Thursday, 6th January 2011, 07:18 by tormodpwns
First of all, your point about Beogh is not a strong one, because only one race is a viable species.
Yred is not as bad as you put him out to be. True, his zombies are slow and weak, but that is easily overcome. First of all, the spell itself doesn't cost any piety, so you're essentially getting a permanent summon for free while simultaneously training Invocations. While you autoexplore, the zombies will get left behind, but when a fight approaches you can just Recall them (again, no piety cost). And zombies aren't as weak as you think. A single Ogre zombie wielding a GSC can help you defeat orc warriors before XL 7 or so without using emergency potions and wands.
As for pets, Yred gifts them relatively early, at just *** of piety. Some of the early gifts are actually extremely overpowered for that point in the game, such as Freezing Wraiths. And most characters can get a Bone Dragon by mid-Lair, which makes for an extremely powerful secret weapon lest an OOD or unique arrives upon the scene.
Yred also offers some of the best emergency buttons in the game, such as the Mirror Damage and Drain Life abilities. Both can help you defeat packs of enemies that would have otherwise easily overpowered you, although the piety cost is quite high. But you probably won't even need these abilities because you've got pets and zombies following you everywhere.
Yred's final ability is essentially the level 9 Necromancy spell Death Channel in a single-target form. This allows you to raise a single undead ally more powerful than your zombies that will follow you through levels. It can even convert uniques, so it has great potential.
TrCK:
Xom grants you an implement of some kind.
_Something appears at your feet!
4790 gold pieces {god gift}.
DsAr:
You blink. You feel slightly more hungry. Prince Ribbit hits you. You die...
"Hey, that's my toy!"
Xom revives you!