Eater of the Dead

[Sindai]

It should be pretty much the biggest, most regenerative creature in the whole game. If they're going to keep the cost and the turns-indep mechanic it should pretty much start with the stats of its largest form and go up from there.

[Endoperez]

Give examples. They mightn't be that good at balancing, but I've found that they listen to well-argued points. More protection? More regeneration? Few life-draining attacks strong enough to kill most humans?

[Nerfix]

It's the risk associated with it.

[Endoperez]

Not according to the comments here.

[FrankTrollman]

Just checking, it turns independent. Like, once, right? Does it do that during a battle or afterwards?

Regardless, if you were to have say, an astral/death mage on hand to take control of it, wouldn't you keep it forever?

-Frank

[Nerfix]

Thou shal not mock Hand of Dust for I have had a kitted ninja be killed by the Hand of Dust of an Attendant of the Dead.

[quantum_mechani]

Nerfix said:
Thou shal not mock Hand of Dust for I have had a kitted ninja be killed by the Hand of Dust of an Attendant of the Dead.

Heh, yeah, assassinations are funny things... I have seen such things as Fists of Iron and Sleep Touch come through in on rare occations too.

Still, such things are pretty rare (particularly for a specific spell) and are unlikely to have the same impact on a game as being able to spend astrals on eater of the dead vs. if you had no other astral summons.

[Nerfix]

I've actually used Fists of Iron as a combat spell back in Dom I. It was a riot with Earth 9 Cyclops casting it.

[NTJedi]

quantum_mechani said:
Still, such things are pretty rare (particularly for a specific spell) and are unlikely to have the same impact on a game as being able to spend astrals on eater of the dead vs. if you had no other astral summons.

Ether Gate is 90 gems, but it's easier to cast (conjuration_6 instead of conjuration_8) and you recieve some very powerful magic units and a powerful commander with magic paths.
I will gladly send one of my Ether Gate armies(90_gems) against two of your eater of the deads(100_gems).

quantum_mechani said:Still, such things are pretty rare (particularly for a specific spell) and are unlikely to have the same impact on a game as being able to spend astrals on eater of the dead vs. if you had no other astral summons.

I don't think even that counts for the Eater. Before i'd summon an Eater for 50 gems i'd turn them into 25 death gems and get two Banelords or 50 longdead horsemen or heck, 2.5 behemoths. If you can summon the Eater, you can summon all of those as well.
I think it's a pretty good hint that a summon is really, terribly weak if you can alchemize the gems it needs and get something much better for them.
Ritual and non-ritual spells are hard to compare, but i say the eater of the dead is hands down the worst summon in the game and very likely the worst ritual.

That being said, the stealth idea is pretty good imo. Make the eater stronger at independent size (give it some more HP, and better regeneration, poison cloud etc. basically a natural thug if not SC) make it stealthy (and still grow) and reduce costs to 15 or maybe even ten. So, compared to ghost riders it has the disadvantage that you can't artillery cast it, and it needs to grow a lot before it has comparable strenght, but the advantage is that it stays in a province and needs to be killed to regain control. (and you could use it in an army too. Theoretically) Imo that'd be a lot more interesting than just turning it into a cost efficient standard summon. It'd be fun to have some kind of near-unstoppable rampaging monster you first feed up to decent size, then let it sneak into the midsts of enemy territory and let it loose.