Vampire Queens and Sneaking Armies

Norfleet · #1 April 14th, 2004, 04:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Truper:
Sure. But which of them are also innately etherial, flying, regenerating, cold immune, poison immune, life stealing and immortal, as well as spawning high-quality free troops? Not to mention encumberance 0, and... and... and...

The Vampires that a VQ spawns do not appear in a controllable manner or in very large quantities, even with strong dominion. If anything, they are not nearly as reliably spawned as the PoD's longdead rabble, which, if he parks for a few turns, can grow to be a sizeable mass. If you're using Soul Vortex + Phoenix Pyre, lifestealing isn't even an issue.

Quote:

And by the way, has anybody else considered the absurdity of flying in a full suit of black steel armor?

Not really. It's not as if Vampires fly by any apparent natural means, as they're clearly not aerodynamic and have no ability to generate lift. Dom2 wouldn't be the only game with flying, armored vampires. I don't even use Black Steel, the spellcasting encumberance imposed would cause her to pass out during prebattle buffing.

Norfleet · #2 April 14th, 2004, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by AhhhFresh:
Well, why not take away the etherealness like Tawqus suggested... I don't think I'm familiar with any literature that says that Vamps are innately ethereal like ghosts and specters and what not...

I'm not entirely sure what the Etherealness of Vampires is supposed to represent, although personally, I'd have thought a Mistform would be more appropriate: Vampires are reputed for their ability to assume gaseous form at will. Not sure where Etherealness fits into this. Then again, would this really be an improvement? Mistform is in some ways better, and other ways worse, than pure etherealness....

Graeme Dice · #3 April 14th, 2004, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:
The Vampires that a VQ spawns do not appear in a controllable manner or in very large quantities, even with strong dominion.

The chance of a vampire appearing is 5% times the current dominion level of the province the VQ is in. In dominion 10, she gets one every other turn.

Truper · #4 April 14th, 2004, 05:08 AM

[quote]Originally posted by Norfleet:

Quote:

[ It's not as if Vampires fly by any apparent natural means, as they're clearly not aerodynamic and have no ability to generate lift. Dom2 wouldn't be the only game with flying, armored vampires. I don't even use Black Steel, the spellcasting encumberance imposed would cause her to pass out during prebattle buffing. [/QB]

Well, I normally don't use black steel on a queen either, unless I'm playing an earth nation, and want a bargain-basement queen. But consider, say, a Caelum Seraph, flying happily around wearing 80 lbs of plate mail...

LintMan · #5 April 14th, 2004, 05:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:
Originally posted by AhhhFresh:
Well, why not take away the etherealness like Tawqus suggested... I don't think I'm familiar with any literature that says that Vamps are innately ethereal like ghosts and specters and what not...

I'm not entirely sure what the Etherealness of Vampires is supposed to represent, although personally, I'd have thought a Mistform would be more appropriate: Vampires are reputed for their ability to assume gaseous form at will. Not sure where Etherealness fits into this. Then again, would this really be an improvement? Mistform is in some ways better, and other ways worse, than pure etherealness....

Etherealness means that magic weapons are (mostly?) required to hit the creature, yes? IIRC, in the pen & paper RPG gaming world of AD&D, at least, you needed something like a +2 magic weapon to hit a vampire. Etherealness seems a pretty good fit for that (themewise, I can't really comment on balance since I haven't played/encountered one yet).

Norfleet · #6 April 14th, 2004, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
The chance of a vampire appearing is 5% times the current dominion level of the province the VQ is in. In dominion 10, she gets one every other turn.

And a VQ that's out on the borders of the empire thumping indies and kicking *** is not going to be sitting around in a dominion-10 province most of the time. Furthermore, a vampire in the occupied province every other turn tends to result in a trail of little vampires with no master. A single vampire lying around with no way to get home until somebody comes along and kills it, sending it back to the capitol, is hardly a real threat: A VQ that sits around spawning mini-vampires in the comfort of a 10-dominion zone is one that is not having much effect on you.

In all my games with a VQ, never have I gotten auto-vampires in quantities that make them more meaningful than as a bodyguard for an occasional death/blood mage. It's just too hard to round them up when you're constantly on the move.

Kel · #7 April 14th, 2004, 07:02 AM

Hehe, all the suggestions that are based on 'lore' could arise to some funny modifications to balance her out

Say...she can't cross running water (streams bordering provinces).
Or automatically suffers the equivalent of a 'petrify' on defense (or auto-routs) because what sane commander would attack her at *night* ? No, no , attack her during the daytime !
Susceptibility to fire, anyone ?

- Kel