The Gift of Kurgi - is it useful?

[ditoLoco]

When The Gift of Kurgi is useful enough to be used?
The side effects are pretty scary ...

[TigerBlood]

I've used it on a stealthy raider before. As an item, the fatigue cost from the spell is minimal.

Biggest drawback is that it's holder becomes a preferred target for spammed horrors unless backed up by another mage capable of casting horror mark. Even then, success is not a given. You could probably do a few tricks with Returning or other spells, but commiting a mage to help make it work kind of makes the item redundant in a lot of situations.

The ritual spell it grants can be used without a lab, so that is a plus.

[PriestyMan]

Its a great SC item. give it to a tartarian or something and it gives fear +30, ethereal, and flying all in one item. and that tart should be able to beat down an endless amount of horrors and even some doom horrors assuming he is kitted otherwise intelligently.

[Stretch]

It's definitely useful. Give it to an SC unit with some decent gear and it will be a great raider. The insanity doesn't actually build that fast and you're going to be sending it to raid your enemies most of the time anyway.

[brxbrx]

I'd suggest putting on something mindless or combining it with a slave collar. You can get a good SC that way

[earcaraxe]

Originally Posted by brxbrx

I'd suggest putting on something mindless or combining it with a slave collar. You can get a good SC that way

what is the reason behind giving it to mindless commander? immune to insanity?

[brxbrx]

yeah. I think. The slave collar definitely makes you immune, not so sure about mindlessness

[Knai]

Originally Posted by brxbrx

yeah. I think. The slave collar definitely makes you immune, not so sure about mindlessness

It also utterly cripples combat potential in the vast majority of cases. And I'm not so sure about this whole immunity either.

[TigerBlood]

I have used it on Panii to good effect. I might try adding a Black Heart if I play Pangaea, just to give a charming/hellbinding assassin a failsafe against a high MR victim (and discovery by patrollers).

The fact that the item is cheap is a major bonus IMO. Put it on a unit you can afford to lose then send them into enemy territory.

[Peter Ebbesen]

It is an exceptionally useful SC and thug item.

To mangle an old joke, people who worry about the insanity should have their heads examined, and people who worry about the horrors it attracts aren't kitting out the SC or thug right.

Explanation for the latter: either you kit out your Kurgi SC with very good equipment that is capable of taking out the vast majority of horrors, which isn't all that hard to do with a SC chassis, or you kit out a disposable SC or thug with mediocre equipment, and the potential loss of the minor investment in blood slaves and gems for ordinary equipment to a horror attack is peanuts compared to the benefits proper use of the SC or thug is likely to reap you.

And yes, it sucks when your expensively kitted out Gift of Kurgi SC gets lost in the planes, but that happens rarely and the life expectancy of any SC or thug on active duty is nothing to write home about in the first place, so it isn't as if this small additional risk significantly affects how much use you should expect to get out of it.