Equipment: which to use and what to avoid?

[vfb]

Sorry, that's not the case. Undead (and other Enc 0) casters take extra fatigue from casting spells with armour on.

Click on the Encumbrance stat, the popup will say something like:

Basic Encumbrance: 0
Melee Encumbrance: 0
Spell Casting Encumbrance: 7

[Baalz]

quantum_mechani said:
Hmm, I read it more as for building SCs, but in any case I'm not convinced on the crystal shield for any purpose. If you have the astral to forge one communions and power of the spheres can almost always fill the niche.

I've had a couple times when crystal shield was quite useful. When you're one level short of that devastating spell (army of gold, weapons of sharpness, darkness, wrathful skies, fog warriors, etc.) and your caster doesn't have astral. True, this is a niche use, but one that I find comes up a decent amount of the time. True, a communion can sometimes fill this role, but being able to air drop in a single tough guy to cast earthquake/flame storm/etc., returning the turn the enemy army moves to attack you is not really possible to duplicate with a communion.

[thejeff]

I forget, does a Crystal Shield boost holy, if the bearer is just a priest?

[parcelt]

How about the crystal coin? I always felt it was one of the best deals you could get (for an SC).

True, it has no offensive capabilities like charcoal shield, but it gives you luck (freeing up a slot, I therefore like it better than the luck pendant) and still has decent defensive stats.

[llamabeast]

Well, the crystal shield is amazing for getting you up one more level in battle to cast big battlefield spells, if you can forge it.

Only got A3? Stick on a crystal shield and you can cast Fog Warriors. Similarly it can give a bit more earth for Army of Gold/Lead. Or a bit more holy for Divine Blessing. In battle it's almost as good as a Ring of Wizardry.

However, it's true that it should be used only for casting a single spell (or maybe two) per battle, otherwise the weight is indeed an issue.

[llamabeast]

I believe the bearer has to be a mage for the shield to work though. So on a holy-only priest it's no use. But on a mage-priest it's great.

[Endoperez]

parcelt said:
How about the crystal coin? I always felt it was one of the best deals you could get (for an SC).

True, it has no offensive capabilities like charcoal shield, but it gives you luck (freeing up a slot, I therefore like it better than the luck pendant) and still has decent defensive stats.

Thanks to there being three lucky items, Luck is one of the easiest abilities to move around. Faithful, Lucky Coin and Pendant of Luck are almost always interchangeable to suit your needs.