New pretender gods

[Esben Mose Hansen]

Peter Ebbesen said:
Sticking with Godly archetypes from myth and legend, Dom2 really lacks a trickster of some sort. The somewhat good/somewhat bad/always unpredictable god that is so essential to round out a pantheon. Some possible abilities include, but are not limited to:

• Increases unrest in own province
• 25% chance of bonus good event in own province
• 15% chance of bonus bad event in own province
• low dominion
• low fire/air/astral magic - though, really, could be anything depending on which mythology you would raid for the trickster
• stealth(+25)
• instill uprising ability (not that many people would use a pretender for this, but it is thematic )
• extra miscellaneous slot over base creature type

Anyhow, you get the idea. The Dom2 pantheon is filled with the good, the bad, and the ugly. It would be nice to add the whimsical.

Hey Peter, welcome back! Does that mean you'll be playing dom2 again?

And I agree, a Lokelike (couldn't resist) pretender is sort of missing. I would go with no magic paths and luck.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Esben Mose Hansen said:
And I agree, a Lokelike (couldn't resist) pretender is sort of missing. I would go with no magic paths and luck.

I like the idea too. Although if that was possible, I think just increasing the chance for random events in the province the pretender is in (either good or bad, depending on the Luck scale) would be more appropriate.

[Tuidjy]

As long as we are wishing...

I would like to see a human warrior king. A great warrior who has won
so many victories, and has slain so many powerful beings that he has
achieved great fame, and has become a legend in his own lifetime.

He would have great attack/defense, come with decent equipment, and
probably have a few built-in abilities, although nothing as
ridiculously overpowering as Cohen's mage-priest-deity-immortal-knights.
No starting magic, and very high magic path cost (50 or even 80). Human
type hit points, and better than human dominion.

[Heironeous]

Tuidjy said:
As long as we are wishing...

I would like to see a human warrior king. A great warrior who has won
so many victories, and has slain so many powerful beings that he has
achieved great fame, and has become a legend in his own lifetime.

He would have great attack/defense, come with decent equipment, and
probably have a few built-in abilities, although nothing as
ridiculously overpowering as Cohen's mage-priest-deity-immortal-knights.
No starting magic, and very high magic path cost (50 or even 80). Human
type hit points, and better than human dominion.

I like this idea a lot. If you want to emphasize his "slayer of powerful beings" bit, you could give him the ability to do double damage to larger creatures. That would help compensate for his lower hit points.

[deccan]

Tuidjy said:
As long as we are wishing...

I would like to see a human warrior king. A great warrior who has won
so many victories, and has slain so many powerful beings that he has
achieved great fame, and has become a legend in his own lifetime.

He would have great attack/defense, come with decent equipment, and
probably have a few built-in abilities, although nothing as
ridiculously overpowering as Cohen's mage-priest-deity-immortal-knights.
No starting magic, and very high magic path cost (50 or even 80). Human
type hit points, and better than human dominion.

Sounds like PvK's Avatar of Ulm.

[Tuidjy]

I was not familiar with that mod, and after checking it out, I know why -
that pretender is horribly underpowered. I would not take him if he cost
zero design points, and at 200, he is laughable. Furthermore, he is Ulm
only, and part of an unofficial mod. I would like a warrior king blessed
by Illwinter, and one available to all human nations.

On the other hand, his graphics are nothing short of excelent.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Esben Mose Hansen said:
Hey Peter, welcome back! Does that mean you'll be playing dom2 again?

Yes. I've been sort of busy over the summer but will contact you soon. I might even join one of your hosted games, though I prefer playing 5-10 turns/session quickhost with scheduled sessions such that a game does not take ages to complete.

[Arryn]

Nice to have you back, Peter. BTW, you need to update the forum-referencing URLs in your sig, as the forum upgrade and subsequent domain name change has broken those links.

[Vicious Love]

Agreed with Nagot and Alneyan, obviously enough. No need to taint this game with yet another soulless, senseless Tolkien ripoff.
Honestly, it's got depth, it's got flavor, and it's got C'tis(w00t!), and it's got much of what Tolkien himself originally bastardized(Albeit proficiently), would it really be improved all that much by vaguely Scottish dwarves?

Furthermore, when the premise of a game is the subjugation of the cosmos via full-scale, omnilateral war, questions of good and evil become kinda immaterial. Besides which, I don't see how cooking up a few demonbred is in any way more evil than pillaging a contested province.
And all warfare revolves around bringing about death, death and blood magic are just more direct about it than the other paths.


Getting back on topic, I love the idea of a pretender-artifact(Presumably available in several varieties, conferring different abilities?), and invite you to consider this: Immobile, cannot teleport, no attack skill or defense skill, no item slots, MR [lots](For globals such as Burden of Time), encumbrance 100, stealthy(+[lots]), glamour, good base dominion, starts with 1 in each path(Like a "new paths cost 10" pretender +80 points, basically). Size: too big to be subject to Wind Ride. Might want to make it Immortal, just in case**.

Not entirely sure what you'd call this thing, but it can represent:
A) One'a them newfangled incorporeal gods, or a nascent divinity that cannot take shape until it has achieved proper godhead, and not just that pretender nonsense. Or one of those snooty gods that won't sully itself with material form. Or whatever.
B) One of those saccharine, postmodern, thoroughly useless gods that are "in here"*, and in the hearts of all just and true Abysians. Kind of like the Tao Te Ching for people with a Blood Kitsch Level above 0.5, and a crippling attention deficit.
C) Not a god, but a race of gods! Gods that, for some reason, must be blessed by priests before manifesting the full scope of their divinity, but gods nonetheless. All the perks of animism and atheism, coupled with the megalomaniacal elitism of more conventional religions.
D) Just a really stealthy, really cowardly god, I suppose.
E) Some kind of a... a witch's bwew.


Doesn't seem all that unbalanced, does it?

Pros - Utterly indestructible, unless it decides to go into battle, for some reason. Awesome platform for rainbow blessings, rituals, and forgings.

Cons- Pretty much useless should your capitol be conquered or your lab razed, though does prevent your dominion from waning. Noncombatant, can only site search via spells.

Now, if there were some way to make this thing immune to Transformation, it would be practically exploit-proof. Then again, Transformation is high-level, insanely risky without Gift of Health/The Chalice/etc, and by no means likely to yield an SC chassis.
Although plenty of faiths would have trouble with the notion of the transsubstantiation of the divine to the base, there are also plenty that would find nothing paradoxical or profane in the idea.


* Accompanied by touching of finger to chest, as the soundtrack swells

** Though that does mean it would get to safely cast a single battlefield spell(Such as Communion Master), before passing out when defending the capitol. I see potential for exploitation. Not MUCH potential, by any stretch of the imagination, and nothing that can't be remedied by changing it's encumbrance to 300 or so. Aww, yeah.

Edit: Did I say "dully"? I meant "sully". Mind you, I was hesitant to correct myself, as "sully" doesn't sound half as awesome. I mean, c'mon, dully!

[Vicious Love]

How to Mod a Completely Premade, Nation-Specific, Probably Unbalanced Pantheon in Several Easy Steps Incorporating Presently Nonexistent Modding Commands
Some assembly required

A) Give the nation in question a starting spell costing 1 gem of the type of your choice, with a requisite caster level of 20 in the path of your choice.
B) Also mod in a pretender with said level of 20 in the path in question, no other abilities or stats, no item slots, 1 hit point, an insanely powerful horror mark, and the "diseased" battle affliction.
C) Start a game with the nation and pretender in question. Give the pretender an appropriate name, like "a bunch of gods", as in "Prophet of a bunch of gods", or "Marignon worships a bunch of gods".
D) Have the pretender cast the aforementioned national spell. Watch pretender die of either horror attack or disease.
E) Enjoy gods summoned by path-20 spell, all of which function as mobile temples, more like Juggernauts or prophets than full pretenders. If possible, gods' stats should should be affected by dominion.
F) Do not call god, he'll just be eaten by a horror again.

And that's that. As long as we're being ambitious and hypothetical.

Update: Did I say 20 in one path? I meant 20 in two. That oughta make sure you don't Call God and empower the bastard while having elite bodyguards protect against horror attack. Anyone got an idea for an even better killswitch?