The majority of other gods beat TSO throughout the entirety of a 3-rune game and Kiku and Gozag are probably better throughout extended as well. The only god that "falls off" significantly in 3-rune games is Fedhas and that's only because Fedhas is absurdly powerful in D/Lair/Orc, not because it's weak in Depths and Zot (rain is broken). It's true that the majority of gods don't do much in extended, but that doesn't strike me as a good thing.
Aean wrote:And then there are options like the morningstar which may be worse early on than the whip, and worse later on than the GSC, but are useful throughout.
A morningstar is worse than a GSC at both low and high skill.
Aean wrote:Trog is far more powerful early on, but far weaker later on
You have got to be kidding me.
Aean wrote:As you wanted, they are already all good choices for some characters (with the arguable exception of Xom)
I cannot think of ANY character where any of the following gods is the best choice: Ashenzari, Beogh, Cheibriados, Dithmenos, Elyvilon, Lugonu, Nemelex Xobeh, Okawaru, Qazlal, Ru, Sif Muna, Vehumet, Xom, Yredelemnul, Zin, the Shining One.
It is, as far as I can tell, better in all situations to pick one of Fedhas, Gozag, Hepliaklqana, Kikubaaqudgha, Trog, Uskayaw, Makhleb (for deep dwarves), or Jiyva (if you somehow get an early altar). Eventually, if you want to get 15 runes, Zin and TSO become slightly relevant, Vehumet is relevant for ziggurats, and Lugonu is relevant for converting to it in Abyss. That's still about half of the gods in the game rendered almost irrelevant by a small pool of gods being ridiculously strong - the only time you should worship the others is if you can't find an altar to one of the best gods. To continue with the weapon analogy - which is kind of silly since weapons have way less effort put into them, and difference between them, than gods - this would be like daggers and spears being better than all the long blades, axes, maces, and staves, so you'd only wield any of the last 4 when you can't find a dagger or spear.