Blood Magic, Demon Knights, and Vampires

[Burnsaber]

Juzza said:
Vampires are good because their immortal, if you get say 80 of them eventually you will have an experienced army of vampires, combine that with a spell like army of gold and you have flying, regenerating killing machines, that just come back if they die. However on their own vampires kinda suck, try combining them with other strategies.

Demon knights! oh they are awesome!! I'd go for, um LE Abisya with a god that can make the magic item "boots of earth" for 10 earth gems each, they increase earth magic by 1 and you need 2 earth and blood to cast demon knight? which means when some warlocks get earth magic you can just give them the boots, and when they start getting diseased take them away and give them to another one, cause they will get diseased.

Oooooh! also there is a pure blood spell that summons Demon knights, "Ritual of five gates" summons a Demon knight, A fiend of Darkness, a devil a Frost fiend and a Storm Demon/fiend/devil all at the hefty price of 28 blood slaves.

If I were to play LE abysia, I'd make a god who can forge Blood Stones (Earth2,Blood3, Construction4, Earth +1 and produces one earth gem month) and I'g give them to my Earth guys. Now they can summon Knights, produce Earth gems and not die to old age (since they now can wear Boots of Youth also). But maybe that's just me .

[Humakty]

If you have age problem, abysia warlocks can cast a blood ritual which reduce age by 10 (for ten slaves). Seems to me easier than N/W boots.

[NTJedi]

Humakt said:
cast a blood ritual which reduce age by 10 (for ten slaves).

As a side note for everyone: This spell does not work for the undead Tartarians and the spell will still take your blood slaves.

[Burnsaber]

Humakt said:
If you have age problem, abysia warlocks can cast a blood ritual which reduce age by 10 (for ten slaves). Seems to me easier than N/W boots.

Expect that many of them are over 10 years old age. So you'll have to cast it twice. Besides, Boots of Youth are pure blood item (con6, blood2 to forge).

[duke_commando]

Maybe vampires should get some natural protection, like ten or so, since they're supposed to be hard to kill and all.
With this and regeneration they'll be strong but can still be killed by enough regular troops.

This would make the VQ pretty uber if you gave her etherealness through items, but if you're gonna spend 175 points she should be badass.

Right now with no protection and mediocre defence they even fail against archers in melee without enchantments. Seriously, I don't even trust them to take out militia.

[Chris_Byler]

Why did they lose etherealness anyway? Even if they were overpowered it seems like the wrong fix, taking away one of their thematic and interesting strengths. They could have just lost some strength, skill, MR, or had their cost increased (and the number that appeared in a random event decreased). Now they can be killed easily with conventional weapons, which is inappropriate and pathetic.

I realize that vampires and the VQ could be abusive in Dom 2, but with all the other changes that have come since then, I think they may have been overnerfed.

[Folket]

Ethereal are not thematic. Vampires were not ghosts last I looked. Perhaps that they could have a change shape command and become an ethereal cloud of mist.

[thejeff]

Mistform would be more thematic, though it doesn't really work the way traditional vampire mist abilities do.

[Baalz]

Vampire lords (and LA Ulm counts) have blood magic, so they can sabbath slave. Assuming you have some other astral/blood mages you can uber buff them - have a couple communion masters cast invulnerability, fire shield, phonix pyre, soul vortex, breath of winter, hell power, etc. etc. Use cleverly timed reinvigoration to keep from overfatiguing them with off path spells, and use the communion boost to cast whatever nasty battlefield enchantment you have available (wrathful skies, foul vapors, grip of winter etc.) Have the masters withdraw and the slaves attack. You get pretty ridiculous immortal kamikaze killing machines with a good chance of wiping out entire armies and little chance of any losses on your side.

Oh, regular vampires - which you'll have for free from your vampire lords are great in this situation to cause a distraction while your communion goes off - who cares if they die in droves? Best to berzerk your Vampire Lords though, don't want them routing because the chaff dies.

[thejeff]

Careful with communioned hell power. It horror marks the slaves, doesn't it?