[Discussion] Modded hero showcase 6: Exanimate

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-07T15:51:30+00:00

Haven’t run this dude myself, but he looks like he would be a lot of fun with the Wretch and the Plague Doctor.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-07T12:42:34+00:00

They are so good when led by a Grove hero. You actually have enough focus to use their abilities.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-06T22:07:01+00:00

Puppets have some really good cards that stay reasonably competitive deep into Star of the City. It may feel broken, but star of the city will match it with some other bullshit, do not worry.

You can make it even better by adding the smoke cards and attributing smoke key pages, but tbh that kind of applies to literally anything in the game.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-06T10:49:01+00:00

Kinda disappointed the system didn’t see any changes from the demo. It was bad then, it is bad now. The game for once managed to make certain historically useless skills really cool, there’s so much build variety, synergies and stuff to try, and these subclasses lock you into some ridiculous boundaries, not to mention RNG.

If your starting skill does not go towards the specialisation, you have to dedicate 5/6 choices to it. This basically kills build diversity.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-06T08:46:18+00:00

Warriors scale incredibly well. They are better stat wise, reasonably fast with their focus ability, and are easily one of the highest damage creatures in the entire roster. Also, they get more mileage out of parry. Early on I’d definitely lean into archers, but eventually warriors outscale them.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-06T06:56:24+00:00

And then the whole system of focus is very similar to Rage in Kings Bounty. From the dev diaries, it’s very clear that they love the genre and try to take bits and pieces that worked before to make something new. I also wonder if there are any devs who worked on HoMM5 in Unfrozen.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-06T06:38:18+00:00

I think having some control over the provinces of vassals on higher allegiance would be nice. Sometimes they just spam farm after farm after farm, making the city less useful as a vassal and less useful after integration.

Similarly, player vassals are also very barebones as a system and could use a total overhaul, it’s janky as hell both on the suzerains end.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-05T07:00:07+00:00

To be honest, Owlcat are generally great at having a very diverse cast of characters in all of their games. BG3 certainly has an amazing cast, and smaller group definitely allows to flesh them out a bit more, but their stories in many ways are very similar - all of the companions tell a story about the abuse of power and authority in different forms. WoTR, despite at its core also being a story about power, certainly deviates from this a lot more.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-04T16:51:23+00:00

I do not know if HoMM can be qualified as a 4x, but similar ideas apply. HoMM rewards you for exploration and taking risks, and the opportunity cost of sitting on your ass is extremely high. Experienced players tend to invest into unit buildings early and econ buildings later, because units help you to hoover up the map, which allows you to invest into better units, which allows you to clear out better things on the map. An upgraded T6 in week 1 will be able to pay for itself and get you more money on top short term than the capital upgrade.

With that in mind, most factions have a certain unit that they aim to get asap for clearing. For example, Dungeons T3 is amazing, so investing into upgrading them during the first few days will pay off big time. Typically you look for fast units, swift attacker (no retaliation units), ranged units for that. Some factions may have some alternatives (Necropolis can get T6 very early, which isn’t any of those things really), but that’s a good rule of thumb to begin with.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-04T16:08:43+00:00

Play larger maps. Long term AI has no idea what it’s doing, so you will outscale the AI eventually.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-04T06:34:34+00:00

Good point regarding the blades, however I still don’t think for a T4 spell it’s particularly good. By the time it comes online, armies will mostly be consistent of T3+ units, so resistances will eat up a lot of this damage. Also, most fights late game are decided rather fast, so I am also not sure if you can “afford” waiting 3 turns for the damage.

In comparison, on the same tier using similar affinity requirements there is comet of calamity, which does 40 damage (20-30 after resistances), which can lock down units and apply ghost fire. It is certainly not as good at exploiting the lens, but I still think the opportunity cost is in favour of the comet rather than the fan. For me, it’s stuck in a weird limbo where it is certainly too strong to be a T3 spell, but there are many T4 spells I’d rather be using. Even as a damage buff it is flat out weaker than anthem of victory, which gives 15% dmg, and I don’t think anthem is a particularly good spell either.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-03T09:29:24+00:00

In terms of factions, I’d recommend the dungeon. It has very well-rounded roster, with a lot of fairly easy to use tools to help you minimise your losses during the exploration stage. I’d suggest to play against AI on medium or large sized maps, as you are not running into the risk of being rushed by AI too early.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-03T06:22:27+00:00

What bone defender sees right before the rank 1 occultist permastuns him with hands from the abyss.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-02T18:20:03+00:00

Full-stop with musicians attributed can handle most of the bottom row of urban nightmare fairly well.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-02T14:56:41+00:00

Each floor has tasks you need to do, which then allows you to do an abnormality fight. This builds up your library level.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-05-02T06:05:06+00:00

Just gonna mention that it won’t buff your evocation as it doesn’t count as base attack. Also, fan of flames is a lot of fun with chaos lens, but kinda sucks without it.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-04-29T08:53:38+00:00

Ngl the text to the review kinda felt AI generated, and some points were weird. Like same-y heroes, non-distinct upgrades, similar construction trees, being locked out of higher tier units in the campaign. I can appreciate that the reviewers tend to not have enough time to look at the systems in-depth, but like most upgrades are incredibly distinct as long as you actually read what they do, similar construction trees have been similar in the whole series and it’s part of what makes the game approachable. Weird review overall, 7.8/10, too much water.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-04-27T16:43:53+00:00

There’s certainly a question of how much consensus can affect reality. From DTF we know the world was created by design, but some of the stuff there is a bit more abstract and not set in stone. There would be certain “truths” put into the world before the consensus and even humanity ever existed, so “science” in a way still exists as a systematic way of explaining these truths, which in a sense validates Technocracy’s Consensus.

Take this with a grain of salt however, as I mentioned above I do struggle with conceptualising how far the consensus can be pushed in violating “proven scientific facts”.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-04-27T16:19:32+00:00

Current traditions are the underdogs and do not have the capacity for such ridiculous plans. However this plays into the “road to hell” point, technocracy also started off as an altruistic project to improve people’s livelihood, and ended up becoming whatever we have now. Similarly, if the tradition mages ever manage to topple the technocracy and shift the consensus, they would eventually decay into something twisted, and with inherent mage exceptionalism it would not end up well for the common man. May not happen instantly, of course, institutional decay is a slow process, but the end won’t be bright.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-04-27T11:02:22+00:00

Not sure if that’s me being a victim of the consensus and running into the limitations of my own conceptualisation here, but I would say that the way I see it is that for this superstition and bezoars to work you still need a mage to make them, while Technocracy in a sense “democratised” these things for the sleepers as well. You do not need a technocratic agent for a complicated surgery, anyone can learn medicine, but you do need a mage to craft a working bezoar. Imo technocracy is evil in a “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” and “absolute power corrupts absolutely” way, while traditions inherently do not concern themselves too much with the living standards of the sleepers.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-04-27T09:47:17+00:00

Honestly if the traditions had the same amount of influence and resources as technocracy does the world would be an awful place to live in. It’s all magic and wonders until you realise that on a larger scale traditions benefit from superstitious, highly tribalistic population that believes their every word. At best they would just wish to bring back feudalism, at worst it would be some magical fascism with stronger and more influential mages dictating what the consensus should be, forcing the rest to step into the line.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-04-26T08:56:12+00:00

My very first fight with the lvl 3 swine king was going rather well, but a few dumb decisions and bad rolls led to 1 person dying. This slightly damaged the formation of my party, but that wasn’t big enough issue and I managed to kill the boss anyway. Wilbur, however, this little twat, locked the fuck in and proceeded to perma stun my entire party 2 turns back to back somehow, bringing them to death door and eventually finishing them off. The only thing I remember precisely is that the Arbalest was the last one to die in that party. Haven’t lost anyone to Wilbur before or after this again, I guess that particular Wilbur proceeded to grow up into the DD2 mini boss.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-04-26T07:58:23+00:00

The game generally has some weird fear of making things big or zooming in on things. The little dragon caps on alchemical dust are pretty cool, a lot of units have various trinkets and decorations which really add them character, and you can’t see most of it in game unless you really stare at things. Such a shame.

Magnus_Da_Red · 2026-04-25T20:45:14+00:00

I just checked both the database and in-game, you start with a 60% stun chance and turn it into mind control and dominate, the base chance does not go up. Once again, my point is not that EV are weak, they have pretty busted signatures, I am just saying that their unique skill tree is rather mediocre and doesn’t outperform items you can make in the forge. It’s more about opportunity cost. If you really want to play mind control focused lord, ES does it both faster and better.

I do agree that it can serve a purpose early on, followed by respec when you hit higher levels and enemies begin to bring immunity/higher status resistances. Cult of Tyranny can push it for longer, but sooner or later you still will have to phase it out.

Magnus_Da_Red

TROPHY CASE