Abysian Beast Trainer. What's the point?

[Tanaka]

+3 to animal morale. The salamanders which are animals have -2 morale with Beast Trainer. So why build them at all? Or is the animal morale boost not working? Shouldn't the Beast Trainers give great morale to the salamanders so they are actually useful?

[Mount Nomad]

The Beast Trainer leads 10 troops, so he's pretty terrible by default. Should still result in +1 morale for the Salamanders presuming you haven't mixed any non-animals in with them. (-2 for terrible leader; +3 for Animal Morale - something like that).

Is that not happening?

[Tanaka]

Originally posted by Mount Nomad:

The Beast Trainer leads 10 troops, so he's pretty terrible by default. Should still result in +1 morale for the Salamanders presuming you haven't mixed any non-animals in with them. (-2 for terrible leader; +3 for Animal Morale - something like that).

Is that not happening?

No that is not happening.

https://ibb.co/dLkwjT

[Tanaka]

Beast Trainer should be made more useful. More animal leadership and morale

[Uncle Al]

Morale bonuses from Beast Mastery don't show as a squad morale modifier, but if you right click a salamander in the set up screen and look at its actual morale you'll see the morale modifier is being correctly applied.

[Tanaka]

Originally posted by Uncle Al:

Morale bonuses from Beast Mastery don't show as a squad morale modifier, but if you right click a salamander in the set up screen and look at its actual morale you'll see the morale modifier is being correctly applied.

Ah thank you this is what I am missing.

[rjt]

I wish being led by a beast trainer removed the undisciplined trait from the beast. I'm Not sure how easy that would be to implement; I can't think of any abilities that are removed (or added for that matter) depending on who the leader is?

[Tanaka]

So basically you are getting +2 to individual salamander morale which you can only lead 10 of. I still don't see the benefit lol

[Alias]

Any +morale is beneficial for units who have under 30 morale.

Beast Trainers also have multiple other purposes. I've used them for breaking enemy formations, screening against elephants/marverni pigs/Howl, on-demand Bow of War wielders.

[DasaKamov]

Beast Trainers are unique in Dominions, as they're fully capaple of holding their own in frontline melee combat with their troops AND they can lead Magic Beings, which very few non-mages can do. I'm thinking I'd prefer that they had 20 Magic Leadership and 0 Mundane Leadership, and make Salamanders "Magic Beings", as one would expect from a supernatural lizard who lives in pure lava can erupt in fire and flames.

This way, the Beastmaster and Warlord have completely different types of troops they can lead, and the Warlord is not just a "better Beastmaster in every way".

I also noticed that, at least according to the Dominions 5 Data Inspector, Beastmasters might be broken in the current version of the game. Their description in-game, as well as their Dominions 4 version, claims they have the "Animal Awe +4" trait, but it does not appear in the Dominions 5 inspector. If it's indeed missing, giving them back that trait would move them towards at least having a more unique place in an EA/MA Abysinian army.

[Tanaka]

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Beast Trainers are unique in Dominions, as they're fully capaple of holding their own in frontline melee combat with their troops AND they can lead Magic Beings, which very few non-mages can do. I'm thinking I'd prefer that they had 20 Magic Leadership and 0 Mundane Leadership, and make Salamanders "Magic Beings", as one would expect from a supernatural lizard who lives in pure lava can erupt in fire and flames.

This way, the Beastmaster and Warlord have completely different types of troops they can lead, and the Warlord is not just a "better Beastmaster in every way".

I also noticed that, at least according to the Dominions 5 Data Inspector, Beastmasters might be broken in the current version of the game. Their description in-game, as well as their Dominions 4 version, claims they have the "Animal Awe +4" trait, but it does not appear in the Dominions 5 inspector. If it's indeed missing, giving them back that trait would move them towards at least having a more unique place in an EA/MA Abysinian army.

I believe the salamanders were magic beings in previous Dominions games? Wonder why it was changed? Hmm yeah that sounds like something is off

[Valnak]

Beastmen aren't very useful for Abysia, but if you play something like Pythium they have poison resist to protect them from the Hydra's poison cloud.

[Mount Nomad]

Originally posted by Valnak:

Beastmen aren't very useful for Abysia, but if you play something like Pythium they have poison resist to protect them from the Hydra's poison cloud.

Due to changes in poison resistance in Dom5, the Hydra poison clouds will still kill them.

[Slice]

Originally posted by Mount Nomad:

Originally posted by Valnak:

Beastmen aren't very useful for Abysia, but if you play something like Pythium they have poison resist to protect them from the Hydra's poison cloud.

Due to changes in poison resistance in Dom5, the Hydra poison clouds will still kill them.

"What are you doing here at the battle, Beast Trainer"

"You see those Hydras way on the other side of the battlefield? I'm in charge of them"

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by Mount Nomad:

Due to changes in poison resistance in Dom5, the Hydra poison clouds will still kill them.

In this most recent patch, Illwinter buffed the Hydra Trainer's Poison Resistance for this very reason.

(Also, I thought this thread was about the Abysian Beat Tamer. ;) )

[boozermonkey]

It is. Agree that these guys need to get some tweaks/buffs.