Really high magic levels

[Joonie73]

I once had a Pretender who had level 9 in everything (empowerment, baby!) and as high as level 17 or something in death magic. Would magic levels that go up this high add any benefits? You can cast everything on the spellbook at level 9, right? Did my level 17 death mage pretender had stronger spell effects/penetration, etc.?

[Dekent]

read the instruction booklet.....you can never have high enough magic levels on your main commanders

[Taqwus]

You get higher penetration, less fatigue (marginally; since the formula is ((base fatigue / (extra levels + 1)) + spell-casting encumberance) really high levels make less and less difference), and some spells increase in area or number of effects e.g. Orb Lightning.

No ritual or battle spell requires more than level 9 in anything. Quite a few paths don't have level-9 requirements at all, if memory serves; there aren't that many except for Utterdark, Wish, Astral Nexus, Strands of Arcane Power.

If you're empowering that much, you're probably wasting gems that could more effectively be put into creating and unleashing pet Doom Horror commanders, because the empowerment costs just get extreme, or at a minimum in forging lots of tasty artifacts.

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Taqwus:
If you're empowering that much, you're probably wasting gems that could more effectively be put into creating and unleashing pet Doom Horror commanders, because the empowerment costs just get extreme, or at a minimum in forging lots of tasty artifacts.

Death 17 is crazy. You could have summoned tons of Revenants, and each turn, each could have summoned 10 skeletons, for a huge, supply-free undead army with those gems.

Not to imply that that's a good strategy, it's just one of thousands that would have been better=)

[ November 27, 2003, 22:19: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

[Joonie73]

I had every worthwhile artifacts already forged, LOL.

Originally posted by Taqwus:
You get higher penetration, less fatigue (marginally; since the formula is ((base fatigue / (extra levels + 1)) + spell-casting encumberance) really high levels make less and less difference), and some spells increase in area or number of effects e.g. Orb Lightning.

No ritual or battle spell requires more than level 9 in anything. Quite a few paths don't have level-9 requirements at all, if memory serves; there aren't that many except for Utterdark, Wish, Astral Nexus, Strands of Arcane Power.

If you're empowering that much, you're probably wasting gems that could more effectively be put into creating and unleashing pet Doom Horror commanders, because the empowerment costs just get extreme, or at a minimum in forging lots of tasty artifacts.

[Pocus]

in SP we play for enjoyment (in MP too, but with optimization somehow)... If it please him to have level 99 in death, then why not

[Psitticine]

I agree completely with Pocus. The primary point of any game is to have fun. If it is more fun for somebody to spend their gems a certain way, how can anybody else really say they are wrong?

Some people can only have fun if they win, which seems sort of sad to me, but I wouldn't try and tell them they are actually wrong. Likewise, if I (or anyone else) am in the mood to play with a less-than-perfectly-optimized style and make it less likely I'll win, even though I'm enjoying myself in the process, then so what? There's no reason for anybody to play according to anybody else's tastes unless they want to.

That's why I like multiple set-up options, modding, and the rest. It gives people the freedom to play closer and closer to their own tastes as possible, as well as allowing variation and providing endurance to the game.

[PvK]

Yep. This is a really fun game to play at a leisurely pace against the AI, indulging in eccentric exploration of the many arcane possibilities.

Another practical effect (unless I missed someone mentioning it) is the reduction of fatigue cost of spells that are lower than your level in their circle. I assume this continues for higher levels, so level 17 death would be able to cast death spells with very little fatigue cost. Since some spells have very high fatigue costs, this can turn them from one-shot spells to "cast over and over" spells.

This might also have been mentioned, but I think magic resistance of the target also goes down for over-powered casters.

PvK

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by PvK:
This might also have been mentioned, but I think magic resistance of the target also goes down for over-powered casters.

PvK

It does. You also get half your magic score round down as an MR boost towards spells of the same path. So it is difficult to disintegrate a Lich.

[HJ]

Originally posted by johan osterman:
You also get half your magic score round down as an MR boost towards spells of the same path.

Wow, this is new. Thanks for the info.