Monday, 27th April 2020, 03:49 by omnirizon
thanks for the questions. I've kept in mind from the start this must be a god I'd enjoy playing and having in the game. I'm going to offer a couple of specifics to have something to look at through different game stages. Let's say this god grants +1 to all equipment-enchantment sources of AC, EV, and slaying at two stars, represses equipment maluses (*slow, *corrode, *rot, and on-remove effects) at four stars, and gifts for malmutations at five stars. the stars aren't that important but seem reasonable right now. These are also examples, I've left out evocables & amulets that are part of the original motivation, these things are still open of course. I want to focus on a single element right now: the equipment.
1. Equipment will interact differently with Fe, Op, monstrous (Dr, Og, and Tr mainly) and humanoid (everyone else). Fe and Op may be motivated to opt for this god in early game if they find a lot of rings, amulets, and hats with AC as their equipment restrictions make this difficult to obtain otherwise, especially at this stage of the game. Similarly for monstrous classes. Mid and late game Fe, Op, and monstrous species also all tend to require ring & weapon swapping more often to cover resistances at necessary times, as their equipment restrictions again make it more difficult to cover all resistances and needs all the time. With weapons especially, it's often the case a really useful one has an awful contaminate or drain on remove that makes them useless for this need, and this god would allow these equipment restricted species to get more out of what equipment they can use. Armor is less impacted in this way because it takes 10 turns to remove and put back on and that's usually not a good idea in the middle of most fights. Equipment gifts will also necessarily be artefacts to have the maluses and these come with valuable resistances that these species will thirst for in late game, making this a good god to hold on to as well. If they get the equipment and abandon the god, they won't be able to use or swap it without the penalties (along with whatever penance).
Humanoids are a little simpler. Unarmored classes may opt for this god for extra AC bonuses. I feel meleers are more equipment dependent and would benefit from extra slaying. The slaying bonus may make harder decisions when you have to find a nice branded weapon of the wrong type or tier in early game, and could make holding on to lower tier weapons a little longer feasible. Equipment slaying still capped at +9 so the effect wouldn't break end-game, but could provide a small extra bonus and motivation to wear an extra item with slaying bonus late-game, especially if going for a one-handed build. Equipment swapping is still key for humanoids, but relatively less beneficial compared to equipment restricted species, however humanoids leverage the benefit from a greater number of equipment pieces.
As for playstyle, early game is often about picking a god that gives a fast and sufficient bonus and stays useful, where the sufficient bonus is often dependent on when, where, and what's in your inventory at the moment. In the late game what differentiates this god, vis-a-vis these equipment bonuses (there may be more evo too) is a greater number of useful equipment swaps: rings, weapons, and amulets with useful bonuses, some found but often obtained through gifts. Gifts are gauranteed artefacts, in general better than Oka, but with maluses that the god represses. The gifts are granted with malmutations. An implied bonus for equipment-restricted species is that they can carry more of the stuff the god gifts you.
2. Equipment swapping is already a necessary tedium of the end-game. This god may add a little more swapping but it's already there, and it's easily managed with macros.
3. My longer answer in one addresses this. I'll emphasize here it seems like a rather generic choice right now, but logical for some. By generic I mean not strongly favoring a type of class (melee, caster, stabber) but that any of them could find a reason under the right circumstances. The god gifts equipment and is good for non-meleers too, unlike Oka and Trog who favor melees, so it adds another choice.
4. The god changes equipment maluses that, for me, essentially remove this equipment from the game. It's like finding the old Nem decks and it's sort of useful but not really, except there's no Nem right now. Armor with *corrosion is unusable no matter how good the bonuses. Likewise drain on remove, and harm, are unusuable for most people in most circumstances, and there's basically never a reason to carry these things around right now. Weapons are still usable but one might lose their ability to swap without a big penalty. This god allows players to make use of things that I never use and I don't think most players do either. As I noted in discussion of tedium, the god interacts with stuff that players already do at all game stages (equipment and swapping) So I don't think the god overshadows any but offers more options. And it's not like you won't or can't equipment swap without this god, it just makes more doable with more equipment. Although I've not discussed evo so far, it might make sense for this god to give a flat evo bonus that could provide motivation for species bad at evo to get a flat bonus, or those good at it to get high skill more quickly.
I understand any additions interact with a lot of stuff and may require more effort and time than it's worth. Please ask any questions and let me know how to help.