Can't get communion to work

[MartialDoctor]

Hey all,

It seems that I can't get communion to work at all.

I first tried casting communion master in the first turn along with the others casting communion slave. However, they cast in the wrong order and it didn't work at all.

Now, I have set my communion master to cast in the second turn, after all others have cast communion slave. The communion master here gets no buff at all. However, when I cast a self buff, it affects the slaves and the master.

Any advice on what's going on here and why I can't get it to work?

Thanks.

[llamabeast]

It doesn't matter what order they cast Master/Slave in. They can be all jumbled up in any order, it's not important.

Why do you say it doesn't work? I think that the path bonuses to the master(s) aren't shown, but they do get the benefit.

However, when I cast a self buff, it affects the slaves and the master.

This means it's working. After the master casts the buff, you should find that the master has accrued much less fatigue than expected (though he will always get a certain amount just from his encumbrance), while all the slaves will have gained a bit of fatigue. You should also find that the master is able to cast spells with high path requirements that he wouldn't normally be able to cast.

[MartialDoctor]

Really? I read elsewhere that slaves must cast first and then the master. That's good to know.

However, it obviously isn't working exactly right because the master isn't showing up as having the higher paths. Hence the confusion.

[llamabeast]

However, it obviously isn't working exactly right because the master isn't showing up as having the higher paths.

Just to clarify, this is working as designed. The higher paths don't show up.

[rdonj]

Also what you were reading about was referencing reverse communions, as opposed to the ordinary communion. As a refresher, a reverse communion is where you use one or more masters to cast spells to boost the magical powers of the communion slaves and maybe cast a few buffs on them, and then the commmunion slaves use their newfound powers to spam spells they would ordinarily be incapable of casting. Because of the quirks of this method, whenever a master casts a spell any communion slaves who haven't cast yet in the turn are unable to cast until the next turn.

In an ordinary communion this is unimportant because it's mainly about boosting the power of the masters, and the slaves aren't necessarily intended to cast anything.

[Amhazair]

Originally Posted by MartialDoctor

Really? I read elsewhere that slaves must cast first and then the master.

There's probably a bit of confusion here with another communion mechanic. As Llama said, it doesn't matter in what order the mages cast the communion master/slaves spell, all mages who cast one of those will join the communion as masters or slaves accordingly.

However, once in the communion, communion slaves won't cast spells anymore if (one of) the master(s) has already cast a spell in that turn. This doesn't matter if all you want to do is to boost the paths of the master(s) so they can cast high-pathlevel spells, and to distribute the fatigue amongst the slaves. (In fact, this is a good thing, since having slaves cast their own spells will increase their fatigue, and thus the chance they fall unconscious and die from the fatigue of the master's spells.)

There is however a specific kind of communion - often referred to as a "reverse" communion, in which you want to take a large number of slaves, have one or a few mages buff them (with for example Power of the Spheres, the various elemental path boosters, eagle eyes and the like) and have the buffed slaves do the bulk of the spellcasting. To set up this kind of communion you have to make sure the mages you choose as masters cast their spells at the end of the turn*, otherwise the slaves won't cast the spells you want them to.**


* Mages on the battlefield will allways cast their spells in the same order, with the ones at the top of the battle-setup screen comming first, and those at the bottom last.

** Assigning mages at the end of the casting order as the 'masters' is the easiest way of forming a 'reverse' communion, however this isn't allways possible. (For example, you have only one earth mage you want to cast summon earthpower, so all slaves benefit from the fatigue reducion, and he comes early in the casting order.) There are a couple of tricks to pull this of regardless, including having them retreat after buffing, (with the drawback they will end up in some other province after battle, rather than with the rest of the army) or giving them some kind of missile weapon so you can give them 'fire' orders after they've cast their crucial buff.