A nice commander

[Grossky]

Small question on how I should equip my Commander. He has won twice the death match and has been training since then at the ancient master.

Here are his stats:
HP 13
Prot 11
Mor 17
MR 10
Enc 3
Str 12
Att 18
Def 30
Prec 15

He is equiped with the following items:
Champion's Trident
Crown of Command (to train more people with him in the arena) but going to war I'd put Black Steel Helmet
Pendant of luck
Dancing trident

I am looking to give him a nice armor but I don't know what to go for...
Displacement to increase his def and prot?
Hi protection armor (asefik and other)?

Any other recommandations on anything else to equip him (boots, misc, head ...)?

[Endoperez]

With just 13 hp, he WILL die. Any single successful hit or damage spell can kill him, whether dealt by a human or a giant. In short, he would need three to four immunities (fire, cold, shock, perhaps poison), good magic resistance (18 is asking for it, 21 is risky, 23 starts to be decent), protection of about 30, and ethereality to protect him from most non-magical melee units, and Air Shield (to protect against armor-piercing or even negating magical ranged weapons). Oh, and reinvigoration to reduce fatigue. The last one is VERY, very important.

Even then, he will die, because there are unresistable spells and spells that can be spammed so easily they will eventually get through.

You can't make him more powerful without him casting Wish (virtually impossible), him casting Transform on himself (he'd become either an animal or a mad freak), making him your prophet (and then you could only use him inside your own dominion, or in defence. There are two other spells that might be possible, although they are still way too costly for this. Twiceborn (empowering him in Death (50 gems to level 1 and giving him items that boost Death after that) makes him a Wight Mage... if he dies in your own dominion. He'd become ethereal, though. Letting him die and then casting Ritual of Rebirth on him would make him a mummy, another tough undead creature.

He'd still die, and stay dead afterwards, in the first fight a thug would make a difference.

[Nick_K]

If you're in a single player game, then there's no harm in making a champion of a unit that doesn't have enough hp. As Endoperez says, he'll probably die sooner or later no matter how you equip him, but it can still be fun to see how well he can do in battle.
If it is SP then MR and resistances are not such an issue. If you're against someone who uses elemental magic you'll want to bear that in mind and equip him appropriately.

So, recommendations... this depends a bit on what magic you have. Also, I assume he has a heroic ability, having won the deathmatch twice. What is it?
What's the base unit? Is this a normal human commander, or something else, possibly with special abilities?

Anyway, equipment... I'm not going to mention artifacts here. You can, of course, get a very powerful commander if you're willing to spend hundreds of gems. The low hp will still lead to him dying though.
Hands are both taken

For the head, I like the Spirit Helmet for the extra killing power. Otherwise, the horror helmet is ok.

Body: I think that the encumbrance on the artifact heavy arnours is too high for a commander on foot. If you're ulm with huge forge bonuses then you might consider the robe of invulnerability. Otherwise the chain mail of displacement is great, and the marble breastplate would be my second choice.
The artifact armour that turns you into a troll would be a fix for the low hp, but you might not be able to get it easily.

Feet: You already have quickness from the champions' trident. You might consider boots of the messenger for the reinvigoration - you can really need it in a long battle.
Otherwise, boots of stone (don't take the marble breastplate with these) would give him a good boost to prot, or the winged boots give the useful fly ability.

Misc:
Lucky amulets are great. I don't think you really need the dancing trident though. The Champion's trident is already long enough for the repel. If you have const 8 then Krupp's bracers are a decent low cost item that gives reinvigoration and extra protection.

Well, hth. Equipping regular commanders with magic items and using them in battle is a very sub-optimal strategy, but if it's fun, then that's fine - I do it myself all the time.

[Grossky]

Thanks to both of you for the info. I know he doesn't have a long life span and would probably never see the old age but that is also why I'd like to equip him a bit and be prepared to fight an other round into the death match. I was also thinking to use him in normal fights since he can bring a lot of people with him.

I think I'll use the winged boots for the death match if that occurs again that will at least give me a chance to arrive to the other leader before the crowd gets out of control (or before there is a crowd).

My guy was a simple human commander that grew to get a def of 30 (which is the ability that he gained).

I never tought about giving him the Spirit helmet but that could be good to do so since that will give him an other attack.

I'll try to look at the combo chain mail of displacement and stone boots. I never tought about this combo before could be nice addition to him since that will give both prot and def.

As for my paths, I can pretty much do anything since my pretender is a rainbow mage (most paths can get to 6 if not I have mages that can compensate for his lacks).


thanks again for the comments

[PvK]

You guys are such pessimists!

Keeping mortal commanders alive, or dying trying, is actually one of my favorite things to do in Dominions, and it can be done... not with any certainty, but if it were certain, there'd be no tension nor interest on my part.

Equipment for him would depend on what he's going up against, and thematic considerations. His weaknesses are of course mortal HP and low MR, and currently, pretty low Prot too, and vulnerability to missiles (which you can't do anything about without spells or magic if Champion's Trident takes all your hands). His Def is good enough but Def is one main way to keep mortals alive on the field, so the higher the better. But address the above issues if you can. The most important against AI and easiest to deal with are Prot and missiles. Chainmail of Displacement is good, as is Jade Armor or Boots of Quickness. Stoneskin or barkskin could help, and if you have one of those, then Starshine Skullcap could give enough head protection while increasing MR. Mages assigned to buff him are another option. Be sure to assign some bodyguards on Guard Commander who are fast enough to keep up with him on the battlefield.

PvK

[Nick_K]

The champion's trident already gives the quickness ability - don't need the boots or the jade armour. A size 2 commander with human HP is not so likely to get targeted by instakill spells so MR shouldn't be that big of a problem unless the enemy is really cutting loose with disintegrate or whatever.

[PvK]

Good points. I forgot that the trident gave quickness. In that case, Chainmail of Displacement or Marble Armor are two good ones.

[Kalin]

IMO, if you're just playing against the AI, the best thing for the guy is to cast the global enchantment "Gift of Health" and keep him inside your dominions. That should help him survive a lot longer.

As for armor, if you have some nice blessing, the cheap 5 Astral Shroud of the Battle Saints might work well (unless you already prophet him). Chainmail of Displacement is good, but you already have 30 def, and it will rise as time passes due to the heroic ability, so you're better off using something like the Robe of Missile Protection, or Robe of Invulnerability. Heck, even the Robe of Shadows for etherealness will work if you are using boots of stone.

My recommendation:
Champion's Trident
Spirit Helmet (his main attack)
Robe of Shadows (ethereal)
Boots of Stone (prot)
Pendant of Luck (luck)
Amulet of Antimagic (just in case)

... and gift of health.

I run pretty much the same setup on most games on my starting commander/prophet, with the exception of the Trident, and they usually survive until the end.

[pangstrom]

A related question/suggestion.

I've tried to use the werewolf charm (or lupine amulet or whatever) a couple times when I've semi-accidentally made a weak indy commander borderline thug-worthy through the hall of fame. Unfortunately the guy died once, and the game ended the other time. I assume his basic stats will be better if he ever transforms, and he'll keep his experience/hero boosts, but do werewolfs have all the same equipment slots?

Like PvK, I like doing this kind of thing if I've got the "breathing room" in the game, or if I suddenly have a lot of extra equipment due to commander deaths or whatever. I especially like caveman champion thugs, for some reason. They're just fun for me to root for I guess.

[Kalin]

The werewolves DO have the slots, and somewhat better stats, but you will be stuck with the Lychantropos' Amulet (cursed), and thus will be losing that one special slots. Further more, it also causes you to go berserk, and that's just not a good thing when you want to keep some tiny HP commanders alive.