Using Gems for Level Improvement in Battle

[Thufir]

I believe I read somewhere (Posts or manual) that a mage can use gems raise their effective level in a single battle, but I haven't seen anything in the UI that controls that - how do I get a mage to use gems for this purpose?

Also, I've read in Posts about using extra gems for reducing the fatigue cost, so I'll also need to know how to do that, as well


TIA,

Thufir

[Graeme Dice]

I believe I read somewhere (Posts or manual) that a mage can use gems raise their effective level in a single battle, but I haven't seen anything in the UI that controls that - how do I get a mage to use gems for this purpose?

Give them gems, and they will use them as needed. The maximum boost to skill that can be gained this was is one.

[Agrajag]

And just to elaborate: if your mages have a higher casting level in a certain type of magic than what the spell needs, it costs them lest fatigue to use it.

[Vynd]

To elaborate further: When casting a battle spell a mage can use a number of gems equal to his level in that spell's primary path. The first gem will be used to raise his effective level in that path by one.

This is good in one of two ways. Either it enables a mage to cast a spell that he otherwise wouldn't be able to. Or, if he was already able to cast the spell, being at a higher level than the minimum required to cast it will reduce the fatigue that he suffers. That's what Agrajag was getting at.

But the mage can use more than one gem, if his skill in that path is high enough. Only the first gem will raise his level, but the other gems will reduce the fatigue that he gets from the spell. This is one of the ways in which you can cast spells with extremely high fatigue costs.

If there is a specific spell you want you mage to cast that is one level higher than what he could normally cast, give him some gems and script him to cast the spell. Note that if you want him to cast the spell repeatedly, he needs a gem for each casting.

Even if you do this, the mage may not cast the spell you want. There are a couple of reasons for this, as I understand it. One is that the AI that runs your side in a battle evaluates whether or not the enemy is really strong enough that gems should be used up fighting it. If your army is strong and the other army is weak it will not use gems. The other reason is that mages will not cast spells that will leave them too exhausted.

[Thufir]

Thanks for the replies everyone, and thanks for the extra detail, Vynd. I probably should've read the manual more carefully before posting there is a detailed description of this topic in sect 6.4.7, but I appreciate the extra info anyhow

One thing that's still tricky for me to figure out - I had my Lvl 2 Nature mage (carrying 4 nature gems) scripted for 2 castings of summon sprites (costing 1 gem each) and then later casting relief (costing 0, but requiring >=1 for level increase). Much as you said Vynd, the Relief spell did not go off, since she had use all her gems earlier for the summons (or maybe other spells).

So, what I'm wondering is: are veteran players able to calculate to a nicety how many gems to giver their commanders in order to have a high probability that the most important spells actually do fire?

In the early/mid-game I'm reluctant to give lots of gems to commanders, since they seem to plow through them so fast, and they're also so crucial for summons/forging. OTOH, the Relief spell is a good example of a spell I'd really like to have access to as early as possible, and is tricky to script reliably (another gem using spell I like to use early (if I'm fighting Abysia), is Rain but that's easy to script reliably, since I'll always cast round 1).

Any insights on this newbie's conundrum are much appreciated!

For the Relief question, if you have a N2 caster. Then the most obvious answer would be to Forge a Thistle Mace. If you are looking for a explaination of gem usage and styles, I would have to say it's very situational. If I need something done as far as casting spells, I give usually 2 over the required casting, because of the tendancy to use gems for fatigue in the AI.

I also *never* apply gems that I plan on using in multiple battles. That means if I am having a caster cast Wrathful Skies and I want him to have them for a few battles, I only give him 2 Gems, and use a carrier to replentish him.