[Scott Hebert]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
Small follow up here:

~snip Poison Slinger angst~

I personally don't use them, mainly for the reasons you give. Unless you can give them Poison Immunity, you're probably going to lose a couple of them each battle. Too much investment for too little return, for me.

Last question: What schools/spells do you research? I think the only spell I can think of offhand with death and fire is Banefire -- is that it? Do you rush for it? Is it good? I figure I would need construction soon to make Skulls o Fire -- with fire, I suppose one goes Evocation.

As I believe I posted elsewhere, rush Enchantment to level 6. The main benefit of Thaumaturgy for Death is Terror, which you already start with. (Side note: Biggest advantage of taking high-Death pretender with Desert Tombs is wide-area Terror.) So that's not a priority. Conjuration would be good, except that most/all of your death gem income will be going towards summoning your Unholy priests. So that's not good, either. The other good school to research is Enchantment. It gets you Reanimation (which is completely overshadowed by your priests), and more importantly, the Raise Dead spells. However, at Enchantment-5, you get Pale Riders (which, I'm told, can be useful), and at Enchantment-6, you get Banefire Archers. Banefire Archers are superior to your Poison Slingers in almost every way imaginable.

My vote for early Research with Desert Tombs is Enchantment. As an added bonus, if you take a Nature pretender, Gift of Health is Enchantment-5. The other school you really do want to research is Construction, for what I think should be obvious reasons.

But what good is Evocation with death??

Evocation gets a few good combat spells in Evocation. Probably the best is Nether Darts (which requires Astral too), but Shadow BLast can be powerful, if you put death gems on your mages.

What good is Thaumaturgy without Astral?

Thaumaturgy is good for site-searching spells (though not in Death), Terror (which you already have), and Wither Bones. If you research Thaumaturgy for anything, it probably should be Wither Bones.

So basically, I am confused as to a good research strategy.
And the poison slingers. Heheh, thanks.

I hope this helps.

[ June 15, 2004, 14:03: Message edited by: Scott Hebert ]