Better Know a Pretender: the Crone

[OmikronWarrior]

It's been a while since I posted one of these, but I was in a fickle mood. For your education and your enjoyment. Commets appreciated.

Better Know a Pretender: the Crone

“Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman. But an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any force.” - Dorothy L. Sayers

Cost: 0
Base Dominion: 1
HP: <9 (“<” implies stat will be reduced due to Old Age)
Size: 2
Strength: <9
Attack: <9
Defense: <9
Precision: <9
Base Protection: 0
Starting Magic: Death-1 and 10 points for new paths
Slots: Head, 2 Hands, Feet, and 4 Miscellaneous. No Chest.
Movement: 1
Base Encumbrance: 2
Starting Weapons: Fist (Damage: -2, Attack: -2, Defense: -1)
Starting Armor: None
Miscellaneous: Old Age (683/500, though actual starting value is randomized and can be higher or lower)
Availability: Universal for Land Nations.

Pros: The cheapest rainbow available, comes with 4 miscellaneous slots.

Cons: Comes with Old Age and stat penalties, lacks a chest slot, has only one map move.

Summary: Rainbow Pretenders do not get as much playtime as Super Combatants or Bless Chaises. Yet, for a strategy that calls for one should look first at the Crone. The catch is the Crone needs to have Nature magic along side whatever other paths the player wants, which is not much of a catch if the player wanted Nature magic anyway. Each level of Magic increases the Crone's maximum age by 25%, ending her Old Age penalties and the risk of random afflictions once a year. This combined with her low initial cost makes her the most affordable Rainbow with Death and Nature magic. And getting the most out of your design point is the first step to winning in Dominions 3. Unfortunately, her map move of only 1 gives the player less flexibility in using her to site search. The trade off is more Miscellaneous slots which means more flexibility in casting high level or endgame magic. Works best with Astral magic either on the Pretender or national mages who can forge Rings of Wizardry and Sorcery. These boosters combine with other Miscellaneous and other slot boosters. For example, the Crone can equip up to +4 Astral boosters without counting uniques. If a player wants to cast Wish or Master Enslave as part of their strategy, he saves numerous design points by picking the Crone over other options.

Awake Strategy: Crone is not going to be any help expanding, and should actively avoid combat except to cast tide turning spells during critical battles. National troops must be able to expand from the get go, or the player should not bother with the Crone. The Crone, when awake, will spend a few turns researching while armies claim some territory. The Crone will soon leave the capital and start site searching. Remember, with only 1 map move her route should be planned carefully, and she should be scripted to retreat in case of a random barbarian attack. This gives the player both an early research boost and an early gem income. This works better with more paths and a higher site frequency. For purposes of finding the sites that are there regardless of frequency, its usually best to have two or three levels of any magic path. Yes, having Death-4 will find 100% of all Death sites, but having 3-Death will still find 99% of all Death sites. Death-2 will still get a majority, probably over 70%. The one exception for this is Blood Magic. No more than Blood-1 is necessary on any Rainbow pretender as Blood sites are so incredibly rare anyways, and blood slaves are cheap enough that it makes sense to just empower if more Blood Magic is wanted.

Bless Strategy: Eh, not really there. OK, Nature-4 or Nature-6 does come in handy for nations with sacred thugs, especially if they have Mistform. Ditto for Earth-4 or Earth-6. Death magic, on the otherhand, is pretty marginal at low levels. And the player should never buy to much of anyone path on a rainbow, its just not what the build is about. To buy enough of any other path to have a low level bless probably means it would be cheaper to go with a different Pretender.

Sleeping Strategy: This is essentially the same as the Awake strategy, only the trade off is more points in exchange for delayed research and site searching. The difference can cancel each other out and player should decide this based on the need for points versus a need for a more immediate start. Remember, a sleeping Crone will only awake after 12 turns, give or take. For her to actually start contributing will take several more turns of site searching or casting. So, in smaller, tighter maps the player should consider keeping the Crone awake. However, for larger, more spacious maps it makes sense to put the Crone asleep and use the extra points to pick up more longterm advantages in scales, higher levels of Magic (especially Astral or Death) or additional paths for more magical diversity.

Imprisoned Strategy: Under no circumstances should the Crone be Imprisoned. By the time she escapes, her advantages as an earlier researcher and site searcher will be gone.

Magic Diversity Strategy: What else is a Rainbow for? Obviously, the Crone gives Death, she also all but de facto gives Nature. She works well with Astral as well, giving her access to the Rings and when combined with Nature Moonvine bracelet (Nature +1). Astral also lets the Crone cast Teleport alleviating her mobility problems. Throw Earth into this mix for Crystal Coins (+1 Astral), and Earth Boots (Earth +1) and Dwarven Hammers (25 % discount on forging). Anything beyond this, I recommend reading the magic diversity guide for pointers.

Typical Equipment Includes: Boosters, boosters, and more boosters. As stated earlier, Rings of Wizardry (+1 in all paths) and Sorcery (+1 in Astral, Blood, Death, and Nature) are excellent additions. Use them to be able to cast a variety of globals and Super Combatant summons, including Tartarians and Elemental Royalty.

Conclusion: Usually, the best way to go about a Rainbow built is for the player to first figure out what magic paths he wants and then choose the best Pretender for those paths. However, the Crone's zero cost and possible extra boosters from having additional Miscellaneous slots makes her an attractive pick from the get go. Just be sure to pick up Nature magic to cancel out the effects of Old Age.

P.S. Please check out my other BKaP guides.

The Allfather.

The Oracle.

The Virtue.

The Worst 3 Pretenders available.