Mod: Epic Heroes Mod -Version 1.5 Released

[Turin]

Edit: Just noticed that Xietor has toned the tien´chi hero down reasonably, so the stuff below doesn´t really apply anymore. I´ll leave it here, because it´s fun arguing with Dr. Praet.


Umm why not use the Son of Niefel, which is actually a far better chassis than the hero in question, costs only 213 points, spawns units and has one point higher dominion than a rainbow chassis.
Considering that the abductor is probably the best hero in the base game that should tell you something about li bo.

And immortality on a high level mage hero with access to teleport spells is incredibly useful for suicide tactics like porting, summon earth power and casting rain of stones. Later on you can use him as a wrathful skies caster together with a retreating staff of storm wielder and the only thing you risk is an air booster.
He also is the bane of any SC, you can simply teleport in and then try to charm/curse/horrormark with no risk at all.

The immortality gets even better when you consider that you can easily take a high dom thug pretender, since libo covers virtually all your magic needs with the exception of death magic.

In addition Li bo gives you easy access to the following important globals, items and spells which tien´chi usually doesn´t get/would need to design a pretender for:
Mother oak
gift of health
flaming arrows
dwarven hammers
air boosters
earth boosters
treelords staff
gaia´s blessing
golem construction
army of gold

etc

[DrPraetorious]

You greatly overestimate the importance of the nature - you can summon that off of a Naiad at conjuration 5, not exactly science fiction level stuff. Those combat spells (of which you forgot arrow fend) can be cast pretty easily through a communion (except gaia's blessing) - one of the few things MA T'ien Ch'i actually can do well is build communion matrices.

Yeah, he enables MA T'ien Ch'i to cast somecool stuff which it can't otherwise do. The real question is: why can't MA T'ien Ch'i do any cool stuff?

Is it because it's a MA nation that only gets one 3, and that's in water which is easy to boost? All you've done is drive home the point that MA T'ien Ch'i can get a really good hero without unbalancing anything.

If you were concerned about his total points cost or total number of picks, you could pull off an air, drop the water entirely and he'd be much cheaper, no less powerful, but less thematic. He's a master of the way, he has to have water magic even though you don't even want it. Likewise the nature; that's more useful than the water but still hardly where you'd invest points if you were designing a T'ien Ch'i pretender. It's a small research bonus mainly included for thematic purposes, which is also why he's immortal.

[Endoperez]

How big of a research bonus did you give the Medium, Xietor? I'd like to keep my version on line with yours. Also, have you changed Monkey King any further? I didn't notice anything on that.

[Xietor]

I did not touch the monkey king, and the research bonus was a modest "researchbonus 5"

[Horst F. JENS]

Question about Man's Hero (Beowulf) summoned Allies, the Geata Stoneguards:
Those thoug guys carry a throwing axe, a shield AND a battleaxe (dam 9, length 3) into combat. Is a battleaxe with those stats not a 2-handed weapon ?
I suggest removing the shield, (or replacing it with an buckler) or giving the stoneguards a shorter weapon instead of the battleaxe.

[Xietor]

Good point on the battleaxe.

While i am not an expert on weapons from the middle ages, the fact they can wield a longer weapon in one hand is an attestment to their combat skill and strength.

I know the normal 1h weapon is length 2, and the battleaxe is length 3, and the longer weapons 4,5 , and 6.

It was not an oversight on my part, as it is specifically mentioned in their descr. that they can wield a large battleaxe in one hand. They are a hardy race of warriors, and the stoneguard are the elite of that warlike race.

I envision the throwing axes being carried in belt loops, not in their hands while traveling. And in battle, I think the battleaxe would be carried in the offhand, shield slung on their back, and throwing axe in their main hand.

In the end, it is a fantasy game, and i would not try and get too realistic.

I played defensive end in college. In my 20's(i am now old) I benched well over 400 pounds. If you put my stats on a DnD stat sheet, the str, size etc would be much greater than your average guy who never trained with weights, and was not 6'2 230 lbs. And I was not the biggest and strongest
athlete. Pro football players are commonly 6'6 350 lbs.

Many of your bigger football players are twice as strong as the average guy. In the days when the biggest and strongest guys were warriors, I do not think it is a stretch that they could carry and effectively wield a battleaxe in 1 hand that the average guy needed 2 hands to swing. Especially a length 3 weapon, where weight, not length would be the crucial factor.

[Horst F. JENS]

So it seem you just invented the Bastard Battleaxe (TM) some ~700 years too late ;-P