Eater of the Dead

[quantum_mechani]

Nerfix said:
Thou shal not mock Hand of Dust for I have had a kitted ninja be killed by the Hand of Dust of an Attendant of the Dead.

Heh, yeah, assassinations are funny things... I have seen such things as Fists of Iron and Sleep Touch come through in on rare occations too.

Still, such things are pretty rare (particularly for a specific spell) and are unlikely to have the same impact on a game as being able to spend astrals on eater of the dead vs. if you had no other astral summons.

[Nerfix]

I've actually used Fists of Iron as a combat spell back in Dom I. It was a riot with Earth 9 Cyclops casting it.

[NTJedi]

quantum_mechani said:
Still, such things are pretty rare (particularly for a specific spell) and are unlikely to have the same impact on a game as being able to spend astrals on eater of the dead vs. if you had no other astral summons.

Ether Gate is 90 gems, but it's easier to cast (conjuration_6 instead of conjuration_8) and you recieve some very powerful magic units and a powerful commander with magic paths.
I will gladly send one of my Ether Gate armies(90_gems) against two of your eater of the deads(100_gems).

[quantum_mechani]

NTJedi said:

Ether Gate is 90 gems, but it's easier to cast (conjuration_6 instead of conjuration_8) and you recieve some very powerful magic units and a powerful commander with magic paths.
I will gladly send one of my Ether Gate armies(90_gems) against two of your eater of the deads(100_gems).

That's a good point, it's a pretty unlikely occurance you would have the gems for eater of the dead and not ether gate. So that narrows it's margin of usefulness even further. I still rank the other spells as more useless, but not by a lot...

Oh, and yes, raven's feast at 5 gems is another excellent canidate.

[NTJedi]

Ravens feast should be moved as a level_1 spell where any level_2 air mage could cast with a cost of 3 air gems. Upon first reading ravens feast it sounds like a very useful spell.

Is it safe to say that "eater of the dead" is the worst summoning spell? Based on it's gem cost(50_astral), the difficulty casting the spell(4D/4S plus ConJ_8) and the creature which appears I would title "eater of the dead" as the worst summoning spell.

[KissBlade]

NTJedi said:
Ravens feast should be moved as a level_1 spell where any level_2 air mage could cast with a cost of 3 air gems. Upon first reading ravens feast it sounds like a very useful spell.

Is it safe to say that "eater of the dead" is the worst summoning spell? Based on it's gem cost(50_astral), the difficulty casting the spell(4D/4S plus ConJ_8) and the creature which appears I would title "eater of the dead" as the worst summoning spell.

Personally I don't even find Aquatic summons like Kraken worth the mage time ... that and I know there's some more crappy summons running around. Onis come to mind. =)

[Forrest]

This is a missed opportunity. Think of it.

A summons that becomes almost unstoppable then goes indy and has say a 60% chance to choose to attack your provinces. Leaving lifeless warped provinces in it's wake. Stopping it becomes your top priority but it is so useful that you summon it anyway.

A pain to program but it would be neat.

[Forrest]

It would have to become more powerful when it goes indy. Each province it eats should jack it's effect up. Till it starts destroying the provinces next to it. Gaining defences and attacks as it goes. Eventualy becoming a Indy pretender thug that has a chance to wipe out all life and unlife.

A new victory where the indy becomes God having laid waste to all others.

But a low level summons to start. Fraught with risk.

Can you see a multiplayer game with half a dozen of these eating the players in a unstoppable horror that could have been predicted and stopped if only the few had listened to reason.

I have read too much Lovecraft.

quantum_mechani said:Still, such things are pretty rare (particularly for a specific spell) and are unlikely to have the same impact on a game as being able to spend astrals on eater of the dead vs. if you had no other astral summons.

I don't think even that counts for the Eater. Before i'd summon an Eater for 50 gems i'd turn them into 25 death gems and get two Banelords or 50 longdead horsemen or heck, 2.5 behemoths. If you can summon the Eater, you can summon all of those as well.
I think it's a pretty good hint that a summon is really, terribly weak if you can alchemize the gems it needs and get something much better for them.
Ritual and non-ritual spells are hard to compare, but i say the eater of the dead is hands down the worst summon in the game and very likely the worst ritual.

That being said, the stealth idea is pretty good imo. Make the eater stronger at independent size (give it some more HP, and better regeneration, poison cloud etc. basically a natural thug if not SC) make it stealthy (and still grow) and reduce costs to 15 or maybe even ten. So, compared to ghost riders it has the disadvantage that you can't artillery cast it, and it needs to grow a lot before it has comparable strenght, but the advantage is that it stays in a province and needs to be killed to regain control. (and you could use it in an army too. Theoretically) Imo that'd be a lot more interesting than just turning it into a cost efficient standard summon. It'd be fun to have some kind of near-unstoppable rampaging monster you first feed up to decent size, then let it sneak into the midsts of enemy territory and let it loose.

[Ighalli]

I definately like the idea of adding stealth and making it spawn additional eaters when it becomes unfettered. As far as I'm concerned, the nastier the thing is, the better! Hopefully CB will make the eater properly fearsome.