Some basic questions

[Snacktime]

From a relative noob:

1) I'm confused by shape shifting pretenders. Number one, what items can they carry? in dragon form I have different item slots than in human form. Do the items only work in one form or the other?

Why does my dragon sometimes stay in dragon form after battle? When he does this how can i get him to switch back to human form so I have better magic levels?

Also I think it's kind of confusing how when I choose a dragon pretender it gives me a human one and all my numbers (i.e. starting magic paths, dominion etc) change. But maybe that's just a gripe.

2) do the new nations in the patches have nation-specific spells? is there a list of these somewhere?

3) my SCs get an awful lot of afflictions awfully fast. Am I doing something wrong? Does my pretender have any special way to heal his own afflictions?

Thanks everyone!

[Edi]

1) They can carry all the items they have slots for. IF different forms have different slots and the form changes from one with more slots to one with fewer, those items will either be dropped into the lab or lost. There is some peculiar behavior in some cases, most notably dragons.

2) Yes, they do, and no, there is not as far as I know. Could be there is something somewhere, perhaps in Sunray's national unit lists, but I have not made a list of spells.

3) Not unless he has the Recuperation ability (Kraken, Gorgon, a couple of others and Pangaean units have it). Otherwise you need Gift of Health, a Faery Queen or the Chalice or must play EA Ermor or Arcoscephale (any era). See the FAQ section on afflictions.

[thejeff]

There should be a "change shape" option in your dragon's list of orders.
If your dragon went into battle as a dragon he should stay a dragon. If you order him to change, he should change back.* Possibly if he changes as a result of being wounded, he doesn't change back?


*Actually that's not quite true. If you order him to change, he will execute another change order after combat. As dragons only have two forms, this does the same thing. If the unit has three forms (only Skratti as far as I know), the after combat change order will move him to his third form.

[tibbs]

I thought I read in a post that units that change shape in battle can lose afflictions like the machakan sorcerer which changes into a spider when wounded. I wonder if the dragon can lose afflictions if you order to change shape a few times.

[BigDisAwesome]

I think I remember reading that it's only on involuntarily controlled changes like Jaguar Warriors. Don't think it applies to scripted change shape.

[thejeff]

But it may work if you let the human form get "killed". Of course, you'll likely pick up more afflictions that way.

[Kristoffer O]

Healed afflictions are supposed to happen when a rider is transformed into a beast IIRC, such as lobsters and machakan spiders. Some others might benefit from this effect, but It's not intended to be usable in general. No voluntary shifters risk getting rid of afflicitons

[thejeff]

The dragons, etc, do transform from their human shapes if wounded/killed right?
It would seem to make sense to recover at least afflictions gained while being "killed" as a human.

[Kristoffer O]

The reason dragons don't fight in human shape is because the human body is weak and vulnerable.

If they get an arrow in the eye in human shape and change back the arrow would still stick out of their eye.

[Ironhawk]

Snacktime said:
3) my SCs get an awful lot of afflictions awfully fast. Am I doing something wrong?

Sounds like your SC is getting hit too much. First you should try and manage that with something like lucky, ethereal, mistform, invulnerability, etc. But to specifically address afflictions, you want regeneration - it cuts down your affliction chance by 10.