| “ | Religious leader and healer with a Stomp area attack that can stun Treasure Guardians. Explores, fights, and builds Town Centers and Trading Posts. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Brahmin is a melee cavalry Monk in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Indians. It explores uncharted areas of the map and has some special abilities to help himself and his settlement, and can heal injured units from the start of the game. In standard random map games, the Indians start with two Brahmins; both are counted as separate units.
Overview[]
| “ | I will live again, if only as a butterfly... | ” |
| —Brahmin upon collapsing | ||
Brahmins have weak basic stats, but they inflict trample damage and have the Stomp ability, which gives them a chance to stun enemy units around them when attacking. They possess a higher ranged resistance than the other Monks, and due to being cavalry they have higher speed as well. Their LOS is the same as the Shaolin Master, and both have less than the Sohei Archer.
The Brahmin's healing ability is very weak, a mere 4 hit points per second versus the standard rate of 10 per second for units such as Surgeons. This realistically limits their usefulness to healing each other, as the natural Monk health regeneration stacks with the heal ability to restore hit points much quicker than it would for a non-regenerating unit like a Sepoy. The healing rate can be increased by Improved Healing at the Monastery.
Favorable Karma is of questionable use, as the Brahmin gains 60% hit points and attack, and can train Tigers. While it would allow the player to easily claim Treasures, it will ultimately leave their economy weaker due to not sending the typical resource card in the Exploration Age.
Special abilities[]
Stun: Stuns a treasure guardian from a range of 16 for 20 seconds. 60 seconds cooldown.- Stomp (passive; available in the Commerce Age*): Gives the Brahmin a 10% (20% with Crushing Force) chance to stun enemies for 0.8 seconds when attacking.
- Terror Charge (passive; requires Terror Charge): Increases the speed of elephant units in a radius of 24 around the Brahmin by 5% (stacks if both Brahmins are close together).
- Dukkha Suffering (passive; requires Dukkha Suffering Home City Card): Reduces the speed of enemy units in a radius of 24 around the Brahmin by 5% (stacks if both Brahmins are close together).
- Dukkha Suffering is similar to the Sohei Archer's Stream of Enlightenment, whereas it slows units instead of weakening them and prevents enemies from effectively fleeing when combined with the Brahmins' Stomp ability. It can also keep enemy units from chasing down and annihilating the Brahmins or the Indian army they are escorting.
Upgrades[]
The Brahmin gets +50% hit points and attack in every Age up.
Campaign appearances[]
In Act III: India, one Brahmin can be trained at Town Centers. He can heal and collect treasures like a normal Brahmin, but loses the ability to build Trading Posts and must be retrained at the Town Center if he dies.
Further statistics[]
As Brahmins are unique to the Indians, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Treasure guardians, ranged infantry |
| Weak vs. | Villagers, heavy infantry, light cavalry, Spies, Ninja |
| Improvements | |
| Hit points |  Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Sikh Gurus (+50%)
|
| Attack |  Yoga (+5%)
|
| Speed |  Terror Charge (+5%) Comanche Mustangs (+10%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
|
| Other |  White Tiger Training (train Wagner the Pet White Tigers) Improved Healing (+67% healing) Terror Charge (gives the Terror Charge ability) Crushing Force (doubles Stomp chance) Carib Ambush Party (train Carib Ambushers) Loyal Nootka War Chief (train Nootka War Chief)
|
Home City Cards[]
As Brahmins are unique to the Indians, only their cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables:
| Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Brahmin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Indians[]
Russians[]
Spanish[]
|
Changelog[]
The Asian Dynasties[]
- The Brahmin's Stomp ability is available in the Discovery Age.
Definitive Edition[]
- The Brahmin's Stomp ability is available in the Commerce Age.
Trivia[]
- Though the Brahmin's elephant is correctly depicted as an Asian Elephant, its portrait in the History section shows an African elephant instead. The same happens with the Siege Elephant and the Wild Elephant.
History[]
| “ | A Brahmin is a member of India’s highest priestly Hindu caste. They are the only caste that can perform Vedic sacrifice, interpret the Vedas, and preserve Vedic hymns. They are considered to be of greater spiritual purity than members of other castes. The greater Brahmin caste is divided into ten sub-castes that are regionally based, with five in the north of India and five in the south. The Brahmin community has its root in ancient India’s Vedic period, roughly from 2,500 to 600 BCE. Brahmins adhere to the acceptance of the Vedas, the oldest scriptural texts of Hinduism. They believe that the means or ways to salvation are diverse, and that God is one being, but takes countless names and forms. This single deity is the same across all cultures and languages, seeming to change to fit individual perceptions. Scholars, teachers, priests, intellectuals, scientists, and knowledge-seekers formed the Brahmin class. | ” |
Gallery[]
