God Idea: Ibn Hayyan, god of Alchemy

[infinitevox]

Ibn Hayyan, god of Alchemy
When not completely inebriated on some weird concoction, Ibn Hayyan is a devious and mischievous god, who is also a huge hit at parties... Ibn appreciates worshipers who frequently imbibe mind and body altering substances, who cause others to imbibe substances, and those who like to have a good time. To assist this, Ibn provides worshipers with the ability to distill their own potions for later use, and the ability to throw those potions to great affect.

Likes:
killboringdudes (aka every monster except Krazy Klowns, which should display a message "Ibn thinks that one might have been a mistake...")
(REALLY LIKES) Slaying monsters who cannot quaff potions (They're real dullards and no fun at parties at all)
Wearing hats (is it really a party if you're not wearing a party hat?)

Dislikes:
Forgetfulness, abandonment, being a party pooper

Abilities:
(......) Piety: (Passive) Potion ID, (Passive) Potion mapping, Potion Transmutation (Pray over a potion, it becomes weaponized)
(*.....) Piety: N/A
(**....) Piety: Evaporate; check the wiki (essentially throw a potion and it turns into a cloud/does dmg or an effect), costs mana & strength/duration increased by Invo
(***...) Piety: (Passive) Tolerance Adjustment; beneficial status effects are stronger/last longer & detrimental effects are weaker/shorter, power based on Invo
(****..) Piety: N/A
(*****.) Piety: (Passive) Potion Gifts; Gifts a random potion. Gift timer is less often than Trog or Oka
(******) Piety: Alchemize; single smite target, turns an enemy into a potion, success % based on Invo & monster HD, costs mana & piety

Notes:
- Mummies may not worship Ibn Hayyan, as they cannot party.
- Worshipers may swap worship to Xom without incurring wrath, as Ibn recognizes that Xom is also a huge hit at parties.
- Worshipers may swap worship to Uskayaw without incurring wrath, as Ibn gotta get they dance on

The idea behind this god is that Fulsome Distillation and Evaporate were a lot of fun, but did seem out of place as spells, as they really did change the way crawl was played when using them.
This is a a design space that isn't being used at all currently, and I think would both be interesting and entertaining gameplay as a result.
The coding work for this god should also not too bad, as both Fulsome Distillation and Evaporate were previously in the game.
If "Combine" is deemed too tedious or whatnot, that ability could be axed or replaced with something better. I thought it would be a "nice to have" ability on a god who dealt with potions. The number of "Combined" potions could also be limited to like 3 or something if it was felt that this was too powerful for some reason.
Thoughts? Comments? Go ahead and put it in trunk?

**Edit**
- Piety conduct changed to not be tedious or fiddly
- Fulsome Distillation replaced with Potion Transmutation via "and into"
- Combine ability removed, need a new capstone
- Capstone ability "Alchemize" added

[and into]

The "combine" ability looks like it could be a bit awkward in terms of interface, and in terms of the beneficial potions, it overlaps with Gozag (if I understand your proposal correctly). I'm not sure how you would combine three bad potions into an evaporate, either... Only one cloud can occupy a tile at a time, and miasma is simply an improvement upon poison (unless you have rpois and want to stand in the cloud yourself). Might need to rethink that ability.

FWIW here's an old proposal I had for a potions god, with some discussion too. Some of the abilities, like potion conservation, are (fortunately!) no longer relevant:
https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=11925

[Arrhythmia]

Probably not a good idea to give a god an Actual Name

[dpeg]

Yes, the basic premise of turning Fulsome Distillation/Evaporate into god powers is good. Not sure it's enough to carry a god, but I am sure you can do something with the potions theme.

Piety from drinking potions is problematic, don't do it. Instead, make it so that drinking potions is good by itself, for example as in the *** passive power. Another way to do that would be to have it an ongoing effect, setting at 0 piety, scaling continuously.

This would be yet another mutation-related god (after Xom and Jiyva), but I think it's alright. For potions of mutation, the chances for good/bad mutations needs to be tilted only ever so slightly.

An idea from Crawl Light: potions you quaff apply to all allies in sight. (Crawl Light does that for all potions, always. This could be good. I suggested to steal this for Beogh, but having it anywhere would be a good start.)

Brogue shows how cool thrown potions can be, so can always get more inspiration from there. (Sorry and_into, didn't look into the old thread.)

[Lasty]

One problem with Fulsome/Evap that isn't addressed by making them god powers is the incentive to evaporate all the corpses and scour the dungeon for garbage potions. There's scumming potential there.

Piety from killing with {foo} is problematic because then you have to worry about last-hitting and whatnot. Piety for killing with clouds is extra problematic, since unlike other kill with {foo} conducts, it means deliberately not acting to end the fight and instead waiting for the cloud to do it for you.

[Arrhythmia]

One problem with Fulsome/Evap that isn't addressed by making them god powers is the incentive to evaporate all the corpses and scour the dungeon for garbage potions. There's scumming potential there.

Auto-evaporate, make him another corpseless god.

[rchandra]

Combine potions sounds a lot like Gozag's Petition.

[DracheReborn]

I like and_into's approach more. The point of Fulsome/Evap is to get certain clouds anyway, so that proposal is a lot more direct.

[removeelyvilon]

I think you should be able to convert to Uskayaw for free too. What's a party without dancing?

[and into]

After a bit of reflection, here would be a simpler and more streamlined version of an evaporation god that would not involve distilling tons of corpses, which raises problems similar to corpse sacrifice.

Upon joining:

+ Potions of confusion, poison, degeneration, and any potions that Ibn can eventually give you as gifts (see below) are identified. In addition another 3 to 7 potions (chosen at random) are identified.
+ You may pray over any non-red potions to have Ibn "taint" them for use as weapons via evaporation. This converts potions in a one-to-one ratio into either potions of confusion (2/3 chance) or potions of poison (1/3).


* Passive buff to beneficial potion effects, scaling with piety.

** Evaporate. Range six, creates 3x3 cloud based on which potion you use. Small piety cost.
Only these potions can be used for evaporate: confusion (mephitic cloud), poison (p cloud), degeneration (acid clouds), decay (miasma), mutation (mutagenic fog), water (steam that blocks LOS).

*** No new abilities.

**** Ibn may gift you one or two potions of degeneration, decay, mutation, or water (equal chance), on a gift timeout.

[Shard1697]

If we're gonna crib ideas from Brogue, how about(alongside the potion of water) a potion of fire that applies sticky flame to multiple enemies in a 2-radius burst?

[infinitevox]

After a bit of reflection, here would be a simpler and more streamlined version of an evaporation god that would not involve distilling tons of corpses, which raises problems similar to corpse sacrifice.

Upon joining:
+ Potions of confusion, poison, degeneration, and any potions that Ibn can eventually give you as gifts (see below) are identified. In addition another 3 to 7 potions (chosen at random) are identified.

Do you think it would actually be problematic to have Ibn auto-ID all potions on pick up? - Ash does this with EQ, Pak does it with wands, so Ibn with potions?
If all potions aren't auto-id, I would then prefer to only have ID'd the ones you can Evap, just for consistency if not anything else.

+ You may pray over any non-red potions to have Ibn "taint" them for use as weapons via evaporation. This converts potions in a one-to-one ratio into either potions of confusion (2/3 chance) or potions of poison (1/3).

I like praying over potions to convert them a lot better than from corpses. That takes care of both tediousness and scumming.
I would however,
1. Can pray over any potion
2. It can convert your potion into any of the Evap-able potions, on a weighted scale. The more powerful the potion the less its weighted.

** Evaporate. Range six, creates 3x3 cloud based on which potion you use. Small piety cost.
Only these potions can be used for evaporate: confusion (mephitic cloud), poison (p cloud), degeneration (acid clouds), decay (miasma), mutation (mutagenic fog), water (steam that blocks LOS).

I kinda see Evaporate in a similar light as Trog's Berserk, no piety cost. It's an ability that (I would hope) will be used often enough that unless the piety cost was really tiny, I think it should be eschewed entirely. Have it cost mana as one limiting factor, the other being the actual number of !consumables you have.

Other Potion Ideas:
- Lignification; could (Root) the enemies, or maybe it creates plants on available squares? (buys you a turn or two to escape/better position yourself)
- Magic; deals MP damage
- Blood; Sickness
- Paralyze; self-explanatory
- Slowing; same, yolo

**** Ibn may gift you one or two potions of degeneration, decay, mutation, or water (equal chance), on a gift timeout.

I would actually like to keep this so that Ibn gifts any potion (excepting experience, blood (unless this becomes and Evap potion))
Combine that with being able to pray over a potion and get any of the Evap-able ones, and this works out pretty well. It also would make for more difficult strategic choices for the player.
Like: "quaff this potion of might? Or possibly turn it into an acid cloud to destroy your enemies?"

I think you should be able to convert to Uskayaw for free too. What's a party without dancing?

You make a compelling argument.

@and into
I agree about the "Combine" ability, but thought it couldn't hurt to toss it out there. I was thinking more of the beneficial uses (3 effects from 1 quaff) than the detrimental ones. This idea is probably too much of a hassle to seriously consider. While I can see in my head how the interface would work, that seems like a loss on the effort/return ratio.

I've got some other ideas floating around in my head, but they're not really concrete enough to list just yet

@Shard1697
I've never played Brogue

[Shard1697]

Other Potion Ideas:
- Lignification; could (Root) the enemies, or maybe it creates plants on available squares? (buys you a turn or two to escape/better position yourself)
- Magic; deals MP damage
- Blood; Sickness
- Paralyze; self-explanatory
- Slowing; same, yolo

Potion of magic could make a blast of dispelling energy(ala quicksilver dragon's dispelling breath, but AoE of course).

If blood just does sickness it'll be as useless as sickness needles were. Although, now that I think about it, maybe potions of blood shouldn't have a strong effect, because if they do, vampires will have the exact same scumming corpses problem again...

@Shard1697
I've never played Brogue

Sorry, was replying to dpeg with that.

[eliotn]

Isn't gozag already the alchemy god? He gives you the uber-potion and turns your enemies to gold.

[and into]

Gozag is the gold god.

[infinitevox]

I've made changes as per and into's comments and suggestions, also added a capstone ability. It feels and seems appropriate, but if someone comes up with something better, I more than welcome it.
I'm currently working to finish coding the Spectre species, so I won't have a chance to get started on this god proposal until I finish that. If someone else wants to take a crack at it, by all means, go ahead!