New Evocable: Golem Seed

[archaeo]

So I think golems are cool, and I think players should be able to create golems. Having a golem-centric species, say, the gnome, with bad aptitudes but powerful golem bros, might be cool, but one gets the feeling that players hate being low-powered pet herders. And a god of golems might be nice, but we already have several ally-based gods and another one seems like overkill.

Instead, how about a powerful evocations item? The golem seed would allow the player to create a golem using otherwise unused equipment. Standing on an armour, sword, and shield, the golem seed would become a golem with HD and stats based on the player's evocations skill and any bonuses provided by the equipment. The equipment used would be dependent on evo skill as well, requiring 5 skill to use heavy armour/two-handed weapons/large shields, 10 to use branded equipment, and 15 to use artifact equipment. The resulting golem would become a permanent ally; upon its inevitable death, the equipment is lost and the golem seed is dropped. If the golem receives high damage ("Ouch! That really hurt!"), the golem seed itself shatters. More powerful golems are also more unstable; each branded item adds a 5% chance that the golem seed will be destroyed at death, while artifact equipment adds 15% to a chance for destruction. However, should a player want the seed back, dismantling the golem will destroy the equipment but always preserve the seed.

Golem seeds are naturally competitive and a little dumb; while they are unfailingly friendly to their creator, they will attack any other allies, including other golems. Some gods are not cool with golem seeds; Ely hates the creation of weapons, while Yred finds their unnatural life (and consequent unnatural death) to be distasteful. Xom finds golems amusing, but will turn them against their creators or create hostile golems from stacks of equipment if he's bored.

Feel free to rip this to shreds, since it's just some early morning spitballin'. But I like the idea of using equipment to create something, and I think the limited use (more or less one golem at a time) and high chance of destruction with powerful equipment would make them a worthwhile addition to the game and a good way of gaining a permanent ally. Plus, it would be a cool thing to give starting artificers, which I think is something that has been discussed.

[Galefury]

Artifacts are immutable, so no golems can be made from those. Another (bigger) problem is that this lets you turn something useless (equipment you are never going to use) into something useful (a permanent ally). This already doesn't work very well for Nemelex & company, more interactions of this kind should be avoided. I like the flavor though, it would be cool if something could be done with it.

[archaeo]

Artifacts are immutable, so no golems can be made from those.

I guess I envisioned the golem simply growing into the items, not so much incorporating them into creature itself.

Another (bigger) problem is that this lets you turn something useless (equipment you are never going to use) into something useful (a permanent ally). This already doesn't work very well for Nemelex & company, more interactions of this kind should be avoided. I like the flavor though, it would be cool if something could be done with it.

But yeah, like I said: spitballin'. Maybe the seed would require the ambient magical energies represented by a wand or an evocable, with the relative power of the item factored into the power of the golem. Or, if you nix the possibility of destroying the seed, you could make it so that while the seed was active, the player loses 50% max MP or maybe gets permanent yellow drain, either way flavored so that it was clear the player's energies were involved. With that, you could also make it so that if the golem is destroyed, you take a big HP hit as the energy slams back into you.

I feel like there ought to be some way to balance the concern re: useless equipment turning into a useful ally. But if it's too verboten, it's too verboten; evocations is already awfully powerful in 0.13 anyway.

[TeshiAlair]

We already have a few summoning-esque evokables. Let's take it in a different direction- we have evokable summons, enchantments (flight and invis), conjurations (rods), and translocations (tele, blink). Why not make it a temporary golem form evokable?

[Amnesiac]

If it's not imbalanced I don't mind. Of course needing exp investment is the main part of balancing. And I don't mind some otherwise useless items becoming useful for something.

[and into]

I take Galefury's point, but if we are talking about a relatively rare evocable item, i don't think it will be that much of a problem. We could even make it a unique evocable, so only one spawns (at most) per game. In addition to (or instead of) the chance to shatter, it could generate with a certain number of charges (uses) built in, whichever is felt to be better. If there is a chance to shatter, I don't think the percentages should be so variable, as that quickly becomes spoilery and means that there would probably be some ideal point and quality of equipment to use it on. The chance to shatter shouldn't increase with evocations skill, but either stay constant or decrease. [EDIT: actually probably better to stay constant, otherwise people will hoard it until evoc is really high, we don't need another item that operates that way, crystal balls and other evocables already are like that.]

If you want to make the strategic considerations a bit deeper, brands could spawn golems with certain strengths and liabilities (so it isn't just strictly "better" to use this or that brand versus unbranded seeding equipment). These can even scale, so you have a chance at having stronger attributes on your golem at high equipment quality and evocations skill. (These could be general attributes, or thematically linked to certain brands or types of equipment; I could see a fire golem having a small chance to berserk in tough fights that scales with evocations, for instance.) My only reluctance here would be to keep it from getting TOO complicated and also to ensure that scumming is not significantly rewarded.