equipment configurations for supercombatants (SCs)

[reverend]

Arryn said:
And if they weren't cold, smelly, and dumb as a rock they might actually be useful replacements for husbands.

Where's the difference?

[Kel]

Arryn said:Be that way. Hmmph. You also cannot awe them, frighten them, seduce them (shucks, that might be real kinky), or blow their minds. OTOH, they never tire, hunger, thirst, lose patience, or argue with you. As such, they make great pets. And if they weren't cold, smelly, and dumb as a rock they might actually be useful replacements for husbands.

Ironically, I understand that getting married, for males, actually triggers the Twiceborn ritual...

- Kel

[Agrajag]

Boron said:

you can't kill undead

And that's why in another game forum my nick was UndeadDontDie =P

[Vicious Love]

Two patches ago, I discovered that not only do heroic quickness and vanilla quickness stack, they multiply. Meaning a commander with 200% heroic quickness and Boots of Quickness doesn't get 2 extra actions for heroism and one for footwear, he gets (1+2 for heroism)*(2 for footwear).
I'm not sure whether this holds true for the latest Version, nor whether such a speed demon would be half as effective in MP as in SP, but I've found that equipment schemes which capitalze on this can make for some truly devastating anti-AI SCs.
My favorite combo is more stylish than effective: Two daggers(Or Swords of Swiftness, if ambidextrous enough), Chi Boots, an Astral Serpent, that hovering trident thingie, and a Horned Helmet. With 200% quickness, that's THIRTY-SIX attacks per turn, or FOURTY-EIGHT with dual Swords of Swiftness. Blindingly awesome as this sounds, I doubt it'd make a viable MP strategy.
However, even in MP, I don't think tactical flight is at all necessary for this sort of SC, unless his base tactical movement is so slow that he cannot flank the enemy in a single turn. If you plan on just sending him right into the enemy's biggest stack of troops, or have some other means of moving him around the strategic map, you can safely free up that foot slot.
This gives you plenty of options. While Chi Boots would most definitely give you the most bang for your buck, I imagine Boots of Stone would give you more bang, buck nonwithstanding, as would Boots of Quickness, which would allow you to replace your Jade Armor with either a Rime Hauberk, Bone Armor or, if you really LIKE your quickened SC, Fenris' Pelt or the Armor of Virtue.
As for hand slots, a shield seems like a bad choice as, except in the case of missile fire, a good offense is much, much more effective than a good defense. At least when you have six or so turns per round. Imagine one of these bastards with dual Duskdaggers, or a Sword of Swiftness in one hand, a Duskdagger in the other.
I could go on, but I realize I've probably been wasting much too much time describing equipment schemes for a highly specialized SC which may not even exist as of the Last patch, if not the one before. I suppose I'm just so fond of the little whirlwhinds, and I've never actually seen the quickness*quickness combo mentioned as a recipe for a viable SC before.

[Boron]

Vicious Love said:
Two patches ago, I discovered that not only do heroic quickness and vanilla quickness stack, they multiply. Meaning a commander with 200% heroic quickness and Boots of Quickness doesn't get 2 extra actions for heroism and one for footwear, he gets (1+2 for heroism)*(2 for footwear).
I'm not sure whether this holds true for the latest Version, nor whether such a speed demon would be half as effective in MP as in SP, but I've found that equipment schemes which capitalze on this can make for some truly devastating anti-AI SCs.
My favorite combo is more stylish than effective: Two daggers(Or Swords of Swiftness, if ambidextrous enough), Chi Boots, an Astral Serpent, that hovering trident thingie, and a Horned Helmet. With 200% quickness, that's THIRTY-SIX attacks per turn, or FOURTY-EIGHT with dual Swords of Swiftness. Blindingly awesome as this sounds, I doubt it'd make a viable MP strategy.
However, even in MP, I don't think tactical flight is at all necessary for this sort of SC, unless his base tactical movement is so slow that he cannot flank the enemy in a single turn. If you plan on just sending him right into the enemy's biggest stack of troops, or have some other means of moving him around the strategic map, you can safely free up that foot slot.
This gives you plenty of options. While Chi Boots would most definitely give you the most bang for your buck, I imagine Boots of Stone would give you more bang, buck nonwithstanding, as would Boots of Quickness, which would allow you to replace your Jade Armor with either a Rime Hauberk, Bone Armor or, if you really LIKE your quickened SC, Fenris' Pelt or the Armor of Virtue.
As for hand slots, a shield seems like a bad choice as, except in the case of missile fire, a good offense is much, much more effective than a good defense. At least when you have six or so turns per round. Imagine one of these bastards with dual Duskdaggers, or a Sword of Swiftness in one hand, a Duskdagger in the other.
I could go on, but I realize I've probably been wasting much too much time describing equipment schemes for a highly specialized SC which may not even exist as of the Last patch, if not the one before. I suppose I'm just so fond of the little whirlwhinds, and I've never actually seen the quickness*quickness combo mentioned as a recipe for a viable SC before.

a bit dreaming :
a wished nataraja can get heroic abilities because she is no real god right ?

so wish for a bunch of natarajs and in sp you should still be able to bring them in the HoF

[deccan]

Boron said:
a bit dreaming :
a wished nataraja can get heroic abilities because she is no real god right ?

so wish for a bunch of natarajs and in sp you should still be able to bring them in the HoF

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]

Someone upload a savegame file if you manage to do this!

[Boron]

deccan said:

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]

Someone upload a savegame file if you manage to do this!

well i don't play much sp anymore but in sp you should be able to wish at turn 50-70 . in my Last sp game which i have saved as abysia but don't continue on turn 53 100 exp is enough to come in the HoF .

since wished natarajas should be no gods it should be very possible to have some fully equipped natarajas on turn 50-70 in sp when playing atlantis and you hoard severe clams .

[Cheezeninja]

Vicious Love said:
As for hand slots, a shield seems like a bad choice as, except in the case of missile fire, a good offense is much, much more effective than a good defense. At least when you have six or so turns per round. Imagine one of these bastards with dual Duskdaggers, or a Sword of Swiftness in one hand, a Duskdagger in the other.

I really must disagree with this. Maybe an SC tricked out for offense would be good against another SC, but he'd be potted by the first petrify or drain life to roll around, or the first army of chaff summoners. When i build an SC, almost every item/spell involved is defensive in nature, because if you never die you will win nearly all your battles.

for instance, a favorite pretender scheme would involve a pretender with:

A drain life weapon, Blood Thorn if possible because its one handed.

Charcol shield, For the intrinsic fireshield, the prot and def bonus doesnt hurt, but a fireshield is great for taking out chaff.

Starshine Skullcap, For the MR. MR = Good. Very good.

Jade armor/ Hydra Skin, If i need Quickness then go with the Jade Armor, if i need poison resist or regen then go with the hydra skin. I like regen, not for the HP so much as the reduced chance to get an affliction.

Flying boots for mobility/ boots of quickness for quickness

Amulet of Luck, Antimagic Amulet Both are cheap and effective.

The spells i like to cast, which are almost all defensive in nature:

Quickness
Breath of Winter
Mirror Image
Air Shield
Mistform
Summon Earthpower (gives rejuve if your missing it)
Invulnerability/ironskin
Body Ethereal
Luck
Twist Fate
Astral Shield
Fire Shield
Soul vortex

My favorite combination on an SC pretender would be something like 4-6 air, 2 water, 2-3 earth, thereby avoiding the vulnerability to magic duel, and capitalizing on the number of mirror images.

I currently have a game going where i have about 10 niefel jarls running around with a N9 blessing and a standard loadout of

Wraith Sword
Possibly flying boots
Antie Magic Amulet
Lucky Pendant

They are all set to cast quickness, bless, breath o winter, and while i've lost a couple (stupidly tried to retake a manikin province with only SC's) They have steamrolled over all other indeps and i have yet to see an affliction pop up on a single one. This is on Faerun btw, so i already have a goodly number of provinces.

Vicious Love said:My favorite combo is more stylish than effective: Two daggers(Or Swords of Swiftness, if ambidextrous enough), Chi Boots, an Astral Serpent

Does an Astral Serpent really strike one more time for *every* other attack ? So a single werewolf (CoW) using the base claw/claw/bite routine could make 3 more poison attacks, making 6 armor negating damage and 9 poison damage every round ? A perfect counter against super-heavy units, or even against some SC (if you can bypass def) like Cyclops, Red Dragons, Manticores, etc. And the poison is cumulative, so even 1 hit will cause 30 pts damage in 10 turns (death poison) but 2 hits will cause 60 pts etc...
Does it work only in close combat or even for ranged attacks ? And for hooves (one more attack for cavalry) ?
TIA

[Boron]

Sunray_be said:

Does an Astral Serpent really strike one more time for *every* other attack ? So a single werewolf (CoW) using the base claw/claw/bite routine could make 3 more poison attacks, making 6 armor negating damage and 9 poison damage every round ? A perfect counter against super-heavy units, or even against some SC (if you can bypass def) like Cyclops, Red Dragons, Manticores, etc. And the poison is cumulative, so even 1 hit will cause 30 pts damage in 10 turns (death poison) but 2 hits will cause 60 pts etc...
Does it work only in close combat or even for ranged attacks ? And for hooves (one more attack for cavalry) ?
TIA

hm doesn't poison resistence negate this anyway ?
i personally think the misc spot is more important for e.g. burning pearl for +att + fire resistence and the amulet of antimagic .

my favourite quite cheap allrounder equipment is :
blood thorn + lucky coin , starshine skullcap , copper plate , boots of quickness , burning pearl + amulet of antimagic .

for nonflying units with water magic i replace the boots of quickness with flying boots like with icedevils / nievel jarls .

all in all those scs which have already flying + either fire or lighning resistence are extremely good like the arch devils and the airqueens or pretenders like virtue .
unfortunately airqueens have no footslot .
really hard though to find a favourite
i like airqueens , the arch demons , tartarians , the ice devils and the arch devils especially as highend scs
but i have no real favourite