Super-Combatants

[Endoperez]

And people call the AI stupid!

Gifts from Heaven is great if it hits, but it doesn't hit very reliably... And it is hard to slow down an enemy with your own troops when the missing rocks hit them! A horde could do that, but the Mandragora Ettin had enough attacks to decimate anything he got his hands on. IIRC he is limited to targetting one square of the grid per action, so twice/round with quickness, against at most 2x6 and usually 2x3 units, though. Nether Darts is evil.

OT rambling:
I can symphatize with your loss. I play roguelikes. In them, you encounter numerous deaths, and the few characters that get far enough, and become powerful, will always die a death like this. My best ADOM character was sure winner, could melee through everything (Executor! Purifier! Emerald Dagger! Protector! etc), cast his way through everything (Preserver + Sword of Nonnak + certain herb => Acid Ball with enormous range!), and was untouchable (Moloch Armor (comparable to Monolith Armor) AND untouchable Dex of 25 EVEN when wearing it!) And, dare I say it, Ring of the Master Cat! Then he died to a darn Battle Bunny. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif[/img] They breed fast, and as the monsters are stronger after you kill many of them... I completed the game much later, once, but that character was nowhere as powerful...

[Valandil]

Battle Bunny??

ya... i know about gifts from heaven. I think it is useless, although it is 0 gems. Maybe with a legion of astral random dwarven smiths or maybe not.)

What is the bonus per extra level of astral on nether darts?
(another 0 gem spell)

[quantum_mechani]

Valandil said:

ya... i know about gifts from heaven. I think it is useless, although it is 0 gems. Maybe with a legion of astral random dwarven smiths or maybe not.)

No, it has it's uses, you just need good precision. Wind Guide, Eyes of Aiming, Eagle Eyes, and Aim are all good ways to boost precision. And of course simply having air magic/natural precision, or best of all, heroic precision.

[Vicious Love]

quantum_mechani said:

No, it has it's uses, you just need good precision. Wind Guide, Eyes of Aiming, Eagle Eyes, and Aim are all good ways to boost precision. And of course simply having air magic/natural precision, or best of all, heroic precision.

Know what's even better? A target-rich environment. Aww, yeah.

Seriously, against a medium-sized contingent of relatively powerful troops, these things can be much more effective than Nether Darts. And they've got the raw firepower to seriously damage a Sphinx, which isn't all that small a target. Pity they lack that feebleminding side-effect.

[boltcutter]

Hmm. I'm now considering a batch of dwarven-booted Arco mystics with cybereyes.

Splat! Splat! Splat!

[Ygorl]

boltcutter, it can be a beautiful thing to see. Enemy's got a huge pile of ultra-buff white centaurs? Not any more... What, an army of devils? Throw up a storm, and squish.
I haven't tried it, but I imagine it should even make short work of pack of Tartarians.

Actually, my entry into the SC tournament a while back was an air queen decked out to repeatedly drop gifts on her enemies. She was doing well, until an unlucky round-1 MR roll left her on the wrong team. So, it should even work on the really big guys.

[archaeolept]

the problem of course is making sure the gifts hit, and, even more difficult, making sure they hit something valuable. Given the low accuracy, and not really that great an area of affect, I've seen gifts from heaven do nothing of consequence more often than not. Other spells are more... dependable.