A couple of noob questions
 

I picked up the game this weekend and so far am having fun. I reminds me of a suped-up Master of Magic from eons past. A few questions tht I couldn't dig out of the extensive manual follow:


1) Is there a mechanism similar to Empowerment(or any other way really) to increase a Commander's Divine Magic skill other than declaring a prophet?

2) Are generalist mages with lots of low paths as bad as they seem at first glance?

3) Does the Blood Magic school have any value without the Blood Magic path? I expect not, but it never hurts to ask.

4) Is Blood Magic a worthwhile path to follow? It seems to have a very high opportunity cost in terms of investment and upkeep.

Re: A couple of noob questions
 

1) Items.
2) They are not bad. Try MA T'ien Ch'i.
3) You answered it already http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
4) IT is powerful if you can use it.

Re: A couple of noob questions
 

1) No, except the Const 8 weapons Sword of Injustice and Sword of Justice, and that crystal shield which gives 1 more holy in fights.

2) Not really. They have their uses, and they can be buffed up with items, empowerment, spells and such. Level 1 Water mage, for instance, can make a 1 water giving ring when you have Const 6. Also, you need at least Blood 1 to have a worthy blood hunter (if you give him a sanguine dousing rod, he becomes even better). Then there's that 1 fire giving 1F1D item. And so on. Also, they are usually cheap researchers, which is a good thing when you're also trying to recruit national troops early on.

3) Not much.

4) It is for blood-intensive nations like Lanka, Mictlan, (to a lesser extent) Abysia and such. Lanka and Mictlan have awesome national blood summons, too.

Re: A couple of noob questions
 

The others have been answered but I'll expand on this:

If your nation has naitonal recruitable blood mages you should definatly get into blood magic. Keep in mind that blood slaves are usually easier to generate than gems - so the prices of the blood spells/items reflect that inflation.

It's actually open to debate if you should start a blood economy when aren't playing a nation with national blood mages.

My position that if you play long game (at least 80-100 turns) on a 15 province per player or more map it is always worth it to start blood hunting if you find indy blood mages to kick start your blood economy.

There are lots of topics on the subject though.

Re: A couple of noob questions
 

Blood Magic is good, yes. For nations with cheap 1 or 2 blood magic mages for hunting, its possible to start generate 100+ slaves per turn. Plus, blood magic has a lot of really great summons and ritual spells. However, if your nation doesn't have recruitable blood mages, it isn't easy to set up blood slave "factories" at that level.

Click on the stickied "strategy thread" in the forum and read the Mictlan blood hunting guide for some mechanics on blood magic.

P.S. Rule of thumb about dominions, the more diversity in your magic the better off you are. Any mage with 2 in a patch can cast the site searching spell (or 1 in the case of death and astral magic).

Re: A couple of noob questions
 

For battles, communion and the Astral booster spell both boost divine magic.

Even without researching Blood, there are some really nice blood items: Lifelong protection, Soul contract, Blood Stones, at least.

Re: A couple of noob questions
 

1.I believe Communion and Power Of The Spheres will increase holy level. This can be usefull in a number of cases.

2.Communions are necesary normally to make these guys stack up. Also, they can summon mages that are good, and can cast some nasty multi-path spells.

3.Not so much.

4.Does you nation start out with a unit that has a path in blood? If so, then AFTER you get Sanguine Rods, then blood hunting can work. Since you often do this instead of gold income(set tax rate to zero to reduce unrest) this means you can have less order, or even disorder. Which makes the Luck scale more powerfull. That said, you will need something to stop other players from killing you in the early game.