Slime Squisher
Posts: 392
Joined: Sunday, 11th September 2016, 17:21
Metamagic God
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To give players some interesting new choices about how to use magic. This god provides a variety of boons to spellcasting, which vary from useless to quite powerful depending on the circumstances. I expect in almost any situation, at least 2 of these boons will be desirable, but only 1 can be active at a time.
Crawl's goals
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Meaningful decisions: Accomplished in 2 dimensions, which should offer synergistic effects...
* having to choose between at least 2 useful boons in any given situation, and being stuck with that choice for an unknown length of time
* providing more viable options for players to pursue in terms of how to build their character, which in conjunction with the above
Gameplay supporting newbie support:
* The formulas involved in spellcasting are complex and unintuitive, but being able to temprarily mitigate one limiter of spellcasting makes magic more forgiving to mistakes.
* Making spells more accessibile encourages new players to try out different strategies and get used to the idea of adapting their character to fit what Crawl provides.
Replayability:
* Being able to make use of more of the spellbooks that Crawl provides should make those books more relevant, which should result in more varied gameplay.
Flavor
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An ingenious god who encourages followers to be flexible, clever, and resourceful in using whatever spells they find.
Appreciates
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Killing enemies, spending gold or scrolls of acquirement to obtain books
Deprecates
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Forgetting him
Abandoning him
Given Abilities
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While active, boons apply a passive bonus to spellcasting which does not time out and which grows more powerful with piety (no effect at 0 piety, full effect at 200).
Activating any boon deactivates and disables all others until a small amount of piety is gained.
Boons:
* Clear: Difficulty -50% (applied before skills/INT/armour/shield, e.g. a level 9 spell would be reduced from 390 to 195 at max piety)
** Healthy: Hunger -100% (after all other calculations)
*** Abundant: MP cost -67% (rounded to the nearest integer)
**** Potent: Spell power +100% (cannot exceed spellpower cap)
***** Quiet: Casting noise -100% (does not reduce spell noise)
****** Unbound: Can cast unmemozired spells from books in inventory (does not scale with piety)
Gifts
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None, but continued piety gain is needed to unlock boons after switching.
Punishments
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Applies a penalty with the opposite effect of a random boon immediately upon leaving. Whenever a new punishment would be applied, this is replaced by a new random choice. When penance is complete, the penalty is removed.
Strategy
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Rather than the dedicated pursuit of a specific type of magic or of the accumulation of magical knowledge, this god favors hybrid play and living off the land. Armored characters can branch into magic more easily, stabbers can silently hex foes, species with troublesome relationships to food don't need to invest as heavily in spellcasting, and primary casters can more easily incorporate spells from other schools or allocate skill points to non-magic skills. In cases where books are scarce, or for characters who attain skill mastery, this god offers more bang for buck out of the available spells.