Disclaimer... this is very much WIP, only ideas gathered and structured a little. Will refine on a future pass
Duration of 1 Round/Spell Power should scale less. (at 20Spell Power they last until battle ends)
Magic school level would count more
Spell duration artifacts would count more
Slow/Blind/Haste/Shield: The durations of these low level spells are very long
There should be an inverse proportionality with spell duration vs spell level. So the slow should last 1/5th of your spell power. A 10 spell power mage would only have two rounds of slow for example. On the other hand for a 2nd level blind spell it would be 1/4th of duration so an 8 spell power mage would have 2 rounds of duration. This way the the snowty duration extender artifacts would be also in demand
Starting city mage guild should have a guaranteed magic arrow
Heroes with good spell power sometimes seem wasted when the spell isn't offered (and they don't start with it), making some fights much harder than they need to be
Introduce spell cooldowns?
EG: berserk is available only every 2'nd round
Why is slow direct counter to haste? (IE: negates haste, and applies slow)
Just reduce by specified amount?
Dimension Door (DD)
No DD in fog of war
Limit DD to 1,2,3 per day or Limit DD to 1 per day
Dimension Door Changes:
None: Teleport once per day to a free tile within a radius of 8 tiles around the Hero.
Basic: Same as None, but then 10 tiles radius.
Advanced: Same as None, but then 12 tiles radius.
Expert: Same as None, but then 15 tiles radius.
DD max of 1 per day! frequency is the problem now, not radius
Move DD to school of fire magic (as infernal gate?) because air already has fly
Or at least create a fire magic alternative
Town Portal Changes:
Any nerf to Town portal would mean a buff to Inferno's Town Gate
Any nerf to Town portal would mean a debuff to OP Earth magic school
TP: can select town starting from Basic.
No Earth magic: %100 of your movement(you cannot move that day)
Basic Earth Magic: %70 of your movement( you can only portal once)
Advanced Earth Magic: %50 of your movement( you can either portal twice or move and portal)
Expert Earth Magic: %35 of your movement( you can portal two times with some movement left)
This way recruiting army + getting stables and mana vortex are harder to obtain.
Limit TP to map level. (surface, subterranean)
Tournament rules determine how the spells work.
There is a different balance between tournament and standard rules for some spells.
TP is ok as it is for casual and AI matches
Tournament rule: Earth Magic is useless for TP in tournament rules, its always nearest town and once per day/hero.
DD is ok as it is for casual and AI matches
Tournament rule: Air Magic is useless for DD ind tournament rules, only once per day/hero.
Fly is ok as it is for casual and AI matches
Tournament rule: Flying over unpassable terrain means loss of more movement points.
Disguise should hide your heroes from View Air
Land Mine - Add same amount of landmines but in a target area
or
Land Mine - summon more mines across the battlefield
Landmine - Increase damage, reduce cost to 8 mana points, increase number of mines.
Fireball, Frost Ring, Hypnotize: All need HP boost
Buff Inferno and Fireball - 15x power damage, nerf slightly magic expertise bonus (=equal damage at low power but higher damage with high spell power)
These spells are weak when compared to Meteor shower
Inferno with a timed burn component (Damage every turn until cured/dispelled)
2,5x more damage than actual Inferno (Armageddon still is 5,25x more from actual Inferno spell) now also burns units affected by it for a longer time period compared to other burning.
Instead of increasing the area of effect for fireball and inferno... make other spells with that property.
Inferno and Fire ball - both have locked dmg progression on +10 dmg per spell power
That means when you have 10 sp you only deal 100dmg more than usual. I would buff them to have +15 dmg for each sp you own. This number is still lower then most of spells that is in the game, still would make them more valiable option. It wont be to OP cause heroes is a game where usually you have only few strong stacks of army and its best to kill as much as you can before it will attack you (like implosion) instead of harming a little few stacks
Also inferno would gain good hero - Xyron. Xarfax also will be better.
Currently inferno with expert fire and 10/15 sp - 180/230 dmg.
After buff inferno with expert fire and 10/15 sp - 230/305 dmg.
Frost Ring - similar to fireball/inferno it should get buff from +10 dmg for every sp into +15 dmg.
Also it would give Castle 1 hero with decent offensive spell from start. Its also a buff for water magic itself and factions that have high chance of getting it. Right now there is only Ice bolt there that can deal dmg. Frost ring would be awesome addition to that listCurrently Frost Ring with expert water and 10/15 sp - 160/210 dmgAfter buff Frost Ring with expert water and 10/15 sp - 210/285 dmg
Hypnotize - needs a buff
First the duration should not be based on spell power but on the expertise level. Up to advanced level it should last one round, on expert level it should be 2 rounds
Hypnotize - moved to water level 5;
Take control of enemy unit for 1 turn; max level 5/6/7 depending on magic skill
Sacrifice - Improve the amount of Fire elementals summoned by the spell
Buff Fire shield - make it level 3
Returns 10 x power damage to attacker
Mass fire shield could be too annoying for players
Water walk lower mana cost down to 6-8 and downgrade to lvl3
It's too situational and much more inferior to fly or DD
Stone skin Defence gain = Spell power level / 2 (min 4)
Instead of flat 6 points
Counterstrike Reduce mana cost to 16-18, move down to lvl3
Only useful for a hand full of defensive creatures like: Dendondroids, Hydras, Vampires, Golems, Dwarves_
Magic Mirror grants 100% immunity to any hostile spell (friendly Armageddon included)
Slayer: Needs a little buff?
At expert, gives ONE stack +8 against pretty much all level 7 and above creatures. For 12 mana. Compare that to Bloodlust and Bless, that are mass spells and only cost 4 mana each at expert. And they increase ALL of your creatures damage against ALL enemy creatures
Sorrow, Mirth, Misfortune, Fortune: These spells are too expensive and ineffective
Berserk nerf - single target only. Can be cast on creature of max level 5/6/7 depending on magic skill
Blind - Make it level 3
or
Blind - Would keep as lvl-2 spell but blinding only creatures from 1-3 level in basic, 3-4 level in advanced and 6-7 level in expert.
Right now you have one of the best fire spell and you don't even need fire magic to use. This way would nerf the spell and boost usage of fire magic as well.
Cure: Should do more on adv/expert level
Remove Obstacle: Should be able to remove any level of force field at expert water.
Anti-Magic - Increase its level from 3 to 4
New Spell: Fire Walk - to cross lava
Disguise - effect transfers to the subsequent round. you can have the effect on constantly, as long as you cast it once every round
Fire wall - buff base number from 10/20/50 to 25/40/65. Leave additional +10 dmg per every sp as it is right now
At the same time nerf Luna, to make her speciality not double dmg, but +50% or +75%
Implosion - Nerf
If you have good arts the Implosion multiplier is so big that you can kill best stack of enemy army in 1 turn). (would be a slight nerf to earth magic as well
before nerf :enemy troop receives (100/200/300 +(power × 75)) damageafter nerf: enemy troop receives (100/200/300 + (power × 60)) damage
If you have 20 sp now with expert you deal 1800 , after nerf 1500.
Meteor Shower - Very small nerf to meteor shower.
New Spell: Water Barrier - level 2, water; generates obstacle with (10/30/50)+20xpower hp
New Spell: Ignite - level 1, Fire
Deals magic damage to the targeted enemy unit at the end of each round.
Basic: 20 dmg Advanced: 30 dmg Expert: 30 dmg + turns into mass spell.
Spell cost: 6 mana
Debuff, so +1 duration is added per each Spell power.
Poison-like effect, gives some additional boost to the fire school, while providing another way to directly damage enemies with only having access to lvl 1 spells
Damnation, condemnation - lvl 4 spell (In short this spell is an opposite of Prayer)
Decreases the Speed, Attack and Defense stats of a target, enemy stack.
Basic decreases single enemy stack stats by 2.
Advanced decreases single enemy stack stats by 4.
Expert decreases all enemy stacks stats by 4.
Casting this spell would remove Prayer. Casting Prayer would remove this spell
Fiery Swiftness - level 3 adventure spell.
Increases your hero's movement points by [a small amount] over land.
Casting this would be rather cheap (about 10 mana?) This would be a single cast spell per turn.
Adv. and Expert levels would increase the amount of added movement points
Steal Enchantments - lvl 5 Water Spell
Removes all "buff spell" effects from target enemy creature, then gives them to the allied creature of your choice.
Basic: The duration of the spells are the same as they were when you stole them.
Advanced: Adds +2 duration to all stolen spells
Expert: Adds +4 duration to all stolen spells instead.
School: Water
Level: 5
Cost: 25/20
For some reason, School of Air had 4 lvl 5 spells, while water only had 1. It's only fair even the scales with this one. Not always the best possible spell to cast, but in the right circumstances it could give you a lot of value
New Spell: Blizzard - level 5 water spell that does AOE (like Inferno radius) with a good damage rate (meteor shower scaling).
New spell: Empower
Increases hero's Spell power until the end of next spell cast by 3/4/5.
Level: 1
School: Water
Cost: 6/5
Duration: Until the end of next spell cast.
Helpful spell especially in the early game, could also help in the late game if hero runs low on mana.
Regrouped View air/earth spells
View Air:
Shows artifacts in explored areaShows all artifactsShows all Artifacts and Castles
View Earth:
Shows building (as in, Windmills, ...) in explored areaShows all buildingsShows all buildings (also reveals the tile they are placed on) and map layout
View Life (Water):
Shows Wandering Monsters in explored areasShows Wandering Monsters and Heroes in explored areasShows all Wandering Monsters (also reveals the tile they stand on) and Heroes
View Recourses (Fire):
Shows resources in explored areasShows resources and mines in explored areasShows recourses and mines in all areas (also reveals the tile mines are placed)
Mana Drain - mana drain spell for fire magic
Castle Gate / Lloyd's beacon - new fire magic spell that functions like Town Portal.
Opens a 2-way gate to a castle and may teleport back to that location with a hero
This spell is added to your Mage Guild once you build Castle Gate itself in inferno.
A Placed beacon should be revealed for all other players, with 3 tile radius revealed around it.
Fire Magic spell: Doom: Unit receives only max damage attacks; can receive only luck attacks too.
Water Magic spell: Defensive Formation/Purity: Same as frenzy, but with defense instead of attack
The effect cancels next turn, not after the unit's attack
Duration of 1 Round/Spell Power should scale less. (at 20Spell Power they last until battle ends)
Slow/Blind/Haste/Shield: The durations of these low level spells are very long There should be an inverse proportionality with spell duration vs spell level. So the slow should last 1/5th of your spell power. A 10 spell power mage would only have two rounds of slow for example. On the other hand for a 2nd level blind spell it would be 1/4th of duration so an 8 spell power mage would have 2 rounds of duration. This way the the snowty duration extender artifacts would be also in demand
Starting city mage guild should have a guaranteed magic arrow
Heroes with good spell power sometimes seem wasted when the spell isn't offered (and they don't start with it), making some fights much harder than they need to be
Introduce spell cooldowns?
Why is slow direct counter to haste? (IE: negates haste, and applies slow)
Just reduce by specified amount?
Dimension Door (DD)
No DD in fog of war
Limit DD to 1,2,3 per day or Limit DD to 1 per day
Dimension Door Changes:
Move DD to school of fire magic (as infernal gate?) because air already has fly
Town Portal Changes:
TP: can select town starting from Basic.
Limit TP to map level. (surface, subterranean)
Tournament rules determine how the spells work.
TP is ok as it is for casual and AI matches
Disguise should hide your heroes from View Air
Land Mine - Add same amount of landmines but in a target area
or
Land Mine - summon more mines across the battlefield
Landmine - Increase damage, reduce cost to 8 mana points, increase number of mines.
Fireball, Frost Ring, Hypnotize: All need HP boost
Buff Inferno and Fireball - 15x power damage, nerf slightly magic expertise bonus (=equal damage at low power but higher damage with high spell power)
Inferno with a timed burn component (Damage every turn until cured/dispelled)
2,5x more damage than actual Inferno (Armageddon still is 5,25x more from actual Inferno spell) now also burns units affected by it for a longer time period compared to other burning.
Instead of increasing the area of effect for fireball and inferno... make other spells with that property.
Inferno and Fire ball - both have locked dmg progression on +10 dmg per spell power
That means when you have 10 sp you only deal 100dmg more than usual. I would buff them to have +15 dmg for each sp you own. This number is still lower then most of spells that is in the game, still would make them more valiable option. It wont be to OP cause heroes is a game where usually you have only few strong stacks of army and its best to kill as much as you can before it will attack you (like implosion) instead of harming a little few stacks
Frost Ring - similar to fireball/inferno it should get buff from +10 dmg for every sp into +15 dmg. Also it would give Castle 1 hero with decent offensive spell from start. Its also a buff for water magic itself and factions that have high chance of getting it. Right now there is only Ice bolt there that can deal dmg. Frost ring would be awesome addition to that list Currently Frost Ring with expert water and 10/15 sp - 160/210 dmg After buff Frost Ring with expert water and 10/15 sp - 210/285 dmg
Hypnotize - needs a buff First the duration should not be based on spell power but on the expertise level. Up to advanced level it should last one round, on expert level it should be 2 rounds
Hypnotize - moved to water level 5;
Take control of enemy unit for 1 turn; max level 5/6/7 depending on magic skill
Sacrifice - Improve the amount of Fire elementals summoned by the spell
Buff Fire shield - make it level 3
Returns 10 x power damage to attacker
Water walk lower mana cost down to 6-8 and downgrade to lvl3
Stone skin Defence gain = Spell power level / 2 (min 4)
Counterstrike Reduce mana cost to 16-18, move down to lvl3
Magic Mirror grants 100% immunity to any hostile spell (friendly Armageddon included)
Slayer: Needs a little buff?
Sorrow, Mirth, Misfortune, Fortune: These spells are too expensive and ineffective
Berserk nerf - single target only. Can be cast on creature of max level 5/6/7 depending on magic skill
Blind - Make it level 3
or
Blind - Would keep as lvl-2 spell but blinding only creatures from 1-3 level in basic, 3-4 level in advanced and 6-7 level in expert.
Cure: Should do more on adv/expert level
Remove Obstacle: Should be able to remove any level of force field at expert water.
Anti-Magic - Increase its level from 3 to 4
New Spell: Fire Walk - to cross lava
Disguise - effect transfers to the subsequent round. you can have the effect on constantly, as long as you cast it once every round
Fire wall - buff base number from 10/20/50 to 25/40/65. Leave additional +10 dmg per every sp as it is right now
At the same time nerf Luna, to make her speciality not double dmg, but +50% or +75%
Implosion - Nerf
Meteor Shower - Very small nerf to meteor shower.
New Spell: Water Barrier - level 2, water; generates obstacle with (10/30/50)+20xpower hp
New Spell: Ignite - level 1, Fire
Deals magic damage to the targeted enemy unit at the end of each round. Basic: 20 dmg Advanced: 30 dmg Expert: 30 dmg + turns into mass spell. Spell cost: 6 mana Debuff, so +1 duration is added per each Spell power. Poison-like effect, gives some additional boost to the fire school, while providing another way to directly damage enemies with only having access to lvl 1 spells
Damnation, condemnation - lvl 4 spell (In short this spell is an opposite of Prayer)
Decreases the Speed, Attack and Defense stats of a target, enemy stack. Basic decreases single enemy stack stats by 2. Advanced decreases single enemy stack stats by 4. Expert decreases all enemy stacks stats by 4. Casting this spell would remove Prayer. Casting Prayer would remove this spell
Fiery Swiftness - level 3 adventure spell.
Increases your hero's movement points by [a small amount] over land. Casting this would be rather cheap (about 10 mana?) This would be a single cast spell per turn. Adv. and Expert levels would increase the amount of added movement points
Steal Enchantments - lvl 5 Water Spell
Removes all "buff spell" effects from target enemy creature, then gives them to the allied creature of your choice. Basic: The duration of the spells are the same as they were when you stole them. Advanced: Adds +2 duration to all stolen spells Expert: Adds +4 duration to all stolen spells instead. School: Water Level: 5 Cost: 25/20 For some reason, School of Air had 4 lvl 5 spells, while water only had 1. It's only fair even the scales with this one. Not always the best possible spell to cast, but in the right circumstances it could give you a lot of value
New Spell: Blizzard - level 5 water spell that does AOE (like Inferno radius) with a good damage rate (meteor shower scaling).
New spell: Empower
Increases hero's Spell power until the end of next spell cast by 3/4/5. Level: 1 School: Water Cost: 6/5 Duration: Until the end of next spell cast. Helpful spell especially in the early game, could also help in the late game if hero runs low on mana.
Regrouped View air/earth spells
View Air:
Shows artifacts in explored area Shows all artifacts Shows all Artifacts and Castles
View Earth:
Shows building (as in, Windmills, ...) in explored area Shows all buildings Shows all buildings (also reveals the tile they are placed on) and map layout
View Life (Water):
Shows Wandering Monsters in explored areas Shows Wandering Monsters and Heroes in explored areas Shows all Wandering Monsters (also reveals the tile they stand on) and Heroes
View Recourses (Fire): Shows resources in explored areas Shows resources and mines in explored areas Shows recourses and mines in all areas (also reveals the tile mines are placed)
Mana Drain - mana drain spell for fire magic
Castle Gate / Lloyd's beacon - new fire magic spell that functions like Town Portal.
Opens a 2-way gate to a castle and may teleport back to that location with a hero
Fire Magic spell: Doom: Unit receives only max damage attacks; can receive only luck attacks too.
Water Magic spell: Defensive Formation/Purity: Same as frenzy, but with defense instead of attack
The effect cancels next turn, not after the unit's attack