Help Jules design his pretender god!

[Jules]

After having lots of fun with AoW: Shadow Magic, I've decided to give Dominions II a try. It looks like D2 is on a much bigger scale than SM, which is very appealing to me. Currently just trying out the demo, but wow, so many choices to make before you even get into an actual game.

I like Ulm because Black Knights are cool and I'm thinking of going the military conquest route. So for those of you who got the game, what do you recommend as far as physical form, magic paths, etc. go? Some kind of magic expert like a mage seems sensible since new paths are cheap, but I'll defer to those of you who've mastered the game.

[General Ludd]

I like to roleplay with the game a bit, and when playing Ulm I typically do one of two things;

Pick the Monolith pretender (and name if something like "Stone of Ulm") and choose the iron faith specialty, then put a few points into earth and maybe another spell line.

Or, go with an alchemist and the golem cult specialty and raise the production and order aswell as choosing a variety of magic lines.

[Sandman]

I like Ulm, although I have to admit they're not the strongest nation around.

Whilst Black Knights are effective, I find that you get a lot more bang for your buck from Ulmish infantry; one Black Knight has the same upkeep as seven soldiers.

A rainbow pretender is a good bet with Ulm; if you don't want to role-play, don't take any earth; your smiths can cast gnome lore, whilst your pretender searches for other paths.

[quantum_mechani]

In the case of Ulm, I would indeed choose a rainbow pretender. However, my choice would be one such as the Ghost King, who can also be used to combat entire armies when configured right. The key is 'buffing' spells, like mirror image, mist form, quickness, and fire shield. While rather useless on a normal mage, they can be quite potent on a pretender with good stats and abilities.

I also strongly advise taking an order scale; it greatly increases your gold income. The point cost is often defrayed by taking misfortune. Order makes events less common, so misfortune is less of a problem.

[Jules]

"Rainbow" pretender?
By this you mean having proficiency in multiple magic paths, right? Because at first I'm looking through all the different forms thinking, "Which one looks like a rainbow?" Seriously, that's how much of a noob I am here.

Ok, here's what I picked:
- Monolith looked good all-around, except for lack of mobility (gets one level of Astral and Nature magic)
- Iron Faith theme (requires one order scale and one drain scale)
- dominion: 5 (Monolith starts with 4, added one more)
- took one productivity scale and one growth scale
- fortress-type: Castle
- magic: Earth 5, Astral 5, Nature 4
That leaves me with 13 points, which will have to remain unused since it's not enough to buy anything else.

[Jules]

Hmm...perhaps I shouldn't completely overlook fire magic. Some pretty nifty spells there.


*Beavis voice*
Fire! Fire!

[General Ludd]

I'm goign to hijack this thread for my own purposes.


I was thinking about making a "full conversion" mod that replaced all the races with more traditional fantasy races - dwarvves, elves, orcs, ect...

It's really just a pipe dream at this stage, but if you have any suggestions or ideas for what races I could put in to replace all the current ones, feel free to throw them out.

[Sandman]

Bah. What makes Dominions good is the lack of shameless Tolkien rip-offery.

I'd steer clear of Iron Faith. It's a rather weak theme IMO.

As regular Ulm, it's a total no-brainer to go for maximum drain; your smiths are immune to it. It'll raise your magic resistance (a weakness for Ulm) and make things more difficult for non-smith mages.

Maxing out order and production is also pretty essential for Ulm. What you do with growth and luck is more flexible, although you should probably avoid taking death or luck scales. Misfortune is manageable, if annoying.

Choose one of the small mage pretenders; the master alchemist if you want money and to roleplay, the sage for research or the druid for stealth. Give him/her lvl2 in several magic paths, and use that to search for magic sites. You'll soon find plenty of them.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Sandman
Bah. What makes Dominions good is the lack of shameless Tolkien rip-offery.

I wasn't talking about "Tolkien rip-offery", but just more traditional fantasy races. Aside from the tolkien things like elves and dwarves, I was also thinking about minotaurs, perhaps draconians, and other things like that. I can't say the nations in Dominions 2 inspire me very much.


But what about Pratchet rip-offery - would you be interested in my pictsies mod if I ever got around to finishing it?

I've lacked the motivation needed to keep tweaking the units, ect...

[Sandman]

Originally posted by General Ludd
I wasn't talking about "Tolkien rip-offery", but just more traditional fantasy races. Aside from the tolkien things like elves and dwarves, I was also thinking about minotaurs, perhaps draconians, and other things like that. I can't say the nations in Dominions 2 inspire me very much.

Each to his own, I suppose. What is so inspirational about 'traditional' fantasy races, compared to, say, the Viking nations of Dominions? I want to see new ground broken, not tired old cliches churned out for the umpteenth time to satisfy some miniscule fanbase.

But what about Pratchet rip-offery - would you be interested in my pictsies mod if I ever got around to finishing it?

Someone desperately needs to do a Discworld map for Dominions.

[Jules]

Originally posted by General Ludd
I'm goign to hijack this thread for my own purposes.


I was thinking about making a "full conversion" mod that replaced all the races with more traditional fantasy races - dwarvves, elves, orcs, ect...

It's really just a pipe dream at this stage, but if you have any suggestions or ideas for what races I could put in to replace all the current ones, feel free to throw them out.

Yes, Precious, we must have orcses, elveses, and dwarveses to complement nasty men. And don't forget filthy, dirty Hobbitses! Trixie! False! Wring their scrawny, little necks, yes! And then we will take the Precioussss....

[quantum_mechani]

To threadjack a second time... is anyone interested in joining an Apolyton dominions game?

[General Ludd]

I'll play if some others are interested.

[Jules]

Dominions related threadjacks are allowed.

Originally posted by Sandman
I'd steer clear of Iron Faith. It's a rather weak theme IMO.

How come? How about Ceremonial Faith then? That's available for only one order scale.

As regular Ulm, it's a total no-brainer to go for maximum drain; your smiths are immune to it. It'll raise your magic resistance (a weakness for Ulm) and make things more difficult for non-smith mages.

Yeah, I should've paid closer attention to Ulm's description. Smiths are not affected by drain.

Choose one of the small mage pretenders; the master alchemist if you want money and to roleplay, the sage for research or the druid for stealth. Give him/her lvl2 in several magic paths, and use that to search for magic sites. You'll soon find plenty of them.

How come only level 2? Aren't you stuck with the levels you purchase at the beginning? It seems to me that's limiting the spells you'll be able to research. Or am I then supposed to rely upon the magical items forged by my smiths, which will be powerful?

I'm starting to get the impression that having played D&D at some point in your life is a prerequisite for understanding this game.

[quantum_mechani]

Like I said before, full order scale is a must, for almost any strategy.

And yes, there are many 'booster' items. High astral in particular gives rings of wizardry which raise your level in all paths. Infact, each path has at least two booster items for them (fire skull and flaming helmet for fire, winged helmet and bag of air for air, ect.).