Strands of Astral Power. Worth it?

[Ewierl]

I wonder if you need(ed) to have the penetration items equipped when casting the ritual? Anyone got the time to test?

[Tuidjy]

This is a game in progress, so I would like to avoid spelling it out. But I can
assure you, if penetration items and extra levels were helping, the results
would have to be different. And yes, I had the levels and penetration items at the
time of the casting.

What makes the spell broken, is that the targets benefit fully from magic
resistance, but the caster does not benefit from penetration bonuses. A level
nine spell, cast with a very suitable commander, should not miss eighty out of
eighty possible targets... Yes, my opponents have properly equipped their
commanders. I wish my effort of properly choosing and equipping my caster meant
something too.

And no, I do not buy the argument that the spell is only meant to work in a magic
heavy dominion. I care little about 'the normal mage with MR 13'. At the time
astral strands is likely to be used, battles are fought with commanders with
starting magic resistance of 17-18, and with at least some MR gear.

I mean, I know that my pearls were wasted, and I will not get anything out of this
spell in my game. I just think that this spell is a cool one, and should not be
made worthless by the one-sided way bonuses are taken into account.

[vfb]

How's your dominion in the province with the enemy mages? Is it 10 candles, or just 1?

[Dedas]

But you shouldn't expect a spell that relies on a simple magic resistance check to work very well on MR 17-18 units. It's very logical. If you want to lower their MR you do that by magic scale (not in this game of course), penetration artifacts and high magic level. I don't know if the latter works on Strands of Arcane Power but magic scale sure does.
The spell doesn't suck, but it wasn't the best one to cast in your situation.

[Jazzepi]

I don't see the problem with the spell. What's the swing between in MR between drain 2 and magic 3? I think that's pretty significant since it moves you up on a bell curve. It sucks that penetration items apparently don't work with the global, but from Szumo's post it sounds like it works just fine if you're setup for it with a high magic domain.

Jazzepi

[Tuidjy]

Jazzepi, the enemy mages in my dominion range from MR 18 to 26, with the majority
at MR 20. The difference between Drain 2 and Magic 3 is 3MR. That would give
a bonus of chance of 8% (Wowsers!) for the wimpiest targets, and no appreciable
bonus for the tough ones.

Mine is a simple argument. If the spell depends on the modified magic resistance
of the target, it should depend on the modified penetration of the caster.

[Zeldor]

But that spells is supposed to find enemy MAGES, not commanders. And it is suposed to magic duel/mind burn them unless they have high MR. I don't know about any 8MR mages.

[Dedas]

There is none, but there are LOTS of 13-15 MR mages. With a magic scale of 2 the lowest become as low as 12 making it pretty good chance that they will be damaged.

[Jazzepi]

Tuidjy said:
Jazzepi, the enemy mages in my dominion range from MR 18 to 26, with the majority
at MR 20. The difference between Drain 2 and Magic 3 is 3MR. That would give
a bonus of chance of 8% (Wowsers!) for the wimpiest targets, and no appreciable
bonus for the tough ones.

Mine is a simple argument. If the spell depends on the modified magic resistance
of the target, it should depend on the modified penetration of the caster.

Oh, I agree! I still think the spell is fine as is. shouldn't it just demolish armies that have non-astral, and thus lower MR, mages?

Jazzepi

[Jazzepi]

One more thing. If this spell did work with spell penetration, and you equiped all the penetration items you can think of. Let's say it gives you +6, plus a natural S9 pretender used for a bless, plus the -2 MR off of Magic 3, then wouldn't you just demolish any invading army?

Just from a viewpoint of balance it doesn't sound terribly workable.

Jazzepi