The Ghost King

[MaxWilson]

IMG, I've made VampireQueen #gcost 110 (that is, cost 110 design points), ethereal, and D2B2 for starting paths. I'm still not tempted to use her but it ought to help out any AIs which choose to take her (so far I haven't encountered one). It's probably a little underpriced (I should drop it back down to D1B2 per vanilla) but Blood is a pretty weak path for SCs and she's an SC, so for now I'm leaving it.

-Max

[CUnknown]

Ghost King is incredible .. that's my opinion. That being said, I rarely use him.

I love the combo SCs / rainbow pretender choices such as GK and the Nagas. They are perhaps a tad pricey, but they do everything you want them to do. You can get a decent bless with him, too, by taking maybe 3 level 4 paths. GK does it all, but nothing extremely well, maybe.

[secretperson]

It seems to me that the Ghost King is more suited for nations with no or weak bless options.

[Wrana]

As I've already said I used him for Helheim which is usually considered a bless nation... I agree that if you want a bless rush strategy, you should use someone else - someone with more than one starting path, especially with high starting path(s).

[Hoplosternum]

I think in general if you want an SC there are better choices than the GK. And if you want a Rainbow or artillery support mage Pretender there are better choices than the GK.

That really leaves just those nations that need an SC but also needs magic diversity on their pretender. Jomon fits the bill here for one. They completely lack Death (gems or paths on mages) and need it for most of their summons. They also need other paths to recruit some of their better summons (Fire & Death for Dai Onis for example). They also need an SC to make up for their poor starting army and high resource costing troops.

A GK works quite well for them. They don't really benefit much from a bless (none massable sacreds and mages not sacred) and their starting army can support the GK to make up for the fact he isn't top draw in the SC department.

Jomon also can't get a Prince of Death which would otherwise be a better choice. And Lichs or Master Lichs won't really handle the SC/army support side earlier enough to be viable.

So I think he is a niche pick at best in mp. Jomon being one power that can benefit. As the combination of SC, then site searcher, then summoner/forger works well for them. In sp of course his flexibility makes him a more reasonable choice.

[triqui]

Hoplosternum said:
Jomon also can't get a Prince of Death which would otherwise be a better choice. And Lichs or Master Lichs won't really handle the SC/army support side earlier enough to be viable.

This is the real reason to opt for GK. You dont have the option to get PoD

[Wrana]

The real reason is that he is much more thematic for many nations! While you surely can make PoD with, say, Growth 3, it would be complete crap from style point of view!