Does anybody know?
 

Spell Penetration, does anybody know off the top of their head whether it applies to the overland energy attack spells? Fires From Afar, Murdering Winter, Flaming Spheres, etc.?

I know it does for Mind Hunt (wonderful spell), but I don't know about the mass death spells, they don't really say.

-Frank

Re: Does anybody know?
 

Penetration only effects spells with an MR roll. The ones you mentioned do not. Anything that involves damage from poison, fire, lightning, and ice (unless I'm forgetting a spell) ignores magic resistance.

Re: Does anybody know?
 

Only spells with a MR check count penetration.

Vengeance of the Dead
Imprint Souls
Mind Hunt

Everything else relies on resistances and physical damage, even Burden of Time.

Re: Does anybody know?
 

Are you sure about that? I've seen Crones live for a very very long time under the influence of Burden of Time. I've also lost Sea Kings straight up from the same spell, and the difference in hit points and protection between those units is night and day.

BTW, does anyone know how much damage something like Wrath of God (or apparently Burden of Time) is? I kill a lot of Soulless with Wrath of God, so I'm figuring that it's got to be like 15+ points of damage...

-Frank

Re: Does anybody know?
 

Question II: Does your Spell Penetration count when you use "on-hit" attacks? In short, does a spellfocus improve your chances with Tartarian Chains?

I know for a fact that having a big pile of Fire Magic improves the fire damage inflicted by your charcoal shields...

-Frank

Re: Does anybody know?
 

The randomosity is pretty out there. Since it's such a large spell that is targeted by Nation per turn. A good way to test this for yourself, if you don't believe me, is to use BoT with Jotunehiem and Giants, or play with BoT and GoH. MR may have a tiny factor to do with it, but not from what I have seen.

I don't know the exact number, more than likely the exact same as a Lightning Bolt. Why Wrath is so deadly is because the damage is AP.

Re: Does anybody know?
 

No. Penetration doesn't affect spell-like effects from on-hit items. They are totally seperate weapons and have no impact from penetration.

Fire Magic affects the Fire Shield Spell (7+1 Damage per level of Fire). And the Charcoal Shield just gives you a Fire Shield and any current levels of Fire are added to the effect by Hardcode. I can't think of any other items that are like this off the top of my head, even Regeneration and Nature Paths.

Re: Does anybody know?
 

BTW, when a unit is "killed" by Burden of Time, it suffers exactly 999 points of damage. With a prophet of a golem cult, for example, it is possible to exceed 999 hit points. Does anybody know whether it reports the character as "dead" if they suffer 999 damage and live from a Burden of Time?

(I figured this one out when Burden of Time killed one of my Hall of Famers).

-Frank

Re: Does anybody know?
 

Im willing to bet a units health cannot and will not exceed 999. It will probably just arbitrarily limit, as do gems.

Re: Does anybody know?
 

What about Golem Cult Sphinx Pretender in high positive dominion? I seem to remember that I had a Sphinx once with over 1000 hp, but I'm not sure.

Are you sure that wasn't 9999 damage?

Re: Does anybody know?
 

Positive. My dead Sea King has -972 hit points, and he had 27. So the Burden o Time inflicted 999 hit points. I suspect other death effects do the same thing. Certainly, the Ethereal Crossbow actually claims to inflict 999 points of damage on some screens.

As to a Sphinx, in a Golem Cult it gains 100 hit points per point of Dominion before it even gets any XP. So at dominon 10 it's going to have 1500 hit points at the start of the game.

-Frank

Re: Does anybody know?
 

Couldn't it just be a symbolic damage assessed after the unit fails its rolls? After all, it has some purpose -- 999 damage should give a massive chance of an affliction on anything non-regenerating, for instance, and this matters for both HoF (mummies) and immortals.

Re: Does anybody know?
 

It is 999 in damage. And sphinxes in home dominion can survive soul slay, burden of time etc. It has been this way since dom1.

Re: Does anybody know?
 

OK, Manifestation. It claims a 50% return rate when the caster sends it out. I know that it can attack your own stuff in the province (and thus it differs sharply from Earth Attack), but how does it actually work?

Is it a 50% chance per leader of being "suitable" each turn? (that would make your chances of having it attack an enemy leader in a big army near 100%) Is it a 50% chance of any leader being "sitable", followed by a random draw as to which leader it is?

Give me a bone here...

-Frank