Order of Hermes for MA and LA
 

Ars Magica is quoted as a source of inspiration for Dominions, so why not make the Order of Hermes into the game?

Order of Hermes, new nation for both Middle and Late Ages.

The Order presented here borrows mainly from Ars Magica, but also includes some Mage: the Ascension. For the national summons, monsters from Rune Quest are starring.

MA Order of Hermes: Great Alliance

MA Order is an alliance of Hermetic Houses, whose members are powerful and versatile mages that cover every Path. However, their troops are composed of Grogs, lowly and untrained chaff. The only trained soldiers are lightly armed and expensive, being the Custos the better. Religion is of tertiary importance to the Order, so only a generic Priest is available to recruit, and no sacred units.

Sneak peak of mages, heroes and summons:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3..._sneakpeak.jpg

LA Order of Hermes: Mystic Traditions

The Order suffered devastating internal struggles in the past age. First, House Tremere became vampires during their search for immortality (but hermetic mages still know a spell to contact Tremere vampires). Civil war followed, and the Tremere were expelled, but not destroyed. House Merinita disappeared after other hermetics shunned them as lowly witches. House Verditius left to join Man and Ulm.

Meanwhile, the oldest hermetic masters had their sanity destroyed by their own overwhelming magical powers. These mad mages are known as Marauders. The Order still relies on them for time to time, but are as powerful as are chaotic.

Religion gained more influence and support, in the form of a new House: the Celestial Chorus, and a monastic warring order known as the Cabal of Pure Thought, whose members are the mighty Gabrielite knights.

Another sneak peak:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3..._sneakpeak.jpg

To discover more, the file:

Re: Order of Hermes for MA and LA
 

Looks cool. I'll give a try and see I can come by with some feedback.

Re: Order of Hermes for MA and LA
 

Updated file. Summon Gaphlines and Yaglines did not have specific flysprs and sounds, and made the Marauder a poor normal leader, but good magical leader (and even more with all his paths).

Also, included a new ritual that searches for Nature and Death at the cost of 8 astral pearls.

Re: Order of Hermes for MA and LA
 

That sounds horribly inefficient. Why would you ever use that over the N and D search spells?

Remember the real exchange rate is 1s = 2 other gems. So you're talking about a spell that's twice as expensive as Tiamat's while only searching half as many paths.

Re: Order of Hermes for MA and LA
 

Indeed... 2 Astral cost would be fair, then. Changing.

Meanwhile, adding also a whole battlefield version of Arcane Bolt, that makes 8+ AN against all magic beings (including your own). 3 Astral as cost would be fair?

Re: Order of Hermes for MA and LA
 

I'd probably say 4 pearls. Remember Dark Knowledge is 3D, and you're saving mage time. You're not always going to be alchmizing, so lower number of gems does matter. It's not like D & N gems aren't in demand.
At least, it shouldn't be possible to alchemize and break even. At 2S, you actually save 1D over casting the 2 spells if you alchemize and only use 1 mage turn.

Re: Order of Hermes for MA and LA
 

I'm with TheJeff, 2s is too low. 3-4 sounds reasonable.

I don't know if you plan on CBM or not, but D and N are less valuable in the most recent CBM so i might argue for the 3s cost. (Now that Tarts can't be GoRed...). I wouldn't find 4s offensive though. Might be thematic to make it impossible to cast on UW provinces.

That sounds horribly broken.

Consider:

Bloodletting. B4, 4 slaves, 1 AN damage to all non-lifeless. Probably the most comparable to what you want to achieve, and its harder to cast and has a smaller effect.

Unravelling. S6, 1 pearl, magic beings resist or die (needs to pass magic resistance), but also attacks all mages with the possibility of inflicting feeblemind (!!!), which is a pretty serious disadvantage since you obviously have at least the one mage. Less comparable but pretty hard to cast since S6 mages don't grow on trees.

Re: Order of Hermes for MA and LA
 

I don't really think N is less valuable. D, yes. But N still gets you SCs and a myriad of items you need.

Re: Order of Hermes for MA and LA
 

So 4 Astral for the searching ritual. Sold!

The other seems rather unbalanced, indeed. In fact, Unraveling fits pretty much what I wanted from the spell. Removed finally, and updating rar.

Re: Order of Hermes for MA and LA
 

This looks really nice. Well done!

I will try it out in SP.