Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static


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Lair Larrikin

Posts: 28

Joined: Wednesday, 31st May 2017, 18:31

Post Tuesday, 5th November 2019, 09:50

Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static

Right now, Divine exegesis is only usable for casting highest tier magic. For anything else, it's piety cost is way too high. I suggest this ability having piety cost depending on spel level you trying to cast, 0-1 for magic dart or shock, 5-6 for vile clutch or silence, and 9-10 for Tornado/Fire Storm/other tier 9 magic.

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petercordia, sdynet

Spider Stomper

Posts: 200

Joined: Sunday, 11th May 2014, 11:26

Post Wednesday, 6th November 2019, 10:53

Re: Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static

I agree. I have used this several times. This is not bad for early games with a high probability of magic failure. However, when the magic failure rate is lowered in later games, its usefulness is extremely low. Most of the reasons for using this in later games are to use Controlled Blink or Dragon's Call. Other than that, there is little reason to use it because the effect of strengthening the magic is not large.

Blades Runner

Posts: 593

Joined: Tuesday, 11th December 2018, 19:14

Post Wednesday, 6th November 2019, 15:58

Re: Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static

Ddoor, cBlink, revivification, and shatter (for wall destruction utility) are the most obvious picks for it, and these do make it a very powerful ability on their own. I wouldn't mind seeing weaker spells cost less though, just to encourage some usage. Too much less and we will get brutes running faith amulet Sif Muna, though would that actually outperform alternative gods anyway?

Spider Stomper

Posts: 200

Joined: Sunday, 11th May 2014, 11:26

Post Thursday, 7th November 2019, 07:08

Re: Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static

The problem with this power is that the higher the level of school, the less need for use. Spellpower bonuses aren't enough and they're cost is expensive, so they're hard to use aggressively. So in the end, this power is only used for the limited number of spells. Powerful spells at low spell power, such as Ddoor, cBlink, Dragon's Call.
What do you think about this solution? Everything else is the same(cost, spell power bonus). If the magic school level used is very high, the spell is Instant and doesn't use MP(Maybe more than 21?).

In this case, the cost is still high. However, the newly added function grants merit to high-level schools. And, the shortcoming of insufficient spell power bonus will be fully compensated. This feature will be useful when using utility spells, but will also be useful when using attack spells compared to before.

Perhaps, if you train high in Translocation school, you can use cBlink three times in a row. However, you have to train Invocation high to prevent its failure, and you have to train Translocation very high to get Instant. Also, piety will be consumed 36. I think this function is very powerful, but it is not enough to hurt balance, and it will fit God's power.

Lair Larrikin

Posts: 17

Joined: Sunday, 15th September 2019, 06:21

Post Sunday, 10th November 2019, 03:23

Re: Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static

The other problem with it is that it requires a really high invocation level to use semi-reliably. If you simply put that invocation experience into leveling magic schools, you would have no problem casting any lower level spell without need for Divine Exegesis. Basically, it's only useful for casting very high level spells and weird spells that you use very infrequently.

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 8786

Joined: Sunday, 5th May 2013, 08:25

Post Sunday, 10th November 2019, 04:37

Re: Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static

I think the use cases for exegesising lower level spells are very few, even if you do lower the piety cost. Low level spells, being low level, are easy to cast without exegesis. If you are some spell-less character in heavy armour that switched to Sif late in the game so you could exegesis level 8/9 spells, then sure, now you sometimes use it to cast summon butterflies/lightning spire/swiftness too. Otherwise, nothing really changes. I don't think this is worth increasing the complexity of the ability.

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nago

Lair Larrikin

Posts: 28

Joined: Wednesday, 31st May 2017, 18:31

Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 07:25

Re: Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static

Again, the main problem is exegesis is only usable for some high level majik. This is pretty narrow. By making piety cost dependent on spell level, we'll make this ability less narrow and make it have more uses then simply casting tornado or death door in late game.

Zot Zealot

Posts: 1004

Joined: Thursday, 16th August 2018, 21:19

Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 08:47

Re: Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static

Making piety-cost level dependent would also allow Sif Mages to safe some spell slots, for example by deciding not to memorize apportation (and other low-level rarely used spells), which would suit Sif's flavour (and make the endgame more fun).

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 8786

Joined: Sunday, 5th May 2013, 08:25

Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 09:35

Re: Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static

If you're rarely using Apportation (or summon butterflies etc.), you're not using it right.

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nago

Blades Runner

Posts: 593

Joined: Tuesday, 11th December 2018, 19:14

Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 16:41

Re: Divine Exegesis piety cost should not be static

You can pick up items after clearing a level usually. Apportation is usually just okay/solid, though it's fantastic in abyss. Butterflies is not a consistent spell. Good against juggernauts, not a solid choice vs floating eyes or ranged enemies (butterflies have reasonably high EV).

Better example would be stuff like swiftness, passwall, or to a lesser extent passage of golubria (passage is very strong when chained, so using piety for it loses some utility). These have very strong utility when they matter, but otherwise are not typically spammed. Unless you're some brute in plate armor (got Sif Muna from faded altar?) it makes more sense to just get them castable though.

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