Trog

Version 0.16: 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 sacrifice the dead. In return, worshippers of Trog gain the ability to go berserk at will in combat, and will be granted gifts of powerful weapons. Trog hates all wizards, and loves to see their spellbooks burn. 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 destroy spellbooks via the a command, you sacrifice fresh corpses (by standing over them and praying), you or your god-given allies kill living beings, you or your god-given allies kill demons and you or your god-given allies kill holy beings. Trog especially likes it when you kill wizards and other users of magic. Trog strongly dislikes it when you memorise spells, you attempt to cast spells or you train magic skills. Note that Trog does not demand training of the Invocations skill. All abilities are purely based on piety.

Berserkers begin play worshipping Trog.

Racial Restrictions

Demigods cannot worship Trog (or any other deity).

Unlike many gods, the undead are not banned from worship. However, they do suffer certain limitations. Mummies and ghouls cannot berserk and thus lose much of the benefit of this religion. Vampires will also be unable to berserk if their satiation falls below full.

Appreciates

• You or your allies killing the living, especially spellcasters.
• You or your allies killing demons or holy monsters.
• Sacrificing corpses (by standing over them and praying). Trog only accepts fresh corpses, not skeletons or chunks, but doesn't care whether you're the one who actually killed the creature.
• Burning spellbooks.

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.
• Abandoning him/her.

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Troglodyte"

• Burn Book - Turns a spellbook into a cloud of flame, granting you piety in exchange. The rarer the book, the longer the cloud will remain. (Costs 10-20 Food)
• 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/1.5% chance of negating that. (Passive)

Piety level *: "Angry Troglodyte"

• Berserk - Go berserk. You cannot berserk if you are hungry or still exhausted from previous berserking. (Costs 200-400 Food)

Piety level **: "Frenzied"

• Trog's Hand - Provides 1 HP/turn regeneration and increased 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 grizzly bears, while at high levels (***** or ******) you get trolls, iron trolls, deep trolls, hill giants and stone giants. They are always friendly. Their berserk can expire, although this usually occurs only shortly before they time out. It 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 other gods, Trog's powers do not require the Invocations skill. Their chance of success is determined solely by your piety.

Gifts

Piety 81+

• Ammunition - The ammunition is often enchanted. If you are not holding a launcher, the gift will be a throwing weapon(s). The gift timeout for ammo is 2d4 + 4.

Piety 130+

• Weapons - The weapon created will be enchanted, similar to using a scroll of acquirement, and possibly an artefact. Trog is particularly fond of gifting weapons with the anti-magic brand, though he will gift other types as well. 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:

• 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. fleeing 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."
• Inflicts direct rotting damage upon you, as if you quaffed a potion of decay. Note that this sometimes causes the sickness status effect.
• Weakens you, as if you quaffed a potion of degeneration. This effect is somewhat mitigated by a ring of sustain abilities.
• Inflicts a prolonged Slow and Exhaustion status effect on you. This can last close to 150 turns. An amulet of stasis will prevent the Slow effect, but not the Exhaustion.
• Causes you to pass out (as if you had berserked). Since it is not true paralysis, this effect goes through an amulet of stasis and thus cannot be avoided.
• Inflicts a random high level Fire Magic miscast effect on you. This can include fireballs, sticky flames, and searing flames that temporarily reduce your fire resistance.

Strategy

Trog is one of the best gods for pure melee warriors, especially if they are ogres, minotaurs, trolls, or other monstrous species who won't miss their pathetic spellcasting abilities. Kobolds ironically enough also make fantastic berserkers, their ability to stay constantly engorged without a hunger penalty basically ensures they can berserk every fight. Also, don't forget Trog also gifts ammo so Trog can be a good choice for hunters with slow metabolisms, who can spare a few corpses to sacrifice.

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 view though: you don't want to end up slowed next to the very thing you were trying to escape from.

Trog's Hand has 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 near a banishing monster with no MR items to swap in.

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 berserking. 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.

The Burn Books ability can be used to create a single use "landmine". The best position to use is in a single tile hallway, drop the book as you run, to block your opponents progress, set it off before they step over it. To weaken your opponent before a counter-berserk charge, set it off when they step over it. The only downside is that this technique requires at least a 3 tile gap between you and your enemy.

Alternatively you may either drop a book and step back or throw one (with 'F' and then '.' to force it to stay on desired square even if it misses) on your enemy's square and then set it ablaze. Keep your enemy in the flames to greatly enhance your damage output.

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.

Tips & Tricks

Trog's altar often has a spellbook placed near it, but it will always be an artefact spellbook containing only the Apportation spell. If you still want the spellbook, don't approach it; if you do, Trog will incinerate it. Ironically, the Apportation spell seems to be the only way to retain this spellbook. If you are a Trog worshipper, you can burn the book yourself first for some extra piety.

Although Trog dislikes spell-casting, he doesn't mind when you use evocable items (like rods and wands). These items can be particularly useful for Trog worshippers.

History

In 0.17 even Trog no longer appreciates sacrificing corpses (by standing over them and praying). Trog only accepted fresh corpses, not skeletons or chunks, but doesn't care whether you're the one who actually killed the creature.

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 BiA.