Pretender Immunity

[Zapmeister]

I've just noticed that there is a spell (Enslave Mind) from which pretenders are singled out for immunity.

Since there's a precedent for this, why not make them immune to Magic Duel as well, getting rid of that undesirable (IMHO) astral king business.

[Johan K]

I don't like pretenders being more immune than anyone else. But the game would become really screwed up if they were charmed/enslaved. Not so if they were to be killed.

Then everyone would take 3 with their Pretender and make even more supercombatants.

[Taqwus]

For a number of races, it's not the Pretender that's the real problem; it's the expensive weak-astral mages combined with a lack of strong-astral mages e.g. T'ien Ch'i Celestial Masters, and the Marignon mages as well IIRC.

[Zapmeister]

The reason I'm not happy with Johan's response, and I'm not overly concerned about non-pretender vulnerability to Magic Duel, is that losing one's pretender is a real downer. For me, it's a trigger for losing enthusiasm in a game in which it happens.

On the one hand, we are being encouraged to spend points on our pretenders. However, loss of that pretender trashes those points since a pretender loses magic when it dies (I assume this still happens in Dom2). Add to that the hoops you have to jump through to get the pretender back at all.

If there's a game element that puts low and midrange astral magic pretenders at much greater risk, then I think you have a problem.

Just my 2c worth.

The solution to that is to take an Immovable pretender that will never face combat more than likely unless you are facing tremendous defeat, or you take an immortal pretender.

I don't think "Feeling Down" because your Pretender died, is a valid excuse to make your pretenders invulnerable to a game mechanic.