Holy Magic!

[bcadren]

I'm going to throw my hat in the rink about demigods. There seems to be a big push of 'make them more different' or 'buff them' fighting a 'they are already a unique enough challenge' in two different camps.

Let me propose a few things that could buff demigods without changing any of their core; all of them have to do with 'divine magic':

• Uncap the spellpower of Demigods. All spells with a low spellpower cap have the cap removed. For example, Magic Dart has a cap of 25; at which level it does 1d8 damage. If you remove the cap; (though you'd never reach 200 spellpower for Conjurations), the new maximum power is 1d40. Throw Flame would go from maxing out at 2d9 to 2d14. Not sure if I like it because JUST making that change would only buff level 4- spells and it's only real effects would be letting low level Hexes pierce more MR; boosting the dam of weak conjurations and (if specially coded to do so) summoning more creatures or stronger creatures with Summoning spells...AFTER a lot of investment in the skill.
• Return the old "holy magic' skill (which was replaced by Religion in the pre-DCSS days; original had Cleansing Flame and Self-Heal as spells). Fill it with spells that only Demigods can use; which include self-heal, holy summons, Hellfire, etc. This makes the new Demigod features opt in; instead of forced and still puts them at the mercy of the RNG. (Spells would be split among 3 books, one of which being high level. Same drop rates as other spellbooks, but more likely to come from ?Acq if you are demigod, even without the skill.
• Enhanced Evocations for Demigods. Innate boost to spellpower from Rods and Wands; Staff of Channeling draws more mana, etc. The {foo} responds to your holy ancestry and offers more power than it would to the unworthy.
• As an overall note; (non-specific suggestion). Demigods and Demonspawn are supposed to be opposites that are both really powerful. Demonspawn get a lot of passive boosts with level; it's fitting that Demigods would get the opposite (active boosts as well as the skill boosts). Making magic, evocations, etc. more powerful does this without significantly changing base gameplay; though it could also be achieved by 'gaining attributes' which are like Demonspawn mutations, only instead of you get more AC, you are more stealthy, passives; are like...you may now leap great distances (adding an (a)bility to use instead of something that's always boosting).

[Hopeless]

I actually like the idea of this. Not so sure about the mechanics but it would definitely set them apart.