The complete !?!? FAQ

[Twan]

SITES AND SITES SEARCHING :
---------------------------

- Using "Acashic Record" to Find Gem Sites?

There's always an indication. just right click on the province and you will see colored numbers in the middle up according on how you searched, each color represents a path of magic plus holy magic. Which paths have been searched shows up on the overview (F1) screen as well.


- Searching home provinces for gem sites???

There are supposed to be no additional magic sites in home provinces. However, I once found one using a monthly site-searching ritual. This was on a random map, and it may be that the random map generator introduces the possibility. If it does, its a bug.


- Arena? What is the Arena?

The Arena is a site that gives you gold.
And the Arena Death Match is a fight to the death between two commanders, wherein the victor gets a magic artefact.


- Academy of War -- Enter for Training ?!?!

Academy of War gives 4 exp per turn to commander and troops.

Other ways to gain xp (for non mindless units) :
1 exp per turn
+1 exp for participating in a battle
+3 exp for winning a battle
+1 exp per unit hit in melee combat
+100 exp for winning the death match
+8 exp for visiting the Ancient Master
+3 exp for carrying a Champion Skull


- The Jevellan Wall !??!???

It's a free fort. If you locate the Jervellen Wall while you are in the process of building a fortress in a province (as well as if you have a fortress already constructed), it won't have any effect.


-The Fire Prison? Enchantment Bonus 20 ??? Does this mean that global enchantments cast from this province only cost 20% fewer gems?

If they are in the Enchament tree, yeah. And only the base cost is affected not the gems you add to strenghten the enchantment. ...and if the bug from Dom2 is still present, EXTRA gems for globals don't count until you exceed the original (undiscounted) base cost, which would make this kinda useless for globals.


-Steel Ovens? Construction Bonus? How does this contruction bonus work? Does it mean buildings cost 20% less to build in this province?

No, it means all your construction spells and all the items you forge cost 20% less gems.


Non-!?!? questions...


Well of Pestilence What does the 'Increases Death' attribute of this magic site do? Is it talking about Death in terms of scales or the Path of Magic? Or both?

Scale, in that province.



UNIT POWERS & SPELL EFFECTS
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-My giants have Chill (Chill 15) but I cannot find anywhere in the manual that explains it. Is it in there anywhere?

Try page 57 . The chill causes fatigue and the number (15 in this case) is how far it extends.


-Hand of Death ???? Can one still wield a one-handed weapon and successfully use "Hand of Death?"

Actually what weapons you wield don't matter with Hand of Death, or any other touch spells.


- Re-Raising Skeletons ?!?!?!

- If these skeletons die in battle, can they be immediately raised as the battle progresses? Can other creatures that die in this battle be raised ?

Raise Skeletons does not need corpses, it's Raise Dead spell that does.

- So unlimited Skeletons??! What is the counter for them -- banishment?

The number of skeletons you can raise is only comparable to the number of ?! that may be included in your posts. Skeletons are fairly weak summons. Banishment easily kills them and even light infantry have no trouble taking them on.


- The Dragon Master Spell... Does "Iron Dragon" = "Drake" or " Wyvern" ???!?!?

I've tested it, it only works for wyverns and drakes (like the description said).


- Master Enslave Spell ??? If I successfully cast this spell and teke crol of all enemies, do I retain control of them after the battle?

Yes


Non !?! questions...


-Harpoon? What is the effect of harpooning ?

Similar to Net, or Web, special attacks, or Slime/Tangle Vines spell effects. It keeps the affected unit from moving and lowers defence until the unit breaks free, which takes a strength check.


- Does the spell Astral Corruption only effect magic use of other nations, or friendly mages as well?

Friendly mages as well (probably).


-Exactly what does the spell Illwinter do? Why is it not listed in the manual?

Worldwide unrest, temperature scales changed towards cold 3.
Global spells don't have national spell section. It's a mistake. It was one of the first ones reported in the manual typo thread.


-Strength of the Spring? As it said units w/ SotS is more powerful & gains more HP during spring. What i wanna ask is, is "this unit is more weaker and loses hp durning other seasons" the unmentioned part of this ability?

The HP decrease/increase based on seasons.
This flexing in hitpoints means you'll have to attack when they have high hitpoints and use another army to attack when they have low hitpoints.


- Wish... What can this spell do ?

A few keywords are acceptable for the computer. All wishes can be repeated. This is a (probably incomplete) list:

* "Armageddon" : earthquakes and meteors kill 20% of the population and of the units in most provinces of the world.
* "Army" : gives you 300 militiamen.
* "Artifact" gives you a random unique artifact. This is pretty funny if that artifact exists, whoever has it gets a message that it disappears into a poof of smoke and your mage suddenly has it! If the item is cursed, the mage cannot remove it.
* "(Artifact)" : gives you the said artifact... including those which aren't listed in the magical item manual or in the forge lists : Vial of Frozen Tears (+1 D,W), Sun Sword/Shield/Armor/Helmet (of Solaris - mostly awe, berserk, and magic resistance), Hammer of the Cyclops (50% forge, 37 damage), Precious (attack and strength bonus), Greenstone Armor (prot 17), Robe of the Sorceress (+1 S,D,N,B and prot 15), Crown of Karafagus (+1D and 1 mummy/t), Admiral's Sword (curses those it touches).
* "Blood slaves" : you get 250.
* "Broth" : same as "food"
* "(Creature Name)" : you get the said creature. Like "hero", they lose all magic. However, if you can cast Gift of Reason, they still have secondary powers, so Arco Priestesses have heal, etc.
* "Death" : guess what happens to the mage...
* "Death Match" : a Death Match is scheduled next turn.
* "Defence" : same as "power"
* "Dominion" : your dominion increases slightly.
* "Experience" : the caster gets 1000 experience.
* "Fame" : same as "experience".
* "Food" : you get 2 Cauldrons of Broth and 5 Endless Bags of Wine.
* "Gems" : gives 25 of each gem type, including astral (that's 175 gems for the price of 100 astral), but no slaves.
* "Gold" : gives you 3000 gold pieces.
* "Hero" you get a random hero from any race. The hero shows up as a normal unit, but loses his magic skills since he is not a commander (if you cast gift of reason on him, he still has no spells available). You cannot ask for a specific hero however.
* "Magic power" : the caster gets +1 to all magic levels, up to 10.
* "No starve" : same as "food"
* "Population" : brings more pop (+20%) in a random province you control.
* "Power" : the caster gets +20 strength, +10 attack, +10 defence, +10 precision, and +50 hitpoints.
* "(Pretender name)" : you get that pretender, with default magic and abilities (Daughter of the Land gets gems, Moloch gets imp, Ghost King gets ghosts, etc).
* "Provinces" : a couple of provinces just convert to be yours.
* "Strength" : same as "power"
* "Supply" : same as "food"
* "Troops" : same as "army"
* "Weapons" : get a random weapon artifact.


Where can I find more infos about spells ? Is there a page with all the effects not listed in the manual ?

There is a page about dominions 2 spells, most have not changed much.

It's the Sunray's page : http://www.freewebs.com/dominions2/spells.html

Dr.Praetorius has made a database of dom3 spells and effects for modders, and probable explanations of spells fields, you can download it here .

[Twan]

MAGIC ITEMS AND COMBOS
------------------


-Construction Level 9 (and beyond)!!??

You might want Iron Dragons, or Poison Golems or Juggernauts, but you won't get better items after level 8.


- Boots of Planes -- what about the troops !?!?

Troops will stay where they are : boots of planes cast teleport and not gateway. Gate Stone, another artifact, can be used to move armies. There's also The Flying Ship.


- Sword of Swiftness + Quicken Self ?!?!?!?!!?

Its 4 attacks, quickness doubles your attacks, no matter how many you get but you can still (iirc) only attack 1 square per round which is a max of 3 human sized kills.

Quickness also affects fatigue. W9 blessing means you act 50% more often and the spell Quickness means you act 100% more often. This means you accumulate fatigue 50% or 100% faster too (more attacks in a shorter period of time). This does not apply to weapons like the Sword of Quickness or dual-weapon attacks, which let you make two attack rolls during a single attack. In that case you accumulate fatigue only once per turn (unless you're using Quickness on top of that).


- Lychantroop's Amulet -- (a niefel jarl) Becoming a Werewolf !??!?!

You don't want your Niefel Jarl to have that amulet. Basically it will turn him into a smaller unit the werewolf and he will always be on beserk in battle. He will still have his casting abilities to use outside of battle, but in most cases you don't want your giants to be wearing that amulet


- "Heart of Life" Chestwound -- Can it be Healed ?!?

IIRC it can't be healed as long as the heart is inside.
However, getting rid of the heart (probably by killing and reviving the commander) should allow the affliction to heal.


- "The Ark" -- how does it work?

1. Are all non-holy creatures 100% likely to be diseased, blinded and damaged (page 280) -- or do they get a saving throw(s)?

There seems to be a distance effect. It does not cover the whole battlefield, just like 20

2. If they have a saving throw(s), are the non-holy creatures forces to make saving throws every round of combat?

Not all units in range are affected, so I believe a savings throw takes place. With that said, most units ARE affected within the range radius.

3. Does the length of combat have any impact on the results of being "Arked" ?

I only have conjecture here, no observable evidence. It would make sense that they have to save every turn or every 3 turns or whatever.


- - Wearing 2x Rings of Wizardy -- Bug or Feature?

All Path and resistance boosters of the same item will not stack, unless you have a 4 slot misc, then you put it in the 1st and 3rd slot and they will stack.


- Constructed Magic Items with Spell Effects ???

You must differentiate between ritual, combat spells and "self-cast" spells:

Combat Spells can be cast at a cost of "5" fatigue, the commander does not need any magical ability at all. The spells are cast with base values, if they are level dependant.

Self-cast spells are cast in combat by the item itself. Very few, mostly high-level ones do that. The commander might have to worry about the effects, but not about fatigue from casting or any requitements.

Ritual spells from items can be cast by commanders wich couldn't use those spells otherwise. But as its still the commander who casts the spell, gems will be subtracted from the nations treasury.



MISCELLANOUS :
------------

- What Race Should I Play ????!?

I suggest a race that abuses question marks, and pollutes forums with short-lived 1question threads instead of using existing topics.


- [/i] Unreachable Province ??? I found a province that it totally surrounded by mountains (it shows no yellow lines when the [8] key is toggled). [/i]

The province is unreachable except by spells.


- List of National Troops with stats by Nation ???

There's one in progress : the Sunray new Unit Stats Excel files, a version has been attached not long ago by sunray_be, just browse the forum.


- Random Maps ??? Can I...
a) reduce the percentage of water provinces in my random map
b) generate a random map that is larger than the approximately 400 provinces that constitutes "Large."
c) have the map "wrap around"

Yes for all but 'c'. If you go to "Game Tools" and choose "Random Map Creator" you can tweak the size and types of provinces to create. But it's not able to make wrap-around maps.


non-!?! questions...


How to take screenshots ?

Do it in these steps:

1) Press PRINT SCREEN button.
2) Close game or alt-tab out of it.
3) Open Paint or another graphic editor program
4) Paste

There is no in game key/function to save screenshots, but above method works fine.

There is also http://www.fraps.com/ and www.irfanview.com if you're using Windows.


Where can I find a complete list of all units in the game ?

Edi has made the dom3 Database, see in official faq.

[Twan]

PS : it's finally a good beginning for a real FAQ, with many really interesting answers, I'll add other questions and chapters in a near future.

[B0rsuk]

Last time I counted rsolow's threads, he created at least 38. (with 50 messages posted total). However, your FAQ contains only 34, if I'm not mistaken. You still have some homework to do.

[Twan]

He posted a strategy for Niefelheim and some other posts without !?!?, but perhaps I've forgoten one or two questions.

I've started to add interesting/recurring questions from other posters (just in chapter one for the moment). I'll make 2 parts per chapter, the mythic !?!? questions and the non-?!?! questions (or informative messages assimilable to question+answers) from other posters to make this thread a real FAQ when keeping its particular identity.

[Uh-Nu-Buh]

This is strangely compellingly helpfully funny. Hilarious, yet actually useful. Good Work, Twan.

Hmmmm. Medication time.

[alexti]

Twan said:
He posted a strategy for Niefelheim and some other posts without !?!?, but perhaps I've forgoten one or two questions.

I've noticed that I've started to open his posts without any punctuation marks just out of curiosity what has justified such handling. I guess it works like exclamation marks in posts of others

[Twan]

Bump.