Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)

[Jarkko]

When alone, the Black Sorcerers rout everytime they are changed to spider form. Apparently the game thinks 100% of starting healthpoints have been lost when the transformation happens. The Black Sorcere is also prone to rout when with an army when he transforms.

After Fantomen asked the possibility to thug with two Black Sorcerer I tried one with Slave Matrix and Lycanthrope Amulet. Originally I had intended to send along a third Black Sorcerer with a Master Matrix to do the buffing, but as I stumbled on indy astral mages, so I sent one S1 mage (with a Just Mans cross) along and scripted Communion Master, Personal Luck, Body Ethereal, Fire Closest (and hoping an arrow or something would the sorcerer before he goes ethereal to make him transform). Ethereal Lucky Berserking Black Sorcerers/Spiders worked damn fine against AI nations and indies, but it really isn't something worth to plan on (first of all you need a pretender who can craft the matrixes, and then you need to find an indy astral mage). But that is all I could really think of, so...

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by Jarkko

When alone, the Black Sorcerers rout everytime they are changed to spider form. Apparently the game thinks 100% of starting healthpoints have been lost when the transformation happens. The Black Sorcere is also prone to rout when with an army when he transforms.

Bodyguards helps with the routing problem....
but perhaps someone casting berserker or touch of madnes would be better.

PS I agree that they are better casters than thugs.. I just tried to answer the question as asked = ). Best does not mean good = ).

I've also been curious on the interactions between phoenix pyre, elixer's of life, hearts of life, and second forms.

Final bit of curiousity.. I wonder if a low defined damage.. like rigor mortis.. could be used to trigger the transformation without causing death or routing...

[chrispedersen]

So I did some more tests of black sorcerors... some very interesting results....


There are a variety of ways to make the black sorceror not route upon transformation.

1. Excess fatigue >100. With Prot 27 (e9, bracer, invul) and a fireshield, they spiders would not route due to fatigue.

2. Lycan amulet.

3. elixir of life. interestingly, this sets the fatigue to ZERO as well as prevents routing, upon transformation. And yes, you come in the second form, not the humanoid form.

4. medallion of vengeance. I never routed when I had this item either.

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Some interesting combinations.
1. Skull of fire, elixir of life.
Script phoenix, summon earth power, invuln, fire shield..

After the bracers, summon earth power, and earth bless you will have reinvig 9 ish. Plus, your base encumbrance is 2.

With a 2F sorceror (3f can ignore skull or phoenix)... after the elixir kicks in you will wipe out your accumulated fatigue.. and the spider will have no hesitation at all about casting burning hands repeatedly.

2. Another interesting, if expensive combination:
slave matrix. medallion of vengeance/berserker pelt/elixir

slave matrix - for a weird, linebacker communion.
berserker pelt- makes the slave charge forward.

So, you cast all your buffs... slave charges forward.. is killed.
however, at which point the elixir drains all the fatigue away.
And now you have a linebacker buffed spider....

3. With a shroud, bracer, lycan amulet - I kept finding the shroud after combat, so long as I won. 6/6. Might be luck of course.


Last interesting tidbit.
The assassins make GREAT mummies.

[Wrana]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

Last interesting tidbit.
The assassins make GREAT mummies.

Thanks for spider research. But this latter causes a question. Do you mean that mummy will retain assassin ability? Or what?

[chrispedersen]

No.

One of the reasons that I like mummies is that they have a disease cloud. The assassins wield bane blades, which cause decay.

When you are diseased, and hit with decay, it not only ages you, but causes hp loss. The assassins are dual wielding bane weapons.

Additionally, virtually all machaka wizards can cast fever - a spell usually overlooked.

Of course these spells are only suitable early game... but its pretty easy for machaka to get penetration