Question on magic duel

[IKerensky]

Well against Ryleh he will also haveto fear suicide squad of Astral Assassins Mages, and there is a ritual with ghost too ?

[Teraswaerto]

There's a random factor in there too. A 2 astral mage wont always lose to a 3 astral mage, for example. Anyway, a stationary monolith inside a castle is pretty much safe.

[incognito]

So I take from this that (a) its astral on astral, no questions asked about anything else including magic resistance, (b) putting astral on your pretender should be an all or nothing (or at least carefully considered), and (c) suicide attacks against a tough opponent like a monolith make sense because with 480hps and a 32 protection, they are nigh invincible through other means.

Is this right?

[Wauthan]

A+ Incognito. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Saber Cherry]

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=74;t=000772#000000

[Norfleet]

I think a monolith is pretty safe. He ain't going anywhere, and if you have people knocking on the gates, I think you have far, far bigger issues than worrying about Magic Duel.

On the other hand, I'm also not sure what you're planning to *DO* with a mere 2 Astral stars, since Astral 2 doesn't exact cast all that many good spells.

[Taqwus]

A Star Child could assassinate the Monolith with a mind duel (already astral-1; starshine cap makes it 2, crystal coin if R'lyeh can get one makes it 3) so long as the castle's not already under siege. However, first it has to get there, and other than R'lyeh astral assassins are rare. IKerensky has it right on the danger from R'lyeh.
Other than that, mind duel is an unlikely threat. A Monolith is too big to Wind Ride, and the only remote magic-duel is from Strands of Arcane Power, which would require the caster's dominion to have overpowered your own. Again, if that happens, you've got bigger problems.
(Ok. An Elludian Moon Mage with a black heart could do it, but the Hidden Kingdom of Elludia is a rare sight, *and* for it to be found by a blood-happy nation isn't too likely.)

[Norfleet]

Even with Starchild assassins, trying to mind duel your Monolith will be no easy task: Odds are your capitol will be clogged with researchers, and more likely than not, the Star Child will wind up attempting to mind duel somebody who isn't even an astral mage! This will more likely than not give it away that he's even trying this....

And in order for him to even begin to attempt this, he'd have to have seen your monolith at least once in the first place to even realize you HAVE this weakness. This would necessitate a battle, at your capitol, that your monolith participates in. Since the monolith will always be researching or casting a ritual inside of his castle, this should never happen unless people are storming your castle!

[incognito]

Does this solely rely on one's astral power relative to the opponent? I build a pretender (monolith) with 2 astral and am now afraid that some of the races with astral ability will be able to take him out with sheer numbers of cheap astral mages (lvls 1-3). Does magic resistance, hit points, pretender status, or anything else factor in? I should win on any of those counts quite handily...

[Wauthan]

Sorry. You better empower that Pretender quickly. Astral magic is a liability on important units.

[General Tacticus]

On the other hand, to mind duel your pretender, they would have to be storming your capital. Which mean you either made a big strategic mistake, or you are losing anyway.

So, don't leave your capital undefended, and make sure you're not losing, and you'll be all right http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif