You are a God! You are master and ruler of a loyal nation. You have unimaginable powers at your disposal. You have claimed this world as yours. But there are others who stand in your way. You must defeat and destroy these pretenders. Only then can you ascend to godhood and become the new Pantokrator. When you start the game you decide what kind of god you are and how your DOMINION affects your lands and followers. It is an expression of your divine might and the faith of your followers. If your dominion dies, so do you. Your dominion also inspires your sacred warriors and gives them powers derived from your dominion. In order to win and become the one true god you have to defeat your enemies one of three different ways: conquer their lands, extinguish their dominion or claim the Thrones of Ascension. Release version and manual is available now. Manual can be downloaded from Illwinter's web page.
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| Dom4 Magic Path Booster Guide by Telos | Locked | |
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| Oct 12 2013 Anchor | ||
Dominions 4 Path Boosting Guide – by TelosWARNING!! I'm sure there are some mistakes and omissions here. Please let me know and I'll fix them. Thanks! -Telos When I started making this guide, I drew heavily on a great Dominions 3 guide posted online by Sector24. I have included a large number of new things and the changes in Dominions 4. Many of Sector24’s old tips are no longer applicable in Dominions 4, so I instead wrote up some new tips of my own. In general, path-boosting involves ratcheting back and forth between forging better path-boosting items and summoning new mages with better paths than you had before. The new mages can often wear some of the old items and then forge even better items and/or summon even better mages. For example, a common progression is to start with a W2 mage (i.e., a mage with 2 levels of water magic). This mage can forge a water bracelet whose +1W bonus boosts your W2 mage into a W3 mage. That’s enough to summon Sea King’s Court which includes a sea king troll, who is innately a W3 mage and boosts up to W4 when you transfer the water bracelet to him. The sea king can forge a Robe of the Sea (another +1W booster), which brings him to W5, which allows him then to summon the even stronger Queen of Elemental Water. Not all paths are quite as easy to boost as water is, and often you’ll find yourself thinking carefully about what path combinations you have available, and/or seeking out magic sites, indy populations or nation-specific summons (not listed here), that might allow you to recruit mages with new path combinations. In a pinch, you can always spend a ton of gems to empower a mage up a level, though this is expensive and best avoided if possible. (Empowering to level 1 costs 50 gems. Level 2 is the cheapest at 30 gems. Level 3 is 45 and costs continue increasing by 15 each level.) The lists below can help a lot as you’re trying to figure out how to ratchet up to new levels of power. In all these lists, the parentheses indicate the research level needed to do something. Forging items requires research in Construction, so that is abbreviated just as “Lev” (or “Unique” for the level-8 unique artifacts that only one player can have at a time). The italicized names are level 8 or 9, and hence will typically be out of reach until quite late in the game. Each item lists the path requirements then an arrow ‘-->’ and then the resulting boost to a mage that wears that item. Each summon spell lists the path requirements to cast it, then an arrow pointing to the innate paths the summoned mage will have. Universal Boosters (I won’t bother repeatedly listing these in all the specific paths.) Hand: Crystal Shield(Lev6) S3E2 --> +1 all paths in combat only (doesn’t help forge items or summon new mages) Tartarian Gate(Conj9) D7 --> ?7 on great chassis, but with afflictions, insanity, and only 20% are commanders. (The global enchantment Gift of Health(Ench 5) (N5 and 50 gems) is currently the only way to cure their afflictions. Gift of Reason(Thaum 4) (N4 and 20 gems) can upgrade the non-commanders to commanders. If you have the death and nature magic to do all that, their insanity is a small price to pay for their power.) The First Anvil(Unique) E6 and 40 gems --> +1 to all paths when forging items Note that, as with all boosters, these universal boosters apply only to those paths the mage innately has – there is generally no good way (besides expensive empowerment) to boost a mage from 0 to 1 in any path. Instead you’ll usually seek to recruit or summon another mage who innately has levels in that path. Air Head: Winged Helmet(Lev4) A4 --> +1A Indy Deer Tribe Shaman --> N1?0 (10% chance of A1) Air is one of the hardest paths to boost. The easiest way for a non-air nation to get early site-searching going is often with indy crystal sorceresses (or deer tribe shamans in a pinch) though these only get you A1. The cheapest and most consistent way into higher levels is Faerie Court which requires only Conj-8 and N5. That gets you one level away from the crucial A4. You can see that there are a variety of ways of getting that last +1A, none of which is especially easy. In a pinch, you can just empower a Fairie Queen. Astral Misc: Crystal Coin(Lev4) S2E2 --> +1S Indy Lizard Tribe Shaman --> N1S1 You can break into astral via indy crystal sorceresses or lizard tribe shamans, each of which can cast the astral site search spell. Summoning enough crystal sorceresses will eventually give you S2, which gets you the first booster Starshine Skullcap. Another crucial step is somehow to find ES mages to forge crystal coins – fortunately 1/8th of spectres are ES, and the other 7/8ths tend to be useful too; hidden in sand is an expensive gamble but might work too. Astral eventually gives access to the most powerful boosters, including the rings of sorcery and wizardry (see universal boosters above). However these are very hard to ratchet up to, and often require empowerment or winning the race to unique artifacts. The most consistent ways to get to really high levels are with empowerment or with an S5 pretender (may differ if it has unusual slots). If you can win the race to dimensional rod, you can do it with a “mere” S4 mage, though the rod is cursed and will eventually kill that mage. Since Astral opens the door to boosting so many other paths, it is often easier to justify empowering an astral mage, rather than needing to empower multiple mages in other paths. Blood Armor: Armor of Twisting Thorns(Lev4) B3N2 --> +1B, *cannot be removed Indy Jaguar Tribe Priest --> H1N1?0 (10% chance of FWSB) Blood is often the hardest path to break into, and blood-slave sources are so rare that it’s often hard even to empower your first blood mage. A commander without blood magic has a slight chance of succeeding at a blood hunt, so if you’re persistent you can amass enough slaves for your first empowerment. Indy Jaguar Priests, Awaken Treelord, Lamia Queen and Ether Gate all provide other possible ways in. Once you get your first blood mage, set it to blood-hunting in a province with around 7000 population with patrollers to keep unrest in check, using a sanguine dousing rod as soon as you can afford it. The slaves will come in surprisingly quickly, allowing for empowerment and eventually summoning additional mages. Since an established blood economy often accumulates blood slaves much faster than other gems, empowerment in blood is easier to justify than most paths. The only mass-summonable blood mage available to most nations is the vampire lord (req. B3D4 and 77 slaves), so if you’re looking to exponentially grow a blood economy, you’ll probably eventually want to empower a fairly strong death mage in blood (if you don’t already have one, e.g., a blood lamia). If you’re a non-blood nation competing with a real blood nation, you’ll likely lose the race to the powerful unique blood summons, so it often makes sense not even to bother with blood magic, and save yourself all the unrest, population-loss, wasted research points, and tedious micromanagement. The game is designed so that there’s virtually no need for most nations to go into blood magic, unlike all the other paths and schools which everyone practically does need to use. Death 2Hand: Skull Staff(Lev4) D2 --> +1D Indy Wolf Tribe Shaman --> N1?0 (10% chance of D1) Indy wolf-tribe shamans and jade sorceresses offer a chance at D1, so they’re often the easiest route into death for a non-death nation, and they have the power to cast Dark Knowledge for site-searching. Getting up to D2 can be a challenge, but once you do, you can easily ratchet up via skull staff to get stuck again at a D3 mound fiend that your staff boosts to D4. The most common ways past this are probably death pretenders, using a ring of sorcery (and/or its big brother, the ring of wizardry), high-level blood summons, or, worst-case, empowerment. If you use a ring to get to D5, Skullface and Lichcraft then each ratchet up yet another level, getting you to the much-coveted D7, required for summoning Tartarians. Earth Feet: Earth Boots(Lev4) E2 --> +1E Indy Bear Tribe Shaman --> N1?0 (10% chance of E1) Indy bear-tribe shamans offer a chance at E1 and often are the easiest route into earth. Other plausible routes include various sites that aren’t too rare or gambling with hidden in snow (req W3D1) and/or summoned spectres (req D3) which have a 7/16 chance of being at least E1, including the 1/16th that have E2. Once you get E2, you can ratchet through earth boots to get stuck at an E3 Troll King boosted to E4. (Earth boots on an E2 also allow the extremely useful dwarven hammer.) To get above E4, you can resort to empowerment or find a hybrid mage who can produce one of the other boosters. That puts you in position to summon kings of elemental earth, but since they can’t wear boots they don’t help you ratchet further. Fortunately E5 is enough for most things you really want to do. Since earth magic provides a very useful blessing, and since being unable to make dwarven hammers often leaves you at great disadvantage, pretenders are often built with enough earth magic that boosting won’t be an issue. Fire Misc: Skull of Fire(Lev6) F1D1 --> +1F Indy Garnet Sorceress (rare) --> F1B1(10% chance of +1B) Fire is one of the hardest paths to break into, and one of the hardest paths to boost once you do break in. If you’re lucky, you’ll have some multi-color mages with high enough paths to forge one of the weird boosters, or you’ll win the race to high-level blood summons that get you into fire in a big way. Without those, you’ll likely struggle. Fortunately high-level fire usually isn’t all that essential. Holy Naming someone as prophet --> +1H if already at 3H or higher, otherwise --> exactly 3H 2Hand: Sword of Justice(Unique) F3S3 --> +1H Telestic Animation(Thaum. 5) S3 and 5 pearls --> H2 immobile Holy isn’t really a full-fledged magic path, and its boosters are mere unique curiosities. Nature Hand: Thistle Mace(Lev4) N2 --> +1N Awaken Ivy King(Conj. 7) N4 and 30 gems -->N3 with 63HP and regeneration, otherwise unimpressive Indy N1 mages are ubiquitous for early searching, and even N2 boosts only to N3. One typical route to higher levels is through water, using an indy jade sorceress to summon a W3N3 naiad, who boosts to N4 and can summon Ivy Kings who also boost to N4. Items provide other potential routes up if you’re lucky enough to have a mage with the right path combinations. N9 is often a strong bless for sacred units, mages and/or thugs wearing a shroud, so your pretender may well solve nature boosting for you. Water Armor: Robe of the Sea(Lev4) W3 --> +1W Indy Jade Sorceress --> N1W1?0 (25% chances of WEDN) Water is one of the easiest paths to boost, thanks largely to the wonderfully cheap water bracelet. To get the next booster, you need a mage that is innately W2. You sometimes find sites that let you recruit these, or with patience, you can wait for 1 in 16 indy jade sorceresses, spectres or lamia queens. These all are quite useful in their own right, so it’s usually not too painful waiting for W2 to pop up. If you’re in a hurry, there’s always empowerment, which might well cost fewer gems in the end, but wouldn’t give you any extra mages or thugs along the way. Once someone is born with W2, you can easily ratchet up via water bracelet, robe of the sea and sea kings to get to elemental queens. Edited by: TelosTelos |
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| Oct 12 2013 Anchor | ||
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You forgot some stuff The First Anvil. Level 8 Construction. Staff from the Sun Construciton 8 Pearl of Light Construction 8 Sceptre of Dark Regency adds 2D now. And you left out one of the coolest items ever: Copper Arms! You have to address the change to forge bonuses most definitely! Edited by: amuys |
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| Oct 12 2013 Anchor | ||
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Thanks for the tips Amuys. I've now added most of those. I couldn't find any info about Pearl of Light though (it isn't in the manual, and web searches don't reveal it as a forge-able item). If somebody can confirm that this actually is forge-able, I'll be happy to add it. Also, can someone confirm that the Forbidden Light still boosts F and S? The new manual doesn't mention this anymore. Copper arms are undeniably cool, but I'm not sure where they would fit in my listing. I see how they might occasionally give an extra hand for somebody to hold a key booster, though most paths already have multiple misc-slot boosters (including RoS/RoW) and you'd typically need to give one of those up in exchange for that extra hand, for a net gain of nothing. Is there a particular likely scenario in which a copper arm lets you cast or forge something you otherwise couldn't? I guess, before you have rings, a copper arm would let an ivy king hold both a treelord staff and a thorn mace, along with a moonvine bracelet to get up to N7 -- a nice parlor trick, but to do this, you already had to be able to create a treelord staff, so nature boosting wasn't really a worry. I also see that copper arms can let someone hold a hammer when their hands would otherwise be full, a nice trick to allow, e.g., an N1 indy with a thorn mace forge vine shields more cheaply, but again not a trick that really helps path *boosting*. |
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| Oct 12 2013 Anchor | ||
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They are another forge bonus item, so it's useful. Edited by: amuys |
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| Oct 12 2013 Anchor | ||
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Thanks Telos! Very useful. |
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| Oct 13 2013 Anchor | ||
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Very useful guide, thanks ! |
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| Oct 13 2013 Anchor | ||
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It is, yes, which is why it now has a new home. |
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| Oct 13 2013 Anchor | ||
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Forest Troll Tribe gives indeed N2D1 |
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| Oct 13 2013 Anchor | ||
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I noticed in an early beta game that the first anvil and forge of the ancients don't stack, you still only forge at +1 paths. |
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| Oct 13 2013 Anchor | ||
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Thank you for this! |
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| Oct 13 2013 Anchor | ||
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There are 6 demon lords now not 4. |
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| Oct 14 2013 Anchor | ||
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So the Chalice doesn't cure tartarians of their afflictions? |
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| Oct 15 2013 Anchor | ||
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Thanks for your work, it ´s helping alot. |
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| Oct 15 2013 Anchor | ||
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Thank you ever so much for this list; I printed it, punched holes, and added it to my manuals hardcopies! |
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| Oct 15 2013 Anchor | ||
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Thanks for the guide,was hoping for sub forum like this,with guides and strategy suggestions since am relatively new to dominion...cheers |
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| Oct 16 2013 Anchor | ||
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Armor of Souls is now B6, and Brazen Vessel is B5 according to the manual. |
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| Oct 16 2013 Anchor | ||
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You may want to mention the unforgeable magic items that have path boost, they're not very likely to appear but they should probably be in for completion's sake. |
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| Oct 16 2013 Anchor | ||
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Very very usefull. Thanks a lot for this. |
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| Oct 16 2013 Anchor | ||
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Such a nice guide, thank you for the time invested in writing this, I am bookmarking this right away |
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| Oct 18 2013 Anchor | ||
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Thanks for the kind words folks, and you're welcome. I'd already made most of it for my own use, so it was little trouble to type out the tips and post it. The biggest hassle was just translating a word-document into the sort of quasi-HTML that this commenting system accepts. Thanks also for the tips. I've updated it again with your suggestions. |
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| Oct 19 2013 Anchor | ||
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Excellent thread. Thanks for the hard-work everyone. |
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| Nov 11 2013 Anchor | ||
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There was a list in the last guide of what a minimum starting level is in each type to enable the first boosters and get all the way through. A: A3 and S2 Recommended minimum rainbow build to be able to boost all paths: A3 S2 B2 D1 E2 F2 N2 W2 This is simply the first column from the list above, with D reduced to one because of the many D1 caster summons. There are many ways to reduce this if you don't want to do every path or if you think you can fill gaps with some other casters. Also cross path boosting may allow you to reduce some of these. Anyone who can refine this to a real minimum is welcome. Comparing this to the Dom 3 rainbow pretender you may notice that one point has been moved from Astral to Water, and apart from that it is much the same. If you don't want to summon mages you will have to increase death to 3, and many paths will stop before getting right up. Edited by: duncanjacobrobertson |
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| Nov 12 2013 Anchor | ||
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I've been looking for that last post ! Thanks ! |
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| Nov 25 2013 Anchor | ||
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The Forest Troll Tribe shaman guy is not necessarily N2D1. I just cast it in a multiplayer game and got N1E1D1 - manual says they're N1D1?1, am guessing it's (EDN). Proof, etc.:
Edited by: jBrereton |
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| Nov 29 2013 Anchor | ||
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Great work!
Correct, but it's tainted, cursed and casts Solar Brilliance in battles. |
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