Communion Slaves

[Schmoe]

Do communion slaves continue casting spells and following scripts? I thought that they did, but the Last three battles my slaves have all abandoned their scripts after turn 2. None of them were fatigued out. It's frustrating, because one thing I've been trying to do is use the Banner of the Northern Star, plus a communion master casting Power of the Spheres, in order to create a horde of cheap S3 casters. It's definitely not working.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

I believe that communion/sabbath slaves are always supposed to stand still (or flee when the army routs). Yet they sometimes cast spells, but it's most likely a bug.

[Maltrease]

I think what happens if after the master has taken his turn then all of the slaves that have yet to take their turn do not take it.

I have not tried it, but I believe one strategy is to have a master cast some buff spells like you mentioned and then have the master retreat. Once the master is gone the slaves may start taking actions again.

[Chazar]

It usually works that way, but I think that problem was that Power of the Spheres and and the Banner of the NothernStar do not stack ontop of each other, hence the slaves might not have the needed paths for their scripts.

What works is the master casting the buff while the slaves benefit from it - at least I think it works with summon storm power and setting them to cast orb lightnings...zap!

(Edit to clarify: My experience is that slaves can act as normal, as long as their fatigue allows them to act.)

[Ironhawk]

I havent done all that much Communing but I'm pretty sure that slaves act according to thier spell scripts given the normal constraints (spell range, target validity, fatigue, gems). If this were not the case the Pythium Theurg smite factory trick would not work.

[Schmoe]

I don't know, it's weird. I'm like 99% certain that I have had a battle where all of the slaves continued to cast spells after being communioned. That was a while ago, though, and may have actually been with 2.12.

In the Last couple of battles, the slaves have not continued to cast. The spells they were scripted to were things like Body Etherial, Tangle Vines, and Stellar Cascades, so targets and range shouldn't have been a problem.

[Thufir]

Ironhawk said:
I havent done all that much Communing but I'm pretty sure that slaves act according to thier spell scripts given the normal constraints (spell range, target validity, fatigue, gems). If this were not the case the Pythium Theurg smite factory trick would not work.

Would someone care to illuminate a newbie on the details of the "Pythium Theurg smite factory trick"?

I gather we are talking about Theurgs being communion masters in order to pick up 2 levels for the smite spell, but unless we are considering the theurgs being both masters and slaves, I'm not sure how that applies to the current discussion.

And while I've never tested it, my understanding (based on reading more than one post) is that it is likely a bug and works as Maltrease states, where communion slaves will cast if the master has not already.