Nice plan .
A few suggestions/ideas :
- Make maenads Need not Eat . Ryleh freespawns from castles at the coast if possible upkeepfree too .
- Clams etc. : 2 Versions : 1 without changes , 1 which removes them completely from the game ( for mp mainly , if you change them it is too hard to find a way to balance them properly cause either you just delay the hoarding a bit or they are useless as a horde item ) .
- Scales : Improving luck is tricky i guess cause you can only improve the chance for good events . A lot of free militia etc. are very annoying though
.
Improving Growth is tricky too because if you give it e.g. 0,5% growth / tick it is -0,5% growth / deathlevel .
This is horrible for those themes that require Deathscales like Desert tombs .
- Unused troops like militia : I think need not eat for them would be nice then the problem with supplying them is reduced . And it is thematic too : A knight ate normally food worth as much as the food for 20-30 militia/peasants .
- With lifedrain weapons don't weaken them too much ! They make "only" most national troops useless but otherwise they are not too strong .
Making blood thorn Att 0 to 1 and damage -2 to 0 but leaving costs as they are is fine i think then it is not as desireable as lifedrain weapon but still a cheap +1 blood empower item .
Hellsword : just increase costs to 20-30 slaves and blood 3 to forge .
Wraithsword : increase cost to 15-20 deathgems and death 3 to forge .