Dungeon Master
Posts: 1531
Joined: Saturday, 5th March 2011, 06:29
God: Ixool the Masked
divinity is the rejection of ones self. Ixool commands her followers to reject their own identities
in favour of adopting new ones supplied by her in the form of divine masks which bestow
the wearer magically with the properties of whomever or whatever the mask represents.
At highest piety Ixool grants you the supreme power to (once only) rewrite history and change
yourself permanently into an entirely different species.
Abilities:
Borrow Mask (**)
Ixool will occasionally lend you or one of your allies a masks from her book of faces to aid you in
combat.
This could be passive or active, I prefer passive. If active then she could offer you a choice
between three different masks. Otherwise the mask is randomly selected from a pool. This part definitely needs some work
but here are some initial ideas:
Face of the Assassin: Bonus to dex, stealth, throwing, short blades
Face of the Werewolf: Speed, str, monstrous, bite attack
Face of the Void: Triggers sheer terror and/or insanity in any who gaze upon it
Face of the Angel: Enchants all with its sheer beauty. Monsters are distracted but helplessly drawn towards you
Face of Death: Drains the lifeforce of any who see it, causes draining and minor pain damage
Mirror Mask (*****)
Ixool will create a mask from a targetted being, allowing you to become them for a time.
This is basically a "mimic other" - you can take on the form of any other monster or even unique.
Your whole body will transform (melding may occur) although you do not gain their weapons or armour,
but you *will* gain their spellset and/or any innate abilities. Your own spells and abilities are
unavailable during this time. At higher invocations you can wear the mask for longer.
In the simple version the effect just applies immediately. However there is an alternate version
where you have to first kill the monster to create the mask, the mask is then saved for you and you can use
it later when you wish. You can only save one mask this way of course.
Costs: 6 MP, piety.
Rewrite History (******)
You may petition Ixool once to create a *permanent* mask of another species, rewriting your
history in the process. Once the mask is worn it can never be removed.
This once-per-game ability allows you to change your character's base species. Your XP will be
reapplied starting from XL:1 - so for instance if you switched to Demonspawn at XL:27 then you
would immediately go through all 27 levels again and gain all your mutations. You can also
make your stat choices over again. However even though your species has been rewritten, you
still performed all the same actions to get through the dungeon to where you are now - in other
words, you still invested in all the same skill training! Your skills will probably change
levels due to different aptitudes however. The interface should include the ability to preview
how your skills will look with the new aptitudes.
Any armour which can no longer be worn will be unequipped. Any random mutations which are
incompatible with your new species will simply disappear, as will any species-related permanent
mutations, e.g. demonspawn.
Special Ru clause: Rather than trying to apply Ru sacs to a new species that may have been
incompatible with certain sacs in the first place ... Ixool simply prohibits any followers who have
ever taken a Ru sacrifice!
Gaining piety:
When you kill a monster, Ixool is able to create a mask from them to add to her
book of faces. If the book did not already contain that monster's face then you gain an amount
of piety corresponding to their level. Uniques of course count as a different face to their
base monster type and award an additional piety bonus! (Note: Flavour-wise this is thematic and
differentiates Ixool a little from typical piety for kills or exploration. But, it perhaps encourages
scummy behaviour in that a player planning to take Ixool late-game could conceivably attempt to leave
various monsters alive all over the dungeon to go back and get the piety later. I have a couple
ideas how to tweak things around this but I'm interested in hearing other thoughts on this piety
mechanic first.)
Wrath:
Having rejected Ixool's masks and assumed your own identity, Ixool now lends her masks
to denizens of the dungeon as she sees fits, so monsters will frequently assume the masks of more
powerful beings. And of course, Ixool has now created a mask from your face as well!
Additional notes:
This idea was in part inspired by the Many-Faced God from ... er .... some show some of you might
have seen. Hopefully the flavour is different enough. This God has potential use for almost
any character in particular due to the 6* ability. Rerolling species is something I thought about
after seeing an artifact naga barding on D:1 - I know many people have posted similar finds
and "of course that will only happen when I'm not a naga". Well, here's a way to change that.
She is probably also an interesting option for players wishing to go into extended - once you know
what equipment/items/spells you have available, maybe a specie swap makes some branches
a lot more viable - even taking the perma-lich-form option of going mummy.
I feel like she's missing an ability around 3/4* but I'm not quite sure.
Anyway, interested in hearing any and all thoughts, criticisms, suggestions.