Vehumet

Version 0.12: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

"Let it end in hellfire!"

Vehumet is a god of destructive magic. Followers gain various useful powers to enhance their command of the hermetic arts, and the favoured stand to gain access to some of the most fearsome spells known to man (or any other species, for that matter). In return, Vehumet asks only for worshipers to cause as much carnage and destruction as possible.

No background starts with this religion.

Appreciates

• You killing living, demonic, holy and undead monsters.

Deprecates

• Forgetting him. Piety slowly falls over time (about 1 every 340 turns), and you are excommunicated if it falls to 0.
• Abandoning him.

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Sorcerer's Apprentice"

• No new abilities.

Piety level *: "Scholar of Destruction"

• Gain power from killing - When you kill a monster, you have a piety-based chance of gaining 1d(HD/2) in MP, where HD is the hit dice of the monster killed. This chance is (piety-30)/piety. At full piety, 85%. (Passive)

Piety level **: "Caster of Ruination"

• Aid to destructive magic - Your chance of miscasting destructive spells is reduced by 33%. (Passive)

Piety level ***: "Battle Magician"

• Range increase for destructive magic - The range of destructive spells is increased by 1 tile. (Exception: Sticky Flame and Freeze.) (Passive)

Piety level ****: "Warlock"

• No new abilities.

Piety level *****: "Annihilator"

• No new abilities.

Piety level ******: "Luminary of Lethal Lore"

• No new abilities.

What Vehumet Considers Destructive Magic
Vehumet's "Destructive spells" are all Conjurations spells, plus: Airstrike, Ignite Poison, Olgreb's Toxic Radiance, Inner Flame, Freeze, Ozocubu's Refrigeration, Sandblast, LRD, Shatter, Tornado.

Gifts

• Spells. If you are above the first piety breakpoint and eligible for a gift, there is chance that Vehumet will offer you the knowledge of a Destructive spell. The total amount of gifts is 15. The first gift will always happen at * piety and it will be a level one spell. The currently available gift can be seen via (M)emorize spell. When a new spell is offered, the previous is replaced if still unlearned. The last three spells will happen at the same time and they don't time out.

Your skills can affect the type of spells you get: e.g. if your Fire Magic skill is 10 levels higher than your Ice Magic skill, the chance of receiving fire spells is almost doubled (×1.9), and the chance for ice spells is divided by 10. This is applied only to elemental spells (e.g. not Poison Magic), and it can't go beyond the limits used in the previous example (×1.9 and ÷10, reached when the difference between the opposite skills is 10).

The gift timeout is 98+2d50 turns for the first four gifts, and 128+2d50+2d15 for the rest.

Punishments

• Conjuration miscast effects. There is also a 5% chance of forced miscasts when trying to cast conjurations.

Strategy

All of Vehumet's bonuses are passive, making it a good choice for spellcasters who do not want to spend XP on the Invocations skill. Vehumet also awards piety for killing, and his gifts include the most destructive spells in the game, very suitable for spellcasters who prefer a more aggressive play style.

The MP refund on kill, while not terrific early on, really shines in the mid-game and late-game with area of effect spells that can take out multiple enemies at once - not to mention that, as far as their cost is concerned, they are much more efficient (e.g. Fire Storm has a lot more destructive potential than 9 Magic Darts). Freezing Cloud, Fireball, and Poisonous Cloud are other spells that can refund a lot of MP. Delayed Fireball can even be used as a net MP gain in emergencies. Of course, no one says you have to kill enemies with spells to get MP back; bashing them to death with a staff or using a wand/rod to cast works too.

The miscast reduction is possibly Vehumet's most impactful power. It can let you cast spells well in advance of your time: for example, a level 15 character who focused the relevant skills has a good chance of learning one of the "ultimate" level 9 conjuration/summoning spells thanks to this! This can alter the course of your build and render some branches trivial, or allow for more flexible gearing because of the lesser need for wizardry enhancers.

Finally, the range increase enhances a spellcaster's arsenal to be slightly more deadly. Of significant note, is that it lets some spells (such as Fireball or Fire Storm) hit enemies beyond your max line of sight: statues and oklob plants, among others, pose no risk with this method.

Combining all these powers makes Vehumet the god of choice for spellcasters planning on tackling Ziggurats, where you'll be facing large group after large group of enemies that you need to take down fast, and against whom your MP needs to last as long as possible.

History

Vehumet underwent a complete overhaul in 0.12, dropping his summoning support, book gifts, and MP reduction, instead gifting destructive spells directly.