Feedback on magic in Warhammer III

So one of the biggest changes to the Warhammer games in the third title is how the Winds of Magic work. I know that this has been controversial, so I wanted to make this thread to discuss and give CA feedback on how the new implementation of magic is working. We’ve had 6 months to play with the new system, and the release of Immortal Empires has led to some interesting choices in how older lords have adapted to the new system. Broadly speaking I think that these changes are really positive, but there are a few areas that could be improved and I wanted to go over them in this post.

In Warhammer III magic is now in essence a strategic resource that you accumulate on the campaign map in order to (mostly) spend in battle. Although this has been controversial, I feel that this is primarily related to the de facto nerf to magic that came through the WoM cap rather than this new system. In my opinion, this change to WoM has been really positive. First, it adds increased depth on the strategic map, as you have to manage your WoM levels rather than just ignoring it altogether like we all did in Warhammer II. Second, it allows armies to use the Winds of Magic on the campaign map, not just in battles. This is a mechanic that I think can be taken further.

Perhaps the most interesting change though is spell intensity. Something that is key to magic in Warhammer is the fact that some magic users are significantly stronger than others. Elves are more powerful than humans, for example. Teclis is more powerful than even other elves. Furthermore, differentiating between caster lords and caster heroes is central to gameplay, as otherwise there’s no reason to invest skill points in a caster lord’s magic as it’s more efficient to cast with the hero. In other words, distinguishing between units’ magical prowess is just as important as distinguishing between units’ martial prowess.

This is something that CA did a great job at improving in Warhammer II, with the introduction of various skills that differentiated casters: Greater Arcane Conduit, bound spells, hybrid spell selections, spell cost reductions, cooldown reductions, and so on. To take the examples given in the previous paragraph, Teclis was made more powerful than other Elven casters because he had a better spell selection, bound spells, massive spell cost reductions, and other things. High Elf caster lords were also distinguished from caster heroes as they also had access to GAC, bound spells, and a minor spell cost reduction.

Spell intensity is yet another way that CA can distinguish between different casters’ power levels, and in the 2.0 update we’ve seen further use of this system. At launch spell intensity was used in a number of ways. Primarily, GAC now gives a 10&% bonus to magical power. A number of factions also had use of it: Cathay, Kairos, and Daniel. In 2.0 however CA seem to have developed the use of spell intensity as a time-limited ability for some of the top-tier casters. Mannfred starts with a 20 second buff to spell intensity, and Teclis also has access to this through his new Sword of Teclis skill. The Skull of Katam also offers this for the Chaos factions. As I’ve posted in a previous thread, I think that this is a really good use of the spell intensity system, and something that I think CA should consider rolling out to other top-tier casters.

Although I think that these changes have been positive, there are a number of areas that I think can do with some improvement. This particularly concerns a number of systems that have transitioned between the magic systems in II and III, which is perhaps inevitable given that we’re still in beta! The primary problem is that skills that in Warhammer II gave a bonus to the WoM pool, now only give the ‘+X% when Winds of Magic are increasing’ skill which a) doesn’t currently work, and b) almost completely useless. Keep in mind that ending a turn in a region with the highest level of winds increases the pool by 10%, so even when boosted by channeling stance this skill provides at most a couple of WoM per turns. Very uninspiring, and I think that this can be changed in a more interesting way.

The second issue is that the new system has suddenly made channeling stance one of the most important assets in the game, and it looks to be pretty unevenly distributed amongst the older factions. All factions in Warhammer III have access to this – seemingly reflecting its importance – so a number of Warhammer I/II races are at a disadvantage here. I think a decision needs to be made to either a) give all factions access to channeling stance now, b) identify the most magically powerful races and only give them access to the stance, or most controversially c) only give channeling stance to caster lords, which will further distinguish between different lord types.

Third, unsurprisingly given the vast number of skill trees in the game now, there is a real inconsistency between casters who have been updated to fit the new systems, and those who have not. I know that fans of the big toad himself, fat Maz, feel that his status as an absolute magical beast isn’t particularly reflected in his skill tree. Personally, I also feel that Alarielle needs a significant boost to her magical prowess in single player. As I mentioned earlier, there are a large number of skills that have been used to distinguish between casters. Alarielle, despite being one of the most powerful magical users in Warhammer, has almost none of them. She doesn’t have access to GAC, a bound spell\*, any spell cost reductions, any spell intensity increases. Honestly she’s a weaker caster than a standard High Elf Archmage which is a bit embarrassing. Compare her to the Fay Enchantress, who has several spell cost reductions, and a powerful bound spell, and Alarielle comes off poorly. Compare her to Ariel, someone she ought to be on a similar power level with, and it's no contest. The Exalted Lord of Change is an example of a lord caster who also needs a buff to make them comparable to e.g. a High Elf Archmage.

So to sum up I think that magic is in a good spot right now, and the changes made in Warhammer III have been positive. As you’d expect with a beta, there are a few problems with transferring Warhammer I/II lords across to the new system, and I think that there are some relatively simple improvements to make. 1) Review the skill trees of caster lords, in particular legendary lords, to bring some of the more outdated casters up to scratch. 2) Rework the ‘+10% when winds increasing’ bonus to something more impactful. 3) Standardise the access to channeling stance. 4) Sort out bugs around the WoM dropping to 100 even with armies that can go over that limit.

What does everyone else think? Probably wasted my time writing this when 5 people will see it but hey I’m waiting for mods to update.

\* OK so she technically does but only when Ulthuan is completely swamped in Chaos corruption, which realistically isn't going to happen when you're playing as her.