A Question Banefire

[Theonlystd]

What happens to affected units after battle. Do all units effected die after combat? Or just units with short life spans, or some kind of MR test? I'm having a heck of a time confirming just how effective it is..

[sum1lost]

I've had demons survive it, so I'm guessing it has something to do with lifespan.

I think that there might be a number of turns after the battle is over where the dudes just sit around and chill.

[MaxWilson]

That's generally true of all persistent effects, including Decay and poison. Seems to be 5-10 rounds or so. You'll note that if a unit flees off the edge of the map while it's poisoned several green numbers pop up at once; if it's Decaying from banefire or something it will usually disappear in a puff of blood but that's the same thing.

(Note, incidentally, that mercs always die if they rout.)

-Max

[Xietor]

I find that banefire is fairly effective against demons myself.

In fact banefire and shadow blast seem to destroy demons much better than cleansing water that is actually designed to kill demons. go figure.

[sum1lost]

banefire and shadowblast are also incredibly powerful evocations against just about anything. Cleansing water is really only effective against undead and imps.

[Xietor]

Well, that is my point. Since cleansing water is only effective against certain units, and it is evoc 6, it logically should have no peer in destroying demons.

How many demons have you seen survive banefire? Like none.

[Shovah32]

Nothing is meant to survive banefire, thats the point. Cleansing water is far easier to cast and water has never been a particularly strong evocation school anyway.

[Theonlystd]

the damage the banefire spell does it great and usually kills outright if it hits something.

But does the Decay or whatever effect on units not actually directly hit by the banefire or by banefire Archers.. Always end in death?

[Saulot]

I've seen some units survive decay. Just not mortals or otherwise common units.

[Xietor]

"But does the Decay or whatever effect on units not actually directly hit by the banefire or by banefire Archers.. Always end in death?"

Decay has very little effect on demons, since they have extremely long lifespans. It does age them, however. I guess if they had 2 or 3 battles where they got hit with decay, they may suffer some negative effects.

But decay is a pretty inefficient way to deal with demons.

The damage from banefire(the spell) is typically so great that units do not survive it. I have seen horrors die to it in 1 round.

[Theonlystd]

Saulot said:
I've seen some units survive decay. Just not mortals or otherwise common units.




Ok thanks pretty much what i assumed ..

[Jazzepi]

Theonlystd said:

Saulot said:
I've seen some units survive decay. Just not mortals or otherwise common units.




Ok thanks pretty much what i assumed ..



I had an undead SC with like 5,000 years of life until he reached old age. He got hit by many banefire crossbows and they did nothing to him.

Jazzepi

[Taqwus]

Decay is a fixed +5 years/battle turn, AFAICT, regardless of unit type or max age. Fairly different from D2, where the only way to survive decay once affected was having lots of regen, IIRC.

[MaxWilson]

Yes, no matter how many Decay effects you get hit with during the course of a battle you'll only age something like 200 years maximum. Decay basically does nothing to undead, demons, Iron Dragons, etc.

-Max

[thejeff]

Decay is also not likely to kill anything with a lot of hit points. They may come out of the battle old, diseased and crippled, but alive. In fact, does decay kill at all? You're likely to be diseased, which will kill you eventually, or afflicted, which may weaken you in the fight, but age doesn't actually do damage or kill outright.

In a recent SP game I had a lot of elephants get hit by decay. Annoying since they didn't die, it was hard to get them killed off and they were a lot less useful with 4-5 afflictions, but still expensive.

[sum1lost]

Aging causes units to age 5 years per round, so the max is around 350 years (round limit is just over 70, I think). Apart from diseasing, aging also reduces hitpoints, but by percentages. It outright kills from this after a certain point, but most units won't show this hitpoint loss, as disease gets them first in most games (that is, the hitpoint loss really only comes into play with decay)