Effective Communion?

[Folket]

How do I create an effective communion?

[Zen]

Depends on what you consider effective.

On the battlefield everything that has "Communion Master" either spell or item will use all availiable communion slaves.

Communion Slaves are easy to kill because they take the fatigue of the Master. When units get over 200 fatigue they start to take damage and afflictions.

My basic formula is 1 per 4. I will use less on my first few communions (if I am controlling a situation and provinces that spread my resources, I calculate the exact fatigue needed along with buffs) if I need.

I usually don't carry more than 8 Comslaves per army unless I am using desperate measures. Anything above a 1 to 4 ratio has a good chance of killing slaves if you have 5+ in research or are not ready with reinvigoration (Why Summon Earthpower is the ubar com spell).

Remember in communions you get +1 Path to your all your Master's Magic Paths (not priestly) for 2, 4, 8, 16 commslaves with them.

[Folket]

Do you only use communions with Pythium? I tryed to have everyone cast communion slave and communion master to empower eachother but one one of them cast spells.

And I'm pretty sure that you get + to priestly paths as well. My communion casted smite on my enemies. And he was only a Theurg with level 3 holy.

[shovah]

pythium is just the best at it (50 gold for an auto slave+amazing buffs from the master) any-one with cheap astral can be good at it but...

[Folket]

Still, noone has commented if it is effective on the battlefield. I have not manage to make it effective.

[Cainehill]

So try having a plan for how to use it. Think of all those battlefield spells that normally, the only way you could cast it is with your pretender (or unique summons) because it requires 5, 6, 7 levels in a path : Armies of Gold / Lead, Bone Grinding, Mists of Deceptions, Soul Drain, Master Enslave, Undead Mastery, etc. (Note that some of these are easier to cast with CB 5.2, other spells are now harder.)

Going from being unable to cast a powerful spell to being able to cast it is a pretty effective use of Communion. Likewise, being able to cast more powerful offensive magics, at a lower fatigue cost - especially handy with spells whose damage and AoE both go up with magic power.

[Tom_Scudder]

I think casting Bone Grinding using wimpy communion slaves is contraindicated. (Golems and Gygjas, maybe).

[PDF]

Tom_Scudder said:
I think casting Bone Grinding using wimpy communion slaves is contraindicated. (Golems and Gygjas, maybe).



For that you can use undead mages with slave matrixes http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Oversway]

Remember that another effect of the high spell levesl from communion is you can get a higher penetration bonus on your spells - so spells that can be resisted by MR (soul slay, paralyze, etc.) can be more effective. Also, since you have a bigger fatigue pool, you can cast the spell multiple times.

[Vicious Love]

PDF said:

Tom_Scudder said:
I think casting Bone Grinding using wimpy communion slaves is contraindicated. (Golems and Gygjas, maybe).



For that you can use undead mages with slave matrixes http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif



Bone Grinding affects undead, only ethereal troops are resistant. Unless Fog Warriors confers a similar effect, Bone Grinding is one of the few spells that simply should not be cast with communicants. Unless said communicants are uber-tough hybrid communicant/thugs, which get the added perk of being easily buffed through the communion.

[Cainehill]

Which is why you cast Body Ethereal first, making your communicants ethereal - since we're talking the ethereal communicant spell, that's trivial.

[thejeff]

Communion Master, Body Ethereal, Bone Grinding?

If it doesn't affect ethereal troops...

And of course, moments before I push enter on this, Cainehill does the same

[Graeme Dice]

thejeff said:
Communion Master, Body Ethereal, Bone Grinding?



Body ethereal is a targeted effect, and doesn't affect communion slaves unless it is directly cast on them in my experience.

[Oversway]

Yeah body etheral won't do it. Maybe iron will or magic resistance and hope the odds work for you?

Probably communion and bone grinding is a less feasible pairing than most of the other examples given.

[Cainehill]

Okay - station an S1 mage with each communicant to cast body ethereal twice. Or use S1 mages who cast BE, then the communicant slave spell.