
The Problems
Heroes as they were at release were functional, adaptable and easy to expand upon. The open selection system has served Age of Wonders well in the past, but some of the need for that adaptability was lessened with the introduction of the Item Forge and with Tiger Patch a much smarter item reward system. However, much more importantly for our story today, it brought with it several problems, problems that could not easily be solved. To start off the rework i collected feedback and combined it with our own observations to make a list of the problems we would seek to tackle with the new design, i have added in italics a quick summary of what part of the new design ended up addressing that point:- Homogenization of heroes[list]
- All heroes have access to the same set of skills and can swap weapons at any time, contributing to a lack of identity.
- >
- Battle mage is considered weak compared to Warfare, and Support is very concentrated in a select few powerful effects.
- Randomization makes it hard to build character with these
- Small pool makes builds quite homogenous in terms of signature skills
- Internal balance is off and causes certain signatures to never be taken
- Often chosen based on the affinity reward on rulers
- >
- Heroes are meant as army leaders but are often easily specialized into being powerful combat units instead leading to them having less identity than hoped.
- >
- Heroes’ Identity is entirely carried by the background trait, which simply does not do enough on its own.
The Solutions
No single change could cover all of the outlined problems in one go, but we could be efficient with the design and cover multiple bases with each change. Here I will give a basic outline of the changes before going into depth in their own sections. The major changes can be broken down into the following areas: Hero Advancement, Governance and Narrative.Hero Advancement
Heroes will gain a set of Skill Trees from which they can pick their skills whenever they level up. The skill trees available to the hero will depend on 3 sources: Origin, Class and Signature Skills. Each source adds a tree of options to that the hero may choose their skills from as they gain levels. Origin would express the hero’s well… origin, it is what they are. This is meant to separate a Mortal Champion from a Dragon Lord. This meant that Wizard Kings and Mortal Champions would finally have their own unique skill set available only to them. Class will express a heroes’ talents, each has a general direction but allow for further specialization towards particular roles within it. A Defender for example is hardy and dependable, but can lean into the role of an Infantry polearm hero or a shield that defends those around them! Signature Skills are a big change from the past, these will now instead generally express the influence of the Empire’s Affinity upon the hero, rather than being randomized and for rulers doing the opposite. The hero will choose signature skills from options based on the empire’s affinity, each granting a boost to the army they lead and giving new hero skill options that fit that affinity! Thanks to the skill tree structure combined with the class system we can really up the power level and specificity of hero skills, where previously having a hero gain a barrage attack would have a whole host of problems such as them not wielding the correct weapon, the ability not scaling as the game progresses and it being yet another ability on a hero that can get too many already, now it can be a unique choice that later skills can build upon to further empower it in unique ways and let it remain a valid choice for use in combat!Governance
Heroes will each gain a Governance Trait, this determines the effects they have on their Governed City. This replaces the old hero affinity based income bonus with a more clear and noticeable effect. These Governance traits would scale as the game progresses and the hero gains Renown.Narrative
Heroes will now each have Ambitions, goals they seek to achieve, granting them Renown that improves their Governance effects. These Ambitions give a narrative expression of what the Hero personally wants, and give a unique hero skill when the major ambition is completed.What is a Hero now?
As an overview, a Hero in the new system is made up of 3 factors:- Their Class, which grants access to the largest “main” skill tree, the class of rulers is determined by their loadout choice.[list]
- Defender, defensive, melee only, supportive and hard to kill.
- Warrior, offensive, melee only, high damage and fast.
- Mage, magic damage at range, area of effect and control through status effects.
- Ritualist, (magical) support, buffing allies, healing and summoning.
- Ranger, pure offensive, ranged damage, skirmishing, disruptive.
- Mortal Champion[list]
- Specialized in Army leadership
- >
- Specialized in Spellcasting
- >
- Specialized in unique Combat skills
- >
- Specialized in strategic rituals and control
- For Champions and Wizard Kings these became Affinity Dedications[list]
- Heroes can pick affinity dedications that their empire has the correct affinity for. [list]
- They do not, themselves, grant Affinity.
- Dragon Lord heroes still gain access to the 2 affinity skill options, similar to Champions and Wizard Kings.
- Dragon Lord Signature skills do not have affinity requirements.
- >
- Eldritch Sovereign Signature skills do not have affinity requirements
Classes
When I began exploring the class concept I set a ground rule that each class should be able to be built to fill roughly two different “Roles”, this would help ensure the system isn't too restrictive and allow for creative builds within it. The first step was identifying player fantasies for their heroes, what did players want their heroes to be? What could already be done and how? And what could not be done yet, and why not? Having created what is effectively a pile of dorky fantasies, I grouped them based on the rough role they would have in our combat system. A knight would for example be a Shock Unit in combat, so whichever class was going to contain the Shock unit role would have to support Knight as a fantasy, while also accounting for the charging barbarian with a greataxe. I will go over each class, what fantasies they were meant to embody, how they try to do so and maybe some interesting tidbits here and there too!Defender




Warrior





Mage
Expected Role(s): Battlemage Strengths: Magic damage, Area of effect, Range, afflictions Weaknesses: No melee, low Defense and Health Weapons: Orbs, Staves

Ritualist



Ranger




Origins
Origins would be the second component that grants a hero more identity, this primarily affects rulers since heroes are usually mortals, unless they join from the Pantheon! Each Origin has its own “niche” for which it provides skills the hero can choose to specialize further in. They are relatively small, intended to supplement the hero's role as provided by their class rather than supplant it.Mortal Champions



Wizard Kings



Dragon Lords
Big, stompy and terrifying. That is what dragons were meant to be when we introduced them in Dragon Dawn, yet in practice they were found to be easy to focus down, lacking the defense to withstand the damage their larger form attracted. In the end they were often relegated to something more akin to an artillery unit than a monstrous beast of war.



Eldritch Sovereign
The sovereigns were largely untouched, having been a recent addition in Eldritch Realms. A distinguishing feature of theirs is that they have unique extremely powerful abilities gained through their signatures and Origin skill tree. But they do not have the same ties to affinities that the other Origins have, and thus do not gain Affinity hero skill options from their Signatures. Additionally it is notable that Sovereigns can only be Mages or Ritualists, both leaning into their strengths as magic users.