[CF-Devel] General notes on the latest gods

[Peter Mardahl]

I'd like to see EVERY god have something special and cool
given to it, so that players would be interested in trying a religion
just to find out about such things if nothing else.

Also:

on Conflict for Lythander:  Conflict is one of the coolest things
ever, as anyone who has ever played nethack will tell you.  I understand
the argument against it:  what if things got too easy because the monsters
would fight and kill each other without the player having to do anything?

Well, I argue that monsters have a much harder time damaging each other
than they have harming a player.  Monsters have way more hitpoints,
they're typically immune to their own attack spells, and their physical
damage potential is scaled to the player and not to their own hp level.

Think of the glee a player will feel as the monsters all turn on each
other and he fires arrows into the fray from a safe distance.

It can be balanced by limiting the range and duration as well.  In fact,
it's not so much more powerful than the spell "mass confusion".

I would also like to see special arrows given to Lythander followers.



Regen +2 for Gnarg:  Nooooo.  I agree with Jan.  No healing for this
god, who is a poisoner and corrupter, not a healer.  I also concur
with his preference for boots and not a helm, though not on the
sp regen -1 part of the boots.  If sp regen -1, put it in the player.
I would also like to see vuln fear.

I think smallpox is a good enough special prayer for Gnarg.


Mostrai:  I disagree with Wall of Thorns....  That one seems like
a Gaea spell if ever there was one

How about a prayer of sharpening, which adds to the players wc
temporarily?  That won't help gain Wis experience, it's true, but
the holy word they got is a very good one.



Gaea:  What could be more defensive than converting your enemies
to becoming peaceful?  It's no worse than the Devourer's Face of
Death spell, and the Devourers don't even have to give up weapons.
Furthermore, the Devourer's spell gets you the items, while it is
rather difficult to get intact items out of a live but peaceful creature,
if you cannot even hit it.  The Spell of Peace is just *so* appropriate,
and gives a way for Gaeans to have a general "attack".

On the flip side, why is Gaea not denied Wounding and Death?

The proposed Sanctuary spell would stop ALL "magical" attacks:  all
cones, all bullets, all bolts, whether they had AT_MAGIC or not.  This
is a side effect of using countermagic.




Ruggilli:  What does "Enemy God:  All" mean?  A generally acting
holy word?  I think NOT.  No generally acting holy word. 

 If
you're going to put "Immolation" under a column, it belongs under
"attack types" and not spells.  The weapon class and dam of
the Ruggilli players "immolation" should be scaled according to
his Wis level every time he comes to the altar.  Note that the dam
is negative:  this tells the disease code to take a fraction
of the victims HP rather than a set number.
I think immmolation is special and cool enough.


Sorig:  Divine shock and Forked lightning are pretty cool spells.
I agree about removing wounding.  As compensation for removing Wounding,
I propose removing the "Denied protection".

A proposal which didn't make it onto dnh's page is this:
the "windstorm" spell, which would do minor physical damage in a cone,
but exert a force on everything in the cone to move away from the caster.
The force and the damage would start VERY low but increase with level.



Devourers:

Creeping frost is not needed.  We can give it to some undead monster
for it to use on players instead.  I don't think D's should get
immune/protected fear either.  The Face of Death spell is sufficiently
nice.


Gorokh

Flaming aura is cool, but perhaps insufficiently attractive.  How about
a Vitriol prayer which would spew agonizing, burning acid onto monsters?
Spreads in a cone, but drops puddles of acid on the ground which keep
smoking for a little while?  This would be rather unique, as it would
be the ONLY player-acid attack in the game except for Color Spray.

I disagree with Jan's idea on having a large fireball.  I would prefer
to reserve most fire, cold, electricity "magical" attacks to mages.
Priests are supposed to be more spritual.


Valriel

Ah, valriel, how shall he advance?  He is not TOO bad, because
the holy word spell works on both undead AND demons.  The holy
possession spell is only moderatly useful.  the blinding attack though,
THAT is useful.  I agree with Jan about a regeneration spell for
Valriel.  I don't understand why Jan thinks a permanent glow would
be nasty?

PeterM