The Communion Confessional

[Calistas]

Thanks for the clarification!

[Boron]

Huzurdaddi said:
One thing I'm not a huge fan of is that there really are not many spells past level 5 that help this strategy. The level 7 evocation spell Ice Strike helps a little but it functionally very similar to falling frost. I wish that there were more spells that one could research to enhance this strategy ( Soul Slay/Ensalve mind is one but it really not what I am looking for which would be more in the area effect Category ) without micromanaging gems ( shimmering fields works pretty well if you wish to micromanage ).

Yeah the theurgs seem to like to cast enslave mind after script runs out .

I tested a bit now communion after i managed to kill my 23 communion slaves in a 20 turn battle even with 3 relief casters in my current first pythium mp game .

if you use only theurgs 16 communion slaves are always enough .

This leads to 2 different strategies :

Strategy 1 :

Go with 18-20 communion slaves . This way 2-4 can die and you still get +4 levels from 16 slaves .
You can then even cast Thunderstrike and get only minimum fatigue .
Key Problem : Minimum Fatigue / communion slave seems to be 2 / spell .
After 100 fatigue the slave seems to get -5 fatigue cause of unconsciousness / turn too ( My testing showed not exactly the exepted results when the master used divine spells ) .

So if you cast 10 spells / round ( = 5 quickened masters ) this means 20 fatigue / turn for your slaves .
So after 12 combat rounds your slaves should be dead .

Summon Ep gives -4 fatigue , Earth 10 bless -5 / turn .
In this case with 10 spells / round your slaves would get 11 fatigue / turn until > 100 fatigue .
They reach this at turn 10 . Then they get 6 fatigue / turn . So 15 more turns , then they should have exactly 200 fatigue .

So you should always have relief casters .
The rule is easy : 1 relief caster per 5 communion masters .
As long as he does this everything is fine .

Strategy 2 :

Use only 4-5 communion slaves for +2 levels .
This way the slaves will die very quickly but fatigue stops at 200 points and then every additional spell = -1 hp for the slave .
So you have 10 extra spells before the slave dies finally . Cute .

With 4 slaves without modifications ( heat / cold , Magic / drain ) each thunderbolt casting gives 28 fatigue .
So casting 6 thunderstrikes results in about 160 fatigue . If the Theurg(s) continue then casting lower fatigue spells like soul slay chances are good that the theurgs survive the battle quite some time longer .
If you have extra reinvigoration from bless / EP even better .

Normally though after each not very short battle you have to replace your 4-5 communion slaves .


My conclusions atm are :
- For all other nations communion is not really worth it unless you want +1/2 levels with 1 caster for a special battlefield enchantment or similiar .
- Pythium needs it probably in midgame , earlygame quickness/mindburn or quickness/false horror should be enough .
- The theurg with communion enchanted is probably one of the most potent battlemages and probably the most cost effective national mage .

[Huzurdaddi]

Summon Ep gives -4 fatigue , Earth 10 bless -5 / turn .

*if* this actually works on communion slaves. I don't actually know for sure if this helps their fatigue. It *should* but I was unable to verify.

The rule is easy : 1 relief caster per 5 communion masters .

Good luck getting him to cast releif. He will be drunk with the power of communion. After casting releif 5 times ( as scripted ) he will cast charm, and other crazy spells as your communicants die. It's possible that the computer may sometimes cast releif but not for me.

- The theurg with communion enchanted is probably one of the most potent battlemages and probably the most cost effective national mage .

Yep probably. The problem like I said is that there is *no* better spell than falling frost/thunderstike/ice strike. Those are the pinacle of evocation power without gems. And of those falling frost is the best of the bunch for most suitations.

There are a couple of other evocation spells that do not require gems, however they are not from the astral/water/air schools ( nether darts comes to mind ).

[Zen]

If you are using the spellmod, you might want to look at using just a normal, non communioned Nature caster (Say a Druid with a Nature Stick) and script him to cast Relief and set him in the very back (so his range is piss poor). He will have a tendancy to cast Relief even after the first 5 scripts.

[Tuna]

Also, I think that adding clockwork horrors to your army increases the chance of your mages casting relief.

Dunno, but i think it might be like that...