[Endoperez]

I heavily snipped this post, and only answered to things I disagreed with or would like to see made differently. I agreed in some of the things I snipped, but not with everything, and I don't know what to think of the rest of them yet.

RedRover said:
Having read and considered the posts so far, here are a few more thoughts:


4) One idea to limit the “free troop” aspect of summons would be to stress the caster more.

Say a summons costs 1 hit point per two spell levels (round down) that never comes back.

So a 10 hp mage casting a 5th level summons loses 2 hit points that cannot be restored by any means. A fifth summon of this type would be fatal to that mage, and you probably wouldn't want to commit the mage to battle after the second or third such summons.

Likewise, leaders that summon magical being allies might lose a hit point or more per creature summoned—this represents the loss of personal vitality as it is transferred to activate the ally. The exact number might vary according to the creature summoned.

If this doesn't go into Dom3 proper, maybe the modding commands might allow for its incorporation for purposes of further testing.

The idea is interesting, but at least leading magical creatures shouldn't have an effect of that kind. That would force one to have more commanders with high hps that are able to lead magical units, which would mean summons, and actually make summons (especially commanders) MORE valuable and common.

Also, instead of "damage", maybe the summons caused "fatique" (increased encumberance instead of lowered hp).

5) Start certain summoned creatures with experience levels and adjust their base stats so there is effectively no change in their initial numbers.

For example, the Arch Devils might already be at 5 experience levels—further experience for them is irrelevant. Maybe the Draconians summoned starts at 2-3.

I'm for this. It nerfs the skilled summons a little, but I don't mind that in this case...

6) Limit ritual summoning spells to one per laboratory per turn, in the same way that Blood Sacrifice is limited to one per temple.

[This is the idea I'd most like to test.]

I don't know if it would work. I think one is too slow a number. It would affect undead themes of Ermor dramatically, as they would be limited in the number of commanders they can summon, and don't have the money to build (huge numbers of) labs. But yes, it would be something I'd like to test. It would make for a really interesting alternate rule, but might make powerful summons and SCs even more important as you can't match Quality with Quantity.

7) Maybe make resources a little easier to come by.

Allow Alchemy to produce Resources from Earth gems as well—maybe 5 resource points at that location per gem. These would, of course, have to be used or they go away.

VERY good idea, but there should be more than 5 resources. I quess 15 could work. It allows you to recruit one med-to-high infantry instead of militia, and (quite often) one med-to-high cavalry instead of med-to-high infantry. It couldn't, of course, be economical, but it would allow one to "burn" gems to speed up starting progress.

On a 250%-300% income increase:
This looks like an interesting idea to me. The mad castling issue can be dealt with simply by increasing the cost of castles and other structures in direct proportion to the income increase.

Other adjustments might be needed, though—for example, province supply capacity might have to be increased, as might the supply effects of Nature magic and certain magic items.

The supply effects can't be increased, but are unchanged from Dom:PPP, and it had twice the gold of DomII. Castle/building prices can't be changed yet, but might be in DomIII. The scales' effects and the general richness (in gold, resources, food...) can be modded even now. Zen's Complete Balance mods includes a Scale mod, and Saber Cherry released a scale mod as well. I'm not sure whether they aim for gameplay balance or useful national units.