Strands of Astral Power. Worth it?

[Dedas]

Tuidjy said:
> Astral mages are automatically protected against Strands, I believe.

Actually, no. Astral mages are the one that Strands is supposed to feeblemind.
But because the caster does not seem to benefit from extra levels, penetration
items, or dominion strength, astral mages laugh at the spell. I have at least
eighty (80) mages in my dominion, and on the last turn, my caster failed to
detect a single one.

> a standard mage with 13-15 MR in your dominion with magic 2 (for example),
> that takes it down to 12 or 13 is a big difference

I never play with Magic 2, but I am reasonably sure that it is -1 to MR, not -2.

I did never state that Magic 2 gives -2 in MR. I did however state that most standard mages have a MR between 13-15. Lowering that to 12, 13 or 14 with Magic 2 gives you a much better chance of success. That is because the SoAP requires a simple MR check (against 10) if I'm not mistaken. Anything that lowers the enemies MR just a little is very, very good, just look at the table in the manual.

[Sombre]

Yeah but he's saying he has magic 2 and loads of mages there waiting to be detected, yet the spell isn't doing a damn thing. So regardless of how theoretically helpful it would be to lower enemy mage mr, it doesn't change that SoAP doesn't really work as intended.

[Szumo]

I've used Strands in one of my MP games, with Tartarian (AFAIR 6 or 7 natural astral), equipped with runesmasher and rings of wizardry and sorcery. My dominion was very strong, and he killed or feebleminded several enemy mages each turn, so the spell seemed to work fine.

EDIT: i had magic +3 dominion.

[Dedas]

Yes, exactly, it works very well. You just have to use it right. If you are going to take out astral mages with it you better have the right equipment on the casting mage. Not doing it in a drain dominion also helps of course.

[Sombre]

Tuidjy seems to think the penetration items don't help.

I misread about his magic scale above. Magic scale would clearly help, but SoAP still sounds pretty ****ty. Maybe it should say in the description that it requires magic scale to really be effective.

[Ewierl]

I wonder if you need(ed) to have the penetration items equipped when casting the ritual? Anyone got the time to test?

[Tuidjy]

This is a game in progress, so I would like to avoid spelling it out. But I can
assure you, if penetration items and extra levels were helping, the results
would have to be different. And yes, I had the levels and penetration items at the
time of the casting.

What makes the spell broken, is that the targets benefit fully from magic
resistance, but the caster does not benefit from penetration bonuses. A level
nine spell, cast with a very suitable commander, should not miss eighty out of
eighty possible targets... Yes, my opponents have properly equipped their
commanders. I wish my effort of properly choosing and equipping my caster meant
something too.

And no, I do not buy the argument that the spell is only meant to work in a magic
heavy dominion. I care little about 'the normal mage with MR 13'. At the time
astral strands is likely to be used, battles are fought with commanders with
starting magic resistance of 17-18, and with at least some MR gear.

I mean, I know that my pearls were wasted, and I will not get anything out of this
spell in my game. I just think that this spell is a cool one, and should not be
made worthless by the one-sided way bonuses are taken into account.