[Uh-Nu-Buh]

Changing DM to a global won't make it any better--it just makes it exclusive.

Unless you mean that once global it would be in effect for all of your Nation's mages, then it would be a bit better. However, you'd have to make it much much more expensive, and it could be dispelled.... I think the cons outweigh the pros here.

I still like my 4 ideas, plus curtadams' idea of just cutting dragon summoning costs to 6 or 4.... curtadams' idea is the easiest to implement, for sure. The devs could do it for the next patch, or it could easily be done in a mod (From what I have read. I have not modded spells yet.)

Endoperez's iteration sounds good. Perhaps even too good! Every time I like a mod idea, it turns out to be too powerful. I have learned to trust my instincts, and choose the opposite of them for Dom mods ;-)

Anybody want to try a short game with one or more of these mods thrown in to see which one works best, or worst, or whatever?

Also, maybe we should compare gem costs of dragon summoning with other approximately powerful critters.

Currently:
12 cave drakes=12casts*8gems=96gems E2 Conj2
36 cave drakes=12casts*8gems=96gems E2 Conj2 + DM N3 Ench8
96 clockwork horrors=8casts*12gems=96gems E2 Const5
200 longdead horsemen=10casts*10gems=100gems D3 Ench5

12 cave drakes would get swamped and utterly destroyed by 96 clockwork horrors or 200 longdead horsemen.

36 cave drakes would get swamped and utterly destroyed as well, I think. If we lower cave drakes to a gem cost of 6 or even 4 and employ the Endoperez Iteration of DM it would be (again an N3 mage):
36 cave drakes=12casts*4gems=48 gems total

This is much much better for the cave drakes. 36 cave drakes might very well take on 48 clockwork horrors. I am tempted to think they would win the majority of the time. Morale might be a problem for them.

100 longdead horsemen might swamp 36 cave drakes, or they might not.

Can someone do a quickie experiment to see how 36 cave drakes do against 100 and 200 longdead horsemen, and 96 and 48 clockwork horrors?