Battle: coloured lines under unit icon

[PhilD]

Originally posted by PDF:
Wait wait wait ! You mean that every slave takes fatigue as if he was himself casting the spell ?

I'm pretty sure that's what I saw explained somewhere. The slaves will take fatigue based on their own level (not augmented if they don't have the required level, fortunately).

I understood that the fatigue was calculated for the casting mage (incl "extra levels" for communion), then divided..
In your case the total fatigue is 89*8+30 = 742, not much less than the base 800, and more than if the mage alone cast it (he will get 400). In this case he wouldn't be able to cast it, but the reasoning still stands for less fatiguing spells...

Basically, the Communion lets you cast more powerful spells, AND spread the fatigue around for high-fatigue spells. The more slaves, the better, especially if your slaves have some reinvigoration (which is why having a Master cast some reinvigoration is a good idea, or should be).

Keep in mind, though, that I have very little experience playing with communions. You're the one playing Pythium in a MP game...

[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by PhilD:
* spending a gem to "power" the spell will let you cast it as if you were 1 level higher - both for reaching the required level, and to take less fatigue. I think it's limited to 1 gem for each spell.

One gem per skill level actually. An astral 8 mage can cast master enslave with no communicants by spending enough extra astral pearls.

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Only the first gem (above the required gem cost if any) increases power of the spell. The others only reduce fatigue.

As an example, suppose an Anathemant Dragon (Fire-3) wishes to cast Heat from Hell (Ench 6 Fire 4, fatigue 200-, magic gems required 2). He must spend at least 3 gems to cast it at all (two for the required gem cost, and one more because he is not normally powerful enough to cast it). If he spends only 3 gems, he pays the full 200 fatigue plus his encumbrance, passing out and probably taking damage.

If he spends 4 gems, the spell takes effect at only 4 levels of power, but he now pays only 100 encumbrance because his level *for fatigue purposes only* is 5. Spending 5 gems will reduce his fatigue to 67. He cannot spend 6 gems - the maximum is 2 (required gem cost) + 3 (the Anathemant's power in fire).

Now suppose Asmodeus the Moloch, with Fire 8, wants to cast the same spell. He must spend a minimum of 2 gems, which will give him a fatigue of 40 (200 / 1 + 4 extra levels). One extra gem (three total) would raise the spell's effective power to level 9 and reduce his fatigue to 33 (200 / 1+5), two extra gems would still be power level 9 but fatigue would decrease to 28, etc. He could spend up to 8 extra gems (for a total of 10), which would raise his power level to 9 but his fatigue reduction level to 16, making his fatigue 200/(1+12) or about 15 (plus encumbrance).

If an Astral 9 Monolith casts Master Enslave (Astral 8, 800- fatigue, 8 gems required), spending the maximum possible total gems of 17, it would cast the spell at effective power level 10 (fatigue reduction level 18) and pay a fatigue cost of 800/(1+10)=73. Of course, after you cast Master Enslave it's not very likely that you will need to do much else.

[Psitticine]

Morale loss isn't figured on a per-unit basis. Instead, each unit has either broken or it hasn't. When enough units in a squad have broken, the squads routs.

It would be interesting to have a measure of how close a unit's squad is to retreat, but it has been stated that the morale code is a bit messy, so I doubt there will be any extensions added on to it any time soon.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Psitticine:
It would be interesting to have a measure of how close a unit's squad is to retreat

Indeed. I'd like to be able to see just how well a unit's Cause Fear effects are working in combat. As it presently is, I have no way of knowing whether the fear effects are making a significant contribution to routs.

Speaking of fear, is there an improved (that is, harder to make) morale roll for Cause Fear +5 than for +0, or is the difference just in area of effect?

TIA.

[Psitticine]

There was a thread with info from JK on the effects of Fear. The level increases the area of effect but I believe it also increases the effectiveness within that area. I'm not 100% sure on that Last but am about the first.