The Ghost King

[Omnirizon]

I have mixed feelings on this pretender and want to know how others use him.

He seems to have many options available to him, and he is one of my favorites. However I'm just no quite sure he is ever the _best_ choice.

For one, he can SC immediately, but in the end he is kind of fragile, and depends upon a layer of defenses that filter out damage through many chances (Awe -> Ethereal -> Air Shield -> Luck -> whatever else). If any of these defenses become cancelled (high moral, magic weapons, ect.) he is fuct. Even with everything in place and working, with a lucky hit (Cavalry charge double damage, maybe two in one turn; low chances but certainly possible) he is dead.

For two, he is able to provide good access to magic. he has some base Death magic and 20 points to open other paths.

Lastly, he is kind of expensive (at 120 points I think, plus the points to have dom 9/10)

Considering all these points, this guy is just way risky. He is used because he can SC, yet also can provide magic power and diversity. However, as an SC he is fragile and can die or get the feebleminded affliction; making his magic worthless. But for him to really be worthwhile you need both an SC and magic diversity from him, but on this chassis those two things just don't combine well.

Another option is to have him asleep. However then his SC ability is a little less worthwhile; as the chief attraction of an SC pretender is quick early expansion.

How do other people build this guy? Dom 9/10 is a given. But what about magic paths?

What do others go for on Awakening? Awake but wait to research some spells and/or equip him? Awake and use immediately, but maybe using him for the least risky indies until he gets equipped and access to some buffs. Asleep so that when he wakes up you have equipment for him?

How do people equip him?

Is he really worth it considering his riskyness and what other choices are available? With the right luck, I think he is probably the best pretender available. But he is risky, and useless if the wrong things happen, or you face the wrong nations (anybody with recruitables with magic weapons, lots of missiles, or that can undead spam). And with those weaknesses, he won't be able to face many of the indie provinces. It's even feasible that your home province will be surrounded by indies that he can't safely take on. You're also typically going to have bad scales if you take him (unless you take him asleep; but then SC aspect is worth less), so you really need him to be able to give 100% through the whole game. But there are enough things with enough chance of happening that can really clip this guys wings, so that he won't often work out.

[Lingchih]

I never use him. He is useful, but too fragile in my book. I'll stick with a Prince of Death.

[chrispedersen]

Never use.

[secretperson]

I have tried this guy in SP a few times because I heard he could be pretty good.

I think the appeal is that he starts out with stealthy, ethereal and undead (so encumberance doesn't come into play when actually meeleing) with full slots. So you can use slots for things other than ethereal. I can't remember what kind of scales I had but I went awake with 9 or 10 dom and 2 air (for air shield, mistform, and mirror image), 1 earth for ironskin, and then a few more points in death as filler.

I wasn't too impressed. Sometimes I could attack blindly on turn 1 and be fine other times he got owned hard. I'm sure he shines a bit more with proper equipment or perhaps I didn't build him very well. That being said, I think I may give him a try again as he seems somewhat viable.

[llamabeast]

I've heard before now that he's considered powerful.

[Zenzei]

The GK is alluring but having tried it a few times, I'm not impressed. To me he seems to be jack of all trades but master of none. For awake SC 35hp and low starting dominion combined with high chassis cost just doesnt cut it. For spellcasting master lich is better, for example.

[Xietor]

He was my favorite in dom II, but he was nerfed. Unfairly nerfed KO!

Heh. After his nerf I have never used him.

I will add I played dom II mp games on another forum-not this one. And we had funny "house" rules. One of the house rules was no immortal pretenders(in response to the Queen most likely before her nerf).

So before the nerf to the Ghost King, and removing the immortal undeads from the selection process, the Ghost King was one of the best Pretenders to take for a rainbow mage.

I cannot even recall what all was done to him. His cost was raised, his dominion lowered, and I think something else as well.

[Amhazair]

About every time I start a new game and am looking at pretender design there comes a moment when I think: "Hmm... and what if I'd use a ghost king instead" after which I try out some builds, find out I don't have enough points to make it all work, and move on. I have yet to use one in MP.

I do believe they can be very powerful with LA Ermor (never having played LA Ermor myself, so it's just conjesture) as they have the design points to burn, and can greatly benefit from both the magical diversity, and the SC ability. Perhaps some other nation without too much need for great scales,or for a big bless can also make good use of him, but none springs to mind atm.

[Wrana]

I'm mostly new to MP, so take this with a grain of salt. However, in one of my current games he is doing relatively fine. I made him asleep, with Dom 9, relatively good scales (I am squemish in respect to them; also see below) and 2 magic paths at 4, with no incerase in Death path (namely, Water & Earth for Helheim - the first to increase diversity & for Quickening, the second for blessing their sacred mages). Then I made a Construction my first research priority, which allowed me to make Hammer early on & make some equipment before my King awakened. After that I used him to quicken expansion, using most money on mages. He didn't take a weapon until I got a Construction 4, but expanded fine even before that. And after Construction 4 I switched to other paths. He suffered a pair of afflictions, but remains useful - even after I discovered a sight granting me some Water mages.
Maybe I should have given him Nature instead - to get regeneration, but I reasoned that Nature mages are relatively common to find & Astral... well, it brings a risk of Magic Dules.
Will someone say where I was wrong? Currently I think he remains relatively solid, but should be taken asleep.

[Gandalf Parker]

I use him fairly often in solo play when he fits the nation. I like that he generates ghosts. He and the ghosts can be quite a nice stealthy army. Especially if you can provide other stealths (such as archers) for backup.