MA C'tis question

[iRFNA]

I can think of something.. It's called murdering the lizardcrats.

[LDiCesare]

There's nothing to protect oneself from the lizards stench. Best bet is to die and be reborn as an undead. Immortality and recuperation help too, but can't be acquired either.

[Hylobius]

Trouble maker

Originally Posted by iRFNA

I can think of something.. It's called murdering the lizardcrats.

[Meursy]

@Hylobius

You can give a diseased commander a regneration item, and that will slow down the hit point loss quite a lot. Instead of losing 1hp a turn, you only lose 1hp a year, in Late Winter.

Also, if your diseased commander is low on hitpoints, a good trick is to bring them into a combat. They will regenerate back up to their maximum base hp eventally, depending on what that amount is and their regen rate.

As a side note here be careful if you're using the Lycanthropes Amulet to get your regen. If you send someone wearing that into battle they'll beserk and charge straight towards the enemy! It's the cheapest item to get regen however, the other regular options being a regen ring or hydra armour, both N2.

So in theory you can keep your diseased commanders alive forever, though it costs you in nature gems and micromanagement.

Regular units are pretty screwed however, unless you have some sort of healing unit available, the Gift of Health global enchantment, or The Chalice, which is a unique artifact.

I often pick out my most affliction screwed units and put them in front of my armies to catch arrows/lance charges.

[thejeff]

The other common regen item is a Shroud, if you've got a N4+ bless. Which is pretty common, partly for that purpose.

[LDiCesare]

Regen is of little help against afflictictions however, and disease tends to pile them upon you. When your commander is feebleminded, blind, crippled, chest wounded and lost an arm, he's no longer as useful as he used to be.

[Meursy]

Yeah, it's true that being diseased increases your chances for further affliction accumulation, and it always sucks to lose a mage to afflictions, but you generally get quite a lot more usefulness out of your mages before you have to kill them off in battle if you give them regen. It's almost always worth the investment if you can afford the gems.

A possible exception could be old age mages. I've noticed that mages who are already in old age and diseased (e.g. Abysian ones) tend to accumulate those extra afflictions at a significantly higher rate than non old age mages. Whether this is only due to the Late Winter affliction/disease check or applies every turn I don't know. I'm talking in a timescale of a year to two years game time (which is already a lot for your typical MP game). This info might be applicable to longer timescales but I'm not as sure.

I'm still giving old age disease mages at least a Lycanthrope amulet if possible though!

And out of those afflictions that LDiCesare mentioned, only feeblemind, and to a lesser extent mute, really hurt your mages (the only commanders worth worrying about generally). Obviously physical afflictions might prevent the mage contributing in battle, but you'll have plenty of affliction free mages for that. Keep your cripples in the lab!

[Soyweiser]

I agree with the use of regen items. And another thing, these items never go out of fashion. You can always use shrouds (if you have a regen bless) or rings of regen. And you get some more turns out of your mages, and if you need the regen items somewhere else, you can always let the mage die a little bit. I disagree with the lycanthrope amulet. It cannot be moved, and auto berzerk sucks on mages. (So the enemy is at your research base? To bad you cannot use all your mages as artillery because you gave the old ones auto berzerk items).

But I wonder if this is really the most efficient use of mage time. If you know you are going to use the regen items later, and you already have spare hammer time, it might is. But it does cost one mage to create the items (probably at higher gem cost). So the question to ask is, is this mage so useful that I can spend one mage turn (and his RP), and 3/2 gems on his survival? (Some times it is some times it isn't, say you have a Gygja who gets a disease, it takes 38(!) turns for it to die. So I wouldn't bother unless he?she?it? has very good randoms. But if you have a diseased sybil (8 hp), and some indy mages with n2, get a ring of regen. (Indy mage RP4, Sybil RP6, cap only)(*)).

But the abysian mages tend to get old faster because fire magic is bad for you. (The use of these magics consumes your life-force at the same rate it consumes your enemies . Very thematic (or, for roleplay reasons as Gandalf would say )).

Look at the Edi FAQ ageing mechanics:
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/User:...ging_mechanics
(Which is excellent, and a must read btw). And the wiki page on old age:
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Old_age

So, looking at the FAQ/Wiki what else did we discover? Well, if you give your old age mages nature magic during the winter, their max age increases! And death magic decreases chances. So in winter, move those nature/death boosters onto your old age units. (**)

*: Of course, forging a item means your haruspex site searching is a turn later, which is a potential sites later etc.
**:Of course, only if you have spare ones. Don't wait a turn casting your spells etc, just to save a potential old age affliction. But you get the point. It is all trade-offs. Limited by the amount of min maxing and thinking you want to do about it.

[RamsHead]

Most of this has already been covered, but I will quote myself from a post I made years ago on this topic.

"Being coldblooded, lifeless, a demon, or having swamp survival makes you immune to the Miasma."

And then there is the undead thing, which people already mentioned.