God Proposal: Liatrix the Shapeshifting God (3rd 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 in another form. 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.

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 while polymorphed. (passive)

Piety Level *: Two Faced [species name]

* The duration of the player's transmutation spell effects are extended (.2x per 1 star piety; so 1.2x at 1 star, and 2.2x at 6 stars).

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

Piety Level **: Sly Devil

* Unmask: Instantly cancels all of the player's active polymorph and transmutation effects. Costs 1-2 Piety, 2 MP, moderate contamination (just below glowing).

Piety Level ***: Role Reverser

* The player's unarmed combat is boosted to the average of his highest weapon skill and his unarmed combat skill whenever polymorphed/transmuted. (passive)

Piety Level ****: Impersonator

* Bat Form: This gives the bat 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 ****:

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.
Your unarmed combat skill is halved when transmuted/polymorphed.
Summons 4-8 hostile shapeshifters to your vicinity.
Random transmutations miscast effect.

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NOTES:

With this draft, Liatrix moves firmly away from being a polymorph based god, to being a transmutations based god. I decided that ultimately, making polymorph a core strategy was impossible without making it A) overly complex, B) extremely underpowered, or C) extremely one dimensional and overpowered.

The buff to unarmed has been toned down, in a way that is hopefully both simple and strategically deep. Having a high non-unarmed skill can still funnel into unarmed, but you will still always be behind another hypothetical character focusing purely on unarmed.

This, combined with the moderate buff to duration, the ability to un-transform at will, and the small quality of life increase of a free spellbook, make this god an attractive option for those wanting to go into transmutations. For other characters, the god's utility is questionable... though I'd argue that bat form / wisp form with evoc/spells enabled is a great escape option for anyone, and a fun thing for players to experiment with.

[dynast]

I think what this god really need is a "polymorphing rampage" ability, a form that encourages and rewards the player by fighting in different forms, basically starting with a weak form, growing into stronger forms and extending its duration as you kill enemies.

[kroki]

i think abilities need to do more, they all look pretty weak at the moment

[lethediver]

I think what this god really need is a "polymorphing rampage" ability, a form that encourages and rewards the player by fighting in different forms, basically starting with a weak form, growing into stronger forms and extending its duration as you kill enemies.

i think abilities need to do more, they all look pretty weak at the moment

Hmm, how about an ability similar to enemy shapeshifters?

Shapeshift: Acquired at 5 star piety.

Cost 6 MP, 5-6 Piety, Contamination

Gives the SShift Status effect, which lasts 5-15 turns (invocations) and causes you to polymorph every turn. While active, you gain 20% HP/MP per turn, and have a chance to confuse any nearby intelligent monsters.

This could replace summon shifters or maybe bat form.

[Quazifuji]

That ability has three completely unrelated effects, making it really confusing.

Personally, if the goal of this god is to use the weird forms that can come out of the player getting polymorphed, focus on that. Maybe try this as a thought experiment to see if it gets you anywhere: consider letting the god give the player either on worship or at 1* an ability that lets them polymorph themselves. Then try to make the god give you other powers that would make using that ability frequently a good idea.

[lethediver]

That ability has three completely unrelated effects, making it really confusing.

Personally, if the goal of this god is to use the weird forms that can come out of the player getting polymorphed, focus on that. Maybe try this as a thought experiment to see if it gets you anywhere: consider letting the god give the player either on worship or at 1* an ability that lets them polymorph themselves. Then try to make the god give you other powers that would make using that ability frequently a good idea.

While I was initially excited about the possibilities of polymorph, I see this as more of a transmutation support god at this point. Perhaps I will design a high level ability with that in mind.

The feedback I got on the last draft tells me that good players are EXTREMELY averse to polymorphing themselves or enemies because of one thing: risk. To overcome that aversion would require basically changing polymorphing from polymorphing, into something completely different. Even having added back in evocables, spells, and converting your combat skill to a useable form in polymorph, players still don't want to use it. And, a member of the design team explicitly stated "no random polymorph self/enemies."

So, I more or less can't go with polymorph as the basis for the god, so that leaves transmutations, with poly being an interesting escape or utility option.

Edit: There is one possible solution: remove the randomness from polymorphing. I'm not sure how to achieve this without adding a lot of complexity though (such as menus and prompts on polymorph). And no one likes complexity.

[Lacuenta]

Fun idea; as a max piety one time gift, he could shapeshift you into a different race.

[Sprucery]

Fun idea; as a max piety one time gift, he could shapeshift you into a different race. :D

Mountain Dwarf, obviously.