Mod Balance Guide, Magic Paths

[DrPraetorious]

--ASTRAL--
Astral is obviously a big deal.
Acess to astral 1 is worth an extra 4 points.
Non-capital only astral mages may be good as communion slaves. Give yourself 500/cost for your cheapest non-capital-only mage who us guaranteed an astral. If they're not guaranteed astral, scale to the chance.
If you get astral-3 with better than 10% frequency, even in your capital, your nation has access to the higher level astral boosts, and is a potential mindhunter. This is worth 2 points.
Finally, astral is great for thugs. If you have a giant slavering monster with access to astral magic, give yourself 2 points.

--DEATH--
Death 1 is a significant breakpoint and worth 2 extra points.
Death 2 is also worth 2 extra points.
Death 3 is a significant breakpoint for thugs. If you have a giant slavering monster with death 3, give yourself 2 points.

--EARTH--
Earth 2 is a *huge* breakpoint, worth 6 extra points.

--BLOOD--
Blood 1 is a significant breakpoint, worth 2 extra points. It's generally assumed that you could boost/empower from there if needed.

--COMBINATIONS--
Each of the following combinations, if they appear together with >10% frequency on any unit, are worth an extra point (they're listed in reverse path precedence):
blood + fire, water, air, nature
nature + water, UNLESS you have nature 3 anyway
death + astral
astral + earth (worth 2 points)
water (1+) + fire (3+) (worth 2 points)
air (3+) + earth (2+)

Each of the following combinations, if they appear together on a non-capital only unit, is worth the listed number of points divided by the cost of the unit. The noticably-effective spam spell is listed in parens.
death + astral (nether darts), 500
earth (2+) + fire (magma eruption), 250

I'll flesh this list out later.

Tomorrow I'll post some sample path selections and see if people think they really are balanced.

[llamabeast]

Okay, I wonder what you think of my Tomb Kings paths.

Recruitable-anywhere sorceror:
F2A1D1, 220 gold (deliberately expensive)

Recruitable-anywhere high priests:
D2H3, 260 gold

Capital-only Tomb King:
F2D3H3 + 100% (DS) + 100% (FEA) + 50% (FEADS) (450 gold)

This gives 1 in 30 E2/A2 and 1 in 20 S2. But as a nation they are mean death and fire mages.

[DrPraetorious]

What era is this supposed to be in? I'm gonna assume mid.

Max paths are: F3D4S1E1A1, occasionally more.

Compare to MA Marignon: F3S3A1E1, rarely more.

So you've 2 path points on Marignon, more if you're lucky. Call that 10 points for you.
Marignon's F2 anywhere-guy is only 150 gold instead of 220 gold. He's also a passable communion slave. I'd say that's a point for Marignon.
Marignon can mindhunt. With a 1/40 S4 they can build RoS and then RoW - you need a 1/30 E2 *and* a 1/20 S2 to even equal his astral 3. That's 2 points for Marignon.
OTOH, the extra path you've given yourself is death. Not only can every tom, dick and harry talk to the dead, you can also make skull mentors and death boost items. Gotta be worth 4 points.
You've got the highly useful SD combo. Not on your spammables, but still. That's worth a point for you.

The Witch Hunter has a RE of 500 * 1.75 / 150 = 5.83.
Your Sorcerer has a RE of 600 / 220 = 2.73.
That's 9 points for Marignon.

So 10 - 1 - 3 + 4 - 9 = +2. I'd say your nation has very slightly better magic than MA Marignon, overall. Which is about the same thing I would've said without all that math that cancels out .

[llamabeast]

Great, thanks Dr P! Nice analysis. And sounds like they are probably okay to me, since I think they should be magically strong. I think they will be MA, since I've got the backstory dependent on Ermor's fall.

[Amhazair]

On the other hand your research is utterly apalling. Off the top of my head I can't think of a MA nation with a worse research efficiency. Maybe Vanheim? I felt pritty limited research-wise while playing Abyssia, whose Anathemants have a roughly equal gold/research ratio as your sorcerers, but at least the Anathemants are sacred. Of course you have access to all three research boosting items, but even so...

[thejeff]

Just a comment on your Blood valuation.

1 Blood is really only useful on a cheap non capital mage. An expensive mage with a single blood just doesn't work as a blood hunter. Maybe give points like you do for communion slaves or research.