QUOTE(Shorlen @ Aug 9 2006, 06:43 PM) 317290
Yay for ignoring all the imbalances in Celest's favour like always! Of COURSE you can ignore the fact that Avatars are VASTLY weaker than Supernals/Demonlords (You killed Luna in an active druid demesne when more people than that failed to kill Gorgulu, the easiest of the demonlords to slay, while in a FRIENDLY demesne). Ignore again the fact that you can make hermits/spores to Etherwilde and to the Aspects, and there is no way to stop you from using them. Don't say that it's harder to get in, because it only is the first time. You get a ship there when noone's around, make some spores or hermits, and you have an instant back door we can't stop no matter what.
Oh, wait! We can use about 150+ monolith sigils and cover the entire plane! Oh... wait, no, Celestians can disenchant, and city people are the only ones who can sell sigils.
You can also dreamweave in, but we managed to secure enough eye sigils, though again we had to get them from a city.
When we kill a Supernal, it takes you how much essence to restore them? To restore an Avatar, we need 150 silvery essence. Where do we get this? From the creatures of the Etherwilde who 1- don't usually drop essence like their supposed to, 2- are VERY rare, 3- require a lot of effort on our part to make them appear, 4- don't leave corpses that can be milked for essence, 5- to create, require us to give fae to the Avatars (see a problem here?). We instead have to gather essence from the elemental planes. which means raiding Water, unless we want to start a war on two fronts.
Right, COMPLETELY unbalanced in our favour
I'm sorry, but you have no idea what you are talking about.
- Avatar attacks are about the same strength as Demon Lords. The strongest attack I've ever seen from any Avatar/Supernal/DemonLord is actually the Gwyllgi's howl. Albion has has one of the strongest room attacks in terms of damage. However, Avatars have a lot less health.
- Ethereal Serenwilde is 55 rooms not 150+. A monolith in any room blocks a hermit in/out of that room. As far as entry goes, it is more difficult to enter and any attempt to look objectively makes this clear. There are 3 entrances to Celestia (aeatherdock, Pos, Limbo). There are 2 entrances to Ethereal Serenwilde (aetherdock, Mother Moonhart). 3 > 2.
- Water, Earth, and Faethorn are neutral areas. Any inability to access them is a political issue not a balance issue.
- Ladies/Daughters assist Avatars. At one time, I recall seeing 18 Ladies at Albion (I realize they move, but given the large number that can be summoned, chances are many will be in the room at the first attack and more will enter afterwards).
- Gorgulu as more health and one of the strongest room attacks of any Avatar/Supernal/DemonLord whereas Raziela has the best affliction combos. As you might guess, two waves of 5000+ damage has a far greater effect (and hence clears just about any number of attackers) versus two waves of less damage and a few afflictions.
- Shrines CANNOT protect Supernals/Demon Lords (there aren't enough rooms to sanctify inside the pillars/pits). They can protect Avatars.
- Liveforest does everything Ripple does PLUS passively webs.
- Celestia/Nil can be melded. Ethereal Serenwilde/Glomdoring cannot.
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In sum, the situation is complicated. However, there is some merit in the claims Cosmic planes are harder to defend. There are more entrances, shrines cannot protect Supernals/Avatars, Ripple is inferior to Liveforest, Ethereal Serenwilde/Glomdoring is 1 area (even the Whitehart Memories are in the same local area) whereas Cosmic is split into 6.
My solution is simple. I don't think Ethereal should be flood/taint-able, but I would argue Celestia/Nil should have the same advantage.
