Custom Sov's

 I leave all my Sovs stas at 10. I go overboard on the spell books, I purchase all 4 of them. Then I go crazy in the trait options; uselly i select 3 of the techs (omitting the Darkling one, yeah I play Empire)(one other note on the techs there are 4 for kingdoms & 4 for empires so do not take the ones your faction won't use), mana bonus, food bonus, tech bonus, spell resistance bonus, dodge bonus, etc... In other words I cram in as much as i can in traits. I  also take the "insane" negative trait to let me get 1 more thing... I especially like this one since its a negative that parralels my own mind somewhat. Who cares that all my kids are nuts as well.. woo weee

I found this thread helped me with the sov/faction traits.

https://forums.elementalgame.com/402940

As for what attributes to go for I always grab all the spell books and get green thumb trait, attunement is quite good for helping make sure you have mana to use in the early stages of the game. any remaining points get put on int (to push up my sov's damage with combat spells) and constitution. handy thing is if that you can increase an attribute even if you only have one dev point left to spend.

Int is pointless really.  I would take points out of Int and Chr and put them into Con and grab a lot of traits.

Hmm - learning quite a bit from this. Think I will have to change my approach to my custom sovereign. I've been buffing up the stats and ignoring the spell books.

Str, Dex and Con plus a weapon and whatever you can buy later still win you the game with the sovereign single-handed.

SFS, next time I think ridic/ridic is too easy I'll make a sov with 1 str and 1 con... that should screw me over good and proper. I'll put everything in charisma so I'm irrasistable... oh boy... diiiiirty.

I like to drain all stats but Charisma to 5.  I then get the royalty job and all the spell books.  I then max out on all society boosting feats.  I then go back and raise either con or int with whatever points are left.

In game, my sov holds court at the capital.  Over the course of the game, I like to collect a gaggle of farmers and producers for my court. I eventually take one as a spouse.

Occasionally, I send one of them out for an easy combat or two.  I raise their charsima if they level.  Then, they go back to court and regale everyone with their tales of adventure.  The prestige bonus from all the high chr characters is quite useful.  Late in the game, it becomes a traveling court as the sovereign visits new towns to help boost the population.

This formula works out well, as there is little risk to your sov, and the extra money and population boost allows you to produce and equip powerful units and heroes.

I like this starting custom Charisma build:

• Str 8
• Dex 7
• Intelligence 5
• Charisma 15
• Constitution 10
• Bard - reduces hero cost
• Attunement +2 mana
• Wealthy +1 gildar
• Meditative + 1 tech
• Brilliant +1 arcane
• Green Thumb +2 food
• Naturalist for mine to capital
• Find Najaba, marry her, and imbue (for Dominate and Assassinate)

Male offspring end up getting Bard and all the above buffs. Female offspring end up getting dominate and Assassinate. As I level I like to raise all stats to 10 (for no othe reason than to eliminate stat weaknesses) in my SOV and heroes.

The bard/charisma builds let you end up hiring hordes of heroes. Male offspring reduce cost even further. For combat heroes, consider using early levels to raise intelligence to 20 so that they can cast teleport and then buff Strength for attack bonus. For buff heroes (+20% to food and +10% to production) level as much as possible early game and put all remaining points into Charisma. This allows the buff heroes, including your sovereign, to add effective prestige levels to any stationed city. I use that extra prestige to quickly grow my smaller cities to increase their ZOC and push back the monster spawns and then focus growth to level 5 one city at a time.

In summary, my sovereign kicks it back in the cities partying it up with his homies and harems while the wife works to dominate and assassinate the world. Not exactly in the kitchen baking bread - a dominatrix wife is more fun anyway.

PS - I've tried the all attack SOV. It was fun as well but honestly, why do that if you can hire a horde of heroes to do the work? My sov can Lewinsky it up in the palace instead. "I'iiiiiiiiim comin' up, so you better get this party started."

With the 1.1 update, custom sovereign is less powerful.

You will need to carefully consider different options depending on if you want a short game or a long game!

As I mention in my sov thread, be sure to take Cowardly (spell resistance penalty) and Stupid (increased cost of learning spells). Both penalties do nothing in 1.1/1.11, and you get 13 free points.

EDIT:

Also, please feel free to look at my sov thread (link posted earlier) and comment on anything I've written. I wouldn't mind integrating second opinions.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that imagines things going down like this in the palace.  It puts the prestige/population increase connection in a whole new light. 

INT is basically useless. CHA is good for a champion that'll be sitting in a city all the time, but if you want your sovereign to move about, its value drops. And you can drop it all the way down to 5 for no penalty; just a forfeiture of gain. That stuff can go into combat stats and useful traits. Also spell books. Personally, I find the Combat book to be pointless, and Enchantment to be pointless once you get a decent cashflow going (thus making Alchemy superfluous). Terraforming is not necessary, but can be useful at times. Mobility is the only one you should always get no matter what.

Indeed combat looks like a waste. You need tons of Int to even be able to cast a spell that'll do a third of the damage a good axe would deal. There's a far too big investment in Int for the spells to be worthwhile (basically have to level a hero many times before he can become useful).

  Reading what you've all written just made me think of something that I don't remember reading someone else mention yet.(if it has been mentioned then sorry I missed your post)... we can summon familiars and other creatures... why can we not summon a mount? More specifically... a flying mount.

  Hum to point this back towards this threads topic... I should be able to magically endow my Sov with wings (wether angelic, demonic or anything in between), After all, birds still egzist in EWoM. (that Kingdom pioneer has that falcon in its pic after all)

Combat magic gives you +5 attack (essentially +10 strength), 50% more dodge, and complete immunity to all special combat effects. This is in addition to shardless direct damage spells, which when coupled with blink, can let your sovereign take on a company of high-attack hammer-weilders without dying. (Fire is a better damage school, but only if you have enough shards.)

Enchantment can grant 25% reduced building construction times and also allows you to insta-build a company of elite hammer wielders (which could take 12 seasons for even the most advanced cities). It also can grant a prestige bonus, which I've found very useful for keeping your city populations growing. (Your cities generate less and less base prestige as the number of cities you own increases. ) Plus, alchemy helps out in the beginning stages.

Honestly, you're best to raise your sovereign as a caster or city figurehead because there are champions out there that have unattainable special abilities. The only thing a sovereign has going for them is the Warrior history, which grants a % bonus to attack, but taking that prevents you from taking Royalty (cities grow 10% faster) or Bard (champion costs are reduced by 25%).

My advice is to bottom out strength and dexterity in your sovereign and hope you can recruit one of the good warrior champions.

Flying was taken out of the game because the engine doesn't support it.

You CAN, however, buy mounts. I love wargs.

I see alot of people saying int is usless but dont you need certain lvls to cast spells?

Not for your Sovereign - they can cast any spell regardless of INT.  So the only negative effect is spells that use INT to calc damage.

wow this is good to know, thanks for the quick reply.

Or calc defense, in the case of stone skin. (25% INT)

Stone Skin is the only magic spell that adds to defense, and defense is the most important unit stat. A high defense blocks most damage and will keep your sovereign alive.

During the tactical battles, the arrow "flies" towards the target, I think the flight looks ballistic, too.. so how come..

I *had* wondered about the lack of flying monsters (flying monsters would only be killed by arrows and magical attacks).

So if the engine doesnt support flying, it wont be in the expansions as well?