Improving Treelords

[Argitoth]

Well first of all, it only costs 10 gems for them to have the ability to cast Mother Oak and Gift of Health. If treelords have an affinity to nature which allows them to cast enchanments for less, then I can say Prince of Death has an affinity to death and therefor should be able to cast Well of Misery for 40 death gems.

I doubt the affinity to nature means anything more than them having a whopping 4 nautre magic. That IS a lot of nature magic in my opinion.

[ February 11, 2004, 16:04: Message edited by: Argitoth ]

[ywl]

Originally posted by quantum_mechani:
It seems to me that for a 50 gem summons, Treelords are not very competitive. There are already plenty of ways to get that level of nature mage, without a head slot the vine men bonus is no better a than nature three mage with a ivy crown, and the high hit points are hard to use since Treelords are immobile.

I was thinking that one way of improving Treelords would be to give them a bonus when casting ritual spells, to represent thier ancient connections with nature magic. The bonus could work like the sites that reduces the cost of ritual spells of a certain school. I also had some other ideas (increasing the vine men bonus, giving them a gem free Version of fairy trod affecting only themselves), however, I think the ritual bonus would be most thematic.

In my opinion, treelord was underpowered in Dom 1 but in Dom 2, it's not that bad.

Two things have changed the formula. First, they now have one more level of magic, Nature 4/Earth 1, Nature 4/Blood 5 & Nature 5. The one additional magic gives them access to something previously impossible, e.g. Ironskin, Gaia's Blessing, Invulnerability (with gems?), Cross-Bleeding. Being able summon one such powerful Nature mage while your're researching for Enchantment, and thus all the domes and protection spells, is not bad. Spells for nature mage of similar power are at high level Conjuration, at least 6.

Second, nature is now more useful in combat with the additional spells. In my test, a single treelord (the Dying Treelord) with no item can take out a weak indie with 40 to 50 light infantries plus archers, killing them to the Last man. It's not impressive but it shows him being useful enough in combat. The Treelords have 250 hitpoints, Protection 16 to 20 and easy access to regeneration and healing spells. It's not trivial to hack one down even though their defense if 0. If you choose to prophetize one, he can easily have up to 500 hitpoints.

Faery Trod is also in Enchantment school. So, for research in a single school, you can get Treelords, protection Domes and teleportation for a small number of troops. It's not a bad deal.

Not sure whether it's thematic, but to increase their power, it's better to give them one or two hand slots and thus access the nature enhancing items.

[ February 11, 2004, 16:46: Message edited by: ywl ]

[Potatoman]

Sounds to me like the best, and easiest, solution would be to make treelord movement 1/2. Slow, but mobile.

[Argitoth]

Originally posted by Potatoman:
Sounds to me like the best, and easiest, solution would be to make treelord movement 1/2. Slow, but mobile.

im up for that. maybe at least 3 movement

Remember though, THESE ARE NOT ENTS from lord of the rings. "Lord of the Rings" ents would have like a movement of 3/15. Those things move fast.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
I doubt the affinity to nature means anything more than them having a whopping 4 nautre magic. That IS a lot of nature magic in my opinion.

Since it takes at least a 4 nature mage to summon them, you don't really gain anything from it. Pangaea and Man(Crones have 3?) both have easy access to 4 nature, 5 with a thistle mace, so you don't gain much by summoning a treelord instead of going for the enchantments directly.

An addition that I don't feel would be overpowered or in any way effect how the balance of the Treelord is given, while at the same time giving them a reason for nature mages to summon them would be:

Give them a base Nature Gem Income of +~5.

Suddenly they are a Nature Mage with their own source of gems to cast their own spells.

Another Idea would be to have the Province that the Treelord is in, protected by a Forest Dome.

[Leif_-]

An alternative could perhaps be to let them have an ability identical to Faery Trod (but which doesn't cost gems)?