Fedhas Madash

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

"Spread life and death."

Fedhas is the god of plant and fungal life. Followers are forbidden from harming any species under Fedhas' protection. In return Fedhas grants a number of abilities that promote the growth of plant and fungi. These abilities may incidentally prove useful to adventurers. Plants and fungi will not attack Fedhas' worshippers without provocation. Fedhas' worshippers may walk through plants or fungi, and even fire missiles or spells through them without causing harm. Fedhas grants powers to temporarily grow a menagerie of plant allies whose strength and duration increase with Invocations skill. Worshipers may grow a protective wall of briar patches as well as ballistomycetes that fire damaging spores whose explosions confuse living creatures. Devout followers can overgrow a stretch of solid terrain with a cluster of plant allies or even summon a mighty oklob plant. Fedhas likes it when you kill living beings, you destroy the undead, you kill demons, you kill holy beings and you destroy nonliving beings. Fedhas dislikes it when you destroy plants.

Racial restrictions

Demigods are also unable to worship Fedhas (or any other god).

Appreciates

• Killing natural, undead, demonic, holy, or nonliving creatures.

Deprecates

• Inactivity: You lose 1 piety per 700 turns, on average (1/35 chance every 20 turns).
• Attacking allied flora. (Piety loss)

Given abilities

Piety level -: "Fungal"

• All plants are peaceful towards you. In addition to stationary plants, sleepcaps, shambling mangroves, and thorn hunters will be peaceful. (Passive)
• You can walk through plants (but not trees, which are walls). It takes 50% longer than normal to do so. (Passive)
• You can fire through all allied plant-type creatures without harming them, as if they were a bush. In addition, Fedhas will protect plants and trees from harm, even when using spells that usually harm allies, like Fireball. (Passive)
  • Entities created by spells, like orbs of destruction and battlespheres (including its beams), are unable to pass through plants.

Piety level *: "Green [Species]"

• No new abilities.

Piety level **: "Cultivator"

• Wall of Briars: Encircles yourself with summoned briar patches, which hurt any enemy that attacks them. It won't summon patches for enemies already next to you. (3 MP, 2-3 Piety)

Piety level ***: "Fruitful"

• Grow Ballistomycete: Summons a ballistomycete, which creates spores that explode and damage and confuse enemy monsters. If not careful, they will damage you! (4 MP, 4-6 Piety)

Piety level ****: "Photosynthesist"

• Overgrow: Transforms dungeon walls and trees into plant allies by using the Overgrow ability. Once the plants despawn, the wall will be gone. This can override stone and metal walls. Higher invocations improve the selection of plants. (8 MP, 12-18 Piety)

Piety level *****: "Green Death"

• Grow Oklob: Grows an oklob plant, which are strong, long lasting, and corrosive allies. (6 MP, 6-9 Piety)

Piety level ******: "Force of Nature"

• No new abilities.

Higher Invocations boosts the HD of plants summoned by Fedhas, increasing their HP and firerate.

Punishments

Fedhas does not appreciate abandonment, and will call down fearful punishments on disloyal followers! Those who offend Fedhas will have forces of nature invoked against them in the form of pure elemental destruction. Waves of ballistomycete spores will rise from nearby corpses, and the worst offenders will be surrounded by animate mushrooms and acid-spitting oklob plants. Fedhas's wrath lasts for a relatively short duration.

During penance, Fedhas will occasionally punish you with one of the following forms of divine retribution:

• The forces of nature will be invoked against you. This equates to a random Corrosive Bolt, Primal Wave, or Volley of Thorns.
• Corpses in line of sight will produce hostile spores.
• Hostile plants (biased towards oklobs) will grow around you. This effect will only happen when abandoning Fedhas, never when simply under penance.

All previously neutral or allied plants will also turn hostile upon abandonment or excommunication.

Strategy

Fedhas is a somewhat Invocations-reliant god; all its plants will seem much more impressive with enough investment. In return, both ballistomycetes and oklobs are quite respectable. Their confusion and corrosion statuses, respectively, remain useful throughout an entire 3-rune game, and their actual damage isn't too shabby either.

As all invocable plants are both stationary and long lasting, try to place them where you can easily sustain fighting. Make sure you aren't blocking your plants! The end of a hallway is often a good location for oklobs. Ballistomycetes don't work well in cramped corridors; they produce spores that explode in a 3x3 radius, potentially harming you. In that case, you may want to kite a monster around a wall while your plants fire.

Tips and Tricks

• Briar patches can be used for a variety of reasons; from dealing spiny damage to a particularly troublesome ogre, to creating a barrier to block fire. Just beware that it takes 1.5 aut to pass through the plants.
• Spores will tend to track towards enemies, but are not perfect. The plant can be told to attack a specific target, but spores are unable to listen.
• Overgrow is not a great fighting ability, but can get rid of stone walls in various vaults, such as in various rune branches or the lungs of Zot:5.

History

• Prior to 0.30, Fedhas did not protect trees. You would receive penance for destroying trees.
• Prior to 0.27, many spells, like Fulminant Prism and Fire Storm, would harm plants in the process.
• Prior to 0.24, Fedhas did not allow the undead to worship it. Fedhas' abilities were greatly reworked in this version: the previous version revolved around permanent plants, terrain changes, and a direct ration cost. For more details, see this revision.
• Prior to 0.22, Evolution was granted at *, and Sunlight was granted at **.
• Prior to 0.21, Fedhas abilities used fruits rather than rations.
• Prior to 0.19, Fedhas didn't have piety decay.
• Prior to 0.15, worshipers of Fedhas could not cast Sublimation of Blood without incurring piety loss and/or penance.
• Prior to 0.8, Decomposition was accomplished as an ability, not through prayer.