[CF-Devel] Gods

[Scott Barnes]

I've been studying the various "cults" in Crossfire, and I've noticed a
few problems.  For one, many of the gods are not worth following.  In
particular I've noticed this problem with Valriel and Sorig.  Valriel has
some nice resistance advantages, but the "blessings" he gives are fairly
useless unless you happen to be in a dungeon filled with demons (not very
common) and by disallowing the cause wounds spells and the fact that his
"holy word" only harms demons (which it doesn't hurt them much apparently,
I've tried and I can barely kill an imp with it) which makes it close to
impossible to gain wisdom levels.  With Sorig, the problem is the fact
that Sorig doesn't seem to do much of anything at all.  Many of the other
gods are good but greatly imbalanced.  For instance, Gorokh is good as far
as using spells (I don't know about anyone else but I think flaming aura
is just awesome :)) but he doesn't have much else going for him.  The
Devourers are wonderful as they are, they give you incredible benefits but
equally strong restrictions.  Also, I really think the game needs a few
more gods to balance things out (gods for other races, like the elves have
Lythander, the dwarves have Mostrai; gods for other elements, a god for
cold perhaps?)  As an aside, not about the gods themselves but related,
there need to be more temples.  Most gods have only their temple in Scorn
and most towns have no temples at all.  Just some thoughts to consider :) 
Oh, and I also wanted to suggest the every god have a "special prayer"
that you can only learn by following them.  Something that pertains to
what they are the god of, like maybe a "pacify" spell for Valriel, a mana
recharge spell for Lythander, etc.  I have some ideas for the new gods as
well, if anyone is interested.  I'll wait and see if anyone else thinks
it's a good idea to even add new gods before I go into that though.  I
think the gods are one of the coolest things about Crossfire and I'd love
to see their implementation improved.  Oh, and one last aside (sorry, I
know this message is getting long)  I think the gods should bless things
other than just your weapons.  Especially cloaks, since a normal cloak is
utterly useless at the moment, so if the gods could bless them at least it
would give them *some* use :)  I'd love to get some comments if anyone has
them.

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Reeve the cat
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A bore is someone who persists in holding his own views after we have
enlightened him with ours.
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