yes staves could be an option (i still would prefer mages to be not dependant on items early on  but its not important)

the problem would be to make  staves NOT attractive to other kind of sovereign/champions

since usually even if the dmg is low any ranged weapon is better early on, where you can easily avoid the dmg they should scale with some magic stat or only be usable with some mage trait, dunno

Life isnt' bad, growth, shrink, and heals are fairly useful.

Just to differentiate from one another and to be fair to the other schools of Magic, each school should have it's own, but equal, low level damage spell. I would suggest something that does 1-3 damage and only cost 1 or 2 mana. It was something that was somewhat lacking in Elemental as well. I often found that trying to take a sov into battle early on without an army backing him up would be suicide. Unfortunately though it's practically what you have to do for the first 10 or 20 turns.

Sovs who wish to rely solely on magic and not use armor or weapons tend to get owned early on. To me that's kind of the opposite of what it should mean to be the Super-Bad-Ass wizard guy ruling over the whole nation.

I think the alien head is the default avatar for those who don't ...um...have an avatar? 

I was kinda thinking that too but then I see some forum regulars with it too. That's probably it though you're right.

Lord Xia, I see the alien face for ddd888 and Zygwen, but not for you or RavenX.  I suspect you were right to say they hadn't set up forum avatars.

NTTAWWT

I like your Stave ideas Sean.

What about initiative? I'd have 0 initiative effect on the first batch of staves, and a slight increase (+2) on the second batch.

That being said, I think there should be some sort of penalty for using heavy plate armor with magic users ....

maybe plate heavy armor decreases spell power and spell resistance?

maybe plate heavy armor decreases accuracy by a bit?

and maybe you can have "Unit Traits" (during Unit Design) which increase intelligence and lower strength ... to increase the encumbrance penalty for those wishing to max Intelligence values.

Yep, but i think the problem is not only the lack of level 1 - 2 spells, but how the effect of spells scales. If you select warlock + path of the mage + evoker I - III you get + 250 % spell damage. This is a huge balancing problem, because without those improvements damage spells are weak and with those improvements they are overpowered. It would be better to:

- Increase the base effect and not the shard effect of spells by 50 %.

- Reduce warlock, path of the mage and evoker I - III to + 25 %.

- Give weapons a - 25 % spell effect modifier.

- Add many caster weapons without the - 25 % modifier and with other effects that improve spellcasting

Being able to start out with a weak ranged staff comparable to the starting bow would be great. It might not even need any bonuses, just something to let the player feel like a mage casting spells instead of shooting arrows. A nice variety in staves for upgrading would give casters more options. Some could increase power or reduce tactical cost while others might increase initiative allowing for faster spellcasting but at a cost of increased mana. A caster's playstyle is likely to change as their economy gets stronger. Staff selection should push the player from being heavily reliant on the weapon for ranged damage to picking one for the benefits it offers (using the ranged damage to conserve mana). 

In my current game, I'm playing a Warlock with Air/Death. I used bows until level 4 or 5 when I picked up air 3. Storm is fairly strong, but at a decent cost to mana. Contagion is great but feels a bit overpowered. I can decimate groups of enemies quite easily when I'm not counter spelled, because the poison does around 20-30 damage a turn right now. A decrease in boosts to spell power might be need, but with it could be more decreases in tactical mana cost. This would allow a 'stronger' mage to cast more with less strain  on their mana supply even though each spell isn't as powerful.

There is a lot of special gear to be found, however I haven't seen much for mages outside of robes, rings and necklace type equipment. A weak researchable set of spell resist or spell mastery armor (with little to no defense) would be nice.  Perhaps too late in the development process to add such an involving mechanic, but I personally feel MoM's gear crafting system was one of its strong points. 

I do think it would be nice if there were a starting profession that boosted non-summon, non-damage spells but I don't think Fire or Air are in any way mandatory.  Starting at level two in pretty much any school can get you through your first few levels, by either increasing your defense with Earth, slowing your enemy with Water or just out healing with Life (Death has the worst first two levels in my opinion but Curse still lets you get there).  You might need to chose an axe/bow as your starting weapon or bring along a group of militia, but you still feel distinctly like a spellcaster because your spells are what is allowing you to take on higher level enemies. 

Personally the only school I think is OP is Death with the Death Worship civilization trait, this combo lets you easily get a bunch of death shards which combine pretty well with Dirge of Cersara (Contagion on steroids) to kill any opposing army.  Plus you get high single target damage in Graveseal and Drain Life (which conveniently heals you) so you can pretty much take on anything.

A little demo of an AoE Staff.

I can remember some modded staves from WoM that did damage based on your shards.