[zepath]

Honeybadger, several hundred new creatures can take quite a lot of effort to make. I can't count the hours spent drawing art for the eighty or so monsters I've used in my nation mods. If such a system could be made to "fit" within the current parameters of the game and its rules, I think you should lobby for it to appear in Dominions 4. As a mod for the current game it is probably unrealistic. This is especially so because the devs are no doubt working at patching bugs and providing us with the additional nations they've mentioned and new game mechanics are much farther off on their horizon.

thejeff, most human and human-like mages already suffer physically with age through the old age mechanics and can grow in magical ability as the game progresses. Mages (and non-mages) of all races can grow in power by using Empowerment. Mages also gain research bonuses by acquiring experience. Age implies a biological process the ends of which are infirmity and death. Simply making creatures better because they get older does not fit in a game that already has numerous mechanics for individual unit improvement: experience, heroic abilities, prophethood, death matches, magic items, empowerment, etc. Now, if there were a mechanic for a mage with Death or Blood magic (or one who acquires them through Empowerment) to undergo the transition to lichdom, that would be sweet. I can imagine a few other means of alternate "Empowerment" that would be quite easy to implement and would add some of the additional depth that you and Honeybadger are talking about.