Proposal: Xom's Anthology of Talent : Chaos Magic Spellbook

[XuaXua]

I propose there to be an artefact book of spells containing "Chaos Magic", 5-7 spells of high (or questionable) power, only found in this book (or through Xom's abuse of Vehumet-style gifting; see later), requiring increasingly obtuse and ridiculous combinations of spell skills to cast successfully (Air/Earth, Fire/Ice, Earth/Ice/Air/Fire, Necromancy/Earth/Poison/Fire, Conjurations/Summonings, Transmutations/Air/Conjurations, etc.).

These spells can have any amount of (non-)utility, though the highest might be a literal game-breaker. Each time a Chaos Magic spell is cast, there is a slight chance of drawing Xom's one-time attention if not worshiping Xom (not necessarily penance), or amusing Xom (if worshiping Xom). Gods who do not appreciate Chaos do not approve of the use of these spells.

The book is completely unique and is not necessarily found in a given game. It may be bequeathed to a worshiper of Xom or found in a random vault. Alternately, worshipers of Xom may be given the opportunity to memorize SOME (not all) of these unique Xom spells using the same mechanics Vehumet uses to provide access to memorizable spells. Granted, Xom may provide access to memorize the level 9 spell when the worshiper has a Spellcasting Skill of 0, but that's Xom!

That's the general concept, feedback welcomed.

The spell list is bare-bones at this time as well, and that's where I could also use some help, if the prior idea sounds appealing.

What follows next are completely Unwarranted and likely terrible Spells that you shouldn't use to judge the overall idea presented prior to this sentence.

SPELLS:
Chaos Clouds : cast clouds of chaos, much like an Apocalypse Crab
Reskill: Temporarily swap one skill value with another (trade my 27 Fire Magic with my 3 Axes Skill)
Tornado Version 7 (Level 9 - Air/Conjurations/Earth): Cast the Tornado Spell as it was in a game-breakingly prior version of the game (I think it was in version 7, right?)
Sleaze (Ice/Earth/Poison) : Like Leda's mud spell, but gross.
Trail of Confusion (level 1, Air/Necromancy/Conjurations): Creates a path of confusing gas created in each square the player was standing in
Steambath (Fire/Ice) : create clouds of steam; find a use for that steam dragon armour
Broken Haste (?) : glow-less Haste; Chei disapproves
Summon Vomit Flies : summons a swarm of vomit flies, which don't attack, but spit corrosive acid vomit randomly every turn on spaces to them (except on a space containing the summoner). Creatures hit by vomit take acid damage. Vomit makes spaces temporarily impassible (for a low-power flame cloud amount of time) without taking acid damage. Acid spaces are passable by flight, and the flies are corrosion-immune)

Moderators: The spells may be dumb and terrible, but this is a serious proposal; I'm sure someone can come up with better spells, so don't put this in Crazy Yiuf's forum, thanks.

[Wahaha]

This sounds like a good idea if the spells aren't any more powerful than usual spells, or are at least harder to use. I think most of your spell ideas are really bad though.

Chaos clouds: Spawns clouds on random tiles in LOS (not a big amount, scales with power), weighted a little to appear closer to the player, with guaranteed clouds under the player and on every tile adjacent to the player.
Trail of confusion: Creates a trail of confusing gas where the player was standing, same as a meph cloud. If the player doesn't move, a cloud is placed under him. Maybe this is what you intended too.
Clouds of confusion: Places confusing clouds under the player and on every tile adjacent to the player. Not resisted with rPois. Fairly easily resisted by HD, easier to resist than meph. Player resistance to it is the same as the chance to resist meph.
Summon spatial vortexes: summons a few neutral spatial vortexes. They stay neutral regardless of what damages them, so that they're dangerous for the monsters and the player.
Summon chaos butterflies: joking

Give Xom a CHANCE to do something when you use one of these spells. Not too high because it would be annoying and stupid if you used these spells often. If worshipping Xom, amusing him is fine I think.

I might attempt coding these spells if this doesn't receive disapproval from devs.

[Mankeli]

I like this concept -at least in theory. I think the spells themselves too should be, well chaotic, so most your spell ideas are bad IMO. I like the chaos cloud thing very much and the trail of confusion too. I'm sure some one is gonna point out that "why use chaos cloud when you could be casting freezing/poisonous clous instead" but then again, why did you pick Xom anyways. I think the spell concepts should be much like Xom in the game: not necessarily optimal but sometimes incredibly powerful and sometimes even bad for you.

Also, I think that maybe the Vehumet style gifting (but probably as much much less frequent) would the way to go because if I wasn't playing a Xom character, I probably didn't want chaotic behaviour of my spells. Of course, if people can come up with very good spell concepts, then maybe this is less of a problem.

Neat idea.

[pubby]

Chaos cloud is the only spell that I would be okay with in the game, although, it seems more suited towards an evocable item such as the tome.

[xzanthius]

Some ideas.
Rubber Bolt... it doesn't do much damage but boy does it bounce.
Angry Butterflies... Turn nearby Butterflies into angry frenzying beasts under no one's control (can easily decide to all attack you).
Tempt... leave a potion or scroll on the ground casting the spell when a monster walks over it, they will pick-up the potion or scroll and promptly use it.
The Giggles... touch a creature and they become confused (giggling) any other intelligent creature they come into visual contact with also have a chance to start giggling. "The room is filled with the sound of laughter."
Wall of Frogs... Summons a bunch of hostile frogs all around you.
Unpopular... Cast on creature to make other creatures flee it.
Meat Shield... Turns a shield into a piece of edible meat.
Fish... Turns a monster's weapon into a fish, in water the fish is alive and hostile, on try land it is just a corpse.

I do understand that these are bad ideas but figured... what the hell.

[XuaXua]

The overall idea isn't necessarily completely useless spells; do consider that casting these spells brings a chance of the attention of Xom, even if you do not worship Xom (in the event you find the book in a vault). The difficulty is that we're looking at 3-6 spell schools needed per spell, with an emphasis on opposing schools. The "fart trail" spell I propose is Level 1, since the book is rare, it's unlikely this spell will ever be found when Mephitic isn't already around, but if it is or it's bequeathed, bully for you!

Also, the book should have at least one Shatter/Tornado/Fire Storm style mega spell requiring 4-5 spell schools that anyone and everyone would want to find and memorize and use (and abuse!) except for the whole chance of Xom effect thing. Hence my initial suggestion of using a pre-nerf version of an existing mega spell, but neuter it marginally by adding more spell school requirements. Could even call it "Unnerfed Tornado".

[giygas]

Could even call it "Unnerfed Tornado".

NO.

[XuaXua]

I threw it up (ha ha ) on the wiki to get more eyes on it. I think there could be 10-12 Chaos spells created for the game and the book could contain up to 7 of them, selected randomly.

I am 100% not tied to any of the spells I proposed; I just like the idea of Xom having a library of spells he can give out; spells that just don't make sense skill-wise, but can conceptually reward those who actually put in the effort to make them viable.

[XuaXua]

Give Xom a CHANCE to do something when you use one of these spells.

That is in the original proposal. "Each time a Chaos Magic spell is cast, there is a slight chance of drawing Xom's one-time attention if not worshiping Xom (not necessarily penance), or amusing Xom (if worshiping Xom)."
It is part of the reason (plus the rarity of the book) why I think the overall level of any given Chaos Magic spell should be downgraded, but it's also part of the reason why I think any given spell should have SOME actual utility.

I do understand that these are bad ideas but figured... what the hell.

Well, for trying, I'll give feedback on your spells as qualifiers for this anyway:

Rubber Bolt... it doesn't do much damage but boy does it bounce.

Give it a very long range and allow it to have the old multi-zap from lighting, but that it bounces in a random direction off whatever it hits...

Angry Butterflies... Turn nearby Butterflies into angry frenzying beasts under no one's control (can easily decide to all attack you).

Take out the focus on "Butterflies" and you have an AOE "Frenzy" spell that works in the same way as a needle of frenzy (considering there's no other way to berzerk enemies), and there is something to this.

Tempt... leave a potion or scroll on the ground casting the spell when a monster walks over it, they will pick-up the potion or scroll and promptly use it.

Provides utility to the useless potions now that Evaporate is gone... but there's too much investment for too little gain on this. Now, if you allowed it to be ANY item, I can see utility finally given to Animal Skins...

The Giggles... touch a creature and they become confused (giggling) any other intelligent creature they come into visual contact with also have a chance to start giggling. "The room is filled with the sound of laughter."

Infectuous confusion... very nice. That could work.

Wall of Frogs... Summons a bunch of hostile frogs all around you.

I'd call it Rain of Frogs or Plague of Frogs (unless Wall of Frogs means something) and have them appear everywhere in view.

Unpopular... Cast on creature to make other creatures flee it.

Smells completely tactical!

Meat Shield... Turns a shield into a piece of edible meat.

Swap that to turn a meat chunk into a floating shield, and if they haven't removed meat chunks, that sounds good. Then-again, I'd rather memorize Twisted Resurrection...

Fish... Turns a monster's weapon into a fish, in water the fish is alive and hostile, on try land it is just a corpse.

I'm not a fan of item eradication.

[xzanthius]

Well, for trying, I'll give feedback on your spells as qualifiers for this anyway...

Thanks. honored.

Just thought of another one.

Bad Day; Every Square a targeted creature walks on contains a different random gas cloud. (probably would require knowledge of many different schools to cast adequately).

[TwilightPhoenix]

Eh, I had a random idea for a spell, so why not throw it out there.

Worst Luck Possible (level something Hexes/something/whatever) - Everyone within LOS of the player, including the player himself, suffers the worst possible effects on every RNG outcome on something that affects them for the duration of the spell. For simplicity's sake, accuracy and miscast chances are unaffected, although someone miscasting will get the worst possible miscast from the spell.

Examples...

If an attack is supposed to do 2d10 damage to something, both dice come up as 10 and the victim takes 20 damage.

If something is supposed to heal for 2d10, then both dice come up as 1 and the recipient is healed for 2 HP.

If someone is confused and next to deep water or lava, they will always stumble into the deep water or lava if they attempt to move.

If someone is confused and not next to deep water, they will hit themselves every turn.

If someone casts a buff spell, it will have its minimum duration.

If someone has blurry vision and attempts to read a scroll, they will fail every time they attempt.

If someone has shoutitis, they will shout on every turn.

And so forth.

[wizzzargh]

Mass Polymorph.

It's all I've ever wanted.

[Grandiloquent Gentleman]

Given that most of these spells are destructive, should vehmut support them? Given that his wizardry bonus would help massively due to the opposite schooling effect.

Given these are Xom spells, Sif probably shouldn't be allowed to gift them.

@TwilightPhoenix

Examples...

evolution? lol.

I could see a utility given to the robe of misfortune

ftfy

[red_kangaroo]

Fog (Air/Ice/Fire/Necromancy/Poison/???)
Fills whole LOS, including player's tile, with random clouds. The clouds will last depending on spell power, however, each of them will randomly change each turn. Thus, you can find yourself standing in calcifying dust and surrounded by hellfire one turn, and frying in holy flames the next. Or you can watch your enemies burn and freeze standing in cloud of colourful smoke.

Total Reconstruction (Transmutation/Translocation/Earth/???)
The player will forget the map of whole level and the level will be re-generated, as if the player have entered it for the first time. However, features like shops, portals etc. will be saved and simply teleported to another part of the floor, the same with all monsters.

Awful Displacement
Makes all monsters but also you (!!!) see the player's @ randomly somewhere in 3x3 grid centered on real player's location. This makes hitting you nearly impossible for monsters, but you won't be able to move reliably unless you remember your location before displacement and all your steps afterwards. You'll never be displaced into deep water or lava unless you can swim/ you are lava orc and enter there willingly.

Summon Neutral Test Spawner

[Baldu]

Mass Polymorph.

The necroxomicon
- Mass polymorph - lv8 hex
-- Attempts to polymorph every creature in sight, can be resisted by MR. For each creature successfully polymorphed the player gets 1 random permanent mutation.

I would totally use that in a xom or jyva game.

[tasonir]

Mass Polymorph.

It's all I've ever wanted.

Sung to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYRDfPoKPy8

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here, Mass Polymorph
Rigid forms are unnecessary
they are so much less fun

Flesh is molded
To be broken
Spirits are intense
Bones are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Forms are meaningless
And forgettable

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here, Mass Polymorph
Rigid forms are unnecessary
they are so much less fun

Enjoy the Polymorph

[Kate]

can this thread be gone yet

(There seem to be no attempts to actually come up with the OP's promised non-"dumb and terrible" spells).

[duvessa]

all of you are on my "won't do" list

[mumra]

can this thread be gone yet

(There seem to be no attempts to actually come up with the OP's promised non-"dumb and terrible" spells).

Not to mention how very unlikely it is that someone is seriously going to implement half-a-dozen complex sounding spells for the purposes of a single joke trap item...

[Wahaha]

can this thread be gone yet

(There seem to be no attempts to actually come up with the OP's promised non-"dumb and terrible" spells).

Not to mention how very unlikely it is that someone is seriously going to implement half-a-dozen complex sounding spells for the purposes of a single joke trap item...

I thought my spell ideas were pretty decent, with the exception of spatial vortexes because it's possibly overpowered. I've never coded anything for Crawl but I'm interested in attempting to implement these spells if I can get 6 or so interesting+good spells (indeed there are nearly none in this thread unfortunately).

[tasonir]

Chaos mixer party!

All monsters in LOS including the player randomly switch places. Sort of like a mass blink but you're reassigned to existing creature locations. Alternatively, just do mass blink.

[mumra]

There are some ideas in this thread that might simply make cool Xom effects. I'm just not a fan of the original artefact book idea though. There is generally a pretty high bar set for new spell designs; throwing in a bunch of junk spells that are either broken as designed, nigh on useless, or just replicating existing effects in different patterns, seems somewhat contrary to this design goal.

[tasonir]

If it was going to be item based I feel it would have to be something Xom gives you eventually. Could randomly show up early on after worshipping him or not for several tens of thousands of turns, but you'd want a lifelong Xom worshipper to have it.

It probably would be better/easier to have them as Xom effects, though. Since Xom would control when he does it, mass polymorph would be a lot less scummable than as a player spell. Mass Polymorph lives!

[mumra]

Alternatively, just do mass blink.

By the way this already exists and it's called Disjunction

[tasonir]

Close, but disjunction doesn't move the player, and is thus actually a good idea to use. Moving the player makes it a whole different ball game

[XuaXua]

To clarify a few things:

I want to see powerful spells. These spells are rare and coveted, and if it weren't for the potential Xom effect, abusable. Spells you might actually want to use. I'd almost suggest going through the list of spells REMOVED from the game in prior versions.

Access is only via Xom, not Sif. Via the artefact or aforementioned spell gifting. Divine spell enhancers apply.

[XuaXua]

Earth/Air spell : Shafted : creates shafts under monsters in view and funnels them to a deeper level of the branch. Does not work on flyers or on bottom floors.

[mumra]

The problem (ok well, one problem but a major one) is that spells which were removed or heavily nerfed for being broken were, well, broken; and any amount of Xom attention they cause isn't actually going to stop them being broken.

[Amnesiac]

Spell of redecoration - 0lv (works as the xom's effect, ok it's a joke, but it won't hurt, right?). Spell of a random effect. It's random, so it's not good or bad, but can change things. Swap spell - 4lv tloc - swaps your and the target's locations.

[XuaXua]

As outlined earlier, the intent is to have somewhat beneficial spells in here that ultimately require a different investment into skills to get up and running than traditional spells.

For example, Chaos Blade (lv... 4?) : summons a blade of pure chaos out of the aether to fight alongside the character. Requires skill in Fire, Ice, Air, Earth and Long Blades.

[Amnesiac]

Well, the two spells that I suggested, that do something can be useful. Also, weapons have a chaos brand, so why don't have a spell of a random effect?

[Ramc]

Not that I think this will get anywhere near implemented, I propose

Screaming Elemental Death Fire/Earth/Air/Ice.
The victim of the spell is beset by semi-random rotating sets of elemental misfortune. Smite targetted. Level who cares. Starting on the first round the spell goes through the 4 elements in random order. Air sucks all the air from around the target giving off a terrific screeching noise to deafen and suffocate the victim. Fire creates a cloud of flame under them for the round and also afflicts them with sticky flame. Earth they are instantly petrified for 1 round and LRD'd. Ice creates shallow water under and around the monster and a freezing cloud on them for the round. The spells lasts at least 4 rounds, longer with spell power. The starting element of the next set is random, but not the same as the last element in the previous set. Resisted? I dunno!

The screaming is provided by the target.

[savageorange]

Logically I'd expect any XOM spellbook to use random skills for determining spell level (eg Short blades + Dodging, Stealth + Ice Magic), or even inversions of some skill levels (eg absence of Fighting skill + Armour skill). Restricting it to only actual spell-school skills makes far too much sense.
(of course this means that some spells you would never choose to get; you could only go for ones using skills you already had some commitment to developing)

[nicolae]

As outlined earlier, the intent is to have somewhat beneficial spells in here that ultimately require a different investment into skills to get up and running than traditional spells.

Wouldn't it just be simpler to just advocate for more spells in unusual school combinations, rather than adding all this mess about Xom randbooks and Chaos Magic?

[XuaXua]

Wouldn't it just be simpler to just advocate for more spells in unusual school combinations, rather than adding all this mess about Xom randbooks and Chaos Magic?

Sure it'd be simpler, but why not have something extra neat for Xom, as well as having something super-rare?

I'm a big fan of extremely rare, unique spells being potentially available and not in every game.

[siprus]

What about invoke random usefulness. This might give you shield of butterflies, teleport you around a bit, give you berserker rage, make enemies fight among themselves. Summon some chaos monsters to fight for you.

Usefulness depends on in how big danger you are and how amused xom is with you. If you have been playing safe and boring xom will not give you anything useful, but if your random play style has gotten you in some danger xom will save his teddy bear for future amusement. Using this spell often will cause xom to grow bored with you, making spell less useful if spam it. Anyway I think game should read your situation and give you something that will almost always save you, but might make you shit your pants while doing it.

Maybe if xom is not amused with you, he will teleport you to more amusing situation (for extra fun, some times when xom saves you he will first teleport you to bad situation, but gives teleports you away next turn.) Or even better xom teleports you to bad situatoin and tells you to fight! (or do something) If xom was amused when you invoked the spell he will save you when you start doing what ever he told you to do, if you try to escape xom becomes bored (and you'll probably die to situation anyway)!

Anyway Other thing i'd like to see with xom, is ability to get brand of chaos on your weapon some how by worshiping him. and maybe add other effects which work like brand of chaos: They are generally useful, but sometimes bad or really bad. This invoke random usefulness would help you to deal with those situations, but you couldn't use it often enough to save yourself from every random bad situation, only from the worst ones.

[jejorda2]

Invoke random usefulness seems to run counter to the spirit of Xom, as you would tend to only use it when you were prepared to deal with the fallout. It may as well be a tome of destruction.


Xom is not a tame lion.

[siprus]

I meant it as ultimate get out of terrible situation spell.

If you use it too often or xom is bored when you use it. (or actually shittiness of situation / xom's boredom ratio is bad) you will get to a bad situation.

But if xom isn't bored and you really need to use that spell, you will get something useful 100% of time, you just might not know it straight away.


If something random happened to get you to bad situation, should probably make game roll more useful effect. But if you got in fight with monster you already had located or was sleeping (you had clear choice and what you did was planned) Then xom would lose of amusement by using this spell and give you less useful effect.

Anyway After thinking spell bit more, it game doesn't have to calculate how bad situation you are in, it probably just has to keep track of random things happened.
Spells effect should be random, but usefulness depends on amusement level of xom. If xom is neutral, spell might be useful or might be harmful (generally useful)
If xom is bored spell will be almost always harmful (though very rarely useful). If xom is happy with you spell will always be useful.
When you use the spell xom becomes more bored! (unless he gave you were bad effect) How much bored depends on how many random factor made your situation as crappy as it was.

Anyway This spell would allow more random stuff to happen around you when you are worshiping xom, without ruining your game everytime you get bit unlucky.

Inshort: ideally you couldn't plan much around the spell, expect that if you got very unlucky xom will make sure his teddy bear wouldn't die.

[Fergy]

Xom's Questionable Usefullness: Chance to cause one random 'useful' spell.

• Teleport self: Chance based upon ratio of explored tiles (more chance with high number of unexplored tiles)
• Cause Fear: Chance based upon number of enemies (more chance with less enemies in LOS)
• Berserk: Chance based on food level (more chance with lower food)
• Summon Neutral Butterflies: Like summon butterflies, but all of them are neutral (can't swap places with them).
• Mass Polymorph & Heal: Chance of success based on HP level of monster. Monsters with lower HP percentage will be more likely to be morphed into a weaker monster ( -1 hd). If polymorph is successful, monster will be healed by .5(total HP - current HP).
• Torment:Chance reduced by HP ratio (more chance with higher hp).
• Silence: Chance reduced for each enemy spell caster in LOS
• Heal: Chance reduced by HP ratio (more chance with higher hp)
• Magic Mapping: Chance increased by percentage of level explored.
• Known Tomb: Casts both Tomb and Mark upon player. The walls will be made of runed doors (all the doors will disappear when one is opened).

[Igxfl]

Xom's Questionable Usefullness: Chance to cause one random 'useful' spell.

• Teleport self: Chance based upon ratio of explored tiles (more chance with high number of unexplored tiles)
• Cause Fear: Chance based upon number of enemies (more chance with less enemies in LOS)
• Berserk: Chance based on food level (more chance with lower food)
• Summon Neutral Butterflies: Like summon butterflies, but all of them are neutral (can't swap places with them).
• Mass Polymorph & Heal: Chance of success based on HP level of monster. Monsters with lower HP percentage will be more likely to be morphed into a weaker monster ( -1 hd). If polymorph is successful, monster will be healed by .5(total HP - current HP).
• Torment:Chance reduced by HP ratio (more chance with higher hp).
• Silence: Chance reduced for each enemy spell caster in LOS
• Heal: Chance reduced by HP ratio (more chance with higher hp)
• Magic Mapping: Chance increased by percentage of level explored.
• Known Tomb: Casts both Tomb and Mark upon player. The walls will be made of runed doors (all the doors will disappear when one is opened).

It's probably safer to to clear Tomb with the Scepter of Torment than to cast this spell in a tense situation.

[Ramc]

[*]Known Tomb: Casts both Tomb and Mark upon player. The walls will be made of runed doors (all the doors will disappear when one is opened).[/list]

Man. Something should do this to you. I don't even care what.

[XuaXua]

New Zot trap effect.

[rosstin]

Xom's Questionable Usefullness: Chance to cause one random 'useful' spell.

• Teleport self: Chance based upon ratio of explored tiles (more chance with high number of unexplored tiles)
• Cause Fear: Chance based upon number of enemies (more chance with less enemies in LOS)
• Berserk: Chance based on food level (more chance with lower food)
• Summon Neutral Butterflies: Like summon butterflies, but all of them are neutral (can't swap places with them).
• Mass Polymorph & Heal: Chance of success based on HP level of monster. Monsters with lower HP percentage will be more likely to be morphed into a weaker monster ( -1 hd). If polymorph is successful, monster will be healed by .5(total HP - current HP).
• Torment:Chance reduced by HP ratio (more chance with higher hp).
• Silence: Chance reduced for each enemy spell caster in LOS
• Heal: Chance reduced by HP ratio (more chance with higher hp)
• Magic Mapping: Chance increased by percentage of level explored.
• Known Tomb: Casts both Tomb and Mark upon player. The walls will be made of runed doors (all the doors will disappear when one is opened).

You win the thread.
*gives crown*