Barkeep
Posts: 3890
Joined: Wednesday, 14th August 2013, 23:25
Location: USA
Vehumet reform
The interactive spell gifting also tends to be annoying in that your current skill decisions have to be made in anticipation of what and when Vehumet will gift you a new spell, which also creates situations where knowing exactly how Vehumet works "under the hood" gives an advantage—you can play differently in order to increase your chances of getting that last spell slot and memorizing iron shot before it gets replaced. While distinct from Kiku and Sif's spell gifts, this system creates these sorts of problems. It also seems to be out of step with Vehumet's theme—Vehumet should want you to be training skills that increase your destructive power, rather than dumping some extra into spellcasting for more flexibility.
In short: Vehumet is a weak god, but worse than that, Vehumet is boring. There just isn't a lot going on—most of the time you gain more piety and don't unlock anything new—and there are very few actual decisions introduced by worshiping Vehumet. And the spell gifting system is flawed.
Here are some suggestions for reforms that will, I think, keep Vehumet distinct from Sif and Kiku, while boosting power somewhat and removing the annoyance of Veh's spell gifting system.
ABILITIES
At two stars of piety, you may choose a favored spell from among the “destructive” magics that Vehumet improves. The first time you choose a favored spell, it costs no piety. You may later alter your choice of spell at a substantial piety cost. Your favored spell may be cast normally via 'Zz'ap, or you may divinely cast it through the 'a'bilities menu. If you do the latter, the spell is cast with boosted spell power (equal to one additional enhancer effect) and at no MP cost. Doing so costs piety scaling up with the MP cost of the spell.
At five stars of piety, you may choose a second favored "destructive" spell. The first time you choose this additional favored spell, it has no piety cost. You may subsequently change your choice, but at a substantial piety cost.
With these changes, this is what piety progression under Vehumet would look like:
* MP on kills (as currently)
** One “favored” destructive spell
*** Success boost to destructive magic (as currently)
**** Range increase to most destructive spells (as currently)
***** Two “favored” destructive spells
SPELL GIFTS
Up to three of Vehumet’s gifted spells will “stack” with each other. Memorizing a spell will remove it from the stack, as currently. If all three slots are full, new gifts will come in at the top of the stack, displacing the spell that has been on the stack the longest. Vehumet’s three final gifts are given in a set of three and do not displace anything on the stack (as currently).
EDIT: Over time the spells remaining on the stack will be removed from last to first, leaving only Veh's final gifts, which will not be removed unless you abandon him (as currently).
Under this system, Vehumet could conceivably cycle through more total spells, in which case you could probably move to an entirely random selection process, which would also bypass the potentially spoilery in-game actions you can take in order to stack gift probability one way or the other.
I think this will keep what is unique about Vehumet's spell gifting, while removing the annoyance and the potential advantages of spoilers.
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