LIFE Realm

[Seravy]

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.

Concept
Life magic is all about strengthening what you already have, units, cities, your own powers.
Strengths :
-Boosting economy by producing more resources of all types
-Boosting military units in various ways
-Boosting magic in ways that won't negate the realm's weaknesses

Weaknesses :
-Summoning
-Direct damage

Common Spells

True Light : Removed
This spell was pretty worthless as is. Buffing Life creatures is pointless, the realm's primary weakness is having minimal summon spells, and generally not strong enough to buff. Reducing stats on Death units is useful, but I want to keep spells that hurt specific realms to the minimum, as it is simply unfair and makes the realm on the receiving end way less playable.

1. Holy Armor
Cost : 7/35
Maintenance : 0
Research : Normal
Effect : +2 defense to the target normal unit.
An entirely defensive buff, which grants a useful, universal, but not particularly outstanding defense boost. It does not help in offense whatsoever, and only helps the unit stay alive. Due to this, maintenance is not welcome, as the unit is likely to stay in play much longer than it normally would, but without contributing significantly more towards your expansion.  

2. Holy Weapon
Cost : 10/50
Maintenance : 0
Research : Half
Effect : +1 To Hit for the enchanted unit, and it can ignore Weapon Immunity.
+1 To Hit effectively translates to a 33% damage boost, 25% if the unit already has magical weapons. Considering the maintenance cost of the typical early game unit, and assuming the fair maintenance cost would be no more than a quarter of that (don't forget that mana is more valuable and harder to get, especially in the early game), the only reasonable choice is to have this spell have no maintenance. While that might be a bit too good for expensive, high end units, at that time in the game, a even 1-2 mana would not be relevant anyway. Eventually, this spell gets obsoleted by Holy Arms.

3. Healing
Cost : 15
Research : Normal
Effect : Heal 5 health on the target unit during combat.
An exceptionally good spell which should not be buffed and probably not weakened either. It's slightly more cost-effective than the best damage dealing spells, which is how it should be.
While it would be nice if it was available on the overland map too, I don't think that's reasonably doable, if at all, unfortunately, and I have doubts it would be useful anyway, overland casting skill is a bit too valuable to use for this.

4. Just Cause
Cost : 150
Maintenance : 3
Research : Triple
Effect : -1 unrest to all cities owned, and +10 fame.
A really powerful spell that gives a considerable economic boost to Life wizards in the early game as well as a chance for better heroes. However, the initial cost is high, maintenance is considerable for the start, and investing into it too early can backfire, as less can be spent on other spells that do support early game aggression (especially if playing two or more realms). As this choice only matters if the spell is common, this is the right place for it. (as an uncommon, you would have no problem spending on it AND staying aggressive at the same time) Furthermore, the additional fame for better heroes is only relevant in the early game too.

5. Guardian Spirit
Cost : 60
Maintenance : 1
Research : Normal
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 7, +3 To Hit, Defense 6, Resistance 10, Moves 2, 10 health, Resistance To All +1, Meld.
Effect: Provides Heavenly Light effects (both power and combat buffs) to melded node (doesn't count towards Cult Leader's bonus).

6. Endurance
Cost : 70
Maintenance : 1
Research : Normal
Effect : +1 movement and +1 To Defend for enchanted unit
[i]A pretty good buff that boosts both mobility and defensive power, this is more expensive than Holy Armor. The To Defend bonus is more valuable than the 2 shields of that spell only if the unit has 6 shields total, but below that point it's weaker. Overall, this is an excellent buff that remains useful even during the late game, and has the potential to be as valuable as Iron Skin, albeit only on units with extremely high natural defense. As effect value scales with the target's defense, balancing the cost is difficult, but at the very least it should be more expensive than Holy Armor because it also adds 1 movement.

7. Heroism
Cost : 15/75
Maintenance : 1
Research : Double
Effect : Enchanted unit is level 4 (Elite) while the enchantment is in effect
A very powerful effect on heroes, and a much weaker one on normal units, the cost of this spell is hard to balance. The current version might be underpriced for heroes, but for normal units it's reasonable.

8. Heavenly Light (new)
Cost : 60
Maintenance : 1
Research : Double
Effect : Enchanted city generates +3 power (counts as a religious building). Units defending the city gain +1 melee, +1 defense, +1 resistance. Also grants the "magic weapon" bonus to normal units that don't already have magic weapons.
It takes 30 turns in the current version to reproduce the initial cost of casting, which is a pretty long term investment. On the other hand, it IS free power, and it contributes to defending the city as well. Has synergy with Cult Leader and Dark Ritual.

9. Bless
Cost : 7/35
Maintenance : 0
Research : Half
Effect : Enchanted unit has +5 defense and resistance against Chaos and Death type attacks, spells and effects.
Buffed the effect because Righteousness, the stronger version of this is no longer in the game, and also because a +3 would lose out in value to Resist Magic as well as Resist Elements (which is also +3 but covers Nature, meaning it works against 95% of the magical ranged attacks in the game!). 5 might be too high though, this strictly makes the buff better then Resist Elements against anything from the Chaos Realm. The tradeoff is, no protection from Nature (ammo of shamans, sprites, priests, some heroes) but protection from Death Gaze, Life Steal and ofc Death realm spells.

10. Star Fires
Cost : 12
Research : Normal
Effect : Does a strength 23 attack against any fantastic creature.
Anti-fantastic creature is somewhat of a Sorcery speciality, but Life also does it, so this is a reasonable change. Almost as good as Fire Bolt, but fantastic units are a lot more durable so it's overall not that powerful.

Uncommon Spells

Heavenly Light (old) : Removed
Completely worthless for the same reason as True Light except even more so, because you can't cast it when you need it, but have to set it up on a fixed location. Not only is it less useful but it's also more expensive! Name and graphics were used for a different spell.

Plane Shift : Removed
Removed because 3 Life spells that grant access to the other plane is overkill, and this one merges the advantage of both others into one spell, causing them to be useless. Planar Travel allows movement anywhere but for one units. Astral Gate can transport any amount of units but it is limited by location. Phane Shift however did both and for less mana than either, too!

Planar Seal : Removed
Aside from the obvious issues with the AI not being able to recognize situations where dispelling or cancelling it is needed, this spell is also very uninteresting and has pretty much one function, to force the player to cast a disjunction spell to remove it, unless the player can abuse the AI's stupidity to win with minimal effort, which is also not fun.


1. Exorcise (replacing Dispel Evil)
Cost : 20
Research : Normal
Effect : Each figure in target fantastic unit must resist at -1 or be disintegrated (cannot heal or regenerate), undead suffer an additional penalty of -3.
See Star Fires for explanation. Cheap, but horrible resistance penalty and the intended targets usually have good resistance. Magicians can cast it so it can be mass-used to counteract low chance of success.

2. Astral Gate
Cost : 200
Maintenance : 1
Research : Normal
Effect : Opens a portal in enchanted city that allows travel between the two planes in any direction.
This is now uncommon because it is not worth a very rare slot. By that time, everyone has access to the other plane through towers. Cost is also lower. AI is now able to cast the spell and to move units through it!

3. Unicorns
Cost : 250
Maintenance : 4
Research : Normal
Effect :  Summoning 4 figures : Melee 5, +2 To Hit, Defense 4, Resistance 7, Moves 4, 8 health, Resistance To All +2, Poison Immunity, Teleporting
A summoned creature that is great for taking out ranged units, but isn't very good in melee combat considering its cost. This actually is a pretty useful ability as Life lacks direct damage. Mostly worth using for the resistance bonus though, it's usually easier to deal with ranged units through own, more buffed ranged units.

4. True Sight
Cost : 15/75
Maintenance : 0
Research : Normal
Effect :  Grants Illusions Immunity to enchanted unit.
Effectively an anti-sorcery realm spell (which is weird, that realm isn't an enemy of Life). Unlike other anti-realm spells though, this does not hit Sorcery wizards too hard, there are ways around it. Summons, although their attacks will no longer ignore armor, will still damage the units, as will Psionic Blast, and if that isn't enough, Sorcery mages have a triple chance to dispel!
The effect to see invisible and counter Illusion damage are valuable, and the latter is essential for the survival of heroes and is the only reason why this should be an effect available in the Life realm. Very situational so maintenance cannot be justified.
Overall, I'm not too happy with this spell but without it, hero strategies would be far less viable, making it a necessary evil.

5. Stream of Life
Cost : 200
Maintenance : 8
Research : +50%
Effect : Enchanted city has no unrest, doubled population growth and units heal to maximum in the city at end of turn.
No change, this spell is now more balanced because both unrest reduction and population growth are more available. Still powerful enough to be a rare.

6. Prayer
Cost : 40
Research : Double
Effect :  All friendly units in combat get +1 To Hit, +1 To Defend, +1 Resistance.
One of the best uncommon spells in the game, you'll usually want to cast this in any important battle. This is one of those things that make Life the realm it is meant to be.

7. Planar Travel
Cost : 50
Maintenance : 1
Research : Normal
Effect :  Enchanted unit can travel between planes.
The alternative to Astral Gate, you need to cast this on units individually, but can do so anywhere on the map. The AI is now capable of changing planes with units enchanted by this.

8. Raise Dead
Cost : 35
Research : Normal
Effect :  Revive a dead normal unit during combat with half of its maximum health.
Not very effective in improving your chances at victory as it bring back an already defeated unit, and only at half health, however, it's very good at minimizing losses in battles and maintaining a large enough stack capable of fighting. Primary purpose is recovering lost heroes, or other valuable units, and not to help turn the battle around, and it does a great job at that, you effectively get a unit back permanently for only 35 MP and no overland skill used, saving you whichever cost the unit would otherwise have. One of those very few ways to obtain permanent units for combat casting skill.

9. Resurrection
Cost : 500
Research : Normal
Effect :  Revive a dead hero on the overland map, it keeps levels, but not items, buffs, etc.
A "backup" which ensures your heroes never die, and turn them from a one-of unique to a reusable summon. As top level heroes can easily rival Very Rare summons, this spell is a good deal even for the quite significantly increased cost of 500. Be careful not to lose your items though!

10. Divine Order (new)
Cost : 250
Maintenance : 10
Research : Normal
Effect :  All Unit and City Enchantments are 25% cheaper, Global and combat enchantments 10% cheaper, summons 10% more expensive, combat spells 25% more expensive. Affects everyone, and stacks if multiples are cast by different wizards.
A quite obvious attempt to shift game balance in favor of Life wizards, this spell is best used when playing mono-Life, or when casting a lot of enchantments in a row (after which it can be turned off). It's cheap, so easy to dispel, and most importantly, it can easily backfire as discounts also affect enemies. While it's much less likely for a Death or Chaos wizard to profit from this, they do have a few spells to take advantage of it, especially city curses, and the rather dangerous Black Sleep and Possession!

Rare Spells

Rightouesness : Removed from the game.
An extremely unfair spell that blocks the primary advantage of two realms, complete immunity to all combat spells is not acceptable in this way. It's equivalent to Magic Immunity, but cheaper and specifically targeting those realms, rendering them way less effective. It doesn't bring anything new to the game, as Magic Immunity has an identical, but not realm specific effect.

1. Inspirations
Cost : 200
Maintenance : 4
Research : Normal
Effect : Enchanted city gains a +100% production bonus.
Reduced from Very Rare to Rare, and lower research cost to ensure it comes at a time when additional production is still needed.

2.Incarnation
Cost : 700
Maintenance : 12
Research : Normal
Effect : Summons the Chosen hero, which has a wide array of powerful, entire army boosting abilities, as well as might and Constitution.
This hero now offers a quite different functionality. While still powerful in melee combat and has a good mana pool as well as nice spells, it's main role now is support, With Holy Bonus 1, Leadership, Guiding Beacon, Divine Barrier, it can effectively buff an army of normal units to significant power.

3. Invulnerability
Cost : 30/150
Maintenance : 5
Research : Normal
Effect : Enchanted unit gains Weapon Immunity and takes 2 less damage from all attacks.
A quite powerful buff that effectively is as valuable as 6.66 shields, and even more so against area damage or if the attacker is affected by the Weapon Immunity. IT also have the added benefit that armor piercing and illusion can not penetrate this reduction. More expensive than Iron Skin, and also more powerful, I believe this is a fairly balanced defensive spell fitting the Life Realm. As in case of most defensive buffs, it leaves the unit vulnerable to curses, doom damage, and can be countered by dispelling it.

4. Prosperity
Cost : 200
Maintenance : 2
Research : Half
Effect : Enchanted city gains a +50% gold production multiplier.
As the bonus is to the base amount, not the total, the amount of extra gold from this, although quite good, is not excessive.

5. Lionheart
Cost : 36/180
Maintenance : 3
Research : Normal
Effect : Enchanted unit gains +3 melee, +3 resistance, and a total of 8 health divided evenly rounded down between figures.
As the health bonus is no longer multiplied by figures, this is no longer overpowered on multi-figure units, but still benefits them more, however it is now also a good choice for single figure units due to the massive health boost on them. One of the best single target buffs, but the price is quite steep.

6. Altar of Battle
Cost : 300
Maintenance : 5
Research : Normal
Effect : Units produced in the enchanted city are elite.
As the gap between elite and veteran units is lower, this is not as overpowered as it used to be, but it does mean you can save on building a War College and you do get even better units than they would produce still, making it a spell worthy of being a rare.

7. Exaltation (new)
Cost : 30
Research : Normal
Effect :  Heal 8 health on the target unit. This can bring the hit points of the unit over then maximum.
Less cost-effective than normal healing, but it can heal more in a turn, and can counter Doom Bolt or other, stronger direct damage spells. Casting it in advance can ensure the unit survives even if it would not have enough maximum health to do so. If it doesn't get targeted though, the steep cost can end up being wasted. Might still be a bit too efficient as it costs less than the Doom Bolt spell it can effectively counter.

8. Mass Healing
Cost : 35
Research : Half
Effect : Heals all units in combat for 5.
A useful but situational spell.

9. Holy Word
Cost : 60
Research : Normal
Effect : All fantastic enemy figures must resist at -2 or be disintegrated. Undead must resist at -5 (additional 3 penalty) instead.
Death spell against fantastic creatures only, for more MP and at a lower rarity. While this sounds overpowered, it actually isn't, because fantastic creatures tend to have way higher resistance than normal units. Destruction of undead is kept because undead are massively underpriced and easy to create in most cases, however, the amount of the penalty might need to be toned down to -3 or -4.

10. Angel
Cost : 400
Maintenance : 8
Research : Normal
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 18, +2 To Hit, Defense 9, Resistance 9, Moves 3, 27 health, Holy Bonus +1, Exorcise, Illusions Immunity, Caster 20.
Combat stats only slightly better than a Stag Beetle, but costing almost 3 times as much, this unit is mostly valued for the Holy Bonus ability. I believe it might be quite overpriced still, Paladins also have Holy Bonus and Illusion immunity, but cost only 240 production instead of 400 spellcasting. Chance to kill fantastic units at a -3 save penalty is good enough to keep the high cost and relatively weak stats.

Very Rare Spells

1. Crusade
Cost : 1200 (+40% for AI)
Maintenance : 20
Research : 1/3 more expensive
Effect : All units owned by the caster gain 1 level.
Due to changes on unit levels, this is more balanced than the original, but still a very powerful spell.

2. Holy Arms
Cost : 600
Maintenance : 10
Research : 1/3 cheaper
Effect : All units owned by the caster have Holy Weapon cast on them.
More cost-effective than Holy Weapon if using a large amount of troops and fighting at multiple locations. Overall, not a very interesting spell (as it reproduces an already available effect) but one that contributes to gameplay a lot regardless, as casting the Holy Weapon spell on all units manually would not be viable. Life magic has more than enough global unit buffs, so improving this to also grant more benefits would be excessive.

3. Charm of Life
Cost : 1500 (+40% for AI)
Maintenance : 30
Research : 1/3 more expensive
Effect : All units owned by the caster gain +25% health but a minimum of 1.
Probably the most powerful spell out of the 3 global unit buffs, because most units only have 1-3 health, making this a 33-100% boost.  

4. Call to Arms (new)
Cost : 70
Research : Normal
Effect : Summons a unit of Paladins (no levels) in combat.
Albeit Life isn't good at summoning fantastic creatures, this actually summons a normal unit, and one that buffs the entire army, too. Very fitting for Life. Paladins are quite powerful, so this has to be an expensive summon.

5. High Prayer
Cost : 70
Research : Normal
Effect : All friendly units in combat gain +2 melee, +2 defense, +1 to Hit and +1 to Defend.
A more powerful version of Prayer. Quite good, but offers minimal additional benefit for ranged units over Prayer, it's mostly useful for armies using melee attacks.

6. Consecration
Cost : 100
Maintenance : 2
Research : 1/6 the normal cost.
Effect : Counters all negative city spells on the enchanted city, except Earthquake.
Although it only affects Chaos and Death spells, this is still fair, because it does not do so based on realms, they merely happen to be the once who have such types of spells. Life does require a way to protect their cities from curses. Earthquake is an exception because it does not target the city, it's targeting the ground under it, which is unprotected, and also because bypassing protection is the speciality of the Nature Realm.

7. Life Force (NEW)
Cost : 1500
Maintenance : 25
Research : 1/3 cheaper
Effect : All population in the caster's cities produces 1 power.
A very Life realm like spell, that turns the people in the cities into a source of magical power.

8. Enlightenment
Cost : 750
Maintenance : 20
Research : 2/3 cheaper
Effect : All population in the caster's cities produces 2 research. All heroes gain 10 extra XP per turn.
Being a research boost for the late game, this does have a quite reduced cost and high effectiveness. Mostly helps in obtaining other Very Rare spells faster, and for Spell of Mastery victories.

9. Arch Angel
Cost : 1250
Maintenance : -10 (reduces maintenance paid on other units by 10 total)
Research : 1/3 more expensive
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 21, +4 To Hit, Defense 12, Resistance 18, Moves 4, 37 health, Holy Bonus +2, Illusions Immunity, Wind Walking, Caster 40, Healer, Negate First Strike.
A quite powerful summon by itself, the Arch Angel is mostly valuable as a support unit that carries and buffs your armies at the same time! Packs far less raw power than other very rare summons.

10. Supreme Light (new)
Cost : 70
Research : 1/3 lower
Effect : All friendly casters, life creatures and units with magical ranged attacks gain +2 ranged and melee attack, regeneration, and + defense equal to one third of their resistance rounded down.
Most existing Life buffs and buffs in general don't help magical ranged attacks, and these units are also very fragile by nature. Regeneration and a massive defense buff can help them significantly. This spell also makes the otherwise quite underused Life creatures a potential strategy rivaling a normal unit or hero based tactic.

Item Powers

Endurance : removed from the game.
I removed this prior to buffing the spell to grant +1 to defend. However, +1 to defend is quite a powerful stat that should not be easily available for heroes.

Righteousness : removed from the game.
See the spell for details.

Invulnerability
Cost 1000, Requires 5 books.
Powerful, expensive item enchantment that has the same effect as the spell.

Lion Heart.
Cost 800, Requires 5 books.
Not as good on heroes as on multi-figure units, the cost is slightly less than Invulnerability even though the spell version costs more.

Divine Protection (new)
Cost 1000, Requires 4 books.
Grants Lucky and Death Immunity. An expensive power that is quite strong, effectively granting the benefits of the Prayer spell to the hero as well as the immunity.

Planar Travel
Cost 300, Requires 3 books.
Useful if you did not get the spell and find no towers to use.

True Sight
Cost 300, Requires 3 books.
A pretty excellent item power that saves your hero from illusion damage and sorcery spells on top of being able to see invisible units, but ultimately a situational effect still, so it's relatively cheap.

Exorcist
Cost 400, Requires 3 books.
Any fantastic figure fighting this unit must resist at -3 or be disintegrated. Additional -3 penalty if target is undead. Also adds bless like Holy Avenger did.
Effectively "Death" limited to only work against fantastic units. Might be underpowered? I feel if it killed the entire unit that would be too good, though. Not sure if Bless is needed.

Bless
Cost 200, Requires 1 books.
See "Bless" spell. Identical effect.

[/i]

[kjara]

I found the new heavenly light to be fairly useful in defending my cities early (had something like 2xswordman and a bowman against nagas + some lizardman unit and suspect that the extra resist/def helped quite a bit against the naga. Might be an ideal situation for the spell though, since I got use out of all of the stats it gives. Generally a nice buff in the early game though since you primarly have units with lowish stats and 6-8 figures. If you wanted stronger cult master synergy could increase maintenance to 2 and power generated to 4? (also have mixed thoughts on cult master synergy with life atm, since it doesn't really mesh great with their normal unit focus, but many of the late game races that life works well with also tend to be able to build most of the power generating buildings -- death seems like it has a clearer synergy of using that extra power to spam their cheap/powerful summons).

[Seravy]

Considering to change Star Fires to do a strength 23 attack to any Non-Life Fantastic unit, and Dispel evil into working on any non-Life unit but at a lower cost and -1 resistance penalty, but keeping the "-x to undead" additional penalty part.
If I do this, Holy Avenger and Dispel Evil on items/unit would do the same but the penalty for them should probably be better than -1, thinking -3 would be fine (and ofc higher cost of the item power).
Would probably change name of "Dispel Evil" into "Exorcism" in this case.
Unfortunately the spell would be very similar to Banish, but at a significantly lower penalty it still offers a somewhat different functionality, being only viable against common/uncommon fantastic units and undead.

[zitro1987]

I'll try to remind myself that overland spells are more powerful/cheaper across all 5 realms and that is intentional.

Nevertheless, I find the way you have some unit enchantments cost a little too much in combat the way it is. It would be awesome if you can somehow find the code that states overland costs 5X more and tweak it to around 7X in order to lower combat casting costs without affecting overland cost.

Endurance seems a bit too good for 'common', especially if combined with the equally accessible holy armor. Can it be switched with 'True Sight'?

Heroism: probably deserves higher overland cost, but '15' for combat is reasonable, hence my point at the beginning of my post.

Heavenly Light: suggest just giving +2 power as the city defense benefits are quite nice for 'common'

Star Fires: suggest increasing the cost to around 10, lowering the damage rating a few points and have it affect any fantastic creatures.

Dispel Evil: if it affects any summoning creatures with a weaker effect and undead getting a harder time to resist (Added -5 is overkill though!)

Astral Gate: good, works better as uncommon

Happy you removed some plane-related spells, especially Planar Seal

Healing Charge: recommend 8hp healing for 30 mana. Your version, as you suspected, is too good, especially for high armor units and heroes.

Prayer: I removed the +1 to hit in my version. Something about this spell feels overpowered. Increase cost to 45? remove the +1 resistance?

Divine Order: interesting spell, but 'life' has some pretty good combat spells, especially prayer, healing charge, among others. I'd switch the penalties to give +10% penalty to combat spells and +25% to summons (few choices)

Incarnation cost seems fair. It's still an above average champion unit. I'm not sure whether +50% research points is necessary.

Inspirations: 75-100% normal research points. It's quite a potent city enchantment, especially when combined with altar of battle - fits expectations of 'rare' and should require some research investment.

Lionheart - battle cost (50) is too much, 35 would make more sense. However, to make overland cost balanced, maintenance would need to be higher or the idea at the beginning of my post.

Altar of Battle: 75-100% normal research points. You can save nearly 600 worker points (war college) and get a strong added benefit (it's elite, not veteran). Maybe the casting cost could be 50 lower if research points increased.

Holy Word - toned down death/black summon penalty.

Charm of Life: I'd probably just give it 1400/25.

Call to ARms: 70 cost might be high for a 0exp paladin without magic weapons. I don't expect it to do extreme damage.

Consecration: give it more research point, casting cost/maintenance, and some added bonus (unrest?).

Tranquility - casting cost and research points seem low, though wouldn't this be among the latest to obtain simply because it's ranked 9th in 'very rare'? Might or might not need a change.

Supreme Light - very appropriate spell - I like it a lot.

[Seravy]

Nevertheless, I find the way you have some unit enchantments cost a little too much in combat the way it is. It would be awesome if you can somehow find the code that states overland costs 5X more and tweak it to around 7X in order to lower combat casting costs without affecting overland cost.

Probably doable easily but would break the balance. While some spells might be worth paying 7x for overland, others definitely aren't.

Endurance seems a bit too good for 'common', especially if combined with the equally accessible holy armor. Can it be switched with 'True Sight'?

I like using that combo a lot, although paying the 70 mana cost for endurance is quite expensive so this is riskier than it seems. Losing a few of these units can quickly end up losing the game itself, and the extra armor, while universal, is not powerful enough to guarantee survival against enemy spells. Movement boost is most valuable in the early game, and that option would be lost if this was uncommon. I agree this spell is powerful, but not as much as Heroism for example. Common True Sight would be an unnecessary indirect nerf to the Sorcery realm, so I prefer not to swap them.

Heavenly Light: suggest just giving +2 power as the city defense benefits are quite nice for 'common'

I would rather have a higher cost, as +1 power/turn (since there is 1 maintenance) would be disappointing. 60 might be more appropriate.

Star Fires: suggest increasing the cost to around 10, lowering the damage rating a few points and have it affect any fantastic creatures.

Will be strength 23 for 12 mana.

Dispel Evil: if it affects any summoning creatures with a weaker effect and undead getting a harder time to resist (Added -5 is overkill though!)

Will be -1 to resist, and an added -3 for undead. Costs 20, so magicians can use it.

Healing Charge: recommend 8hp healing for 30 mana. Your version, as you suspected, is too good, especially for high armor units and heroes.

Will think about this one for a bit more, but will probably do it.

Prayer: I removed the +1 to hit in my version. Something about this spell feels overpowered. Increase cost to 45? remove the +1 resistance?

Higher cost would be good but at the rarity it is in, over 40 is pretty hard to afford. I do not want the situation where you research the spell but can't cast it for another 50 turns while you raise skill. I'm fine with this one being too powerful, this is what the realm is supposed to be best at. Ideal would be a lower bonus, but 1 is the lowest number we can have. Effectively this is a 25% boost to attack power, and 33% boost of defense for the entire army, out of which the defense part feels too powerful, the attack is fine. The problem is the "increasing returns" of having higher defense, an extra 33% can and will usually reduce damage by more than an additional 33%, unless the units had very poor defense stats. In exchange, a whole bunch of things pierce or ignore armor, or are single figure with high enough attack power to not care.

Divine Order: interesting spell, but 'life' has some pretty good combat spells, especially prayer, healing charge, among others. I'd switch the penalties to give +10% penalty to combat spells and +25% to summons (few choices)

The trick here is "combat" refers to spells on the page titled "combat spells", not spells that can be cast during combat.
Prayer is under Global Enchantments, and receives a discount. Healing is under special spells and is unaffected. The only Life spells hurt by this during combat are
-Call to Arms (summoning)
-Holy Word (combat)
-Dispel Evil/Exorcist (combat)
-Star Fires (combat)

Inspirations: 75-100% normal research points. It's quite a potent city enchantment, especially when combined with altar of battle - fits expectations of 'rare' and should require some research investment.

True but it takes forever to cast it on all cities, so starting early is vital. Production becomes pointless after the majority of buildings are built and no new cities are founded. (with the exception of the one or two main military centers of course)

Lionheart - battle cost (50) is too much, 35 would make more sense. However, to make overland cost balanced, maintenance would need to be higher or the idea at the beginning of my post.

I used at that cost frequently in combat, and it won battles. Same for the AI. 50 might be overkill though, 40/200 might be fair.

Altar of Battle: 75-100% normal research points. You can save nearly 600 worker points (war college) and get a strong added benefit (it's elite, not veteran). Maybe the casting cost could be 50 lower if research points increased.

Call to ARms: 70 cost might be high for a 0exp paladin without magic weapons. I don't expect it to do extreme damage.

It doesn't, but it buffs your army, and is a good target for Invunerability next to ensure you have an unkillable defender in an otherwise unprotected town. Additionally it moves 4 so it can reach enemy backrow the turn you summon to take out ranged units. On top of all, this realm is supposed to be weak at summoning.

Consecration: give it more research point, casting cost/maintenance, and some added bonus (unrest?).

It's intentionally cheap because it has to be available early enough to be able to counter the curses it is meant to counter. Additional bonus after the city was hit by Call the Void is meaningless. Moving to rare would be ideal but that would make it a bit too frequent to appear which shouldn't be the case for a spell that counters realms. Also no rare slots, used the one I had for Inspiration.

Tranquility - casting cost and research points seem low, though wouldn't this be among the latest to obtain simply because it's ranked 9th in 'very rare'? Might or might not need a change.

All spells of the same rarity have an equal chance to get selected for the research list regardless of order (I checked code). Intentionally cheap because research has much more limited usefulness at that point in the game.

[zitro1987]

This realms is very well balanced and thought out. My issues (from experience as player or opponent) are as follows:

It'd be nice if 'holy armor' can apply to summoning units, encouraging holy armor on other realms summoning units (and unicorns). A 1upk may be needed if this change is made.

Divine Order is a very creative spell but comes off as underpowered and rather expensive in maintenance. Not only that, it can help opponents (It benefited myself sometimes) and sometimes work against you (multi-color wizard).

If casting wizard only gets the benefits and AI only gets the penalties, it may be a decently powerful spell, maybe too much for uncommon. I don't have much of ideas about this spell.

Holy Word seems too powerful for rare. Essentially a more powerful exorcism and to all units. It can situationally be more powerful than the -2 resist to all death equivalent (very rare) spell

[Seravy]

It'd be nice if 'holy armor' can apply to summoning units, encouraging holy armor on other realms summoning units (and unicorns). A 1upk may be needed if this change is made.

While that's doable, it would make the spell inconsistent with Holy Weapon and I do not want that on fantastic units. If we did this, we would need to do the same for at least Flame Blade as well since it does the same thing to attack as this to armor.

Divine Order is a very creative spell but comes off as underpowered and rather expensive in maintenance. Not only that, it can help opponents (It benefited myself sometimes) and sometimes work against you (multi-color wizard).

It's very powerful, I've used it to my advantage several times. Casting it before you buff all your cities with 2-3 spells each and then cancelling it is still a huge benefit and you can avoid the drawbacks entirely (unless you get attacked meanwhile and need to cast something in the combat spell category - very unlikely if playing Life, and even otherwise you have options like Confusion, Possession, Shatter, etc), same if you plan to buff a doomstack of 9 with everything you have.
It also brings an interesting diplomacy element into the game, if you manage to trade it to another wizard and get them to cast it, you can have double (or even 3-4-5 times) the benefit. Furthermore, the penalties also apply to other wizards, so even if you don't need the benefits, just having the enemy throw 20% fewer doom bolts at you each combat for the same mana cost might be decisive.
Of course you always have the option to not use it if it doesn't help you, there are plenty of other spells to cast. I usually do not cast about 20-30% of the spells I get each game simply because something else suits the situation better.
On top of all of these, it might even help you in combat by letting you cast unit curses and unit buffs cheaper...or even Prayer or Counter Magic. Roughly half the spells in the game are some sort of an enchantment.
The only downside I see is, it's hard to tell how much it helps AI players since they're casting their enchantments cheaper, too.

If casting wizard only gets the benefits and AI only gets the penalties, it may be a decently powerful spell, maybe too much for uncommon. I don't have much of ideas about this spell.

That would take out the diplomacy factor, so no. Also, it would be as good as a very rare.

Holy Word seems too powerful for rare. Essentially a more powerful exorcism and to all units. It can situationally be more powerful than the -2 resist to all death equivalent (very rare) spell

While that is true in theory, there are a few things to consider
-Large amounts of fantastic creatures in one army are quite rare under AI control
-Fantastic units have way better resistance
So yes, the spell itself is better, but it's much less useful despite that. Also, Life does not have Black Prayer for additional success rate. The -2 penalty simply is not enough to kill any high rarity fantastic unit at a reliable chance, if at all. It's awesome against low tier summons but if you have a rare vs enemy commons, you've already won. On the other hand Death Spell can kill over half the figures of most normal units, or even more with Black Prayer, since those generally have way under 10 resistance.
It is excellent vs lairs and nodes however, especially if you have a hero with high - spell save.
It's also excellent vs large stacks of undead and zombies...but those units are stuff the Death wizard is receiving free, or at least massively underpriced.

[zitro1987]

huh, I never thought of the diplomacy factor. Having the effect doubled to your benefit is a powerful effect that I didnt' think of. The spell has a limited but useful role for players to take advantage of it.

I do still think holy word is overpowered for its cost. I've often encountered enemies with a large stack of summoning units, especially in important/capital cities. My thought is that it's too easy to conquer lairs with it, especially death-related lairs. The rewards will turn the tide too easily in your favor. (I wrote an earlier post on a thread in regards to summoning units sometimes having too low of resistance, such as chimeras, nature rares, etc)

I don't know, it just stands out too much for a realm that concentrates on unit/city buffs and defensive spells.

[Seravy]

huh, I never thought of the diplomacy factor. Having the effect doubled to your benefit is a powerful effect that I didnt' think of. The spell has a limited but useful role for players to take advantage of it.

I do still think holy word is overpowered for its cost. I've often encountered enemies with a large stack of summoning units, especially in important/capital cities. My thought is that it's too easy to conquer lairs with it, especially death-related lairs. The rewards will turn the tide too easily in your favor. (I wrote an earlier post on a thread in regards to summoning units sometimes having too low of resistance, such as chimeras, nature rares, etc)

I don't know, it just stands out too much for a realm that concentrates on unit/city buffs and defensive spells.

Holy word does not have any bonus against Death creatures, only raised undead, and those can't appear in lairs.
-2 save will generally not take out any very rare creature, and usually only 10-30% chance for a rare one. Which is per figure so if the unit has more than 1 figure, it's almost never going to die from the spell.
I admit it stands out, but white magic has the history of having powerful spells of mass destruction in magic the gathering, so I'm fine with that.
The effect on enemy capitals might be worrying though...but I tend to find great drakes, arch angels and similar stuff there in the late game when I have the spell and those are immune. I guess it might be strong on normal and midgame hard difficulty where you can still be ahead in research to have use for it, otherwise, only if you can have a hero with a huge spell save bonus who can survive the first turn. (and even then, only if the enemy has no prayermaster hero in their capital or anything similar)

[namad]

I think astral gate should be rare so that you cannot start the game with it, because doing that renders the myrran retort much less special. I agree that very rare is much too late because of wizard's towers but if you focus on astral gate intentionally uncommon may be too early?

I am aware in your mod you cannot literally start with an uncommon spell, however if you start with 9common spells there's what? a 60-70% chance you could research astral gate as your first spell?

That said you can now take maximum books and still be a myyran (which isn't possible in the base game) so maybe you want myrror to feel less special on purpose?

On top of that having planar travel and astral gate both be the same rarity seems redundant? decide which is better and bump it up one tier? So what if astral gate is only available mid-game if you can use planar travel beforehand? at very rare astral gate was pointless but at rare it's still useful but not enough to redefine the behavior of every life mage ever.