Trog

Version 0.22: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

"Kill them all!"

Trog is an ancient god of anger and violence. Followers are expected to kill in Trog's name, and especially to slay wizards. In return, worshippers of Trog gain the ability to go berserk at will in combat, and will be granted assistance in the form of powerful weapons and mighty allies. Followers are absolutely forbidden the use of spell magic. Trog offers various powers to help followers in battle. Followers will gain the ability to go berserk at will, and to rapidly heal their wounds while increasing resistance to hostile enchantments. Later, followers may call in powerful raging allies. Eventually, Trog will gift followers with weapons focused on damage. Trog likes it when you kill living beings, you destroy the undead, you kill demons, you kill holy beings and you destroy nonliving beings. Trog especially likes it when you kill wizards and other users of magic. Trog's powers are based on piety instead of Invocations skill. Trog strongly dislikes it when you memorise spells, you attempt to cast spells or you train magic skills. Trog does not appreciate abandonment, and will call down fearful punishments on disloyal followers! Trog's wrath at betrayers is incandescent. Offenders find themselves swarmed by berserkers - from packs of bears to, for the most powerful, mobs of giants and trolls. The bodies of those who anger Trog begin to decay, slow, and collapse, and Trog may simply smite them directly with fiery rage. Trog's wrath lasts for a relatively long duration.

Berserkers begin play worshiping Trog.

Racial Restrictions

Demigods cannot worship Trog (or any other deity).

The undead are not banned from worship, but do suffer certain limitations. Mummies and ghouls cannot go berserk and thus lose much of the benefit of this religion. Vampires also cannot go berserk while in their undead state.

Appreciates

• You or your allies killing living, demonic, holy, undead, or nonliving monsters, especially spellcasters.

Deprecates

• Inactivity. Piety decreases with time (about once every 280 turns), and you will be excommunicated if it falls to 0.
• Memorizing or casting spells.
• Devoting skill points to magic skills, including Spellcasting.
• Abandonment.

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Troglodyte"

• Protection From Abjuration - Abjurations cast against your servants are 20% less effective. (Passive)
• Berserk Bonus - If you kill a monster while berserk, you have a Piety/10% chance of adding 4-13 more turns to your rage. After berserking, if you fail the check to pass out from exhaustion (10% chance in normal conditions), there's a Piety/160 chance of negating that. (Passive)

Piety level *: "Angry Troglodyte"

• Berserk - Go berserk. You cannot go berserk if you are near starving or still -Berserk from a previous rage. (Costs 200-400 Food)

Piety level **: "Frenzied"

• Trog's Hand - Provides 1 HP/turn regeneration and 80 magic resistance for a number of turns depending on piety. (Costs 50-100 Food and 2-3 Piety)

Piety level ***: "[Species Name] of Prey"

• No new abilities.

Piety level ****: "Rampant"

• Brothers In Arms - Summons a powerful berserking ally, the species of which depends on piety. At low piety levels (****), you get ogres, two-headed ogres, black bears, and polar bears, while at high levels (***** or ******) you get trolls, iron trolls, deep trolls, ettins and stone giants. They are always friendly. Their berserk can expire, although this usually occurs only shortly before they time out. Brothers In Arms has a high rate of failure, but this falls as piety rises. If it fails, nothing happens: you don't lose piety or food. (Costs 100-200 Food and 5-6 Piety)

Piety level *****: "Wild [Species Name]"

• No new abilities.

Piety level ******: "Bane of Scribes"

• No new abilities.

Unlike most other gods, Trog's powers do not require the Invocations skill. Their chance of success is determined solely by your piety.

Gifts

• Weapons - The weapon created will be enchanted, similar to using a scroll of acquirement, and possibly an artefact. Trog will only gift weapons with the anti-magic, flaming, vorpal, or speed brands. The weapon chosen is weighted based on your weapon skills, though there is always a chance of receiving a weapon for which you have no skill. The gift timeout for each weapon ranges from 31 to 49.

Punishments

During penance or following desertion, you'll occasionally experience one of the following forms of divine retribution:

• 50% - Summons multiple hostile, berserked Brothers In Arms against you. Note that these are durably summoned, so you cannot escape them by using stairs, and they will not disappear after time. However, their berserk rage will eventually expire, and they will briefly slow down as normal. They do not re-berserk unless they are already capable of doing so (e.g. black bears or polar bears).
  • If there is no room for Trog's minions to spawn, a message will appear saying "Trog has no time to punish you...now."
• 33% - Gives you a weakening effect, which can take the form of rot, stat decay, slowing, or paralysis.
• 16% - Trog casts Fireball at you.

Strategy

Trog is one of the best gods for pure melee warriors, especially if they are minotaurs, trolls, or other monstrous species who won't miss their pathetic spellcasting abilities. Kobolds ironically enough also make fantastic berserkers, as their ability to stay constantly engorged without a hunger penalty basically ensures they can go berserk every fight.

Berserking is handy for pulverizing enemies, but don't forget that the Haste it provides can be used to get away from trouble, too. Be very careful using this without a staircase in sight; you don't want to end up slowed next to the very thing you were trying to escape from.

Trog's Hand grants regeneration that can be used to counteract the effects of poison should you be near death with no other ability to heal available. The magic resistance it provides can be useful should you find yourself without enough MR near a monster with a dangerous enchantment (such as Banishment, Sentinel's Mark, or Petrify).

Trog's berserk summons are quite worthy (and do not have any risk of spawning hostile like Makhleb's demons), but remember that you cannot invoke that while you are raging. If you need help for a big battle, remember to call your friends first, then start the party! Like other summons, Trog's Brother in Arms summons will not follow you up or down stairs, so be sure to use them when enemies are in sight.

Never abandon Trog in a 3 rune game. Just don't do it.

Trog's wrath summons are dangerous, but by the time you come to abandoning him, you should be strong enough to take the berserked monsters on, or have the resources to get away quickly.

Generous Trog is one of the few gods you can abandon while keeping permanent benefits granted via worship (gifted weapons), though for this reason the wrath is particularly nasty.

Tips & Tricks

• One of Trog's altar vaults contains a spellbook, but it will always be an artefact spellbook containing only the Apportation spell. As Apportation is the only way to obtain this spellbook (Trog ignites the book if you approach physically), there's no point in trying to grab it.
• Although Trog dislikes spell-casting, they don't mind when you use evocable items like wands. These items can be particularly useful for Trog worshippers.
• If you plan to leave Trog, a way to gain invisibility can make the hostile summons a lot less threatening: only deep trolls have see invisible.

History

• Prior to 0.22, Trog granted the ability to burn books for piety and to create clouds of flames.
• In 0.17, even Trog no longer appreciates sacrificing corpses (by standing over them and praying).
• Prior to 0.16, Trog's wrath summons weren't permanent.
• Prior to 0.15, Trog's weapon gifts tended to have higher damage enchantments than accuracy.
• Prior to 0.12, burning unidentified books gave more piety, and Rock trolls were in the list of possible Brothers in Arms.