Send Tupilak

[Swan]

i would like it with 1-2 more shapes

[HoneyBadger]

That's an interesting idea, especially if it's going to be an assassin you can actually keep.

I'll try to find time to read up on the lore.

LA Atlantis has a lot of interesting points where it could be improved. It's good now, but I think it could be better.

[Swan]

I'll see what i can do...

Tupilak gains +4 hp!(66)
Tupilak gains +2 prot!(8)
Tupilak gains +4 atk!(12)
Tupilak gains -2mr!(10)
Tupilak learns a new attack!(gore)

This is just a begin, i'll work on it more later.
Pantokrator, why do i feel i'm going to work a lot on this frong-fish dudes?

[Bananadine]

I still don't know what y'all are on about. I just loaded a test game I made (for unrelated reasons) a while ago, and sent eight tupilut at miscellaneous enemy commanders. Six of them met generic human or triton commanders and won their fights pretty easily. One met a dryad, and killed her with some difficulty. One met a centaur, which promptly destroyed it.

These results match what I've seen in my present multiplayer game. Clearly, this is a spell that pretty reliably destroys unguarded commanders of low quality, and that can sometimes destroy high-level mages (ones who don't happen to choose good spells to defend themselves). It's pretty cheap, and its skill requirements are easily met by the only nation that can cast it. Since it can't reliably destroy high-quality commanders or well-guarded commanders, it's not a very good spell, as Earth Attack is. But unguarded low-quality commanders are often used to lead troops, or to support other mages, and so assassinating them is sometimes useful. What's the problem?

I'll tell you the real problem: Every tupilak I've seen so far has been in the shape of a bear. Even underwater, where the monster gets an underwater stats penalty! That's crazy! It's crazy enough that I have already reported it as a bug.

[Bananadine]

Also: If the tupilak were to be improved, I think it would be more thematic to reduce its cost than to strengthen it. The unit is similar to a corpse construct or a soulless, and those units are pretty bad at fighting. It has lots of hit points and great strength--these attributes fit its description. High attack and defense values, even as high as 10, would not fit so well. But I think a lower ritual cost would fit--look how cheap Corpse Man Construction is! This isn't very much different from that.

[Swan]

What i posted before was a just a quick fix for a unit someone called underpowered; now tha i have plenty of time i was thinking about 3 shapes, all with the same stat as it have now(ofc hp will be 21 each shape), maybe i'll change some weapon.
About underwater, a simple #watershape should fix it, but 3 sprite, all of them without something to modify as base are gonna take me a lot of time(plus i'm not so good at drawing from scratch) so what i was thinking was to write the code and hope for some goodheart modder to do the sprite work

[Agema]

Send Tupilak is a spectacularly useless spell.

Considering it's a Polar Bear corpse and thus quite large and heavy, I'd consider just giving it trample, so it becomes a weak Earth Attack like spell.

[Bananadine]

No one loves the tupilak but me

[Swan]

No one loves the tupilak but Bananadine

[Baalz]

Tupilak is fine for what it is - a relatively cheap niche spell which can be spammed with no preparation if ever a good opportunity presents itself. Ever been invaded by somebody who wasn't expecting assassinations and has critical mages without bodyguards? Knock out a couple communion slaves to throw the rest into critical fatigue mode, take out the guy who was gonna cast fog warriors for the big fight, kill the guy holding the sea king's goblet, cause the guy spamming bloodletting to burn through his blood slaves early, or kill a couple indie commanders thus unexpectedly splitting the enemy forces and the 5D per casting looks pretty cheap. Sure, it's a narrow niche, but not all *that* uncommon. Also, 5D is a hell of a bargain for taking out research mages holding skull mentors, clams, hammers, etc. Might even get lucky and kill a lab mage holding a ring of wizardry, etc. Like I said, it's a spell to spam when your opponent wasn't expecting it with no particular preparation or special research on your part. Take out ten expensive, cap only Abysian warlocks along with a couple boosters they were holding, then come back and tell me how spectacularly useless it is again. You might even get a shot at a tasty rainbow pretender strolling around site searching...its only level 5 in a school you may be researching anyway so it can come into play fairly early.