God Proposal: Liatrix the Shapeshifting God (2nd Draft)

[lethediver]

OVERVIEW:

Laitrix the Shifty

"Never show them your true face."

Liatrix is the sly and chaotic god of many forms. Liatrix's followers are encouraged to polymorph and transmute themselves, and gain augmentations that make them more formidible while polymorphed. As they progress in their faith, Liatrix's followers gain the ability to morph into specific forms, as well as summon shapeshifters to their aid.

Appreciates:

Killing living, undead, holy or demonic enemies while polymorphed or transmuted.

Depreciates:

Inaction.
Harming a shapeshifter in any way (penance).
Abandoning her/him/it.

RANKS/ABILITIES:

Piety Level -: Shifty [species name]

* All shapeshifters turn neutral. (passive)
* The player retains the ability to cast spells and evoke items even when polymorphed. (passive)

Piety Level *: Two Faced [species name]

* Tree Form: This gives the Tree status effect, exactly like quaffing a potion of lignification. Cost: 2 MP, 1 Piety.

Piety Level **: Sly Devil

* The player's unarmed combat is boosted to the same level as his highest weapon skill whenever polymorphed or transmuted. (passive)

* Unmask: Instantly cancels all of the player's active polymorph and transmutation effects. Costs 1-2 Piety, 2 MP, Exhaustion.

Piety Level ***: Role Reverser

No new abilities.

Piety Level ****: Impersonator

* Wisp Form: This gives the Wisp status effect, exactly like that bestowed by a wand of polymorph. Cost: 2 Piety, 6 MP, 100-200 Food.

Piety Level *****: Agent of Alteration

* Summon Shifters: Summons 3-6 allied shapeshifters to fight alongside you.Their duration increases with Invocations (6-9 turns at minimum invocations, 18-24 turns at maximum invocations). (8 MP, 100-200 Food, 5-6 Piety)

Piety Level ******: Harbinger of Change

No new abilities.

GIFTS:

Piety -:

You are granted 1 fully charged, identified wand of polymorph the first time you join Liatrix.

Piety **+:

Wand of polymorph. Comes fully charged but not identified. Gift timeout is 24 to 36.

Piety ****:

1 randart spellbook with 4 random transmutation spells. You only receive this once.

PUNISHMENTS:

Randomly polymorphs you with zero chance of acquiring a good form.
Randomly polymorph enemies in your line of sight into higher HD enemies.
Your transmutation spells have their durations lowered by a random amount.
Summons 4-8 hostile shapeshifters to your vicinity.
Random transmutations miscast effect.

---

NOTES:

This new draft draws on many of the criticisms given in the previous draft. Rather than giving many new, unique forms, I tried to make it so polymorphing itself becomes a more viable option for all character types. Removing the restriction on casting/evoking makes it possible for non melee characters to truly benefit from all the different "bad" forms, while the boost to unarmed skill makes it so non-unarmed melee characters can benefit as well.

Because there are no more random polymorphs, this god now feels very different from Xom. In fact, there is no more empahasis on polymorphing enemies at all, making this a purely disguise/deception/shapeshifting god, rather than a "polymorph everything" god.

This god does synergize fairly well with transmutations due to the piety gain, being able to insta-cancel all morph effects, as well as the boost to unarmed. This doesn't feel OP to me, because a transmuter should ideally be fighting unarmed anyway... so at most, this lets your non transmuted form be slightly more robust, while still being weaker than blade hands, dragon or statue form.

Also, this god enables a somewhat different playstyle from ordinary transmuters because most of the "bad forms" are about increasing mobility and utility (flight, blinking, various immunities, stealth boosts, increased move speed) or tradeoffs (HP boost + resistances at expense of movement for lignification)... while transmutation abilities are more about offensive power.

Hopefully, the final ability (panic summons) + the fact that wisp form provides almost every immunity in the game with mininal drawbacks (thanks to the passives) makes this god sufficiently powerful, without being too powerful.

[phloomp]

I like the idea of making forms that merge weapons use your highest weapon skill when fighting. In fact, I like it so much that I wonder if that shouldn't just be true regardless of what god you follow?

I don't like getting piety from killing while transmuted, since in general I think it's a drag when you need to do anything special to get piety. Currently Sif is the only god that makes you do anything which isn't already necessary to win the game, and I think that's annoying too.

[bcadren]

I don't think you should use the "highest weapon skill"instead of UC; it's just too much of a buff for a lot of races. Ogre with 3! UC? You're kidding right? People come out and cry that it means the god will only be usable by a small minority of characters because of the focus on one skill; but most gods require that you train a specific skill to get most their benefits and it is -not- a bad thing. Necro for Kiku; Conj for Vehu; Evo for Pakellas and Neme; Invo for a lot of others. Having to train a specific skill to use the gods abilities doesn't mean it's the -only- skill your character is training after all.

[Quazifuji]

As bcadren said, I can't imagine ever using this god for any reason other than a transmuter on a race with a very high weapon aptitude but lower unarmed aptitude. Having to kill things in tree form or random polymorph form until 4* piety if you're not a transmuter sounds like the worst thing ever, so playing as a non-transmuter is out entirely, and being able to abuse the ability to use weapon skill when transmuted seems like the only aspect of this god that would make them worth picking for transmuters over someone like Okawaru. Being able to cast spells while polymorphed and earning piety for polymorphing is not enough incentive to polymorph yourself and risk turning into something bad when you could just transmute yourself into a known form if you're a transmuter or worship a different god when you're not. So in the end, I see this god just being used by ogre, merfolk, or hill orc transmuters to get a massive unarmed aptitude bonus and maybe occasionally summon shapeshifters, and that's it.

I would say give an extremely low-cost self polymorph ability and make the polymorphed forms compelling. As is, I don't see having infinite wands of polymorph and the ability to cast spells while polymorphed as enough incentive to ever actually use one of those wands myself if I could cast transmutation spells. It's a similar problem to your last proposal, really: the god lets you polymorph yourself, but it doesn't actually turn that into a good thing.

I also wouldn't require killing things while polymorphed for piety. It's flavorful, but the main effect it has is to encourage you to tediously polymorph yourself while fighting popcorn just to keep up your piety, which isn't interesting and just slows the game down a lot. If this god offers so little incentive to polymorph yourself that you'd only do it for piety, then the whole concept isn't working.

[lethediver]

As bcadren said, I can't imagine ever using this god for any reason other than a transmuter on a race with a very high weapon aptitude but lower unarmed aptitude. Having to kill things in tree form or random polymorph form until 4* piety if you're not a transmuter sounds like the worst thing ever, so playing as a non-transmuter is out entirely, and being able to abuse the ability to use weapon skill when transmuted seems like the only aspect of this god that would make them worth picking for transmuters over someone like Okawaru. Being able to cast spells while polymorphed and earning piety for polymorphing is not enough incentive to polymorph yourself and risk turning into something bad when you could just transmute yourself into a known form if you're a transmuter or worship a different god when you're not. So in the end, I see this god just being used by ogre, merfolk, or hill orc transmuters to get a massive unarmed aptitude bonus and maybe occasionally summon shapeshifters, and that's it.

I would say give an extremely low-cost self polymorph ability and make the polymorphed forms compelling. As is, I don't see having infinite wands of polymorph and the ability to cast spells while polymorphed as enough incentive to ever actually use one of those wands myself if I could cast transmutation spells. It's a similar problem to your last proposal, really: the god lets you polymorph yourself, but it doesn't actually turn that into a good thing.

I also wouldn't require killing things while polymorphed for piety. It's flavorful, but the main effect it has is to encourage you to tediously polymorph yourself while fighting popcorn just to keep up your piety, which isn't interesting and just slows the game down a lot. If this god offers so little incentive to polymorph yourself that you'd only do it for piety, then the whole concept isn't working.

Thanks for the detailed input. As to polymorphed forms still being too weak, what would you think of preventing armor/jewelry melding during polymorph? This would mean just about every downside to polymorphing has been removed. My only concern is that then they might become TOO powerful. The speed bonus from bat form, wisp form, and even pig form would make kiting trivial. Perhaps the gifting of wands could be reduced or eliminated to compensate?

As an alternative to boosting the player's unarmed skill, what about letting them retain the use of weapons even when poly'd to a form that usually doesn't? This would leave most of the transmutation spells alone while boosting the poly forms by a lot. For edge cases like hydra form, could make it so the heads simply don't activate unless the player is attacking with no weapon in hand.

I will strongly consider changing the way piety works to be in line with most other gods.

[WingedEspeon]

This looks interesting. A MfTm could really benefit from the god. It can also make some species like Ha surprisingly good transmuters.

[dynast]

Why even have polymorph wands if you just gonna keep gifting more indefinitely? Instead, just make it a ability that may or not cost piety(to avoid polymorph scumming, which there will be anyways).

[lethediver]

Why even have polymorph wands if you just gonna keep gifting more indefinitely? Instead, just make it a ability that may or not cost piety(to avoid polymorph scumming, which there will be anyways).

You're probably right. What would you think of it being 0 piety, but like 5 MP and 100 food? Similar to makhleb lesser destruction.

I don't feel like a poly zap is quite worth piety when the player is prolly gonna find like 10 wands of poly with 20 zaps each in the course of a 15 rune game.

Another possibility: an ability that polymorphs the player and gives some buffs (regen, MR+) which will auto cancel if the player cancels polymorph. This could actually be worth some piety.

[Lacuenta]

Could just be me but isn't wisp form disquised suicide?

[dynast]

Wisp form is like bad bat form. You are fast and can escape anything, until it blinks you in the middle of everything.

[lethediver]

Wisp form is like bad bat form. You are fast and can escape anything, until it blinks you in the middle of everything.

I thought it was good due to the resistances, but I could easily make it bat form instead.

Edit: In fact, bat form will likely be a lot better IF I decide to go with allowing the player to keep jewelry, armor and weapon from merging, because they'll likely have a good set of resistances in that case, and get less benefit from the resistances in wisp form.

I take it people like the overall direction of the changes? Imo, in a criticism heavy forum like this, small criticisms are a sign that the big things are going well.

[infinitevox]

What if you removed wand/spellbook gifting all-together.
Then upon worshiping this god, the duration of transmutation spells/effects cast on self are now multiplied by (1 + piety level)
So;
Piety -, Transmutation duration unchanged
Piety *, Transmutation duration 2x
Piety **, Transmutation duration 3x...
That combined with Unmask, would really make this god feel like a proper shapeshifting god imo, as worshipping Liatrix would give the player greater control over transmutation.

I would also suggest Contamination instead of Exhaustion for using Unmask.
For two reasons:
1. Allows tactical form changing, which seems like it would go with a shapechanger very well, while still having an impact if used too often, too quickly
2. Flavor, making multiple changes too quickly could result in a permanent transmutation (ie, mutation).

Also also, what if, instead of giving specific forms, the god gave a choice.
So instead of gifting Treeform, Liatrix gives 3 different forms the player can choose from, the choice being permanent. (I don't even know if you can, but Abandoning this god and rejoining the religion would not wipe out your previous choices.)
This would allow flexibility with play-style and combo choice, and would be something unique to this god.

[lethediver]

What if you removed wand/spellbook gifting all-together.
Then upon worshiping this god, the duration of transmutation spells/effects cast on self are now multiplied by (1 + piety level)
So;
Piety -, Transmutation duration unchanged
Piety *, Transmutation duration 2x
Piety **, Transmutation duration 3x...
That combined with Unmask, would really make this god feel like a proper shapeshifting god imo, as worshipping Liatrix would give the player greater control over transmutation.

I would also suggest Contamination instead of Exhaustion for using Unmask.
For two reasons:
1. Allows tactical form changing, which seems like it would go with a shapechanger very well, while still having an impact if used too often, too quickly
2. Flavor, making multiple changes too quickly could result in a permanent transmutation (ie, mutation).

Also also, what if, instead of giving specific forms, the god gave a choice.
So instead of gifting Treeform, Liatrix gives 3 different forms the player can choose from, the choice being permanent. (I don't even know if you can, but Abandoning this god and rejoining the religion would not wipe out your previous choices.)
This would allow flexibility with play-style and combo choice, and would be something unique to this god.

Very cool suggestions. I will definitely use the contaminate one. As for the other: I'm currently thinking about ways to allow the player to use the poly forms A) reliably (ie, no randomness), B) flexibly (ability provides access to more than one form) and C) simply, ie, don't clutter the screen up with menus. Your suggestion meets A very well, B pretty well, and C kind of well. I'm hoping there is a way to do all three well, but I'm just not sure it's possible. But I'm thinking on it.

I'm not so sure about extending durations. I feel like extend-duration would just be a "meh" bonus, compared to some other boosts the player might receive. But I'll let others weigh in.

[Chicken]

Hmmm, what if high-piety followers get a permanent "You evolve" mutation?

[TeshiAlair]

Rather than boosting it straight to the same level, boost to the same weapon skill modified for aptitude just like what happens when Draconians get their color. This way, Ogres could use their clubs when not transmuted, but not be totally screwed when morphing, without using it as a straight up cheap tactic.

I think a neat ability would be Polymorph Local: transform into a monster seen on that floor ala Shadow Creatures. Has a chance to distract nearby enemies until you attack. To save on coding and for balance reasons, it can be set members rather than any possible one (So, say, Tree, Yak, or Hydra for Lair, scaling on Invo)

[Quazifuji]

Hmmm, what if high-piety followers get a permanent "You evolve" mutation?

Jiyva basically does this already.