Shade of Night

[Gazz]

Also known as The Living Death, Shade of Night is an ancient undead creature perhaps as old as the universe itself. Its form is that of incorporeal shadow and it is the dread of both the living and the undead. In battle it can summon insubstantial undead creatures to its aid and hurls bolts of negative energy from its hands. An aura of death surrounds it and any living creature that stands in its presence may instantly die. It can also permanently dominate the will of those undead who are foolish enough to oppose it.

How about making it more of an equal opportunity devourer?

• Living creatures have a chance of instadeath from the aura.
  
  
• All non-hero units rise as undead after a few turns or at the end of the battle.
  The risen ones that were killed by the aura automatically are under Shade's control.
  
  
• Undead who enter the aura have a chance to permanently become mind-controlled.
  
  
• All undead under the control of Shade lose hit points every turn.
  This may also heal Shade.
  
  
• Probably doesn't need a direct "summon undead" in a battle.
  
  
• What would make sense is an automatic (random) undead summoning every turn on the strategic map. This represents "civilians" falling prey to the Shade and starting a new career as temporary snack. This would not result in a continuous army build-up because all the undead in the stack lost hit points every turn as their energy is consumed.

Shade can build an undead army quickly... even in a fight... but it won't build up a huge army because it constantly devours them, both in battle and strategically.

No real need to summon undead as well. That would be overkill, IMO. =)

[jamoecw]

How about making it more of an equal opportunity devourer?

• Living creatures have a chance of instadeath from the aura.
• All non-hero units rise as undead after a few turns or at the end of the battle.
  The risen ones that were killed by the aura automatically are under Shade's control.
• Undead who enter the aura have a chance to permanently become mind-controlled.
• All undead under the control of Shade lose hit points every turn.
  This may also heal Shade.
• Probably doesn't need a direct "summon undead" in a battle.
• What would make sense is an automatic (random) undead summoning every turn on the strategic map. This represents "civilians" falling prey to the Shade and starting a new career as temporary snack. This would not result in a continuous army build-up because all the undead in the stack lost hit points every turn as their energy is consumed.

Shade can build an undead army quickly... even in a fight... but it won't build up a huge army because it constantly devours them, both in battle and strategically.

No real need to summon undead as well. That would be overkill, IMO. =)

that seems like a pretty cool alteration to the titan. in order to balance one can alter how fast the hp is gained from devouring (slower equals a weaker titan), how fast the undead are devoured (faster equals less turns to max out army size), and how many undead are gained each turn (more equals larger max army size). controlling undead should be about the same DC as insta death, so that undead heroes aren't any weaker than living ones against it.