Recruitable Mage Rebalance - seeking comments

[Evil Dave]

Saber Cherry said:
One aspect of increasing path costs to very high levels is that it might make the best combat spells in ANY path only usable by Astral nations (through communion). I don't know what can be done about that, though.

Cap the effect of communion, maybe?

it seems to me that Dominions II needs more effective low-level troop-buffing spells, not wimpy things that increase the aim of 3 units.

I've been idly wondering about simply knocking all the mass-improvement spells down two or three levels, but I haven't the foggiest idea what this would do to game balance.

And, as a further special case, replacing Ulm's starting spell with Weapons of Sharpness.

[Saber Cherry]

Evil Dave said:
Cap the effect of communion, maybe?

Unfortunately, that cannot be done through mods.

I've been idly wondering about simply knocking all the mass-improvement spells down two or three levels, but I haven't the foggiest idea what this would do to game balance.

Some of those are really, really strong. If only there were weaker versions... of course, they're only strong if you fight with fighting units instead of mages, which people tend not to do. The big problem is that defensive spells are used offensively. You don't know when and where mages will teleport in and cast "Shimmering Fields" or "Wrathful Skies," so you won't have a high-level air mage ready with air gems, scripted to cast mass-lightning resistance. But if you already know you are going to teleport an army somewhere and cast lighting spells, you can have a mage ready to cast mass lighting protection. So... I tend to think that a lot of mass-improvement spells tend to make mages more offensively powerful, rather than less. But it probably depends on the styles of the players. Weaker version that do not require gems (say, 50% lightning resistance to 25 area, or 75% resistance to 5 area) would more likely be used defensively... I imagine.

And, as a further special case, replacing Ulm's starting spell with Weapons of Sharpness.

That's an interesting thought, and more useful than their current spell. But it would much more powerful than other nations' starting spells, and they can't hope to cast it unless the pretender takes Earth magic and is present in all the battles. Mechanical Militia (even though it's level 9), Strength of Giants, or Magma Bolts might be more fair. Strength of Giants would probably be quite useful.

Anyway, thanks for the comments!