lamentation for a queen

[WraithLord]

sector24 said:
There are a lot of large high HP pretenders that don't have the kind of stats or abilities that you'd want for early expansion, nor high starting paths for a bless. Just a few examples:

Lord of War
Father of Serpents
Jade Emperor
Lord of Plenty
Lady of Fortune
Celestial General
Mother of Monsters
Lord of Rebirth
etc.

I do agree with you that the VQ is currently a far worse choice than any of these. I didn't mean to argue against your point, just provide a different perspective. If you think of the VQ as the Celestial General's smaller sneakier sister, then she just becomes another pretender that you never really use but the AI seems to choose all the time.

I agree with your point about less than ideal pretenders. I'm glad (or rather sad) we both agree that the VQ is the worst in the list.

As for the titan pretenders, they cost less than VQ, have higher starting dominion, are not undead (immune to undead spells, banish), are size 6 (immune to trample) so they are much better cost-effective wise than VQ. Also, some of the pretenders in your list also have magic cost path lower than that of VQ (IIRC mother of monsters is one example)

The father of serpents has a valid role as a rainbow mage, a category there's just no way the VQ can fit.

[Endoperez]

WraithLord said:
The father of serpents has a valid role as a rainbow mage, a category there's just no way the VQ can fit.

Serpent King is the rainbow, Father of Serpents is a titan.

Everything in your post still applies, just thought to point it out.

[WraithLord]

You're right. Thanks for correcting my confusion.

vfb, I now understand your point about VQ. I think If I had to choose her I would probably make her an imprisoned scales god. At least some good will come out of it

[Edi]

As I said, the VQ is so broken she's not viable even in SP really. Father of Serpents and many of the other titans could also use the price drop, because outside of a few specialty roles that you very rarely need, they are useless.

[NTJedi]

Edi said:
As I said, the VQ is so broken she's not viable even in SP really. Father of Serpents and many of the other titans could also use the price drop, because outside of a few specialty roles that you very rarely need, they are useless.

I completely agree

[HoneyBadger]

I think the vampire queen should have classic vampire powers: she should be able to turn into a wolf, a bat, possibly a combat version, giant rat-woman. None of her forms need to be hideously strong, just versatile and purposeful. She should get inherant mistform while in human form, and she should have Fear and Animal Fear. Maybe even a dose of Awe, ala Salma Hayek in From Dusk Till Dawn Magic should definitely be reduced to 40 path. Then she'd be worth the 175.

[vfb]

Starting magic paths of A1D1B2 would give the VQ access to Air Shield and Mistform for combat, and maybe help justify the high base chassis cost. Higher starting dominion would make a Dom 9 or 10 Awe boost more affordable too.

HB's suggestion about intrinsic Awe or Fear would also do much to make her more usable. I also think that most vampire lit/movies includes both fear and awe attributes for vampires.

And I agree, Salma Hayek is Awesome in anything .