Blessing Effects and National/Theme Starting Spells

Originally posted by UbdU:
Sorry for my ignorance; I am still learning the game. What does "Sabbath/Communion" mean in the context of the above sentence?

Don't be sorry My English professor would cry at the monstrocity we have here, so it's as much my fault as yours.

Sabbath/Communion is a game mechanic that when Sabbath (or Communion) Master is cast they are the leader of a group of casters that are pooling their magic to make it stronger. Why they are interchangable is because Communion is an Astral Spell while Sabbath is a Blood spell.

When Sabbath/Communion Slave is cast, they are the slave in the communion.

When a unit is the Sabbath/Communion Master they recieve +1 to all magical paths (Any magic they have, including Holy/Unholy) for 2 slaves, +2 for 4 slaves, +3 for 8 slaves, +4 for 16 slaves (etc) in the Communion. Also any spell that is cast by the Master the fatigue is equally distributed among the slaves. (Please note: When any unit gets 200+ Fatigue they start getting afflictions and potentially die)

You can have more than one Sabbath/Communion Master in a Communion as well as any number of slaves (though you may see why you would want an multiple of 2).

Example: 2 Astrologers (3 Astral, 1 Water Each) cast Communion Master while 4 Mystics cast Communion Slave.

Suddenly the 2 Astrologers have 5 Astral, 3 Water each, and when they cast spells the fatigue is given to the Mystics (who can still cast spells btw)

I hope you can see the uses of this, especially when you look at the spell lists. Also remember, that having a higher magic skill than the spell costs reduces it's fatigue cost (Per your manual) so this can also be a factor in using communion/sabbath.

So in that context (With Machaka) having alot of different but low magical skills on their mages makes them versatile, but won't allow them to cast the better/more powerful spells because they don't have blood/astral as one of them (thus they can't lead a communion/sabbath). Also you will note other portions of the guide will say "Cheap Sabbath/Communion Slaves" or "Expensive Sabbath/Communion Slaves" this is regards to how much gold it costs to produce someone with a single path in either Astral of Blood to use in a communion.

Did that answer you question?

Edit: Massive Update soon that will cover nearly all the nations/themes. I've been having some writer's block and there is alot of information to sift through while trying to just break down the strengths and weaknesses. Apology in advance . Changed Communion/Sabbath, I almost never use more than 4 so it slipped my mind it was a log instead of a multiple. And by my spelling, still very tired

[ January 14, 2004, 09:27: Message edited by: Zen ]