Mysterious Pretender
 

When I selected machaka this odd pretender appeared

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1012/picture1ou4.png

I was not using ANY mods and the map had not been edited in any way.I am running the latest version on a mac OSX 10.4.6

P.S.Is he worth 75 points?

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

It has a very high dominion of 4, 2 Earth and perfect protection. So 75 points seems nothing special.

Whats wrong with it?

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

Well, it is very durable and resistant to many spells, but would make a poor warrior unless you can work around the low attack and defence. Extremely low AP may not allow it to rout in time. I guess you should use it as a battle mage or abuse stuff like fire shield or eye shield. Part of protection is Plate Curaiss, so you won't benefit as much from equipping it with something else.

Would be worth the 75 points, but only if you have a plan.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

calmon:Nothing was wrong with it.I just thought he/it was odd.

B0rsuk:Thanks for the suggestion.He could probably be a good SC given some good gear (he really needs a speed increasing item/spell badly)

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

His description was broken in v3.01 - I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he's spelled incorrectly?

From v3.00 we know that he's a big statue that the Machakan people worshipped long enough that it took on life and became their god. It does what the people expect it would do, so it punishes harshly and rewards sparringly.

Game mechanically, I like it. It's really tough, and makes a quite capable combatant. Perhaps more importantly, it provides a very god dominion. Ultimately, it's a lot like a Virtue, but the fac that it is lifeless and mindless but isn't undead or magical makes it really hard to cheap kill. Probably the perfect thing to fight Rlyeh with.

-Frank

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

I'm sure there's some use for it but it doesn't seem like a particularly *useful* SC. It needs a LOT of boosting to be functional with those low stats, which means it will be a while before you can use it. It's too slow to mix well with an army although it could be useful to draw arrow fire.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

Well I hope his description gets fixed in the next patch anyhow.Thanks for your support guys!

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

I dont think that pretenders are really offered with the thought of being useful. They tend more toward being applicable to the concept of the nation. The abilities and magics tend to come ready-made by whatever historical mythos Kristoffer is working off of. Then the cost of the pretender is figured from those abilities.

If I were to build useful pretenders for nations such as Man and Pangaea I would leave off nature magic and fill it in with some magics that are missing in the nation. Unfortunately, the RPG pretenders for those nations tend to provide things like extra food which is vastly uneeded by a nations whose mages carry alot of nature magic anyway.

I think Kristoffer would like to provide more unique things to each nation like gods and heroes. Feel free to recommend some that fill in gaps (such as, nation xxxx has no pretender offering xxxx which would seem to fit their theme) but just making them up off the top of our heads doesnt seem to work very well. You need to do some deep googling for things that fit the nation and then try to justify why it should also have certain abilities. Those tend to have a better chance of getting added. (the other ideas you can talk to the modders about)

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

Frank:How come I never had him available in v3.00?

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

You just missed it.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

How can I miss a pretender THAT big?!

I swear he wasn't available!

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

If you want a good pretender build with him, take this:

5 death (for fear +0)
6 earth (for more protection)
10 dominion (for awe +2)

Rest in Scales (Order 3, etc.)

The set him in frontline alone with attack closest comand and attack the first province. He will take over most of the independent provinces just with his Awe, Fear and his good protection. Try not to attack undeads (because of their high morale value)

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

Yes he was available from the beginning.
There's even been posts about him/it.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

Some things appear and dissapear. If you want to have fun.. every time a .trs file, especially one that starts with the name army, then start looking for new things. Running the all-units game to see if things have been slipped in is fun. Especially when you find a partial build of something that hasnt been put into the game yet.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

I am always turning up something new in Dom3, part of the fun...

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

It has Encumbrance 0, so while trampling (with Boots of Behemoth) it doesn't accrue fatigue. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

I think you are right. It seems that trampling is the best use of this pretender.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

Really epic Pretender, roleplaying-wise. The mindless and 0 enc are especially nice, although the other stats remind me of a watered-down cyclops.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

Might be fun, but with 4 AP he'll just trample once per turn. Not nearly as dangerous as a trampling elephant.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

... Quickness ...

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

I tried it out. Without quickness he can somehow trample 4 times per turn with his 4 AP... 8 times with quickness. Way better than I thought.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

Yeah, and we'd rather spend all those design points on a pretender that's ... almost as good as an elephant GORed? Lol.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

He's much better than that, just for having humanoid item slots. He'll never rout and never get tired, is immune to life drain, etc. Really, there's no comparison to an... elephant.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

How about a mammoth?Or a behemoth (the undead elephant summon)

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

He also cant be banished but, its probably the slots that help him the most(and fairly cheap awe)

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

While I have a lot of respect for the developers of this game I can't help but feel a few Douglas Adams moments while playing.

Last game my nice and suitably epic Titan went up against a bloodworshipping stork, a sheepheaded snake, a naked man wielding an oversized carrot and this wierd spawn of a dead tree. In the last battle the fetish set itself on fire, berserked his mages to their doom, got just about all afflictions possible and then blasted thing won on time out since none of my remaining forces could pierce it's armor.

I started a new game after that battle.

Re: Mysterious Pretender
 

LOL! Hilarious! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif