Magic Duel?

[Jasper]

Originally posted by Pocus:
Thats funny, because I played in pbem a rainbow mage with astral 2, and was quite happy with him.
Whats the problem in having astral 2 on a rainbow mage? He is not supposed to see any battle (and he never saw any battle), unless besieged in his castle, an occurence which anyway is the sure thing you are doomed in a matter of turns.

More generally, I often saw rainbow mages pretenders in my pbem, perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 of players.[/QB]

Interesting. Did the Rainbow mages do well? What was the advantage? Their high cost, low Dominion, fraility, and huge loss of magic skill when they die seem like severe drawbacks to me. All I can think of is their edge in site searching -- but is that really worth all the downsides?

If I were playing a Rainbow mage, I would intend to use them in combat later in the game (e.g. after researching Enchantment 7 for Phoenix Pyre, and stacking on boosting/reinvigoration items). Adding Astral 2 seems like little gain for a potentially serious drawback, and I'd rather raise something else to a 3 instead.