Blessings balance?

[DominionsFan]

Daynarr said:
Death magic 9 gives Death weapon to sacred troops. Death weapons have a CHANCE to do additional death damage to the target. Not the same thing as fire weapons. Both are magical though.

100% affilction chance is basically double chance to cause affliction to the target.

Devs can correct me if I misremembered.

Awesome...especially because Ermor is my favourite nation.

[BigJMoney]

I dunno, I think it could be good against units that are hard to crack but small in number, like ulmish infantry and cavalry. A lot of hits don't go through the armor, and those that do usually only deal minimal damage that will be healed afterward. I can also see it being good against creatures with Regen because at +350% affliction giving bonuses, even regenerating creatures that live through a battle will probably pick up a few afflictions. In my personal experience playing Ulm, I've had armies that I overestimated because I didn't realize how badly wounded they had become over time.

One good use of flagellants, I think, would simply be to use them as light infantry. The usual role of wearing out the enemy would be supplemented by their ability to deliver hampering afflictions. They'd be a walking affliction bomb.

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[JaydedOne]

Nobody's saying the Death bless is a bad one, particularly when you contemplate mixing it with, say, the Water 9 bless.

I'm really more concerned about the Nature bless and, of course, curious to see what's become of Blood.

[BigJMoney]

Well, I'll weigh in on why I think the Nature bless, if not as powerful as fire, is still in good standing.

#1 You don't need level 9 for it to be useful.

#2 Level 9 is useful though, because an increase in Regen percentage coupled with the l9 ability is worth the points.

#3 I am crossing my fingers, hoping that having sacred/holy commanders with easy berserk potential will turn out to be very practical.

I'll counter all of that, however with this: if it's easy to get access to a spell that causes all friendly units on the battlefield to go berserk, then the bless is redundant. Actually, this is a good point by itself. When designing l9 blesses, it seems a good idea to stay away from things that can be battlefield cast (or even mass cast) anyway. Another example of why f9 is so great.

So, we'll see. If all three of my above points stand true with the game, I will be happy with the Nature bless. I'm a bit curious as to why everyone has been so silent about the Blood bless, though.

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[Ballbarian]

I haven't considered the balance implications, but what about a blood bless giving a slight life drain effect to the blessed units attack. Nothing fancy, just a point or two of blood sucking damage to the defender and a point or two of hp benefit to the blessed attacker?

[Ighalli]

Afflictions in DomII worked like this:

Chance = (damage)/(remaining HP before damage)

The chance was doubled (or +100% if you prefer) for cursed units, and only happened 10% of the time if you were regenerating.

I think the B9 effect definitely needs to be changed. It causes a curse (only D4 as was mentioned) to the killer of the unit only if they fail a MR check. I think B9 should involve horror marks, either getting one from killing or perhaps injuring a blessed unit or when a blessed unit hits an enemy.

Edit: Argh! My fomulas are wrong. Thanks for the correction!

[Graeme Dice]

Ighalli said:
Chance = (damage delt)/(remaining HP before damage)

The chance was doubled (or +100% if you prefer) for cursed units, and only happened 10% of the time if you were regenerating.

The actual formulas were:

Chance = (damage dealt)/(base hitpoints)*100%

Cursed units had a (Chance + 25%) chance of getting an affliction. Regenerating units had (Chance/10).