As we all know, Alexander the Great did not exist and he had an infinite number of limbs. That isn't the topic for today. The proof hinges on the fact that forearmed is forewarned, so let us turn to today's topic: the 4-armed pretenders. Known by their titanic size, their 1 miscellaneous slot, their 3 strength dominion and, yes, their 4 arms.
Specifically for Lanka, which is the nation I have examined them most in in CBM, it seems there is a minor issue, but an annoying one - the thematic pretenders are completely outclassed by the generic pretenders and, even worse, by pretenders that are just about as unthematic as they can get. (Which isn't the general case: See e.g. T'ien C'hi's Jade Emperor)
The thematic ones are:
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Destroyer of Worlds (100): Whose A2D2 makes the price tag reasonable and along the general lines of cost but makes for a poor chassis for just about all occasions because just about all recruitable commanders and national summons for Lanka are air/death mages already and neither air nor death makes for strong blesses and Lanka is, usually, all about having a strong bless. He has better attack/defense values than the Nataraja (+3/+2), but for Lanka pretenders aren't chosen for their melee SC abilities as a general rule.
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Deva (75): Whose single-path B2, the single cheapest path for other pretenders to acquire when running a blood nation, seems grossly overpriced compared to the other titan sized pretenders (and especially the Nataraja, who costs 25; Ok, the Deva has 2 higher base attack skill, but she really feels overpriced). With the correct amount of blood magic to invest in on most pretenders being 0 or 1 since 1 is all that is needed to start the blood process for non-blood nations, one is actually paying 75 points for what anybody else could pick up at their basic path cost.
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Nataraja: (Who really ought to side with the opposition) has a good S2 to start with and a very cheap 25 price tag.
And the Nataraja, despite its very cheap cost, is completely overshadowed by the generic Lady of Fortune pretender that Lanka also has access to, who, for a mere 50 points (25 more than the Nataraja), gets a point of water magic and good luck events in her province thrown in. The Natarajas 2 extra hands at the cost of a miscellaneous slot is probably a wash overall - better SC melee and defense but no option to use the standard sorcery/wizardry ring combination so common for high level spellcasting.
When considering the rest of the available pretenders, the vast majority have either no magic or overlap at least in part with the national magics - out of the 29 possible pretenders for Lanka, with Lanka having only ADNB as national magics, there are 15 who bring
some new path to the table but only 6 (Fountain, Nataraja, Mother of Rivers, Lady of Fortune, Cyclops, Dragon (red)) that focus on non-national paths. As the strongest blessings for Lanka tends to be two (or three) of F, W, E with optional S or N components thrown in, that means that as of 1.6, it is likely that the vast majority of pretenders made by human players for Lanka, Land of Demons, are Mothers of Rivers or Ladies of Fortune with the rare Great Mother or Cyclops thrown in.
Ideally, changes would be made to make the Nataraja competitive with the Lady of Fortune and to make the Destroyer of Worlds and Deva of some interest other than choosing a bad pretender for the nation with a whiff of flavour.
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I'll throw some suggestions into the ring to start with, but as there are many nations I don't have a strong feel for, they are probably not the most appropriate - feel free to come up with better changes: The intention is not to make the currently rarely seen thematic ones overshadow the generic ones but to make them competitive whether by equal magic, better generic effects, or whatever:
Now, the
Nataraja is shared with Arcoscephale, Kailasa, Caelum, and T'ien C'hi (if I recall all of them and in most ages of the nations), so balancing him may take a bit of work - otoh, almost all of those get the Lady of Fortune as well, so it is really a Nataraja (S2, 25) vs. Lady of Fortune (WS2, 50) balancing for those nations too in his current form;
My suggestion would be to focus on his role as Lord of the Dance, Destruction leading to Creation, in the Dom3 Death and Rebirth interpretation: Have him autocast relief in battle as the world rejoices at his dancing. This won't make him a popular choice for Lanka due to the need for a heavy bless, but it will, perhaps, make him compete with the Lady of Fortune for some of the other nations - a mobile auto relief could come in quite handy for those relying on national armies.
Alternatively, make him an FS2 caster to more closely mirror the destruction/creation aspect or do both and boost him to the 50 price tag (same pirace as Lady of Fortune, Jade Emperor, and many other of the non 2/2 path pretenders)
The
Destroyer of Worlds sees action for Caelum and Kailasa (all ages), and Yomi - ironically, the only nation to whom he really brings something truly useful is Kailasa when the goody-two-shoes are in charge and neither air nor death are national magics (though a rainbow mage is probably more useful). His magic is entirely appropriate but it just doesn't make him a good choice for those for whom it would be thematic the job.
I would suggest making him E2D2 or AED2 (just as thematic: hey, he's armed with both iron and lightning) rather than A2D2 or perhaps
as an alternative, give him an autocasting battlefield wide Wind of Death... if there was a reasonable way to make him not take damage himself One day, I'd love to see a pretender autocast battle fortune in battle just for fun - a martial pretender whom soldiers love to follow, but that is probably much too strong due to its likely crippling impact on blitz games.
The
Deva is shared like the Destroyer of Worlds and visits two ages of T'ien C'hi as well. Nobody likes her. Let's face it: The Deva is a zero cost throwaway combat pretender that comes with blood 2 and a 75 point cost.
Perhaps the best thing to do would simply be to set her cost to zero - an equally but different terrible alternative to the terrible manticore for those who have her as an option. Now, that might be boring.
As an alternative, make her a FEB2 caster and keep the current price tag. That's 3 magic paths for 75 and a possible bless chassis. For Lanka one is probably going to stick with the cheaper Lady of Fortune if going for a standard major FW bless or WE (or WN), but it might be used for blesses including minor E components and major F components or vice versa - and the ability to cheaply add a B4 bless is worth something (though not much).
So, any other opinions on the 4 armed pretenders as they exist in CBM 1.6 given the pretenders they compete against for selection choice? Am I off my rocker? Do you guys use them all the time? If I actually do have a poitn, what should be done with them to better balance them versus the competition?
