Strands of Astral Power. Worth it?

[sum1lost]

Astral mages are automatically protected against Strands, I believe.

[Tuidjy]

> Astral mages are automatically protected against Strands, I believe.

Actually, no. Astral mages are the one that Strands is supposed to feeblemind.
But because the caster does not seem to benefit from extra levels, penetration
items, or dominion strength, astral mages laugh at the spell. I have at least
eighty (80) mages in my dominion, and on the last turn, my caster failed to
detect a single one.

> a standard mage with 13-15 MR in your dominion with magic 2 (for example),
> that takes it down to 12 or 13 is a big difference

I never play with Magic 2, but I am reasonably sure that it is -1 to MR, not -2.

[vfb]

Astral mages get a resist bonus versus astral spells, I think that may be what sum1lost means.

[Tuidjy]

Well, if they get their level bonus when the caster does not get his, the spell
is even more worthless than it already is, but at these levels of usefulness,
it is hard to tell the difference.

I mean, what is more useful - a playdough beer opener, or one made of cottoncandy?

[AdmiralZhao]

Has the playdough dried out?

[AdmiralZhao]

Has the playdough dried out?

[Dedas]

Tuidjy said:
> Astral mages are automatically protected against Strands, I believe.

Actually, no. Astral mages are the one that Strands is supposed to feeblemind.
But because the caster does not seem to benefit from extra levels, penetration
items, or dominion strength, astral mages laugh at the spell. I have at least
eighty (80) mages in my dominion, and on the last turn, my caster failed to
detect a single one.

> a standard mage with 13-15 MR in your dominion with magic 2 (for example),
> that takes it down to 12 or 13 is a big difference

I never play with Magic 2, but I am reasonably sure that it is -1 to MR, not -2.

I did never state that Magic 2 gives -2 in MR. I did however state that most standard mages have a MR between 13-15. Lowering that to 12, 13 or 14 with Magic 2 gives you a much better chance of success. That is because the SoAP requires a simple MR check (against 10) if I'm not mistaken. Anything that lowers the enemies MR just a little is very, very good, just look at the table in the manual.

[Sombre]

Yeah but he's saying he has magic 2 and loads of mages there waiting to be detected, yet the spell isn't doing a damn thing. So regardless of how theoretically helpful it would be to lower enemy mage mr, it doesn't change that SoAP doesn't really work as intended.

[Dedas]

Tuidjy said:
It is drain 2, but what does it matter? As if +2 or +3 to penetration would
make a difference. I have no SCs at under 22, and no mage under 20... I doubt my
opponents do. So instead of MR 23, they would be MR 20 if I had magic + 3. Woo!
Then I'd have made a killing... Unless there is a way to reduce the enemies' MR
beyond the measily +2 from magic 3, this spell is worthless.

Oh, and when I said 30 mages, I lied. In just one province, there's about 50
astral mages... and not one was detected.

Nope, he says he has drain 2.

[Szumo]

I've used Strands in one of my MP games, with Tartarian (AFAIR 6 or 7 natural astral), equipped with runesmasher and rings of wizardry and sorcery. My dominion was very strong, and he killed or feebleminded several enemy mages each turn, so the spell seemed to work fine.

EDIT: i had magic +3 dominion.