Magic at early stages need some love

yeah the game could use some form of free spell for starting mages - something like the D&D classic "arcane missiles". it could be really cheap (like 3 mana or something), deal decent damage for a low level spell and stop scaling at low/mid levels (like 1-5 per level up to a maximum of 5-25 *hint hint D&D rip-off*). you could use that spell as your baseline attack that gets unlocked with picking mage spec (just like counterspell) 

a destruction minded mage probably would stop using it once the real damage spells outscale it, and a summoner or healer mage could spam it when he has nothing better to do or wants to limit mana usage on trivial fights.

I think the damage of all spells should be x + y per shard, because otherwise the spells are useless at the lower levels and overpowered at the higher levels.

Magic damage at endgame at the moment is overpowered, so there needs to be some semblance of balance.

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I agree that spells need an overhaul.

Be careful, every time I've mentioned D&D-like changes to the game, people get bent out of shape here.

My solution would be to make spell damage a function of the sovereign's level, with the shards acting as modifers/amplifiers.

I take it this would apply for heroes too? (spell damage for heroes with spells)

In that case you would have useless spells at the beginning and overpowered spells at the end, because the hit points do not scale as much as the spell damage IF you add multipliers like warlock, evoker and items:

Soulspark at level 1: 3 points of damage (2 + 1)

Soulspark at level 20 with warlock and evoker IV: 50 points of damage (2 + 20 + 50 % + 80 %)

 Well sure, if you implement the level system, other game factors would have to be adjusted to accomodate it.

As far as spells at the beginning, a minum damage amount could be set.

We need some cheap spells, maybe even free spells, that do not scale much, so they are good at the start and not overpowered at the end.

As an example - the lighting that goes through up to 5 units in a line - it is always set at 10 damage. If it cost 10 or less mana, it might be an interesting early game option. As is, it is pretty useless.

So, some suggestions:

0 mana, 4 lighting damage. Maybe even +1 damage per level? Could be a level 1 air spell. "Arc"

5 mana, 2 poison damage per round to a single unit. Level one death spell. "Fester"

5 Mana, melee attack damage (but at range). Level 2 earth spell. "Displaced Blade"

0 mana, 2 cold damage, 50% chance to daze. Level 2 water spell "Chill"

10 mana 3x3 area of ground ignites, doing 1 damage to anyone in the area, and 1 damage to any unit that moves onto the burning area. Level 2 Fire spell. "Burning Ground"

Seems like every game update they remove more spells instead of adding to them. Maybe they expect everyone to use mods to make their casters effective at all levels and with all elements.

Yeah, i think the Aeromancy, Geomancy, Hydromancy and Pyromancy spells should be in the spellbooks and not in the Mage tree, because they are useful for all paths.

Aeromancy (+ 25 % damage with Air spells) > Summon Air Elemental

Geomancy (+ 25 % damage with Earth spells) > Summon Earth Elemental

Hydromancy (+ 25 % damage with Water spells) > Summon Ice Elemental

Pyromancy (+ 25 % damage with Fire spells) > Summon Fire Elemental

Prodigy I (+ 15) > Evoker I (+ 25 %) > Affinity > Savant > Prodigy II (+ 15) > Evoker II (+ 25 %)

Too many terrible prerequisites to mage traits. Not enough decent, innovative and early game traits.

Remove the the III's (at least as requirements for other traits) and spellbooks (We already have traits that give spells).  Allow us to get some decent traits like evoker or affinity by like lv 5 not lv 10.

Has anyone even gotten to the end of a mage trait tree? Cause ive beaten medium maps without getting past halfway.