pretenders cant preach?

Gandalf Parker · #1 December 31st, 2003, 06:04 PM

From another conversation thread on this board.... "Isnt it strange that pretenders cant build temples?"

I always thought it was odd they couldnt preach themselves to the public. Hmmm are they even sacred? blessable? Maybe there should be Versions that can.

I guess it would require a priest level. but that wouldnt make sense unless a pretender was like a level 10 priest. Maybe make it a setup thing like magic choices. Or they should have priest levels equal to the dominion level you choose when setting up the pretender?

Gandalf Parker · #2 December 31st, 2003, 06:05 PM

of course if anyone wants to play with this they CAN create a pretender that has priest levels. It can be done now by copying one of the .map files and editing it to give yourself a hand-built god. Soon it will be possible by MOD.

SurvivalistMerc · #3 December 31st, 2003, 06:54 PM

I have always regarded their own natural dominion-spreading effect as superior to preaching.

And I'm not sure you would want to let nonmagical pretenders like a magic-zero manticore with high dominion smite things.

The other thing that seemed strange to me is that blessable units which are in the same group as the pretender don't get blessed unless there is a priest around to bless them. In this unique circumstance, I think units should start out blessed. But that's just my opinion.

Treebeard · #4 December 31st, 2003, 08:10 PM

Hmmm sacred pretenders would be very interesting to see, even if balance would have to be redone from scratch. I mean, think of a Earth 9/Nature 9 sacred Big Momma - extra reinvigoration, more protection (both from earth and berserk) and a 20% level regeneration!

Taqwus · #5 December 31st, 2003, 10:11 PM

A blessed Death-9 Prince of Death would have a rather high fear factor. *shudder*

Endoperez · #6 December 31st, 2003, 10:36 PM

Pretenderes PRETEND, so how are they supposed to believe they are the god? I'm not counting in Wyrm or Ettin, or Hydra, or other multi-headed things... But sacred units should become blessed when they fight with their god, and the death of the army's god should affect it too.

SurvivalistMerc · #7 December 31st, 2003, 11:05 PM

Endoperez,

That is a wonderful idea...to have the death of the pretender affect the nation.

Was what you had in mind something like not being able to have bless effects until they pray him/her/it back into existence?

Endoperez · #8 December 31st, 2003, 11:22 PM

No bless effect or lessened bless effect. Maybe while he is close to being back here again the bless effect returns... Less effect from scales? Dominion decreasing? No morale boos from friendly dominion? Priest spells being weaker, maybe needing a better priest than before (Serm. of cour. 4, Fanat. 5 etc.).
I haven't thought it out really, mainly because I was thinking things that could happen *in the battle he died in*.

Thanks to you for pointing this 'my good idea' to me, too!

PhilD · #9 January 3rd, 2004, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Treebeard:
Hmmm sacred pretenders would be very interesting to see, even if balance would have to be redone from scratch. I mean, think of a Earth 9/Nature 9 sacred Big Momma - extra reinvigoration, more protection (both from earth and berserk) and a 20% level regeneration!

Wouldn't Shroud of the Battle Saint work for this?
(Construction 4, Astral 1, supposed to give Prot5 and Blessed)

Psitticine · #10 January 3rd, 2004, 05:46 PM

I had the thought Last night that, really, given their auto-Dominion spreading, maybe Pretenders can be fairly classified as ALWAYS preaching and thus don't have a seperate command becaues of that?

If that's the case, you'd think Prophets couldn't preach either, since they also automatically spread Dominion.

Another thought I had is that maybe Pretenders are simply too alien, due to their high stature, to be effective preachers. Maybe the logic is that they can't communicate with the masses any more effectively than they do by simply existing and being, well, godlike.

You'd think a Pretender could raise a temple to his/her/itself though. That's one thing that, honestly, I can't make much sense out of, unless it is purely a play-balancing decision that I don't understand.

I think that, in the end, maybe the real reason is that a Pretender would have to have a very high Priest level (maybe one equal to its Dominion Strength?) for it to make sense, and that would give it access to Smite and other abilities that would potentially unbalance things. And, with the system being set up the way it is, that means the Pretender not only can't cast priest spells, but he/she/it can't do anything else priestly as well.

I'd like to see an exception for being able to build temples shoehorned in there, and I can't see how it'd be unbalancing, but I wouldn't know what to do about the logical flaw behind the fact the fonts of divine power can't harness that power themselves into priestly spells.

Hmm, the Parrot rambles this day . . .