Wow. Paralyze is the Super combatant killer!

[Taqwus]

Paralyze spell recovery does seem difficult, read: better hope your other units win the battle.

On the other hand, it's not THAT reliable. I've seen quite a few mage/priests try to paralyze the Lord of the Hunt (MR 18) and generally fail. And when the Marignon mage/priests tried to paralyze my Behemoths (MR 13 base, +1 from drain scale), the success rate seemed to be pretty low.

(Heh. Even with 2 Behemoths paralyzed during the battle, I had 26 more... Messy battle; ~50-strong Ulm province defense, with some additional Black Knights and just-in-time reinforcement of a Bane Lord with some 35 Vine Ogres, and 28 Behemoths, versus ~250 Marignon troopers and 12 commanders. Trample trample trample. The behemoths were expensive in gems and mage-turns, but an impressive and very very deadly sight.)

[SurvivalistMerc]

The only problem with toning down one-unit spell like paralyze would be that it may make astral overall weaker than earth magic. Earth 2 can be augmented one with boots to produce earth-3, which can cast blade wind at about the same evocation level that paralyze is thaumaturgy level.

And you know what blade wind does to armies. It decimates low-protection forces. And the degree of total decimation with a couple of blade winds is something I don't think Saber Cherry's modeled combats take into account.

I have tried paralyze myself with Pythium. And it does not seem to me that the second target after the pretender is always the mages. Sure...if you have a castle defended by just a few mages and the pretender the next target is the mages. Or if you have undead with a few living mages. But there is even a hint against doing it that way that comes up between turns.

As a defender, the greatest thing about paralyze is that your unit survives, generally unscathed, if you win the battle. And I've seen paralyze fail a few times on Ulmish infantry troops...so it isn't that much of a guarantee.

It doesn't seem all that unbalanced to me. But that's just one person's opinion.

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by SurvivalistMerc:
The only problem with toning down one-unit spell like paralyze would be that it may make astral overall weaker than earth magic. Earth 2 can be augmented one with boots to produce earth-3, which can cast blade wind at about the same evocation level that paralyze is thaumaturgy level.

I don't think there is much danger of astral being weaker than earth - at present it seems much stronger to me. Blade Winds is very impressive vs not very good units but in PBEM you will rapidly kill all the low prot troops an enemy has with your blade winds and then not see anymore. Blade winds is largely irrelevant vs most staunch troops while astral magic causes carnage with its fatigue and armour negating attacks.

My impression is that Astral was the strongest form of magic even before the horrors of paralyse were discovered. If there is any path of magic I would most like to have access to its astral - excellent battle magic, dispel, travel magic, awesome forging capability and some cool summons.

cheers

Keir