The Ghost King

chrispedersen · #1 July 11th, 2008, 03:42 AM

Never use.

secretperson · #2 July 11th, 2008, 04:33 AM

I have tried this guy in SP a few times because I heard he could be pretty good.

I think the appeal is that he starts out with stealthy, ethereal and undead (so encumberance doesn't come into play when actually meeleing) with full slots. So you can use slots for things other than ethereal. I can't remember what kind of scales I had but I went awake with 9 or 10 dom and 2 air (for air shield, mistform, and mirror image), 1 earth for ironskin, and then a few more points in death as filler.

I wasn't too impressed. Sometimes I could attack blindly on turn 1 and be fine other times he got owned hard. I'm sure he shines a bit more with proper equipment or perhaps I didn't build him very well. That being said, I think I may give him a try again as he seems somewhat viable.

llamabeast · #3 July 11th, 2008, 05:29 AM

I've heard before now that he's considered powerful.

Zenzei · #4 July 11th, 2008, 06:03 AM

The GK is alluring but having tried it a few times, I'm not impressed. To me he seems to be jack of all trades but master of none. For awake SC 35hp and low starting dominion combined with high chassis cost just doesnt cut it. For spellcasting master lich is better, for example.

Xietor · #5 July 11th, 2008, 07:44 AM

He was my favorite in dom II, but he was nerfed. Unfairly nerfed KO!

Heh. After his nerf I have never used him.

I will add I played dom II mp games on another forum-not this one. And we had funny "house" rules. One of the house rules was no immortal pretenders(in response to the Queen most likely before her nerf).

So before the nerf to the Ghost King, and removing the immortal undeads from the selection process, the Ghost King was one of the best Pretenders to take for a rainbow mage.

I cannot even recall what all was done to him. His cost was raised, his dominion lowered, and I think something else as well.

Amhazair · #6 July 11th, 2008, 09:26 AM

About every time I start a new game and am looking at pretender design there comes a moment when I think: "Hmm... and what if I'd use a ghost king instead" after which I try out some builds, find out I don't have enough points to make it all work, and move on. I have yet to use one in MP.

I do believe they can be very powerful with LA Ermor (never having played LA Ermor myself, so it's just conjesture) as they have the design points to burn, and can greatly benefit from both the magical diversity, and the SC ability. Perhaps some other nation without too much need for great scales,or for a big bless can also make good use of him, but none springs to mind atm.

Wrana · #7 July 11th, 2008, 11:28 AM

I'm mostly new to MP, so take this with a grain of salt. However, in one of my current games he is doing relatively fine. I made him asleep, with Dom 9, relatively good scales (I am squemish in respect to them; also see below) and 2 magic paths at 4, with no incerase in Death path (namely, Water & Earth for Helheim - the first to increase diversity & for Quickening, the second for blessing their sacred mages). Then I made a Construction my first research priority, which allowed me to make Hammer early on & make some equipment before my King awakened. After that I used him to quicken expansion, using most money on mages. He didn't take a weapon until I got a Construction 4, but expanded fine even before that. And after Construction 4 I switched to other paths. He suffered a pair of afflictions, but remains useful - even after I discovered a sight granting me some Water mages.
Maybe I should have given him Nature instead - to get regeneration, but I reasoned that Nature mages are relatively common to find & Astral... well, it brings a risk of Magic Dules.
Will someone say where I was wrong?

Currently I think he remains relatively solid, but should be taken asleep.