SCs other than the vq

[PvK]

Seems to me that Vampire Lords, while as Zen pointed out, have some important disadvantages compared to VQ pretenders (magic and dominion HP effects), have two advantages: fighting skill and (much more important) cheapness to manufacture (compared to Wish (!!) and Gift of Reason). Anyway, they seem potentially similar in ability to VQ's, and are manufacturable by anyone with blood magic.

Other SC's? Well, Prince of Death may not be immortal, but is considerably tougher than a VQ. Many of the giants have considerably more hit points than a VQ. Many have better fighting skills than a VQ. Moreover, many summonable units have better fighting abilities and thus SC potential than a VQ. They aren't immortal, but being summonable means not only are they replacable, but you can have several at once. Some of them are even quite cheap. Take for example Death summons.

Just looking at Pretender SC's, many of them are tougher than a VQ; they're just not immortal and don't have as many built-in abilities. Add some items and/or spells, though, and VQ may be outmatched.

* Moloch (esp. if they fix the rout issue)
* Prince of Death
* Ghost King
* White or Black Bull
* Manticore (limited but tough and ZERO points)
* Mother of Tuathas
* Titan
* Ancient Kraken (ok, acqutic, but try to kill one with a VQ )
* Dagon
* Lord of the Desert Sun
* Scorpion King
* Nataraja
* Shedu
* Son of Niefel
* Carrion Dragon
* Lord of the Wild
* Allfather
* Asynja
* Dracolich
* Lord of the Night

The Lich (or Saurolich, or Lich Queen) seems about on par with the VQ - immortal, a tad flammable and not flying but with natural protection of 15 (!). Bog Mummy also looks pretty tough. Ya they aren't naturally ethereal, but more things ignore ethereal than ignore natural protection.

Originally posted by rabelais:
... To the best of my knowledge, dominion changes happen *after* all battles, so you can't sucker an immortal into a trap dominion.

Which is IMHO, too bad. Would be nice to cause the immortal munchkins some contingent paranoid anxiety.

This was considered a feature, ...don't know if changing the phaseorder might potentially be rebalancing.
...

Hmm. Ya, it depends on the sequence of events (battle, preach, ressurrect). Zen seemed to think it would work. Anyone have spare time to test it, or know from experience in 2.11?

PvK