| Prosperity | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Realm |
 Life | |
| Spell Rarity | Rare | |
| Spell Type | Town Enchantment | |
| Casting Cost |
 250 | |
| Upkeep Cost |
2 | |
| Research Cost |
 1,200 | |
| ||
Enchanted Town's  Gold output is increased by 100%. | ||
Prosperity is a Rare Town Enchantment belonging to the Life Magic realm. It may only be cast on the overland map, and must be targeted at a friendly Town. For the base Casting Cost of 250, the spell increases the town's Gold output by 100% of the amount it makes through Taxation and Terrain Specials.
The effect lasts as long as you keep paying its Upkeep Cost of 2 per turn, or as long as it is not dispelled or canceled manually.
Effects[]
Prosperity encourages the population of a targeted Town to make business, and gives divine favour for the success of their transactions. As a result, the town's Gold output is significantly increased - and the larger the town, the better.
Gold Output Bonus[]
While Prosperity is in effect, the town's output of Gold is increased by 100%, like a Merchants' Guild does.
It is important to note that Prosperity only takes several Gold-producing sources into account when increasing town income. They are:
- Taxation: The amount of
Gold produced by the town's inhabitants as a result of the current tax rate. If each citizen produces 1 under the current tax rate, he will now produce 2 instead. - Terrain Specials: The Silver Ore, Gold Ore and Gems minerals normally produce 2, 3 and 5 respectively for a town when they are in its catchment area. With Prosperity in effect, they produce 4, 6 and 10 respectively.
Other sources that also produce Gold do not receive any benefit from Prosperity:
- Trade Goods: When setting the town's current construction to Trade Goods, the amount of Gold produced is not increased.
- Town Buildings: The amount of Gold produced by specific town buildings, such as the Marketplace and Bank. Each building produces 50% more than it normally would.
- Terrain: Unlike Terrain Specials, which do enjoy a bonus from Prosperity, Gold income from Shore tiles, Rivers and River Mouths is not increased.
- Roads: Trade generated through the existence of Roads, or through trade conducted automatically between two towns connected by roads, is not increased by Prosperity.
Usage[]
Prosperity may only be cast on the overland map, for a basic Casting Cost of 250. It may be targeted at any friendly Town which does not already have a Prosperity spell effecting it.
When the spell is cast, the game automatically opens a town-information window showing the contents of the target town. A few moments later, an icon of a gold coin will appear along the bottom of the town view, indicating it is under the influence of this spell. The coin will remain in the town's information screen as long as the spell remains in effect.
At the start of each turn, the casting wizard must pay an Upkeep Cost of 2 to keep Prosperity active. Failure to pay this cost due to lack of available Mana will cause the spell to dissipate immediately.
If you've placed Prosperity on a town, you may remove it by examining the town's details and clicking the text reading "Prosperity" in the town's Enchantments list. The primary reason to do this would be in order to remove the spell's Upkeep Cost, thus conserving Mana for other spells.
The extra Gold income generated by Prosperity can be seen when clicking on the Coins in the town's output display. It is denoted by the word "Prosperity" followed by a number of Gold Coin icons denoting the extra amount produced specifically by this spell.
Acquisition[]
As a Rare Life spell, Prosperity may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least 2 Spellbooks. However, its availability during the game is not guaranteed unless the Wizard acquires at least 10 Spellbooks.
Customized Wizards possessing 11 Spellbooks at creation time may choose this spell as one of their default spells before starting the game, in which case the spell will already be researched and available for casting immediately on the first turn.
Wizards with 2 to 9 Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to Research Prosperity during the game. The chance for this spell to appear for research increases with the number of Life Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. With 10 or 11 Spellbooks, the spell is guaranteed to appear for Research at some point, if it is not already available for casting.
Prosperity has a base Research Cost of 1,200.
With at least 2 Spellbooks, the Prosperity spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell.
Strategy[]
Prosperity can significantly increase your income from a Town, and is thus of great importance to any Life-wielding wizard.
It would normally be wiser to cast this spell on towns that are already producing a good amount of Gold; the more the town produces, the more it benefits from the spell. Nonetheless, due to the rather-low Upkeep Cost of the spell, it may be prudent to cast it on each and every town as soon as Mana is permitting.
The spell's Casting Cost and Upkeep Cost can easily be repaid using Alchemy - turning the excess Gold into Mana. Alchemist wizards will find this even easier to do thanks to the straight 1:1 conversion ratio they receive from this Retort.
Overall, this spell can boost Gold income by such a large amount that the casting wizard will have no trouble funding anything by the later game - including purchase of new Town Buildings all over the map as well as supporting large Normal Unit armies and plenty of high-cost Heroes.
In conjunction with another Life Town Enchantment, Stream of Life, it is possible to ramp up the Tax Rate to its highest - thus producing an immense amount of Gold, easily enough to generate massive sums of Mana and/or support massive armies.