After looking through what has been revealed for Archon Prophecy, and the Griffon Update, this has unique (at least nothing I've seen yet) introductions mechanically that expand the gameplay a bit, perhaps goes against some of the existing design decisions, for thematic reasons:
Tome of the Grave - T2 Tome
Tome of Blood - T4 Tome
Tome of the Grave - T2 Tome
- Gravewrought Armaments
- A new skill that once researched unlocks Infusions and Items for Crafting, including Undead Mounts, Armor of Despair (effect), combination Enchants (i.e. Poison + Decaying for a reduced cost), etc.
- Uses Souls
- Unlocks T2 Skeleton upgrades (upgrading from T1 comparable to Knight), there's a spell that can be used to upgrade them as well, not inexpensive
- Necrotic Plague
- New Siege Project, causes city and surrounding hexes to be cursed by a Necrotic Plague (terraformed into Plaguelands)
- A deathly pall hangs over the city, enemy units have a 30% chance to be affected by Necrotize
- Spread the Blight
- Spreads Plaguelands out from your cities (spell that is cast on a Friendly OR Enemy City, requires Souls for Upkeep)
- Plaguelands have all of their normal terrain replaced, bushes are now sharp and will inflict bleeding, water is now poisonous and slow units that are not Undead
- Acolytes
- T2 Unit, weak Mage unit with Frost Blight Damage Attacks
- Nothing else, it is too strong when it Promotes at max rank
- Lich
- Promotes from the Acolytes
- T4 Unit, Mythic Racial Unit, Battlemage Support, requires Souls for Upkeep
- Singular unit, has a 1 Turn CD Reanimate Undead that cannot affect Friendly Undead, it turns enemy units into Decaying Zombies
- Paralyzing Touch, Death Touch; Melee Range abilities, Death Touch is a 1 x Battle ability, works like the Reaper, can be used in Melee range only, Paralyzing Touch as a 4-Turn CD, Stuns a unit in melee range (in addition to damage)
- Phylactery, when the unit dies it spawns its Phylactery which will regenerate each turn, starts at 100 HP with max 200 HP, once hitting 200 HP the Lich returns at full HP; Lich has Resurgence unless its phylactery is destroyed
Tome of Blood - T4 Tome
- Strigoi Major Transformation
- Grants Flying (Wings), Fangs and whatnot, makes them look like a Vampire
- Free Action Bite, inflicts Bleeding x 2, Light Heal, 30% chance of applying Strigoi Curse
- Lose ability to use mounts
- Undead & Vampire Unit (Vampire and Undead both have stacking spirit and fire damage drops)
- Lifesteal
- Strigoi Curse
- If a Racial unit afflicted with the Strigoi Curse dies, it may be reanimated post-battle as a Strigoi through Souls (scales per Tier), affects Heroes as well
- Awaken Vampire Lord
- Expensive spell (2-3 turns of casting at least, requires Souls + Mana)
- May be cast on a Hero, or a Champion Ruler
- Gains edgier effects
- Resets level to 1, retains high base stats, has relatively low xp threshold for levels (rapidly 'regains' their strength through battle)
- Has two different Class Choices: Blood Knight and Blood Mage, replaces your Mortal Hero / Champion section with a general Vampire themed section (bites, empowered bites, etc.)
- Blood Knight is mostly a Spellblade / Death Knight, with Blood Weapons like a Giant King; an example ability might be Blood Seeking Bolts, low CD ranged attack that inflicts bleed and heals caster, another might be a passive Armor of Despair
- Blood Mage is a mix of a Warlock / Elementalist, has new twists on Dominate effects, which build up by building up Beguiling Presence stacks (from attacks, effects, etc.) and then an ability that is say 'Dark Gift', turns target enemy unit into a Strigoi and Dominate them (works on heroes), once per Battle Ability
- Retain the Dominated unit(s) with Souls & Mana
- They now require Souls Upkeep in addition to Mana
- Deathbringer
- T4 Mythic Racial Unit (Fighter attack pattern)
- Applies Strigoi Curse and Beguiling Presence with low % chance
- 'Dark Gift' effect, works same as above for Blood Mage
- Souls Upkeep
- Has unlimited Retaliations
Upvote
0