Barkeep
Posts: 3890
Joined: Wednesday, 14th August 2013, 23:25
Location: USA
Eregestes, God of Will and Self-Discipline
Eregestes is the god of will, self-discipline, and inner strength. Through Eregestes's divine instruction, devotees learn to project their will as a physical embodiment, in the form of a spirit guardian that will strive to aid and protect them. Eregestes wants his disciples to show their martial prowress by defeating enemies without the help of any allies, aside from their own spirit guardian. Those who worship Eregestes will also enjoy immunity to drain status, rot, and stat drain, so long as their spirit guardian is intact. However, if one's spirit guardian is destroyed, the blow to one's psyche will drain a portion of your MP and put one under the drain status effect, which will have to be removed before one can project his will and re-form the spirit guardian again.
Likes: Killing enemies
Disallows: Having allies other than your spirit guardian
Neutral "alignment" (not considered evil by Zin, Ely, or TSO; accepts worshipers from all species except demigods).
Any time your spirit guardian dies, you get drain status (i.e., skill drain) and your current MP is halved.
Upon Joining:
+ Eregestes removes any drain status, stat drain, and rot that you currently have
+ "You can project a physical embodiment of your will" New ability: Project will. Spawns your spirit guardian. Can only be done when your body is pure—i.e., no rot, no stat drain, and not under drain status.
+ "So long as your spirit guardian is intact, you are immune to stat drain, rot, and the drain status. Negative energy damages you normally."
+ Eregestes protects your spirit guardian from all "friendly fire" damage, and vice versa.
*----- Ability: Spirit Link. Your guardian is immediately recalled to a space adjacent to you.
**---- "You can meditate to alter the manifestation of your will." Ability: Change aspect. Allows you to choose one of three "aspects" for your spirit guardian. This ability takes multiple turns (like eating); you get a warning and Y/N prompt if you try to do it while enemies are present. (This is intended as a strategic, rather than tactical ability.)
***--- "You unlock deeper potentialities within your will." You get a new ability depending on the aspect of your spirit guardian. (See below.) These abilities have a low piety cost, but also cause exhaustion (and cannot be used again until exhaustion wears off).
****-- No new abilities
*****- "You can temporarily merge your whole self—body, mind, and soul—into your spirit guardian." Ability: Transference. Moderate or high piety cost. Your body disappears and player instead gains complete control of the spirit guardian. If the spirit guardian is destroyed the player reappears where spirit guardian was. Eventually times out, and can be ended (with slight delay, like transformation) through the (a)bility menu.
****** "You can call upon Eregestes to purify your body and replenish your will." Ability: Rejuvenate. Large piety cost. Eregestes removes any drain status, rot, and stat drain, and will immediately re-spawn your spirit guardian.
Spirit guardian mechanics
Your spirit guardian has any resistances that you have. Your spirit guardian is immune to all hostile enchantments. Any buff or debuff that affects you, however, will affect spirit guardian. Whenever you are healed, your spirit guardian is automatically healed by the same amount. Whenever you teleport, the spirit guardian will teleport automatically to a spot within LOS of wherever you end up.
The base strength (HP, HD, AC/EV) of your spirit guardian is based on your character level, but gets an additional bonus that scales up with piety. Each aspect has additional characteristics, as well:
Aspect of strength: Spirit guardian gets extra HP, extra AC, and now uses a spectral version of whatever weapon you are currently wielding. Can use a jump attack (identical to ego from boots of jumping). Additional ability at ***: Attract enemies. When activated, this ability will cause enemies to vastly prefer attacking your spirit guardian, rather than you.
Aspect of cunning: Base line values for HP, HD, etc. Does not use a weapon—attacks with its fists. Every turn there is a chance that some enemy in LOS of your spirit guardian will be hit with a confuse effect that checks HD (rather than MR). *** ability: Mass Disorder. Hits every enemy in LOS with a boosted HD-dependent confuse effect.
Aspect of destruction: Spirit guardian gets lower HP, but extra EV. Does not use a weapon. Rather than melee attacks, uses ranged "spirit missile" attacks that can pass through player without harming him or her. *** ability: Spirit Blast. A smite-targeted attack with fireball's AOE (like hellfire). The blast cannot harm the spirit guardian or player. The AI for spirit guardian under aspect of destruction will tend to hang back and avoid letting enemies surround it.