Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

When playing as Pythium, I notice that after casting Communion Master with many communion slaves, my Theurg doesn't show an increase in magic levels when I click him for his stats display. In the game, when mages cast level gain spells, the new level does show on the display, so what gives about communion master? Is he buffed and not simply not showing? Is it a bug? Am I supposed to do something specific for the slaves?

Also, when my Theurgs are buffed but set to simply cast spells, they tend to be very stupid, casting nothing but Body Ethereal again and again. Whats that all about?

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

If you have at least two spells, the masters' skills are increased. It might not show up.

Body Ethereal is a good spell. Casting it isn't a bad choice. It makes powerful units, like Elephants, incredible. However, casting it on archers is a poor choice. The AI isn't clever enough to make that distinction. I presume the Theurg kept casting it on archers or some other nearby units.

It might also be the case of Body Ethereal having AoE of 1 square, or 3 humans, while e.g. Mind Burn only targets 1 person. As such, the spellcasting AI might think that targeting 3 people is better than targeting just 1.

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

That would be at least two slaves, not spells. IIRC in Dom2, the bonuses didn't show up in the units stat line. Might have changed, might not have.

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

I also noticed it not showing up, makes it very annoying to see the mechanics... eg whether there is a bug or exactly how it works... I mean, if I have 4 communion masters and 8 slaves, do the masters recieve +1 or +3 to all paths?

kinda confused about the exact workings of communion anyway... seems like slaves end up with way more fatigue than the masters.... which seems odd to me, if you have a master and 2 slaves, shouldn't they all carry roughly 1/3 of it minus reinvigoration? or are there calculations on the slaves encumbrance and so forth... just wondering, because using slave matrix on some plain old commanders, ends up with them having huge fatigue; if anything, seems like slaves should have less fatigue, since the masters have to pay fatigue cost of the spell + spellcasting encumbrance, whereas slaves just standing still should only share fatigue cost?

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

AFAIK:
2 slaves: +1 to all paths
4 slaves: +2 to all paths
8 slaves: +3 to all paths
etc

Fatigue is calculated like this I think. Pretend you have a communion of A High Priest of the Sun (F2B3) and 4 Moon Priests (S2B2). High Priest is the master (remember than sabath and communion are interchagable). High priest is now F4B5, and Moon Priests are S4B4. High priest of the sun casts Spell XXX, which requires blood 4. Now the math get really weird: each moon priest get 1/5 of the fatigue to that would be incured by casting this spell with blood 4. The High Priest of the Sun gets 1/5 of the fatigue that a blood 5 mage would get when casting this blood 4 spell. Also note that the fatigue sharing is not optional, and that fatigue over 200 turns into health damage. You can kill communion slaves if you are not carefull. AFAIK, fatigue is only from master to slaves, wheras buffs get shared both ways. (that is, when a communion slave casts a spell, his master doesn't get fatigue - the slave gets it all.)

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

well, thats interesting... still curious though, about how communion works with multiple masters...

if there are 2 masters and 8 slaves, do all masters and slaves get +3 to all paths? and slaves share both masters' fatigue costs?

and can mages be both slaves and masters... say there 2 or 3 slaves, and 2 having both casted slave/master... will masters share each others' fatigue when casting spells? will they factor into the bonus to paths? can they be slaves to themselves? or is this not possible at all...

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

The slaves' don't get the increased spell magic,only masters

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

Thats also my question! I want to try Ctis shamans casting both communion master and communion slave. Is it possible? such strategy wouldn't be useful for fatigue but have advantages in terms of magic level and individual spells.

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

I didn't know that the magic paths of the slaves is increased, too. Are you sure it's not just the paths of the master?

I'm now kind of wondering if it's possible to take a fatigue "penalty" for being the slave recipient of fatigue from a spell actually above your path ability to cast. For example, a slave taking his portion of of an 800 fatigure spell split 8 ways would be 100 if his path equals the path of the spell. If he is one level below the path of the spell, does he take 200 fatigue?

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Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

bad idea. as soon as a master has cast a spell, all slaves will be passive that turn.


Slaves dont get increased magic skills when they cast spells. But when calculating fatigue for the masters spells, they get the communion bonus to all paths even if they have no magic skill. And yes, slaves get double their share of the spell fatigue (and also double their encumbrance) if they have 1 skill too little.

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

I've got a question regarding communion AI. It seems like commanders who cast communion slave or carry slave matrixes will not follow scripts and simply sit where you place them and do nothing.

Is this intended?

Edit: The slaves seem to always try to do what the communion master is doing, even if they cannot (say, because they lack the right magic paths).

Edit again: Sometimes the slaves do nothing, but sometimes they follow scripts. Very strange!

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

General rule is that communion slaves do something only when they are not assisting communion master.

In Dom2 you could script masters to cast various buffs and then everybody to attack. Communinon slaves wouldn't move forward, but if the enemy approached they would fight, so one would place slaves in front. My favourite slaves for that were Tartarians.

I haven't checked if the mechanics is still the same in Dom3 though.

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

Okay, let me make sure I have the math right.

I have 32 communion slaves with an astral of 1, giving them an effective astral of 1 + 5 = 6.

When the communion master casts Master Enslave (800 fat, astral 8), as he is want to do, they will pay - 800 * (8 - 6 + 1) / 32 = 2400 / 32 = 75 fatigue each, plus encumberance? Given the 20 from casting CS in the first place, they'd be unconscious after a single casting. That was about correct from the one single player game where I tried it.

If the original caster (who is looking at 25 fatigue) spends extra gems, does that reduce their fatigue or just his? Can you spend gems to reduce the fatigue below what a level 10 caster would pay, or not?

Re: Q; Regarding Communion Master/Slaves
 

Sounds right, except their encumbrance is tripled too.

No idea.