Halls Hopper
Posts: 59
Joined: Wednesday, 31st August 2011, 08:09
YAGP: Maestri - God of the Hunt
DISCLAIMER 1: I am a total noob, which obviously doesn't stop me from making a god proposal. Read at your own risk and criticize as much as possible, but please be gentle
DISCLAIMER 2: I have read the philosophy behind Crawl-Design, the things the devs won't implement and the Wiki page about the other Hunter God proposals (https://crawl.develz.org/wiki/doku.php? ... god:hunter). As far as I understand, the biggest issues with the ohter gods have been:
1. Use of too similar abilities to other gods (like ammo gifts, or summoning)
2. Use of abilities that are already in the game (like weapon/laucher/ammo enchanting)
3. Appealing only to a narrow range of builds.
So I thought about these things and hope to propose a god with:
1. A unique feeling
2. Fresh abilities
3. Usable by a wider range of characters
Here I go:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Maestri, God of the Hunt
This god is all about hunting (who'd guess?). Maestri's ideal picture of a follower, would be a lone Ranger that strolls the woods with his animal companion enforcing the laws of nature. He/she despises everything that tries to alter nature in an unnatural way (Demon-Mutations, Necromantic Magic, ...)
Appreciates:
1. Killing a foe for the first time (like creating a trophy out of it)
This should result in +1 Piety and his Piety should be capped at the number of different kills you have made (max 200 of course). Having to kill 200 unique foes before being able to reach full piety sounds like an interesting mechanic to me. This rewards exploration of different branches, gives some incentive to go for the tough unique or the OOD monster and opens up some cute uses for Polymorph other. Unfortunately I don't know how many different monsters Crawl has, so there might be a multiplier needed for the Piety cap. I envision this to be his main Piety gain.
2. Killing an enemy with clean meat (like actual hunting, very small chance of piety increase)
3. Killing an enemy that disturbs the laws of nature (things with mutagenic meat, very small chance of piety increase)
Deprecates:
1. Having more than one ally (It is you and your companion (see below) after all ,Piety loss)
2. Eating unclean meat (You are a Huntsmen after all, not a vulture, small Piety loss)
3. Getting your companion killed (big Penance)
4. Use of Necromantic Magic or similar (small Penance)
5. Actively gaining mutations (small penance)
Abilities:
Hunting Companion: At level * you get a hunting companion. You can choose between some species. At each extra * the companion evolves to a stronger one. Should the companion get killed, you can only get a new one after you have endured penance and you only get one at level * power even if you are higher. You then have to slowly train your companion again. Possible companion ideas:
jackal, hound, wolf type: high HP, good melee attack
eagle: medium HP, swift, flying, medium attack strength
snake: medium HP, poison attack (maybe ranged)
raven: low HP, small attack, but can see invisible and raises your MP by a small amount
Sure missles (passive, at *): your companion doesn't block any projectiles (magic or normal, whatever) from you.
Mutation protection (passive): Maestri "protects" you from mutaions by giving you a chance to gain an "animal" mutation instead of your regular one. So each time you would get a mutation there is a check (maybe 10% per *) to gain a mutation, that Maestri is OK with (Fur, Claws, etc.)
Clean Shot (passive): With each level of * the chance to generate a corpse is increased, if the enemy was killed by a melee or ranged weapon or the companion (no spells). This is possibly useful for a wider range of characters such as Kobolds and Trolls, Transmuters and hungry Spellcasters. This is also important for worshippers, since they are advised to eat clean meat. I don't know what the chance for getting a corpse currently is (but it feels like 50%), so I would suggest an increase by 2.5% per *. This would raise the corpse generation from 50% to 65% at ******, which feels significant, but not overpowered.
Camouflage (at ***, costs piety, 1MP per turn): You can move one space into a wall/plant (like a Rock worm).
You count as invisible as long as you stay in that square and are not fighting/making noise, only monsters that saw you going in or that can
see invisble can detect you. You can only step out in the direction you stepped in, so no Passwall.
This is potentially useful for a wide range of characters, ranged chars can wait until their prey is in a good shooting distance, stabbers can shout around a corner, hide in the wall and then stab the Monster while passing. And it is also a reasonable escape option for everybody, if you have a little space between you and YASD and a corner ahead.
Empathic Bond (5 MP, piety, at *****): You see what your companion sees and if one of you gets damaged, each takes the half hit. All enchantments (positive and negative) affect both of you.
I envision this also to be useful to a wider range of types. The stabber can use the bigger sight to watch prey, the spellcaster can "boost" his hitpoints, a Skald can enchant away.
This is also pretty useful should you get separated via a Teleport trap (now even more dangerous than before), you can see where your companion is going and if he is in danger. A reunion is now high on your priority list and I think this creates good tension.
Penance:
I am not sure about his penance yet, but it should probably include a reduction in corpse generation. (And more)
Conclusion:
My goal was to create a god with these three things in mind:
1. A unique feeling
2. Fresh abilities
3. Usable by a wider range of characters
Did I succeed? You be the judge, but here is my take on it:
1. The way you gain Piety feels unique (at least to me)
2. I feel like having only one ally (unlike spam summons) is different from other abilities, haven't seen things like Camouflage or Empathic Bond around so far, either.
3. I think Masetri's abilities are not tailormade to suit a Hunter, many builds seem to be able to benefit from him/her.
Thanks for reading.
P.S.: Maestri is an anagram of Artemis, the greek goddess of the Hunt.