Looking for SC pointers

[Micah]

Yes Zyl, they should stack.

And Jazzepi is only partially right. 0-enc units still get spellcasting encumberance from their items, so you DO have to watch out what you give them if you're planning on casting any self-buffs. After they're done casting they can melee all day without getting any more, but if they're already at 60 fatigue they're in a good deal of trouble.

[duke_commando]

Luck means 50% of successful attacks are negated.
So if you have ethereal and luck, 75% of attack will automatically miss and 50% of the rest that successfully do damage will also miss.
So luck is pretty uber on high defense units since few attacks will successfully hit them anyway, and half of those that manage to do damage will be negated.
This is my understanding of it from the description anyways.

[Shovah32]

I have to agree with Micah. Survival is the first thing you should take into consideration when making a SC. Get the usual sort of stuff such as high protection/defence, luck ect and then start to think of what your SC wil have to fight. Will the enemy be casting magic of a certain element that you will need resistances for? Does the enemy focus on spells that are negated by magic resistance? Does the enemy have special national troops(eg Niefel Giants with their chill aura and very high strength) or summoned troops(abominations anyone?).
As a last note(only IMO):
It's almost always better to get a very high defence value or protection value(my usual choice)with a reasonable amount of the other rather than just quite high in both. Of course you should generally try to have a reasonable amount of each(pure protection and AN weapons will destroy you. Pure defence and AoE can do the same).

[Jazzepi]

Micah said:
Yes Zyl, they should stack.

And Jazzepi is only partially right. 0-enc units still get spellcasting encumberance from their items, so you DO have to watch out what you give them if you're planning on casting any self-buffs. After they're done casting they can melee all day without getting any more, but if they're already at 60 fatigue they're in a good deal of trouble.

This is very true. The flip side to having 0 encumberance is that you do not naturally regain fatigue. So if you plan on casting battlefield buffs without the aid of either soul vortex, or summon earth power, you'll need some reinvig items. Each 10 points of fatigue reduces your defense by 1, which is quite nasty.

Jazzepi

[Hadrian_II]

I dont think defense is important on SCs, as they will get swarmed anyway, better take high protection, luck, ethereality.

Starshine skullcap, Amulet of Antimagic and Pendant of Luck are a good base that gives you enough MR to last and luck.

For a weapon the Fire, Frost and Death AoE swords are good, the snake bladder stick has some uses, and if you want to kill other SCs, Gate Cleaver or for undeads Flambeaus.

As a shield the charcoal or the eye shield are nice.

As an armor High protection is never wrong, and and some resistances dont hurt either.

Boots of Quickness are a good choice or the ones that make you stone for protection.

Now you have just to watch out for encumbrance.

The most common SC counters are:
Soul Slay --> you need high MR
Frozen Heart --> Cold Resistance
Incinerate --> Fire Resistance
Lightning --> Lightning resistance
Also any spell that does AN damage and has no MR is some danger for you.

So you just need 100% Cold, Fire and Lightning resistance, an MR around 25 to defend against spells. A protection around 30 against units and high enough reinvigoration for the protection to last. Also Ethereality and Luck are necessary, the same goes for high regeneration. Now your SC has to buff himself in battle with mistform, phoenix pyre and soul vortex and you are ready to go.

[Shovah32]

Yes, protection is generally better but if you have a unit with very high natural defence(a skilled, W9 pretender for example) then a defence SC is possible(although I tend to avoid them). A bunch of defence boosting items and luck on a naturally high defence unit means that even when swarmed you should take few hits if any.

[Edratman]

My three mandatory assets are luck and etheral and 7 item slots.

I also think of my SC's having 50+ hit points. Less than that I will classify them as a thug. (An entirely subjective opinion.) My bane lords are thugs. The deva's I get from wish are SC's.

The deva is a great chassis with 4 hand slots. Not etheral, but I enjoy it anyway. I put every item of quickness on her that I can forge along with the Sickle whose crop is Death (whatever). It's like stealing death gems. Minimum of 20 death gems a battle.

[Taqwus]

Wish? Try 'Seraph'.

[Edratman]

I've not tried Seraph. I'll make that my next wish chassis. What are the main stats?

This game is like the menu of a Chinese restaurant. Way too many choices, and no matter what you order someone else's looks better.

[archaeolept]

ethereal is not at all essential for a true SC. It only helps against normal weapons, hence against chaff troops - and those would normally be no issue for an SC.

It is extremely useful for an early expanding pretender, or a thug, though.