Dithmenos

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

"Walk in the dark places."

Dithmenos is the god of night and of things half-seen in flickering torchlight. Worshipped by actors as often as thieves, followers of Dithmenos can learn to control their own shadow as if it were an extension of their body - misdirecting onlookers and acting upon the world with force as tangible as anything that has ever been imagined lurking in the dark. Followers of Dithmenos are surrounded by an unnatural quiet, which helps the sounds they make go unnoticed. As they rise in devotion, they will find their own shadow begins to imitate some of their actions, attacking when they attack and even casting shadowy magics that mimic the form - if not the substance - of whichever schools of magic they had been utilising. More devout worshippers additionally gain the ability to swap places with their shadow to mislead enemies, grasp other beings' shadows to unleash their magic on the worshipper's behalf, and finally call down a night so dark that it hides all denizens of the dungeon from each other. Dithmenos likes it when you explore the world.

Racial Restrictions

Demigods cannot worship Dithmenos (or any other god).

Appreciates

• Exploration.

Deprecates

• Inactivity: You lose 1 piety per 700 turns, on average.
• Abandonment. (Penance)

Given Abilities

Piety level (-): “Nocturnal”

• No granted abilities.

Piety level (*): “Bump in the Night”

• Noise suppression - All noise within your line of sight is halved.

Piety level (**): “Thespian”

• Shadow Mimic - Whenever you attack a monster, there is a chance for your shadow to appear, a stationary monster that will attack when you attack. The location the shadow spawns, and its stats, depend on the attack; in particular, different spell schools will result in the shadow being able to cast different spells - see below.

The strength of the shadow is increased with Invocations skill, and the chance to spawn increases from 10% at 2* piety to 20% at 6*.

Piety level (***): “Tenebrous”

• Shadowslip - Instantly swap places with your shadow, and misleads all enemies in sight into attacking the shadow instead of you. Also temporarily boosts the HP of your shadow. (4 MP, 6% HP, 2-3 piety, instant)
  • Note that monsters that weren't targeting the player won't be misled. The ability's targeter shows which monsters will be affected.

Piety level (****): “Puppet Master”

• Aphotic Marionette - Causes the targeted monster to cast 3-6 of their spells (increasing with Invocations skill) at once at other enemies as if they were allied to you. These attacks will never hurt you. In most cases, using this ability requires the presence of a second monster. (5 MP, 3-5 piety)

• Buff spells such as Haste, Invisibility and Berserker Rage will result in the buff being applied to you, and these spells do not need another monster present to be cast as a marionette. These are indicated with a * on the xv examine monster screen.
• Some monster spells cannot be cast via Aphotic Marionette. These are indicated with a ! on the xv screen.

Piety level (*****): “Walking Midnight”

• Primordial Nightfall - Immediately reduces your line of sight to zero for a few turns. Your line of sight then gradually returns to normal over several turns. If you have less than 100 stealth, sets your stealth to 100. (8 MP, 13-20 piety)

• It is not possible to fire targeted spells or abilities, or use ranged attacks, while your line of sight is zero. Melee attacks are still possible, as if you attempt to move into a tile with a monster, you will attack that monster. However, an invisibility penalty applies to both players and monsters attacking each other while your line of sight is zero.

Piety level (******): “Who Hides the Stars”

• No new abilities.

Shadow Spells

If your shadow appears on casting a spell, the shadow's spell depends on the school of the spell you cast:

• Fire Magic: Shadowball (like Fireball, but irresistible)
• Ice Magic: Creeping Shadow (like Creeping Frost, but irresistible and with less range)
• Earth Magic: Shadow Shard (single target, high damage projectile)
• Air Magic: Shadow Tempest (targets 30-50% of all visible enemies + 1 with smite-targeted damage that can be dodged)
• Alchemy: Shadow Prism (like Fulminant Prism, but is harder to hit and doesn't damage allies)
• Conjurations: Shadow Beam (penetrating beam)
• Necromancy: Shadow Draining (3x3 explosion centered on the shadow that ignores AC)
• Summoning: Shadow Puppet (summons an ally with swoop/flank/constricting attacks; damage scales with spellpower; summon cap of 3)
• Hexes: Shadow Torpor (penetrating beam that applies irresistible slow; duration increases with spellpower and decreases with enemy HD)
• Translocations: Shadow Bind (applies a bind effect to a random number of enemies in LOS, preventing them from moving for a short duration)

Punishments

Dithmenos does not appreciate abandonment, and will call down fearful punishments on disloyal followers! When angered, Dithmenos turns the shadows against victims. Monsters emerge from the darkness, both illusions woven from shadow and the very shadow themselves turning against sinners. Dithmenos' subtle punishments are, if anything, more dangerous: victims find the shadows ripped away from them, hunted with nowhere to hide; or find themselves smothered in shadow and sleeping, perhaps forever.

While under penance, Dithmenos will sometimes punish you with one of the following forms of divine retribution:

• 25% chance: Dithmenos summons shadows around you, and with a 50% chance also slows you for 10-20 turns.
• 25% chance: Dithmenos creates a hostile version of your shadow mimic to fight you
• 25% chance: You are put to sleep for 6 turns.
• 25% chance: You are afflicted with a Sentinel's Mark for about 50 turns. This can be removed with a potion of cancellation as normal.

Strategy

Dithmenos is a trickster god, designed to allow you to do clever things to manipulate monsters.

Your shadow wields your base weapon type, without any enchantment or brand. Therefore, for example, a hydra's head cut off by the shadow will result in the growth of two more heads, even if you have a flaming-branded weapon. This also means that upgrading to heavier weapons earlier than usual may be beneficial.

The shadow has particular synergy with short blades (as your shadow will allow you to get distraction stabs on your enemies) and ranged weapons (as the shadow is stationary, but does not need to move to attack with ranged weapons).

Primordial Nightfall is a strong escape ability, as it temporarily prevents all incoming damage from range, and reduces the chance for enemies to hit you in melee. If you have high stealth.

Trivia

Initially, this god was called "Dithmengos" which is an anagram for "Dsomething", an early placeholder name for the new deity.

History

• Prior to 0.32, Dithmenos was considered an evil god. Instead of noise suppression, Dithmenos gave an umbra with radius increasing with piety. In place of the current abilities, Dithmenos instead gave Shadow Step at 2*, allowing you to instantly move adjacent to a creature within your umbra; you would bleed smoke on taking damage at 3*; and Shadow Form at 5*. Shadow Mimic was given at 4*, and simply tried to mimic your attacks rather than summoning an actual shadow monster. Additionally, Dithmenos' wrath could summon shadows, shadow wraiths or Tzitzimimeh instead of shadow puppets or your own shadow.
• Prior to 0.22, Dithmenos hated fire and appreciated the killing of fiery things, but was not evil. Also, Shadow Step didn't cost HP, but could only be used on immobile creatures.
• Prior to 0.16, Dithmenos disapproved use of the Corona spell and the unrandart Mace of Brilliance.
• Dithmenos was added in 0.14.