Dream Seduction

Dream Seduction lets a stealthy commander take an enemy commander over to their own side, together with the troops that commander leads, and leave without a battle.

The unit panel shows only the name and the icon. The value the ability rolls against morale is not displayed anywhere in the game.

It uses the same Seduce order as ordinary Seduction, given while the commander hides in an enemy province, and it spends the whole turn. Like assassination, it cannot be attempted while besieged or besieging a fort unless the seducer can fly or has scale walls.

The difference from ordinary seduction is an additional Magic Resistance roll before the morale roll. The morale roll only happens if the target fails the Magic Resistance roll. A failed Magic Resistance roll costs the seducer nothing.

The 15 in the Magic Resistance roll is the same for every dream seducer. The creature's own ability value is used only in the morale roll, so Red Mistress with 20 passes Magic Resistance no more easily than Lilot with 14.

• The target wins the Magic Resistance roll. Nothing happens. The seducer stays hidden and may try again next turn. The message reads "[Seducer] tried to project her wonderful dreams at [target], but the target resisted and no seduction attempt could be done".
• The target wins the morale roll by 5 or less. Nothing happens, and the target keeps the seducer's secret: "[Target] could not shy away from his duties. However [target] did not want [seducer] to get caught and did not give her away".
• The target wins the morale roll by 6 or more. The target attacks, and an assassination battle follows.
• The seducer wins both rolls. The target and the troops under its command change sides, and the seducer leaves with the victim for the escape province. The victim's owner is told only that the commander "disappeared one night and was never seen again".

Against a target of the same sex a lost morale roll always ends in a battle, whatever the margin. See Gender.

Two things are settled before any dice, and either can end the attempt on its own.

A target. The seducer takes one enemy commander in the province at random. Commanders that are sneaking themselves cannot be picked, and neither can a mount or anything else that belongs to another commander. With no eligible commander present, the order returns "[Seducer] did not find any enemy commander".

A way out. The seducer needs a province next to the target's province that its own side holds, and both the seducer and the victim must be able to enter it. A sea province is therefore no escape route for a land commander. A flying seducer with no such province escapes to its own capital instead, as long as the capital is still held. With neither, the attempt is called off before any roll: "With nowhere to run with the victim afterwards, [seducer] aborted the seduction attempt".

The capital route carries one restriction the ordinary route does not: the victim may not be larger than the seducer. Every dream seducer is size 4, so commanders of size 5 to 10 cannot be flown home, and the attempt ends in a battle instead.

Pretender gods, prophets and creatures with the Divine Being trait cannot be seduced. The attempt fails and a battle follows, whatever the rolls. The same rule protects them from Charm.

Immobile commanders such as Oracle, Monument and Demilich cannot be seduced either. The attempt fails and a battle follows.

Mindless commanders are not exempt. Nothing in the rules excludes them, but every mindless creature has a morale of 50, so the seducer must beat 50 plus DRN with its ability value plus DRN. For a Succubus at 15 that succeeds in 0.001% of morale rolls, about 1 attempt in 87,000, and only after the Magic Resistance roll has been passed. With Soul Scales the chance is 0.002%, and for a Red Mistress at 20 it is 0.006%.

Items that grant magic penetration add to the 15 of the first roll. Spell Focus, Ring of Wizardry, Ring of Sorcery, Shaman's Staff, Pearl of Light and The Flailing Hands give +1. Rune Smasher, Eye of the Void, The Green Eye, Flail of Misfortune and The Trapped Dreams of Hruvur give +2. Only the penetration bonus itself counts here. The seducer's own magic levels add nothing.

Soul Scales adds +2 to the seducer's morale roll. No other item improves a dream seduction. Beauty items such as Pendant of Beauty and Cat Charm help ordinary Seduction only and add nothing here.

Cat Charm has one effect on dream seduction: its wearer counts as female. This applies to a seducer and to a target alike, and it decides whether the same-sex rule below is used.

Bear Claw Talisman subtracts what a Cat Charm adds, so a wearer of both counts as not female. On its own it changes nothing for a creature with the Female trait. Six creatures count as female by attribute value rather than by the trait, and a Bear Claw Talisman makes those count as not female: Heart Companion, Eunuch, Enarie, Qedesim, Ergi and Brazen Guard.

Every unit is either Female or not, and the game compares the seducer with the target before the morale roll. When the two differ, the morale roll is made as printed above, with no modifier. When they are the same, the target adds +4 to its morale roll, and a lost roll always ends in a battle, whatever the margin.

Ordinary Seduction cannot be used on a target of the same sex. The seducer would have to beat morale plus 999, so the roll never succeeds and the attempt always ends in a battle. A dream seducer is the only seducer that can take a commander of its own sex.

Ring of Warning and Clockwork Bird grant Warning 60, Eye Pendant and Eye of the Oracle grant Warning 80. The value is a percentage, rolled last of all, and it cancels the attempt outright: an attempt that had already won both rolls is cancelled too. Both sides are told, so the seducer's owner learns the target "got warned at the last moment". The same value protects against assassination.

The Undreaming ability does not apply. It raises Magic Resistance against a Sleep Aura and against nothing else.

Seven creatures have the ability.

• Seduction for the ordinary version, the Corruptor ability and the Siren's lure
• Magic Resistance for the first roll
• Morale for what the second roll is measured against
• Stealth for hiding in the province in the first place
• Unit Abilities for the full trait tables