NATURE
The elemental forces of nature are traditionally the realm associated with summoning, terrain and versatility.
Strengths
- Powerful fantastic creatures
- Great versatility, has effects in most areas
- Offers you the best means for dealing with overpowered units
- Spells dealing with terrain and exploration
Weaknesses
- Many spells are weaker than their counterparts in other realms
Spells marked Green are spells I'm 100% satisfied with. They won't be changed unless there is a very good reason to.
Spells marked Red are what I'm not satisfied with, and think requires some sort of a significant change.
Spells marked Blue are good the way they are, but might need numerical tweaking (on costs, or effect strength)
Spells marked neither are spells I don't have enough experience using and fighting against to judge.
Common Spells
Stone Skin : Removed from the game.
Giant Strength : Removed from the game.
Both of these spells were far too worthless and unimpressive, a single point of bonus to a single stat is definitely not worth a spell slot.
Wall of Stone : Removed from the game.
All races can build a city wall so having a spell for it is pointless redundancy.
1. Resist Elements
Cost : 5
Maintenance : 0
Research : 50
Effect : Enchanted creature gains +4 defense against all magical ranged attacks, breath attacks, and spells, and +4 resistance against all nature realm spells and attacks.
Now works regardless of realm but resistance is limited to Nature.
2. Call Centaurs (new)
Cost : 20
Research : 120
Effect : Summons a unit of Centaurs during combat.
Nature, the realm most focused on summoning, had no battle summons available except one at Rare. This spell should fix that. Centaurs are decent, highly versatile units with fast movement, and acceptable health, attack and defense.
3. Fairy Dust (new)
Cost : 12
Research : 100
Effect : Does a strength 7 armor piercing cold type attack to all figures in the target unit.
A weaker, cheaper, more common, but piercing fireball. Cold element makes the Cold Immunity ability slightly more relevant.
4. Earth Lore
Cost : 40
Research : 80
Effect : Reveals the targeted map area.
A useful spell for early exploration, or to spy on the other plane without actual access. Not a particularly important spell, but can help early expansion strategies, so it stays.
5. Water Walking
Cost : 20
Maintenance : 0
Research : 100
Effect : Enchanted creature has swimming movement.
Not much I can say about this, convenient if you have no access to ships, and that's about it.
6. War Bears
Cost : 55
Maintenance : 1
Research : 100
Effect : Summoning 3 figures : Melee 7, +1 To Hit, Defense 5, Resistance 7, Moves 3, 7 health, Forester.
Efficient, cheap common summoned creature which is roughly as good as a halberdier and a half.
7. Sprites
Cost : 80
Maintenance : 2
Research : 100
Effect : Summoning 5 figures : Melee 2, Ranged 4, +1 To Hit, Defense 2, Resistance 8, Moves 2, 1 health, Forester, Flying.
A flying ranged unit that is extremely fragile. Situational but can be very useful if the enemy can't reach them. War Bears are cheaper and more powerful, but less tactical.
8. Nature's Eye
Cost : 40
Maintenance : 0
Research : 50
Effect : Enchanted city has a range of view of 5, and produces 2 additional research.
9. Earth to Mud
Cost : 20
Research : 50
Effect : Turn a 7x7 combat terrain area into mud.
A great spell to combine with ranged units, or just to run away, and there is no way to resist or avoid it. Now 7x7 to ensure it's effective at slowing down armies consisting of multiple units, but cost is raised to compensate.
10. Web
Cost : 10
Research : 150
Effect : Target unit cannot move for a while and loses Flying.
An extremely versatile spell that can be used in many ways. One of the spells that make Nature a strong realm. Might even be too good for a common, but due to the extreme tactical power of flight, a common counter to it should exist in the game.
Uncommon Spells
1. Ice Bolt
Cost : 25
Research : 400
Effect : Hits a target enemy units by a strength 35 cold element magic attack.
Same numbers as Lightning Bolt but no armor piercing, because Nature is less effective at direct damage than Chaos.
2. Great Lizard (new, replaces Basilisk)
Cost : 200
Maintenance : 5
Research : 600
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 18, +2 To Hit, Defense 7, Resistance 7, Moves 3, 30 health, Regeneration
3. Giant Spiders
Cost : 90
Maintenance : 2
Research : 200
Effect : Summoning 4 figures : Melee 6, +1 To Hit, Defense 5, Resistance 9, Moves 5, 5 health, Web spell, Poison 4.
4. Nature's Cures
Cost : 50
Research : 400
Effect : Heals the target overland army to full health.
An excellent spell when needed, although staying in a city or using a unit with a Healer ability gets you this for free in just a few turns.
5. Construct Catapult (new)
Cost : 25
Research : 400
Effect : Summons a Catapult that has magical weapons during combat.
Unlike the common Centaurs, the Uncommon Catapult does heavy damage, but is highly vulnerable and moves slowly, making it riskier to use. Due to this, it's only slightly more expensive than Centaurs.
6. Crack's Call
Cost : 25
Research : 400
Effect : 25% chance to deal 20 disintegrating damage to the targeted unit (ignoring all immunities and stats), and destroy any wall segment on the same location.
Very expensive for being a Disrupt, this spell is mostly useful as a high risk high reward removal spell. Less cost effective than Doom Bolt, and cannot hit flying or noncorporeal or merging units. Main purpose is to have a spell that can bypass Magic Immunity, and deal with otherwise unstoppable threats like heroes.
7. Change Terrain
Cost : 40
Research : 400
Effect : Unchanged
A good, fun, and not overpowered spell, so no changes, but a slight cost reducing as you need to cast this on many tiles per city.
8. Transmute
Cost : 60
Research : 400
Effect : Change the target ore :
Silver->Mithril->Quork->Iron-> Silver and
Gold->Adamantium->Crysx->Coal->Gold
Now gives better options and is a lot more useful. Ores can be easily destroyed by Chaos Magic, limiting the power of this spell. Ores can only be changed within their own tier.
9. Land Linking (new)
Cost : 50
Maintenance : 1
Research : 200
Effect : Enchanted creature gains pathfinding. If it's fantastic, it gains +2 defense and attack.
10. Cockatrices
Cost : 150
Maintenance : 4
Research : 400
Effect : Summoning 4 figures : Melee 4, +1 To Hit, Defense 5, Resistance 7, Moves 3, 7 health, Stoning Touch -4, Flying.
Stoning ability a lot more potent than basilisk's, especially against single figure targets, but lacks the melee strength, so if petrification does not work, this unit is useless. Flight can sometimes keep them safely away from enemies in this case, though. Good against low resistance races, or when combined with resistance reduction spells.
Rare Spells
1. Stone Giant
Cost : 275
Maintenance : 5
Research : 1600
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 20, Ranged 20 (2 ammo), +2 To Hit, Defense 12, Resistance 9, Moves 3, 25 health, Stoning Immunity, Poison Immunity, Wall Crusher, Mountaineer.
2. Elemental Armor
Cost : 18/90
Maintenance : 1
Research : 800
Effect : Enchanted unit has +12 defense against all magical ranged attacks, breath attacks and spells.
A stronger "Resist Elements", this is effectively very heavy armor against all frequent types of magical ranged attacks.
3. Gorgons
Cost : 325
Maintenance : 8
Research : 1600
Effect : Summoning 3 figures : Melee 15, +2 To Hit, Defense 7, Resistance 9, Moves 3, 14 health, Stoning Gaze -3
4. Survival Instinct (new)
Cost : 600 (+40% for AI)
Maintenance : 15
Research : 2400
Effect : All fantastic units owned by the caster gain +2 resistance, +1 melee, and +1 defense.
Haven't had much of a chance to test this, but the resistance boost should be a quite relevant effect, as Nature's units at Rare or Uncommon generally suffer from low resistance as their weakness. Research cost should probably be lower though. Not so outstanding when playing mono-Nature, this spell should be an impressive combination with Zombie Mastery, Doom Mastery, and Chaos/Death in general because their units tend to contain a large amount of figures for a reasonably low cost.
5. Blizzard (renamed from Ice Storm)
Cost : 120
Research : 1600
Effect : Hits all units on the target map square with a strength 14 armor piecing cold magical attack.
No longer does all-figure hitting damage, but pierces armor instead to make it different from Fire Storm.
A bit boring but useful, as it hits single figure units for slightly more damage at a lower cost than Fire Storm.
6. Earthquake
Cost : 150
Research : 800
Effect : All buildings in the target city have a 40% chance to be destroyed, all units have a 4% chance to die (if not flying or noncorporeal)
A powerful attack on enemy economy, and mainly, ability to produce military. Chance of killing units is low, but exists, so gambling on it to get rid of an unstoppable hero is still an option.
7. Earth Elemental
Cost : 50
Research : 2400
Effect : Summons an Earth Elemental in combat
8. Gaia's Blessing
Cost : 250
Maintenance : 3
Research : 1600
Effect : City max population/food increases by 50%, fixes bad terrain around city, etc. Original effect except Forest production bonus is tripled not doubled.
Unchanged, this is a great spell that is perfectly fine the way it is.
9. Petrify
Cost : 20
Research : 1600
Effect : All figures in target unit must resist at -3 or get disintegrated (turned to stone).
A reasonably cheap and effective resist-or-die spell.
10. Iron Skin
Cost : 24/120
Maintenance : 3
Research : 1600
Effect: +5 shields
A pretty good defensive spell that is not as powerful as Invunerability but is the second best option for improving armor. Units buffed by this are quite hard to kill by other normal units.
Very Rare Spells
1. Earth Gate
Cost : 125
Maintenance : 1
Research : 1500
A somewhat weaker replacement of Word of Recall, providing a powerful advantage nontheless. By creatively rearranging units through gates as needed, you can protect your cities with much fewer units, saving a lot on both maintenance and production. Although unimpressive at first sight, the tactical advantage of having this is huge, warranting it to stay Very Rare and showing how broken Word of Recall was at common.
2. Seismic Mastery
Cost : 1000 (+40% for AI)
Maintenance : 4
Research : 2000
Effect: Full map shown. +15 power for each node. Whenever you cast a spell that costs 400 or more, you can target a city with an Earthquake effect for free.
3. Great Wyrm
Cost : 500
Maintenance : 15
Research : 6000
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 34, +3 To Hit, Defense 8, Resistance 14, Moves 3, 45 health, Poison 15, Merging, Armor Piercing.
Offers one of the highest attack power in the game paired with instant movement, but defense is slightly below of other very rare creatures.
4. Behemoth
Cost : 480
Maintenance : 12
Research : 6000
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 25, +2 To Hit, Defense 15, Resistance 13, Moves 3, 42 health, Regeneration, Caster 40.
Inferior to the Great Wyrm in offense and has rather poor mobility, but excels in the ability to survive and defense. It was weird to have no Nature monsters that can natively Regenerate when it is a Nature spell, so this now can.
5. Colossus
Cost : 450
Maintenance : 12
Research : 8000
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 25, Ranged 25 (4 ammo), +3 To Hit, Defense 12, Resistance 15, Moves 3, 37 health, First Strike, Poison Immunity, Stoning Immunity, Illusions Immunity, Wall Crusher, Pathfinding.
Somewhere in between the previous two summons, Colossus offer a good defensive power, outstanding resistance, and good offense, although lacking instant movement, with 4 ranged shots to make up for that. No armor piercing is the price to pay for the better defenses. It also has a nice set of additional abilities.
6. Herb Mastery
Cost : 1000 (+40% for AI)
Maintenance : 12
Research : 4000
Effect : All units heal completely at the end of the turn on the overland map. All units recover 2 health per turn during combat.
Effectively grants Regeneration to all units, minus the "back from death" part. Haven't had the chance to use it or fight against it yet to judge if the cost or effect is appropriate.
7. Entangle
Cost : 50
Research : 6000
Effect : All enemy corporeal units in combat have -2 movement.
Stops the lower tier normal units from moving at all, and drastically slows down all others. A quite powerful spell.
8. Call Lightning
Cost : 60
Research : 6000
Effect : 3-5 strength 8 lightning bolts hit enemies each combat turn.
A really nice damage over time spell that is a great combo with Nature's other spells that slow down enemies. I don't understand why this wasn't in Chaos (or even Sorcery, they have two monsters that use lightning attacks!), but it does work well in Nature too.
9. Fairy Ring
Cost : 1200 (+40% for AI)
Maintenance : 25
Research : 8000
Effect: Whenever another player casts an expensive spell, the owner of Fairy Ring gets a free summoned creature of any type they can summon.
10. Regeneration
Cost : 32/160
Maintenance : 5
Research : 8000
A top-tier unit enchantment that is a great combo with stalling spells, and also makes sure you'll never lose any units in winning battles. Casting cost was unreasonable though, especially when compared to Raise Dead.
Item Powers
Resist Elements
Cost : 150
Books Required : 1
Identical to spell of the same name.
Elemental Armor
Cost : 350
Books Required : 3
Identical to spell of the same name.
Stoning
Cost : 150
Books Required : 2
Enemy figure hit by the attack from this weapon must resist or be turned to stone (disintegrating damage). Has a resistance modifier of -1.
Water Walking
Cost : 100
Books Required : 1
Identical to spell of the same name.
Regeneration
Cost : 1000
Books Required : 4
Identical to spell of the same name. Expensive because regenerating heroes are that good.
Pathfinding
Cost : 200
Books Required : 1
Identical to spell of the same name.
Merging
Cost : 800
Books Required : 5
Grants Merging movement to the unit.
