fossil thorn
DISCLAIMER: I am by no means a game designer expert, and there may be a million things that would render this impossible or unbalanced in the current game.
It would be cool that, instead of becoming a Plant, the Nature path lets you become an Animal.
That's... About it.
Maybe the Primal Cultures could have an event that lets them get closer to their totemic animal and have a major transformation as a reward.
ember oyster
There is a toll of the seasons event option where after you win, one of your options is that one of your heroes can get turned into a mythic fey beast permanently. I know it's not an animal but.
soft raft
I think the tough part of that is Empowered Beast and Animal Kinship were made with the intention on wrking only on non-racials which I think is the reason they stay away from it.
north osprey
Animal Kinship kinda already does this.
I mean I wouldn't be against a form that's essentially a major version of Animal Kinship, similar to how Gaia's Chosen could be seen as a major version of Leafskin.
But you could really make them animals from a balance perspective, for the reasons Lord Vectra described. They'd just have to look really animalistic.
We'll actually I guess it is possible, you might just have to make the rest of the tome really bad and that might stabalize the balance 🤷♂️
light nimbus
If my memory serves me right, there are lost files of a major centaur transformation, maybe that would be the best solution for the visuals.
But I agree; the balancing issue with the other tomes would be very difficult to solve, although I do think animals need more attention.
soft raft
Animal Kinship kinda already does this.
I mean I wouldn't be against a form tha...
One possible solution is to make the major transformation, itself, not grandoise. Have it give the animal typing but something very minor otherwise.
I was commissioned to make a tome mod that had an animal major transformation, I told him to keep it as balanced as possible, I was going to give it something small which ended up being 40 movement + Vicious Killer.
Something like that could work. I played it once and it seemed fine, and my playtester group, who also cares about balance, said it seemed within reason.
Another way to fix this, which is something @teal trellis and myself spoke about before, was to have certain enchantments only affect non-racials, which something like Empowered Beast especially would be perfect for
paper rock
Dumb idea but what about using the centaur idea and do "Give Animal and Cavalry keyword to everyone" ?
And the lower part would just be the mount for your faction.
Might be a problem for the special mounts builds like tho 🤔
pearl crown
Giving animal trait to cultural unit... I remember that animal kinship from tome of the beast used to take mounts into consideration but devs removed it so I doubt they'll give a tome that would give the animal tag to racial units that soon.
soft raft
Giving animal trait to cultural unit... I remember that animal kinship from tome...
It would need to be a T4 tome minimum
pearl crown
It would need to be a T4 tome minimum
"T4 tome minimum" I don't think there a T5 tome that give racial transformation yet (and they all are base game and not hybrid affinity). T4 for a synergy between two transfomration sound okay.
soft raft
ye, i realized that after I said that but oh well xd
paper rock
Giving animal trait to cultural unit... I remember that animal kinship from tome...
I see what you mean but cavalry could benefit both from Kinship and an unrelated Major transformation
Maybe it would be more balanced for your racial activating Kinship if you have a specific Major transformation? 🤔
raven crescent
I don't like it. A major transformation should be powerful by itself, not just in synergy with specific other tomes.
soft raft
i mean, wightborn isnt all that powerful bc of synergy with the necro tomes.
It was strong compared to other majors on release but thats not true anymore
Gaia's Chosen is another example
Cant just ignore a synergy a transformation has with other tomes.
now not to say Gaia specifically isnt too weak bc it is but every transformation's power was relative to direct synergies as it would be expected you went at least Vigor if going for it
raven crescent
Yes, exactly, and I'd prefer not to introduce more transformations that rely on synergies to be powerful.
soft raft
and im saying, in what context are u getting this hypothetical animal transformation and not getting Vigor?
ember oyster
A neat racial transformation would be something like.
Nature's Rebirth: When this unit dies there is a 50% chance it comes back with 30 temp HP as a berserk animal unit matching the killed unit's tier.
Think of it like a rebirth animal thing for the race. Like slip away. But then the unit is now stuck perm as whatever animal they came back as.
Could also work as a combat spell.