I also agree that order-specific and city/guild/archetype-specific choices would be good for diversifying the powers, as long as this remains in the realm of roleplay and utility powers and does not stray too far into combat (because another layer of inter-org balancing would be bad with the exception of maybe archetype-specific powers, since they are tied more closely to skills).

I would be leery of Avatar-only things unless they came paired with many new demigod things, since Avatars, like Ascendants, are only a very small portion of the demigod population. It's the same reason people were trying to turn away from making changes that affect only Seal-bearing demigods earlier in this thread.

Yeah, when throwing around ideas, org specific stuff came up as something that would be interesting. It shouldn't necessarily be a unique mechanic for each org, but some sort of "Hai, I'm from xyx org" thing would be cool.

Clearly what we need is a Demigod ability that, for 10k essence, lets us destroy illusions in the room (ala critique).

Or, better yet, make it take 10k essence per power spent on the ability; so removing magicmouths is free, but programmeds can take 90k essence.

So I have been thinking over demi powers in general and how to purchase simple powers that can just help us survive longer/fight better (which is what demis are suppose to be good at). Here are some ideas.

DMP Purchases:

Can Purchase 10 DMP resistances for any type. Each DMP would cost 50,000 essence. It would of course cost no weight.

Damage Buffs:

Can purchase a 10% Buff for any type. May only purchase ONE Buff for only ONE type (debatable). Would cost 500,000 essence. Would also be 0 weight.

DIVINE ARMOR:

Will imbue your armor (robes, field plate, leather, etc) with divine essence, enhancing their stats slightly (perhaps by 10 each?).

Essence cost: 50,000
Essence to use: 10,000
Weight: 0
Commands: DIVINEARMOR

IMMORTAL AURA:

With this Aura, all your items within your posession will decay at a much slower rate. It is a passive ability.

Essence cost: 1,000,000
Weight: 0

ESSENCE VAULT:

Your valuable essence must always be protected, and so with this ability you can make sure it is guarded if ever you meet an unfortunate end. By utilizing this ability, all essence you will lose on death will be reduced by 70%.

Essence cost: 10,000,000
Essence to use: 5,000
Weight: 10
Command: VAULT ESSENCE

Thoughts?

Personally, I think DMP and damage increase at 0 weight would be a bad idea, especially at such a low cost. 50k is very easy to come by, so essentially it'd be like giving all Demis 10 DMP against all, in addition to a 10DMP damage increase to their type of choice.

I kindof like the essence vault though, although perhaps with a small tweak: You'd put essence into the vault, which would only be usable for death. There'd be no way to remove the essence from the vault. The same 70% reduction would apply to the essence put in the vault, but if you die with no essence in the vault, the full 100% would be taken from the non-vaulted essence. Might need a different name though (soulbond?).

I feel the same about the dmps. The armor thing should cost weight, and probably more essence. The decay thing probably won't fly, they like to cut down on non-decaying and slow decaying items as much as possible, I think.

So Vault it is >.>

I personally love the Vault idea the most. I have heard and know how painful essence loss is and why some demigods downright refuse to raid or hunt on enemy territory from the large essence loss. The idea that Ssaliss gave of making the Vault hold your essence in it and then the decrease of loss be taken from that sounds pretty good to me too :)

Why would DMP of all things cost no weight?

There's a good reason for the high essence cost for dying in enemy territory.

Your suggestions are so OP.

I don't like the idea of giving Demigods more mechanical advantages over normals then they already do. Perennial Complaint about the Cost of Entry.

Mechanical advantages so far being, just for clarification:

• Expand/shrink
  
• Divinefire (works for mobs only)
  
• Stat points (weighing in at 9 weight each out of 50 total)
  
• Ascend to the Havens (safe room, travel from anywhere)
  
• Seek (scry everyone from the Havens )
  
• Zap (area-wide, costly, offensive electrical damage)
  
• Flavour things (choicelook/zap/shout/enterexit/teleport, custom zap/shout, at 2-7 weight, respectively)
  

Did I miss anything? I've purposely excluded Avatar mechanics because that belongs to the realm of the Special Snowflake. The point I'm attempting to make is that demigods aren't really mechanically overwhelming. Ascendants are another story (see: domoths, inherent domoth powers, higher weight), but again, they're the Special Snowflakes we lowly demigods can only dream of becoming (which, I want to make very clear, is an inequality I really like about the game because it leaves something we can aspire to).


The argument in favour of mechanical buffs speaks to the fact that demigods, as they are now, really aren't a whole lot different from mortals. In fact, without conglutination, some people are of the mind that it's almost better to stay Titan (who receive the zesty 'refresh power' function and +1 to all stats). Demigod /= superior anymore, mechanically, and after all the effort put into obtaining it, superiority should be a given.

But again! If I've missed the mark in my assessment of the popular opinion, feel free to correct me.

Xiel:

Found my wee little list. With any luck, some of the ideas fly or, better yet, I hope they inspire some better, newer thoughts for new demigod perks that would appease combatants, roleplayers, crafters or bashers across the spectrum. Some were grabbed from older threads, but huzzah:

Combat

• Regeneration: a level of racial h/m/e.
  

Utility

• Fourth Influence: an influence attack just beyond the third of each typical influence type (not amnesty).
  
• Quasi-Anchor: imbue essence in any location to return to it. People can't follow through with you, essence cost and not instant. Super milestone.
  
• Unnatural Blood: denizen healthleech causes damage still but does not heal the denizen any longer.
  

Flavour

• Dessicate: activate and should the next thing you touch have remaining months left before it decays, it uses this time up instantaneously.
  
• Choice Ambient: passive flavour message in the room like the other choice abilities, though limits enacted so people don't get spammed out.
  
• Choice Race: much like the dingbat hats, convert your physical race (not statistic, just an aesthetic change) to that of a normally unplayable race like the centaur, sileni, gnome, fink or fae (not faeling).
  

I'll find more ideas some other time, since Ascendant powers being generally available is unlikely.

Not to derail overly much from the current train of thought but... this... I would so be all over getting to demi if we could semi-remort to the unplayed races. /outburstrave

I am going to agree with Drunken' Statement. Demigods are not at all that different or "greater" than non-demigod players. If anything yes, Titan does seem like a better choice, as Demigod you have to begin to focus on your essence, which if you hunted for an hour you can lose in just 1 death. Yes Demigod deaths are extremely painful, and it is not just raiding on enemy planes. Included in this is dying to a lag spike, or walking into a group filled with astral creatures or even when you are jumped when hunting creatures in an area you are enemied to (Illithoid prison or Krokani in grey moors etc). Before Demigod, this can be looked away but as Demigod losing all that essence is just plain painful.

rika:

Why would DMP of all things cost no weight?

There's a good reason for the high essence cost for dying in enemy territory.

Your suggestions are so OP.

The DMP idea was just that, an idea. It seems very few ideas in general are being given here and that suggestions being made are just being dismissed rather than offering anything in return. The essence cost on deaths I have explained above and I know that the Essence Vault idea, though a small suggestion that would not impact Demigod combat in general, would make many Demigods very happy. So far the Demigod report has no potential solutions for it and at this rate it will most likely be dismissed. Giving any other suggestions or ideas of your own would actually push this forward.

Druken:

• Seek (scry everyone from the Havens )
  

No it does pierce viel. I'm pretty sure the only way to avoid seek is to be dead or not logged in.

Going through veil is actually the biggest point of Seek, since it has to be done from the Havens (unless you're an Ascendant with the power). If it worked just like scry... why would anyone take it?

I never cared that it went through Veil, but it is very nice to go over longer distances to find people on much higher planes or on bubbles. Ascendants have to take Seek and Knowledge Awareness to use Seek from anywhere other than the Havens.

Ssaliss:

Going through veil is actually the biggest point of Seek, since it has to be done from the Havens (unless you're an Ascendant with the power). If it worked just like scry... why would anyone take it?

Biggest point is that it's not limited by planes, piercing viel doesn't come up that often.

Whoopsy! My veil booboo aside, seek is marginally useful, but not necessarily a big enough argument (in my opinion) to make achieving demigod the miracle autopilot to utopia people think it is. I want to append to my previous post a response to Arcanis's point, relating to the Special Snowflakes--

even they aren't immune to the depravity that is bashing for an hour or so (or utilizing any of the means of essence gathering quickly ) and then losing all of that progress because of an accidental death. In fact, in order to gain essence quickly enough to buy these powers--because we're all impatient, we-want-it-now people--we'd have to bash for hours every day, making dying incredibly painful. People weren't kidding when they warned me against getting demigod-- it doesn't mean you get to sit back and be awesome, and in fact, the workload is is harder than gathering experience points because of...

...the sheer agony that is dying, unless you're comfortable spending hours and hours bashing. Factoring into this depravity the fact that I'm a full-time graduate student, and that most of us are also professionals who don't get to work at a computer to while away the day with carefree autobashing, I don't really have the time or energy to play the game for its other perks (read: roleplay) outside of making sure demigod is worthwhile for me (read: bashing for essence to spend). It's my hope that the (potential) mechanical buffs to demigod might make the above torments worthwhile.

(I still love demigod for the attainable flavour, and don't want it deleted/nerfed/taken away from me for voicing a critique. Just making that clear. I also love Nocht, and being one of his avatars (which I realize is perk for demigod, but it isn't fair of me to bring it up because of all the demigods who don't have the same opportunity ). Just making that clear, too.)

I wouldn't spend so much time quibbling over weight and essence cost.

For example, you might decide a suggestion that involves halving decay rate in your inventory is worth 1,000,000 essence, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't see it for anything less than 75,000,000 at a minimum. (Although realistically, its odds of being accepted are pitifully small anyways).

Likewise, when arguing over weights, most of you are probably suggesting them on the belief that demigods will get more weight than they do now. Imagine how upset you'll be if we take those new powers, at the suggested weights, but don't increase demigod weight.

I think you'd be better off leaving such quibbling over minor details to us, and instead focus on the content being suggested.

(Or don't, but I think you're wasting your time trying in that regard)

I think that reductions of current powers that aren't particularly worth their weight are on the table though? For instance, the enter/look/teleport things.

Righto, Eventru! Forgive me if I'm misreading you, but I think that these past few posts have just been in an effort to reaffirm why the thread exists for the nonbelievers: the way demigod exists right now isn't, in the opinion of the majority, really all that superior to mortality, and questions of essence and weight factor into this assessment. If those aren't going away or changing, then that's something we'll deal with, but the suggestions earlier in the thread should still be on the table to compensate for the negative critique of essence/weight.

When I said

It's my hope that the (potential) mechanical buffs to demigod might make the above torments worthwhile.

, I was referring to the said suggestions that we've been making, gently reminding the naysayers that these hopeful ideas are...well, all in an effort to reestablish Demigod as something fulfilling for the longterm, and not just for the moment when you vanish and reappear as a demigod in the Havens. Cool couple of seconds, but then it dawns on the player that in order to actually be a sustainable demigod entity, you need to bash. A lot. A lot a lot. A lot more than a lot.