Death Bless

[Edratman]

Probably a dumb question, but does the death bless infliction bonus apply to spell damage when the spell is cast by sacred mages that are blessed?

[Baneslave]

Yes, AFAIk.

[Baalz]

Yes, it does, you can get pretty wicked effects with spells like rain of stones and earthquake. Also effects arrows, unlike the fire bless.

[Wahnsinniger]

Bloodletting!

The D9 Doesn't work with Arrows though, plus the lesser death bless doesn't help the arrows do more damage, so unless you have Flaming Arrows cast, it isn't really that effective. (Can't cause afflictions if the arrows don't hit/do damage in the first place!)

[Baalz]

You are correct that it doesn't add damage to the arrows, but I've found it to be pretty effective at inflicting afflictions on most troops. Arrows doing only 1 or 2 points of damage with a D9 or 10 bless have a considerable chance of making you lose an arm, get a chest wound, gain battle fright, and all kinds of other nasty things you don't want to happen as you're charging into battle. You can also do mean things like Fire and Flee with death blessed archers to really discourage elite armies from pressing into your territory. Works well on javelins to, and they're a lot more common on holy troops.

[MaxWilson]

It affects direct-damage spells (Blade Wind, Cloud of Death), Battlefield spells (Fire Storm, Earthquake, Bone Grinding), and overland spells (Seeking Arrow, Flames From the Sky). I've never tested whether it works on global spells like the one that sends lightning against enemies in your dominion, but it works great for everything else. In one test a D9-blessed Svartalf did a Rain of Stones on an army of 100 Ambibate Nobles. About 25 died and another 50 were afflicted. It's terrific for afflicting whole armies.

How much you like that depends upon how much you care about afflicting enemies, vs. actually killing them.

-Max

[Edratman]

I was pondering the effect of the death bless for mages as a means of crippling SC's, powerful rushes (such as Nefelheim or elephants, and high hit point pretenders in the home castle. It would also be potent for a mage raid on a powerful army with a blade wind and retreat script for example.

[Wahnsinniger]

Throw the Blood-9 Death Curse on there, and using cheap Sacreds like Flagallents or mictlan's, then the enemy army is doomed whether they win or lose.

[Kristoffer O]

My brother just pointed out that this probably means that the heroic ability 'legendary cruelty' also affects spells in the same manner (it gives some fear and increased affliction chances).

[MaxWilson]

Don't bother with the cheap sacreds. Use a single sacred mage and a spell like Earthquake or Rain of Stones. (Edit: IIRC, the death curse gives an MR resist roll.)

However, "Doomed" is a bit strong. "Annoyed" might be better. Much like the spell Leprosy, the main effect is probably psychological. People hate having their pretty armies messed up.

-Max