Which temple path is most fun?

[Alesayr]

Do you normally go down Dauros/Agrela, Krypta/Fervus, or Krolm? And out of the tier 3 temples, do you normally pick Lunord or Helia?
Which one is "optimal"? And which one is most fun? (They might have different answers, I don't know)

[Alesayr]

Also out of the three nonhuman races, which would you recommend picking?
As far as I can tell, gnomes are good for building things fast, dwarves are good for defensive scenarios, and elves are good for economy growth.
I'm not sure why you wouldn't just always take elves then, because the boost to your economy lets you spam specialised heroes of other types to cover all bases

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game is very well optimised, actually. when you ask which of these temples/building are most optimal, you should have specific scenario in mind.

wizards are most annoying heroes in general, probably... since they are too slow and squishy (and conciderably expensive) from level 1 to 5-10... but again, this depends on the quest you are playing.

[Peach Jelly]

-- Krypta & Fervus: Good for spawning friendly mobs that wander around the map helping your heroes out. Priestesses spawn skeletons that follow them. They can also charm vampires to your side. Cultists charm spiders, rocs, rats, and the like. I tend to pick this path where I know the mobs will be either undead-heavy or creature-heavy. (Also, Warriors of Discord are nothing to write home about... Heavy-hitters, but they don't last very long in my experience.)

-- Dauros/Agrela: Healers, well, heal, and therefore can be useful to have around, although their AI is less-than-great. They also have the ability to reincarnate upon being killed sometimes. I believe they also have a spell that is good at dealing damage to undead. Monks kinda suck... You can't improve them with weapon/armor, they hardly ever buy potions, and they tend to go to inns a lot. ALTHOUGH, Dauros allows you to get Paladins from the Warrioris Guild, and they are OP, just totally badass. They're expensive to recruit but definitely worth it.

-- Krolm: The Rage of Krolm ability is really useful when you get waves of mobs attacking you, although it can drain your treasury if you're not careful. Barbarians themselves are fairly dumb, but if you recruit Rangers to help them out, they can make a pretty good team.

-- Dwarves: They have the ability to build & repair, although they do not do it very often, and they are usually very slow just walking over to what they want to help build... so that aspect isn't worth it. BUT, they let you build Ballista Towers, which are probably my favorite building in the game, lol. You can build an unlimited number of them, as the cost to build them doesn't go up. You can make a wall of towers around anything and basically become nigh indestructable.

-- Gnomes: these little guys are really fantastic at building/repairing because they are so quick about it, but they're really squishy (unless you let them train at a Fairgrounds to level up some). I personally like them a lot, especially during the early stages of a game.

-- Elves: Yes, they boost your economy, but they also introduce "distractions", like Elven Lounges and Gambing Halls. The Elves themselves also tend to waste time barding at inns. They're pretty squishy, but they're decent archers with a good distance on them.

[Alfryd]

Broadly speaking Elves + Krolm are the most powerful (albeit somewhat boring/spammy) combination. The value of Rage of Krolm scales directly with kingdom size, so it quickly overwhelms returns on all other sovereign spells, and the Elvish economy bonus multiplies that advantage. So in many cases, Elves + Krolm FTW.

I recall, however, a certain 'gentleman's agreement' in multiplayer to the effect of 'Krolm is pure cheese, don't use him', and you might feel similarly, so... the next most powerful combo is typically Elves + Dauros/Agrela + Helia.

The OP is right- all else equal, you don't need gnomes/dwarves to defend/rebuild if you have enough money to hire/heal/buff enough heroes that keep buildings from being scratched to begin with. Dauros/Agrela gives you most of the same spell-functions as Krypta/Fervus, only cheaper, and while Healers and Monks may seem feeble and random as toddlers, they fill out nicely once they hit their teens. Only Priestesses give comparable value for money, and Paladins of course are a glorious master race.

Solarii vs Adepts isn't much contest- although Lunord's sovereign spells are excellent, Solarii are only a shade less resilient/agile than Paladins while coming for half the price, packing twice the punch, and growing up twice as quickly. Also, they kill everything with fire.

(BTW, some of the alleged downsides of Elves/Gnomes can be circumvented, which unbalances things still further. Some of the twitchier MP players would use gnomes to set up their initial settlement, hire rogues to raze the hovels, get elves, raze the lounge and gambling hall, and have 8 Solarii training in the fairgrounds by the end of day 3.)

Dauros/Agrela/Krolm do have the drawback of high initial setup costs, so on a couple of quests where you're under immediate assault with specific enemy types, then... Cultists are still complete garbage. But Priestesses do trump dragons, and Adepts kick ass if you can actually get them to fight.


EDIT: As for which is most fun... I kinda enjoy using cheat-codes to combine Krolm with some other temple, so I can keep the barbarians blessed and healed. Or maybe playing freestyle with United Faiths. I love them all, personality-wise.

[Peach Jelly]

Oh, I fogrot to even discuss Helia vs Lunord, but Alfryd put it very well. :]

[Alesayr]

Thanks for the replies. I'm finding I really love ballista towers, but as awesome as they are they don't do anything a Paladin won't do for the same price, and the Pally is more flexible. Plus dwarves are sadly very slow.

Priestesses seem to do everything wizards do but better, with more health, self-healing, and hordes of skeletons. They look like a lot of fun, I want to try them out more.

Unfortunately for the priestesses pally's just seem incredibly op, especially when you pair them up with Agrelas healing power. They're fast, hit hard, and once they hit level four or so they seem pretty much immortal even against boss monsters when you remember to heal them every now and then.
Plus dauros monks seem to make nice defensive heroes, although they don't like heading out and destroying lairs that much :/
Haven't tried Krolm yet, I need to check him out soon. Barbarians sound like fun.

And although I haven't tried adepts, Solarii are pretty cool. Sadly firestrike doesn't seem to do anything? Maybe that's a bug.

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some monsters are ultimate magic damage soakers. like medusas, or oculuses... if you casted on 1 of these, it's normal if you did no visible damage.

[Alesayr]

I tried it on Rrongol the Hunter and Url Shekk the thread headed dog slaver guy

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i don't remember specifics about these 2, but i can tell that in general, when fighting bosses most often it is better to boost your heroes.

[Alfryd]

Sun Scorch is mildly useful against mobs of weaker critters, but IME Fire Strike's piddling damage is only good for two things. (The first is killing level-1 enemy wizards. The second is slightly damaging your own heroes so you can then heal them, thus forcing them to re-evaluate fight/flee decisions. ...If you don't have Change of Heart, that is.)

Wizards are a long-term gamble/investment. Build 'em a library with extra spells and they can bring merry hell to your enemies from level 3 or so. By level 7 they are demigods... If they survive that long, which needs a good chunk of luck and/or anxious babysitting.

Monks are also real assets if you can get them up to higher levels. They don't need armour with 90% dodge/parry, don't need weapons with a 7% crit-chance, and 85% magic resistance lets them stand up to nasty spell-bombardment.

What I typically do for Monks, Adepts, Wizards and other 'cautious' heroes is put their guild/temple somewhere on the outskirts of town where raids are likely to arrive (preferably next to a Warriors' guild so I can call in reinforcements if need be.) This stands a good chance of triggering their 'defending home' behaviour, especially if you time recruitments right, so they get experience faster.

[Dorgath]

Everyone's pretty much covered it but my take is:

For scenarios you operate under whatever constraints you are given. If you are given free reign so like it's a "freestyle" quest (and this obviously applies to freestyle), I go Elves for economy because nothing can beat the 100% gold income as you've noticed, Dauros/Agrela and Helia because the Heal and resurrection spells are cheaper and the heros are stronger in general by themselves. If it's NE, I go Krolm first, Outpost, destroy Krolm so the Outpost holds them, and then go what I said above.