General:
Going for a concept of two major identity-defining unique capabilities for each race plus one major drawback with a little extra balancing bonuses as needed. Personalities are being sharpened around a clear role.
MF: remove the wpa penalty
Amnesia: buff slightly, now heretic only
SI: removed, as I didn't find a home for it that I liked
DS: returning on cleric, and as a support spell. give them rogues some defensive wpa love!
Rev: Reduce effect to 15%
=====
Races
=====
Dark Elf
Concept: Dark Elf is the classic A/M race. The twist in this conception of them is their ability to sustain WPA while growing. There are a ton of different ways to do this, but the best should ensure that wizards are gained only when land is gained, like this one.
Capability 1: sustain wpa while growing
Capability 2: high spell damage
Drawback: weak defensive specialist
+20% Spell Damage
+10% ME
30% of enemy casualties on TMs are converted to wizards
-1 dspec
7/11 elite 8.25 900gc
Spellbook: BL
Bocan
Concept: Bocan, like DE, is a classic hybrid, but focused on TPA sustain via training with credits.
Capability 1: sustain tpa while growing
Capability 2: high sabotage damage
Drawback: lower income (forcing bocan to sustain itself with credits)
+20% sabotage damage
Can train thieves with credits
+30% spec credits
+2 ospec
-10% income
8/12 elite 8.25nw 900gc
Spellbook: vermin, fanat
Elf
Concept: A more defensive magic race that can go hybrid but also pure mage. I've tended to feel tension between self spells and combat spells with fae as the high-wpa race. Elf feels like a more natural fit. And I'm pushing casting on mates back to purely be on cleric, so that disappears from here.
Capability 1: highest WPA
Capability 2: strong cheap defense via specs
Drawback: No dungeons
+20% WPA
+20% rune production
+2 dspec
Cannot use dungeons
12/8 elite 7.75nw 875gc
Spellbook: MF, chastity
Halfling
Concept: More defensive thief race, that, like elf, can go hybrid or pure thief. I prefer the raw pop bonus rather than the homes bonus because it's easier to play hybrid making the race more flexible.
Capability 1: highest TPA
Capability 2: high population
Drawback: Weak offensive specialist
+20% TPA
+10% Population
-50% thief losses on failed ops
-20% Military training costs
-1 ospec
11/8 elite 7.5nw 800gc
Spellbook: MA, invis
Human
Concept: Human can occupy a pretty interesting space as the econ powerhouse. Removing the WPA penalty and giving them RM (while removing QF) really lets them flex into a variety of pure attacker, hybrid, and bank roles.
Capability 1: high science effect
Capability 2: high income
Drawback: Increased explore cost (to avoid oversized explore pushes)
+15% sci effect
+20% income
+2 horses
+25% explore cost (gc)
7/12 elite 8.5nw 1100gc
Spellbook: fok, RM
Orc
Concept: Orc is the hulk smasher. It was too strong with battle gains on top of its bonkers offense, so removing that but doubling down on its drafting strength gives it some strong muscle, and it still competes very well at the top of the attacker food chain.
Capability 1: Highest offense
Capability 2: Can draft strong army very quickly and cheaply
Drawback: Shredded by ops
+30% draftees
-75% draft cost
4/4 soldiers
+15% damage from spells and ops
15/6 elite 8.5nw 925gc
Spellbook: Aggression, BL
Avian
Concept: Speed is avian's thing. And that's one of the reasons I changed tact to gains (more on that in the tact section). This change sharpens that power but pulls back the raw offense quite a bit to compensate. With the nerfs to other attackers, though, it still competes well.
Capability 1: Fastest military
Capability 2: Can quickly fill in new land
Drawback: Weaker military
-20% attack time
+25% birth rate
-20% military training time
cannot use stables or horses
-10% BE
14/5 elite 8nw 850gc
Spellbook: TW, war spoils, fanat
Dwarf
Concept: Dwarf is the sturdy buildings-focused race like it's always been. Sharpening the sturdiness more with a direct DME bonus. Also giving it QF from human to let it compete well as an attacker and with a really well-coordinated group, sneak in hits and get home just before opponents do and force them to hit into very high defense.
Capability 1: Powerful, cheap buildings
Capability 2: Very sturdy military
Drawback: vulnerable to starvation
+25% BE
-50% construction and raze cost
+35% building credits
+10% DME
+100% food needed
+100% deaths from starvation
12/7 elite 7.75nw 875gc
Spellbook: MA, QF, gluttony
Faery
Concept: Fae is its typical self-spell happy self. It loses its raw WPA bonus to elf, but still retains its t/m and hybrid potential by picking up MF and invis through elf and halfer respectively. Its pop bonus is reduced and the general penalty is dropped to compensate for the WPA loss as well, and it retains its ability to compete offensively and in t/m at the level of other hybrid-type races, just with greater flexibility.
Capability 1: flexible power through self spells
Capability 2: High defense elite
Drawback: lower population
+50% self spell duration
All racial spells
-5% population
7/13 elite 8.5nw 1100gc
Spellbook: all racial spells + tog
Undead
Concept: Undead in its simplest form. I much prefer this over the complex and difficult to balance form it's in right now. Without landing plague, it competes offensively around the level of a hybrid, but if it does land a plague it can out-compete even orc and avian just slightly at bringing down targets. The casualty bonus is the only duplicated bonus with cleric, but it's not so bad I think because using them together is neither overkill on casualty reduction (-36%) nor is it overpowered in any particular way.
Capability 1: Plague
Capability 2: strong military sustain via low casualties
Drawback: reduced science
-20% casualties
no food needed
spreads and is immune to plague
-15% sci effect
14/6 elite 8.25nw 900gc
Spellbook: AD, chastity
=============
Personalities
=============
Mystic
Role: Control enemies over time. Picking up blizzard and increased spell duration gives mystic some more interesting uses as compensation for losing rev, which I don't think it really needed.
+150% guild land effect
+50% channeling science
+20% combat spell duration
+1 mana/tick
Spellbook: MS, Blizzard, ET
Starts with: 800 wiz
Rogue
Role: Destroy a province with thievery. Rogue loses SWH but picks up extra NS damage to let it still be a strong hybrid and also be able to do a little extra work when getting ET'd into the dirt and not having a good target for AW/Prop
+75% TD land effect
-30% thief cost
+50% crime science
+1 stealth/tick
+20% NS damage
Access to GA, AW, prop
Spellbook: ET
Starts with: 800 thieves
Heretic
Role: NM chain enabler OR shell provinces with t/m ops. Swapped the thief losses bonus out for a TD bonus. This is a slight nerf to A/M heretic, which won't be able to get nearly the same losses reduction as it can't run enough TDs, and thus will end up bleeding TPA if it tries to A/T/M, but is a buff to T/M heretic as it does have room for the TDs and can get a nice TPA bonus out of this.
+75% guild land effect
+50% TD land effect
+25% channeling, crime, and cunning sci
Spellbook: NM, FG, Amnesia, Rev
Starts with: 400 wiz, 400 thieves
Bandit
Role: steal stuff from enemy and use it against them. My attempt at an A/T personality concept. Steal horses, gold, and get prisoners from other ops, use those and buy cheap mercs to attack hard.
+50% TD effect
+30% crime sci
+25% gains on robs and plunders
Some additional prisoners are captured on NS, kidnap, and free prisoners ops
Prisoners and mercs are +3
-75% merc cost
Access to GA and SWH
Spellbook: gluttony and vermin
Starts with: 400 thieves, 400 solds and creds
Cleric
Role: Support caster and sturdy attacker. Cleric loses the general-purpose SI to gain some more sharpened sturdiness benefits in the form of divine shield, some raw defensive WPA, and some bonus science specifically in strategy and shielding, plus a bonus to invocation to sharpen its support feel as well. It doesn't really pack any punch, but good luck taking one of these suckers down. They'll stick around and keep on chugging for a while.
-20% casualties
Immune to plague
+20% defensive WPA
+20% strategy, shielding and invocation sci
Can cast spells on mates
Spellbook: GP, AD, DS, IS, wrathful smite
Starts with: 600 solds and creds, 200 wiz
Merchant
Role: Bank. My re-imagining of artisan. Totally focused on econ and sending and receiving aid, with CS to protect those resources somewhat. A great option for getting built up and then tanking up and aiding out to others.
Immune to income penalties
+15% Econ sciences
+20% flat rate building production
-30% effect on TB for both parties when sending or receiving aid (does not stack with 2 merchants)
Spellbook: ghost workers, CS
Starts with: 800 solds and creds
Tactician
Role: Deep-chaining attacker-killer. When I was thinking about how to sharpen the attacker personalities around clear roles, it was clear to me that from an offensive perspective, there are really two things attackers do. One is deep chain opponents, typically attackers. The other is to drag down T/Ms. Attack speed didn't really directly fit either of these, it just lets you do whatever you're doing more often, which is really avian's thing. So instead I went for making tactician all about chaining attackers. In place of the speed bonus it gets the gains bonus from orc and some siege sci instead of the credits bonus. While it can't reach quite as high as WH or warrior offense-wise, it does devastating damage when it can complete a chain deep. And with high gains and ambush protection, it's also harder to chain itself!
+15% battle gains
+30% siege sci
-33% land lost on ambushes
accurate intel
Spellbook:
Sarts with: 800 solds and credits
Warrior
Role: Hard-hitting T/M-killer. Warrior goes the other direction, focusing clearly on dragging down high-defense targets. Raw OME and tactics sci bonuses, less painful conquests, and a massacre bonus are all pointed directly at dealing with those pesky t/ms that tank up just out of reach and laugh while they shred you with ops.
+10% OME
+20% tactics sci
-25% casualties on conquest attacks
+15% gains on massacres
improved conquest range
Spellbook: PF
Starts with: 800 solds and creds
War Hero
Role: Fast reloading attacker. While tact and warrior are clearly focused at what you're doing to your enemies, cleric and war hero are more focused on the strength of your own province. Cleric provides this through a great deal of sturdiness. War hero goes the other direction and provides more of a snowball attacker. Science bonuses for improving drafting and training time (plus PI), conversion to elites, and a bonus to elites all provide a quick pipeline from peasant to strong elite that lets war hero reload and snowball forward during a war. +1/+1 elites seems to not be too op at this point necessarily, especially with toning down the honor bonus and dropping dragon immunity (but a bonus to dragon slaying sci!), and it makes the personality much more attractive to races with defensive elites.
+50% honor bonuses
Convert specs to elites
+1/+1 elite
+30% valor and heroism sci
Spellbook: Hero's inspiration (PI renamed)
Starts with: 800 elites