Nature Realm

The elemental forces of nature are traditionally the realm associated with summoning, terrain and versatility.

Strengths

 * Powerful fantastic creatures
 * Great versatility, has effects in most areas
 * Nature magic often ignores protective spells or abilities
 * Spells dealing with terrain and exploration
 * Strong early game
 * Tends to be more effective than usual at countering Chaos wizards

Weaknesses

 * Many spells are weaker than their counterparts in other realms
 * Many effects are only available in the form of a single spell so missing out on spells is usually more detrimental than in other realms and disables access to certain strategies entirely.
 * Tends to struggle when fighting Death wizards.

1. Resist Elements
Cost : 5/25 MP

Research : 440 RP

Enchanted unit gains +4 defense against magical ranged attacks, breath attacks or spells, and 4 resistance against Nature realm effects.

''In other words, resist petrify and defend against magical damage. Packs more punch than it seems as that extra 4 defense can be very relevant against the AI's most preferred magical ranged garrison units. It's also super useful for the AI, as it can be cast in combat, often resulting in situations where otherwise seemingly easy battles turn into a nightmare because the human player only brought magical ranged damage. Due to this high potential utility for early-midgame conquest, the RP cost is in the higher category for a common spell. In the original game this only affected Chaos and Nature magic, a limitation that made it counterintuitive as many units were associated with a realm used ranged attacks that belonged to another - for example Shadow Demons use Chaos projectiles. Resisting petrification effects was kept though, as it makes sense for the realm to be able to resist its own magic.''

2. Fairy Dust (new)
Cost : 12 MP

Research : 320 RP

Target unit suffers a Strength 7, Armor Piercing Cold attack on each figure.

''A weak direct damage spell that's effective at removing fragile multi-figure early game units. Plays into the theme of Nature having all kinds of effects but being mediocre at them, this is their common direct damage spell.''

3.Wild Boars
Cost : 15 MP

Research : 320 RP

Combat only summon : 6 melee, +1 To Hit, 5 defense, 5 resistance, 3 movement, 5 health, 3 figures

''A much more suitable spell for Nature realm : a summoning spell for battles they lacked which offers decent brute force that can put up some fight and deal relevant amounts of damage to lower tier enemies. Better damage potential than the eliminated centaurs while having much less abuse potential for stalling as it has less movement speed.''

4. Earth Lore
Cost : 40 MP

Research : 160 RP

Reveal all overland terrain and lair/node contents on the targeted map area.

''A scouting spell wouldn't be much of a scouting spell if you still needed to send scouts to all lairs in the area. However with this modification, this becomes a potent addition to Nature's spell arsenal, and a great combo with Sprites.''

5. Water Walking
Cost : 20 MP

Research : 260 RP

Enchanted unit gains Water Walking movement.

''Useful to get a smaller amount of units through the ocean, or enable them to fight enemies on water tiles. There is a downside though, it's fairly easy to dispel, which causes the unit to drown. It mostly shines at enabling early settlers to reach other continents without requiring a ship, and is critically important for the AI for that purpose, as it's possible to start with the spell already known. It can also work well to dodge enemy naval superiority as there is no need to rely on vulnerable transports to cross.''

6. War Bears
Cost : 55 MP, 1 MP/turn

Research : 260 RP

Creature : 7 melee, +1 To Hit, 5 defense, 6 resistance, 3 movement, 7 health, 3 figures, Forester

''As Nature specializes in strong summoned creatures, this creature is by far the most cost effective among all common summoning spells, and also packs the most raw fighting power, but no special abilities. Much stronger than a swordsmen tier unit, this creature can even stay relevant after Halberdiers have entered the game, but it's not powerful enough to take down larger armies by itself and isn't unstoppable.''

7. Sprites
Cost : 80 MP, 2 MP/turn

Research : 320 RP

Creature : 2 melee, 4 Magical Ranged, +1 To Hit, 2 defense, 8 resistance, 2 movement, 1 health, 5 figures, Forester, Flying

''Unlike bears, Sprites are a more tactical unit - they fly and shoot but are extremely fragile. Their cost and vulnerability to any direct damage spell makes them pretty bad to use against other wizards as each Sprite unit lost to an enemy spell will set your army size back by several turns, and this keeps in check the huge strategic potential of having a flying ranged attacker. What Sprites truly excel at is claiming nodes and treasure for their owner, as nonflying melee monsters can't do a thing while the Sprites destroy them slowly, one at a time. Many test games were played to ensure sprites are neither overpowered treasure hunters that return with vast riches, nor a situational useless unit that every once in a while manages to salvage a few gold coins. While it seems like it works without issues, a lot of fine tuning and specific details had to be added to the lair monster generation algorithm to guarantee the chance of generating targets that are vulnerable to the Sprite strategy are frequent enough for the startegy to be reliable, but don't include extremely high reward targets too often. For that reason, spawning Great Wyrms had to require them to never be alone or grouped with other sprite-vulnerable monsters. In the later phases of development, the gold and mana crystal loot from treasure has been halved as the originally planned amounts proved way too much, which reduced the efficiency of this strategy somewhat, but it's still a good strategy nonetheless - while it won't yield enough resources to build up a vast military on that alone, it will still provide you with enough to be relevant, and of course, the treasure you fight might include other, more valuable things like good artifacts, spells, or even spell books or heroes. This fine tuning of monster generation however, was well worth the effort, as it also ensures diverse contents in the encounter zones that provide players with some good targets for all kinds of strategies.''

8. Nature's Eye
Cost : 40 MP

Research : 200 RP

Enchanted city has an increased scouting radius and produces 4 RP.

''While the increased scouting radius is nice and helps detecting approaching enemies a turn earlier, it's nowhere near good enough to be worth a spell slot by itself. With the added ability to produce a small amount of research for free, this spell will be more desired by players, and will give a slight edge to AI opponents by letting them reach Uncommon tier spells a bit earlier, something that's extremely critical for AI Nature wizards. While their common creatures are good, they are also fairly easy to counter, especially the Sprites which the AI uses as garrison for a very long time, lacking better options. This has also been a recurring discussion, but no, unfortunately, using bears, spiders or even cockatrices would not work better as those creatures are a lot more valuable for the AI when sent out to conquer and the AI lacks the insight to be able to use the same unit for both roles well - it determines the units to stay in their garrison based on a simple list of priorities that includes every possible unit type. (which is by the way is exclusive to Caster of Magic, as the original AI didn't care much and simply kept the most expensive units in garrison.)''

9. Earth to Mud
Cost : 20 MP

Research : 380 RP

A 7x7 area in combat is turned into mud.

''The area had to be increased to ensure the larger movement allowance on units doesn't make it too trivial to go around the affected area, and also to guarantee when cast, most of the enemy army will be affected. This spell isn't particularly good otherwise, as even one or two melee units avoiding it and reaching your fragile archers or magicians can cause losing the battle. As is, this is now an excellent spell to cast when your ranged army faces fast melee units that would otherwise destroy them, and although it's much less effective when you're the aggressor and they already managed to move freely on turn one, it can still be enough to turn the tides of battle.''

10. Web
Cost : 10 MP

Research : 480 RP

Target unit cannot act for (12/melee attack) turns and loses flying.

''Most likely the best common spell in the game and many player's favorite, this unassuming but brutally powerful spell has been left intact to ensure maximal enjoyment, especially as it requires proper tactical use making it interesting. The main role is to counter Flying - at common this enables players to take 2 Nature books to start with this spell, so strategies otherwise having no means to deal with Flight can become playable at this reasonable but significant cost. However there is a lot more to this spell, as it can also prevent enemies from outrunning your slower armies, or completely disabling enemy ranged attackers.''

1. Ice Bolt
Cost : 25 MP

Research : 1280 RP

A strength 35 Cold attack to the target unit in combat.

''A decent but mediocre direct damage spell, the only such in Nature's arsenal that is single figure hitting. It still manages to deal enough damage to be a threat.''

2. Giant Spiders
Cost : 90 MP, 2 MP/turn

Research : 420 RP

Creature : 6 melee, +1 To Hit, 5 defense, 9 resistance, 5 movement, 5 health, 4 figures, Web Spell, Poison 3

''A creature that's somewhat weak by Uncommon standards but extremely cost effective, the role of Spiders is to counter enemy ranged armies, or low tier units with poor resistance - in general, to counter every normal unit that might be used in the first 30-40% of the game. After some playtesting, the defense stat had to be raised to ensure they survive one turn of being shot at, and can engage poison vulnerable enemies without getting obliterated in the process. Their high speed makes them excellent for early expansion strategies, paired with the “guaranteed turn 1 research” mechanic and low RP cost, this creature offers an alternate way to start the game instead of the obvious choice of picking one of the common creatures as a starting spell. Due to its ability to provide you with Web spells without having to use up your one casting opportunity per turn, it remains a valuable tactical option to have even during the later phases of the game when its fighting ability is already obsolete. This is one of the units that contributes to the high relevance of the Poison game mechanic, which is effective against Life buff stacking strategies and pretty much the only one to keep those in check when dispelling is ineffective, as well as providing a fairly good counter to Werewolves, another early and powerful uncommon creature that could dominate the game otherwise. Poison also serves well in keeping the Undead game mechanic from spiraling out of control, as Undead units are now vulnerable to it and typically have poor resistance. Spiders also have high magic resistance, providing a good all-around option against Death wizards who otherwise dominate Nature wizards across the board.''

3. Great Lizard
Cost : 200 MP, 5 MP/turn

Research : 2140 RP

Creature : 18 melee, +2 To Hit, 7 defense, 7 resistance, 3 movement, 30 health, 1 figure, Regeneration 2

''Originally the Basilisk, this lizard lost its Stoning ability because it was extremely redundant - all 3 creatures in uncommon Nature and even one of the rares had a resistance based attack, 3 of which were save or die stoning effects. This made Nature better at instant death attacks than even Death itself which was definitely not appropriate for the realm. Out of the four, the lizard's ability was the most redundant, providing the exact same gaze ability as gorgons with a slightly lower modifier. Being uncommon, at this phase of the game most enemy units still have low resistance, so such a gaze attack was also way too effective, but the real problem was making the realm extremely one-sided and in a direction it isn't expected to take. Thus, the lizard was redesigned to provide what Nature is expected to have, a strong giant monster that has great physical power. Regeneration being a core theme in Nature, yet being unavailable until the final tier, this creature was granted that ability, especially as lizards are known to be able to partially regenerate in real life! While this raised the concern of game balance : a midgame creature with regeneration does seem a bit too good, testing has proved that isn't the case and the game contains enough counters to this strategy so losing units of lizards is often inevitable nonetheless mainly thanks to its low resistance. Furthermore, the relatively high cost of the unit makes sure the player can only summon so much of them and expand so far before rare spells that outclass and destroy this creature easily show up.''

4. Nature's Cures
Cost : 50 MP

Research : 1280 RP

Target overland stack becomes fully healed.

''A quite powerful spell that allows human players to expand faster by cancelling the time needed to let units heal naturally in battle. Nature is meant to be good at early game aggression, and this spell both enables fully taking advantage of the powerful creatures and support normal troops in the somewhat less likely case the player aims to utilize those instead. The research cost of 1280 ensures this spell won't be available to players in the Common spell phase of the game, and obtaining it early enough requires a major investment into researching, which keeps the potential of overexpanding in check. Casting cost is low as this really only provides the player with the advantage of not having to wait 1-4 turns to recover lost health instead of a more permanent benefit like summoning an additional creature. Still, 50 is relevant enough in those early stages of the game to make a difference, if the spell has to be used too frequently. Most importantly, at 50, you will be able to cast it instantly in most of the Uncommon phase of the game, so you can respond to one of your important armies or garrisons getting a ambushed and wounded in time. At this time, this is the only spell in the game the AI is unable to cast, as it is very unlikely to have massively damaged armies worth targeting, and even then it can afford simply waiting for them to recover naturally. The AI prioritizes the strategy of quantity over quality, and has many troops, instead of focusing on getting the maximal potential out of a single stack. (That said, the AI does have a new function that is responsible for building up doomstacks on the overland map, but it is a time consuming process and nowhere near as efficient as a human player would be at the same thing.)''

5. Construct Catapult (New)
Cost : 30 MP

Research : 1600 RP

Summon a Catapult in combat.

''Another new spell to fill the missing combat summon capability of Nature I'd expect to have from a summoning focused realm. It both helps in siege to bring out Nature's strong early expansion feature, provides an alternate option for breaking walls if Crack's Call is not available, and has good synergy with Earth to Mud or strong melee creatures that can protect the catapult from incoming enemy forces. Perhaps it might be a good idea in the future to replace this with a functionally identical creature that's more Nature-like, for example a tree creature hurling rocks.''

6. Crack's Call
Cost : 25 MP

Research : 1600 RP

'''Destroy any wall on the targeted combat map tile. If a unit was there, there is a 25% chance it takes 21 damage, or 5 damage on each of its figures, whichever is higher. The damage is irrecoverable.'''

''This spell is quite unpopular due to its powerful effect and unpredictability, but it serves some pretty major roles in the design. First of all it plays into Nature's role of providing spells that can't be defended against : it targets the ground so not even Magic Immunity can help survive it, and defenses, regeneration or other measures are ineffective. Second, Nature literally has no other way to deal with powerful, highly buffed units from Life wizards - beyond the early game, poison stops being effective, and even strong summoned monsters can't compete with a midgame unit that has 5+ different buffs on. Crack's call is ineffective against non-corporeal units however, improving the “Most Nature spells are bad against the Death realm” theme of the design, which the Cold Immunity present on all Death units and undead and the low resistance of Nature creatures makes inevitable anyway. That said, Nature isn't without tools as Death is weak to petrificiation effects, due to its creatures lacking magic resistance even more than Nature ones and generally relying on being immune to most effects instead.''

7. Change Terrain
Cost : 32 MP

Research : 960 RP

Change target overland tile from Mountain to Hill, Hills, Swapms or Deserts to Grasslands, Grasslands to Forests, Forests to Grasslands, or Volcanoes to Mountains.

''A popular spell in the original game I decided to leave unchanged (other than its costs). It's quite a lot less powerful in Caster of Magic as the faster pacing and generally better population growth rates make changing a single tile play a smaller part in the big picture, still it's a very powerful tool to have for economy based strategies that avoid military conflict, as it allows the less fertile spots the AI priorizes to settle last to be as valuable as the good areas for the Nature player. It is also the only spell in the game capable of erasing a Volcano, opening up the possibility of creating Mountains or terraforming Tundra tiles for Chaos/Nature wizards which no one else is capable of. Casting this on enemy territory has no diplomacy consequences as it would be pretty hard to determine whether the effect is beneficial for the other player or harmful.''

8. Transmute
Cost : 60 MP

Research : 1920 RP

Transform target ore :

Silver->Mithril->Quork->Iron-> Silver

Gold->Adamantium->Crysx->Coal->Gold

''This splits ores to two groups, the second group having the same effect as the first but double the resource output. The spell keeps the ore at the same tier, but allows any ore to be transformed into any other as desired. In most cases though the only really beneficial transformation is to create mithril or adamantium in military centers, or crystals for Dwarves who lack the ability to produce magical power but get a double effect from ores. Nonetheless, if nothing more important can be cast, Transmute on resources can still be a valuable benefit even on any other transformation, it's just rarely the case, as there is always a huge demand for overland spellcasting ability by design. Other than playing into Nature's terraforming role, this spell also represents Nature's ability to mimic Life in buffing normal units, indirectly by enabling them to wield adamantium, even on the Arcanus plane where this is rarely possile. The research cost is very high as Adamantium is a fairly major bonus which would be way too powerful to unlock early. This spell also has a quite exceptional trading value for obvious reasons, as it enables AI players to mass produce adamantium troops as well - the AI will use this spell for military purposes and transform their ores into Mithril and Adamantium. Transforming for economy purposes isn't important enough and difficult to create efficient AI rules for, and on higher difficulties the AI typically has enough resources that resource production from ores becomes marginal to them. Like Change Terrain, this also has no diplomacy effect as it would be difficult to judge which transformation is beneficial or harmful. The possibility to teach the AI to use this offensively was considered but I decided not to, as there are enough ways to disable ores from being effective even without that, and having too much undermines the importance of the ore game mechanic. It would also be unflavorful for a Nature wizard to use their magic to intentionally ruin natural resources.''

9. Cockatrices
Cost : 150 MP

Research : 1280 RP

Creature : 4 melee, +1 To Hit, 5 defense, 7 resistance, 3 movement, 7 health, 4 figures, Stoning Touch -4, Flying.

''A very specialized creature that has weak stats but extremely strong petrification effects, the Cockatrice is most useful at eliminating medium resistance targets with high health and low figure count. Flying is typically unavailable for Nature as it prefers to web enemies to bring them down to ground level, this creature is an exception and its primary role is to allow hurting ghost enemies that can't be webbed - basically Nature's only way out against enemies using Shadow Demons or Wraiths. The main reason to keep them in the game other than that is their combo potential - touch attacks work at range so casting Focus Magic on this unit enables it to petrify at range - a very powerful combination that makes the game quite a bit more interesting especially as the AI is aware of the combo and will use it if able. I've played several test games to ensure this combo is not too powerful, thankfully the high research cost, the high cost of creating one such unit (150+80 mana for only one) the limited amount of shots, and the constant need to recover health for the cockatrice as its ability to petrify weakes with each lost figure meant the combo is healthy for the game.''

10. Land Linking
Cost : 50 MP

Research : 640 RP

'''Enchanted unit gains Pathfinding. If it is fantastic, it gains +2 attack and defense.'''

''Nature specializes in fantastic creatures so it also needs a spell that buffs them. Pathfinding is boring and unimpressive by itself as it no longer doubles overland movement speed which was entirely too powerful in the original game - remember the time it takes to move units is a major balancing factor that keeps otherwise unstoppable stacks from dominating the game too much - so adding the ability to it to also buff fantastic units seemed to be a good solution. This also makes up for losing the weak Stone Skin and Giant Strength spells, instead providing an uncommon alternative with a meaningful effect.''

1. Elemental Armor
Cost : 18/90 MP

Research : 3000 RP

Enchanted unit gains +12 defense against magical ranged attacks, breath attacks and spells.

''The upgraded version of Resist Elements, this spell provides a massive protection against damage from magical sources, enabling Nature wizards to break through magician garrisons. Like Resist Elements, this too applies to all realms now to ensure it's reliable and fair. Beware of the Caster ability on those magicians though, as there is more to use it for than just direct damage spells. While this might feel too powerful and against the “powerful magic” theme of the mod, in reality over 95% of the magic in the game are not direct damage spells, and while some summoned creatures do use magic ranged attacks, they typically are effective at melee combat as well, so this really only outclasses the normal units that use magical attacks, and rare spells are meant to be doing that : Common magic outclasses the lowest tier normal units, Uncommon outclassess the medium tier like halberdiers, and rare spells outclass most normal units, even the highest tier ones. Very rare spells are typically global game-changers that aren't even comparable to single units.''

2. Stone Giant
Cost : 275 MP

Research : 3500 RP

Creature : 20 melee, 20 Ranged (3 ammo) +2 To Hit, 12 defense, 10 resistance, 3 movement, 25 health, 1 figures, Stoning Immunity, Poison Immunity, Wall Crusher, Mountaineer.

''As the name implies, Stone Giants have been given the role of being the rare summoned creature that has the highest defense. It also has slightly better magic resistance than Nature's other rare creature, and even has ranged attacks which is also unusual for the realm, making it very versatile, but it isn't nearly as powerful as Gorgons are overall and is most effective against units that can't effectively deal damage thorugh its armor.''

3. Gorgons
Cost : 360 MP

Research : 4500 RP

Creature : 15 melee, +2 To Hit, 7 defense, 9 resistance, 3 movement, 24 health, 3 figures, Stoning Gaze -3

''Gorgons fill the role of being Nature's exceptionally powerful melee creature, having stats that make it halfway between the rare and very rare tier - it isn't immediately obvious but having 3 figures means this unit has a total health pool of 42 and attacks at strength 15 three times. Multiple figures of course mean the unit loses from its potential as it takes more damage, nonetheless, its Stoning Gaze ensures it can easily destroy most normal units and even other rare or weaker summoned creatures. The original design of this creature in Master of Magic was a flying bull and I personally dislike that, especially because Flight is something Nature is traditionally bad at, being the anti-flight realm, which is represented by the spell Web even in this game, fortunately, Hadriex has been nice enough to provide me with graphics for this new, more traditional interpretation of the creature. While no longer flying themselves, thanks to the gaze attacks, the Gorgons keep their ability to attack other flying creatures at will. While the creature is very powerful, it isn't without weak points : mediocre magic resistance and movement speed needs to be considered when using or fighting against this creature.''

4. Survival Instinct (new)
Cost : 600 MP

Research : 5000 RP

Global enchantment : All of the caster's fantastic creatures gain 1 defense, +1 To Hit and 2 magic resistance.

''If I'm serious about making Nature the best realm for using summoned creatures, having a global enchantment to buff them is pretty much a requirement. While the buffs are not particularly large, the resistance is extremely good as it removes the greatest weakness of most Nature creatures and this spell also offers great combo potential with other realms who might have ways to convert their normal units into fantastic ones. Being a rare spell, it also increases the relevance of researching Disjunction early, which you might want to do before starting a war against a wizard who already has this global enchantment, especially if you plan to take advantage of resistance based effects.''

5. Blizzard
Cost : 120 MP

Research : 4000 RP

All units on the target overland map tile are hit by a strength 14 armor piercing cold attack

''Almost identical to Fire Storm in the original, I changed this to use a different mechanic. Dealing Armor Piercing damage but not multifigure damage means this spell can be effective at dealing damage against stronger or single figure targets, but the damage will be way less than needed to kill them so it mostly serves only as a slight advantage before engaging in combat. Of course if the target has extremely low hit points, like magicians, the spell can be more potent and even kill the units. A decent but expensive spell to take down otherwise too difficult garrisons, it mainly exists to diversify the realm's options and to deal with enemies whose combat spellcasting ability far exceeds the Nature wizard's, something Nature doesn't particularly excel at - although they are by no means weak at it either. The name was changed to alarm the players that the effect uses a new damage dealing mechanic.''

6. Earthquake
Cost : 150 MP

Research : 2500 RP

All non-flying, corporeal units in the target city have a 4% chance to die and each building has a 40% chance to be destroyed.

''Unit destruction chance has been massively reduced from the original, as at higher percentages, this spell was pretty much guaranteed to kill multiple, possibly very expensive and high tier units for a single use, and of course, it was possible to keep using it until most of the forces died and the city became easy to conquer. This mostly was an issue at fortresses, nonetheless, remotely killing units of a higher tier than the spell itself, at no risk, is unacceptable. This isn't like Crack's Call, where you have to participate in combat and risk losing units to be able to cast the spell at all. At 4% the chance is low enough that a risk is introduced - you might need to sacrifice significant amounts of time and spellcasting and possibly still don't get the intended outcome. Of course this would have made the spell unusable, so it had to be rebranded as a building destruction spell, giving Nature its only way to hurt enemy economy. 40% seems excessively high but building destruction does not include replaced buildings, so typically, 20-50% of the cities buildings ignore the effect. Either way, this spell can give the Nature wizard an efficient way to hurt enemy economy, or destroy Amplifying Towers to weaken the enemy spellcasting capacity.''

7. Earth Elemental
Cost : 50 MP

Research : 5500 RP

Combat Summon : 25 melee, +1 To Hit, 4 defense, 8 resistance, 1 movement, 30 health, 1 figures, Stoning Immunity, Poison Immunity, Wall Crusher.

''A brutally powerful combat summoned creature that can destroy most enemies unfortunate enough to be in their range, this represents the realm's full might of summoning in combat. Its low armor and speed ensures it's not too difficult to kill, but definitely will make anything that engages it in physical combat take lots of damage.''

8. Petrify
Cost : 20 MP

Research : 4000 RP

Each figure in the target unit has to resist at -3 or irrecoverably die.

''A simple save or die combat spell, the only such in Nature. It targets each figure separately so it's not that easy to actually kill the entire unit. Nature's best weapon against higher tier Death creatures which have low resistance but are usually immune to all other Nature spells. The low cost enables Magicians to use this spell, making it more potent than it initially seems. One of the spells that serve a major role in keeping Regeneration from being too powerful. Save modifier of -3 seems powerful but is at best average for a rare tier spell.''

9. Gaea's Blessing
Cost : 250 MP

Research : 4000 RP

'''Increase the maximal population of the enchanted city by 50%. Reduces unrest by 2. Forest tiles are worth triple production. Chance to remove corruption or convert deserts to grasslands, volcanoes to mountains.'''

''Mostly unchanged from the original spell, this is the greatest enabler of economy based Nature strategies. It also protects Nature cities from the bad influence of Armageddon and Doomsday, making it probably the only realm that can safely overlook a Chaos wizard reaching the late game and get along with them peacefully. Nature tends to be good against Chaos on the whole, as Regeneration and high amount of hit points make it good against direct damage. The only change is increasing the bonus on Forest tiles, which can make the otherwise overlooked Grasslands->Forest option on Change Terrain useful and fits the flavor of Nature wizards preferring forests.''

10. Iron Skin
Cost : 24/120 MP

Research : 4000 RP

Enchanted unit gains +5 defense.

''One of the few spells that were completely unchanged from the original, this buff fits the theme of Nature having extremely tough units. Not as powerful as Invulnerability, but like always, Nature can do things other realms specialize in, but isn't as good as those at it.''

1. Earth Gate
Cost : 125 MP

Research : 6000 RP

Units can teleport between any two cities on the same plane enchanted by this.

''While the mod does remove too powerful overland options, this spell is fortunately very rare, and by that time the snowballing potential of fast movement is gone. Nonetheless, this is a very very good spell that can help mobilizing your forces for the big endgame wars more effectively. It is immensely helpful for AI players, as I've implemented the ability for the AI to use this spell, and they will take advantage of it to even out the garrisons in their cities. This ensures the player can't take out those cities by repeatedly attacking it each turn, as it'll get refilled with units, and any failed attempt to conquer it in one turn will mean the city's defenses are as good as they were before the attack. It might even help the AI build up good stacks of high end creatures, as any creature pulled from the garrison to build a new stack will be replaced by another (if available elsewhere) and next turn that can also be added to the stack and so on until the stack is complete.''

2. Seismic Mastery
Cost : 1000 MP

Research : 9000 RP

Reveals the map, increases node power production by 15 each, and whever the wizard casts a cost 370 or higher spell, it autocasts an Earthquake spells for free.

''While having a global enchantment that shows the entire map is impressive, it is by no means powerful, thus Nature's Awareness was given the additional benefit of getting more power from nodes, something one would expect Nature to have, nodes being major junctions of power on the planet afterall, at which time it was renamed Clairvoyance. We've removed Nature's Wrath from the game, as it was extremely unfun - I did change it to affect all realms to be in line with the philosophy of no spells that target only specific realms. The new effect was to cause the earthquake effect only when the other player used a high casting cost spell, but the problem with that is that it punishes players for using their big spells or to be more precise, prevent them from using it as doing so is pretty much suicide. This basically meant Nature's Wrath was no different from a “dispel this if you want to keep playing the game and have fun” type of effect, which is obviously not fun and dispelling isn't fun either - worse, it meant the spell was unusable for human players because the AI was also forced to dispel it ASAP obviously. So that spell had to be scrapped but its parts were salvaged as two separate ideas : a spell that makes the user benefit from others casting expensive spells - which really is the same thing except both sides are happy, so using big spells remains a viable option as long as the user can deal with the consequence - and another spell that somehow plays into the theme of the “causes large scale earthquakes” to use the nice original art, as well as something to use the other idea, a spell that rewards yourself for casting your own big spells. The first gave birth to the spell Fairy Ring, while the second and third ideas were used in Seismic Mastery - a spell that casts a free Earthquake for each large spell being cast by the wizard. I obviously didn't have room for two global enchantments after removing one as modding is done by hex editing lacking the source code, and the latter wasn't nearly powerful enough by itself as an effect (it's a “win more” spell which are sometimes fun to use but not particularly good design) so the solution was to merge the Clairvoyance and Seismic Mastery effect together, giving birth to this spell which has 3 seemingly unrelated but flavor-wise matching effects - worldwide scouting, nodes and earthquakes all have to do with the mastery of the earth, the manipulation of the planet itself. The spell cost to trigger the effect was carefully set to ensure only truly big spells can take advantage of it, and this also plays into the role of Nature's “missing out on spells hurts more than usual”, as not having access to one of the very rare summoning spells means this enchantment is much less useful. Using the earthquake effect is optional - while the spell will always be cast automatically, the cancel button on target selection allows the player to not use the effect, which can be important as Earthquake obviously has a diplomacy penalty. As the AI will not target players with hostile spells unless they are hostile towards the player, Seismic Mastery will bring no harm to you if you don't get into a fight with the owner. If you do though, you better disjunction it or end the conflict as soon as possible.''

3. Fairy Ring
Cost : 1200 MP

Research : 24000 RP

Whenever another player casts a spell that costs 301 or more, a random creature you are able to summon appears at your summoning circle for free.

''Nature lacked a really impressive big global enchantment - Nature's Wrath failed to fill that intended role due to how unfun it was to play with or against, so when it was replaced, I wanted to make sure the new spell is something amazing. As Nature specializes in summoned creatures, what better could it do than become even more efficient at summoning them? Honestly, I don't remember the entire 4-5 pages of forum discussion and brainstorming but in the end this spell was made as it filled all the intended roles. It is summoning themed - you get free creatures. It keeps the old Nature's Wrath theme of “casting big spells against Nature will get you in trouble” but in a way that doesn't reduce the fun factor of the game - sure free enemy creatures WILL escalate the situation but if you can already deal with some, you can deal with more... or can you? That is an exciting decision the player has to be able to make correctly. It also promotes friendly strategies - you get free creatures even if an ally casts the spell. It can also be perfectly balanced to fit the “AI has more resources” design because “random creature” can use a formula to determine the creature in a way that works well. Designing the right formula wasn't trivial because the number of times the other side is expected to cast a spell that triggers it is also different (AI players cast more spells) - for those who want to know, the formula is [(Overland casting skill including AI skill modifier/30)+5 for AI players] number of D10 dice rolls, for each roll that comes up as 1, the creature's tier increases by one (default is common). Once the tier is determined, a random available creature is chosen from that tier. If none are available, the tier below is chosen and so on.''

4. Entangle
Cost : 50 MP

Research : 21000 RP

All corporeal enemy units in combat have 2 lower movement speed.

''Movement reduction had to be doubled to match the movement change on most other units. I don't really have much else to say other than the AI has been enabled to use this spell, unlike the original game, which makes a really big difference. Flying enemies are affected to ensure the spell is reliable, but Noncorporeals are not to play into the “Death realm is not affected by most of Nature's spells” theme.''

5. Call Lightning
Cost : 60 MP

Research : 15000 RP

At the end of each combat turn, 3-5 strength 10 armor piercing lightning bolts hit random enemy units.

''Another unique, one-of-the-kind effect, for damage over time. Feels quite weird in this realm if you think about it, especially as it actually is the best such spell in the game, however considering Nature does have the theme of stalling for time - Web, Earth to Mud and Entangle are all such spells - damage over time is really the perfect kind of direct damage spell for it. As Nature typically only gets one damage spell per spell tier and each of them use a different mechanic, more powerful than the previous, this surprisingly fits well, and is perfect for Nature's theme of “missing out on unique spells hurt” as missng either this or Entangle has serious consequences and you typically need both to compete with other realms in the area of combat spellcasting.''

6. Regeneration
Cost : 32/160 MP

Research : 12000 RP

Enchanted unit gains Regeneration 2

''While unit buffs are typically not powerful enough to be very rares as they only affect a single unit, this is an exception to that rule - getting back dead units for free is that powerful, especially as this can be cast in battle. However to match this level of rarity, this spell restores 2 hit points each turn unlike the item ability which only does one, but becomes available earlier.''

7. Herb Mastery
Cost : 1000 MP

Research : 15000 RP

All of the caster's units are fully healed at the end of combat, take no overland damage and restore 2 health per turn in combat.

''Another global spell that was good but failed to impress. As it already was something like a global Regeneration, taking this idea further to add health recovery in battle seemed ideal. Not as potent as Charm of Life as in the late game, waiting turns to regenerate hit points only results in the enemy casting brutally damaging spells at the unfortunate armies, but still, any additional hit points gained are valuable. Obviously, adding Regeneration's “dead unit comes back” effect would have been way too powerful. One more nice consequence which I don't think was part of the original intention of the designers but exists notheless is that Nature wizards will not lose units to damage from Meteor Storm, meaning they can prevent most of the damage from all three Chaos globals as Gaea's Blessing already fixes the effects from Armageddon and Doomsday. This makes researching and casting these spells especially important when Chaos wizards are in the game and can help becoming the laughing third while the Chaos AI's enchantments slowly eliminate everyone else but you. Of course this approach is risky and might backfire if the Chaos wizard becomes too powerful in the process, but Nature's regenerative powers tend to make it effective at fighting Chaos wizards so the risk isn't inherently too high. It might be worth noting that unlike Life, Nature magic can heal the undead, making this a very good spell to have for a Death/Nature dual realm wizard.''

8. Colossus
Cost : 450 MP

Research : 1800 RP

Creature : 25 melee, 25 Ranged (4 ammo) +3 To Hit, 12 defense, 15 resistance, 3 movement, 37 health, 1 figures, Stoning Immunity, Poison Immunity, Wall Crusher, Pathfinding, First Strike, Illusion Immunity, Supernatural.

''An upgrade to Stone Giant and an all-around efficient, versatile creature with no particular weaknesses that works well in almost all combat situations but has no outstanding strengths either. Only its Illusion Immunity is worth mentioning, as this is the only way for the realm to properly fight Invisible enemies, although the Entange+Call Lightning combo can at least help against the less threatening ones, it won't do much against an entire stack of powerful creatures.''

9. Great Wyrm
Cost : 500 MP

Research : 15000 RP

Creature : 36 melee, +3 To Hit, 8 defense, 14 resistance, 3 movement, 45 health, 1 figures, Merging, Armor Piercing, Supernatural, Poison 40.

''Great Wyrms offer insane damaging ability paired with instantaneous movement to ensure the strongest creature from the most summoning focused realm is really impressive and brutal. However, they lack the versatility of a Colossus or Behemoth's ability to shrug off damage like nothing. They also can't deal with flying enemies by their own, and while Webs are an easy way out for the Nature player, it can be too slow and inefficient against an entirely flying enemy army. Noncorporeal flying units most often - but not only - found in Death armies are the Wyrms worst nightmare, as it can't do anything meaningful while the enemy wizard keeps throwing spells at it, slowly but surely destroying it. The poison ability is mostly for flavor - anything that doesn't get destroyed by the Wyrms attack is unlikely to have low enough resistance to get affected by it. Still, overlooking it and accidentally engaging the wyrm with a powerful unit that lacks resistance for any reason can be unexpectedly lethal.''

10. Behemoth
Cost : 480 MP

Research : 15000 RP

Creature : 25 melee, +2 To Hit, 15 defense, 13 resistance, 3 movement, 42 health, 1 figures, Regeneration 3, Caster 40, Supernatural.

''Behemoth is Nature's third option for a very rare creature, as the best summoner realm deserves to have that many. It's uniqueness is in having by far the best durability of any unit in the game, having extremely high defense, decent amount of high points and fast hit point regeneration. While its attack strength is weak for a Nature creature of this tier, it's still impressive for a creature overall, and with this level of durability the Behemoth is expected to be able to attack many times before it goes down, assuming that ever happens. On top of this, Behemoths can cast Nature spells, making them more effective against all flying enemy armies than the Wyrms. For all of these amazing benefits they also suffer from two minor flaws - their resistance is mediocre for a very rare creature and while unlikely, they might end up getting instantly destroyed by a spell that prevents regeneration in some cases, and their movement speed isn't that great either, although with the help of Webs and Entangle this rarely causes problems.''