Figured I would initiate a thread in homage to Govannon's awesome new "teach spellcasting" ability.
As you might expect, whiners have already appeared suggesting that being able to teach all level one spells Govannon knows to applicable units (i.e. everything not animal or undead) is overpowered. Nonsense! It simply opens up a whole new realm of strategy for the Amurites. Just think of the wacky fun you can have with water-walking firebows and mist-form chucking (and water-walking) druids. Or better yet, give a horseman spring, scorch, and blaze and send him on a peaceful mission to ruin your neighbor's territory. Those desert shrines don't do you much good now that you're surrounded by plains, right Varn? Or how about starving the enemy out by turning all their terrain to desert - or even their starting city tile prior to declaring war, reducing defenses? Then let Mr. Magic Horse set fire to all the vegetation.
But the primary reason none of this is overpowered is that the Amurites lose an arch-mage hero and instead gain that all-out magic democracy that Govannon is supposed to represent. Figure that while Govannon is spending his promotions on rank one spells, he isn't earning combat promotions toward twincasting, or even picking up a level three spell. The obvious offset is that once an adept has been trained with all the rank one spells, you can promote them to combat IV in order to make them a mage (w/ the Cave of Ancestors).
The only thing left is to give Ratha and Radiant Guards the channeling two promotion. I want a water-walking, fireball-chucking chariot!
As you might expect, whiners have already appeared suggesting that being able to teach all level one spells Govannon knows to applicable units (i.e. everything not animal or undead) is overpowered. Nonsense! It simply opens up a whole new realm of strategy for the Amurites. Just think of the wacky fun you can have with water-walking firebows and mist-form chucking (and water-walking) druids. Or better yet, give a horseman spring, scorch, and blaze and send him on a peaceful mission to ruin your neighbor's territory. Those desert shrines don't do you much good now that you're surrounded by plains, right Varn? Or how about starving the enemy out by turning all their terrain to desert - or even their starting city tile prior to declaring war, reducing defenses? Then let Mr. Magic Horse set fire to all the vegetation.
But the primary reason none of this is overpowered is that the Amurites lose an arch-mage hero and instead gain that all-out magic democracy that Govannon is supposed to represent. Figure that while Govannon is spending his promotions on rank one spells, he isn't earning combat promotions toward twincasting, or even picking up a level three spell. The obvious offset is that once an adept has been trained with all the rank one spells, you can promote them to combat IV in order to make them a mage (w/ the Cave of Ancestors).
The only thing left is to give Ratha and Radiant Guards the channeling two promotion. I want a water-walking, fireball-chucking chariot!