Newbish question

[Tuidjy]

The hammer does not increase the magic level. It lets you forge items with fewer
gems. The item that will increase your Earth magic level is the pair of boots that
you can forge with 10 earth gems at Construction level 4. With the hammer, it will
take you only 7 earth gems.

For an example of using the thistle mace - you have a druid with nature level one.
Give him the thistle mace, and now his magic level is two. He could cast, every
turn, the spell "Haruspex", and he would discover all nature sites (if any) in the
targeted province. Or in combat, instead of casting:
Eagle Eyes, Vine Arrow, Vine Arrow, Vine Arrow, Vine Arrow, etc..
he could be casting
Eagle Eyes, Storm of Thorns, Storm of Thorns, Storm of Thorns, Storm of Thorns, etc...
which not only has higher range, but also half a dozen extra projectiles.

Of course, the above example is very simple... but to get really good, the best way
is to jump in a MP game, and when your favorite army gets wiped out by something
that does not break a sweat, learn.

[kasnavada]

Hum I think the question you wanted an answer to is this one :
Booster only boost if you already have some magic in that path.

There are different types of magic bonus. The "nature bonus:1" and equivalent boost magic if you already have some path in it. If you give a 'thistle mace' to someone with no nature magic, he has no clue what to do with it, and will use it as a dumb club and try to clobber his ennemies with it.

The second type of magic bonus is : "contruction : 25" or something like it. It means it reduces the cost of casting construction spell on the worldwide map by 25%, rounding down.

The first one concerns a type of magic, the second one a school.

[Endoperez]

The Construction Bonus, Enchantment bonus etc etc only appear in sites. The bonus Dwarven hammer gives is Forge bonus, and it affects all items.

Hammers are most useful when you are forging expensive items like Staves of Elemental Mastery (25+25 gems, about 18+18 with hammer) or Rings of Sorcery (40 gems, 30 with hammer)

[GrudgeBringer]

OK, that makes sense and now that you mentioned it I DID read somewhere that eht D Hammer was used to cut the cost of forging (At least I have the Forging part down).

But what do I DO with the hammer?

Once I Forge it SOMEONE in my army must use it to make it work....right?

Now If I give say a lvl 4 Forge Constuction item that raises the N lvl 1 notch to a lvl 6 mage that has N magic...
will it work or will it only work if the mage has LOWER than the Forge Construction rating?

I can't wait to play MP and have no fear of taking a Whoopin (as I am already getting my A** kicked by the AI which in the forums everyone says is not tough...SIGH.

But i would like to understand the dual bless, summoning, and Blood slaves first as I have the sneaking suspicion that without understanding these things I will last about 4 minutes!!

Thanks guys, you HAVE helped push me in the right direction.

Like I said, I learn one thing and 2 more questions arise.

But I really have read everything I could on these forums, Read Baalz's (I think thats how its spelled) excellent strategy's for different Races, and have started over like 30 times after learning something every time I play.

I think my problem is I have always played Strategic war games that have weapon strength, windage, Terrain ect but I have very little exp with magic (other than neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale ect and then I still didn't play the Mage).

So understanding this may take me a little time and I appreciate the time and patiance that everyone is taking to help me!!

[thejeff]

You use a Hammer whenever you want to forge something. Give it to the mage doing the forging, put it back in the lab next turn (or use it to forge something else.)

If I'm understanding your question properly, you can give any path booster to any mage with at least one level in that path and it will work. (As long as you can give it too him, that is he has the proper slots open.) A Thistle Mace works just as well going from N9 to N10 as from N1 to N2.

[kasnavada]

I think my problem is I have always played Strategic war games that have weapon strength, windage, Terrain ect but I have very little exp with magic (other than neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale ect and then I still didn't play the Mage).

I think that your questions are very interesting because there is a lot that people on this forum take for granted. Like boosters working only with mages having at least one in the corresponding path.

But what do I DO with the hammer?

Once I Forge it SOMEONE in my army must use it to make it work....right?

Hammer reduces the cost of forging items (as said above). If you've read the different guides you know that labs enable mages to make magic items. Whenever you want to make a magic item, you just pick up the mage with the right bath to forge the item and select it from the list. The right way to use the hammer(s) is therefore to equip it to the mage(s) that makes the most expensive magic item(s) for this current turn. Otherwise it works just like a normal item creation.

Hum, and I have to says something else : when choosing the items the full cost is shown and not the reduced cost. A thristle mace is shown as costing 10 nature gem even if you have the hammer in hand. However, when you "validate" the item (with the hammer in hand), only 7 gems will be deducted from your vaults and not 10.

The same is true of the other 'school' magic site, the reduction in cost is not shown. But it does work.

[Tuidjy]

I think that you are getting bogged down in this forum's terminology (jargon).
Lets try to explain what a few sentances mean...

The dwarven hammer is Construction 4 item that requires Earth 3, and provides
a forge bonus of 25%.

This means it requires Construction 4 to be researched before it can be forged
by a mage with at least three levels in Earth magic. Incidentally, the forging
of this item will use up 15 earth gems, unless you have some forging bonuses.
The forge bonus of 25% means that when you forge other items with a mage that
is wielding the hammer, you will use 25% fewer gems. For example, if you are
forging a hammer with a hammer, you will use only 12 gems. If you have a druid,
with one level of Nature magic, and he is using the hammer to forge an item that
usually requires 5 nature gems, he will need only 3. Note that the druid has
no Earth magic skill, but can still use the hammer.

Ah, anyway... I am not doing too well at writing this post, keep getting
distracted. I am sure by now other people have answered better than I did.

Just a piece of advice - unless you are playing Mictlan, you do not have to
understand blood slaves. Blood magic is an advanced topic, and many really good
players will not touch it, but still do very well.

[GrudgeBringer]

hello....my usual 2 questions a night time!!

1. I have played a number of games in MP that had some form of a 'LUCK' attribute that you could take.

I have noticed that in some games (MOO2 for example)that while it looked like a waste of picks on the surface (and MOST everyone would never pick Luck as it was kinda costly..3 points out of 20.

However, When in the middle and late game you got Commanders wanting to be hired by you with AWESOME game breaking stats...you started to understand why that 'fool' you all where laughing at at the start picked it while he was dismanteling your Starships Fleets.

So I am wondering if the same applies to MP in D3? Are there any benificail reasons to take Luck or even take Misfortune -3?

I know in D3 playing as a Noob (and a dumb one at that)it IS better not to have a bunch of bad things happening to you while your trying to learn.

2. Pretenders
I understand its all about playing style, nation and Era picked ect.


But maybe I am not understanding WHEN and HOW to pick a Pretender for the nation I want to play.

I would usually (in most other strategy games I have played) pick the strongest, meanest, 1 creature wrecking ball I could and sic him on nations close by as soon as I could find them before they became too powerful.

It seems like in this game I am confused.
I keep finding myself taking a weak pretender (like Arch Mage) that I can take a LOT of good buffs )production, Growth ect)and a LOT of different magic paths so I can research everything (like 4 air, 3 earth, 2 fire, 1 astral, 1 Nature.

But I read that this is called a rainbow pretender and its not really looked on as a good choice especially in MP.

I guess I have 2 questions on this.

1. Does the magic you pick for your pretender effect your starting priests magic lvl (if you have 3E on pretender does your Priests start with 3 earth Astral 1 ect?
And if not why would I want to pick more than say Earth 6 and fire 3?

And finally are the Buffs (Growth, production ect)Worth taking over magic because with a LOT of pretender choices you can't take a lot of magic AND buffs.

What exactly is considered a good SC and how would you design one (just an example).

Thanks for any help

[Endoperez]

Luck affects events and appearance of national heroes. Events can be good or bad, ranging from few magical gems or few hundred extra gp to 3000 gp, magic item and gems. Bad events range from little extra unrest or destroyed temple to hordes of barbarians or knights attacking one of your provinces.
Some nations have VERY good heroes, and some nations have heroes that are so weak to be almost useless. Sometimes the same nation has both types. Heroes can appear if you have anything but Misfortune 3, but the chances of getting them are much better with Luck.

Because Order scale gives money and makes events less rare, taking Order and Luck together is usually avoided because they don't synergize well. Taking Turmoil and Misfortune together, on the other hand, is VERY bad for you nation and something you shouldn't really even consider. It's usually best to go all out if you take one; Luck 3 allows for some very good events, while Order 3 protects you from bad events so you can probably afford Misfortune 1. Order is better for money, but the gems you get from events tend to really pile up in longer games, and while gold events from Luck 3 aren't as reliable as Order 3 your starting position has more effect on your income than the difference between the two.