Bless

**Bless** is a 1st level spell in the School of Water Magic. The Bless spell counters the Curse spell.

This spell is most effective on creatures which have a large damage range and, at Advanced and Expert level, stacks of troops with low damage but large numbers of creatures in them.

The +1 extra damage bonus from Advanced Water Magic is more beneficial to units that normally deal low damage as it's greater percentage of their base damage, so it's even more useful to low level units with high numbers and large damage bracket. Many 1st level units deal 1-3 damage values - Pikemen, Troglodytes, Sprites (Skeletons too, but as Undead, they cannot be Blessed). Harpies & Harpy Hags with 1-4 damage are perhaps most affected, as Advanced Bless causes them to deal 5 damage instead of 1-4, average 2,5, doubling their output. Air Elementals & Storm Elementals deal similarly proportioned 2-8 damage.

Because of its mechanic, normal and basic Bless is useless to cast on troops with fixed damage value: Angels, Nagas, Peasants, Enchanters and Rust Dragons. Advanced Bless has a very minor effect, as 1 point of damage is more or less a negligible amount on such troops. With the exception of peasants; where +1 basically doubles their damage output. This boost could be a game changer in numbers massive enough. However, getting to that point is only reasonable on paper and even then, it is really hard to keep them alive.

**Heroes starting with Bless:**

* Adela the Cleric
* Spint the Navigator
* Gem the Druid  \* Only on maps without water.

**Heroes specialising in Bless:**

* Adela the Cleric

**Creatures immune to Bless:**

* Undead

* Green and Gold Dragons
* Red and Black Dragons
* Azure Dragons

* Magic Elementals

**Creatures capable of casting Bless:**

* Master Genies (advanced level)
* Enchanters (expert level)

## User commentary

*Some may find the information in this section subjective or irrelevant.*

The spell is most effective on creatures which have a large range between their minimum and maximum damage and, at Advanced and Expert level, troop stacks with a large amount of creatures in them.
- More precisely, it's most effective on creatures which have large **relative proportion of max damage to average damage** and low damage but high stack numbers. Think of Gremlins with their min 1, avg 1,5, max 2 damage that becomes fixed 2 (+33% from average 1,5) or 3 on Advanced+ (+100% from avg 1,5). Giants and Titans have larger numerical variance (40-60) but their min-avg-max damage ratio is lower - min 1, avg 1,25, max 1,5, so they only get +20% from normal Bless and 22% from Advanced.
The +1 extra damage bonus from Advanced Water Magic is more beneficial to units that normally deal low damage as it's greater percentage of their base damage, so it's even more useful to low level units with high numbers and large variance. Like anything that has 1-3 or so damage values - Pikemen, Troglodytes, Sprites. Hags & Harpy Hags with 1-4 are perhaps most affected. Air Elementals & Storm Elementals have 2-8, same proportions, but they don't get as dramatic powerup from Adv Bless - it's only 1/8th and not 1/4th of "normal" max damage.
Bless also almost completely eliminates damage variance, which is helpful as it makes combat much more predictable, particularly the possibility and strength of counter-attacks.