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unmerged(1133)

Second Lieutenant
Feb 24, 2001
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Isn't the artifact from Kind Idres priceless for the Sages? +1 Fight, +1 magic and -30% cooldown. The drawback is one relatively good fighter less in the beginning but anyway there are more then enough knights in the game (unlike the artifacts).
Or there is a similar artifact later in the game?
 
Yes it's a great artifact, but you'll find other powerful weapons later too. Plus an extra knight will help you complete the round table quest faster and get the reward.

In my personal playthroughs, the Idres vs Mark decision (like the Somerset vs. Dorset one) is more about whether I am going for a Rightful or Tyrant morality playthrough, with the actual rewards being more like the "incing on the cake". Of course, the morality hits (if you chose the artifact reward on a rightful playthrough for example) can be reversed later in the game, but it still allows quicker access to all of the good "morality" stuff (and is more consistent if you intend to "roleplay" your playthrough too :) ).
 
I spend half an hour cheating to check all the weapons in the vanilla game; probably the mana restoring weapons are still better for the spellcasters.
As for the role-playing you are correct of course... but as the people says "Good guys go to Heavens, bad guys - where they want" - or a slightly differently said - The bad guys get all the blondes:)
 
To be honest, I have been playing mostly with the DLC and/or Expansions lately, so I am a bit spoiled by the very powerful artifacts and sets in there. You can get mana back easier than cooldown reduction (spellweaving for example). The blade is indeed a great one in the vanilla game :)
 
I usually don't use DLC which adds only items; as a rule they are too powerful - after all they are designed to lure the player. As for getting mana and cooldwon - those things are different. But still having mana is better over having lower cooldown (you can cast with mana and no cooldown but w/o mana even 100% cooldown will not help).
 
You are watching too much Hollywood movies. Unlike them in the real life the good guys have much bigger chance to end in a prison. And if some bad guy occasionally enters the prison the reason usuallly is his laywers took all his money (do someone mentioned OJ Simpson here?)
 
Isn't the artifact from Kind Idres priceless for the Sages? +1 Fight, +1 magic and -30% cooldown. The drawback is one relatively good fighter less in the beginning but anyway there are more then enough knights in the game (unlike the artifacts).
Or there is a similar artifact later in the game?

I'm still mostly in chapter 2, and while that artifact looks nice, it would be a tough call as to whether I'd swap out the other stuff my heroes are lugging around for it. Seems like there's a heap of tasty stuff to find.

potential spoilers? :

As for King Mark, the man's a beast! Give him some tough buddies (summerborn fits the bill for me at the moment), then sidhe roads him into the densest part of the enemy lineup (or on some annoying archers), hit breathstealer, hit cleave, and watch the limbs fly while he and his units continually regenerate. A plus to cleave weapon makes the carnage ridiculous. Say bye-bye to an enemy knight or two. Sidhe roads back out again when it gets too hairy or once cleave is off.

If Ywain is about with his soul mirror up, even better as then Mark won't be cleaved/dragon struck himself. Do a drive by or teleport over Ywain or another sage with spellweaver and a cavalry stack and suck up some free mana and maybe spam some spells (if Mark is mincing the archers). Meanwhile you're setting up your main army in a nice spot, or taking some VLs, while the bad guys are crowding around wiping bits of their friends off their clothes.

I found some giants that would be even more effective for this tactic, but they don't have the 50% reduction on sidhe roads, so he'd be stuck there manaless in the middle of the enemy army once his cleave/breathstealer band aid was finished. They do work a treat though when using the same tactic without the teleport surprise. Balor strike on top of the breathstealer/cleave combo makes everything else just explode into bloody goo. Maybe when he has a bit more mana I can make a teleport in teleport out breathstealing cleavebomb of death complete with giants. weeee.

Anyway - lots of ways to play this game, and ymmv, but I like a guy who can provide me with an alternative, or at least an adjunct, to the 'sit there in the woods and wait for the enemy with your firing then re-hiding archers strategy' against some of the hideously overpowered stacks you come across.