Merge CK and Wn backgrounds, or give CK a starter book

[Pollen_Golem]

Take Xom as a starter god, and take the random starting kit (equipment/skills/stats/spell) of the Wanderer background, and call this background Chaos Wanderer (CW). Why?

People who pick CK are looking for a random game full of unexpected twists. Their desire for a random game is hampered by the fact that all Chaos Knights start out practically the same, and the randomness only begins as they start exploring. Chaos Knights have a bland, uniform stat distribution, and are forced to start with a melee weapon and skill. As a result, typical CK strategy is to muscle through a stormy beginning with a typical melee build. Xom should be pleased with weird, incongruent char-gen. Another bonus is that the ultra-rare Chaos brand will no longer be so easily available at the start of the game.

People who pick Wn may be looking for a challenge: adapt to any starter kit, and win. The only other background that creates a similar challenge is Chaos Knight, by virtue of creating difficult early scenarios. Unfortunately, players cannot pick both backgrounds at the same time... yet. Alternatively, some players may keep trying the wanderer background in hope of getting a particularly good starting kit. A good portion of Wanderer characters are better than if any other background was chosen. These players tend to be scummers, looking for an optimal build of some sort and, as such, are likely aiming to worship a certain god. Making these players worship Xom in order to enjoy their starting kit is a good deterrent to Wn-scumming, since they would be likelier to lose their precious character and kit to Xom worship or Xom wrath.

Note: Demigods are to be exempted from following Xom when they pick the Chaos Wanderer background.

[n1000]

I don't favor this idea. I like the idea of playing a wanderer, having to adapt to a 'starting kit', which a god is not typically part of. I also simply dislike playing Xom worshipers. I think there's a big difference between adapting to random items and skills, which matches well with the adaptations you must make with every character early on, and dealing with the bizarre stuff Xom does.

Startscumming wanderers doesn't seem like a big problem to me. I could be convinced that it is, but I doubt that this is a good solution in any case.

[PleasingFungus]

good cyc post

[Rast]

This suggestion makes CK more interesting, but ruins Wn.

[dowan]

Yeah, I get the thought behind it, but why mess with Wn? I do think the CK start could use a re-imagining. It implies that a chaos weapon is somehow desirable for a xom worshipper, when it's really a terrible weapon for starting the game(You thought a d1 adder was bad? Have a berserk d1 adder!) The old +2 weapon was rather boring as well though...

Starting CKs with a +1 weapon, and a randart spell book would be cool, but obviously there's a problem there with start scumming. Of course, wanderers have that problem anyway...

[Sandman25]

Can we have Xom altar be guaranteed on D1?

[megawidget]

How about a mood meter bonus for wanderers when they first convert? ^_^

[Pollen_Golem]

So what about starting Chaos Knights off with a book? Not a randart one, but a fixed starter book?
Chaos Knights start off with the same stats as Skalds, so what gives?
I would suggest the following spells are prank-like or uncontrollable in some way, and would 'fit' CK.
It may not be a terrible thing for CK to become an odd alternative to 'Warrior-Mage' backgrounds.
This isn't accounting for the 'problem' of powerful starting spells, although if a player decides to train for a single high-level spell, without any lower-level spells, that is a lot of skill points that simply don't yield returns for a long time.

Alistair's Intoxication (4)
Beastly Appendage (1)
Blink (2)
Confusing Touch (2)
Shadow Creatures (5)
Static Discharge (3)
Tukima's Dance (3)
Warp Weapon (5)

[dowan]

That's a pretty damn sweet starting book! That makes CKs into ultra wizards!