But do you really like SC in dominions2 ?

[Oversway]

The point about having life drain still stands, even if you remove trampling from the equation.

I have absolutely no problems with SCs as they currently stand, as they are vital to prevent the game from devolving into a zerg rush of "whoever has the most troops wins".

I'd say that SCs are not the only thing to prevent such a problem. Area effect spells, battle field summons, trample, artillary spells, etc. prevent this as well.

[The Panther]

Ice devils do not have a trample attack. If they did, then they would never be used as a solo SC.

I personally like SCs. But I HATE the idea of a single SC taking on an infinite number of troops because of life drain. SCs ought to complement your army, not substitute for it. An equivalent sized army fight, one with a couple of SCs and one without, now THAT would be a cool battle. I would certainly bet on the army that contained the SCs even without life drain in the equation, which is only proper.

Somebody made a comment above about the risk of sending in an SC to battle. They do die, that's for sure. But SCs survive a lot more often when accompanied by a real army.

I truly believe all that is really needed to balance SCs is a method to ensure that ANY SC dies to pretty much any medium sized army when going solo. Fatigue is likely the proper answer to making that happen.

[BigDaddy]

Can you add encumbrance to the life stealing weapons? If so we could run some tests to see how much is fair.