Sunday, 26th February 2017, 23:02
The Xom Post
I have played and won quite a few CKs recently and want to call attention to some things about Xom.
Xom effects
I am just going to give my thoughts on every Xom effect here, because it's useful context for the point I'll eventually come to.
potion: The best Xom effect at the moment IMO, it actually leads to interesting decisions if it happens at the right time which I can't say of any other Xom effect.
magic mapping: Fine.
detect creatures: Bad, leads to a lot of X use in console.
detect items: Basically like doing nothing at all.
Spells
There are only a few Xom spells that cause issues.
Alistair's Intoxication: Redundant with Xom's other ways of confusing everything.
Leda's Liquefaction: CK starts with a melee weapon and skills, which suggests Xom isn't opposed to melee. But meleeing things under Leda's is really bad, and it also makes it harder to run away. So far, every time Xom has cast Leda's for me it has been detrimental (and it's happened quite a few times).
Statue Form and Necromutation: I still think it's weird that you can't 'a' cancel these, since you can with the actual spells. But these aren't random death sentences like ice form and spider form were, so that's nice.
Chain of Chaos: As this isn't normally a player-castable spell and is unlikely to become one, I think it should be its own Xom effect instead of rolled into Xom's "good spell" list. It's also so rare that you can win multiple Xom games without realizing it even exists.
confuse monsters: Fine.
single ally: Too weak to make a difference.
animate monster weapon: Early on this just kills all the monsters for you, which isn't interesting. Later it's fine.
random item gift, acquirement: These are one of the problems with deep water and lava. You probably know that other gifting gods won't give gifts over deep water or lava, since they would be lost. You probably also know that this means gaining piety over deep water or lava can effectively make you lose about 1% of a gift (when you would have gotten the gift otherwise but it gets delayed by the deep water/lava, meaning that gift timeout doesn't get reset until later). This is bad, but what's really bad is the effect on Xom gifts. Xom, obviously, doesn't gift on a timeout, just at random. So if you get a Xom gift over deep water/lava, you lose 100% of a gift instead of 1% of a gift. If you autoexplore Shoals with permanent flight you will probably lose multiple gifts this way. It can't be "fixed" the way it's fixed for other gods since vetoing Xom gifts over deep water/lava would also result in losing 100% of a gift because Xom gifts are random and not timeout-based. The only decent solution to this I can think of is to change deep water and lava themselves.
summon allies: Similar problem to animate monster weapon. Early on it kills everything. Later on it's just a distraction so you can run away easier.
good polymorph: This is usually bad, not good, and it just gets worse as more fast monsters are added (boy I sure do love encountering spark wasps in lair). I literally cannot tell the difference between good polymorph and bad polymorph unless I look at the log.
good teleport: Again, usually bad and I usually can't tell the difference between good and bad teleport without looking at the log. One of the reasons you always rest on cleared levels with Xom.
good mutations: Giving this its own section at the end.
lightning: I recently complained about this effect because Xom shouldn't randomly set you to 1 HP and he certainly shouldn't randomly set you to 1 HP under the guise of a "good" action. This has been fixed and I have no complaints about this effect now.
change scenery: The only relevant effect of this act is that it makes noise, which isn't good, but it's not enough noise to really be bad either I guess (it realistically only happens while you're resting and Xom characters always rest on cleared levels).
snakes to sticks: I thought this effect was fine until I looked at the source and found out that it enchants resulting weapons...without marking them as glowing! I never would have guessed that they weren't all +0.
mass fireball: Good. Might have a technical problem if monsters die in the middle of it, since it's basically a lazier implementation of Ignition.
fake fireball: Good.
good enchant monster: Good.
fog: Good.
cloud trail: Stops autoexplore too often.
cleaving: It's kind of weird that there's Xom cleaving but not Xom riposte/reaching/+2 base damage, but I would never want to see more reaching and axes are better than normal for Xom characters in the first place so I think it's ok as it is.
pseudo-miscast, harmless miscast, minor miscast, major miscast, critical miscast: Conceptually fine, if miscast effects are going to exist then it makes sense for Xom to inflict them. Source of Conf. One of the reasons you always rest on cleared levels with Xom.
noise: One of the reasons you always rest on cleared levels with Xom.
bad enchant monster: Good.
blink monsters: Good.
confuse player: Source of Conf.
swap monsters: Now that it confuses monsters and not you, I'm not sure it should really be a bad effect. It would definitely be a bad effect if it still confused you, or if it didn't confuse monsters. I'd suggest the latter because there are already a lot of ways for Xom to confuse you.
chaos upgrade: You can scum this for a chaos launcher.
bad teleportation: See good teleportation. One of the reasons you always rest on cleared levels with Xom.
bad polymorph: See good polymorph.
moving stairs, unclimbable stairs: These effects are ridiculously complicated and opaque, and to boot, if you're spoiled they make you check the log every time "Nothing appears to happen" gets printed. Furthermore if you're spoiled they don't do anything of consequence unless you're like, a formicid in vestibule.
bad mutations: Giving this its own section at the end.
summon hostiles: This effect is either immediate death (in some cases early on) or just really annoying but not dangerous (when it happens after early game).
statloss, draining: Not dangerous or meaningfully bad, just annoying. Why? Also, Xom draining not occurring when you have rN+++ is weird, you shouldn't be able to manipulate Xom effects like that.
torment: Really annoying, but I'll begrudgingly admit that it's meaningful sometimes.
chaos cloud: You need to notice this on the turn it happens, otherwise you're immediately getting paralysed and heavily contaminated. Once you have the appropriate force_mores in your rc, it...doesn't do anything unless you're cornered, something that you were already avoiding.
banishment: If banishment is going to exist then Xom might as well do it. As a player it is annoying because banishment has no redeeming features.
psuedo-banishment: Whoever added this needs to learn to spell.
Xom mutations, gifts, and intended advantage
Although Xom has intentionally bad flavour and attempts to improve his mecahnics are often met with special pleading, my impression is that Xom isn't intended to just be a joke god and is supposed to obey the design goals as well as have some actual advantages. It appears the intent is for Xom to inflict random tactical penalties (making fights harder sometimes) in exchange for permanent-ish bonuses: gifts and good mutations.
Currently, this trade is really bad, worse than atheist throughout the game IMO, and there are several reasons for that.
The mutations aren't even advantageous until it's already too late
Xom has 3 mutation effects that happen often enough to be noticeable: good mutations, random mutations, and heavy Contam. Although heavy Contam gives bad mutations, it is greatly outnumbered by the other two.
The result of this is that early Xom characters end up with some good mutations and a few bad mutations - this is often bad overall, and can last even after Lair. Later in the game, Xom characters end up with large numbers of good mutations and few or no bad mutations. No bad mutations is not an exaggeration, it's a very likely outcome. This is because many bad mutations have good opposites (e.g. -stat and +stat) that have to be removed before the bad mutation can be added, making them act as a buffer. Xom characters keep building up more and more good mutations so that buffer keeps getting more and more effective. Unfortunately this happens long after the dangerous part of the game (which has been extended by worshipping Xom!) is already over.
The gifts are practically nothing
Yes, Xom can give you an acquirement, but it's super rare and even when it does happen, many of the acquirements are plain bad (food, book...). Xom does give you some extra consumables, but not enough to even break even because you're using more consumables in the first place because you have to deal with bad Xom actions and not having god abilities.
Tactical Xom acts will straight-up kill you early, and require constant paranoia and tedium for the rest of the game
Summon hostiles, banishment, D:1 monster polymorphs, and some miscasts can easily kill early-game characters with no recourse. For the rest of the game you won't be unavoidably killed except by banishment, but you have to rest upstairs, notice and move out of chaos clouds immediately, religiously fight monsters one-on-one, save all your cancellation and curing for Xom effects (confusion is still extremely frequent), and keep in mind you could be paralysed or twistered or suddenly next to a spark wasp at any moment. If you don't do all of the above then you can just die to a Xom effect as if you were back on D:1. Maybe some people find this fun and challenging, I don't.
In short:
1. Xom's advantages are so small - especially early - and the disadvantages are so large - that he is not only worse than atheist, I actually believe Xom is worse than Qazlal after playing many games with him. He is probably better than Chei in hells/pan/abyss but that's all.
2. The disadvantages, in addition to far outweighing the advantages, are fundamentally not interesting. I keep waiting for Xom to be mentioned somewhere in the crusade against "luring" because Xom characters do way, way more kiting and luring and running away than any other character I can think of.
And finally:
Yes, gifts are scummable
Once you can survive banishment, it is safe to 5 in Lair until your food runs out. You will get gifts, and Xom getting bored doesn't matter and even if it did you could just learn Confuse and fall down stairs whenever his interest level wanes. I don't bother with this but I believe there's already enough experimental evidence that it works. Not to mention you can scum tension to make it work even better.
Yes, Xom boredom and the entire interest system doesn't matter
It shouldn't even exist at this point, a single extra bad action is practically nothing and it's not going to be an effective anti-scumming timer either way. All it does is mislead unspoiled players.
Fixes?
If the fundamental idea of Xom is to boost your character's power level at the expense of harder, less predictable fights, I would suggest (knowing full well it probably won't happen): getting rid of the polymorphing and teleporting and banishing and summoning and mighting monsters, but adding a new mechanic to Xom: reduce monsters' "minimum" depths (as if Xom went through mon-pick-data.h and reduced every minr by 30% or whatever. D:5 with more steam dragons and bullfrogs, or D:8 with more acid dragons and kobold demonologists, or Lair with more anacondas and wolf spiders, would be much more dangerous and harder to predict but not unfair. This does suffer in places like Zot or Tomb where there are no real out-of-depth monsters in the first place, but Xom's current disadvantage mechanic has basically a worse version of the same problem (it gets less and less disadvantageous as the game goes on).
You would still need to buff the advantages in some way - I would like better gifts, and maybe the early-game mutations should be better. To fix the huge number of good mutations in the late game (if that's something that needs a fix - the power isn't an issue since it's still Xom) you could make his mutations work more like the potion, where it explicitly tries to cure some mutations in addition to adding new ones.
If the fundamental idea of Xom is "lol…as u can see im very random!!!!" then I guess I wasted my time.
Xom effects
I am just going to give my thoughts on every Xom effect here, because it's useful context for the point I'll eventually come to.
potion: The best Xom effect at the moment IMO, it actually leads to interesting decisions if it happens at the right time which I can't say of any other Xom effect.
magic mapping: Fine.
detect creatures: Bad, leads to a lot of X use in console.
detect items: Basically like doing nothing at all.
Spells
There are only a few Xom spells that cause issues.
Alistair's Intoxication: Redundant with Xom's other ways of confusing everything.
Leda's Liquefaction: CK starts with a melee weapon and skills, which suggests Xom isn't opposed to melee. But meleeing things under Leda's is really bad, and it also makes it harder to run away. So far, every time Xom has cast Leda's for me it has been detrimental (and it's happened quite a few times).
Statue Form and Necromutation: I still think it's weird that you can't 'a' cancel these, since you can with the actual spells. But these aren't random death sentences like ice form and spider form were, so that's nice.
Chain of Chaos: As this isn't normally a player-castable spell and is unlikely to become one, I think it should be its own Xom effect instead of rolled into Xom's "good spell" list. It's also so rare that you can win multiple Xom games without realizing it even exists.
confuse monsters: Fine.
single ally: Too weak to make a difference.
animate monster weapon: Early on this just kills all the monsters for you, which isn't interesting. Later it's fine.
random item gift, acquirement: These are one of the problems with deep water and lava. You probably know that other gifting gods won't give gifts over deep water or lava, since they would be lost. You probably also know that this means gaining piety over deep water or lava can effectively make you lose about 1% of a gift (when you would have gotten the gift otherwise but it gets delayed by the deep water/lava, meaning that gift timeout doesn't get reset until later). This is bad, but what's really bad is the effect on Xom gifts. Xom, obviously, doesn't gift on a timeout, just at random. So if you get a Xom gift over deep water/lava, you lose 100% of a gift instead of 1% of a gift. If you autoexplore Shoals with permanent flight you will probably lose multiple gifts this way. It can't be "fixed" the way it's fixed for other gods since vetoing Xom gifts over deep water/lava would also result in losing 100% of a gift because Xom gifts are random and not timeout-based. The only decent solution to this I can think of is to change deep water and lava themselves.
summon allies: Similar problem to animate monster weapon. Early on it kills everything. Later on it's just a distraction so you can run away easier.
good polymorph: This is usually bad, not good, and it just gets worse as more fast monsters are added (boy I sure do love encountering spark wasps in lair). I literally cannot tell the difference between good polymorph and bad polymorph unless I look at the log.
good teleport: Again, usually bad and I usually can't tell the difference between good and bad teleport without looking at the log. One of the reasons you always rest on cleared levels with Xom.
good mutations: Giving this its own section at the end.
lightning: I recently complained about this effect because Xom shouldn't randomly set you to 1 HP and he certainly shouldn't randomly set you to 1 HP under the guise of a "good" action. This has been fixed and I have no complaints about this effect now.
change scenery: The only relevant effect of this act is that it makes noise, which isn't good, but it's not enough noise to really be bad either I guess (it realistically only happens while you're resting and Xom characters always rest on cleared levels).
snakes to sticks: I thought this effect was fine until I looked at the source and found out that it enchants resulting weapons...without marking them as glowing! I never would have guessed that they weren't all +0.
mass fireball: Good. Might have a technical problem if monsters die in the middle of it, since it's basically a lazier implementation of Ignition.
fake fireball: Good.
good enchant monster: Good.
fog: Good.
cloud trail: Stops autoexplore too often.
cleaving: It's kind of weird that there's Xom cleaving but not Xom riposte/reaching/+2 base damage, but I would never want to see more reaching and axes are better than normal for Xom characters in the first place so I think it's ok as it is.
pseudo-miscast, harmless miscast, minor miscast, major miscast, critical miscast: Conceptually fine, if miscast effects are going to exist then it makes sense for Xom to inflict them. Source of Conf. One of the reasons you always rest on cleared levels with Xom.
noise: One of the reasons you always rest on cleared levels with Xom.
bad enchant monster: Good.
blink monsters: Good.
confuse player: Source of Conf.
swap monsters: Now that it confuses monsters and not you, I'm not sure it should really be a bad effect. It would definitely be a bad effect if it still confused you, or if it didn't confuse monsters. I'd suggest the latter because there are already a lot of ways for Xom to confuse you.
chaos upgrade: You can scum this for a chaos launcher.
bad teleportation: See good teleportation. One of the reasons you always rest on cleared levels with Xom.
bad polymorph: See good polymorph.
moving stairs, unclimbable stairs: These effects are ridiculously complicated and opaque, and to boot, if you're spoiled they make you check the log every time "Nothing appears to happen" gets printed. Furthermore if you're spoiled they don't do anything of consequence unless you're like, a formicid in vestibule.
bad mutations: Giving this its own section at the end.
summon hostiles: This effect is either immediate death (in some cases early on) or just really annoying but not dangerous (when it happens after early game).
statloss, draining: Not dangerous or meaningfully bad, just annoying. Why? Also, Xom draining not occurring when you have rN+++ is weird, you shouldn't be able to manipulate Xom effects like that.
torment: Really annoying, but I'll begrudgingly admit that it's meaningful sometimes.
chaos cloud: You need to notice this on the turn it happens, otherwise you're immediately getting paralysed and heavily contaminated. Once you have the appropriate force_mores in your rc, it...doesn't do anything unless you're cornered, something that you were already avoiding.
banishment: If banishment is going to exist then Xom might as well do it. As a player it is annoying because banishment has no redeeming features.
psuedo-banishment: Whoever added this needs to learn to spell.
Xom mutations, gifts, and intended advantage
Although Xom has intentionally bad flavour and attempts to improve his mecahnics are often met with special pleading, my impression is that Xom isn't intended to just be a joke god and is supposed to obey the design goals as well as have some actual advantages. It appears the intent is for Xom to inflict random tactical penalties (making fights harder sometimes) in exchange for permanent-ish bonuses: gifts and good mutations.
Currently, this trade is really bad, worse than atheist throughout the game IMO, and there are several reasons for that.
The mutations aren't even advantageous until it's already too late
Xom has 3 mutation effects that happen often enough to be noticeable: good mutations, random mutations, and heavy Contam. Although heavy Contam gives bad mutations, it is greatly outnumbered by the other two.
The result of this is that early Xom characters end up with some good mutations and a few bad mutations - this is often bad overall, and can last even after Lair. Later in the game, Xom characters end up with large numbers of good mutations and few or no bad mutations. No bad mutations is not an exaggeration, it's a very likely outcome. This is because many bad mutations have good opposites (e.g. -stat and +stat) that have to be removed before the bad mutation can be added, making them act as a buffer. Xom characters keep building up more and more good mutations so that buffer keeps getting more and more effective. Unfortunately this happens long after the dangerous part of the game (which has been extended by worshipping Xom!) is already over.
- Code:
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.20-a0-738-gb057e68 (console) character file.
minmay the Metallomancer (Formicid Chaos Knight) Turns: 77428, Time: 03:23:14
Health: 227/227 AC: 35 Str: 42 XL: 27
Magic: 45/45 EV: 9 Int: 33 God: Xom [*.....]
Gold: 2861 SH: 16 Dex: 12 Spells: 22/54 levels left
rFire + + . SeeInvis + a - +11 plutonium sword {*Contam Stlth-}
rCold + + + Gourm . P - +4 plate armour of the Princess {Int+7}
rNeg + . . Faith + q - +2 shield of Resistance {rF+ rC+ MR+}
rPois + Spirit . (helmet unavailable)
rElec . Reflect . K - +2 cloak {+Inv}
rCorr . Harm . g - +4 pair of gloves "Paatureo" {Str+4}
MR +++++ Clarity + (boots unavailable)
Stlth .......... u - amulet "Kewocvywn" {Faith rN+ Int+8}
Regen 1.3/turn Q - +1 ring of slaying {god gift}
MPRegen 0.3/turn H - ring "Nureatz" {rPois Str+4 Int+4}
@: no status effects
A: permanent stasis, dig shafts and tunnels, four strong arms, antennae 3, claws
2, fangs 1, talons 3, icy blue scales 2, slimy green scales 1, agile 1, clarity,
clever 1, cold resistance 3, fire resistance 1, high mp 1, magic resistance 2,
sense surroundings 1, poison resistance, regeneration 2, robust 1, shaggy fur 2,
strong 2, wild magic 1, evolution 2
}: 2/15 runes: barnacled, gossamer
a: Dig, Shaft Self, Renounce Religion, Evoke Invisibility
You are on level 1 of the Depths.
You worship Xom.
You are a special plaything of Xom.
You are not hungry.
You have visited 8 branches of the dungeon, and seen 42 of its levels.
You have also visited: Labyrinth and Volcano.
You have collected 5939 gold pieces.
You have spent 3078 gold pieces at shops.
Inventory:
Hand Weapons
a - the +11 plutonium sword (weapon) {*Contam Stlth-}
(You found it on level 2 of the Lair of Beasts)
It causes magical contamination when unequipped.
It makes you less stealthy.
Armour
g - the +4 pair of gloves "Paatureo" (worn) {Str+4}
(You found it on level 3 of the Spider Nest)
It affects your strength (+4).
q - the +2 shield of Resistance (worn) {rF+ rC+ MR+}
(You found it on level 2 of the Vaults)
It protects you from fire.
It protects you from cold.
It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
K - a +2 cloak of invisibility (worn)
(You bought it in a shop on level 7 of the Dungeon)
P - the +4 plate armour of the Princess (worn) {Int+7}
(You acquired it on level 2 of the Shoals)
It affects your intelligence (+7).
V - a +1 pair of boots of flying
(You found it on level 13 of the Dungeon)
Jewellery
b - an uncursed ring of protection from magic
(You found it on level 11 of the Dungeon)
n - the ring "Felluedy" {Fire rElec MP+9 Dex+4}
(You found it on level 3 of the Crypt)
[ring of fire]
It enhances your fire magic.
It affects your dexterity (+4).
It protects you from fire.
It makes you vulnerable to cold.
It insulates you from electricity.
It affects your magic capacity (+9).
u - the amulet "Kewocvywn" (around neck) {Faith rN+ Int+8}
(You took it off a merfolk on level 3 of the Shoals)
[amulet of faith]
It allows you to gain divine favour quickly.
It affects your intelligence (+8).
It protects you from negative energy.
F - a ring of wizardry
(You found it on level 1 of the Depths)
H - the ring "Nureatz" (left hand) {rPois Str+4 Int+4}
(You acquired it on level 2 of the Depths)
[ring of strength]
It affects your strength (+4).
It affects your intelligence (+4).
It protects you from poison.
I - an uncursed amulet of guardian spirit
(You found it on level 4 of the Spider Nest)
J - an uncursed ring of resist corrosion
(You found it on level 4 of the Lair of Beasts)
L - an uncursed ring of wizardry
(You found it on level 2 of the Vaults)
Q - a +1 ring of slaying (right hand) {god gift}
(Xom gifted it to you in a volcano)
Wands
h - a wand of enslavement (13/24)
(You found it on level 2 of the Shoals)
m - a wand of clouds (5/9) {god gift}
(Xom gifted it to you on level 2 of the Crypt)
x - a wand of iceblast (?/15) {zapped: 3}
(You found it on level 1 of the Depths)
C - a wand of confusion (?/48) {zapped: 28}
(You found it on level 3 of the Lair of Beasts)
D - a wand of iceblast (3/15)
(You found it on level 2 of the Spider Nest)
M - a wand of disintegration (16/24)
(You found it on level 2 of the Spider Nest)
N - a wand of enslavement (14/24)
(You found it on level 4 of the Shoals)
O - a wand of polymorph (?/24) {zapped: 6}
(You found it on level 11 of the Dungeon)
R - a wand of disintegration (14/24)
(You found it on level 7 of the Dungeon)
X - a wand of digging (?/24)
(You found it on level 4 of the Vaults)
Scrolls
f - 29 scrolls of remove curse
l - a scroll of silence
o - 4 scrolls of recharging
r - 6 scrolls of magic mapping
t - 5 scrolls of amnesia
v - 3 scrolls of fear
y - 9 scrolls of fog
T - 3 scrolls of summoning
Potions
e - 5 potions of agility
p - 10 potions of heal wounds
s - 5 potions of resistance
z - 5 potions of ambrosia
B - a potion of brilliance
E - 3 potions of magic
G - 2 potions of invisibility
U - 12 potions of curing
W - 7 potions of might
Books
Y - Fyptyxzunul's Papyrus of Arcane Weapons
(You found it on level 2 of the Depths)
Spells Type Level
a - Searing Ray Conjuration 2
b - Throw Frost Conjuration/Ice 2
c - Stone Arrow Conjuration/Earth 3
d - Bolt of Draining Conjuration/Necromancy 5
Miscellaneous
i - 2 boxes of beasts
w - 2 sacks of spiders
A - a lamp of fire
(You found it on level 1 of the Shoals)
Z - 2 phantom mirrors
Comestibles
c - 17 bread rations
d - 68 fruits
j - 31 meat rations
k - 5 chunks of flesh
S - 26 royal jellies
Skills:
- Level 15.0 Fighting
- Level 23.3 Long Blades
Level 16.4 Axes
- Level 12.0 Armour
- Level 0.8 Dodging
- Level 9.0 Shields
- Level 14.0 Spellcasting
+ Level 26.6 Earth Magic
- Level 8.0 Evocations
You have 22 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:
Your Spells Type Power Failure Level Hunger
b - Iron Shot Conj/Erth #######... 10% 6 ###....
c - Statue Form Tmut/Erth #######.. 10% 6 ###....
l - Lee's Rapid Deconstr Erth ########.. 1% 5 None
w - Spectral Weapon Hex/Chrm ####.... 28% 3 None
x - Regeneration Chrm/Necr ####...... 28% 3 None
T - Shatter Erth ########.. 32% 9 #######
Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations
Branches:
Dungeon (15/15) Temple (0/1) D:6 Lair (6/6) D:11
Shoals (4/4) Lair:2 Spider (4/4) Lair:2 Slime (0/5) Lair:5
Orc (2/2) D:10 Elf (0/3) Orc:2 Vaults (4/5) D:14
Crypt (3/3) Vaults:3 Tomb (0/3) Crypt:3 Depths (4/5) D:15
Altars:
Ashenzari
Cheibriados
Dithmenos
Gozag
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Qazlal
Ru
Sif Muna
Trog
Uskayaw
Vehumet
Wu Jian
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin
The Shining One
Beogh
Jiyva
Shops:
D:7 [ D:12 ? Orc:2 (*=[ Shoals:2 [ Shoals:4 = Vaults:4 (
Depths:1 :
Portals:
Hell: Depths:1 Depths:2 Depths:3
Pandemonium: Depths:3
Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations
You cannot be hasted, slowed, berserked, paralysed or teleported.
You can dig through walls and to a lower floor.
Your four strong arms can wield two-handed weapons with a shield.
You have a pair of large antennae on your head. (SInv)
You have very sharp fingernails.
You have very sharp teeth.
You have claws for feet.
You are mostly covered in icy blue scales. (AC +3)
You are partially covered in slimy green scales. (AC +2)
You are agile. (Dex +2)
You possess an exceptional clarity of mind.
Your mind is acute. (Int +2)
Your flesh is almost immune to the effects of cold. (rC+++)
Your flesh is heat resistant. (rF+)
You have an increased reservoir of magic. (+10% MP)
You are highly resistant to hostile enchantments. (MR++)
You passively map a small area around you.
Your system is resistant to poisons. (rPois)
You heal very quickly.
You are robust. (+10% HP)
You are covered in thick fur. (AC +2)
Your muscles are very strong. (Str +4)
Your spells are a little harder to cast, but a little more powerful.
You rapidly evolve.
Yes, Xom can give you an acquirement, but it's super rare and even when it does happen, many of the acquirements are plain bad (food, book...). Xom does give you some extra consumables, but not enough to even break even because you're using more consumables in the first place because you have to deal with bad Xom actions and not having god abilities.
Tactical Xom acts will straight-up kill you early, and require constant paranoia and tedium for the rest of the game
Summon hostiles, banishment, D:1 monster polymorphs, and some miscasts can easily kill early-game characters with no recourse. For the rest of the game you won't be unavoidably killed except by banishment, but you have to rest upstairs, notice and move out of chaos clouds immediately, religiously fight monsters one-on-one, save all your cancellation and curing for Xom effects (confusion is still extremely frequent), and keep in mind you could be paralysed or twistered or suddenly next to a spark wasp at any moment. If you don't do all of the above then you can just die to a Xom effect as if you were back on D:1. Maybe some people find this fun and challenging, I don't.
In short:
1. Xom's advantages are so small - especially early - and the disadvantages are so large - that he is not only worse than atheist, I actually believe Xom is worse than Qazlal after playing many games with him. He is probably better than Chei in hells/pan/abyss but that's all.
2. The disadvantages, in addition to far outweighing the advantages, are fundamentally not interesting. I keep waiting for Xom to be mentioned somewhere in the crusade against "luring" because Xom characters do way, way more kiting and luring and running away than any other character I can think of.
And finally:
Yes, gifts are scummable
Once you can survive banishment, it is safe to 5 in Lair until your food runs out. You will get gifts, and Xom getting bored doesn't matter and even if it did you could just learn Confuse and fall down stairs whenever his interest level wanes. I don't bother with this but I believe there's already enough experimental evidence that it works. Not to mention you can scum tension to make it work even better.
Yes, Xom boredom and the entire interest system doesn't matter
It shouldn't even exist at this point, a single extra bad action is practically nothing and it's not going to be an effective anti-scumming timer either way. All it does is mislead unspoiled players.
Fixes?
If the fundamental idea of Xom is to boost your character's power level at the expense of harder, less predictable fights, I would suggest (knowing full well it probably won't happen): getting rid of the polymorphing and teleporting and banishing and summoning and mighting monsters, but adding a new mechanic to Xom: reduce monsters' "minimum" depths (as if Xom went through mon-pick-data.h and reduced every minr by 30% or whatever. D:5 with more steam dragons and bullfrogs, or D:8 with more acid dragons and kobold demonologists, or Lair with more anacondas and wolf spiders, would be much more dangerous and harder to predict but not unfair. This does suffer in places like Zot or Tomb where there are no real out-of-depth monsters in the first place, but Xom's current disadvantage mechanic has basically a worse version of the same problem (it gets less and less disadvantageous as the game goes on).
You would still need to buff the advantages in some way - I would like better gifts, and maybe the early-game mutations should be better. To fix the huge number of good mutations in the late game (if that's something that needs a fix - the power isn't an issue since it's still Xom) you could make his mutations work more like the potion, where it explicitly tries to cure some mutations in addition to adding new ones.
If the fundamental idea of Xom is "lol…as u can see im very random!!!!" then I guess I wasted my time.
- For this message the author duvessa has received thanks: 9
- Brannock, Doesnt, MainiacJoe, nago, njvack, ontoclasm, pratamawirya, Shard1697, VeryAngryFelid
