[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Saxon:
Is buying lots of these [Starchilds] and setting up communion slave/master teams a viable option? If it spreads the exhaustion cost and boosts the masters level, does this allow some pretty powerful battlefield spells to be cast, over and over in the same battle?

You bet!

Starspawn mages can come with nature-2, but it's extremely rare (1/64 chance). So with all these Tritons around - not even speaking of Atlantis - your first attempt at Communion will probably be to get Poison Ward. 2 Starchilds and a mage or priest with nature-1 is all you need, add additional mages/priests if you need more coverage, and use cheap decoys (loboes) to buy the time to cast Communion Master first.

Note R'lyeh relies a lot on mind-domination spells, which are resistable. You can use Spell Foci and/or Rune Smashers to crack the target's MR, but increasing the magic level of your mages via communion is another way to achieve the same result. Using both approaches at the same time often yield great rewards.

Try Master Enslave someday, with 16 communion slaves, a natural astral-5 Starspawn and all the +astral gear you can get (Starshine Skullcap, Crystal Shield, Banner of the Northern Star, and either Crytal Coin or, better, Ring of Sorcery). Add a Rune Smasher and a Spell Focus. Give 9 astral pearls to your Enslaver. And tell us what you think (If I'm not mistaken, that's +7 magic penetration, or +8 if you use the Ring of Sorcery).