Mods for lower-powered magic

[PvK]

Thanks Kristoffer!

Yes, I like it because I tend to play Dominions as a wargame/RPG, following the characters' stories and trying to keep them alive in an increasingly deadly world. With power determined more by level than by research, investment in magic power (empowerment, items, communion) is done more by magic items and empowerment than by researching (and it's not unbalancing to use Easy research if one wants). It also makes strong magic on pretenders even more tempting than in Price of Power mod. Rainbow mage pretenders are even more tempting (but still fragile).

[Kristoffer O]

Now I have remade my MR4 and MR6 mods from the beta test times and added item restrictions. Somewhat sloppy of me, not to have made it already, but there is still the matter of spells with identical names. Seems spell number doesnt work in mods, anyway I didn't get it to work. On the other hand it is only the Summon Scorpion Man that is affected, and it should be fairly easy to see if anyone abuses the lapsus.

For you who have never heard of this (most of you) mod it is a Magic Restriction mod (two actually) that removes all spells and items from above research lvl 4 (or 6)

I'll post them in the mod thread.

[Saulot]

Thanks for putting a response not just into words but actions.

While I play a lot of smaller games to try out different nations and different strategies, to which Dom is really well-suited (which helps keep things fresh), I tend not to deal with as much late-game major magic power. If I ever do get there too often and get tired of it, I'll be sure to try your mod.

[MaxWilson]

I really like the idea of making mage power level more important than research level, to make the game more RPG-ish. One thing I've considered along those lines is to make all spells pre-researched (fairly easy to do) but with increased path requirements, or else to eliminate all non-hero spellcasters from the game. You'd probably want to reduce the power of summonable mages (demilich, Tartarian, etc.) so that they can't easily replicate themselves. The goal would be to make mages few, mysterious and important. The research system runs counter to that goal because it requires you to pump out lots of mages to do research. And oh, I'd probably give individual mages a hefty maintenance cost, like around 100 gp per turn each, even the summonables and heroes.

Fortunately the Dominions modding system is powerful enough to handle this. Yay, Illwinter!

-Max