Recruitable Mage Rebalance - seeking comments

[Scott Hebert]

A gem-cost increase changes the balance, but does not change the paradigm.

Being unable to use summoned mages for research would change the paradigm, and therefore be a more drastic change.

I agree that increasing the gem cost moves the balance point, but that does nothing to change the inherent position.

[Oversway]

You would summon tons of lamia queens and specters for research if the gem cost was 2x - 3x?

I would summon some of them to get other paths, but I'd look for cheaper research options and spend my gems on other things.

Actually, that is what I do now at the current price. Maybe I should amass them more....

[Scott Hebert]

I don't know many mage researchers more efficient than the Lamia Queen and the Specter.

While I may not summon as many of them if they were triple the cost, the fact that they still wouldn't be horrible at research and would be quite useful in combat says a lot.

As for cheaper... does anyone know of a cheaper alternative to the Specter or the Lamia Queen?

[Huzurdaddi]

In games I have played I think that I have only relied upon summoned casters as researchers when playing ermor. I suppose I would do the same with CW but I never play them. Summoned casters are make for cracking heads not research.

[Scott Hebert]

It's hard to argue with a mage that is just as good as your national mages in research (and combat), but cost no upkeep or even gold.

[Oversway]

Nah, gems are a rarer commodity than gold with nearly all settings/maps.

[Turin]

It´s easy to argue against him. A spectre costs 10 death gems, which is worth at least 300 gold to me.
A caelum seraph costs 100 gold and is just as good at researching. So factoring upkeep in it takes 30 turns until the spectre is cheaper than the seraph. That´s a pretty long time, so you are usually better off using national mages for research.
And if you find a library it´s a nobrainer to buy sages.

[Scott Hebert]

Except that a Sage is rather useless once you've researched everything. Or, at the very least, is much less useful.

And, well, if you think a Spectre is worth 300g, I'll just say I disagree with you.

And don't use the Caelian mages as a baseline, as they are woefully undercosted.