Racial God of Octopodes

[bcadren]

Old idea from long past was other gods starting with (B) that could only be used by one race; similar to Beogh for orcs. In all cases; the design principle should be medium-weak strength god (not as strong as Oka or Qazlal); but with abilities that make sense for that race. Anyways; draft of a god of the octopodes.

Powers:

• *..... - Small Piety - Cephalopod Resilience. You're granted a boost to your AC and EV, which scales with Invocations. +(2/3) x Invo AC and +(1/3) x Invo EV. Stacks with Ozo's Armour or Stoneskin; but NOT form spells.
• **.... - Passive - Constriction Assistance. If the first (normal) constriction attempt fails; there's a second attempt, which ignores size factor. Checking directly: 2d(Strength) v HD. It's still impossible to constrict monsters with resistance to constriction (Ghosts, Porcupines, Orbs of Fire, etc.)
• ***... - Small Piety, Exhaustion - Fling. You may throw any target which you have constricted. How far you can throw it scales with STR, damage dealt (to thrown creature and anything it hits) is scaled with Throwing skill. Invo is used only for failure rate.
• ****.. - Medium Piety - Oceanic Upwelling. - Water rushes in from below where you are standing, this causes drowning damage and pushes back any creature close to you.
• *****. - God Gifts - Rings. Similar to Okawaru, ring quality isn't as good as a normal acquirement, but gifts are frequent enough to get a fair number of good ones.
• ****** - Large Piety - Adaptive Camouflage. You become invisible; this invisibility bypasses monster SInv. You additionally get boosts to Stealth and Stab damage that scale with Invocations. Duration scales with Invo.

[byrel]

So... Training Invo gives more AC per skill point than training Armour in Crystal plate mail, plus 1/3 EV. I'm not SURE that's OP, but I would definitely train Invo.

It's a competitive god with the top tier Op gods. Very thematic, but probably needs a bit of nerf. I can't really imagine picking Oka with this god available...

[Berder]

I like it. Instead of Oceanic Upwelling I think there should be an "ink jet" ability that squirts water in front of you and shoots you a fair distance in the opposite direction. The water you shoot is covered with the inky sight-blocking effect that a Kraken produces. The distance you travel should be increased if you're already in water.

The god might seem too powerful but it could be balanced by giving the abilities a sufficiently high piety cost.

[tasonir]

I like it all except the AC granting ability - octopodes are supposed to cope with not having armor, this god instead says "here's a bunch of AC when you need it" so it moves you closer to a standard game. Byrel: I don't think this is supposed to be a passive - it's only +ac/ev while active. Listed as small piety cost though, so it's probably fairly spammable.

Also I believe that piety-costing abilities are generally discouraged at 6*'s as it's relatively easy to lose them, especially if this god gifts rings (and I assume those cause the same gift timeouts that trog/okawaru use). Move to 5*; I'm also not sure if we really want something that bypasses monster Sinv, but hey.

I don't think it's terribly likely that they'll add any more single race gods, though. I wouldn't mind a god who gifted jewelry that could be taken by any non-DG race, though.

[le_nerd]

@Tasonir: we already have a god that gifts jewellry, its just possibly the worst god in the game. Gozaq with name.

[tasonir]

I actually kind of like gozag and its jewelry gifting is quite strong. Its main problem is lack of early game impact and being better off abandoned after several call shops, but it's still a decently powerful option after you've gotten some shops and upgraded gear.

[Pollen_Golem]

I'd like to see a version of this god that doesn't give gifts, doesn't use invo and doesn't reduce piety for using abilities. Something that just makes your octopode better and takes up a god slot. Like if you want to play like a Demigod, but as an Octopode with nifty abilities! :3

[ontoclasm]

this invisibility bypasses monster SInv

Ignoring the rest of the proposal, I'd just pick this out as really bad design. Poison -> poison immunity -> super poison that affects even immune targets -> double secret poison immunity that blocks even super poison -> etc.

[bcadren]

Poison -> poison immunity -> super poison that affects even immune targets -> double secret poison immunity that blocks even super poison -> etc.

So rPois, Poison Arrow, Necromutation? ...cool.

(Player SInv is kinda bad design though; I'll give you that.

[le_nerd]

Different levels of sInv were until recently a thing (sense invisible etc) so I wouldn't say its too obvious.