Drain Life
 

I know that Drain Life is being rehauled for dom3, and for good reason -- I just thought I'd ask this:

Do you think it would be a good idea if Drain Life, much like its description, "replentished" lost Health and Fatigue (and hopefully: to a much lesser extend with Fatigue), but did not give the caster / wielder *MORE* or additional health / fatigue than his/her maximum? I think it would be great if Drain Life didnt let the wielder "tank up" or "store up" additional HP over and beyond her maximum, but rather just replentish lost health; if she is already at full health, then drain life will add nothing.

Re: Drain Life
 

I don't think that's the most important thing, no.

Mainly it's way overpowered overall, and the main reasons are the amounts involved, allowing a tough SC to regain both damage and fatigue faster than even a mob can inflict them.

Next most important is the super-cheap cost for what it can do. Set the weapons with life drain to at least 80 gem cost each, and it's closer to the right price.

The ability to exceed base hit points is not nearly as important as the other stuff. It already maxes out at a point, and is kind of interesting to be able to go over a bit.

PvK

Re: Drain Life
 

At 80 gems, you'd basically relegate just every summonable commander to the "don't bother" pile.

Re: Drain Life
 

I think I'd still summon commanders http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Although 80 gems is quite a lot...

Re: Drain Life
 

You are saying that without a life drain weapon summonable commanders are not worth the gems. That sounds like a problem.

Re: Drain Life
 

Ok, you do that. More uniques for me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Drain Life
 

Rather than raising the cost of life-draining weapons, why not simply inhibit their life-draining properties by, say, 60%?

Re: Drain Life
 

You can do that in the combat sim... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Hey, you can also give armor-piercing weapons a "pierce percentage" and specify an exact, individual damage multiplier versus undead, demons, magical, and living unts (all on a single weapon), and give units percentage vulnerabilities and resistances versus every type of damage, including physical. Ahhhh!!! If only it were a game, I'd play it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Drain Life
 

On the other hand elite troops can still kill lifedrain SCs . Even an AQ is in danger vs. Centaurs and Vans if not really well equipped . 30 Centaurs or Vans can kill a lot .

I lost a Jade Armor , Wraith sword , pendant of luck , ama , starshine skullcap AQ to about 40 centaurs last turn ( about turn 30 ) in my pythium game . I can't forge much better stuff on my own . AQs have anyways rather low protection so a few lucky centaur hits and they can die .
Without a way to combat undeads like charcoil shield undead spamming sauros can also kill many SCs . Same for Ghost riders .

So Lifedrain is maybe not that overpowered . At least the weapons do either few damage (blood thorn) or are 2 handed .

Re: Drain Life
 

I'm counting on blood thorn + astral weapon for Tuna's SC roundup http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif If a unit has high enough strength, and you throw in armor piercing or negating magic, the bloodthorn can be super effective. It's also great against billions of lightly armored (living) enemies.

It can be hard to kill life-drain-capable SCs without ready access to nonliving troops. And weapons aren't the only things that drain life...

As for 30 vans killing an SC, I should hope so. That costs 2100 gold, 480 resources, and 30 holy (plus unquantifiable cost of pretender blessing paths), compared to an SC that might cost 10 gems + 30 gems for equipment. 30 centaurs are more reasonable but have a much lower chance of success. Mictlan, Tien Chi, Ermor, Ulm, Machaka, Man, and other countries without strong elites or only highly resource-intensive elites can't fight mid-level SCs effectively with national troops. Some people say "That's good, that's the way it should be." But I don't like the game to degenerate to an SC race.