[Graeme Dice]

Scott Hebert said:
Would you perhaps give me what you think each path of magic should cost?

S2 or less is worth less than most other paths. S3 or more is worth more. W is worth the least of all except if it's in combination with a path that is useful on the battlefield.

I can't see ever spending this much on a mage that can do little besides summon vine ogres.

I can see them doing other things (like leading your Hydras).

I've never seen anyone actually use hydras, so I can't comment on that.

Possibly. OTOH, why is a Daughter 80g, and a Druid 140g?

The druid is very common, the Daughter of Avalon is not.

As opposed to their ability to spam an endless horde of Undead, and the fact that they start with Terror?

They can only summon an endless horde of undead if you've also researched alteration 5 for drain life, and have also spent 10 death gems on a skull staff. Otherwise they only get to cast about 4 raise skeletons, which is not that scary of a force.

Well, they (and Broken Empire Ermor) are the only nations that get National Unholy Priests. Ermor's cost upkeep; C'tis's don't.

Unholy priests are severely overrated. By the time you've summoned enough so that they will have a noticeable effect on your battles, your opponents should be able to deal with longdead without much difficulty. The summoned unholy priests are probably better off when used as combat platforms.

I think it's more that the original nations are too good.

That's your opinion. I'd say that Caelum's mages are a good baseline for what every nation should have.

Then again, this is how much Illwinter's formula gives them.

True, but nobody would buy them at that cost.

OTOH, Fire/Astral has many synergistic abilities.

It has a single synergistic spell in astral fire, which is inferior to the soul slay that an S3F3 mage could otherwise cast.

Or you use nothing but Commanders.

That does not work at all, as a single death means that all your commanders run away.

I know how good these are, but if you increase the Astral/Death Searching spells to 2-path each, the Seithkona become a little less valuable.

I'd go the other route and decrease all site searching spells to 1 in the respective path.

The Vanadrott is Glamored, and can throw much better spells, overall, than the Jarl.

You don't use a Niefel Jarl for its spellcasting ability. You use it as a full-fledged SC. This is a role that a Vanadrott cannot match as the Van does not have sufficient hitpoints.

Perhaps a reduction in the cost would be in order, but not a simple ignoring of that ability.

Why not ignore it? Is there any way to make assasination cost effective?

Or guaranteed Acashic casters.

Acashic record costs too much to worthwhile.

Are they total randoms or not? I seem to recall a 5S one before.

If you have a 5S one, they you got very lucky, as you're much more likely to get something along the lines of S3W1B1N1, which doesn't have too much of a use.

Is it their 1S that's a problem?

That's the worst of their problems.

Perhaps they are so important because the gems needed to power their spells are so easily found (comparatively speaking).

No, they are important because astral provides luck, and magic resist in the form of the lucky pendant, lucky coin, starshine skullcap and antimagic amulet, while death magic provides wraith swords and decent summons.