Vampire Queens and Sneaking Armies

Originally posted by Peter Ebbesen:
And the Lich, the Master Lich, and the Lich Queen, but yes, immortality is a very rare ability and ought to be priced accordingly.

Oh yeah I forget about them, because the Liches are feeble (appropriately so) and the Lich Queen is Ermor Only; and I feel appropriately priced for her singular nation choice. To be quite honest, whenever I'm thinking about picking a Lich, I end up picking a PoD.

Ps: Am I the only one who prefers using the Lich Queen as Ermor rather than a Vampire Queen? It just seems so much more fitting - and you can start with dominion 9 or 10 to go with your insane levels of magic

I usually play with the Lich Queen with Ermor for both that fact and because VQ's are notoriously 'expected'. Also I don't like 'wasting' her magic in Blood (unless I'm playing BE).

[ April 14, 2004, 03:03: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Truper]

Originally posted by Peter Ebbesen:


There are lots and lots of good pretender chassis that can use Soul Vortex and Phoenix Pyre if that is what you want, and quite a few of them cheaper than the Vampire Queen.

Sure. But which of them are also innately etherial, flying, regenerating, cold immune, poison immune, life stealing and immortal, as well as spawning high-quality free troops? Not to mention encumberance 0, and... and... and...

And by the way, has anybody else considered the absurdity of flying in a full suit of black steel armor?

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Truper:
Sure. But which of them are also innately etherial, flying, regenerating, cold immune, poison immune, life stealing and immortal, as well as spawning high-quality free troops? Not to mention encumberance 0, and... and... and...

The Vampires that a VQ spawns do not appear in a controllable manner or in very large quantities, even with strong dominion. If anything, they are not nearly as reliably spawned as the PoD's longdead rabble, which, if he parks for a few turns, can grow to be a sizeable mass. If you're using Soul Vortex + Phoenix Pyre, lifestealing isn't even an issue.

And by the way, has anybody else considered the absurdity of flying in a full suit of black steel armor?

Not really. It's not as if Vampires fly by any apparent natural means, as they're clearly not aerodynamic and have no ability to generate lift. Dom2 wouldn't be the only game with flying, armored vampires. I don't even use Black Steel, the spellcasting encumberance imposed would cause her to pass out during prebattle buffing.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by AhhhFresh:
Well, why not take away the etherealness like Tawqus suggested... I don't think I'm familiar with any literature that says that Vamps are innately ethereal like ghosts and specters and what not...

I'm not entirely sure what the Etherealness of Vampires is supposed to represent, although personally, I'd have thought a Mistform would be more appropriate: Vampires are reputed for their ability to assume gaseous form at will. Not sure where Etherealness fits into this. Then again, would this really be an improvement? Mistform is in some ways better, and other ways worse, than pure etherealness....

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
The Vampires that a VQ spawns do not appear in a controllable manner or in very large quantities, even with strong dominion.

The chance of a vampire appearing is 5% times the current dominion level of the province the VQ is in. In dominion 10, she gets one every other turn.

[Truper]

[quote]Originally posted by Norfleet:

[ It's not as if Vampires fly by any apparent natural means, as they're clearly not aerodynamic and have no ability to generate lift. Dom2 wouldn't be the only game with flying, armored vampires. I don't even use Black Steel, the spellcasting encumberance imposed would cause her to pass out during prebattle buffing. [/QB]

Well, I normally don't use black steel on a queen either, unless I'm playing an earth nation, and want a bargain-basement queen. But consider, say, a Caelum Seraph, flying happily around wearing 80 lbs of plate mail...

[LintMan]

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:

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Originally posted by AhhhFresh:
Well, why not take away the etherealness like Tawqus suggested... I don't think I'm familiar with any literature that says that Vamps are innately ethereal like ghosts and specters and what not...

I'm not entirely sure what the Etherealness of Vampires is supposed to represent, although personally, I'd have thought a Mistform would be more appropriate: Vampires are reputed for their ability to assume gaseous form at will. Not sure where Etherealness fits into this. Then again, would this really be an improvement? Mistform is in some ways better, and other ways worse, than pure etherealness....

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Etherealness means that magic weapons are (mostly?) required to hit the creature, yes? IIRC, in the pen & paper RPG gaming world of AD&D, at least, you needed something like a +2 magic weapon to hit a vampire. Etherealness seems a pretty good fit for that (themewise, I can't really comment on balance since I haven't played/encountered one yet).