FAQ: The Dominions 3 Faq & IRC Channel Info

[Edi]

Death Weapons

The death weapons from a level 9 or 10 Death blessing give the blessed unit's melee attacks a secondary effect that causes 2 AN damage if the primary attack hits and also force the target to make a magic resistance check. If the magic resistance check is successful, the damage is negated. Strength is not added to this secondary damage.

The death bless attack also hits the target with another effect that forces the unit to make another magic resistance check. If this check fails, the unit suffers the battle affliction Diseased.

If the blessed unit's primary weapon normally has a secondary effect (such as poison), the death weapon secondary effect temporarily overwrites the normal secondary effect. The death bless does not affect missile weapons.

When a unit has an active Death bless, the primary attack counts as a magic weapon or non-magic weapon according to its base weapon type (e.g. a spear is still non-magical). The secondary attack counts as a magic weapon.



Flaming Weapons

The flaming weapons from a level 9 or 10 Fire blessing give the blessed unit's melee attacks a secondary effect that causes 6 AP fire damage if the primary attack hits. Strength is not added to this secondary damage.

If the blessed unit's primary weapon normally has a secondary effect (such as poison), the flaming weapon secondary effect temporarily overwrites the normal secondary effect. The fire bless does not affect missile weapons.

When a unit has an active Fire bless, the primary attack counts as a magic weapon or non-magic weapon according to its base weapon type (e.g. a spear is still non-magical). The secondary attack counts as a magic weapon.


Flaming Arrows

The Flaming Arrows spell causes the missiles of friendly missile units to burst into flame and cause extra armor piercing fire damage on any target they hit. The spell only affects certain types of ranged weapons and if the unit has a weapon covered by the spell, the spell replaces the unit's normal weapon with a different one.

For example, an archer with a Short Bow will have his weapon changed to Fire Short Bow for the duration of the combat when Flaming Arrows is cast. This change is not visible when viewing the unit during battle replay, however. Instead, the unit will have a special ability icon for flaming arrows.

The weapons affected by the Flaming Arrows spell gain a secondary damage effect that causes 8 AP fire damage if the missile hits. Strength is not added to this secondary damage.

The weapons affected by the Flaming Arrows spell are:

Arbalest
Boulder (2 different types, gains AoE 1 Small Area Fire)
Bow of War
Chakram
Composite Bow
Crossbow
Javelin
Long Bow
Short Bow
Shuriken
Sling
Small Bow

This means that many missile weapons gained from magic items, such as Banefire Crossbow, Just Man's Cross, Piercer etc. are not affected by the Flaming Arrows spell and do not gain any secondary effects.



Spells and Spell Effects

Spells are the magic spells that can be seen in the spell lists of the magic schools in the magic research screen.

Spell effects are the things that the spell work on the target, whether it is damage, beneficial effects such as Luck or Iron Skin or detrimental effects such as Decay or Disease.

In Dominions, there are many different spell effects that do similar but not exactly the same things. There are also many different spells that use the exact same spell effect as another spell.

Effects from spells that use different spell effects are (usually) cumulative. Effects from spells that use the same spell effect are NOT cumulative.

Example: the Nature spell Eagle Eyes and Air spell Wind Guide use the same spell effect. This means that if a Nature mage casts Eagle Eyes to improve his precision and his ally an Air Mage later casts Wind Guide to improve the precision of all friendly units, the Nature mage does not gain a second boost to his precision. Because the spells use the same effect, they are not cumulative.

Most spells that boost magic resistance all use the same spell effect, so they are not cumulative. It is a very frequently asked question if Iron Will and other MR boosting spells are cumulative. They are not.