Poll: Most useful path of magic?

[ioticus]

Pick one path that you think is the most useful in your games overall. I hope this will generate some interesting discussion.

[sushiboat]

I voted for Death magic. (For Blood nations, however, Blood might be better.) If you could use only one path, Death would be a good choice: lifedrain weapons, excellent summoning (including some of the most cost-efficient SCs), fear spells and items, and devastating global enchantments.

Overall, the paths are amazingly well balanced. Each path has at least a few things that are highly desireable. As some past topics have said, Water seems to be weak, with Quickness as the only "thing you almost must have."

[Saber Cherry]

If unique blood summons (Ice Devils, Arch Devils, greater demons) were unlimited, or you could keep the horrors you summon, I would vote Blood. But Death summons are just too good and too cheap, and it even has excellent evocations and artillery spells.

Water is certainly the weak path. The underwater-only spells and summons are not all that good, and water magic aboveground is even less useful, aside from the Falling Frost which very few units can cast. The best unlimited summon, Sea Trolls, cost huge amounts of upkeep - which renders them undesirable. Water mages that cannot cast Falling Frost just pick their noses or cast Breath of Winter and kill all your other commanders.

Frostbrands, Swords of Swiftness, and Boots of Quickness are nice but not irreplacable. The Boots are fairly useless unless you have a zero-encumbrance (i.e., Death summon) unit anyway, IMO.

[Huzurdaddi]

In the base game the best path is probably Air. It has all of the tricks: excellent buffs, magical movement, awesome combat magics, and decent summons ( the queens ).

Death is also excellent as it has some very powerful spells which are very low research level ( skelly spam! ).

[RibbonBlue]

I cant decide, death or air.

[Vicious Love]

I voted astral, but I might just have well have voted death. Either air or blood would be a very, very close third. The qualitative gap between the top 4 and bottom 4(particularly fire) is a bit more clear-cut.

[Alneyan]

I voted Astral, with Death and Air being very close behind. My reasoning for Astral is simply its versatility: Astral offers a very wide array of spells, ranging from Gateway/Teleport to amazing buggs (Will of the Fates). Astral also offers Antimagic and the Amulet of Antimagic, virtual lifesavers when fighting an Astral nation... and Astral also gives the Astral Focus, to go the other way around.

Add to that the Rings of Sorcery and Wizardry to get your other paths up and running (the Ring of Sorcery is especially nice, and not *too* expensive still), and it has to be Astral for me.

[The Panther]

In the late game, astral is the most essential school. To win any major battle, you want lots and lots of astral mages. The more, the merrier. Nothing else in equal numbers can really stand up to this. I learned this in spades with both my MP games that went past turn 100.

Plus there is Wish...

[FrankTrollman]

Sushiboat Said:
With Clams, the end use is Astral spells, so Water magic is playing only a supporting role. Does anyone play a Pretender with Water 9 and no Astral in a non-Astral nation? It sounds like a tough row to hoe.

How many people play with a Water 9 pretender just for the blessing? I've seen people seriously suggest a Water 9 Son of Niefel or Moloch for Vanheim, Marignon, Jotunheim, and Mictlan. I've seen people seriously suggest an Earth9/Water9 pretender for Pythium, Tien Chi, Marignon, and Man. Some of those are Astral nations, but some of those aren't. In every case, the goal is to get 2 actions per round out of Sacred troops or Leaders (or both).

A better question would be: how many people play with a Water 4 pretender in a nation with no Astral? In that case, I've still seen it. A Super Combatant Deit with no Water usually can't go under water, which makes him a weak military threat. Furthermore, a Water-free SC can't quicken themselves, which means that they either have to wear Boots or Armor made by another Water Mage, or they have to suck. Quickness is worth it just for the bonuses to attack and defense skills, the fact that it grants a whole set of extra attacks is just gravy.

Water is often presented as being somehow equivalent to Fire or Air as a blasting magic. It's not. Water doesn't get a decent Evocation until Evocation 4, and that only works under water. Water doesn't get a decent Evocation that works on land until Evocation 5, and that takes 3 Water to use (but Falling Frost is very good if you ever get people who can use it).

No. Water is and always has been about Construction (Clams, Boots of Quickness, Swords of Swiftness, Bottles of Living Water) and Alteration (Quickness, Frozen Heart). But in those arenas, it is very good. By the time you get Alteration 6, Atlantian PD is really deadly (Quickness, Frozen Heart, Frozen Heart, Frozen Heart, Frozen Heart). And that's where Water shines.

As far as weak sister colors, I'm going to have to say Nature. Vine Ogres have their day, but what is Nature supposed to do after that? Feed the real monsters that are provided by other powers?

-Frank

[Oversway]

Nature:
Regeneration Items and Spells
Reinviguration Items and Relief
Gift of Health
Charm
Vine Ogres
Lamias
Fairy Queens
Manakins, Mandragoras, Haunted Forest
Curse
Berserk
Poison


It is actually pretty good I'd say.