what the heck is this

[Nerfix]

*info snippets taken*
Hum... What would a pretender with 4 Air/4 Blood have?

[Daynarr]

Increased Strength (+2) and Air shield (20% protection)

[Daynarr]

Also, I don't know if it was in dominions 1, but magic skills also increase some of the attributes of the wizard. For example, each level in air will increase wizards precision by 1.

[Pocus]

This holy bonus is a very cool idea. Generally speaking, alteration of units stats depending of external factors are always a nice twist in games, and are very appreciated from the players (well, the ones I know). In Dominions II there will be national themes, and Holy Bonus. good, very good !!!

I must confess that a big reason why I really like dominions, tons of intricate mechanisms aside, is that the devs have many good ideas. Take for example Age of W... the game is good, true, but speaking of game design on the other hand, it is far less imaginative. Kinda like a vanilla ice cream, compared to dominions which would have exotic flavors

[Pocus]

forgot to reply to the post. Yes in doms I each magical level gave a bonus of a sort. Nature give +5 supply, air +1 precision, and so on. I think it has been left untouched in doms II ?

About rainbow mages (archmages), how will they get compensated from not giving holy bonuses? I heard they could cost less, but is it sufficient in your experience?

[Nerfix]

Ummmm...
If i can go with 4 Air/ 4 Blood 2 of the rest R.B Mage in Dominions I, why not in Dominions II?

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Pocus:
forgot to reply to the post. Yes in doms I each magical level gave a bonus of a sort. Nature give +5 supply, air +1 precision, and so on. I think it has been left untouched in doms II ?

About rainbow mages (archmages), how will they get compensated from not giving holy bonuses? I heard they could cost less, but is it sufficient in your experience?

Its pretty expensive to have 9 in one, let alone two paths, so if you want good bless effects you need to plow down some points into the pretender. The old bless effect from dom1 would correspond to a pretender with 6 in both blood and fire in dom 2, which is higher magic values than most dom 1 players used to put on their gods, at least judging from usenet Posts. This might make the archmages less useful to the nations that relies on holy troops, such as vanheim, but at least as competitive as before for nations that put less reliance on them, such as some of the Ermorian themses and the standard Ulm theme.

And even if you inted to rely on holy troops you might want to have several different bless effects archmages might still be worth considering. For example a medusa with 9 9 in earth and nature would pay 512 points for the magic while an archmage starting with 1 in one path ccoul have a score of 4 in six different paths for a somehwat cheaper cost.

The respective bless effects could be.
Medusa
Reinv. +4
prot. +4
berserk +3
regen. 10%

Archmage,
reinv. +2
strength +2
attack +2
defense +2
berserk +1
fear -4

Anyway, I am sure there are still uses for the archmage.