[Daynarr]

Originally posted by Jasper:

quote:

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Originally posted by Daynarr:
Oh, and BTW level 9 in any path of magic is NOT particularly expensive if you use right pretender (for example, use Cyclops for Earth). I still get excellent dominion scales, not weak dominion and level 9 Earth at the same time. Getting 2 of level 9 is another story, though.

Going from 3 -> 9 costs 168 pts! Four points less gets you Earth 4, plus a 3 and a 2 in magic your faction doesn't have. Or you could just go with Earth 4 and tip 4 dominion scales.

It doesn't seem worth trading these powerfull effects for more skill on your pretender than you can really use, plus +2 further protection and some reinvigoration for troops you can only produce in limited quantities. Even if you pay this many points, you still get a less powerfull bless effect than the default bless in Dom 1.


I very much like the intention of increasing the value of magic on a Pretender so that competitive players will actually take some, but I don't think this is enough. On the other hand, I think it's a good idea to make changes in this area slowly to avoid overcompensating.

Perhaps this area will be tweaked later if people find it to be unbalanced. I think it would be cool to see some dominion scale like effects tied to magic skill, to let higher skill levels make more of a difference on spell casting power, or even a small cost reduction in casting ritual spells.

Of course, this is all without having seen Dom 2. Perhaps many of the new spells require or give significant bonuses to a strong caster, which could be a real boon.

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Ok, here is the design I used in that particular game:

Cyclops pretender with Level 9 in Earth magic.

Fortified City

Dominion scales:

- Order +3
- Production +2
- Growth +1
- Misfortune -3
All the rest are neutral.

Dominion Strength 3; Note that Man has cheaper temple (100 gold) so getting higher strength during is quite easy for them.

Of course those scales can be a little different (+3 production and neutral growth, or –2 misfortune to get special commanders and neutral growth) but I like having positive growth since it gradually improves your income over time. Also, growth has larger effect on larger maps where having supply bonus from growth counts (large armies are more common) and having more provinces with growth means you get significantly more money from taxes over time then you would on smaller maps. This was large map with no Ermor player so I went for growth. I believe this is quite good dominion and it ensures that I get enough income and production to make lots of Wardens and get fast and efficient expansion with almost no losses at the start of the game. Also, my pretender will be able to empower himself later in air and nature magic while I will be able to find those resource/gold bonus sites with him. It was good combo, but not only one. I'm just pondering what possibilities I would have using other bless effects, like fire weapons bonus and improved attack, quickness and better defense, etc.

Bless does matter, but must be used carefully as not all bless effect will be beneficial to your sacred troops. For example, if you have sacred magic Users that you will employ often you will avoid nature blessing that will make them go berserk as soon as something touches them. Air or earth (or both) blessing will work better on them since they will be better protected from missiles (especially if they can’t cast air shield on themselves and you are up against nation that like archers) or reinvigoration, which will reduce fatigue significantly (getting level 6 or 8 in earth there seems good choice there since mages wont get much benefit from def+4).

O boy, another long post.

[ October 27, 2003, 08:31: Message edited by: Daynarr ]