Some questions about solar brilliance
 

I have been reading through the forums about this spell but I would like to have everything clear :-)

The spell causes 700 fatigue... do I need a communion to cast it or may I cast it with a single arch theurg?

Is there anyway I may protect my troops from blindness?

And one last question, is teleporting safe? i think I have read problems regarding the use of this spell.

Re: Some questions about solar brilliance
 

Let's see then...

100 fatigue in a spell means that it needs a gem. 700 fatigue means it needs 7 gems. It's part of the game mechanic. So one Theurg powerful enough to do it will be enough.

Does the spell have "magic resistance negates"? If so, yes, if not, then no. I forgot. I've used it only a couple times with R'lyeh's Void Lord who does not have eyes to blind anyway.

Re: Some questions about solar brilliance
 

Well... according to my manual, it requires an astral 5 mage and it costs 500 fatigue. Which translates to 5 astral gems required.

To answer your first question: A mage can use as many gems in a path as they have that path in question. A mage can use gems to boost his level temporarily to cast a certain spell (for that spell only). IE. an astral 2 mage, casting the astral 3 spell Antimagic (using 1 gem to become astral 3, and one gem to cast the spell).

Since Solar Brilliance requires 5 gems, no mage under astral 5 could cast it.

This could be achieved by magic item boosters (base astral 4 + astral +1 item) or through communion, or through spells which increase paths. Obviously some things may be more difficult to accomplish than others.

As for the second question: The most obvious solution seems to be to cast Antimagic beforehand, which should make your units less likely to be affected by the blindness, but it still won't be perfect.

As for the third: the spell teleport works perfectly fine. There are a couple 'relocate/teleport' spells which sometimes have problems, and possibly a few magic items which also gave 'relocation' which also may not work until a particular spell is researched. I believe that a few of these bugs may have been fixed in the upcoming patch.

Re: Some questions about solar brilliance
 

One thing to mention. Some spells have a ridiculously high fatigue cost. NO MATTER WHAT, a mage can NOT kill himself with a single casting of a spell, no matter how high the fatigue is. Instead of exploding in a shower of blood and death, a mage who casts a spell that would put him over 200 fatigue is instead set to 200 fatigue.

Jazzepi

Re: Some questions about solar brilliance
 

It takes a while to kill every undead on the field. If you cast it with a single ArchTheurg who teleports solo into a province, he's going to be sleeping for the whole battle, and something's going to run across the battlefield and kill him pretty fast.

Re: Some questions about solar brilliance
 

Combine it with ritual of returning and mists of deception and you're in business.

Re: Some questions about solar brilliance
 

Battle Enchantments persisting after the mage leaves the battlefield is now on the bug shortlist (see "CBT Battlefield Enchantments").

So, you'd be in the business of bug exploits http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. No problem when battling the AI in SP, but depending on the rules of an MP game you are in, it could be frowned upon there.

Re: Some questions about solar brilliance
 

Thank you for your answers, they have been of great help.