Mod: CPCS -- CrossPath Combat Spells

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by llamabeast

I notice you seem to be trying to replace spells you describe as "niche". Remember that "nicheness" is generally an awesome thing as it means players get that moment where they go "aha! I have just the spell for this!". The number of niche spells is one of the things that makes dom3 so interesting.

Having a lot of thematic niche spell would be cool, but not if they take a spell slot. Spell slots are quite tight and mods need to maxime their usage. Having a lot of niche spells (a'k'a spells that are unlikely to be casted in most games) is a waste of spell slots.

Anyways, new version. Lot of new spells and I did a lot of tinkering with the old news (mostly small buffs). In case you prefer the old spell over this new version, I have documented them to the mod readme file. Just copy-paste the spell you want from the readme file to the .dm file.


The new spells:

Static Bolt (replaced the "Anger of God" spell)

-- 1A1S - "This strange spell looks a lot like an ordinary lighting bolt. However, as the lighting bolt summoned by this spell strikes the enemy troops, the astral essence mixed with the spell will channel the charge of the lighting into nearby troops. If these charged soldiers get struck later in the combat, the charge will be released, likely killing them and their attacker."

Evoc lev 3, R:30, Prec:3, Fat:20, Dam:5+(AN, shock), (all troops in the targeted square will gain "Charge Body")

Celestial Fire (replaced the "Soulfire" spell)

1F1S - "This spell allows the caster to throw forth some flame blessed by the celestial powers. The celestial flame is a spiritual flame that will burn even those that are resistant to fire. This spell is rarely lethal if the targets have decent armor, unless the opponents happen to be demons or undead. When the flame goes off, it will fill the nearby area with a shining light. This light will give all friendly troops a temporary boost to their morale."

Evo lev 4, R:20, Prec:7, Fat:20, Damage: 7 (AP, triple vs demons/undead) AoE:1, UW+, will cause +5 morale boost in friendly units in a aoe 40 burst

Celestial Baptism (replaced the "Celestial Ice" spell)

2W1S - "This spell clouds some friendly troops in water blessed by the celestial powers. The affected troops will be purified and give celestial form as their body is cleansed from sin. Their new form will be healed and gain resistance to poison. Also, for the duration of the battle, all opponents striking the baptised soldiers will be faced with vengeance from the Celestial Powers." (Grants poison resistance and the "Holy Avenger" buff, also nextspells "Heal")

Ench lev 5, R:5, Fat:30, AoE:1, Prec: 10, IN-, UD-, ML-, UW+

Icy Grave (replaced the "Waters from Tartarus" spell)

2W1D - "This cruel spell will encase some enemies in a giant block of ice, immobilizing and numbing them. As an insult to injury, this spell will also make them age rapidly, allowing the caster laugh as he sees his victim struggling against the ice as his muscles weaken. This spell cannot be resisted, but it has a low range."
(Decays and imprisons on ice, no save)

Thaum lev 4, R:10, Fat:30, Prec: 1, AoE:1, UW+

Curse of the Hags (Replaced the "Rejuvenating Waters" spell)

2N1W - "Crones and Hags of festering mires are feared because of this spell. This powerful curse will transform some enemies into frogs. Although this spell is rightly feared by peasants, it only works effectively on those who are either stupid or superstitious. As a insult to injury, the cursed frog-form will have a really long lifespan, so that the cursed one will spend the rest of his miserable life searching for a cure that does not exist."
(MR saves easily, turns units into frogs)

Alt lev 4, R:30, Fat:20, Prec: 0, AoE:1+, UW+

Celestial Embrace (Replaced the "Shield of Heavens" spell)

1S1A - This spell will cloud some friendly troops in divine radiance. The celestial force will value the troops it shines on, and protect those who it finds worthy. The troops under the protection of the divine forces will get the first successful attack made against them negated as the forces twist fate itself. The divine radiance will stay on the battlefield for some time. It is hard to say who the mysterious forces will find worthy of their protection, but they seem to prefer protecting those who are meek. The celestial forces will not protect undead."
(gives "Twist fate", MR negates, cloud lasts for 3 turns)

Ench lev 3, R:15, AoE: 1+, Fat: 25

Chains of Fenrir (replaced the "Mind over Matter" spell)

-- 1S1E - Chains of Fenrir: "At the dawn of time there was a horrible monster called Fenrir. The gods needed to chain him down to prevent him from eating the world, but Fenrir could just broke the chains if he was captured. Then the gods sought aid from the dwarfs, who forged a great chain called Gleipnir. It appeared to be only a silken ribbon but was made of six wondrous ingredients: the sound of a cat's footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, bear's sinews, fish's breath and bird's spittle. The forging of Gleipnir took all of these things from the world and they are now lost to this realm, but Fenrir was captured. This spell channels the might of Gleipnir and imprisons one foe with chains of fire, air, earth and nature."
(targets gets false fetters + earth meld + bonds of fire +)

Thaum lev 3, R:25, Prec:0, Fat:20, UW+

Chill of the Grave (replaced the "Styxian Baptism" spell)

--1D1W - "This spell will call upon the chilling winds of the underworld and make some friendly undead troops spread freezing death upon your foes."
(Grants cold aura +6, undead only)
Ench lev3, R:5, Prec:3, Fat:20, AoE:1, UW+, UD+

Fester (replaced the "Animate Manikins" spell)

"This spell will channel the energies of life and death and hit some enemy troops with their combined might. The affected soldiers will become covered with festering pores and their flesh will start to fall off as the magic devours their mortal forms, decomposing them within few painful minutes. This spell manifests the force of eternal cycle, which includes all beings and thus this spell can affect even the undead and magically animated."

Evo lev 4, R:25, Fat:20, Prec:2, AoE:2, Dam: 20 (non-elemental "poison effect"), MR negates, UW+

[Ragnarok-X]

Haunting Whispers seems to be grossly overpowered. I was fightning with a decent-sized army versus a bunch of fire snakes and two demonbreeds and my army was routed in 2 turns.
its likely either the scaling of the AoE (1 + 1 per level) together with damage (frighten 6). I would suggest something more like damage 1001 or 1002.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by Ragnarok-X

Haunting Whispers seems to be grossly overpowered. I was fightning with a decent-sized army versus a bunch of fire snakes and two demonbreeds and my army was routed in 2 turns.
its likely either the scaling of the AoE (1 + 1 per level) together with damage (frighten 6). I would suggest something more like damage 1001 or 1002.

Compare it to basic "Terror". Which is D2 to cast but has more AoE only 1 lower damage. The enemy mages would have gotten the same effect just by spamming that instead if they got scaling bonuses. However, some questions:

How many and what kind of mages did the enemy have?

I can't say much else about the situation without seeing the battle myself. Was the battle in a SP game you could share?

[Ragnarok-X]

Unfortunally i cant because it was a randommap and im on a slow connection with a max upload of 8 kb per second. It would too long to upload the 5 megabyte (yes).

It was my army of 1x 50 principe w/ 8 standart bearers and 1x30 cataphracts and 1x 40 barbarians (no berserk) vs his army of 1 lich (d8), 7 ghosts, 15 firesnakes and 2 demonbreeds. Breeds were casting whispers twice each and exactly then did my entire army route. Party of my army had experience 1, and it was friendly dom, though no home province.

Perhaps you can set up a quick game and look how powerful 2-3 castings of whispers (fatigue 15) will do. Perhaps my opinion is biased.
Sorry i cant share the replay.

I realize that using my suggestion the lich with d8 would probably be even more powerful with an 8-9 morale blast.



edit: part of why i think the spell is not balanced good is basicly the AoE. By making the base the same as the level-scaler, you get a very weak spell low level and a mighty mighty spell high level. Compare it to summon ghosts which scales as well. You get 2 or 3 ghosts at cast requirements and +1 for each level, so a D10 pretender would get like 4 times the effiency compared to the "normal" caster. Proper scaling would make it 10 ghosts (weaker) on cast requirements and then scale it +1 or +2 for each level. That way, a highlvl caster still gets more powerful effects, but doesnt outclass any other caster. If the base of ANY spell is too weak when compared to levelup-bonuses, a spell always sucks early game but is bonkers lategame, which in my opinion, isnt good for the gameplay.

I just modded your whispers from 1+1 AoE and 6 morale loss to 1+1 AoE and 1+1 morale loss. I will let you know how the battle plays out, given the AI attacks again.

[Ragnarok-X]

i made a mistake, it was only the lich casting whispers, the demon breeds were doing boil. I think a static AoE of 2 or 3 and morale damage 1+1 or 2+1 would be good.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by Ragnarok-X

It was my army of 1x 50 principe w/ 8 standart bearers and 1x30 cataphracts and 1x 40 barbarians (no berserk) vs his army of 1 lich (d8), 7 ghosts, 15 firesnakes and 2 demonbreeds. Breeds were casting whispers twice each and exactly then did my entire army route. Party of my army had experience 1, and it was friendly dom, though no home province.

Look, your army was horribly underequipped to deal with a D8 Lich. The dude would have messed you up with just the basic "Terror" spell (and many other spells that I won't bother to count here). Because a spell actually did something doesn't mean that it is OP. Don't throw units with no mage support at enemy D8 lich, that is just pure basics of the game. Mages kill troops, it's how they work. D8 mages kill a lot of troops. Besides, getting routed is just annoying since you don't actually lose units. The spell is in line with the vanilla fear spells. Trust me, D8 lich has many *much* better tactics at his disposal than just spamming Haunting Whispers, you should consider yourself lucky.

Try getting some mor30 troops or use nature mages to berkserk your troops. Snipe his liches and Ghosts with "Solar Rays". You have a lot of counters at your disposal, use them.

[Ragnarok-X]

hey,

how exactly does the Brain Freeze works ?
I had 3 theurgs casting it against a bunch of indies (light milita), and even though they got the "blue" overlay, they didnt stop moving, nor did they mass fatigue faster. How is it supposed to effect the troops ?

[Gregstrom]

In that case, I think they may just have got the numbness effect (lowers attack and defence?). The other effects are MR+, so not very likely to happen.

[Ragnarok-X]

Greg, why aint the two nextspells very likely to happen ? Those guys were miltia, so they had like 9 or 10 MR. The Theurg got no penetration, but still. It should be 50% to not resist with 10 MR shouldnt it ?