Initially this started as my desire to mod the combat of elemental into something a little more complex. I also wanted to see a more extensive spell system and some more variation in the races. As I was setting up my custom tech trees in concept I found myself really wanting to branch out and make nations and races that played very differently from eachother.

Forgotten realms is a setting many are familiar with and one I particularly enjoy so I began researching a good time period in which I could justify having various factions and races go to war with one another and ravage the face of Faerun. The time of troubles seemed to make the most sense. I've only just finished constructing this outline for the mod so far, I welcome any suggestions anyone has that might make the mod a deeper experience and fit better with the world of Faerun.

I have some experience in XML and know that I'll have to learn python as well in order to take this on, I'm going to have a lot of downtime in the future and decided it would be a great time to really get into modding. I've got no skill in modelling so I'll have to rely on other community projects (only with their permission of course) for some of the race specific assets. I'm not sure if anyone else has an interest in this mod or setting but figured I'd throw it out there just in case rather than work on it for my own enjoyment alone.

Outline:

Time of Troubles Mod

The time of troubles is a period in which the gods of the forgotten realms walk the world as their Avatars. Many would be gods hunt the avatars in order to claim their essence and the gods war among themselves, finally having a chance to destroy their rivals in a never ending quest for power. For the sake of the mod magic is restricted to only the chosen of the deities in the game. In the real time of troubles magic ceased to function properly and priestly magic only worked within one mile of the avatar. This limitation is simply represented by the number of people the deity chooses to empower, a choice will be made between mage empowerment and priest empowerment.

Map: Hand crafted scenario based on a map of Faerun with all major cities represented as minor nations with appropriate leadership and protection. Famous ruins or sites of power represented as quest locations with proper reward.  The map is going to be as large as I can realistically make it, for as much accuracy as possible.

Gods and their Factions (Sovereign and Nation):

As of now I’ve only got 12 planned, I tried to keep them from overlapping too much however the size of the map may demand more nations to keep the game competitive.

Myrkul Lord of the Dead

Domains: Death, Undead, Old Age

Undead, Clerics, Necromancers

Bane the Black Lord, the Black Hand, the Lord of Darkness

Domains:  Evil, Destruction, Hatred, Law, Tyranny

Bane is commonly worshipped by lawful evil fighters, magic-users, illusionists, assassins, thieves, monks, and clerics

Kossuth the Lord of Flames, the Firelord

Domains Destruction, Fire, Renewal, Suffering, Wrath

Monks, Clerics, Elemental Fire Wizards

Talos the Destroyer, the Storm Lord

Domains: Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Fire and Storm

Clerics, Barbarians, Elemental Wizards

Torm the True, the True Deity, the Loyal Fury

Domains: Good, Healing, Law, Protection, Strength

Torm's symbol is a right-hand gauntlet held upright with palm forward

In addition to clerics and paladins, martial warriors and other individuals who adhere to the ideals of Torm's portfolio such as good fighters, knights, guardians and loyal courtiers are also depicted as common worshippers of Torm.

Ubtao Creator of Chult, Founder of Mezro, Father of the Dinosaurs

Domains: Planning, Plant, Protection, Scalykind

In addition, the deity's faith also includes rangers and jungle-dwelling druids. Aside from lizardfolk, Ubtao also counts the catlike tabaxi among his worshippers.

Tempus Lord of Battles, Foehammer

Domains:  Chaos, Protection, Strength, War

Priests, Barbarians, Warriors

Tyr the Even-Handed, the Maimed God, the Just God, Grimjaws

Domains:  Justice

Paladins, Clerics, Angels, Archangels

Vhaeraun The Masked Lord, the Masked God of Night, the Shadow

Domains:  Chaos, Drow, Evil, Travel, Trickery

His worshipers include assassins, male drow and half-drow, poisoners, shadowdancers, rogues, and thieves.

Moradin Soul Forger, Dwarffather, the All-Father, the Creator

Domains Creation, Earth, Good, Law, and Protection

Dwarven Warriors, and Clerics

Rillifane Rallathil the Leaflord, the Wild One, the Great Oak, the Many-Branched, the Many-Limbed, Old Man of the Yuirwood

Domains Chaos, Elf, Fey, Good, Plant, Protection

Elves, Druids

Gruumsh One-Eye, He Who Never Sleeps, the One-Eyed God, He Who Watches

Domains Cavern, Chaos, Evil, Hatred, Orc, Strength, War

Orc Warriors, Shamans

Books of Magic:

Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Nature, Necromancy, Priest Good Magic, Priest Evil Magic

Races:

Human, Elf, Undead, Orc, Dwarf, and Drow

Resources:

Materials, Gold, Iron, Faith (Prestige), Worshippers (Population), Influence (Diplomatic Capital), Mithril, Ironwood, Places of Power (Shards), Food

Minor Nations:

Many of the larger cities and their powerful leaders will be placed on the map in proper locations. They can be traded with for special bonuses or allowed recruitment of special units, or you can attempt to conquer them, they will not be as defenseless as minor nations in the current game are. You will be hard pressed to take down Tsazz Tam or Lady Illustriel for example.

Quest Locations:

There will be static locations on the map at the end of the adventure tree for every nation,  places of power such as Myth Drannor, or Gauntylgrym. These places will grant powerful artifacts for the nation that successfully uncovers their secrets.  In addition to this there will be many quests to uncover other artifacts or places of power on the map, once a place of power is discovered by one nation it is visible to everyone. This will also be how veins of mithril and ironwood forest locations will be discovered.

Tech Trees:

Each nation will have a tech tree aligned with the lore of the followers of the deity, as closely as possible while still maintaining balance. Hopefully this will allow each deity/nation to have a distinct playstyle. Spell books will be race restricted as well, with research into other books possible, but no race will have access to every spellbook. Tech trees will also draw from eachother, and going up two or three trees will unlock more technologies that fuse them together. Example: Walls in Combat, Forging in civilization, Enchantment in magic = Enchanted Reinforced City Walls

Combat:

Tactical Map size increase

Army Cap raised to 40 (via research)

Unit size caps vary based on race (undead have higher unit caps since individually they are weaker for example)

Raising the army cap allows there to be more epic battles while not diminishing the power a champion can bring to the field. Just raising unit sizes would make them irrelevant.

Combat will be Attack vs Defense for a hit roll only. Damage is a separate stat and is subject to resistances by damage type.

Magic will have a separate set of resistances for elemental, arcane, holy and unholy damage.

Weapons and armor will grant activated abilities for use in combat. In addition to damage types being added this should encourage variety in troops.

Tactical placement of troops before a battle begins.

Wandering Heroes:

At the higher tiers of research you can enlist some of the most famous heroes from the lore of forgotten realms. They will not come cheaply however, you can choose to attack them and claim their artifacts and power for your own.

Champions:

Both recruited champions and your sovereign will have sets of abilities they can acquire as they level up. Your sovereign can take any ability they want, everybody else is divided into classes, if you empower a champion I’d like to consider it a dual classing of your choice, either priest or wizard, thus allowing access to those abilities in addition to base class.

Classes:

Bard, Assassin, Barbarian, Monk, Tactician, Scholar, Ranger, Thief, and Knight

Spells:

As the world of DnD has a giant wealth of spells to draw from, each spellbook is going to be fairly comprehensive and contain many varieties of damage and debilitation spells as well as buffs and summoning spells.

Monster Nations:

There will be tribes of giants, ogres, kobolds, goblins, orcs, gnolls, and other assorted beasts that will send out raids from their lairs and even attempt to create more. Similar to minor nations but they cannot be dealt with diplomatically and they attempt to expand.