Some god nerf proposals

[sanka]

I'd like to propose some minor nerfs to some gods (apologies if in the quick trunk development some of these become obsolete, please let me know!)

1. Hepliaklqana *immedietaly* gives you a permanent summon upon joining. This is too strong in the hardest part of the game. I propose to only give you the ghost at one star, similarly to the two basic abilities.

2. Nemelex used to give you a deck very soon after joining. I propose to only hand out decks above 1* piety, so that she is not so much stronger early on than many gods.

3. Gozag's piety (gold) is not bounded, so you can really spam her abilities sometimes, which not only makes her too strong IMHO, but makes her more of the potion petition god than a god about shops and items. I suggest that after every use of an ability, set up a period where the same ability can not be used (out of stock). The period should depend on the gold you obtain, that is, you can not use the ability till you gain some "piety" again.

[Nekoatl]

1) Disagree, because initially the summon is very weak, and you also immediately lose 10% max HP. Seems to balance out.

2) Pretty sure this change was made months ago.

3) Partially agree. Potion Petition does feel much more economical than the other abilities. Call Merchant's scaling prices isn't a true limit on its usage, at least not once a player reaches level 20 or so, because the Abyss offers infinite gold, and because it's an out-of-combat ability. Rather than locking the player out of abilities, though, I'd suggest having the cost of any Gozag ability spike up sharply with each use, but then progressively return to their starting values as gold is collected... slowly at first, but gradually accelerating. Reasons being (a) Gozag's random nature means you might not get what you need on the first try, (b) the decision about whether to try again immediately or try to find a way to buy time before trying again could be interesting in many circumstances, and (c) this would add uncertainty as to how much gold a player should hold in reserve, making it less of a no-brainer.

[sanka]

I like your Gozag proposal, and thanks for letting me know of the Nemelex update, sorry for missing it.

I disagree with you about Hep, -10% HP does not counteracts the ally on most races. A permanent ally lets you freely disengage from most opponents, this alone is very strong and worths more than -10%HP. (Hep is not so good for felids or spriggans though.)

[Nekoatl]

From single opponents no faster than the player and without any ranged threat, it does... but there are many other ways to achieve that result without sacrificing max HP. Average case, you maybe save a consumable or two, which in the big scheme of things doesn't seem like much. Though I'm sure there are edge cases where weak characters need to flee frequently and being able to repeatedly take advantage of the ancestor could be quite a boon, I'm not sure how concerned we should be about throwing a bone to the weakest characters.

[sanka]

The fact that some characters are strong enough so they do not really need a god does not make the ability less strong. The problem is exactly that you get a strong ability immediately upon joining, compared to other gods who only give the ability at 1*. (And I am personally would move very strong 1* abilities to higher piety, but that does not matter now).

[Nekoatl]

I just don't agree that the a baby ancestor is a strong ability. Even as an escape tool, it's not very reliable, as there are many situation where an enemy or group of enemies will just swat it like a fly and start killing you. Besides, running away doesn't improve your character's ability to deal with other enemies in the way that being able to kill things does. Given a choice between an ability that helps me run away from a threat and ability that helps me kill that threat, I'm inclined to see the latter as stronger.

[Siegurt]

FWIW when Nem lost his early deck, Goz also lost the free potion-petition on join.

Hep's on-join ancestor is a mixed bag, you gain a (relatively) powerful summon, but lose 10% max hps, it's definitely not a "free" bonus, but it's probably a significantly net positive, I'm not sure that Hep would be worth using at all if you lost 10% hps and got... nothing at all for a while (even chei gives you a small stat bonus at the outset to go with your slower movement).

[sanka]

Well, the -10% is flavored as powering the ancestor, so I guessed you do not get it till you do not get the ancestor.

[tasonir]

...compared to other gods who only give the ability at 1*. (And I am personally would move very strong 1* abilities to higher piety, but that does not matter now).

Heroism is at least a 3* ability by this metric.

[Jeremiah]

...compared to other gods who only give the ability at 1*. (And I am personally would move very strong 1* abilities to higher piety, but that does not matter now).

Heroism is at least a 3* ability by this metric.

I'm sure there are some who do think that Heroism is OP as a * ability, though it has already been nerfed quite a bit in relatively recent times (duration reduced at low Invocations, and Oka piety is harder to get since the change to only gaining piety from killing 'worthy' opponents)