Finally found a non-mind creature worth putting in my forcemaster book

[barriecritzer]

The Blade Master with his 2 defences that have a 50% of hitting and the fact that he has double strike or sweeping basically makes him a slightly better version of my force master when I have Galvitar attached. Yes he costs 12 points to put in my book but he is well worth it.

[Laddinfance]

I play Devouring Jellies in my forcemaster.

[barriecritzer]

My friend Steve tried putting a devouring Jelly in his forcemaster book and did not like how it played.

[Laddinfance]

That's fair. I use my forcemaster to try and make my jellies "sticky" so that people cannot escape them. Once you lock someone down they just chew through them. But, I'm always looking for new creatures.

[sdougla2]

I tend to prefer a Steelclaw and/or a Necropian Vampiress. I tried an Iron Golem once, but I didn't like the way it played. I'm sure I could come up with an Iron Golem/Devouring Jelly based play that I would like more, but I would have to focus almost exclusively on position control to allow my creatures to tear my opponent apart. I just threw the Iron Golem into a regular equipment build, and it didn't work out very well.

[Aylin]

I tend to prefer a Steelclaw and/or a Necropian Vampiress. I tried an Iron Golem once, but I didn't like the way it played. I'm sure I could come up with an Iron Golem/Devouring Jelly based play that I would like more, but I would have to focus almost exclusively on position control to allow my creatures to tear my opponent apart. I just threw the Iron Golem into a regular equipment build, and it didn't work out very well.

The Iron Golem being unmovable really does have some downsides.

[somaddict]

Wouldn't it be nice if there were mind creatures worth putting in a FM book?

[Sailor Vulcan]

Uh, why not Thoughtspore? I know it's fragile, but in my experience it tends to be worth it. It has spellbind AND is a familiar! Allows me to spam teleport on myself. Teleport-Thoughtspore and galvitar round one is a pretty good opening IMO, but only if you have an alternative to using battle forge, which sadly most forcemasters do not have.

[Battlehamster]

I like putting power strike, battle fury or force hammer on my thoughtspores. Try to protect them with a block against my opponent trying to blow them out of the sky. I really don't suggest them though if your enemy is utilizing flying creatures.

[somaddict]

Uh, why not Thoughtspore? I know it's fragile...

Thoughtspores can be be great when they live, yet keeping them alive can be a full-time job. You have to keep throwing blocks and nullifies on them every turn or they will get burned down or slept rather quickly, and either way that becomes inevitable against a good player that adjusts and double-taps them in one round.

[somaddict]

I like putting power strike, battle fury or force hammer on my thoughtspores. Try to protect them with a block against my opponent trying to blow them out of the sky. I really don't suggest them though if your enemy is utilizing flying creatures.

Force hammer is too expensive, imo. The best spells to put on them have 0-2 range for sure, yet two spores with fire blast deal with most threats. The chance that an opponent will have fliers is quite high, and if a book is built around spores what is the backup plan? Sleep is also quite good to use with them placed as far back as possible, then one can sleep advancing threats, granted that they aren't immune to psychic, which is unfortunately very common. I have not tried stacking them with extra armor, health, and regen enchantments yet but all of that falls over to one sleep spell against them. Attacking a spore to wake it up is nearly a guaranteed impending death. I think they should have gotten a defense like nearly every other familiar. Chock up yet another enchantment to throw on them. Errata anyone??

All in all, the FM needs another familiar or some kind of class-specific method of gaining extra actions. Battle forge is the only solid option in my opinion, and yet so many books run wave or other water spells, and nuking a battle forge is first priority against the FM, imo. Scimitar is quite decent but not exactly comparable. Off hand, I think every other mage has 2-3 methods of generating extra actions, while coincidentally the FM is the most likely to have the biggest strain on her personal actions and needs extra the most.

[somaddict]

I play Devouring Jellies in my forcemaster.

Jellies get ate up against swarm in my experience. Do you have a way to deal with this?

[somaddict]

I like putting power strike, battle fury or force hammer on my thoughtspores. Try to protect them with a block against my opponent trying to blow them out of the sky. I really don't suggest them though if your enemy is utilizing flying creatures.

Force hammer is too expensive, imo. The best spells to put on them have 0-2 range for sure, yet two spores with fire blast deal with most threats. The chance that an opponent will have fliers is quite high, and if a book is built around spores what is the backup plan? Sleep is also quite good to use with them placed as far back as possible, then one can sleep advancing threats, granted that they aren't immune to psychic, which is unfortunately very common. I have not tried stacking them with extra armor, health, and regen enchantments yet but all of that falls over to one sleep spell against them. Attacking a spore to wake it up is nearly a guaranteed impending death. I think they should have gotten a defense like nearly every other familiar. Chock up yet another enchantment to put on them otherwise. Errata anyone??

[Laddinfance]

I play Devouring Jellies in my forcemaster.

Jellies get ate up against swarm in my experience. Do you have a way to deal with this?

I suppose only the obvious ones, Mordok's Obelisk and Suppression Orb. Also, in my experience if they're spending lots of actions to try and take down my jellies then they're leaving my Mage alone and she can really open up. In all honesty, I expect my Jelly (or two) to die over the course of the game. However their ability to heal themselves and to strip armor from your opponent is why I play them. One game I played the opponent's mage got attacked by one and then immediately responded by throwing two Boulders at it and killing it. But I was able to hang on to that advantage long enough to finish him off.

[somaddict]

I play Devouring Jellies in my forcemaster.

Jellies get ate up against swarm in my experience. Do you have a way to deal with this?

I suppose only the obvious ones, Mordok's Obelisk and Suppression Orb. Also, in my experience if they're spending lots of actions to try and take down my jellies then they're leaving my Mage alone and she can really open up.

In my limited experience with them, a swarm of 3-4 smallish creatures can take out a jelly in one round. I suppose using block and/or reverse attack is a way to stall, and battle fury a way to focus them down, but with only one jelly out in early rounds that means the FM has to also help focus down the swarm and is essentially tied up. I agree that jellies are awkward to deal with, but an experienced player will know how to adjust and deal with them, I think. Resilient is quite good, but a few good rolls by the opponent early on is game over if jellies are the sole game plan, which frequently becomes the case with these unorthodox FM books that rely on super expensive creatures spellpoint-wise.