[MaxWilson]

I just tried sticking a Slave Matrix on an SC. Here are a couple of results:

1.) As before, there's no result if the SC has no magic paths. He shares no fatigue and is not affected by single-target spells.

2.) If the SC has no levels at all in a path required by the spell, he still takes a lot of fatigue damage. My D3 Wraith Lord went from ~48 fatigue to 88 fatigue when my pretender, a Communion Master, cast Invulnerability. That's x4 fatigue for being 3 path levels under. (I couldn't tell exactly how much fatigue he started out with because he had 48 fatigue before, and then Soul Vortex drain + my pretender's Invulnerability happened basically simultaneously.) I highly recommend a few other communion slaves to share fatigue and raise effective path levels.

3.) If you *do* have three or four communion slaves, a lot of nice options open up. Fire shield, astral shield, personal luck, personal regeneration, strength of Gaia, quicken self... and you can get all this casting done in the first couple of rounds. I can't think of a nicer way to buff an SC.

4.) Make sure you have some kind of reinvigoration for your SC. I like Soul Vortex + chaff bodyguards, but a magic item would work too.

All in all, it's an interesting tactic that's pretty cheap on the magic items. It also scales well with multiple SCs, since each and every slave gets the same buffs (and shares fatigue). You could have a whole army of super-buffed SCs this way for a minimal investment in earth gems and pearls, which is great for nations with thuggable commanders with magic and earth/astral mages. Unfortunately I'm not sure how common that combination is. Niefelheim lacks earth, Helheim lacks astral, EA Agartha lacks astral, LA Agartha lacks thuggable (mage) commanders... there's a lot of nations I haven't really gotten familiar with.

Still, there's always summons. For LA Agartha, my current fave, I'm thinking Wraith Lords with Ironskin (or Invulnerability), Soul Vortex, Fire Shield, Personal Luck, Astral Shield.

-Max

P.S. And in MP, I guess there's always trading. I think we can all guess how much fun Niefelheim would have with Gygjas and Niefel Jarls if somebody would just forge them a few slave matrices, right?