Mines Malingerer
Posts: 44
Joined: Monday, 31st October 2011, 04:45
New God: Rothzul (summons and allies)
Theme: Rothzul is the god of joint endeavors and supports situations where people work together. Unlike other deities, Rothzul has no problem with the death of allies in battle, since that is an inevitable consequence to cooperation. There is a cynical undercurrent to this, for Rothzul does not care whether such cooperation is truly voluntary. As such, summoners, slavers, and necromancers have been known to worship him, though it is highly questionable whether their coerced thralls are truly committed to their master’s endeavors….
Niche: Rothzul fills supports three styles of play:
1) He is the ideal god for summoners. This can allow for us to completely sever Vehumet from summoning.
2) He is a god for warriors, and especially beefy warriors, who want allied play but no consequence for ally death.
3) He is an alternate choice to Kiku and Sif Muna for necromancers.
Likes: Rothzul likes it when:
1) You train summoning;
2) Your allies kill
3) You “enlist” creatures to your cause. Enlistment includes enslavement, control undead, death channel, simulacra, and animate dead.
a. Piety is only given once, so no repeat piety for enslaving the same goblin over and over.
b. Piety gain is tied to overall piety. So, enslaving a goblin or animating a bat might give piety at 0-20 piety, but for a 6 star Rothzul adherent, only
enslaving a high HD monster would have any piety benefit.
Dislikes: Rothzul dislikes it when:
1) You wear warding equipment (a general dislike for anti summoning magic)
2) You cast abjuration or mass/abjuration (same dislike for anti summoning magic) (penance)
3) You kill summoners (piety loss).
a. Of course, enslaving a summoner and sending him to a suicidal death wouldn’t bother Rothzul in the slightest…
Respecting Prior Niches:
1) Rothzul will not grant permanent allies (Yred, Fedhas, Beogh’s domain)
2) Rothzul will not grant temporary allies (Makhleb, TSO’s domain)
3) Rothzul will not grant a permanent enslavement power (Yred’s domain)
4) Rothzul will not grant conventional healing of allies (Ely’s domain)
Powers:
…… : Enlist (MP, Food): Essentially the enslavement spell. Its power increases with invocations. Primarily allows non-spell casters to utilize Rothzul.
**…. : Longevity (MP, Food, Piety): Increases the duration of enslavement and summons. Duration is a function of Invocations and the HD of the monster/summon (harder to keep a hydra around longer than a goblin).
***... : Transfuse (Food, Piety, HP) : Heal an ally. Amount of healing depends on invocations. The amount healed is taken from you. Can never kill you outright. Every point in invocations decreases the amount of damage you take by 2%. So at max invo, healing an ally for 50 hp would cast you roughly 25 HP.
****.. : Shared Supplies (Comestible): For sentient living humanoid allies, you can invoke this power, select an ally, and select a potion. The ally receives the benefit of this potion, and you lose the potion. Wizards can give those potion of berserk to tanky allies, fighters can give potions of invisibility or brilliance to mage allies.
*****. : Blood Bond (Piety, Food, Piety). Smite Targeted. If you target an ally, damage to the ally goes to you. If you target yourself, damage to you goes to your allies. If used in the latter way, massive piety drain like Yred’s pain mirror.
****** : Soul Ally (Massive MP, Food, Piety). Creates a temporary duplicate of yourself to fight at your side. The clone is a projection of your spirit. As such, it cannot be transfused since you share the same spirit. If it vanishes after timing out, there is no penalty. If it is killed, you lose 50% of your current HP. If the ability is too strong, it can be further balanced with other death drawbacks, like 1-2 turn paralysis following the duplicate’s destruction.
Different playstyles will derive different benefits from this god.
1) Traditional summoners like DESu will like longevity and using blood bond on themselves to avoid damage.
2) Heavy fighters will like enlistment in order to get support, will like transfuse since they can use their large HP reserves to keep key allies alive, will like blood bond to keep squishy allies like boggarts or mages alive, and will really like Soul Ally for tough fights.
3) Necromancers will enjoy the additional benefits of having an easier time getting piety due to animate dead, death channel, control undead and simulacrum, and extensions through longevity to haunt and simulacrum. Through shared comestibles, mummies will have uses for some potions.
Rothzul doesn’t grant you allies or even buff your allies like Beogh or TSO, so much as he gives you the means to make allies. He provides ways for you and your allies to help each other, though the cost is always to you or the ally.
To underscore how cynical this all is, Pikel should worship Rothzul.