Super-Combatants

[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.

[Vicious Love]

archaeolept said:
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.

Nothing the right sort of commander can't get around. Precision -3 really isn't all that problematic at point-blank range, and it's nothing a single turn of casting and a smidgen of air or nature won't remedy.
Also, consider the above "army of devils" scenario. They'll hit something. The gifts may only have an area of 1 each, but anything in those areas is dead, dead, dead. Unless it's mirrored, lucky, or has a Tarrasqueload of HP.

I'm not saying the spell is particularly cost-effective against mid-level hordes, unless your caster has two or three extra earth levels. But I am saying that, given the proper circumstances, it can be a lot more reliable than more accurate Evocation spells.

[Valandil]

Fungus, Anemone, Whatever.
and yes, you can wish for an ettin mandragora, although I wouldn't except maybe in SP.

Uhh... point blank gifts would be good, but sort of pointless. Blade wind would work at that range too.