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Equipment use and Religons (Was: Re: CF: Priest cannot use weapons)

> Scott writes:
> 
> Could the Gaea followers instead of being forbidden from using weapons
> instead be given a significant weapons use penalty such as -4?  Seems
> to me that it shouldn't be too hard to make a hidden object that is
> part of being a follower that has the desired penalty.  
> 
	This adjustment is possible as a global wc change. Note 
	that then, *all* physical attacks (bow, punching, sword swinging)
	are at a lessor chance to hit. Making this change would be
	quite trivial (edit the god arch, *i think*), whereas making
	a negative chance to hit with just meleeweapons would require
	a bit of coding (which *could* be quite non-trivial). 

> Also, I suggest the playability of the gods and religons has nothing
> to do with maps and quests for them.  Maps and quests would only increase
> interest in religons and gods, but wouldn't affect playability.  

	I have to disagree here. Maps and "equipment" very much affect
	play balance. We are all aware of bad maps where you can walk
	in and make gains in exp and/or treasure that are disproportionate
	with the difficulty of the map. Equipment is a major factor in
	how powerful a character is. Overall level, really doesnt account
	for much if the player has few skills, spells, armour, weapons
	and the like. 

	Some of the Gods are quite playable now to high character levels.
	But proper placement of advanced priest skills, spells and artifacts
	on balanced maps is needed to even the balance somewhat (and to
	help players understand the religon they worship better, how many
	of you out there find the descriptions of the religions in the 
	players handbood 'wanting', eh?).

> the troubles of playability of the religons and gods is because they make
> too much of a difference.  Like for player races, there isn't that much of
> a difference between human, elf, dwarf, viking and so many of the options.

	I would maintain that in most cases, the religous worship isnt as
	big a factor in playbalance as having lots of (abusive) equipment.

	We need to perhaps think on how to more greatly limit the player
	use of equipment to help prevent many of the ("gross") problems
	of playbalance. For example, we virtually ignore the issue of 
	freehands a player has to use. Why can a player use a shield AND
	a bow at the same time? Lets give greater penalties for spellcasting
	with a readied weapon. Why do we allow players to use karate with
	a shield? Lets give penalties for wearing armour while hiding, and
	so on...

> much more of a sliding scale between lay member (person who usually shows
> up in church), a true believer, a monk living in a religious retreat and
> the pope.  In the real world most churchgoers are less skilled at cursing
> but only the pope might be truly unable to curse (being so far from his
> normal thoughts that he just can't get into the frame of mind to curse).
> 

	I agree that the sliding scale is needed. Why hand out all the 
	"goodies" and "penalties" to a lay member? I thought about this 
	before, but there is no easy solution to handing out archetype defined
	bonuses/penalties. The best I can think of, is a random apportionment
	of the bonus/penalties based on clerical level. As you go up, you 
	get greater influence fromthe god.

							-b.t.

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