Beginner Questions

[Buatha]

I have a few more questions about Pretenders.

I'm having a hard time creating my Pretender as I'm new to Dominions. It's like picking furniture for a house I haven't seen yet.

When you choose their Level of magic, say Astral 3, is that their max level? In the demo, your God was a Level 3 Astral mage, but you had to research Level 1 spells to use them. Can you go beyond Level 3? Does researching past Level 3 automatically get you to Level 4 using the example above?

[Taqwus]

Research and paths are orthogonal.

Research is split along areas -- ex. Conjuration, Enchantment et al. Research dictates what magic incantations your nation 'knows'. Holy is special in that all prayers (holy spells, essentially) are automatically researched.

Paths, on the other hand, are per commander. Thus, each mage has level ratings in FAWESDNBH. To cast a spell, not only must your nation 'know' it, but the caster must (at the time of casting -- there are ways to temporarily increase magical power here) have sufficiently high prowess in one or two paths.

You don't increase magic paths by researching. You don't gain research by increasing magic paths. (Well... you do increase research speed for that commander.)

[Archonsod]

You can increase their magic levels withing the game too. Either by crafting items which grant a bonus to one or more paths, or by empowering the commander/pretender (spending gems to increase their level). The maximum level available at creation is 10, though you can increase beyond that by using items (Since mages gain less fatigue for casting spells under their level, this can sometimes make sense. It's also handy for spells which have effects or number of effects depending on the caster's level in a certain path).
Research is independent of magic levels. You can research a field all the way up to level 10 regardless of your mage or pretender's levels.
In short, the only real permanent effect of the initial path choices of a pretender are the blessing effects. These will stay set at whatever they are at creation, regardless of whether you later increase (or decrease) the pretender's paths.

[Taqwus]

Might also mention that other than pretenders, mages with greater than, hm, level 3 or so in a given path are actually fairly rare. There are national heroes and some summons that go up to level 5, but they're not that common.

If you're looking to cast some powerful global enchantment that needs level 8 or 9 in a path, it might be best to start with a pretender that can reach that level without too much additional cost.

[Buatha]

Okay, I think I got it now. Now I understand the initial choices for Path levels. Archonsod hit what I was looking to know about Empowerment, but I didn't know that items could be crafted to raise the Paths. Cool!

Thank you for the responses. More than likely, I'll have more questions as I learn the game.

[Frostmourne27]

Re: Buatha
The chosen amount of magic isn't the max level. It can be increased in game by empowerment or by pathboosting items. However, your blessing, the effects of which can be seen at the bottom of the magic page, is based on what you started with.
I'm not sure I understand exaclty what you mean by the rest of your post, but I'll try to answer as best I can. If you have a god with astral three, he can cast ANY spell that requires astral 2, 3, or 4. However, he has to research those spells first. So, at the begining of the game, he can cast twist fate. If you research alteration 1, he can cast personal luck, an astral 1 spell. If you research alteration 9, he can cast any alteration spell that requires astral three or less: Twist Fate, Personal Luck, Body Ethereal, Luck, Baleful Star, Control, and Battle Fortune. His astral magic doesn't go up as you research more spells. If you want him to cast wish (alteration 9, requires nine astral) you would need to empower him, or give him astral boosting items.
Research works as follows: you need X points to get level one (starting settings can change what X is) once you put X points into that school of magic, you have all level one spells researched, for all mages. You then need to put a certain amount of research into that same school to get level two spells. (It allways cost more to research a level than it cost to research the previous level.) The manual, on pages 83 through 91, has a lot more detail about this.

[Archonsod]

You should also note that a character needs at least one level in a path in order to benefit from an item bonus for it. For example, a thistle mace (grants +1 nature bonus) will only work for mages who already have at least 1 level in nature magic (taking them to Nature 2). Mages without nature magic won't gain the bonus (though they would still benefit from any other abilties conferred).

[Patriot]

Has anyone found a liking to Blood magic? I know that Mictlan practically relies on it, but how about with other races? Sacrificing and gathering virgins makes people angry and I'm killing off the population as I patrol it. Should I take Growth when using Blood magic? Or should I just let them suffer and die?

Also, has anyone ever found a Blood magic site? I think I've seen an Arena one day, but it gave like +25 gold.

[Nerfix]

I've found the Blood Citadel and Vale of Infinite Horror. The first one is nice, the second one...well, is not nice. There are some blood magic sites but they aren't very common. Some of them are very, very nice (Mountain of Power, Devil's Den) while others are just lame (that Villains site).

Blood magic was considered overpoweringly good in Dominions 2. I don't play that much with blood nations, so I don't know how strong it is in Dom 3.

Growth can nullify the poploss a bit, but it won't stop it.

[Daynarr]

Growth will allow population to grow back it you stop bloodhunting in that province. Ideally, you will use 2 neighboring provinces, one resting and getting population up and other for bloodhunting (it's like farming )