DEATH Realm

[Seravy]

Actually that disabled alchemist guild is pretty bad now that I think about it.
High resistance troops usually have magical ranged attacks.
Low resistance troops already die without posing a threat. (Terror+Wrack+click done 25 times)

So it's useless, there are only a handful units in the game where this effect matters at all. And even those, Death can easily kill.

No barracks on the other hand...would put the produced units at a lower resistance due to missing levels. That is useful.

[zitro1987]

eliminating effect of starting experience is nice and more predictable but too weak on its own (unless casting cost low or allowing the unrest effect to stay)

And about wrack ... maybe death needs instead a combat enchantment spell with death-only synergy, something the realm struggles at time. How about a combat global enchantment that gives bonuses to 'undead' & bloodlust units (not necessarily death units) - stackable with darkness.

[Seravy]

I enjoy Wrack and damage over time effects in general, so removing it is not an option.

I thought about Evil Presence more and am worried any changes might make the spell weaker.
It's actually quite powerful - it eliminates up to 6 unrest reduction, and generates +3 rebels on top of that. Overall, that means roughly half of a city becomes unproductive, so almost halved gold and production outputs. Producing half the normal amount of troops beats having them come with fewer levels or no magic weapons. It even has potential to force the AI to globally reduce the tax rate, which might recover a few of the rebels but causes a lot of lost gold elsewhere. And on top of this, it even removes up to 12 power. Finally, as Famine also turns people unproductive and adds rebels, pairing the two causes a city to have close to no production output, completely shutting down its capability to build troops. Which is huge.

So the current spell sets the bar quite high. Don't think something like "halved taxes" or "units have no levels" can replace that.

[Seravy]

For Dark Ritual, I think there are two good solutions :
1. "Doubles all existing religious power production in the city and generates an additional 12? power as though it was a religious building."

2. "Triples all existing religious power production in the city"

Basically, the spell needs to find itself a way to generate another 12 power to be on par with current standards one way or another. The third would be to include nonreligious buildings but that might be hard to implement and would take away from the uniqueness of the spell. (Uranus' Blessing already boosts the nonreligious buildings)

[Domon]

you said wrack overlaps with black prayer: why don't you make it an upgraded black prayer (like with prayer/high prayer) that includes black prayer effect?

[Nelphine]

Something odd going on with possession. Whenever it's cast successfully on one of my units, one of my other units loses all its movement for the next turn.

[Seravy]

That's really weird...are you sure Terror isn't in effect?

[Nelphine]

Oh hell. Yeah that was my secondary stacks; I'd been fighting with the main stack (immune to terror) so long I forgot cloud of shadows did that. Yup, good call.

[Ryzel]

So what is everyone's thoughts on Death's hardcore weakness vs. Life wizards? Bless is a very cheap common spell and trivializes a majority of Death's spells and summons (which are Death's strengths). Current counterplay options are Dispel Magic (which not only costs way more than Bless to counter but can simply be recast the next turn), Wave of Despair (kind of), Reaper Slash, and...normal units I guess? Which typically get crushed due to Life's buff spells on their units. Black Prayer certainly helps but I personally think Death needs a little more help.

My suggestion, replace Blood Lust (IMO the least useful of the uncommon Death spells) with a new spell...

Desecrate
Combat Spell
35 Mana
Target unit receives a -3 penalty to resistance with no save (however, this effect can be dispelled afterwards and only lasts for the battle). In addition, any lesser Life enchantments on the unit are dispelled with no save (lesser Life enchantments are all common Life buffs; Bless, Holy Weapon, Holy Armor, Endurance, and Heroism).

Why I think this would be a good idea...
- While -3 resistance with no save is very strong (especially for Death), the large casting cost and unit-only target makes this prohibitive to use early/mid-game on anything except the very strongest units that are giving Death problems. In addition, counterplay exists via dispelling the effect the next turn. By the time Death has the mana/skill to cast this repeatedly, it will be much more of a difficult decision since more Desecrates means slower Terror/Wrack/Darkness/Black Prayer/Mana Leak/Black Sleep/etc.
- Making the spell uncommon means that Life will still have their fun in the sun early game.
- Removing all lesser life buffs means Life superhero units will actually need to be wary, OR they can spread their buffs over multiple units (IMO 1-2 buffs over mulitple units is a richer strategy than 4-5 on one unit). No effect on Lionheart/Invulnerability/True Sight means it won't be OP late game.
- Casting Bless again on the unit next turn is still decent counterplay (only difference is +2 resist instead of +5).
- While Demons and Demon Lords can cast this (upsetting the balance of those creatures), the large casting cost means this shouldn't be problem unless you're fighting many Demons.

What are your thoughts?
- Is Death vs. Life balance fine and not underpowered?
- Is Blood Lust a strategically rich spell worth keeping over the alternative?
- Is something wrong with Desecrate (too overpowered, too boring, etc.)?

[Nelphine]

Why doesn't chaos get this spell instead? I haven't really decided on an answer for any of your questions, including whether I think anything is needed at all, but IF death needs it, doesn't chaos also need it?