How situational is worshipping a god for you?

[Turukano]

This is a question to the more experienced players, and it's rather a kind of survey than asking for help.

Imagine the following examples:

• You play a DsTm. Heroism will buff your UC by 5, so you think about worshipping Oka. Then you get claws mutation. As this might be enough help for UC you choose another god.
• Another char, whatever combo. You want to do extended and have your ideas about it. But then you don't have rMut amulet and decide to switch to Zin for extended.

*******

So: how much depends worshipping a god on your situation?

• How much does an early altar influence your decision?
• How much do items/mutations influence your decision?
• In case I missed something, anything else?

[Sar]

Most combos have more than one god they can benefit from, and getting a "pretty good" god on D:2 is better than getting a "perfect" god on D:9.

[DrKe]

in the first scenario claws shouldn't discourage you from worshipping oka because more damage is always good

the second scenario i've done myself several times and had both great success and pathetic failures, the absence of a rmut amulet or presence of a very nice non-rmut amulet is a good reason to switch to zin

[Sprucery]

Usually I have at least a vague idea of what deity to pick from the start. I prefer gods I haven't won with at all / for a long time. But early altars have a huge impact on the decision. For example a HECj picked Okawaru without hesitation at a D:2 altar (splatted in an Ice Cave in the Lair after underestimating a group of freezing wraiths).

I won't pick Xom at an altar, though. I play CKs when I want Xom. If I find a Jiyva altar and don't yet have a god, I always go Jiyva just for the hell of it.

[Lasty]

If your goal is to win, you generally want to join up at the first altar you encounter for a god you can stand to play.

[Hirsch I]

what if this god is Chei?

[Lasty]

what if this god is Chei?

Fair point. I'd only recommend early-joining Chei if you know exactly what you're doing and know how to manage the difficult power ramp-up period in addition to wanting to play Chei.

[cerebovssquire]

I'd just like to point out that no rMut doesn't really influence my Zin/not Zin decision much. Zin is great in extended for a lot of other reasons, but
-most bad mutations aren't a big problem in the first place
-there are a lot of other items which help against mutaters (?blinking, ?fog, ?summoning, summon rods, etc.)
-with good tactics (using line of fire and LoS to your advantage, possibly blocking line of fire to a mutater with other hostile monsters)
-with strong ranged attacks mutaters are even less of a problem, same goes for summoning spells or god summons

[NessOnett]

Usually I pick a God before the game starts, and am pretty adamant about waiting till I find an altar for them. Occasionally I will pick a few backup Gods, and grab them if I see them early, but usually I just hold off. Though in the lategame, sometimes you gotta go Zin, then again I am overly hypochondriatic about mutations.

[Igxfl]

If I find an altar to a vaguely reasonable god in the D:1 to D:3 zone I generally take it.

I don't know if it's optimal to do this, but it's more fun for me, since it forces me to try out atypical gods for a given species/background.

[Turukano]

To summarize your answers, an early altar has a much bigger impact than I thought.

getting a "pretty good" god on D:2 is better than getting a "perfect" god on D:9.

If your goal is to win, you generally want to join up at the first altar you encounter for a god you can stand to play.

If I find an altar to a vaguely reasonable god in the D:1 to D:3 zone I generally take it.

On the other hand, for late game (which is usually extended) the choice of god seems not to have too much influence.

I'd just like to point out that no rMut doesn't really influence my Zin/not Zin decision much.

Both points surprised me a bit. But it's a fact that most chars die in early dungeon while there are more escape/heal options in extended.

Thanks for all of your comments!

[Bart]

Hey, don't sum up yet!

If the point of my playing is to keep as many characters alive as possible (i.e. maintain a streak), I will probably take any reasonable god as soon as I find his altar early. If I do not mind few quick splats, I will instead dive looking for temple and join a religion I really want for my particular case. This is the case of speedruns / pleasant, easy games.

God choice in late game Is situational. For extended I tend to minimize randomness. I prefer Sif Muna over Vehumet because I am guaranteed to get necromutation/cBlink/Haste. For the reason of rMut I also switched few times to Jiyva/Zin. It's not that I cannot do extended without particular spells/resources, but I avoid risky, luck-dependent gameplay. I seriously hate to waste a tiresomely built character to random bullshit like teleportitis or berserkitis.