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Edit : I have bumped this as I think it is pertinent to the current balance issues with player deities.  A solid system that groups certain spells and restrictions together might work well and allow for a much more balanced approach to player gods.

 

Edit (2016 edition) : Self balancing player gods, self balancing new spell sets, whats not to like?  Added in an extra example spirit for mag, again in no way asserting balance.

 

This suggestion is a complete rework of the current faith system, hopefully keeping it lore friendly.

 

Underneath each god there are spirits/angles/demons/whateveryouwantocallthem. 

 

Some spirits (my preferred term) serve multiple gods.

 

Each spirit offers a certain set of spells and abilities in return for some restrictions, these abilities are linked to two factors :

 

1.  Faith (gained by praying at alters to your god)

2.  Devotion (see below)

 

Devotion being a person's relationship with that spirit, how often they pray at alters dedicated to that spirit (alters dedicated to spirits generate no domain but can only be built in the domain of their god, they decay quickly if that domain is gone for too long), or perform tasks for that spirit (both small and large quests), breaking the rules of the spirit lowers devotion rather than faith.  Higher level spells/abilities require both faith and devotion.  Non-priests may achieve high devotion levels with their spirit (no cap for premium, 30 cap for ftp).

 

One can make 1 (one) pact per 20 faith, revoking a pact loses the player 20 faith (and all devotion with that spirit of course).  Nothing too big for a non-priest but enough to make priests really think about their choices.

 

Each spirit is linked with a craft (or sometimes 2), non-priests will gain a decent experience bonus in this craft for having a pact with the spirit as long as they abide by the restriction put in place by the spirit (essentially bonus is based on devotion).  Priests have this craft unlocked for them to follow as per normal, imping and all.

 

Some spirits dislike one another, and pleasing one will upset the other if you have pacts with both (resulting in MUCH slower devotion gain and the inability to get to the highest levels of devotion).  This is in place to balance overpowered combinations.

 

When a player priests up they lose the ability to improve and continue constructions, however this is the only universal restriction set imposed.  They also gain some "minor" spells of their god, bless and the like.  They also gain any spells that their pacts allow them.


Example Spirit : Whisp

Gods : Fo

Main Restriction : Inability to equip metal weapons.

Craft : First Aid/Alchemy
Bonuses : Increased healing rate in fo domain (>25 allows medium wounds to heal over time, >50 bad wounds, >75 serious wounds)

Spells : Heal Light, Heal Medium, Heal Serious, Heal, Light of Fo (devotion >25 required as well as faith), Refresh, Life Transfer (devotion >50 required as well as faith)

 

Example Spirit : Gnome

Gods : Mag

Main Restriction : -1 CR aboveground

Craft : Weaponsmithing
Bonuses : Increased CR on rock tiles (including underground) (+1 per 50 devotoin (max of +2 underground or +1 aboveground))

Spells : Magnaron's Shield, Goat Shape, Disintigrate (>25 devotion & faith), Strongwall (>50 devotion & faith)


This is just an example spirit and in no way balanced.

 

The pro of this is someone running a priest can choose how restricted they are, gaining more spells for the restrictions.  Priests become a lot more personalized and faiths become more useful.  It will allow devs to add new spellsets (new spirit) more easily.  It will also move priests into the domain of mainable characters, still restricted and different, but with their own unique style of play.

 

The con is that it is a HUGE change and balance will take a long time to set up.

 

What do people think?

Edited by Etherdrifter
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It sounds interesting, I especially like that followers can also participate. the Main Restriction of each spirit sounds like a good way to offset the ability for a priest to fully use certain skills, while a non priest can get a skill gain bonus instead. I also like that you've got to choose which spells you want since you no longer gain all of them, and that with your proposed Devotion system you've really got to think about which spirits you pick as some would be mutually exclusive if you want all their higher tier spells.


 


My main concern is that the Restriction of each spirit does not differentiate between a priest and a follower, even though a priest gains far more in the advantage area, namely spells and unlocked skills (the latter I'd say is better than a skill gain increase unless it's a large increase, like 50%). So maybe a spirit should have two restrictions. One only applies to followers, the other applies to priests. This way spirits can be balanced towards followers and priests separately.


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I'll worship angles any day, it's mathematically logical!  I'm kidding, neat idea :)


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I like it, but I still will always feel priests should be able to continue. Imping is a good restriction and does radically change gameplay, but not being able to continue makes them useless as primary characters without being an annoyance or a burden to all around them.


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Actually if a priest follows a spirit that unlocks carpentry or another building skill it is assumed they will be able to continue for that skill.

 

Thus allowing players to solo priests effectively if they want to, it just limits their crafts to certain ones...
 

 

 

It sounds interesting, I especially like that followers can also participate. the Main Restriction of each spirit sounds like a good way to offset the ability for a priest to fully use certain skills, while a non priest can get a skill gain bonus instead. I also like that you've got to choose which spells you want since you no longer gain all of them, and that with your proposed Devotion system you've really got to think about which spirits you pick as some would be mutually exclusive if you want all their higher tier spells.

 

My main concern is that the Restriction of each spirit does not differentiate between a priest and a follower, even though a priest gains far more in the advantage area, namely spells and unlocked skills (the latter I'd say is better than a skill gain increase unless it's a large increase, like 50%). So maybe a spirit should have two restrictions. One only applies to followers, the other applies to priests. This way spirits can be balanced towards followers and priests separately.

Nice idea!

Edited by Etherdrifter

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Agreed this would be a way better option. Half the time i let my priest go unprem just because while he is grinding faith/channel its basically useless.


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same here, I usually save up stuff I want to have enchanted and then after several months I give my priest a month of prem and enchant all the stuff. Anything left over I save for the next time. Besides enchanting and tending farms there's not much interesting that he can do to make it worth giving him more prem. Most of the spells on him I never use either, it's just a couple of enchants which see frequent use. I'd love to have a more useful alt, without it being unbalanced, and I think this suggestion has a shot at achieving that, while also making faith interesting for non priest characters.


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I feel like this could actually help the current PvP priest imbalance if implemented correctly. Note that inability to equip metal weapons would not work since the only somewhat viable non-metal weapon is the long spear, and this would be terrible if that spirit or whatever was linked with light of Fo or any other useful combat spell.


 


Before this could happen though, current spells would need to be balanced against the current model.


Edited by SotG_is_OP

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Going to give this a bump since I would really be interested in hearing more discussion on it


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Oh, haven't notice that one. Good thinking, Ether, so +1.


 


I won't elaborate on that for now, since it's not a good day for me to do anything constructive, but I'd like to pour my thoughts here later.


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Good Idea, essentially specialization, something like this needs to go in.


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Bump for relevance to recent topics and its just a really good idea.


Edited by sunsvortex

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+1 sounds like a good thing.


 


The only thing I would change is their complete inability to improve.


To give players a real chance to play priests as mains I would give them a choice of 1 of 3 skills defined by their main spirit (their first chosen one).


Maybe deny them the "big" skills like carpentry, blacksmithing, weaponsmithing.


 


Or give them a defined set of tools/weapons they can improve, f.e.:


Vyn priests - statuette of vyn, altars, fishing rod and water skin


Mag priest - statuette of mag, altars, long sword, pendulum


Fo priests - statuette of fo, altars, rake, sickle


Lib priests - statuette of lib, altars, scythe, gravestone


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Priests should be able to make stuff like cloth and jewelry etc....things priests would use.


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I should really update the main post with this clarification :


 


Depending on the spirit a priest chooses certain skills become fully unlocked (imp, continue the whole thing for that ONE skill), if they unlock multiple skills (at the cost of less useful spells) then they can take part in multiple professions.


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@Ether: Sorry I guess I didn't read your post carefully enough.


 


Even more +1 then.


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A quick bump again with the "nahjo balance" changes.


 


If this system were in place the player gods would have a self balanced set of spirits, each with their own spells/restrictions.


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This is, essentially, what player gods are.  Random spell lists taken from the three primary gods, not nearly the convoluted fuster-cluck that you are proposing. 


 


Your way allows people the ability to make a Vyn priest that can mine, or a Fo priest that can cast CoC.  I don't buy it.


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