Mods for Dominions 5

Illwinter has made an easy-to-use and fairly robust set of modding tools to the community. The community in turn has made extensive use of them and there is now a plethora of mods ranging from handy utility mods like the Debug Mod to the gargantuan total conversions which scrape the limits of Dominions as an engine. These days, most games of Dominions include at least one or two small mods, and games featuring major mods are nearly as common as those which are nearly vanilla. For help making your own mods, see making mods.

Where to find mods

The Dominions modding community is spread across a number of Discord servers and sites. Some are dedicated to one mod alone, while others act as a hub for several mods. Here are some of the more important ones:

DominionsMods
The purpose of this discord is to host modders for Dominions and to support them. If you join remember that. Play nice and be kind.

Lucid's Server
Lucid's Discord hosts a number of mods, some by Lucid, some by others.

Immersion
Immersion hosts a number of mods.

You can also find mods and modders at dominionsmods.com. For a comprehensive listing of popular mods, see Red Rob's mod catalogue forum post.

Balance Mods

It is widely accepted within the Dominions 5 community that some nations and spells are wildly over- or underpowered, and a number of modders have set out to create their own solutions to the problem. These mods tweak certain aspects of the base game to make it more balanced from the modder's perspective, and several have become very popular in certain Dominions servers. Balance mods are distinguished from total conversion mods by generally not introducing much new content and focusing on improving existing elements of the game.

Of course, what a "balanced" Dominions 5 game looks like can be very subjective; we encourage you to check out the mods below to figure out what balance changes suit you best.

Community Balance mod

Extensive balance mod that seeks to remain lore friendly and close to an unmodded Dominions experience.

The changes are made with the goal of making rarely used strategies and resources more viable in a competitive multiplayer setting.

"We discussed balance changes extensively and found a large amount of things were unusable in vanilla, things like Titans, so we went and buffed them while trying to stay lore friendly. Many vanilla troops were reduced in cost and weapons were buffed (notably axes, Princeps (all nations) and Acashic Knowledge). Some things were nerfed (notably MA Ermor, Anakim, Rigor Mortis and Howl), but mostly it's buffs."

You can get the mod here

jBrereton's Balance Mod

Common to games run on the Ruby discord, jBrereton's Balance Mod includes a host of changes to make existing nations and spells feel more balanced and/or interesting, as well as heavily nerfing some nations or strategies that can be frustrating to play against. Notably, all assassins cost +1 recruitment points, and immortal summon spells (Lichcraft, Curse of Blood, etc.) have been changed into transform spells, capping late game immortal spam. Additionally, rainbow pretenders cannot be taken imprisoned, disincentivising the very common imprisoned rainbow build.

You can get the mod here.

TLC Balance Mods

TiredTaleTeller's Tender Loving Care mods aim to create a more satisfactory play experience by making changes to underdeveloped elements of the base game, improving quality-of-life, and tweaking the balance of certain spells or units. These changes are split into a number of smaller mods from which players can pick and choose, in addition to being compiled into a few composite mods. Changes focus on land-underwater interaction, mundane ranged combat (bows and slings) and Conjuration ritual costs, and fold in some ideas from Lucid's Thematic Gem Gen and Dominions Enhanced.

Check the full changelog of the TLC General Balance Mod here, and the Nation Balance Mod here.

The mod is available on the DominionsMods Discord and the Fourth Age Discord.

Quality of Life Mods

Quality of Life mods brush up specific aspects of the game without the kind of expansive game-design focus that larger balance mods aim for.

Lucid's Mods

LucidTactics has created a series of QoL mods, many of which have since become very widely used on his discord as well as others. These include:

Capital Recuperation
Adds recuperation to all pretenders in their capital only.
Lucid's Improved Spellcasting AI
Changes spellcasting AI to stop off-script buffing and prioritize direct damage spells. Also has a singleplayer version which allows the AI opponent to still cast buffs.
Lucid's Thematic Gem Gen
Adds gem-generating items to every path. Can greatly reduce the logistical issue of being gembaited.

Mechanical Descriptions

The Mechanical Descriptions mod, maintained by Loggy, expands spell descriptions with yellow text that explains exactly how they work. It has a channel on the DominionsMods discord.

Sensible Migration

Welzi's Sensible Migration brings more 'sensible' population dynamics to Dominions 5's provinces. Populations under unhealthy, diseased dominions will migrate to better lands over time, though strong faith in their pretender may hold them back.

Rebirth

ÆtherNomad's Rebirth adds events which allow provinces with very low population and growth scales to recover their population. It is intended to mitigate the irreversible damage popkill dominion does to the provinces under its influence, and also buffs popkill nations like Therodos, Asphodel, and LA R'lyeh if they are built with growth scales.

Worthy Heroes

Possibly the most widely-used mod in Dominions 5 multiplayer, Worthy Heroes ensures that every nation has a minimum of three heroes, and spices up several existing ones with new magic paths or traits to make their arrival more of a special occasion. This is particularly noticeable for nations like MA Pelagia, which does not have heroes at all!

Worthy Heroes is currently maintained by Red Rob.

Nation Packs

These mods focus on adding new nations to the game to play with.

Alexsa's Mod Pack

Alexsa is a prominent and productive modder who has compiled all of their mods into a single thread here.

Confluence

Confluence is a collection of 24 mod nations created by Executor, spread across all three ages. More information can be found on the dedicated Dominions Mods Thread.

Interbellum

Interbellum is a collection of nations by Casus Belli which explores histories and mythologies that are not currently explored in vanilla Dominions, as well as other fun sources. These nations include continuations of existing nations (e.g. MA Fomoria and Lanka) as well as fully original nations like EA Blodwold, whose druids awaken mighty trees through blood sacrifice. Further information can be found on the dedicated Dominions Mods thread.

Stabro Mod Pack

Total Conversion mods

The Dominions 5 base game has inspired a number of total conversion mods that seek to greatly expand on the vanilla experience. They usually include a number of new nations, balance changes, and the accompanying infrastructure of spells, items, units and more. Some mods use the Dominions 5 engine to do their own thing entirely!

Total conversion mods are just as popular as their smaller mod cousins, many seeing frequent use across the Dominions community.

Content Generation Mods

If the base game isn't random enough, a number of mods have been (or are being) developed which place massive swathes of the game at the mercy of procedural generation. These range from merely switching up thrones to randomly generating entire nations and spellbooks. Gen mods can be a fun way to test the player's ability to assess the utility of entirely new spells and units, and promise entirely new experiences to those who have played through other total conversion mods and are still looking for more.

Most content generation mods can be found on the DominionsMods discord server.

The Gathering Sturm/Vanilla Sprite Overhaul

The Gathering Sturm is a large modpack including far-reaching balance changes, entirely new nations for both the Middle and Late Age as well as an already well-known and popular overhaul of almost all Vanilla sprites. Few aspects of the game remain unaltered, with small quality of life additions to different ages, adjusted magic sites, items, weapons, new spells, and new as well overhauled nations in every age. Casting preferences have also been updated based on Lucid's casting AI, but with a higher likelihood to choose AoE buff spells. All parts of the Modpack can be downloaded separately for higher compatibility with other mods or in one larger package that's meant to be played together.

The Gathering Sturm Main Page .

Dominions of Middle Earth

Olórin(Ransom) and Mandos(Thrones of War)'s compilation mod adds a variety of factions from the three ages of Middle Earth to Dominions, from ancient Angband to the doomed glory of Númenor. Each come with unique mechanics and heroes that recall the complex history of Middle Earth.

DoME has a channel on the DominionsMods discord, where the link to the dedicated server can also be found.

Dominions Enhanced

Dominions Enhanced is a compilation mod designed to enhance and expand Dominions in a variety of ways. Red Rob has tried to ensure that everything added fits with the base game in terms of tone and adherence to the existing material.

DE is ubiquitous in games hosted on the Reddit Dominions discord, and is also a common sight on the Immersion and Nexus discords.

Dominions Enhanced content

Fourth Age

The Fourth Age Mod is a total conversion mod-pack of the Late Age of Dominions, intended to answer the "What if?" question of what a post-LA age would look like if Illwinter decided to add one to the base game.

Pulling inspiration from the very early age of the sail, the renaissance, and the late middle ages, the Fourth Age is intended to include themes of exploration, renewal, and colonialism in contrast to the grim-darkness of the existing Late Age.

Fourth Age Main Page
4A Discord

Hellenika

Hellenika is a single mod that focuses on the Early Ages and the ancient Mediterranean world (particularly, but not exclusively, from a Greek point of view). This includes all of Aethernomad's mod nations, many vanilla nations heavily modified, major changes to pretenders, and relatively few changes to mechanics and spells in the base game.

Hellenika mod description

Hellenika is a single mod that focuses on the Early Ages and the ancient mediterranean world (particularly, but not exclusively, from a Greek point of view). In this mod, you'll find:

All of my mod nations, also accessible separately in stand alone versions, but slightly modified here to receive enhanced mutual compatibility;
Pantheon Reborn, another of my mods accessible as a stand alone version, and likewise slightly modified; this one affects pretender balance by modifying nearly all vanilla pretenders in the game, in particular Titans;
Rebirth, another of my mods accessible as a stand alone version, a simple yet popular mechanic that slowly repopulates low population provinces;
MANY heavily modified vanilla nations, some taken from the later ages and moved to EA (MA Caelum (renamed to Hararat), MA Asphodel, MA Bandar Log, MA Uruk (renamed to Akkad), MA Phlegra, MA Phaeacia, MA Ind, MA Na'Ba (renamed to Sa'Ba), LA Arcoscephale (renamed to Delphanes), LA C'tis (renamed to Aabydum), LA Phlegra (Porphyrion), LA Ragha, LA R'lyeh and LA Erytheia), and others already from the Early Ages (Arcoscephale, Ermor, Ulm, Marverni, Sauromatia, Machaka, Abysia, Caelum, C'tis, Pangaea, Agartha, Tir na n'Og, Kailasa, Lanka, Hinnom, Ur (renamed to Eridu), Berytos, Mekone, Ubar, R'lyeh (renamed to Aulgyaththu), Pelagia, Oceania, Therodos and with very light changes Fomoria and Atlantis); most of these nations received new lore, new content, new mechanics and some balance changes, and none of these modifications are available outside Hellenika! For example, Hellenika lets EA Ermor cast a very powerful ritual that opens up the Gates of Death and irreversibly transforms the entire nation into MA Ermor!
In Hellenika, you almost WON'T find any change to the general rules of the game; this is a huge difference with Magic Enhanced, which not only modifies vanilla nations but also modifies spells and items available to every nation and adds new ones. Hellenika doesn't do this and focuses on modifying exclusive national content only, even though there are very few and light exceptions to that point.
When downloading the mod, you'll also receive a .pdf file containing a full list of Hellenika's changes compared to the vanilla game! I strongly advice reading the parts of that .pdf that interest you if you want to play a vanilla nation that was modified by Hellenika.

Legendary

Legendary is a gameplay mod pack that primarily focuses on altering the game's (world) environment. It consists of eight individual mods, each of which alters a different aspect of the game.

Legendary Cataclysm - Adds cataclysmic yearly events
Legendary Dwellings - Adds various upgradable dwellings to the world map
Legendary Fable - Alters the world to a high degree and adds a RP aspect
Legendary Guildmasters - Adds Guilds to the game
Legendary Lords - Enables a diplomatic aspect of the game in the form of votes
Legendary Sellswords - Substantially increases the amount of mercenaries
Legendary Sites - Adds specialized sites of power to the capital and world
Legendary Vendors - Adds traveling vendors that sell wares

Get the latest version over on the forums here and a copy of the manual here.

About the mod
Though Legendary is quite vast in its scope, it should not be daunting to delve into unlike most other gameplay mods as it makes no alterations to vanilla. There is no need to relearn a nation, investigate new nations, check for balance changes, new spells, summons and the like. Legendary changes absolutely nothing vanilla, but simply builds upon the environment.

Mod description

Sombre Warhammer Compilation

Sombre brings the WAAAGH! of Warhammer Fantasy to the Dominions 5 universe. This mod pack includes 16 unique nations based on factions from the world of Warhammer, including the ratty Skaven, bloodthirsty Vampire Counts, and snobbish High Elves.

For more details, see the thread at Dominions Mods.

Utility Mods

Debug Mod

The Debug Mod allows players to test battles and interactions by removing the level restrictions for all items and spells. It also introduces a couple of spells and units to make testing more straightforward in-game.

Arena Map

The Arena Map by DasTactic isn't a proper mod, but a map that is intended to be edited for testing battles and interactions. There is a Youtube explanation and a Steam Workshop page.

Dominions 5 Wiki

Table of Contents

Mods for Dominions 5

Where to find mods