Questions about nation specials & heroes

[Darkrhyno18]

Hey guys, it seems like every few months I start playing Dom 3 again and there are always new things to learn.

Recently I started reading some of Baalz' guides (great by the way) and have come across some questions.

1st: is there any way to know the special abilities of a nation? For example, EA Arco's philosophers gain +3 research in a -3 sloth scale. It does say the philosophers work better in a slothful dominion in the manual but not in the actual nation description, that is kinda a pain. Same goes for Agartha and the Golem Cult. The +50% hp or whatever they get...I cant find that info anywhere. So is there a list somewhere that would let someone know all of these hidden intricacies? I am sure there are others besides these 2 nations?

2nd: National heroes are a nice flavor to the game. Is there a list of all of them hidden away somewhere? What influences them showing up? I am assuming the luck scale might help but not sure?

3rd: Kind of off topic of the others. How exactly does spell penetration work? I get the formula easy enough {10+DRN+(skill in path)/2} But I see it being raved about with stacking a rune smasher, void eye, and spell focus for the +5 penetration. Now is that added to the end of the formula so you get a +5 to your final number, or is it added to the "10" within the formula? On top of that, is 5 really that large of a number, is it really worth it?

Thanks!

[Swan]

not an expert of golem cult, but since when they have a 50% bonus hp? and which units have it?

[Darkrhyno18]

Originally Posted by Swan

not an expert of golem cult, but since when they have a 50% bonus hp? and which units have it?

I dont know the exacts, but taken directly from Baalz "Go Punch a Mountain" guide:

"This brings us to another thing which might not be obvious, your national ability which buffs golem’s hitpoints affects all constructs in the game, not just your national summons"

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by Swan

not an expert of golem cult, but since when they have a 50% bonus hp? and which units have it?

I don't remember the details and I've never played MA Agartha, but IIRC within friendly dominion all constructs get 10% bonus life per candle. This definitely includes all special Agarthan summons, and reportedly includes Crushers, Gargoyles, and Mechanical men as well. Some have even reported that it affects Tartarians, although I find that a bit confusing because they don't have any of the usual construct tags AFAIK.

-Max

[MaxWilson]

Um. Other than reading guides, I can't think of any way to find out all the special abilities of a nation, although maybe browsing Edi's database might get you a lot of it. For instance, I don't know of any official in-game or out-of-game documentation that will tell you which nations' undead priests are allowed to summon Longdead Horsemen, and I'm not sure if there's any documentation that tells you that Hinnom labs cost double (or is it temples?) and Marverni's temples cost half. In the specific case of philosophers, that's not so much a nation property as a property of the unit, and there are lots of little-known abilities that units have. I'd probably recommend browsing through the "Did you know... Dominions trivia" thread.

I'm not sure about national heroes lists since I always take Misfortune-3 and thus never get any. There's a 3% chance per turn of a national hero showing up, +/- 1% per luck scale.

About penetration, I don't understand your question. How is "{10+DRN+(skill in path)/2} + 5" different from "{10+5+DRN+(skill in path)/2}"? 5 is a pretty big number when it comes to penetration. Whether it's worth it depends upon what you're going to do with it. Say you're Mind Hunting commanders with MR 12. You'll go from being pretty unreliable (takes about 3 casts/6 pearls per commander) to being pretty reliable (takes maybe 1.4 casts per commander). On the battlefield, it may mean the difference between a weak Master Enslave (or Wind of Death, etc.) that captures 10% of the enemy units and a strong Master Enslave that captures 40% of the units (which means the enemy army basically destroys 80% of itself in fighting).

-Max

-Max

[Darkrhyno18]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

About penetration, I don't understand your question. How is "{10+DRN+(skill in path)/2} + 5" different from "{10+5+DRN+(skill in path)/2}"?

The 5 added after would be a better solution than adding it within the formula is all.

Lets use a DRN of 7 and magic path of 3 for this example.

{10+7+3/2}=10+5(penetration)=15

{10+5+7+3/2}=12.5

But otherwise, thank you for your help Max

[thejeff]

No.
(10+7+3/2)+5 = 23.5
(10+5+7+3/2) = 23.5
Only the "skill in path" term is divided by 2.

[Darkrhyno18]

Originally Posted by thejeff

No.
(10+7+3/2)+5 = 23.5
(10+5+7+3/2) = 23.5
Only the "skill in path" term is divided by 2.

Ahhh...my misunderstanding. Thanks for clearing that up