Lifespark and musings on defensive casting
- Thread starter Kael
- Start date
Kael
Deity
Sareln said:
No. You only need one mana of the appropriate type to be able to learn all ranks of the sphere.
1 node = your casters can learn that spell sphere
2 nodes = your casters get rank 1 in that spell sphere for free
3 nodes = your casters get rank 2 in that spell sphere for free
4 nodes = your casters get rank 3 in that spell sphere for free
Drat, Chan beat me to it.
Kael
Deity
Unser Giftzwerg said:That's true, but irrelevant to the speculation. The speculation was over how the spell would be used by players who have already chosen to create tier 3 casters who know Life 3 spells. That decision may be easy or hard to make, but the discussion assumed it had already been made.
The thought was, I'd rather cast a Lifespark had stack it with my army, than build a unit with the Medic promotion. Spells don't cost hammers. But, the thought continued, if the Lifespark casts itself, I'm screwed! There goes my Medic "unit"!
To which I replied: So what? Just cast another Lifespark. It's not like they take hammers or time to create.
I would add to this that a Lifespark is your typical summon, it only lasts for 1 turn (or 3 if you have the Summoner trait). So its use as a medic is mostly for flavor and to get the AI to be a little better with it. If you want a real medic for your units, you will still have to build one. And if your stack is injured you're better off summoning the lifespark and using its heal ability then letting it stick around for its medic effect.
Chandrasekhar
Determined
Wait, then can a summoner have it heal every turn, or is it sac'd when it does that?
QES
Court Jester
It just is able to do it every turn. It IS a life3 spell. And if you've a caster so devoted to life, it'd make sense that its a major part of the reason he exists.
-Qes
p.s. Is it possible to have a "Martyr" spell? Possibly like in the body sphere? It'd function the same, but instead of healing the unit, if the unit would "die" in combat, the martyr unit dies instead, and the ramining unit has 1 hp left, and is alive in the tile.
-Qes
p.s. Is it possible to have a "Martyr" spell? Possibly like in the body sphere? It'd function the same, but instead of healing the unit, if the unit would "die" in combat, the martyr unit dies instead, and the ramining unit has 1 hp left, and is alive in the tile.
Chandrasekhar
Determined
So it would save the unit regardless of how powerful its attacker was? Might be an interesting idea.
QES
Court Jester
@Chand~
Especially if you cannot control it like the Lifespark. IT WILL work and IT WILL happen the first time its needed, might not be when you want.
-Qes
Especially if you cannot control it like the Lifespark. IT WILL work and IT WILL happen the first time its needed, might not be when you want.
-Qes
Chandrasekhar
Determined
If it's a level three spell, you might as well have it so that it can be "bonded" with a unit, and that unit will survive its next combat. Unless we wanted to make it so that it would have a 100% chance of saving the first unit that would die when unbonded, but maybe a 50-75% chance of saving a unit that it was bonded to when it is bonded.
QES
Court Jester
Hrm, maybe. I like the idea that the Martyr chooses what to die for, not the player/AI.
-Qes
-Qes
Kael
Deity
QES said:
Yeah, some sort of guardian ability like that would be interesting.
QES
Court Jester
Kael said:
Maybe "bodyguard."
Though, that sounds like more of a "personal protection" for the magic-wielder who cast it. Still there might be interesting ideas in that too.
-Qes
Chandrasekhar
Determined
What's that one type of golem in D&D called, the Shield Golem or something?
Chandrasekhar said:
Yah, the shield golem. Though if you wanted to play around with that concept the general consensus is "Tread carefully". Apparently Hasbro (of which Wizards is a subsidiary) gets fairly... aggressive about its IP.
Chandrasekhar
Determined
Alright, then let's include a new construct that can take a hit for a spellcaster! We can call him a Gield Sholem!
Anyway, aren't Kael and co. protected by the fact that they aren't directly making a single penny because of this?
Anyway, aren't Kael and co. protected by the fact that they aren't directly making a single penny because of this?
Kael
Deity
Chandrasekhar said:
Nah, being non-profit doesn't allow you to violate copyright. But if they decide to sue me they won't be able to go after my vast FfH holdings (though they could still sue for their losses if they could show some).
But it would never come to that, they would ask me to remove it and I would. And if they get more difficult then that, I dip into my emergency supply which contains a harshly worded confesion letter threatening them and their mothers and signed (with the real life name and home address) by Woodelf, it also contains a ticket to Puerta Rico and a pair of Grocho glasses.
Nikis-Knight
Deity
By some odd chance, you probably look just like Woodelf when you are wearing Grocho glasses.
On topic, um, lifespark sounds cool. Hard to start a new game looking through the impressive change list.
Unser Giftzwerg
UgLe Game Promoter
Chandrasekhar said:
I failed to communicate my point I think. I don't disagree with anything above.
What I was trying to say that if a player already controls a unit that can cast a tier-3 Life spell, it is very easy to replace a lifespark unit. I was making no comment on how easy or hard it was to obtain this Life 3 spellcasting capability. If one already owns the capability to cast one spell each turn, is it not an investment when one casts one spell each turn. That's whay I was trying to say.
Lifespark seems good enough as is to go under playtest. Lifespark acts only on the defense, so in the vast majority of cases the first units to risk death are the best units available. I'm thinking in practical use, players would be saying "Yay Lifespark!" most times. Maybe it wouldn't save the most experienced unit every time, but these things happen in war.
Also, since it acts only defensively, won't it grant its Medic bonus at the beginning of the turn? Right now units heal before they are subject to attack, or is my impression wrong? If so, a Lifespark will alsways serve its secondary mission before it risks serving its primary role.
Example: You have wounded units but cannot afford to retreat. There's no medic unit in the tile either. (So I guess you have a Life-3 Conjuror here, as a Life-3 Disciple unit would have the Medic skill themselves.) So the Conjuror castts Lifespark. Your turn ends and units get their heal-up credit. Then the AI turns run. The tile is attacked, and the Lifespark saves the first doomed unit. Whatever happens during the AI turn happens, and it comes around to your turn again. Your Summoner is ready to cast Lifespark again. Seems to me this provides constant mediacal assistance. Am I misunderstanding the sequence here?
One nation can have quite a few of these critters running around. There may be several Lifesparks in an important tile. I'm uncertain of the rules here. Could one nation in theory have 9 Lifesparks up at any one time? 3 from High Priests, 3 from Inquisitors, and 3 from Summoners? And perhaps more from certain Heroes? Anyway, it occurs to me that a high-defense city tile with 8 Lifesparks in it is going to be, let us say, friggin' nigh impossible to take? That's means the attacker needs 8 more units nearby to attack 8 more times to kill the 0.01 STR units left alive. Don't kill 'em and boom Heal spell and the defending units are back to 100%. (If you can create 8 Lifesparks, you can cast Heal.)Well, Plauge would make such a city sackable, with enough casters. But it will be interesting to see the effect of many Lifesparks in one tile.
The idea of cloning this function to a Martyr promotion is certainly full of flava. And amusing unitended consequences, perhaps? We wary of promoting that Order Acolyte (right name? my bad) that Acolyte all the way up to High Priest. He never 'forgot' that Martyr promotion, The guys in the ambushed 0 exp Warrior unit really appreceated his gesture, but the Army does miss their level 11 healing machine.
The idea to tie the Lifespark to a unit would avid those surprises ... but does it not smack of more bourgasie oppression of the masses? All units are martyr-worthy, but some units are more martyr-worth than others? We want our heroes flinging themselves upon every sputtering hand grenade! But it sounds right up the alley for those "the needs of the many" Law-abiding drones.
Actually, it's a fine mechanic. But I think there are times you'd want it to work as it is now, whenever needed. For spells that have to be cast every turn for many turns in a row, its nice if casting takes just one mouse click. If a targeting window opens every time but is rarely used, that could get annoying. Just picking at nits.
Unser Giftzwerg
UgLe Game Promoter
Sareln said:
Curious as to what the number might be. Is it non-integer? If so, can we call a quorum?
Unser Giftzwerg
UgLe Game Promoter
Kael said:
Always good to have a fallback position.
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