God Proposal: Nexus, God of Portals

[Hurricos]

Basically, Kiku for Translocations. Nexus is the God of Portals, and grants worshipers the power to be everywhere and nowhere at all through the study of Translocation, offering them access to texts on the subject as they gain favor. The success rate of active abilities is governed by the user's Translocation skill.

This god appreciates the following:

* Killing enemies with Translocations (Portal Projectile, Force Lance, Summon Forest, Malign Gateway and Warp Weapon / Distortion weapons / *Bolt of Distortion)

* Exploration, especially through through Translocation (new areas revealed when teleporting / blinking / entering a Passage of Golubria grant double piety gain)

Depreciates:

* Time. This god has relatively rapid Piety decay (1 per ~300 turns)

* Abandonment.

Abilities and granted gifts:

-: Nothing.
*: Gift: Book of Spatial Translocations.
**: Passive: Nexus aids your Translocations, giving you Vehumet-like Wizardry
***: Gift: Book of the Warp
***: Passive: Portal Projectile no longer costs mana to use, only to activate.
***: Ability: Instant blink (Cost: 2 MP, 2 Piety)
****: Passive: Protective spells like Phase Shift and Shroud of Golubria are toggled (e.g. cast on / cast off) instead of memorized, but restrict maximum MP while active.
*****: Ability: Teleport (3 MP, 3 Piety). Exactly like +Tele.
*****: Passive: Protection from severe Translocation miscast effects (the ones that are gauged by the in-game color of the miscast percentage.)
******: Gift: Choice: Akashic Record _or_ Book of Tensors.
******: Ability: Control teleport (10 MP, 15 Piety). Exactly like old cTele. Cannot be used while carrying the Orb, or in the Abyss.

Book of Tensors: "Written by the hands of the Nexus itself, this text details spells whose aim is to warp the world around the caster. It flickers in and out of the real world, and would vanish entirely if not for the divine influence of the Nexus."

This book contains the following spells:

Dimensional Anchor (L4 Translocation / Hexes): Applies the `Anchored in Space' effect, preventing the target from being blinked, teleporting or phasing. Very useful in conjunction with the Distortion brand. Checks MR, but is enhanced like Tukima's Dance.

Stasis field (L5 Translocation / Charms): Acts like Silence, but instead applies Stasis. Does not contaminate upon removing effects. Even more useful in conjunction with the Distortion brand / Bolt of Distortion / Blinking or Teleporting enemies / Hasted enemies / Slowing enemies.

Bolt of Distortion (L6 Translocation / Conjurations): See http://git.develz.org/?p=crawl.git;a=co ... afdc08974c

Blink Allies Encircling (L7 Translocation): Blinks your allies to encircle the target. Very useful with Summoning spells.

(I know this isn't very good design, but ... a suggestion:) Conjunction (L8 Translocation / Conjuration) : Attempts to flatten space, violently destroying any Passages of Golubria and spell-based constructs (OOD, Fulminant prisms, Battlespheres, Singularities and summons). For a couple of turns after, any entity that attempts to violate this flattening of space near you (by blinking / teleporting in or out of it) will instead suffer Distortion damage as they are crushed. Effects like Gell's Gravitas and Force Lance will deal Distortion damage instead of moving anything.

Singularity (L9 Translocation / Summoning): Singularity, the spell, as it should be. (Or Hyperphase. Once I get around to actually explaining how it works. I dunno).

Leaving this god will destroy the Book of Tensors; miscast effects and hostile Singularities are part of the wrath.

(Yes, I'm aware there's already an N. I'm thinking about it.)

[dynast]

You like to use PoG, WE GET IT.

[kuniqs]

Teleport would be a neat ability at 1* piety, when teleport scrolls are scarce. At high levels, players would rather use the wand, which at least works while silenced...

[Hurricos]

Teleport would be a neat ability at 1* piety, when teleport scrolls are scarce. At high levels, players would rather use the wand, which at least works while silenced...

Would it be better to make it instant, or to make it a lower piety level?

[kuniqs]

Instant seems really unbalanced...
Lower piety level

[Quazifuji]

It looks to me like there are 6 unique effects on the god that don't appear anywhere else in the game (anymore). Control Teleport, and the spells in the Book of Tensors. Everything else just buffs or gives better version of translocations, usually in fairly situational ways. Basically, this god is only interesting if you take the Book of Tensors, and then suddenly there are 5 completely new abilities added to the game.

Why not take the abilities in the book of Tensors, make them the regular abilities, and remove the boring stuff like instant blink or teleport fr piety instead?

Granted, then we have the problem of most of the Book of Tensors abilities being incredibly situational. Why is a god who otherwise gives no support for allies or distortion brand suddenly giving you a bunch of spells where "useful with allies" or "useful with distortion brand" seem to be the big selling points?