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[EnigmaticHat]

It would be cool to have troop mages.  Put all those 5 research point 30 gold peeps under the command of one researcher, so they stop clogging up your interface.

[Frank2368]

Anyone want to replace my T'ien C'hi in the Round 25 of Dominions 4? Not in a particularly good position but definitely not the worst in the game.

[Radsoc]

Another question,

I have a F2 mage. I want to cast Flaming Arrows on turn 1.

To me it seems like I have to cast Phoenix Power first F2-F3, and then temp spend 1 gem to get to F4 and then use another gem to cast the spell (cost 1). So:

Phoenix Power (turn 1)
Flaming Arrows (turn 2) @ 2 gems (which is max spend at level 2).

However, for some reason Flaming Arrows is available/white in my spell queue if I use it on t1. Must be wrong? I shouldn't trust it?

What happens if he can't cast it? Will he proceed with the list?
Would it be safe to script:

1. Flaming Arrows
2. Phoenix Power
3. Flaming Arrows

?



Furthermore, what happens if I have two communion masters and six slaves. Will the slaves be distributed according to army order?

4 slaves
1 master
2 slaves
1 master

Or will there be a random distribution?


In this case
6 slaves
1 master
1 master

Will the first master use all slaves and the second one zero?

[Gigalith]

I'm not sure about your first question, but I can answer your second.

All communion/sabbath mages in an army are in one communion. Any master will use all the slaves, regardless of other masters, what spell (communion/sabbath) was cast, or when any particular mage joined in. The good news is that you can reuse slaves for a massive boost to multiple masters. The bad news is that each of those masters will tire the same slaves, and a multi-master communion can conceivably "burn out" slaves with too much fatigue. If you're going with multiple masters, you'll have to do some personal mathcrafting to determine who can do what in what order without people dying. (Or too many people dying.) Hint: mages cast in the order they appear on the battle screen.

[ThtblovesDF]

I have/had the same issues with spells not casting, often the kicker here is Fatigue or other issues, so you might need another gem to compensate the high fatigue (100 for flaming arrows)?

Like, technically a Earth 2 mage should be able to cast EarthQuake (E4), by casting summon Earthpower, then using 1-2 gems (can't use more gems then your natural magic level in that path) to get to E4 for a single cast - but the 300 Fatigue will stop him, even if he would be able to.

[Radsoc]

@Gigalith: Wait, so both masters will use 6 slaves?

Then I would be better off adding an additional 2 slaves to get 2^3 ?

Will fatigue be distributed to the slaves if I cast a 300 fatigue (= 3 gem) spell? Won't gems negate the fatigue?


@ThtblovesDF: Ok, so I would have to e.g. boost that mage to E3 (e.g. earth boots), then summon earthpower (E4) and cast the spell at 3 gems? Earth boots count to his natural magic level, right?

But what about Flaming Arrows, how come it's ungreyed/not red at F2 + gems?

[ThtblovesDF]

I was wrong, you can only boost spell-level by 1 and all other gems are used to reduce fatigue, ahhaa...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

CombatEdit

In combat, gems may do one of three things:

    A mage may use a single gem per turn to increase his level in that path by one. For instance, an Earth 2 mage normally can't cast Blade Wind, but he can if he consumes a single Earth gem.

    A mage may use additional gems to increase his level in that path further, but only for the purposes of reducing the fatigue incurred by spellcasting. For instance, an Earth 3 mage who consumes three earth gems counts as an Earth 6 mage for the purposes of calculating fatigue, but only an Earth 4 mage for determining what spells he can cast.
    Some very powerful spells require gems to cast at all.

A mage may not spend more gems in one turn than his level in the relevant path.

For instance, consider the Alteration 5 spell Maws of the Earth, which requires an Earth 3 caster and 1 earth gem. An Earth 1 mage can't cast this spell at all. An Earth 2 mage can cast it by spending two gems; one to boost to Earth 3, and another for the spell's requirement.

More info on the topic here:

http://dom4.wikia.com/wiki/Magical_Paths#Magic_Paths

[Jilladilla]

For your first question? I'm pretty sure Flaming Arrows is just a very confused spell.
Pheonix Power -> Flaming Arrows is the proper course of action for a F2 caster with 2 gems.

As to your second question?
Pretty much what Gigalith said in regards to communions.

Although be aware if a master casts a spell of a path that a slave doesn't have (Master casting a fire spell when a slave has 0 in fire for instance), said slave will get hit by fatigue HARD. (x4 penalty) This can kill slaves very rapidly if you try to do something like bootstrap  Mass Thunder Strike/Skelespam if your slaves don't have the appropriate paths.
Optimal communion management involves the masters and slaves at least matching paths, although it is very much worth it to cast one or two mismatched spells, provided that these spells are CRITICAL (or at least important) to your success. (Typically army buffs or a battlefield enchant) Summon Earthpower, Relief and Personal Regen (Mass Regen is acceptable too) are also very good spells to cast even if mismatched, as those make the slaves much less likely to burn out. (Slaves benefit from any self-only spells a master casts)


BAH I TOOK TOO LONG TYPING THIS! (I'm a slow typer who obsessively goes over what I write ok?)

Thtbloves: An E2 mage CANNOT cast earthquake with Boots or similar booster, after casting Summon Earthpower they're at E3, yes, but they need 4 gems (1 to boost, 3 to actually cast) Earthquake, which is too much for them (Gem boosting DOES NOT raise your spending limit)
The fatigue issue you brought up is false, if a unit has less than 200 fatigue, any action that would kick them over 200 (Big spell, being a communion slave, massed heat auras, Stellar Cascades, etc.) will only bring them to 200. Any fatigue damage done to a unit that already has 200 fatigue will be converted into HP damage (15 to 1 rounded up ratio I think)
Of course, a unit with 200 fatigue is very much out of the fight without reinvigoration (20 turns it takes to wake up from that by default!), so try to summon earthpower first before any big spell (If it can wait a turn)

Back to Radsoc, First question Yes.
Second question usually yeah, as you can see communions can get ridiculous if you can make them very large, beware though, it's very much a eggs in one basket deal though.
Third question: Gems do not negate fatigue. Being overqualified to cast the spell reduces it (Gem Boost counts for this, so yes it does help) fatigue cost = listed cost divided by (how much the caster overqualifies + 1)
Also yes, an E2 mage with Boots can in fact Summon Earthpower -> Earthquake with 3 gems.

[ThtblovesDF]

Jilladilla:

A E2 + Boots (so he is E3) can cast Earthquake if he summons Earthpower, just fine. I think we have a missunderstanding of what E2 means here, I mean e2 (naked), e3 (with boots) leading to e4 and casting just fine - a level 1 earth mage that is level 2 with boots won't get anywhere, yes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Sean Mirrsen]

So you can only pathboost by 1 in combat, regardless of source, outside of communions? I recall that different pathboosts don't stack (i.e. Power of the Spheres and Summon Earthpower), but spell-based pathboost and gem-based pathboost don't stack either?

[Jilladilla]

Like, technically a Earth 2 mage should be able to cast EarthQuake (E4), by casting summon Earthpower, then using 1-2 gems (can't use more gems then your natural magic level in that path) to get to E4 for a single cast - but the 300 Fatigue will stop him, even if he would be able to.

You never said anything about boots... (Of course boots are more or less mandatory for any Earth mage casting big Earth spells but you literally did not mention boots of any kind. Had to cover bases to make absolutely sure you see. I had to assume E2 mage without boots.)
That said, the displayed smith needs more gems to Earthquake again after he wakes up from his nap
(Of note, gem boosting Earthquake with him is a matter of either getting to 200 fatigue (without) or +150 fatigue (with), if your pre-quake spells kick him over 50 boosting will do absolutely nothing for him.)

So you can only pathboost by 1 in combat, regardless of source, outside of communions? I recall that different pathboosts don't stack (i.e. Power of the Spheres and Summon Earthpower), but spell-based pathboost and gem-based pathboost don't stack either?

......Oh my wow. You asked a question that my near-encyclopedic knowledge of this game HAS NO IDEA ABOUT.
(I've never had reason to try to see if Power of the Spheres and Summon Earthpower stack... (PotS is so darn expensive...) Although I THINK they will stack? This is pure guesstimation though.)
Although Summon Hellpower (WHY WOULD YOU CAST THIS?!) does give +2 to all...

But other than that, gem boost DOES stack with spell-based boost (Like summon earthpower, which does also raise your gem use per turn limit too!)

[Sean Mirrsen]

You don't cast Power of the Spheres. You forge Crystal Shields for your combat mages.

[E. Albright]

The fatigue issue you brought up is false, if a unit has less than 200 fatigue, any action that would kick them over 200 (Big spell, being a communion slave, massed heat auras, Stellar Cascades, etc.) will only bring them to 200. Any fatigue damage done to a unit that already has 200 fatigue will be converted into HP damage (15 to 1 rounded up ratio I think)

This isn't quite right. Fatigue (other than that caused by negative reinvigoration) when you're at 200 does 1 point of damage, whether it's from an 800 fatigue spell or a 5 fatigue one. So if you can manage 6hp regen/round on your slaves, they can support 6 mages indefinitely (although they may end up drooling piles of afflictions). This is the principle many turbocommunions operate on - N9 C'tis lets you field wildly unbalanced messes like 2 (shaman) slaves for 6 masters (although obviously more slaves are preferable since they'd would provide more of a discount and path boost for the masters).

(I've never had reason to try to see if Power of the Spheres and Summon Earthpower stack... (PotS is so darn expensive...) Although I THINK they will stack? This is pure guesstimation though.)
Although Summon Hellpower (WHY WOULD YOU CAST THIS?!) does give +2 to all...

Yes, they stack. They're two different effect ids, and that's what counts.

And obviously, you'd cast Hellpower to turn every slave in your communion into a wailing, doomed Horror-magnet as your equally-doomed masters grimly and recklessly fling Horrormark after Horrormark onto their stronger and/or significantly less replacable enemies.

You don't cast Power of the Spheres. You forge Crystal Shields for your combat mages.

If we're talking about communions, and you want your slaves to benefit from the fatigue reduction from having higher levels in the spells the master cast, you can't rely on Crystal Shields since item spells get cast before the communion goes up or any slaves join (I'll firmly ignore Crystal Matrix and unit id shenanigans for the sake of this discussion)...

[Radsoc]

Wow, thanks, you people know a lot. I've played one-ish nation for about 200h and there are still many things that I don't know.

- Ethereal units bypass walls, right? What about mistform-units?

- Serpent's Blessing will negate natural poisons, but what does it mean in terms of mechanics?

- Why is PotS expensive? The fatigue?

[E. Albright]

Only ethereal.

5 poison resistance.

Not sure what you mean. Why is it considered expensive, or why IS it expensive? 1-2 pearls isn't that expensive until you have 15 mages casting it every battle. Then it adds up quickly.