Slave Collar. . . unimaginable rage. . .
 

So I get a slave collar from a random event, ad build a worthless indep commander to stick it on so i dont accidently click it on my inventory and give it to someone. Well much later in the game my pretender comes over to the same province as commander to defend from attack, and commander dies and my pretender picks up collar and becomes feebleminded and useless.

Any way to get that damned thing off? My pretender was my only high level mage.

On another note, why is that item even in the game? No one in their right mind would build it unless they wanted to be mean and make enemy commanders pick it up. . . Which I assume is the only thing anyone does with it.

Re: Slave Collar. . . unimaginable rage. . .
 

Cursed items cannot be gotten rid of except by death, I think.

Two ways to prevent events like this happening:

1. Just throw the item away, as I do when I get items that I do not like.

2. Make sure that the commanders/mages whom you find valuable have the relevant equipment slots equipped, in case the commander with the cursed item dies.

Re: Slave Collar. . . unimaginable rage. . .
 

The slave collar can be used to raise a units morale, so it does not retreat from combat. It gives +20 morale. A great hawk, with slave collar/medallion of vengenance or a scout/villian etc...

Re: Slave Collar. . . unimaginable rage. . .
 

Note - even if you accidentally put a cursed item on a commander you can just restart the turn. It's not irreversable, you just lose the work you've done so far on that turn.

Re: Slave Collar. . . unimaginable rage. . .
 

But not in this case. He wrote that his commander died in combat and his pretender get the item automatically. So this happens before the start of his next turn.

Re: Slave Collar. . . unimaginable rage. . .
 

Thats a kick in the tail man, sorry. The slave collar is certainly a questionable item. As for getting cursed items off your options are severely limited. The only ways I know of are:

1) Change Shape ability - if your pretender doesnt already have this (like a Dragon does, for example) you are out of luck

2) Die

If your pretender dies and you recall him he will lose 1 in every magic path he has. Rough, but probably better than a feeblemind?

Re: Slave Collar. . . unimaginable rage. . .
 

There's also a transformation spell that should turn the caster to another form, hopefuly one that does not carry the cursed item.
Death isn't that bad though, Twiceborn at D2 (10 death gems) will ensure your mage return without harm to his magical skills. So will being immortal.

Transformation, Twiceborn
 

Should be noted that Transformation has the risk of causing death, and is irreversible... and to lose a misc item, you'd have to transform into something with no miscellaneous slots -- might be impossible as these are quite rare (Vastness comes to mind, but you can't transform into a Vastness AFAIK).

If you go with the Twiceborn route, try to die with a way that doesn't cause afflictions. You keep whatever afflictions you had when you become a Wight Mage (also an irreversible transformation).

Heh. Used to be that a dirt-cheap R'lyeh Void Lurker with Death, Water and Astral could cast Twiceborn, teleport onto a land province, "drown" since it's aquatic, respawn as a Wight Mage in R'lyeh, and survive because of the water magic. Now, merely having water magic doesn't let you breathe underwater, and Wight Mages are land-only.

Re: Transformation, Twiceborn
 

Yes I'm shocked and a little sad this change was made from Dominions_2. Many computer opponents have a more difficult time invading the water provinces as a result.

Perhaps this will be changed back in a future patch or at least a game option given allowing water magic commanders/mages to enter water provinces as seen in Dominions_2.

Re: Transformation, Twiceborn
 

I think the slave collar is reasonably useful with assassins at least until they fix the fleeing from assassination attempts. I have lost several assassins just because they got scared.

Re: Transformation, Twiceborn
 

Seriously... it is a slave collar. How many people are going to pick it up and say to themselves: "Hmmm, this seems magical. I think I will try this slave collar on and see if it does something BENEFICIAL."

There are one or two items that people just would not try on, and this is one of them.

It should disappear after combat. 0% chance of being picked up and put on. Something.

Re: Transformation, Twiceborn
 

I like the slave collar, its fun, you just after be clever in its use...

Re: Transformation, Twiceborn
 

I like it too.... I just think it would take one heck of a stupid person to pick one up and try it on.

Most Pretenders would instead--pick it up and try it on a blood slave or a nearby hobbit or perhaps on their third son or something.

Not like most other cursed items that might be good, or might not. The slave collar looks like a slave collar. Man, you pick that thing up and try it on, you deserve what you get.

i am just arguing against something that appears a bit unrealistic. Not the slave collar, but any commander putting one on of their own free will.

Re: Transformation, Twiceborn
 

Aren't the odds of picking up a slave collar very low? Something like 20% since it is a trinket?

I was toying with throwing commander to get killed wearing them to hopefully be picked up by curious enemy mages. But if only 1 out of 5 is picked up the cost is a little high.

Re: Transformation, Twiceborn
 

As for why someone would try it on: maybe part of the curse is that it looks like something else to trick people into picking it up? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Also, I think cursed items (like artifacts) are actually more likely to get picked up.

Kinky. ;)
 

Might be a little... curiousity, shall we say.

But yeah, the slave collars and the body part replacements (currently, just eyes and hearts) probably shouldn't automatically picked up. Well, an eye pickup might make sense if you've lost an eye and don't have a replacement yet.

Next up: the Head of Vecna. :p

Re: Kinky. ;)
 

Taqwus--that made me snort cola out my nose. Hmmm, what's this head doing here lying on the ground? Well, I'll just cut mine off and put this on like--what!!??? It seems to be cursed!!! I can't take it off and put my old one back on!! Drat you Vecna!! Drat yooooooouuuuu!

The Head of Vecna story...
 

http://users.tkk.fi/~vesanto/link.fun/stupid.pcs.html

Worth a read... although you may not want to be drinking anything at the time. :p

Re: The Head of Vecna story...
 

For a purely evil use, you can conquer a nation of hoburgs, recruit a bunch of their leaders, slave collar them, and then put those leaders on the front lines when your fighting jotuns, demons, hydras, etc. It won't help you win the game unless the other side picks up the collars, but it's fun (in a sick and twisted way) to watch them charge the enemy.

I won't go into uses involving summoned succubi, because most of those types of uses go on outside the boundaries of the game as intended. But I will think about them, and may discuss them with my wife.