Xom rework suggestion

[Rast]

OK, the goal here is to preserve some of the randomness of Xom but give the player more choice about what happens. I know it is still a little bit halfbaked but we can sort that out later:

- Gains piety for killing monsters.
- No piety cap, no diminishing returns on piety gains at high piety. Stack up piety without limit, unlike the lesser gods.
- Tactical ability: Spend a small amount of piety to get some random combat buffs and heals. You can use this several times in a row if you need more buffs or healing.
- Strategic ability: Spend a medium amount of piety to see a list of possible item gifts. All items in crawl are possible, including artifacts, but you can choose the item type you want. At any time you can use more piety to get gifted any item(s) from the list you desire. Combine the strongest features of acquirement and normal god gifts to to get exactly what your character most needs without having to deal with junk!
- You can keep spending piety whenever you like to add more items on the gift list.
- Another strategic ability: Turns a bunch of monsters on the level neutral or allied at random. This sounds strong, but would be balanced by making it cost so much piety that you could realistically only afford to use it on branch ends.

What do you guys think? Any devs want to code this up for me?

[dpeg]

Rast: too much Trump on TV?

[njvack]

MAKE XOM GREAT AGAIN

[dynast]

OK, the goal here is to preserve some of the randomness of Xom but give the player more choice about what happens.

And you already lost me.

[Rast]

I forgot to mention, there should also be a passive that lasts for a few dozen turns after a monster dies and gives any other monsters on screen a chance to be confused for a few turns, to give the player free stabs and ensure he can always run away from speed 10 monsters. The chance to confuse should go up the faster you kill monsters.

[Sandman25]

That's a good Demonspawn mutation IMHO.

[Lacuenta]

Rename to Xozag!

[Reptisaurus]

I guess that's okay as long as he still randomly kills you every now and again.

[Sandman25]

If Xom can have an active ability, then it should be "Do something", not "Help". Otherwise it is no longer Xom.

[Dracunos]

If Xom can have an active ability, then it should be "Do something", not "Help". Otherwise it is no longer Xom.

I'm not sure if Xom was changed much recently? I think they've been adding stuff since I last tried him..

But when I tried him a few months ago, it was boring.. I was quite surprised because my first Xom game many years ago was like the coolest thing ever.. But really, it feels like playing with no god at all, and in addition to having no god, you are just getting a bunch of random crap happening to you and stuff in your los. I consciously know that the randomness is Xom, but it still ends up feeling like a boring no-god game for me personally. Maybe I just didn't get far enough in that game?

So I agree that it would be a benefit to add something. I just can't think of anything that makes any sense whatsoever to add to Xom. I also agree with Sandman25's assessment above.

[Shard1697]

Well, what do you think was the difference between that and your first Xom game? I would imagine it's mostly just familiarity with the game, Xom hasn't changed all that much.

[Turukano]

If Xom can have an active ability, then it should be "Do something", not "Help". Otherwise it is no longer Xom.

That's interesting. I sometimes added notes like "do something, boss" in my Xom games when I was in trouble. Do something could be a kind of (dubious) emergency button. The ability should always cost something, like random

• reducing Xom's "piety"
• losing a random amout of gold
• losing one inventory item
• ...

and should have three possible results:

• Xom helps you
• Xom ignores you
• Xom punishes you

[Bart]

Definitely not; you'd already pay an opportunity cost, while you could gain either nothing or even be punished.

[Aean]

I actually kinda like the "Do Something" ability. It makes Xom a little more interactive, but maintains his randomness. Maybe he'll take 1 gold from you and grant you a friendly orb of fire...or maybe he'll take your potions of cure mutation and make your hair glow purple. Or maybe he'll do nothing at all, even if you spend half the fight desperately and repeatedly invoking him for help.

Basically makes him a god you can actually call on in times of need (or, indeed, whenever you want), but doing so may not be a wise decision. Seems appropriate for a god whose focus appears to be a little less "chaos" and a little more "capriciousness."

And Bart...while I agree with you in principle, the sort of crazy people who go for Xom in the first place are also the sort of people who'd ask for Xom to do something, anything.

[ydeve]

It could give the Exh status to prevent spamming, and it should never give anything of strategic use to prevent further scumming.