Drain Life and Communion

[PsiSoldier]

Ok I just had a thought and dont have time to run through a test with it but does anyone know off hand how it works if a communion Master is casting Drain Life?

Will it give equal health and (I guess it gives fatigue recovery) to all of the communion slaves as well as the master?

The Fatigue Recovery or "Endurance" as the spell description says is the effect I am really after here. If all the slaves receive the same amount of fatigue recovery that the master does than my thought is that only a few masters casting Drain Life could very effectively keep all the slaves fatigue down with no problem. I don't have that much experience using Drain Life though so I'm not sure about how much it does. Or if it actually would affect the slaves as it does the master. Can anyone help me out here that knows? I intend to try it out over the next few turns of a game I'm in anyways but it would be nice to know ahead of time.

I just took over a position where the previous player was using a massive group of commanders capable of doing a large communion for his expansion. They were not set to use communion but they could do it very effectively. In order to balance it out to my liking I would use 20 slaves and about 16 masters. Which is likely overkill for the number of slaves needed and if Drain Life could refill the slaves fatigue than I'd forgo the last 4 slaves and make it 16 as anything over that wouldn't have an effect on the communion strength anyways. And set the 4 that I switch from slave to master to casting Drain Life instead. Which ultimately might have a larger effect on keeping the slaves fatigue down than simply having four more slaves.

[MaxWilson]

I believe I tested this earlier this year, and my memory says no, only the caster gets the life/fatigue back.

-Max

[Executor]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

I believe I tested this earlier this year, and my memory says no, only the caster gets the life/fatigue back.

-Max

I assume the same would apply to soul vortex than.

[thejeff]

No. Soul vortex is a Caster target spell. It puts an effect on the caster. Communion slaves get that effect like any other.

Drain Life is a ranged attack spell. It should not affect the slaves.

Obviously, slaves do not get life/fatigue back from the master's Soul Vortex, only from their own. Not likely to be useful except for making communion slave thugs.

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by thejeff

Obviously, slaves do not get life/fatigue back from the master's Soul Vortex, only from their own. Not likely to be useful except for making communion slave thugs.

Or surrounding them with Maenad "mana batteries".

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by JimMorrison

Or surrounding them with Maenad "mana batteries".

My thoughts exactly

[Executor]

Originally Posted by thejeff

Obviously, slaves do not get life/fatigue back from the master's Soul Vortex, only from their own. Not likely to be useful except for making communion slave thugs.

That's what I meant. Slaves don't get reinvigorated by the masters vortex, if only they did.
But I guess that would be a little overpowered with C'tis or MA Ermor for eg.

[chrispedersen]

Troll batteries.

[MaxWilson]

What thejeff said: yes, it applies to the Master's Soul Vortex, but no, it doesn't stop the slaves from getting their own Soul Vortexes.

-Max