Are devils worth 7 blood each?

[Cohen]

You need too some research in Thaumathurgy.
It casts a Soul Slay or Mind Burn (the better you've researched beetween those 2), and cast it remotely (those spells are combat spells) on an enemy commander in that province.
It checks on MR and if fails to pass the check the enemy die if you've Soul Slay.
I know this strikes too hiding unit and glamouring ones. (I had a Man Thuatha besieging one of my castles ... the map shows that Man was besieging me but no units were shown ... I went for Mind Hunt, the spell found the target but sadly failed to kill him).
But it has a very high double edge... if there's an astral mage in the target province this will feeblemind all your guys casting the spell in that province (it's not very realistic imo that a single guy 1S could feeblemind 6 S3 or S4 mages casting that spell in the same turn). In fact this spell is usually used by Arco, that has healing priestess and cheap astrologers.

[The_Tauren13]

Hmmm.. so ANY astral mage in the target province will ALWAYS feeblemind ALL casting mages??? That does make it sound somewhat useless...

[Soapyfrog]

Well perhaps not useless but it sure does require good scouting reports.

I have seen it have a tremendous imapct on the unprepared... the suden death of an army commander just before a battle can have rather severe consequences!

[Cohen]

If the enemy hasn't Astral Mages in the province this is the best spell to kill SCs without engaging them.
I killed Wraithlords and Air Queens too with that spell.

If you'ven't Astral as default and your random pick is capitol only probably you'll have problems in covering your troops.

[Alneyan]

If you are found by an Astral mage, can you still attempt to kill one of the commanders, or is the attempt aborted?

Even if you have to avoid Astral mages to ensure a kill, this spell should be useful if you have cheap Astral mages and/or ways of curing the likely feeblemindedness. Even an Astral mage 1 should be able to cast this spell with the Astral boosting equipment, although it would be fairly expensive to forge all of them. But since the mage isn't killed, even after a failure, I guess it may pay out after some successful castings.

[Cohen]

Usually are Pythium and Arco that use that spells.
Sometimes the nations that have 2S mages + a random pick, like Abysyan warlocks.

Usually you need a +1 S item however.

If an Astral Mage is in the targetted provinces, you'll get all your mages feebleminded AND the spellcasting will be aborted, so you can't kill anyone.

Personally I believe it's pretty weak that 1 single 1 S mage could feeblemind mages far better than him and more numberous. (according to description 1 lvl in a path means normal user, 2 lvls mean good mage in that path, 3 or more a very powerful mage of that path).

[Boron]

You should post it e.g. in patch 2.14 .
Perhaps it is a "bug" like with magic duel the open ended D6 was .
I don't think too that 1 S mage always stops all mindhunters as you described was intended .

[atul]

Boron said:
I don't think too that 1 S mage always stops all mindhunters as you described was intended .

Well, according to the spell description, it's currently working as intended.

Mind Hunt is a very useful spell, the drawback with enemy astral mages just ensures it's not one-for-all solution. Handle with care, use with caution.

And as to who can use it, I've used it playing TC while been on the receiving end by mind hunting Jots and Marignon, so I'd hardly call it "Arco only". You can ensure you aren't getting feebleminded, it's just all about intel. Using it on an army that just attacked should be quite safe since you can check the battle replay for astral mages.