Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

... so that instead of giving you a demilich, it turns one of your commanders (or the caster, who cares) into a demilich?

Would add flavor, methinks. As it is now it's just one of the many death summoning spells.

Edit: and if you could do it to other commander that was not the caster, it would add flexibility

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

Theoretically, yes - as a change in a game itself. As a mod I am not sure - probably no right now. But you can possibly mod it as a two-part spell: high damage + summon.
Actually, the same would be thematic for vampires, too.

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

I completely understand... upon reading the description it sounds like the casting mage will be the one changing, but it's not true. Even more painful was back during Dominions_2 where all these items had very detailed histories yet no clear specifics for the characteristics of the items. Just one example... the first time I equipped the Amon Hotep helm it was on a Telestic Animation statue which was under water.

In answering you're question... there's no modding way which will transfer existing stats of the target caster into a demilich. You might be able to transfer the existing stats by copying another spell to change the target caster into a mummy, but even this is not guaranteed and probably won't work.

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

yeah, for vampires it would be nice as well...

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

It might be doable if you can find a way to combine some of the spell effects of Gift of Reason (targeting another unit), Transformation (shapechange) and the demilich's unit ID as the target shape for transformation.

Good luck trying to get that cocktail to work.

Supposing that you did get it to work, the unit would have the base stats of a demilich, but it would retain its own magic, experience etc. If you wanted increased Death magic, you would need the relevant effect from Twiceborn, which increases (or should increase) D magic.

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

If you're willing to live without Twiceborn, you could maybe change the stats for wight mages to those for a lich, and then give Twiceborn a secondary effect doing instant death (9999 damage) to the caster so it takes effect immediately, and rename Twiceborn to "Lichdom." Of course you'd have to cast it in friendly Dominion for it to work, but thematically that seems like an okay restriction.

-Max

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

If you just 2nd spell a damage to self spell after lichcraft?

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

That would work okay from a thematic perspective, but Edi's talking about a more complete version whereby it's actually the same unit. E.g. if I have a D5F2 commander with a Heroic Ability, three stars, and an affliction who casts Lichcraft, I should get back a D6F2 commander with that same Heroic Ability and three stars of experience, and probably the same affliction.

As an aside, does Twiceborn work for pretenders?

-Max

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

Havent tried, but I've read around in the forum that it does.

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

I know Max but I have a problem with the If you're willing to live without Twiceborn part.. Ín my own mods I try to avoid collateral damage to other spells and so I would not propose something that does that. (I must admit I've never used twiceborn though)

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

No? It's a fairly decent spell as life insurance for your death mages. As a bonus sometimes they gain extra D after dying.

A bit too expensive for mass use, though. I tended to use it on death wizards who had gotten diseased.

Then again if my wizards are plagued by old age I like to keep GoH handy. And that solves the problem

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

Yes, it solves (part of )disease problem. I also used it once on mages who were casting distant damage spells on provinces with quite possible (Fire) Domes. It worked, too - enemy blasted, damage coming back and burning my mage - and he just raises again as a Wight, with higher stats and no upkeep as an added benefit.
As for Twiceborn solution - I would prefer to copy spell stats in this case to save Twiceborn as is, adding Lich as another variant. Am not sure whether this would work, however.
As for cocktail - does somebody know whether any news from code divers had appear lately. I have one old version, but maybe something new exists?

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

Yes expensive mages can have some high upkeep costs and twiceborn usually gives the mage stronger stats and no upkeep. The twiceborn also works on pretenders, especially useful for rainbow mages which are generally weak.

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

Simply change the description of the lichcraft spell...

"With death and a new life the mages has taken a new name and risen in thei service of the would be pantokrator....."

then chain the spell "kill me"

Re: Wondering: is there any way to change the lichcraft spell...
 

No, because the point is in keeping the paths and special skills.