How the heck does fatigue and Communion work?

[Huzurdaddi]

So I was testing out a new theory with communion and I saw something I could not explain.

I had 8 communicants and 4 Theurg Acolytes ( astral 1, holy 2 ) the acolytes were acting as communion masters.

So I had the acolytes scripted for communion master, smite, smite, smite, smite ( btw, not nearly as effective as I was thought it would be ).

The weird thing was that each casting of smite cost each acolyte 4 fatigue. However smite is a 0 fatigue spell. Does anyone know what is going on?

I was sure that this was one way I could use communincants without releif and not lose all of my communicants. However it did not work out the communicants lost fatigue at a break neck rate.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Huzurdaddi:
The weird thing was that each casting of smite cost each acolyte 4 fatigue. However smite is a 0 fatigue spell. Does anyone know what is going on?

You pay the spell casting encumbrance on each casting of any spell. Communicants also pay this fatigue cost for each spell cast.

[rabelais]

Interesting.

I thought the fatigue was supposed to get divided among the slaves, not reproduced for each.

If true, communion is not nearly the deal I thought.

so you in effect pay 2^x in "distributed" fatigue for a booster?

Makes relief that much more critical, as if that were possible

Dev comment?


Rabe the Relay Reliever

[Huzurdaddi]

Well the numbers add up. Each communicant is playing his own encumberance for each spell plus his portion of the spell's cost.

Well that pretty much puts a hard cap on the number of masters in a communion. If you place ( for example ) 8 masters with an unlimited number of communicants there is a very high probability that all of the communicants will die.

There was a discussion a while back about what is the correct ratio of communicants to masters, and I guess the answer is that there is no correct ratio. You must limit the number of masters to a small number ( or cast releif every round, even this will not help past round 5 since you have no control ).

Bummer.

And seeing as it's quite possible that casters who were not past of the communion may join after round 5 ( and hence have a high probability of killing every communion slave ) you should limit your army to 3-4 casters.

Bummer.

This greatly limits communion.

[ May 30, 2004, 17:34: Message edited by: Huzurdaddi ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by rabelais:
I thought the fatigue was supposed to get divided among the slaves, not reproduced for each.

It is, each slave has their own encumbrance value. The total fatigue cost of the spell is divided between all the communicants and the caster, without any modification for the skill of the caster. The caster has his portion of the fatigue reduced by his skill level bonuses. The total fatigue that each participant receives then has the recipient's spell casting encumbrance added to it.

[Huzurdaddi]

Hmm. Well I ran a little experiment.

Test subjects: 10 communicants, 5 masters ( theurg acolytes ).

Test 1:

Masters set to : master, enslave mind, enslave mind, enslave mind, enslave mind

Fatigue cost:

Masters : 2 for each casting of enslave mind.
Slaves: 4 fatigue for each casting.

Case 2:

Casters set to : master, soul slay, soul slay, soul slay, soul slay

Fatigue Costs:

Masters: 1 fatigue per cast
Slaves: 2 fatigue per cast


Case 3:

Casters set to : master, mind burn, mind burn, mind burn, mind burn

Fatigue Costs:

Masters: 1 fatigue per cast
Slaves: 2 fatigue per cast

Woah. Not what I expeceted!

I was wrong to assume that what was happening was simply the addition encumberance. Clearly the cost can go far below encumberance. However all of the above spells have a listed cost of 20 fatigue. Their only difference is their casting requirements ( 4 astral for enslave, 3 for soul slay, 2 for mind burn ).

One of the possibilities is that Enslave Mind's fatigue cost is actually 40 not 20 and then everything works out?