Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

A question to experienced munchk.. err, strategoi. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
What would you choose for a SK of Hell sword/Wraith sword/Blood thorn, had you an access to all three?
Do they grant the same % of lifedrain, and what is generally more effective?

And another question about the Eye shield - how does it work? Simply one eye per strike, or is there some MR roll to avoid getting an affliction? Seems to be quite a cheesy item, especially against the SK cyclopes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

What's an SK?

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Probably a Superkrieger, german for SC http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif.

To the original question:
I would never chose the wraithsword, in most cases the blood thorn and for thugs the hellsword.

Blood thorn enables you to use a shield also this is better then the 6 higher weapondamage of hell-/wraithsword.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

No, it's not German, it's just me being dyslexic. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

And what about the Eye shield? (opinions about the lifedraining items still welcome)

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

I go with Blood Thorn, when possible, for the extra hand slot.

What about Bone Armor? How does its life drain work? Through hits that the wearer makes, or does the armor cast a spell, or does it drain from those who hit the wearer?

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

It merely auto-casts 'Soul Vertex' at the beginning of the battle for the wearer, i.e. it will drain a couple of nearby units, friend or foe alike. Hence bodyguards for Soul-Vertex-casters function merely like batteries which are discarded after use.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Blood thorn is often better for extra hand slot but wraith sword is often easier to come by.

Eye shield is one eye per hit, and I think there is an mr check, but not sure. It can be useful but once you have units that will stand up to taking hits from SCs, you probably have better options than an eye shield.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Hellsword has one potentially big advantage: it helps a SC go berserk, meaning that it will stay on the field of battle after all other commanders / troops have fled. This can be quite handy if you want to send in some chaff that you know will be eliminated (say, undead to wear down other SCs with lifedraining weapons) or if, like some pretenders, it's stuck with some auto-summoned minions.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Ok, thanks. Btw, what shields may be a 'better choice' than an Eye shield? Considering you have already got luck from a pendant?

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Better Shields:
Charcoal Shield... better protection and if your SC has lots of life the fire damage will work great in preventing him from getting swarmed by little units.

Main Gauche... this weapon provides 6 defense ! So if your SC has super high protection already this weapon is sometimes the better way to go. An extra battle swing is nice too.

Also there's a shield which blocks 80% of all arrows... definitely worth considering if you are playing human opponents.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

I'm a big fan of the Charcoal Shield (Fire Resistance and Fire Shield), the Lantern Shield (extra Fear and a couple of pieces of skum who have banefire attacks), the totem shield (curses all the enemy SCs), and the Lcuky Coin (which you apparently don't need). But they all are weak sauce compared to the unique shields. Aegis is funny stuff, and so is Barrier.

-Frank

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Doesn't the scuttata shoot lightning bolts? That's kinda nice...

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

IIRC the Hellsword also gives permanent HP's to its wielder.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

I've never seen any permanent HP boost from anything? Were you confusing leftover HP from a previous lifedraining?

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Shocking grasp on adjacent units.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Molog, thanks for clearing that up for me. So given a choice I guess I have to decide between scuttatas and charcoal shields. I suppose the nature of my foe would decide that. Unless you fellows see something in the stats that makes the choice a no-brainer?

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

In general, the fire shield is better, as it can damage many more units a turn. Another contender is the Vine Shield.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Spirit Helmet shoots lightning bolts. Sadly, neither works when the owner is paralysed - guess he has to push the 'on' button every turn...

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Hmm...so blood thorn, charcoal shield, Spirit Helm.

That leaves armor, boots, and misc.

For armor I think:

Jade Scale

Boots:

Speed or Flying? Or maybe reinvigoration... tough choice.

Misc.

Luck

Anti-magic

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Just to play devil's advocate:

Hell and Wraith swords have another advantage over blood thorns: cost. Blood Thorns cost twice as much as Hell swords, they do less damage, and they have no special abilities to speak of (unless your SC has blood magic, then of course they're the best choice).

Hell Swords make you go berzerk, and give +3 attack and fire resistance. Wraith Swords give +3 defense, I believe, which is nice, although admittedly not as much as you could get from a shield. Although a decent shield at 10 gems puts the total cost at a whopping 30 gems and/or slaves for the blood thorn/shield combo, whereas it's only 10 gems for the Hell/Wraith sword.

So, I think in terms of cost:benefit, the Hell Sword probably is the best bet. In terms of pure benefit, I agree the Blood thorn/shield combo is better.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

If you are going jade arour, then you want boots of flying for the feet slot. Also, the starshine skull cap is cheaper than spirit helm, and provides extra MR.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

A lucky coin is usually my first choice for a shield, as it effectively doubles the hitpoints of anything that wears it.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Best picks usually are:

Blood Thorn
Lucky Coin
Starshine Skullcap
Jade Armor (or Hydra Skin Armor)
Boots of Flying (or Boots of Quickness)
Ring of Regeneration (or Flying Carpet or Next)
Either Antimagic Amulet or Ring of /Resistance/

That is pretty standard on most of SC's that include Bane Lords, Devils, Titans.

If you want a life drainer and not much for magic, this is a very effective setup. If they have a decent amount of Att to overcome most normal units. Undead may pose some problems, but this can defeat most non-lifeless armies.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

If you have a chassis with a high base prot, but not truly exceptional magic resistance, Armor of Souls or Rainbow Armor (less MR, but some reinvig) might make sense.

Against undead/demonic SCs, there's a triple-damage spear that could be of use. Against hordes of magical units, Elfbane / Moon Blades deserve a look.

Hordes of Pan CW undead is still a problem since you can't afford to get KO'd by mass sleep vines.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

So...

Anyone like the Wraith Crown or Robe of Shadows for a Earth based SC? Or a Amulet of Resilience instead of a ring of /resistance/? (if you know fatigue will be an issue).

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

I'm fond of using Wraith Crowns at certain points in the game - against many troops, even summoned ones, it gives twice the benefit of luck (3/4 attacks negated vice 1/2). In addition, the initial mini-swarm of undead tends to slow down flyers (aquatic and terrestial) long enough for some buffs to be successfully cast.

I've used the robe of shadows less often, because there's usually a better suit of armor for most combat chassis's; however I have used it a few times on commanders with high innate PD and water magic - since they can self-haste, they don't need the jade armor.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Hmmm...

So how about:

Bloodthorn
Lucky Coin
Wraithcrown
rainbow armor
boots of flying
amulet of MR
ring of regeneration

I was debating the ring vs. the amulet of the werewolf because of it's regenerative & berserk properties...are there reasons not to use that amulet?

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Depends on what you are facing and what sc/thug you are sticking it on, but in general its decent. The only thing that you have no quickness... boots or jade armor.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

So replace the boots with boots of quickness and change the armor to jade armor?

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

The werewolf amulet can turn living? units into skinshifters.

I gave one to a werewolve, who became a skin shifter, who could shift into a werewolve.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

The amulet of the wolf has a small chance of transforming your super combatant into a werewolf. That's bad. Not because it gets big and hairy, bu because it gets so small and hairy.

As for this set-up:
I think that's a bit counter-synnergystic, although it does have some nice properties (decent MR, for instance).

Immediately obvious problems are:
No elemental resistances.
Very Crappy Protection.
No Haste Effects.

Those are big deals. It's got a lot of things covered, the small amount of reinvig on the rainbow armor really cuts down on the amount of death you can expect from Elf Shot, for instance. But the boots of flight don't benefit much from the low-encumberance armor you invested in, because you would be running around at full speed anyhow.

But if you have access to level 6 construction (which in your example, it seems you do, try some of these:

Bloodthorn
Shield of the Accursed
Starshine Skullcap
Chainmail of Displacement
Boots of Quickness
Bracers of Defense
Ring of Regeneration
---
Look at that Defense! You've got a +12 Defense Mod and a +22 Protection before we even get to the Haste and natural protection (which you also have).

Bloodthorn
Crystal Shield
Flame Helm
Elemental Armor
Boots of Flight
Heart of Life
Ring of Regeneration

A nice protection value, it adds in 28 proection while still managing to ge in Regeneration, Reinvigoration, and the all-important Lightning and Cold Resistance (which will otherwise bypass your mighty armor without issue). Low MR, but a very high potential for magic adding on a spell-using combatant. If your Cyclops is willing to wear this get-up, expect to see a protection value in the mid-forties (which in turn will bounce Giant blows).

Or:
Faithful
Lead Shield
Starshine Skullcap
Hydra Skin Armor
Boots of Quickness
Heart of Life
Amulet of Antimagic

A massive MR value (+10!) and some good Reinvig. That and the quickness makes this a very good outfit for a rear-caster summoner. A Ghost King dressed up like this is dressed to kill.

Or:
Bloodthorn
Charcoal Shield
Starshine Skullcap
Rhyme Hauberk
Boots of Flight
Ring of Tamed Lightning
Ring of Regeneration

This is all about fighting big groups, resistance or immunity to all four elements, a chill aura and a fire shield make this a build to get-in and then hack a large army to pieces without death. Put this in and wait for the enemy army to die. They are going to do that.

Hellsword
Starshine Skullcap
Copper Plate
Boots of Flight
Ring of Regeneration
Lifelong Prtoection

A simple all-around set-up for an undead hero such as a Bane Lord. Resistance or Immunity to every element, flight, regen, berserking, a pile of imps every battle, it's good. You fly around the hinterland stabbing things in the face.

-Frank

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

En Forcer - you want either jade armor or boots of quickness, but not both (doesn't stack, iirc).

Frank - thanks for the cool item configs! Some stuff I hadn't considered. However, Hydra Skin Armor wouldn't be that useful on Ghost King, would it? Or does gk not have lifeless tag? Or is it no regen for undead? I always have to look it up...

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Regen works for the ghost king, as he is not lifeless.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Hmmm....then Elemental armor instead of Jade or rainbow. Along with boots of quickness. Just put the thugs or SCs up front so they don't have far to go.

BUT the Hydra Skin armor would be good in that it also addresses reinvigoration issues...

OKAY here is another question. How much reinvigoration do you actually need on your guy?

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

None, most of the time, assuming you have a lifestealing weapon. It really only comes into play if you have to fight lifeless enemies.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

What about substitutions based on gem availability? For example, with Abysia, I'll make red dragon scale mail. It is not the best by any means, but it fits with the abundance of fire gems. For anything other than astral pearls, the conversion rate is terrible.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Instead of bloodthorn/shield combinations, you can use bloodthorn/faitful and a burning pearl (depending on enemies) instead of a ring of regen.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Abyssia usually has a biig pile of Fire Gems, and access to sufficient Blood Slaves and Astral Pearls for whatever it wants to do. You might see a get-up like this:

Bloodthorn
Lucky Coin
Starshine Skullcap
Red Dragon Scalemail
(No Boots)
Amulet of Antimagic
Lifelong Protection (Heart of Life on Caster, Ring of the Warrior on low Attack Skill SC)

If you can afford it, consider swapping the RDS for an Armor of Souls. That thing is awesometastic, although the price (40 Blood Slaves) is off the charts nuts. You can't easily build any boots, so this will want to go on a mounted or elemental king chasis. This can make a pretty decent Pyrflagos.

Atlantis usually has a virtually limitless pile of Astral Pearls and an overwhelming pile of Water Gems as well. And that's... all you can count on. You can't even Blood Hunt in most of your empire. Still, you can make:

Sword of Swiftness
Shield of the Accursed
Starshine Skullcap
Blue Dragon Scalemail
Boots of Quickness
Amulet of Antimagic
Amulet of Luck

That's a build that has no life stealing and no reinvig, which hurts. But it gets four attacks a turn, and has a very decent defense and protection values. The Encumberence on the whole thing is only 2, so you should be able to rack up a lot of kills anyways.

Pythium has a very large gem income, and has it split between Air, Astral, and Water. Often you'll have more coming besides, but at the least you should be able to choke out this:

Sword of Swiftness
Shield of the Accursed
Starshine Skullcap
Chainmail of Displacement
Boots of Quickness
Dancing Trident
Amulet of Luck

This build maximizes Defense, while staying within the alotment of the basic Pythium Gem resource types. You're walking in with a Defense of +15 plus Quickness (so call it 18). That plus Luck and a huge pile of attacks should keep you in the game long enough to kill most enemies.

Man is sitting on piles of Air and Nature Gems taht a tremendous. They can count on nothing else.

Lightning Spear
Vine Shield
Spirit Helmet
Chainmail of Displacement
Winged Shoes
Ring of Regeneration
Dancing Trident

I'm not very happy with this build, but I normally don't ever consider making a Man god that doesn't have a strong Earth suit for that reason. Also, you'll be putting this (minus the Winged Shoes) on a Queen of Air, so to a certain extent it really doesn't matter what your equipment is. Some people prefer the Weightless Kite Shield to the Vine Shield. I regard that as a matter of preference.

Ulm has access to huge piles of Blood Slaves, and enough Astral Pearls, Death Gems, and Nature Gems to get by:

Blood Thorn
Lucky Coin
Starshine Skullcap
Hydraskin Armor*
Boots of the Messenger
Amulet of Antimagic
Lifelong Protection*

*If you have a really big pile to spend, consider upgrading the armor to the Armor of Souls or the Bone Armor. Those are expensive, but awesometastic in the extreme. If so, you'll want to swap out the Lifelong Protection for a Ring of Regeneration. You don't have Quickness and you don't have flight, but that's what you get for having no elementalists in your empire.

Ctis has Death, Nature, and Water coming out of the woodwork. And that's again all they can count on.

Wraithsword
Jade Mask*
Blue Dragon Scalemail
Boots of Quickness
Cat Charm
Bottle of Living Water

* Note that since only you can build the Jade Mask, you actually can guaranty getting it for your use.

Caelumhas Air and Water Gems to spare, and can at the very least make this:

Sword of Swiftness
Weightless Shield*
Spirit Helm
Chainmail of Displacement
Boots of Quickness
Dancing Trident
Bottle of Living Water*

*Actually, you should be able to Clam enough to have one of your High Seraphs make an Amulet of Antimagic and a Lucky Coin. That's not guaranteed, but it's pretty close.

Ermor Can only necessarily pick up Death Gems. Only Death Gems. Everything else belongs in the realm of "maybe" and "perhaps". But that still means that you can make a good scaffold of:

Wraithsword
Wraithcrown
Bone Armor
(No Boots)
Champion's Skull
(empty slot)

Ouch. Ermor really desperately needs to find something out of distant magic sites. It's almost not important what even.

Jotunheim has access to Astral, Nature, Death, Blood, and Water, making for a nice diverse pile of whupass.

Blood Thorn
Shield of the Accursed
Starshine Skullcap
Blue Dragon Scalemail*
Boots of Quickness
Amulet of Antimagic
Amulet of Luck

*Again, this should be the Armor of Souls if for some reason you can actually afford it. You can consider swapping the Shield of the Accursed for a Lucky Coin and thence trading the Amulet of Luck for Lifelong Protection. YMMV.

-Frank

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

I hate to burst your bubble, but all of the builds without lifedraining are not near the power of those that do have it. And it is not hard for any nation to get lifedraing weapon. Put some death on your pretender, search until you find at least one death site, and then use mages with a death random to find more. By the time you are outfitting SCs, your pretender can whip up a skull staff any mage with a death random can start making wraith swords.

Alterenatively, about 2 mages with blood randoms can do enough hunting in 10 turns to empower themselves 1 level and make hellswords and eventually blood thorns.

Now, admittedly there is some chance you will find no death sites and/or get no death or blood randoms. However, I have yet to play a game with any nation where I did not have access to life draining by turn 30 (unless my research was so bad I did not have tech to).

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

That's a needlessly confrontational way to state that opinion.

First of all, the question wasn't "what's the most awesome build", it was "what can you make on an extremely limited budget of gems". Some games are played with a site frequency of 25, getting even a single death site ever just because you invested in Death magic on your god is by no means a sure thing.

Secondly, even your opinion that lifestealing weapons are necessarily more powerful than the alternative is subject to debate. Remember that while Regeneration works on any living or undead characters, and while life stealing will grant life to a living, undead, or lifeless Super Combatant; nonetheless Lifesteaing only gives benefits when you damage living opponents. There are entire groups of enemies against which lifestealing is a waste of time, and there are entire national armies composed exclusively of those groups!

A Wraithsword against Ermor is just an expensive two-handed piece of junk. You'd way rather have a charcoal shield and a herald lance. A Blood Thorn against an army of Mechanical Men is worse than a Thorn Spear.

And even more tellingly so, Quickness makes a bigger difference against an enemy SC than does Lifestealing. And not by a little bit either, the difference is ginormous.

Lifestealing gives you back half as many hit points as you inflict on your enemy. This means that in an otherwise even competition, you'd expect to have regained about half your hit points when you killed the enemy SC (assuming for the moment that your enemy is a living enemy, which is often not the case when it comes to SCs). On the other hand, adding Quickness doubles your number of attacks, so it also would expect to leave you with half your hit points left when you triumph over an otherwise equal opponent. But Wait! The Quickness also comes with an Attack and Defense bonus, and the Lifestealing doesn't.

There are lots of abilities that you want on your Super Combatants:

Quickness
Life Stealing
Regeneration
Elemental Immunities
Flight
Fire/Astral Shield
Luck
Etherealness

But if you have to purge one, Lifestealing isn't even the best, it's just really good. Really really good, yes. But not indespensible. Nor is it *always* available.

-Frank

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

You're right, for every rule, there is an exception. All I am saying is that in about 90% of cases, a lifestealing weapon is the best choice. And in 90% of the cases where you want one, the paths/gems can be made available.

Oh, and if you want a 100% tactic for getting lifestealing with a non-death/blood nation: take some blood magic on your pretender and blood hunt a bit. While I don't recommend this tactic except for extremely low magic site games, it is nonetheless available.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Wouldn't the Rime hauberk be nice for a jotunheim sc.

Also do a Pangea sc.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Depends what you're up against. MR, prot or other resistances would probably be more valuable unless you're absolutely mobbed by cold-susceptible weak squishies, 'tho, and in such cases a Charcoal Shield or *eek* Bone Armor (but watch the prot if you go this way; easier choice if you can cast invulnerability, have a very high base prot, or wear the extremely lovely, if cursed, Amon Hotep) might make more sense.

'course, the rime hauberk IS easier to get...

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

(This is interesting stuff, especially since I seem to experience cases where lifestealing is not so easy to come by (as oppossed to quantum_mechani). So let me assume again a scarce availability of adept forgers (i.e. not all paths available) and a scarce supply of gems (including blood slaves):

One of the things I fear most are battle afflictions. These can be prevented by:
a) Regeneration
b) High defensiveness: defense, protection, luck,..

So what are the experience-based advices in order to make the appearance of battle afflictions an unlikely event? Is high regeneration a must have? Is a PendantOfLuck better than a RingOfRegeneration in this respect? At which base protection is a high-protection armour better than a HydraSkin armor in order to prevent afflictions?

What about being cursed? Does a LuckyCoin cancel out a curse evenly? Is it generally stupid to send out a cursed pretender alone against masses of weaklings instead of still-useful-but-no-risk office duty?

(Actually for an example, I am sending a cursed[i] Titan pretender out against masses of human weaklings controlled by Marignon AI (Järnsaxa in a Shepherd Game). She is currently equipped with
SnakeBladderStick
CharcoalShield
HyrdaSkinArmor
BootsOfQuickness
PendantOfLuck
BurningPearl
100% fire resistance seems useful vs. AI Marignon nevertheless it would really hurt to get e.g. the mindless affliction, so I wonder how to improve the mass killing capabilities while not getting hurt. I thought to add either a ring of Resilience or Regeneration (plus FireHelmet instead of BurningPearl). The script is SummonEarthpower, Personal Regeneration, Mistfrom and IronSkin in order provide some Reinvigoration and to decrease the affliction risk.)

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

lifestealing works against undead(ermor etc) . It just doesn´t work against lifeless units(mech men, most other constructs).
The reason lifedraining is so important is not the nice hp gain effect, but mainly the fatigue stealing aspect.
A high prot, high def SC with 90 fatigue and 300 hp is very easy to kill, a high prot high def sc with 0 fatigue and 50 hp is far harder to kill.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Ligas Addedum says that:

chance of affliction = damage taken/total hp
+25% if cursed
-10% if regenerates

I don't think the amount of regen matters as far as afflictions.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Things that reduce afflictions:

Regeneration - any amount, no matter how high or low - cuts affliction rates to 1/8. Undeads other than Vampires cannot regenerate, so they are more vulnerable. That's one reason I like Ice Devils as SCs.

Luck reduces successful hits by 1/2, which reduces affliction rates by roughly 1/2 (possibly more, due to various cumulative side-effects).

Ethereality reduces non-magical hit rates to 1/4 or less (I think that ethereal targets do not suffer the defense penalty from attacks that miss due to ethereality), and thus cuts affliction rates to roughly 1/4 versus a purely mundane army, or not at all versus mages, enemy SCs, and anti-SC squads.

Mistform reduces damage to 1, which makes afflictions highly unlikely. Of course this is not a really good solution for most SCs because it requires air magic, along with Mirror Image.

Air Shield reduces normal projectile hits to 20%, cutting afflictions from that source. Crossbows are dangerous to SCs.

Defense, protection, and resistances obviously reduce afflictions by reducing damage from relevant sources. Protection is usually better since it is not reduced after every strike, works against projectiles and AOE attacks, and reduces damage even if the opponent rolls higher than the defender. Consult the dice-roll-chart thread for exact numbers in a given situation. Hydra Skin Armor and Black Steel Full Plate cannot be compared without knowing the stats of the attacker(s) and defender.

Reinvigoration and/or lifedrain prevent fatigue buildup. Fatigue reduces defence and protection, which increases damage and thus afflictions.

High hitpoints reduce afflictions because the probability of receiving an affliction from an attack that does X damage is X/(MAX HP). Please note! This makes pretenders and prophets HIGHLY vulnerable in hostile dominion, where a dragon might have a temporary "256 current HP," but due to hostile dominion, only "32 max HP." Inflicting a non-fatal 128 damage on this dragon (by multiple attacks, like crossbow bolts) will cause an average of 4 afflictions!

Immortality makes afflictions almost irrelevant, since immortals heal their own afflictions very rapidly. Thus, even though undeads cannot be given regeneration, many of the best ones don't need it anyway...


Things that increase afflictions:

Curse gives a base 25% chance for any damaging attack to cause an affliction. So once a combat unit is cursed, it's done. Luck does not counter curse. However, I think regeneration reduces affliction rates from Curse to 1/8 of normal, or about 3%.

Things like Blindness, Heart Finder, Eye Shield, and various artifacts cause afflictions that cannot be prevented by anything.

Seeking Arrow causes an affliction if it hits and does damage, but Luck, Air Shield, extremely high protection, and (possibly) good shield will prevent this.

Disease causes afflictions, but they seem to be reduced by regeneration, from my observation.


So, as to your questions:

Regeneration is vital.
A Pendant of Luck is worse than a Ring of Regeneration.
Hydra Skin Armor versus good armor: It depends.
Never send a cursed pretender alone versus massess of weaklings... unless he is healing or immortal, or regenerating and lucky and high protection and (ideally) a trampler. Units with trample like Earth Mothers don't suffer much from afflictions.


Edit: Note that all this is from my memory and I have a very bad one. But I'm very certain about most of it.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Yeppers, Regeneration kicks Luck hard when it comes to beating battle afflictions. Of course, Luck applies against Soul Slay and Regeneration does not.

As for a Pangean build, sure. Pangea has access to virtually limitless Nature and a reasonable amount of Blood Slaves and Death Gems. As such, you might want to make a build of:

Blood Thorn
Vine Shield
Horror Helmet
Hydra Skin Armor
Boots of the Messenger
Lifelong Protection
Cat Charm

You end up with no Quickness, but you have some Fear going, and the Vine Shield combines well with the Lifelong Protection. Unfortunately, Pangea is not very good at item crafting, since both Nature and Death are craptastic at making equipment for supercombatants (except for the Hydra Armor/Ring of Regeneration).

-Frank

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

I find Nature essential for SCs. Good, non-artifact items other than RoR / Hydra Skin include:

Totem Shield (versus enemy melee SCs)
Eye Shield
Vine Shield
Leather Shield (great no-encumbrance shield for early-game SC, like Earth Mothers)
Ring of Poison Resistance (when you expect poison, but need better armor than Hydra Skin)
Horned Helmet
Cat Charm (great when used with - for example - boots of quickness, main gauche, shield of the accursed, bracers of defense, and chainmail of displacement, for +24 defense unless I miscalculated)
Amulet of Resilience
Boots of the Messenger
Thorn Spear (also for early-game pretender SC, to grant repels versus barbarians and HI... Astral and Earth are the only other paths that can do this)

Granted, it's hard to fully equip a unit with just nature, as it lacks good weapons or boots. And some of these are special-case. But I've equipped SCs with all of them except the Vine Shield, at various times, and I hear some people do use Vine Shields on SCs.

Death, I agree, is not very good for equipping SCs; it offers only the Wraith Sword, Duskdagger, Horror Helmet, and Wraith Crown. Death should have lots of weapons, at least; and probably some cool armors and trinkets.

Re: Hell sword vs Wraith sword vs Blood thorn
 

Pangea cannot make Totem Shields except with its god, and even then only if it alchemizes or finds some astral pearls.

It's half. The size. Of the Weightless Shield.

That's bad.

It's not the worst helmet. But it's pretty close.

+25 I think, but you're talking about a SC who has no meaningful weapons and can't be built by Pangea, so I'm not sure what the point is here.

The Heart of Life is better.

These are not, in fact, the worst boots. But they are close. The winged sandals and the boots of quickness are the ones you actually want.

I disagree. I'm totally OK with Death sucking the funky hot dog when it comes to equipping SCs. They get to make all the Bane Lords they want and their summons are all cheap and awesome and their special leadership comes in gang piles.

Unless and until Death users are forced to pay gem totals comparable to what Fire has to pay to create an army or blast a province, I'm really pretty content with them being virtually incapable of outfitting a reasonable SC without help.

-Frank