Re: power level, Demigods are ridiculously powerful during the only part of the game where difficulty matters, and while they become less powerful later, they never become weak (because HP and stats are good 100% of the time, and high HP is like 50% of being powerful in this game, no joke).
You are overrating the effect of gods. Centaur and Troll would still shit all over Demigod at almost every point in the game if you removed gods, and a Deep Elf of Vehumet still has laughably bad HP. I guess maybe DD might drop below Dg without Makhleb, but it still has rDamage++ and two of the most powerful items in the game in starting inventory (seriously how can anyone think that is a good idea), so it still beats almost every single other race.
Leafsnail wrote:Your examples do not prove your point in any way. All it's saying is that Trog/Nemelex/Kiku are overpowered to the point where you can play badly and still win
That's not at all what I was saying, and only Trog/Elyvilon are overpowered to the point that you can play badly and still win (and both of them should be removed because they don't do anything interesting even in concept, except for Berserk/Divine Vigour, but those two abilities barely matter). Nemelex decks are ridiculously powerful, but they aren't as powerful as Summon Hydra, because decks aren't 100% reliable and infinitely reusable. Sanctuary makes it impossible for anyone who is paying attention to die, but Controlled Blink doesn't disappear from your spell list if you cast it 5 times in a row.
The point here is that you say "i want decks" one time on D4, and then on D7, you solve problems with decks, on D12 you solve problems with decks, on L6 you solve problems with decks, on A3 you solve problems with decks, on V5 you solve problems with decks, on U4 you solve problems with decks, on Z5 you solve problems with decks. An atheist on the other hand has to figure out how to handle each problem as it arises, and prepare for potential problems ahead of time. An atheist has to build the toolset that they use to win the game, a worshipper has most of the toolset given to them. Gods basically take 30-50% of all the decisions you make throughout the whole game and replace them all with one decision on D5. Trog is so much worse, because he takes away closer to 90%, and does it on turn 0.
The mere act of receiving useful things from your god means that the god is taking care of important character building decisions for you. Even an actively harmful god, like Cheibriados, has this same effect (the difference is just that other gods make choice X redundant or unnecessary, and Chei makes choice X suicidally dangerous). I'll readily grant that every single god except Xom/Chei is overpowered and could be nerfed easily, but they would still take away choices the same way they do now.
TheDefiniteArticle wrote:Also the stats are significant and interesting in their own way, but that is secondary to the atheism.
How?
Well for starters notice how every race that has high dex also has high dodging apt. Except demigod. The proposal in the OP is to directly remove this unique trait.
But apart from uniqueness, stats are really good. You have more Int than Deep Elf while at the same time having 20+ Dex, and having enough Str to wear heavy armour. For example, a HuCj and a DgCj both spend exactly the same amount of XP in exactly the same way. The Dg casts at higher spellpower, with lower spellhunger, has higher EV, and if both characters wear the same piece of armour, the Dg has better success rates. This is despite the fact that the Hu has higher levels in every single skill thanks to apts.
What about a god like Ash, who gives no combat powers at all and is based around making your choices more meaningful? You have to think longer term with Ash,
"You have to think longer term with the god who LITERALLY LETS YOU TAKE BACK SKILL POINTS AND MOVE THEM SOMEWHERE ELSE." Give me a break man.
Ash makes choices LESS meaningful across the board. When skills don't cost XP, which one you raise doesn't matter.