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In dominions there’s a lot of magic – and it’s not all built equally. For this section, I’ll list some of the most impactful spells in the earlygame – at least in my opinion

Notably – there is a general powerspike at research 5 – particularly evocation 5. Since there is so much magic in the game, we won’t be looking at the capstones, other than to note evocation 5 has a tonne of high impact, gem light spells.

This isn't designed as a comprehensive list - but rather just a list of some of the more major spells to watch for.

Evocation 1: Star Fires, Arcane Bolt

Evocation 2: Solar Rays, Web, Lightning Bolt

Evocation 3: Cloud of Dreamless Slumber, Shadow Bolt, Magic Duel

Evocation 4: Breath of the Dragon, Ephemeral Blast, Fire Cloud

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Enchantment 2: Shroud of Splendor, Personal Regeneration

Enchantment 3: Shroud of Bewilderment, Gift of Giant strength, Fire Shield, Regeneration

Enchantment 4: Spell ward, Simulacrum, Twiceborn, Raise Dead, Cloud Trapeeze

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Alteration 1: Personal Barkskin

Alteration 2: Personal Mistform, Blur, Personal Stoneskin, Gift of Cheated Fate

Alteration 3: Mossbody, Group Blur, Body Ethereal, Barkskin, Earth Meld

Alteration 4: Quickness, Mistform, Stoneskin, Curse of Stones, Group Barkskin, Swarm, Twilight, Arouse Hunger

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Const 2: Temper Armors

Const 3: Assorted item forging (GSS being the standout)

Const 4: Soldiers of Steel

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Conjuration 3: Phoenix Power, Summon Earthpower, Call of the winds

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Thaumaturgy 1: Personal Luck

Thamuturgy 2: Mind Burn

Thaumaturgy 3: Group Luck

Although most intermediate players will know about the big midgame spells, I thought I’d clump the magic ‘types’ one tends to see in the midgame.

1. Battlefield wipes: At about research 6-7, you start getting battlefield wide spells that will slowly kill everything. This means a single mage (often a pretender) can wipe out an entire army with just one offensive spellcast – and the rest of their kit focused on defense.
2. Evocation Spam: Past about evocation 5, evocation spam starts to get very powerful. Yes there’s the battlefield wide spell in earthquake, but usually, this is more AOE gemless spells like falling fires or stellar cascades
3. Skelespam variants and fatigue lines: These generally overlap – and essentially have mages spamming raise dead, horde of skeletons, and overwhelming an army. Relief/Rigor Mortis/Quagmire/Darkness complement this and 3/4 of them are in enchantment so its an easy combo to reach
4. Army thugs: Often – midgame battles are won by small squadrons of ‘super-elite’ commanders, holding say a GSS and a couple defensive items. The reason this is so effective is buffs/stats tend to have an exponential effect, so having a better weapon and some better gear makes an otherwise annoying sacred much harder to deal with
5. Light Supercombatants: Be it Invulnerability/Soul Vortex or a phoenix pyre golem, supercombatants outside of pretenders start coming online in the midgame
6. Remotes ramping up: As armies get bigger and battles more important, remotes become more disruptive. Be it Mind Hunt or disease demons giving a defender fits, or a well placed call of the winds knocking out a connection tile and slowing an army – remotes go from being a fringe tool earlier on to a powerful utility tool.
7. Amulet of the dead scouts: This sounds like a meme but is very much a thing. 3-4 scouts can take out PD in a province holding amulets (or the comparable G item mirror of trapped illusions) and this gives all D/G nations a source of raiding – sometimes this being their only source of stealth.
8. BuffBalls: Even in the midgame, buffing units to the sky remains a very effective strategy. Come midgame, this tends to incorporate units other than sacreds (like gelatinous cubes etc)