LIFE Realm

[Nelphine]

And you don't get choice about spell to research. You get it randomly chosen for you.

But I don't even care about it from the human point of view. Sure it's the single worst very rare in the game, and in fact it's so bad I have literally never considered using it. Buffing or healing my elite mithril halberdiers is ALWAYS better than casting call to arms. Buffing adamantium champion SPEARMEN is better than casting call to arms.

But the real problem is the ai does cast it. Which is a complete waste of 70 casting skill. I literally gift this to the ai, even if I get it in 1403, because by giving it to the ai, I have a noticeably better chance of winning. Which means, the research cost is balanced if you're against a life ai. Gift it to them, and if they cast it regularly, that pays back the research the human put into it.

But the AI will research it. There is literally no reason for them to do this, and it's a complete waste of their research points.

[Nelphine]

Actually you could probably reduce the casting cost. 45-50 would actually be worth using instead of casting heal or true sight or raise dead or summon zombie.

[zitro1987]

Oh, if accounting for AI effects, I can add additional bullet points to the problems associated with spell. However, Nelphine covered the main concerns (abstaining from better spells, wasting research, and trading abuse).

But I believe changing the scope (if not the theme/name) may be needed. Reducing its cost makes it thematically a good spell trying to be air elemental or another combat summon. Closing a life weakness is a problem.
*I would rather prefer call of arms being a defensive spell, similar to what I think its intention is. You aim it at a city overland, and get a random pile of 9 normal units at city or surrounding squares. If attacked, you can stall a bit (life sucks at stalling with spells however) and hopefully do a bit of damage. Kind of a superior and cheaper alternative to casting 9 hell hounds in a turn.
*it could even be a combat spell that fills in your army with 9-X random units in combat map, where x is your current # of units, and only triggers in city combat.

Nah, it has to be useful for AI.

[Seravy]

I can't possibly think we won't have military presence late in the game of a handful of mid-tier units per city unless I'm losing the game (and if so, a paladin won't save me, other spells might save me turn game around).

It happens fairly often if the AI is playing something like Death or Chaos and can wipe out half your garrsion on each attack. Or if they attack more than once a turn (like in a tower).

But the real problem is the ai does cast it. Which is a complete waste of 70 casting skill. I literally gift this to the ai, even if I get it in 1403, because by giving it to the ai, I have a noticeably better chance of winning.

Weird, I'd never want to give this to the AI. It gives the Life AI which otherwise cannot hurt me at all with spells, a "nuke" that deals massive armor piercing damage to my units and can even stall for time. Each time they "waste" the 70 mana, I lose a magician or two from my garrison. Sure, it's not as bad as if they were casting possession, but it's bad enough when it comes from a wizard whose last normal unit in battle takes 4-5 turns to destroy because it's so highly buffed - resulting in having to fight another 4-5 paladins.
And if they already have buffing globals in play like Prayer or High Prayer which they WILL have, those paladins are suddenly quite powerful.

Ofc, it's horrible 1403 - you can't afford casting your globals plus multiple paladins, nor can you have one paladin,  buff it and heal it repeatedly. This spell starts to be good if you have at least 150-200 skill, the more the better. Obviously Lightning Bolt is a stronger spell if you only look at damage/MP, but it's not in Life and it doesn't give you combat presence either. But you aren't supposed to have a very rare until you have that casting skill anyway.

(if this is a serious problem, we should reconsider the rare/very rare spell treasure - it's bad for game balance in many ways, an AI finding the correct very rare in 1403 means losing. I've had an AI with Sky Drakes in 1408 on low difficulty - if I wasn't already completely winning the war against that AI, I would have had no way to deal with it.)

I wouldn't mind listening to ideas on new Life very rares but I find it unlikely to replace Call to Arms unless the idea is extremely good.

[Nelphine]

As I have no idea for decent life spells, as I love all the buffing and globals but they don't need more.

But I'm happy you're considering it. And yes I don't care what the spell skill the AI has, I'll always gift the ai call to arms, at any stage of the game.

[zitro1987]

Looked through a couple of pages in this thread for ideas. 

Seravy
It would be interesting to have a spell in the Life realm that protects units from melee attacks coming from fantastic creatures specifically (in any realm), but no slot to add one and it would be a bit too situational.

It does not seem like a bad idea to bring a situational defensive spell, but I'm not sure this is the solution. Life already has the potential to overpower fantastic unit via the unit and global buffs.


What if a possible very rare could be a 'point at an overland square' that makes all units in selected square have elite-level experience points? or a +180xp to all non-hero units in a square? Has reasonable synergy, partially obsoletes 'heroism', fits theme of life.

What if a possible very rare could be an opposite of 'final wave', bringing to life a % of dead units from a turn ago?
- or preventing permanent death from combat taking place in 1 turn within a stack?

What if a possible very rare could be a 1-turn exaltation overland to all units in a stack? Like a pre-battle tactic that is opposite to using ice storm/fire storm against an opponent.

[Seravy]

It would be interesting to have a spell in the Life realm that protects units from melee attacks coming from fantastic creatures specifically

That actually is a very bad idea, and makes heroes unstoppable even by the only thing intended to stop them, large stacks of very rare creatures.

What if a possible very rare could be a 'point at an overland square' that makes all units in selected square have elite-level experience points?

We have Altar of Battle....

What if a possible very rare could be an opposite of 'final wave', bringing to life a % of dead units from a turn ago?

This isn't windows to put dead units into a recycle bin. They are deleted, there is nowhere to bring them back from.

or preventing permanent death from combat taking place in 1 turn within a stack?

That's....almost regeneration. Supreme Light already does it.

What if a possible very rare could be a 1-turn exaltation overland to all units in a stack?

I can't put a combat effect on an overland unit.

[Seravy]

Investigated the "item lionheart does not work overland issue" again. The "apply health bonus" procedure is called from "apply_combat_bonuses" and not from "apply_overland_bonuses".
It might or might not be safe to move this call to the other procedure, but I suspect it's not safe (that means a HUGE change in the order effects are applied) - so this will unfortunately have to remain unfixed - it's not worth the risk to try fixing that way.

[Nelphine]

I'm attacking a tower with 4 archangels. I have 9 steam cannons.

The first thing they do is cast true sight on all 4. They spend the second turn casting healing - so they never get prayer.

I kill one.

I attack again, now there are only 3.. and they cast prayer first. ??? Why didn't they do that the first time?

[Nelphine]

(I think it's even worse that they're casting true sight because I don't have either phantom warriors or phantom beast; nor do I have psionic blast or mind storm. Don't even have invisibility. I do have 4 sorcery books, but no illusionary powers!)

Is raise dead meant to be a healing spell? Specifically, if you get attacked and one of your units starts the combat with 1 hit point (or some other super low number), and then dies, and you use raise dead on it, it still comes back with half health, effectively making raise dead a very awesome healing + semi-teleport spell.