A proposal to tweak Olms, specifically the Olm casters.

-Instead of using emeralds for their mastery rituals, they use sapphires. This makes it so you choose between stronger olms and more olms, instead of choosing between stronger olms and stronger pale ones.

-Instead of getting a random ritual of each level, Olm casters get the summon Olm rituals garaunteed. This is far and away the most desirable ritual of each level, as the slowness of olms encourages grouping them together. I do wonder if this is too much of a buff to an already strong option. What do you think?

I think those are both fine suggestions. I might even go as far as to give Olm leaders their own ritual group that only contains the pale ones sapphire rituals. I was already leaning towards moving the Scrying ritual to be exclusive to Olm Seers to give them a more defined role.

Something smells with the Architect's mine-fortifying rituals... It isn't THAT expensive, and I appreciate it's an iron sink in a class that CAN be iron-rich... But it's just that it doesn't give you much.

Unlike Kobolds or Dwarves, you get full citadel functionality the moment you step on a mine. The ritual just gets you a mediocre fortification.

You MAY want to turn a mine into a strongplace IF
-The tile is strategically significant, AND
-There's no fortifications nearby ready-to-use for the purpose, AND
-Walls for your slingers and hurlers are a good answer to expected enemies, AND
-Your guard summons (armored melee) AREN'T sufficient on their own.

So while the ritual does something special, it doesn't do it super well, and it doesn't have a very broad use-case. I rate the option "hard to pick."

I'd recommend making it so that you need to fortify a mine before it can serve full citadel functionality. If the unique insta-citadelling of mines is central to your vision, maybe they could have reduced functionality like non-mines, until fortified?

I like the idea of expanding the "subfactions," as this gives the class options if rich in a particular gem type or needing to counter a certain enemy. Here are my ideas:

-Give Olm casters the ability to turn deep sea gem deposits into Ocean Temples.

AND make the Olm summoning spells cheaper on Ocean Temples.

-New potential result for lv.2 lava summons: Magmole Warcheif. The warchief is a commander, and, like the Olm caster, has rituals. He gets the ruby ones, obviously. Having a more martial flavor, he rides a Molephant, casting Pyromancy 1 in melee in addition to the Molephant's attacks. If promoted, he gains Geomancy 1 as well.

The "Fire Elemental" result of lava summoning are made less likely to accommodate his entry to the summon pool, and give the magmoles more emphasis.

-New result for lv. 2 undead summons: Umbral Shade: A commander... as you can probably guess, it gets the diamond rituals. Not a caster--instead, sets up in mid rank and attacks with a range 4 life drain, with a stronger one to use if it winds up in melee. I figure, even if they have intelligence, a mouth-face is still just going to have the one move :P

This is actually pretty close to some ideas I've been drafting for the Pale Ones. I've been looking to make the different "gem schools" feel more unique and fleshed out rather than just being a different flavor of "immediate reinforcements that can be cast anywhere".

Which I'll preface that basically across all classes I'm looking to add more nuance and quirks to level 2+3 summoning rituals to make the gameplay a little more interesting than, "you get a super caster/monster unit anytime anywhere once you get X amount of resources", and keep the level 1 rituals relevant at mid-late game since they'll have the advantage of largely being castable anywhere. So I'm not specifically targeting the Pale Ones capability for instant reinforcements in particular but it's going to be more of a shift in gameplay/meta for summoning classes across the board.

Here's some rough WIP concepts:

Architects can now create entrances to Agartha from mines in Elysium.

The death of the King of the Deep slightly boosts the recruitment rate of special Pale Ones such as hurlers and seal guard.

The "Restore the Seal" mechanic will be slightly rethemed to represent rebuilding a lost Agarthan City/Capital. But mechanically will be pretty much the same.

Oracles mastery rituals use 50/50 emeralds and their specific gem rather than all emeralds.

Oracles ritual discounts are removed, instead they have exclusive access to their "schools" most powerful ritual(s).

Broadly speaking the "summoning quirk" for Pale Ones will represent that they're calling/awakening a powerful denizen of Agartha, and this usually means it awakens/surfaces at a somewhat random location.

Olm Conclaves are far summoned to a random location in the underground sea of Agartha and numbers summoned are buffed a bit. Olm sages use sapphires to level up, Scrying is now unique to Olm Sages and is more effective when when used by a Far Seer. Potentially there may be a sort of "proto-olmic pale one" added that serves as a frontline defense for Olms. #Olms lean towards ocean/Agartha exploration and being able to invade the surface from directions when they emerge through the seas

Lava has a 1-time cast ritual to create a volcano at a semi-randomized location in Elysium. The Pale Ones can uniquely use a Volcano as a citadel, but it will provide magmole/lava recruitments instead of their standard recruits. This includes a unique Magmole commander/leader. #Lava leans warlord/summoner hybrid playstyle.

Undead will uniquely have a more mid-level ~40 gem summons that can be cast anywhere. Agartha will have 3 "Sealed Tomb" terrains generated at game start that Oracles of the Dead can travel to for summoning a Tomb Oracle commander, which will now have more distinctive traits/rituals. #Undead have a little more flexibility with "mid range" summons but their most powerful summons requires some explortion of Agartha.

Deep earth Summoning now exclusively far summon Purple Worms to random desert tiles in Elysium. Purple Worms are now semi-stupid and unique to Pale ones (no longer available to Earth Warlocks which are replaced by a new Earth themed "behemoth" monster). Lesser deep earth summoning inherits some of the removed units but with quantities adjusted for the new cost.

Somewhat related, true "tunneling" that allows both punching through cave walls and down to other planes is now being reserved for only very powerful "god" units (such as the Earth Made Flesh). "Lesser Digging" is now being implemented via rituals that can only clear non-moist cave walls and can only create passages between Elysium and Agartha. This way the accessibility of hugely impactful events like flooding Agartha or starting a demon invasion won't be readily accessible to cheap early game units.

The Earth Made Flesh is now far summoned in Agartha, but will be gaining a new yet to be decided synergy with the "Restored Seal/Restored Agarthan Capital" terrain.