History YMMV / LordsOfMagic

* WideOpenSandbox: The player is strongly encouraged to conquer his Faith's Great Temple ASAP but nothing forces him too. Want to take over a friendly Faith's Great Temple to gain their city while totally ignoring your own starting city? It can be done. Want to take your StartingUnits straight into Death's homeland to fight the FinalBoss? You can although you'll probably need to exploit a GameBreaker Custom start to survive, much less win! Want to take a ship to the Dragon's Lair and win a Greater Artifact before you conquer the NoobCave? If you can afford to hire a ship and find a way to kill the dragons within, you sure can!

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: A player that routinely razes villages he captures will quickly have AI Faiths develop hostile attitudes towards his Faith.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Earth's spell 'Turn to Stone' takes a lot of turns to research, is near the end of its spell book, has a high {{Mana}} cost, targets a single enemy, and also requires the spellcaster to have a higher level than his target. Slow reduces a target's Attack Rate and combat Speed and Entangle stops it's movement entirely, neither have a caster Level requirement, both are much quicker to research than Turn to Stone, and they can both be cast on the same target for less combined Mana cost than Turn to Stone. Sands of Sleep is another advanced Earth spell that disables the victims' movement and actions and it hits every enemy in a wide area while having no caster Level requirement. The only downside for Sands of Sleep compared to Turn to Stone is that once a victim gets hit by anything the Sleep ends. The only time Turn to Stone would hypothetically be the best choice is when you're facing an extremely powerful unit that's formidable with both melee and ranged attacks... which pretty much means only Dragons and Drakes. Problem is those creatures are Level 10, making it impossible for a generic spellcaster to be higher Level than them! To add insult to injury the Water spell Freeze also disables the target's movement and actions but doesn't have any level requirement to work. The only downside of Freeze compared to Turn to Stone is that it makes the target impervious to normal hits while in effect. This is mostly irrelevant when Freeze is cast on an enemy since the player's party can kill all the other enemies then swarm and overwhelm the one remaining enemy when Freeze ends. This odd attribute of Freeze can actually be a strategic asset by letting the player Freeze one of his own units to save it from imminent death.

* BanditMook: The AI Faiths often send stealthy thieves roving around the map, even solo or with a small group of archers. These thieves will try to steal from your parties if they're controlled by an unfriendly Faith. Normally they'll steal a paltry amount of gold, crystal, or ale but an unlucky or careless player might be robbed of his artifacts. On the upside would-be stealers have a chance to fail, giving your party the opportunity to capture or kill the enemy thief.

* AllThereInTheManual: While a player can get some details by reading spell and unit descriptions the majority of the game's backstory is confined to it's lengthy manual.

** Many Chaos spells are influenced by the RandomNumberGod in ways other Faith's magic isn't. For example, Polymorph Other will most likely turn an enemy into a harmless chicken but there's a small chance the target will instead [[CriticalFailure become a mighty dragon.]]

* UselessUsefulSpell: Earth's spell 'Turn to Stone' takes a lot of turns to research, is near the end of it's spell book, has a high {{Mana}} cost, targets a single enemy, and also requires the spellcaster to have a higher level than his target. Slow reduces a target's Attack Rate and combat Speed and Entangle stops it's movement entirely, neither have a caster Level requirement, both are much quicker to research than Turn to Stone, and they can both be cast on the same target for less combined Mana cost than Turn to Stone. Sands of Sleep is another advanced Earth spell that disables the victims' movement and actions and it hits every enemy in a wide area while having no caster Level requirement. The only downside for Sands of Sleep compared to Turn to Stone is that once a victim gets hit by anything the Sleep ends. The only time Turn to Stone would hypothetically be the best choice is when you're facing an extremely powerful unit that's formidable with both melee and ranged attacks... which pretty much means only Dragons and Drakes. Problem is those creatures are Level 10, making it impossible for a generic spellcaster to be higher Level than them! To add insult to injury the Water spell Freeze also disables the target's movement and actions but doesn't have any level requirement to work. The only downside of Freeze compared to Turn to Stone is that it makes the target impervious to normal hits while in effect. This is mostly irrelevant when Freeze is cast on an enemy since the player's party can kill all the other enemies then swarm and overwhelm the one remaining enemy when Freeze ends. This odd attribute of Freeze can actually be a strategic asset by letting the player Freeze one of his own units to save it from imminent death.

* LowTierLetdown: Chaos is widely considered the least effective Faith by veteran players. Chaos barracks units are fragile, expensive, and a bit slow. Chaos Guild units have mediocre damage output and awful short Range. Chaos magic creatures are either fragile, difficult to use effectively, or arguably both. Chaos spells can be very powerful but many are influenced by random chance in a major departure from the near total reliability of other Faiths' magic. Even when Chaos magic works it is frequently over reliant on gimmick tactics or exploiting ArtificialStupidity. It certainly doesn't help that without patching the game Chaos is liable to die immediately due to a [[GameBreakingBug but that spawns hostile Level 8 Pegasus Riders in the low level dungeons around Chaos' city.]]

* TheUnfought: In addition to Balkoth the Death Faith also has more typical options for warrior, thief, and mage Lords that appear on the Lord selection screen at the beginning of the game. Should you select one of these Lords you can play the Death GottaKillThemAll campaign with him. The Dark Warrior Lord can actually attain higher Attack and Defense than Balkoth can! However, you'll never be able to face these Death Lords as enemies in a normal game since Balkoth always fills the role for Lord of Death.

* GameplayRandomization: On the default map the locations of dungeons and the encounters that wait within are slightly randomized, with the exception of unique dungeons like the Dragon's Lair and Lich Castle. The artifacts and other rewards from higher level dungeons are also somewhat random. Whether the other Faiths have a warrior, thief, or mage as their Lord is also randomly determined for every Faith except Death.

* GameplayRandomization: On the default map the locations of dungeons and encounters within are slightly randomized, with the exception of unique dungeons like the Dragon's Lair and Lich Castle. The artifacts and other rewards from higher level dungeons are also somewhat random. Whether the other Faiths have a warrior, thief, or mage as their Lord is also randomly determined for every Faith except Death.

* GameplayRandomization: On the default map the locations of dungeons and encounters within are slightly randomized, with the exception of unique dungeons like the Dragon's Lair and Lich Castle. The artifacts and other rewards from higher level dungeons are also somewhat random.

** Many Chaos spells are influenced by the RandomNumberGod in ways other Faith's magic isn't. For example, Polymorph Other will most likely turn an enemy into a harmless chicken but there's a small chance the target will instead [[CriticalFail become a mighty dragon.]]

* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Very few artifacts can be used by both champions of opposite Faiths. For example Earth warriors and Air warriors can't use the same artifacts, with the exception of the most generic ones, like 'Ring of Protection', which can be used by any champion. The player will gain any artifacts enemies had when he defeats him, which is where this trope comes into effect. You'll often kill the Lord or champions of a rival Faith and be 'rewarded' with the artifacts they were using, which your units can't equip. However if you completely conquer your rival Faith you'll be able to make their champions, who can then use such equipment.

* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Very few artifacts can be used by both champions of opposite Faiths. For example Order warriors and Chaos warriors can't use the same artifacts, with the exception of the most generic ones, like 'Ring of Protection', which can be used by any champion. The player will gain any artifacts enemies had when he defeats him, which is where this trope comes into effect. You'll often kill the Lord or champions of a rival Faith and be 'rewarded' with the artifacts they were using, which your units can't equip. However if you completely conquer your rival Faith you'll be able to make their champions, who can then use such equipment.

** In a Custom start even the cheapest units, spells, and artifacts will be impossibly expensive if they're associates with the opposite Faith. This can lead to things like a Seagull being priced at 9999 Barter Points if you choose a Fire Lord. A bit disappointing since Water's seagull is a much better scout unit that Fire's imp.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Earth's spell 'Turn to Stone' takes a lot of turns to research, is near the end of it's spell book, has a high {{Mana}} cost, targets a single enemy, and also requires the spellcaster to have a higher level than his target. Slow reduces a target's Attack Rate and combat Speed and Entangle stops it's movement entirely, neither have a caster Level requirement, both are much quicker to research than Turn to Stone, and they can both be cast on the same target for less combined Mana cost than Turn to Stone. Sands of Sleep is another advanced Earth spell that disables the victims' movement and actions and it hits every enemy in a wide area while having no caster Level requirement. The only downside for Sands of Sleep compared to Turn to Stone is that once a victim gets hit by anything the Sleep ends. The only time Turn to Stone would hypothetically be the best choice is when you're facing an extremely powerful unit that's formidable with both melee and ranged attacks... which pretty much means only Dragons and Drakes. Problem is those creatures are Level 10, making it impossible for a generic spellcaster to be higher Level than them!

* ReplayValue: The player's choice of Lord has a major impact on how each game begins and progresses. With 7 Faiths and 3 Lord types you get 21 different starting options for a standard game, and 3 options for a GottaKillThemAll campaign using Death. Then there's countless possibilities with Custom Starts and Custom Maps.

* ReplayValue: The player's choice of Lord has a major impact on how each game begins and progresses. With 7 Faiths and 3 Lord types you get 21 different starting options for a standard game, and 3 options for a KillThemAll campaign using Death. Then there's countless possibilities with Custom Starts and Custom Maps.

* GameBreaker: Almost every Faith has a tactic which makes them nearly unstoppable. However the most extreme example is giving Dragonscale Armor to a Fire Warrior. This allows him to do Fire magic damage passively to any enemy that strikes him. Set the Warrior to Defend and everything besides Fire-immune creatures will get killed without your Warrior needing to take a single swing. Meanwhile your Defending Warrior will be invincible to everything except Magic damage, which the Armor also gives Resist against.

* Game-Breaker: Almost every Faith has a tactic which makes them nearly unstoppable. However the most extreme example is giving Dragonscale Armor to a Fire Warrior. This allows him to do Fire magic damage passively to any enemy that strikes him. Set the Warrior to Defend and everything besides Fire-immune creatures will get killed without your Warrior needing to take a single swing. Meanwhile your Defending Warrior will be invincible to everything except Magic damage, which the Armor also gives Resist against.