Mod: Conticeos - Servants of Priores (EA nation)

[Baneslave]

I was wondering about magical diversity, too.

Conticeos native magics are astral and death, their mages are cheap and plentiful in these paths.

Mages of four corners are going to be expensive and old aged. I was also thinking if I should make them cause unrest. They have left their homeland for years and now return with foreign magic. People of Conticeos are xenofobic and there is only one greater truth for them, path of Priorers, so it would be very thematic.

Should I boost astral and death paths?

Well, I am ready to do some balance changes later,

[Aezeal]

imho a repeater crossbow in EA is not good.. crossbows aren't really there let alone repeating crossbows. But that is my opinion. I see this race more as an MA race.. you could continue the story in LA and the stuff before the fall of the priores in EA then?

[Baneslave]

Well... Where did I put my notes? There were at least one good reason why Conticeos should be based on EA.

Still, I could use my other ideas, even if I moved them to MA. And history of Priores sounds very interesting thing to write, too.

I will find my notes and write some more later.

Edit. Are these magic paths good for Middle Era? Also, how many death + astral based nations are there in MA?

[DrPraetorious]

The Mage of the Four Corners could be a heretic - this is thematic, but not actually a game mechanical drawback (it lets you take drain scale, especially if they are good researchers.)

Since you are an early-era nation, you can "steal" the nation slot from MA Ermor. This would enable your priestesses to animate and lead undead right out of the box - a significant bonus.

Other than that, I'd recommend:
Mage of the Four Corners: copy stats on the heliodramus (so he is heretic 3), give him some cool power like a research bonus (3 pts) or a forge bonus (25).
Could be: S{FW,75%}{AE,75%}{FA,75%}{EW,75%}
or even: SFAEW{FAEW,100%}{FAEW,10%}
On average he's got 4 picks, makes 10 RP / turn and is a heretic - at 250 gold (which is a lot!) he'd still be a steal, especially if you can make him everywhere.
Keep in mind that what you'd actually *do* with such a mage is have him command a communion of your other national mages to cast big elemental spells (T'ien Ch'i and Arco do this all the time) which is somewhat non-thematic. If you don't want that to happen, take away his astral, make him cost 325, and give him like seven picks of magic: FAWE{FAW,75%}{FAE,75%}{FWE,75%}{AWE,75%}.
Expensive mages with relatively weak magic are a going proposition in the late era - but in the early era it's a non-starter.

Tomb Sage: S2A1D1H1. You don't need to put randoms on everyone. With okayundeadleader and bonus undead leadership from his holy (if you do the trick with copying Ermor's nation #), he'd be a useful magician and a steal at 150 gp.

Mage of the Night Sky: 3S - could be as cheap as 90 gold if you really want people to use them; make them 2S1D and they'd be slightly less devastating offensively but more versatile.

Courtier: I'm not sure what I'd do with a 1S1D commander. He can buff himself up a bit and is survivable - if he's also got undead leadership and/or priest levels he'd be useful for commanding undead. A *stealthy* mage with astral magic has a number of clever usages, and the courtier could have seduce as well, given their political nature.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I'd probably use Courtiers to lead up to about 30 undead (already there thanks to death magic), and cast Nether Bolt/Darts. It's like they are tailor made.

Where was the courtier in the original post, DrPraetorious? Anyways, what would be a rough cost? Cheap, Medium, Expensive?

Not only could the Courtier(?) buff himself, he could be communion buffed. A power of the Spheres would allow, late game, them to all cast Disintegrate, and earlier on they can spam frighten or dust to dust as needed. You could also give them a national combat summon based off of LE Tien Chi's Call Ancestor if you thought they needed some sort of boost in early combat. Nothing overpowering, mind you, just something that in enough numbers will act as small speed bump in combat, esp. to cavalry charges.

[Baneslave]

It seems that I play too much Middle and Late Era. I know very little about EA's magic.

I thought out two possibilities about Mage of the Four Corners:
1. Increase his (her?) elemental randoms and make him extremely costly and old. He could cause some unrest, but wouldn't be heretic, as he still follows ways of Priores. (Mage learned basic magics of Conticeos, but then left to world to seek new magic.)
2. Take out astral and give great boost to elemental skills. Also, make him heretic and costly. (Mage left to world and didn't learn basics of Conticeos magic. He brought strange religions and ideals from foreign lands and so is heretic.)
3. Make MotFC capital only and increase his elemental skills. He wouldn't create unrest or wouldn't be heretic. His research skills could be okay, as his magics aren't gifted from Priores. (As he would have studied antient magics, unpure magic I have to say, in some hidden tomb. He wouldn't get holy magic or sacred status, as elemental magic isn't true way of Priores.)

1. Sounds okay, but that would probadly make him communion master type, right. That dosen't sound thematic, so...
2. Sounds pretty good, as you really couldn't use him as communion master.
3. Feels best, IMHO.

Hm, one question though. What is major use of astral mage? Are they good offensively or in buffing or?

Members of Royal Court should be used as summoners. Summoning Sacred King sounds okay to me. Still, not every member of Royal Court should be cabable of summoning a Sacred King, so luck (gettind D3 from randoms) or death boosters would be needed.

I think I have to divide summons to two parts:
1. Astral summons, calling souls of Priores to help.
2. Death summons, used to create those soul abonimations like Dark Prince and Dark Warrior.
Should this be other way around, though?

[Burnsaber]

Baneslave said:
Is this better or worse? Does it look too armored for you?

That looks good. If every one of your unit are about that level of quality, I'm sure that you will hear no complains about graphics. Once you've done a bunch of those basic troops you should have basic idea of how to do shading. That allows you to do those more "challenging" graphics later on. knowing how to do basic shading also allows you to fiddle with poses. Moving the arm around a bit allows you to do a wild number of different poses, which will allow the player the identify the troops and leaders even if they have same equipment (Ok, my leader is the guy holding his sword high up in the air).

For example, that bronze statue summon will require some hacking, since there are currently no bronze statues in the game. You could recolor the Living Statue and edit out his shield and spear to give him two axes.

About non-graphical issues, the only thing that jumps into my mind is the Longdead Consort. Why would anyone spend 2SD2 mage time to summon single glorified longdead? I'd rather just research. You need to pump him up a bit more. The flavor is good, but what kind of powers could ex-bedwarmers have? Perhaps he could summon a harem of them

Hmm.. I got an idea. There is one "gimmick" thing that really hasn't explored in any mod so far. Fatiquecost 0 ritual summons. Basically, free rituals. It works, I've tested it. You could get a "kind of" reanimation by making a bunch of 0-gem cost national rituals summoning basic longdeads. It would be different from MA ermor reanimation by needing research, mages instead of priests (unless you make them holy summons) and a labrotory in the province where the reanimation happens.

[Baneslave]

Burnsaber said:

About non-graphical issues, the only thing that jumps into my mind is the Longdead Consort. Why would anyone spend 2SD2 mage time to summon single glorified longdead? I'd rather just research. You need to pump him up a bit more. The flavor is good, but what kind of powers could ex-bedwarmers have? Perhaps he could summon a harem of them

Actually, I was thinking that he would summon whole lot of them. I just thought that basic cost would be 1 gem per 1 Longdead Consort. Should it be cheaper, like 1 gem per 2 Consort or something? Hm, maybe they should be unbreakable or something. Or maybe have greater hp and protection, as they are most likely mummified or something. (King canditates are almost always nobles, so their lovers should be nobles too, so mummified.)

Oh, and paths come from kings paths. So, that only a king can reliably summon them. Those are just basics, though, I am ready to change many things later, if they make sense.


By the way, I finally thought out the major philosophies behind Conticeos' magic. They don't worship the death of Priores itself. They are protectors of their tombs and their legacy. Conticeos aren't there to raise Priores back to life, they are there protect their tombs until Priores raise back to life with their own strength.

So, summary:
Astral, because it is purest form of Priores magic and so most religiously devoted people study it. Priores are rarely summoned from Netherworld as Conticeos are afraid to distrupt their eternal rest. Only in most gravest situation they are called from Underworld and even then no nobles or anybody important is called, so spirits aren't too strong. They also have bad morale, as they don't wish to go back to death. Some of them possess statues or other items, as it gives them more survivalibity.
Death, because the oath Conticeos made is eternal, so most devoted of all them will serve the oath even after their death. It is great honor to be raisen from death to serve Priores yet again, so most undead of Conticeos are very brave and so on. This is reserved for nobles only, though, so no skeleton spamming or anything. Also, soul mutations are done by overdose of dead souls, so death magic it is.