Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

Some spells, the most exhausting of which seem to be Army of Lead IIRC, require upwards of 500 fatigue.
I think you start to die when your fatigue hits 200, right? Anyone know how much more fatigue you can take before dying, or does this depend on something from situation to situation?

Well in any case, I think AoL needs 7 gems and takes 700 fatigue. Even if you have a 9-earth pretender with earth boots and a tome of gaia, won't he or she still die when casting this spell? Ditto for other spells of similar type? And so no "normal" (non-pretender) mage could ever hope to cast this or similar spells without suiciding? Or am I missing something?

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

Communion is what you're missing.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

If you give your earth-9 pretender ~13 gems (or less or more depending on the magic scale) he should be below 100 fatigue after casting Army of Lead. No communion or Earth Boots needed.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No mage will ever cast a spell that will bring them above 200 fatigue. The only times that they will cast these spells is when they have enough gems and skill to bring the fatigue down to 200 or lower.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

thank you -- excuse the re-question, but...

Isn't 1 gem the maximum for reducing fatigue?
That is: I thought that only 1 gem could be used to boost virtual power in fatigue reduction?

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'm not that clear on fatigue reduction by gems.
What I've understood is that you get a "basic" divide in fatigue of (Your level - Spell Level)+1
So an Earth-9 guy casting AoLead (E7) will get 700/3=233, still too high.
Then how many gems can you spend and what do they do ? The spell costs 7 gems, why do you propose 6 more ?

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">For fatigue reduction _only_, consider each extra gem gives you 1 extra magic level. Although you can't really get more than 1 extra magic level thru gems wrt spell requirement, range, damage, number of effects, penetration, etc.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

I thought that the maximum amount of gems that could be used was capped at the mage's power level... So that Earth 9 mage could only use 9 gems so only two could be used when casting Army of the Lead.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If this were the case, then an astral 4 mage could never cast solar brilliance. They can cast the spell, so it's not the case.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

Hmm. Maybe this was changed from Dominions 1... Or the manual wasn't updated after that was changed. Thanks for clearing that for me.
EDIT: I mean Dom1 manual.

[ May 26, 2004, 15:44: Message edited by: Endoperez ]

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If this were the case, then an astral 4 mage could never cast solar brilliance. They can cast the spell, so it's not the case. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It was also my understanding (from reading these forums) that it was capped at the mage's level, currently, in Dom2.

- Kel

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

For a better explanation, Solar Brilliance is an astral 5 spell that requires 5 astral pearls to cast (and hence requires 500 fatigue to cast). I have personally seen astral 4, and astral 5 mages cast this spell against a horde of undead without going over 200 fatigue. This is only possible if they are capable of spending the 5 gems as the base cost, then up to 4 or 5 gems more to boost their power level and reduce fatigue.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">From Dom2 manual, chapter 6.4.7 Battle Magic and Magic Gems:

"(A paragraph detailing the gem use as fatique lessener)

A mage may not use more gems than his skill level in the path of gem being used. If a spell requires magic gems to be cast, the mage must pay that amount of gems in addition to the gems he used to raise his skill level."

Reading that fast, I'd think level 4 mage could use only 4 gems, total. On the other hand, the first quoted sentence _might_ refer to above paragraph, so it would mean max 4 gems could be used for level raising / fatique removing, in addition to the amount of gems required to cast the spell. But as I'm not a native speaker, the interpretation is best left to someone else. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Anyway, just bad wording in the manual, misinformation, or some sort of unintended behaviour?

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

I know for sure that I've seen L3 mages use 4-5 gems on a single spell.

I think the manual is worded a bit confusingly, but is saying that a mage can't use more than his level in gems to boost his level for casting reqs/fatigue reduction purposes. The gem cost of the spell itself is independent of that.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The latter interpretation is the correct one. Although a mage will never use more than 7 extra gems to reduce his fatigue, even if he's level 8+ in the path required to cast the spell.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not at all, since the mage was a solo starspawn armed with only a starshine skullcap against several hundred undead.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not at all, since the mage was a solo starspawn armed with only a starshine skullcap against several hundred undead. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">OK. (But why didnt he cast power of the spheres then? I love that spell, but I'm a certified newbie. Just curious, thanks.)

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

Only semi-related, but: do Banner and Light of the Northern Star, stack?

PvK

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">He didn't cast power of the spheres because it wouldn't have been any help. All it would have accomplished is to give him a bunch of extra fatigue, use up several astral pearls, and make it less likely that he would have had enough fatigue remaining to cast solar brilliance.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No.

Re: Naive question on casting 500+ fatigue spells
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">ALthough couldnt it have been the case that Banner of the Northern Lights, Power of the Spheres, and other boosting spells/items were in play here?