Why do people use Xom?

[Sandman25]

I have impression that it is easier to win godless than with Xom. I tried using chaos weapon (got killed by berserking Ogre), tried using conventional weapon (got cast into Abyss from D8 despite finding battleaxe of electrocution of D2). I am a LO with axe and high AC and still Xom finds funny ways to kill me. How do you play/win with Xom?

[1010011010]

For fun.

[Sandman25]

Oh, I see. Makes sense indeed.

[Klown]

What are the 0.13 webtiles stats for wins by God ?

[duvessa]

74x Trog, 64x The Shining One, 60x Okawaru, 42x Vehumet, 29x Makhleb, 25x Ashenzari, 20x Zin, 15x Cheibriados, 15x Yredelemnul, 14x Sif Muna, 14x Nemelex Xobeh, 12x Lugonu, 11x Jiyva, 10x Xom, 10x No God, 9x Kikubaaqudgha, 8x Beogh, 7x Fedhas, 5x Elyvilon

[variouselite]

People use Xom because it makes things more interesting. You never know whats gonna happen. Plus its clearly a challenge god, so if you succeed you get to feel super awesome about yourself. I dunno, it seemed like no one actually answered your question so i gave it a shot. Hope it was helpful = )

[Sandman25]

Yes, it is very interesting indeed. Xom polymorphed Eustachio into Iguana, me into Ice Beast, increased my gold from 600 to 1900+, that was fun. I left Abyss in 24 turns, not sure if it has anything to do with Xom.

[variouselite]

Haha! Nice? Ive never tried him seriously but after this I think I may.

[Baldu2]

Xom is really fun and makes the game more interesting after the bullshit early game deaths. That's why I recommend to take Xom at the altar rather then starter gods for people who want to play him, so you have the tools to deal with most of the bad actions.

Also someone posted that recently Xom was changed to half the max duration of his confusions and also that clarity now stops the majority of his confusions. If that's true I'll probably go back to playing one of my favorite combos in crawl soonish, Human Wizard of Xom, I had to stop playing that a while ago because I had gotten way too frustrated with the xomfusions.

ps: my xom ziggurat adventures are probably my most memorable moments of playing crawl

[WalkerBoh]

And if you're really lucky, Xom will give you a set of mutations like this by mid-Lair:

  Code:

You are partially covered in icy blue scales (AC +1).
You are partially covered in rough black scales (AC +4, Dex -1).
You are partially covered in rugged brown scales (AC +1, +3% HP).
You are very agile. (Dex +4)
You can breathe flames.
Your flesh is very cold resistant.
Your flesh is heat resistant.
You are somewhat resistant to further mutation.
You passively map the area around you.
Your system is resistant to poisons.
You are robust (+10% HP).
You need consume almost no food.
You can spit poison.
Your muscles are very strong. (Str +4)
Your spells are harder to cast, but more powerful.

From this game. I mean, he was also directly responsible for my death, but that's irrelevant (divine-lightning'd me down to 3hp with a spiny frog 2 spaces away).

[rchandra]

I feel that for good melee characters with HP Xom is at least better than athiesm. I've won MiCK (axes break confusion!) and TrHu*Xom (the trhu felt a lot better than a TrCK, having large rocks and a bit of delay on xom), both wearing faith most of the time. Xom can be exhausting though, I splatted two high-level HuCKs from rushing.

[Sandman25]

Speaking about faith, I found faith in early D for my last 2 CK but I didn't notice any difference. Wiki says faith makes Xom act more often but is it any good? Isn't it more useful to wear Clarity/Conservation/Stasis?

[Tiber]

There's a lot of luck involved, but once you get past the early game and get survival options he's not bad. Rings of teleportation are your friend though, as Xom users tend to burn through scrolls faster, and the random teleportation aspect can work while confused.

I will also say that getting the Naga mutation "breathe poison" early-game via Xom makes the game MUCH easier.

[dck]

While he is not really comparable to the other beneficial gods, worshipping xom is at the end of the day better by a long shot than being an atheist for all races except mummies.
Starting as a CK (particularly now their weapons are unreliable and awful) however isn't the optimal way to worship xom. If you want to stay alive you want a strong background or race with some good options to deal with bad things like say, Gl.

[Sandman25]

I think LO/Dj can be good because they get little/no damage from inner flame, LO protects scrolls also. Unarmed users can be good too, my LOCH with vampiric executioner's axe didn't enjoy multiple occasions when Xom swapped weapons. Xom cures bad mutations, I didn't know it before. Also Xom gifted me an unIDed wand of healing on D14 and paralyzed some monsters, very nice indeed. Though he petrified me once too so high AC characters are better than high EV characters I think.

[johlstei]

Xom is fun. *opens up can of worms* Now the real question is, why do people use Chei?