Send Tupilak

[Agema]

Send Tupilak is a spectacularly useless spell.

Considering it's a Polar Bear corpse and thus quite large and heavy, I'd consider just giving it trample, so it becomes a weak Earth Attack like spell.

[Bananadine]

No one loves the tupilak but me

[Swan]

No one loves the tupilak but Bananadine

[Baalz]

Tupilak is fine for what it is - a relatively cheap niche spell which can be spammed with no preparation if ever a good opportunity presents itself. Ever been invaded by somebody who wasn't expecting assassinations and has critical mages without bodyguards? Knock out a couple communion slaves to throw the rest into critical fatigue mode, take out the guy who was gonna cast fog warriors for the big fight, kill the guy holding the sea king's goblet, cause the guy spamming bloodletting to burn through his blood slaves early, or kill a couple indie commanders thus unexpectedly splitting the enemy forces and the 5D per casting looks pretty cheap. Sure, it's a narrow niche, but not all *that* uncommon. Also, 5D is a hell of a bargain for taking out research mages holding skull mentors, clams, hammers, etc. Might even get lucky and kill a lab mage holding a ring of wizardry, etc. Like I said, it's a spell to spam when your opponent wasn't expecting it with no particular preparation or special research on your part. Take out ten expensive, cap only Abysian warlocks along with a couple boosters they were holding, then come back and tell me how spectacularly useless it is again. You might even get a shot at a tasty rainbow pretender strolling around site searching...its only level 5 in a school you may be researching anyway so it can come into play fairly early.

[Kuritza]

Still, it might cost a bit less. With a bit more research, you can send an Ashen Angel for the same price.

[Bananadine]

Originally Posted by Kuritza

Still, it might cost a bit less. With a bit more research, you can send an Ashen Angel for the same price.

But not underwater! And maybe not on short notice or in great number, since Manifestation has a rather high skill requirement.

This makes it even more important that Send Tupilak be made to work properly underwater!

[Baalz]

Manifestation is level 8, in a different path and requires a D5 mage (as in a skull staff + an expensive booster...so tack on construction-6 to the requirements), and has a drawback that can come back to bite you. Sure it's a good spell, but comparing it to a spell you'll probably have access to in year 2 and can cast with 25% of your naked Angakoks isn't really appropriate.

[HoneyBadger]

Why wouldn't they expect it? Using a dodgy spell to take advantage of a possibly distracted opponent who might not have read the manual (it's in there, afterall), seems like a whole lot of "if's".

It might happen, and it could be effective, but it's clearly also a tactic that depends on your opponent being stupider than you are (and that's always a bad idea).

The only certainty in that equation is that the spell itself just isn't great (not for a level 5 dual path National, anyway), and could do with some improvement.

[Baalz]

That's rather silly HB, its not a matter of you planning on fighting a stupid opponent. There are plenty of times you can catch even an expert player off guard with a maneuver they weren't expecting - that's the whole point of pitting your wits against somebody else in a strategy game. It'd be one thing if this was a goto spell that pretty much anyone attacking LA Atlantis knew they'd be seeing spammed every turn(like, say, expecting mind hunt from Arcoscephale). The very fact that it's such a niche spell means that even a well prepared opponent might choose not to allocate his resources towards countering it, or forget about it briefly during the course of a war, or unintentionally find himself vulnerable due to something like his troops splitting up, or intentionally make himself vulnerable in pursuing a goal (ie cloud trapezing in somebody who blew through his gems taking out PD and is now vulnerable). Is it a stupid opponent who has his rainbow pretender out site searching year two when you happen to spot him with a scout? Is it a stupid opponent who has mostly expensive cap only mages in his cap along with most of his boosters? Is it a stupid opponent who has only expensive mages to bloodhunt who are out with no bodyguards counting on the PD to help in defense? Is it a stupid opponent who doesn't meticulously assign bodyguards to every troop herding indie commander he uses? The whole point is it's sitting there, available to be used with no preparation if you see an opportunity to do so - which I firmly believe are not so rare if you use a bit of cleverness.

[Bananadine]

Also, in every pair of people, one is stupider than the other (so Send Tupilak succeeds 50% of the time, scientifically)