Guide: Guide to communions

[SsSam]

Ok. Thanks for the explanation.

Since Pythium is archer-poor. I was thinking it would be a nice little surprise to buff up some communicants to reign down fire arrows on the other side.

Given that's the case. There seems to be little use for the communicants. Sure, the Theurgs are more expensive, but they're a lot more versatile as well.

[Baalz]

Yes, the primary problem with communicants is that of opportunity cost. As you point out, you could have theurgs instead, and you've got a limited number of castles. I will say though that in testing this last night I did do a very nasty linebacker communion with communicants - 8 slaves, 3 masters. Masters cast mistform, personal luck, twist fate, quicken self, mirror image, breath of winter, then the masters fired the bows I had equipped to them. Pretty hideous damage output and the mistform + luck + twist fate made the communicants last plenty long enough wielding that quickened frostbrand to deadly effect....

[DonCorazon]

In a recent post here:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...912#Post605960
some info was added that seemed relevant to help clarify the danger of communion boosting for high level spells when your slaves don't have the the right paths. It may be in the guide but I thought this spelled it out pretty well and may be worth including in the Superman section:

MaxWilson said:
3. The short answer is that fatigue is split between master/slaves BEFORE adjusting for path levels, but slaves also get the communion bonus to their paths for these purposes. If a spell is cast which requires D4 and 400 fatigue, and there are 4 slaves in the communion all with no Death paths, each slave and the master will take 80 fatigue, adjusted for path levels and drain (plus fatigue, for the master). With the +2 communion bonus for 4 slaves, each slave is D2 casting a D4 spell, and since they are 2 levels short they take triple fatigue damage or 240 fatigue (which I think means 40 fatigue gets converted to 4 HP damage). If you are N levels short you take (N+1) times fatigue, if you are N levels over you take 1/(N+1) times fatigue.

[Baalz]

Thanks Don, added it to the original.

[zzcat]

MaxWilson said:
3. The short answer is that fatigue is split between master/slaves BEFORE adjusting for path levels, but slaves also get the communion bonus to their paths for these purposes. If a spell is cast which requires D4 and 400 fatigue, and there are 4 slaves in the communion all with no Death paths, each slave and the master will take 80 fatigue, adjusted for path levels and drain (plus fatigue, for the master). With the +2 communion bonus for 4 slaves, each slave is D2 casting a D4 spell, and since they are 2 levels short they take triple fatigue damage or 240 fatigue (which I think means 40 fatigue gets converted to 4 HP damage). If you are N levels short you take (N+1) times fatigue, if you are N levels over you take 1/(N+1) times fatigue.

Does it help if the master spends addtional gems? In this case, using 2 more D gems to reduce 160 fatigue for each slave seems very cost-effective.

[Fantomen]

I´m not sure, but I think that extra gems reduce fatigue only for the caster, not for the slaves.