MA: Al-Murrah: Desert Dwellers

[Sandman]

Djinn [Falchion, Composite Bow/Turban, Buckler] (Sacred, Mounted, Need Not Eat, Magic Being, Flying, Ethereal, Fire Immune, Cold Immune, Glamour, Summoned)

Efreet [Scimitar x2, Throw Flames] (Sacred, Heat, Need Not Eat, Magic Being, Ethereal, Fire Immune, Fire Shield, Ambidexterous 3, Glamour, Summoned)

Marid [Claw, Claw, Bite] (Sacred, Need Not Eat, Magic Being, Ethereal, Amphibious, Fire Immune, Cold Immune, Glamour, Summoned)

+

Djinn: Size: 3, HP: 26, Str: 16, Prot: 10, Att: 14, Def: 14, Prec: 13, Mor: 30, MR: 16, Enc: 1, Mv: 3/20

Efreet: Size: 2, HP: 20, Prot: 10, Str: 14, Att: 15, Def: 14, Prec: 12, Mor: 30, MR: 16, Enc: 1, Mv: 2/16

Marid: Size: 4, HP: 55, Str: 24, Prot: 15, Att: 12, Def: 12, Prec: 10, Mor: 30, MR: 16, Enc: 1, Mv: 2/16

=

Unstoppable. Completely.

[DrPraetorious]

Not so - well, maybe the Marid. Longbows + flaming arrows could make short work of them (depending on how much they cost individually.) Also, put an eye of the void on a ether lord and have him lead his men into battle. It depends greatly on how much they cost and on how high they are in the research tree. If they come out at conjuration 9 - your opponent had better be able to come up with a level 9 combat spell to deal with them or he doesn't deserve to win.

Anyway, I agree that writeup is a bit extreme - it's a rought draft. For starters I'd like to reduce their Prot and remove the cold immunity. Would that help?

Also, no "awake" Marid, only troops - the folkloric basis for a distinction between Marid and Efreet is a bit lost on me, and the whole "water jinn" thing makes of Dungeons and Dragons.

I'm going to send a draft with combat stats soon, had to do some stuff for my folks yesterday and didn't get to finish.

[Endoperez]

Depends from many things. Item slots being most notqble. If they CAN'T wear body armor, their prot is way too low. They are missing boots already, losing the body would make them like the nagas of DomII, or Scorpion King without Earth.

Etherealness and Glamour is a nasty combination, though. Just Glamour would probably be enough, perhaps combined with a 1-hp ethereal "cloud of sand/dust/mist" ghost form like that of Oni of EA Oni Kings.

[Starshine_Monarch]

Yeah, I had a feeling the ethereal/glamour combo was a bit much...I'm okay with losing the etheral and Cold resistance bit. You can reduce the Prot as well if you want. I had planned to get them at Conj 5, Perhaps 6 for the Marid, using A3/F3/W3 and S3 as paths. I planned to ritual summon 1 at a time as units rather than commanders for 20 gems apiece. How would I change their stats to make them cost efficient, or do I need to change the spell levels/path levels/gem cost to balance it out?

[DrPraetorious]

I don't think ethereal/glamour is that bad, as long as they have a base prot of 0. At that rate, they'd be shadow vestels with glamour - which would make them great units, but hardly unstoppable. As beings made of smokeless fire they really should have both, I think.

Again, I dislike water jinn, I'd think this'd be a good progression:
(Conj 4) Jinn - Fire / Astral
(Conj 5) Efreet - Fire / Death
(Conj 6) Annointed of Catharsis - Fire / Astral, but gets FASN.
(Conj 7) Marid (a giant Efreet) - Fire / Death
(Conj 8) Annointed of Anthrax - Fire / Death, but gets FASD.

The Conj 6 and Conj 8 units would be quite scary on thugability, but that's okay.

[Endoperez]

DrPraetorius - Marid is aspesifically a Water-based djinn. While Fire/Death summon might fit the nation's general theme better, it shouldn't be called Marid!

[DrPraetorious]

Only in dungeons and dragons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Marid#Disputed

Marid is an arabic word generally translated as "Devil", sometimes "Giant", "Ogre", etc. Westerners decided that it must be somehow related to the western word Marine, and thus to water - but this isn't true, it's cognate to other Semitic words meaning "rebellious".

In 1,001 arabian nights, Marids are simpler bigger and more powerful Efreet.

Read this too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie

Now, I know that we're not constrained to use "authentic" folklore, and that we can use four-element jinn if we want to go to western sources, just like we don't have to use "authentic" ninja or alchemists or anything else.

However, in this case, I think it'd be much better to use the more folklorically accurate Jinn from the Qu'ran - who are all made out of smokeless fire.

[Endoperez]

DrPraetorious said:
Only in dungeons and dragons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Marid#Disputed

Marid is an arabic word generally translated as "Devil", sometimes "Giant", "Ogre", etc. Westerners decided that it must be somehow related to the western word Marine, and thus to water - but this isn't true, it's cognate to other Semitic words meaning "rebellious".

In 1,001 arabian nights, Marids are simpler bigger and more powerful Efreet.

Read this too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie

Now, I know that we're not constrained to use "authentic" folklore, and that we can use four-element jinn if we want to go to western sources, just like we don't have to use "authentic" ninja or alchemists or anything else.

However, in this case, I think it'd be much better to use the more folklorically accurate Jinn from the Qu'ran - who are all made out of smokeless fire.

I stand corrected. I didn't think of D&D, spesifically, but fantasy literature and some other games. Thanks for the correction.

[Starshine_Monarch]

In order to make this easier on me, do you mind if I just copy the Djinn and Efreet from the Black Tome, Doc?

[DrPraetorious]

Not at all. I'm going to e-mail you something later today - sorry for the delay, it was a weird week.