[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Stormbinder:
I'll be damned! Thanks Peter. I knew it was scary, but I didn't realize it was _that_ scary. ;(

Well, the scariness all depends on the other players letting the astral user getting away with it. It takes 20+1 rounds for astrals gems converted to water gems made into clams of pearls to pay off (14+1 rounds with a dwarven hammer, but then you need to pay for the hammer as well) so it takes a medium to long term game with a heavy investment in astral for a long, long, time to become truly scary.

I guess it is easier to get away with the more players there are, as it becomes possible to be overlooked for some time by not acting particularly aggressively and by being hard to attack. R'lyeh would probably be the best candidate for that with an "We're just a bunch of squid-faces on the bottom of the sea who want to live in peace" - while hoarding astral clams.

But even so, for my money, it is not all that abusable as it requires active collusion from your enemies for many dozens of turns in order to reach critical mass (unless you fight a large number of very good sites nearly). If your enemies hit you hard, it is going to be hard to avoid diverting a fair number of gems into various magical defenses and summonings.