What to remove to add a new black direct damage spell in Caster of Magic?

[Seravy]

I've noticed how there are no Poison type spells in the game whatsoever, and that Death has zero spells that do damage as an actual damage spell instead of relying on resistance rolls.

I'm considering to add something like

Poison Cloud / Virulent Flu / etc
Deals a strength X (possible armor piercing), poison type attack to a target unit (possible all enemy units).

"Poison type" here only means poison immunity blocks it, it has nothing to do with the poison ability, but works as a normal fire/lightning ball/bolt spell otherwise.

However, there is no room to add it without removing a spell.

I'm considering to remove Cruel Unminding, which has been moved to an uncommon slot already and is a pretty unfun spell. Neither losing casting skill nor making the enemy lose it is very fun, and on top of that the strength is impossible to balance.
Improving skill has a non-linear cost, which is further multiplied by the loss being percentage based, so ultimately, the spell makes the enemy lose resources spent on the skill proportional to X^2 where X is their actual skill. It's easy to see how broken this formula is, at 100 enemy skill they lose 600 mana worth of it, at 200, it's 2400 but at 50, it's only 150. All of these at the same cost.

I'd like to hear your opinion. Do you think removing this spell is a good idea, or not? (Note that I fixed it, the AI can cast it on the player, even repeatedly if they can afford, and the player will lose the skill. )
If not, is there another spell you would remove instead?

Do you think adding a poison based direct damage spell to the death realm is a good idea?
If yes, which parameters should it have? Single target? All enemies, Single or all figures? Pierce armor or not?
If Unminding will be replaced, the new spell will be Uncommon, otherwise it might be different rarity.

How about moving "Wall of Shadows" into Sorcery (it is an illusion based city buff, not very Death like) to replace Spell Lock or Stasis, and using that slot for this new spell? Spell Lock is somewhat overpowered considering how good some buffs are, and Stasis is...to be honest not that interesting, I never really liked it. I prefer to kill the enemy units instead of delaying their arrival...

Edit : I'm leaning towards making it a strength 35 single target poison "bolt" spell for something around 25 mana and no armor piercing.
Still can't decide what to remove, Unminding seems the best choice though. I really can't come up with anything against the removal of Unminding except that I worked hard to change the percentage and fix it for the AI. I mean a spell that reduces the amount the target can cast spells (= play the game) is anything but fun. It's somewhat redundant, too, if you deny their mana and power through the other spells, they can't cast anyway.

[Asfex]

the life have spell -"holy word". if life wizard can cast it - the death have no chances. The only possible to survive is cruel unminding.
I do not think the other direct damage spell for death is a good idea. moreover, summoned creatures have poison immunity.
Ok, the next problem for death is magic immunity. But it need be solved by close melee non-magic attack. Or ranged demons?
I think death need spell that reduce +to hit or +to def for all battle units - negate prayer effect.

[Seravy]

the life have spell -"holy word". if life wizard can cast it - the death have no chances. The only possible to survive is cruel unminding.
I do not think the other direct damage spell for death is a good idea. moreover, summoned creatures have poison immunity.
Ok, the next problem for death is magic immunity. But it need be solved by close melee non-magic attack. Or ranged demons?
I think death need spell that reduce +to hit or +to def for all battle units - negate prayer effect.

Changing Holy Word is an option. In fact I think I'll do it right away, a -3 penalty for undead sounds more reasonable than a -5.

[Asfex]

The problm is not penalty for undead. even death knights have 10 resist +2 for darkness and death channel. - and death have not spells to increase resistance more. - still very vulnerable for holy word.

[Seravy]

The problm is not penalty for undead. even death knights have 10 resist +2 for darkness and death channel. - and death have not spells to increase resistance more. - still very vulnerable for holy word.

At 10 resistance, with Holy Word's -2 penalty, there is only a 20% chance for the spell to kill per figure and there are 4 figures in that unit. It's almost impossible to lose the entire unit, and they can regain lost figures through life steal the next turn.
If you have +2 resist from spells, this chance is zero, the unit is immune to Holy Word.

In fact, Holy Word's -2 resistance penalty is identical to Death Spell's.

Using mixed armies of fantastic and normal units greatly reduces the potential damage of Holy Word too.

[Asfex]

The problm is not penalty for undead. even death knights have 10 resist +2 for darkness and death channel. - and death have not spells to increase resistance more. - still very vulnerable for holy word.

At 10 resistance, with Holy Word's -2 penalty, there is only a 20% chance for the spell to kill per figure and there are 4 figures in that unit. It's almost impossible to lose the entire unit, and they can regain lost figures through life steal the next turn.
If you have +2 resist from spells, this chance is zero, the unit is immune to Holy Word.

In fact, Holy Word's -2 resistance penalty is identical to Death Spell's.

Using mixed armies of fantastic and normal units greatly reduces the potential damage of Holy Word too.

life wizard plays with bless, true light, usually. this prevent life stealing. then dispel evil. then righteousness
( a stronger version than weapon immunity for death), and holy word finally. so, no life stealing expected.
Also, life have good buffs on own units, death - have not.
if fantastic creatures is removed from battle then life have overwhelming agvantage on the death on the battlefield.

[FrancoK]

I've noticed how there are no Poison type spells in the game whatsoever, and that Death has zero spells that do damage as an actual damage spell instead of relying on resistance rolls.

I'm considering to add something like

Poison Cloud / Virulent Flu / etc
Deals a strength X (possible armor piercing), poison type attack to a target unit (possible all enemy units).

"Poison type" here only means poison immunity blocks it, it has nothing to do with the poison ability, but works as a normal fire/lightning ball/bolt spell otherwise.

However, there is no room to add it without removing a spell.

I'm considering to remove Cruel Unminding, which has been moved to an uncommon slot already and is a pretty unfun spell. Neither losing casting skill nor making the enemy lose it is very fun, and on top of that the strength is impossible to balance.
Improving skill has a non-linear cost, which is further multiplied by the loss being percentage based, so ultimately, the spell makes the enemy lose resources spent on the skill proportional to X^2 where X is their actual skill. It's easy to see how broken this formula is, at 100 enemy skill they lose 600 mana worth of it, at 200, it's 2400 but at 50, it's only 150. All of these at the same cost.

I'd like to hear your opinion. Do you think removing this spell is a good idea, or not? (Note that I fixed it, the AI can cast it on the player, even repeatedly if they can afford, and the player will lose the skill. )
If not, is there another spell you would remove instead?

Do you think adding a poison based direct damage spell to the death realm is a good idea?
If yes, which parameters should it have? Single target? All enemies, Single or all figures? Pierce armor or not?
If Unminding will be replaced, the new spell will be Uncommon, otherwise it might be different rarity.

How about moving "Wall of Shadows" into Sorcery (it is an illusion based city buff, not very Death like) to replace Spell Lock or Stasis, and using that slot for this new spell? Spell Lock is somewhat overpowered considering how good some buffs are, and Stasis is...to be honest not that interesting, I never really liked it. I prefer to kill the enemy units instead of delaying their arrival...

Edit : I'm leaning towards making it a strength 35 single target poison "bolt" spell for something around 25 mana and no armor piercing.
Still can't decide what to remove, Unminding seems the best choice though. I really can't come up with anything against the removal of Unminding except that I worked hard to change the percentage and fix it for the AI. I mean a spell that reduces the amount the target can cast spells (= play the game) is anything but fun. It's somewhat redundant, too, if you deny their mana and power through the other spells, they can't cast anyway.

Good idea.

The Death spell I do not find useful and I do see threatening from enemies are:
Cruel Unminding (low level target lose few points, hi level target recover quickly)
Subversion (wizards hates each other, no help needed)
Warp node (cost few mana points, but siphons out enemies even less)
Evil presence (AI never used on me, I always have better options against an enemy city)

Spell ideas:
- Poison bolt Combat only Cost 25 mana 35 attack Vs single figure. Immunity applies.
- Road kill Overland Instant (target all roads but the ones in cities) Cost 80 mana destroys the road built on one square
- Poison cloud Overland Instant Cost 250 mana Each figure in the target area receive a strenght 10 poison attack. Immunity applies.
- Poison city City Enchantment Cost 200 maintain 8 mana/turn Emits 5 poisonous bolt hitting stationed troops with strength 8 bolts. Also there is a 1% chance to kill 1000 habitants every turn. Immunity applies.


Also moving "Wall of Shadows" into Sorcery replacing Stasis is a nice idea, but maybe I'm biased since I use Blue a lot.


If you are going to implement do you mind using single patches so we can use it too?