Well, there's

• Sadists: Their morale improves as the enemy's declines (for Fallen, of course),
• Woods/Desert/Mountain/[insert whatever terrein tile you want in here] Master: Immune to any penalties of the chosen tile, and gains speed, defense, and sight range.

.... and I actually can't think of any more right now.

True, but that's MoM. In EWOM, shields will in all liklihood be equipment for customizable units, so I imagine that an EWOM shield system would have to either be a spell or something like "armored hide" (and before anyone says that armored hide is out of the question because the only two races are essentially humanl, remember that all thaty magic zipping around during the Cataclysm could easily have caused some.... "minor" alterations).

I've added a few... obviously some are for heroes only.

Assassin:  Requires Stealth and allows the ability for the unit to engage with a random commander of an area and the commanders personal guards.

Resistances:  Fire/Water/Air/Poison/Life/Death...  depending on the unit each of these resistances may vary from -200% to 300%.   I write 300% because within another TBS game certain buffing spells reduced resistances as a side effect causing a fire elemental to go burning once buffed... thus a fire elemental at 250% would never set himself on fire even after being buffed.

Auras:  Chill/Heat/Darkness/Awe/Plague/Fear/Poison/Light/Courage...  depending on the level each provides a possible negative effect to enemy units and possible positive effect for friendly units.  Description for each available upon request.

Recouperation: Unit heals permanent battle wounds over time... such as having lost one eye.

Night Vision: Unit is able to see in darkness without any penalty.

Flying: Unit is able to fly over the majority of land obstacles, yet one of its movement squares must be a land square each turn.  This prevents a tiny bird from being able to fly across an enormous ocean without need for resting.

Self-Sustaining:  Unit does not need to eat food.

Animal/Undead/Demon/Angel/Magical: Unit can be affected by spells specific for whatever types match.

Cold Blooded:  Unit is cold blooded and can be affected by spells specific for cold blooded units.  Also more likely to suffer penalties in cold terrain.

Regeneration: Unit regenerates hitpoints during battle ranging from -50% to 200%.  This is to help cover any buffing spells which may have a negative side effect... naturally a unit can only use up to 100% of regeneration.

Trampling: Unit will trample across enemy units while moving on the battlefield.  When unit is fleeing the unit may trample over friendly units while trying to preserve its own life.

Amphibian: Unit is able to travel and breathe underwater with no penalties.  *Important once we can have battles underwater.*

Petrify: Whenever the unit looks at anyone it may cause the target to turn to stone.  (Medusa effect).

Ethereal: Only 30% of normal weapons strikes are able to harm this unit.  (Linked to units such as ghosts)

Immortal:  Once the unit is killed by a normal weapon it respawns at the capital of its master. (Linked to units such as powerful vampires)

Lifeless: Units which have been animated from non-living resources such as golems.  These units are immune to life stealing, sleep, petrify and morale.

Aquatic: Units are only allowed to travel on water type terrains.

Lavatic: Units are only allowed to travel on lava type terrains.

Burrowers: Units can travel through the earth and dirt.

Fortune Teller: This unit increases the chances for a good event at its location.

Psychic: This unit decreases the chances for a bad event at its location.

Mindless: This unit has no mind and unaffected by spells which attempt mind control or mind damage.

Limited Life: This unit never regains hitpoints lost during battle or map movement.

Ambidextrous: This unit is able to use both hands equally well... thus no penalty for using two one-handed weapons.

Amquadextrous: This unit is able to use all four hands equally well... thus no penalty for using four one-handed weapons.

Dragon Slaying: This unit receives bonuses while fighting dragon type creatures.

First Strike: This unit is usually able to strike first when next to an enemy.

Wall Crushing: This unit is able to damage walls as well as buildings.

Knockback: This unit when striking might cause it's target to fly backwards.

The majority of what I've listed can appear as natural abilities without using magic for regular units.   All of what I've listed can appear as natural abilities without using magic for summoned units.

I'll pull a few ideas from other games I've enjoyed:

Path of Fire / Water / Ice / Whatever: The unit is so awesome it actually changes the terrain it walks on to the preferred terrain for that unit type.

Area attacks: What they sound like, any attack that hits an area instead of a single unit (e.g. "Sweeping Strike")

Possess / Infect: Your unit actually goes into the body of an enemy unit and takes over. In many games if the controlled unit dies, the possessor survives.

Status effect attacks: Attacks that do damage and have a chance of causing status effects such as poison , stun, burning, etc that make the enemy unit less effective in battle.

Heh. I don't have the kind of memory to throw down a list like that with any speed. Also, I meant no insult by the copy-paste remark; notes are a good thing on many occasions. Took me until about my 8th year as an undergrad to figure that out...

Anyhow, I still don't think you're really appreciating Fenhiro's interest in discussing explicitly 'mundane' abilities like stealth, trap-laying, poison use, etc. Sure, some things on your list, like burrowing, could be dressed up as mundane or magical. But things like being ethereal, well, that seems in no way 'mundane,' at least not without a clear Elemental back story chunk to explain how that sort of thing is 'natural' as opposed to 'magical.'

On the reaching-the-devs point, I guess you're a bit new to the Stardock game group. They definitely follow the forums and they definitely respond to player feedback. The changes to espionage through the two GC2 expansions are a fine example. (And on an editorial note, I suspect that your chances of getting an idea into a busy dev's head tend to be inversely proportional to the length of your post about the idea.)

And back 'on topic,' I'm still struggling to figure out your take. To me, you seem to want a complete laundry list that resembles a skills/abilities list in a point-based RPG like Champions plus some bits from what Champions marked out as 'powers.' I'm very interested in seeing Elemental's canon sandbox game play as a coherent choose-your-ending story, which means it will need to have a background narrative that *explains* how and why ghosts are possible and whether or not they involve mana and/or essence. But now I'm back on my tired old Integrated Metaphysics thing...

The definition of mundane is "of this earthly world rather than a heavenly or spiritual one." Ethereal, lifeless, petrify, etc. are in no way mundane... Basically, I think what he was looking for are abilities that wouldn't be out of place in the real world. And I totally agree with him and I hope such abilities aren't ignored in favor of more fantastical ones.

That said I still like your list of suggestions, NTJedi; and I also agree with you that many of the abilities you listed that aren't really mundane still needn't require any magic, like ethereal, petrify, etc. Obviously for a human (or fallen, probably) such an ability would require the use of magic, but for other creatures of the world they might merely be a natural property unrelated to magic.