Conceptual Balance Mod 1.41

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by Kuritza

Methinks, Control spell that doesnt require an astral pearl is OP. Ungodly powerful. Compare it to the Mind Control - it requires no pearls as well, but its S4.
Also, it sort of screws constructs too much; they are supposed to be immune to such tricks unless you script your mages for control and give them pearls; in CBM they are, in fact, MORE vulnerable to mind controlling than anybody.
P.S.
Control is also down to S1 from S3 in CBM, so ANY astral mage can spam it. That's just crazy.

Personally, I always thought that Control should be harder to cast (ie- S5) and cost no Pearls. If it's to be brought down in power, it should retain the gem cost, for a semblance of parity of effort/effect.

I would have to agree with Kuritza, that there are 2 problems with low pathreq, and no gem cost, the first being that lower MR Magic Beings will become completely useless, as they will get grabbed immediately (far greater problem than with mundanes which are everywhere, so you have to use Enslave more tactically), but also even if the Magic Beings have very high MR, as many do, the AI may sit and uselessly spam Control when perhaps there is something that might be more effective, like Stellar Cascades.

That reminds me, maybe the Fatigue Damage on Stellar Cascades ought to be reduced slightly? Not a lot, mind you, but with a certain critical mass of mages, it becomes the most brutally effective spell against anything with a decent MR. If it is not quite as powerful, more thought will be required as to whether or not to script it (or just reduce the AOE or Precision? lowering Precision may be the best answer, it should be hard to focus the light of distant stars, no? a reduction in Precision would make it less of an "I win" against low number high power opponents, without much eroding the usefulness against massed troops).