Pretender goes *Poof*

[archaeolept]

Well, I know I've come across someone complaining of something similar, so I thought I would run this by the cognoscenti here.

Playing Jotuns on Karan map. Have a nice and beefy Son of Niefel pretender (F4A2W9E4). He, a couple Jarls, and a bunch of woodsmen attack a Jade Amazon province, right by my home and w/ a strong friendly dominion. The Amazons are decimated and the two sorceresses cast nothing of interest (barkskin and the like).

Enemy armies are routed.

Then the Last Jade unit is killed.

At that moment my pretender, who has been behind the lines casting spells (legions of steel, fire shield), and has 194 hit points, just goes "poof" and dies.

That's it. No conceivable reason at all as far as I can see. Is this a serious bug or am I missing some sort of possibility?

thanks

[Norfleet]

I am utterly mystified. It's POSSIBLE, but VERY unlikely, that a pretender in such good health spontaneously died of spellcasting fatigue, but he'd have to have cast something MASSIVELY fatiguing to accomplish that in his state of health, and the symptoms don't match up at all.

He COULD have been struck and failed an MR save on an instant death spell/effect of some kind(Blood vengeance?), but you said the Sorceresses cast nothing of interest.

It's also possible he was auto-killed by the battle timer, but that doesn't really fit the symptoms you describe either.

Frankly, I'm stumped. Either there's something at work that you failed to notice, or this is just a plain and simple bug. Was your pretender in the HoF? If so, check his hitpoints. If he's at negative several thousand, odds are very good he was killed by some sort of instant death effect, as opposed to battle damage. Battle damage rarely leaves the deceased at worse than -50. If you're seeing something like -9000, that's some sort of death effect.

[archaeolept]

OMG, the first spell cast (which I hadn't noticed) was "bleed", which seemed to give him some fatigue.

then, in the Last few microseconds (after the Last death cry of the Last jade sorceress), his fatigue went from 91 to 93 to 97, and he accumulated two afflictions (limp and never healing wound).

Then he went "poof".

I had no idea bleed was a pretender killer. It's a level 0 spell for crissakes.

thanks for the suggestions. checking his fatigue clued me in. Still seems kinda crazy. He still had huge hit points and was under a 100 fatigue at the end.

[Norfleet]

Even 100 fatigue is not fatal or even really dangerous. 100 fatigue or so only results in unconciousness. It's at *200* fatigue that it starts becoming lethal and inflicting actual damage.

However, *BLEED* is DEFINITELY your cause of death there. It's a slow death spell, MR-negates.

Since you said your pretender died instantly after the Last amazon left the battle, that is definitely your cause of death: When the Last enemy has been killed or routed, all lingering battlefield effects are resolved before the combat ends: In your case, Bleed.

So it's official: There's no bug, your pretender was killed by Bleed.

[archaeolept]

yeah, but it still sucks. 30 units to choose from, a precision zero spell, against a fully healthy pretender w/ almost 200hp and MR 21. just crazy bad luck, I guess.

I had no idea that bleed could be so devastating.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by archaeolept:
yeah, but it still sucks. 30 units to choose from, a precision zero spell, against a fully healthy pretender w/ almost 200hp and MR 21. just crazy bad luck, I guess.

I had no idea that bleed could be so devastating.

Well, the precision 0 and MR 21 are the unlucky part. The target selection is less than surprising, and if any OTHER target had been chosen, there would surely be more complaints about the idiocy of the spell AI. I mean, think about it: What would YOU have picked?