MA Test Game - Retinues

[LDiCesare]

Shuten-doji seem even less interesting to recruit wigth no retinue.

[DrPraetorious]

Shuten-doji have a poorly-understood exhaustion field which would knock their retinues unconscious. Then the retinue would be murdered and the shuten-doji would flee due to auto-rout.

Shuten-doji are intended to be thuggable - and can't really be adapted to serve as useful commanders.

[Stagger Lee]

Judging by the unit description, the Shuten-doji should be a capable commander:

Shuten-doji

I don't understand the exhaustion field myself, but would a retinue of blood slaves contribute to auto-rout, or would they just fall down and allow him to feed off of them? I think that might be a thematic and grisly way to handle this guy.

If he kills friendly units with his aura, or music, or whatever the field is, his life drain ought to absorb friendly life force, no?

The other problem might be abuse if empowered in blood, but how big a retinue is required for such abuse?

[DrPraetorious]

You know... I have no idea if summoned blood slave *units* can be used to fuel blood magic. Possibly they can.

In any case, no, his life drain does not draw life from friendly units, it's a weapon. His flute is some kind of aura or field, and may even itself be a "spell" - so if I give him a retinue, he may lose it (I don't think so.)

One option would be to give him a retinue of winged monsters of some kind that appear on the edges of the battlefield, thus out of the range of his flute. Possibly even these could be a neutral summon. I'm not sure if either of these alternatives would make the shuten-doji particularly better - or even how strong he is as a thug. I've been told his exhaustion field is fairly powerful, actually.

Originally Posted by Stagger Lee

Judging by the unit description, the Shuten-doji should be a capable commander:

Shuten-doji

I don't understand the exhaustion field myself, but would a retinue of blood slaves contribute to auto-rout, or would they just fall down and allow him to feed off of them? I think that might be a thematic and grisly way to handle this guy.

If he kills friendly units with his aura, or music, or whatever the field is, his life drain ought to absorb friendly life force, no?

The other problem might be abuse if empowered in blood, but how big a retinue is required for such abuse?

[Wrana]

Good idea, I think. I'll gladly take part in testing it, preferably as Shinuyama or Pythium.
Further thoughts may be forthcoming. As for Shuten-doji, theoretically, he can work with a small retinue of some undead who should be immune to his flute effect (but this I have not tested)...