Artifact "feature" and some late game stuff

[Humer]

The Sickle Whose Crop is Pain (henceforth Pain Sickle) has a rather nifty "feature": It generates a death gem each time someone is killed by it's wielder equipment, not by Pain Sickle itself. I double checked and sure enough: Scutata Volturnus* kills a unit, you get a death gem when using Pain Sickle! Bug? Feature?

I haven't tested this further but it's reasonable to assume that this group includes at least Spirit Helm, if not Charcoal Shield and Aegis. I don't know about dual-wielding or weapons with AOE (e.g. Unquenched Sword, Sword of Many Colors, Stone Sword).

On the other note, 'Ritual of Rebirth', when used by R'lyeh on their (late) starspawn mage, gets you a *giant* mummy. 129 hp (I wonder if Gift of Health had anything to do with it?). Anyway, a nice bonus-ish.

Next observation is that animated monsters (e.g. golems, crushers, mummified heroes) do NOT heal fatigue, nor do they get fatigue from trampling. I decked a golem SC, scripted 'Body Ethereal', 'Personal Luck', 'Astral Shield', 'Resist Magic' and 'Astral Weapon' and for the rest of the combat had to watch fatigue-89 Golem mercilessly trample my foes

Haven't played Carrion Woods theme, but *damn* their Ettin Mandragoras rule! Am using one now as SC-chassis (Enslave Mind is your friend!): 3 hand slots, 2 head slots, only 1 misc. But they get their 3 sleep vine attack when fully decked (all of which are those 3-attack 33 stun dmg).

And finally, let's do a little sing-along, c'mon everybody, to the tune of "Bicycle" by Queen: "I want to swing my Pain Sickle, I want to slay my foes."

*) Scutata Volturnus casts 'Shocking Grasp', not 'Lightning Bolt' as per Zen's Most Excellent Item Reference (v2.5). And 'Charcoal Shield' has fire shield value of 7, not 6.

- Humer

Hrm. Maybe it does cast Shocking grasp. I've tried to nail it down but it is conflicting. Maybe Kris or Johan can tell me different.

The Charcoal Shield is Fire Shield 6, but any Fire Magic you have is added to it. So if you have 1 Fire and a Charcoal Shield the end result is 7.

The Sickle when it hits casts "Decay" so if you were unable to kill the creature in the swack with the Sickle I think it still marks it as 'hit by Sickle' and thus netting you a death gem.

I do know that casting spells doesn't get you any gems. Because I tried to abuse the Sickle and put it on a guy who chaincast Banishment (was worth a shot!), Blade Wind (suddenly taking those high LI armies would have been great), and Magma Eruption.

Maybe if a creature is in a certain radius they will die, or if they are in melee combat. I don't know what the flag for it is.

I'll recheck on Scuta, and do some more tests. I don't even like the pos!

P.S. You'll note not always the same effects for Fear/Awe/Berserk as the reference gives. This is because there are other factors (Like Death Magic for Fear, Leadership for Awe, Blessing and natural effects for Berserk). These are really hard to gauge (like the Ark) and there may be discrepencies.

[ January 23, 2004, 08:19: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Humer:
Next observation is that animated monsters (e.g. golems, crushers, mummified heroes) do NOT heal fatigue, nor do they get fatigue from trampling.

No unit heals fatigue until they get over 100. At that point, they regain 5 per turn.

[ExitJudas]

fatigue question:

aren't a unit supposed to be "unconcious" when over 100 fatigue?

How does this unconciousness reflect in the game?

[General Tacticus]

When it hits 100 fatigue, a unit just stand (or lies, or sit, or whatever) still on the battlefield, not doing anything. It is also much easier to hit (both defense and prot go down as fatigue goes up IIRC). And if fatigue goes over 200, the units loses life as well...

[NTJedi]

Originally posted by Humer:
The Sickle Whose Crop is Pain (henceforth Pain Sickle) has a rather nifty "feature": It generates a death gem each time someone is killed by it's wielder equipment, not by Pain Sickle itself.

Yikes... that artifact is actually worth making now.

[Strages Sanctus]

Hmm a four armed pretender (forget the name) with two sickles and boots of quickness... maybe with the stygian armor. Fire shields/astral shields up and wade into the enemey.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Strages Sanctus:
Hmm a four armed pretender (forget the name) with two sickles and boots of quickness... maybe with the stygian armor. Fire shields/astral shields up and wade into the enemey.

The sickle is an artifact, so no go with the dual sickles.

[Strages Sanctus]

awww...what does the scythe do? sickle and scythe together sounds fun heheh... At least from an rp perspective...

The multi-armed moulinex of death.

[ January 23, 2004, 22:23: Message edited by: Strages Sanctus ]

The Scythe is 2 Handed. You could put a Scythe and a Sickle together on a 4 armed or 3 armed creature. If the Sickle effect is 'within melee range' the Scythe would work well, since it attacks an entire square at a time and cripples everyone in the square and always hits.

Though by that same token, you could put the sickle on something big and tramply and have them trample through enemies getting gems (with I don't think works, but I haven't tested it specifically).

Something to try.

P.S. Most of the Artifacts are 'worth it'. Even those that don't give an overwhelming power or ability they are usually very cost effective for what it gives. Though there is certainly runts of the pack.