Iacchus, the Ascended [God Concept]

[Vanguardan]

Iacchus the Ascended

Once a powerful demigod and heroic adventurer, Iacchus ascended to godhood… only to realize that no battle or duel could now stand against his deific power. No longer in possession of his physical body, craving the danger and challenge of his former life, Iacchus seeks willing vessels- creatures who will share their body with him, throwing themselves into the thick of peril, and in return receive his aid and divine strength.
Iacchus’ only aim is to act and experience through the bodies of those he enters, enjoying the thrill of the hazardous situations adventurers find themselves in. The more injured they become, the more Iacchus will assist, striking down enemies with the divine strength he once held in his mortal body. Invocations do not affect this power.

Iacchus is a more difficult god to play, due to his innate reward of risky play- dependence on lower HP to maximize powers and benefits. However, when in those dangerous situations that leave you at low health, he shines with powerful passive damage boosts, damage reduction, and a list of random helpful actions to aid in completion of (or escape from) a fight. Iacchus should play well with fighters and casters, and still fairly well with stealth/assassin builds.

Overview

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At low health, Iacchus will boost your damage output.
Iacchus can further assist you when you are in severe danger.
At low health, Iacchus will reduce incoming damage.
Your bond will render you immune to incapacitation.
Iacchus can save you from the jaws of death… once.

Iacchus likes it when you kill monsters in high-tension situations, when you kill monsters while at low health, or both (“Iacchus enjoyed that kill”).

Iacchus dislikes inactivity. (“Iacchus grows restless”).

Iacchus does not have an “altar” and does not appear in the ecumenical temple. In the occasional designed vault (think small troves of trophies and weapons, etc.), you will find the resting spirit of Iacchus. He may say a few specific lines about desiring a host body, or about his exploits as a demigod, and such, but will not move from his spot. He acts as the altar, and you can press ‘>’ on any tile adjacent to him to activate the selection screen.

Ability Description

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Piety Level (-): Unfamiliar
-No new abilities.
Piety Level (*): Connecting
-Battle-lust: At low percentages of health, you gain a percentage increase in outgoing damage. This increase scales with missing health.
Piety Level (**): Acquainted
-No new abilities.
Piety Level (***): Bonded
-Intervention: Iacchus performs a random, instantaneous action to aid you while in danger. Using this ability at lower HP has a lower piety cost and returns better, more powerful actions. The piety cost is severe above 75%HP, and you will receive a warning if you try to use Intervention at that point.
Piety Level (****): Channel
-Battle-lust also decreases incoming damage the lower your health is, also scaling with missing health.
Piety Level (*****): Conduit
-Your powerful bond with Iacchus grants immunity to incapacitation (confusion, paralysis, hibernation, mesmerisation). Blocking one of these effects decays your bond, decreasing piety.
Piety Level (******): Unitary
-Manifestation: Active, toggleable status. If you receive a lethal blow while this effect is active, Iacchus briefly manifests his full deity within you. Your entire LOS is engulfed in a fiery explosion, and you are healed to full HP and MP. However, due to the strain on both you and Iacchus, you are also exhausted, severely drained and slowed, and you lose some amount of max HP and MP. Also, you are reduced to 3* piety.
This ability is only usable once. After it is consumed, you can no longer abandon Iacchus.

List of actions from Intervention active ability:

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50%HP and above:

• “Iacchus channels his power through your [weapon]!” Status effect ‘IPow’, temporarily ‘brands’ your weapon with an additional brand and +5 slaying. Chooses randomly from flaming, freezing, or electricity, but will not choose the current brand. This option is chosen with higher weapon and combat skills.
• ”Iacchus’ magical power overflows around you!” Status effect ‘IPow,’ grants a bonus to spellpower and spawns variable things around you when you cast a spell, dependent on the school you cast it from. Elemental clouds for elemental spells, arcane explosions (as per IMB) for conjurations, fog clouds for hexes, meph clouds for necromancy, chaos clouds for summoning, etc. No additional mana cost. This option is chosen with higher spellcasting skills.
• ”Iacchus cleaves a ring around you!” Deals attack damage to all adjacent monsters, with a chance to knock them back 1-2 tiles.
• ”Iacchus pulverizes the Foo’s weapon!” Destroys the weapon of an adjacent monster, dealing them heavy damage. Requires an armed adjacent monster.
• ”Iacchus grabs hold of the foo and flings it away!” Launches an adjacent monster 2-6 tiles away, damaging on contact with walls. Requires an adjacent monster.

25-50%HP:

• ”Iacchus enters a blocking stance.” Status effect ‘IBlk’. Whether or not you have a shield equipped, blocks all incoming attacks for 2-4 turns.
• ”Iacchus enters a retaliatory stance,” followed by ”Iacchus retaliates, dealing the Foo a mighty blow!” Or “Iacchus retaliates, returning the [ammo] to the Foo!” Or “Iacchus absorbs the magical energy of the [monster spell/wand]!” Status effect ‘IRetl.’ Triggers on incoming attacks for 2-4 turns: melee, ranged and magic. For melee and ranged you take the attack damage and then return it. For magic attacks you take severely reduced damage and restore some MP.

Below 25%HP:

• “Iacchus crushes the dungeon walls in his escape!” Leaps many tiles away, through the nearest walls, breaking them on the way.
• “Iacchus roars, felling the Foo with a godly strike!” Instantly destroys the adjacent monster with the highest HD and/or HP. Also generates very high noise.

Abandonment

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Iacchus’ wrath is more intense at higher HP, and practically nonexistent at very low HP.

• Gives you a status effect causing increased incoming damage.
• Causes you to miss attacks, dodges and blocks that would have succeeded.
• Leaps towards crowds of enemies.
• Drains your stats and skills and slows you.
• Always makes you fall down stairs you try to ascend.

Please provide feedback. Likes, dislikes, advice, etc. I’m still willing to add, subtract and modify most of Iacchus’ abilities.

Obviously this idea is also incomplete, since many of these numbers can only be balanced with testing.

Edit History

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-All species (sans demigods) can now worship Iacchus.
-Piety is now only based on exploration (could change in the future).

-Complete rework:
-Iacchus' focus is now on danger and challenge. His abilities are based on greater power at lower health.
-Merged Intervention and Assistance into one active ability.
-Added Battle-Lust passive ability: increases outgoing damage (and at higher piety, decreases incoming damage) while injured.
-Reworked capstone: is now a toggleable active ability.
-Reworked wrath.

[Sprucery]

I don't usually comment on god proposals and boy there's a lot of text in there but whatever you do, please don't introduce more gods that can't be worshipped by all non-demigods.

[Vanguardan]

@Sprucery:

Yeah, there's a lot of text, I've been working through iterations of this idea for a while, and wanted it to be fully fleshed out.

Thanks for the feedback too, that's something I can give up. I thought it wouldn't be an issue since (aside from the trinity and Beogh) Yred and Fedhas are the only restrictive gods, but this restriction isn't that important flavor-wise.

[Terrapin]

Personally, I think this is a pretty interesting idea. I do worry that all the actions and warnings are a tad spoiler-y, though.

[Vanguardan]

True. I mean, so is Xom though, and Iacchus is supposed to work like a nicer Xom.

Originally he took actions for you with no warning, and I decided that was a bit too RNG-y.

[Aean]

Hm. It's an interesting idea to be sure. I have three observations, and a question.

1. At least part of the piety-gain system seems flawed. As long as enemies are in sight, there's a constant chance of gaining piety because there's a chance of Iacchus acting. This incentivizes some scummy behavior, like dragging a rat around wherever you go. It's also got the whole feedback loop of "Enemy in sight, so Iacchus acts more often, so you gain more piety, so Iacchus acts more often, etc."
Particularly because of some of the passives he offers (say, mesmerisation immunity) it's optimal to piety-farm before entering places like Shoals. You might just want to make him Xom-like for piety, considering your flavor seems to have him acting based on how happy he is with the life he's experiencing through you. Or alternatively to set it so any action has a small chance of giving you piety.

2. The god-wrath system seems problematic and scummy as well. It's never high-danger unless you're already in a dangerous situation, and prevents joining another god. So more than any other god, it makes sense to wait off wrath on D1 (or similar), so he can recklessly charge or attack monsters who wouldn't be a threat anyway. Unless he does these things only when you're surrounded by real threats, or prevents you from ever joining another god, or something like that, the only thing his wrath hurts is your final score.

2. I know you like the life-saving capstone, but I think you might want to redesign how it works. It'd be valuable, but not particularly interesting. Unlike other capstones, it doesn't change your playstyle in any meaningful way. While other gods give you a special brand, book, or spell, or a powerful, piety-draining ability, Iacchus just gives you the Felid-lite experience, once, without the inconvenience of losing a level. This also means that, like gods who grant an item, brand, or spell capstone, it's generally optimal to leave the god once your capstone is expended. You could maybe turn this into an active ability with a strong counterbalance - either turn on a temporary "lifesaving" in exchange for a major cost, or restore health/mana in exchange for a major cost. This makes it an interesting question of when a player uses it, and how it affects them. Say, you get 10 turns of "lifesaving," but in exchange for 10-20% of maxHP/MP, or you restore HP/MP on command, but permanently lose 5 in all stats each time you do.

Now for the question: What makes playing with this god unique? Or if you'd prefer, what makes a Iacchus game different and interesting?

It seems like because his abilities are all passive and beneficial, he doesn't really add much to your list of decisions. You don't choose when to activate a combat buff (like you do with Trog or Okawaru), an escape ability (like Fo, Usk, digging, swiftness), or a lifesaving ability (like Zin). All that happens is that sometimes you get random benefits on offense, defense, or escape. And unlike, say, Ru's sacrifices, Qazlal's noise, or Xom's bad actions, there's no significant drawbacks that go along with it. Similarly, there's no noteworthy conduct, either for gaining piety, or avoiding penance. As you said, it reads like a more benevolent Xom, but with a much more limited set of actions...which makes Iacchus more bland than I think you intended.

[Vanguardan]

Good points on all counts. Thanks for the feedback, I knew I still had plenty of redesigning to do

For piety, it doesn't have to be unique. "Likes it when you explore the world" would probably be sufficient, and rework the action probability formula.

For wrath, I can either change it completely or add in something like "You try to ascend the stairs. Iacchus won't let you."

For the capstone, that's the one thing I didn't put much effort into because that's kind of where I started idea-wise. It can use some work.

As for the question, the thing that makes Iacchus different and interesting *is* that beneficial randomness. With Xom, you just kind of have to take what he gives you and use it to your advantage, or groan when he polymorphs the unique next to you into a shadow dragon. But with Iacchus, it's a more tactical kind of 'using what he gives you.'

You're a caster that suddenly finds themselves in the middle of a firefight against a large group of enemies. You see Intervention's 'empowered spell' warning. So what do you do? Do you fireball the already-damaged clump of slimes several tiles away, or iron shot the two-headed ettin that appeared behind you in the hopes that you'll one-shot it and gain an escape route.

You're a melee fighter at low health in a crowd, and the Assistance 'your legs tense up' warning pops up. You have to pause and figure out where you'll try and run to, or jump to, depending on the result (and if you're new to Iacchus, you assume that it's some kind of escape and plan the same way).

But again, thanks for the feedback.

[WingedEspeon]

I think a more traditional piety gain system would work better, even though you are going for a more belelovent xom feel, because they are less scummable. Maybe exploration, or killing and exporation at half the gain that they normal give.

I am not agaist the current capstone ablility, but it does seem a little strong. Maybe something like he saves you are restores you to full HP/MP, but putting you on "Iacchas life support" for the rest of the game, removing the renounce religion ability and weakinging or reducing the frequency of his actions. (You lose renounce religion because if Iacchas stops actively keeping you alive, you die. Also, weakening your god would normally tempt you to choose another one.)

Also, let Vp and the like play this god please, forbidding god/species combos generally isn't fun (personally I would like to be able to play Ds^Ely and the like)

[Vanguardan]

Update: added some major reworks that should address many of the complaints and suggestions so far.