9 in everything (empowerment, baby!) and as high as level 17 or something in death magic. Would magic levels that go up this high add any benefits? You can cast everything on the spellbook at level 9, right? Did my level 17 death mage pretender had stronger spell effects/penetration, etc.?

Re: Really high magic levels
 

read the instruction booklet.....you can never have high enough magic levels on your main commanders http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Re: Really high magic levels
 

You get higher penetration, less fatigue (marginally; since the formula is ((base fatigue / (extra levels + 1)) + spell-casting encumberance) really high levels make less and less difference), and some spells increase in area or number of effects e.g. Orb Lightning.

No ritual or battle spell requires more than level 9 in anything. Quite a few paths don't have level-9 requirements at all, if memory serves; there aren't that many except for Utterdark, Wish, Astral Nexus, Strands of Arcane Power.

If you're empowering that much, you're probably wasting gems that could more effectively be put into creating and unleashing pet Doom Horror commanders, because the empowerment costs just get extreme, or at a minimum in forging lots of tasty artifacts.

Re: Really high magic levels
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Death 17 is crazy. You could have summoned tons of Revenants, and each turn, each could have summoned 10 skeletons, for a huge, supply-free undead army with those gems.

Not to imply that that's a good strategy, it's just one of thousands that would have been better=)

[ November 27, 2003, 22:19: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Re: Really high magic levels
 

I had every worthwhile artifacts already forged, LOL.

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Re: Really high magic levels
 

in SP we play for enjoyment (in MP too, but with optimization somehow)... If it please him to have level 99 in death, then why not http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Really high magic levels
 

I agree completely with Pocus. The primary point of any game is to have fun. If it is more fun for somebody to spend their gems a certain way, how can anybody else really say they are wrong?

Some people can only have fun if they win, which seems sort of sad to me, but I wouldn't try and tell them they are actually wrong. Likewise, if I (or anyone else) am in the mood to play with a less-than-perfectly-optimized style and make it less likely I'll win, even though I'm enjoying myself in the process, then so what? There's no reason for anybody to play according to anybody else's tastes unless they want to.

That's why I like multiple set-up options, modding, and the rest. It gives people the freedom to play closer and closer to their own tastes as possible, as well as allowing variation and providing endurance to the game.

Re: Really high magic levels
 

Yep. This is a really fun game to play at a leisurely pace against the AI, indulging in eccentric exploration of the many arcane possibilities.

Another practical effect (unless I missed someone mentioning it) is the reduction of fatigue cost of spells that are lower than your level in their circle. I assume this continues for higher levels, so level 17 death would be able to cast death spells with very little fatigue cost. Since some spells have very high fatigue costs, this can turn them from one-shot spells to "cast over and over" spells.

This might also have been mentioned, but I think magic resistance of the target also goes down for over-powered casters.

PvK

Re: Really high magic levels
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It does. You also get half your magic score round down as an MR boost towards spells of the same path. So it is difficult to disintegrate a Lich.

Re: Really high magic levels
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Wow, this is new. Thanks for the info.

Re: Really high magic levels
 

Interesting. Does Communion/Sabbath affect the MR bonus? (And magic duel as well)?

I've had casters with very high effective spell levels in battle, but mostly by making truly insane abuse of massed communicants, which can be counted by assorted hit-province / hit-much-of-battlefield spells. 'specially with the harder wards these days.

"Cast over and over" has somewhat limited use because the really high fatigue spells tend to be the ones that use lots of gems as well, and no matter how good a mage you are you can only carry a total of 30 (IIRC) magical resources.

There is quite a bit of potential goofiness to explore; e.g. I once had an squadron of Iron Dragons commanded by a GoR'd Iron Dragon. Experimenting with all the different globals as well; I tried Haunted Forest for the first time in a game with Man. I lost anyway (wasted way too much time dealing with Machaka and Pangaea while Ulm ate the rest of the Aran map as no other AIs were available to stop it), but that's a pretty funky spell.

Theme armies can be fun as well. In a Jotunheim/Utgard game I carried over from the demo, I finished my conquests with an atrociously expensive Army from Hell -- literally; it had all the Demon Lords, Ice Devils, Arch Devils, and one of the Heliophagii, and the Banefire Lord as well as the Father Illearth. Many of which had been empowered... ouch. Not efficient in terms of total slave/gem cost, but amusing to watch in battle.

Re: Really high magic levels
 

also you get increasing stats :
for example each fire magic skill increases attack rating (if I remember correctly)
and each earth magic skill increases protection (up to 20, if I remember correctly ;-) )

each air magic skill increases accuracy for any kind of projectiles (magic or not)

I think death magic increases the FEAR effect if you have one