I have been seeing a pattern in the games I have been playing lately. To sum it up the only real champion I use is my Sov. You always get the first level 1 champion but it's not very useful. It's so weak to actually level it up you have to support it with an army. Early game I find it better to just let it sit in my city as I don't have time to build troops for it. After awhile you get enough fame for the level 3 champion but I always grab a Governor if possible. A level 3 champion is still not nearly as good as a basic unit. Then it usually takes quite a while to get a level 5 or 7 champion. I don't exactly rush for them but then why would you? The most useful part of them is the items they have I can give my Sov.
When you get right down to it I find that champions in LH just aren't useful in combat. They aren't tough enough to beat normal units unless you spend the time to give them the support of an army and send them out to level up and quest. However I never have the time or resources to do this for more then just my Sovereign. If I where to try and level a champion it would decrease the level of my Sovereign though direct XP split, or because my Sov can't kill as many tough monsters because it has less support. Even the AI rarely has effective or dangerous champions. They are pretty much free kills.
Even if you somehow manage to level up a champion how are they useful? I have tried several builds. Early on a warrior with lethal and endurance can be a heavy hitter but by midgame the damage they do is negligible compared to groups of 4. Not to mention the cost of equipping champions. Items cost a ridiculous amount of gold. A mage can be very powerful if you get them to a very high level but you don't always get a good mage pick. Almost all the early game champions make horrible mages as they have only 1 element if any.
Are other players finding the same thing? Does a champion with firebolt do more damage then units with staffs? Do you have multiple tough combat champions that are better then normal units?
If there is an issue here I would like to suggest some possible options for fixes...
-Decrease the cost of basic champion gear so in general champions are better equipped.
-Make the magic tech tree unlock some basic magical only champion items. These can be expensive. This would make it easier to equip multiple champions with better weapons and items then normal units. Some existing items could be split between champion and normal unit versions. Fire staffs are great example of this. The version champions buy should have greater damage and not decrease initiative by so much.
-Boost some of the weaker champion traits. Like Bully on the warrior tree. More on this later.
-Increase the equipment and traits of all champions. Especially early ones. 1-2 elements and a minor magical weapon like a sharp axe should be the norm even on level 1 champions.
-Is there any reason champions can't spawn with a honour guard like a group of axemen to help them level? Your sovereign starts with 2.
-And finally a basic stat boost like a boost to hp and +25% to attack.
There is a somewhat similar "Sion" unit type that all Empires (not Kingdoms) can build - they are similar in many respects to henchmen, but they do not have an inventory, so they're stuck with the equipment they start with, and they do not have access to any magic paths ("adept" or otherwise.) They're also more expensive than henchmen, for some reason.Edit: do'h, too slow!
Just to point out, you can edit the Sion unit and have it still be a Sion. This lets you give it better armor, accessories, mounts, and traits than the base unarmored swordsman unit. They can be further upgraded as you unlock better gear and allow for many of the same abuses as henchmen, such as 3-4 highly promoted commanders in an army with your sovereign, with all their stacking accuracy, initiative and XP bonuses.
True - their armor/weapons can be upgraded in the same way as normal non-champion units. They just can't be "upgraded" with found equipment from quests/goodie huts because they don't have an inventory.
This isn't such a hindrance with Commanders whose main role is support, but it's not so great for assassin/warrior/defenders. For these you mostly just want high initiative + enough armor to protect against stray missiles; you're not expecting them to do much damage or blocking on their own. For these, I prefer a horse, Aegis robe + leather complement, but with the +init boots instead, +init amulet/belt, fill out the rest of the item slots with some defensive items like the first aid kit, rations, braided metal belt, or belt of precognition, and a dagger (or Skath claw if you have it) for +3 (or +4) init. For traits, Veteran + Fast + whatever else seems best (probably the +HP, + Defense, or +Dodge traits, but if you're playing a custom faction, +XP traits get the nod.)
I think I need to re-examine the Sion if there is no exp split with it.
I never made them before because I always imagined them to suck, but being able to upgrade them like a regular unit might not be that bad after all.
I am also trying to think of a way to mod the game so that +init boots have priority over +1 AC boots. Maybe the +1 init boots should also have +1 AC? That would make it strictly better, but I don't know if the game engine would see that. If it is the same AC then it might still consider them equal. Could go to 2 AC and +1 init both, but the measuring might be coming from somewhere else entirely and something else entirely would need to be done.
The upgrade definition just considers defense, not other factors, so if you gave them +1 defense, they wouldn't "upgrade" to leather. OTOH, leather boots won't upgrade to soldier's boots, either (since they're not better defense.)
If you do that though, consider that you're basically obsoleting leather boots (ok, maybe not a *huge* deal, but it will apply to lots of AI units) and giving out another +1 defense item in the period prior to researching leatherworking. You'd probably have to give them a hefty increase to build cost to make leather boots ever worth even considering (as it is, I already seldom use leather boots.)
Note that chain boots are +2 defense, so there's not a big range to work in (if you go to +2 defense, you're obsoleting chain boots as well.)
You could also go the route of modifying the upgrade definitions in the XML to take +init into account, but that would need to be done for all of the existing AI and "stock" unit definitions (if you care about that), and would not apply to any newly defined custom unit definitions created with the UI.
I never have my heros running around with out an army. I think of them as commanders of the armies so if they don't have an army to themselves then they join another hero or SOV's army until one is built for them.
They should not ever be as powerful and an actual Unit until they are higher level but can still along side otjher units and armies do damage to the enemies. And since Hero's never die (bad call by the way) it matters little if they do die.
Heroes never die, and in my current game I've experimented with letting them get injured a lot more. A lot of the time the injuries are not that bad, e.g. I don't really care about -50% poison resistance or -50% cold resistance or -1 physical attack. Some of them are pretty bad though, -25% experience, -25% hit points, -1 hit point for every unit in your army.
It's a lottery, and it's very expensive (and late in the game) to use potions to heal injuries. I think the balance is about right, you can risk your heroes if you want to (and they can remain effective even with a few injuries), however they miss seasons immobilized and healing, and you run the risk they will pick up a really bad injury. So you don't want them to get injured, but you are prepared to risk them sometimes if there's enough to be gained.
I don't have a really risky play style. Usually, if one of my heroes dies then a large chunk of the army it was in probably died too and I generally try to avoid that.
I just won't fight if I think I will lose 1/4 or more of my total forces.
Look how weapons' upgrade is done. It calculates SUM of all bonuses and choses the highest value. So make AI compare SUM of Defence, Initiative or other attributes. Thus +1 Defence, +2 Initiative item would be better than just +2 Defence. All this needs testing though.
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