Amulet of faith

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Jewellery
Name	Amulet of faith
Icon

A talisman crafted to call the attention of the gods to its wearer. This divine attention makes it easier to please your god, but your god will also take more notice of your transgressions. The amulet will drain some of your divine favour when removed.

Wearing an amulet of faith causes your current god (as well as any former gods you've abandoned) to pay more attention to you, causing the following effects:

Pros

• Piety gain is 25% faster.
• Gods that grant god gifts do so 33% more frequently.

Cons

• Removing the amulet will result in the loss of one third of your piety, but will never cause excommunication, or drop piety too close to excommunication.
• Wearing it during penance (even if you are currently atheist) will make godly-wrath happen 1/3 more often, ending the penance more quickly.

Unusual Behavior

• The following gods are not affected, either way:
  • Ashenzari - (benefits from cursing still apply)
  • Gozag Ym Sagoz - Gozag cares for nothing but gold!
  • Ignis - Who already offers all the fire that remains.
• The following gods have other behaviors:
  • Ru - Increases the rate at which sacrifices are offered, but slows the rate when removed. No effect at full piety.
  • Xom - Xom's piety fluctuation occurs 33% faster than normal, and it acts more often. Removing the amulet has no consequences.
  • Yredelemnul - Corpses rise 33% more often (to 67%), but takes away some undead when removed. No effect with no zombies.
• Demigods will "feel a surge of self-confidence" upon putting on an amulet of faith. This has no mechanical benefit, however.

Strategy

The worth of an amulet of faith is entirely dependent on how much use you can get out of your god's piety. If your god provides only passive abilities and doesn't give out endless gifts (Vehumet, for instance), or if you simply focus on non-divine abilities and generally neglect your piety-fueled abilities, then an amulet of faith will do you little good apart from helping you reach max piety quickly. If you are taking advantage of piety-fueled abilities and god gifts, however, then the amulet of faith is extremely useful. For example, a Trog worshiper will receive more weapons and can call upon allies more often, while a Nemelex worshipers will be flooded with cards and can afford to trick draw from them more often. Although useless for some, for characters that can make use of them, amulets of faith are one of the more useful non-artefact amulets you can find for general wear.

However, the piety cost to remove an amulet of faith can be intimidating, and may seem like a good argument not to use the amulet at all. Depending on the god involved, the impact of losing a third of your piety can be severe. Making up lost piety is annoying, but rarely devastating, and the benefits of wearing an amulet of faith for long periods of time can be immense. Fear of occasional and entirely voluntary piety loss should not be a major concern when deciding whether or not to use this amulet.

History

• Prior to 0.18, this amulet granted a 33% bonus to piety, not a 25% bonus.
• Prior to 0.17, this amulet increased the chance that certain gods might protect you from harm (your piety was treated as being 33% higher for such checks).