start monks with Wu Jian

[bhauth]

Monks are, to me, very bland. Backgrounds have the most impact early, at which monks have nothing at all. Later, they get bonus piety, but that's nothing you're not guaranteed to get relatively soon, and it's strictly weaker than starting with a god like berserkers do. Other classes have things (specific spells, nets, a shield) that you might not find for a long time.

So, I propose changing monks to start with the Wu Jian Council, instead of getting bonus piety. That would make their early game much more interesting and unique. To give them more options later, I'd also suggest doing one of 2 things:

1) Have the Wu Jian give no wrath for switching to Okawaru or Uskayaw, because they're approved "martial" gods.

2) Give monks the ability to switch gods once without wrath.

[Terrapin]

I don't think monks are bland. With the bonus piety, you get to starting playing around with god powers much earlier than in other games. Perhaps an argument could be made for a Wu Jian zealot background, but I don't think that the argument would be very strong. Lugonu isn't in the temple, Xom isn't even an advantage, and Trog is great for beginners (although there have been lots of people who think that berserker should be taken out anyway). Wu Jian has no particularly distinguishing characteristics as a god.

[dolemite99]

I could get behind the suggestion of a different set of gods that'll allow switching to one another without penalty. It's always felt a little odd to me that the three "anti-evil" gods are the only ones not angered by you who don't somehow punish you for switching teams.(Edit - forgot that other gods can be abandoned without active "wrath" (Ru, Hep), but those choices do clearly have some drawbacks to abandonment, it ain't free unless you abandon Ru before making any sacrifices.)

Especially since not much else about playing TSO or Zin is "friendly" or "benevolent" at all .... and Ely's pacification ability, while having a friendly-sounding name, is quite often a 'super hex' that gets the target monster killed by all his former friends.

Seems just as logical to have a separate pair / trio / quartet of gods that also consider each other peers and don't care about you abandoning them for one of their counterparts.

I still do like the idea of some kind of zealot background that starts in an extra-dimensional version of something like the Temple, you can pick whatever god you like from turn 1, with maybe some utter garbage equipment and shockingly low skill training @ Level 1 to prevent this idea from becoming "Roll a Troll or Minotaur, take Oka at the start, get showered with gifts by/during Lair, go win the game."

[chequers]

Lots of zealot backgrounds used to exist. These have been removed over time. The general reason has been because they didn't add any new gameplay experience.

The two remaining zealots (ignoring CK, because Xom) add significant variety to gameplay. Be is "Easy Mode", and AK changes how the game begins.

Would starting with WJC add gameplay variety? I'm not sure it would add as much as the current zealots. It would add as much variety as Death Knights or Healers, which were both removed for adding little to the game.