[CF-Devel] General notes on the latest gods

[Jan Echternach]

On Wed, Nov 15, 2000 at 06:44:47PM -0800, Peter Mardahl wrote:
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      on Conflict for Lythander:  Conflict is one of the coolest things
     
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      ever, as anyone who has ever played nethack will tell you.  I understand
     
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      the argument against it:  what if things got too easy because the monsters
     
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      would fight and kill each other without the player having to do anything?
     
     
You're right.  I hadn't considered that monsters already hit each other
very often (even if not confused), usually with spells.  On the other
hand, conflict won't probably be as cool as in nethack because of
this.

Another unique prayer that seems suitable for Lythander could be a
"glue" spell that casts a small cone consisting of glue that stays on
the map for a while.

Gaea might have a similar spell that creates a spider web, maybe in
form of a FBULLET (fireball etc.) spell.

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      Mostrai:  I disagree with Wall of Thorns....  That one seems like
     
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      a Gaea spell if ever there was one
     
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      How about a prayer of sharpening, which adds to the players wc
     
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      temporarily?  That won't help gain Wis experience, it's true, but
     
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      the holy word they got is a very good one.
     
     
I'd prefer a spell that actually creates something, e.g. "[create] holy
axe" which creates a very good axe (probably weaponmagic attack type)
that dissolves after a while.  Different prayers for different weapons
are possible, e.g. one prayer for a weapon with much damage and low
weapon class, and another prayer for a weapon with AC bonus, low weapon
class but less damage.

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      Gaea:  What could be more defensive than converting your enemies
     
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      to becoming peaceful?  It's no worse than the Devourer's Face of
     
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      Death spell, and the Devourers don't even have to give up weapons.
     
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      Furthermore, the Devourer's spell gets you the items, while it is
     
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      rather difficult to get intact items out of a live but peaceful creature,
     
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      if you cannot even hit it.  The Spell of Peace is just *so* appropriate,
     
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      and gives a way for Gaeans to have a general "attack".
     
     
First of all, Gaeans don't want to attack.  ;-)  I remember killing a
titan with create fire wall (create several fire walls along a wall,
then trick the titan into running into them).  It was rather easy and I
didn't have to fight the titan directly.  Indeed, it was the titan's
greed for my blood which killed it.  This should be the way how Gaeans
fight.  If wall of thorns isn't strong enough, make it stronger.  Or
add other passive attack spells.  A very powerful spell could be
"create wood" which creates trees at all tiles in the area of effect
that are not blocked, and these trees attack the caster's enemies until
they get destroyed or dissolve.

An interesting spell could be a "sedative" prayer that lowers the
victim's damage and increases its weapon class.

Even though it's kind of interesting if opposing gods have similar high
level prayers, I wouldn't like Gaea to have a prayer that's so similar
to face of death.  Gaea wiping out half of a map full of monsters would
just look wrong, since everybody is used to the idea that hostile
monsters only disappear when killed.

Furthermore, one problem with "face of death" is that it kills
immediately.  I think changing it to a prayer that simply does damage
depending on the level difference will be needed some day to get it
balanced better.  Such change wouldn't be possible with the Spell of
Peace.

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      Ruggilli:  What does "Enemy God:  All" mean?  A generally acting
     
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      holy word?  I think NOT.  No generally acting holy word. 
     
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       If
     
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      you're going to put "Immolation" under a column, it belongs under
     
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      "attack types" and not spells.  The weapon class and dam of
     
     
I'm wondering if fireborns can inflict immolation on others using their
flame touch attack, because it doesn't do any physical damage.

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      Sorig:  Divine shock and Forked lightning are pretty cool spells.
     
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      I agree about removing wounding.  As compensation for removing Wounding,
     
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      I propose removing the "Denied protection".
     
     
I second this.  I like Sorig being a god with some defensive
capabilities.

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

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      Gorokh
     
     
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      I disagree with Jan's idea on having a large fireball.  I would prefer
     
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      to reserve most fire, cold, electricity "magical" attacks to mages.
     
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      Priests are supposed to be more spritual.
     
     
The "gates of hell" prayer wouldn't do the damage directly.  It opens a
portal for some original hell fire to get on the map (which might have
pure AT_FIRE attack type).  The effect can be made more interesting:  A
hellfire ball explodes at the target location, some map tiles will keep
burning for a while, and if the caster has bad luck, a demon or two are
sucked through the portal and will attack the caster because they
didn't like this.

However, an acid spell is also very reasonable and interesting.

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      Valriel
     
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      Ah, valriel, how shall he advance?  He is not TOO bad, because
     
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      the holy word spell works on both undead AND demons.  The holy
     
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      possession spell is only moderatly useful.  the blinding attack though,
     
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      THAT is useful.  I agree with Jan about a regeneration spell for
     
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      Valriel.  I don't understand why Jan thinks a permanent glow would
     
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      be nasty?
     
     
On dark maps, makes you visible to monsters without can_see_in_dark.

-- 
Jan