two questions about R\'lyeh
 

First, does the Mind BLast benefit / suffer from penetration / magic resistance? (Does it make sense to put a Spell Focus on a Star Child?) And if not, is it Attack skill and Defense which is used in the formula o' fun?

Second, what is this Stargazer people mention? So far, I have only succeeded in feebleminding EVERYone, including my pretender, in trying to figure out how to get a nice Void Monsterlet. I was told: Try it with a Stargazer. Fair enough.
Since I cant recruit one, I figure I have to summon one -- but how?

Re: two questions about R\'lyeh
 

The Stargazer is one of the R'lyeh heros, but you can just use illithid priests. Anything else will get feeblemind.

Re: two questions about R\'lyeh
 

Yup, Starspawns (I prefer the priests here due to them being cheaper and having the same chance for successful summons/getting feebleminded) are the way to go.

Only mages with a point in astral can try summons, but non starspawns have a 75% chance to become feebleminded. Starspawns have a 5% chance and Cthugul the Stargazer (R'lyeh hero) has a 2% chance.

Unless you are unlucky a starspawn priest should be perfect (on average you get a summon each 2-3 turns and most likely will be able to cure your summoner when he gets feebleminded).

When you get Cthugul VERY early in the game you should use him, but I wouldn't waste more than 1-2 points in summon skill (you get a point for each successful summon) in order to replace a starspawn with Cthugul.

The higher your summoning skill is, the more power the summons will have on average (I once got a Vastness with a summoning skill of around 9 IIRC). At 10+ you often get Greater Otherness and other pretty nice summons.

The Illithid mind attacks can be resisted, but aren't effected by range or visibility.

CharonJr

[ February 16, 2004, 07:59: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

Re: two questions about R\'lyeh
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Oh, the Priests are even better than just "preferred", they're the only viable choice: They don't have the SAME chance of getting successful summons and not getting feebleminded: They have a greatly REDUCED chance of getting feebleminded. Cheaper isn't even the point: Their chance of being feebleminded is about 4x less than anything else: 5% vs. 20%.

Stargazer, the national hero, has a mere 2% chance of going to the funny farm.

Re: two questions about R\'lyeh
 

Ah, never tried to summon with a starspawn mage http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif They have a 20% chance to get feebleminded ?

Oh well, they are too costly and useful in other ways anyway to be "wasted" at a Void Gate http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

Re: two questions about R\'lyeh
 

Righto, thanks.

Realize my first question was misleading, my mistake.

I meant: Upon what basis is the Penetration calculated? (Normally, +1 Pen for ever +2 levels above spell requirement right?)

But if I grasp this mind bLast thingy right, it is not an astral-based spell (it doesnt use fatigue and non-mages use it), so: upon what is mind bLast based? How can I raise the penetration level?

Re: two questions about R\'lyeh
 

Tinkthank,

Use a priest and equip him well, as you can. Also, give him bodyguards. As one person suggested, those immobile summons you'll get are excellent for this.

Give him items that up his MR and give him cannon fodder to throw at uncooperative summons and keep them busy while your priest lights them up with spells.

Another excellent suggestion is to have that priest cast Ritual of Return, so as soon as they get hit combat is over and they'd be saved. (Of course, if that attack is the one that feebles them ... Oh well.)

With good equipement, you can have a priest Last nearly your whole game. I only used two Last time I played (and wasn't using bodyguards or Ritual) and my second guy Lasted to the end and was up to level 32 in summoning.

Hope some of this helps.


In space no one can ask for directions,
V'ger gone

Re: two questions about R\'lyeh
 

ANY chance the developers will create an artifact where other astral mages can try using the Void Gate for decreasing the percentage chance of going feebleminded ??

[ February 18, 2004, 00:07: Message edited by: NTJedi ]

Re: two questions about R\'lyeh
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's sort of counterproductive though, after 12 summoning or so your chance of summoning a vastness vanishes, and to be honest I would prefer one vastness to 10 or so greater othernesses 8)

Re: two questions about R\'lyeh
 

[/quote]That's sort of counterproductive though, after 12 summoning or so your chance of summoning a vastness vanishes, and to be honest I would prefer one vastness to 10 or so greater othernesses 8) [/QB][/quote]

Hmm, are you sure that is does ? I once got a Vastness at 9 summoning and the next one at around 30, I think the chance is just not improving to get a Vastness, but at least the chances for getting other decent summons are improving.

CharonJr

Re: two questions about R\'lyeh
 

Charon, what Velk said about Vastness summoning is what IW has commented upon in response to questions I raised regarding why I stopped getting them after about turn 20ish and skill level in the teens. 50+ turns later and 20 more skill levels and I still hadn't seen another one. What IW said is that at higher skill levels (and they consider teens "high", and 30+ to be "absurd") the code will generate multiple GOs (almost always 2) and the chances for a Vastness drop to zero. I, too, would happily trade a dozen or more GOs for a Vastness. While it doesn't make sense that the more skilled you are the worse your chances, their justification is game balance and I can hardly fault them for that, no matter how much it irks me.