Earth and Magic Item strategy?

Saxon · #1 June 14th, 2006, 01:45 AM

Howdy!

I was thinking of starting up a game with an earth based pretender and play with all the magic items. My thought was that if I am going to research to the top of the construction tree, I may as well get to use the big ritual spells along the way.

Now, I am going to need lots of gems to make the pretty toys and I want a race with fairly beefy commanders, as they will be using many of the items in combat.

Ulm looks interesting with the forging bonus and Johnteim with the high hit point leaders.

I am very open to suggestions and strategies, so please let me know whatever you think. And yes, I know I could search, but a fresh conversation with all the people who are lurking here is much more interesting!

Saber Cherry · #2 June 14th, 2006, 03:33 AM

Earth items are pretty weak. For forging, there is the Dwarven Hammer, and... most good Earth things have another path, like Charcoal Shield, Blood Stone, Summer Sword, Firebrand or Crystal Shield. I suggest you play a rainbow mage if you like forging.

Daynarr · #3 June 14th, 2006, 03:49 AM

Or just cast Forge of Ancients with powerfull Earth pretender.

thejeff · #4 June 14th, 2006, 08:24 AM

Iron Faith Ulm with a rainbow mage to forge boosters so your Balck Priests can actually use their forge bonus to make the good items?

Endoperez · #5 June 14th, 2006, 09:20 AM

I understood he aims for good items and construction 8, and is going to choose a high-Earth pretender to be able to cast the summons and rituals Construction makes available.

Arcoscephale's Mystics can come close to a rainbow pretender, especially once you hit Constr. 8 and have had time to find all kinds of gems and make some boosters. With Arco, you would already have Earth/Astral access, so Shedu wouldn't be that good. You don't have much Nature, Death or Blood, so any of those might do it... You need powerful beings to wield the weapons; death has some low-level things and better summons, from Black Servants to Bane Lords. I think Nature only has Firbolgs. Blood has many uniques, but you'd also need other paths to get access to them, and you would probably lose the race against human players.

Maybe Earth/Death pretender for Arcoscephale? You might want some Thaumaturgy for early-ish combat support. Even Mind Burn helps a lot. Sailors' Death would is a nice Thaum spell, so Earth/Water could also be interesting. Earth/Air would give you easy access to the Staves of Elemental Mastery. Earth/Fire would be very offensive combination.

Saxon · #6 June 23rd, 2006, 01:54 AM

Ah, that is good to know. With Arco, I have so many mages with different paths that it really feels like I can do everything. And with the ability to get the path boosting items (Thistle mace, ect) I am sure I could pretty quickly get the needed levels in any path I wanted.

Endoperez · #7 June 23rd, 2006, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Saxon said:
Ah, that is good to know. With Arco, I have so many mages with different paths that it really feels like I can do everything. And with the ability to get the path boosting items (Thistle mace, ect) I am sure I could pretty quickly get the needed levels in any path I wanted.

It allows for all the low-level items, especially when your mages have randoms in all paths. Nornas of Jotunheim only have sorcery randoms, though, and can't e.g. forge Earth Boots. Your Mystics can't forge the Thistle Mace, either. And to forge Ring of Sorcery, even with Forge of the Ancients up, you need either S2 mage or S1E1. S1 allows Starshine Skullcap, but you'd need S1E1 mage to forge Crystal Coin... So S2, 3 with Skullcap, which becomes 4 with the Forge.

It is still frighteningly powerful spell.

Saxon · #8 June 22nd, 2006, 01:52 AM

Forge of the Ancients! Oh my, I had forgotten about it. Any mage can forge any item you have researched at a reduced price. I am using summoned 1 Death Revenants to forge anything I fancy! This was the spell I wanted for this game, I can try out any and every magic item I want! Throw in that forging bonus weapon and things are dirty cheap as well. Gems will eventually be a problem, but right now I don�t have enough mages to forge everything I want. Ok, I could, but I don�t want to reduce research, as Mechanical Militia is really going to help me. I have too long of a front with three angry neighbors�

Endoperez · #9 June 22nd, 2006, 02:03 AM

It doesn't allow you to forge every item, but the effect is pretty close to it. All your mages get +1 to every path when forging requirements are considered.

Saxon · #10 June 14th, 2006, 12:23 PM

Arco earth death it is! Thanks for your input all, Endoperez has understood what I am thinking best, so I shall give it a whirl. In addition, Forge of the Ancients is good advice and the pointer on needing more paths than just earth is well taken. I am playing single player. We just had a baby and the turn based, slow action of Dominions is just what I need. Baby cries, I leave the room and don�t worry about getting eaten by something in a realtime game.

The construction summons can be pretty decent and it will be fun to try out many of the magic items that I have never used before. With baby in the other room, this will not be too serious of a game, so I aim to have as much fun as I can. I will turn up the special site frequency and play!

Also, it is great to see some of the old timers still here after so long!