How soon to start worshipping Vehumet?

[albondingas]

Ok so I'm playing a conjurer and my ultimate plan is to specialise in fire magic. I want to follow Veh because his passive abilities are just too good even ignoring his gifts. I've just come across Vehumet's alter (not found the temple yet) and I'm wondering if I should start worshipping now and build up piety early on, or should I wait until I've found a spellbook with a fire magic spell in so I can start training fire and encourage Veh to gift me the fire spells I want (fireball, bolt of magma, firestorm)?

[and into]

Worship Vehumet now.


You are likely to get some fire-elemented spell as a gift, at some point, if you don't have high levels in all non-fire elemental skills. Just ignore the spells you don't want, and keep a few extra spell levels free for the ones you do want (once he starts gifting).

Even if you do/did have levels in other elemental skills, Vehumet could still offer a fire-elemental gift. You also have a very good chance of finding a book with a fire spell in it before Vehumet gives you all his gifts.

Even if Vehumet does not give you exactly the spells you want, his gifts are not the strongest or best part of what he offers, and you are 100% strictly lowering your chances to beat the game if you delay worship. Doubly so, given that the conjurer starting book gives you enough fire power to go very far, and veh will boost your effectiveness with the spells that you do have, as you gain piety.

So yeah, worship Vehumet.

[daggaz]

Worship immediately. By the time he starts handing out anything useful, you should have enough skill in fire magic to point him in the right direction, or you are skilling wrong.

[KoboldLord]

Worship Vehumet, and don't turn your nose up at what she gives you even if it isn't your favorite. If you actually turn up a relevant book of fire spells, you probably don't care about Vehumet's gifts at all because there's really only a couple late-game fire spells that you actually care about. If you never get any book of fire spells from the floor, then you might as well be grateful for whatever Vehumet does give you because that's all you have. Even if you do get fire spells early, Vehumet is perfectly happy to randomly not gift you Fire Storm ever no matter how hard you've been concentrating on fire magic, and Fire Storm probably isn't affordable until very late anyway.

It is absolutely never worth trying to influence what Vehumet gives you. It puts you at immediate risk due to underdevelopment, and it doesn't weigh the odds in your favor nearly enough to make a difference even if you were willing to throw away a few unlucky characters to get what you want.

[daggaz]

I misread OP, I had understood he wanted to go with fire spells in general, not just as an endgame kind of thing. Somehow 'conjurer' just turned into 'fire elementalist' in my head.. in which case, yeah you should have enough points in fire magic (as well as conjurations) to nudge Vehemut in that direction. Not because nudging him is the point, but because not having points in fire magic by that time means you are doing something entirely different and probably likely to get you killed.

At any rate, general spell buffs, increased range, and mana replenishment on kill is more than enough reason to get Veh online asap.

[njvack]

Ok so I'm playing a conjurer and my ultimate plan is to specialise in fire magic.

Just a thought: this sentence makes me think you're planning too far ahead. You're much more likely to win if you go in with a "my ultimate plan is to adapt to whatever I find in the game until I get the orb" mindset than a "I want to cast Ring of Flames and Fire Storm" mindset.

Both are fun ways to play! But be honest about what kind of game you're going for and you'll be able to make better choices around that strategy. If you want your best shot at Fire gifts, absolutely try to game Vehumet. If you want the best shot at winning, don't. (Also, if you eventually want all the fire spells, probably skip Vehumet altogether and take Sif.)