Wizard god

[speciesxx]

Last game i did find so many books, i started to wonder if it was pure luck, or that its possible to find decent books each game.
Anyway, my question is what gods are good who don't give books? Or are Sif Muna and Vehumet that powerful there is no other real choice?
(Vehumet has less MP cost for conjur spells, +range)

I aint sure if a requirement is having MP regen. How useful / nice is it at all? In the early/midgame it is useful no doubt, but what about later on?

Kiku, i aint sure what i can make of that one. More for necro using casters i guess?

Makhleb, gives MP and HP regen. This could be nice if it is a lot of HP.
And some summons and spells. But as a wizard you can do it yourself, but better i guess lol.

The Shining One, also MP and HP regen. But only for undead and demons... but this is most of the stuff you killing? He does forbid psn magic though, so i dont think this would work for me.

Chei... says it is good for Nagas, but i dont fully understand the ponderous items part. Other than that it sounds good for a Naga, otherwise less good?

Ashenzari... more exp, but need cursed items. Not sure about that lol.

Did i miss any other good gods?



I would try out Chei if i play Naga i think, it looks nice. No MP and HP recovery though, but the abilities gained might save your skin though.

For non Nage i prolly would try out Makhleb, just to see the HP regen.

[slowcar]

the fastest way to regain mana is to use wielded chunks (or, if you can sustain it, your own flesh + maybe regeneration).
i find the mp-regain and the extra range of vehumet very helpful, the lower cost is also nice.

kiku is good as a necromancer - and if you don't find a necronomicon but want to use its spells.

makhleb and tso were nerfed a lot in trunk, they give only very little from kills. beforehand makhleb was deemed very good, especially for deep dwarves and mummies.

chei is a god for advanced players, but feel free to experiment.

ashenzari, well, best if you already have very nice equipment,

[speciesxx]

Ahh now i get Chei.. it moves you down a ton... agreed for more advanced players.

[asdu]

Corpse delivery sucks after the nerf if you were planning to animate them, but it's still good for food.

How (and when and, dare I ask, why) was it nerfed?

[JeffQyzt]

There were a string of changes. In 0.7, it provided lots of un-leveled corpses. Then, someone fixed this by assigning the appropriate hit dice to the corpses so that e.g. a Stone Giant zombie is actually tougher than a rat zombie. This made it (apparently) too powerful, so the number of corpses was drastically reduced, and then somewhat later slightly bumped up again since that was felt to be an overnerf. There were also piety cost changes in there.

Whether it's better or worse now depends on whether you just wanted a bunch of corpses (any kind will do) or whether you wanted stronger zombies.

[mumra]

There are usually tons of books in the dungeon and in every game I find the majority of spells that I want. There are sometimes one or two useful ones that never show up, or come along extremely late. But you can just let this determine your playstyle and how you build your character to work around it.

My favourite non-magic-specific God is Ashenzari. He really helps squishy wizards by showing when monsters are around the corner (and an approximate level of difficultly, plus you have Scry so you can see exactly what's there when you really need) - this generally gives you a lot more survivability that a simple spell power boost or MP reduction. The curse requirement makes the game challenging but in an interesting way, and it's not too much of a handicap with some creative workarounds. Animate Skeleton and Orb of Destruction are both fun ways to produce chunks if you want a cursed staff, and Necromutation will eliminate the hunger clock entirely. I usually keep one ring slot and my gloves uncursed (you can't swap rings with a cursed glove) and remain at 6* piety for most of the game. My only win was with a DSWz of Ash, although I since came close with Vehumet.

Sif is in my opinion a bit lacking. Miscast protection is good, but the ability to forget spells isn't necessary, you can get along fine by destroying books for spells you won't need again, and there are usually plenty of amnesia scrolls. Channeling is reliable but there are plenty of other methods that don't require Invocations skill. So she is only really essential for ensuring you get those 2 or 3 spells that you otherwise can't find.

[eharper256]

These days, I'd always pick Vehu over Sif, since I never seem to have trouble getting books I need, but I guess it depends on how much the RNG god likes you. MP Regen from killing, range increase and increasing chance to cast (rather than totally eliminating the penalty of failure) is like gold from my perspective, whereas invoking MP is pretty much a joke unless you spend ages with invocations or don't have to worry about food. I tend to find he starts giving books Late Lair if you go around killing everything; but the good ones will indeed be awhile. Sif isn't much sooner, usually mid-lair, but since each of your gifts tends towards being a cool artifact book, its still good.

Kiku is great, as noted, for early casting access for melee people who want to hybridise. Her guaranteed gift of Necrololicon is good, and Pain Brand is better since Necros are the most hybrid-friendly casters in my opinion. Corpse Delivery is meh, but ok for Portal Projetile Corpse Rot and emergency resources for building abominations.

Personally, I'm aghast of the in-game idea of forsaking religion and so I don't (its very meta-gamey to switch gods for convienience; and highly unlikely in any roleplaying situ).

Still, I wouldn't say TSO is useless, but he suffers from (hilariously) the usual dnd paladin problem of being MAD (Multi-ability dependent). Divine Shield is decent enough if your Shields skill is up to par. Cleansing Flame needs Invocations up the wazoo but works better than Greater Destruction when its good. His blessings and protections sometimes assume you're a summoner as well (or just spamming angels). At least the passive halo is cool, never need See Invisible or Sure Blade ever again! (and also, never sneak attack again!)

Chei is alright because of Slouch, and he's pretty amazing if you use transmutations and are ponderous up the wazoo due to the ridiculous damage those stat buffs add to Blade Hands or Statue Form. It doesn't matter if you move like a turtle if you hit like a truck and take damage like a rock (hello again, statue form). But it requires very careful play nontheless and the early times with him can be painful.

Ash is actually less about the XP, and more about all of the passive knowledge. Its very, very helpful to passively ID everything you come across, and having a full radar and electronic counterintelligence package is great for planning your moves. You have to pick your equipment carefully, but its made easy by the ID'ing. Also, transferring skills between one another is awesome.

[speciesxx]

Wow nice replies . Its nice to see how some people like god X while others prefer god Y. It makes this game so nice / divers tbh . And each god has its pro's and cons, so each game can be different in playstyle as well.

Atm i am playing my second wizard game (Naga) where i found like 6-7 books while i'm at mid-Lair. Guess RNG likes me, for now .

Next game i surely gonna try Ash. Sounds nice to ID stuff on sight, and have a radar like ability. And swapping over XP sounds nice. Not sure how the
cursing part works yet, but i'll read up on the wiki before.
(I am sure i won't find a single book that game though hehehe. )

[TwilightPhoenix]

Most gods can be useful to casters, some more than others. Lemme list a few not mentioned that I'd considering if I wasn't going the usual Vehu/Sif route.

Fedhas probably isn't the easiest caster god, but certainly usable (I won with a MeVM of Fedhas that I random generated. It surprised me!) Being able to retreat and shoot through plants is quite useful as is insta-gibbing skeletons and zombies at will for piety (but no XP). If you know Flight, Levitate, are a Merfolk, or are a Kenku, you can really make great use of generating water wherever you please, such as at the entrance to an end vault, keeping all the nasty monsters trapped so you can flee anywhere else on the floor and safely rest. And you can always clear the water later with Sunlight. Creating spores from corpses is fun and, if there's enough, it can essentially create a huge confusion bomb over the whole screen while generating Balcymites to spit more spores. And if you save your fruit, you can make an Oklob farm on Zot:5 and watch as even Orbs of Fire are mercilessly butchered by gatling blasts of acid (just don't alert the whole level...)

Yeah... Fedhas is pretty fun and underused.

Ydrem will let you create your own undead army without having to invest in Necromancy. And you can also mirror damage if you get cornered.

If you're an Orc, you can also get your own Orc meatshield army with Beogh.

Zin has some useful survival skills to any character, though he bans you necromancy and isn't very summoner friendly. You start starving because you spammed too many Firestorms, Zin will spoon feed you. You can also Imprison a nasty threat, such as that Executioner about to remove all of your extremities from your body. And though I've never gotten to use it, Sanctuary sounds quite powerful.

Eviylon has some of the same issues as TSO and Zin, but you can heal yourself and even boost your max HP and MP. And every caster wants more of both.

Okawaru, while not summoner friendly, is hybrid friendly if you'd rather have your god focus more on your combat attributes rather than your magical ones.

And there's Nemelex, who's pretty awesome but may split a caster's focus too much.

And finally, there's Trog if you're suicidal and want to see how much you can tick him off.

[joellercoaster]

I agree about Chei not being bad for beginners - my first win was a hybrid Chei worshipper. Now I would play Chei again for the flavour, not for the power...

Sif Muna isn't just about the books though! Later on, the channeling is very useful, and if you can find a way to get rid of the hunger, then it's downright delicious

[Bim]

Strangely as a magic user I tend to nearly always go for Oku if I've found/started with a good spell book, as his gifts of armour and some nice weapons are invaluable. Even if you're not planning on attacking, having a staff of protection and ++rF just dropped on you is awesome. Heroism boosts all defensive skills which can help out abit (although usually not much), and you can easily hybridise to the point that you can forget the low level spells for killing weakish stuff. However, he doesn't offer any panic buttons and can be annoying with useless drops. As I said, great if you've already found/do find spell books, can be annoying if not.

As mentioned Ash is good, although requires you to have already found good items, and also doesn't offer any panic buttons.

[DemiFiend]

It should be noted that Sif's channeling is the safest and most reliable form of channeling, even if it's not the most powerful, and requires some skill investment.

Sif Muna's pretty great for any character, really. Decks of summoning are extremely powerful, and the other decks give you lots of utility.

[mumra]

Sif Muna's pretty great for any character, really. Decks of summoning are extremely powerful, and the other decks give you lots of utility.

You lost me there ... what do Decks have to do with Sif?

[slowcar]

Sif Muna's pretty great for any character, really. Decks of summoning are extremely powerful, and the other decks give you lots of utility.

You lost me there ... what do Decks have to do with Sif?

Maybe he is talking about another god, but was so enchanted by Sif that...

[RFHolloway]

Nem is certainly good for any character - thats the one that will give you decks - sif wont even let you join if you are not sufficiently magic (suspect 1 level of spellcasting)

[Waywinkle]

To join Sif I think you need to have memorised at least one spell.

[mrbobbyg]

Okawaru is a great god for most any background. The gifts can be great, and Heroism is a nice +5 to fighting and dodging when you need it. Also, if you're playing a primary caster with a solid opening book, like the .8 AE or IE, you really don't need any more spells until the mid/late game. Sif tends to drop several copies of "Sif Mauna's Guide to Totally Useless Magic," and Vehumet is less than ideal once you've gotten your book from him. Oka also has a limited life, but if you can cast Blink his wrath is pretty easy to deal with for a character high enough level to be switching gods, and you'll almost certainly have a sweet set of gear by then.

[DivineHammer]

and Vehumet is less than ideal once you've gotten your book from him.

I disagree. I think the books are far from the most useful thing about Vehumet. Extending spells' range and restoring MP on kills are truly awesome passive effects. Increasing offensive spells' success rate is wonderful if you're trying to get Tornado or Fire/Ice Storm castable. I think Vehu remains a great god for offensive casters all the way to mid, end and, and post-end game.

[slowcar]

i am with DivineHammer here, mana for kills is a great feature if you kill the dozen inhabitants of a ziggurat.

Sif tends to drop several copies of "Sif Mauna's Guide to Totally Useless Magic,"

I have one of those at the moment. Found the altar at D3, now the char is lvl 20 and has yet to get a useful spell from sif. Luckily i found some books on my own.
Still, regaining mana for food is nice if you have the remnants of the killed monsters splattered around you, and miscast protection is also nice.