Seeing as now all buffers will be out of TC roster, I think it might be time for me to suggest this.
The general idea: The game right now is a bit too reliant on having "super units", like this one, for example
In such a situation, that is common in maps bigger than 30x30, units feel more like projectiles than proper armies, because everything is basically instakilled for both sides. This imo lessens the strategic factor of large-scale battles, and they become more of a stats-check, "whoever has more super units being sent wins, often with a way lowered importance on which units are being sent".
On the flip-side, in smaller maps, having even a single herbalist/bard/druid while your opponent does not is a HUGE advantage, since you will be sending way stronger units than them, primarily because of how much stats the units get with the buffs (action buffs are basically an integer multiplier to damage on top of bonuses, druids basically can make flesh walls left and right with 2 turn units, and speed buffs from both bard and druid make it so that even your common infantry can outmanouver the enemy like cavalry, and cavalry becomes missiles of mass destruction that can capture TCs from 7 or 8 tiles away without even needing a wagon to do so)
So, for both of these, the general idea of this topic is to reduce the amount of power buffers can give to an individual unit, but make it easier to apply the buffs to a bigger army with less buffers, opening more space to train other units in the specialized factories, while also making buff choice more of a strategic decision.
(Note: the numbers below are more of placeholders to show examples of how those ideas would work, and should not be considered balanced at all, because just few calculations were done with them)
Bard:
- Increase cost from 3 to 5
- Increase hp from 12 to 20
- Decrease actions from 2 to 1
- Abilities:
- Battle Song: reworked
- cost: 1 action
- chance: 100% (+ignores resist)
- cast range: 0 (on self)
- cooldown: 1
- effect: affects all [flesh and blood][melee] or [flesh and blood][ranged] units in a 2 tile radius, giving them +1 armor for 5 turns. Removes other songs on cast. Also gives all [flesh and blood][melee] units in the same area +1 damage for 5 turns.
- Alternatively, effect: affects all [flesh and blood][melee] units in a 3 tile radius, giving them +1 damage and +1 armor for 5 turns. Removes other songs on cast.
- Hero Song: reworked
- cost: 1 action
- chance: 100% (+ignores resist)
- cast range: 3
- cooldown: 3
- effect: [flesh and blood][melee] target gets +1 action, +1 damage and +1/+1 armor for 2 turns. Removes other songs on cast.
- Alternatively, effect: ([flesh and blood][melee] or [flesh and blood][ranged]) and not [elephant] target gets veteran effect for 2 turns. Removes other songs on cast.
- Alternatively 2, effect: [flesh and blood][melee] target gets +1 action, +1 damage and +20% hp for 2 turns. Removes other songs on cast.
- Adventure Song: reworked
- cost: 1 action
- chance: 100% (+ignores resist)
- cast range: 0 (on self)
- cooldown: 1
- effect: affects all [flesh and blood][melee] and [flesh and blood][ranged] units in a 2 tile radius, giving them +40% resistance and +1 speed for 5 turns. Removes other songs on cast.
- Battle Song: reworked
- Increase hp from 15 to 21
- Add U_HEAVY_CLOTHED to trnCategories, so that the tight fabric tech benefits her too. Or increase p.armor from 0 to 1
- Increase actions from 2 to 3
- Decrease attack from 3 to 2
- Abilities:
- Heal: decrease amount from 10 to 6 (total healing slightly smaller before researches, but slightly bigger afterwards)
- Double Strike: changed
- Increase cost from 1 to 3
- Increase cooldown from 1 to 2
- Poison Weapon: reworked
- rename to Strong Poison Weapon
- now requires a 3 turn research to unlock
- cost: 1 action
- chance: 100% (+ignores resist)
- cast range: 4
- cooldown: 0
- effect: [flesh and blood][melee] or [flesh and blood][ranged] target gets Strong Poison Weapon for 3 turns. Removes other poison weapons on cast.
- Strong Poison Weapon: deals 5 damage (not affected by armor) to enemy every turn for 5 turns. Stackable.
- Herb Protection: same as current
- Slowing Poison Weapon: reworked
- research cost reduced from 5 to 3 turns
- cost: 1 action
- chance: 100% (+ignores resist)
- cast range: 4
- cooldown: 0
- effect: [flesh and blood][melee] or [flesh and blood][ranged] target gets Slowing Poison Weapon for 3 turns. Removes other poison weapons on cast.
- Slowing Poison Weapon: deals 2 damage (not affected by armor) and reduce speed of enemy by 1 for 5 turns. Stackable.
- Weakening Poison Weapon: reworked
- research cost reduced from 4 to 3 turns
- cost: 1 action
- chance: 100% (+ignores resist)
- cast range: 4
- cooldown: 0
- effect: [flesh and blood][melee] or [flesh and blood][ranged] target gets Weakening Poison Weapon for 3 turns. Removes other poison weapons on cast.
- Weakening Poison Weapon: deals 3 damage (not affected by armor) and reduce damage of enemy by 3 for 5 turns. Stackable.
- Dismiss Propaganda: removed
- Decrease cost from 5 to 4
- Decrease hp from 20 to 19
- Increase speed from 2 to 3
- Add U_HEAVY_CLOTHED to trnCategories, so that the tight fabric tech benefits him too. Or increase armor from 0/0 to 1/1
- Increase actions from 2 to 4
- Abilities:
- Heal: decrease amount from 7 to 3 (total healing slightly smaller before researches, but bigger afterwards)
- Geass: Attack: changed
- Does not remove remainingMovement anymore
- Damage buff decreased from +5 to +2
- Geass: Move: changed
- Speed decreased from +2 to +1
- Alternatively, keep speed at +2, but remove actions (so that it's not possible to perform an action after moving)
- Geass: Survive: changed
- Armor decreased from +6 to +4
- P. armor decreased from +10 to +5
(some might argue that flailmen counter this, so it shouldn't be nerfed, but imho that's more of an issue with flailmen being too strong than this effect not being strong enough, and that is for another topic)
- Mistaken Geass: same as current
- Promote Loyalty: same as current
- Dismiss Propaganda: same as current
- Increase cost from 2 to 4
- Increase hp from 11 to 17
- Increase damage from 5 to 6
- Abilities:
- Upgrade Weapon: reworked
- Rename to Reinforce Weapons
- cost: 1 action
- chance: 100% (+ignores resist)
- cast range: 4
- requirement: Sword mastery lv2
- effect: affects all [flesh and blood][melee] units in a 2 tile radius around the target location, giving them +1 damage for 6 turns.
- Upgrade Armor: reworked
- Rename to Reinforce Armors
- cost: 1 action
- chance: 100% (+ignores resist)
- cast range: 4
- requirement: Infantry armor lv2 or Cavalry armor lv2 or Archer armor lv2
- effect: affects all [light armored] or [medium armored] or [heavy armored] units in a 2 tile radius around the target location, giving them +2/+1 armor for 6 turns.
- Reinforce Clothings: new
- cost: 1 action
- chance: 100% (+ignores resist)
- cast range: 4
- requirement: Tight fabric
- effect: affects all [heavy clothed] units in a 3 tile radius around the target location, giving them +1/+1 armor for 6 turns.
- Alternatively, effect: affects all [misc] units in a 2 tile radius around the target location, giving them +1/+1 armor for 6 turns.
- Upgrade Tools: reworked
- Rename to Reinforce Tools
- cost: 1 action
- chance: 100% (+ignores resist)
- cast range: 4
- requirement: Ambidextria and Masonry
- effect: affects all [worker] or [builder] or [repairer] units in a 2 tile radius around the target location, giving them +3 mend rate for 6 turns.
- Upgrade Weapon: reworked
Aztec Priest: I have no idea, I've never really used it outside of testing what it does and how good that is (which I found pretty bad, but I think it's more of a problem with the primitive faction in its entirety. I have an idea to make them more viable and unique even before Age Techs are implemented, but that is for another topic.).
Onmiyoji:- Increase cost from 3 to 4
- Increase actions from 1 to 2
- Increase hp from 10 to 16
- Add U_HEAVY_CLOTHED to trnCategories, so that the tight fabric tech benefits him too. Or increase p.armor from 0 to 1
- Abilities:
- Tell fortune: changed
- Increase range from 3 to 4
- Heal: decrease amount from 10 to 4 (total healing slightly smaller before researches, but slightly bigger afterwards)
- Promote Loyalty: same as current
- Declare Oni Possessed: changed
- Decrease research cost from 5 to 4
- Increase range from 4 to 5
- Make it affected by Dismiss Propaganda
- Increase resistance reduction from -20% to -40%
- Mask of Oni: same as... future?
- Tell fortune: changed
Roman Senator: same as current, I guess. He's not really a buffer, but more of a debuffer, so I don't think this topic applies.
Same thing for Inquisitor.
Edit: reduced bard and blacksmith's abilities effect range.